Wink’s Blog

I awoke about 2 this morning to the tick of rainwater dripping from the eaves.  Overnight low about 37.  I asked the thaw question a week ago and since then nights have been in the teens and highs in the 40s.  Warm for January; snow blanket slowly disappearing, the mud even drying in a few spots.  But today the five-day forecast is for rain, rain, rain with temps between 30 and 45.  Good time to get back to wrenching indoors.

We spent inauguration day and evening with friends in Colorado Springs; it was a joyous event.  We also met with contacts to plan the growing season and fruit distribution.  Our friend Susan Gordon of Venetucci Farm (http://venetuccifarm.org/CSA.html) is helping us to plan a Fruit “CSA” (Community Supported Agriculture).  In the CSA model, a member buys, in the Spring and for a fixed cost, a share of the summer produce of the farm.  By purchasing the share in advance, the member helps the farmer afford the season start-up costs and each week receives a basket containing a pro rata share of that week’s harvest.  If the harvest is prolific, the basket overflows; should it falter, the member shares the loss with the farmer.  A personal relationship deepens; the member develops a sense of ownership in the farm and the farmer appreciates sharing the risks inherent in farming.  Originally applied in vegetable growing, the concept has recently been expanded to encompass meat, fruit, and even prepared foods.  We look forward to knowing our CSA members and welcoming their visits to the farm.

Stay tuned for news and updates.

This morning the mercury stands at 17 F.  Four or five warm days in a row and it feels like Spring.  Likely just a January thaw but with the rattle of orchard ladders in the apples next door and the voices of workers, the orchards are reawakening after an all-too-brief rest.  I’m restless to get back outside myself after two days indoors at the annual convention of the Western Colorado Horticultural Society in Grand Junction while the snows melted.

The highlight of the WCHS conference was three impassioned addresses by Dr John Ikerd on the “New American Agriculture” and the “New American Farmer” both of which could be summarized by the term “sustainable agriculture.”  The kick-off was a showing of the new film “Broken Limbs” (which Max and I have ordered for the Farm library; www.brokenlimbs.org); the story of a farm family who are struggling to keep farming despite devastating competition from China and South America as they raise apples in Washington’s fertile Columbia River Valley.  With the smoke from the decimation of their neighbors’ razed orchards as the back drop, the film depicts how these folks apply Dr Ikerd’s message in their effort to continue in the way of life they love.

In person, Dr Ikerd told us that the days of industrial agriculture, including industrial organic, are over.  That the New American Agriculture produces food ethically, for local communities, that is nutritious, delicious, and healthy.  In order to be “sustainable” the New American Farmer stewards the land and preserves and improves the soil; (s)he treats workers and the community alike with respect, kindness, and equitably; and, equally important, finds ways to produce reasonable profits.

This is not a new message to our friends who have been following this blog and web site and who have been purchasing our fruit.  You know that we are working on improving our soils and stewarding our farm ecology.  We acknowledge that we have room for improvement in paying our workers a living wage — a priority for us.  So much of what we can put back into the farm and our workers depends on securing an adequate income.  It is a process of continual improvement.  We have declared this to be the year that we will see if we, and the farm, together can realize the promise of the New American Farm economy.

It was on this last point that we heard Dr Ikerd’s message most powerfully.  And this is where you, the “eater” of food comes in.  He works with sustainable ag groups all over the country and he sees that people want to know where there food comes from; want to know and trust their farmers; and want to know that their food dollar is going to support farmers who care about the land, the quality of the food they produce, and the ethics they live while growing it.  They understand that by supporting local farmers they are supporting rural communities and the health of the society to which they belong.  Through this wholistic understanding, they are willing to pay more for food grown in this way because they know where those dollars are going and that they are supporting values that they respect.

We came away not only reinvigorated in our commitment to making this happen but with references and resources to help turn the vision into food on your table.  So, if you’re in our “food-shed” and want to be part of this movement, don’t hesitate to email (wink@mesawindsfarm.com).  If you’re already part of our network, you’ll be hearing from us directly.  If you’re in another local food region, look for farmers markets, CSAs, farm stands, and u-picks.  Make friends with a farmer who cares about you, your family, and your community.

