Solar panels

Drilling the holes for the poles








Concrete pump truck - it can pump the concrete about 100 feet. And its operated remotely with the controls he's wearing around his waist. Wow! Neither of us had ever seen one of these before. Its pretty amazing to watch the hydraulics unfold in the air.





Well, we've had a whole 24 hrs with no rain (fingers crossed, knock on wood, etc.).
So we've been pulling weeds - yes - weeds have already started growing. Unfortunately we've not had a chance to use our new cultivation equipment. Its just been too wet even for that.
But our blueberries bushes and little pawpaw trees have been mulched.
With most of our tilling, seeding and transplanting being delayed, we may be asking for some help possibly next weekend with transplanting. If the ground dries out this week we will need to begin transplanting onions, broccoli, cabbage, kale and chard. We'll update you next week on whether this will be possible or not. We realize this would be very short notice, but unfortunately we don't have control over this. But also if the weekend doesn't work for you, we would welcome help any day you want to come up and get your hands dirty. Just give a call ahead of time. If we get a few more sunny, warm, windy, rain-free days, we will be able to till and the plants will be going in the ground.

Tilling OK!

We just got in from tilling. We were able to get 12 more beds prepared (with our new tiller!).
We didn't think it would be dry enough, but it was - just barely (except for a few low spots).

April showers

These are the racks that will be mounted on large poles. The solar panels will be mounted on the racks.

This ditch will be for the electric to run from the panels to the inverter in our basement.

One of the few beds we have been able to get planted. These are lettuce transplants that were beaten by the wind and snowed upon after they were transplanted. They still look good though!


We know of a farming couple that say they that whenever customers ask about how the farm or business is going, they always say "Superb", "Wonderful". I guess that's because farmers have a reputation or stereotype that they complain too much - mainly about the weather.
So I don't want to complain too much, but I will be honest - this has been the wettest, coldest spring since we started farming ten years ago.
The rain we've been having at least every few days means that the soil has not had a chance to dry out properly. This means that we cannot get into the fields to prepare our vegetable beds. If we try to operate the rototiller in the soil when it is wet we will end up with "smeary" soil that will form into chunks that will be as hard as rocks when it dries. Vegetables need loose crumbly soil in which to form their roots and that kind of damage could take years to amend.
So mostly we wait. We had one afternoon when part of our field was dry enough to till, so we took advantage of it and got some beds prepared and planted. Last year we got our first beds planted April 5 - this year it was almost two weeks later. I will attempt to till a few more beds this afternoon before more rain sets in tonight, but it may be too wet. And the forecast for next week has showers every day. It has also been quite cold with some snow showers, so we are not sure even that the seeds we did get in the ground will actually germinate or if they will rot in the ground.
The one comforting thought is that we know all the other farmers in the area are experiencing the same frustrations and we'll get through it together!
What this means is that when (if?) the soil does dry out we will have a lot of planting (3-4 weeks worth) to do all at once.

On a happier note, installation has commenced on our solar panels! See pictures above.
Check back in a couple days for more pictures.

Late winter

The other morning it was 3 degrees when we awoke and the trees were covered with frost. Liz hurried outside to snap a few photos before the sun melted it all.
We have extended our greenhouse by 12 ft. Here we are moving the endwall with help from friends.

Here we are dragging our new hoophouse out the new field piece by piece so its all ready to be put together.


All of last year's CSA members should have received our winter letter and CSA membership form in the mail yesterday or today - if not let us know. If you plan to rejoin this year, please return the membership form with check ASAP to ensure we have room for you. We have a long list of people interested in signing up for the first time year. We like to give you a head start so we plan to send CSA information out to them in 2 weeks. Membership is first-come basis, though.

Our first seedlings have germinated! Onions and tomatoes were the first to pop up. We also have eggplants and leeks planted. I'm sure when its 110 degrees in the hoophouse and we are in there picking tomatoes we'll think back to now when they are so small and we have to do so much to protect them from the weather outside.

A minor case of "What did we just do?!"

Your vegetables for 2011 - in a different form.
Instrument that measures amount of shade throughout the year around a potential solar panel site.
The new hoophouse is here - though not installed!


We still can't believe we've done it considering how expensive its going to be - but we signed the contract to have solar panels installed here at the farm. So starting this Spring, Muddy Fingers Farm will have 100% solar electricity. Yes, we might be crazy, but at least we're committed to it. We signed for Halco to do the installation and they are helping us with writing the state and federal grants (actually they're pretty much doing it for us).
When will it be economically feasible for more people who aren't as crazy as us to install renewable energy such as this? Never? According to the prediction we were presented, our system will pay for itself in less than twenty years. This is taking into account inflation and the increasing cost of electricity. So I guess as the cost of electricity does increase in the next couple decades this may become a more attractive option. And if the cost of the panels could come down over time while their effeciency increases (our top of the line panels are only about 18-19% efficient) this could help, too.
Any comments?

