F O R M A R K E T

The following is an excerpt from The Small-Scale Poultry Flock: An All-Natural Approach to Raising Chick-ens and Other Fowl for Home and Market Growers by Harvey Ussery.

This book is about patterns of poultry husbandry that are more inde-pendent of outside purchases from far away, and more dependent on home efforts and local resources. It sees the homestead or small farm as an energy system; and wise usage as seeking out all available energy resources on the home place, while avoiding energy leaks out of the system, thus creating a more closed and resilient whole. It assumes that local resources will be-come apparent as we stop looking to purchased inputs to !ll every need. (See the caveat in the sidebar “Depen-dencies” on page 2.)

Poultry are arguably the starter livestock par excellence—easier and cheaper to set up on a small scale, with perhaps more to offer as work-ing partners than any other livestock option. And they easily reproduce, adding yet another dimension to the independence of outside inputs.

Putting it all togetherIt is the organizing principle of

this book and my approach to poultry husbandry that the ultimate ef!cien-cy is to !nd every opportunity to !t the "ock into larger patterns of diver-sity, individual and ecological health, resource utilization, and recycling of “wastes.” Let me tell you about my winter greenhouse "ock, shown on

Housing poultryin the greenhouse

pages 3 and 5, to illustrate the opera-tive concepts, and give you an idea of what to expect in this book.

I hate con!ning my birds, but for years I kept the "ock inside my main poultry house in winter because I saw no alternative—if released to the pas-ture as they are in the green season, the constant scratching of the chick-ens would destroy the dormant sod. The nightmarish result would be one I had seen all too vividly, early on in the life of our "ock here: a bare stretch of frozen dirt, dotted with chicken poops just waiting for the next rain to run for every natural water sys-tem between here and the sea. I had already found the natural solution to best manure management, deep litter over an earth "oor, but assumed that solution only worked within the walls of the poultry house—I saw no way to bring it outside.

One of our two garden areas is behind the greenhouse. A constant about my gardening practice has been the planting of more cover crops for soil improvement every year. Four years ago I had managed to establish a !ne lush mix of cover crops over the entire greenhouse garden—crucifers for their “cleansing” effect on the soil, peas to set nitrogen, small grains for their addition of root biomass. I knew the cover would be a great boost to the garden’s soil when I sent in my tiller chickens come spring.

But why wait for spring? Suddenly I saw how to get an early start on the "ock’s tillage work—and to bring

Dependencies: What resources must be boughtBy Harvey Ussery

Becoming more independent of purchased inputs is always a work in progress. Simply to make a start with a home "ock is to decrease our dependence on purchased eggs and poultry, even if we are buying all our feed for the "ock. Practicing more natural husbandry will likely elimi-nate purchased medications entirely. However, most of us, especially at the beginning, will be heavily dependent on resources brought in from outside. Honest recognition of the nature and extent of our dependencies, rather than an illusion of independence, is more likely to provide the incentive to climb the necessary learning curves toward closing the circle on the homestead or farm, while we have the chance.

I am keenly aware of my dependence on purchased resources in three areas, and constantly try to answer the question of how my husbandry would have to change in the event of an economic calamity, personal or systemic, that prevented bringing in resources from outside.

Purchased stock: Every year I buy in several batches of hatchlings—chicks, ducklings, goslings—and occasion-ally adult birds, such as guineas. This is the dependency that concerns me the least, since use of natural mothers to produce new stock, discussed in detail in chapter 27, is a constant and fundamental part of my husbandry. With every species I raise, I hatch out at least some of my new stock using broody females who retain the instinct to incu-bate and to nurture young— I am thoroughly seasoned in the rhythms and requirements involved. Being able to buy stock from elsewhere is convenient, to be sure. However, if necessary, from one season to the next I could be totally independent of purchased hatchlings, using the services of proven broody hens (and ducks and geese).

Of course, in such an eventuality I would have to be concerned about maintaining productive capacity and genetic diversity in my birds. That is why the principles of conservation and improvement breeding (discussed in chapter 25) are so important.

Purchased feeds: Even though I make my own feeds, I am heavily dependent on the purchased primary ingre-dients—small grains, corn, peas, a few supplements—to feed my "ock. It is my keen awareness of this dependency, as much as a concern about feed quality, that underlies my compulsion to increase the portion of my birds’ diets supplied by home resources, and even to cultivate “recom-poser” species to help feed the "ock using conversion of organic “wastes.” Indeed, you could say that almost every strategy in this book is about !nding ways to minimize purchased feeds. Whatever crisis emerges to limit the ease of bringing in feeds from outside, dealing with it would

simply be an extension of what I’m already doing to feed my "ock on my own.

Electric net fencing: I rely heavily on electric net fenc-ing and energizers, high-tech inputs I cannot duplicate on my own. This is the area in which I am most uncertain what management changes would be required should our agricultural supply system ever falter. I certainly do not envision closely con!ning my "ock in any circumstanc-es, but can imagine in a post-electronet situation making more use of “day ranging” and “compost runs.” The big challenge would be protection from predators. Ranging strategies would key on the fact that most wild predators are nocturnal. A major exception is dogs, whose diurnal predatory tendencies are another matter entirely.

Excerpted with permission from The Small-Scale Poul-try Flock by Harvey Ussery. See review on page 6

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deep-litter practice outside.I built two 8-by-8 pens for my mixed "ock—chickens,

ducks, and geese—in the far end of our 20-by-48-foot greenhouse. The project was easily done. The greenhouse itself provided shelter from the brutalities of winter; all that was required in addition was some chicken wire on light wooden framing to keep the "ock out of the grow-ing beds. I furnished the pens with the usual henhouse ac-cessories: dustboxes for dust bathing, nest boxes mounted above "oor level on the end wall of the greenhouse, two simple 2-by-4 roosts, and hanging feeders. I left an earth "oor in the pens and covered it 8 to 12 inches deep with oak leaves. I found it was okay to leave the waterers in-side the pens if I had chickens only in them. When ducks and geese were part of the greenhouse "ock, it was better to keep the waterers outside to avoid wet litter—they’re pretty messy with their water. On especially cold nights, I moved the waterers to the basement to prevent freezing.

On the far side of the pens, the greenhouse’s end door opened directly onto the garden. I propped that door open each morning, giving the birds access to the outside dur-ing the day. (See photo on page 5.)

I installed a door on each pen, so I could maintain two sub"ocks in them if needed. Each door was designed to swing into blocking position, on the near side of the pens, to keep the birds out of the greenhouse’s growing beds.

