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The Dance of Crop Rotation

4/30/2014

5 Comments

 
by Beth

We're having fun designing and testing a new crop rotation plan for both our annual vegetable gardens- the high tunnel greenhouse and the 1/2- acre "Potager" (kitchen garden with emphasis on veggies).

While I've shuffled crops around in past years, it's never been planned on paper in a way I could confidently refer to year after year. And, since our goals include more sustainable farm systems (sustainable= continuous, enduring), Josh and I spent a few winter afternoons doing just that-  surveying and drawing the gardens; talking about past experiences; and blending the wisdom of favorite garden gurus (Elliot Coleman, Ed Smith, Mel  Bartholomew...) with our love of systems.    ...not to mention utilizing Josh's wonderful architectural skills.


Ta dah!         We've got a plan!
And, yes..... just looking at it makes this elementary school teacher's heart happy.
Picture
Our Potager garden rotational "dance". Each colored area is about 200 sq. feet of planting space. With 9 colors, a plant family can rotate to the next color block without returning to the same soil for 9 years. Plus we have lots of unplanned "free agent" beds to play with.
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Beans and peas enrich the soil. A good gardening practice is to follow beans or peas with heavy feeders such as tomatoes and peppers which love the nitrogen left behind by their predecessors.
Why Rotate Your Crops?

To keep a vegetable garden healthy, you want to avoid repeating the same planting plan in the same spot.  This practice, called crop rotation, can feel a bit like juggling, but it's important to prevent crop-specific pests and diseases from building up and carrying over from one season to the next in the soil. If you move a crop, the problem has no host on which to live. In addition, rotation encourages better use of soil nutrients and amendments.

Ideally, plant a vegetable (or vegetable family) in a particular bed only one year out of a minimum of three. Taproot has space for a longer rotation cycle- meaning, for example, the Brassica family (broccoli, cabbage, etc...) won't be planted again in the same area for 9 years.
                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“From his experience as a researcher at Rutgers, Firmin Bear stated that well-thought-out crop rotation is worth 75 percent of everything else that might be done, including fertilization, tillage, and pest control.  
                        To my mind, crop rotation is the most important practice in a multiple-cropping program." -Elliot Coleman                                         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the drawing board, Josh puzzled through our plan by shuffling labeled crop/plant family markers. The goal is to have plantings move in a logical order and direction (whether it’s left to right, front to rear, circular, etc...). We expect to improvise and innovate until it becomes fluid.  
And when in doubt about a rotation, we'll just slip in a crop of beans, leafy greens or cover crop.

Notice each bed is labeled with a color (rotation group), a letter (north/east/south/west quadrant) and a bed number. That way we can accurately refer to planting areas when indoors planning or working with interns (~plus Tim gets to make more signs!)
Picture
The Mustard Family beds (under insect cloth) and Pea Family beds soaking up this nice spring rain.
I like this short You Tube video: Crop Rotation Made Simple explaining the virtues of crop rotation
 and a simple way to design it on the computer (if you don't have a Josh :-) ) 
 It is worth watching just to hear the fella's lovely English accent and hear him say  "plahnt" and "toe-mah-toe".
        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elliot Coleman's Four-Season Harvest is a favorite resource in our farm library.  Here he offers some 
Guidelines for Rotation :    

1.) Separate similar crops or families of crops as much as possible. 
Apiaceae (Carrot Family): carrot, parsnip, parsley, celery 
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family): lettuce, endive, radicchio 
Brassicaceae (Mustard Family): cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, turnip, radish, Chinese cabbage, kale, collards, rutabaga 
Chenopodiaceae (Goosefoot Family): beet, Swiss chard, spinach 
Convolvulaceae (Bindweed Family): sweet potato 
Cucurbitaceae (Gourd Family): cucumber, muskmelon, watermelon, squash, pumpkin, gourd 
Fabaceae (Pea Family): garden pea, snap bean, lima bean, soybean 
Liliaceae (Onion Family): onion, garlic, leek, shallot, chive 
Malvaceae (Mallow Family): okra 
Poaceae (Grass Family): sweet corn, popcorn, ornamental corn 
Solanaceae (Nightshade Family): tomato, pepper, eggplant, potato, husk tomato 

