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mindfulfarmer

Mindful Farmer

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Farm & Homestead Consultant Custom Greenhouses, Mobile Chicken Coops, & Tools

Mindfulfarmerarkansas.com
One year while I was managing a farm, one of our major wholesale clients went out of business in the middle of summer. I was left holding 1000 pounds of heirloom tomatoes a week with no home. In the week or two that it took me to find new customers, we had to figure out what to do with 2000 pounds of tomatoes. That was where we discovered this technique, out of necessity. Now it is my go-to method for preserving large batches of tomatoes. We also found the restaurants enjoyed buying tomatoes frozen as well. *Just don’t cut into them unless you have a commercial kitchen* Freezing the tomatoes whole does two things: it releases the inner flesh from the outer skin and gives up huge amounts of water as the ice crystals puncture the tomato at a cellular level. This will dramatically decrease your processing time and allow you to process later in the season when you have more time. I’m not a huge fan of canning and so I freeze my sauce in widemouth jars. Then I just set them out to thaw whenever I make my dough which is typically 24 hours before firing my pizza. created by Mindful Farmer with Mindful Farmer's original sound
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One year while I was managing a farm, one of our major wholesale clients went out of business in the middle of summer. I was left holding 1000 pounds of heirloom tomatoes a week with no home. In the week or two that it took me to find new customers, we had to figure out what to do with 2000 pounds of tomatoes. That was where we discovered this technique, out of necessity. Now it is my go-to method for preserving large batches of tomatoes. We also found the restaurants enjoyed buying tomatoes frozen as well. *Just don’t cut into them unless you have a commercial kitchen*

Freezing the tomatoes whole does two things: it releases the inner flesh from the outer skin and gives up huge amounts of water as the ice crystals puncture the tomato at a cellular level. This will dramatically decrease your processing time and allow you to process later in the season when you have more time.

I’m not a huge fan of canning and so I freeze my sauce in widemouth jars. Then I just set them out to thaw whenever I make my dough which is typically 24 hours before firing my pizza.
Here is how I’m flipping my beds from summer to fall production in less than five minutes.

1) Clear - old material and plants
2) Cultivate - to remove large weeds and emerging weeds
3) Cover - apply fertilizer and compost or mulch
4) Condition - prepare soil with broadfork, shape bed, mark rows
I don’t have the budget for a freeze dryer, the patience for dehydrating, or the time or space for canning. 😅 I wanted to be able to harvest my fall garden and store it fresh for months with very minimal processing like I did at the farm that I manage for years. Getting a second old refrigerator to keep in the garage is my attempt to replicate a walk-in cooler or root cellar.

The key is to store root crops at the appropriate humidity which I achieve by using perforated plastic bags or a glass or hard plastic container with holes or an open lid. Even the crisper drawer in a typical refrigerator does not maintain enough humidity to keep vegetables from rotting or getting soft. If you can keep a high humidity and a temp just above freezing, you can store root crops for 6 to 9 months easy.
As painful as it can be sometimes tear out tomatoes when they still have fruit on them, it’s usually worth it means you can squeeze in another crop before winter.

I will save all the green tomatoes to make green salsa, and I also have another round of tomatoes that should produce fruit in the next few weeks.

Pulling the tomatoes out now ensures I will have enough time to harvest my fall crops before our first frost. To make this changing of the seasons as easy as possible, I used compostable clips and string so I could cut the tomato plants down and compost everything in one big pile. Once the tomatoes are out, I’m going to fertilize, broadfork, and plant my fall veggies.
Step one of flipping my garden from summer to fall: kill the summer crop and any weeds using solarization. The plants will break down and feed the soil and give me a weed-free area to start planting in the next few weeks.
Soil blocks provide so many benefits, but here are just three:

🌱 Plants are healthier, using the soil, water, and air in the blocks more efficiently. As roots hit they edge of the block they air-prune themselves and send lateral roots in a new direction.