I surrounded the garden with electric net fencing to protect the birds and con!ne them to their work. When I !rst put them in the greenhouse pens, they feasted on the green forage while tilling in the cover crops I had grown. And to be sure, the last green shred of the cover crops dis-appeared, leaving that intolerable patch of bare unprotect-ed dirt. Ah, but I was ready for the next phase—turning the space in effect into a giant compost heap, using several loads of round-bale hay from a nearby farm, spoiled for use as feed but just !ne for my needs.

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I would have preferred taking the necessary mulching material off my own pasture with the scythe, but it had been a dry season, and there wasn’t nearly enough to be had. Any number of other organic debris types—autumn leaves, spent crop residues, feed mill residues like corncobs and husks—would have served as well.

The deep organic duff absorbed the poops, prevent-ing their loss to the rains as runoff pollution while retain-ing their mineral fertility and boosting the diversity and health of the garden’s soil food web. The soil never froze under the heavy mulch, so earthworms and slugs remained active, furnishing superb live foods for the busy chickens. They feasted as well on worms from my vermicompost-ing bins while working the worm bin bedding into the mulch, and enjoyed small but essential “salads” from the greenhouse, either green forage cut from the growing beds or trays of greened sprouts. In late winter the seeds in the round hay bales (they’re the reason you should never use hay as a garden mulch, right?) began sprouting, and the birds cleaned them up for more free food.

Using this strategy, my "ock stayed healthy and con-tented all winter long. Poultry are cold-hardy, so they en-joyed the sunshine, fresh air, and exercise in their winter yard in all but the nastiest weather. When the weather turned foul, they retreated inside— as they did when night fell, when I would shut the greenhouse doors. My layers maintained both quality and quantity of egg production

at levels never matched in previous winters, and I had no problems with frozen combs.

I had no way of measuring the differences, but theo-retically the body heat of the "ock—maybe 400 pounds or so of live bird at times (the !rst winter I used the mulched yard, for example, I had two African geese, half a dozen heavy-breed ducks, and four dozen dual-purpose chickens)—moderated the temperature extremes inside the greenhouse at night. Further, the carbon dioxide in the birds’ exhalations could well have boosted the growth of the winter crops, which metabolize CO2. (If the idea of factoring in chicken breath seems far-fetched to you, note that gardeners in the Netherlands, known for expert greenhouse growing, spend good Dutch money to buy bottled CO2 to pump into their greenhouses and boost crop growth. Why they don’t just get some chickens is be-yond me.)

By spring the "ock had assisted the breakdown of the hay into something between a !nished compost and a mulch, the soil underneath becoming increasingly friable as the cover crop roots decayed, and with not a weed in sight. I moved the "ock onto the pasture, laid out the gar-den beds, and the new growing season was instantly up and running at full stride.

How better than in that mulched winter yard could I have enlisted my "ock to address so many needs at once? How more completely could my concerns—for soil fer-tility; feeding, contentment, and health of the "ock; and prevention of spillover pollution into the wider environ-ment—have become “one great subject”?g

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Book reviewSmall-Scale Poultry Flock offers good advice for market farms

With the pop-ularity of local food still grow-ing, opportunity awaits for farmers who can expand the range of food products they offer. Grains, dried beans,

eggs, meat, value-added products all become potential new crops for the produce grower. But it’s not easy to determine whether a new agricultural venture will !t with the existing work and marketing of fruits and vegeta-bles.

The Small-Scale Poultry Flock by Harvey Ussery, just released by Chel-sea Green Publishing, is a good way to research the options for eggs and poultry meat. This is an extremely comprehensive guide to raising poul-try, especially chickens. More impor-tant, the author’s approach to raising

poultry is integrative; he considers how to !t poultry into a self-sustain-ing ecological system. The excerpt that begins on page 1 of this issue is a good example of his approach; by housing his chickens in the green-house in winter, he prevents runoff pollution and destructive scratching while keeping the "ock healthy and the greenhouse warmer.

Among the useful information you’ll !nd in the book:

Formulating and making your own feed;Breeding and brooding the "ock for breed improvement, including the most complete guide anywhere to working with broody hens;Providing more of the "ock’s feed yourself, including pro-duction of earthworms and soldier grubs;Using poultry to increase soil fertility and control pests.

A step-by-step guide to poul-try butchering, with extensive illustrative photos.

Joel Salatin writes in the foreward, “Ussery has spent a lifetime devel-oping and showcasing a truly viable poultry model that is ultimately car-bon sequestering, hygienic, neighbor-friendly, and food-secure.”

Whether you are considering poultry for market or for your own family’s self-reliance, whether you are an absolute beginner or have experi-ence with poultry, this book will help to complete your knowledge of the valuable endeavor of keeping a small "ock.

The Small-Scale Poultry Flock is 8x10, 416 pages, softcover. $39.95 list, 20% off to GFM subscribers. Send $32 plus $5 postage to GFM, PO Box 3747, Lawrence KS 66046. See blue box below for how to get the discount online.

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FOR SERIOUS ORGANIC AND SUSTAINABLE FARMERS

By Katie Kulla

Customer satisfaction is always important for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms. Part of what makes the CSA such a desirable marketing model is the stable customer base that ideally sticks with the farm year after year. Happy CSA customers are more likely to return and share positive words with their friends, who may become new customers.

Here on our farm, Oakhill Organics, these basic satisfaction goals have become even more crucial as many of our customers have found their budgets tightening be-cause of the recession. We want to ensure that our CSA shares remain a high (and affordable) priority for our customers, even during !nancial challenges.

In 2011, we have 170 CSA members for our 45-week-long season, and we are ac-tively expanding. As we seek new members, we’ve found that the market has changed since we started our CSA in 2006. Back then, we were the only CSA in our town and it felt easy to !nd customers. Now there are several CSA farms operating here, and we have to be more strategic with our offerings to gain new members.

From what I’ve heard here in Oregon and across the nation, many farms are ex-periencing similar dual phenomena: customers have more CSA purchasing options and fewer dollars to spend, thus increasing the competition and making customer satisfaction as important as ever.

We’ve experienced positive results with our improved “hard times” strategies, and I wanted to share some tips here for the bene!t of other farmers who want to increase customer retention, gain new members, or start a brand-new CSA in a challenging economic moment.

Make your CSA recession-proof

Consider waiting to start a CSAFirst of all, if you are just starting

your farm, I would encourage you to consider other marketing venues for your !rst few seasons.

The CSA farming model is very alluring to new growers — in some ways it is almost a trick in how it seems like an easy way to make a farm income! If you have the skills to throw together an appealing brochure and/or website, you can receive checks in the mail without having done any ac-tual farm work!

