Does it Matter How I Pay the Bills?

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Right now I work (indirectly) for a large multi-national corporation. One of the largest. You know their name, and you know the pet food that the plants I support produce. They are interchangeable with any number of other large corporations, producing goods that I largely avoid, so I'll keep their name to myself, it's not germane to this discussion. So why do I work for them? I don't care about their products. I don't care about their brand. In fact, I think the corporation represents a lot about what's wrong with the current situation in America.
The short answer is I needed to pay the bills.

The longer answer brings up my massive student loan debt, my need to prove (to myself) that the Computer Engineering degree wasn't a waste of money and time; and really, isn't germane.

I don't want to do it anymore. I don't want my brainpower to go to a large corporation. I don't want my entire life's work to boil down to "I kept 5 pet food plants running 24/7."  Because, let's face it, a lack of efficiently produced pet food is not one of the larger problems facing my generation and those that follow.

There are problems that I see clearly and feel strongly and passionately about solving.  Problems of food production, food access and food security.  Problems that I don't want to relegate to the 3 hours of free time I have every week. When I find myself doing research or reading, it's rarely tech related, or automation related. 9 out 10 times, I'm researching a farming or food question. Farming is suffering from the same population problem that the rest of the country is facing, aging quickly with not enough young working-age people to keep things going. It's one thing to have not enough automation professionals, it's a whole nother thing for a country to have it's food production experts age out without replacement. Demand is not going to wane for food, and without enough producers we'll end up with more and more of the hellish confinement feeding style operations as the few remaining farmers try to produce enough food for all of us. This country needs more young people to take up hoes and get on tractors. I think I can answer that call.  I think I can do it and make a living too. So I'm going to try.

I can see myself getting involved in the on-farm research that Iowa State University and Practical Farmers of Iowa help organize and fund. Mostly though I just want to grow vegetables. Wholesale is an option, farmers's markets are too, so is a CSA model if I can get people excited for my brand of organic food. Of course, this is all assuming I can grow the food. I manage to largely meet my family's vegetable needs with only the spare time I have between my other two jobs. I'm hoping that with more hours a week to dedicate to it, my output will scale up accordingly. I'll have new obstacles, and I'll need to learn a new skill set as I cross that boundary between gardener and farmer. I'm aware of that. I can't shake the feeling though that now's the time. Social safety nets are in place, I have a good chunk of my youth and health still, and I want to set my family on a path that will mesh better with our life goals and quality of life needs. It doesn't even mean that I have to leave my technical skills behind. Modern greenhouses use a bit of automation, as do most aquaculture setups. Both of which I could see myself getting into. Or tablet/phone applications to help farmers keep track of which field got planted when, with what, cross referenced with expected output vs actual production numbers. Anyway, the business plan has been started. Budgets for the next 3-5 years have been started. I have 3 acres of tillable land near Boone, IA that my best friend owns and wants to grow vegetables on. I have been accepted into the PFI Beginning Farmer Savings Incentive Plan, (more on that in another post.) So, now is the time to DO THIS THING!

But, yes, this will be a change in our lives. A large change. That's sorta the point.  There are aspects we don't like in our life right now. And change is not scary to me. Risk can be scary, and there is some risk here. But, I know what the risks are if I don't change anything. I have a pretty good idea of what the outcome will be if I choose cubicals and factories for the next 25 years. All I have to do is look around the office at the people who have been programming for 15+ years. I'll become adapted to the life of cubical fauna and gradually lose my health and fitness. It's not a hard stretch to see where that leads.

Metabolic disorders have become the #1 killer of adults.  High blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes, these sorts of things now kill more people than all the communicable things like flu and pneumonia.

I'm so not interested in going down that path.

Can I try to live my life by a different metric? Instead of worrying about billable hours and corporate facetime? Can I work hard and measure success by happiness levels?  Because it's not the hard work that's the problem, it's the metric I'm currently using to define a successful week that's a problem. I'm one of those people that goes crazy if I'm not working, but it's also become apparent these past 5 years that I go a little crazy if I don't get enough outside time, and time with my hands dirty.

"There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.  These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot.  Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them.  Now we face the question whether a still higher 'standard of living' is worth its cost in things natural, wild, and free.  For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech." - Aldo Leopold 

It's also become clear to me that I go a little crazy if I feel my work doesn't have enough meaning.  I do care where my brainpower goes, it's not an insignificant thing to me. I place great value on this strong, logical, crazy, creative, never-still brain of mine and the problems I solve day in and day out need to be worthy of it, or I feel like I'm slacking off.

A lot of words since the title question, but the gist is: It matters to me.

