The Newfarm Forums

[little bear farms]

well-

i've been waiting to start a journal until i have actual news to report. these posts will be as much for my own memory as for others to read and enjoy. not necessarily learn from, as this is my first year- experimental, learning, call it what you will, my mind is pretty open to new ideas now. if anybody has any input or questions, feel free to chime in.

i hope to supply family(about 6 families), friends, farmer's market, and maybe a couple of restaurants. we'll see. i'm also looking for a job that will allow me time to work on the farm and do market on saturday. my fiancee says i need to bring in about $800 a month, on top of what she makes. again, we'll see

what's happening so far:
3-27-06

started under lights: onions, leeks, cauliflower, brocolli, kale, brussels sprouts, 2 kinds of eggplant, 6 kinds lettuces, 5 kinds tomatoes, 6 kinds peppers. i think that's about it.

waiting in a box: 22.5 pounds of potatoes. 6 or 7 varieties from seed savers. they came on thursday. am i crazy or what? i've never even grown potatoes before...

sod tilled under: one 50X50 area and one 12X36 area (for the hoophouse). i know i'll need more space, i just haven't figured out how much yet.

the 12x36 was amended with an organic 5-3-3 product. about 20 lbs for almost 500 sq ft. i also spread a couple inches of aged manure (collected cow-pies) down the center 4 ft row. then i tilled it all in w/ (t)rusty garden tractor w/ 30 inch tiller. then covered it with black plastic to keep the grass from rerootng- hopefully it will decompose nicely.

hoophouse: got all the bows bent and assembled. got the ground posts cut and pounded in. they are spaced at 4 ft. seems kinda close, but i already spent the money and bent em'! i would have made it longer, but i only ordered 55' of poly. when i'm done, i'll figure up a per sq. ft. cost, if anybody's interested. now i need lumber for the baseboards, hip boards, and endwalls. oh yeah, and a perlin. there's another couple hundred.

compost: today i got about 25-30 bags of leaves from the future sister-in-law. the farmer we got the land from is going to bring me some manure, too! i wonder if he thinks im weird for being so happy to get manure? the nitrogen levels are very low (trace) from being in grass so long, so anything helps (especially when it's free!)

house: OUR HOUSE CAME TODAY! pulled by 2 tractor trailers in two halves. this was a sight to see. it barely fit through the gate, and the hill going up to the site is steep. at first the home company told us they jst couldn't do it. after some poking and proding, the agreed to take it up the drive. it took about 2 hours to get the two halves and the crane up to the site. went very smoothly. i'll post pics when i figure out how. the crane operator comes on thursday to actually set the house.

that's it for now, much more soon.
-jason.

[Alec Bauserman]

Hey Jason, sounds like you are well on your way. Best of luck in your first year as a "professional" farmer.

-Alec

p.s. Keep us posted!

[little bear farms]

Alec- thanks for the warm welcome!

news thru 4-2-06:

the house was set on thursday, but its been pretty sloppy, so the finishing crew couldn't get up there. hopefully next week will bring some drier weather. the house site is a former corn/bean field, so we need to get something down to hold the soil, start building nutrients, and so it wont be so darn muddy. any suggestions? btw, some day we want to have poultry for eggs, maybe some milk goats, and i'm sure other animals.

went to the feed store on sat. got some onion sets, alfalfa meal, and some blood meal. the 50 lb bag of blood meal was like 30 bucks, and the 50 lb bag of alfalfa meal was only like $5. big difference! i could use a break from the rain to till this stuff in. how do you old pros get the weather to cooperate?

hey - my eggplants have finally started to poke thru. 36 each of black beauty and white italian seeded on 3-17. i didnt use bottom heat, so i was kinda starting to worry.

i also have 60 peppers started. there is about 3 varieties of sweet, and 3 varieties of hot. i do have them sitting on a heating pad on med. seems pretty hot. can it be too hot? hmm.

also started basil, spinach, oregano, lavendar, bunching onions, and six sunberries. the sunberry is a garden huckleberry from seed savers.

i cant wait for the hoophouse, cus my 6 light set-up is full.

well, tomorrow is the big day to find out if i can get into the Dubuque saturday market. venders from previous years get the first shot. hopefully there's spaces available! if not, i'll have try nearby Galena.

oh yeah- my potatoes are starting to sprout. need to get those cut up tonight. i wonder how long before they HAVE to be planted?

guess that's all for now.