But to maintain a CSA, you will need to work very hard to !ll all those boxes you’ve pre-sold. This is where I have seen many new farmers stumble. Projecting how much produce you can grow is extremely dif!cult to do with-out having the experience of a season or two behind you.

make many mistakes in your !rst years of farming, and the CSA pro-

gram can make it dif!cult to navi-gate those inevitable failures without hurting your long-term reputation. Dissatis!ed CSA customers might not want to return in future years, es-pecially when there may be other pro-grams for them to try instead.

So give your farm some breath-ing room and consider other options: Start your farm by attending one or more markets, where you can simply bring the vegetables you have each

will learn a great deal about quality and what types of veggies people love by seeing what market customers or chefs choose to buy.

These outlets certainly don’t of-fer all the same stable bene!ts of the CSA model, but they can also be a lot

less challenging mid-season. Plus, if you bring great stuff to market, you can establish a reputation for quality and start attracting future CSA cus-tomers.

While I would urge you to not start a CSA in a !rst season, when to actu-ally start a CSA will depend on you and your farm. Obviously, just one or two seasons under your belt certainly won’t create vegetable growing exper-tise, and you might want to wait even longer before starting a CSA.

But a season or two will give you a much more realistic understanding of your farm’s unique limits (how much produce can be grown on the land with labor available, etc.). Knowing these limits (and recognizing that each season is unique) can be a good

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starting point for planning a CSA, especially if you take into account the inevitability of surprises and mistakes along the way.

Be vigilant about qualityThere are of course many intan-

gible reasons for joining a CSA, but, ultimately, people are buying veg-etables from you. Those vegetables had better be good tasting and good looking.

After !ve years of trial and error, this is our strict rule: if a veggie isn’t awesome, we don’t give it out.

Culling produce and being picky when harvesting are such hard things to do in the early years of a farm, when every single bean or carrot feels so hard-earned. It can also feel wasteful in a recession, especially if, say, 80% of the carrot is !ne … why waste it?

We used to give less than perfect produce, especially in winter shares. Often we would bump up the value of a week’s share and consider the blemished produce “extra.” Unfor-tunately, we found that our members didn’t understand that those holey potatoes were “extra,” and they were

often just frustrated with having to do more work in their kitchen to peel things down.

Again, this is a hard lesson to implement, especially on an organic farm. But if you are serious about member retention, quality is crucial.

If you are just starting your farm, it might take a few seasons even just to recognize quality (and then to learn how to communicate those values to your employees), but it needs to be a goal even if you’re not there yet.

Now that we are in our sixth year of growing, our farm’s produce is not perfect, but it is reliably very good. We’ve found that high-quality pro-duce is key to our most valuable mar-keting tool ever: word of mouth rec-ommendations. We want our CSA members to be jazzed each week they pick up their vegetables so that they use superlatives when talking about our farm with their friends and neigh-bors.

Provide consistent volumeSince our CSA runs through the

winter months, we have to plan care-fully for harvests at almost every time

of the year. There are natural "uctua-tions in abundance — even storage crops have limitations. We !nd that May and June are the toughest months for providing enough produce. It’s tempting to use the CSA philoso-phy to justify dwindling shares those months with a promise to make it up in August.

However, in practice, we have learned that people are most satis-!ed when they receive approximately the same volume of produce every week. That weekly volume of produce should make sense to them based on share price. In our experience, CSA customers can’t easily perceive value spread out over an entire season and are less happy with "uctuating share sizes, even if it adds up in the end.

On our farm, we harvest seven to nine different kinds of vegetables ev-ery week for our “Large” size share. Each veggie is provided in abundant but not overwhelming amounts: one big bunch of carrots, two pounds of potatoes, three onions, etc. When we select the items, we consider how they

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tual number of veggies given out from start to !nish. So, if you just can’t make those !rst weeks feel full, try starting your CSA later in the year.

Also, if customers are consistent-ly complaining about not receiving enough produce throughout the sea-son, then you either have too many CSA members for your current scale, or you have charged too much money for your share.

Offer smaller shares Up until this year, we offered only one share size. This was convenient for us, but it never seemed to !t all of our members’ needs. We found our-selves hearing similar refrains from multiple members: “I love the veg-gies, but our budget is getting tight, and we !nd ourselves not using all of it by the end of the week.”

In order to retain those customers, this year we decided to offer a small-er share size. We call it a “Medium share,” and folks who buy this option choose the !ve items they want each week from the seven to nine we’ve harvested (the Large share folks just take it all). The Medium has been

balance each other for culinary roles (onions, roots, fresh eating greens, cooking greens, etc.).

In order to have that consistent, well-balanced volume of produce for 45 weeks, we have to plan very care-fully. Our !elds are disproportion-ately planted to the off season crops, since there are more of those weeks in the year and our winter harvests have an increased cull rate.

Certainly, there is still an arc to the year, and August always feels more abundant than May, but the actual difference in weekly produce volume is quite subtle.

Each farm’s planning needs to be unique, but simple steps can be taken to meet this goal, such as planting a lot of early season crops to help !ll out those famously challenging spring shares: radishes, Asian greens, salad mix, turnips, kale, etc.

Remember that your customers’ perception of the season is often more important for satisfaction than the ac-

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very popular and made up half of our total shares in its !rst year.

Our Medium-Large system is uniquely suited to our “farmers mar-ket” style pick-up (read more about our distribution method in the Feb-ruary 2009 issue of GFM), but other CSA farms have offered variations on a “half” or “small” share with good results. These less expensive options can keep people invested in the CSA, even if they are experiencing !nancial challenges.

For us, having the Medium share has also proven a great marketing tool for new CSA customers, many of whom appreciate “trying” our CSA without spending as much money.

Offer payment optionsOn a similar note, allowing our

customers to make four payments over the year has attracted members from across our community’s income range. New members aren’t daunted by having to write a really big check to farmers they’ve just met. Again, it makes things slightly more compli-cated from a management standpoint, but we have gained and retained many customers because of these "exible price and payment options.

Watch your back doorInevitably, some people don’t re-

turn. Rather than just saying “oh well,” I strive to make personal con-tact with each and every CSA mem-ber who has not yet signed up for the subsequent season. I avoid putting these folks on the defensive; instead I mention that they haven’t signed up, and then I gently ask if they have any feedback for us.

In about half the cases, simply talking to them leads to them sign-ing up again. Sometimes people just forget and need a reminder! I have learned time and time again to never give up on someone. I even send cards to former members from many years back and they sometimes return.

