Farm Report: October 2006
by Kelle Carter

It is that time of year again, the time when all the seasons' efforts finally come to fruition—Harvest Time! It has been a wonderful season with plenty of melons, potatoes, tomatoes, and winter squash, thanks to an unusually rainy summer season. An early frost occurred on the evening of September 17th so we have pulled the majority of the plants in the fields due to frost damage. Regardless of the cold, we were able to salvage a couple hundred pounds of tomatoes; they have kept the farm staff busy after work, canning, freezing, and drying produce to enjoy throughout the winter months.

After we clear the fields of frost-damaged plants, we then till the soil, add compost, and seed the fields with winter rye. Fall is one of the best times of the year to plant cover crops, which deliver many benefits to your soil. Winter rye is a great crop to grow in the fall as it grows well in the warm days of winter, prospers in poor soils, and needs only minimal precipitation. Allow rye to grow through the winter. By spring it will be six to twelve inches high. Before planting in the spring, it is best to mow the rye so it is no more than four inches tall. The plant residues break down quickly, adding organic material to improve soil structure and drainage. Winter cover crops also minimize winter soil erosion, add two seasons of plant growth for soil improvement in one year, and increase beneficial microbiological activity through plant growth in poor soils. For more information on cover crops, read Cover Crops: Regenerating and Sustaining Healthy Soils and Feeding the Soil: Cover Crops.

We are working hard to improve our sustainable systems on the farm. One aspect of this includes developing a system to create on-site compost to be used in our fields. We have sufficient carbon sources coming from the farm, including weeds, produce, plant residues, etc.; however, without any animals on the farm, we have to supplement the needed nitrogen to achieve an optimal carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (30:1). Fortunately, we have a close neighbor with an excess of horse manure, which we are more than happy to add to our compost piles. In addition to creating the right mix of materials, moisture and temperature are integral aspects of the compost process. We have recently set up irrigation lines on the piles, and we are turning them as needed, depending on their temperature.

Last month, we had our Farm Tours, which brought close to 200 people to the Farm. We also had a Slow Food-sponsored picnic with food made from our produce. The tours present a great time to reach out to the community, as well as impart information and pass on the knowledge we obtain during each new season of farming. In addition to tours on our Research Farm, Erica Renaud, our Research Farm Manager, organized tours for chefs on various farms growing Seeds of Change varietal trials. Trials were conducted outside Portland, Oregon and San Francisco, California.

Now that the end of the farming season is near, we are preparing for a busy winter inside our seed-cleaning warehouse. Last year we cleaned over 25,000 pounds of seed grown by our network of certified organic farmers. We anticipate another influx of seed shipments to begin arriving soon. We look forward to processing and packing these seeds, so that gardeners throughout the country can start their gardens with the finest organic seeds available.

Wishing you all a bountiful harvest season!
Kelle Carter, Farm Field Coordinator
Seeds of Change Research Farm

Photo Captions: (1) Kelle and Rio with a truckload of spuds. (2) Shoshana Woodward atop a pile of melons. (3) Visitors to the farm enjoy our 2006 Farm Tour.