62. Reflection Season
Last month marked the 5 year anniversary of us moving to Roanoke, and what an eventful half-decade it has been! Running our last of 32 straight weekly markets yesterday, then waking up and watching the wind blow the last of the crusty leaves off the trees in Fallon Park has me feeling very reflecty this morning. For regular readers of this blog, I must apologize that I’ve gone most of the growing season without any updates. The longer I work as a farmer the clearer it becomes that winters are for writing/content creation (the youtube page has been equally neglected, but stay tuned!) and the summers are for farming. Not that I don’t do anything besides grow plants in the summer, but I’m always telling myself to “focus on doing things that matter” and it’s hard to argue that a couple hours of whittling words on a laptop matters more than getting the next succession of lettuce in the ground.
In celebration of five years farming salad for Roanokers, I’m going to share five reflections that are top of mind as we turn the page:
1. It used to take a family, now it takes a village.
Even when I was farming alone, I was not farming alone. Friends and family have been occasionally instrumental from day one, but a big part of wanting to move the farm to Lick Run was rooted in trying to bring those friends and family into the farm operation more consistently, and this year we have done that. GVH has two part time workers and two all-star harvest volunteers (my mom and dad), plus the odds and ends that get picked up by Chloe and the in-laws. I’ve literally had more offers to help than I know what to do with at times, and it is so wonderful to feel so thoroughly supported by my community. There are over 45 names on the GVH Volunteer Corps email list, and they routinely showed up to help with heavy lifting and infrastructure projects throughout 2022. Thanks to everyone who moved a tarp or drilled a screw with us! And if you offered but have not been called into action yet, please know your turn will be coming soon.
2. My love for okra might be contagious.
I celebrated the heck out of my favorite crop this year and a lot of you joined me in that celebration. We planted about 200’ of towering okra trees this year and we could have doubled that considering that we are already out of pickled jars and we had to limit wholesale quantities throughout the summer. It seems we’ve carved a groove with this wonderful plant, and I’m constantly amazed at the number of uses we can find for it. If you’ve loved our okra ornaments but struggle to find us where you can purchase them, rest assured we’re working on making them available for mail order at GardenVarietyHarvests.com.
Next year’s plan for okra will include at least doubling the amount we plant, more consistent pickled okra production, and maybe some opportunities for u-pick in the high season. Okrafest will definitely return to Lick Run in September. We also have a great plan for the toughest part: how to remove the stumps so the ground can be planted the following year. We’re going to use a combination of well-timed cover crop seeding and mowing to improve okra’s spot in the field rotation to make our job easier as farmers.
3. Covered growing space will be a palpable upgrade for the GVH operation.
With the assistance of our all-star extension agent, Shawn Jadrnicek, and four high-school interns in our Take Root program, we built our first high tunnel! It’s small (housing five 35-ft long growing beds), but is already pumping out the late fall veggies. The tunnel was built using some recycled materials and completely from scratch, so everyone involved walked away with pride for what we accomplished together. As the grip of winter begins to take hold this week, the difference between limping field crops and greenhouse-protected crops is obvious. The opportunities for season extension have me very excited for the coming years. We’ll double our indoor growing space when the garlic comes out of the field, constructing a sister tunnel next to this one, and we’ve applied for a big-league (96’ long) tunnel cost share grant that could be constructed as early as next spring. And it’s not just winter salads that have me excited for greenhouse growing: it’s also heat loving plants for which the season always seems too short! With a good crop plan, we could be 20-30 days earlier with cucumbers and tomatoes even with unheated tunnels, and I’m also mulling the idea of a 2023 ginger crop!
4. We can never grow enough carrots, strawberries, or broccoli.
If you’re trying to convince someone that local foods taste better, there’s not a better argument than simply handing them a freshly picked carrot. GVH has steadily gotten better and better at growing carrots over the years, but every Thanksgiving I look up and they’re sold out and I’m breaking the news to market customers. With creative mulching and cold storage techniques, it’s possible to have carrots every week of the year in these parts. So we’ll keep reaching for carrot infinity, knowing that we can never have too many. We’ve known strawberries to be in the same category for a while now, and the strawberry patch will officially migrate to Lick Run next spring so that other farm workers or volunteers may be able to share in the picking labor!
Broccoli was a new crop for GVH this time last year and I’ve quickly developed a love for growing (and eating) it. A few frosts into the fall, our field broccoli is deceptively sweet, and I’ve dialed in a couple varieties that are consistent and high-yielding. When working less than ¼ acre, it didn’t make sense to plant much broccoli (or cabbage, cauliflower) because it does require some space to spread out. But with the expanded farm footprint, I intend to grow a lot more next year both spring and fall!
5. For me to want to become a parent, I first had to parent tens of thousands of plants successfully.
In case you hadn’t heard or seen, we’ve been growing more than vegetables this year. Chloe is 40 weeks pregnant and our new babe will be here any day now. We had no intention of ever having children when we moved to Virginia 5 years ago, but somehow being enveloped with love by this community changed our tune. As our hyper-local social circle grew after coming here, we met more folks who were choosing to parent in ways we appreciate and admire. Those same folks and others relentlessly badgered us to join them in taking the plunge until eventually it seemed like a good idea. I can’t imagine a better environment for raising a human than an organic farm. I’m very appreciative to our incoming child that they stayed on schedule and allowed us to finish the market season in one piece, and now we’re gonna start the rest of our lives on the baby’s schedule.
Thanks for a wonderful 5 years of eating local! Cheers to many, many more!