Week of November 24, 2014
Abbreviated Weekly Farm Report
From Friendship Farms & Fare
http://www.fffsite.org/
A Community Service To the Local Farming Community
For the full Farm Report for November 24, go to:
http://media.wix.com/ugd/643592_bf074b9304454b30a942e2e36c4de1bc.pdf
Join Us At Market Off Main For Seed Rack Dedication
November 29 – 1:00 PM
3F to team with Ecology Florida and Market Off Main To bring Seed Savers Exchange Seeds to New Port Richey
Good gardens require good seeds, and Tampa Bay now has access to the highest quality seeds. These are Seed Savers Exchange heirloom, organic seeds. Your CSA has joined other groups committed to sustainability in sponsoring a Seed Savers Exchange seed rack in New Port Richey.
Through a cooperative arrangement with Friendship Farms & Fare and Ecology Florida, the Market Off Main, in New Port Richey, will soon offer a wide range of organic, heirloom, non-GMO seeds exclusively from Seed Savers Exchange. The seed display and sales area will be presented to the public on “Small Business Saturday,” November 29, with a dedication event at 1:00 PM.
See full story at Ecology Florida News: http://www.ecologyflorida.org/2014/11/organic-heirloom-seeds-coming-soon-to-new-port-richey/
Black Cat Growers Jams and Compotes
We are in discussions with a local cottage food producer (Black Cat Growers) about listing a line of outstanding local organic jams in our CSA. Black Cat will offers the following jams: Peach, Cherry, Blueberry, Strawberry, and (yes!) Loquat. The Cat will also offer a Fruit Spread. We’ll give more details next week.
Planting & Harvest Notes
Fall Seeding and Garden Starts
Seedings: Collards, Vates (51)
Garden Starts: Swiss Chard; Kale; Collards; Broccoli
Garden Overview
Fall Plantings and First Harvests
(additional details and assessments follows)
Shares remain relatively light, but the winter greens are beginning to come in. We have arugula, collards, and first shares of kale. Kale will be light (sample size).
We might have enough late-season eggplant for shares, but we cannot guarantee. Eggplant will be first come first serve.
Sweet potatoes and okra are finished. We note November 13 as the last date for okra harvest this year. We did stumble upon a few gigantic sweet potatoes when planting in the new south garden. How could we have missed these – especially the one giant specimen. Together, the three weighed 8 pounds, with one tipping the scales at 4lbs.
See the Share Report for all items.
We’ve continued at a pretty good pace for seeding and garden starts. This year will be our most extensive planting ever. We are going heavier on the cool-weather greens than we have in the past, and aiming to have at least 100 each of kale, collards, and swiss chard. We are aiming for 250 broccoli. We’ll forego cauliflower, and go heavy on broccoli. Our neighboring garden, Hart’s Family Farm, will be growing cabbage and cauliflower.
We have installed kales and collards, which are maturing nicely. Swiss chard is doing better now. As expected, the famous Calabrese is doing well, but we are behind in getting seedlings into the gardens. Arugula is thriving.
Tomatoes will be testers only, and only in set asides in the South Garden. Septoria has just been too hard on our tomatoes in previous years. For all plantings, we’ll use seeds from our collection or heirloom seeds from Seed Savers Exchange (http://www.seedsavers.org/).
Broccoli
We have started over 300 seeds, with 100% germination – remarkable. These are our famous (3F) Calabrese broccoli seeds. We have 64 seedlings in the gardens, which reflects our planting 24 seedlings in the new south garden.
We’ll try to plant more this week; we have plenty of seedlings, now. The only challenge is one of time – specifically the time to prepare the beds with new mulch. We are aiming to have 200 planted this year. Last year, we had 144.
– If you are starting a garden, please check with us first for seeds and seedlings. Our broccoli seeds are from the Calabrese family, and we’ve been harvesting these seeds since 2008. They are listed with Seed Savers Exchange. We offer them (and all our seeds) for sale at $3.00 for a packet (with a minimum of 30 seeds).
All our seeds are from our own harvests of heirloom varieties that have become locally acclimated. They are heavy producers with extended seasons. They typically out perform any commercially produced and packaged seeds. Also, by acquiring seeds from us (or other responsible local growers), you are keeping resources in the community. All 3F income goes directly back into the farms. Friendship Farms & Fare operates as a not-for-profit business under the charter of Ecology Florida, a 501 C3 corporation.
