Jean Hediger grows Proso millet on her Nunn, Colorado farm Photography courtesy of Jean Hediger
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Jumping Worms are also Having a Moment
Invasive Jumping Worm Matt Bert, Piedmont Master Gardeners
The January newsletter of the Piedmont Master Gardeners (The Garden Shed) has this sobering article about Invasive Jumping Worms by Cathy Caldwell. The article includes the all-important information on how to distinguish an invasive jumping worm from any other kind of earthworm (it’s not hard!), and what to do if you find one.
Heatmaster tomatoes. Jon Braunfeld, Piedmont Master Gardeners
Another article in the January Garden Shed has helpful information on heat-tolerant vegetable varieties. In good time for us to order seeds and try some tomato varieties alongside our usual ones
CAFF - Extend Your Growing Season into Colder Weather with High Tunnels I’m spending October home on the farm, preparing and planting the hoophouse with winter crops. Meanwhile I’m applying to speak at quite a few sustainable agriculture conferences and preparing slideshows, handouts and talks. I’m going back to in-person conferences. We have very limited Wi-Fi in this part of rural Virginia and video-conferencing is just not possible. I managed to make some recorded narrated slideshows during the pandemic and I picked up more writing work. But there is an undeniable something I get from in-person conferences!
In the past year I’ve been at two in-person events: The very safely and carefully orchestrated PASA conference back in February, and the September CAFF presentation, half of which was outside touring the farm and half in a large airy lecture room. Now I’m lining up quite a few conferences. Go to my Events page on this website to get all the details, including links to register. Hope to see you at one of these:
I will be facilitating the Farmer Roundtable:Working Through Production Challenges on Saturday, November 5, from 1:30 – 2:45 pm with time to linger afterwards.
I will be presenting a 75-minute workshop on Spring and Summer Hoophouse Use, especially how to manage extreme heat and diseases in hot and humid climates.
Tennessee Local Food Summit logo
January 6-8 (Fri-Sun), 2023, Virginia Association for Biological Farming is hosting the Virginia Biological Farming Conference, Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center. Conference INFO Home Page
I hope to be presenting a half-day pre-conference session on Friday January 6, on Year-Round Hoophouse Vegetables. Also maybe a regular length session during the main conference.
VABF 2023 Conference banner
January 14, 2023 (Saturday), NOFA-MASS Annual Winter Conference. Northeast Organic Farming Association, Massachusetts Chapter.https://www.nofamass.org/conferences/Worcester State University on Saturday January 14 and online Sunday January 15. I hope to give a presentation on Saturday.
February 8-11, 2023 (Weds to Sat 2.30pm), PASA2023 Sustainable Agriculture Conference. Lancaster Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, 25 S Queen St, Lancaster, PA. https://pasafarming.org/conference/
I will be presenting two 60 min or 75 min workshops:
Alliums Year-Round (Brand New!)
Crop Planning for Sustainable Vegetable Production.
What with the pandemic, snowstorms, power and internet outages and related travel limitations, you might be forgiven for thinking I’d faded away or something! Except for my regular weekly blogposts, which I have kept up, come whatever!
This week’s blogpost is a reminder about other aspects of my work. Conferences, magazine articles, and my books. First the conferences. I do have an Events Page, in case you haven’t discovered that yet, and one with videos and podcasts I’m in. I’m also including a list of other Organic virtual conferences
The three-day Conference includes: Pre-Conference intensive workshops, 48 concurrent sessions of workshops, presentations, and panel discussions, 50 tradeshow exhibitors, locally sourced farm meals and book sales with author signings. The Conference highlights include a Youth Program, a Silent Auction and networking opportunities including regional meetings and fireside chats, morning yoga for farmers and the Taste of Virginia Expo & Social.
Update:
I had planned to give a half-day pre-conference intensive on Year-Round Hoophouse Vegetables, and two 90 minute workshops on Growing Sweet Potatoes from Start to Finish and Lettuce Year-Round. But then it all looked too risky for me, and I had to cancel. Very sorry.