Some of you might be wondering, am I doing all of this because I'm a doomer?
Yes and no. All of the reasons above would still be here even if I thought the bright modern world wasn't about to come crashing down on us. I do think that it's all going to come crashing down though.  A stable successful automation career depends on cheap reliable grid energy. None of the plants I've done work in could operate on spotty power, generator power, etc. And since our country has an electrical grid that's old and in desperate need of re-organizing, strengthening and 10 years worth of maintenance, that makes me nervous. Our Civil Engineers rank our grid and energy infrastructure at a D+ in 2013. (link) Why would I risk getting specialized in a field that our country seems unwilling to support? Why put my family's wellbeing on the line by staying in a career path with prerequisites that are a few points away from failing? The pendulum has swung a long ways towards automation; employing fewer people, using more energy and machines to do what hands used to. I think we've reached the zenith though, and the pendulum will be swinging back the other way. I really honestly think we're headed towards the point where human power will be much cheaper and much more reliable than grid power. Automation won't make sense in that environment, not like we see today. I'm not going to stick around to wait and see if my predictions are right though. I'll be specializing in a skill set that won't need as much grid power to make a product, and won't need as many rare earth minerals or travel by air for a successful career.  If I happen to be wrong, I may make less money, but I'll probably be healthier and happier. If I'm right, I've dodged a canonball that will destroy the careers of many a tech worker.

 One of the hard facts of our present predicament is that the steps that have to be taken to get ready for the future bearing down on us all require letting go of the privileges and perquisites that most Americans consider theirs by right. A few years ago, I coined the acronym LESS—Less Energy, Stuff, and Stimulation—to summarize the changes that we’re all going to have to make as things proceed, and began pointing out that any response to our predicament that doesn’t start with using LESS simply isn’t serious.

I’m pleased to say that a certain fraction of my readers have taken that advice seriously, and tackled the uncomfortable job of downsizing their dependence on the absurd amounts of energy, stuff, and artificial stimulation that are involved in an ordinary American lifestyle these days. I’m equally pleased to say that an even larger number of people who don’t read The Archdruid Report and don’t know me from Hu Gadarn’s off ox have gotten to work doing the same thing. Those people are going to be in a much better position not merely to weather the crises ahead, but to help their loved ones, friends and neighbors do the same thing, and potentially also contribute to the preservation of the more useful achievements of the last few centuries. Still, it’s hard work, and it also requires a willingness to step outside the conventional wisdom of our society, which claims to be open to new and innovative ideas but in practice tolerates only endless rehashings of the same old notions.  -Archdruid

I, of course, have no proof that this is the right choice to make right now.  Nobody I know has a working crystal ball right now.  Maybe in 30 years time I'll be selling carrots to the next crop of tech millionaires and wishing I'd stayed at my computer. Right now, I'm betting not though.

Living boldly is also not being forever strong and fearless. You can live boldly and still have weak moments, emotional meltdowns, failures, self-doubts and plenty of 3:00 a.m. fears for the future. (Ask me how I know.) Living boldly is what you do in spite of all that.
Living boldly is creating your own life in your own way, even if you’re depressed, discouraged, defeated, and downtrodden. Even if you fear — or are downright dead-solid certain — that the whole damn world is doomed.    -Claire Wolfe

Is it really a good time to get into food production?
Stay tuned, I have a post that answers that question too.
-Jennie

Fall crops are up!

When I pulled the garlic from my kitchen garden, at the end of July, I immediately started prepping that space for fall crops. Garlic harvests best when the soil is dry, so that soil was very dry. I added a couple of buckets of compost, and roughly hoed that in a little. Then a bunch of water, (the kids wanted to play in a sprinkler, it was a win-win operation.)  Then I  seeded Swiss Chard, Red Russian Kale, the last of the onion sets that were still in a plantable state, some green beans, white turnips and Cylindra beets. It might sound like a lot, but there's only 2-3 feet of each one.

Thanks to a week of rain and a waxing super moon, I had GREAT germination on all of them, and with any luck, it will be a welcome wave of fresh veggies at the end of the season.  I'll be curious to see if the beans will have enough time to produce, they are bush beans, so I only need them to put on that first big flush.

Worst case, they'll shade out some weeds and be interesting from a research/trial-and-error stance.  But I'm betting at least half will give me food. That Swiss Chard and Kale will probably give me food well into winter, they are both super hardy.

Some notes for future reference. No onion sets for sale this late in the season. Keep more onion sets in a dry dark location after spring plantings. That means I have to buy enough in the spring so I'll have leftovers that I can plant in fall. And actually get them into a safe place. I had probably 3 little bags of sets this year leftover, but one got wet during a watering "incident" that soaked my whole gardening basket, so it rotted. One was left in a sunny place and sprouted, then rotted.  Only one was in a dry dark place, and of course, that was totally by accident.

Other food related things going on, include a bunch of canning. Dave has really stepped into the lead on preservation work, but we still work together on most batches.  We've done a couple rounds of zucchini relish. Bread and Butter pickles are still to do this week.  Some sweet corn next week. We've dried a lot of herbs. Tons of oregano, some mint and parsley.

I don't know if we'll get a tomato glut this year, it's been so mild, there are barely enough heat units to ripen anything. I'll just have to wait and see how the rest of August plays out.

Spring Doings and Plannings

Some of y'all might be wondering what I'm up to. 
Some of y'all know what my plans are in general, and some are still in the dark because plans are still close to the vest.

So here are some general things that are going on. Some of you will know how these fit into my larger plan, and some of you will just have to be patient until I can reveal all.

