As November winds down and December begins, we are rapidly getting ready to move the tiny home Cabin to Camp Creekside and things are getting done daily.
We were able to get a 275 gallon "IBC tote (a re-purposed industrial liquids carrier) for $60.00 (about half price). This tank will become our black water tank, handling toilet waste. The tank will need some improvements: an intake port for the waste, a paint job so that we don't have to look at the waste, and a vent to dissipate water vapor out of smell range and extend the time between pumpings. But all of this is relatively easy. We will need to have the tank drained about every two-hundred flushes so at first we won't need much. After we move there full time we will have to have it pumped out about every two months.
I am nearly through with the interior stuff. I will get this all done this weekend and finish the plumbing as well. Also, the cables to plug the cabin into the power panel should be here tomorrow or Saturday. We are well on our way to having a cabin at Camp Creekside.
Then real stuff can happen.
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Sunday, November 26, 2017
November 26, 2017 A Thanksgiving Weekend We Are Thankful For
The long weekend might have given us time to finish the Tiny Home Cabin, but we got busy acquiring things we needed and doing things that needed done, instead of nailing things that need nailing.
- On Thursday we got the $499 rolling toolbox (for $154) to use in our Cabin's Kitchen.
- We found and retrieved the free Bamboo from Kailash Eco-Village on Friday.
- Did the Exterior Christmas lighting at our home and at Camp Creekside on Saturday.
- On Sunday (today) we found a very nice (very cheap) propane range for our Cabin.
Saturday, November 25, 2017
November 28, 2017 Camp Creekside Christmas
Like so many things we have done with the Farm property, the Christmas tree lighting was a compromise.
We intended to light the big Doug Fir tree "Doug" this year with the 50000 twinkle lights I bought last year on closeout at Home Depot. The tree is at least sixty feet high, so you would be able to see it from a great distance away. We had a bucket lift rented a few days ago. But things just didn't line up. So we compromised and decided instead to decorate Doug's little brother which sits at the north-western corner of the driveway. We always intended to keep this twenty foot tree for decorating, but didn't think it would be the first one.
The morning was fairly nice, merely cloudy and cold with just a hint of drizzle, so we loaded up and journeyed out to Camp Creekside with about 2400 multi-colored twinkle lights, fifty feet of extension cord, and a light sensing timer to keep the electric bill lower.
Twenty feet of tree is quite a thing to light. I have done Christmas lighting professionally since 1997 and this provides a few tricks. But having ladders and a pole to push things where you and them only makes the job do-able, doesn't do the job for you. But we got the lights up.
Our first display is small, but significant.
The little tree can be seen from Highway 26, starting at about 4:30 and turning off about six hours later. Next year we'll do "Doug" at Creekside Farm. This year we'll make due with the little tree at Camp Creekside.
Friday, November 24, 2017
November 24, 2017 Bamboo from Kailash Ecovillage
Looking at Craig's List for stuff paid off once more, and just as it did before, we found something interesting.
I watch Craig's List pretty regularly so I knew that some Bamboo would likely come along when needed. We wanted some to start making irrigation stakes and maybe plant stakes ahead of the need for them and I figured this would be a good time to start looking seriously. Bamboo is interesting because it can be used for anything a stick can be used for, but that's not what this is about. This is about the place we found it.
I watch Craig's List pretty regularly so I knew that some Bamboo would likely come along when needed. We wanted some to start making irrigation stakes and maybe plant stakes ahead of the need for them and I figured this would be a good time to start looking seriously. Bamboo is interesting because it can be used for anything a stick can be used for, but that's not what this is about. This is about the place we found it.
Kailash Ecovillage calls itself a model for sustainability and community and is set on a two acre piece of land in South-east Portland. It is nearby Reed College and has a low rent housing component, and about half the place dedicated to growing food for the community. A great many groups use the space for their individual and group gardens.
I immediately called it a commune, but this is an outdated term for what this place is. They also do a great many other things which ought to be supported in addition to gardens and housing. You can go check their site out by clicking on their name.
Ole (perhaps the leader of the group, I don't know) came out to meet us and show us the piles of Bamboo to be carted off. He seemed a nice man, interested in new things.
