Greetings Folks,
I began growing the mushrooms here in June, after being a long-time customer of Green Edge at the Athens Farmers Market. My wife Skye and I are expecting our first baby at the end of September, which amazingly, is almost here. We live just a few miles the-way-the-crow-flies from the farm. We have four dogs and a cat, but I've been told raising a baby will be a little different. I came to Athens for Ohio University, where I studied English Literature and Environmental Studies. Skye and I fell in love with the unique community here and are excited to begin our family in the Athens area. Skye teaches the sixth grade at the Plains Elementary.
This will be a fairly typical week of duties in the mushroom house for me. There are the daily routines of picking and misting the mushrooms, and weekly activities such as rotating new mushroom blocks in place of the older ones. And of course there is cleaning, which is essential for the mushroom grow room constantly. Last week I had a neat experience while picking Shiitake mushrooms at 4am (early start on Thursdays for deliveries to Columbus). The local radio station was playing a themed hour of songs and interviews having to do with the chaotic political conventions of 1968. It was one of the more enjoyable 4-5am slots I've experienced.
I hope you folks are enjoying the array of Oyster and Shiitake mushrooms that have been a regular part of the CSA this season. Claudia and I are going to try and get some creative mushroom recipes up on the blog for you to enjoy. Thanks for supporting our farm!
Our Daily Tasks: Covering and Uncovering
The winter wonderland where we grow your veggies.
Photo credit: Emily Hammon
Athens Hills CSA
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Green Edge Organic Gardens
Kip & Becky Rondy
Owners of Green Edge with some of our tomatoes
September salad
Our new raised beds have been put to good use, with salad, basil and more
We welcome the first tomatoes into the CSA
Friday Farm Lunch at Green Edge...what a well fed crew
Check out our new, soon-to-be-operational walk-in cooler
Take a peek under the row covers
Watering starts that will soon be transplanted into the fields and greenhouse
The crew harvests lettuce on a cool morning
The Green Edge Gang!
Check out the amazing, colorful veggies in the CSA this week
Continuous improvements around the farm. Thanks, George, for all your hard work.
In the CSA this week, there are three varieties of summer squash: from left to right, zucchini, patty pan, and yellow squash.
Cale holds up a strikingly good looking oyster mushroom that he harvested in the mushroom house. Photo by Emily Hammon.
Here at the farm, we not only eat yummy vegetables, we do dessert right too! This chocolate-banana-coconut cake was to celebrate Theo's birthday.
Dan plows the fields for our new planting of perennial crops, asparagus and rhubarb
The start house is bursting with life (of both the plant and the person variety) in April!
Can you spot the Green Edge employees hidden amongst the greens?
A week 7 CSA share
Carrots are a favorite and a versatile winter treat
Bethany and Rob display a lug full of potatoes for the CSA
Flopsy the farm dog keeps a close eye on our greenhouses
Acorn squash add gorgeous color to a winter meal
Cale, our mushroom grower, prepares blocks to be inoculated for a 2nd flush
Picking greens for the salad mix
Diedra waters the salad mix in the hot house
Rows of salad mix seedlings are thriving!
Alicia thins lettuce seedlings in the start house
Swiss chard looks as beautiful in the field as it does on your plate!
Bethany removes the last of the tomatoes in preparation for tearing down the plants
Maria shows her strength lifting the winter squash
Our newest farm pet, a sweet (potato) duck
Corey spends some time with the Green Edge "duck"
Kurt hoes the rows of newly planted beets
Dill with morning dew
Beets
Compost Piles
sprouts 5 days before harvest
Our farm dog, Dancer performs tricks for sunflower microgreens
planting chard starts
chard starts waiting to be planted
Bethany Harvests Long Beans
The Fall Field
Hot Peppers!
Prepping the Fall Field
Alicia checks on the itty-bitty sprouting carrots
Deidra raises the side of the greenhouse to help air flow and prevent overheating the plants
starts for the fall field
Kurt feigns struggle while hoeing the rutabegas
Penny and Bethany are showing off flats of microgreens.
The herb garden is a newer venture for us.
Some of our heirloom tomato varieties.
Shade Cloth Covered Crops
shade cloth is used to protect more delicate crops such as lettuces and herbs from the heat of the blazing summer sun
Blushing Tomatoes
Happy Dill
Sunflower Microgreens
Planting Chard Starts
Dancer Overseeing the Crew
A Happy Morning in the Beds
BASIL!
Summer Squash in the Morning Sun
Merrily We Weed Along
A Peek at Stakes and Tomatoes
Sunburst Pattypan Squash Ready for Harvest
carrying cukes
Staking Peppers
Harvesting Microgreens
Our New Equipment Shed
Kips works on the finished touches of our newly built equipment shed.
