Intense heat, no rain and what's growing in mid February

January received record low rainfall all over Victoria.  We recorded no rain on our farm for the month.  Then there was a break...10mm...1 centimeter...on the 1 February.  Although we have had some respites from the intense heat of early January and again last week, since the middle of December, we still have not had any substantial rain. Peter's constant attention to the rotation of irrigation has minimized the effects on the vegetables. While we have had some comments on the stringy, intense tasting celery, most of the vegetables damaged by the intense heat never make it into the weekly boxes so CSA members may not have noticed.  We have not had many questions about the lack of sky water.

Our house tanks dried up this week.  We have no town water here.  And elsewhere on the farm the effects of lack of rain and another three days of temperatures between 33-36 degrees are showing. The strong winds (35-45km/hr), like those of last night and tonight, are intensifying the dry situation. A week ago when a thunderstorm with intense lightning rolled overhead at 4am, I was quite scared of a strike alighting the dry paddocks all around.

While rural Victorians are facing water restrictions "as severe as those in the 2009 drought..." (The Weekly Times, 20 Feb),  and battling bushfires being fed by lightning and plenty of dry matter, those with town water have not had any water restrictions thus far this year. Reservoirs filled from previous wet seasons mute the effects of the dryness on most of the state.  People on town water rely on several "entities" to control and distribute their water thus creating further distance between them and the source of this essential life giving substance. Water is a managed commodity.

One of our desires as a CSA is to reconnect people with their food, where their food is grown and how we as farmers are growing it.  Although stories of old have portrayed the very real aspects of farming, the life and the death, the bumper crops and the droughts, the beauty of farm land and the ravage of insect plagues, in many ways I feel farming and the fruits of its "labour" have entered the postmodern age.  Displays of beautiful, hole free, picture perfect (could farmers actually be the plastic surgeons of food...)  fruit and vegetables line the shelves of conventional fruit and vegetable shops. They look so colourful, like a piece of artwork...but can you judge the book by its cover? And the variety sourced from all over the world minimize the effect weather has on local food supplies, and our direct relationship with it.

So in addition to pictures that accentuate all that we find beautiful on our farm,  I thought I would show you the effects of intense heat, strong winds and lack of rain here.  Farming really is the good, the bad and the ugly!

Every season is different and carries its own challenges.  That is why I like farming - never the same!  I really feel for those battling bushfires and struggling with dry tanks and dams.

We have written a post about Making Habitat - Living with Snakes.

Our CSA is entering the final week of the Summer Share and the Autumn Share has filled well with 80 families joining us for the next season.  You can view photos of the weekly boxes by clicking the links to the weekly CSA newsletters. As farmers, we feel great gratitude to the local community who are supporting us.  While the current drought may be affecting produce prices at the market, the CSA members have a set price for their box of seasonal vegetables and fruit.  We have been able to share our bumper crop of nectarines and for the past two weeks, boxes received melons and watermelon in addition to vegetables.  Many of the members are delighting in unpacking their weekly boxes and feel inspired to cook with their nutrient dense, fresh food.  As for us, this model of selling our food allows us more time to spend on our growing practices.  The effects of crop failures have also been minimized as the variety that we are growing have kept the boxes full.  We are excited about growing our farm this Autumn with the construction of moveable greenhouses and chicken tractors.

We are happy to have found a full-time employee to work with us.  Bryn Roberts and his wife Adrianne have made a sea change.  Bryn is excited about food and is enjoying learning more about growing it.  We have also formalized our internship programs and are looking for interns for Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer.  We hope that we can share techniques of intense market gardening and how we are organising and running our CSA with other aspiring farmers.

We are unsure why an old newsletter was resent last week and why our CSA newsletter was sent to everyone.  We use a service to manage our mailing list and "pick up" our posts for emailing. Sorry for any inbox congestion.

Several climatologists from the Bureau of Meteorology got together and wrote an article entitled "What's Causing Australian's Heat Wave".  Well worth a read. We may be in for more months of this sort of weather.

And for all of you growing your own, with excess to trade, there is a home harvest exchange program on the Peninsula.  Participants simply donate their fresh fruit, vegetables, jams, eggs and other produce, and help themselves to the offerings of others. A bunch of rhubarb may be exchanged for a pot of marmalade. No money changes hands during the swap and there is usually no measurement of produce when swapping. You don’t even need to barter!

1st Saturday of the month, 3 – 4 pm The Briars, 450 Nepean Hwy, Mount Martha

3rd Saturday of the month, 2 - 3 pm Dig It, Mornington Community Garden, Mitchell St, Mornington

Last Friday of the month, 3.30 – 5.30 pm during School Term Mt Eliza Secondary College, Canadian Bay Rd, Mt Eliza

While no-one is ‘in charge’ of co-ordinating or setting up Home Harvest Exchanges, Paula from the Local Home Harvest Exchange network is happy to help with advice. Contact hhedromana@gmail.com

We have really enjoyed growing food for the Summer Share and are looking forward to continuing through into the Autumn!  Hoping for rain...

Seasonal Internships

Do you want to be a farmer...or know someone who does?  Last year we had three interns working with us, learning about running a CSA, incorporating Biodynamics into an intense market garden scheme, and planning, planting and maintaining native corridors.  This year as a result of our desire to see more people growing and eating on a local scale and to help increase food production through sustainable small scale farming practices, we have formalised our internship programs into seasonal opportunities.

Our internship programs are an opportunity to learn a wide range of on-farm skills with particular emphasis on intensive market gardening and sustainable farming (Eliot Coleman being a great champion for us!).

The Autumn Internship focuses on harvesting for the CSA, refining the crop rotation for April - March and planning for the next five years, cover cropping and compost building to build soil fertility, sowing pasture and cover crops in fallowed areas, planning with the Biodymanic calendar, fruit tree maintenance and working on infrastructure (permanent and moveable greenhouses).

Applications are being accepted through 20 February for the Autumn Internship, 1 May for Winter, 1 August for Spring and 1 November for Summer.

Purple Carrots - The New Super Food

The Weekly Times featured purple carrots this week as their "Pick of the Crop". "Herald as the new super food, purple carrots are...packed with healthy benefits."  The article continues, "While orange carrots contain much beta-carotene (good for eyesight and skin), the purples are big in anthocyanins, the purple-red pigment and antioxidant that helps ward off high blood pressure, cancers of the digestive tract and high cholesterol while boosting the immune system and aiding calcium absorption."

