STOGROW - The St. Olaf Student Farm

2009-08-25T06:53:00.000-07:00

STOGROW Farm- It’s a jungle out there…

Hey all! The summer is soon coming to a close- it’s already August- yikes! With the end of summer comes the beginning of fall- leaves changing, classes starting, harvest increasing. We started harvesting during July and have continued harvesting with an increase in pounds and variety of vegetables harvested. The first week harvesting included a few pounds of basil and mixed greens. At this point we are harvesting almost everything in the garden- squash, peppers, eggplant, carrots, beets, radishes, onions, peas, basil, green beans, and tomatoes. The only crops left are pumpkins and watermelons. The watermelons should be ready within the next few weeks and we’ll be leaving the pumpkins for harvesting a little later this fall.

Our tomatoes have just begun to turn red, after a long-awaited ripening. We watched the green tomatoes on the vine get bigger and bigger and still bigger and wondered if they would ever turn red or just stay green for the rest of eternity. Luckily, our tomatoes wanted to be picked and decided it was time to get on board with harvesting. Our figures show that we were harvesting tomatoes at the beginning of August last season, so our tomatoes are coming in much later than last year. However, this is beneficial to us in a couple different ways: Bon Appetit (St.Olaf’s catering company and our guaranteed buyer) has a greater demand for vegetables after the school year starts because of the arrival of students, which means the bigger the harvest after school starts, the better. Also, last growing season we were overwhelmed with the amount of tomatoes- we had planted over 900 plants(this growing season we’ve planted about a third of that). When school started we didn’t know what to do with ourselves and didn’t have enough hands to pick them. This year our crops are more diversified and the tomatoes will not be overwhelming once the school year starts and we have busier schedules due to classes and other activities.

Besides the excitement of harvesting, we’ve been kept occupied with maintaining the garden and attending to visitors of varying interests and ages. The garden seems to always surprise us with the number of weeds that seem to “pop up,’ especially after a good rain. “Where did those come from? I swear I just weeded that last week…” Getting on top of the weeds is a big task, but we seem to find motivation when the task is at its greatest. (That is, harvesting becomes an even greater chore because the weeds are bigger than the plants and blocking our view of the fruit). So, we get on our hands and knees and start pulling. Amidst the pulling we hear loud screams and quick bursts of noises- the nettles and thistles got one of our farmers again! Four hours later, we seem to have made some progress. Sort of. We bike up to lunch with dirty nails and dirt-crusted ankles, sweat dripping from our brow and our feet and hands still stinging from all those darn nettles.

We’ve had the privilege of hosting several groups at the farm this summer. Quite a few YMCA groups ranging in age from 5-15 years old have come to the garden to take a peek and nibble on some fresh veggies. Other groups included an environmental ethics summer class at St. Olaf, a group of Leaders for Social Change from St. Olaf and McCallister, and a St.Olaf staff retreat of about 50 people. My favorite groups are the YMCA groups- they always have the most interesting comments and questions- “Ew, the chickens poop in the garden?!!!” or “Oh, a radish, I WANT ONE!!!!”; “Do chickens eat humans?”; “CHICKENS!!!! Let’s catch ‘em!!! Can you catch a chicken for us again, please, please, please, PLEASE!” “Are we done yet? Can we play duck-duck gray duck?” As you can see, the kids seem to have a thing with chickens, or perhaps just birds in general. I can tell you that we had to stop them from eating our profits. The green beans and peas were just so yummy apparently.

We will continue harvesting into the school year until the frost intensifies and Minnesota winter creeps in and kills our plants ( yes, it’s very sad, but this is the cycle of life and the reality of living in Minnesota). That means we’ll need volunteers to help us harvest. We send out emails to our alias and if you would like to be on that alias, just email farmers@stolaf.edu to be added. We will also be involved during Homecoming/Family weekend, Friday and Saturday, September 25-26. Our annual farm festival planning is still underway, so look for information sometime this fall. Until then, any visitors are welcome at the farm at any time. Everything is growing and sprawling quite nicely- the transformation from seed to harvest has been quite remarkable, yet again. Just beware, it’s a jungle out there…

STOGROW EVENT- FIRST 5K CHICKEN WALK/RUN!

2009-08-19T15:26:00.000-07:00

This summer STOGROW held its first-ever 5k. The walk/run took participants through St.Olaf’s natural lands and ended on the STOGROW farm. Participants paid an entry fee of $10 which included a free t-shirt. After the 5k people socialized with coffee (provided by Goodbye Blue Monday Coffeehouse), cookies, zucchini bread (made with STOGROW zucchini) and apples. The chickens were a big hit, as usual, and the farm enjoyed the visitors’ laughter and pitter-patter of feet wandering throughout the garden. Will this continue throughout the years and become an annual event? We’ll have to consult next year’s chickens before coming to that conclusion.

A special thanks to: Goodbye Blue Monday Coffeehouse for the free coffee; Bon Appetit for catering the event; St.Olaf College for making the natural lands accessible and Judy Stromayer for providing guidance on waiver logistics; the Cannon River Watershed Partnership for allowing us to use their restroom facilities; and Mother Earth for providing a beautiful day with sunshine and clear skies.

2009-08-07T13:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick wrap-up of the 2008-2009 season:

Overall, we enjoyed the fruits of a bountiful harvest, the many blessings of enjoying our time outside with our hands in the dirt, nurturing, maintaining, and caring for the plants we seeded. We held our annual farm festival with music, t-shirts for sale, tours of the farm, hay-rides to and from the farm through the St. Olaf natural lands (thanks to the help of Dave Legvold), face-painting, and food and beverages made from STOGROW produce (zucchini bread, gazpacho, babaganooch, and green bean salad, thanks to our wonderful Bon Appetit chefs). We also had acoustic music from two talented St. Olaf students, Colin Weaver and Emily Robertson. Community members and students and staff of St.Olaf came and went as the hours of the beautiful day passed. Our six chickens also received a lot of attention, and were completely exhausted at the end of the day. A special thanks to all parties involved for helping us make the annual farm festival a time for fun, food, and laughter once again.

And now a little info on the veggies:

Our largest crops for the 2008 growing season were as follows:

Tomatoes: 8,191.5 pounds
Eggplant: 866.5
Squash: 821.5
Peppers: 339.5

Our squash took a big hit from the cucumber beetles. Many of the plants were killed and the remaining plants produced less fruit than expected. Our winter squash seemed to be less effected than our summer squash, probably due to the beetle’s population and reproduction being greatest in middle to late June. The winter squash were also located on the far back side of the garden, a distance away from the summer squash, which also may have affected their ability to outlast the beetles.

We ended up with a lot more tomatoes than expected. We had planted a little over 900 tomato plants and by the end of the season, we were up to our necks in tomatoes. Although tomatoes are hardy plants that have a great yield, we do wish to contribute a variety of vegetables to Bon Appetit, so we plan to plant less tomatoes and take organic steps to overcome the challenges of pests on our squash plants and other plants that may be affected.

Thanks again to all those who contributed to our success in this growing season, and we look forward to seeing you and sharing the beauty of the garden with you next season!

STOGROW Growing Season 2008

2009-07-01T08:59:00.000-07:00

A few photos from summer 2008:

Farm Festival 2008

2009-07-01T08:32:00.000-07:00

This year we hosted a STOGROW festival to celebrate a successful growing season. Students from St. Olaf and people from the community attended the festival and enjoyed fresh food from the garden, live music, tours, face painting, coloring, and hay rides.

Here are a few pictures from the festival:

Playing with chickens!

Food from the garden

Thanks to everyone who participated in the festival to make it a great success! We look forward to yet another successful growing season!

