Farming in the shade

About a week ago I was working in my flower beds and heard large machinery noise. We are used to tractors and road graders going by, but we still look up when we hear something big. This large piece of equipment turned in the driveway. Hmmmm... a spray rig on an organic farm. I set down my shovel and trotted over to meet him. He'd been given verbal instructions as to where he had to head next. I'm not sure why in this age of smartphones he was told "one street over from _____, west of ____" and not given GPS coordinates, or at least an address on a piece of paper. But at any rate, he was one street over in the wrong direction. After I headed him in what I thought was the right direction, I mentioned to him that we are a little nervous about spray rigs on our farm. I told him that four years ago we had a field accidentally sprayed by someone who wasn't careful about where he was supposed to spray. And I mentioned that we are an organic farm. He got...

A few weeks ago, on a sweltering hot evening, The Farmer and I attended a soil health seminar on a large livestock farm. The participants learned about the operation, oogled some big equipment, muttered and shook our heads together about the drought conditions, and dug in the heavy clay soil to look for signs of soil health. I was impressed with the humility and knowledge of the owner of this large operation. Despite his farm's status as a CAFO (confined animal feeding operation), he was genuinely concerned for and actively pursuing the health of his animals. I tell people who think that Big Farmers Are Evil to chew on the following idea: Even IF (and I know NO farmers that are this way), but IF hypothetically a farmer was in it purely for the money only, and cared nothing for his livestock, he would still take care of his animals. Because sick, neglected, abused animals do NOT make money for a farmer. Think about that for a while. Now, are there bad players among livestock farmer...

About six weeks ago, one of our hay fields looked like this. Simply gorgeous--almost ready to cut. We were in the fields, planting like crazy. Planting late, because of a cold, endlessly rainy spring. Despite the fog that envelopes those who are planting late, planting like crazy, one thing stood out in this hayfield. The tracks. What on earth? Someone had been in our hayfield! Not just an ATV, riding along the edge, either. This someone had carefully ridden back and forth across the whole field at regular, methodic intervals. And that someone was BIG. Ruh-roh. Trouble. The only huge thing that rides back and forth across a hayfield at methodic, regular intervals leaving only tracks is a spray rig. Someone must have sprayed our hayfield. Our organic hayfield. The Farmer started calling neighboring farmers. The first one said he does all his own spraying. Not likely he would be confused about which field was his. The second farmer told us he hadn't ordered any custom spraying late...

The Farmer sold the corn recently--our first crop of certified organic corn. It will be feed for cows at an organic dairy farm. Storage bins are very dangerous situations. You don't EVER want to get in a full grain bin as it's emptying. As the grain empties out the bottom of the bin, you will likely get sucked down, buried by grain, crushed and suffocated. But once you can feel the bin floor, it's safe to go in. The last little bit of corn needs guidance toward the hopper in the center of the floor. The orange/pink stain in the snow is bees-wings, a type of corn chaff. The corn is loaded into the truck using a small auger. Full yet? Almost... Just two truck loads of corn--that's all we harvested. But it's a start!

Shady Side Farm is now certified organic. Woo-hoo! Disclaimer--there are still parts of our operation that are not organic. Some things will never be organic, and some things we just need to work on a bit more to get there. But as of Saturday, The Farmer was selling organic pinto beans, organic edible soybeans and organic corn at a nearby farmers' market.

It's coming! It's almost here... The long-awaited day! Thursday will be our inspection day--the last step (hopefully!) in becoming certified organic. Patience... just wait. Thursday will be here before you know it!

This is the next step on our journey to organic certification. Honestly? It's not high on the list of "Things We Like To Do".

Gotta be careful when you're cultivating corn. Drive between the rows... A little carelessness can tear out the corn, instead of the weeds... Steady hand on the wheel... Keep looking ahead (looking back can be disastrous)... It's a tedious job. Long hours driving back and forth in the field. Those who long for a taste of the "simple life" can apply between the hours of 5 and 7 a.m. (It's cool then.) We'll put you right to work...

Finally, the rains have let up enough for us to get on the fields. May is our normal planting season here in Michigan, but we were concerned with all the extra rain that we might never get on the fields.  This field of weeds is being plowed under using a moldboard plow. This traditional plow turns sod over, and is something we didn't use for many years. The moldboard plow is being replaced (in my humble opinion) with herbicides in modern agriculture. Now that we're transitioning to organic farming, the struggle against weeds demands new (or old, in this case) strategies. It's a tedious job, back and forth, back and forth. I am pretty sure the time is well used in planning and thinking through what comes next.

At Shady Side Farm, we are trying to build soil health and not use synthetic chemicals on our land. I saw a poster in a doctors' office once that said "Healthy Soil, Healthy Plants, Healthy People", which I thought was very surprising. We've been learning about this as we switch over to organic, and I didn't know that any doctors had made the connection between soil health and people health yet. Good sign. (In fact, does anyone else wonder if the amazing amount of sickness and obesity is related to what we eat? And I'm not talking about eating whole milk cheese instead of 2% milk cheese, here. I'm not a fan of "lowfat" foods that have to make up for the lost taste with high fructose corn syrup. I'm talking more about food that has been bred to "keep" well, ship far, and taste like sawdust. I'll bet the "keeping" and the "nutrition" are inversely proportional. Take the strawberries from California or Florida t...