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February 10-12, 2022 (Wednesday to Saturday 2.30pm)
Optimize Your Asian Greens Production Thursday 2/10 9-10 am
Beauty in a tatsoi plant. Photo Wren Vile
This workshop covers production of Asian greens, outdoors and in the hoop house, for both market and home growers. Learn to grow many types of tasty, nutritious greens easily and quickly for fast returns. This workshop includes tips on selection of over 20 types of Asian greens, the timing of succession planting, crop rotation in the hoop house, pest and disease management, fertility, and weed management throughout the year.
Winter Vegetable Production Methods from the Field to the Hoophouse, Fri 2/11 9-10am
Harvested turnips ready for storage. Photo Pam Dawling
Grow cold-hardy vegetables in the open and with protection varying from rowcovers to hoop houses (high tunnels). Learn about tables of cold-hardiness, details of crops to keep growing into winter, crops for all-winter harvests, overwintering crops for spring harvests, and winter hoop house crops. We’ll also discuss how to plan harvesting and planting dates, and how to maximize production with succession planting, follow-on cropping, and with stored vegetables.
Growing Sweet Potatoes from Start to Finish, Saturday 2/12 11am-12.00 noon
Sweet potatoes on a plate. Photo Brittany Lewis
At this workshop you will learn how to grow your own sweet potato slips, plant them, grow healthy crops, harvest good yields, and select suitable roots for growing next year’s slips. You will also learn how to cure and store roots for top quality and minimal losses. This workshop will be useful to beginners and experienced growers alike.
Handouts
Booksigning Thursday 2/10 4.30-5.30 pm at the Book Nook
Book sales at the Book Nook
The is also a virtual conference in January and early February.
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MOFFA
Maryland Organic Food and Farm Association (MOFFA)
The Fair at Seven Springs is unique, as speakers, staff and attendees co-mingle throughout the weekend at this beautiful four-season resort. Take advantage of complete lodging and ticket packages, which can be booked directly through the resort. Packages are available including rooms or condos. For more information and to make a reservation online click here, or please call 1-800-452-2223.
I am presenting two 60 minute workshops at outdoor stages:
Cool Season Hoophouse Crops
Hoophouse winter greens. Photo Kathleen Slattery
How to fill your hoophouse with productive food crops in the cool seasons. Suitable crops; cold-hardiness; selecting crops; calculating how much to harvest, how much to plant; crop rotation; mapping; scheduling; seasonal transitions; succession planting and follow-on cropping.
Growing Sweet Potatoes from Start to Finish
Sweet potatoes in storage. An ideal crop for winter meals, as they store at room temperature for a long time, maybe seven or eight months. Photo Pam Dawling
At this workshop you will learn how to grow your own sweet potato slips; plant them, grow healthy crops and harvest good yields, selecting suitable roots for growing next year’s slips. You will also learn how to cure and store roots for top quality and minimal losses. This workshop will be useful to beginners and experienced growers alike.
My books will be on sale in the Mother Earth Bookshop
It consists of eight video presentations, most of which come with pdf handouts. My contribution is Growing Asian Greens, and pairs nicely with Guide to Asian Vegetables by Wendy Kiang-Spray, author of The Chinese Kitchen Garden: Growing Techniques and Family Recipes from a Classic Cuisine. Other topics include Dandelion Wine, Homemade Teas, Food Conversations, Passive Solar Greenhouse Design, Productive Growing from Home, and Growing Your Own Spices.
Part One of the Food Independence Course includes seven videos, most with handouts, and there is a free preview of DIY Sourdough Basics with Jessica Moody. other topics include Your Edible Yard, the Chinese Greenhouse, Community Meat Buying Club and Mindful Meat Eating, Practical Yogurt and Emma’s Cool crops.
You can subscribe to the All-Access Bundle for $2.99/month (or $35 for a year).
Once you register for All-Access, you will receive access to all 47 current video workshops and prerecorded webinars plus anything new that is added.
All the workshop videos are pre-recorded and can be viewed whenever you like and however many times you like.
Because the videos can be viewed at your convenience, you can watch them on your own schedule!
At MOTHER EARTH NEWS, all of the content, including these workshops, are designed to empower you to become less dependent on systemic products or services. What does that mean? This is an opportunity learn how to save a lot of money on things such as groceries, expensive health products, energy, and more!
Unlike at the physical FAIRS, where workshops take place simultaneously, you don’t have to pick and choose which workshops to watch! Most folks can enjoy only 10 to 12 workshops maximum at a physical FAIR. Now you can see them all!