The colorful salad mix growing in an outdoor raised bed.
The newly disked "Triangle Field"
The garlic bed has benefited from the drainage project that we completed last fall, especially with all of the spring rain we have had!
Spring Chores
We have begun to prepare the raised beds outdoors.
Starting plants in flats allows us to maximize production. These "starts" will be ready to go in to the beds by the time the winter crops are ready to be removed.
Open Farm day
Kip tells the group how we use the spent mushroom blocks to benefit the soil on the farm.
Dan shows one of the groups our water storage tanks.
A group inspects the "logs" that our shiitake mushrooms grow on.
One group heads down the hill to the greenhouses after touring the mushroom house, packing room and microgreen house.
Dancer the dog is ready to greet our visitors to the farm.
A look over the Hot House. It's nice to see a landscape that doesn't contain snow!
Some houses also have ventilation windows up top.
Julia and John harvesting in the SOD house.
This bed of Mustard Greens and Kale has already been harvested once. We need some more sunny days to encourage the re-growth of beds like this!
From left to right, Arugula, Mustard Greens, Kale and Spinach.
Our microgreens are grown in soil, which means that in addition to the nutrients from the sprouting process, they also gain nutrients and minerals from the soil. This is different from typcial sprouts, which are are grown in water only.
Just like the mushrooms, the microgreens require attention every single day of the year.
The wonderfully vivid colors of mustard greens.
Dan and John are harvesting spinach.
They remove entire plants that might be crowding others, leaving a bed of properly spaced spinach behind them.
The fields are sown with cover crops in the winter (Winter Rye) to help prevent erosion as well as being beneficial to the health of the soil.
Every morning the beds must have their protective coverings removed, only to be put back on in the afternoon.
Winter Production
You would never know it is December and snowing outside!
New Greenhouse Completed!
The new "SOD House" was finished this fall and is ready for winter growing.
Not only is the Sod House completed, it is producing!
Kip and crew put in a lot of work to make the houses snug and protected for the winter, including these concrete lentles securing the plastic.
More Inside the Hot House
The beds in the "Hot House" and the adjoining greenhouse have heated beds, which keep the lettuce varieties happy all winter long.
The beds have hoops over them so that when we cover them for protection from the coldest nights, the covers are not smothering the lettuce.
We're Getting There...
Last week the new greenhouse looked like this.
All week long the pieces have been coming together.
Steve and John begin constructing the wooden frames.
Stay tuned for the finale....
The Show Must Go On
While Kip and his special crew of helpers are builiding the new house, all of the daily chores need done as well. John is watering a newly seeded bed, covered with Reemay to capture the heat and moisture that germinating plants need.
The start house is constantly full of new seedlings waiting their turn to be planted in the soil.
Ryan, a volunteer worker, opens up the sides of the greenhouses once the morning chill is gone. These sides are open and closed every day and night.
Dill growing outside, with its incredible color and texture.
Planting Swiss Chard
The crew plants new beds of Swiss Chard.
The starts are planted in a hexagonal pattern to maximize space and to prevent bare spots where weeds could grow.
The beds are being ammended with compost as well as being raised up with some of the soil left over from the excavation project.
A bed of newly planted Swiss Chard.
These transplants are stored in the shade of the truck until they are transplanted.
The Start House
John, Geoff and Lauren are thinning and transplanting "starts," to prepare them for planting in the houses when they are ready.
These lettuce starts were thinned out from their original flats, and are now transplanted into individual cells until they go into the houses.
Swiss Chard starts as far as the eye can see.
Seasonal Changes
The summer crops in the East Field have gradually been replaced with fall vegetables and herbs.
The last of the tomatoes were picked on Monday, then the houses were cleared to make room for the fall crops.
You can see the different shade of green on the hillside where the Winter Rye is coming up. We are preparing this area for future crops by improving the soil with cover crops such as Rye.
One of several giant sweet potatoes that weighed over 7 pounds!
More Giants
I wouldn't want to run into this crew in a dark alley.
Harvesting
While this summer's weather brought many challenges, it also provided a bountiful sweet potato harvest.
Curing the Sweet Potatoes
The sweet potatoes are stacked in crates, covered with a breathable fabric, and cured in the currently vacant Hot House.
Fall Mornings on the Farm
The Hot House, Gregastan and the Creek House
The salad mix soaks up the morning sunlight.
The Amaranth fits right in with the changing fall landscape.
What was a hole in the dirt last week is a finished drain this week.
The first drainage ditch and drain are completed.
Now it's too cold?
