Isaac decided to take pictures of the Farmer’s Market this morning. Here are a few:
They’re fun.
Again, : )
Apr30
Tag Archives: dry farming
Apr30
Flood, Flooding, Floodish
Last week a series of thunderstorms rolled through these parts of Arkansas and beyond. Tornadoes touched down further south across several states, the hardest hit being Mississippi and Alabama. Up here, it rained 10″ in 24 hours. The next day more rain fell, causing flash floods in NWA. On the farm, the rain washed down our footpath to our house, which is its natural draining pattern, and washed over my bed which was planted with carrots. It washed over it so much, that eventually cut channels through the bed, washing the soil into the onion bed. We tried to alleviate some of the damage by putting straw bales into the path of the water, but when thousands of gallons are running off of a large roof over a matter of hours, you just can’t compete. We tried, but it did no good. It was interesting talking to some of the farmer’s at the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market today, listening to their stories of what the rain washed away. One farmer said it washed his topsoil away. Another mentioned, how his topsoil didn’t leave his property, but that it had washed to the bottom of the hill. That’s something to think about, right. Your dirt. And how important it is. Treat it well.
Paul and I were standing at the windows watching the lightning
Lightning just struck and lit up the sky. You can kind of see how hard it's raining, or maybe it's just blurry
A result of the rain, 2"+ of water inside
This is the rain, day 1
The rain creating a little creek
Flooding the onions
Here is a link to the American Red Cross, to see ways you can help those who were affected by the tornadoes in the south this week.
Apr15
Arkansas DIY
Yesterday the gang was busy doing farm work and such, but broke for siesta to build a rain catch for the storm that was gong to hit in the evening. Now it isn’t a permanent system, but with the amount of rain forecasted, it was hard to pass up throwing something together to harvest rainwater.
The scene in the yard.
Alex, from York Pennsylvania.
Johnathan and Eric talking logistics.
Working out kinks.
The problem was how to keep it from falling over in the high winds.
E-town surveying the situation.
This is Shannon, also from York PA.
A side note, here are Alex and Shannon together. They left really early this morning. It rained cats and dogs last night, and they stayed in a tent…Hope yous guys (some Penn. speak) stayed dry. Happy trails, thanks for your help!
Today. I was out taking pictures of the “Take” and Rose B. volunteer extraordinaire was sticking her tounge out at me, I missed that but caught her laughing smile.
The “Take”. A little more than 200 gallons of rainwater!!!
A look at the finished project. Cinder blocks helped with weight and stability.
Rose B. and Eric (E-Town) pouring out rainwater out of another barrel to water some seeds just planted.
This is some Arkansas DIY in action!
Apr15
First CSA Customer
Kelly Mullhollan came by the other day to give Paul a check for his CSA share. Kelly and his partner Donna used to live on the farm and are excited that it is finally turning into a working farm. He saw Paul and Jonathan speak at and OMNI event on Campus about sustainable agriculture and committed to being the first customer that night. Thank you Kelly for supporting Northwest Arkansas Local Harvest and understanding the value in a local, sustainable form of agriculture.
Photo credits: Isaac Chapracki.
Apr14
It Gets Better
I have been receiving an overwhelming response to the blog as of late, which is nice. I’ve kept it for three years or so now and it has always done ok, but like I said, lately, WOW. Thanks! I just approved a comment this morning from a reader in India, complimenting me on my herbs and such. This person also keeps a blog so I clicked on it. If you want to see some stunning imagery, you should check out this link to Jugnoo farms.
In other news, we received two extra WWOOF’ers yesterday, Shannon and Alex from York Pennsylvania. They are only staying through today and leaving tomorrow morning. They arrived about 5pm yesterday, just enough time to take the tour and get ready for dinner. We all shared a lovely meal of soup and salad under the moon. The weather was just perfect for dinning outside. Our WWOOF’er Jason, from Brooklyn, surprised us all by making a lovely salad dressing. I was surprised because he doesn’t say much, so it was pleasant that he made it and like Santa Claus in the night this present was left on the dinner table. Thank you Jason.
