Rain and Roof-Raising

It’s been wet, and things are growing! It’s great not to have to water our crops, but it’s been almost too wet — this is the second week where we have not been able to seed, weed or feed. We hope that changes soon.

I flirted with digging carrots, and I did pull about 2#. The first ones were good sized, but then they got smaller and smaller. So we are going for delayed gratification this week and will let them get bigger. The 2# that were dug and washed today were mostly consumed by crew members raw before I could take them to the house.

You may notice a few beets on the market table, but not nearly enough to distribute to CSA–next week!

A week ago, Friends of the Farm launched our crowdfunding campaign to replace the two tunnels that were destroyed. So far, friends and strangers have donated $2,500 toward the cause! That’s thanks in part to a nice article in the Sioux City Journal yesterday. We have a month to raise the rest of the $28,000.

In chicken-related news, we still have pastured chickens for sale, but we haven’t really been promoting them because the processing facility we used closed, and there is no federally inspected or state inspected for retail sale processor anywhere in Western Iowa. We have used Cherokee Locker but it limits our ability to sell at markets because it is an Iowa Inspected custom kill not-for-resale type of Locker. This situation leads to dependency on fewer and fewer producers, processors and limits the opportunity for new farmers to enter any kind of meat marketing. It also limits variety and flavor. It is a big issue for this country.

If you like cheese, you can read in the news this week about how the Food Safety Modernization Act could devastate small scale cheese producers this year. Last year FSMA impacted chickens, this year cheese, who knows what is next.

When the soil dries, like tomorrow if it doesn’t rain tonight, and if you are in Orange City or Sioux Center and know a high school student that needs something to do this week or next week, please encourage them to text John 712-490-8218 (tel:712-490-8218) . We can put them to work weeding, which will develop their eye hand coordination, flexibility and dexterity… right? 😉

“Raise the Roof” is Saturday… see you there? We’ll have Cornucopia t-shirts for sale and lots of good food.

–John Wesselius