In the Garden: January.

Here’s a wee little task list of what to plant and do around the garden during the month of January:

WHAT TO PLANT

Seed in Ground: artichokes, asparagus (crowns), beets, cabbage, carrots, celery and celeriac, chard, chives, dill, leaf lettuce, onions sets, parsley, rhubarb (crowns), snap and sugar peas, strawberries, turnips, winter hardy greens (bok choy, spinach, cress, mustard greens, arugula)

Seed Indoors: bok choi, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, eggplant, kale, leeks, head lettuce, bunching onions, peppers, tomatoes, summer and winter squash (late)

***Brassicas like kale, collards, cabbage, and broccoli should have 3-4 true leaves and be about six weeks old when you transplant.***

WHAT TO DO

• On nice days, prepare your beds if the weather is warm and dry enough.
• Cover prepared beds with mulch or row cover (prevent erosion on bare soil!) until you’re ready to plant.
• Shop local nurseries for asparagus roots, rhubarb, strawberry plants, and fruit trees.
• Cover root crops still in the ground with an extra layer of mulch.
• When cold temperatures are predicted, protect transplants of onions, cabbage, broccoli, and chard with a row cover.
• Sow seeds of herbs, such as dill and parsley.
• Sow seeds of annual flowers (delphiniums, snapdragons, and larkspur are good choices) anywhere you want flowers for cutting or as a background for other plants.
• Plant even more flowers! Poppies, chamomile, evening primrose, calendulas, verbena, and daisies.
• Top-dress lawns with compost.
• And don’t forget to look after your perennials – most fruit trees need pruning in winter, before they start to bud.

Resources for Teaching about Sustainable Agriculture and Education

Books and a report

• ·         Rebecca Thistlethwaite’s Farms with a Future: Creating and Growing a Sustainable Farm Business (Chelsea Green, 2012).
• ·         Elizabeth Henderson’s Sharing the Harvest: A Citizen’s Guide to Community Supported Agriculture (Chelsea Green, 2007).
• ·         Richard Wiswall’s The Organic Farmer’s Business Handbook: A Complete Guide to Managing Finances, Crops, and Staff-and Making a Profit (Chelsea Green, 2009).
• ·         Tanya Denckla Cobb’s Reclaiming Our Food: How the Grassroots Food Movement is Changing the Way We Eat (Storey Publishing, 2011).
• ·         Joel Salatin’s You Can Farm: the Entrepreneur’s Guide to Start and Succeed in a Farming Enterprise (Polyface, Inc., 1998).
• ·         Building a Sustainable Business: A Guide to Developing a Business Plan for Farms and Rural Businesses. (Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and The Sustainable Agriculture Network, 2003). Available free in PDF here:  http://www.sare.org/Learning-Center/Books/Building-a-Sustainable-Business.

Web-based resources (many, many more reports to be found here)

• ·         New World Foundation’s Local Economies Project: http://newwf.org/fiscally-sponsored-projects/local-economies-project.
• ·         Agricultural Justice Project, www.agriculturaljusticeproject.org – has a tool-kit for farmers that includes many resources – a template for farm labor policies, information on internships, contracts, resources on calculating costs of production.
• ·         Farm-based Education Network resource page: http://www.farmbasededucation.org/page/books-1
• ·         Community Food Security Coalition publications page: http://www.foodsecurity.org/pubs.html
• ·         UCSC’s Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems instructional resource page: http://casfs.ucsc.edu/education/instructional-resources (among the resources available on this page is their publication Teaching Direct Marketing and Small Farm Viability: Resources for Instructors)
• ·         SARE’s courses and curricula page: http://www.sare.org/Learning-Center/Courses-and-Curricula
  • ·         Cornell University’s Small Farms Program (especially rich in models): http://smallfarms.cornell.edu/
  • ·         Cornell University’s Beginning Farmer’s Project: www.nebeginningfarmers.org
  • ·         Johns Hopkins University’s Center for a Livable Future “Teaching the Food System” website (contains curricula and other resources):

http://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/teaching-the-food-system/

• ·         Soil Born Farms Urban Agriculture and Education Project: http://www.soilborn.org/
• ·         Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture publications page: http://www.misa.umn.edu/Publications/index.htm
• ·         University of Minnesota Extension resource page: http://www1.extension.umn.edu/food/small-farms/farm-business/
• ·         AgDevONLINE (access to some resources requires membership): http://www.agdevonline.com/
• ·         Beginning Farmer and Rancher resource page: http://beginingfarmerrancher.wordpress.com/
• ·         National Incubator Farm Training Initiative (NIFTI) wiki: https://nifti.wikispaces.com (wide variety of resources on program administration and management, as well a curriculum for beginning farmers and urban gardeners)

TX Bills that Help Local Farms and Market Vendors.