The ad did not mention the amount of Bamboo, but we took all of the big stuff (which I am sure they needed gone). We didn't have room for the smaller stuff, but took as much of it as we could. It now sits at the ready in a pile along side of the pile of rocks from Polscher's place, and the plastic pallets from Gathering Together Farm.
 |
That's a whole lotta Bamboo.
|
Saturday, November 18, 2017
November 18, 2017 A quiet evening
Ann and I went out to the Farm late this afternoon to put out about twenty-five pounds of Crimson Clover seed. The Clover is intended to begin the long process of choking out the weeds and grasses we don't want. We also spent a bit of time spraying those few pesky berry vines missed in the last spraying. It looks like we'll actually tame the berry problem in the first year of cultivation.
While there, we added a truck load of leaves to the compost heap, which has grown to twice the size it was when we pushed it together in the Spring tractor day #6. The heap sits in a two foot deep depression just inside of the front gate, now a mound about four feet high. I figure there's maybe five cubic yards of compost in that pile. The compost will be the basis of MacGregor's Garden's organic fertilizer once we get it all sifted out. We planned this compost pile from the start of the project and have been seriously composting everything we could for two years. Sifting compost is a project designed for early December, but we won't get to it until early January, once we are spending the weekends at Camp Creekside and building the first market garden.
I am planning to re-purpose the trailer from my landscaping business into a box trailer to haul things around in. I'll put a chain link cover on it and then throw the compost on top of the fence to sift the big pieces out, leaving a fine mulch to use as soil amendment.The result of the compost screening might cost as much as twelve dollars a cubic foot to buy at the garden store and if all goes well we will be able to keep the compost heap producing for us indefinitely. A real savings, and better produce. Eventually I will need to make a real compost sifter, something with a fine mesh and a powered screen shaker. I have seen these screens made into a motorized barrel which sits at a slant and the big stuff fall into a pile suitable for burning, but I have no idea if I can build such a thing. So a flat screen will need to be the thing for the time being.
After our work was done (not a big work day), we walked around and had a great time talking about things to come. This is one of our favorite passtimes, talking about where the tiny home will sit and how much fun the dogs will have once we make the permanent move to Camp Creekside.
Darkness falls pretty early in late Fall, at the base of Oregon's coast range, so we headed home just before dark.
It may seem to be too much information to continue this, but it is important to the history of Ann and I as a couple, and also the history of the Farm.
After returning home we made a dinner of fried chicken and mashed potatoes. I also made biscuits using Ann's new pancake and biscuit pre-mix (something we might wish to sell in our Farm Store someday). This new biscuit and pancake mix uses all non-GMO flour and non-GMO sugar. This is important because the GMO flour and sugars have so many downsides. I've used Bisuick brand biscuit mix since I was old enough to cook, but the GMO flour and sugar made continuing to eat the stuff impossible. The heart burn and upset bowels stemming from the herbicides and pesticides used in making the grains, beets, and corn is a national tragedy in the making. Now, having a new mix, I can return to making a simple pancakes and biscuits instead of waiting for Ann to do it from scratch.
Though I am a good cook, I am not to sort to use measuring utensils or recipes, so a mix is better for me if consistent results are your goal. I once heard the WC Fields could never read the same line from the script twice the same way. The food I cook tends to come out well, but I make it up every time so things come out different.
The flavor of our new mix is really very good. Perhaps a little sweeter and the baking soda flavor comes through more than with Bisquick. But the mix works the same for me as the Bisquick once had and the results are very good.
Dinner was superb. But the day did not end there. Afterwards we took a bottle of champagne out to the Cabin tiny home sitting in our driveway. Drinking champagne in front of the electric fireplace watching Amazon Prime on a smart phone while pretending to already be living at Camp Creekside was a nice way to end the day.
While there, we added a truck load of leaves to the compost heap, which has grown to twice the size it was when we pushed it together in the Spring tractor day #6. The heap sits in a two foot deep depression just inside of the front gate, now a mound about four feet high. I figure there's maybe five cubic yards of compost in that pile. The compost will be the basis of MacGregor's Garden's organic fertilizer once we get it all sifted out. We planned this compost pile from the start of the project and have been seriously composting everything we could for two years. Sifting compost is a project designed for early December, but we won't get to it until early January, once we are spending the weekends at Camp Creekside and building the first market garden.
