Vertical Garden Update

One of Better Farm's vertical garden setups is finally under way! Yesterday in the greenhouse, three beautifully painted plastic bottles were hung with just a few nails and some wire along a wall in the greenhouse. Not only is it exciting to have started a living, growing, space saving garden, but the bottles certainly brighten the greenhouse, as well.

The next step is to figure out the proper way to take care of these plants. One piece of advice we've been given is to mist the leafy green plants everyday instead of watering them like any outdoor plant. Leafy plants will get mites when grown indoors if natural growing conditions are not reproduced (like morning dew). Misting will keep the mites away, and more than that, it will also allow for fresh air flow.

There is also always an issue of getting your indoor plants the proper amount of sunlight. Vegetable plants generally need at least 6 hours of sunlight per day in order to produce vegetables at all. However, light can be increased in a number of ways. Mirrors or any kind of reflective surface, like mylar for example, can nearly double the amount of lumens reaching your plants.

Our next project is going to be a vertical herb garden in the kitchen—possibly also using plastic bottles. The only difference will be the goal of creating a vertical garden while also implementing a drip irrigation system. But don't worry, we'll keep you all updated on that too!

Turn Your Chicken Coop Into a Day Spa

Sage, oregano, mint, and other herbs keep chickens cozy and peaceful—and significantly less stinky.

Aromatherapy—for chickens?

Sure, it may sound strange, but fresh and dried herbs have spectacular health and well-being benefits for your backyard birds. Check out all the benefits your chickens can enjoy by you spending a few seconds to sprinkle herbs in their laying boxes:


Basil - antibacterial, mucus membrane health
Catnip - sedative, insecticide
Cilantro - antioxidant, fungicide, builds strong bones, high in Vitamin A for vision and Vitamin K for blood clotting
Dill - antioxidant, relaxant, respiratory health
Fennel -laying stimulant
Garlic - laying stimulant
Lavender - stress reliever, increases blood circulation, highly aromatic, insecticide
Lemon Balm - stress reliever, antibacterial, highly aromatic, rodent repellent
Marigold - laying stimulant
Marjoram - lay stimulant
Mint (all kinds) - insecticide and rodent repellent
Nasturtium - laying stimulant, antiseptic, antibiotic, insecticide, wormer
Oregano - combats coccidia, salmonella, infectious bronchitis, avian flu, blackhead and e-coli
Parsley - high in vitamins, aids in blood vessel development, laying stimulant
Peppermint - anti-parasitic, insecticide
Pineapple Sage - aids nervous system, highly aromatic
Rose Petals - highly aromatic, high in Vitamin C
Rosemary - pain relief, respiratory health, insecticide
Sage - antioxidant, anti-parasitic
Spearmint - antiseptic, insecticide, stimulates nerve, brain and blood functions
Tarragon - antioxidant
Thyme - respiratory health, antibacterial, antioxidant, anti-parasitic

[Source: grit.com]

It took intern extraordinaire Elyna Grapstein and I about five minutes to harvest the following herbs from our beds out back and sprinkle them throughout three different chicken coops. In our mix were fresh organic basil, mint, sage, oregano, garlic chives, and various fragrant flowers.

The chickens check out the fresh herbs.

Click here for more information about the benefits of treating chickens to a little aromatherapy.

Better Science: Aquaponics and the Nitrogen Cycle

What is an appropriate nitrogen level for a freshwater fish tank? When checking the nitrogen level of our

aquaponics system yesterday, we wondered the same thing. Unaware if our nitrogen level results of 20 ppm indicated anything good or bad, we traveled back in time to those days of high school biology and chemistry and did some research on the nitrogen cycle.

The nitrogen cycle, like our aquaponics setup, starts with fish poop. The fish poop decays into ammonia, an incredibly toxic substance. Bacteria living in the water (nitrosomonas) then eat the ammonia creating a byproduct of

nitrites

- also a very toxic substance. Then another kind of bacteria (nitrobacter) consumes nitrites in the water, creating a byproduct of 

nitrates

. Now, this is where things get healthy.

