I recently ran across an entire college course recorded at the University of California Berkeley in the Fall of 2012 all about food and agriculture. It is moderated by Michael Pollan and features a number of heavy hitters “telling stories about food and agriculture”. The 1st lecture is done by Micheal Pollan and is entitled […]
Category Archives: in the dirt
02
Jan
Jan
Happy New Year! Tis the time when many are making resolutions for the year ahead and more often than not eating healthy (or more healthy) falls somewhere on the list. Well, this year, after reading Nina Planck’s book Real Food: What to Eat and Why, I intend to consume more whole milk and butter in […]
28
Oct
Oct
The cool, crisp fall weather has arrived and it is time to put the garden to bed. Lots of items to put up for the winter through canning, freezing and dehydrating. The latter is new to us, so this post will be dedicated to that process. We purchased a basic dehydrator – Nesco 700-watt – […]
02
Oct
Oct
The chilly fall weather has hit us suddenly with temps dipping into the 40s and 50s at night. We have closed up the hoop house to try to retain some heat for the spinach and ginger that is growing inside. We planted a bed of parsnips a few weeks ago and are hopeful they will […]
30
Sep
Sep
So, I thought we had all these great beneficials on the plot, but today when I was harvesting chard, I noticed a number of these black spotted yellow beetles. Upon closer investigation, it appeared they were actually eating holes in the leaves. And, they seemed to be everywhere! Sadly, I learned these are cucumber beetles, […]
hoop house, in the dirt, pests
And then the hornworm moved in and so did the wasps…the cycle of life continues on the farm
10
Sep
Sep
Last week I reported on finding tomato fruitworms on my tomatoes. Apparently, the hornworm quickly followed. These guys are huge and scary looking with a sharp pointy horn on one end…and, wow, do they do some damage! I couldn’t believe how stripped some of the plants looked. I was also pleasantly surprised by the presence […]
04
Sep
Sep
This year we have noticed much more life on the farm….that means more beneficials and more pests as well. Unfortunately, the pests have won out on the war over the tomatoes. I recently went into the hoop house to do some tomato maintenance (trellising and pinching the suckers), and noticed holes in many of the […]
Ever since we attended the ACRES conference in December, we have focused on building the soil food web (recap post of conference is here) on our plot. Efforts have not gone unnoticed. Here is what we have been doing to date. We only tilled at the beginning of the year to turn our soil over […]
13
Aug
Aug
August has arrived…well, it’s already mid-August actually. With the help of a WWOOF volunteer we turned over 7 beds yesterday (thanks Erika!). I counted the number of beds devoted to beets: 11 beds!! That is an impressive number. The market goers seem to love beets, so is it nice to maintain an ample supply. We […]
We are growing shallots from seed for the first time ever. We started the seeds in soil blocks on a heat mat on2/26. The seeds germinated in our basement before moving to the hoop house and finally being transplanted on 3/30 and 4/7 outside. They were in for a rough start getting in the ground […]