Worm Dirt: Taking topsoil to the next level

Worm dirt from the 1000 Islands Bait Store in Alexandria Bay, N.Y.

Using Better Farm's no-till, no-weed method of gardening means piling cardboard, dead leaves, compost, and fresh soil on top of each other in our raised beds and gardens. This technique yields an intimidating harvest of huge veggies and fruits that feed us (and visitors to our farm stand and the Redwood Farmers Market) all summer and fall. As important a presence as any of those ingredients, however, is the worm.

Worms are more than fish bait! They  help water flow through soil, break down organic matter into plant food, and excrete castings that are like fertilizers on steroids. They turn soil over better than any rototiller and are one of the coolest organisms around. Worm- and castings-rich soil is considered "Black Gold" among green thumbs and compost enthusiasts.

You can buy worm castings online or at specialty gardening stores, or you can do like us a pay your local bait shop a visit. The stuff you get from bait stores is a little rougher around the edges (you can see chunks of cornmeal in the dirt, for example), but it's also cheaper and local. Weigh your options!

The 1000 Islands Bait Store in Alexandria Bay, N.Y., sells nice-size bags of worm dirt for $3.50/bag, which is slightly cheaper than what you'd pay for a bag of soil that's not chock-full of awesome little worms. It took about four bags to fill each of the raised herb beds at the farm. The rest will be sprinkled in and around our seedlings when we transplant them outside.

DIY Asparagus

Imagine spending the next 15 to 25 years of your life with the ability to walk outside and pull shoots of asparagus to your heart's content. Yum.

The mental hurdle between that vision and the actual bounty of having at-home asparagus plants is the planning: From seed, you'll have to wait two and one-half years to enjoy your yield; from root, that number dwindles to one. But the truth is, once they're started asparagus plants are very easy to grow. And your initial investment (we spent $15 on two bundles of roots/two dozen plants and simply added homemade compost and a little worm dirt from the bait store) is totally worth it when you consider most supermarkets sell a single pesticide- and chemical-riddled bunch of asparagus for $3.99.

Here's a handy guide for growing your own lovely asparagus plants from 1-year-old roots. We promise they're worth the wait!

Starting Your Asparagus Plants

Asparagus crowns look like little octopuses. When planting, you have to fan the "tentacles" out under the soil to promote the best growth.

Track down healthy crowns from a trusted grower that are at least 1 year old.  A crown is the root system of an asparagus plant grown from seed. Each crown yields one-half pound of spears per year when fully established. Better Farm picked up two bundles of crowns from the

Agway in LaFargeville, N.Y.

(Note: You can certainly start from seed if you wish, but expect added work as you have to transplant the seedlings when they take root; thereby losing a year in the growing process.)

Asparagus loves most soil equally; just be sure you've got good internal drainage and a soil pH of 6.5-7.5. For those of you in the same boat as us and working with the clay-rich soil of the North Country, be sure to have plenty compost-rich soil at hand to mix in with the hard earth. Asparagus also grows best in patches of ground receiving 7 to 8 hours of sunlight a day. We decided to put our crowns into raised beds off the back deck which face due south.

Dig a trench six inches deep, fan the roots out (less disruption and crimps in your roots mean bigger yields), and plant your asparagus crowns 12 to 18 inches apart. Lots of spacing is important because as the asparagus "ferns" grow, you'll find your space shrink. Well-spaced asparagus also means ferns will dry quicker after watering, thereby preventing fungus diseases.

Ruby Amanze spaces Better Farm's asparagus crowns along raised beds.

Wide between-row spacing is necessary because the vigorously growing fern will fill in the space quickly. Wide spacing also promotes rapid drying of the fern to help prevent the onset of fungus diseases.

Once you've got your asparagus in the rows, fill the trench in with soil so just one inch of the crown shows through. Don't tamp the dirt down too much—asparagus shoots love low resistance as they grow! Spears should begin within about a week of planting.

Here are our shoots:

As the shoots appear, sprinkle more dirt around the base of the plants. Tips will open as the spears stretch skyward (usually around 8 or 9 inches of height). Those small branchlets will become ferns. In the first year, it's important you don't pick any of your asparagus, as the ferns will be producing food for the plant and then moving that food down into the crown for next year's spear production.

Asparagus ferns.

Do watch for weeds (we recommend laying cardboard around your stalks). Be sure not to trim your plants back at the end of the growing season! Dead fern growth catches snow for extra soil moisture and keeps the ground cooler into the spring, which helps to delay premature asparagus growth in the spring. That next spring, you can trim back old fern growth by cutting as low as possible after the last frost has past.