STOGROW Summer 2009

2009-06-23T18:17:00.000-07:00

STOGROW's 5th growing season has begun! The majority of plants are in the ground and growing healthily, with the exception of some sick-looking squash plants. Unfortunately the cucumber beetles attacked our baby squash seedlings with full force, but we are currently starting new seedlings in the green house. We have 3 egg-laying chickens on the farm this year and so far, they have been a delightful addition to the farm.

This year we have planted a variety of vegetables including: basil, tomatoes, beans, eggplants, green and red bell peppers, kale, brussel sprouts, winter and summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, beets, radishes, salad mixes, spinach, onions, pumpkins, melons, and peas.

A few photos of the farm:

Brussel Sprouts!

Pretty Flowers

Growing in the green house

Flower plot

We have 3 chickens!

Weekly Pictures (6/15 - 6/22)

2008-06-22T20:10:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,

I thought I would throw up a few pictures from this past week.

Both varieties of basil, yum!

Everyone working hard

Laying soaker hoses is how we water a third of the garden,
for the rest we have an awesome new irrigation system (pictures to come...)

Just Another Day at the Farm...

2008-06-17T15:29:00.000-07:00

June 9-13.

This week at STOGROW we’ve been continuing planting, weeding, trellising, and working on special projects. Nearly all of the vegetables are planted leaving only a few more tomatoes (destroyed in the recent cow rampage). New plants in the ground this week included basil, onions, green peppers and winter squash. These were all transplants from the greenhouse; the seeds were planted earlier this spring. We planted two basil varieties, one of which has a beautiful purple color. As Abby and Rob have an extreme love for basil, they were very excited. In fact, they couldn’t stop smelling it as they planted. The onion transplants were a new addition this year. Onion seeds were planted last year, but not much amounted from them. We’re hoping for greater onion success. Seeds planted this week included beets, radishes, and carrots.

The weather this week was cooperative for the most part. The heavy rains and strong thunderstorms Wednesday night left the ground soggy and too wet to walk on Thursday morning. The afternoon on Thursday, however, followed with warm sunshine and enough heat to dry up the soil and allow a few of the farmers to do some work.

A new project on the farm is a raised flowerbed on the east side, near the newly planted carrots. We took some old tires that were piled around the greenhouse, filled them with compost and arranged them in an arc, planting four or five flowers in each tire. The flowers planted were statice mixes and impatiens. A big heap of compost was added on the west side to house some transplants. (A few plants that were in the flower bed by the greenhouse were overtaking the smaller flowers, so we decided to make a raised flower bed elsewhere to accommodate their larger size.) The new raised flowerbed was complimented with a hedge of rocks to keep the soil in formation and add a little decoration, as well.

The chickens are still doing well. Rob and Tom made a new portable hut (aka chicken tractor, as Rob likes to call it) for the chickens last week during a rainy day. This hut is a little more structurally sound and allows for the chickens to have even more access to parts of the farm and time outside of their main coop. As usual, they accompany Rob wherever he goes and they like to visit us while we plant, making sure they do a good job of weeding, fertilizing, and taking little nibbles at the earthworms and other insects.

The First Full Week of the 2008 Season

2008-06-09T17:08:00.000-07:00

After another long Minnesota winter, we were all excited to start farming. While the majority of the past week was overcast or rainy with threats of hail and tornadoes, we managed to get everything in the ground. Kristin and I were fortunate enough to be able to get most of the preparatory work done during celebration week (before the new interns returned to campus). This allowed us to break ground right from the start.

We also bought six chickens from the local Latino Chicken Farm. They run an excellent operation and I encourage everyone in the Northfield area to look them up for their next chicken dinner. This year's chickens are all Cornish Crosses, and while they aren't as colorful as last year's, they've really grown on me. They're all very friendly, and happily follow behind us when we're weeding--in hopes of snagging a worm.

The farm also survived the first crisis of the year this past week. A herd of cows got loose and trampled much of the garden. No serious harm was done. The cows were nice enough to leave quality fertilizer behind as an apology for any squashed plants.

Finally, I would like to thank the Northfield Co-op for donating beautiful flowers for our bees and a variety of vegetable plants (which are all doing very well).

I also attached a few pictures from the one nice day had. They're mostly of chickens--but that's only because they're so photogenic.

Slideshow of Farm Fest pictures

2007-07-31T12:55:00.000-07:00

Pictures from the Farm Festival

2007-07-31T12:40:00.001-07:00

Pictures from the Farm Festival

2007-07-31T12:35:00.000-07:00

Pictures from the Farm Festival

2007-07-31T12:33:00.001-07:00

Pictures from the Farm Festival

2007-07-31T12:30:00.001-07:00

Pictures from the Farm Festival

2007-07-31T12:25:00.000-07:00

Pictures from the Farm Festival

2007-07-31T12:19:00.002-07:00

2007-07-30T12:03:00.001-07:00

Changes in the last two months

2007-07-30T11:21:00.001-07:00

Poor Wendel got shaved.

Moe found a frog while weeding.

After the very successful farm festival, activity has returned to normal on the farm. The recent drought has prompted us to lay soaker hoses on the tomato and pepper plants. On a brighter note, harvesting has been going very well. According to the books we have harvested almost a third more produce than last year. The best part about this new is that we haven't even started on the tomatoes, which we have about 250+ more plants of this year, and we have peppers where as last year the pepper crop was wiped out by the hail storm. Knock on wood.

2007 STOGROW Farm Festival!

2007-07-20T06:55:00.000-07:00

Whew! Not much time to write a full blog; things at the farm have been going full speed these past few days. Our harvests have been bountiful, our crops healthy, and our livestock lively! And now the day that we've all looked forward to is almost upon us, that day when we can share with our community the fruits of our labor--both the produce itself and the rich spirit of sustainable, organic farming! Tomorrow our farm will host a variety of activities from 11am-5pm, including refreshments provided by Bon Appetit featuring STOGROW produce, self-guided farm tours, children’s activities, beekeeping demonstrations, and live music. Come see what makes our garden grow! For more information, visit the St. Olaf website and click on the calendar icon.


When: 11am to 5pm, July 21st
Where: STOGROW Farm (behind the Cannon River
Watershed Partnership, at 8997 Eaves Avenue)
What: Activities, music, food, demos, fun!

Pictures

2007-06-21T12:50:00.001-07:00

A few pictures of what has been going on lately...

Now that things are starting to settle down at the farm we've gotten the chance to try some new things: Lately I've been trying letting a few of the chickens run around freely. At first they were a little reluctant to leave the safety of their coop, and when they did leave they would not venture far. After a week or so of this they became a bit more aggressive in looking to escape the coop. Luckily, those brave enough to venture off are very habit forming, and don't like to be away from the rest of the herd for very long. The chickens have almost doubled in size since we first got them, which is really no surprise considering how much we spoil them. On top of their basic feed, the chickens have gone through an entire ant mound, handfed worms, and plenty of fruit and vegetable scraps.

The baby sheep have adjusted nicely to their new homes. Moses, the most outgoing of the three, has been getting into playful head pushing/butting contests with Moe and me. The other two, Martin Luther and Wendell, have really warmed up to human contact and enjoy our presence.

Finally, we've been observing how different plants grow in either pure mulch or dirt with nothing added to it. As far as results go, the plants grown in dirt started off significantly better. But, in the past week the mulch plants have made a push effort to catch up, when we know the final results I'll post them along with the pictures. I've also started another experiment to test how a combination of the two stacks up, more to come later...

Farm tasks

2007-06-12T11:05:00.001-07:00

The lambs have arrived!!

2007-06-12T10:54:00.000-07:00

Jessica, Brett and I drove out to Bywater Farm near Amery, WI on Sunday to finally pick up our lambs. The dark brown one is Martin Luther, the fellow with horns is Moses, and the spotted one is Wendell, named after our hero Wendell Berry. Martin Luther and Wendell are wethers, or castrated males. Moses is a male. The whole drive back we enjoyed the baaa-ing of our three new buds from the rear of my minivan!

