We plan to hold “Canning Parties” weekly, once crops start bearing abundantly. We will pay workers with vegetables, offer vegetables for sale to other community members, then put up what’s left. We will teach each other to can and dehydrate and freeze food; to make pickles and sauerkraut and jams of all sorts. If you are our CSA subscriber and it is your wish to eat green beans twice a week year-round, we hope to provide you with enough green beans to eat and put up for the winter, so that you don’t run out until it’s time to pick beans again. At the end of this growing season, we hope to have learned all those lessons and gathered all those bits of information that will lead us toward a successful CSA next year. It’s going to be an exciting--and learning--year in the CSC Community Garden!
CSC owns 7+ acres adjacent to Stelle, which contain: an orchard with over 100 apple trees; two old greenhouses, one of which is the current Chicken Co-op housing for our flock of laying hens, and the other is still awaiting some future re-purposing assignment that hasn’t been decided or implemented yet. There is also an old Quonset hut, used now mostly for storage. Kellie Creek meanders through the middle of the property separating the orchard from our large garden, with two sheds and a nearby pond. Our garden has a wonderful history, which mostly consists of community members working together to raise food for use in the community. The rule has always been “work a little, take a little; work a lot, take a lot”. In recent years, there have been fewer workers, and it has seemed like each group had a different idea of what the garden was for and what we should do with the food that was grown there. Sometimes food went to waste while we debated the merits of this or that plan.
This year, however, we seem to have found our mission. We have recognized what a wonderful asset this parcel of land is, especially in the face of uncertain times brought on by economic instability, peak oil, and climate change. Whatever the future holds, we all know we want to EAT, and we have the land for growing food for the community, the desire to do that, and quite a lot of expertise, right here among us. At our first garden meeting of this year, it became clear that our goal should be to start a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for Stelle, and, perhaps, beyond.
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For those who may not be familiar with CSA, here’s how it works: Subscribers pay a certain amount up front--that is, at the beginning of the season, so that help can be hired, seeds purchased and started, ground prepared, materials gathered, and then, each week during the growing season, each subscriber will get a bag or box of produce (and perhaps other products, depending on the CSA) for their use. Especially when you live in the country, far from a store or farmers’ market, as we do, a local farm which provides you with fresh produce every week is a marvelous blessing.
So, if we want to be a CSA in the future, what do we need to do to get ready for that? First, we need to find out what people want to eat, then buy seeds, start them, gather much information and willing participants, and then grow as much food as we can, in the very best way we can, that is, utilizing organic methods, companion planting, beneficial herbs and insects, excellent tending and timely harvesting, and, all the while, keeping very careful records of what we planted, when we planted it, how much money we spent, how many hours were worked by our volunteers, and, of course, what we grew. One important piece of this is the timely harvesting and utilization of all we grow. Some things, of course, will end up as compost, which is also a noble ending for produce, but we will be trying to eat, put up, or share as much as possible of what we get from the garden. If we can do all that, then we will be able to figure out how much to charge for a tomato or an eggplant, and from that, know how to charge for a season’s subscription. We will also be able to fairly determine what an hour’s work is worth toward groceries. (Now we’re slipping into another topic, which is local currency, but that’s a discussion for another time.)
So, we have a plan, and we have a manager, and we have a good number of willing workers...what’s next? We need to determine what tools we need to help us accomplish this task. We need more catchment for rain, but in the meantime, we have a nearby pond, a solar pump to use for pumping water to a tank that is situated high on a berm between the pond and the garden, so now we also have gravity on our side. With a splitter on the tank, and feeder hoses leading to soaker hoses in all the beds, we’ve just cut out hours of work watering our crops. We will spend money on composted manure to enrich our soil, straw bales for a nice thick mulch, row covers for the most at-risk plants, and fences against our friends the rabbits.
Next we need to determine rotation, according to a chart of what was planted where over the last four years. Garden maps have been made for this year, taking into account all those cultivars that members of our group requested. Among our food crops, companion plants will be interspersed, as well as various flowers and herbs to attract the beneficial insects that will help our garden be successful without the use of toxic sprays. Food crops we will be growing: three sisters: corn, pole beans and butternut squash, peas, pole beans and bush beans, okra, eggplant, 11 kinds of tomatoes, 5 kinds of peppers, 5 kinds of squash (summer and winter), pumpkins, watermelon, canteloupe, 4 kinds of cucumbers, collards, broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, rutabaga, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, lettuce, spinach, chard, mache, carrots, beets, radishes, and sunflowers, as well as many different herbs and flowers as companion plants. We also have perennial beds of rhubarb and asparagus.
Seeds for crops, companions and beneficials have been ordered and are growing happily indoors under lights. Soon, early plants can be seeded in the garden; others will be transplanted into larger pots to await frost-free conditions. Mulched beds will be raked clean in early March to allow the sun to dry and warm them in preparation for planting. Many spreadsheets have been made to record: money spent, cultivars planted, date of planting, estimated date of harvest, numbers and weights of each item harvested, number of hours worked and by how many people. Work parties will take place whenever there is a large amount of work to do; daily inspections will take place around the garden, and individuals can work when they have time, checking the “job board” for what is currently needed. Job completed and time spent for each person is to be reported to the garden manager so it’s recorded.
Ed and Renee at the first work day of the season. The sign says it all!
Peg and Wayne planning the plots. These two are the primary brains and brawn behind this year's garden co-op.
Hayden tilling a trench to prepare for the installation of a fence to keep the voracious bunnies out.
Potatoes in bloom. Bush beans are planted next to them to help protect them from potato bugs.
Can't wait for some fresh asparagus, YUM!
Cameron staking rows for planting
Hayden, Susan, Bill and Wayne have some fun while installing the fence posts.
The first CSC Garden Co-op Party of the 2011 season. Hayden, Peg, Susan, Bev, Wayne, Cameron, Bill, Renee, Ed, and Carroll. Kasandra is behind the camera.
No, Honda did not pay us to include this picture, but I couldn't resist. As I was leaving I noticed that the parking area in front of the shed looked like a used Honda car lot. The one exception is the Toyota in the middle.
Ed, Renee and Carroll work on preparing salvaged lumber for fencing and borders.