Nitrates

are good. We want nitrates, especially when working with hydroponics, because nitrates are a fertilizer. Plants and algae thrive when the nitrate levels are high—which would explain why the herbs and lettuces we're growing over our fish tank are green and growing. Healthy plants in (or above!) a fish tank are an excellent indicator that the nitrogen cycle is acting as it should.

After the plants consume most of the nitrate, the freshly and naturally filtered water recycles back into the tank and the fish don't swim in clean and clear water. Not to mention we get freshly grown herbs and salad greens out of all of this, as well...thanks, science!

Harvest Tour Weekend Sept. 29 and 30

 


































Jefferson County's first Harvest Tour Weekend is slated from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29, and 12-4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30. Those interested in learning more about agriculture in the North Country—and sampling some great, local food—will have the opportunity to visit dozens of farms and agribusinesses to tour facilities, meet the animals, sample the wine, buy fresh produce and homemade goods, and see exactly where their food comes from.

At Better Farm, our farm stand will be open, featuring fresh produce, handmade items, and T-shirts. Our gallery and studio space will also be open with art for sale. Kevin Carr, this month's artist-in-residence, will have his completed work on display throughout the weekend. We will additionally be offering tours to the general public of our gardens, outbuildings, and studio spaces.

The fall season is a beautiful time to travel our country roads, look at the great colors of the season and purchase a vast variety of fresh produce.  Gather the kids, grab a cooler and hit the road! Your neighborhood farms will be ready to show you around, answer some questions and help you learn more about agriculture in the North Country. 

For more information about the harvest tour and other agritourism opportunities in the North Country, visit www.agvisit.com.

Growing Up

Vertical gardening seems to have gained plenty of popularity in the last couple of years since it was first formerly introduced in Japan, and with good reason. For those with limited space, growing upwards is an excellent space saver as the garden can be planted essentially anywhere with enough sunlight (both inside and outside).

Sometimes soil isn't even needed to plant anything; hydroponic technology allows for plants to grow along the walls of buildings without bringing harm to a building's infrastructure. The idea is to bring water to the plants before their roots grow in search of water and penetrate the walls of the structure they're growing on. A hydroponically or

aquaponically

based vertical garden may function the same way a fish tank's water is filtered and recirculates. Growing plants on the walls of a building also has insulation properties, not to mention it can also act as rain screening. Seems so simple, right?

There are also smaller scale, and non-hydroponic vertical gardens that can be planted. For example, there are plenty of blogs that talk about using old shoe organizers to grow herb gardens in, or even old rain boots might do the trick too.

Nowadays at Better Farm, we're working on installing a couple of vertical gardens of our own! We have been using a

handful of stacked and rescued tires to grow our potato plants in the garden outside, and we're working on having an accessible herb garden in the kitchen for this winter.

Introducing betterArts Resident Kevin Carr

 

Kevin Carr is a 22-year-old artist from Canandaigua, N.Y., who has joined us for the month of September through a betterArts residency.

He attended Alfred University's School of Art and Design to receive a bachelor of fine arts with a minor in women's studies. He has also served as director of Alfred University's Robert C. Turner Student Gallery, and as a teaching assistant at his school's painting department. His work has appeared in several galleries and in print.

Kevin Carr.

"A lot of my work is about collections of objects that are often overlooked because they appear insignificant," Kevin told us, "but when displayed in large masses they become significant and make people think about what the object really is, what it does, and why it is so small.

"For a while, I have wanted to create works involving recycled items, things that would normally be thrown away or tossed somewhere to sit forever. Imagine thousands of beer bottle caps, bread clips, plastic grocery bags, or discarded receipts shown or displayed together in a systematic way. This would draw the viewer's attention to how throwing away something small like a rubber band or a toilet paper tube can actually cause a large amount of waste when 15 million other people also just threw away one of these objects.

"I aim to bring my creative and systematic way of lying out and creating work to prove a point about waste with a project about recycling. I would collect things like the above from households and businesses that would be willing to collect the items. I would reuse them to make new and exciting sculptures and paintings that promote recycling and sustainability."

Check out these bright samples of Kevin's work:

You can see Kevin's installation at Better Farm from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29, and 12-4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30, in conjunction with Jefferson County's First Annual Harvest Tour Weekend.
Better Farm is located at 31060 Cottage Hill Road, Redwood NY, 13679. Those locals who would like to donate items for his sculptures can contact us at (315) 482-2536 or info@betterarts.org.

