My Fingers Hurt!

Beautiful day on the farm y’all!  Low 70’s, sunny with a light breeze.  We are doing our best to enjoy it while we can. After a morning spent picking daffodils and tulips, we enjoyed some succulent leftover ribs for lunch (see Dylan’s post on beef and flowers).  But farming isn’t all flowers and sunshine.

It's Always Sunny in My Room

For four glorious hours, Steph and I picked rocks out of the Abyss (one of our seven fields, which includes our new property, official as of yesterday).  As most of you know, rocks provide no nutritional value to plants, displace organic matter in the soil and basically suck in general- except when they’re at the British Natural History Museum.  The last time I picked rocks out of a field was in 8^th grade for a friend’s parents in Mazomanie, Wisconsin.  I vaguely remember coming out $20 richer, but I will never again put baby oil on my skin before spending an afternoon in the sun. 

I didn’t burn my skin off this time, but my fingers hurt!  Digging those SOB’s out of hardened soil is no fun.  Steph and I passed the time quoting our favorite movies, discussing our shared passion and strange satisfaction that is gained by throwing and talking to the rocks – we went a little delusional at times.  We piled up anything bigger than the size of a golf ball, then took the Cushman around to collect them and finally dumped them into the ever-growing rock piles around the fields.  There will be pictures to come, but I can barely type, let alone walk and take pictures of rocks; I’m sure you understand.

Beef and Flowers

Good Morning America,
I would like to start off my blog post today with a SHOUT OUT to Wade Caslin of Wades Custom Meats and Processing. Wade is a life-long butcher and a member of the whipstone family. If anyone out there has meat they need processed or animals to be slaughtered, Wade is your man.
For dinner last night we indulged in some big beefy beef short ribs. THey came from a grass-fed beef that we purchased with wade, which we then feed out with corn for the last couple months before the slaughter. This is our personal preference for taste, and when one finishes off a beef with corn, you get that yummy marbeling and fatty texture. they were some seriously good eating. i browned them in the cast iron, braised them in a  yummy braising liquid, and once the meat starts to fall off the bone, i finished them on the grill. it was so good.

And now for the flowers. There has been a lot of expanding and experimenting with fowers at the farm, especially within the last couple years. As a result, we have a variety of flowers blooming now, between the green house and the field, and man are they beautiful. It is tricky to create a market for flowers, or veggies for that matter, early in the spring before the farmers market or the CSA starts. Shanti has been posting up at our csa pickup location on tuesday afternoons with flowers, eggs, and dried chiles. and maybe, as we have more and more produce earlier in the year, we can start to develop a viable spring market. FLowers: Ranunkulous, daffodils, tulips. Chiles: dried and dried smoked chilepenos, jalapenos, habaneros, sugar chiles, chile de arbol, cayanne, (theres more and my spelling is terrible, but i have to go to work!)

Real Quick; transplanted brassicas yesterday, which is a plant family that includes broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and lots more. our cauliflower froze when the plant starts were put outside, so we were only able to scrounge two beds worth, but there are five beds of broccoli and five beds of cabbage. Drip tape, sand bags, row cover... and pretty soon those little, yellowish, not so healthy looking transplants will turn into big beautiful green plants. 

Ok America, it is 8 A.M and i am officially late for work, but i had to get the word out to my readers. This is the kohlrabi king, signing off. Good day and Good luck.

Peppahs!

Well, here it is, the world premier of a Stephani Freitag blog post. Emily's weeks of nagging finally paid off. From here on out, we are attempting to make one small post daily between the three of us. Wish us luck! It's easy to get lost in the farm.

The lovely Piedad, seeding away in the greenhouse.

Whipstone takes great pride in it's pepper production, due in most part to Cory's adoration of the spicy fruit. It was almost two weeks ago now that Emily, Piedad and I had a pepper seeding extravaganza in which we began the life of over 10,000 pepper plants. Some like it hot, and peppers are no exception. Last year, we wrapped the seed trays up for extra warmth. This year, however, we were able to make good use of our new, fancy, water-heated propagation tables.