Likely about 5000 years old, purple carrots "gained a boost" recently when for eight weeks a Brisbane professor fed purple carrot juice to rats suffering high blood pressure, glucose intolerance and heart and liver damage brought on by a diet high in fats and carbohydrates.  "Amazingly, all symptoms disappeared, even though the high fat-carbohydrate diet was continued."

Transition Farm CSA members have received 'Cosmic Purple' and 'Deep Purple' carrots in their summer share boxes this year, alone as baby carrot bunches or combined with other coloured heirloom carrot varieties.  All have been easy to grow and wonderful to eat.  Unlike some other purple vegetables, the purple carrots keep their colour when cooked which makes for a lovely plate filled with a variety of colours...and health benefits! Heal your heart and liver with a purple carrot dip on your vegetable platter or mashed purple carrots next to steamed green beans.  They are wonderful raw, roasted and steamed, too!

Preserving the Harvest

For the past two weeks, the CSA boxes have been really full with up to 16 different vegetables, not including herbs and garlic!  We cleaned out the last of the early summer cabbage and the first beetroot and carrot plantings, had a great broccoli crop, a bumper harvest of beans and a rocket planting that never seemed to end.  We love loading these heavy boxes into the cooler and wonder what will be created in kitchens around the peninsula.

We have had a few emails regarding what's left in the vegetable drawer as members get ready for this weeks box.  Here are some of the ways we have found to preserve the harvest - fermentation, condiments, freezing and jarring.

Last year, I wrote a post on Preserving, Fermenting and Freezing which may also lend some inspiration. It has a list of some of my favourite preserving books.

These suggestions range from very simple to requiring a bit more time and effort.  It really helps to keep a supply of jars and new lids on hand throughout the summer.  If you do not have to look and/or clean the jars, you greatly reduce your time. The relish for example takes 1hour and 15 minutes from start to finish.  I also tend to stock our pantry with good quality vinegars and any special herbs now so that when I have the produce, I can get started right away.

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Greens Beans I was passed on a traditional New England recipe for Dilly Beans.  I usually make at least one batch as they are a fun addition to an entree platter or you can make a batch of these Spicy Dilly Beans to stir a Bloody Mary.

I love adding beans to minestrone soup.  So when there is a bumper harvest, I quick freeze them by chopping them into 1 inch pieces, dropping them into boiling water for 2 minutes, quickly transferring them into very cold water and then letting them dry in a colander before bagging them into ziplocks and freezing them.  These beans can be thawed and lightly steamed for a vegetable side or added in the last five minutes to a soup.

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Beetroot Although in these parts, we can harvest beetroot year round, I love having jars of pickled beetroot and beetroot relish to add to summer and winter sandwiches and platters.

Canning for a New Generation by Liana Krissoff has a fantastic spiced, pickled beetroot recipe.  The vinegar is countered with a touch of honey and then cinnamon sticks, whole allspice berries and peppercorns offer that wonderful spiced scent that is a pickling memory I still hold from my childhood.  These beets are a far cry from the sickly sweet ones that used to be served in the diners dotting US1 in my home state of Florida.

Beetroot Relish is a great addition to a sandwich and a cheese platter.  There are two recipes with the link and they take less then 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete!

Cabbage I love sauerkrauts and kimichis and also believe in their health giving benefits. I highly recommend Sador Ellix Katz'sbooks about fermentation.  Scythes Australia offer great fermentation pots and other useful tools.

I also like a quicker Pickled Red Cabbage recipe which includes a pickling spice mix that I really love.

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Carrots We have carrots from the beginning of December until about the end of September when it is too cold to germinate more and the ones from winter have gone to seed.  I have to admit that I have never frozen or jarred carrots to try and have them for those two months in the middle.  But I do love Home-Made Vegetable Stock!  Each week starting in mid summer, I make a big pot of stock. Vegetable, chicken, beef - I use whatever I have around and let it simmer for several hours.  I freeze it in glass bottling jars. You can also find quart containers from a packaging supply store.  It is wonderful to have fresh stock for a myriad of recipes...from gravy to stir-fries to soups.

We also juice extra carrots and make a delicious Carrot Mash.

Celery Again, as an essential ingredient in stock, I add any extra celery each week into my stock pot or we juice it.

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Chillies If you love hot sauces or Sweet Chilli Sauce,  make your own spicy condiments using pure ingredients!  They are usually simpler then the ones you can buy, do not include the myriad of preservatives or corn derivatives and are much tastier. Liana Krissoff offers several hot sauce recipes including the mango and peach hot sauce pictured above.

You can also make Curry Pastes and then keep them for at least a month in the refrigerator in an air tight jar or freeze for longer!

Kosher Dill Naturally Fermented Pickles

Cucumbers Fermented Dill Pickles or Sweet Bread and Butter Pickles, I love them all.  You can make the bread and butter pickles as refrigerator pickles in small batches and use them within 1 month, thus eliminating the need to seal the jars with a water bath.  Both Sandor Katz and Liana Krissoff have wonderful recipes for pickles that range from quick dills to two week naturally fermented ones.

Eggplant Nikki Fisher at The Wholefood Mama posted a great Eggplant Pickle recipe from Jay Black.

Radishes Again, another vegetable which pickles and ferments into a wonderful accompaniment.  I will be trying a beetroot and radish ferment in the next few weeks using Sandor Katz's recommendations and a bit of imagination.  I did find this recipe for Pickled Radish which sounded good to me.

RocketRocket Pesto freezes well and uses large amounts of rocket!  Great way to get all of its wonderful health giving benefits.

Tomatoes Now that is a post on its own and, as we are not really to that stage yet, I will leave that for now.

Zucchini You can grate zucchini, drain it in a colander and freeze it in bags to add to quiches, slices or zucchini bread all through the winter.  You can also slice it, blanch it and freeze it to use in pasta sauces or as a vegetable side.  Here is a post on Farmgirl Fare which talks about how to freeze zucchini and summer squash and the many uses for it.