I've got my spring garlic count! 90 made it through our harsh winter.  I lost some, in places where I didn't get enough mulch on top of them.  But 90 is still respectable. If I get 3 big cloves from all 90, planted this fall, that will be around 270 garlic plants up in 2015.  My crazy old lady co-gardener was surprised to see garlic in the plot this year. Most people around here are when I tell them what the plants are.  :-) It just means I'll have a monopoly on the market when the scapes are ready in June.  The scapes may be about all we eat or sell of this crop. Well, those and the smaller cloves I don't want to plant. This crop is meant to be the seed garlic for a larger cash crop next year.
My daddy asked me if there is a large market for Iowa garlic. I believe there is. My farmer friends at Coyote Run Farm, south of Des Moines plant something like a half acre of hardneck garlic every year. They have a picture of baby Rowen and I out for one of their garlic planting parties in 2009, so I know how much they plant. I know I will not be anywhere near that level. I also know they sell out every year.   The trick is nice big bulbs, and tasty varieties. Those two things are impossible to find in grocery store garlic. Get people hooked on the deliciousness that is locally grown hardneck garlic, and they'll never go back to the sad little grocery store garlic.

My cold frame performed well again this year, in all of its DIY glory.  The last frost date is this week, (and true to form for this spring, we have a frost chance for Friday) and my spinach has been producing like crazy since the beginning of May. Another week and we'll be buried in lettuce, some of which was also in the cold frame and is beginning to crowd out the last of the spinach.

My farmers market in town continues it's downward spiral.  This year the Chamber of "Commerce" has decided that it won't start until JULY 2nd!!  For fucks sake!  The other local markets are already starting, we went down to the opening weekend for Sioux City's market this past Saturday. And sure, it's no July market, but people were THERE! Vendors had greens, onions, eggs, meat, transplants and crafted goods. Customers were THERE! Why our Chamber thinks May and June don't deserve market times in our town, I don't know.  I strongly suspect it's because they are fucking morons.

Moving on. I've decided I will still register as a vendor and go in July-Oct.  I've also decided I'll start when I have the produce to start, and damn their official start date.  I'm making my own sandwich boards to offset the lack of city support for earlier selling dates. (Their limited support of the market includes signage along the main highway through town pointing motorists one block North to the market location.)  A big shout out to my dad, who brainstormed a bit with me on the sandwich boards. I got a start on them this past weekend, and my rusty woodworking skills came back to me. I even remembered to buy sandpaper and sand the boards before applying the primer. *high five* I'm making them really solid so they should last quite awhile. I'll be adding other things to my market stall this year. A scale is top of the list. I scored a big food-grade tray last year in a trade with a fellow market vendor, so that will find uses this summer. If I have enough of the chalkboard paint left when I'm done with my sandwich boards, I might make up some small boards for labeling prices/varieties of veggies.

In the fun news category, I'm signed up to run in another 5k this summer. The Color Run in Omaha in mid July.  I've been out jogging a few times this spring, in between the rains and storms. So far I'm running better than I did at the beginning of last year, much better. So, I didn't lose it all over the winter. Looks like this week might actually let me start the 3 times a week training that I did last year. If things go to plan I'll get to run with my younger brother, the ex-Marine. It sure would be nice to have a good time with him, it's been too long. And knowing that I'll be running with him will certainly keep the pressure on during my training.  Us two, competitive? ....yea.   :-D

So there's what's going on right now. We're keeping busy and holding on. How are things with all y'all?
-Jennie

Nooooooo!!!

*Sigh*

So, I thought the LeMars Farmers market started this Saturday, but apparently it doesn't.

The other seller I chatted with yesterday said that it used to open in June, but the veteran sellers were worried that the cold wet spring would leave them with nothing to offer, so they moved it back to July 3rd this year.

JULY!!!  FFS people!

I asked the Chamber of Commerce person in charge of the market if I could sell MY stuff early, because I DO have veggies to sell. She's avoiding the question. *sigh*

I have lettuce and peas and rhubarb and scapes ready to GO! I was so stoked for this weekend.

Now what am I going to do?

Put up a table in my lawn and sell from there? :-D Put an ad in Craigslist?  Sell door to door?
.....  This is so frustrating!

On a funnier note, I was visiting one of my favorite sellers last night. She's originally from Korea, married an Iowa farm boy and raised two daughters in LeMars. She walked us home and was introduced to my front yard garden.  Guess which crop she totally flipped over?

Scapes of course. :-D The hardneck garlic is the star of the garden again this year. And the scapes are perfect for harvest this week. She couldn't believe that I had some. Apparently green garlic with scape attached is a prized veggie in Korea. She had become resigned to Americans not knowing what it was. I had to promise to order her some this fall and help her plant. And then I had to cut 4 scapes off so she could cook up a BIG dinner with them. :-D She's lucky I like her.  I was planning a big order of garlic this summer.  I have saved my seed for 5 or 6 years now, and not had any problems. But if I want to grow more next year, I'll either have to eat NONE of this year's garlic or order some more heads from Seed Savers. Yea, we're just going to order more heads, because garlic fresh from the garden is too heavenly to abstain from. So, ordering some for Su won't be a problem.

If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.
:-D I will eventually sell some veggies.  This is only a setback.
Have a good weekend everyone. Go support a farmer's market.
-Jennie

Farmers Market Dreams

Yea, I had my first Farmer's Market dream last night.

