Organic fruit is really incredibly hard to achieve!
I agree totally on the free of Synthetic ferts and pesticides, I'd gladly pay a bit extra for that.
Organic Tobacco
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I agree totally on the free of Synthetic ferts and pesticides, I'd gladly pay a bit extra for that.
Id like to meet these people who think Organic certification is a fabrication, and give them a tour of the farm. It is so, so much more than just "not spraying chemicals," but using natural processes and land and earth stewardship to produce food grown as naturally as possible. It's extra work, and we charge extra for it, but in turn we don't turn soil into sterile, dead matter which we need to continuously fill with chemicals to make "productive."
And that hog waste is only organic if the hogs have been fed organic food, or if it's been composted for a few years.
You're spot on with the flavorings and complex blends. The idea of producing a 100% organic pipe tobacco is just a bit overreaching. I could see some whole leaf grown organically being sold for home blenders though!
So it’s you, me and like one other guy on this forum. I’m thinking we’re not gonna smoke commercially produced organic pipetree in our lifetime.
Yeah, we just bought a new house and I'm starting to amass fruit trees and bushes for this spring. Going to play around with how I treat them for a while and see what I can get away with using commonly available, relatively safe products and processes. I've spent the last 18 years mostly focusing on veggies, grains, culinary mushrooms and native endemic fruit. I find it fairly easy to produce decent yields for personal consumption as well as giveaways to friends & family.
What I'm really excited about is this year's tobacco. I spent the last few years philandering around with One Sucker Burley and Rustica, but have TN86 Burley, Lemon Virginia, and Xanthi Oriental on deck for this year. Priming, curing, casing, blending, any other processing that strikes my fancy... I'm going in, bros.
That sounds awesome! The only fruit we do on the farm is raspberries, unless you count ground cherries or tomatoes (which are disgusting).
Keep us updated on the tobacco, I've never grown it, but if I did I'd probably plant through woven ground cover to control weeds, transplant directly into some real nice compost and make sure I had plenty of mantises and wasps and stuff to help keep pests away. Should be easy in a home garden.
Double 00 Farms
Still trying to get the wife to let me make the logo an owl whose eyes look like hooters
Rasberries are healthy, profitable, easy to clone, and install easily at the wood line. I encourage you to explore Biodynamic agriculture- it’s 1 leap beyond organic. It’s basically about having all of the correct plants and animals on your farm so as to create an equilibrium
Our raspberries are just over a year old, but we made our money on them and have more in the pipeline for next year. Perishability is our biggest issue, as well as the time it takes to pick them. We get $6 for a half pint.
We use a lot of biodynamic ideas on the farm, it's really the basis of much of what we do and we maintain habitat for pollinators and predator insects, using effective cover crops etc. We're also 100% no-till. We don't do livestock, we don't need to.
You are my kind of farmer. May God bless your crop
Raspberries, blackberries, huckleberries, wild plum, wild cherries, persimmons, and (unfortunately) autumn olive all grow wild here and need zero attention once established. Blueberries, figs, and prickly pear are not native, but grow well with minimal attention.
Will report back with pics once I get the 'backer started in Feb-Mar. I am deeply fortunate in that my job often brings me to the Burley fields in north Tennessee. I get to see it, although sporadically, from seed to slip to primed plant to hanging in a barn, with or without a smoldering fire. We're never allowed in the barn during the actual firing, however, as each producer has his or her own secret process and selected woods that's only known by the family. It's pretty cool.
Explored biodynamics a little and read a lot. I've seen people go whole hog (cowhorn tea, planting by the moon, etc) and ultimately it didn't appear to provide any additional benefit beyond quality organic® practices, so I lost interest. If it strikes your fancy, we have a local celebrity by the name of Jeff Poppens aka The Barefoot Farmer who has some articles and tv appearances where he shares a lot of his secrets and philosophies. He produces some mighty fine plants. Your last sentence reminds me of permaculture, which is a worthy goal, IMHO.
It has to be subtle. Can't be developing a reputation, you understand. The neighbors wouldn't stand still for it.
Thanks! We'll be getting transplants going in a week or two, and planting high tunnels at the end of February...a little hard to believe considering we've got 20" on snow on the ground And tonight's low is -6, and the boss and I are about to go ice fishing...but the seasons fly by.
nothing definite sometimes these things surprise us, but no reason to believe it would be healthier. So what kind of stuff do you farm. I often buy organic stuff when I have the budget and just because it is often tastier.
We grow just about everything you can think of as far as produce goes, but the main focus on leafy green stuff. Mainstays are varieties of radishes, turnips, carrots, lettuces, kale, chard, spinach, potatoes, garlic, winter and summer squashes, herbs (medicinal and culinary), flowers, onions, tomatoes, bok choy and its relatives, mustards, plus a ton of odds and ends that maybe don't make us a big profit but are fun to grow like broccoli and cabbage and strange uncommon Asian greens. Pretty much anything you can think of. I think organic, or at least locally grown and fresh, always tastes better than grocery store stuff, although sometimes I need zucchini in January so what am I gonna do?
It's myself and the owner of the farm (who has become a great friend) doing the planning and bulk of the labor, plus occasionally a local college kid or two looking for a summer job (it's my job to teach them how to work), 25 acres with anywhere from 6-10 acres planted, plus 3 or 4 farmers markets. It's a lot of work, and none of us are getting rich, but it's enough for us to live on and I love it. Plus I get 6 weeks off, which is why I'm here posting at 2am.
rather live in some comfort get a few luxuries from just enough money earned doing something that is genuinely reward by its self then get paid tons to do something that feels pointless, unnecessary, unimportant, and uninspiring. Money is a tool and a lot of people I've seen have bank accounts that are the equivalent of that really nice tool box that sits unused in an unused work shop.
