Almost Seeding Time

Welcome to the first post for the 2012 farm season. The goal for the blog this farm season is to be more consistent in detailing what is going on at the farm. To achieve this, the blog will, hopefully, be shorter, more to the point, and posted more frequently. That's the goal. We'll see how it turns out.

Spring is in the air and it is exciting to anticipate the start of seeding. Barring any unforeseen problems, seeding will begin the week of March 12. In anticipation of the coming season David spent a great deal of time going through various seed catalogs (some 28 different catalogs) to find the different varieties of vegetables that he wants to grow. Though David had his seed list from last season, he wanted to add some new varieties and remove some. Plus, the seed catalogs are a lot of fun to peruse. Combined, it takes a fair amount of time to come up with the complete list.

Another time-consuming factor was to find seeds that are certified organic. Organic farmers are "required to use certified organic seed when it is commercially available." If a particular variety of vegetable is not available an organic farmer can use nonorganic seed, but the seed must be untreated or "treated only with substances (such as microbial products)" that are approved by the standards that govern organic farms. (Source- "Organic Farming Compliance Handbook")

However, the bottom line is that the seed order has been placed, the seeds are on their way, and the seeding will soon commence. Once the seeding does start, the specific varieties of vegetables will be presented as the seeding progresses. As has been the case during the first two years of Z Food Farm, there will be multiple varieties of specific vegetables. Examples of this: five varieties of carrots, six varieties of basil, fourteen varieties of eggplant, fourteen varieties of lettuce, twenty varieties of hot peppers, and sixty five (yes, 65) varieties of tomatoes.

In case you are interested, memberships for the farms CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) are still available. A CSA is where a person/family pays for a share in the farm at the beginning of the season and receives produce throughout the course of the season. The share ends up being of greater financial value than by purchasing produce on a weekly basis. If you are interested in more information about this you can contact Farmer David at zfoodfarm@gmail.com.

Looking forward to the season and looking forward to see old friends and new at the farm, in New York at the New Amsterdam Market, and in Philly at the Rittenhouse Square Farmers' Market.

Happy and healthy eating to one and all