Spotlight On: Personal Energy Meter

National Geographic's new initiative, The Great Energy Challenge, seeks to educate the masses about energy use, carbon emissions, and environmental issues relating to fresh water, air, and the ocean. As part of this outreach effort, the organization is offering an interactive tool called a "Personal Energy Meter" that measures an individual's energy use and subsequent contribution to carbon emissions. (Click here to use that tool.)

The tool will compare your energy use to others', and inform you on how choices you make at home and in the way you travel could help to protect the atmosphere.

Here's our score at Better Farm:

Your Final Tally—3.79 tons of CO2 per year

You have completed all the questions.

42

 people have taken the Challenge. The average score is

51

.

You scored

54 percent lower

than the regional average and

62 percent lower

than the national average.

This meter measures your personal energy score based on the decisions you make in your home and in travel. It's different from some per-person calculations you may have seen, which factor in each nation's total carbon dioxide (CO

2

) emissions, including those from industrial and commercial activities. To see what those total per-capita emissions look like in the United States and around the world, see our

global carbon map

.

See Personal Energy Meter sources »

Click on any question again to change your values.

Your Individual Tallies

• In the Home: 1.774Tip: A programmable thermostat can help you easily turn down energy use when you are away or asleep.

• For ideas on how to reduce your impact at home, visit the Great Energy Challenge Mini Calculators.

• On the Road: 2.219Tip: Use mass transit, ride sharing or a bicycle at least a couple days a week to cut down energy while commuting.

• For a month-by-month plan to slim down your carbon emissions on the road, in the home, and for everyday living, visit our Energy Diet.

• Renewable Energy: 29%Tip: See if your utility allows you to purchase solar or wind energy for a portion of your electricity use.

• In the Air: 1.349Tip: Consider taking a train instead of a plane for shorter trips.

Nice Melons!

We've been foraying into fruit at Better Farm this year, with two new peach trees, a bunch of raspberries and blueberries, an attempt at strawberries (thwarted by small creatures, unfortunately!), and these: delicious, juicy, cantaloupes and watermelons.

Personal Watermelon

Watermelon is 92 percent water by weight, mildly diuretic, and contains large amounts of beta carotene. There are nutrients in the rind, as well. Miniature, or "personal" watermelon fruits reach only 5 to 8 inches in diameter. These smaller melons already require less space than full-size watermelon varieties, making them a good choice in gardens with limited space, but even though the melons are small, the plants still take up more room than many other garden plants. Combining a personal melon variety with space-saving planting systems frees up the most space in the garden bed. We tried growing these tiny fruits with mixed results—but the ones that grew to fruition are absolutely delicious.

Personal watermelons are an efficient way to enjoy this juicy fruit—beyond whole, seedless icebox varieties, which weigh 10 to 25 pounds, and pale pre-cut pieces that come shrink-wrapped or in plastic tubs. Ick. Personal watermelons typically grow on vines that sprawl over a large swath of garden bed, similar to how standard-size melons grow. If you're short on space, these small melons also do very well grown vertically on trellises. Some personal melons are hybridized to grow on bushy, more-upright plants. These varieties don't grow melons on the bushy part of the plant, but instead produce fruit on 2- to 3-foot-long vines. Growing one of these varieties in conjunction with a space-saving planting method uses the least amount of space possible. Bush Baby, Stone Mountain and Sugar Baby are three bush varieties. 

Cantaloupes

North Country breakfast: backyard egg omelet with homegrown tomato, broccoli, and squash; homemade zucchini bread, and fresh-picked cantaloupe.

