Thursday, February 18, 2010

Sometimes it takes a village ...

... to start 7000 tomatoes. Due to lack of Greenhouse space, 4000 of this years tomato plants will be started by our friend Eli with Eli's Green's ( elisgreens.com ). Eli has the beefsteaks and all the cherries and romas will be started in town. All the eventual plants will be grown and harvested on the farm. Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes, with any luck the first harvests will be in late June.

Monday, February 15, 2010

More Chickens!
Just placed an order for another three dozen hens. This will guarantee eggs @ the market in mid summer, but CSA members get them all season long.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

The Umpa-Lumpa and more growth

While the weather continues to be forecast by Bing Crosby, we are still starting more veggies for spring. Three snow storms have slowed down our usual fence mending days of February on the farm, but in town we are expanding and improving. I just built a miniature greenhouse / cold frame (the Umpa-Lumpa) to allow for a few more square feet of plants. The additional space has allowed me to move the hot peppers, and basil out of the main greenhouse, as well as given room for additional cold crops to be started. Today I started several hundred each of bok choi, celery, chard, tuscan kale, and, appropriately, snow peas.

The Storm two weekends ago has delayed our first delivery of compost for the 2010 season, the storm this past weekend didn't help much either, and as I am writing this I am listening to a radio host discuss how the mid-Atlantic is about to get slammed again. This past weekends storm dropped over a foot on the farm, which still had several inches from the previous storm. All the same, we are expecting Frosty to pack up his toys and go home real soon, allowing us to continue with business as usual. The beauty of farming is the appreciation that nature always maintains. I rest assured that when the white stuff melts, and the straw bedding is pulled back, the carrots, beets, and onions that were planted in the fall will continue to be growing for the spring table.

Be Well

Sunday, February 7, 2010

less then two weeks to the first payment deadline.

The first payment deadline for the 2010 CSA is Feb 20th. We have had a huge show of support and have more households paid in full before the deadline, this year then ever. Shares remain available, but we expect to max out soon. If you are planning to sign up for this years CSA time is of the essence.

CSA FAQ re-post

As the deadline approaches these questions come up more and more often.

How do you sign up?


Please make all checks payable to Edible Old Dominion LLC
and mail to
Edible Old Dominion
2006 Farrand St.
Richmond Va. 23231

In this economy, or any other, cash talks. Though we are happy to hear from everyone who is interested, we start counting the members when the checks start showing up. One membership is paid in full as of 12.01.2009. The plan is to have a total of 40 members this year.

If I want office delivery do all members need to be whole share members?

No. It's the member count that we are looking for, the amount of bags we will be bringing. Those bags can be whole or half shares.

What is included in an average bag?

The goal is to have on average about 25 to 30 dollars worth of produce for each whole share bag per week. The produce is selected from what we will be bringing to market that week. Member shares are pulled first. Some of you may have seen us at markets this past season with only peppers, or a few other oddities on the table. That is because the production that week was only enough for the members. Our final delivery this past season was 1lb of Mixed Greens, 2 bundles of brocc raab, 2 bundles of kale, 3 bundles of swiss chard, and 3 bundles of radishes. Our Chickens only begin to lay towards the end of the season, so next years members would also be getting a half dozen eggs with that same bag. Half shares are literally half. Half share members receive eggs every other week.

Are you organic?

No. Organic is a government certification that takes three years to obtain and can cost several hundred, to several thousand dollars, to maintain. We do use organic methods. We never use synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides. My daughter runs through the fields on the farm. I want to be able to keep it that way.

Do you grow only Heirloom vegetables?

I wish. We are huge fans of biodiversity and use heirlooms whenever possible. The split this year will probably be 50 /50. Losing half of a tomato plants production can be hard when you are growing a couple in your backyard, when you have 800 plants of that variety it can bring you to your muddy knees.