I am planning to re-purpose the trailer from my landscaping business into a box trailer to haul things around in. I'll put a chain link cover on it and then throw the compost on top of the fence to sift the big pieces out, leaving a fine mulch to use as soil amendment.The result of the compost screening might cost as much as twelve dollars a cubic foot to buy at the garden store and if all goes well we will be able to keep the compost heap producing for us indefinitely. A real savings, and better produce. Eventually I will need to make a real compost sifter, something with a fine mesh and a powered screen shaker. I have seen these screens made into a motorized barrel which sits at a slant and the big stuff fall into a pile suitable for burning, but I have no idea if I can build such a thing. So a flat screen will need to be the thing for the time being.
After our work was done (not a big work day), we walked around and had a great time talking about things to come. This is one of our favorite passtimes, talking about where the tiny home will sit and how much fun the dogs will have once we make the permanent move to Camp Creekside.
Darkness falls pretty early in late Fall, at the base of Oregon's coast range, so we headed home just before dark.
It may seem to be too much information to continue this, but it is important to the history of Ann and I as a couple, and also the history of the Farm.
After returning home we made a dinner of fried chicken and mashed potatoes. I also made biscuits using Ann's new pancake and biscuit pre-mix (something we might wish to sell in our Farm Store someday). This new biscuit and pancake mix uses all non-GMO flour and non-GMO sugar. This is important because the GMO flour and sugars have so many downsides. I've used Bisuick brand biscuit mix since I was old enough to cook, but the GMO flour and sugar made continuing to eat the stuff impossible. The heart burn and upset bowels stemming from the herbicides and pesticides used in making the grains, beets, and corn is a national tragedy in the making. Now, having a new mix, I can return to making a simple pancakes and biscuits instead of waiting for Ann to do it from scratch.
Though I am a good cook, I am not to sort to use measuring utensils or recipes, so a mix is better for me if consistent results are your goal. I once heard the WC Fields could never read the same line from the script twice the same way. The food I cook tends to come out well, but I make it up every time so things come out different.
The flavor of our new mix is really very good. Perhaps a little sweeter and the baking soda flavor comes through more than with Bisquick. But the mix works the same for me as the Bisquick once had and the results are very good.
Dinner was superb. But the day did not end there. Afterwards we took a bottle of champagne out to the Cabin tiny home sitting in our driveway. Drinking champagne in front of the electric fireplace watching Amazon Prime on a smart phone while pretending to already be living at Camp Creekside was a nice way to end the day.
November 18, 2017 Electricity
The tiny home cabin has been near completion for a few months now. No real reason to devote too much attention to it since we are stuck in our house with puppies (stuck really nice). But the puppy thing is coming to a close in about two weeks and we need to get our little cabin finished and moved so that we can begin the next step. Yesterday I figured a way to get electricity from our house into the tiny home so that we could test the thing I built, and maybe have heat and lights.
I am not much of an electrician, but can do most small stuff so I figured I could wire a small house. It turned out I was right, but not without reservations. The first thing I needed was a box to get the power from the pole outside into the cabin. I bought a kit I found at Home Depot which was a generator thing to get power from a generator into a trailer, but it turned out not to be the right thing. So I spent an extraordinary amount of time standing in the isle at Home Depot looking at little power distribution boxes. I picked the smallest one they had, usually intended for putting in a basement circuit sub-panel. The rest was pretty easy: Romex wire, switches, outlets, and finding outlet boxes that weren't too deep to fit into our shallow walls. I even picked out a few outlets with USB charging ports. My only real concern was getting the power into the wall from outside, but the generator kit had a small box with an outlet designed to get 220 volt power from a generator, and our pole had 220 volt power, so easy-peasy.
I took the generator kit back to Home Depot and bought the outlet box all on its own, along with some heavy wire to get the power from the outlet and into the distribution panel. Then we began building the outside walls and roof. Then the interior. I didn't test the electrical system because the house is 110 volts and my outlet was for 220 volts. Instead I used extension cords dragged through the window. But Fall came suddenly, puppies came soon after, and we had to put off moving the cabin to the Farm. So the project sat a little while. waiting for a higher priority. We chipped away at it occasionally, when there was time after work.