Even if the person really does not want to sign up again, I at least get valuable feedback to consider for fu-ture seasons of our farm’s CSA.

Offer rolling sign-upsThis is a profoundly powerful yet

simple strategy: if you want to grow your CSA, allow people to sign up at any point in your season. Catch them while they’re excited about the idea, and you are much more likely to gain them as a customer than if you simply put them on a mailing list to receive info next year.

We started doing this in 2011, and we’ve been gaining one to two new customers every week. If we keep this rate up, we can easily add 50-60 new members over a year, with very little work or active marketing! I just have to keep track of pro-rated prices and stay on top of our numbers for harvest from week to week.

Ask for feedbackAnother simple tactic is to give

out a survey toward the end of every CSA season. We’ve done this every year, and it’s been a great opportunity for us to get feedback. We always ask some generic questions regarding per-ception of quality and volume, but we also use the survey to check in about speci!c things, such as: How can we make the CSA experience more con-venient? What sorts of programming would you enjoy at a future farm open house?

Simply being asked about their experience will go a long way toward soothing any minor frustrations with a season. Also, we ask people if they plan to return, and if not, why not? Again, this information can help us

tweak our program to attract and retain new members in future years, and it’s an invaluable annual process.

Develop a unique angleThere are multiple CSA farms

selling shares in most regions today. With all the options, why would a po-tential customer speci!cally want to join your CSA?

We’ve found that as more CSA farms start up in our area, we con-tinue to offer the longest season (45 weeks in 2011), which has given us a valuable niche and selling point when people are weighing their choices. Our CSA members are generally folks who want to eat locally grown food year-round. In addition, we are working to add more types of food options to our CSA in future years: fruit, berries, dry beans, and grains.

What’s your unique option? If your farm looks like all the rest and you’re struggling to get new members, perhaps adding an “angle” would help recruit more people: add a fruit share, offer to sell add-ons from other kinds of producers, extend your sea-son (carefully at !rst!), add eggs, add "owers, add work share options, host the best seasonal parties ever, etc.

Reach out This !nal suggestion comes less

from our farm’s actual experience and more from our future goals as we ex-pand our CSA over the next few years. While it’s true that there are now several CSA farms marketing in our immediate community, there are lit-

erally tens of thousands of people liv-ing here who are not in any CSA. My husband and I are constantly ponder-ing the question of how to reach these populations, some of whom !t into very different demographics than our already diverse CSA.

At this point, we are still gain-ing new members at a steady rate thanks to our rolling sign-ups and word of mouth advertising. But, in future years we wonder if we will need to market in new ways to reach our eventual goal of 250+ shares. It’s a question that I imagine is on other CSA farmers’ minds as well.

I’d love to hear more from other farmers about this topic or any others related to maintaining and growing a high quality, thriving CSA!

Katie Kulla and her husband Casey operate Oakhill Organics in Dayton, Oregon. You can !nd more of Katie’s writings at their farm’s website: www.oakhillorganics.org. Email Katie: farm@oakhillorganics.org

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CERTIFIED ORGANIC GARLIC, seven varieties, Also, garlic powder and granules using our own garlic — and nothing more. Straw Hat Farm is at the base of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, in Montrose, CO. www.strawhatfarms.com or 970-240-6163

CERTIFIED ORGANIC SEED GARLIC – German White & Music garlic varieties available until sold out. Contact Yong at 518.672.4250 or email contact@etceterafarm.com

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White (Porcelain Hardneck) with 6 fat cloves available August 1 until we sell out. Reserve now as we sold out early last year! We test it free of garlic bloat nematode. Call Fred @ 585.346.3829 or email honeyhillfarm@rochester.rr.com. See our website: www.TheGarlicMan.com for additional info.

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The Importance of the Plant’s Root BallFrequently a bedding plant is transplanted into field soil conditions that are less than perfect. Within the root block or ball, the plant, and the plant’s partner microbes should have established a system and structures capable of extending their organization out into the field soil. The green leaves provide the energy to power the outreach and the potting soil serves as the cultural base. Investing in sufficient media for ample root balls pays back in improved crop yields.

By Pam Dawling

Fava beans (known as broad beans in the UK), are easy to grow and have an unusual earthy, nutty "avor. Botani-cally, they are a kind of vetch. Like all legumes, they can !x nitrogen in nodules on their roots, leaving a fertilizer boost in the soil for the next crop. Their "owers are sur-prisingly fragrant and are very attractive to pollinators and other bene!cial insects. They are usually eaten fresh and shelled, but they can also be dried, then cooked. In the UK, there has been some research into making foods like hummus, falafel, or tempeh from locally grown fava beans, to reduce dependence on imported garbanzos or soybeans. There are also small-seeded varieties which are mostly grown for cover crops or livestock feed.

How and when you grow fava beans will depend on both your winter and summer climate. According to Frank Tozer, in their ideal habitat they are indeterminate and so can produce over a long season. Above 70°F, "ow-ers may drop, causing the plant to act like a determinate. This means that in climates with hot summers (such as central Virginia) the plants produce a single harvest. In zones 7 and warmer they can be sown outdoors in the fall, for a spring or early summer harvest. In colder zones they are spring sown, and can be succession planted to last all summer.

Fava beans have a high protein content (26%), similar to kidney beans (25.3%) or peanuts (26%), although not as high as soybeans (36.5%). The beans contain Levodopa,

so eating favas may help people with Parkinson’s Disease, and the effect is believed to be longer lasting than synthe-sized L-dopa.

A small percentage of people of Mediterranean, Af-rican or South Asian descent (a total of 400 million peo-ple) have an inherited genetic sensitivity (Favism), which causes illness when they eat fava beans in quantity. Favism is often erroneously called an allergy, and I am grateful to Richard Moyer for educating me on this. In people with favism, an enzyme in red blood cells functions poorly. Fava beans (and certain drugs) contain a compound that oxidizes red blood cells, and in affected people, favas over-whelm the ability of the weakened enzyme to reverse the oxidation quickly enough to keep the red blood cells alive. The dead red blood cells can cause swelling and in"am-mation, which may look like an allergic reaction, but those are secondary symptoms, and treatment for favism is not the same as treatment for allergies. Favism is more severe in men than women, and in children than in adults. I’ve never met anyone with this condition, but it may be wise to mention this to your customers.

VarietiesBroad Windsor 80 days spring sown, 240 days fall

sown. A 4’ tall variety with large beans, up to 6 of them in 6-8” pods. Windsor fava beans are the main ingredient in Brown Windsor soup. Windsors are not generally reck-oned to have the best "avor, but are the easiest variety to

Favas: the bean for cool weather

!nd in the US. Buff-colored seeds. 17 seeds/oz. Reliably hardy to 12°F.