Things are moving along on that front. I'm still waiting to get the market seller form/signup thing from the city chamber of commerce.
I'm still trying to figure out what's legal for me to do, and what's illegal for me to do. And by that I mean I'm trying to navigate the murky legalese surrounding "food processing." Iowa's Food Code if you're interested, is here.

I've found out that I could add some baking to my offerings quite easily under Iowa law. And it's looking like if my sales are under 20K, I don't have to have much in the way of licensing. I think I'm not allowed to cut my fruits/veggies though.  I can't seem to find that exact wording anywhere in the Iowa Code, but other states are very clear that while selling cabbages or carrots is fine, grating them to make a cole slaw base, is not allowed without a commercial kitchen.

Will I cut my veggies anyway? Take a copy of the code with me to the market to argue that I don't see that wording anywhere in it? What are the chances I will even see a food safety person up here in NW Iowa at the tiny little market I'll be at? Slim I think.  I know there are market vendors here that sell things that are outside of whole fruits/veg or baked goods. And I doubt that they have licenses for anything.  My brain is still working through all the variables, check back with me next month for my decision.

In spite of the chilly weather, I have a lot growing already, and I'm busy putting as much into the ground as I can, as quickly as I can. I've noticed that I'm a bit quicker than I used to be with some of the basic tasks involved with planting. Familiarity and what not. Hopefully that will help me manage the work load associated with my 1000+ square feet of garden space.  Again, check back with me in a month for an update. :-D

Baby number 2 is already finding his groove in the garden. Yesterday he was eating dirt and sticks and rolling around in the freshly tilled earth. He was so cute he stopped traffic when we were at our new corner garden. I literally had conversations with passing drivers about how I got my kids to like gardening. Hint: Start them young, preferably at birth. 

I have records about what is going where, and as soon as I get everything in, I'll do a bit of a roundup about what all I have planted and how I'm dividing things up. It's a lot! At least for me. :-D

Time to get back to it! Posting will likely be scarce until everything is planted. Just the way of things.
-Jennie

How we afford local pasture raised meat

It's popular to compare prices on "the same" meats and complain about the prices of local pasture raised varieties. Only the rich can afford it, is the cry leveled at local producers.

I don't believe that to be true. I'd like to share how I justify local pasture chickens in our thrifty grocery budget.

1 local pasture raised chicken - 5 pounds at 3$ a pound. (I got a slight discount from my favorite farm because I was picking it up on farm and I didn't want it quartered. They sell for 4$ a pound quartered at the farmer's market.) That's 15$ worth of local pastured chicken.

Roasted Sunday night.  There is something primal about pulling out a whole roasted bird all golden and crispy. Mmmmm. We had half the breast meat, along with the bed of root veggies I roasted under the bird.  Dinner for 3.

Roasted chicken on salad for Monday night.  The other breast half went onto a giant pile of greens Monday night.  Dinner for 3. (No, the 4 year old didn't eat salad, but he did eat chunks of the chicken dipped in ketchup. My apologies to the chicken for that bit of blasphemy.)

Tuesday chicken salad.  I made chicken salad for my lunch on Tuesday. I used a leg and thigh for that. Lunch for 1.

Weds chicken soup. I cut up the other leg and thigh, and tossed it in some broth with an organic carrot, some garlic and onion and spices. Dinner for 1, Lunch for 1.  (Dave was tired of chicken by this point and opted for a different dinner.)

If I had been on my game, and not dealing with a cold-stricken baby and getting the house ready for a 4 year old's birthday party. I could have concluded the week by tossing the carcass/wings/etc into a few cups of water with veggies and making a hearty broth. I usually end up with a quart full of goodness when I do that.

So, from one bird, I got 7 dinner portions and 2 lunch portions. If we divide the cost of the bird equally among the portions we end up with $1.66 per portion.
So, that means Sunday's dinner was $5 worth of chicken, and maybe $1.5 worth of veggies. Making the Sunday night feast a $6.50 affair.
The salad Monday night used another $5 worth of chicken and again $1 worth of veggies, with $.50 of dressing and cheese. Monday's dinner comes in at $6.50, for THE WHOLE FAMILY.
How much would it cost to go out somewhere and feed those two meals to your family? $30 each meal? $40 each meal?

Could you do it cheaper with the bargain birds from the grocery store?
Yes, obviously, if you start with a bird that's only $1 a pound, every portion is going to be cheaper. The nutrition breakdown is going to be worse though. There are measurable differences between pasture raised animals and feed lot animals. Differences in the amounts and types of fats. And differences in the levels of healthful nutrients. (Like vitamin E, folic acid and B-12 as well as more omega-3s.)
If you are buying a bargain bird from the grocery store, you are likely getting a feed lot bird. That bird probably never saw daylight, or dirt or anything other than the cage in the farm. You are also paying for a high % of pumped in salt water solution, meant to keep it "juicy." Also at issue in the last few years is the widespread use of arsenic in chicken feed, which can both promote growth and help prevent disease. This arsenic additive, although not the most toxic form we associate with poisoning, nonetheless shows up in the poultry meat (PDF) and the people who eat chicken products. Despite the less toxic form, no one is arguing that is good for people.
I almost feel like this post is Home Ec 101 stuff.  Not that I was taught anything like this in Home Ec, but I feel like I should have been. This shouldn't be radical or new. This is the way my grandparents probably cooked. Every time I hear someone say that they can't afford to buy quality local meats, I just have to grit my teeth. I know they only say that because they aren't thinking things through. With just a small amount of foresight and planning, I can stretch $15 worth of chicken into 9 portions of flavorful, healthy protein. I don't have to resort to the cheapest bird I can find, and you shouldn't either! -Jennie

Ice is Gone, Lettuce is Up!