Gary and Ginger, the owners of Bywater Farms and the wonderful folks who sold us the lambs.

We fitted the three lambs with harnesses which makes it easy for us to transport them from their pen in the barn out into the fields where the fresh green salad buffet is.

The STOGROW guys bond with the three new guys.

Baaaaa

2007-06-11T17:14:00.000-07:00

Today was hot, hot, hot.
With humidity, a clear sky, and relentless sun, farming turns from a pleasant pastime into a whole other beast. So today, Day and I dropped our shovel and rake for something different: shopping! And we had good reason to pick up a few new things, with fresh members introduced to our humble farm just last night.
Lambs! Three sweet, lovely little male sheep (mutton?) now call our barn and grasslands home. Oh, to be a lamb and have the world as your salad bar. We've named the black fellow Martin Luther, the mottled one Wendell (after Wendell Berry) and the lighter, fluffier one with horns Moses. I believe that in accordance with some translations, there is a biblical reference to a horned Moses.
The threesome is now outfitted with harnesses and leashes, as well as cables to stake them out in the grass and clover. They bleat like the dickens, and sound a little too human with their wide vocabulary of B-A-A-AH to BLA-AURGH to MEa-ruGH. The question is, are they too cute to be eaten? We shall have to see.
Our plants are looking really lovely. The peppers are getting darker as they soak up the hot sun, which for Day is a relief from last year's sickly pepper crop. The tomatoes are getting bigger by the day, and you can almost see our transplants in the green house inching up from the soil. This morning, Rob and I saw a few sunflowers poking their way up, and by 3pm they were nearly all a thumbnail high! The only drawback to this weather is the issue of watering; we have a few new sprinklers from our shopping expedition which we hope will lessen the load.
After fussing over the lambs and tinkering with the sprinklers, we completed a few indoor tasks away from the intense heat. Nails were pounded, wheelbarrows were fixed, and a sweaty good time was had by all.

Mouse Graveyard

2007-06-06T10:47:00.001-07:00

We found this mummified mouse (along with about 7-8 others) in some tires we found in the barn.

Recent STOGROW pictures

2007-06-06T10:39:00.001-07:00

Seasons Greetings

2007-05-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

A new season is at hand here at the STOGROW Farm- that wonderful time of year when we have the opportunity to turn a barren landscape into a veritable verdant oasis of eco-friendly produce to share with our peers and anyone else who swings through Stav Hall during the summer/early fall months. It stands to be the most bountiful year to date for the STOGROWers, with three terrific new additions to the workforce and another expansion to the garden courtesy of a grain bin removal.
We'd love to see or hear from anyone interested in stopping down for a chat or, even better, those dedicated individuals who would like to lend a helping hand to our feel good operation. The rewards are always much greater than the work that goes into it!
Stay tuned for more updates as the season progresses~ Happy Trails!- Farmer Moe

Chickens!!

2007-05-31T07:56:00.001-07:00

A big thank you goes out to Tony Skalski for donating 8 wonderful chickens!

STOGROW 2007

2007-05-31T07:55:00.002-07:00

Hello, my name is Rob Smith and I'm one of the new farmers interning at STOGROW. I will be a sophmore next fall. I'm majoring in Mathematics and have an interest in Enviromental Studies.

In addition to learning how the farm operates, this year I will be raising chickens. Last week Day and I built a mobile chicken coop, and just yesterday I was finally able to pick up our six week old chicks. We currently have eight chickens with plans to pick up about nine more later in the summer. I thought chickens would help add to the farm atmosphere at STOGROW. But on a more practical note, chickens are known to have a positive impact on soil quality because their manure is rich in nitgrogen and phosphates. Chickens are also helpful because they churn up the dirt as they hunt for pests on the ground.

Anyone interested in checking out the farm, the chickens, or the baby lambs (we're expecting to pick up a few in late June) is welcome to stop by the farm anytime. We can always be found out at the farm early in the morning, and depending on the day, in the afternoons as well.

Learning from scratch!

2007-05-31T07:55:00.001-07:00

As a new addition to the STOWGROW team, I feel there's little I could teach of actual educational value, so instead I’ll delve a little into the exciting process of learning. Learning, specifically, how to be taught.
I think we often take for granted the things that we’re familiar with; we find surprising the degree of difficulty others undergo to gain that same knowledge. With a musician, for instance, the theory and composition of music is (or should be) second nature. Certainly, there are years spent practicing and perfecting those skills, but as a musician myself, I know how strange it feels knowing there are people around me—even close friends—who haven’t a clue how to read sheet music. Strange!
I’m guessing that with experienced farmers, it’s much the same thing. Common sense is relative to the situation, and there’s a certain sort of common sense unique to farming (demonstrated by Day and Moe) that may prove challenging to grasp. The three of us interns, all new to STOWGROW, are finding that hands-on, proactive learning is the best way to learn what we need to know. Also, I find that proactive interrogation (asking stupid questions) is similarly important.
So far, it’s been a grand time seeing what five people can do with less than an acre of land! Tilling, planting, watering, and hacking weeds is such a welcome change from the Great Black Hole of homework. The physical result of gardening of farming is so much more satisfying than the intangibleness of grades.
Oh, and not to mention: our chickens are pretty sweet.

2007-05-31T07:55:00.000-07:00

Within half a week the garden has truly come alive. On Monday we began by planting some corn, beans, and squash using the three sisters method. We think we may see the beginnings of something green here, but it could just be weeds (we're choosing to be optimistic). We also got a greens mix planted in the back of the garden where it can find some protection from the already very hot sun. Tuesday we got a lettuce mix in the ground and watered thoroughly. Then we finished the day by cutting some of the surrounding grass and pruning the raspberry bushes. Wednesday was a big day for our little farm. A good chunk of the transplants are now planted, the herb mound has been groomed, and we got a brand new tiller! It required a full eight hour work day but the results were well worth the time. Thankfully, it rained Wednesday night, helping all our newly planted vegetables to take root. However, this means the ground is too wet for planting so we are keeping occupied with various jobs. After playing with the newly arrived chickens and righting our wind-blown green house, we may have to call it a day and wait for the ground to dry. After three days of hard work, it is nice that mother nature is giving us a little break.

And we're off!! The 2007 Season

2007-05-31T07:51:00.001-07:00

Hello and welcome to the first post of the 2007 STOGROW Farm season!! This year returning farmers Moe and Day welcome new STOGROWers (from left to right) Rob (a Northfield townie!), Olivia from Washington, and Kristin from Iowa. Today, Thursday, is our fourth full day of work and we've already got all of our peppers, eggplant, and basil planted as well as some of our tomatoes.

Check back often for updates, pictures, and stories from all five STOGROWers.

August Update

2006-08-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

We farmers have spent recent rainy mornings plugging away at the computer comparing this season's and last season's yields. Our discoveries? As of today, our total produce costs (aka money made in the garden) are way ahead of last year. Though a recent mysterious disease has claimed half of our bell pepper crop, our four varieties of tomatoes are looking big and beautiful! We thought that squash and zucchini yields would be dying down, but the downpour last week boosted yields higher than ever--over 141 pounds of squash and 80 pounds of zucchini!

Between weeding the beans and harvesting squash, we have spent a lot of time observing a huge orb spider--the species in "Charlotte's Web"--that has made its home on one of our wheelbarrows. We toyed with nature, and perhaps confused the spider, by repeatedly tangling garden pests (such as gypsy moths and squash bugs) in its web. Whenver the spider senses one of our "offerings," it hastens towards the specimen, injects it with venom, and then proceeds to launch many strands of web from its abdomen to wrap up its lunch for later. The spider must enjoy classical music because it made its home directly under the garden radio speakers.