-jason.

[little bear farms]

hey all-

what's happening as of 4-6-06

spread about 2 yards of compost on the 50x50 space. still needs to be tilled in, but i have a flat on the tractor. spread some compost on the two 3 ft beds in the hoophouse and tilled that in with small tiller, then picked out most of the sod pieces.

hoophouse: got the bows up, and baseboards, now i need, hip-boards,endwalls, and on with the film! maybe by next week...

planted 10 lbs of potatoes in the newly desodded garden (soon to be again sodded garden). covered with compost, then some soil, then straw.

planted 12.5 lbs of potatoes today on land that was a cornfield last year, way easier than the grassland... covered em up with compost, then soil. its supposed to get down to like 28 for a day or two. hope i didn't jump the gun! i'll probably go out tomorrow and put a row cover over em.

house: is set, finishing guys are done. waiting on the propane, phone, septic, well to be hooked up. should be about another week. did i say that last week?

oh yeah, signed up for the Dubuque farmer's market. first day is in about 3 weeks. huh? what are folks gonna have? i might have to skip that one...

more later,
jason.

[MoonLasso]

You may want to re-think how much you are planting if you are hoping to attend even one farm market. If you are lucky and get 5 peppers off every plant (not gonna happen all at once) you will be out of peppers in a week. We planted 500 last year and barely kept up. We did about 1200 tomato plants. There were times at the start and end of the season when it was not enough. I was going through 8 x 12 plots of spinach and salad mix faster than expected. That was with two small markets and one bigger one. Someone said they needed to make $800 a month... Do the math on a pound of peppers at $2.50 and so on - you can figure out how much to plant that way. We work more towards $800 a week as a goal.
Good Luck and don't underplant like we did when we started!

[CP Knerr]

Jason,

I have to totally agree with MoonLasso with my experiences last year at the small farmer's market.

I was using the farmer's market as a way to sell excess produce from the CSA I'm running. So many weeks I'd only have a few extra vegetables (2 bags of tomatoes, a few cukes, a few dozen ears of corn). Most weeks, I never sold these, it seems you have to have a huge pile of produce to start selling any of it.

I did sell a ton of garlic, which I had an abundance of, and other vendors had only a few or none. Many weeks I was sold out of garlic within an hour of the market starting.

Good luck and I look forward to reading your posts throughout the season!

[little bear farms]

hey there-

thanks for the feedback, guys. i've suspected that i have under planted, but i have no clue how to produce that many plants. my lights are full now. should i get everything into an unheated hoophouse, and start more under the lights? maybe i could contract w/ a friend. maybe i should just buy more lights.

it's kinda funny, usually for the garden i didn't have more than 5 or 6 peppers. so 60 seems like a lot to me. i'm sorta stuck between the 2 scales of growing.

so what i should take from this is that there is no such thing as overplanting

looks like i have some more work to do.

-jason.

[MoonLasso]

Just because you have no lights and heated greenhouses is no big problem. You won't be the FIRST tomato at market, but neither will you be the ONLY one who plants seeds by the weather's whims. So many things can be direct seeded even as the frosty nights are lingering a bit. Get the kale and chard and lettuce and LOTS of spinach and salad mix (takes only 21 days to bag it and sell it from seeding date sometimes).

Figure out when it is "safe" to put tomato plants and such out and plant the seeds about three or four weeks ahead so they are at least UP a couple inches and ready to transplant. You have all summer to work on ways to be the LAST one with warm weather veggies and reap the benefits.

