Author: john

Finally a bit of snow to help the farmer relax, settle in, read a book, and not feel as though they need to rush out into the sixty degree weather in order to find something farmy to do!  I love the snow.  The month of March is a long month, brown and wet, oscillating between very cold and slightly warm.  Your anticipation for spring is heightened by the returning birds and the mucky thaw.  January and February need not be like that.  Let it snow, let the trees and muddy ground get blanketed for these months.  Let the cold and snowy weather give you an excuse to stay in when you can.  Farmers need to take these cold months to recuperate, plan, and relax.  Catch up with people they unintentionally neglect during the growing season, check there systems, and try and negotiate their affairs.

For me, I take the winter to work on projects I don’t have time for in the spring.  For instance I have been converting an old boom sprayer I bought in 2012 to a compost tea brewer.  This will allow me to not only make compost tea but also will help me shlep water back and forth to Snake Hill (our new property) where we don’t currently have another way to irrigate our crops.  My buddy Nolan and I inserted a sparger into a 300-gallon tank, ran lines to a PTO-driven pump and I am now building a deck on the trailer in order to accommodate 200 feet of hose with which to either irrigate or use as a foliar, or root-feeding fertilizing wand.  My goal is to eventually hook up a gas-powered air compressor to the system so I can use the root feeding wand to inject air as well as compost tea into the soil.

My friend Mark is kind enough to let me come over in the winter and use his welders in exchange for some vegetables.  I have been building some equipment for one of my antique tractors to help clear debris from vegetable fields, do some gentle surface cultivation, and mark rows at the same time.  These kinds of projects keep me busy and help make my life a little more interesting by having new things to play with every year.  Some times my winter whimsy doesn’t amount to much.  Sometimes it does!

In regards to some of our other winter time projects Mindy and I are working together on promoting EBT usage in our CSA.  We finally got our hands on EBT equipment this year and we are using monies that were awarded to us through a LASA grant to upgrade our market vehicle and promote CSA programs (not just our own) to EBT recipients.  We are trying to build a network of community organizations that will help promote the benefits and boons of being a CSA member to EBT recipients in their communities.  As you know, being a CSA member helps your money go farther, especially in bountiful years like 2015 (see 2015 Breakdown for details)

Our Winter CSA has been going along smoothly this year, with lots of root vegetables and delicious greens from our greenhouses filling bags.  We hope to expand our Winter CSA program next year to accommodate more members.  This will be one of the benefits of having more room to grow, we will be able to dedicate more space to long-term storage crops that supply the winter months.

Hope everyone is having a nice (although warm) winter.  Enjoy the snow while you can.  All the best, John

As some of you know from speaking with us at the pick-up or reading our blog posts (last winters post) we purchased a piece of property in the fall of 2014.  Over the course of the 2015 growing season we managed to clear half the property of brush, contracted a deer fence now installed, plowed, harrowed, amended, composted, and cover cropped two acres, and built two 96’x30′ greenhouses.  We are intending to grow our winter squash and potatoes at Snake Hill (property is located on Snake Hill Rd in Chepachet) this year as well as melons!   While we expand our growing space we will be able to offer a bit more variety this year in our CSA, including some different varieties of lettuce, melons, potatoes,  greens and squash.  We are also starting to consider planting perennials on the new property such as asparagus, strawberries, rhubarb, blueberries, and on, and on, and on.  There is always plenty of planning to occupy our time in the winter.

I wanted to take a moment to welcome many of you back to our CSA program.  Some of you have been members for many years and your continued support makes what we do possible.  Your commitment to local agriculture and your insistence on high quality food is a catalyst that is driving the local food movement in our area.  Small farmers are working hard to learn how to provide you with the best local products available.  We are constantly refining our methods at Big Train, working with the natural systems  on the farm that, when understood and encouraged, provide products that are superior to anything you can find in a grocery store.  As a CSA member you receive fresh produce, harvested within days of receiving it, that is grown intentionally with you in mind.  Your enthusiasm informs our day to day on the farm.  We hope you will join us for another trip around the New England growing season.  If you did not have a chance to check out the returns you received as a 2015 member please take a look here.

The 2016 CSA is open.  You can sign up here to reserve your share for the upcoming season.

(weekly breakdown and investment return below)

We believe that through our CSA we are able to grapple with some of the thorny issues that persist in farming and food consumption in America.  For instance, local food and organic food is often seen as too expensive, sometimes prohibitively so.  Although many Americans today understand that the playing field for small-scale and large-scale agriculture is not level regardless of this they must confront the financial realities of their lives and make purchasing decisions accordingly.