Cantaloupes are the most popular variety of melon in the United States. Packed with vitamin C, this fruit is 90 percent water—making it ideal for hot summer days. Protein and fat content make up only around 1 percent of the cantaloupe. Cantaloupe's orange flesh shows the presence of beta-carotene, the same substance that gives carrots their distinctive color. Your body can convert beta-carotene into vitamin A, an important vitamin for cell growth and repair, eyesight and healthy skin. The vitamin C provides power to fight infection and inflammation—a large wedge of cantaloupe provides 37 mg of vitamin C, a significant percentage of the recommended daily dose of 90 mg for adult males and 75 mg for adult females.Cantaloupes contain particularly high concentrations of potassium, with around 273 mg in a large slice. This mineral has a vital role in the human body. It acts as an electrolyte, which means it helps to conduct biological electricity through the body. The helps keep your heart pumping, your digestive tract moving and allows your muscles to expand and contract. Cantaloupe also contains smaller amounts of sodium, phosphorus, magnesium and other minerals in lower quantities. 

But for many home gardeners, the space these fruits require makes growing cantaloupe an unrealistic. But with a few simple modifications, almost any home garden can produce this delicious fruit. Trust us—when you taste the difference between a store-bought cantaloupe and one that's been homegrown, you'll make it a priority to get some seeds in your backyard, pronto.

Here's how you can grow your own even if you're short on space. Instead of planting in hills as suggested, plant a single row along a length of fence or trellis. As the seeds germinate and the plants begin to grow, tie them to the fence and train them to climb up their trellis. As the plants continue to grow, check on the fruits daily to make sure the plants keep from  flopping down to the ground. Unlike their field-grown counterparts, cantaloupe grown upright doesn't get any shade and water will evaporate off faster. Keep up with your watering and mulching! When the plants start to set fruit, more support will be necessary to keep the fruit from snapping off the vines. Nylon stockings work GREAT for this! As each cantaloupe gets to be the size of a golf ball, cut a generous length of nylon pantyhose and make a hammock to support each one. Daily checking and periodic adjustment of the support will be necessary. As the fruits near maturity, make additional supports with old fabric fashioned into slings.

Cold Frames: So Hot Right Now

On a hot, lazy September day, what better activity to do than build a cold frame out of some extra pieces of wood lying around the tool shed?

A cold frame is a boxed enclosure with a transparent roof. Essentially, it's a mini green house. It allows folks like us to grow plants year-round—our plans with this cold frame will probably have to do with planting and growing kale, as well as other types of lettuce. But of course, cold frames can be used to grow just about anything so long as they're kept sealed during the cooler seasons and don't allow heat to escape into the atmosphere.

Matt and Kevin nailing together the boards.

Preparing to photosynthesize. Don't forget to make sure the cold frame works properly and that the transparent piece of the structure completely covers the box before thinking you're finished!

Easy to make, cold frame construction requires only a few pieces of wood, an old window, some nails, hinges, and a few power tools. It also helps to be in good company; some parts of the procedure would have been difficult to accomplish without a few extra hands to help out. Speaking of which, we would like to thank the dogs for providing excellent moral support.

The finished product!

Slab Wood Furniture

Benches and end tables made from slab wood.

Whether you're short on cash and in need of some indoor/outdoor furniture or you just love the way rustic building looks, here's a simple and free way to deck out your patios, decks and interiors: slab wood.

With a table saw, some slab wood from your local lumber mill (often discarded by them, free for you!), a few wooden dowels, some screws, wood glue, and a little help from your friends, you'll have your guests guessing what boutique you went to in order to find this one-of-a-kind furniture.

Slab wood donated by Grisanti over at Redwood Lumber

Because all pieces of slab wood are different, and because your needs will be different, there's no sense in us offering sizes for cuts of wood. Just make sure your legs are even lengths, your seat or table top is wide enough, and you offer appropriate support for weight. We used a table saw to make all our cuts and trimmings.


Here are Greg and Elyna cutting down the boards:

And visualizing the finished product:

 Pre-drilled holes get screws, a dollop of wood glue, and some dowels:

 And voila:

Got a great DIY project to share? Itching to volunteer your time and expertise at Better Farm? E-mail us at info@betterfarm.org or call (315) 482-2536.

Heirloom Tomatoes at Better Farm

Say goodbye to your store-bought tomatoes. You haven't tasted anything like Better Farm's heirloom tomato plants.

In the last several decades, we've lost about 75 percent of the genetic diversity in our seeds. Through GMO programs by bigwhigs like Monsanto, smaller family farms that supported heirloom varieties have disappeared; and the multitude of heirlooms that had adapted to survive well for hundreds of years were lost or replaced by fewer hybrid tomatoes, bred for their commercially attractive characteristics. (Click here to learn all about how we sacrificed flavor for irrelevant, tasteless color.)