In recent days Max and I have agreed to serve on the Board of the Western Colorado Horticulture Society (http://www.coloradofruit.org/). We are pleased and honored. Our friend, an organic orchardist and the outgoing President, who made the offer said he expects us to be a progressive voice on the Board. We’re pleased to be viewed in this light and pleased that the Board values a diversity of perspectives. We’ll do our best to be a worthy. As far as this blog is concerned, this role ups the ante; I don’t want to be dismissed as a kook. I’ve begun to regard this blog is a conversation with myself — I’m about the only one who contributes — that I let the rest of the world in on. I’m tasting ruminations that I’ve been chewing-on. I hope you find them worth digesting.

I generally feel that whether I can explain something, even to myself, succinctly and briefly is a measure of how much I understand of it. By this measure I have a lot to learn about soils. Since my last effort to describe what goes on in the soil I’ve been trying to take this discussion further; to review, for my own sake, what I’ve been observing, studying, deducing and intuiting. I find I can’t simplify. It’s not just that there’s a lot of different perspectives and different commentators formulating the challenges differently. Perhaps it also discloses how little is really known about soils. It reminds us that every soil sample is different, every agro-ecosystem is different, every farmer has a different outlook. Moreover, much of what is going on down there takes place in the microscopic realm and is more about relationships, synergies, and competitions than about the indivisible parts.

If we’re going to intervene in our soils, how are we going to measure the results? Size and quantity of fruit? Taste? Resistance to disease and pest pressures? Believers say “yes” to all of the above. These results are hard to quantify and are largely subjective. Maybe we can perceive success in the size and hue of the leaves, the appearance of the trees and the overall orchard. The bottom line results aren’t in until harvest when we can measure fruit size and tonnage. But even this is, at best, an indirect measure of the health of the soil. What about the confounding variables such weather, irrigation skills and challenges, pruning and thinning, pest cycles, the progressive maturation of the plants, climate change, phases of the moon, and my own mood? Our scientist friends can try to tease apart the interconnections of the subterranean world; but as far as I can tell, we do what we do less on the basis of empirical data, than on what seems to us to most closely comport with our observations and what feels right: Our belief system.

So, what do we believe? We believe in helping Mother Nature succeed. We try to work in harmony with the ecology of the farm to produce delicious, healthful fruit. This does not necessarily mean the biggest or most tonnage. We also believe that, by reducing the interventions and off-farm inputs, any potential loss of quantity can be compensated by reduced costs. And that fewer tractor trips into the orchard the better for the soil ecology. We’re focussed more on quality, health and flavor than on sheer quantity.

Consistent with our beliefs, we are moving to use cover crops exclusively to provide the nutrients our trees and vines need. Certainly we won’t accomplish this in one year; it is a transition that will take at least a few years and thereafter it will be a way of life. Beginning in the vineyards, in the vine-rows, we’ll plant a mixture of low-growing (so we don’t need to mow them and they don’t overly compete with the vines) plants including dwarf white clover for nitrogen, alyssum and other flowering plants for the beneficial insects, etc. This ground cover will out-compete the weeds and eliminate the costly and time-consuming tilling we now do with the Weed Badger. It will help hold moisture, reduce erosion, and lower summer soil temperatures. The beneficial insects which predate on the pests will have a supportive home right next to our valuable plants. Next, using a no-till seed drill, we’ll plant the alleyways with a mixture (yet to be determined) of buckwheat, hairy vetch, etc to produce a lot of organic matter. This we’ll mow or simply knock down according to Bob Shaffer’s theories to provide organic matter and lignin.

We’ll do pretty much the same in the peaches: We’ll apply commercial organic nitrogen this year because the trees need it. And we may have to shallow rototill in the tree rows in order to control the existing orchard grasses and enable the cover crops to get established. By tilling we run the risk of damaging the tender, shallow, feeder roots from the trees, breaking down soil aggregates, and disrupting the live flora and fauna of our soils. But we probably have to break that egg on our way to an omelet. In an alive soil, these qualities will reestablish themselves. And the critical thing will be to beat the weeds by seeding the cover crop immediately. Also, similarly, we’ll establish a more diverse cover crop in the alleys as time and resources permit.

Likely, by the time we get all that accomplished, the apples, which seem hardier than the peaches and appear plenty healthy at this point, will speak up for their share of the attention. By then I may have refined my belief system with more understanding of the capacity of healthy trees to repel insects and disease simply by virtue of being strong and healthy. This is an attitude that I can appreciate, in that I apply it to myself, so I’m predisposed to apply it to our friends, the trees. More on that in the future.

Too much palaver! By now you’ve likely concluded that these ideas are hopelessly naive, far too simplistic, that I’m out of my mind, or all of the above. Possibly all true. Please weigh-in with anything you care to share so we can all benefit the better.