I know I've raved about them before, but y'all are going to get another dose today.
I LOVE COLD FRAMES!
My cold frames are in a new location this spring. I shifted them at the beginning of winter last year. In one of them, I shook a stalk of lettuce seed over it before I closed it up for winter.  I was rewarded this weekend when I took the top off and found a nice crop of 2 inch high lettuce growing vigorously.
The rest of my garden is basically still ice-locked. But those cold frames are just enough protection that early starts to lettuce and spinach thrive. We opened all of them up for an overnight dousing with 40 degree spring rain on Saturday, then closed them up again.

Rowen and I did manage to get some peas and radish seeds sown.  The SE corner of the main bed had a nice covering of mulch on it, so we were able to get down a couple of inches with the hoe, and that was enough to get those seeds in. They won't mind icy toes, and they won't mind the 1/2 inch of ice/snow we got last night. Both the soil and the last flurry of winter will be melted by this weekend, and that's the soonest those seeds could be sprouted and looking to send down roots. The melting ice will give them some moisture, which we're still a little behind on.
It's hard to believe last year on this day we set a record high when we hit 92 degrees. 

That's the other great thing about cold frames. They take a lot of the guess work out of early spring planting. Namely, the first stuff up is planted in winter, and the seeds figure out a sprouting time all on their own. This obviously only works with seed that will survive the winter's cold. The cold frame is solar based, and come mid-winter there just isn't much solar power to be had. But, I have a variety of lettuce that is hardy enough it has seeded itself in our lawn, so it works well for this application.


It's quite likely that this early crop of lettuce will be ready before the Farmers Market is open for the season. I'll probably have a couple of crops of spring stuff before the Farmer Market opens in Mid-June.  (Note to self, the Sioux City market opens on May 8th, why does ours open so late? Can I petition for an earlier start?)  Some of it we'll eat. We're always hungry for fresh greens by the time the first lettuce crop is ready. Some of it though... I'll have to find creative ways to sell it if I can't petition for an earlier start to the Farmers Market.
I could maybe bring a box into work and sell to co-workers. I'd have to check with a few people before doing that, but it's possible they'd ok it, we've been on a healthy kick at work lately. I could be a rebel and just have a one-woman farmers market, and open the market early whether the city likes it or not. (Our market is in a lightly used public parking lot.)  I could go even further down the rebel path and put up a table in my front lawn next to the sidewalk and advertise the veggies there. ("Free Veggies, plus suggested tip" might get me around zoning laws.) Further pondering: If girls scouts can sell cookies door to door, could I sell lettuce door to door?  10 year olds probably don't need the profit margin that I do, but it's a thought.

Well, that's all for now.  Spring continues its relentless march. My first year as a market grower is off to a good start. (Of course the start is the easiest part....)

-Jennie

Urban Farmer

Well, it's starting to look like I will be an urban farmer.  I am still ironing out details, but I think I may have found more growing space.  It's closer than the community garden plot, which is nice. It's even on the way to the community garden plot, (we'll have to see if that's a good thing or not.)
I was relieved not to have to resort to flyers, or begging random strangers with sunny lawns. All I did was ask various friends that I knew had spots they were tired of mowing. I just explained that I was looking for more gardening space for organic veggies and waited to see if anyone would bite. One did! I will have to share the space with said friend's Mother-in-Law, who apparently was also interested in his sunny patch of lawn.  She was going to make him help her put it into garden, so I think he was relieved to be able to pass the project to me. :-D Hopefully she has realistic expectations about what we can grow. And hopefully our gardening styles mesh well. It almost sounds like she's a very inexperienced gardener, she sounded relieved that I would help site the garden and get it tilled. We'll see how things look next week when we go out to pound stakes and measure. But I'm thinking I'll get 200-300 feet squared of new growing space. For reference, I have roughly 300 ft^2 in my front yard I plant, plus various perennials and herbs grown in flower beds around the house. And I usually have ~300 ft^2 in the community garden I can plant. 
We had our first board meeting last week for the community garden. I re-read the rules, and was surprised to find that the ban on selling produce that I thought I remembered, was NOT there. I guess we just talked about it, but decided against it. So, that means I can use my community garden space for this endeavor.   This will hopefully use that space a little better.  I have been using it to put extras from my main plantings in the front yard.  (The last half of the seed packet in many cases, planted a week or so after the main planting.)  That works sometimes, but often the community garden spot is a bit too shady to grow the same types of things that I'm growing in the front lawn.  So, if I treat it as space for the market growing, I can focus on growing just the few crops that will really do well in that slightly shady space, and do staggered plantings of those crops and hopefully get some good results.
All added together I'm going to be farming less than 1/16th an acre. :-D But, it's a start.
I went and visited with one of the LeMars Market sellers yesterday evening.  Sue is originally from Korea and married an American guy from LeMars. She's been growing veggies in her backyard for the past 15 years and selling at the market. I think she probably grows on less than a 1/16th an acre, I've seen her backyard. I know she focuses on fewer veggies than I do, she really likes her cucumbers and tomatoes and peppers. I have noticed though that the past year or two she hasn't sold out of those items any week. She just has so much of those 3 things, that there's sadly not enough demand for. We were talking about who she thinks will be at the Market this year, and her thoughts mirrored my own, she thought it quite likely that she and one other gal would be the only ones there. She was excited to hear I was going to try to sell.  *whew*  Part of me was a little worried that I would be seen as an interloper, stealing customers with my hobby farming.  It was a relief that she was excited to have another potential seller.

