The Avalon Organic Gardens, Farm, and Ranch Report

We’ve got the garlic in! That feels great. Takes a group effort to plant half an acre by hand. The early hard frost (24 F in the Lower Garden) in mid October knocked out our Basil, Eggplant, Peppers, Tomatoes, Okra, Cucumbers, and Summer Squash, altering the end of our CSA season, but this is part of the natural agricultural life: we are connected with the weather and seasons, and adapt to whatever comes our way. We still had plenty of others crops to continue with, and our first season ended successfully.

Now we’re enjoying our winter squashes. Each variety has its own character of flavor, texture, and look served in meals. Everyone seems to have their favorite kinds. Is it the acorns, Tahitians, the butternut, or Mayo? The spaghetti squash goes so well with our fresh goat cheese and a little red sauce. We’re also enjoying the sweet potatoes. Of course the different varieties have their own flavors too. For Thanksgiving we enjoyed some wonderful pies from these roots.

We gave thanks for our abundance this year in the garden, as we celebrated this day together. Now the beets are fat and the leaves vibrant before the cold gets at them. The chard is standing strong as the pests recede, the carrots are big and sweet, bunching onions ready, kale and collards pumping out, and the next round of radishes (daikon and red) are coming on as the latter are thinning out. Our lettuce is filling the big bowls at meal time, and the spinach is getting harvested. Even saw some little broccoli head swelling gently. The comfrey is going for one last round after being cut back. A little volunteer tomato sprouted up and has its own plans, its little yellow flowers are saying. Even the jaltomate’s tiny, delicate lavender flowers are persisting. Can anyone tell us what this plant is all about?

What’s next? There are the many pieces of a new greenhouse awaiting us. It’ll be a fun project to get it up and going. Our one greenhouse was already outgrown when we raised it last winter. Gotta start somewhere though. Number two will be filled right up too. The garden is ready to expand as fast as we can keep up with her.

The bees are hunkering down, and have needed a little feeding due to the early frost knocking out a lot of their nectar sources. Now is the quiet season, allowing us to get ready for next year. It’s going to be a big one! We’ll see how many millions of bees we can rescue in 2009. We’ve been told by a local expert that our ranch could support 200 colonies, so we’ve got a lot of boxes to get ready.

Again, we want to offer our ranch as a training ground for all persons seeking service and experience in the fields of agriculture, gardening, animal husbandry, and building. Recently we’ve appreciated the helping hands of four WWOOFERs who came through in time to wrap up the garlic with us, amongst many other things. We are a family all pitching in together, whether a visitor passing through for a few days, a guest for a few months doing a work exchange, a neighbor helping teach our young ladies in the kitchen, adult community members, one of our up-and-coming teens mentoring, or our kids pulling carrots with us. We understand our need for each other, and invite anyone called to jump on in with us for a bit. Why not join in this movement of agricultural and communal revival? You just might get a lot out of it if you give it a try.

A Little News from the Planetary Fields

- Purdue University’s apicultural researcher Greg Hunt has estimated about 23% of the world’s honey bee population has been lost. Last winter, U.S. beekeepers lost 35% of their colonies. In France they have banned a neurotoxic pesticide (manufactured by Bayer) blamed for their recent loses, and Germany has followed suit, after finding the buildup of the chemical in 99% of their dead bees.

- The NAIS (National Animal Identification System) has been suspended indefinitely, according to a recent court ruling. This is wonderful news for all those who have been fighting for their rights to leave their livestock free of chips for tracking by the USDA.

- We note the passing of the great farmer-philosopher Masanobu Fukuoka, author of the famous The One Straw Revolution. He was one who showed us all that less can be more and that nature might not need so much messing with to grow abundant crops.

- According to the ’08 report of the USDA’s Economic Research Service:

92% of soybeans planted in the U.S. were GMO, along with

86% of cotton

80% of corn

Unless you know the source is clean, you are probably supporting Monsanto when these U.S. products are bought, used, or consumed.

- According to a recent report from Iowa State University, the net profits for organic farming far outweighs the commodity farm’s, showing the former to be 5 times greater in this area.

To read more about these tid-bits, look for ACRES. This important publication deserves our support.