This week we have been readying the garden for our Summer Open House. Come on out this Friday from 12-2 PM for music, delicious hors d'oeuvres provided by our friends at Bon Appetit, and self-guided garden tours! If it rains, we will postpone the event to a later date.

STOGROW article at NewFarm.org

2006-07-14T15:37:00.000-07:00

Check out the article on STOGROW Farm and our mutually beneficial relationships with St. Olaf and Bon Appetit Management Company at NewFarm.org! Olaf students, our chefs, and our former General Manager are all pictured as well.

http://www.newfarm.org/features/2006/0706/stolaf/burtness.shtml

While you're on the NewFarm.org site, take some time to learn more about the Rodale Institute, browse the classifieds, and learn about no-till vegetables and greenhouse season extension. Take it from us -- it's one of the most useful websites out there!

2006-07-14T15:35:00.000-07:00

Farmer Heidi, aka Snake Charmer Heidi
(We found this garter snake hanging out in our barn. We've seen him around a few times since.)

2006-07-14T15:34:00.000-07:00

A St. Olaf student enjoying STOGROW lettuce mix in Stav Hall

2006-07-14T15:32:00.000-07:00

A sample of the produce we've delivered lately -- zukes, orient express eggplant, and summer squash

2006-07-14T15:31:00.000-07:00

Moe and Heidi scoping out the squash and zukes

2006-07-05T14:42:00.000-07:00

Eggplant in bloom

2006-07-05T14:41:00.000-07:00

Plain old leaves are beautiful if you give them a chance

2006-07-05T14:40:00.000-07:00

A close up view of our heirloom corn

2006-07-05T14:39:00.000-07:00

Mmmm... wild raspberries from STOGROW

2006-07-05T14:38:00.000-07:00

Farmer Heidi and Executive Chef Peter Abrahamson examine the first delivery of produce!

Early morning salad mix and greens mix harvesting

2006-07-05T14:37:00.001-07:00

2006-07-05T14:37:00.000-07:00

The Vacation Bible School visits the cows

2006-07-05T14:36:00.000-07:00

July 5th Update

2006-07-05T14:26:00.000-07:00

Things are looking great down at STOGROW. Ok, they're looking a little dry due to ten days without rain, but the summer squash are booming, the tomatoes are ready for trellising, and we already delivered our first harvests of salad mix, greens mix, and black-cap raspberries. The four STOGROWers have had plenty to do -- there are always transplants to put in (sunflowers, basil, and cilantro these days), rows of veggies to mulch, and, of course, weeds of every variety to pull.

We had visitors last Tuesday! A vacation bible school group from two churches in north Minneapolis came to visit the farm, learn about organic agriculture, eat raspberries, and have a picnic in the sun. As you'll see in the picture above, neighboring farmer Ray Larson's cows were a big hit. As one little guy in the group was petting a cow, he finally made the connection between his hamburgers and the animal he was watching. He then turned to me and asked, "So, where does chicken come from??" : )

Summer squash will be ready soon, as will more raspberries and another cutting of salad greens. Think good thoughts for our peppers -- for some reason unknown to us they are dropping their leaves, not getting bigger, and looking generally sickly. We're investigating but would appreciate any advice you have!

Until next time,
The STOGROWers

Up Close at STOGROW

2006-06-13T08:51:00.000-07:00

The foot of a baby blackbird that fell out of the nest at STOGROW

Up Close at STOGROW

2006-06-13T08:50:00.000-07:00

Mmmm... Cilantro....

Up Close at STOGROW

2006-06-13T08:48:00.000-07:00

Waiting for sunflowers to germinate....

Up Close at STOGROW

2006-06-13T08:46:00.000-07:00

Mouse bones from an owl pellet dissecting session...

Up Close at STOGROW

2006-06-13T08:44:00.000-07:00

A tree frog we found hanging out in the squash transplants...

Up Close at STOGROW

2006-06-13T08:42:00.000-07:00

Our Minnesota Hygenic bees hard at work... (Thanks to Prof. Sara Fruehling and Jessica Burtness for being STOGROW apiarists!)

Up Close at STOGROW

2006-06-13T08:37:00.000-07:00

The feet of a dead blackbird that fell out of the nest...

2006-06-06T19:46:00.000-07:00

Our squash, pepper, and eggplant beds

2006-06-06T19:45:00.000-07:00

Planting the first bed of Early Girl tomatoes...

2006-06-06T19:44:00.000-07:00

Farmer Dayna rassles with the tiller!

2006-06-06T19:43:00.000-07:00

Farmer Heidi and Farmer Moe in front of the mountain of mulch...

2006-06-06T19:42:00.000-07:00

Let's take a vote... Who thinks this is a darn cute picture of Farmer Heidi?

2006-06-06T19:41:00.000-07:00

Two of the four hives in the STOGROW apiary!

2006-06-06T19:40:00.000-07:00

Mmmm... about 15 more days until it's salad mix time!

2006-06-06T19:38:00.000-07:00

Hurray for manual labor! (Farmer Dan lugging hay bales)

2006-06-06T19:37:00.000-07:00

A well-oiled machine!!

Mulching, mulching, and MORE mulching

2006-06-06T17:23:00.001-07:00

It's been a busy week out at STOGROW Farm! We've planted around 450 tomatoes (50 more brandywines are on their way!), 400 green, red, and yellow bell peppers, and about 100 orient express, nadia, and mackinaw eggplant. The summer squash and corn we direct-seeded are popping up like crazy, but most of the beans are still deciding whether or not to make an appearance. The lettuce and greens mix are loving their shady section, so we have six bright strips of green running the length of the field. We've had dry, hot weather for the past week with only about half an inch of rain last night, so we'll continue hand watering all of the veggies until they get a good soaking. Do a rain dance for us!!

As Farmer Dan noticed this morning, it's spring in the greenhouse! Since this is our second season and we more or less know what to plan for, we've had time to think ahead and do more extra projects, like planting a greenhouse full of herbs and flowers, many of which are beginning to germinate and burst into green shoots! Some of the herbs include three types of basil, sage, rosemary, cilantro, yarrow, parsley, thyme, echinacea, chamomile and chives. We'll have sunflowers galore -- 18 varieties in all with names like Autumn Beauty and Stella Gold and Munchkin! Other flowers include lots and lots of marigolds, daisies, statice, sweet peas, larkspur, lobelia and oxypetalum. None of us has much experience with flowers, so this is where the Garden Research part of STOGROW comes in!

Today and yesterday the four of us spent most of our time bent in half mulching the plants. Using hay from broken bales collected from local farmers as well as loose hay from the barn we've been able to tuck all of the peppers and most of the tomatoes in. The back breaking work now will pay off later when we don't have to weed in between the plants, and it keeps the soil from blowing away during dusty periods like the one we're in now.

In other news, STOGROW was news recently! We received coverage in the Boston media and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Check out the story at:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/
2006/06/04/conservation_efforts_fuel_cooperation_among
_neighboring_colleges/

Squash, beans, and corn, OH MY!

2006-05-29T15:15:00.000-07:00

Today was our first official work day of the season. It's a little late in the game for some of the veggies we're planting, but one of the harder parts of being a student farmer is that when your garden needs you outside planting, your GPA needs you inside studying for finals!

Dan, Moe, and Heidi and I put a good, full, HOT day in and finished planting all of our squash, beans, corn, and salad greens. We pushed the garden borders a bit this spring and expanded the garden by about 60%, so we have much more space to work with this season. Once we measured the field and worked out the rotations for the garden plan, we planted the most southern part of our L-shaped field in the "Three Sisters Method," with mounds sprouting corn and beans in between squash. If all goes as planned, the squash will protect the corn and beans, the beans provide nitrogen for the corn, and the corn is the trellis for the beans! We'll keep you posted on this experiment.

