Farm Report: May 2005
by Erica Renaud, Research & Farm Manager

It isn't supposed to happen: snow on the apple boughs beside the blossoms; the hills green, brown, and white all at once. What an April we have had, bringing us a May with fields of cover crops over a foot tall and soil so moist, it is making soil preparation nearly impossible. Typically we are just hardening off many perennials and brassicas at this time, but night temperatures of 34°F have delayed this process and created doubt in our minds about what Mother Nature might bring us. This caution, however, has not inhibited our spring plantings of peas, radishes, spinach, onions, and leeks, which, in turn, have given us hope and yearning for the exciting growing season that lies ahead.

With over 1,500 varieties in our farm-plan repertoire for 2005, we have extended our intended planting area and modified our farming systems. To prepare for the magnitude of varieties that we will need to perform quality checks on, and evaluate for possible new introduction to the catalogue, we are implementing a new irrigation system. To both enhance farm efficiencies and deepen our level of sustainable water use on the farm, we are modifying the system to permit both drip irrigation and overhead watering. This modification will allow us to get seeds started and, later, to provide water more directly to the roots of plants with properly spaced emitters in the drip line. Evaporation will decrease and we expect overall healthier plants that can develop deep roots. The irrigation system will also allow us to set the time, duration, and intensity of watering, depending on the zone. (An added benefit of this entire system will be that we get to stay home on weekends to take care of our home gardens!)

In addition to our new irrigation system is the implementation and success of our greatly expanded farm-compost production. During 2004, we had the pleasure of working with Cindy Salter, a composting and compost tea consultant. Cindy has been helping us design a windrow composting system using our farm-generated biomass waste (vegetable stalks, weeds, chipped wood from our pruned orchard, etc.). She has been extremely helpful in aiding us calculate the amount of usable waste we produce and the appropriate carbon-to-nitrogen ratio needed to create an optimum pile. She has also shown us how to monitor compost temperature and moisture to achieve quality compost and to meet the National Organic Program Standards. Our objective is to decrease our annual off-farm compost acquisition for the next three years until we produce enough compost to become self-sufficient. We believe this is a worthwhile objective to further close the loop on a model sustainable farm. Another step in this project is to produce green manure in our fallow fields to supply the compost system. We will be dedicating a field of clover and vetch specifically to cut and capture with a flail mower for our compost piles. Lastly, we will be acquiring a compost turner suitable for our small research farm to turn and moisten the windrow.

While our winter farm planning and systems changes are sure to pay off, we are most excited about the new offerings that we will be growing and multiplying in 2005. In 2004, a particularly extensive effort was given to peppers (Capsicum spp.) and the Curcurbit plant families (melons, cucumbers, and squashes) . If you come to the Research Farm during our farm tours this August and September (8/28 and 9/10), or look at our 2006 seed catalogue, you will see the results of this work. Through research partnerships with New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute (www.chilepepperinstitute.org), Iowa State University's Sustainable Agriculture Program, and Rutgers University's New Use Agriculture Program (www.nuanpp.org), we were able to make great strides in expanding these crop-group areas. With the objective of offering the best new introductions in our garden and bulk seed catalogues, these research collaborations allowed us to evaluate hundreds of varieties in various climatic conditions through replicated field trials and through rigorous grower and researcher evaluations. Look out for the NuMex chile pepper additions and several great new sweet melons! These were the farm favorites in 2004 and hopefully yours in 2006!

It brings me great pleasure to share all of these new developments with you. Our dedicated, hardworking year-round staff of five and three seasonal helpers are working hard to pull these projects together. We look forward to bringing you many new varieties and stories in the year ahead.

In the green from the farm staff,
Erica Renaud
Research & Farm Manager

Photo captions: (1) Planted field, ready for the growing season at the Research Farm (2)Erica Renaud and Emily Gatch checking on the new irrigation system (3) Erica Renaud and Emily Gatch in the shadehouse specially designed for hardening-off seedlings before transplanting.