Aquadulce and other Longpods are hardier and tastier than the Wind-sors. (80-90 days). Well-!lled pods to 8”. Big reddish-brown seeds (green before they dry.). Seeds from Italy has Aquadulce. Peace Seeds carries small quantities of Longpod Major. 5-6 large seeds per pod on 3’ plants.

Express 95 days. 3’. Up to 3 dozen 8” pods per plant. The beans do not discolor when frozen. White seeded. Thompson and Morgan.

Cascine. Slightly earlier than other varieties. Long, slim pods with 6-7 beans each. Beans are a bit smaller than most favas and very tender. Seeds from Italy has certi!ed organic Cascine grown in Washington state.

Jubilee Hysor 95 days. A high yield of broad, well-!lled pods, each con-taining 6-8 beans. Thompson and Morgan.

Statissa (75-95 days spring sown.) Dwarf plants, 24-28” tall. Early ma-turing, short, slender pods, small beans. Buff colored seed. 50 seeds/oz. Thompson and Morgan, Territorial Seeds, www.territorialseed.com

The Sutton is a fast maturing dwarf variety, 12” high, that pro-duces lots of 5-6” pods each bearing 5 small, tender beans. Hard to !nd in the U.S.

Seville dwarf is the most hardy va-riety grown for food. Hard to !nd in the U.S.

Negreta (70 days spring sown. 240 days fall sown). Height: 3’. A fast maturing variety with large purple seeds. When overwintered (only pos-sible in mild areas), this Italian vari-ety can mature almost a month before others, allowing other spring crops to be planted after the fava harvest. The 9-10” pods are !lled with 6-7 bright green seeds. Territorial Seeds.

Thompson and Morgan has a good selection of 12 varieties available on their UK website www.thompson-morgan.com, but only three in the United States.

As a cover crop, favas are a vig-orous and adaptable legume, often mixed with peas, vetch, radish or oats. They produces lots of organic matter, and !x nitrogen if inoculant is used. In the UK, “tic beans” are small-

seeded cover crop or animal feed va-rieties sown in spring, and “winter beans” are varieties sown in the fall. In the U.S., I believe both are known as “bell beans.” Bountiful Gardens sells one.

Banner (60-75 days) is one vari-ety usually grown as a cover crop. Hardy down to 7°F. Sow in the fall, or early spring in cool weather areas, the same time as peas. High yielding. Grows very thick stands 6’ tall by late spring. Tolerant of some waterlogging in winter. Besides producing silage or green manure, these small favas make good eating too. Sow up to 3” deep for the best stand, but they can also be broadcast and tilled or raked in. Ter-ritorial Seeds, Bountiful Gardens.

Sweet Lorane, previously avail-able from Territorial, will be sold by Southern Exposure Seed Exchange beginning in 2012. Very hardy, good tasting. www.southernexposure.com

Crop requirementsFava beans thrive in well-drained,

fertile soil with a pH of 5.5-7.0. Deeply cultivated soils can yield almost twice as much as poorer soils. Sow in a sun-ny location, or partially shaded if you are pushing them into the hot end of their preferred temperature range.

For growing as a cover crop, broadcast at 150-250 lbs/ac or 5-10 lbs/1,000 sq ft. For food crops, sow staggered double rows 12-18” apart, planting seeds 1.5-2” deep every 6-8”. For multiple pickings over a longer harvest period, try seeds closer, about 4-5” apart. For maximum yield for a single harvest aim to have 2-3 plants per square foot. Dwarf varieties can have closer rows, 9” apart. It’s prob-ably better not to sow pre-sprouted seeds if the conditions are cold, as the seed may rot. On the other hand, if you are sowing a bit late in the spring, pre-sprouting might help you get a good harvest before summer gets too hot.

Twenty plants per person will be enough. The seeds are large and heavy, and seed counts vary a lot by variety. 17-50 seeds per oz or about 300-1,000/pound.

The usual storage life of the seed under refrigeration is 2-3 years.

When to sowFava beans like mild, damp weath-

er best and dislike heat. When tem-peratures are 40-75°F they germinate

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in 7-14 days. They are cold tolerant down to at least 15°F, some varieties 7°F. Because they are so cold-toler-ant, favas are usually direct-sown. But like almost all plants, they can be successfully transplanted with care, if your situation justi!es the extra time and attention. William Woys Weaver in zone 7a sows favas in small pots in the greenhouse about Jan 25. He has a short, hot spring and transplants about April 10 in order to have them in full bloom by May 15 and harvest by June 1. He induces tillering (bush-ing out, producing side shoots), by pinching out the tops when the plants are 6-8” tall. This increases the yield.

If your winter-hardiness zone is 7 or warmer, you can overwinter for an earlier harvest, (using one of the hardier varieties if your climate is borderline). Row cover can be used to protect fava beans from temperatures between 10-15°F. Or you can over-winter in a hoophouse and provide a crop before the summer gets too hot.

Don’t sow too early: for best win-ter survival, aim to have short plants with about 6 leaves before you get to really cold weather. Overwintered plants will tiller in the spring (grow multiple stems). Spring sown plants do not tiller, so the yield from over-wintered plants can be higher.

In warmer zones, such as Gulf Coast states and southern coastal ar-eas, according to Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, favas are sown from October to December for harvest in March. They will still germinate in the fall at temperatures up to 90°F, but do need average daytime temper-atures below 70°F during "owering.

In the Paci!c Northwest favas are sown Oct 1-Nov 15 or in late Febru-ary. Temperate maritime climates of-fer the best conditions for fava beans

for both fall and spring sowings. Carol Deppe recommends sowing after the fall frost has killed the aphids. When I lived in England we would sow har-dy varieties in October or early No-vember and again in late February/early March, then switch over to the less hardy varieties for a later spring sowing.

In zones with cold winters and summers below 70°F, favas are spring sown only, and can be succes-sion planted to last all summer. Sow as early as the soil can be worked in spring and then sow a second and possibly a third crop later in spring to harvest throughout summer.

Here in central Virginia, we have sown them in November, but our rate of winter-kill was too high for it to be worthwhile. Last year we sowed on Feb. 15 and they popped up March 15, a whole month later, so even if it is too cold for them to germinate they will just sit there in the soil un-til conditions are right. We need to get an early spring start with ours, as

summer heats up quickly. Our single harvest happens in mid-June, a good time of year to have an unusual crop come in.