Right after I had finished tilling up the western section of the field and was putting the tiller into storage, big fat raindrops started splashing down, letting us know it was time to quit for the day and let nature take over. An excellent first day.

Up next: tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, herbs!! Pictures coming soon.

Earth Week work day

2006-04-22T08:47:00.000-07:00

2006-04-22T08:45:00.000-07:00

The cows LOVE Farmer Moe.

We're in Sojourners Magazine!

2006-04-22T08:21:00.000-07:00

A release from David Gonnerman, the St. Olaf media guru:

What do St. Olaf students Day Burtness and Dan Borek, faculty member Jim Farrell, Assistant VP Pete Sandberg, Grounds Manager Jim Fisher and Bon Appetit have in common? They -- and others -- are all part of “Food for Thought,” a 5-page story about St. Olaf’s very own STOGROW farm and other campus-wide sustainability efforts that appears in the current issue of Sojourners Magazine.

"The St. Olaf community... seems to be enthusiastic about sustainability efforts," writes Steve Thorngate in his article, "Food for Thought: At St. Olaf, students learn to reap what they sow," that appears in the current issue of Sojourners Magazine. These efforts, he continues, "reflect the cooperation of students, faculty and staff who share a commitment to connect the life of the mind with the world of the physical, to live a collective existence intentionally on the earth." Select "Food for Thought" from the link below and complete the brief online registration form for free online access to Sojourners.

http://www.sojourners.com/index.cfm?action=magazine.home

In other news, we're the proud owners of an eight foot tall grow rack! We haven't been able to find greenhouse space this year -- last year we shared space with the plant physiology class in the Bio greenhouse but due to increased class size there is no longer enough room for our transplants! Our Poly-Tex greenhouse is still in great shape out on the farm but it still gets a bit cold at night to leave the wee transplants out there. So, it looks like we'll have to buy a ton of transplants this year and do a lot of direct seeded crops like salad mix and beans. Our grow rack holds 20 trays, so we'll see if we can't start some summer squash or something in time for planting. To fix this problem for next year we're contemplating insulating the STOGROW greenhouse and hooking up an electricity source to heat it during the early spring.

To celebrate Earth Week yesterday we had our first work session. We're planning to expand the borders of the garden extensively, so Heidi, Moe, Ted, and Stephanie and I hauled hay bales, rocks, pallets, and potato cages to clear the path for Ray Larson's mulch tiller. Then we had a surprise guest -- Campus Ecology professor Jim Farrell! He made the mistake of telling us that he was good with a shovel thanks to a few summers working for a water company, so we all got to work digging up a few layers of black plastic that lined a section we wanted to till. We got all the plastic up, but the best part of the project was discovering the golden, red, and black ant colonies, the hibernating June bugs, and the fat wriggling worms that were under the plastic. It was a blissfull return to childhood... We all forgot our work for a few minutes and had our noses inches above the industrious ants, rear ends up in the air, and our attention completely captured by the small worlds in the soil.

The 2006 season!

2006-03-12T13:16:00.000-08:00

Greetings from the overwintering STOGROWers! Last summer we got a bit drawn in by the busyness of the season (and weren't all that interested in staring at a computer screen!) so our blog fell by the wayside. However, the rest of the season was incredibly successful, but that story will be told another day. These days we're looking forward to the upcoming season!

Big news! We've just hired our two apprentices for the summer, Heidi and Moe. Dan and I were looking for a couple of folks who were dedicated to carrying on STOGROW after we graduated, and both Heidi and Moe are smart, thinking long term. The four of us have already had a big planning meeting with Pete Sandberg about future relocation and expansion plans and are looking forward to meeting with Peter Abrahamson and Katie McKenna, the folks at Bon Appetit, to strategize about which veggies to grow this summer.

Check back for the complete Season 1 story soon as well as Season 2 updates. Until then, contact us with any questions at farmers@stolaf.edu!

Getting to know the plants

2005-08-07T20:14:00.000-07:00

Gloria and I had some spare time before a delivery last Friday, so after all of the eggplants, peppers, squash, and beans had been picked, Gloria had the idea to bond with our plants a little bit. The following observation session made me realize how amazing plants are and how little I know about them!

Gloria plopped down next to an Orient Express eggplant and I hunkered down with a bell pepper. At first my attention mostly was directed towards the fruit, just noticing the folds and sizes and shades of green in the sun. I guess it makes sense that it's what captured my attention first - most of what we've been hoping and working for is the fruit, not big leaves or tasty roots (unless we're talking lettuce or carrots, that is!). But then as my gaze wandered, I saw things I couldn't explain, and then the questions really started rolling. Here are some of my observations/questions about peppers:

All around the ground at the base of my pepper, entire flowers with small peppers beginning to form had just fallen off of the plant, almost as if the plant had sensed that it was putting enough energy into the three huge peppers that were already growing. Can peppers self abort when they sense that they have enough fruit? How much fruit is "enough"?

Some of the leaves starting growing straight out of the main stem but then the leaf stem curves and flips the leaf upside down, especially the older, larger leaves towards the bottom of the plant. How does this affect the stomata and gas exchange?

There were a variety of insects clambering on my particular pepper plant, but none of them seemed to be munching on leaves or the fruit itself. I wondered why this was, so I took a nibble of a pepper leaf myself. No wonder nothing was eating it! It was incredibly bitter. What chemical give it such a bitter taste, and does it deter insects?

Later I joined Gloria at her eggplant. Eggplants, at least the Orient Express variety, are covered with very fine tufts of purple spikes all over the leaves and stems! Also, we hypothesized that the purple color has to do with sun exposure because where the cap (what is the term for that??) covers the eggplant, it's white or pinkish underneath. Also, there are large, sharp thorns on the stem as well. They're too big to deter insects (they would just crawl all over them), so I'm wondering what kind of animals the eggplant had to ward off during it's evolution...

And then there are tomatoes!! The viney green stem is covered with a fine mist of a golden, brassy colored liquid that rubs off easily and quickly dries into a yellow powder on your fingers. What the heck is that? What evolutionary purpose has it served? We had to tear ourselves away to make the delivery....

This whole summer I've been too busy or rushed to look closer and I've missed a whole other world going on around me.

So here is Christopher Uhl (Author of Developing Ecological Conciousness) inspired activity: head outside, find a plant, and just sit with it. Cultivate curiosity by asking questions - what insect made that hole? Why? Where did it go? Why are these flowers this color? And so on. You'll probably find, like I did, that the intricacy of plants is surprising and something worth observing.

2005-08-06T18:05:00.000-07:00

You can't tell from the picture, but this green Brandywine tomato is as big as my head! (Ok, my two fists...)

2005-08-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

Our sign outside the Caf

2005-08-06T18:02:00.000-07:00

Mmmm... Sorry Caf, we might have to just eat the watermelon!

2005-08-06T17:58:00.000-07:00

Gloria, STOGROW farmer/apprentice with a box o' salad mix

2005-08-06T17:57:00.000-07:00

Day and Dan, STOGROW farmers

2005-08-06T17:54:00.000-07:00

Bon Appetit General Manager Hays Atkins inspects the lettuce mix... (He approves!)

2005-08-06T17:53:00.000-07:00

A beautiful Nadia eggplant

2005-08-06T17:52:00.000-07:00

The jungle STOGROW has become!

