Infarmation: Politics of Food

On the radio today was an interview with Paul Roberts who spoke about his book The End of Food. The material is a little doom and gloom but a very worthwhile ear-opening listen. 

Find Out:

> How much Americans pay for food compared to the rest of the world, and why

> How a food shortage made the English army shorter

> Why South Korea is wrong

> What percentage of food costs goes to marketing and advertising

> Why food from China is cheaper and why it is scary

The interview is a half-hour long, listen here:

Download the .mp3

Update: Beets

Farmer No.2 admits that he blew it with this one. Now we know that the chioggia beet seeds that we planted have another few weeks before they are ready to be harvested. When mature, these beets have red and white stripes on the inside.

Farm Boxes No1 and No2

The farm recently purchased Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomen. And while Mel does overly state his accomplishments (the originator of gardens in a box?) and he writes in the third person, this book does have worthwhile information about building boxes for plants. We like the aesthetics of the boxes but they are also practical for controlling soil quality and temperature. We bought 400lbs. of soil and manure to fill the boxes and also mixed compost from Kimberly in there as well.

Update: Red Peppers

Update: Cucumbers

The cucumber seeds that the farm planted mid-May are up and looking to climb. If it works out like last year, these plants yield freakishly large cucumbers. The seeds came from cucumber plants that Nick the Farmer gave us last year. 

Eggplant is Coming

Update: Kimberly the Composter

Kimberly, our fat little composting bin, has been hard at work since March 1. The compost should be ready but it has been a learning process on how to get the balance right between green (living/nitrogen) and brown matter (dead/carbon). Right now, between the farm waste and kitchen scraps there is so much more green waste than brown so we've been using shredded newspaper as the carbon source.
Farmer No. 2 cuts up the expired broccoli to feed to Kimberly. Chopping up the waste speeds up the process by exposing more surface area to micro-organisms.