Fun Facts: Monocots vs Dicots

Last week some of you were noticing that as the squash seeds germinated, the leaves pushing out of the soil had the seed husk still attached. I talked a little bit about seed structure and mentioned briefly that flowering plants are generally classified into two types: monocots and dicots. Their seeds are structured differently and so their germination looks a little different too, as shown in the diagram below.

For an entertaining (and really quite informative) tutorial on the differences between monocots and dicots, check out fourth grader Julia Sherwin's claymation video on the subject: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBz1unaMr6I.

The Farm Bill and Organic Agriculture

I received an email today from the National Organic Coalition requesting that I call my senator regarding restoring funding for organic programs in the new farm bill. Included in the email was a link to a pdf which compares the House and Senate versions of the 2012 bill (which  did not pass), along with the farm bill extension. It also details what the NOC would like to see included in the farm bill and why. Perhaps some of you will find it interesting (or at least informative): http://www.nationalorganiccoalition.org/MembersOnly/January%202013%20Meeting/Farm%20Bill%20side-by-side%202013%20FINAL.pdf

The Farm Bill

In between talking about practical stuff like soil improvement, transplanting, pest control, and what-have-you, we've managed to squeeze in some conversations about the larger political, socio-economic, and cultural issues that affect my farm and what we're able to do here. One significant piece of legislation that governs our current food system is informally known as "The Farm Bill." Officially titled "The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act," this bill sets policies for just about everything you can think of that's even remotely connected to our food system, from conservation and rural development to food assistance, agricultural subsidies, and exports.

Congress reviews and renews the farm bill approximately every five years. Our last farm bill was enacted in June of 2008 and was due to expire last September. Despite the usual amount of legislative wrangling, Congress was unable to pass a 2012 Farm Bill before the 2008 bill expired and since then we've been limping along on extensions of the old bill. The debate has resumed this spring, however, and both the House and Senate Agricultural committees will be voting on their versions of what is now the 2013 Farm Bill this coming week.

For an overview of the farm bill and its reenactment process, check out the Congressional Research Service's What is the Farm Bill? The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition's website is another place that you can find information on the farm bill and its progress (or lack thereof) through Congress. In particular, there are two acts that activists supporting small, local, and organic agriculture are attempting to galvanize support for right now. They are The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act of 2013 H.R. 1727 and S.837 (http://sustainableagriculture.net/our-work/beginning-farmer-bill/) and The Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act H.R. 1414 and S. 679 (http://sustainableagriculture.net/our-work/local-food-bill/bill-summary-2/).

Here's a link to the NSAC's blog on all things farm bill: http://sustainableagriculture.net/blog. If you'd like to know more about the farm bill and how it impacts you, ask Caroline! She's spent a significant amount of time researching and thinking about this piece of legislation.

Week 7 at Harvest of Joy Farm LLC

Weather forecast: Monday, sunny, highs in the mid-50s; Tuesday, sunny, highs in the mid-70s

What did you worry about today? I can tell you what's been on the minds of farmers across southwestern Michigan today and what's going to rouse them from bed in the middle of the night tonight. A potential freeze. Earlier in the day, the weather service was predicting temperatures for our area as low as 28 degrees Fahrenheit. Diane, John, and I abandoned our plans for the day to drag big, filmy sheets of row cover fabric out of the shed to drape over our plants in order to protect them from such an extreme drop in temperatures. The wind did not make this an easy task, but we got it done:

I think we've protected our plants as well as we can, but other farmers around the area will be setting their alarm clocks for the middle of the night tonight to check temperatures and turn on wind machines and sprinkler systems if necessary to try to protect their crops from the cold.

Weather will be a factor in what we do on the farm this week as well. If the lake field is dry enough to till tomorrow morning and my Dad can get on it with a tractor and multivator, we'll start making beds down there Monday afternoon with the hope of getting onions, broccoli, lettuce, and early tomatoes planted yet this week. John is also planning to bring grafting supplies with him, so if we can't get on the ground right away, we might spend some time grafting. I'd also like to give you a little time to care for the bed you planted in the hoophouse. And there's always that quackgrass to pull!

Potatoes

After planting potatoes with the Monday group last week, I re-watched the final section of "Botany of Desire," which is all about the potato and human relationships to this plant. If you haven't already seen this film, I want to encourage you to watch at least this final section, which begins an hour and twenty minutes into the film. Besides offering some history of the potato, including its origins in Peru, it provides a variety of perspectives on organic vs conventional agricultural systems, including discussions of diversity, genetic modification, and chemical usage. PBS Video: The Botany of Desire.

Week 6 Photos: Planting Potatoes, Fence-building, Soil-blocking