2.) Alternate cover crops 
~ legumes/grasses 
~ cool-season/warm-season 

3.) Alternate heavy feeders with light feeders 

~ Heavy feeders: broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, collards, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, endive, escarole, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, okra, onions, parsley, pumpkins, rhubarb, spinach, squash, tomatoes 
~ Light feeders: beets, carrots, garlic, leeks, mustard, parsnips, potatoes, radishes, rutabagas, shallots, sweet potatoes, Swiss chard, turnips 

4.) Soil builders: alfalfa, broad beans, clover, lima beans, peanuts, peas, snap beans, soybeans, vetch 
5.) Alternate flowering crops with vegetative crops 
6.) Place crops with different canopy heights next to each other 
7.) Alternate cool season crops with warm season crops 

8.) Alternate deep-rooted crops with shallow-rooted crops 

~Shallow-rooted crops are those whose main root system is in the top 1-2 feet of soil. 
Examples:  cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, celery, sweet corn, onion, white potato, and radish. 
~ Moderately deep-rooted crops are those that have the main root system in the top 1-4 feet of soil. Examples are snap bean, carrot, cucumber, eggplant, peas, pepper, and summer squash.  Deep-rooted crops are those whose main root system is in the top 1-6 feet of soil. 
Examples: cantaloupe, pumpkin, tomato, and watermelon. 


* And I would've added-  rotate animals through your garden too!
Picture
Last year's Wwoof interns, Kristin and Nick, relaxing a bit and enjoying the garden systems at work.
It seems that all this upfront work will be worth the effort. After a few years of fine-tuning, the payoff for this level of garden planning could be pretty great — a long-term rotation plan that not only runs itself, but benefits every crop we grow.  

So, the way we're looking at it, sustainable systems are Tim's and my retirement plan. One day we'll simply be sitting on the front porch sipping dandelion wine watching the whole thing run like clockwork!  

And, well, if it doesn't ...   we'll have plenty of dandelions.
5 Comments

Hog Bloggin'

4/20/2014

1 Comment

 
By Tim
PictureA dirty snout is a happy hog.
This is our fourth season raising hogs -- and we just love it.  They are very social animals that are a joy to watch and interact with.  Watching pigs race around the pen, burrow in the unmowed brush, or wallowing in the mud will make you laugh.  They love attention and a good neck scratching.  And it is always sad day then we transport them to Alleghany Meats for processing.

But boy is the pork delicious!  What other animal can give you the diversity of tastes and cuts?  (Sorry beef and chicken lovers)  Nothing compares to ham, bacon, various sausages, pork chops, pulled pork, lard -- all from one happy animal.  


While they are fun to grow, hog-raising has to be profitable to make it sustainable.  For Taproot Farm, the economics of hog raising is -- and always has been positive.  Farmers have labeled hogs "the mortgage lifter", because they contribute cash to slim farm incomes.  We buy our weaned pigs (feeder pigs) from a couple of local farmers at about 8 weeks old.  The males are castrated before we accept them to avoid the foul taste called "boar taint".  These "barrows" can be raised with the female "gilts" -- and we generally get 2 or 3 pigs at a time at a cost of $50 to $65 each.
PictureJosh makes new friends by sharing his apple.
For those interested in the nitty gritty of hog-raising, here's how we do it:

Feeder pigs weigh only about 35 to 45 lbs when they arrive at Taproot.  We grow them to "market weight" of about 250 lbs -- which takes us about 20 weeks.  Their weight gain is modest for the first couple of months, but really picks up speed the last 4 to 6 weeks.

Hogs are omnivores (like us) so they can eat grains, meats, dairy as well as fruits and vegetables.  We purchase hog mash (16% protein) from Hotts AG Services, an independent feed mill in Franklin, WV.  And we supplement this standard feed with plenty of our table scraps and damaged garden produce.  Plus we allow our hogs to root in the ground for tubers, grubs, worms and, of course, roots -- inside electric fencing on pasture.

PictureChowing down -- side by side!
A 250 lb hog, once eviscerated, results in a carcass of about 188 lbs (75%).  Once boned and butchered, the "package weight" results in about 140 lbs (75%) of pork.   There are lots of different ways to cut-up a hog but a rule of thumb is:  20% is ham, 20% is shoulder, 10% is sausage, 10% is bacon, 16% is chops or loin, 4 % is spare rib, 13% is fat and 7% is bone.  We process our hogs in a variety of ways -- sometimes we get a whole hog made into sausages and other times we'll get the butcher to cure the hams, jowls and bacon.  Our specific instructions are spelled out on the "cut sheet" we drop off with the hogs.