These tables have small (1/2 inch in diameter) PVC piping running underneath a big piece of sheet metal. Heated water runs throughout the pipes and circles back to be reheated and used again. The hot water in the pipes heats the sheet metal and we place the seeded trays on top of the metal. We are able to set the water to whatever temperature we desire. This allows us to heat just the water and not the entire greenhouse, saving on gas usage (score!). A project for next year is to install solar water heaters;
no more gas for the greenhouse and less greenhouse gases!

Piping that runs under the sheet metal.

Reflective, insulated tents.

To beef 'em up even more, we built tents made of a reflective insulation in which we cover the tables at night (when sunlight is no longer available). This aids in decreasing heat loss. Bottom line: perfect new beginning for a little pepper plant. Just a few short days after seeding, with a dash of sunshine and a sprinkle of water, it's cotyledon city.

DEFINED: 

cot·y·le·don

  [kot-l-eed-n]

noun Botany .

Kind of boring, I know. I can just see the image from my BIO101 textbook in my head. The little leaves that live within in the seed and pop out of the coat at germination. The idea put me to sleep when lectured in school, but is actually pretty incredible to witness in the real world. It's a beautiful thing to look down 2 30-foot tables, and see them completely filled with little bitty pepper plants.

Corny biology textbook drawing.

Cotyledons with seed coat still attached.

Peppahs!

Pepper germination looks great this year, thanks in most part to our wonderfully efficient propagation tables. I can't wait until we get them in the ground in May so I can be eating delicious fresh guerritos come August. Yum.

The Storm: Act II

Hey America, Kohlrabi King here, bringing you inside the world of a whipstoner, giving you all the latest news, grooves, and gossip from the heart of Arizona's most visited city, yup, you guessed it, PAULDEN!
I have had some time to reflect since the last time we spoke, and i have come to a conclusion. Although the snow slowed us down some, we actually didn't get behind too bad. now is the time to plant some of our crops for a second time, and after checking some dates from last year, we were only a few days behind on our Greenhouse tomatoes. There was a point last season when we had planted some things too close together and our succession was not as fluid, which can be just as bad as being late. So, you could say the snow kept us on track, somewhat.


The other thing that is funny about the snow is this: plants that are established LOVE IT!! Its hard to be too upset after a storm, because everything is just so GREEN!! One chore we knocked off the list was cutting down all of the perennial growth on the asparagus plants so there is plenty of room and energy for those new shoots. And believe it or not, its already coming up!

Left: Dont worry America, this asparagus came up and then froze. there will be plenty of straight plants to come. 
Right: Then I ate it.

So as plants are popping out of the ground, rabbits are nibbling them the next day, and weeds get bigger. But it is an exciting time of year, and i dont know about you America, but i am ready for another kick-ass season from the people who bring you everything from Japanese Salad Turnips to Winter Squash to Sweet potatoes (new this year!) to Chilepenos to Swiss Chard. Until next time, this is your host, the king, signing out.

Dont be Ranonkulus

The day of the daffodil is upon us

The Storm of the Century: Act 1

The youngest son looks out, pondering the fate of his family's farm in this post-storm state.

ATTENTION: This is your author speaking. Real Name - Dylan Walsh O'Brien IV. Code Name - Kohlrabi King. Reporting from the remote desert regions of Paulden, Arizona. Current Location - Whipstone Farm, Latitude: N 34° 51' 33.0833", Longitude W 112° 29' 34.8173" Current Star Date: March 25, two thousand and twelve.


Dear America: Im sorry it has taken me a week to get this blog post out into the world, i am a procrastinator by nature. 