As Winter comes in the cold and early dark made it hard to work on the Cabin's finishing touches. So I began thinking about a work around to get power into the cabin in our driveway and extend our work day a bit. Yesterday I figured it out and now we have power.
First things first. I knew that a 220 volt circuit is really just two independant 110 volt lines merged together. I know this from the scant experience I gained working as a contractor and handyman through the years. None of the stuff I have in the cabin is 220 volt (though we will eventually have a 220 volt electrical clothes dryer and we toyed with the idea of an electrical range cooker for a bit). The water heater,and everything else is high efficiency 110 volt stuff.
So when I visualized the electrical system I thought that what we were really doing was taking two 110 volt lines, merging them in a box to create one 220 volt line, and then splitting them back in to 110 volt power running to outlets and lights and stuff. So I ask myself: why not just take a 110 volt line, and wire it straight into the two 110 volt lines in the little box? It would still make 220 volts, but at fifteen amps. My thinking was that we would have 110 volt power, but not as much of it. So we couldn't run everything at one time. But we might have at least some light, and some heat.
I bought a outdoorsy plug, wired it into a bit of Romex, and tied the one plug into the two wires of the 220 volt system in the outside box with some big wire nuts. Then I plugged the outdoorsy plug into a heavy duty extension cord and it worked. We have heat and lights enough to work the project in the Winter.
The Camp Creekside Cabin Project has been going on for ten months, but is nearing the day when we move it to the Farm and it becomes our temporary home. The place is a bit rough, but also a ready to handle most of what we will need to survive the period between moving onto Camp Creekside and building what will become Creekside Farm.
The Cabin heats well, but slowly. But the remote control for the fireplace heater has a remote thermostat built into it, so we will leave the heat on low and only need to make s shorter jump to 68 degrees when we are in the cabin. The walls, roof, and floor are adequately insulated, so other heat coming from the stove, light bulbs, and warm bodies will contribute to the coziness of the place. Also, the heat helps to keep the place dry, and Oregon is not at all dry three months of the year.
We're planning to move the Cabin to the Farm in about three weeks. Then we can begin building the place in earnest on weekends evenings and during weekdays devoted to farming. Eventually we will make another of these tiny homes to contain a real bedroom, laundry, and a large closet. This will sit side by side and we will open the side of the Cabin to pair the two, making it a larger, but still quite tiny, home. The home will stay until we build the farmhouse. More to follow. . .
Note: last night at three in the morning I woke up remembering that I had not flipped the break to turn the water heater off. The water is off, but the heater is full, so probably no harm was done to it.
 |
| The electrical system was finished a long time ago, before the exterior walls, insulation and interior walls were put in. This is the Kitchen area, behind it the Bathroom. |
I took the generator kit back to Home Depot and bought the outlet box all on its own, along with some heavy wire to get the power from the outlet and into the distribution panel. Then we began building the outside walls and roof. Then the interior. I didn't test the electrical system because the house is 110 volts and my outlet was for 220 volts. Instead I used extension cords dragged through the window. But Fall came suddenly, puppies came soon after, and we had to put off moving the cabin to the Farm. So the project sat a little while. waiting for a higher priority. We chipped away at it occasionally, when there was time after work.
 |
| This picture is the last time anyone has seen the inside of the cabin. |
First things first. I knew that a 220 volt circuit is really just two independant 110 volt lines merged together. I know this from the scant experience I gained working as a contractor and handyman through the years. None of the stuff I have in the cabin is 220 volt (though we will eventually have a 220 volt electrical clothes dryer and we toyed with the idea of an electrical range cooker for a bit). The water heater,and everything else is high efficiency 110 volt stuff.
So when I visualized the electrical system I thought that what we were really doing was taking two 110 volt lines, merging them in a box to create one 220 volt line, and then splitting them back in to 110 volt power running to outlets and lights and stuff. So I ask myself: why not just take a 110 volt line, and wire it straight into the two 110 volt lines in the little box? It would still make 220 volts, but at fifteen amps. My thinking was that we would have 110 volt power, but not as much of it. So we couldn't run everything at one time. But we might have at least some light, and some heat.