Harvesting Your Asparagus

After you've been growing your crowns for a year, it's okay to harvest some asparagus (use caution, as over-picking in the second year can permanently reduce your yields in the long run). Pick asparagus by manually snapping 7- to 9 inch spears with tight tips. Don't cut spears with a knife at soil level or below—this can hurt other crowns and buds. The stub you leave behind after snapping a spear will quickly dry up and disintegrate. It's best to pick asparagus early in the morning before outside air heats up. Put your spears in ice water to remove all heat from them, drain the water, and put the spears in plastic bags in the refrigerator. Asparagus can keep one to two weeks like this, not that you'll be able to resist eating them on the same day you pick them.

For more tips on planting asparagus,

click here

.

The Re-Education of America: Book signing tonight!

A book signing for World Class: The Re-Education of America, penned by Mary Ellen Shevalier and Francoise Piron, is slated from 6-8 p.m. tonight, April 21, at Arts on the Square, 52 Public Square in Watertown.

World Class documents a new teaching technique employed for the last two years by a French teacher and art teacher from South Jefferson Central High School. That method focuses on taking the strongest parts of each student and combining them all together in a group setting, With students working in teams, their unique strengths are extracted to produce answers and creative methods of problem-solving.

Piron and Shevalier's hope is that World Class' focus on educational philosophies and strategies for propelling those ideas forward will change certain approaches of the education system.

The course outlined in World Class was designed to foster an ability to critically perceive media, analyze, evaluate and produce messages about what individuals have learned. It helps to initiate a universal educational format where all abilities and learning styles are honored, diversity among students is valued, and contribution is celebrated.

For more information on the book and upcoming signings, click here.

Inspiration: Wood Storage

Whether you've scored a pre-war studio in Manhattan with original fireplace intact or have recently installed a woodstove in your 19th-century farmhouse-turned-hippie-commune-turned-sustainability-education-center in the middle of nowhere,  you might be brainstorming about creative, clean ways to store wood on your property and/or in your home.

(Yes, it's spring; but to get properly seasoned wood for next winter, wood-cutting season is just about here and those logs have to go somewhere...)

Here are some great ideas gleaned online and found locally in Jefferson County, N.Y. Please contact us at info@betterfarm.org to share your own ideas!

• Custom wood storage by Lundberg Design

• Log racks found on ReNest.

• Log ring from Fopple.com

Ones to Watch: The Urban Farming Guys

And you thought you'd made a real sacrifice when you started carrying a refillable travel mug instead of using and throwing away Styrofoam coffee cups.


The Urban Farming Guys are a band of about 20 families who consciously traded their peaceful suburban homesteads for one of Kansas City's worst neighborhoods. The tribe scooped up homes within five blocks of one another and recently acquired nine adjacent, vacant lots (with more on the horizon) onto which they're imposing crops for organic gardening designed to feed the community.

Like the sound of all that? These guys are definitely worth following and getting involved with. Learn more about their projects and how you can lend a hand here.

Many thanks to Pablo Patino for this news tip.

Introducing betterArts Resident Ruby Amanze

"I want to make art and live in peace... even if it is just for a short amount of time," Ruby Amanze wrote in her letter of intent to betterArts. "As many artists who work full-time jobs (non-studio employment) will testify, studio time is 'in-between' time. After work, on the weekends, whenever I can make the time to work on a drawing. Those who are passionate, will make the work no matter what."

For the next week, Ruby will be living, breathing, and working on her art right here at Better Farm as the latest artist-in-resident to pay us a visit.

Ruby, who serves as directory of education at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in Brooklyn, N.Y., holds a bachelors of fine art (Summa Cum Laude, no less) from the Tyler School of Art, a masters of fine art from Cranbrook Academy, and has been featured in more than a dozen juried and group exhibitions since 2004. She's been a teaching artist at the Fabric Workshop and Museum Education and Department in Philadelphia, Penn., a lecturer of photography at Ursinus College, and a lecturer of design at the Drexel University's Department of Art and Art History.

"Being in a quiet environment surrounded by nature would be a welcomed change to my Brooklyn, N.Y., daily routine," she told us. "I'm a very simple girl and I believe in, and aspire to, a simple and clean life. My father grew up in a village in Imo State, Nigeria. Learning to farm and cultivate the earth had been, and is, the way of life for generations before and after him. Likewise, my mother grew up on the coast in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria, a major fishing port. Many aspects of their upbringing have been instilled in me and I have since taken an interest in finding ways to live a more ecologically friendly life from the food I eat, the types of businesses I support, and the products I use in my house and on my person. Better Farm sounds like the perfect combination of space to step back for a minute and dedicate myself to making art and living in a healthy environment amongst like-minded individuals."

In her time here, we're going to have Ruby working on the grounds, in the greenhouse and gardens, and involved in daily "family dinner" parties. Stay tuned for pics of her progress here! 

See more images of her work after the jump!

 

 

For more information about betterArts' residency program, click here. To learn more about Ruby and her work, click here.