In the process, we have also lost much of the ownership of foods typically grown by family gardeners and small farms, and we are loosing the genetic diversity at an accelerating and alarming rate.
Every heirloom variety is genetically unique and inherent in this uniqueness is an evolved resistance to pests and diseases and an adaptation to specific growing conditions and climates. With the reduction in genetic diversity, food production is drastically at risk from plant epidemics and infestation by pests. Call this genetic erosion.

As genetic diversityerodes, our capacity to maintainand enhance crop forest andlivestock productivity decreasesalong with the ability to respond tochanging conditions. Geneticresources hold the key to increasingfood security and improving thehuman condition.

The late Jack Harlan, world-renowned plant collector who wrote the classic Crops and Man while Professor of Plant Genetics at University of Illinois at Urbana, wrote, "These resources stand between us and catastrophic starvation on a scale we cannot imagine. In a very real sense, the future of the human race rides on these materials. The line between abundance and disaster is becoming thinner and thinner, and the public is unaware and unconcerned. Must we wait for disaster to be real before we are heard? Will people listen only after it is too late."

It is up to us as gardeners and responsible stewards of the earth to assure that we sustain the diversity afforded us through heirloom varieties.

Here's a quick cheat sheet about heirloom plants:

1. Commercial Heirlooms: Open-pollinated varieties introduced before 1940, or tomato varieties more than 50 years in circulation.
2. Family Heirlooms: Seeds that have been passed down for several generations through a family.
3. Created Heirlooms: Crossing two known parents (either two heirlooms or an heirloom and a hybrid) and dehybridizing the resulting seeds for how ever many years/generations it takes to eliminate the undesirable characteristics and stabilize the desired characteristics, perhaps as many as 8 years or more.
4. Mystery Heirlooms: Varieties that are a product of natural cross-pollination of other heirloom varieties.

(Note: All heirloom varieties are open-pollinated but not all open-pollinated varieties are heirloom varieties.)

At Better Farm, we got a bunch of different heirloom tomato seeds this year from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Here's some information about the varieties of striped, green, and red tomatoes we have for sale at our farm stand :

(Lycopersicon lycopersicum) This crop, native to the Americas, has become the most popular garden crop over the last 200 years. We offer an amazing selection of many of the finest old varieties in lots of delicious colors! A few heirloom varieties have plants that don't get quite so large. Called "determinate" varieties, these get to a certain size and then set all their fruit more or less at once. Determinates may be a better choice where tomatoes are grown in a very small garden, or in containers. All varieties are believed to be 'indeterminate' (long vines), unless specified 'determinate' (short vines). The best tasting varieties tend to be indeterminate, as most of ours are unless otherwise noted. 

Everyone at the farm attests to the fullness of flavor on these tomatoes; like your classic beefsteak or roma on steroids. The various sizes make them universally great for stews, sauces, or sandwiches.

Organic heirloom tomatoes available at farm stand, varying prices according to size. Special bulk orders can be called in: (315) 482-2536.

Kids Make Their Own Blues Instruments with betterArts

Elyna Grapstein, far left, Kevin Carr, center, and Matt Smith, right, help local children create harmonicas and tambourines at Blues in the Bay Festival on Saturday in Alexandria Bay, N.Y.

betterArts on Saturday offered a free arts and crafts station for children to make blues instruments on the front lawn of Bay House Artisans in Alexandria Bay, N.Y.

The local non-profit, based out of Better Farm in Redwood, received funding from Watertown Evening Rotary to provide children with free arts supplies and instruction to create tambourines and harmonicas out of popsicle sticks, rubber bands, paper plates, and bells.

Children also had the opportunity to decorate the musical instruments with paint and crayons. The event was put on in conjunction with Alexandria Bay's Blues in the Bay music festival.  Here are some photographs from the afternoon:

BetterArts is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to increasing access to the arts throughout the North Country through the provision of free and low-cost workshops, residencies, private instruction, studio and gallery space, performances, and events. For more information, visit www.betterarts.org or call (315) 482-2536.