What a summer it has been! I don´t recall a previous summer where each day as we gather in the overcast cool mornings we exclaimed "Man, this day couldn´t be more beautiful." Mother nature has blessed us with a perfect amount of moisture and lovely summer temperatures. We´ve not had to switch on our irrigation since the summer solstice and we hope that this continues to be the trend for the rest of the year. With all the rain, the harvests have been exceedingly bountiful, over 13,000 lbs to date. Last year at this time we had harvested a little over half of that figure, so we know that we´re doing well.

I attribute the harvest total to several things. One, we´re growing on almost 2x the land; while we´re utilizing all of it, we are keeping some fallow so that we can continue to restore fertility. Two, the soils here are becoming more and more alive and fertile, thanks to our cover cropping, composts, and minerals. And most importantly, three, my extremely wonderful and hard working crew. Some with previous farming experience, and some without, RJ, Matthew, Mary, and Lauren are assets to this farm. With my crew, I´m in the position of being a manager, a mentor, and a teacher all at the same time, but they make this easy for me, as they are eager to learn and become experts in the areas in which they work. Thanks guys!

I often give tours of Serenbe Farms and try to help folks conceptualize what it takes to run and plan a farm of our size. In each tour, I realize that I cover some of the same points over an over again, and while "organic farming" goes much deeper socially and politically than the methods we use on the farm, I wish to define a few terms for you that are important for us to farm sustainably.

1. Soil − easy one huh? Not so much, in fact, I feel like a baby that is just starting to walk every time I learn more about our soil. Soil to me is a living entity in which we place all of our bets when becoming an organic farmer. We want our soils to be as fluffy and living as possible to ensure healthy plant growth. Our major players here include our soil biology (e.g. earthworms), soil tilth (fluff/compaction), and the content (air, water, sand, silt, clay, organic matter). I could dedicate the rest of the newsletters for the year to soil, so I´ll spare you more detail for now.

2. Crop planning − (my wintertime activity) For several weeks out of the year, you can find me inside my office working away on my computer, trying to figure out from your end-of-the-year surveys what I need to grow more and less of. In addition to that, I alter plans based upon what proved to work and what didn´t. After a couple of weeks, my crop plans end up as a long spreadsheet chock full of information, greenhouse planting dates, field planting dates, harvest dates, seeding rates, varieties, and number of successions. This ends up being the field map that orchestrates our whole year. The weeks in the office mean that I won´t have to think too hard during the season and won´t have to rely on intuition about planting times or dates.

3. Successions − If you ever wonder how we can make sure that you´ve always got something in your share, you can attribute it to crop successions and planning. There are some crops (winter squash, onions, peppers) that you only plant once, healthy plants guarantee a continual harvests or storability, but the vast majority of the others must be planted over and over again to ensure consistent harvests for the season.

4. Crop rotation − Another vital part of organic growing. Serenbe Farms has a 10-year crop rotation, where no crop will follow itself on the same piece of ground for 10 whole years. Why is this important? Diseases and pests often reside in the soil for up to 3 years, and by giving the soil a break from the same crops, we can deter or alter the life cycle of the diseases and pests, thereby creating healthier crops.

5. Cover cropping − a.k.a green manures. We plant various crops, both grasses and legumes (that fix nitrogen into the soil from the air) to help our soils out. These crops that we never ever harvest are grown so that we can till them back into the soils, adding organic matter, nitrogen, carbon, food for our microorganisms, and many other nutrients. Their purpose beyond basic fertility is to decrease erosion, to shade out weeds, to provide nectar for our honeybees and pollinators, and to catch nutrients that would otherwise be leached out of the soil. Cheers to cover crops!! (The crew often accuses me of wanting to turn in cash veggie crops just so I can grow more cover crops!)

6. Compost − Thanks to Lauren´s great newsletter article a couple of weeks ago, you shouldn´t have any questions here. But, as she said, compost adds life, nutrients, and magic to our soils. Be sure to bring us your compostables to help us on this quest.

7. Permaculture − Making nature work for itself, like feeding our chickens Japanese beetles for protein, utilizing their manure as they rotationally graze, and eating their scrumptious eggs. Or, cutting down trees where houses are soon to be built, using them as a medium for mushrooms, and then returning the spent logs to our compost pile. There are many examples of how we can arrange things on our farm to make them work for themselves, taking our human energies out of the equation, or us only having to orchestrate the advanced, highy evolved systems of nature.

8. Community − Last but not least, it´s you all that really make this sustainable. You complete the food chain and provide us with the thanks and pride to keep us going. So, a great thanks to you, the supporters and an end product in the cycle of sustainable agriculture.

Tips on Preserving

Some veggies that you´ve been seeing lots of will be in the shares for a while. Tomatoes, green beans, eggplant, okra, and basil are starting off strong and staying healthy in the fields. Be sure to take advantage of these large or soon to be large quantities in the shares so that you don´t miss them when they´re gone.

To preserve tomatoes, you can can (see picture, he he) them or peel them, combine in a pot with salt, pepper, and garlic, and simmer down until they make a sauce with your desired consistency. You can freeze this sauce in a plastic bag as a base for pizza or spaghetti sauce in the winter. For green beans or okra, simply blanch the clean, cut or snapped pods in boiling water or by steaming. They´ll turn bright green. These both freeze remarkably well. Basil lovers can dry their leaves in a paper bag hung in a dry environment or combine the basil with garlic and olive oil and freeze for pesto (just add parmesan and nuts after you thaw.) A good idea is to freeze pesto in ice trays. You can pop the frozen cubes out and put into a plastic bag in the freezer. These serve as great single serving batches of pesto.

Sianora,

The farm gang, including, Paige, Mary, RJ, Matthew, Lauren, (and pups, Niko, Yoshi, and Belva)

PS, if anyone needs a new pup, a little guy appeared on my porch yesterday. He´s super sweet (a great guard dog) and probably part black lab, perhaps a bit border collie, maybe 6-7 months old.