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559 Carpenter Lane
Philadelphia, PA 19119
215-843-2350
8424 Germantown Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19118
215-843-2350
2129 72nd Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19138
215-276-0706
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Down on the Farm
What's happening on those sweet four acres
in Northwest Philly
Farm Fresh and Farm Frozen
by David Zelov, Weavers Way Farm Manager
Old time farmers and gardeners often called snow the “poor man’s fertilizer.” If there is any truth to this, we shouldn’t have to apply any fertilizer to our land for quite some time after this winter. But is there any truth to this old tale? I was hoping there would be, and as it turns out, there is! According to Bill Shockley, an agricultural agent in Virginia, snow, as well as rain, contains nitrogen, one of the essential nutrients for plant growth and the one that needs to be added each year, since it is short-lived in the soil. Our atmosphere is actually 79 percent nitrogen gas but it’s in a form not usable by plants. It can be “fixed” into this useable form either by lightning, microbes, or by humans (industrially). Snow actually contains more nitrogen these days due to the burning of fossil fuels in cars and industry, which releases nitrous oxides. The precipitation picks up this nitrogen suspended in the atmosphere and deposits it on the ground.
Snow is a better fertilizer than rain because it lasts longer, providing a more timed release effect, rather than rain, which does not stick around. I imagine that rain might leach more nitrogen from the soil than it deposits, but am not sure of this.
Snow also recharges our aquifers better than rain because the water seeps in slowly, and little is lost to surface runoff. And snow is insulating, keeping the ground frozen. If we have cold weather with no snow cover, the ground freezes and thaws, which causes movement that can kill plant roots and actually push bulbs (such as our valuable garlic) out of the ground.
I must say though, that although I love the snow, there were some negative aspects of it for us this winter. Hoophouses are not the sturdiest of structures and cannot take much of a snow load. The first couple storms this winter contained fairly light, fluffy snow, which blew or slid off quite easily and required little work from us. A mid-February storm, however, came with some pretty heavy snow that just sat on top of them. And since this storm came on the heels of another, there was not much room for the snow to go. All the snow that slid off in the previous storm was still piled around the base. Sinking up to our waists, we trudged through and pulled it down from the outside, using our arms so as not to damage the plastic (amazing what friends will do when you offer to buy them beer). Lessons learned – do not put hoophouses side by side so that you have to deal with the snow from two of these structures in a narrow area. Also challenging, and never before experienced by me, was making our way through two feet of snow from the hoophouses to Ardleigh St. (where we had to park before the farm road was plowed) with bins full of harvested greens destined for the Co-op and the Piazza Farmers Market.
But it’s spring now and hopefully all of that is behind us. We are excited to be starting another season and are welcoming in a new crew of apprentices and interns. I’m sure you’ll be seeing them around the Co-op and at the farm and markets. You should be seeing lots of great produce in April: coming in the early part of the month (from the hoophouses) will be spinach, arugula, salad mix, bok choy, tatsoi, lettuce heads, kale, chard, radishes, turnips, microgreens, and pea shoots.
Enjoy!
farmer@weaversway.coop .
New Crops
I thought I would take this time to write about some of the new crops and new varieties of the same crops we are growing this year.
- Artichokes: No, not the tuberous Jerusalem artichokes available in late fall. This year we will be growing real artichokes. They are marginally hardy in our climate, and normally don’t produce buds until the second year, but if you trick them into thinking it’s their second year of growth by exposing them to warm temperatures and then cool temperature, then warm again, they will bud up in the first season. Silly artichokes.
- Arugula: We hope to expand the amount and availability of this quick-growing green by seeding successionally throughout the spring and fall.
- Asparagus: Probably will not be available this year but we planted a little bit last year and will be adding another row this coming spring. Asparagus is a perennial, but you need to let it grow a couple years before harvesting the shoots so that it can build up reserves of energy in its roots.
- Beans: Our pole beans did not work out so well last year, and were no less work than the bush varieties, so this year we will return to the green and purple bush types.
- Beets: We will continue to offer the popular mixed bunches of red, yellow and chioggia (striped red and white) varieties.
- Bok Choy (baby): a perennial (but actually an annual) favorite, still trying to find the variety least likely to bolt. This year we’re trying “Mei Qing Choi.”
- Broccoli: no changes—current varieties are working well for us. Nothing exciting to report.
- Brussels sprouts: We are saying goodbye to this tasty brassica due to slow sales and the small size of last year’s crop.
- Cabbage: Adding regular red and green varieties in both spring and fall in addition to the Savoy offered last fall.
