Meet Yer Eats!

We were blessed all over today. Farms around Charlottesville open their doors on Labor Day, for visitors to come and see what is growing locally.

Of the nineteen farms, we selected four that we most wanted to see, piled the boys and lunch in the car, and were on our way by 9:30.

More than half of the next eight hours were spent in the car. And we spent an hour in the middle running errands in Charlottesville, so Phil won't have to make another trip to the city during the week. But all worked so beautifully: the farm I was most interested in, Poindexter Farm, was deserted when we arrived, and, since we were the only visitors for the next half hour, Tom the owner talked berries with us, specifically and helpfully. He was so gracious!

He has about 200 blueberry bushes, and he's been doing blackberries, but he made some good observations. Blackberries and raspberries in high tunnels can work. Otherwise, they are pest magnets, while the blueberries avoid the pests; blackberries are hard to hold over for harvest, whereas with blueberries, you can pick them on Monday, get them in cold storage, and then sell still-beautiful fruit on Saturday. (He said that cold storage got a little tight. A week or two he had to put them in the freezer, then unplug and plug it in, as needed to keep the temperature just above freezing. Very creative use of storage space!)

So, financially, blackberries might be a bust. Blueberries can offer a nice harvest for about a month, with plenty of demand. Ideal blackberry planting medium: scrape the top six inches of a pine forest and use that as raised beds.

Hmm. We do have some pine forest that we want to turn to pasture....

Tom also has asparagus, and I was stunned to see that his plants were just about a solid bed. Our spacing is incredibly too far apart, which might explain why it's felt like a neverending battle to keep it weeded. His looked like he had 750 plants in a fairly small block, well mulched with straw, and then left alone until late fall, when he'll cut it all down.

The next farm was a zoo, so we didn't stay there very long. Isaiah was thrilled to pet their donkey.

And aesthetically, this farm was magnificent. An herb and flower farm, as well as small market garden, it was a visual delight. But maybe that made it even more overwhelming. As we drove in, Phil said, "This farm has a house!" which made me laugh because I had just been thinking that myself! A house! What a novel thought. So to have house, greenhouse, well manicured gardens, flowers, absence of weeds: it was like being in an unattainable world.

We did admire their portable sink, though. Built on skids, it simply connected to a hose, and then channeled the water behind the sink. Brilliant!

The next farm was Phil's favorite. Appalachia Star Farm is a market garden, and the farm manager and apprentice were planting out when we arrived. Phil was delighted with their storage shed/little market, with a simply shed roof, and walls made from rough sawn trees, with the "waste" first cuts used as battens. "I could build this so easily!"

We also admired their chicken tractors, which they run in the lanes between beds.

Phil liked that they had weeds and grass everywhere they didn't have beds. They had some stunningly beautiful crops, and some were like ours: a sign on their onions said, "These are onions, not scallions; they're just small!" And their garlic looked like our garlic; their potatoes like our potatoes.

They did the Florida weave to stake their tomatoes, and their plants looked absolutely gorgeous. "That's our third planting," said the farm manager. Ah! To have good looking tomatoes in September, plant in June or July. Staggered plantings: something I didn't even attempt. No wonder their basil all looked fresh and small.

They also had plastic all over. Install drip tape, then cover with black or white plastic. Slash plastic with trowel, insert transplant (grown in soil block in greenhouse). For many rows, they then covered the rows with landscape cloth: prevent pests, minimize disease, gain a week of growth on either side of the normal season. It was good to see that they could cover one row or four rows with the landscape fabric. And not everything was covered.

Phil came away saying, "We shouldn't rule out market gardening all together. If we expand more slowly, we could probably do that."

And finally, we went to the wonderful Vintage Virginia Apples, home to 250 varieties of apples. Charlotte Shelton, my casual acquaintance and, I hope, friend, gave an hour presentation and tasting on vintage apples. The boys sat through that, and eagerly sampled the ten or so varieties. And though they didn't listen carefully enough to tell me where apples originated (Kazakhstan), they were quiet and well behaved.

If you're looking for a stunningly delicious apple to add to your garden, I'd recommend Rubinette. That was a sweet apple!

And though we could see storm clouds most of the day, we did not get wet, but returned home to find over half an inch of water in the rain gauge, and a lovely puddle under the trampoline.

Phil now plans to trench that out soon.

So much thanks to the farms who opened their hearts and homes to us this day. Maybe some day we will be on the farm tour, too, and will have much to share with our community. Some day.