The 12th Annual Killing Frost Weekend!

I haven’t posted in a bit because I have been meaning to charge our camera batteries just so I can take pictures and I just can’t imagine a post without photographs. We must Thank Danielle for these photos because she has been the farm photographer the last couple weeks. Once again, we have no photographs of the killing frost celebration, mostly because we were all just too busy to even consider taking photos. Barbara Sloss took some photographs so I might try and get a few from her. I do know that it is a lame excuse for not updating our journal – that is the camera battery not being charged – but then again I am full of lame excuses!

Congratulate Asheville City Schools (mostly Cindy Byron) for connecting science to farming and the food we eat! It is all about the “periodic chart” when identifying the nutrients needed in soil to feed our plants thus turning our crops into healthy, nutritious and edible food for our body. Such micro-nutrients found on the periodic chart and needed in our food include: phosphorous, nitrogen, calcium, potassium, iron, copper, manganese and zinc. All these found on the periodic chart and needed for our health and well being. In addition, our food also contains many of these same micro-nutrients that are found in the soil, so if ones soil isn’t healthy with these micro-nutrients, then how can the food grown in the soil be healthy? That is our job as organic farmers, to nurture the soil making it as healthy as possible using cover crops and manure, just so our food is as healthy as is possible.

Last Monday we hosted Cindy Bryon’s 10th and 11th grade chemistry class at the farm, complete with a tour, and a chance for them to pick food for their pizza then allowing them to make their own pizza with ingredients from the farm. It was a great experience for the farm crew, because our views of young people have been slanted by what we read in the newspaper, mostly related to folks their age not wanting to eat fresh, whole food. It was so exciting to see these students choose kale, broccoli, tatsoi, onions and arugula for their pizza toppings. We heard a comment from one student who indicated that they love their “Hippy” science teacher because the field trip was fun and they weren’t quite sure how to connect this field trip to chemistry. The best part about this field trip – is Cindy connecting the field trip to chemistry assignments in the classroom afterwards – so THANKS CINDY!

The Sunday before her class arrived we hosted a farm open house, giving the folks who eat our food, a chance to touch the soil and pet the critters where their food is grown and raised. To us this is the time of the year for celebrating the earth, which is the foundation for growing/raising the food, in providing the nutrients to the crops/animals while it is being grown/raised. We celebrate the water used for keeping the crops/critters alive (Meadow Fork Creek), the farmers’ who have worked so hard growing/raising the food and the people who eat the bounty from the this farms soil each week throughout the season. This is the beginning of the season when both the soil and the farmer get the much needed rest; the soil because it is too cold to grow crops and the farmer because the day length decreases. (Most crops are also dependent on day length.)