Hard Work and Preparing for Aquaponic Greenhouse

It has been an extremely busy week! I've been running back and forth on the farm, planting, weeding, switching irrigation lines, and putting in some infrastructure projects for the coming season. I'm pretty exhausted and in just a few minutes I've off to the Cherry Street Farmers' Market Board Meeting!

My favorite part is that I can feel myself falling back into my comfort zone on the farm. I feel like I am part of the greater organism now. Plus the weather has been just gorgeous. 

I'll let the photos speak for themselves. Here is the oat cover crop where my fall crops will be going. I'd love to bale some of it for mulch too if I knew somebody with a square baler. 

Here are the tomatoes and peppers and eggplant, freshly cultivated and hand weeded. It is my favorite time to take photos of the plants, when they look and neat and clean. Its funny, they are even bigger than this now and that photo is only a couple of days old. Plants grow fast this time of year.  

I've wired the "reefer" back in so that I have a walk-in cooler once I start harvesting. It is amazing. Special thanks to my good friend, Ely DesJardins for applying his HVAC knowledge to hook the thing up for me back in 2009. 

My dad graciously let me borrow his masonry trailer for a while so that I can "plaster" the fish tank in the greenhouse. I've been reading about a method call ferrocement which uses a 2:1 sand/ Type S mortar troweled into plaster lath. It is supposed to be high strength, waterproof, and flexible. It is even used to build boat hulls! I think I will use the same material for the grow beds. It seems like a cheap, light, and strong alternative to forming and pouring concrete. 

This last photo here is the trencher used to trench out the plumbing and electrical for the greenhouse and reefer. Its called a Dingo, and it is an awesome labor saver.

Bootstrap Farm is Becoming a CSA Farm!

The results of the survey were terrific, people really want to be part of a Bootstrap Farm CSA! 45% of you said that "establishing a relationship with your farmer and feeling like an important part of the farm" was your number one priority. That made me feel pretty special! 98% said that you would be satisfied with the CSA whether it was Certified Organic or not, as long as it was all natural. Thank you all for your kind and supportive words. Really, thank you.

It is comforting and uplifting to think that my customers are behind me, willing to pledge their support for me and Bootstrap Farm. That support gives me encouragement to focus on my vision of an elegant and innovative way to grow food. The primary aim of Bootstrap Farm is human-scale and inspiring agriculture.

It is April and since I decided to farm part-time in the Spring, I will not be at Cherry Street Market until June. In June I'll have potatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, tomatoes and some callaloo. There will be more crops after that as we transition into the CSA. In the meantime, I get to build a greenhouse and plan the planting calendar for the fall. It will be diverse and interesting!

The Fall CSA will start the first week of September and continue until the first week of December. We will enjoy the the last gasp of the summer veggies as the weather cools off. Then the winter storage vegetables will start, as well as the super sweet winter greens. Spinach tastes best in the fall weather, and so do many other items; carrots and broccoli immediately come to mind. I suspect some pumpkins should be involved. That might be a good incentive to get people to come visit me at the farm. Maybe some folks would like a green bean U-pick to can for the winter? I will have my greenhouse built by then and can do some indoor growing. I like it when people come and visit the farm.

Here is a photo of welding the stump jumper back on the brush hog. I got the brush hog for free because it needed so much work. It works now, but I would rather have some American Blackbelly sheep eating this grass instead of mowing it! It is so hard to decide what to buy and what not to buy when there is only a little money and a whole lot of inspiration. Someday, I'll get some beautiful sheep to eat the grass. Then we'll eat them.

Considering Community Supported Agriculture

Please take the CSA Survey and tell me what you would like to see in a Bootstrap Farm CSA

The Community Supported Agriculture model is basically built on the idea that when a customer pre-pays for their season of produce, it relieves the farmer of the burden and worry of marketing said produce. It allows the farmer to concentrate on, well, farming! That is my favorite part and is most important part to me. It would be implemented, initially, by delivering weekly boxes of produce to CSA customers at the Cherry Street Farmers' Market on Saturdays. The boxes would be ample and diverse. The CSA customers should feel like they are an important part of the farm, because by trusting in the farm and its management, they are helping it be more effective and successful in fulfilling the need for sustainably-grown food in our community.The CSA model also expects a certain amount of trust and deference from the customer, to allow the farmer the freedom to grow the crops that are suited for his/her micro-environment during the seasons which they are suitable to grow.