The snow is finally melting. Rowen and I were outside Weds night planting spinach and lettuce in the larger cold frame. I'm not 100% satisfied with the new rebuilt spot for that frame, so I'm watching it closely this spring. I may have to rebuild it. I'm glad those seeds are out there, we're supposed to hit upper 50's today.
I have tomato and pepper seeds planted in cells on a heat mat inside. And the rest of my seeds on the kitchen table, eagerly awaiting their time in the garden.
I can't wait!
-Jennie

Growing Veggies for Market (A Love Note to My Husband)

I love my husband.
He didn't marry a farmer.
He made the perfectly rational decision to marry his stripper/engineer girlfriend, expecting to have to tolerate fresh veggies out of a kitchen garden. And occasionally stiff towels from the clothes line.

So when I asked him what he thought about me wanting to grow veggies for this year's market there were a lot of responses I was prepared for.
No F-ing way.
You don't have time for what would amount to job #3.
Think of the children.

I was ready with a whole host of arguments for those. I was sure I could talk him into it.

He said, "Ok."  He said, let's figure out how we can avoid sinking too much money into it this first year. And that he had noticed how inspired I was after the NW Iowa Food Summit last week. Proving once again that my husband continues to know me better than I know him. He did mention that HE was NOT interested in waking up early on Saturdays to go to the market. :-D Which was a reasonable thing to point out.

This being near Valentines allow me to embed our song here for your listening pleasure.

I can promise you That by the time that we get through The world will never ever be the same And you're to blame....

So, mushy stuff about my husband aside, there are a lot of things I still need to decide and get busy on if this is actually going to happen. I probably need to find land outside of the community garden plots I've been gardening in. Those plots have restrictions about selling the produce grown in them. I have some ideas for where to find land, and I'll be pursuing those as quickly as I can.

I want to start small. That's practically a guarantee considering the size of the market, the size of the customer base and the money I have to work with. A few crops to offer each week would be ideal, but even 1 or 2 would be fine. 

I want to use some of my cloth goods to supplement the (hopefully) veggie sales.  Diapers and cloth wipes and cloth napkins and wetbags, there's no place to buy any of that locally, and I think that could be a niche I can fill. Those things don't rot or go bad, so I'm hoping they can help ensure a table full of goods each week.  Dave says I could probably sell some of his excess paracord bracelets too.

Some of my readers may be wondering, WHY?  Sounds like a heck of a way to waste a bunch of Saturday mornings.   It may turn out to be just that. But, it might not.  The answer to why is a little complicated. My local farmers market is dieing. The number of vendors has dwindled noticeably in the 3 years we've been here.  Partly due to the success of a bigger market south of us in Sioux City.  Partly due to the aging market producers, a couple of them have moved off of their land or just generally retired. That's hard for me to watch happen.  I am passionate about local food. I dislike having to get food from faceless national corporations, usually all that's on offer is various flavors of oil soaked corn and soybeans. Or bland generic veggies from California, (or Mexico.)  I want there to be a thriving counter to that bland facelessness. I want to be one of those faces providing fresh tasty local food.

I don't know why, or where the urge comes from.  It has grown gradually over the years, from that first rabbit-devoured attempt in Ames, through my many garden plots since.  Every carrot I've pulled out of the ground. Every little seed planted. Every session with the hoe. The feeling has grown. There are some days I want to leave my engineering cube and never come back. Just wander home, find some ground, and spend the rest of my days happily grubbing in the dirt.

My debts have me trudging back to the engineering job every Monday morning though.  Bidding farewell to my mud stained jeans and bare feet for another 5 days. I'm hoping that by doing at least a little bit of retail agriculture, I can claim a small part of the dream. I'm hoping that part-time market grower is enough to keep my passion for it alive, and my skills growing until I can arrange the rest of my life to fit better with the whole veggie-growing thing.

There were founding fathers who were farmers-and.  Farmer-and-inventor. Farmer-and-legislator. Surely it must be possible to be an Engineer-and-farmer. 

Even if I have no land. Even if I have no tractor or truck.  Even if I'm 29 with two babies. The world needs more farmers. This country desperately needs more farmers.  I want to be a farmer. Surely this shouldn't be an impossible match. I know that it will be an uphill fight though.  Land is expensive. Selling a product that is inherently high value and inconvenient will offer up significant challenges.