The feed conversion on a hog is about 4 to 1.  Four pounds of feed will develop 1 pound of hog.  So to grow a 250 lb hog, we need to feed each hog about 1,000 lbs of feed.  If the weather is too hot or too cold, this feed conversion can be negatively affected.  So we house our hogs in a shady area with plenty of straw bedding and clean water.  This is NOT how most hogs are raised here in America -- most are raised by the thousands in confined, indoor pens on hard slatted floors so that the manure can be washed into huge waste lagoons.  No sunshine, fresh air or freedom to run or wallow. 
We are proud of our pork process!  Here are some of the happy hogs we've raised here at Taproot Farm. 
1 Comment

High Tunnels for the Hoi Paloi

4/15/2014

3 Comments

 
By Josh
   A lot of hype surrounds the "High Tunnel" these days.  There's a strong push for them in both industrial ag & small-scale production coming from the land-grant universities & the USDA, which has been practically giving them away (generally in the form of 60-90% cost shares) in recent years.
   Understandably so: the opportunities for season extension and winter production can aide in the transition from a consumer culture that's used to a plentiful variety of produce whenever they visit the supermarket to a more localized diet more of the time.  High tunnels can help producers meet consumer demand over a longer period of time, increasing the economic viability of the enterprise and encouraging customer loyalty throughout the year.  They also afford the opportunity to produce crops that otherwise might not survive local conditions, such as ginger or certain citrus fruits.
   Sounds like a magic bullet, which should be a cue to all level-headed citizens to consider them with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Picture
   A high tunnel is essentially an unheated, plastic wrapped greenhouse.  The UV stabilized plastic covering lasts for about 4-5 years before exposure to the elements degrades it to the point of needing replacement.  Meanwhile the covered environment sheds rainwater that would otherwise directly water the plants inside thereby making irrigation a necessity.  Here's where the skepticism comes in:  Is the use and disposal of thousands of square feet of petroleum by-product every 5 years (READ: plastic) and the associated irrigation worth the benefits reaped by the farmers and the communities they serve?  Personally, I'm unsure.  This is my first season working with a high tunnel and I'm still getting my bearings.  Skepticism doesn't necessarily translate as  disapproval though, and ideally it enhances one's ability to investigate matters.
Picture
Spring veggies coming up!
Nerd Alert! I'm a fan of data: collecting it, compiling it, and synthesizing it.  And that's how my relationship with the high tunnel here at Taproot began.
  Since I arrived here I've begun monitoring soil temperature, soil moisture, ambient temperature and relative humidity in Li'l Georgia (so-called because of it's similarities to my native growing season) to get a firmer grasp of the utility of the space.  I've learned a few things so far that seem worthy of sharing.
  1.  The ambient temperature buffers the cold by about 5-10 degrees Farenheit at night, while during the day it has been up to 30 degrees warmer, mas o menos.
  2. The ability to retain heat in the soil is less in raised beds edged with wood.  The soil temperature in the beds is consistently 3-5 degrees cooler than the soil temperature in the pathways.
  3. The high water table in this area in the spring minimizes the need for drip irrigation early in the season, a boon to aquifers everywhere.
While I remain skeptical about high tunnels in general, I've had a lot of fun in ours.  It's really wonderful to have a protected enclosure to work in on chilly, windy days.  We've been able to get a good jump on the season, too.  The snap peas are shooting up, the cilantro is sprouting, turnips, beets, carrots, radishes, onions and all the brassica family crops (kale, broccoli, collards, brussel sprouts, etc.) couldn't be happier in there.

I learned a lot about cold-weather production in high tunnels at the West Virginia Small Farms Conference this year, and I'm totally stoked to use this resource to the fullest: focusing on crops that really like the heat in the summer and shifting to crops for winter harvest later in the season.

So while my mind isn't totally made up on the subject, I recognize that high tunnels can potentially be of great service to us. Give me a few more years of experience with these guys recording the data, weighing the harvest & tabulating profitability and I'll probably be able to make up my mind.  Till then, hope y'all get to enjoy some of these early veggies!
Picture
Snap peas emerging, lettuces thriving, and heeled-in goji berries sprouting. We'll have potted-up gojis for sale after the last frost :)
p.s. if you haven't picked up any hickory smoked jowls in the Honesty Store, do yourself and me a favor and come get you some.  If you don't, I'll likely eat myself into a pork coma.
3 Comments

Food is Medicine!