Herbs And what about any extra herbs you have each week.  A simple thing to do is hang the whole bunch upside down in a cool and shaded spot of the kitchen.  When the plant has completely dried, separate the herb from the stalk or stem, ensure that it is completely dried (or put onto a baking tray and leave on top of an oven that is cooling...NOT in the oven) and jar the herbs.  These fresh herbs will be far fresher dried then anything you can buy.

You can also freeze Basil Pesto for simple dinners and yummy pizzas throughout the winter. Make it omitting the cheese and freeze in glass jars or ziplock bags.

What other ideas do you have?

Growing and growing...

As we settle into summer, and the summer plantings start to really take off, we thought we would take you on a picture walk around the farm...

And while the crops are growing, the farm is growing too!  We are looking for someone to work with us on a full-time basis.  The successful applicant will be a hard worker, will have vegetable and or fruit farming experience and will be expected to work unsupervised in planting, weeding, harvesting and packing vegetables and herbs. General farm skills, knowledge of fruit tree maintenance, an understanding of time management and experience in organic/biodynamic farming would be an advantage.  This is a great opportunity for someone who already has a love and knowledge of farming to learn about all aspects of a seasonal CSA.  If you or someone you know is interested, please email a resume and/or contact us for further information petercarlyon@gmail.com. This position does not include farm accommodation.

At times I find it hard to be thinking ahead to Autumn while just starting to really harvest "Summer".  We started planting seeds for the Autumn crops in August with the pumpkin, eggplant, capsicum and potato plantings.  In November we planted a second crop of tomatoes...just in case the first crop finishes before March.  In mid December, we started planting the brassicas.  So far in January, we have planted beans and corn for the beginning of the Autumn share. You can look at what we are growing for the Autumn Share boxes.

There are many signs around our farm of the lack of rain.  From reduce size and flavour intensity in some crops to the natives looking dusty and withered - Rain would be wonderful and welcome.  For our part, we are working with the resources we have to continue growing food for the CSA families.  Times like this make us appreciate the soil and its capacity to store water and think ahead about we can give back with the cover crop plantings and more compost.

We had added two new posts which you may be interested in:

Preserving Peaches and the 2013 Capsicums and Chillies.

Sharing Inspiration - Seasonal Eating

We have been receiving many emails and text messages from CSA members sharing their inspired meals.  I have to admit, after a hard days work, when I read the meal descriptions, I just want to go to their houses for dinner!  Receiving a box of at least ten different vegetables each week is an invitation to create from the box and serve TRULY seasonal meals, throughout the week.  That is not always a simple task as many of us lead busy lives.  And seasonal cooking is almost a foreign concept with vegetable markets offering us a huge array of produce, lots shipped or trucked in from far away and many recipes combining vegetables which are not always in season together in our area.  Searching for recipes and making "new" food takes time. The results though are worth it.  Nutrient dense, flavoursome, real food!!  Here are some of the photos.

To everyone eating from the box, you are re-defining what seasonal is!  Get ready as soon there will be beans and zucchini for weeks...and then, they will go away for another 8 months.  A lovely farmer at the Boneo market recounted to me, "It used to be that when there were apples, we ate apples...all the time...in every way our mums could get us to eat them."  Another wonderful cook told me of the wonders of walking into a French market, only open from 6-7pm.  Growers sold their freshly picked produce out of the back of their cars or vans.  Ripe and ready to be consumed, it begged for you to place it into your basket and incorporate it onto your palette.  Bon Appetite!!

Post Note:  Many people have included recipes with their photos.  Go to our recipes page and search under key ingredients(look to the bar on the right) to find them.

The Magical Job of Corn Silk

Its corn pollination time here.  For the next few months, our successive corn plantings will be sending up their tassel with small corn cobs below, the silk sprouting out the top. Until I read Michael Pollans book "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals", my thoughts about corn silk ranged from not wanting it to get stuck in my teeth, so painstakingly removing every last piece from each ear when I husked them. To using the silk as attire for the children's corn husk dolls. I had wondered why it was there, what was its job.  Nature does not seem to have accidents.  Pollan's book answered the question.

The corn plant, like many other vegetable plants, has a male and female anatomy.  The male part is the tassel which comes from the corn stalk.  The female portion is in the ear of corn...many female portions as each kernel waits to be pollinated from the pollen carried in the tassel.

But how does the pollen which blows in the wind or is released from the stalk being rustled (a child walking through the corn field) reach the kernel sheathed in the corn husk.  Each piece of corn silk is linked to a kernel.  When a piece of pollen gets stuck on the sticky silk, it divides into two twins.  One makes a tunnel in the silk that moves the pollen from the outside of the corn husk, to inside and the awaiting kernel.  The second twin follows entering the fertilized ovum where it sets about forming the endosperm - the big starchy part of the kernel.  As Pollan puts it, "Every kernel of corn is the product of this intricate menage a trois; the tiny, stunted kernels you often see at the narrow end of a cob are flowers whose silk no pollen grain ever penetrated. Within a day of conception, the now superfluous silk dries up, eventually turning reddish brown; fifty or so days later, the kernels are mature." The amazing ways of nature!!

The first thing we look for, to tell when the ear is ready,  is the browning off of the corn silk.  Then it is just the feel of a filled out ear of corn.  We keep watching and feeling until we cannot wait any longer...and we peek!  We hope the corn will be ready for harvest in about three weeks.

Blossoms and Bees

Day length and bees...as we approach the summer solstice and spring farming is slowly moving into summer farming, my thoughts drift back to day light and bees. Many of the typical summer crops begin as flowers - tomatoes, capsicums, beans, peas, eggplant, cucumbers, pumpkins, and zucchini, to name a few.  Fruit as well with apple, pear, cherry, plum, peach, nectarine, apricots, strawberries, raspberries, and many more blossoms that through pollination start to become fruit.  Each year I marvel as to how those flowers move from buds to blossoms to itty bitty fruits and then grow into the crops we harvest and eat.

Some flowers are self fertile - they contain both the male and female part and can be pollinated just with wind.  Tomatoes, capsicum, eggplant, peas, beans fall into this class.

For the zucchini, pumpkins, cucumbers and melons, though, each plant has a profusion of male and female flowers.  Without bees to visit the male flower and then the female flower and distribute to pollinating pollen, the fruit that clings to the female flower turns yellow and falls off.  Humans could hand pollinate every fruit and seed savers do this to ensure a seed true to the variety.  But as a farmer I think why spend my time doing a job when bees are far more efficient.  Isn't it amazing though to think that each zucchini, cucumber and pumpkin we eat has been made through the efforts of a bee!!

