Farm Report: November 2006
by Erica Renaud

Cool mornings and cool, dark evenings sandwich the warm, bright days at the New Mexico Research Farm this time of year. So, while cleaning seed and building projects are filling our mornings, we return to the fields in the afternoon to cut back perennials, rake leaves, and harvest the last of the carrot roots for a seed crop next year. It is solely at this time of year that we look up from the fields toward the cottonwood trees that surround the farm and view their luminous yellow. Photosynthesis slows as the daylight hours decrease, and we see all plants begin to lay down their leaves for the winter.

End-of-season projects, such as wood chipping our spring fruit-tree prunings to add carbonaceous material to our compost piles, have absorbed the time of Joe Martinez and Erazmo Marquez, Farm Associates of all trades—this is to say, of course, when they are not performing end-of-season repair and building projects. Recently, Joe and Erazmo enhanced our produce- and pot-washing station by building an overhang to protect the station from the elements. The next building objective before the December snows is to replace the roof of the infamous chicken shed, which has been converted to a storage shed. As the historical use of the chicken shed remains apparent to the nose, a translucent roof and more ventilation have been demanded.

Emily Skelton, Seed Cleaning & Quality Coordinator, has begun to ramp up for the seed-cleaning season. While she continues to prepare for her Registered Seed Technician Certification, Emily has been collecting samples of all potential noxious weeds throughout the U.S. This seed collection is part of the process for her to gain knowledge and expertise in weed-seed identification to enhance the purity of Seeds of Change seed lots. Wade Collins has joined Emily to learn more about seed cleaning and seed quality. Wade, a new father of four-week-old Elliot, came to Seeds of Change from the Chicago area, where he had a CSA on his family farm. Wade earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from University of Minnesota and is a licensed film editor. Now, he and his wife, Jennifer, have bought some land in Ojo Caliente, where they intend to start an organic farm and house their five dogs, ten cats, and a cockatiel.

Kelle Carter, Farm Field Coordinator, and Will Emmett, Farm Associate, are enjoying the slower pace of the late fall. After a rigorous season of planting, weeding, harvesting, and irrigating all of our field crops and variety trials, the peacefulness of cutting back perennials, clearing crop residue, and planting cover crops all take on new meaning. In order to take best advantage of getting ahead of the next spring season, good cover crop establishment and maintenance of the perennials are a must. As Will came to Seeds of Change from the Wave Hill and Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, he is meticulous about the care and nurturing of the orchard, roses, and perennials on the Farm—a much-needed horticultural dimension to all of the other demands at the Seeds of Change Research Farm.

With all the diversity of the Farm activities, Emily Gatch, staff Pathologist & Greenhouse Coordinator, is keeping busy hibernating in the new Seed Quality Lab where she is hot-water treating any at-risk seeds for potential diseases. Simultaneously, she is collecting leaves for composting in order to create, and then evaluate, the potential of leaf compost as a source of sustainable potting mix. Emily's intention is to reduce the Farm's reliance on off-farm, energy intensive, or unsustainable inputs (peat moss, coir, vermiculite, and perlite) in the greenhouse potting mix. Peat moss is of concern because peat bogs are a major carbon sink, so mining them contributes to global warming, and it has to be trucked from far away. Vermiculite and perlite are minerals that are heated to extremely high temperatures to expand them. These media also travel far distances until they reach us, and we want to decrease our dependence on shipping long distances as well.

We are now harvesting the last of our Research Trials. The final broccoli varieties for an ongoing multi-region trial program are undergoing evaluation, harvesting and nutritional-analysis prepping at this very moment. Luckily, the frost allows these varieties to continue to develop late into the season and allows us to inform our customers of the best-performing spring and fall varieties for the multiple regions in which our customers garden and farm.

All of this is going on while the Farm staff supports the business by making varietal inclusion recommendations, by writing variety descriptions, by being the photography showcase, and by evaluating and testing all garden and farm tools for both the Professional and Garden catalogs. All in a day's work!

From the staff of the Seeds of Change Research Farm,
Erica Renaud
Research and Farm Manager

Photo Captions: (1) Squashes curing at the Farm. (2) Joe working with the compost pile. (3) Broccoli trial growing with the cottonwoods in the background.

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