Bedding up the sweet potatoes

  We bedded up our sweet potatoes a few weeks ago.  The process actually began last fall when we set aside our sweet potato seed.  We choose fairly small, well-shaped and blemish free potatoes then simply put them loose in labeled paper bags or cardboard boxes.  We then put them upstairs in our house, which stays fairly warm all winter.  This is not ideal for eating potatoes, but for the seed potatoes it works well to get them to start sprouting.  Around early April, most of the varieties have about an inch of sprout growth.

  The next step is making our bed.  We simply place cinder blocks in our garden, making sure the distance between the rows is the correct distance for our storm windows.  We then fill the bottom with a few inches of aged sawdust.  Next, we lay out the sweet potatoes.  They can go fairly close together as the goal is to get a lot of slips in a small area.  We grow about 30 varieties, so we use corn cobs pushed into the sawdust to separate the varieties.  We then cover all the sweet potatoes with 4-6 inches of sawdust, making sure the corncobs are still above the sawdust level.  We then water it well and cover the bed with storm windows.
  It takes quite a bit of monitoring to keep the temperature within a good range for the sweet potatoes.  If it is going to be quite cold in the night, we'll add some blankets on top.  On sunny days, we take every other window off to vent it or remove the glass altogether.  It can get really hot really quickly if the glass is left on and we've accidentally burned sweet potato growth that was even an inch under the sawdust.  It is also important to keep it well watered.
  From making the bed to having slips to start cutting takes about a month or so.  Some varieties are really quick to slip while others are very slow.  For the slower ones, we plant extra potatoes to make sure we have enough of that kind at planting time.

  After we've cut all the slips we need from the bed, we usually let it keep growing all summer as we cut sweet potato greens from it.  They are a delicious cooked summer green.  Then in the fall, we clean out the bed, spreading the sawdust on the garden, feeding the old sweet potatoes to the goats and collecting any newly grown sweet potatoes to eat.  We often re-use the bed for multiple years, but we always put new sawdust in it every year to prevent any possible disease carry over.

STATESVILLE CSA PLAN

  Below is the plan for our CSA customers that will be getting their shares in Statesville.  (If instead you will be picking up shares at our farm in Yadkinville, see this link.)

CSA OVERVIEW
  If you'd be interested in making a weekly commitment to buying a $24 assortment of our vegetables, then our CSA might be for you.  In exchange for the commitment our CSA members make to us, we commit to growing a full assortment of weekly vegetables for them.  Most of the things we grow for our CSA members are available to our other customers as well, but we give our CSA members priority so our CSA members get the greatest variety of things from our farm. 

WHERE AND WHEN
  CSA members receive their shares by meeting us in Statesville at whatever time we make our delivery (which for the farmers market season is on Saturday mornings at the farmers market.)  We occasionally also offer to make home deliveries to those members who live in our delivery area.

WHAT'S INCLUDED IN CSA SHARES
  Our standard $24 CSA shares contain a full assortment of several dozen different seasonal fresh vegetables (tomatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, peas, beans, lettuce, okra...), shitake mushrooms, and other garden and specialty field crops (like peanuts, strawberries...), all from open-pollinated seed and grown without chemical pesticides or fertilizers.  Here is a link to photos of sample CSA shares. 
  We're glad to pack your share with an assortment of whatever we think is at its best each week with maximum variety from week to week.  But we also offer the option to marginally customize your share, depending on what we have available.

CSA COMMITMENT
  We expect to be able to offer CSA shares nearly every Saturday from May to October but also probably one or two weeks in April, two or three weeks in November, probably one week in December, maybe one week in March... We'll just let you know in the newsletter we send out before each drop-off whether CSA shares will be available to order that week.  On the weeks we make deliveries but don't have CSA shares available, mostly mid-winter, you are welcome to just order items off from the list, but we won't fill in or substitute to make a $24 share like we normally would.
  In order for us to continue our commitment to each of our CSA members, we expect our CSA members to order a CSA share at least 85% of the times we offer shares (but if you get at least 25 CSA shares per year, we'll count that as close enough, even if we make enough drop-offs that 25 winds up being less than 85% of the total number of weeks.)  So you should expect to spend at least $600.00 with us if you want to take part in the CSA.

ORDERING
  In response to the newsletter we send out announcing a delivery, you will need to e-mail us back to request a CSA share.  If you have specific requests for what you'd like us to include in your share, that's also the time to make those requests.