2005-08-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

The young garden in early June

The Complete STOGROW story, as of August 1st

2005-08-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

The Story of STOGROW Farm, by Day Burtness
August 1, 2005

I spent the summer after my first year of college working at Foxtail Farm, a 64 acre organic farm that ran a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Leaving my hometown of Coon Rapids, a huge, sprawling suburb, to go work on the farm was the biggest leap from comfort to unknown that I had ever made in my life.
I was a farmer’s worst nightmare – I didn’t know what a tomato plant looked like, I’d couldn’t drive stick shift, I had no gardening knowledge, I’d never even mowed the lawn! Basically, I had no practical skills whatsoever. But I’d read my share of Wendell Berry and bought a pair of Carhardt overalls and decided to whip my impractical, suburban butt into rough and ready, hands-in-the-dirt shape.
The internship on the farm was the most life-changing experience I’ve ever had. Not only did I discover my love of farming and living simply, but I experienced independence, the feeling of competency, and the satisfaction of hard, honest work. I had a personal eating revolution out in the fields – knowing where my food came from and having been a part of its creation connected me to the land, to my sustenance, to the core of living the abundant life. I loved getting my hands dirty so much that I decided that many twenty-somethings at St. Olaf would benefit from growing food. Last August, sitting in the barn after a particularily satisfying day, I decided to start a CSA at St. Olaf.
I knew that a garden had been tried before out at the old SNAP Farm and that Olaf owned farmland, but other than that, I knew nothing. I emailed the Curator of Natural Lands, Gene Bakko, and the Director of Facilities, Pete Sandberg, about my idea to start a St. Olaf CSA. I got “no’s” from every direction. To Gene and Pete’s credit, they had solid reasons for doubting the possibility of a STOCSA – CSAs already existed in Northfield, the College didn’t have any tilling implements, the Co-op provided organic vegetables, it would need more student support than was available, and the Cannon River Watershed Project was already occupying the house that I wanted to use.
But I was too stubborn to take no for an answer and loved the vision of STOCSA too much give up completely. When I got to school in the fall, I decided to go ahead and be a little sneaky. I called the CRWP people and asked if I could use the half acre behind their house. They had no problems with that. I had land, theoretically, so I needed a plan. Dan Borek, a junior at Olaf whose family’s farmland borders the Olaf property that I had tentatively secured, had caught wind of my project and became my partner in scheming after a walk out to the site.
During a walk out to the land one day, we came up with the idea of selling to Bon Appetit. Daunted by the challenge of figuring out how to get members for a CSA, how to schedule plantings to ensure a sustained harvest, and doubting whether we had the land for it, wholesaling sounded like a better option. I set up a meeting with Hays Atkins, General Manager, and Peter Abramson, the Executive Chef for the Caf. My first real business meeting was intimidating, but by the end Hays had made every farmer’s dream offer – “Grow it and we’ll buy it – all of it.”
With the security of a guaranteed market, we figured that the College had to say yes to us! Without a complete lack of head shaking, all the right people gave the go ahead. The scheming then started in earnest.
The Student Government Association in the fall of 2004 had a budget surplus of $100,000 and was accepting proposals for projects and events on which they could spend the money. I showed up mudstained and sweaty after Frisbee practice to the proposal meeting in the Buntrock and told a filled Gold Ballroom that I wanted to start a farm. The idea sent a buzz through the room and many had questions about the idea. I originally asked for $5,000 and then $10,000 but eventually settled on $6,400. We were persistent and kept showing up at meetings until they voted on whether to give us the grant or not. Everyone in SGA who was in attendance voted for it except Dan Grupe who didn’t approve of how SGA bypassed the Business Committee to speed things up for us but “loved the idea of a St. Olaf farm.” We had our budget of $6,400!
Dan and I also worked on the name quite a bit. I wanted to connect it to the Norwegian roots of the College, so my ideas included Bringebaer Farm (raspberry in Norwegian in honor of the established raspberry patches) and Freya Farm (a Norwegian Goddess). In the middle of the brainstorming session, I got up to go to the bathroom and when I got back, Dan had it: STOGROW! St. Olaf Garden Research and Organic Works Farm. It was catchy and memorable, we both knew it would work. However, I still think of the farm as Bringebaer Farm at times, especially after a handful of blackcaps.
The winter was busy for us even though we couldn’t be working outside. There was a surprising amount of administrative detail to take care of, such as talking to Treasurer Alan Norton about insurance and tax issues, clearing up payment issues with Accounting, and running all over campus to get forms signed by our advisor Gene Bakko. While there are benefits to running a farm within an institution like St. Olaf, the amount of hassle that accompanies simply getting a refund for a business related purchase is necessary but ridiculous!
We wanted to hire someone for the summer, so right before Interim I quickly whipped up a Finstad Grant proposal after meeting with John Stull, the Entrepreneur in Residence at the CEL. On December 21st, 2004, I met with John, Bruce Daalgard, Andrea Becker, Sian Muir, Jim Farrell, and Gene Bakko to pitch STOGROW. I asked for $4,000 to hire two full time employees. It wasn’t an easy presentation, Bruce had some difficult questions about the feasibility of becoming self-sustaining, but in the end I must have answered sufficiently because they agreed to give me the grant. I left for J-term thinking I had secured enough for two full time employees for the summer.
As it turns out, the Finstad program only gave STOGROW $2,000, so I was able to hire Gloria Macwilliams-Brooks for the summer. Bruce Daalgard ended up giving Dan and me the Jioy Korda Schaeffer scholarship to help us paying for living expenses since we were not paying ourselves out of the budget until we were sure we would have enough for the 2006 season.
Up until the March of 2005, the whole project had been a largely abstract idea, but then we started purchasing equipment, planting our transplants in the school greenhouse, and picking out seeds. We purchased a used Troy-Bilt tiller from a horticulture professor in Rochester, MN for $595. Other pieces of equipment included an Earthway direct seeder, $600 worth of tools, and a greenhouse.
Dan and I are the type of people that just assume that everything will work out as planned. For the most part, this assumption is safe to make, but our experience of purchasing a greenhouse reminded us that things don’t always happen according to plan. We first ordered what we thought looked like a sturdy greenhouse from FarmTek, a company in Iowa. When it arrived, we began to realize that parts were not only warped and broken, but some vital sets of screws were completely missing, along with the AWOL instruction booklet. The combination of a poorly designed, rather expensive product and less than satisfactory customer service led us to returning the greenhouse and searching for a new one. Meanwhile, we were running out of space in the school greenhouse and desperately needed to give the Plant Physiology class their space back.
My supervisor in the History Department, home gardener extraordinaire and community networker Nancy Hollinger, mentioned that her friends made greenhouses in Castle Rock, a town not far from Northfield. She also offered to plant-sit our transplants in her model from Poly-Tex. In one generous offer, Nancy not only saved us from the wrath of John Giannini who teaches Plant Phys (we love ya John) but also introduced us to the best greenhouse company that we possibly could have worked with.
Poly-Tex not only provided us with a well designed greenhouse made with recycled steel, but in buying from them we were able to support a local business and reduce fossil fuel usage due to transportation. We set it up in an afternoon using only a pair of scissors and a ladder!
The cold and rainy weather during the spring was a blessing for our academic lives – if it had been perfect planting weather during the last part of May, Dan and Glo and I would have struggled to stay inside to finish our papers and study for our finals. It cleared up right after finals and after a couple of days to collect our minds after hours of tests, we got to work planting our veggies.
The season started off with long days of planting and the tiller breaking down. Thank goodness for Dan – since he’s a Northfield native, his connections around town found us a small engines enthusiast who fixed it for a reasonable price. However, we discovered that Troy-Bilt no longer makes parts for our tiller, so we’ve got to be careful!
Volunteers were crucial to getting all of our transplants in the ground. Martha (???), Curt Frank, Josie Glassberg, Willie Richards, Gene Bakko, Kyla Bauer, Emily Dahl, Deanna Steege, and Lisa Gulya provided the human-power to help us stay on schedule.
We made our first delivery of 15.5 pounds of lettuce mix to the Caf on June 29th, 2005. Hays Atkins and Peter Abrahamson, the head chef, have helped us at every step of the way, giving us fair pricing advice, being flexible with our sometimes sporadic deliveries, and even planning the menu around our produce. STOGROW produce definitely doesn’t make their jobs easier – our deliveries are small in comparison to their orders from California and we never know what we’ll have usually until we pick it – but they always meet our produce with excitement. Hays and Peter even made a sign to post throughout the Caf bringing our project to the attention of everyone who eats in the Caf.
There is a story that epitomizes the flexibility and humor with which they meet our new and sometimes experimental farm. After one of our first deliveries, Peter served STOGROW lettuce mix in the salad bar. The next time we saw him, he told us how a kid had reported an entire, live caterpillar in his lettuce to one of the sous chefs. Terrified, I expected Peter to sternly let us know that this was unacceptable, it didn’t make Bon Appetit look good, and we’d be done for if it happened again – something that might have happened with another purchaser. I shouldn’t have been worried. Peter just smiled and said, “Well, that’s organic for you! Good thing it wasn’t just half a caterpillar!”
Until the composter is up and running in the fall, we won’t be able to complete the cycle of nutrients from the cafeteria to our fields back to the cafeteria, but until then we’ve found another way to make use of the cafeteria waste. The fruit, grapes especially, comes packaged in perfectly good cardboard boxes. However, since it’s cheaper to just make more where the grapes are coming from, they usually just end up in the cardboard recycling bin. And while it’s better than the trash, reuse DOES come before recycle in the Environmentalist’s Catechism. They save as many boxes as we need and we use them for our delivery boxes over and over again. Also, other products come in 2.5 and 5 gallon buckets which are perfect for greenhouse tomatoes, rain catchers, seats, and harvest containers. And this waste-into-treasure mindset doesn’t just apply to the caf – alumni might recognize the wood from their old Ytterboe bunkbeds reincarnated as a STOGROW chicken coop, compost bin, and potting tables.