I bought a outdoorsy plug, wired it into a bit of Romex, and tied the one plug into the two wires of the 220 volt system in the outside box with some big wire nuts. Then I plugged the outdoorsy plug into a heavy duty extension cord and it worked. We have heat and lights enough to work the project in the Winter.
 |
| We bought the cabin's only heat source at Costco for $99 It gives off enough heat for about 800 square feet. It also gives off fireplace light and sits on the wall. The television will hang over it. |
The Cabin heats well, but slowly. But the remote control for the fireplace heater has a remote thermostat built into it, so we will leave the heat on low and only need to make s shorter jump to 68 degrees when we are in the cabin. The walls, roof, and floor are adequately insulated, so other heat coming from the stove, light bulbs, and warm bodies will contribute to the coziness of the place. Also, the heat helps to keep the place dry, and Oregon is not at all dry three months of the year.
We're planning to move the Cabin to the Farm in about three weeks. Then we can begin building the place in earnest on weekends evenings and during weekdays devoted to farming. Eventually we will make another of these tiny homes to contain a real bedroom, laundry, and a large closet. This will sit side by side and we will open the side of the Cabin to pair the two, making it a larger, but still quite tiny, home. The home will stay until we build the farmhouse. More to follow. . .
 |
| The first public viewing of our living room. It will also be the bedroom for the time being. |
 |
| This is the kitchen area. I still have to put in the shelving and buy the appliances. Under the counter we will use a large rolling tool box from Home Depot. |
Friday, November 10, 2017
November 10, 2017 Gathering Together Farm
This morning I spent a few minutes on Craig's List looking at free stuff. I do this often, looking for things to help our project along. I find all sorts of things which might come in handy, and then don't go get any of them because we already have enough junk laying around. But one day I will be able to go get those little gems I see and make use of them.
However, we have been looking for free plastic pallets for a few weeks now. I hope to use them as a base for a foot path from the gravel driveway, over the mud, to the front door of our tiny home. I also intend to use them to elevate the hay bales we will put out as dog bedding inside of our first hoop house kennel, giving the dogs a warm dry place to spend their days while we are at work. This morning one of the first things I saw was a 22 foot camp trailer (which I want but cannot use today) and 14 plastic pallets (which I need). The ad was for a place in Philomath, which is near Corvallis, about two hours drive from the Farm. I sent a text message to Ann asking if she thought I should take the drive. She said to go.
So I called John and he agreed not to give the pallets away to anyone else. This is a kindness, which he didn't have to give, and I appreciate it. He said that he was also a farmer and that farmers need to help each other out. I got dressed, went out to Creekside, filled up my tank, and headed down the back way through Corvallis to Philomath. After a two hours drive in the rain what I found there was special to say the least. Another Farm in the vein of what we hope Creekside Farm will be some day.
Upon arrival I immediately spotted that I was on an organic vegetable farm. I came in the side door (so to speak) and found a small band of fairly attractive young people cleaning purple potatoes using a medium sized tunnel washer (a sort of tunnel where the produce enters one end and comes out mostly clean at the other). Asking around I didn't find any John persons, but I saw the stack of pallets I had seen earlier in the picture in Craig's List and ask some nice woman nearby if I could just start loading them up. John came along about three quarters of the way into the loading.
I finished loading and, both because I an nosey and because I'm really interested, I ask about the place. He said I could take a look around, that it was about five acres, and that another guy named John had built the farm over the past thirty or so years. They sell produce at about eight farmer's markets, their own farm store, and maybe an organic produce broker. From where I stood, I counted at least eight workers (all young, all pretty good looking people). I wandered around the back of the place. It looked pretty much like you might expect of an Oregon farm in winter. A bit old, a bit dirty, really beautiful to me (whose aesthetic sense runs a bit farm-y as of late).
