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A Spring Blur

Life has seemed like an agricultural jig-saw puzzle that involves 12 year-olds, 6 temperamental Barred Rock chicks, and an intimidated amount of acreage. None the less, the homestead is going full steam.

This past weekend the two front beds have been sown with radishes to serve as a timer for the first frost. When they mature in 25-30 days, I will know it will be good to go ahead with my more sensitive crops. In the front bed I reinstalled the drip irrigation line and cleaned the collection system. For the front I have also ordered 50 strawberry plants and 5 blackberry plants to be split between here and the school garden.

In the back raised bed I have hilled 5 lbs of Kennebec and Red Pontiac potatoes in a staggered pattern. In the diagonal between the hills I have planted white and yellow onion sets. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to plant the other 5 lbs in the 2nd half of the raised bed.

The chickens are cruising along and might be featured on the cover of LEO weekly. This past weekend, Christian Walsh from LEO weekly came by to visit the homestead for an article focused on the 15,000 Farmer movement in Louisville. We had some good conversations and ate some extremely local eggs. The chickens showed off like usual, hopping up to greet Christian and coo.

One thing I am worried about is not starting any plants yet. I have not had the time or consistent schedule to feel comfortable starting plants. Plus I am heading to PA for Easter which I think would be the kiss of death for young seedlings. It will turn out.

A question I have been thinking about a lot is the concept of being a "purist." By "purist" I mean not using any synthetic or chemical fertilizers or pesticides. The reason this question is forefront in my mind is that one of my friends and mentors has decided to use a chemical fertilizer on his tomato starts. I asked him why his was making this decision, and he answered demonstrating that he had thought this over for a good while. He rationalized that since they were young, the chemical fertilizers would not taint the fruits while providing a boost to the early growth of the plant. He also seemed to question why he should hold to the "purist" standard if he was not trying to market and sell the produce. I can see his point of view and am still trying to distill my true feelings on the matter. My initial response is this though. Once you start using, where and when do you say no. If the chemical fertilizer makes the tomato plants grow faster, why not try to try it on other plants in that family? The other reaction was the question mark of what the chemical fertilizers actually do to the pant. Research has shown that chemical fertilizers and pesticides decrease the amount of polyphenols the plant produces which protects them and add to the unmeasured nutritional value of the food. How would these fertilizers effect the life and health of the plant? Maybe a "purist" perspective would be denying some of the major advances in science that have been developed in agriculture? Is there a healthy balance? I am not sure but I do know I love burying my hand in a warm pile of compost and a jug of blue liquid comes with a warning label.

Spring is in the Air

The doldrums have ended. A never ending world of projects have emerged, and I am sore from my first go around. Over the past two weeks, I have been over loaded by my three agricultural projects of home, school and farm. Each will be split off into a separate journal to keep this devoted to just the homestead.

1

In the past two months since my last posting I have made some progress on constructions fronts. On one of the 1/4 inch snow days I built an entire duck house in my garage without thinking of how to get it out. It wasn't until my friend Adam (6 ft 5 in) helped me take it out the sliding garage door, into the alley and up over the fence that I could put it in the yard. As seen above painted in Cosmic Blue, it is gorgeous and shelters two Indian Runner ducks. I purchased them a week ago, and they are still adjusting to their new surroundings. Hopefully they will be able to serve as free range slug assassins but when I let them out one hid in the corner and the other just hung out with the chickens. We have a little training to do but I am hopeful.

2

The three White Rock hens in the back are doing great and consistently produced 19-21 eggs a week. I am waiting for them to molt and take a break. The only issue I ran into was my fault. I cleared the left-overs (3 cartons) from a huge rich breakfast at a local restaurant and tossed it all in. When I returned it was all gone and one of the chickens had massive diarrhea which was doubly a problem since it was 5 degrees. So her feathers and butt wouldn't freeze, I brought her inside, thawed her out and wiped her chicken butt. We chilled for a couple of hours, me drinking bourbon and her squirting disgusting chicken fecal juice in my kitchen. I thoroughly learned to be more careful of the quantities of weird supplements to feed, especially in cold weather. I have been trying to figure out a way to replicate that learning situation with my kids at school in regards with forms of government instead of the feed supplement lesson but anyway I look at it I would get fired.

3

About three weeks ago I had the honor of running my mouth at the Kentucky School Garden Network annual meeting. It was amazing to be in a room with so many people with similar visions. Something that confused me was that few of the people seemed to be concerned with the financial restraints of the projects. Most of the participants were teachers in their late 30's or 40's and those outside the educational system looking in. Of those people, what seemed to be lacking was the critical mass to get the ball rolling at more than a moderate speed. It is hard to go alone on these projects, and I sympathize with these people but if I could borrow from an often quoted movie I have never watched all the way through "If you build it, they will come." Every beach starts with one grain of sand. Be that first grain thrower and plant some tomatoes or flowers. Make people ask questions and force them to see the power of growing. I believe that growing food is deep in each of our hearts, or instinctual heritage since the Neolithic Revolution if you want to be more of a hard scientist, we just need to peel back the layers of PSPs, X-Boxes and Television to get to the deeper need to connect with the real world. Once we make that connection with people, you will have a ball rolling with such momentum that few barriers can stop.
4

Joel Salatin, owner of Polyface Farms in Swoope, VA, came and spoke at the Clifton Center on Friday night. I refer to him loosely as my "hero." As a person he combines the two attributes that I value in myself and am constantly trying to strengthen: storytelling and creativity. He excels in both of these areas. With storytelling, he is able to rope in an audience as he weaves country humor and agricultural stories together with libertarian ideology. His timing and presentation is on target as he expounds the critical situation of the American food system and culture. I took 3 pages of notes on a 40 minute lecture even after reading the majority of the literature he has written. It was an awesome experience to put all of the pieces together. My experience was put into perspective when a few friends brought up some valid points about underlying sexism and unrealistic demands on the system, the latter I had noticed myself in the Q and A session.

The second attribute, creativity, is used in this context as the ability to see multiple perspectives of an item or situation and create something efficient and effectual. I like to refer to this as MacGyver Critical Thinking. In reading about Mr. Salatin, you find this creativity in creating his animal shelters and mobiles, his intensive management grazing system and his perspectives on marketing and sales. To me, this creativity is what makes agriculture fun as you constantly try to solve problems with the plants, to build new shelters and developing a more sustainable system. I wish that I could pass this type of critical thinking onto the children in my classroom but can't get much farther than the idea of smashing old kitchen appliances on the floor and telling them to make something awesome when I think of how many students I have in a classroom and what would be deemed acceptable. I might be on the cusp with the appliances too.

5

The seeds have been ordered. I debated where to order them from based on organics, price, locality, quantity and variety. I ended up selling out and ordering from Burgess, the cheapest, rationalizing that I would give away more vegetables and feel better because I paid less for the seeds. You can rationalize anything when you only argue with yourself. I have saved a massive amount and variety of seeds from last year which left me with these newbies for this year:

Horseradish Root

Summer Squash Variety Pack

Butternut Squash

Heirloom Tomato Mix

Kentucky Wonder Bean

Grand Duke Kohlrabi (thanks for the introduction friends from Portland)

30 White Onion Sets

30 Yellow Onion Sets

Luffa Gourd

Hales Best Melon (Cantaloupe)

Flat Dutch Cabbage

Blackeyed Peas (with the hopes to make my mom's awesome soup with all local ingredients)

Meanwhile the garlic is blasting, brussel sprouts are budding, kale and matsoi tatsoi leafing and blackberries itching to send out new canes.