The problem of high retail cost of organic food is something that organic growers can confront proactively through their CSA.  By simply providing members with a surplus of vegetables slightly greater in value than the weekly cost of their CSA share helps lighten the blow of retail costs required for small farmers to make a decent living.

When farmers have good years their is plenty of surplus to go around, especially with high-yielding, perishable crops like tomatoes, peas, squash, peppers, and eggplant.  Simple supply and demand economics assert that cost comes down while surplus is high, but when supply is perishable why not share the wealth?  So every week our CSA members receive investment returns in the form of extra purchasing points at the pick-ups or heavy bags of additional items pouring out of the fields in bountiful years like 2015.  When you extrapolate the returns to effect the retail cost (say $3 per pound for tomatoes) what you gain in surplus reduces the retail cost of all the produce at the pick-up for the member.

Below is the weekly breakdown of the 2015 26-week CSA season spanning from June-November.  Consider the return a giant Thank You for your support and we hope that the produce made you happy and healthy.

Here are the details:

Full Share. $685 for 26 weeks = $26.35/week investment.

Three-Quarter Share. $530. $20.38/week investment.

Half-Share. $350. $13.46/week investment.

Weeks: Here is what the Full-Share members actually received in 2015. You can extrapolate down for Three-Quarter and Half-Shares.

Week 1 : $42.50  Week 2 : $30  Week 3: $26   Week 4: $35   Week 5:  $34   Week 6:  $34  Week 7:  $32

Week 8: $36   Week 9: $32  Week 10: $34  Week 11:  $35  Week 12:  $40  Week 13:  $46!! Week 14: $42

Week 15: $35  Week 16: $36  Week 17:  $32  Week 18:  $32  Week 19:  $32  Week 20:  $28  Week 21:  $24

Week 22: $24  Week 23:  $24  Week 24:  $24  Week 25:  $25  Week 26:  $30

Total Cash Value of Produce Received :  $844.50

Total Return :  $844.50 – $685 = $159.50 per Full Share Member (23% return on your investment… not bad, right?!?)

Greetings, we have another 8 weeks left of our Summer/Fall CSA program, concluding the last week of November.  Many of you have asked me “what will we do this winter without your vegetables?” We would like to invite you stay with us by joining our 14-week Winter CSA.

Through the cold months of the year we plant our three open-ground greenhouses (or “high tunnels”) with extremely cold hardy vegetables.  Leafy greens such as Winterbor Kales, Spinach, and Bok Chois are able to tolerate our cold winters by a daily thawing process which leaves them not only intact, but thicker, hardier, and sweeter than during the normal growing season.

We also will be setting aside a portion of our Fall harvest for the Winter CSA program as well.  We intend to have the following storage crops available during the winter season as well as the greens mentioned above: kohlrabi, garlic, onions, potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, daikon radish, sweet potato, rutabaga, parsnips, leeks, and celeriac.  Share will be on average 5 items/week.  Eggs will be available and sold first come, first serve in half-dozen containers for $3/half-dozen.

The logistics of the share will be as follows:  Shares will be one-size and will be pre-bagged (about the size of an average 3/4 share).  Shares cost $300.  Pick-up of your share will be held for two-hours from 5-7pm in the Bell Street Chapel (5 Bell Street PVD) parking lot on Tuesdays.  You will find me in the parking lot in my car or truck handing out bags.  The share will be held on the following dates (All Tuesday evenings): 12/1, 12/8, 12/15, 12/22, 12/29, 2/2, 2/9, 2/16, 2/23, 3/1, 3/8, 3/15, 3/22, 3/29.  Please note there are no pick-ups during the month of January.  

Members who participated in the 2014/2015 Winter CSA last year are entitled to a $10 discount on their share.

Sign Up by sending an e-mail to bigtrain_farm@yahoo.com

Please Note! We only have a limited amount of shares to offer during the winter so sign-up quick!

Please Note! Please understand that the winter season can be unpredictable and sometimes ruthless.  We will not endanger ourselves to make it to the pick-up and don’t want you to either.  Bad weather may lead to pick-up cancellations and shares will be doubled-up the following week when possible.  Problems on the farm may lead to pick-up cancelations resulting in weeks that cannot be made up.  Please be willing to be flexible if you sign up for the Winter CSA Share.

Thanks!  It’s going to be great!

Our 26 CSA season will begin in one month, June 4th.  The pick-ups are held every Thursday at Bell Street Chapel (5 Bell Street in Providence) between the hours of 3 and 7pm.  You will be updated as the time approaches.  Once the pick-up begins it will be your responsibility to make to the pick-up every week to pick up your share(s).  We are looking forward to seeing our returning members and meeting all of our new members as well!