CultivationThe best conditions for growing

fava beans are temperatures around 65°F, but anywhere in the range al-ready given for sowing will work. Grow fava beans like peas, except that they don’t need trellising. They have sturdy, non-branching stems 1-4’ tall, depending on the variety. They may be OK with no support at all, or you can “corral” them as we do: put a stake or short T-post in the ground every 8-10’ along each row just outside the plants, and then string-weave around the double row, boxing the plants in. This will keep them upright in windy locations, and when the heavy load of beans threatens to pull the plants down.

Don’t over-water early in their life, or you will get too much soft vegeta-tive growth, and will be susceptible to problems with aphids. During dry spells, water enough to keep the plants actively growing. When plants are in full "ower and pods are beginning

to form, water more generously. Water during "owering will increase the number of pods set; watering as the pods swell increases the size of the beans.

Once the plants have reached close to their full height, you can pinch out the top 4” of each stem to limit veg-etative growth and hasten ripening. Pinching out the tops will condense the harvest period into 2-3 weeks, even in a mild climate. Removing the tops also discourages black aphids which may attack plants in late spring (at least, they do in the UK and the Paci!c Northwest). The pinched-out shoots can be eaten, lightly steamed or sautéed.

Season extension and rotationsFor a continuous supply, sow at 2-3 week intervals, as

long as the weather is suitable and will remain in the 40-75°F range for at least the !rst 6-8 weeks of growth.

We’ve sown fava beans in our hoophouse Nov. 15, and harvested them mid May, a full month sooner than our outdoor spring sowing. This worked well, and legumes add diversity to the rotation.

In most climates, fava beans !nish up in summer, and the space can then be used for sowings of salad greens or fall brassicas.

Harvest and postharvestFrom a spring sowing, most varieties take 90-120 days

till harvest. The pods stand upright in pairs or fours from

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Featuring: the Coleman swan neck hoe

The story behind this particular hoe is that we met Eliot Coleman at the Virginia Association of Biological Farming Conference in February where he was the keynote speaker. He came to our booth and critiqued all the different tools. He told us he had an old dutch hoe that was the perfect hoe and challenged us to rec-reate it. When he returned home he sent us his original with his manufac-

turing specs. We sent it to the toolmakers at Dewit. His specs were “the perfect blade to handle angle is 70 de-grees, and the edge of the blade should be in line with the center of the handle.” The result is what you see. Only 50 of these tools were made, so hurry fast to add one of these indispensible tools to your collection!

the leaf axils, ripening up from the bottom of the plant. Harvest by bending the pod down and pulling it down-wards from the plant. Some people harvest the pods young and cook them whole, although this does, of course, re-duce the yield from the plants. Generally, people let the pods get big, when the beans can be felt inside. They are then shelled and cooked.. There is quite a bit of leeway in when you can harvest them for eating as shelled beans. The pods start to get thinner-skinned and spotty, then leathery and dark. If you wait too long, the beans will be demi-sec (partially dry) and need longer to cook.

Favas can be refrigerated and stored in the shell for three to four days, or shelled and used within two days. The beans tend to get unpleasant looking brown spots if kept for too long after shelling. Some growers sell them ready-shelled, in plastic bags.

Some people squeeze the beans out of the skins after cooking, but this is not necessary unless you want to make a dish from mashed beans without using an electric gad-get.

Seed savingIsolate fava bean varieties by at least 100’ for home use,

and a mile for commercial sale. They do not cross with other types of bean. Because the pods dry to a leathery wrinkled state, they do not shatter and so they are forgiv-ing about harvest date.

Metalworking skills, tools come in handyBy Josh Volk

Most farms have a basic set of carpentry tools and use basic dimensional lumber to build all kinds of useful farm furniture. Wood is an accessible building material and it’s versatile so a lot of small farmers rely on it heavily for customizing work spaces, building structures and even for building custom tools. Metal is a little more intimidating to newcomers and it is literally harder to work with but it’s not too much harder. There are some basic tools and skills that can make it much more accessible. With a handful of special tools and a bit of practice, there are many equip-ment repairs that become simple, and the possibility for building more custom implements, especially for the trac-tor, becomes relatively easy.

Most everything I build from metal on the farm is made of scrap steel, which I either salvage myself or get from the salvage section of our local steel yard. Steel is rel-atively inexpensive, tough, easy to weld, and can be bent if needed. Other metals like aluminum, copper and stain-less steel are more expensive, more delicate to work with, and have fewer uses around the farm. Here’s a short list of the tools that I’ve used for many years to repair equipment and build custom tools for the farm.

WeldingI’m going to get the big one out of the way immedi-

ately. Welding takes some skill, but not nearly as much

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as it used to. There are two basic heat sources for weld-ing: gas or electricity. Gas (usually oxyacetylene) is very limited and while having a gas torch is useful for other things, most welding is done with electricity. There are three basic types of arc welder: stick (SMAW), MIG and TIG. Stick has been around the longest and for the money it has more power than the other two. That means you can weld thicker pieces of steel faster with a less expensive ma-chine. I learned basic stick welding at my local community college in a semester, which was primarily just hours and hours of laying down practice welds on scrap metal with an instructor coming by to check on me every once in a while and give me tips. The community college also goes through basic safety procedures, as welding does have high potential for injury or starting !res if done inappro-priately. This is a great way to learn to weld.

For all welding you’ll need some basic safety equip-ment: gauntlet welding gloves, a welding mask and safety glasses, and you want to wear heavy natural !ber cloth-ing (leather is great, but heavy cotton or wool works too), leather boots, safety glasses and a welding cap, all to keep

sparks from contacting your skin, which I know from experience cause painful burns instantly. With a stick welder you’ll also want a "ux ham-mer and a wire brush for knocking off the "ux residue. Flux is material that helps clean the metal being welded and also helps the molten metal to "ow more evenly.

MIG (Metal Inert Gas) welding is much easier to learn than stick weld-ing, almost easy enough to not even need to take a class, although a class will still be very helpful. MIG will also weld aluminum and stainless steel, which are harder to properly weld with stick welding set ups. MIG welders are more complicated and require inert gas cylinders which do add to their price. They are made in very small sizes though, which brings the cost down even below stick weld-ers in some cases, and allows them to be used with 120 volt circuits, not just 220 volts.

TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas) welding is the most expensive type of welding rig, but it’s also the most controllable, with the ability to weld steel, iron, aluminum and stainless steel as well as a few other metals you’ll probably never use around the farm. TIG takes a bit more skill than either of the other two welding techniques.