 I'm tired of waiting for the perfect time though.  Now is the time. It's imperfect and uncertain, but NOW is the time. Step 1. After that I just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and let things fall as they will. I'll leave you with the full Paul Harvey quote made temporarily famous during the Super Bowl this year.

And Mom, if you're reading this. I do have fond memories of Paul Harvey.  I'm sure adult Jennie would argue with him more often than child-Jennie did, but the fond memories of car trips listening to "The Rest of The Story," are there.

Wish me luck y'all!
 -Jennie

Big O, little o, What begins with O?

Organic starts with O. But what kinds of things get sold under that label? Does is mean what consumers want it to mean? In short, no.


It has come to my attention lately that there are two different organics in today's marketplace. The big O Organics, and the small o organics. I would like to address the habit of using the word organic to discuss both of them, and how different the two really are. I'll also touch on the debate between organics and industrial farming feeding the world.

You walk into Trader Joes, you buy some fair trade coffee, some frozen organic pizzas and a couple of pounds of organic apples. Big O or little o? Definitely Big O.

Trader Joe's is a supermarket chain specializing in organic, vegetarian, and alternative foods with hundreds of locations throughout the United States, centered in organic-happy Southern California. Shoppers appreciate its image of healthful food in a small-business family atmosphere. Really? In 2005 alone, Trader Joe's racked up sales estimated at $4.5 billion. The company is owned by a family trust set up by German billionaire Theo Albrecht, ranked the 22nd richest man in the world by Forbes in 2004. He's the co-founder and CEO of German multi-national ALDI, with global revenue in grocery sales at $37 billion. -Skeptoid **

There are a lot of big names vying for the organic dollars, Organic Valley Co-op, Stonyfield Farms, Horizon milk, and Whole Foods Market are just some of them. Buyer beware, they are big corporations, with big corporation interests and they may not share your ideals about food or food safety.

It's mid-winter, you're craving strawberries and your grocery store has organic strawberries in the produce aisle. Organic how? Grown, more than likely, in a greenhouse, supplemented with light and heat, then trucked in. Or flown in possibly from South America. Neither of these is in any way better for the planet. This is another big O product.


So what's a little o product? What makes something organic, in the way that most people want? Organics that enrich our planet, organics that help small farmers and foster local food growth. That type of organic is much closer in definition to words like "sustainable" and "local." To find (and eat) that kind of organic, you can't fall for the corporate green washing. You can't take the shortcuts. You have to become the kind of consumer that carves time out of their week to shop at farmers markets. Making things from scratch and buying the scratch from local producers, or growing it yourself, are the best ways to make sure you're eating real organic food that nourishes your family and the planet.

Oh, but Jennie, you're being an idealistic hippy again, there's no way we can feed the planet with organic methods, we need to keep pushing the Green Revolution and monocrops or people will starve. (Sorry, Dad, but yea, this is me parroting you.)

The Green Revolution seems like a good idea. Let's grow corn in Iowa where it grows well, let's grow 80% of the veggies in California where they have the cheap labor to harvest it and mild weather to grow it year round, and wheat in Kansas, then we'll just ship all of it around the country to where it needs to be after harvest. Yea, that model worked really really well, with one caveat. It worked well with cheap oil. Surely I don't have to spell out what's changing now. Surely I don't have to convince you that cheap oil is never coming back. Let's look at how much oil that "ship it around the country" part uses. (The pic is a little small, but oil is the big green line. Click on the source link to see it in full glory.)


source

Let's look at what the Green Revolution promises, " the spread of modern farming, plant research and food processing in poor countries." I know, it sounds like a great idea, but the part they don't mention is that modern farming techniques include a delightful array of poisons, and petroleum derived fertilizers. (Petroleum being that oil thing that keeps getting so expensive.) Modern farming techniques do a few things really well. They destroy soils. They contaminate water ways. They keep petroleum companies flush with cash, as well as the big boys in seed genetics. None of those is something poor countries in need of food should be importing to their agriculture traditions.

Since the start of the Green Revolution the US has lost around 1/3rd of it's top soil. Iowa alone loses 10-15 tons/acre/year. (Where does it go? Hint, the soil, along with the fertilizers it contains, go straight to the Gulf of Mexico where they contributes to the Dead Zone.)
Those pesticide poisons are no picnic either, did you know 300,000 farm workers are poisoned every year in the US from pesticide exposure? These pesticides keep growing stronger, because insects evolve to resist, and we keep applying more and more, AND YET crop losses from insects continue to rise. Herbicides create the exact same problem with superweeds evolving to resist the poisons, requiring higher and higher application rates.
(sources: "World Hunger - Twelve Myths" Frances Lappe. I know, how old fashioned, a book.
Rodale report last year)

Let's explore the other side of this for a minute. Organic methods (little o here, we're talking manure fertilizer and diverse crop rotations) actually build soil by retaining organic matter and soil nitrogen. This better soil then goes on to provide increased protection against drought. This is not hippy wishful thinking either. This is a 27 year study. Side by side field trials, often in collaboration with the USDA. (check it out.) Solid scientific data that clearly says we need to quit with the short sighted Green Revolution and move to methods that perform better, with less inputs. The UN even agrees, (for what that's worth.) In a recent report, they conclude,