Just when we think we are on schedule...The instant we think that nothing can stop the massive-farm-momentum we have spent weeks building... The moment I think, "what could possibly slow us down now?" We have a snow storm, and the all-important field work is put on hold until the ground is dry enough to get the tractor back out there. We squeezed in a planting of carrots, green onions, and radishes before the squall hit, and rolled out burlap to help keep moisture in the soil for the seeds that take a long time to germinate. 
So with rubber boots on our feet, we set out to find other projects where mud wouldn't be a factor. there is always lots of seeding to be done for our future transplants. It is not an easy task managing the succession dates of our various crops; this being an ever-evolving process, we are forced to constantly rethink when, how, and where to plant and not plant. we keep plugging away on the new greenhouse, trying to get it ready for our early tomatoes. The sooner the better. There is a mountain of paperwork that seems to be growing bigger with each day, but at the peak is a new piece of property! If all goes well, we could be breaking ground in the next week or two.


SIDENOTE: I am passionate about my work on Whipstone Farm, and i strongly believe in the local food movement and providing people with fresh, local veggies. That said, there are times when i wished we didn't have to be so dependent on fuel or plastic, but these are the choices we make to provide as many people as possible with local produce in the system we have created. i certainly cannot imagine being at this scale of production without a tractor or plastic mulch or drip irrigation. In case you are wondering where i am going with this, here it is:

BROADFORK-A tool used to manually break up densely packed soil, like hardpan, to improve aeration and drainage. 


We have had issues with drainage from our raised beds in the big greenhouse, along with compaction and high clay content.  So i took our broadfork and loosened the soil in order to prepare them for our first planting of tomatoes! As i forked around for a few hours, sweating profusely and cussing at the hard spots, i felt a certain satisfaction from using this tool that came before the tiller, disc, or plow. It was nice to not feel bound to some form of fossil fuel. It was refreshing to connect with the more primitive roots of farming. I hope we can continue to try and reduce our carbon footprint, but i believe if this is the system we are apart of, it is a heck of a lot better to buy your food locally.

Multi-Purpose Sheep

The farm allows for a certain amount of escape from the current social climate (my life is vastly improved with the absence of Santorum and Romney infiltrating my psyche), but we cannot run from this global climate change!  This lazy Sunday marks day two of my Spring Training sunburn recovery; so imagine my surprise when we awoke to a fresh snow cover.  And it's still snowing, but not really sticking. Skip spring showers and go straight to frozen ground – fingers crossed our hearty transplants survive.

Babies!

Speaking of springtime, we have so many baby sheep.  Jude, our dashing resident ram, is doing some serious work.  He has a good dozen little ones baa-ing up a storm.  Nature is not always kind, however.  There have been at least two complicated births.  In both instances, the baby was twisted the wrong way inside the mother and its shoulder was caught.  Whoever was around and had the smallest hands – with the right experience – did their best to pull out the lamb, sometimes using a hay tie for leverage.  The first time, we thought the lamb was a stillborn, but the little guy – who was actually huge for a baby - pulled through and the momma took to it right away.  That bond that occurred after the birth made all the difference.

Momma still has a hard time standing, but two days later they are doing well.

Baaaaa

The second momma sheep was much smaller than the first making the birthing process more traumatic.  Because of this and whatever other processes of nature, she didn’t care for the lamb after it was born and, if not for her domesticators, wouldn’t have let it nurse.  In any case, the momma didn’t make it.  There was a slight chance the other new momma sheep would adopt the babe, but she had her hooves full with a growing boy.  Unable to nurse and unprotected from the harsh elements, the baby soon followed its momma.

Olive isn't pleased but Jasper enjoys kisses.

“And so it goes” - Kurt Vonnegut (and personal mantra of the Whipstone interns).  The new baby will start to vie for territory in six to eight months, just in time for the end of the year party where there will be numerous hungry mouths craving rack o’ knobbly-knees.

