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Invasive Species

Wintertime, the down time for a vegetable farmer without a greenhouse, finds me in the forest repairing barbed-wire fences. While there, I meander off with my trusty loppers and cut poison ivy vines at the base of the trees they are snaking up. The revelation that this obnoxious plant did not thrive as a woodland…

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Life Forces

The forces generating life processes are fast asleep underneath our snow-covered farm. Evidence of their previous activities reveal themselves in tree trunks and the anastomosis of the bare branches stretching skyward. Growth is not visible at this time of year, but the life forces involved are not inactive. When the winter sun’s angle to the…

Enjoying Spring

I’m enjoying a relaxed spring, as the CSA has retired, and no longer requires the hustle and bustle that I’ve become accustomed to. We are still farming, though, we being Phil and I, both at retirement age, and Glyn at 84 and apparently a long way from retirement. We move slower, but efficiently and grow…

April 24, 2020

The earth breaths a sigh of relief as a much needed slowdown of the economy takes place worldwide. Rivers are cleaner and air quality is up. For the first time in 30 years the Himalayan mountains are not obscured by pollution. The next step is to curb soil pollution by developing a healthy, local food…

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CBD Cannabis

Growing high quality CBD Cannabis is no different than growing high quality fruits, vegetables, and other produce. We start with the soil, and this begins the preceding fall.  Our fields, such as this one we are growing CBD Cannabis in, receive an annual application of biodynamic compost at the rate of 40 tons to the…

Growing Potatoes

I love growing potatoes. They are a fun and early crop for us. This year we planted 1,500 pounds of seed potatoes on an acre below the orchard and another 500 pounds on the south side of Heady Ridge Road.  Fifteen loads of beautiful, black, biodynamic compost were spread with the New Idea manure spreader….

Plant Chemistry

You don’t have to understand chemistry to learn how to grow plants. The earth, rain, atmosphere and sun work together and you just need to plow, fertilize, sow, and tend the plants at the right time. But learning a little chemistry is necessary to learn how plants grow. In atomic theory, atoms are the smallest…

Table to Farm

Table to farm is the name we’ve given to September’s labor day event. Twenty folks from the staff of Husk restaurant spent the day at the farm. In light of the popularity of Farm to Table dinners, the importance of restaurants learning first hand how food is produced seems paramount. I was picking tomatoes with…

Improving Soil

As observation is a key to learning, closely comparing a handful of rich garden soil with one from a worn out field can teach us a lot. The garden soil, with its additions of organic matter and minerals, will be dark and crumbly, while the worn out soil will be lighter in color and compact….

Situation Much of middle Tennessee crop land is misused or not used at all. The way crops are grown currently for exporting out of state is increasingly under scrutiny by scientists and the public alike for their questionable affects on the environment, the economy and our health. On the other hand, Tennessee’s cultural and economic…

They Like It Hot

Below in an excerpt from a garden consultation that Jeff did last week. Maybe it could help you gain some insight into your own backyard garden!    Your garden needs humus, Find this black soil underneath where cows are fed and coat the garden area a few inches deep. I suspect a 50 pound bag…