I’ve used both a stick welder and MIG around the farm, and it may just be habit, but I prefer the sim-plicity of the stick welder which is all I had access to for years. The MIG welder is much cleaner, and since it can be plugged into a 120 volt outlet

still weld thick pieces with the smaller MIG unit, you just need to lay down

more passes, which takes longer. Both the MIG and stick units that I’ve used are bottom of the line Miller units in the $400 range, new.

GrindingBefore you weld you need to pre-

pare your surface, and generally that means a bit of grinding. There are two grinders I !nd very useful on the farm. The most useful is a 4 1/2” an-gle grinder and the other which many folks have already is a bench grinder. The angle grinder is a hand-held tool allowing you to grind anything that’s

cut-off wheels for the grinder, which allow you to cut through thin steel, and even cut gradual curves. A bench grinder is !xed to a bench top and is useful for grinding small pieces or things like the ends of pipe where it’s easier to rotate the piece being ground rather than the grinder. Safety glasses and/or a full-faced mask, hearing pro-

tection and heavy leather gloves are all necessary for grinding, as sparks and small bits of metal and grit will "y. It’s best to grind steel down to a shiny surface and to get rid of any paint, rust or slag before welding an area. It’s also best to soften any sharp edges as they will cause uneven heating of the weld zone and an inconsistent weld.

I’ve used Makita and Bosch units for the 4 1/2” angle grinder, which are in the $80 range new, but can be found used occasionally. The Makita !ts my hands better, but it’s not a big difference. I don’t use a bench grinder a lot, probably because I have a really cheap Chinese unit that’s completely underpowered. I de!nitely prefer to work with quality tools which are tough and last a long time.

CuttingMy main cutting tool for most

projects is a 14” abrasive chop saw. This allows straight cuts on steel pipe and bars, as well as relatively precise angle cuts. It’s dirty and it throws a lot of sparks so make sure to use it some-where the grit and sparks won’t be a problem. Metal band saws and metal cutting chop saws are more expensive and a little slower, but they work on aluminum and they are much cleaner. For small pieces you can just use a regular hack saw. It’s also possible to get metal cutting blades for regular circular saws and table saws, but the speeds these blades run at aren’t opti-mal, and the metal chips are hard on the rest of the saw which isn’t really designed for metal cutting. Use the same safety equipment as with grind-ing.

An oxyacetylene torch with a cutting head can also be used to cut through steel. This can make a fairly clean cut and it cuts very quickly, but unless you’re practiced it will leave a very rough, uneven edge. Plasma cut-ters, which use electric arcs to cut, are expensive but they cut in a similar way, only much more cleanly. The ad-vantage of cutting with a torch is that you can cut any shape you want, not just straight lines.

I’ve used a Rigid abrasive chop saw I got used and it’s been great. New saws run about $150 for a decent one. I’ve gotten away without a gas torch for years, but they’re only about $400 depending on the size tanks you get and they’re also handy for loosening big rusty bolts.

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Making holesUsually this is done with a drill.

The bit on the drill needs to be hard enough for cutting steel. Generally this is a cobalt bit, or one labeled HSS

a hand-held drill or a drill press. With both you want to slow down the speed of rotations slightly and you also want to only press hard enough that the bit is cutting. If you’re having to press re-ally hard, the bit is dull and you’re just building up a lot of heat. Adding a bit of oil, cutting oil is best, to the hole or the bit as you’re cutting helps keep the bit cooler which will prevent it from dulling as quickly. One other thing that helps in making consistent holes is using a center punch to keep the drill bit from wandering when you’re !rst starting to drill.

Cordless drills will work, but it’s hard on the batteries as drilling holes in steel can take a while. A corded drill is better and I’ve bought used ones for pretty cheap that lasted a while. Drill presses are pretty commonly available used as well, but new ones can be had for anything from about $150 and up.

Clamps and other aidsWhen you’re drilling, cutting,

grinding or welding, it’s helpful to have whatever you’re working on immobilized. A basic bench vice is probably one of the most useful tools. Metal C clamps and different sizes of vice grips are very handy for clamping

pieces together and they don’t melt like plastic quick clamps (although it is possible to accidentally weld them to your project). Plastic quick clamps are great if they’re not too close to the actual welding. My favorite low-cost "at surface for laying out pieces to weld is a metal 55 gallon drum. It’s very sturdy and the rim is completely "at and it’s relatively easy to move. The shape allows pieces to be weld-ed to hang over the edge and as long as you use one that never contained something "ammable you don’t have to worry about it catching on !re or melting. If I’m welding something long I just use two or three drums to support the ends.

Common-sense safetyWorking with metal, sparks and

extreme heat has dangers so use some common sense when you’re on the farm. Pay attention to where you’re working and what might catch on !re if a big spark hits it. Even if you think there’s nothing that’s going to catch on !re, make sure you have a good !re extinguisher handy. Pay attention to ventilation and what it is that you’re heating. Some of these materials are not good to breathe if they vaporize with the heat of welding or cutting.

and you de!nitely want to stand so any breeze is moving fumes away from you, not up into your mask.

A lot of the welding and metal work I’ve done on the farm has been simple repairs when metal parts on the tractor or implements break. Not having to wait for a welder or bring the part to town has saved me a lot of time and money. Being able to weld and cut metal has also allowed me to customize a number of implements and to build things like simple culti-vating frames inexpensively. If you’re not at all interested I don’t consider it an essential skill on the farm; there are plenty of good welders and ma-chinists you can pay to do the job bet-ter. But if you’re interested and just intimidated, it’s really not that hard or expensive to learn the skills and set up the basic tools. Winter is coming up, so there’s plenty of time to prac-tice laying down welding beads.

Josh Volk farms on the edge of Port-land, Oregon, and consults with farmers around the country. Contact him at www.slowhandfarm.com.

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By Erin Benzakein

The !rst year I grew "owers, my cutting garden was a jungle of "ow-ers and waist-high weeds. While I loved the process of selecting variet-ies, planting, tending and picking, I hadn’t anticipate just how much en-ergy would be used battling weeds to ensure a healthy and abundant harvest. The following spring, de-termined to have a more successful experience, I borrowed a thousand bucks from my Mom and ordered enough landscape fabric to cover my barely half-acre plot. While it was a huge investment, it was the only way I could see being able to manage the weed issue, while wrangling our two small children and growing my bud-ding business. My amazing husband Chris burned close to 15,000 holes in landscape fabric that spring. I !nally had a thriving and relatively weed-

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free garden. A lot has changed since then; both the kids and the business have grown rapidly but that initial batch of landscape fabric is still in use and has been added to each season.