There has been a profusion of growth in the past weeks.

The daylight always amazes me at this time of year...16 hours of it.  The birds are so busy everywhere.  And the onions have received the earth's message to bulb up!  Onions are very sensitive to light and each variety responds to a different number of daylight hours.  Once that magic number is reached, they turn their energy towards making a big bulb as opposed to growing more leaves.  Another amazing plant fact!  The onions that bulb in Queensland need fewer daylight hours then the ones here in Victoria because our early summer days are longer.

We have settled into a nice rhythm of harvesting, weeding, seeding and planting while still fitting in weekly seaweed applications and biodynamic sprays.  We may apply 500 in the summer but the one last week may be our last until autumn.  I am never sure and we are eager to really kick start the new land.  We will continue to apply 501, with another application to boost plant health happening Saturday morning.  501 is ground quartz crystal.  It helps the plant's ability to use light, helps plants with the uptake of minerals and also helps plants to repel fungal infections.  With the humid moisture in the past weeks, we have been making herb brews to help coat the plants leaves with silica so that the increase in moisture does not bring an increase in diseases like powdery mildew and blights.

We wrote a post about our new packing shed.  The shed was completed the day before our open day and it has been invaluable to ensuring all the produce grown arrives to members in the freshest condition.

Happy Summer Solstice!  May light and peace fill you and your families in the New Year.

Garlic

It's garlic harvest time!  We eat alot of it and have been eyeing off the bulking up bulbs for awhile now...ever since our stash from last year ran out in early spring. Australia imports thousands of tonnes of garlic, at least 90% of which comes from China. Chemicals that are banned in Australia are still being used to grow garlic overseas. Chinese imported garlic is gamma irradiated to prevent sprouting and is also sprayed with Maleic Hydrazide to extend shelf life. All imported garlic is fumigated with Methyl Bromide by quarantine at the docks because this kills everything and quarantine have an obligation to do that. Is local, biodynamically grown garlic sounding appetizing?

Garlic is in the ground a long time -  we planted this crop last March.

With regular weeding and watering, as soon as the days start growing longer, the bulbs start getting fatter.  We grew mostly "Australian White", which is a soft neck garlic and does not send up a scape.  But we did plant about 300 hard neck garlic and are very excited to be putting garlic scapes in the box this week.

We use the garlic scapes in everything from dips to stir fries to calzones!  Their flavour is just like garlic...only sweeter.  Lovely raw and cooked!

Our garlic is also biodynamic.  It was planted on a root day in soil amended with biodynamic compost, received monthly applications of 500 throughout the Autumn and Spring, monthly applications of 501 (which helps the plant access minerals in the soil), weekly seaweed sprays and harvested on a root day.  What does all that mean to taste?  Hopefully, the flavour will be that beautiful subtly sweet and pungent flavour fresh garlic has - But more importantly, we hope that the garlic contains all the health giving nutritional benefits it should!

Spreading the word about Community Supported Agriculture

On Saturday I went to the Balnarring Sustainability Fair to spread the word about sustainable farming, the organic “industry” and Community Supported Agriculture.  From the historical inspirations for sustainable farmers, to the industrialisation of agriculture and how it has changed the food we eat, to the CSA movement and the community support necessary to have a local, ecologically, socially and economically sustainable food source, my head was swirling with data and I found it hard to sleep the night before. Peter saved the day in the morning when he said, “Robin, just tell stories.”  So I shoved the speech in my back pocket for luck, and started talking about our beginnings as potato, carrot and raspberry farmers up in the high country during the drought (2001-2003) (photo of our first farm above).  We were very lucky to have the support of some beautiful farmers who spent time “teaching” us how to grow and market our produce.  The farm was a commercial farm and although we tried to not conform to the spray schedule recommended to us, in the end, we could actually see why commercial farmers do spray pesticides and herbicides.  In monoculture farming, the ecological system in place to assist nature in restoring balance is severely hindered.  We simply could not work hard enough to keep up with weeds and the pest infestations ruining the crops. And so we went through the season, spraying and questioning and researching the sprays and being generally horrified by what WE were putting on the food we were growing and going to eat.  When we were told that the market price was high for potatoes and we should spray our plants with ‘Round-Up’ to kill the tops making the potatoes ready to sell, we thought…commercial farmers are the ones who should be regulated and jump through stringent hoops so that their food is certified safe to consume! We choose to wait until the plant died back on its own.

We were really lucky that it was a drought year and we had a ready supply of water.  We did not have to go through the disappointment and financial down fall of growing a crop through its season only to find that the market price did not warrant harvesting the food!  Many farmers face that dilemma and they choose to cut their losses early and till the whole crop in.

I told many more stories but, as I was the one talking, I really do not remember how they all wove together.  By the time I finished, though, there were many people gathered and great conversation ensued about the different ways the community could engage more farmers and the regulations which currently restrict buying local food.  Here is the rest of my research though…and if you get bored, just jump down to the last three paragraphs where I give thanks…and not just for reading my speech…

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The industrialization of agriculture followed the industrial revolution.  From highly automated machinery, pesticides and chemically derived fertilizers, hybrid seeds and more recently genetically engineered organisms, food production has the characteristics of other industrial systems.  These changes raise a diverse range of social, environmental and ethical concerns about the future of food systems.

To name a few: farmers have been struggling to produce their food for a profit because in order to produce more food they require more off farm inputs, their soil productivity is decreasing, they require more machinery to plant, maintain and harvest the “more” food, which requires growing even more food to pay their rising debt.  It is a treadmill of industrialization.

In order to use this big machinery, farmers have had to limit their crops to machine friendly monocultures and to homogenise their farmlands by cutting down trees, ripping up hedgerows, laser leveling the soil …essentially ignoring the specific characteristics of each field and completely limiting the food diversity available to the whole ecosystem.