BALANCE AND RECEIPTS
  Just as for the credit system, you'll keep a balance with us from which we will deduct your weekly orders.  This makes it straightforward if you would like to order items beyond your weekly share.   For example, you could order a share plus a bouquet of flowers or plus an additional 20 lbs of sweet potatoes.  We'll simply deduct the amount of your total order from your balance.
  Within a few days of each drop-off we'll send you an e-mail with (1) the total cost of what you ordered at the last drop-off, (2) your remaining balance -- if your balance drops below $66, we'll ask you to go ahead and replenish your balance.  (3) the number of CSA shares you've gotten and the number of weeks we've offered CSA shares so far that year (so that you can make sure you're ordering at least 85% of the time, assuming you want to continue receiving CSA privileges.)

NEW CSA MEMBERS
  New members take part in the CSA as trial CSA members.  This gives you a chance to see if the amount and types of food work for you, if the amount of out-of-town traveling you do is compatible with the regularity of the CSA, if the drive to pick up your food (if you live outside our home delivery area) is manageable, etc.
  We ask trial CSA members to request CSA shares 11 out of 12 consecutive CSA deliveries.  You can begin any week we're offering CSA shares to regular CSA members. 
  We invite trial CSA members to order as if they were CSA members.  That means you can request a CSA share any week when we're offering CSA shares to our regular CSA members, and as with regular CSA shares we'll fill in whatever portion of the $24 CSA share for which you don't make requests and we'll make substitutions for any requests you make that we can't fill, sometimes including items that weren't part of the list in the preceding newsletter.  The one difference is we'll pack the shares of our regular CSA members first, so sometimes we may need to short you and you won't receive the same priority as regular CSA members. 
  After you've requested 11 CSA shares (within a period of 12 consecutive CSA deliveries) we'll count you as a regular CSA member so long as you keep ordering shares at least 85% of the time.
  If during this time you realize the CSA isn't working for you, you can simply drop back to the home delivery program.  This means you'll just start using your balance just like any home delivery customer, ordering as much or as little as you want as often as you want, skipping as many weeks as you want, and you'll no longer be able to order CSA shares except on the weeks when we offer sample CSA shares to everyone. 

HOW TO PROCEED IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN JOINING THE CSA
  (1)  Let us know you're interested in joining the CSA
  (2) Plan a visit to the farm.  Any of our customers is welcome to come for a farm visit/tour, but we require a farm visit of new CSA members.  This gives you a chance to better understand what our farm is all about, what the CSA partnership is about, and what it means for what you'll be receiving in your CSA shares. It also helps us better explain the logistics of our system to first time CSA members and to answer any questions you have.
  (3) Join the credit system  (if you're not already a credit system customer.)  To join the credit system, you'll need to give us a check for at least $150 and commit to spending a minimum of $150 over the course of the next 12 months -- the first $150 required for taking part in home deliveries is non-refundable regardless of whether you decide to continue with the CSA -- but your first 11 trial CSA shares will add up to more than that, so you'll need to plan to add to your balance soon into your CSA trial to continue unless you make a larger initial payment.  Any amount over $150 is fully refundable.

  If you have more questions about our CSA, please send us an e-mail or call us (704-546-5074) or make plans to visit the farm.

CARROT AND YACON SALAD

  This is a favorite winter salad of ours.  It keeps a couple days in the fridge so we often make a big batch. 
  Shred about equal amounts of carrots and yacons.  Add some finely chopped ginger root, a small amount of apple cider vinegar and honey, a pinch of salt and optionally some chopped dried figs (or raisins would probably fill a similar role) and walnuts.

Roasting sweet potatoes

 They are almost too pretty to eat!

Germination testing

It's seed germination testing time.

Any seed we want to carry over from last year or was saved by us last year, gets germ tested.

Seeds get laid on old cloth diapers in numbered rows, then another diaper is put on top. We keep them warm and moist.

Within 4-6 days the seeds have germinated enough for us to decide if they are healthy enough to use this growing season.

 

Eating local in the winter

  There's really nothing to even scavenge in the garden these days.  The extreme cold a couple weeks ago put an end to everything except for the remaining carrots that got a foot thick blanket of hay.  Some years we still have some fresh greens mid-winter, but some years, like this, there is nothing to be found.  

  Cold weather or not, one can still eat local all winter long.  It just takes some planning ahead.  Canning, freezing, dehydrating, and root cellaring can provide a constant supply of a wide variety of things to eat.

  Here's an okra dish we made recently with all dried vegetables: okra, tomatoes, onions and powdered garlic scapes.  We added some water then cooked it a short time in a pressure cooker.

 

Sweet potato tastings

 We've been doing some family sweet potato tastings now that the sweet potatoes have fully cured. If you'd like to do your own tastings, try our sweet potato sampler bag which includes at least 8 varieties. It's an easy way to explore the range of tastes, textures and colors sweet potatoes come in.