BayBranch

backyard urban farming ~ lakewood, oh

Vote No on Ohio Issue 2 October 24, 2009

Filed under: in the dirt — Spink Bickle @ 9:33 am
Tags: , ,

In the upcoming 2009 November election here in Ohio, we will be voting on an issue relating to the care and welfare of livestock animals. The actual ballot language can be found at The Ohio Ballot Board, Issue 2. It is not long; it is worth reading. And here is a nice unbiased breakdown of the bill.

There are many articles and blogs posts already written. I found David N. Cassuto blog post at Animal Blawg to mirror my thoughts.

I dislike the idea of more government and bureaucracy  involved with our food production. Mainly because, much like the USDA, this board will be made up of large producers and they will do little to actually help animal welfare, food safety or family farms.

Popa with milking cansPersonally, one of my biggest beefs with this proposal is the use, or misuse of the term family farm. In 2004 the USDA stated that 98% of all farms in the United States are family farms. I guess my idea of what a family farm is needs to change. Here in this article from the Columbus Dispatch, Jim Heimerl calls himself a family farmer, but at 2,500 acres and producing 100,000 pigs per year. Jim, you may have a family and you may have a farm, but that’s no family farm in my mind. I know a number of family farmers here in Ohio who are farming fewer than 100 acres (I’d like to think of myself as one … maybe next year). I’ve been to their farms and seen how they raise their animals. Small family farmers raise their animals using sustainable practices because it is more economical.

This is my grandpa. He was a family farmer, so was my other grandpa, and all my uncles from my mom’s side of the family. Don’t for a second be fooled by the language in this issue regarding family farmers.

 

Planting garlic October 14, 2009

Filed under: in the dirt, urban plot — jojobickle @ 6:47 pm
Tags:

It’s fall and that means time to plant garlic! This year we’ve increased our garlic production significantly and have high hopes for tasty garlic next summer. We ordered about 7 pounds of organic garlic, including the following:

From Peaceful Valley

  • 1 lb. California Early White Garlic
  • 1 lb. Music Garlic
  • 1 lb. Georgian Fire Garlic

From Hood River Garlic

  • 1 lb. Transylvanian
  • .5 lb. Chesnok Red
  • .5 lb. Susanville
  • .5 lb. Siberian
  • .5 lb. Zemo
  • 1 lb. Shantang Purple

Bed preparation

We decided to reuse some beds we built this spring. We topped them off with another 2 yards of Sweet Peat from Earth to You. Additionally we added 1 pound of greensand to each bed. Two of the beds got 1 pound or rock phosphate, they were filled with mostly new Sweet Peat. While the third bed we added 8 cups of bonemeal, it had mostly Sweet Peat from the spring.

How we planted the beds

In the past we’ve used straw mulch. This year, we decided to use black landscape fabric, which we stapled to the top of the raised bed. To create the holes for planting, Spink created a template out of plywood and used a propane torch to burn the holes. We then planted the largest bulbs – one per hole…..a total of about 200 holes.

4' x 12' raised bed for garlic

4' x 12' raised bed for garlic

Black landscape cover with holes for each garlic bulb

Black landscape cover with holes for each garlic bulb

Spink making the holes

Spink making the holes

 

alfalfa October 10, 2009

Filed under: in the dirt, urban plot — jojobickle @ 8:02 pm
Tags:

So, what’s alfalfa look like? Well, here’s a close-up of the plot where we’ve planted this cover crop and it’s growing quite well in most areas.

alfalfa close-up

alfalfa close-up

 

Sweet……potatoes! October 8, 2009

Filed under: in the dirt, urban plot — jojobickle @ 7:54 pm
Tags:

Have you ever planted something and then just kind of left it, thinking maybe that will grow, maybe not…..Well, that’s what happened when we planted sweet potatoes. The vines went crazy. Still, we weren’t sure what to expect since we hadn’t grown sweet potatoes before. Pulling up the vine led us to a few exposed potatoes….we started pulling and realized the potatoes were plentiful and huge! So excited and definitely planting these again.

We made zucchini sweet potato bread using this recipe. I cut the oil in half (and the bread was still moist) and 2/3 of the sugar. Tasty!

sweet potatoes

sweet potatoes

 

tearing up the front lawn! October 2, 2009

Filed under: at the homestead, in the dirt, tools — jojobickle @ 7:58 pm
Tags: , ,

Over the weekend, we finally got the BCS out with the rotary plow attachment and decided to put it to use on our front lawn. Who needs lawn anyway? Gotta mow it every week in summer and reseed it when it dies off….what a pain! So, we dug some up as another experiment. Our garden slowly continues to take up more real estate in our front yard. Since we try to stick to the mantra of all things in moderation, we only did a 4′ x 16′ area, most of which will be occupied by a raised bed for garlic. The remainder is for the strawberries to send their runners.