Knobble Knees - cute and delicious

The O(G)B Report

Dylan here, reporting from inside the farm kitchen on tuesday night, march 13th. Dinner report: travelling to india tonight for an exotic meal consisting of age old traditions as well as homeade BABA. steph is struggling with the fresh cheese and apparently emily has never rolled out a tortilla before. Sag Paneer is the main dish, with lots of yummy spinach we pulled from the greenhouse. Hand rolled Naan from the dough experts, pasta for the kids, and another feast commences.
And all the while we keep rolling on our farm preperations for the upcoming season. since the onions went in the ground, we have TeePeed (short for transplanting) beets, swiss chard, kale, kohlrabi, collards, peas, leeks, head lettuce, and a few varietys of early flowers. drip tape laid, sand bags tossed, row cover down, call it done. that is, before the weeding begins, before the drip lines leak, before the gophers and rabbits eat all the plants, and before the highly anticipated day of harvest arrives.
We direct seeded some cold hardy crops as well, some of which already decided to pop out of the soil. Turnips, bok choy, tatsoi, dill, salad mix, and arugala have germinated, and if all goes well for the next six weeks, our csa will be recieving the fruits of our labor.

NEWS FLASH: THIS JUST IN... Whipstone Farm is in possesion of some beautiful bunched flowers, hailing from planet Ranunculus.

Cebollas!

Over the past few days we have transplanted about fifteen beds of onions.  These guys are quite hardy, so they are often one of the first vegetables to go into the ground and they are only planted once a season.  Some onions will be harvested as spring onions in a couple of months.  The rest will get picked in August/September, after they spend the summer growing into delicious cooking ingredients and tear generators.

Two of the onion varietals were planted by hand.  This is quite the labor-intensive process as each bed contains four rows of plants, planted about three inches apart.  Luckily, we utilized the Prescott College students that visited the farm for one of their classes yesterday and managed to finish the process relatively quick.  The rest of the planting can be done using a transplanter, which is pulled behind the tractor.

Stix ready to plant some Amaryllidaceae

Two people sit in the back of the transplanter and stick the plants into holes made by a spikey wheel.  For these onions, we did three rows per bed and there is less user error in the spacing thanks to the spikes.  This is an easier operation as there is less bending and overall body movement - you are sitting after all.  However, it takes more concentration to keep up with the tractor.

Steph cleaning mud off the spikes on the trasplanter

After throwing some pungent fertilizer on the newly planted beds, the last step of the process is to lay irrigation. At Whipstone, we use drip tape to ensure maximum watering efficiency; it virtually eliminates evaporation and is easy to use.  Rubber hoses are laid between each row (usually two per bed) and attached to a master hose that runs along the heads of the beds.  The drip tape is secured into the ground with staples for when that high desert wind picks up speed.

Planted onion beds with drip tape

Wisenheimer: Defined

wis·en·heim·er/ˈwīzənˌhīmər/

Noun:

A person who behaves in an irritatingly smug or arrogant fashion, typically by making clever remarks and displaying their knowledge. Greetings from the farm!  Let’s start with some background… The players! Cory and Shanti are the owners of Whipstone Farm.  They have three kids: Cooper, 5, and the twins, Olive and Jasper, 2.   They are very animated and adorable, with never a dull moment between the three.  We have four interns.  Let's begin with Dylan OB. This is Dylan's second summer interning and forth visit to Whipstone.  After his Environmental Internship through Eckerd College in 2008, Dylan couldn't deny the call of the farm.  Stephani (Our Gal) Friday is also in her second summer at Whipstone.  She attributes her discovery of Whipstone to Marta Weber and thanks her lucky stars each day for the serendipity of it all.  Steph decided to invite her high school bud, E Stix, to join the organized chaos.  She gladly accepted the offer, and despite some very localized sunburns, hasn't looked back.  Our fourth intern will live in one of the two trailers next to the house.  There’s also Julio who works every weekday, Piedad appears weekly, and we’ll have many more seasonal workers helping out come May. We hope this provides a sufficient picture of the players at Whipstone Farm so in the future you will be able to imagine each of us toiling over the soil, as we plan to illustrate in this blog.  Stay tuned for farm updates, garden hints, locally sourced recipes and entertaining anecdotes from people with no other contact to the outside world.