Apr7
For Friday
Paul was asked by a professor at the University of Arkansas to give a presentation to his class on Friday. I feel silly not knowing the professor’s name (even though I’ve met him), or what class he teaches. I’m assuming it is a cultural anthropology class, because he showed them the movie Food Inc. and their discussions are focused on agriculture in the industrial age. Paul and Johnathon, (intern), have been working on a presentation for the class. The professor said that on a good day there are 200 students present. In other news, the CSA is comming along swimmingly. We had another “Know your Farmer” meeting at Arsaga’s on Mission and Corssover, giving a presentation to court new clients. This was the second one we’ve held and at each one we had people sign up and pay in full which is awesome. We have been getting a great response with this venture. I guess, like with anything, there are going to be those who are totally on board with the idea, because they believe in it, and there are those who need more convincing…and that’s America for you. BUT, everyone should get on the bus because it’s about to leave!
Sep19
It felt good
Synergy, in general, may be defined as two or more agents working together to produce a result not obtainable by any of the agents independently.
We had an unbelievable day today. Well, I cannot speak for Beth and Franchy, but to me it felt good. We finished what we started yesterday. We were widening a row by a few feet. That’s how Franchy had his accident : ) We pitch-forked the Bremuda grass up and then shook the soil from the roots. This morning we finished that chore. Franchy continued to work up the grass the next row over and finished it. Bet raked the first row to even it and we started planting more cilantro seed. It felt great getting dirt jammed under my fingernails. As Beth and I were scratching dirt over the holes we drilled with our fingers, Beth said “Scratching Mother Nature’s back”. How apt. It felt really good to have my hands massaging the warm soil. You should try it sometime. Then we watered in all the seeds. Good work team! We broke about 1:00pm for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a salad. Never had a meal tasted so good. I felt so exhausted and dehydrated. I had to sit still for a while because I had too much sun. I don’t know about the weather in your neck of the woods, but in my yard it’s in the high 80’s/low 90’s…it’s brutal out there come 12:30 pm. We took the rest of the day off. Still ore to do, but tomorrow is another day.
Sep17
Again…2010 Workshops
Click on this to view our upcoming 2010 workshops!
The Farm will be hosting a series of workshops that are all coming up for the Fall season. You don’t have to live here in Northwest Arkansas to attend. Tell your friends!
Sep17
WWOOF
Paul signed our farm up with an organization called: World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, or WWOOF. I added the link on the side of the page so you can check out the details. Today, Paul i going to pick up our first WWOOF volunteer, Franchy. Should be interesting. He will work 4-5 hours a day for us, which if it works out will be HUGE! There is so much going on right now. Even though we have had the most awesome volunteer base, there are still chores to be done. With our shift in focus to planting fall crops, there is the issue of pulling out summer crops and prepping those spaces for planting. It is such hard work, I thank my volunteers with my whole heart. And I have a mess of chores for you come tomorrow. Please check out the WWOOF link, it’s a really great organization. I first read about it in Mother Earth News, then was told about it again by a young woman in the organic gardening club on campus. Now, a bite, Franchy will be here today. It’s exciting.
Sep12
Excuse me, where are my manners
We have had a wave of exceptional help lately that has been a positive force in this whole circus. I can say “Thank you” until I’m blue in the face at them, I still don’t think it would do justice to the amount of appreciation that Paul and I have. Thank you again though, for good measure.
Everybody, meet Rose.
She has been a tremendous help for us these past few weeks.
This particular day we harvested the seeds from my spring cilantro and seeded a new bed with them.
Everybody, meet Beth.
Also a big help. Beth is interning on the farm.
Everybody, meet our county fair Grand Champion!
Everybody, meet our first place winner!
Now in this picture are more volunteers, Jason and Jen. I don’t have better pictures of them, sorry Jen and Jason. They too are a great help. This is a picture of the work party today.
2greenthumbs's Weblog 