Things change quickly. The cool nights have slowed the ripening of the tomatoes, leaving us with many fruits, but little progress.
John, Martin and Geoff are continuing the work Greg did, to "tighten" the greenhouses, so they stay warmer at night.
The Drainage Project continues.
Another ditch is being worked on this week.
There will be another drain at the end of the new ditch.
Now the doors, endwalls and ventilation windows are up.
The frames are up for the new "Sod House"
These beds have been cleared and ammended for fall plantings. The cherry tomato plants on the right will be cleared out within a week or two.
Another view of the Sod House and the East Field in the background.
Drainage Project
A federal grant program is allowing us to improve the drainage system on the farm.
In the background is an experimental plot of Amaranth being grown by a local partner.
Preparing for the Fall
These beet seedlings are growing next to "drip" lines that irrigate the beds only where they will be used by the plants.
Salad Mix is Coming Back!
The salad mix is almost ready to return. We're pretty sure it will be in the Week 12 shares, though maybe in a smaller quantity than normal.
Greenhouse Improvements
Greg is rebuilding the end-walls of the houses and adding extra windows for ventilation.
Microgreens Return This Week!
Kip in the Micro-House
Kip is the mastermind of the microgreen operation, with lots of support from Penny and Julia.
Growing microgreens involves a lot of detailed work and Kip is often doing that work long before or after the rest of the crew's work day.
A Break From the Sun
Dan checks on the young beet plants, growing under the protection of shade cloth.
Temperatures have been so high that the soil was getting too warm for certain crops to germinate. The shade cloth not only gives protection to young seedlings, but cools the soil for the crops that need that.
A freshly prepared bed that will be home to fall root crops.
Morning Harvest
Martin and John are harvesting long beans.
OPEN FARM DAY!
A group gathers for tours of the mushroom and microgreen houses.
A group heads up the hill from the fields to the mushroom and microgreen houses.
Folks gather for a refreshing drink of mint-water, another Open Farm Day staple.
One of the tour groups led by Dan, our farm manager.
The hayride comes to an end, conveniently in front of the water and shade tent.
Basil in Raised Beds
We created the outdoor raised beds last summer to help with drainage, as well as to heat up the soil for better germination and growth.
Cucumber Starts
Dan and crew are constantly starting seedlings to ensure a continuous harvest throughout the season. They are germinated in the "Start House," and later transplanted into the gardens.
The summer squash are blooming and buzzing with pollinators.
The majority of our tomatoes are grown in the greenhouses, but we are experimenting with growing some outside in the gardens this summer as well.
These are "Belle Star," a tomato that is new to us this year. It is an early and, as you can see, high-yielding variety of paste tomato.
The crew is harvesting salad mix. To the right is a bed that has already been harvested and is working on its second growth. On the left is a newly planted bed covered with a breathable fabric to retain moisture for germination.
Rows of Hungarian Hot Wax Peppers
These "Long Beans" are growing right up the trellis.
The shiitake mushrooms shown here will be in your shares in Week 2 of the Summer CSA.
Summer Is Here
The Basil plants are happy as can be in the warm temperatures we've had lately.
Our tomatoes are grown in the safe, warm shelter of the greenhouses, but with the sides raised every morning for ventilation and closed again in the evening.
Trellising Tomatoes
Cale and John work to set up the trellising twines that keep the tomatoes growing upright with plenty of ventilation.
Dill and other herbs flourish in the raised beds outdoors.
The Basil House
Our "Hot House" might as well be the Basil House, because that's what it is filled with in the summer. Basil is a heat-loving herb, and this house is well suited for it.
Plantings for Summer
Our new system of raised beds in the gardens worked well for us last year. New plantings are covered with breathable fabric to keep soil moist for germination.
The potato field
Basil transplants
Spring on the Farm
The Magnolia blooms were incredibly abundant this spring.
The Interns' Backyard
Morgan took these photos from across the creek where the interns live.
Some of our greenhouses also have ventilation on the endwalls. Our newest house has windows on both ends that open up to alllow a cross breeze.
Open Farm Day Potluck
Snow Insulation
Valentine Rutabaga!
Brought to you by a CSA member...
Mister Potato
It's not often that John's dual talents as farmer and artist meld, but when they do...
Shiitake Mushrooms
Yellow Oyster
White Oyster
WINTER WONDERLAND
It's amazing that within the snow-covered greenhouses are beds of thriving and colorful vegetables.
Do You Feel A Breeze?
Last week's wind gusts took the top off of one of the greenhouses.
Winter Greens
Workin' In the Rain
The cool fall rain doesn't stop the crew from their moring harvest.
The Trusty Tractor
Our Farm
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