(From 10/19/2013)

 Well, the results of the Survey Monkey are in, and okra has been voted off the Minifarm! It was mentioned the most as the least favorite vegetable. So while it has pretty flowers, and was EXTREMELY prolific, our subscribers have spoken.

Did you know that okra is a member of the mallow family along with cotton, hollyhock, rose of Sharon and hibiscus?If you haven’t filled out the survey please do so; it is not too late. Your feedback is very important to us. Any votes for a replacement crop for okra?

Speaking of the Survey, we are extremely pleased to note that everyone who responded gave us the highest possible score for their overall satisfaction with their produce. This is wonderful news for us, and lets us know that we are on the right track. We also received unanimous “excellent” scores for taste, freshness, and size of the shares. And everyone unanimously agreed that being a member of J&S MiniFarm has allowed them to “enjoy a wide variety of unique, non-commercial products” as well as improved “overall health, diet, and eating habits”. Thank you, everyone, for this vote of confidence.

Now, what have the results shown us where we can improve? Our two lowest areas (“average” and “above average” respectively), were in appearance and variety. We’ll address appearance in this newsletter, as it also has a philosophical aspect and is rather lengthy!

Bugs and weather cause the majority of cosmetic damage. While it is very difficult to get the “perfect” looking vegetables when growing organically and not in weather protected greenhouses, there are some minimally artificial measures we can take:

Barriers/repellants: We have already invested in several “row covers” to be used next year. These are lightweight cloths that float over the crops and should help with the eternal battle against our nemesis, the flea beetle. We also have stockpiled hot peppers and basil in the freezer to make more repellant in the spring.

Flea beetle damage

Predatory: We don’t spray pesticides so we allow natural predators to flourish in our gardens. This year we had an abundance of wheel bugs, a type of assassin beetle.

Eating an adult Mexican bean beetle on the bean trellis

Here’s a better shot, courtesy of NCSU:

They made picking interesting since as you can imagine they pack a very painful bite. But we were glad to see them and just had to look VERY carefully where we put our hands! We saved all the eggs on the undersides of leaves we could find and placed them in nearby bushes. Next year we will welcome their bright red and black nymphs, carefully place them in the gardens, and again watch our hands as we pick! We also do the same with all the praying mantises and their egg cases.

We are trying to find a reasonable source for a parasitic wasp, Pediobius foveolatus. Its larva eat only Mexican bean beetle larva. Not only do the beetles destroy the bean plants, but they also cosmetically damage the beans themselves. The wasps are very expensive for the amount we need. But having the bean beetle control would allow us to use less real estate having to make multiple succession plantings, and thus able to offer other crops. We could also offer lima beans. Lima beans can take up to 90-100 days to mature (compared to 57-65 for green beans). Without a bean beetle control the plants would be demolished long before we could get a crop. They would also save a LOT of time, as this year we hand-picked Mexican bean beetles for hours at a crack.

We also intersperse a number of flowering plants throughout the gardens to help support our native parasitic wasps and pollinizing bees. This, along with the lack of spraying, gives us sights like this daily:

Butterfly bush living up to its name

Philosophical: And then we realize that some things are beyond our control. Pesticide sprays, even if organic, still disrupt the predator population in the garden. Artificial environments such as greenhouses and hydroponics will give a weatherproof, dirt-free, perfectly shaped crop. But quite frankly, would greatly increase our prices.

Hydroponic lettuce.

From: www.prweb.com/releases/GreenhouseGrownLettuce/ProductImprovements/prweb9150384.htm

Remember the challah carrot?

It hit a rock and split while growing. It was a little harder to clean, but still tasted great!

Bottom line? Having gone into this long, philosophical ramble, appearance is really a balancing act. Are some “cosmetically challenged” crops acceptable, in fact expected, since we understand that Mother Nature is inherently messy? Next year we have plans to keep more of the predators at bay. As was also mentioned in the survey, we will pray for better weather! Can we modify our handling practices to improve appearance? We’ll look into it. The most important aspect is keeping open the communications between the Farm and you, our subscribers.

Next time we’ll talk about some of the new varieties we have planned for next year. The raspberries are already known, as they were so prolific that we started including them a year earlier than planned! We also had some interest in the survey in farm raised chickens. We’ll look into the logistics of this. It’s going to be an even more exciting year in 2014!

Yours in farming,

Jeff and Sandra