🌱 The roots don’t circle around the bottom of a tray or get stuck in the drainage holes. No crumbling plugs trying to free them from the tray. This also reduces transplant shock.

🌱 Infrastructure and tools are minimal. A few mesh bottom trays (or even just wood boards) should accommodate all sizes of soil blocks. They are much easier to clean and take up much less volume in storage. While the blockers themselves are an investment on the front end, they will last a lifetime or more.

There are a lot of soil block recipes out there and I encourage you to experiment and find what works best for you, but you can’t go wrong with just a basic seed starting mix fortified with a little worm castings and blood or feather meal.

Make sure that whatever recipe you choose has enough fertilizer to give the plants a good healthy start. When it comes to adjusting moisture, it’s just a matter of playing with it and getting a feel for it. If they crumble apart, add more pressure and water. If they slump apart, use less water and more medium.

Head to our shop or site for more info and to get started in soil blocking and order yours today. What soil blocking questions do you have? Tips? Challenges?

#marketgarden #soilblocks #farmwithlessplastic #kickourplastichabit #notill #gardening #seedstarting #homestead #homesteading #preparedness #soilblockjng #urbanfarming #organicfarming
5 Steps I’m taking this year to maximize my garden yield:

🌱 adding nitrogen to the soil before planting in the form of feather meal - slow release, feeds for for a long time, and won’t burn plants

🌱 adding AZOMITE, a mineral amendment, to provide essential, often deficient, micronutrients

🌱 feeding plants with worm castings, or worm teas, to feed soil food web and stimulate plant growth and immune system

🌱 mulching, with rotted leaves, gathered for free last fall - reduce watering, increased soil, organic matter, and improve soil structure

🌱 using a broadfork to lift and loosen soil, incorporate amendments, reverse compaction, and increase water and air infiltration.

I typically fertilize twice per year at least a couple weeks before our two big plantings according to the recommendation of my soil test. I broadfork between each crop.

The soil amendments found above are approved organic use and ship free nationwide through our shop or website. While you are there, check out our broadforks and other tools, uniquely and ergonomically designed to help to grow like a pro.
Carrots are one of my favorite crops to grow! They are fairly easy to manage once you have some key strategies in place. Carrots are also high-yielding and a single 8-foot raised bed can produce enough carrots for a family of four for a year.

Here are my tips for great carrots:
-working the soil deeply with the broadfork ahead of planting to get long straight carrots,
-using a good weed management strategy, such as solarization, flame weeding, and regular cultivation, -harvesting with a broadfork so you don’t snap any carrots and increase your efficiency,
-and storing carrots in perforated plastic bags in the fridge for long-term storage (around six months).

I designed the Finesse broadfork specifically for jobs like this. The Finesse is multifunctional (soil prep, bed shaping, row marking, and harvesting), ergonomic, locally made, and built to last. Get more info in our shop.

Also, later this evening, I will be sharing a long format carrot guide/video to our Facebook and Instagram subscribers, those that want to dig deeper into these topics and techniques.
Stand back! I'm about to science 🔬 🤓

Plants employ a remarkable strategy to counter rising temperatures. Roots draw cool water up from the ground and release it through stomata, special structures on the leaves, as vapor in a process called transpiration. This phase change in the water (liquid to gas), absorbs energy from the air, lowering the temperature of the plant and it's surrounding. That’s right! Plants help keep their environment cool as well.

Stomata, microscopic pores on leaves, serve crucial roles. They regulate gas exchange and water loss by opening and closing. During photosynthesis, they remove oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide. These versatile structures demonstrate the sophistication of plant life and the delicate and complex workings of creation as a whole.
Solarizing is one of my go-to methods for killing weeds, including perennial grasses. The sun’s energy is trapped underneath the clear plastic, steaming the plants below. This allows me to terminate a crop and kill any weeds without disturbing the soil.

It may only take a day to kill small weeds, but may take up to a week or more to kill, perennial grasses and sedges. The weeds will easily release then the roots have effectively need killed. also note that solarizing in the winter will not kill Summer-emerging weeds.

