by Briscoe White | Nov 25, 2009 | Exploring, Inspiration, Miscellaneous |
One of our neighbors, Berkley Plantation claims to be the site of the very first Thanksgiving feast between Native Americans and some most thankful settlers. Jamestown is about 20 miles downriver; needless to say our farm is located in a historical area, even before English settlers arrived, the banks of this river were heavily populated. It is a wide and fertile river valley with plenty of good soil for growing; and so has attracted farmers for thousands of years. We are here now, and so have plenty to be thankful for.
Being familiar with local history, and being neighbors, we have always believed Berkley as the sight of the first American Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims and their Native benefactors must have had a mighty fine feast also, just a few years after the one here in Charles City. The tradition still burns strong here, because every Thanksgiving, all our family members return to the farm for a few days of just appreciating being here together. Even the teenagers make every effort to be here, so it must be good!
Thanksgiving is the greatest holiday; gathering for a feast is a custom as old as humankind itself. Maybe because under all the hoopla and running around of our everyday lives, instinctively we know that all we need is food, family and a chance to enjoy both. Who had the first Thanksgiving feast? I wouldn’t know for sure, but what seems important is that the tradition lives on.
So, things will be crowded here on the farm, but that’s what we all came for! We at The Growers Exchange wish everyone a happy and thoughtful Thanksgiving. After all a lot of that feast came from the garden!
by Briscoe White | Nov 23, 2009 | Exploring, Gardening, Life on the Farm, Miscellaneous |
Tunnels are a greenhouse type structure used to protect high value crops such strawberries, raspberries, and cherries. A roof, raised beds, and drip irrigation allow growers to raise crops in a more controlled environment. Many times high tunnels pay for themselves by saving a crop from late a freeze, heavy rain, hail, etc. Tunnels were first used in Spain; then, later redesigned as High Tunnels in the UK. By making them higher and wider, tractors can be used in soil and bed preparation; rolling carts can be used for harvest, adding up to huge cost savings, greater reliability, and unblemished fruit.
Another way tunnels add crop value is with season extension. By closing doors at night, summer produce can be grown for several months earlier and later each season, using trapped solar heat. This allows a grower to produce more common vegetables such as squash and tomatoes earlier and later than those grown outdoors. For customers, supplies of fresh local produce are not interrupted by late freezes, storms, or rain. Pickers always have access, so things get to market as planned. And fresh fruit and vegetables are available locally for many more months than is possible with outdoor growing. And because plants are not exposed to uncontrolled moisture from rain and dew, pest and disease problems are minimal. In six years of growing strawberries in tunnels, we have never sprayed anything on them. This could be luck or it could be the results of covered growing, ether way, we eat strawberries from the field with out any cares about pesticide residue.
The Growers Exchange operates one acre of high tunnels. In them he grow a varying array of crops for the local market. We were the first in Virginia to use high tunnels, they are used widely in areas north of us, but are just catching on here. Supplying local farmer markets, super markets, and CSA’s, we grow strawberries, selected seasonal vegetables, and cut flowers. The Growers Exchange ships plants all over the U.S.; but because we are also a farm, we feel strongly about being apart of to “ loca-vore” movement. Our high tunnels allow us to be a reliable supplier with only top quality produce, with out that roof we are vulnerable to anything the weather sends our way. Tunnels can and do get knocked down sometimes, but for the most part have allowed us to grow thing not possible with out them. We see them a very important tool in securing local sources, allowing local growers to compete with the reliability of grocery stores.
Learn more about high tunnels..
by Briscoe White | Nov 16, 2009 | Exploring, Life on the Farm, Miscellaneous |
It wasn’t so sweet yesterday morning, because something upset the skunk passing outside our office and it let go! I don’t know your experience with being skunked; they vary with how much spray gets you. Fortunately, we had an indirect hit, but close enough to drive the office staff to the greenhouse for an inventory check. Skunk smell is so powerful, it can tear eyes through walls. Our office was unusable because the acid air would make your eyes cry a river. Oh, did I mention, we didn’t have water?