The last two years were a time for me to "cover crop my soul." It was a time to consider what I really need and want from my farm, in order to be happy and best serve my community. This year is a time for me to re-build a business plan around my needs and wants, while farming part-time. This is my time to build the foundation of ideas and practices for Bootstrap Farm. I have learned that I can't do it all by myselI and I don't want to. I've learned that farming is fundamentally a community-supported enterprise. My customers need me and I need them. The same is true for my vendors, other farmers, my farmers' market, and the broader community of Tulsa and especially Yale, OK where my farm is located.

When considering what I envision Bootstrap Farm to be, I have basicaly three options before me. Retail, Wholesale, and Community Suported Agriculture (CSA). Retail is wonderful because you get the highest margin for your products, but retail demand is very difficult to predict and is very limited in quantity. A person can only visit so many farmers' markets and still have time to grow produce. Wholesale is great too because you can move large volumes of product reliably, unfortunately the margin is razor thin dealing with large retail grocery chains, and dealing with individual restaurants often isn't worth the cost of delivering. Even worse, I hate haggling prices with national buyers that sit at desks and have never tasted my cantaloupe! I don't think it is worth it for me. That leaves CSAs. CSAs are a funny system because on paper they propose to make farming a lower-stress environment, but on the other hand the type of person who farms is someone who takes personal responsbility very seriously. Think about it, we're the only people that still consider a handshake a binding contract! The CSA income goes on our books as "Unearned Income," which is a liability. So basically, that means I treat it as a loan, and I don't like owing people money.

For example, in 2010, when my partner left and I had to shut down the farm, we had obligated ourselves to 12 CSA members. We had already spent the money on seeds and supplies, that I didn't have the will or liquidity to use that year so I just had to save them. I was essentially given the choice of either letting down my CSA members or paying them back. They had already signed forms saying that the were "sharing" the risk of farming with Bootstrap Farm, but that is meant to cover crop failures, hailstorms, dry wells, you know, agricultural disasters - not domestic disasters. In retrospect I see now that domestic disasters are an unavoidable risk of this high stress and low paying career. At any rate, I knew that paying them back was the right thing to do. So I did. It took me six months working off the farm, and two payments cycles, but I repaid everyone for the money they had entrusted in Bootstrap Farm. One member, who I will never forget, told me that I should just keep the money and sign her up for a CSA when I was ready. Thank You Jessica!

So I think it is clear that I am excited about the idea of a CSA farm, but worried about the liability of owing people money. Other farmers, who have had CSAs have also described the feeling of having to claw your way out of debt to your CSA members all season as a very unpleasant one. I think it would be a very positive way to move my products, however as long as I kept focused on the community aspect. I suspect that people really value the opportunity to help a local farm, potentially even more than they value the products it produces. If that were the case, they would not want the farmer to be worried about money, instead they would have prepaid their money for precisely the opposite reason. If I goes the CSA route, I hope I can find customers who think like that. I know I found one already.

If you have time CSA Survey would help me decide what is best for the farm!

With Help, the Potatoes are Planted

We finally got around to start planting, after a fairly late start and some
expensive tractor problems. I did a quick facebook invite and was surprised to have overwhelming support. My friends actually want to come hang out with me on the farm! This may be because I bribed them with free food and drinks. We managed to put 150 lbs Yukon Gold, and 150 lbs of Russet seed

potatoes in the ground, and had a pretty good time doing it.

It was pretty awesome work, as we rotated between different chores of cutting potatoes, laying them out on the beds, and planting them, and pulling out drip tape. Switching tasks helps break the monotony.

Yesterday Christa joined me at the farm and helped too. We planted the remaining 150 lbs of Red Pontiacs seed potatoes, and then we put the transplants down for the first 1800 Texas Sweet Onions. She was faster than me and kept telling me to hurry up. I was like, "this is my farm, I'll work as slow as I want to!" Never had that happen before. We didn't bother irrigating the new transplants because it is supposed to rain today or tomorrow. I just bought 4 more cases of onions to plant too!