Continuing to wander I came around to find the farm store entrance and look around for ideas to steal. If you have been following along this blog you know that this is a fun activity which Ann and I do quite a bit (when we are free to do things). I first ran into the sign above. Nice. Straight forward. When I turned around from taking the picture I saw this next one:
However, we have been looking for free plastic pallets for a few weeks now. I hope to use them as a base for a foot path from the gravel driveway, over the mud, to the front door of our tiny home. I also intend to use them to elevate the hay bales we will put out as dog bedding inside of our first hoop house kennel, giving the dogs a warm dry place to spend their days while we are at work. This morning one of the first things I saw was a 22 foot camp trailer (which I want but cannot use today) and 14 plastic pallets (which I need). The ad was for a place in Philomath, which is near Corvallis, about two hours drive from the Farm. I sent a text message to Ann asking if she thought I should take the drive. She said to go.
So I called John and he agreed not to give the pallets away to anyone else. This is a kindness, which he didn't have to give, and I appreciate it. He said that he was also a farmer and that farmers need to help each other out. I got dressed, went out to Creekside, filled up my tank, and headed down the back way through Corvallis to Philomath. After a two hours drive in the rain what I found there was special to say the least. Another Farm in the vein of what we hope Creekside Farm will be some day.
 |
| Wait until you get down to the inside pictures of this place. |
I finished loading and, both because I an nosey and because I'm really interested, I ask about the place. He said I could take a look around, that it was about five acres, and that another guy named John had built the farm over the past thirty or so years. They sell produce at about eight farmer's markets, their own farm store, and maybe an organic produce broker. From where I stood, I counted at least eight workers (all young, all pretty good looking people). I wandered around the back of the place. It looked pretty much like you might expect of an Oregon farm in winter. A bit old, a bit dirty, really beautiful to me (whose aesthetic sense runs a bit farm-y as of late).
Continuing to wander I came around to find the farm store entrance and look around for ideas to steal. If you have been following along this blog you know that this is a fun activity which Ann and I do quite a bit (when we are free to do things). I first ran into the sign above. Nice. Straight forward. When I turned around from taking the picture I saw this next one:
 |
| The entrance to Gathering Together. They have a much better picture on their web site (link below). |
It looked more like a restaurant than any farm store I have ever seen, so I had to go in. It started pouring down rain as I mounted the stairs.
 |
| This is not a very good picture of the counter, but one day I hope to build something like it. They have a small baked good case on the counter (at the back). Behind that us the Coffee Station. Next to the organic milk case. |
Inside I saw maybe seven tables, mostly seated with people eating what looked very much like very good soups served with what looked like very good bread. Taking pictures of this might have been seen as an intrusion, so I continued into the place until reaching better photographic quarry.
The farm store had no people in it, but the parking lot was full, mostly with customers for the restaurant.
Everything looked warm and inviting, the wait staff was nice and everyone, even the potato cleaners standing in the rain, looked happy and shiny.
The farm store had no people in it, but the parking lot was full, mostly with customers for the restaurant.
Everything looked warm and inviting, the wait staff was nice and everyone, even the potato cleaners standing in the rain, looked happy and shiny.
The place was laid out much as I might have done. Everything was clean and brightly lit. I am taking Ann to lunch there very soon. They have a nice little wood fire pizza oven too.
 |
| A horribly blurry picture. Local organic meats are in a case just off camera to the left. A refrigerated case next to that, followed by non-refrigerated produce, and other products and art for sale on the walls. |
I didn't stay long, just enough time to take these few pictures and try to find the guy who built this little bit of genius. But I will return very soon to find out more. I did delve deeply into their web site, reading menus and thinking they do a very nice job of fooding people. They added a few idea to the long list of ideas we already have.
They built nearly everything we intend to and have made a good enough business out of it to have a full parking lot on a rainy Friday morning in late Fall. These are my new farming heroes.
Here is their web site:
25159 Grange Hall Rd,
They built nearly everything we intend to and have made a good enough business out of it to have a full parking lot on a rainy Friday morning in late Fall. These are my new farming heroes.
Here is their web site:
Gathering Together Farm
25159 Grange Hall Rd,
Philomath, OR 97370
(541) 929-4270
Thursday, November 2, 2017
November 2, 2017 About Potatoes
We are going to plant things, to eat and sell. Our first garden is plotted out and the ground is being carefully prepared for tilling. The basic garden plans are all made, so it is time to start thinking about particulars. today we are thinking about potatoes.
