farming
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I connected with Local Harvest CSA last week. The farm looked great. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey stopped there with my state representative, Bobby Kaufmann. I spent a couple of hours chatting and collecting information for an article that appeared Saturday in the Iowa City Press Citizen. The next day Susan provided three crates… Read more
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What to make of a study of the impact of herbicide drift from farming operations on oak trees? In a peer reviewed 2004 study at the University of Illinois, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences in Urbana, Ill., scientists found drift of chloroacetamide herbicides is a possible cause of the leaf tatters syndrome in… Read more
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DES MOINES—”We have a water problem,” Mayor Frank Cownie said at the state convention of the League of Women Voters of Iowa on Saturday. Like all municipalities, the Des Moines Water Works must comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Environmental Protection Agency standards for maximum contaminant level in water processed and sent… Read more
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Is the local food movement here to stay? Intellectually, how could it not be? The future must necessarily be one of producing food much closer to where people live, especially as transportation costs escalate, and current food sources in the California Central Valley, in South Florida, and in Texas face the extreme weather characteristic of… Read more
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April has gotten very busy. There are dozens of tasks to do at home and farm work has kept me busier while my warehouse work and newspaper writing continue at the same level. It seems impossible that I had eight jobs at one point last year. Working three jobs fills the time if it doesn’t… Read more
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This week began another stint working at Local Harvest CSA. I’m back to soil blocking, planting seeds in trays and seedlings in the high tunnel in preparation for another season of vegetables. This year the plan is to work until the regular crew arrives in May—a month of physical labor to reinvigorate after winter’s inactivity.… Read more
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Prescribed burning is a requirement of some USDA/Farm Service Agency Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts. Burning is an economical way to reduce lower thatch in a field and encourage growth of desired grasses. It took four of us about four hours to complete a prescribed burn at the farm where I began work yesterday. Another… Read more
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SOLON— One was planning to harvest corn until Sunday, when he would turn to beans. Half the beans are already in and the fields have been too wet to get the equipment in the last few days. Talk is about how much propane will be needed to dry the harvest. “It could easily run up… Read more
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RURAL CEDAR TOWNSHIP— This week’s work at the CSA was helping with the garlic harvest. Now is the time to get it out of the field, even as a few garlic scapes linger in the ice box. It was all hands on deck yesterday, and I did my share— in some cases picking the garlic… Read more
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LAKE MACBRIDE— One day per week usually shapes up to be a garden and farm day. Yesterday I planted peppers for 3-1/2 hours at the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project, followed by tomato planting and mowing/mulching at home. There will be plenty of grass clippings, and a host of relieved neighbors once I bring it… Read more
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