Notes from the Field: December

Ahhh. The farm has finally come to a serious slow down; however, by no means does that mean we are shot of things to do at EarthDance. Through mid-November, the fields were still full of greens– lettuce, arugula, asian greens, radishes, turnips, kale, etc.

Thanksgiving CSA Shares were assembled for our friends and families. They were quite bountiful this year, featuring sweet potatoes, potatoes, greens, turnips, radishes, green tomatoes and more!  The high tunnel is full of cold, hardy greens like spinach and mustard greens, which we will continue to harvest throughout the winter.

Another major project we completed this Fall was the construction of a new greenhouse. Yahoo! The greenhouse will have electricity, water and a floor of finely ground gravel and landscape fabric.  She should be quite the looker by the time she’s done!

We have also been super busy setting up our multi-species perennial fruit tree planting.  After Mark Shepard, a large-scale permaculture farmer from Wisconsin, came and helped us lay out berms and swales to manage our water, we were left with a framework for the integration of fruit trees. Unlike a typical orchard, our fruit trees will be alley cropped through our fields in rows 8 ft apart, planted on contour. Trees will be sequenced as opposed to grouping species together. Picture a sequence like the following: Pear-Pawpaw-Pawpaw-Pear-Tart Cherry-Apple etc.  The sequencing of the trees is aimed at lowering the spread of disease from tree to tree.  This video gives some insight into our plan. The focus of our fruit trees will be both Pears/Asian Pears and Pawpaw, both of which are great candidates for organic production.  How exciting right!?

As we tie up the loose ends on the greenhouse and fruit trees, we look ahead to the many conferences that await:  Six Figure Farming in Columbia, Missouri Organic Association Conference in Springfield, and The National Young Farmers Conference in New York. We will have plenty to report on once we’re back!