Archives for July 2015

As the summer chugs on here, I have a laundry list of things that I would like to share with you this week. So let’s start with some financial prepayment option. A reminder that we are running our Prepayment option for the next month. Pretty simple setup, prepay $1,000 to your farm account and we will add a $100 bonus to your account as a thank you for your support.

Many years ago we bid adios to the old school CSA model of having to pay for an entire season up front. It actually is easier for us to budget as well as for you to budget not having all the income for the year at one time. With that said, it helps us in our planning to know how many people we need to feed. And the prepayment options offers us a little snapshot of how much food we will need to grow. Email support@SkarsgardFarms.com for more info.

From the field. Things are looking good despite all the heavy rains. More weeding than usual, but we will dig out of it. Late July is always an interesting time for me to wrap my mind around. You see, in farming you have to be planting your cool season plants during the hottest time of the year. And conversely, you have to plant your tomatoes in January. You cannot miss these planting windows or you will miss the window to plant them in the fields and get a crop. So we are busy getting lettuce, greens, and other cool season crops into the greenhouse and ready for a transplant by mid-August.

From your garden: Fall in New Mexico is the Best time for planting perennial plants without a doubt. Warm days and mild nights make for a nice welcoming committee as plants hit the ground. The spring is too manic and windy with crazy temperature swings. We just do not see those in the fall. So, get your pencils out and think about any new plants/trees your casa might need. Plants will be established by the winter and then take off next spring.

From the (pig) pen. When I was a little tike (and less hairy), my family would get a cow share from a rancher near Chama. We would then fill the freezer in the fall for a winter full of food and basketball games. This filling of the freezer was a norm. It was just what we did.

But over the years, 24 hour box stores have made getting meats so available that now many people shop for meats in their PJs. The thought of that alone probably makes some cave(wo)man roll over in their grave. Now I am not saying we all need to go back to hunting like our favorite ancestor, Kerflapjack, but I think we are missing an opportunity to have a great food experience.

Sure this filling of the freezer was/is not as convenient as wearing slippers to shop for meat, but it made our family be more creative in planning our meals. And with creativity comes the opportunity for family interaction and fun. Just like the CSA pushes your comfort levels with produce (what the heck is a sweet turnip?), I am seeing that we can begin to do this more with meats.

Quick example, roasts. I can admit that I have not cooked many roasts in my life. Recently, I pushed my comfort boundary and decided to try one. Not in the slow cooker, but on the grill which I had never done. I was nervous that I would make beef jerky. But I didn’t. It was amazing. Dry rub, on the grill at 220 degrees for a couple hours, thinly sliced with green chile sauce on fresh bread. Tough to beat.

So here is where I see some new offerings coming your way. This late summer and fall, I want to put some “rancher packs” together so that you can get amazing value on the highest quality meats around. If you can use your freezer instead of us having to use our freezer, then there is money to be saved for you. And as I mentioned, I think there is an experience to bring back to the kitchen.

Farmer Monte

First off this wet morning, members’ feedback on leasing land. I got a few emails that brought up the issue of how we get leased land certified Organic. It is an important question and one that I left out of the newsletter last week. Honestly, I think that I left it out because I take it for granted. Currently, all of the land that we own and lease, we have certified Organic. And this will not change moving forward. We are dedicated to this.

We act as stewards of the land on all of our fields whether they are owned or leased. We do not treat our leased land as rented mules and our owned fields with baby gloves. All of our dirt gets the same TLC of cover crops, Organic fish fertilizers, and crop rotation. We do this because it is good for the land, but also because when you take care of the land, the land takes care of you and your crops.

Sometimes I hear people say “But you’re Organic, I thought that meant you do not use fertilizers??” This could not be further from the truth. We just use ground up fish and kelp and not powders from a warehouse.

Farming by its nature is a mining activity. It is not very sexy to think of it like that, but we mine vitamins, water, and nutrients from our fields every harvest. When you stand next to a pallet of tomatoes, you realize the nutrients that we are sending from our fields to your kitchen. Those nutrients must be returned to the soil or the system would collapse.

Now on to the rains and the farm. Without fail, whenever the rains come to town, I have folks ask me if I am so happy for the rains? And my answer is probably not what they expect—no, I am not all that happy with getting monsoons on the farm. Before you yell at me, let me explain why this is the case.

Our farm/your farm is not a dryland farm. The family farm in North Dakota is a dryland farm. “Wait Farmer M., what the heck is a dryland farm? You’re losing me dude.” Oh yes, dryland means that the farm has no supplemental irrigation. Whatever Mother Nature gives you from the sky is all you get. For better or for worse.

On our farm, we have irrigation wells to water the crops. We do not rely on rain for irrigation. When our plants need a drink, we turn on the well and water them. So what does the rain do then if it does not water crops?

Well, it creates mud and gets the plants wet and you know what plants hate? Getting wet. Fungi and bacteria need moisture to thrive. Most plant pathogens are either a fungus or a bacteria (or a gopher). So when your plants get too wet, you keep your eyes peeled for sick plants. And that is where we are at now. The rains have wreaked havoc on our summer squash and are making carrot harvests feel more like we are harvesting rice.

Thankfully all of our tomatoes are in protective greenhouses to keep this water off their backs. If it was not for these greenhouses I would think that we would lose our whole tomato crop. My outdoor tomatoes at my house look like heck from all the moisture. So if your garden does too, this is why.

With all of that said, the rains are great at cooling off the earth like a giant swamp cooler. So our fall plantings of lettuce, roots, etc will be almost a month earlier than a typical hot dry summer. That is the lemonade we are trying to make at least.

The rains are also wonderful for quenching a dry earth. The Southwest needs it and so I take my own issues of our waterlogged farm with a grain of salt. I mean after all we signed up to farm, no one forces us to do it. And all of the weather craziness keeps Mother Nature mysterious. Which is another thing that I love about it. Never a dull moment.

So that is a nutshell of how the rains are affecting your farm. All in all I think we are in a pretty good place, but definitely not all roses. We are getting some thorns too.

Farmer Monte