We have gone from being community members to consumers, a group subjected to brand marketing, price wars and the control of our food by global corporations.  The varieties of vegetables that can withstand the mechanization of planting and harvesting, have the “right” genes (to be hardy to grow in a monoculture) and have a long storage life (as it takes awhile to get the food from the field to the “consumer”). They  not only contain only the hint of the taste of what that vegetable used to taste like, it also has been subjected to a barrage of chemicals and possibly genetic engineering which we ingest.  Health concerns such as cancer, attention deficit disorders, food allergies, and Parkinson’s disease, to name a few, have been linked to the chemicals found on “fresh” produce.

Nutrition is a complex science, moving beyond just what nutrients food contains to the process our bodies do to absorb these nutrients.  Some schools of thought within natural medicine hold that the well-being of a plant directly influences the health-giving effects of its fruit.  One thing that can be shown clearly through scientific testing is that the levels of vitamins and minerals in fruit and vegetables can vary dramatically depending on the environmental conditions under which they are grown.  A famous study from the United States found that tomatoes grown in an area with soil rich in organic matter consistently had levels of some nutrients up to ten times higher than those grown in another area with poorer soil and higher fertilizer use.

I optimistically think most of us would like to be able to choose to eat fresh organic produce, grown by farmers who are doing their best to look after the soil, the air and the water resources available to them and farming with ecologically sound practices.  And we think we are supporting those farmers when we BUY ORGANIC.  Unfortunately though, with the rapid rise of the organic food market, the historical roots of the organic agricultural movement have transformed into the organic industry.  Local farmers have been joined by “new” players – supermarkets, governmental departments and food processors to name a few.  The supermarkets are a great example of the social and ecological imbalance of the organic market.  Supermarkets are very good at creating price wars which cheat farmers out of a fair wage for their efforts.  And when the product is sold, it can be trucked thousands of kilometers to its final destination only to be packaged in plastic and styrofoam, labeled and shelved.  It may say organic but the food miles have not only taken away any freshness and created a false sense of “seasonality” it has also left a product which is far from environmentally friendly.

In response to an increasingly globalised food system, and the corresponding social, environmental and health problems which it poses, communities around the world have been developing a different vision for food production and distribution.  Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a concept which encourages local, environmentally sustainable food production, and which supports both farmers and the people eating their food alike.  The CSA concept originated in Switzerland and Japan where people interested in safe food and farmers seeking stable markets for their crops joined together in economic partnerships.  Called “teikei” in Japan, it translates to “food with the farmers face on it”.

CSA is a partnership of mutual commitment between a farm (producer) and a community of supporters which provides a direct social and economic link between the production and consumption of food.  CSA members make a commitment to support the farm throughout the season, and assume the costs, risks and bounty of growing food along with the farmer.  Members help pay for the seed, equipment, labour and other costs.  In return, the farm provides, to the best of its ability, a healthy supply of seasonal produce throughout the growing season.

We are very lucky because here on the Peninsula there are many sustainable farmers selling their products in various ways: farm gate sales, farmer’s markets, on-line delivery services and CSA’s.  We also have an amazing diversity within small distances which offer us a huge range of produce available, a great growing climate and good soil.  We, as a broad community, have the chance to support these local growers by buying local.

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And with the speech well received, I returned to our farm to get ready for our first Open Day, a chance for CSA members to see their food growing and meet the people growing it for them.  And a chance for us to meet the people who will be eating the food.  With our packing shed clad just three days before, I sat in the shade, looking out over the new land, waiting for people to arrive and watched as a whistling kite was chased off by a magpie lark.  Even though we have much work to do on the new land, it is already a thriving ecosystem…and it was nice to look out and see all the food growing.

The open day was great.  CSA members, friends and family toured the farm.   They enjoyed seeing the new land and packing shed and the old land and hearing the story about creating and re-awakening agricultural land, trying to jump start an ecologically balanced system and the triumphs and learning experiences of farming.  We talked about biodynamics, pigs and couch grass.  And I slowed down from a mad spring frenzy of working to see all of the food growing and feel so very thankful to the earth and the sun and the rain, for all of their help in making that food grow, and to the wonderful 65 families that we will be feeding this summer, for supporting us as farmers and supporting the concept of community supported agriculture!  Thank you!! We feel truly blessed.

There were many ideas generated from the speech about how other farms could start on the Peninsula.  We would love to see many more small farms growing and feeding our community as well as home gardeners.  We are working to share the knowledge that we are learning about market gardening, home gardening and designing sustainable systems.  A few people talked about donating their land to farmers who wanted to grow food.  We are participating in a great group called Land Share Australia. In their words,Landshare is for people who:

• Want to grow vegetables but don’t have anywhere to do it
• Have a spare bit of land they’re prepared to share
• Can help in some way – from sharing knowledge and lending tools to helping out on the plot itself
• Support the idea of freeing up more land for growing
• Are already growing and want to join in the community

  

Two Weeks Until The Summer Share...What's Growing

It is two weeks until the start of the Summer Share.  Here is a picture walk through the farm of the food as it is growing...

It has been a dry spring...while we need to irrigate more, the fungal threat has been minimal.  It has also been warm and the melons, capsicum and eggplant are loving the extra heat, growing new leaves and recovering well from being moved from the warm greenhouse and planted into the ground.  This year we row covered the eggplant and capsicum, to give them extra heat, especially at night which we hope will help them to have more flowers which means more "fruit".

And bee man Pat O'Neil came and checked on the bee hives.  They are all very healthy with the bees making lots of brood (baby bees) and starting to seal off their honey comb (the bees signal that the honey is ready).

We look forward to telling you more about Pat, the extra hives he is bringing to the farm, his bees and the CSA Honey in another post. We are very excited to have the bees here for all the fruit and vegetables, and the promise of honey produced on the farm for CSA members.

Salad Greens

One of the things we were keen to learn more about on our winter "Farm, friends and family" tour to the United States was salad greens and in particular, mesclun mixes.  Lettuce alone is a wonderful vegetable,  nutrient rich because leaves contain the light-catching, energy-converting machinery of plants. Lettuce contains Vitamin A, Vitamin C, beta-carotene, calcium, folate, fiber, and phytonutrients.  And the different colours of lettuce contain different phytonutrients, unique compounds that are becoming recognized as part of a nutritious diet which promotes long-term health.