It feels really good to have such good friends and a supportive partner and I want to thank everybody that came to help! I really appreciate help, as it can otherwise get pretty lonely trying to farm all by oneself. Thank You!

Getting Ready to Plant

I've been really consumed with getting the house livable, and nearly got behind on the planting part of things! I've invited some friends out to help with my first planting this year. We'll be planting 6 beds of Onions and 6 beds of Irish Potatoes this Sunday. It might be a little ramshackle, because I don't actually have a transplanter. I will likely add some kind of furrower to my bedshaper so the rows are marked. If we don't get them all done, it will still be okay. I even disked up another field and seeded it in oats and vetch (that's what is in the broadcaster in the photo) I will be a good spot for some fall crops.

Look for my next post, I'm going to talk about exactly what kind of farm Bootstrap will be. Like I said, this year Bootstrap is a part-time engagement for me, and intended to be my opportunity to think about what I really want my business to look like in the future. Basically how much Retail, Wholesale, or CSAs do I want. Or do I just want to pick one and get serious about that?

Back in Business 2012

Bootstrap Farm is coming back! I have been away from my dream now for two full years, and it is time to put the boots back in the dirt. I've informed the Cherry Street Farmers' Market Board that I will no longer be Assistant Market Manager next year, that I will instead be at the market representing my farm and selling my wonderful veggies.

This has been a erratic couple of years, trying to "cover crop my soul". I've grown a lot, and I feel like I have a much better emotional foundation. I'm currently living in Tulsa and operating another business - Incredible Service. I work on coffee, tea, espresso, and water treatment systems. I love that too, so I'll be part time at Bootstrap Farm for a little while. I won't be the first farmer to have a "day job."

I have learned a few things over the last two years. I learned that I haven't been asking for help when I need it. I feel like I would be much farther along in my life if I had learned to ask for help when I need it. I've learned to put my thoughts away and listen to my feelings. I put some effort into it and finally came to the realization that my dream is to own an organic farm and grow great food for my community in novel and efficient ways, but I never wanted to do it alone. It was hard to admit that last part to myself. I wanted to believe that I could do it all by myself. I wanted to believe that I'd fashion the whole thing out of straw if I had too. It turns out that I can't do it by myself and it was pathological to think so.

2012 will be my year to reconnect with the land, my customers, and my farmer self. I will have a modest, habitable home on the farm by March. I will grow a few low maintenance crops in medium quantities for the farmer's market and wholesale. I will produce a business plan for the complete operation and determine how much investment I want. I will find the help I need, from my customers, my friends, my community. This may mean technical help, physical help, financial help, and of course encouragement. I will involve the broader community in a meaningful and authentic way, because I can't do it alone.

Assistant Market Manager

I've been the assistant market manager now since April 2010 and I love my job.I'm just now finishing my second year in this position. I love being able to see all the customers and all the vendors every week. I decided to join the market in this capacity because I couldn't afford to operate my farm in full capacity, and because I knew I was the only person who had the commitment to get up at 3:30 AM to close the street every Saturday morning, regardless of what other priorities I had. The Cherry Street Farmer's Market is what distinguishes Tulsa from other cities on the map. It is what makes us extraordinary. Do you realize that the Cherry Street Farmers' Market is as big or bigger than the San Francisco City Center Farmers' Market? That is quite the appellation for a Midwestern city. There are very few people who have the focus and acumen to prioritize market on Saturday above all else. This has been a strain on my life and on the people I love. What would you think if your wife, husband, girlfriend, or boyfriend refused to "go out" on Friday nights? That's me, Mr. "No Life" on Fridays because of my commitment to the market. I go to bed at 8:30 PM. Bummer.

There is a lot of pressure on the Assistant Market Manager. If I were late to work, the vendors would go ahead and set up their tents in the middle of 15th Street without the appropriate safety systems. These are farmers after all, they don't stop for anything. I've seen some pretty crazy things in the early morning. Many of the people driving at in the early hours of Saturday morning are drunk or strung out. One time, I even had a guy in a clown mask pull a kitchen knife on me at 5:00 AM. To him is was a joke, really. It wasn't very funny to me. Well, next Saturday is the last market of the season and I hope everybody has enjoyed the season. I certainly have. Please come down to the market and say hi one last time before the market is over!