Farming Lessons #1

We are loving life out here on the farm -- even though yesterday we had gale-force winds which demolished one of our "hoop houses." (A hoop house is a type of simple greenhouse which is constructed with semi-circular "hoops" made of PVC pipe covered in plastic) This past week we took part in harvesting a couple days, went to our usual farmers markets and called some restaurants to gather orders. It is a transitional period on the farm right now, with the winter crops on their way out and the spring crops just beginning to come in. We were picking garlic in the farthest field and felt obliged to check on the young strawberry plants. We managed to find a couple dozen of the first ripe strawberries which we figured should be tested for quality control. They passed the test with flying colors :)

I want everyone to learn along with Brian and I about farming. I plan to try and occasionally post some important lessons we have learned here. This week: why organic food costs so much.

On this smaller scale organic farm, EVERYTHING is harvested by hand. What is growing out here you ask? Lettuce, chicories (a bitter Italian green - think Radicchio), onions, garlic, several bitter greens, arugula, several varieties of kale, chard, herbs, several varieties of cress, radishes, beets, turnips, and more. We will have tomatoes and strawberries in the summer (so excited!). This farm sells to several restaurants, restaurant distributors, and at farmers markets. That adds up to a lot of picking. There are laborers on the farm 7 days a week! Some crops are easier than others to pick, but some are very time consuming. Take arugula for example. What we sell is very small ("baby" arugula), with the leaves being no bigger than 1 inch. The arugula does not grow in a head, like lettuce, but grows like grass, in single blades. The arugula will be "mowed" by hand with a pair of scissors; a pound takes us about an hour to pick (the professional laborers take maybe half that time). There are also lots of weeds to sort out since no sprays are used on this organic farm. Now, you take an hour of labor for one pound, add the price of seed, and the price to prepare the ground for seeding (tractor fuel and labor), the cost of irrigation (water and pipes), the cost of the piece of land (this farm is leased), boxes to package it and fuel to take it to market -- that pound of arugula gets pretty costly. This is why I get annoyed at farmers' markets when people complain about paying $8 a pound for the arugula. It costs more than that just to pick it!!! Plus, a full pound goes a long way on the table. Your average green salad may weigh 1/4 pound..
Of course, before I got out here, this was not something I really thought about, which is why I consider it a lesson. I never really thought about how much time goes into that basket of strawberries or that head of lettuce. Now, I have a better idea. Organic farming is much more labor intensive, at least when it comes to picking, than conventional farming.

We have yet to download our yurt pictures, but we will try and get them up this week!