4/4/2014

3 Comments

 
by Beth

I had the greatest conversation with our friend, Lindsay, the other day. Standing in front of the "Honesty Store" together, she could barely contain her excitement telling me why she HAD to come over and buy more of our Taproot honey.

This tale will make your heart happy...
     and validate what we seem to be re-learning about REAL food. That chemical-free, local food can be exactly the "medicine" our body craves.

Here's what Lindsay told me:
"My daughter Keera has been struggling with stomach problems since she was little. Pain, acid reflux, lack of appetite. People would tell me not to worry about it- she'll outgrow it. Her doctor and I have tried so many things to relieve her discomfort, including prescription drugs. But nothing has helped very much or for very long. 
Picture
Keera and Lindsay
So, this summer we finally took Keera to to a pediatric gastro-enterologist at UVA . As part of the exam, he tested her for allergies. And, returning with the results, he told us that Keera is highly allergic to a lot of things. And that sometimes it can effect the intestines and make them sensitive to lot of things. He also tested her for a disease called H-pylori- an intestinal disease that, at its worst, can sometimes lead to ulcers or cancer in the stomach.
That was a Tuesday. He scheduled her for a biopsy the next Friday, since she tested positive for H-p.
"
Picture
Lindsay lit up telling me this next part, "It was during that week between doctor visits that I came over to Taproot and bought a big jar of honey, remember? 
It was so funny. Keera, who usually doesn't dig into new foods, took a spoonful of that honey and said, 'Mom, this is so good!'
Ha! Before I knew it, in just a few days, Keera had polished off the ENTIRE jar by herself.  I thought she'd get sick from so much honey- but, she was actually enjoying eating! And I remember what the doctor had said- let her eat what she wants. Kids most often eat what they need. Adults think too much, we don't listen to our bodies. We so often steer away from exactly what our bodies tell us we need (dieting, marketing...), but kids are more intuitive.  They listen.  
Well, this is the great part-  the morning of the biopsy, they redid her blood work. She still went in for the biopsy, but that afternoon the UVA doctor called kind of excited and said, 'I need to know what Keera did differently this week between the first visit and today! Tell me exactly what you changed in her diet.  I need to know.'"
Lindsay didn't know if she wanted to admit Keera had eaten a whole jar of honey! Maybe she was in trouble. :-)
But she confessed, "My friend sells honey. Keera ate almost the whole jar this week!"
And the doctor replied, "Well. That explains it. Wow. Today's bloodwork showed that 50% of the allergens were gone! Was the honey local?"   Lindsay told him, yes, our bees are  raised in the town where she lives.
Lindsay was so cute recalling the conversation to me.
"Beth, you should have heard him. He was so excited. He said, 'Well, that is amazing. I don't believe it - almost 50% of the allergens in Keera's bloodwork are gone. I've never seen anything like that. And I had even told you how sick she was and that she might suffer from this for a long time.' Then he asked about her, 'How's she feeling these days?'.
Picture
Tim and Wwoof intern, Nick, smoking the bees to calm them before honey harvest.
With a big smile Lindsay told me, "Keera's doing great. We had a 3-month checkup and her biopsy was fine. Bloodwork is better.  She feels so much better than she used to.
The doctor is so wonderful. He talks directly to my daughter about her health. 
When he came in the room this last visit, he was smiling and shaking his head again. And last thing he said to her was-
                                      'Keera, I can't get over this. You just keep eating that honey!    Doctor's orders.' "
  :-)
Picture
Up close honey production.
Picture
Poured straight out of the extractor.
Lindsay loves to tell her honey story and was happy for me to blog about it.  "I wish I could have had him on tape, Beth. He was so excited!"

She's been back recently for more honey and last report is that Keera is off all medicine. And her stomach has felt fine.
Ahhh... the mystery of good eating!
3 Comments

    Taproot Staff
    Tim Reese, co-owner
    Beth Reese, co-owner
    Josh Stainthorp, Apprentice

    Taproot Farm Capon Bridge, WV.

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                        Taproot Farm    PO Box 162    Capon Bridge, WV 26711    304 856-1336    taprootfarmwv@gmail.com        taprootfarmwv.com