A message from Alexandra Landeros from the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance:

Dear Texas farmers market,

Four bills have been filed in the Texas Legislature that would make it easier for local farmers and small-scale food producers to raise and market their products. (In a recent incident in San Antonio, a raw milk farmer’s license was suspended because he delivered to a private home – one of our bills seeks to change the law to allow raw milk delivery.) Several more bills should be filed very shortly.

I’ve included a short summary of the bills below, and a more detailed description is posted at http://www.farmandranchfreedom.org/2013-texas-legislature-local-food-farm-bills

Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance (FARFA) has been heavily involved in drafting these bills and finding legislative support for them. All of the bills have a good shot of passing but – as with any bill – they will all be uphill battles. People’s phone calls and emails really do make a difference; whether each of these bills succeeds or fails will depend in large part on grassroots support and activism.

We’d like to work with you to reach out to the farmers and cottage food vendors at your farmers market – to let them know about the bills and keep them posted as to how they can take action on issues that they care about. We can provide email action alerts, supporting information, flyers (both electronic and hard copy), and anything else that would be helpful for you.

The first step for all of the bills will be to go through one of the House Committees. We have listed the members of the relevant Committees after the bill summaries, so you can see what areas they come from. If you have contacts in those areas, it is particularly important that they make calls! We have a list that includes the specific zip codes posted at http://www.farmandranchfreedom.org/2013-texas-legislature-house-committees.

Please also let us know if your farmers market is willing to go on record supporting some or all of the bills. This involves simply sending us an email stating the organization’s name, your title, and which bills you support. This is very helpful because legislators often ask us who is supporting the bills.

For substantive questions or comments on any of the bills, please contact Judith McGeary at Judith@FarmAndRanchFreedom.org or (254) 697-2661.

If you have any questions about outreach, please feel free to contact me (Alexandra Landeros) a tAlexandra@FarmAndRanchFreedom.org or (512) 537-2692.

Thank you,

Alexandra

p.s. We’re also excited to announce that we have a brand new membership program that offers special perks to our farmers’ market members such as member signs (metal and vinyl) to hang in your office or market info booth, as well as listing (with link back) on our new website to promote your market. You can see the membership levels and benefits at http://www.farmandranchfreedom.org/farfa-memberships

—
Alexandra M. Landeros
Communications Director
Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance
alexandra@farmandranchfreedom.org
(512) 537-2692
http://www.farmandranchfreedom.org

Follow us:
http://www.facebook.com/FarmAndRanchFreedom
http://www.twitter.com/FARFA_org

BILL SUMMARIES

More detailed description is posted at http://www.farmandranchfreedom.org/2013-texas-legislature-local-food-farm-bills

HB 46 improves access to raw milk by allowing the sale of raw milk by licensed farmers at farmers markets, farm stands, and through delivery.
HB 970 encourages home-based food production by expanding the cottage foods bill to cover more foods and allow sales at farmers markets and farm stands. This expands on last session’s bill, which enabled individuals to make specific low-risk foods in their homes and sell directly to consumers, up to $50K/year, without regulation by state or local health departments.
HB 910 limits fees imposed by local and state health departments for farmers selling directly to consumers to $50 per jurisdiction annually. This addresses the growing problems of health departments imposing high or duplicative permit fees, creating a financial burden on small local foods businesses.
HB 254 protects urban farmers and community gardens from paying unnecessary wastewater feeswhen the water they use does not enter the wastewater system.

