connecting with dc food growers at rooting dc

We love Rooting DC! As folks who've been involved in the urban agriculture movement, we so enjoyed connecting with old and new friends at the conference this year, and we're so glad that there is a free (!) food growing and food justice conference in the city.

Spencer and Liz did a 7x7 talk called "Planning and Planting for Continuous Harvest, and we got a couple requests to share our slides, so here's a link. Part of the idea behind a 7x7 talk is that you only have 7 minutes, and it was tough! Luckily, we talk fast.

We also dug the mushroom growing workshops led by Good Sense Farm and Mycosymbiotics. The most mind-blowing thing we learned was about experiments using parasitic mushrooms called cordyceps (see photo below) to create natural pesticides that might help save ash trees from emerald ash borers. Cool, huh?

Many thanks to the hardworking folks who make this conference happen every year!

starting seeds

The 2016 growing season has begun at Owl's Nest Farm! Out of a whirlwind of spreadsheets and seed catalogs our first tiny tomato and onion seedlings have emerged.

The tomatoes will end up in the hoophouse, where we hope to be harvesting Sungolds (and more) by May. We've also started onions early in order to avoid pest pressure later in the season.

The simple fact that these seeds grow into food never ceases to amaze us, and we're endlessly grateful.

We're grateful, too, to folks who have signed up for our CSA. With their early investment in the farm, we're able to buy seeds, potting soil, and supplies to grow great vegetables all season long. Thank you, shareholders.

All the info about our 2016 CSA options is here.

blizzard 2016: a farm adventure

The blizzard came during our first month on this land. 

We spent plenty of time hunkered down by the wood stove, but at regular intervals, we ventured out into the elements to prevent the collapse of our greenhouse and hoophouse. 

Luckily, the wind blew the snow right off the greenhouse, which prevented snow from piling up. On the other hand,  the wind pushed snow up, up, up and down onto the south side of the hoophouse over and over again until it settled in heavy drifts.

We learned it can be quite satisfying to dislodge a pile of snow and send it cascading into a mini-mountain below. In the interest of maintaining the structural integrity of our farm buildings, we brought on avalanches.

Then we headed inside to select tomato varieties that we'll plant in these very same spaces in not too many weeks.

And look! Our greenhouse and our hoophouse survived the storm.