Things at the farm are rolling along ata steady clip.  We have finally pulled out of our early spring-mud routine.  Except for the warmest and driest of springs we are usually hobbled by wet, muddy fields which stall outdoor planting.  But, at this point many of our fields have some nature of crop planted and our greenhouses are full of early carrots, beets, radishes, onions, and our earliest summer tomatoes and peppers.  We have peas germinating in the field and a wide assortment of greens and lettuces planted and warming under row-cover fabric.  Kales, Collards, Chards, Cabbages, Asian Lettuces, Dandelion, are all planted in the field at this point.  In our propagation house we have herbs slowly growing, waiting to be transplanted into 4″ pots for your shares.  This is a exciting time, spring is always full of promise and anticipation on the farm.  Hope you are as excited as we are to get some of these rich vegetables to you.  Stay tuned for email updates as we get closer to our go-date.  Best Wishes, John

Hello everyone!

For the past two years I have been extensively planning and recipe testing and budgeting for my mobile tamale cart, ¡Holy Tamale! And now, finally, all of my ducks are in a row and I’m ready to start crowd-funding and making everything happen.

Last year I interned at Big Train Farms, and it was hugely rewarding. I spent upwards of 60 hours a week covered in dirt, out in the sun, working harder than I ever have before. I walked away determined to focus on ¡Holy Tamale!: to start and build a company and do something that I love, and is just mine. I also developed some very strong feelings about the importance of sustainability and locally sourced ingredients; I have never eaten so well in my life.  This year I am continuing to work with Big Train Farms to ensure that my tamales are filled with only the most delicious spinach, tomatoes, eggs, etc. 

I just visited NYC to buy the moped that will pull the cart.  An electric blue 1981 Pryer trike.  You’ll be able to spot me at the various local farmer’s markets and kickball games throughout the Summer.  I have a feeling my success will lie largely in the bar scene (tamales and beer are like… pizza and beer…).

Since launching my Indiegogo campaign a week ago, I have raised nearly 10% of my goal! I plan to be up and running by the first week of June, and so the fundraising ends in mid-May.  I’m asking for $9,000, which covers the cost of the moped, the cart, kitchen rental, parking, permits, and fresh, organic ingredients.

 Please take a moment to check out https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/holy-tamale and contribute!

xoxo,

Victoria

We have been busy this winter, and the term “busy” is not one I use lightly.  I often try to avoid the term altogether because it denotes a sort of preoccupation with stress or ordeals or maybe even self-righteousness.  Instead when asked I liked to say “I’m having fun” or “I have some interesting projects going on”, etc.  Both of these things are true currently.  I also am a little bit more focused on the farm than I normally like to be in January.

BUT, like I said, I cannot possibly complain.  I am, of course, the luckiest person on Earth, and so I try to carry myself accordingly and not sulk.  We bought some land this past Halloween with a USDA 30-year line of credit in Glocester, RI off of Snake Hill Road in Chepachet.  It is 11-acres of land that is currently being cleared of pine and aspen and will soon have the woody brush mowed down.  I know many of you have spoken with Mindy and I over the years about our long search for land, and I truly appreciate your support and friendship and enthusiasm for us as we went through this process.  Well, we’ve done it.

Our plan is to transition slowly off of the property that we currently are on, Urban Edge Farm.  UEF is where we have called home now for seven years and it will be hard to walk away when the time comes.  I have learned so much about myself and farming and have made so many friends through UEF that it is hard to imagine not working there anymore, but this is still some years away.  We will still be farming at UEF for at least the next couple years.  However, the work must begin on the new land, Snake Hill.  Our goal for 2015 is to put up a barn, a bunch of greenhouses, some deer fencing and start the process of turning our naturally rocky, acidic RI soil into dynamic, biologically exuberant, power medium.  We hope to have all of you out to Snake Hill some time soon and look forward to having some bonfires with all the brush we have been clearing thus far.

And in comes the New Year, another trip around the agricultural calendar with it’s hopes, anticipations, hard work, failures, laughs, messes, successes, beauties, conjectures, and refutations.  The joy of working with natural systems and the soul of New England agriculture is it’s unpredictability.

We will be jumping into some exciting projects this year: a more advanced approach to compost tea production, new equipment for prepping beds, building greenhouses for expanding our Winter CSA, applying for some grants, anticipating some fruit tree plantings, building a farm, expanding the CSA to work for social justice, continuing our collaboration with local Universities, and continuing to learn and teach.