CP has a great observation - there is definitely such a thing as "critical mass" at the market. If you have heaps of stuff you draw more people, they love the feeling of having choice and once they pull out the wallet, you have the potential for a multiple sale. I learned that my area pretty much abhors squash which I had tons of. They do help fill the table when you are not picking much and they last a couple weeks as decor items, but I never made 20 bucks off them all season. Try to have a nice table. That being said, we started SO LAME and still got sales..... going over to my own site to write a bit more...

[little bear farms]

well, things are going swimmingly.

today is 4-12.

i got broc, cabbage, kale, lettuce, onions, leeks, and cauliflower hardening off outside. what a beautiful, spring day! rained last nite. perfect since i got some things planted yesterday.

yesterday i got peas planted, as well as more spinach and radishes.
i got the hoophouse ready to cover. and temps are in the 70's all week. go figure. i also tilled up another 50x50 plot.

monday i planted about 5 lbs of onion sets, both red and white. i also tilled another plot approx. 30x50, and picked a LOT of sod out of it. had three people stop by and tell me i should just hit it with round-up. i know they are just trying to save me and my poor back. i've been thinking of some kind of rake i could build to hook to my truck or something. if i only had a welder...

i did get a little compressor so i can air up my tires and staple my greenhouse film.

now i'm off to get hinges to makes doors for the hoop and to clean out our basement. movin'! this weekend.

gotta start more tomatoes and peppers. also cukes and melons and i'm sure more lettuce. i'm not too sure about the earthway and lettuce.

i should go get some more compost, too. screened, finished for $30 a yard. is that a good deal? seems like good stuff. they even add kelp from the local aquarium.

i guess that's it for now.

-jason.

[little bear farms]

wow -

what's the deal? where's all the great posts?

well, i guess it is a really busy time.

i haven't had internet access at the new house. i'm at mom's now.

gotta go

-jason.

[little bear farms]

just stopping in to say hi.

didn't have anything for market on sat. it was rainy and cold as well. i'd say about 20% of the vendors showed up for this early start, optional day. we bought some asparagus and spinach, some baked goods, a small bag of apples, and an apron for our daughter. there was also alot of bedding plants and morels. oh, and watercress.

i have alot of stuff in the ground right now, so maybe next week. the good news is, the wife will have jewelry to sell, too.

it rained all day sat. and its raining some more today. good for what's in the ground, but bad for planting.

that's how it goes, i guess.

later-
jason.

[little bear farms]

hey all-

it's monday, 5-15.

it's not raining today, yet... we are up about 4 inches for the year, i think. but the temps are going up this week, and we might see the sun sometime this week. and definately on sat. Market Day

speaking of market, i actually had radishes last week. i was picking at dawn, 36 degrees. but i was lovin' it. sold out at $1 a bunch. med-small organic cherry belles, bout a dozen per bunch. i only had 6 bunches tho, (insert laughter here).

wife sold about $30 worth of jewelry, so that's cool.

also, we moved our booth to a way better spot. the street is blocked off and we are now across from an organic food store that has a booth outside. owners also play guitars and mandolin during market. very cool. all our neighbors are friendly and interested and helpful. i'm very happy we decided to move. our old space had us hidden behind a 5ft quilt board, at the end of a side-street. we could have made it work, but i'm a perfectionist, and in this for the long haul. i also have to think of the happiness of my (captive) family and there are more kids down here.

for sale next week: more radishes, baby spinach, lettuce, and maybe some kale.

in the ground: alot of radish, onions, leeks, arugula, komatsuna, lettuce, chard, beets, broc, cabbage, peas, brussel sprouts, bush beans. i'm sure i forgot something. oh yeah, carrots- 6 rows of about 50-60 ft.