While weed suppression is the main reason for using landscape fabric, there are a few additional bene!ts worth noting. First, unlike plastic, landscape fabric is reusable. The majority of mine is in its fourth season and shows little to no wear. I recently inherited a batch from a former "ower farmer that originated in the ‘90s, is still in pretty good shape, and I think we’ll easily get 3-4 more seasons out of it. Some of the heavier weights of landscape fabric are rated to last at least 20 years.

Second, crops such as zinnias, celosia, basil, lisanthus and others that like warmer soil thrive when planted into fabric. In our rainy, cool climate, many of these crops wouldn’t mature in time without the fabric. Third, mois-ture retention seems greatly increased with the use of fab-ric. Fourth, fabric makes for a tidy, clean-looking garden — always a bonus! Fifth, plant spacing is a snap when the holes are already made. Finally, we generally do just two early rounds of weeding on the fabric beds before they can coast for the rest of the season. Compared to the typi-cal 4+rounds on our plain soil crops the cost of the fabric quickly pays for itself in saved labor.

DeWitt Weed Barrier is the brand we always buy. We buy the one that is shiny on both sides (we avoid the type

with a fuzzy bottom), is super-durable and comes in a number of different lengths and widths. I almost always get the 6x250’ rolls. The 6 foot width allows 4 feet for a planting bed and, if overlapped with another strip of fab-ric, a 2-foot wide path between beds. That’s just enough room to get down for planting, weeding and harvesting.

We generally stick with three different hole spaces. 12x12 with 4 rows per bed, 18x18 with 3 rows per bed and 9x9 with 5 rows per bed. I’d say about 70-80% of every-thing we grow goes into the 9x9 fabric. Sweet Williams, Campanula Champion, zinnias, basil, plume celosia, Frosted Explosion grass, snapdragons, ageratum, bupleu-rum, cerinthe etc. Most medium sized cut "owers love this spacing. The 12x12 is best for plants that are on the larger side. Things like amaranth (pinched at a foot tall) Lavat-era, bells of Ireland, large millets, ammi. And for really big items like branching sun"owers, sweet Annie, titho-nia, Salvia leucantha, scented geraniums, perennials and dahlias from cuttings (Karmas and regular) the 18x18 is ideal.

While I have heard from many growers that 6x6 spacing works well on crops like asters, lisianthus, single-stemmed snapdragons etc. we have found that fabric burned with this spacing always ends up a weedy nightmare since the holes are so close together and so much soil is exposed to the sun. After just two beds worth we retired this tem-plate, opting for the wider instead.

The small propane canister with a !ne-tipped nozzle needed for the job can be found at most hardware stores for under $15. For perfect spacing and increased ef!ciency a burning template should be created beforehand. I am about the least handy person ever and was so impatient to get started burning that !rst season that I made my tem-plates out of cardboard, tin foil and duct tape. As cheesy as they look, we’ve used them for years! While a more per-manent set would be ideal this rigged set has served me well.

Fabric is anchored into the soil with earth staples. We always go heavy on them since a "yaway piece of fabric is a real bummer! If laying fabric immediately after tilling, you might want to set some heavy items down the paths until the soil has settled, you’ve walked on it a few time and the staples are !rmly secured. We use soggy bags of leaves, bricks, chunks of concrete, basically anything heavy enough to keep the fabric down during gusty spring weather.

Over the years we’ve made about every mistakes pos-sible when it comes to using fabric. Hopefully this list of don’ts will help you avoid some of the same irritating is-sues we’ve struggled through.

Avoid burning fabric in an unventilated space; the fumes are toxic and you should wear a breathing mask. While burning outside seems ideal, it too can pose chal-lenges. Wind is the "ame torch’s enemy. Even a tiny breeze will make the process of burning holes pure hell. Second, if there is dry grass, wood chips, sawdust or dry debris on the ground, it will likely catch !re and you’ll spend half your time stomping out little "ames. My favorite spot to burn fabric is in the garage with all of the doors wide open. It gives enough ventilation but keeps wind to a minimum.

If you would rather cut the fabric, be prepared for hard, slow work. The fuzzy backed kind of landscape fabric is a better choice for cutting because the smooth kind frays unless the edges are melted. However, the fuzzy kind col-lects dirt and debris, making the fabric heavier each sea-son.

Never mow down a crop planted in fabric with a riding lawn mower. Even with the blades on their highest setting, the risk of sucking up the fabric and ripping huge gashes in it is too great. One year, in a hurry to get our snapdragons out and a new crop in, we chewed massive holes in a couple of strips of fabric. Now every spring, when we lay out the garden, there is a lovely reminder of our lame mistake. We now use the brush hog on the tractor raised about a foot off of the ground and so far haven’t had any incidents. A weed whacker with the saw blade attachments works great too but is slower and de!nitely more work.

Try not to leave the fabric down through the winter thinking that it will be easier to pull up in the spring. Truthfully there’s nothing more irritating than trudging

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out to the !eld in March with a huge mess awaiting your attention. Always clean it up in the fall!

like it will work perfectly with the nice big wand and a "ame nozzle the exact size of your intended holes but it only makes a huge, smoking, melted mess. This bright idea is pure disaster, trust me!

If possible, try to avoid pulling it up by hand. I’ve had the glorious job of taking up our half acre of fabric each fall and it is an exhausting, back-breaking task. Last fall in a !t of desperation we roped some onto our new tractor and

time! The few holes you run the rope through will get a bit stretched out but, let me tell you, it’s totally worth it!

Don’t leave fabric down in the winter on perennial plants if you have voles. A few seasons back we lost $450 worth of Limelight Hydrangeas due to a hungry family of voles who were nesting under the cozy fabric.

Always place your drip irrigation lines underneath the fabric; otherwise plants may not get enough water.

Above all, never try to lay fabric in the wind! Especially with someone you care about like your spouse or children. The slightest gust of wind can instantly transform a 60ft. piece of fabric into a sail, and jerk you half way across a !eld before you regain composure. But scarier than a run-away strip of fabric is the !ght you and your partner will engage in while trying to catch said fabric. Always aim for

f o r m a r k e t

calm days with wind ideally less than 5 mph.

Using landscape fabric does have a few disadvantages. First, it can be an expensive investment. A 6x250’

roll runs about $150. Burning, laying, pulling up and storing large amounts of fabric is time consuming and sometimes exhausting. Using fabric adds additional steps to "ipping beds midseason when energy and labor are limited.

But even with its quirks and hand-

ful of problems, using fabric is still a central part of our small scale but highly intensive and wildly produc-tive farming operation.

Erin Benzakein runs Floret, a small organic "ower farm in Washington State. www."oret"owers.com