No additional travel expenses, such as hotel rooms, airfare, gas, pet care, dining out, etc.
Fall broccoli undersown with a mixed clover winter cover crop. Photo Nina Gentle.
All these and many more videos and handouts are available as part of the All-Access Bundle
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Podcasts and Videos
Check out my page for Podcasts and Videos!
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More Virtual Organic Conferences in January and February
Here’s a useful list from eOrganic. I’ll be at PASA, but not the others.
eOrganic is the organic agriculture community of practice with eXtension. Theirr mission is to foster a research and outreach community, engage farmers and ag professionals through trainings and publications, and support research and outreach projects.
The January 2022 issue has my article on Greensprouting and planting potatoes. The November/December issue has my article on Planning an asparagus patch.
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Heads up on Sustainable Market Farmingprice increase elsewhere but not through my website.
After nine years at a cover price of $34.95, it is going for another reprint, and will be $39.99 as of February 25, 2022. Fortunately I have plenty of copies on hand for direct sale.
My salad greens ideas include quick-growing Tokyo Bekana, Maruba Santoh and mizuna; purslanes; baby salad mixes including komatsuna, Yukina Savoy and Jewels of Opar; and garnishes like Spilanthes cress, red shiso, saltwort and microgreens. For years I have been perfecting the techniques needed to grow year round lettuce in Virginia (you can read about that in my book Sustainable Market Farming). It’s good to have more strings to our bows so we can be resilient in the face of unpredictable weather and changing climate.
The crop I am most excited about this summer is Jewels of Opar, also known as Fame flower. Southern Exposure Seed Exchange sells the seed, and have an interesting blogpostabout this crop by Irena Hollowell. She heads her post “A Heat-Tolerant Leafy Green Vegetable Disguised as a Flower”. As you see in the July photo below, the plants continue to produce fresh leaves even as they make light sprigs of pretty little flowers and attractive fruits.
Jewels of Opar Photo by Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
The cover article of this Growing for Market issue is Know Your Knots by Joanna and Eric Reuter of Chert Hollow Farmwho I have mentioned before (Eric commented about frosted strawberry flowers on my previous post.) This is an example of the hands-on useful articles in Growing for Market – written by farmers for other farmers, with information that is sure to save time, and even materials. I’m looking at the square-lashed storage rack for keeping rottable things off the ground. I damaged our cold frame lids last year by leaving them stacked on edge on the ground all summer. We used to store them in the shed, but an increase in the other stuff stored in the shed meant no room left for seasonal storage of bulky coldframe lids. Now I know how to store them outside without damage. One of our mantras is “Never make the same mistake two years running!”
In this same GfM issue, Patty Wright has an article about Community Supported Agriculture Farms (CSAs), encouraging us farmers to look at our aspirations and celebrate the diversity of CSAs. The two principles of shared risk and community support are at the heart of the CSA movement, and there are different ways that these are put into practice. The more common aspirations we can share, the stronger the movement will be.
Gretel Adams has an article about attractive foliage for cut flower arrangements in spring, summer and autumn.
Lisa Kivirist and John Ivanko, who I meet periodically as fellow presenters at the Mother Earth News Fairs have a new book Homemade for Sale: How to Set Up and Market a Food Business FromYour Home Kitchen, published by New Society Publishers. An excerpt from the book is in this issue. It covers how Cottage Food Laws apply to people making food products and selling them to neighbors and community. Many growers would like to process some of their crops for sale in the quieter parts of the season. This book will give inspiring examples and help you stay on the right side of the law.
Working in the greenhouse. Photo by Ira WallaceEarly tomato plant in the hoophouse in late March. Photo Kathryn Simmons
The season of tending millions of seedlings is winding down. We are planting out more every day. yesterday we planted our maincrop slicing and cherry tomatoes. (The early crop is in the hoophouse).
We’re continuing our relentless schedule of planting out 120 lettuces each week. It’s time for us to set out celery, Malabar spinach and okra. And we’re about to launch out into the row-crop area of the garden again. First the big planting of 540 Roma paste tomatoes.