- Carrots: Continued offering of mixed bunches--orange, yellow, and purple--though we are trying a couple new types of purple ones for possible improvement in taste and color. Welcome “Dragon” and “Purple Rain”!
- Cauliflower: A new addition to our repertoire this year, we’ll be offering white and purple varieties as well as the Romanesco type.
- Celeriac: One of the ways we hope to extend our growing season is by offering more storage crops like this in the late fall and winter. Get those soup recipes ready!
- Chard: Growing more of this colorful green, “Bright Lights” variety.
- Collards: “Champion” continues to be the best variety. Go figure.
- Cucumber: With any luck, no one will rip out our first planting like last year and we’ll have a full season growing big slicing cucumbers. We’ll be trying some in our hoophouse this spring in the hopes of bringing in an extra early harvest.
- Dandelion greens: Hope to have a more consistent supply of this green for Co-op shoppers this year.
- Eggplant: A few new ones this season: “Applegreen,” “Casper,” and “Rosa Bianca.” We are moving away from the regular purple Italian varieties.
- Fennel: Growing a little bit less and trying a variety called “Perfection.” Need I say more?
- Flowers: We are looking to make our lives easier and replace annual varieties with perennials. Too bad we can’t do this with vegetables.
- Garlic: After a less than stellar year in 2008 due to a disease, we are keeping our fingers crossed for 2009 but we did scale back a bit.
- Gourds (ornamental): Due to space considerations and slow sales, we’ll be discontinuing these at Awbury.
- Herbs: Basil (green, purple, and Thai), chives, cilantro, lavender, marjoram, lemon balm mint, oregano, parsley, sage, and thyme.
- Kale: Same varieties as last year: “Winterbor,” “Redbor,” and “Toscano” but also going to try the super hardy “Beedy’s Camden.”
- Kohlrabi: Same great varieties.
- Leeks: We are planning on tripling our production of these wonderful fall crops.
- Lettuce: Experimenting with about ten new varieties of all colors, including speckled, with hopes of identifying good cold and heat tolerance.
- Melon: New addition, “Jenny Lind”—an heirloom grown in the Philadelphia area in the mid-1800s.
- Mustard greens: “Red Giant” and “Green Wave” add great color to our brassica section again.
- Okra: Trying a new variety this year, “Clemson spineless,” in the hopes that it might be less painful to harvest.
- Onion: More quantity this year of red, yellow, and sweet Spanish types.
- Pea shoots: Trying to extend the season with this crop by growing in the greenhouse as well as in the field.
- Peas (snap): We are giving this one up this year. Though the demand is strong, production has been sparse and hey, we can’t grow everything, right?
- Peppers: This season we’ll see the addition of “Chocolate” (sweet, brown), “Fish” (hot, striped), and “Valencia” (orange) in addition to some new varieties of the same ol’, same ol’.
- Potatoes: Currently, we do not have space for these at Awbury but we’ll try them at Saul for the CSA and may have some extra for market if they do well.
- Radish: Same striking colored bunches as last year.
- Salad mix: A variety of lettuces, Asian greens, baby kale, mustards, endive and radicchio
- Scallions: Red and white varieties will be offered once again.
- Scorzonera: A new addition! Described as one of “the most distinctive root vegetables” and “can’t be compared with anything else.”
- Summer squash: We’ll continue to offer an abundance of colors, shapes, and sizes of this popular summer vegetable.
- Sunchoke: Hoping to expand our growing area this season and we have not been able to keep up with demand.
- Tatsoi: Plan on continuing to see this tender green in both the salad mix and full size in bunches.
- Tokyo bekana: Seems to be preferred mostly by slugs, not people, but as it comes in extra early, we plan on one planting in early spring.
- Tomato: I just counted 26 varieties that we will be offering this year—up from 15 last year: striped, splotchy, red, yellow, pink, black, purple, cherry—you name it.
- Turnip: Just going to concentrate on the white “Hakurei” variety and “Purple top” (fall only). After having to tell customers “no, actually those are turnips, not beets.” We are discontinuing the red variety.
- Watermelon: Although surprisingly they were not smashed in 2008, in 2009 we will be growing these for the CSA only.
- Winter squash: Did not have great luck with these at Awbury, but hoping a change of location to Saul can change this. Look for Acorn, Butternut, Kabocha, and Sweet Dumpling.
At the City Hall Farmers’ Market, Mayor Michael Nutter is among the fans of the produce from Weavers Way Farm. From left to right are, MLK student Charles Mapp, Weavers Way Farm Educator David Siller, Mayor Nutter, Farm Intern Candace Moore, and WWCP Executive director Rachel Milenbach.
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