Having started the morning in the greenhouse, I learned of the skunk problem only when I found I was expected to not only make it better somehow, but actually find out all the ‘where’s and why’s’ of how such an awful thing happened. Deciding it would be an easy trail to follow, my nose led the way.
Passing the shop, someone yelled out that the skunk had been to the henhouse, leaving only shells of yesterday’s eggs. And sure enough he had, but had not sprayed the henhouse. The odor way everywhere and was hard to pinpoint because my nose was cauterized to all but a burning acid smell. But, I knew the skunk had passed by and sure enough it was the last dog, whose kennel the skunk confidently walked by. And even though he is an old dog, and wise to the ways of the farm, he just couldn’t let that skunk go by that close unchallenged. He wore the proof in like an aura all around him.
So, life here has it’s challenges, I did make the office better – we ran some fans when the power came on, hosed the kennel, and doused the dog in the skunk smell remover, which really just makes them bearable. A swim in the river for the dog, and the skunk smell’s epicenter was neutralized and our office soon became it’s old cozy self and life went back to normal. The dog will bear a faint skunk odor when damp even two months from now, but will be bearable to humans, when dry, in a few days. Just another day in the country.
by Briscoe White | Nov 10, 2009 | Exploring, Life on the Farm, Miscellaneous |
After blogging about my spade, I had a little inspiration and made a “still life” photo of my old favorite spade, my backup spade and some fruits of our fall labors. After working in a greenhouse all day, you would think I’ve had enough plant time. Some days, that is true, but every fall I collect seeds of trees I want growing on our farm. Some are planted immediately, with a spade, and others are grown for a year in our nursery before being planted the following winter. The spade and I plant a lot of trees each year.
So, the photo below is a shot of the back of my car the way it looks each fall. Bags and buckets of seeds in the early fall, transitioning to bare root trees, shrubs, and perennials as winter begins. Anywhere a clump of plants have overgrown, I am quick to dig and divide, bringing the extras to plant out on the farm. Tree seedlings are free from many yards, and the spade can gently lift them out of the ground, and since they are dormant, never know they have been moved.
I guess the title of the picture could be “still life of a spade and some of it’s winter chores” Can any one identify some of my collection?
by Briscoe White | Nov 5, 2009 | Basics, Gardening |
Here it is a rainy, kind of nasty day outside; a Sunday and I had hoped to work on my latest yard project: a little rock wall and 6 steps on my woodland path garden. The neighborhood I live in was first built in the 1920’s and the builder used my lot to bury the debris of the several houses he built here. What was considered leftovers in 1920 are what any gardener today would consider treasures. Our town is built on granite, so cobblestones and curbstone of early Richmond roadways were built out of cheap and plentiful granite blocks of all sizes. My supply seems endless, no matter how many are actually buried there. I am limited by the time and effort it takes to excavate and relocate the blocks.
Whatever the task I am working on, transplanting to excavating rocks, I always have one tool with me. I have a box with all of my cool little garden helpers. Most have been gifts and are sentimental as well as practical. But there is one tool I would feel truly handicapped with out. That one indispensable tool to me is the plain old short handled spade. The difference between a spade and a shovel is that the spade is a cutting tool. It is only marginally successful at cleaning loose dirt from a hole. That lowly task is best left to the shovel; which it is very good at that job! No, the spade is a specialist that cleanly cuts the soil more like a knife than a shovel.
I have several spades, and can proudly claim to have broken in the act of gardening, several of the more famous imported brands of very handsome spades. The one I will never wear out began its gardening career long before me. Nothing fancy, just built to last: a circa 1950 True Temper garden spade, available at any self respecting hardware store. With a real Ash handle and good old American made steel. Between the gardener I inherited it from and myself, it has dug and planted just about anything imaginable. And even though it is a rainy day, the spade and I did manage to slip a few Ajuga out of some Mondo Grass and plant it in the new rock garden.
And once again the spade was proven in invaluable garden tool. With a cutting tool I can slip a few plants out of the ground, plant a tree, or dig up a huge rock. Sometimes I do switch to a shovel, but only to clean away loose soil. So the spade can get back to work.