Nothing is simpler to grow than potatoes and few things are less expensive as a result. Americans rarely use more than three or four varieties, most know only the Idaho Spud, the basic Russet Burbank. There is nothing wrong with the Burbank it makes a fine French Fry and a good baker. But the Russetting trait makes the skin tough and thick on an otherwise smooth skinned tuber, interfering with the flavor and requiring wasting the skin before eating. During the seventies it became popular to eat the skins, some even took to stuffing them with cheese and sour cream. Not a bad way to mask the truth of an otherwise unpalatable thing.
Eventually, industrial sized farming practices started to make smaller crops sold at farmer's markets desirable for those interested and willing to pay (even if these did keep prices very low). Other, more tasty, less trashy, potatoes started making their way onto the market. In the Pacific Northwest the Baby Red got to be a regular, at first with the farmer's market crowd, then with the supermarket buyer as larger farms found the market right. Today we see five or six types of potatoes at the farmer's markets and perhaps three or four at the supermarket. The Organic foods trend brought organic varieties to the supermarket shelves, but these are most often the same potato varieties found in the regular selection. Not new stuff, just a few things to raise the average slightly.
But no matter the variety, there are few things easier, to put in the ground and then pull back up, than the potato.
Our plan is to offer much the same variety as the supermarket, using organic factors and clean soil, though not certified organic. We will not plant the Burbank potato because it is a lower order of spud. We will plant the Yukon Gold, Baby Red, and (my favorite new variety today) the German Butterball instead. The selling price for these at the Farmer's Market is slightly higher than the Burbank, but with a few tricks I believe we can make these a wonderful eating and best selling product for our fruit stand.
Nothing is simpler to grow than potatoes and few things are less expensive as a result. Americans rarely use more than three or four varieties, most know only the Idaho Spud, the basic Russet Burbank. There is nothing wrong with the Burbank it makes a fine French Fry and a good baker. But the Russetting trait makes the skin tough and thick on an otherwise smooth skinned tuber, interfering with the flavor and requiring wasting the skin before eating. During the seventies it became popular to eat the skins, some even took to stuffing them with cheese and sour cream. Not a bad way to mask the truth of an otherwise unpalatable thing.
Eventually, industrial sized farming practices started to make smaller crops sold at farmer's markets desirable for those interested and willing to pay (even if these did keep prices very low). Other, more tasty, less trashy, potatoes started making their way onto the market. In the Pacific Northwest the Baby Red got to be a regular, at first with the farmer's market crowd, then with the supermarket buyer as larger farms found the market right. Today we see five or six types of potatoes at the farmer's markets and perhaps three or four at the supermarket. The Organic foods trend brought organic varieties to the supermarket shelves, but these are most often the same potato varieties found in the regular selection. Not new stuff, just a few things to raise the average slightly.
But no matter the variety, there are few things easier, to put in the ground and then pull back up, than the potato.
Our plan is to offer much the same variety as the supermarket, using organic factors and clean soil, though not certified organic. We will not plant the Burbank potato because it is a lower order of spud. We will plant the Yukon Gold, Baby Red, and (my favorite new variety today) the German Butterball instead. The selling price for these at the Farmer's Market is slightly higher than the Burbank, but with a few tricks I believe we can make these a wonderful eating and best selling product for our fruit stand.
- Firstly, we can plant enough of them. One plant can yield ten pounds. Each taking space along side of other crops and harvested as needed.
- Secondly, we can plant each variety in two different means to produce two different sizes of spuds. Both baby and large forms of potato can be grown for each variety simply by chitting them differently (dividing each seed potato differently before planting).
- Thirdly, we can make seed potatoes which people can buy to plant in their own gardens. This is really just another way to sell small potatoes, but seed potatoes are an emerging and growing market, so we want in.
Each of the three varieties will yield three products. Each product sell to a different need, for a different price.
The only thing left to do is to find the best way to get this thing started. Only time will tell if we are to be successful; but by planting the right thing, at the right time, in the right soil, with the right water, we should be.
The only thing left to do is to find the best way to get this thing started. Only time will tell if we are to be successful; but by planting the right thing, at the right time, in the right soil, with the right water, we should be.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)