Weather Forecast: Tuesday, 45 degrees F, mostly sunny. Wednesday, 47 degrees F, 100% chance of rain.
This week we'll begin our on-farm class by taking a look at our CSA production plan and talking a bit about how we choose what to plant--and when and where. We'll take another look at the seed catalogs and share with you how being organic growers influences our choices about what types of seeds we plant. This will give us the opportunity to revisit current issues in seed production, including controversies around seed patenting and GMOs. And we'll share with you details of a tomato-breeding project that we took part in last year that we hope will clear up any remaining confusion about the differences between heirlooms, hybrids, and open-pollinated plant varieties.
For a demonstration of techniques we used to save tomato seeds during this project, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0HnuwfLGPw
This article from the Virginia Quarterly Review is a little long, but it gives a good recent history of the struggle to control agricultural genetics and describes an organization that's developed in the past couple of years dedicated to "freeing the seed": http://www.vqronline.org/reporting-articles/2014/05/linux-lettuce.
If the weather people are correct, Tuesday and Wednesday are going to be very different days, weather-wise!
Tuesday folks, it sounds like you are going to have a sunny afternoon. We'll spend time in the garden behind the house preparing beds for planting. You'll get to try out one of my favorite tools, the broadfork. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFGHH-5boBI.
Wednesday people, you're gonna get rain. So we'll most likely be indoors. You'll get to play with our soil-blockers as you help us plant kale seeds. And, I'll teach you a different method of composting using redworms. Learn about the benefits of using vermicompost in this video: http://cwmi.css.cornell.edu/vermicompost.htm.
See you soon!
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