Getting ready to till up the lawn

Getting ready to till up the lawn

After tilling....we are ready to do some planting!

After tilling....we are ready to do some planting!

 

potato tower – results September 30, 2009

Filed under: at the homestead, in the dirt, in the kitchen — jojobickle @ 7:55 pm
Tags:

well, the potato tower did not produce that much. in fact, it was quite disappointing, but i think we learned some valuable lessons and we are not so upset that we won’t try again next year. i think we planted them a bit late. we planted in may and they should have been planted in april. we also feel we planted them too close together. but, we have not tossed the potato tower….we will try again next year and report on results.

though, i should say, the few tiny potatoes we did end up with were super tasty….boiled them and ate them with a little butter, salt and pepper….yummy!

Our small handful of runt potatoes

Our small handful of runt potatoes

 

how to build a straw bale compost September 19, 2009

Filed under: in the dirt, urban plot — jojobickle @ 6:58 pm
Tags: , , , , , ,

following the instructions from Eliot Coleman’s The New Organic Grower, we have built a compost bin out of straw bales. this method is beneficial because the straw bales contain the heat needed for the materials to break down, while also allowing air flow. we have set up two bins side by side, but the first one just continues to diminish (as it breaks down), so we just keep adding to that one. we also purchased some compost inoculate to add the beneficial microorganisms to the pile and help speed up the decomposition process.

where do we get enough organic material? the compost is a mix of brown (carbon) and green (nitrogen). the green – we compost all on-farm organic waste, including grass clippings and weeds (sans seeds) and spink gets about 50 lbs. of kitchen scraps from his company every day (keeping usable material out of the landfill while making us quality soil amendments!). the kitchen scraps are primarily fruits and veggies (lots of pineapple tops and skins – not sure how well that will decompose) and coffee grounds. we add straw for carbon source and try to mix it together so it all breaks down nicely. we plan to use the compost on the farm to amend the soil.

strawbale compost

strawbale compost - 4' L x 5' W x 2.5' H

view from the top, the structure is nearly full with organic material

view from the top, the structure is nearly full with organic material

 

let them run wild September 16, 2009

Filed under: at the homestead, in the dirt — jojobickle @ 9:41 pm
Tags: ,

the strawberries are out of control. despite ordering 50 plants, only about 5 survived and we lamented the fact that this experiment was unsuccessful. however, we forgot about the runners….the strawberries have multiplied and now fill the planter and continue moving outside the boundary of the pyramid. my solution is to dig up the lawn and let ‘em go…..keep running. in fact, just take over! more berries next year. i’ll see what spink thinks of this idea and will post a pic of the growing patch.

this picture shows the runners all over the place - i moved them from the lawn to be able to mow the grass.

this picture shows the runners all over the place - i moved them back inside the bin to get access to the lawn.

 

watermelons! September 14, 2009

Filed under: in the dirt, urban plot — jojobickle @ 9:23 pm
Tags:

we grew watermelons this year! looks like we might get 3 or so. the first one we picked a bit too early and it wasn’t quite ripe…plan to keep the remaining ones on the vine longer in hopes that they are actually ripe when we pick them. below is a pick of the watermelon (you can see the vine of the watermelon, but also the vines from sweet potatoes – another experiment).

watermelon

 

alfalfa growing September 13, 2009

Filed under: in the dirt, urban plot — jojobickle @ 9:18 pm
Tags: , ,

2 1/2 weeks after planting, the alfalfa is growing. so excited that it has survived. though our soil samples indicated the soil was okay, the looks of it and the smell and all the rocks had us doubting whether anything could thrive here…apparently, our fears were unfounded. the alfalfa will add nitrogen to the soil, put down a tap root to help break it up and provide good on-farm compost so we can work towards elliot coleman’s suggestion for producing all nutrients on site. now we just have to move the raised beds and finish tilling up the remaining area to make uninterrupted rows for planting  next season.

check out the rows of alfalfa

check out the rows of alfalfa

hard to believe anything came up through this cracked soil!

hard to believe anything came up through this cracked soil!