Swiss Chard
The swiss chard continues to improve. Several plants have large healthy leaves. It will likely be a couple more weeks before we have enough to harvest, but the cooler temperatures should accelerate growth. The most successful of the swiss chards are the Fordhook Giants. Cadle’s Cove shared Swiss Chard with us, and we dedicated a bed to those in the south garden.
Last week we seeded a new variety for us, Gold Silverbeet. These were out of date seeds shared with us by Seed Savers Exchange. We thought we’d give them a try, and all germinated.
Arugula
Arugula continues to thrive. There is enough for full shares for all. We were going to start some seeds, but there have been so many volunteers springing up all over the gardens, we will probably skip the formal seeding.
Kale
Kale is getting stronger by the day. We will have small shares available this week. We started more seeds this week, and installed more kale in the south garden. At this point, we are behind in the amount of kale we’d like to have ready for harvest. We planted more kale in the south garden this week.
Scarlet Kale finally germinated (on the 4th try) and is progressing slowly – it is a slow grower. The strongest of the kales is the German Kale (Halbhoher Gruner Krauser), followed by the Lacinato. We have an entire bed of the Halbhoher in the south garden.
Collards
Georgia Southern Collards are trendsetters for the fall garden, and the Vates are coming on strong now. We seeded more Vates last week – finally. We’ll aim to do seed more this week
Spinach
The “American” spinach seeds have germinated, at about 80%. They are spindly with narrow leaves.
Cucumbers
Cucumbers are not a typical fall crop, but we’ve had success before, so we are trying again this year. These are a Japanese variety, Suyo. All have sprouted and we shared some with the folks at the EcoFest. We’ve germinated another variety we’ve had success with (Longfellows), and we’ll get those in the garden shortly. Of the new varieties we tried (Double Yield and Picklebush) only Double Yield germinated. This was a Seed Savers Exchange out-of-date experiment. Germianation rate was 100%. The other variety (Picklebush) was an organic offering from Burpee. It did not germinate. We’ll be planting our Suyos and Longfellows as companions to our blackberries. They can train on the blackberry trellises.
Tomatoes
We are going with a good producer from previous seasons – the Wapsipinicon. This is a peach tomato, with ancestry going back to 1890. These are a bit larger than cherry tomatoes, and yellow to almost white. They have a wonderful flavor. We are going with the Wapsipinicons because they have proven to be the most resistant to blight and septoria. So far the seedlings are thriving. Now, if we can avoid a freeze!
3F Produce for non-shareholders
Non-shareholders may order shares for $12 per week. For this nominal amount, contributors may request any items they desire from the weekly Share. Although we will assist with transmissions, it is the responsibility of the contributor to make arrangements for pick up of the share.
As always, non-shareholders may request single items from the share list for $5 per item. A full share for one week (any/all items) is $12.
Just reply using the website contact link if you desire anything on the list. We suggest non-shareholders start an account to cover costs of items.
The 3F Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Project
Friendship Farms & Fare operates a unique small-scale (boutique) CSA, involving few participants, and using very basic management techniques. We are 100% organic and use permacultrures principles. Our program is recommended for single persons, couples, or (at most) three-person families. The cost of a share is low by typical CSA standards: $300 per garden year (October through September). This works out to a bit less than $6.00 per week. Donations are also gratefully received, with all donations going to maintenance and improvement of the gardens and groves.
If you are interested, contact: friendshipfarmsfare@gmail.com
——————————————————————————————————————–
Visit the Friendship Farms & Fare website for the Weekly Farm Report:
http://www.fffsite.org/#!report/c1tuh
Friendship Farms & Fare is a branch of Ecology Florida, a not-for-profit corporation. Contributions to Friendship Farms & Fare and Ecology Florida are tax deductible. To learn more about Ecology Florida, please visit the website:
http://www.ecologyflorida.org/
If you would like to support our mission and individual projects, you may share donations through our website (above) or at our mailing address:
Ecology Florida
PO Box 596
New Port Richey, FL 34656-0596
Friendship Farms & Fare reaffirms, restores, and advances agrarian ideals to reestablish a sustainable culture
Natural, Economic, Cultural…bringing three ecologies together to regenerate a resilient future for all.
PO Box 596 ● New Port Richey, Florida 34656-0596
Ecology Florida advances the harmonious integration of healthy natural, cultural, and economic ecologies to regenerate a sustainable world