Four other bills are currently being finalized and will be filed soon:

Establish fair property tax for urban farms and community gardens by clarifying that vegetable production, fruit production, pastured livestock, diversified livestock operations, and community gardens qualify for agricultural valuation. The bill will also try to address the problem of high minimum acreage requirements.
Improve access to land for community gardens by protecting landowners from liability if they allow vacant lots to be used as land for community gardens.
Make it easier to offer samples at farmers markets and farm stands by providing clear, appropriate standards for sampling.
Remove barriers to local food production and distribution by allowing people to have licensed facilities within their homes. Current regulations require a separate building to get any kind of license, imposing significant expense on small farmers and food producers.

HOUSE PUBLIC HEALTH COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Detailed list with zip codes is posted at http://www.farmandranchfreedom.org/2013-texas-legislature-house-committees

Public Health Committee & the counties they represent (will hear the raw milk, cottage foods, sampling, and separate building bills):

Garnet Coleman (part of Harris County)
Nicole Collier (part of Tarrant County)
Phillip Cortez (part of Bexar County)
Sarah Davis (part of Harris County)
Bobby Guerra (part of Hidalgo County)
Susan King (part of Jones, Nolan, and Taylor counties)
Lois Kolkhorst (Austin, Burleson, Colorado, Fayette, Grimes, Lavaca and Washington Counties)
Jodie Laubenberg (part of Collin County)
Elliott Naishtat (part of Travis County)
J.D. Sheffield (Comanche, Coryell, Erath, Hamilton, McCulloch, Mills, San Saba, and Somervell counties)
Bill Zedler (part of Tarrant County)

Ways and Means Committee & the counties they represent (will hear the health permit fees and property tax bills):

Dwayne Bohac (part of Harris County)
Angie Chen Button (part of Dallas)
Craig Eiland (Chambers County, part of Galveston)
Naomi Gonzales (part of El Paso)
Harvey Hilderbran (Bandera, Crockett, Edwards, Kerr, Kimble, Llano, Mason, Medina, Menard, Real, Schleicher, and Sutton counties)
Trey Martinez (Fischer County, part of Bexar County)
John Otto (Liberty, San Jacinto, and Walker counties)
Allan Ritter (Orange County, part of Jefferson)
Mark Strama (part of Travis County)

Backyard Grower? Sell at Market with Edible Lawns

Calling backyard gardeners! If you have more zucchini, chard or other veggies than you can eat, why not sell them at the Waco Downtown Farmer’s Market? Starting August 25, Edible Lawns will have a booth and you can sell your veggies there for $5 per week. We can accommodate a maximum of 5 sellers per week and only approved Edible Lawns staff will be able to work at the booth. Sellers should drop off their produce by 9am and be back by 1pm to collect their sales at the end of the market day. If you would like to give your sales to Edible Lawns, you can get a discount on our products and services. Contact Lucas Land at (254) 307-0274 or lucas@ediblelawns.net to sign up.

2012-2013 UGC Workshop Schedule

Soap-making workshop via Waco’s own Wildcraft & Co.

The UGC has been coordinating two workshop series over the past two years: Beyond the Backyard (more-or-less garden-related) and Foxfire Fridays (simple living/urban homesteading). I will continue to hammer out the monthly schedule for these two series – so stay tuned for more details. As of mid-August, here’s what our calendar looks like:

• August: Edible and Native Landscaping with Edible Lawns (BTB) and Homeopathy 101 (FF)
• September: Composting 101 with the HOT Master Composters (BTB) and Backyard Chicken Raising with Edible Lawns (FF)
• October: Hugelkultur, Keyhole Garden, & Rainwater Harvesting Tour (BTB) and Home Cheese-Making (FF)
• November: Growing for Market (BTB) and Soap Making (FF)
• December: DIY Potting Soil Mixes and Seed-Starting (BTB) and Knitting/Crocheting (FF)
• January:  Herbal Salves, Balms, and Tinctures (FF)
• February:  Bio-Intensive Gardening Part 1 (BTB)
• March: Bio-Intensive Gardening Part 2 (BTB)
• April: Bio-Intensive Gardening Part 3 (BTB)
• May:   Bio-Intensive Gardening Part 4 (BTB)
• June: Bio-Intensive Gardening Part 5 (BTB)
• July: Bio-Intensive Gardening Part 6 (BTB)