Organic agriculture can increase agricultural productivity and can raise incomes with low-cost, locally available and appropriate technologies, without causing environmental damage. Furthermore, evidence shows that organic agriculture can build up natural resources, strengthen communities and improve human capacity, thus improving food security by addressing many different causal factors simultaneously ... Organic and near-organic agricultural methods and technologies are ideally suited for many poor, marginalized smallholder farmers in Africa, as they require minimal or no external inputs, use locally and naturally available materials to produce high-quality products, and encourage a whole systemic approach to farming that is more diverse and resistant to stress.

And just last month that same agency released an advance copy of a report called "Agriculture: Investing in Natural Capital." It amounts to a blistering assault on the agribusiness-as-usual model. It succinctly names the main problems with the goal of spreading U.S.-style industrial agriculture to the global south:

Conventional/industrial agriculture is energy- and input-intensive. Its high productivity relies on the extensive use of petrochemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, fuel, water, and continuous new investment (e.g. in advanced seed varieties and machinery).

In place of the industrial model, the report calls for what it terms "green agriculture," characterized by low-tech, high-skilled methods like "restoring and enhancing soil fertility through the increased use of naturally and sustainably produced nutrient inputs; diversified crop rotations; and livestock and crop integration."

It's time we stopped supporting the Green Revolution, it's time for ag subsidies to end. It's time for small o producers to get the support and recognition they deserve. Most of all it's time to stop falling for the big O green washing. Organic doesn't have to mean expensive, it doesn't have to mean increased deforestation and it certainly doesn't have to mean switching one poisonous chemical for another slightly less poisonous one. Little o organics are cheap as dirt, bursting with local flavor, low in petroleum costs and great for the environment.



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**More on that skeptoid article. First off, it's a little old, it's more than 4 years old, which is a bit too out of date for my tastes, I reference it only because someone I respect emailed it to me. Further more, I completely disagree with some of the statement contained in it. Namely the following bit;

Some supporters of organic growing claim that the danger of non-organic food lies in the residues of chemical pesticides. This claim is even more ridiculous: Since the organic pesticides and fungicides are less efficient than their modern synthetic counterparts, up to seven times as much of it must be used. Organic pesticides include rotenone, which has been shown to cause the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease and is a natural poison used in hunting by some native tribes; pyrethrum, which is carcinogenic; sabadilla, which is highly toxic to honeybees; and fermented urine, which I don't want on my food whether it causes any diseases or not.

The authors squeamishness over humanure as a fertilizer is laughable considering he spent considerable time lambasting the logical absurdities of others and pointing towards solutions that have decades of study to back them up. Urine is sterile, very few diseases can transmit through urine. The few that can, are not going to survive fermentation. He talks about solutions with decades of track record, urine has been used as a fertilizer since ANCIENT times. That's a heck of a track record. Why on earth do we flush perfectly good liquid ammonia down the pipes, then turn around and pay out the nose for synthetic versions of it? Utter foolishness. Further more, small o organic farming uses complex systems to minimize the need for inputs. Chemicals like rotenone and sbadilla, while possibly organic in the big O use of the word, are not used by any of the organic growers I know. Those could be held up as a sign, "Organic, you're doing it wrong."


More from that skeptoid article

Organic farming produces less food, and requires more acreage. Many so-called environmentalists generally favor organic farming, at the same time that they protest deforestation to make room for more agriculture. How do they reconcile these directly conflicting views? If you want to feed a growing population, you cannot do both, and soon won't be able to do either.

Here I feel the out-of-date is showing clearly. You can't take a monocropped field of something, switch the type of chemicals you use (to organic versions) and then make claims about production. That's the big O way of looking at things. The little o way of looking at things is to grow a variety of locally adapted crops that coexist harmoniously and in some case help one another out. This decrease the amount of land and the amount of intervention (chemicals) that you have to use. Additional tools in the little o belt are things like varieties that are adapted to local pressures, planting practices that are hand based rather than machine based and selling to markets that are local. Local varieties that are adapted to local pests/diseases will lower the chemical/petroleum-based inputs needed. Marketing to locals means the crops don't have to survive a long commute, or survive a long display in a grocery store, meaning more freedom for the aforementioned variety selection.

Planting and growing and harvesting practices that are human based instead of machine based is how we "so-called environmentalists" reconcile those views. But wait, isn't that inefficient? Well, it depends on what you're measuring. In terms of human-hours, sure, maybe. But let's look at the realities of modern times, petroleum prices are rising fast, and so are the numbers of unemployed. In my mind it makes more sense to use the solutions that could put more people to work and put less money in the hands of OPEC. Giant fields of one vegetable harvested by a guy in a large machine (powered by petroleum), is not the way to go anymore.

And more over, a lot of the slash and burn ag that goes on is for things like palm oil production, which is used heavily in big O processed foods and beauty products. Or to grow corn for animal feed. Very rarely is rainforest cut down to grow food that locals will be eating.