The summer is 2/3rds over and 2/3rds of the STOGROW crew, Gloria and me, will be leaving for Russia and India at the end of August. Even though Dan has much more STOGROWin’ in store for him in terms of this season, I’m starting to think of improvements to make for next summer, including upping the soil fertility by using compost, planning more field days for volunteers, planting more garlic, redesigning the layout of the STOGROW site to maximize sun exposure, researching different varieties of vegetables, learning some permaculture techniques, gaining some computer-aided accounting skills, and also beginning the task of hiring an apprentice for next season, someone who will hopefully take this project on for summers to come. We’re planting apple trees, we’re building infrastructure – we hope that STOGROW is part of Olaf for years to come.

The Greenhouse Saga Continues...

2005-05-28T08:28:00.000-07:00

...this time with a happy ending!

After the last greenhouse from FarmTek was such a piece of junk, the STOGROW farmers were about ready for something to go well. Like I mentioned in the last post, Nancy Hollinger put me in contact with Liz Crombie at Poly-Tex, and the rest was a breeze. We're almost glad that the mess with FarmTek happened because the situation Poly-Tex was just that much better in comparison! Not only did they give us a discount because of the St. Olaf connection, they shipped it for free and we were able to support a business just miles from the farm instead of somewhere in Iowa. The instructions were clear and uncomplicated, but we probably could have set it up without them because the GH was designed so well.

Assembling the structure only required wire cutters, a ladder, and tape measure. The steel part of the GH mainly used a system of nylon washers and wingnuts, and the plastic attached to the house using a fantastic contraption called "wiggle wire" (thank you Mr. Wiggle!) that fastens the plastic into a groove but can be removed, adjusted, and makes it easy to replace or tighten sections of plastic.

Our model is 10'x18' and about 9' high. We moved the plants from Nancy's into their new home and will move the plants from the Science Center greenhouse on Monday.

Again, I can't recommend Poly-Tex enough if you want to purchase a greenhouse kit in MN. You won't be put on hold when you have questions, you'll be able to talk to a real human being (a nice one, too!), and the structures are solid and American made.

In other news, we purchased some pepper, tomato, and eggplant transplants from Lansing Hardware store. Due to the cold night a few weeks ago, our transplant numbers for those three veggies were a bit low, and the transplants (especially the tomatoes) were looking a little weak, so we decided to boost our numbers. It was kind of an expensive business move, but we figured that once harvest time comes around, a $1.29 tomato transplant will pay for itself, more than a non-existent plant would anyway.

Farming during finals proved to be somewhat challenging - Dan and I both had huge papers and projects that we couldn't ignore for the more important work of gardening. : ) However, this abnormally rainy weather gave us a reprieve since there wasn't much we could do during thunderstorms. Next year, however, we'll have to think of a different plan - if it's sunny during finals next year, we won't want to get behind. Maybe our profs will just let us hand everything in after the summer... They'll go for it, right? : )

Plans for the upcoming weeks - Tilling up both plots, direct seeding lettuce mix/carrots/beets/spinach/beans, building some work tables for outside of the greenhouse, getting the transplants in the ground, and establishing a more permanent place for our tools. Also, we're going to have an admin day pretty soon to figure out the more picky paper work, i.e. paying our employee, paying ourselves, how Bon Appetit will pay our account, working schedules, volunteer work days, Farmer's Market stuff.

BIG THANKS TO: Chris Mueller and Curtis Frank for building the GH with us, rain and all.

Speed bumps

2005-05-01T17:51:00.000-07:00

The STOGROW farmers have been getting good at jumping through hoops in the past few weeks. Everything had been smooth sailing up until about a week ago. It all started with our greenhouse...

We ordered a 9'x13' greenhouse from a company in Iowa who shall remain nameless (coughcoughFARMTEKcough). When the semi arrived with our precious cargo, it became obvious that the truck driver was late, distracted, and clearly not very concerned with the contents of our boxes. Perhaps he had confused our greenhouse and solar openers with elephant chairs, because that's more or less what they looked like they had been used for. Upon initial examination, everything (miraculously) appeared to be intact. We signed the release and he zoomed off.

A few minutes later, however, we realized that FarmTek had neglected to include instructions with our greenhouse. Perhaps they were trying to flatter us by assuming we were expert builders and had fine-tuned, greenhouse ESP, but Dan and I were less than happy. We called them, they said they would email me the instructions in PDF format. Problem solved.... or not.

Tried to open the attachment. Didn't work. FarmTek sent it again. Didn't work. I finally convinced them to just send the damn thing the old fashioned way. Props to them for trying to save paper, but come on guys... Lesson #1- Sometimes instructions are just better ON PAPER.

To their credit, they did rush ship it and I received the instructions the next day. All was right with the world!! We sent out an email announcing a greenhouse building extravaganza, got some volunteers (thank you Amy, Whitney, Berit, and Britta!) and were all ready on Thursday morning to get this sucker built.

After clearing off the cement slab that was already at the STOGROW site, we quickly learned Lesson #2 - When ordering a kit, always check to make sure all the parts were indeed included in the package. We had started right in with the instructions without checking until all of a sudden we couldn't find the right screws anywhere. Or the washers. Or the right nuts. Oh and look here, half of the plastic pieces are warped and a few of the D-panels are damaged! FarmTek wasn't necessarily doing the best job up until now, but after we realized entire bags of parts were missing and the parts that did arrived were damaged, we were... shall we say... "dissatisfied" with their performance.

After a polite but stern phone call to the FarmTek representative (with whom I was now on a first name basis) the parts were supposedly in the mail. The rep said he'd email me when they were sent. So we waited.... and waited.... and waited. No email. By this point we were getting upset because the Biology Department's greenhouse was completely maxed out. All of the allotted STOGROW space on the tables were filled, some of the space not allotted to STOGROW was filled (sorry Professor Giannini!), the floors were covered, and there were some trays stacked on top of one another. It was getting to be crunch time!