Special names for mixed greens are a part of everyday language in France and Italy. For the French, mixed greens are often described under the heading of 'mesclumo'.  This has translated into the 'mesclun' mixtures available in Australia.  The idea is to combine four basic flavour types through a careful mixing of greens: mild, bitter/tart, piquant, and pepper/spicy.  Lettuce provides the mild flavour.  Spinach, tatsoi, rocket, mustards, endives, orach, dandelion, mizuna - These are some of the rich assortment of other "greens" added to the mix to contribute to the other flavours.  These greens also bring a variety of phytonutrients, making the mixture a rich assortment of life sustaining goodies!  And then there is the feast to the eyes as different textures and colours mingle together.

We have been experimenting with combinations and growing techniques.  Our current collection of seeds includes 28 different varieties of greens.  Some are seeded in the field and some in the green house.  Here are the newly germinated babies.

With careful weeding and watering, they grow into a dense stand like this.

And while they are still young and tender, we cut and mix them all together.They are immersed in very cold water to take the heat of the sun and soil away, then spun dry.  Add flowers and a light vinaigrette and you have a very flavourful, nutritiously dense salad.We are hoping to fine tune the growing process so that we can harvest enough to include mesclun in the Summer, Autumn and Spring shares.

French Market Gardens and Heirloom Melon Varieties

"Always tend the smallest amount of land possible, but tend it exceptionally well." - The first principle of success as given by a leading Parisian grower in the 1870's. I have been reading Eliot Coleman's The Winter Harvest Handbook.  Mr Coleman is an organic market gardener in Northern Maine, USA, producing very high quality produce year round.  He is also a champion for new growers like ourselves.  His book are manuals on small scale, organic vegetable growing techniques, tools, rotations and historical inspiration.

Here is a summary of what he has to say about the "French garden system". Practiced by Parisian maraîchers (market gardeners), it reached it's height in the mid to late 1800's with around 1800 growers producing food on one to two acre blocks.  Covering about one-sixteenth of all land within the city limits of Paris, the gardens fed Paris year round with a huge variety of produce, both in season and "out" of season vegetables and fruits.  This system not only incorporated incredible intensive planting techniques, it was sustainable.  The Parisian maraîchers were referred to as "goldsmiths of the soil".  Both the heat for winter production of vegetables in hotbeds and the amendments to maintain the fertility of the soil were by-products of composting another by-product - the horse manure mixed with straw that came from the city stables.  After delivering crates of produce to the market,  wagons would collect the manure on their return to the garden.

Paris was home to 2.5million people in 1891 and these small, intensive, "organic" market gardens provided all the produce, and produced enough to export to other neighboring countries.  And not just any sort of produce...last week the latest Diggers magazine arrived with a wonderful article on seeds before genetic engineering and the re-printing of the French seed company Vilmorin's album of exquisite drawings.  The diversity of varieties known and grown by the French in the late 1800's was extraordinary.  As Clive Blazey writes, "Vilmorin listed over 1400 vegetable varieties in 1885...when compared to the 236 varieties offered by The Diggers Club today."

I love learning these sorts of facts.  I love knowing that we, as farmers, are not re-inventing the wheel.  We are trying to learn practices that once thrived on a large scale.  We are trying to grow produce for the local community while continuing to build soil fertility.  And we are also trying to keep alive varieties of many vegetables which are not being offered to the consumer, varieties that make eating vegetables and fruits a real experience.

As Blazey writes, "The rock melons offered in today's Australian supermarkets are a travesty of the delights that 'could cause drooling' to quote melon expert Amy Goldman.  The latest melon from Seminis (Monsanto [the makers of Round-up and one of the leading corporations involved in genetically modified seeds] ) is actually called Hard Rock so completely and humourlessly has this multinational bred the latest hybrids."

And that brings us to our 2013 melon varieties...Most are heirlooms and we hope they will all be that small slice of juicy, perfumed summer sun...We transplanted them last week and they are loving this heat.  Depending on the season, they should ripen by the beginning of February and continue into the Autumn share. Honey Dew    "Eden's Gem"   Heirloom. Small, round, netted fruit the size of a softball.  Spicy, sweet flesh. Honey Dew    "Early Hanover"  Heirloom.  Sweet, sugary flesh that can be eaten right to the rind. Cantaloupe    "Hearts of Gold"  Heirloom. Highly aromatic, sweet, firm, juicy, salmon coloured flesh. Cantaloupe    "Schoon's Hardshell"   Sweet, flavoursome, apricot coloured flesh. Cantaloupe    "Hale's Best"  Sweet orange flesh. Cantaloupe    "Delice De Table"    Heirloom. Very sweet orange flesh. Cantaloupe    "French Charentais"   Heirloom. Sweet, thick, deep-orange, flesh.  Flesh has deep, aromatic, flowery aroma. Watermelon    "Criss Cross"    Heirloom. Attractive, pale green skin & jagged, dark green markings.  Flesh is deep, rich red with excellent flavour & crispness. Watermelon    "Crimson Sweet"   Large, round, light green melon with dark green stripes and firm, deep red flesh with high sugar content. Watermelon    "Sugar Baby"   Round - oval melon with dark green rind, juicy, sweet, bright scarlet flesh & firm texture. Watermelon    "Moon and Stars"  Heirloom. Very sweet, rich, red flesh. The rind is patterned with yellow markings and the foliage can be speckled yellow as well. Watermelon    "Klondike"   Heirloom.  Large, striped, oval melon with sweet, scarlet coloured flesh & thin, tough rind.

Summer Share Tomato Planting

We thought we would introduce you to the 2012-2013 Summer Share Tomato Plants....from their beginnings as tiny seeds, to the strong plants transplanted into the new land.  Here are old Italian favourites, heirloom varieties, and some of the most "exquisite" tasting tomatoes we found to grow... It all started back in August when Rye and I seeded the tomatoes.

Once they germinated and had their first true leaves, I pricked them out and planted them into 4 inch pots.  And through the hail and frost and rain and cold, they grew bigger and stronger in the greenhouse.

We planted some early cherry tomatoes under row covers in September in the hopes of Christmas tomatoes.

But the big tomato planting happened this week.

Peter used the tractor as a ladder to hammer in all of the stakes.