problems:1. something chewed off and actually pulled up about 6 of 36 brussels sprouts. i think it was a deer, or it could have been one of the cows that got out. doubt it tho, they seem to like the abundant grass surrounding the gardens.
2. just when the beans were coming up, we got some cold weather. they'll probably be fine, but i got 4 more beds that are about a week behind. should be up soon.
3. row covers beat the heck out of kale and broc. i dont think i had enough hoops and the rain made row cover heavy. also, i planted double rows in the beds instead of one row down the middle.
4. i don't know what the heck is wrong w/ my cauliflower. purple older leaves, stunted. maybe its a bit chilly, maybe its a nutrient deficiency.

the 9 varieties of potatoes are doing great. the frost nipped em back a little bit a couple times, but they are tougher than people give them credit for.

waiting to be planted: 130 toms, 130 peppers, 70 eggplant, 60 basil, 60 beets, 70 zuch, cuke. 50 watermelon, 40-50 muskmelon, 60 more lettuce. and those numbers are approximate, of course hopefully this week they will get their permanent home. i also need to direct seed some sweet corn. i got a pound of true gold from seeds of change.

pasture: last week the neighbor got our pasture planted. so the rains have been great for that! i can't wait to get out there and see the little seedlings coming up. it's an all-around pasture mix(100lbs). with 25 lbs of alfalfa thrown in. so that comes out to 25 lbs per acre. the mix contained 22% winterhardy alfalfa, 20% timothy, 15% orchardgrass, 13% med. clover, 12% tetraploid perennial ryegrass, 8% alsike clover, 5% tetraploid italian ryegrass, 5% ladino clover.

hope all you east-coasters aren't under water. what's incredible is -the same storm system is streching from the midwest to the east coast.

happy farming,

jason.

[little bear farms]

well,

i have no brussels sprouts to speak of. 36 plants chewed to the base. still time to replant, tho.

looks like i need a fence. i have some 7' high black netting. it's not the heavier stuff, so we'll see...

i hope they don't find the lettuce, broccoli, and cabbage before i get the fence up.

transplanted today: 12 lettuce, 12 cuke, 5 zuke, 30 basil, 15 tomato, 4 parsley, 4 cilantro, 6 clumps oregano. much more to go.

hey - is anyone using the florida weave for tomatoes? what are the pros and cons? i don't really fancy trying to make 100's of cages. i have a bunch of 6" fenceposts to use.

later,
jason.

[cosmiclettuce]

Hi Jason,

The problem you're having with deer out there in the midwest (I hope I have your location correct) is the same kind of problem I have with Javalena here in the desert southwest. They are ravenous and very complete in terms of finding every tasty morsle. Get that fence up quick!!!!

A 4ft high fence around the garden / farm totally solved the problem.

Not that I'm an expert or anything, but make sure to keep having fun and take each "setback" as an opportunity to learn how to help grow happier veggies.

Take care,

Matt Cheselka
Cosmic Lettuce

[little bear farms]

hey all,

guess i'll start with farmer's market last week. i sold 17 bunches of radishes ($1 each), 8 bags of spinach ($2 each), 7 bags of spinach/lettuce mix ($2 each), and 5 or 6 bags of kale ($2 each).

i was just guessing on prices, but i was pretty close to everyone else. nobody complained and i only brought home 2 bags kale and 1 spin/lett mix. only 2 or 3 other vendors had these items, and i was the only one with kale!

this week: radish, spinach, lettuce, and kale.

planted: 60 peppers, 50 toms, 30 zuch (promptly got powdery mildew), 40 cucumber. some of these got put in a 12X36 hoophouse. it'll be interesting to compare harvest dates to those outside the hoop.

my parents came up and helped with the hoop film. it went great except when we were done, i noticed a bunch of little slits where the film was folded. anyone ever experience this? they should replace it, send me some money, or at the very least some patch. i hope the spin and lettuce don't bolt, cus it's warm in there.

today i went and got another 2 yards of compost. i side dressed everything, hilled my potatoes with it, put a band down the middle of some unplanted beds, and i still have almost a yard left.

gotta get: an old refrigerator; to store stuff for market.

watering: 200 gal. tank hooked to a small pump (120v) hooked to a generator in my truck. not ideal, but its what i have. and- it's faster than gravity.

later,
jason.