Re-using drip tape, unreeling it using our shuttle and garden cart system. Photo credit Luke Stovall
We have measured and flagged the six 180′ rows. We need to run the drip tape, test it, fix problems, then unroll the biodegradable plastic mulch, then stake and rope where we want the rows to be, so we plant in straight rows. Then we’ll install the metal T-posts without spearing the hidden driptape (easiest if we run the irrigation while we do that, so the drip tape is fat and easier to locate.)
We’ll be transplanting for two hours a day for the next 4 weeks.
Last week I listed four events I’m booked for for next year. I’ll fill you in a bit and tell you about some more I hope to be at. My first is
Virginia Biological Farming Conference January 29-31 2015 in Richmond, Virginia. Early registration (hurry! ends 12/20) is $130 for members, $190 for non-members. So why not become a member if you aren’t already? You’ll get news all year. Conference registration covers your choice of the 25 workshops on Friday and Saturday; access to the trade show, where you can handle the tools you’re considering buying, and ask questions of the vendors; Friday dinner and Saturday lunch;
There are 3 pre-conference workshops (4 to 7 hours each) on Thursday, for $60-$75: Essential Tools & Techniques for the Small Scale Organic Vegetable Growers by Jean-Martin Fortier of The Market Gardener fame, Urban Farming Intensive with Cashawn Myer & Tenisio Seanima, and Edible Landscaping with Michael Judd and Ira Wallace (of Southern Exposure fame).
I’m giving two workshops: Succession Planting for Continuous Vegetable Harvests – How to plan sowing dates for continuous supplies of popular summer crops, such as beans, squash, cucumbers, edamame and sweet corn, as well as year round lettuce. Using these planning strategies can help avoid gluts and shortages (3pm Friday); and Producing Asian Greens – Detailed information for market and home growers. Many varieties of tasty, nutritious greens grow quickly and bring fast returns. This session covers production of Asian greens outdoors and in the hoophouse. It includes tips on variety selection of over twenty types of Asian greens; timing of plantings; pest and disease management; fertility; weed management and harvesting (10.30 am Saturday). I’ll also be signing and selling books.
Bring a dish for the Friday potluck picnic at lunchtime, seeds for the seed swap, a notebook and two pens, a bag to collect handouts and so on, and if you play music, bring an instrument and some songs for the jam on Friday night.
Then the next weekend, I’m at the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture Farming for a Future Conference February 4-7, 2015, at State College, PA. There are extra pre-conference sessions on Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th, then the main conference on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I am speaking on Growing Great Garlic (Saturday 3.10 pm) and also on Cold-hardy Winter Vegetables (Friday 8.30 am). I also hope to be doing book-signing and sales.
February 26-28, 2015 I will be speaking at the West Virginia Small Farms Conference in Charleston, WV. That workshop will either be Cold-hardy Winter Vegetables, or Succession Planting for Continuous Vegetable Harvests.
The fourth booking I have is at the Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello September 11-12, 2015. Too soon to name the topic.
And meanwhile, this week on the farm we finished our seed ordering and started some shopping for tools and supplies. In 2015 we will repeat our variety trials to try to find a heat-tolerant eggplant variety. We were happy to find another Batavian heat-tolerant lettuce to try: Carioca from Johnny’s. With the addition of a few exceptions, we rely on Batavian lettuce varieties once the weather gets hot, to grow without bolting or getting (very) bitter. the exceptions are Jerichogreen romaine, De Morges Braun and New Red Fire, a looseleaf red lettuce which nearby grower Gary Scott told me about.
We are also growing some Eden Gem melons alongside our Kansas and Sun Jewelmelons (and the individual-serving size Tasty Bites that I mentioned in my last post.
Peacework sweet pepper. Credit fedco Seeds
We have high hopes for Peacework sweet pepper from Fedco, a very early (65 day) OP medium-thick-walled pepper “with good flavor and full-bodied sweetness.” We are always on the look-out for fast-ripening bell peppers. Because of the seed-growing business at Twin Oaks, at the end of the season we have tons of ripe peppers, but if you are growing a seed crop, there is no incentive to try to push the planting date early. So our main pepper-focus in the vegetable garden is on earliness and flavor – never forget the importance of flavor!
We are also trying Donkey spinach this year. For years we have been very happy with the reliable performance and productivity of Tyee, but Fedco tell us the producer of Tyee is a Multinational engaged in genetic engineering. If Donkey can replace Tyee we’ll be very happy!