Our favoured technique of trellising the plants is called the San Diego Weave.  The weave uses twine to gently cradle each plant as it grows.  We move up and down the rows of plants weaving in and around plants and the wooden stakes through the field. Our hope is to support the plant and keep it away from soil borne diseases and fungi...and also make it easier to pick the delicious fruits. Here are the varieties we are growing this year: Marglobe - Old American heirloom variety popular in Italy. Large, deep red, juicy fruit. Excellent taste. Marglobe is the ancestor of many of today's hybrid tomatoes. Saint Pierre - French salad tomato. Round, good sized, renowned for it's super flavour. Principe Borghese - Small plum shaped fruit. Eat fresh in salad or dry for sun dried tomatoes. They also make outstanding oven roasted tomatoes. Roma - Plum tomato used primarily for sauce, but also good fresh. Scipio - Plum tomato ideal for sauces and cooking. Tommy Toe - Attractive medium sized red fruit. Tommy toe is a renowned great taster. Those that judge these things use words such as “complex”, “tight” and “oh! just so sweet!” to describe its flavour. Sun Gold - Exceptionally sweet, bright tangerine-orange cherry tomatoes. Yellow Pear - Petite, distinctive salad tomato. Black Cherry - The flavor is dynamic...much like an heirloom. Red Cherry - Small, round tomatoes with very good flavour Lemon Drop - Lemon shaped small fruits with a zesty sweet flavour. Wild Sweetie- Stephanie Alexander and other top chefs preferred this to Tommy Toe.  The world's smallest tomato is also the world's sweetest with a Brix level twice that of others.

Hoping for another bumper crop!

Spring Farming

Spring...a photo tour of the farm and Spring farming!

The new land is proving to be a great case in point for why communities should protect farm land. The previous farmer did nurture the soil, as evidence by the many worms and great soil condition. But when that farmer left, nature took over trying to protect the soil by covering it in couch grass. The couch did its job, sent out vigorous runners which hold the soil and keep it from blowing away. But the vigorous runners are hard to eradicate.  Instead of decomposing and adding condition to the soil, when tilled, they just break into small pieces which all sprout again.

To get rid of the pieces, we need to hand weed...hoeing does not help.  And so we crawl along the planted rows...and we know that this will be the case for the summer. This is organic farming!!  But we also know that each year, this land will only get better. Not only will it be more weed free, we will also build the nutrients in the soil, build its microbial activity, boost its capacity to store water.  And we are grateful for the fresh, nutrient rich food we are harvesting along the way for our family and many more.  Thank you to all of our CSA members for supporting this type of land stewardship and local food production!!

Feeding the soil

One discussion that comes around in farming is whether you feed the plant or feed the soil.  Here on Transition Farm, we feed the soil believing that healthy soil is the beginning of a healthy plant.  Much of our energy as growers is spent nurturing the life in the soil, balancing the minerals, bacteria and microbes that create a living and dynamic soil.  We make compost, apply Biodynamic preparations which seed soil bacteria, grow and till in cover crops, make special herb and seaweed brews to mineralize the soil. Cover crops are amazing.  Peas, for instance, love growing in cooler weather.  We seed them in the autumn on land that has grown food throughout the summer.  They sprout and make some growth before the real cold of winter sets in, suppressing other weeds.  Then they just sit there, covering the soil, protecting it from strong winter storms that might erode the top soil away with wind and heavy rains.  They also harness atmospheric nitrogen...it is just what they do.  So while they are sitting there, they are making nitrogen, pulling it from the air and storing it in these little root nodules in the soil.  Come spring, they shoot off growing, even before we humans might feel the spring coming.  We till them in just as they are flowering.  You can see the leaf matter in the soil in the above photo.  The worms will come and digest that more, as will the various other soil life.  The added hummus helps the soil retain water and provides a base of nutrients accessible to plant roots.

We have been planting cover crops on the mandala soil for four years now.  When we arrived, the soil was a sandy loam, grey in color, dry, hydro-phobic (water literally pooled on top of the soil instead of sinking into it).  Now it is rich and dark and full of worms,  smells alive, holds together in your hand when you clasp a fist full, and is ready to grow food, full of all the nutrients we want fresh food to have.

Healthy soil not only fills food with goodness, but, more importantly, it also supports the health of the plant growing that food.  Healthy plants can fend off fungus attacks, insect attacks, weather stresses.  So by feeding the soil, we are feeding the plant, at the onset of its life cycle.

We continue to under sow crops with cover crops throughout the growing season. Last year we sowed clover under the cabbage, corn and pumpkins.

Cover cropping can be done in any size space, from small raised garden beds to large acreage.  While cover cropping is a biodynamic farming practice, it is also an organic and sustainable agriculture farming practice.  Healthy Soil - Wholesome Food!

Welcome Spring

With these days of lovely warm sun, it feels like Spring has come!  We are very excited about our new arrivals...

The fruit trees are starting to take shape.  This will be their third or fourth season.  It is wonderful to look across and see the variety of blossoms.  The plums, nectarines, peaches and apricots are all at various stages of blooming.

We have been busy this week weeding the garlic for the summer share.  The crop started back in March with the planting of the biggest cloves we could get from each whole bulb.  Not much to see as the cloves are planted three inches deep.  They start growing before winter and then they sit and wait for the change in daylight hours when they shoot up and produce many more leaves. We are expecting the bulbs to be ready for harvest in December.  A nine month season!

Other sights...the new land tilled, the old irrigation system found and fixed (Pete had to dig at least a meter deep to find each old sprinkler), and the soil covered with the full moon frost-

We have been told that the new land was once a flower farm.  Pete has found the irrigation on about 1/3 of it so far. If anyone likes digging holes, Pete is holding a digging workshop to find the rest.

And some of the spring crops we are harvesting

We are still harvesting autumn sown carrots too, although some have already starting sending up their seed heads which turn the center of the carrot "woody'.  Just about the time when the first seed is sown.  The cycle is so beautiful. It does mean that there are a few months with no carrots as we wait for the new seeds to grow.

We have also just planted 200 1-year old asparagus crowns.  The photo is a bit boring...a big area of dirt.  But hopefully with water and weeding this patch will produce asparagus for the next 15-20 years! Depending on the size of the plant by next spring, we may have some asparagus to include in the 2013 Spring Share.  For more information on the crops harvested in Spring, please visit our Harvest Schedule

We will be offering a Summer, Autumn and Spring share in 2013.  We have put the summer share information on the website.  We will be adding the autumn share in the next month.