Dan and I decided to just scrap the whole thing and send it back. Except now they are trying to get us to pay for the shipping and handling. They send us a rather chintzy, very expensive greenhouse, damage it on the way, neglect to send us the instructions AND parts, and then want us to pay to send it back? No thank you. Lesson #3- Ask around for advice when it comes to greenhouse shopping. Find a model you like and THEN purchase it.

We'll keep you posted on the greenhouse saga....

Meanwhile, my truly wonderful boss in the History Department, Nancy Hollinger, mentioned that she had a greenhouse and graciously volunteered it for STOGROW use. After filling it with our more established transplants on April 29th, Dan and I could sleep a little better knowing that at least none of our poor transplants were on the cold, dark floor of the greenhouse anymore. Her greenhouse is the solidly constructed "Home Gardener" model, which can be viewed at http://www.poly-tex.com/pages/greenhouses/homegardener/homegardener.html
(Nancy has the 10'x6', not the 10'x12'.)

Once again, the horizon looked clear!! Actually, we must have been looking in the wrong direction because a cold front was moving in on the horizon in the other direction. When I woke up this morning, it was a chilly 34 degrees F. I didn't even think about the transplants, but Dan did. When he went to go check on them this afternoon, he discovered that about 30% of them had frozen and perished. When he told me I felt their had been a death in the family. And I guess there had been, in a sense. The STOGROW community of volunteers had put hours into those flats of transplants, and now many of our wee peppers, tomatoes, and cukes were mushy, pale-green echoes of plants. Before I get too sentimental about our dearly departed, I should reassure you all that we do indeed have a plan - we'll just have to purchase solanaceous transplants and perhaps rely more on brassicas and direct seeded crops like carrots, salad mix, and spinach. Lesson #4 - Transplants make for poor popsicles. Make sure warmth and sunlight are guaranteed.

Dan and I are both grateful that not everything was lost and are more or less succeeding in keeping our spirits high despite the numerous speed bumps. This is what farming is - making mistakes, turning them into learning opportunities, and trying like hell not to have the same "opportunity" twice!!

2005-04-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

Wintering STOGROW North site

2005-04-14T20:07:00.000-07:00

Farm produce from last year in the compost pile

2005-04-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

Wintering STOGROW field

Transplants and a greenhouse!

2005-04-13T15:19:00.000-07:00

After our successful planting party and a few other planting sessions, a good third of the table space in the St. Olaf research greenhouse is full of our trays of sprouting plants! Some of the brussel sprout transplants are a little leggy (long and spindly) because we had to start them on the floor, but the rest are looking fine. Dan and I have been checking on them every day during chapel. Tonight we are meeting to make the biggest purchase yet - a greenhouse! We are out of space in the school's greenhouse but we have TONS left to plant, so we need more greenhouse space ASAP. When it arrives, we'll probably need some people power to help us put it up, so watch for an email soliciting a little help from everyone on the alias. Not on the alias yet? Email farmers@stolaf.edu, and we'll fix that right away. : )

Spring Planting

2005-04-03T17:07:00.000-07:00

The snow has melted, the trees are budding, and the birds are back - in short, spring is here in full force! The STOGROW Farmers and four excellent volunteers (thank you Mary, Berit, Kate, and Thomas!!) got our hands dirty for the first time and did part of the spring planting in the greenhouse today. Everything up until today had more or less been on paper, so it was a great feeling for us to finally have something REAL to work on! We got together at 3pm today, and two hours, 4 different kinds of cookies, and many good tunes later, we had planted the following:

Eggplants
- Random mix, 48 plants
- Nadia, 56
- Kermit, 48
- Orient Express, 64

Tomatoes
- Yellow Pear, 48
- Moskvich, 56
- Roma, 60
- Granny Smith, 32

Onions
- Big Daddy, 64

Chiles
- Hot Ancho, 76

Brussel Sprouts, 56

We used a mixture of rectangular flats (in which we could start about 32 transplants), styrofoam planters (which had 24 cells), and a few square planters that fit 16 transplants.

Now that we have plants in the greenhouse, we have to keep them watered. Dan and I have worked out a schedule of checking on them - I'm checking them MWF during Chapel time and Dan will be watering TThSat. If anyone would like to help with this, let us know! (farmers@stolaf.edu)

Next on the ever-growing TO DO list: plant more eggplant and tomatoes, order and plant more peppers, purchase and set up a greenhouse (we'll really need people power for this!), and work the details with Bon Appetit (delivery schedules, pricing, food safety rules). More pictures soon, stay tuned!

Seeds and Earthway Seeder

2005-03-08T10:50:00.000-08:00

The seeds and the seeder (http://www.earthway.com/1001b.htm) have arrived! Johnny's sent our order in a few waves since it was so big, but finally all the boxes are in. Now all we need to do is purchase potting soil and trays and we will be set to go for starting our transplants in the greenhouse, which we will probably start after spring break. We won't use the Earthway seeder until the spring when we are doing direct seeding of vegetables like carrots, salad mix, radishes, and beans.

Next purchases- potting soil, transplant trays, and a Valley Oak wheel hoe (http://valleyoaktool.com/wheelhoe.html)

Also coming soon- The Story of STOGROW

Student Farm Directory

2005-03-01T10:33:00.000-08:00

I've stumbled upon a really exciting resource- the Student Farm Directory! The directory links to college farms all over the country that are doing CSA's, operating farm stands, donating to food shelves, and selling to their cafeteria. I've already been inspired by all the websites and successful set ups that students have managed to start. Seems like most of the colleges have an actual organic gardening course... hint hint.

Check it out here.

I sent in STOGROW's info, and we are listed under the Midwest section.

The seeds have been ordered!

2005-02-27T16:33:00.000-08:00

Spring can't be too far away, because the seeds have been ordered! Dan and I sat down this afternoon and scoured the Johnny's catalogue for all the vegetables and flowers we've been dreaming of. The Johnny's site crashed a few times and between crashes it operated about as fast as cohosh germinates (which is to say VERY SLOWLY!), so six hours later we were done. I figured that this would just be a quick task and that we'd finish in an hour or so! I learned a lesson here - unrealistic optimism isn't always very conducive to gardening.

Dan and I went for variety in ordering. Our main focus this summer is producing vegetables for the cafeteria to serve, so we picked three vegetables that they use frequently - eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes. Since a diversity of crops and varieties is key, we plan on planting at least three different varieties of each vegetable. Along with our three main crops, we also ordered many other veggie seeds to grow for personal consumption, like broccoli, a sweet purple cauliflower variety, carrots, lettuce, and kale (my favorite).

Mixed in with the veggie order, we also will be getting an Earthway seeder for direct seeding our carrots, salad mix, radishes, and spinach.

Purchases in the near future : a Glaser 8" wheel hoe, soil mix, transplanting trays, and a greenhouse!

STOGROW Tiller

2005-02-27T11:24:00.000-08:00

Dan and I made a trip to Rochester, MN yesterday to check out a 1982 Troy-Built 7hp rear tine tiller. After taking a "test drive" of sorts, we decided it was a good deal and made the purchase! We paid $595 for the tiller, which was about $1,200 new back when he bought it.

Even though it's more than 20 years old, I took one look at the horticulture professor's garage (EVERYTHING had a place and was sparkling clean) and knew that tiller had probably been cared for in a similar fashion. We'll be using this tiller for bed preparation throughout the season after Ray Larson tills our land for the first time with a larger implement. Picture of the new tiller coming soon....

STOGROW Farm's First Meeting!

2005-02-21T20:26:00.000-08:00

Come to the first STOGROW Farm meeting this Wednesday at 8pm in Buntrock 144.

2005-02-10T19:29:00.000-08:00

The St. Olaf Pond

First Post

2005-02-09T22:24:00.000-08:00

This is the STOGROW blog. Welcome!