Kale Yeah!

Last night we had a big dinner at the farm. Kale pie was on the menu. It was created for us by the head chef (Kathy) of one of our excellent restaurants in town, Foodscapes. It was delicious!



Anyone else have any cool kale recipes?

Frost Protection

Frost protection fabric
Originally uploaded by clements.evan

I am in a very low lying part of South Carolina. It also seems that the property that I am on is even lower lying within that low lying region. I'm not terribly worried that my kale, collards, cabbage, broccoli, and chard can't withstand the cold temperatures alone, but the way that cool air settles in my fields do. This year being my first year at this location I decided to be ready for the worst. I acquired frost protection fabric (20'x1000' roll) that is rated to give 4 degrees of protection while still allowing 85% light transmission. I planned on suspending the fabric from a series of t-posts and wire that ran the length of my fields, but during our test of this the wind really gets under the fabric and causes problems. The fix for this problem was very simple, this fabric is light eneough (.55 oz / square yard) to lay directly on the plants without causing damage. Hopefully this will work.

Busy Months

Well after the field trip I have had a busy couple of months. September and October has been full of planting and getting ready for the winter.

I have a mile of brassicas planted this fall, not including beans, radish, and beets.

This fall / winter I have a rye and hairy vetch cover crop planted. Rye for organic material and a trellis for the vetch. Vetch is a nitrogen fixer.

Field Trip

I am away from the farm today on a 2 day field trip to the Raleigh, NC area to visit some great places and get some inspiration. It was a great day today. Visited a couple great places in North Carolina. The first stop we (Jenks Farmer, Bo Cooper, Kellen Goodell and myself) made was at the Center for Environmental Farming Systems located in Goldsboro, NC. We were guided around the research station by Steve Moore the farm manager and a expert in high tunnel production. It was a fantastic experience and very informative. Next stop was at the J.C. Rauleston Arboretum in Raleigh, NC amazing place, if you are in the area it would be a shame not to visit. Our last stop of the day was just south of Bahama, NC. This area is home to Hoffman Nursery, the premiere landscape grasses source in the south east and still growing. These great sites made me forget about how dreary and cool it was today for late summer.

Back at the farm I have been doing alot of planting in the greenhouse, hopefully when I get back I will update everyone on what I am planting for the fall season.

Jean Elliot Manning - Farm in my front yard

Get Your Own Free Hypster.com Playlist.

plastic mulch

This fall I am trying something new to hopefully fix a problem I ran into during the summer. The weed pressure in this field is very intense as you can probably tell from the upper right part of the photo. To remedy this I am using a 1mm plastic film from Peaceful Valley and then mulching over with hay. It has been 4 weeks since I took this picture and the beds are staying relatively weed free, except for the occasional nut sedge which has been spotted growing through impervious things such as asphalt before, so that was expected. My major weed problem from the summer, crab grass, has been totally solved and plastic mulch seems to be the best fix so far.

Cover crop

DSC02085
Originally uploaded by clements.evan

This summer I used a buckwheat (makes phosphorus in the soil more accessible)/ cow pea (nitrogen fixer) mix for a cover crop. In addition to the added nutrients and organic material it provides, cover cropping also aides in weed suppression. Buckwheat is also a great temporary honey crop since it blooms for 30 days and only 4-6 weeks after planting.