You might like this documentary http://vimeo.com/2100402.  "Feeling disconnected from their food, a filmmaker and his family decide to join a local community supported organic farm.  As he photographs the growing process, the filmmaker moves from passive observer to active participant in the planting and harvesting of vegetables.  Compiled entirely from nearly 20,000 still images, this personal essay is a father’s meditation on his blossoming family and community." It does last for 19 minutes. I enjoyed some of the photography as it is shot over time and the images are then put together to make an "almost" moving image.

Enjoy the warmth!  Happy Spring!!

The Heralds of Spring

We are only three weeks from the days being longer than the nights.  Even though it is cold and inhospitable at times, there are many signs here that Spring is coming.  Jonquils and daffodils are bursting as are the almond and nectarine blooms.  Broad beans have started surging taller.  Perennial herbs are awakening with new growth. The birds are up earlier and chattering away. In Celtic times, the time before Equinox, when the life giving forces of spring pulsed through the earth again, was called the Imbolc, literally translated as "in the belly"-  When birth is imminent and yet stilled held within the womb...conditions are being readied.  That is where we are now.

While visiting family and friends this winter, we were able to visit three CSA farms, two of which have been running for over twenty-five years.  We went with lots of questions, which were answered...and then some.  We started at Pumpkin Ridge Gardens with farmers James and Polly.  Their CSA feeds 180 families weekly.  We were very curious about the sizes of their greenhouses, packing house and coolroom and also how they were irrigating and managing their water resources.   Pete saw a wonderful manure spreader which is used to spread the tonnes of compost James makes each season.  Pumpkin Ridge provides seasonal produce year round.  So we also learned about extending our harvest season into the cooler months and how to protect the early spring crops from damaging weather.

They took us to La Finquita del Buho, with farmers Lyn and Juvencio Jacobs, which feeds 70 families weekly.  The conversations ranged from greenhouses bent under the weight of snow, to varieties of beans, to their goats and pigs, a new cool room and  the owls living in their beautiful old barn.

We also went to Crossroad Farm where I worked for five seasons.  Tim and Janet Taylor have been providing a full variety of seasonal vegetables to their local community for thirty years.  While Polly and James are farming 5-7 acres and Lyn and Juvencio 2 acres, Tim and Janet have 60 acres under cultivation.  The scale is different from what we will ever be but it was wonderful to see that even on that large scale, simple hand tools and seeders are still used extensively for many of the crops.  I was very keen to learn more about growing mesclun mixes and "lazy" lettuces (baby lettuce leaves) in hopes of being able to include that in the shares this year.

We have come home with many ideas and launched right in.  The shire has approved our application to purchase the two acres behind us.  Pete has pulled out fences, slashed the paddock, pegged out the irrigation and is busy incorporating organic compost into the earth in preparation for the vegetable starts to be planted in a few weeks.  Last fall, we were able to begin applying the biodynamic sprays to the new earth.  We resume our monthly applications this month.

Our seeding has begun for the Summer Share.  Germinated seed in the greenhouse includes capsicum, eggplant, chillies, cherry tomatoes, purple and green cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, leek and onions, fennel and celery.   We are continuing to trial new varieties in search of the tastiest fruits and vegetables that grow the best here- in this soil and climate and for our seasons.

The Summer Share will run for 3 months starting 1st December. We will be growing enough food for 65 families - so to get involved or to find out more please click this link for the Summer Share.

Winter...posting again as video link was missing...sorry...

With the weather getting colder, I went looking for something to warm me up.... you may have already seen this great clip about the need for more responsible food production - but if you enjoy Willie Nelson as much as we do - enjoy it again!

Our submission to acquire additional land is still with the Council - we hope it will be finalized in another month. Whilst the land looks a little neglected at present, it once was a thriving flower farm. We are excited about turning it back into productive land and continuing Transition Farm's CSA goal of feeding local families - a goal that Anne Cure (pictured below) sums up beautifully.

“THERE’S NOTHING BETTER THAN KNOWING WHO YOU’RE GROWING YOUR FOOD FOR. That Alicia and Quentin love the fava beans. Mark and Anne who can’t wait for the San Marzanos. Or Oliver and Eli, who will eat these carrots before they leave the farm. We want to share the farm’s stories and create a place people feel a part of. We commit to feeding as many families as our land can healthily provide for. This includes over a hundred varieties of vegetables and flowers grown during the year.”

"Information Art" from the Lexicon of Sustainability

We grabbed this awesome picture from the Lexicon of Sustainability - "The Lexicon of Sustainability is based on a simple premise: people can’t be expected to live more sustainable lives if they don’t even know the most basic terms and principles that define sustainability.  By illuminating the vocabulary of sustainable agriculture, and with it the conversation about America’s rapidly evolving food culture, the Lexicon of Sustainability educates, engages and activates people to pay closer attention to how they eat, what they buy, and where their responsibility begins for creating a healthier, safer food system in America."

We believe the CSA concept can create a viable opportunity to utilise the many small parcels of productive land we have on the Mornington Peninsula and move in this direction of a healthier, safer food system. We hope that you will join us and through our combined efforts the concept will spread across the Peninsula. CSA's everywhere!

Extra land for Transition Farm CSA to expand.

The Summer CSA will be starting again on 1st December and whilst that still feels a while away -  the first seeds will be in the greenhouse in a month! So we have plenty to keep us busy in the coming months -  putting in green manures, spreading compost (lots of compost), building our new CSA farm shed with coolroom, washing, packing and pick up areas and of course getting an irrigation system in place. Then vegetables, herbs and flowers for CSA subscribers!

New "second-hand" seeder equals happy CSA farmer!

We recently took a trip to Port Albert in south-east Victoria to pick up an old Connor-Shea 14 disc seeder (with a fresh coat of yellow paint!). With the extra land we are taking on, the areas of green manure crops to help build the health of the soil have increased. The disc seeder will allow us to run over whatever vegetation is in place at the time, without cultivating, and drop seed into the soil for germination. We hope the seeder will enable us to keep all the land under our care covered - all the time.

Whilst we were in the area we took the time to visit Bullfrog Gully farm in Gormandale that produces Biodynamic-free-range eggs. The main reason for the visit was to take a look at their movable chicken accommodation. We left with plenty of ideas and a couple of dozen eggs!

Relocatable Chook Accommodation.

Biodynamic Eggs