What do we do in the winter?

winter market stand

evening song farm

The Rutabega Curl

"So what do you do in the winter?"
We get this question once in awhile from customers and people we meet. And I admit it has started to get on my nerves. They are not trying to be rude, but I get the feeling that the asker is thinking "what could there possibly be to do on a vegetable farm in the winter?" I do hope somewhere in the near future we won't have so much to do on the farm in the winter. It would be nice to do some volunteering and be a little more active in our community. But this winter so far has been a bit overwhelming and not too restful. I guess its better than being bored though!

Here's an update on some of the things we've been working on this winter:
Spending money!!! Beyond the normal ordering of seeds, organic fertilizer and yearly supplies we are also ready to purchase a new tractor-mounted rototiller and cultivation equipment.
The really big news (and big expense) though is that we are planning to sign a contract soon to have solar panels installed for the farm (and home)! When installed, the panels will produce about 100% of our yearly usage, though they will be hooked to the grid. We will post more info about these as progress is made. This is a HUGE investment for us. It is made possible partly by the NYSERDA grant and state and federal tax credits, but mostly because we were fortunate to receive an inheritance from our family.

We will be expanding our greenhouse by 12 feet so we will be able grow more seedlings. And our new hoophouse will be arriving Monday. We need to get that up as soon as possible so it will be ready for the tomatoes and cucumbers we plan to plant in there later this spring.

And we are putting our heads together to figure how to improve the Grove Park Farmers' Market in Elmira. We are still attending the winter market in Ithaca on Saturdays 11-2 at the Women's Community Building on Seneca St. See photo above.

And, oh yes, we did take a vacation from the farm to visit friends and family. During this trip we visited a couple good friends who are just starting to farm on their own. They bought a farm in Vermont last year and this will be their first year growing there. It was very exciting to visit and see and hear about all the progress they've made in such a short period of time. The two snowy photos above are from their farm.

As always we've been analyzing our growing practices and figuring out how to improve our systems. And we've been crunching the numbers on all the records we kept last year, we even wrote up our findings and sent them to a local farming publication, so they may go out to be of use to other farmers, and we're also figuring out what we want to do to get ready for this year. This means a lot of reading and "farm meetings". To this end we plan to attend an upcoming farming conference. We might come back with a dozen more items to add to our "to do" list. Ah well...
hope you are faring well this winter, matthew and liz

Winter Harvest

Ice lickers
Sprout mound
Hairy leeks
Isn't this fun?!
Visual oxymoron

HI ALL,

Life here at Muddy Fingers Farm has slowed since our last newsletter post, but our to-do list is still full!

Here's a few of the things we've been working on.

Finishing the outdoor harvest. Most of the crops we are harvesting this time of year are inside the hoophouses, but there are a few that that have been outside braving the cold. These include salad turnips (at least we put some plastic down on top of them to afford them some protection), kale (can be harvested frozen stiff!) and leeks and Brussels sprouts (both of which we finished harvesting today and put in our cooler). Though calling it a "cooler" this time of year is not accurate. We've been running the air conditioner fan and turning on a small heater inside when necessary to keep the produce from freezing!

There are some crops we planted late in the season (onions, leek, carrots, mache) that we have covered by low-tunnels that we hope will survive the winter in order that we can get an extra-early harvest from them next spring!

And we are still at the market in Ithaca! If anyone would like to brave the cold, come on to Ithaca's outdoor market the next two Saturdays from 10:00-3:00. On the 18th of Dec. the market will hold the annual Rutabega Curl.

What, you may ask, do we have available at our stand? Brussels sprouts, kale, salad turnips, leeks, onions, garlic, celeriac, carrots, beets, parsnips, lettuce mix and heads and spicy greens mix.

We have also already started planning our next CSA season. We've been analyzing our crops from the records we kept this year. We will determine which are most profitable and which are least profitable so we can know which ones we need to improve upon our efficiencies in growing or even stop growing.

We learned last year that the CSA is an efficient way for us to market our vegetables - more efficient than at the farmers' market. Also this year our sales were down at our markets (except in Watkins Glen!). For these reasons (and for our sanity) we have decided to drop yet another market for next year. We are fairly certain this will be the Ithaca market on Tuesday. We plan to make up for this loss of income by increasing the shares in the CSA again next year up to around 90 shares.

We also realized the shares at the end of the CSA season (September and October) could have and should have been larger this year. There was lots of vegetables available, but we had priced our share for the fall to be smaller. Therefore we have decided to increase the cost of a share to reflect an increase in the size of a share for the months of September and October. We plan for the cost of a basic share to be $400 next year. And the cost of the larger share will be $520. We will still be providing the same 10-15% discount, only with more produce.

Offering low-income shares is something we have wanted to do for several years now, but we have never felt that it was something we were able to take on. But next year we are planning to raise funds for at least a few families to be able to join the CSA at no or reduced cost. More details about this later as we work them out.

We've also had compost to spread, eight months of messy farm to clean up and reorganize and/or repair.

And we've been loving this early blast of arctic air. We both love winter weather (though one of us enjoys working outside in it a little more). Soon we'll be able to go ice skating and hopefully cross country skiing, too.