We are also going to be taking a new approach to our CSA and try to form a small “inner-circle” of long-term CSA members who can help us move the farm forward and accomplish some of our larger goals, on-farm and off-farm.  More details about that soon.

I want to take this moment to welcome you back to Big Train Farm.  If you are a new or potential-new member we hope you will become part of the Big Train Family.  Our members, many of them, have been with us for years and it is their support that makes what we do possible.  One of our goals for this year is to bring the CSA members closer to the farm by getting involved in work projects, cook-outs, bonfires, local political issues, and social justice.  With much love and respect, here’s to the New Year.  John

The CSA is an opportunity for you to purchase local, high-quality products from small businesses in our community, and to have a direct impact in a local farm. CSA membership is one of the most effective ways of keeping local farming viable. We are able to persist and flourish thanks to our CSA members.

Your investment in our farm is greatly appreciated. We have had an excellent season and we believe that CSA members should feel the benefits of that. A good investment gets you a good return, and that is what you have received this year through your support of Big Train Farm’s CSA.

Here are the details:

Full Share. $685 for 26 weeks = $26.35/week investment.

Three-Quarter Share. $530. $20.38/week investment.

Half-Share. $350. $13.46/week investment.

Weeks: Here is what the Full-Share members actually received in 2014. You can extrapolate down for Three-Quarter and Half-Shares.

Week 1: $36    Week 2: $22    Week 3: $27    Week 4: $28    Week 5: $29    Week 6: $27    Week 7: $32

Week 8: $30   Week 9: $28    Week 10: $31   Week 11: $34  Week 12: $36   Week 13: $34.25    Week 14: $36

Week 15: $37.50     Week 16: $36  Week 17: $34   Week 18: $34.50    Week 19: $36   Week 20: $30   Week 21: $32

Week 22: $28   Week 23: $28    Week 24: $28   Week 25: $24     Week 26: $26

 Total Value Received = $804.25/Full Share member

Total Value of Return ($804.25 – $685) = $119.25/Full Share member

 Calculated for our average of 69 Full Shares (all the shares added up into Full Shares), Total Amount of Return in Produce for BTF CSA in 2014 = $8,228.25

 Although this was an exceptional year, we do always manage to get our CSA members at least a small monetary return on their investments. This helps bring the otherwise high retail costs of local, organic produce down Thank you for your support in 2014.

We have some interesting things to share with you, this year is going to be very exciting I think with many projects and new toys and developments.  First off, last year, 2013, was a stellar year for labor.  We upped the internship to two positions (Danni and Joe, whom you met at the pick-up) and this proved to be very effective for the farm as a whole.  I broadened the academic portion of the position and made it possible for the interns to have a more rounded exposure to farming.  We covered topics such as soil science, plant science and nutrition, organic methodology, fertility analysis and planning, marketing and financing.  We are currently accepting applications for our 2014 interns, so if you know of anyone or are interested your-self please get in touch.

We are a research institution!!  We are working with URI and Brown University to partner up with students interested in doing independent research projects.  I will be directing these projects but students will be able to work on their own.  This year we will be doing a compost tea project.  We will be experimenting with different recipes of tea and conducting trials to see what kind of results we get from foliar and drench feeding regiments.  Another project I had in mind was trials that consider the magnetic conductivity of the soil, how it relates to plant growth and how we can interact with it to grow better crops.  All these projects are intended to provide simple, clear methods for growing excellent crops at little or no cost to the farmer.  Look out for our results in the fall.

Well, I took out another loan.  This year we’re going to invest in buying and raising chickens on pasture in rotation with our vegetable crops.  We are in the process of constructing a coop and buying all the equipment we need to get them started.  Egg shares this year will be provided by us for the first time.  We’re also using the loan to get some more field equipment: a new mulch layer, another farm truck, and a new computer.

All this will inevitably cycle back to make your CSA share awesome.  Your investment is the most important contribution that is made to our farm all year.  We are trying every year to make the CSA a little better than the year before, and from what we hear from you, it is working out.  Also we are trying every year to make the farm a little bit more sustainable, both in keeping our bodies in good shape and our land in good shape.

Big Train Farm is still trying to relocate.  Another year is always exciting in the prospect of what may be out there waiting for us.  Finding a suitable farm that we can afford has proven a difficult task, but we are hoping that 2014 is the year we make some headway.  If you have any advice in this department we are always curious to hear about ideas and potential situations.

Thanks so much for reading, tell your friends to join the 2014 CSA!  Looking forward to seeing everyone in the spring, but for now… let it snow!!!