Earth Day Cleanup a Total Wash in the Very Best of Ways

Photo/Harley McConnell Redwood residents brave last Saturday's heavy rainfall to participate in an Earth Day cleanup along Route 37 sponsored by Better Farm. From left are Chuck Kendall, Nicole Caldwell, Fran Farren, Rick Lopez, Mike Brown, Lowell Ciliberti, and Fred Ciliberti. Not pictured: Lauren Evans

Better Farm's 2011 Workshop Catalogue

Please visit www.betterfarm.org/upcoming-workshops for further information and a complete listing. Click on images for a larger viewing size.

Logo design by Corinne Rochelle.

Planting the Seed(s)

Baby seeds settle into their temporary home in Better Farm's greenhouse.

It's that time of year again, when we stock the greenhouse with all the seeds that will feed the Farm—and anyone stopping in at our farm stand or booth at farmers markets—all summer and fall long. Jennifer and I last week got the proverbial ball rolling by starting most of the seeds indoors (peas, string beans, and pumpkins, among others, will get planted directly into the soil outside). Here's a shot of some of the seeds we were dealing with:

We dutifully set out on the project, dipping all the baby seeds into fresh potting soil. Okra, broccoli, onions, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, squash, cabbage, cauliflower, and more dove into their planter trays one by one with a little TLC from Jennifer and yours truly.

Next step was carting the little babies outside to the greenhouse. I quickly assembled our new shelving units while Jennifer did the heavy lifting. And then it was all over, until the second planting group gets its start in the coming weeks.

Seeds from Collected Seed Farm and Home Harvest Garden Supply. Greenhouse shelves courtesy of David Garlock. E-mail us at info@betterfarm.org with any organic gardening questions!

Title Contest for Artist-in-Residence's Painting

By Jennifer Elizabeth Crone

First ever contest! The following is my new diptych (= 1 painting on 2 canvases) and I want YOU to name it! What does it remind you of/make you think of/look like to you? Click here to be redirected to my blog, where you can leave your suggestion in the "comment" field. The person who suggests the title I choose will win a drawing (by me) in a frame! I can't wait to read your entries!

Streamlined Showerheads

Delta Faucet 75155 Water-Amplifying Showerhead in Chrome, courtesy of Monica Murphy.

Showerheads of the past (which continue to comprise the majority of showerheads currently in your home showers) generally spray five to six gallons of water per each minute you're sudsing up. Newer models generally halve that amount, to 2.5 gallons per minute. In our ongoing effort to use fewer resources and less energy in general, last year Better Farm  picked up an Evolve Showerhead for the new upstairs bathroom that not only uses less water, but also reduces its flow to a trickle when the water reaches 95 degrees. When you're done brushing your teeth or whatever other multi-tasking you do while waiting for the shower to heat up, you simply pull the cord next to the shower head and resume bathing.

For the other, older upstairs bathroom, we've been stuck with this rickety old thing:

Besides being fairly crusty, it's an older showerhead. That means it's not exactly eco-friendly. So when Monica Murphy offered us a low-flow Delta model  she'd used in her Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment, I couldn't refuse. This head costs $10 and only uses 1.6 gallons of water per minute (without sacrificing anything in performance, believeyoume). You'll score 36 percent in water savings over a standard showerhead, nice water pressure, and a clean conscience. Doesn't that sound nice?

The installation was ridiculously straightforward: Unscrew old showerhead, apply threading tape to the threaded pipe, screw on new showerhead.

For purchasing information, click here.

Guest Room Gets Gussied Up

This spare guest room had a bad case of the blahs, from uninspired details to drab walls to cobbed-together curtain rods. Finally getting to enjoy the afterglow of Better Farm's distinctly unglamorous first round of renovations (insulation, sheet rock and dry wall, dumpster hauls, rewiring, wood stove installation, etc.), I can at last begin the significantly more fun job of interior design.

While we've had great success with reappropriating certain items for updates around the Farm, this room was going to require a few new things—albeit with really good deals—namely:

• Full mattress and box spring set, $150 at Mattress Discount in Watertown
• Fresh coat of gorgeous green paint, $11.98 for Olympic eco-friendly paint at Lowe's 
• Fresh sheets, mattress protector, pillowcases, and blanket, $60 at Ollie's Bargain Outlet in Watertown
• Fancy new curtain rods, $25 at Lowe's

That put us well-within budget, with the whole overhaul running us less than $250. Here are a few more before shots:

And now, drum roll please...

Curtains and black-and-white print courtesy of Laura Caldwell; paper-cutting of Better Farm grass courtesy of Mira Elwell; vases courtesy of Laura Caldwell; lights left by previous tenant and stocked with eco-friendly, energy-efficient bulbs.

Cabinet reclaimed from dumpster; nest chair left by previous tenants.

Steamer trunk courtesy of Laura Caldwell; elephant art courtesy of Bob Bowser; nest chair left by previous tenants.

For information about lodging at Better Farm, click here .

Earth Day Cleanup Slated for April 16