This process is very scalable for backyard gardens to small and mid-scale farms. As we look for land for our future farm, I have been stockpiling old greenhouse plastic, so I can solarize an acre at a time. Have you tried solarization?
Basil is a must for the summer cutting garden. It is super long lasting in a bouquet and can push through the heat of summer. Basil also adds interest, color, and a pleasant aroma.

I suggest cutting early in the morning to prevent wilting. Basil benefits from regular cutting and will continue to send up new stems throughout the season.

If you want to learn more about basil and other cut flowers, check out the course I did with @whisperingwillowfrm

https://school.thewhisperingwillowfarm.com/

You can also find this and other courses under the Resources tab on my website.

mindfulfarmerarkansas.com
Multisowing is about to be your new favorite technique!Basically you are intentionally seeding multiple seeds per cell, pot, or soil block. While you are crowding them in the tray, you will space the clusters out further than usual in the field. This saves space in the greenhouse, by requiring fewer trays. Also it cuts transplant and harvest time to a fraction of what it was. Finally, multisowing will speed up cultivation by giving you more space to work.

Have you tried multisowing? How did it go?
Beets are a great crop for the home gardener. They are nutrient dense and delicious. Yes, I said it. The flavor all depends on the soil health and how you prepare them. We love beets roasted, ferments, or dried into chips.

This variety is Cylindra and was bred to grow a longer more narrow beet, perfect for slicing.

Beets can often be susceptible to a deficiency in Boron, a micronutrient. So we are applying Azomite, volcanic ash, to our beds to supplement their needs.

We plant beets twice a year, Spring and Fall. Since they store for up to six months, we have beets year round.

I seed our soil blocks with two or three seeds each and then thin down to two strong seedling in each block. I transplant the blocks three rows per bed 6 to 8” apart.

After harvest, I top and tail (remove the greens and tap root) with a sharp knife and store in perforated bags or a breathable container. It should last for several months in cold storage. We are also going to dehydrate and freeze-dry some beet chips so stay tuned for results.
The pipe trick is a great way to make trellising a breeze! I use the Florida Weave method for trellising rows of bushy plants (tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants). The pipe helps extend my reach and get better leverage to pull the string tight! Simply pass the string through the pipe, and tie off to your end stake. Begin the weaving pattern, reaching down below the plant to lift up if it has fallen. We use this technique on some cut flowers too, mainly dahlias. Hope this was helpful!
I have found this method of trellising my determinant tomatoes to be the fastest and most reliable. It is called the Florida Weave, or Stake and Weave, method and I have used it on my eggplants, peppers, and determinate tomatoes at scale with great success. It is great for holding up long runs, or rows, of bushy plants. Also no more storing cages!!!

The PVC pipe helps make the whole process much faster and less fatiguing. Any string can be used but I prefer jute or hemp so I can cut everything down in the fall, roll it up, and put it on the compost pile.
Flipping is the process of transitioning a bed or field from one crop to another. Often market gardeners and home gardeners, planting a single bed at a time, can complete this process in about 20 minutes. This high rate of succession planting increases the total yield of smaller spaces.

I typically use the Finesse every time I flip a bed, not because the soil requires it, but because it makes transplanting that much easier for me, though the soil does benefit as well. When I started this garden several years ago, I was a barely able to get a shovel into the ground, and now I can push our heavy duty broadfork, the Brute, a foot and a half into the soil with just one step.

My process: I clean out the previous crop and any emerging weeds. I’ve then apply the necessary amendments and broadfork them in. Finally, I use the broadfork to smooth the bed and mark my rows for straighter planting. This makes cultivating that much easier and subsequent weeks.

I did use the Brute to work the soil about a foot and a half into the ground since I have not worked this particular bed in almost a year.

And yes, I did wear sandals. 😅 I know I’ll get comments, but notice in how the tines really don’t leave the ground. I’m dragging the tool backwards versus spearing it into the ground. Why waste the movement? A solid, and safe, broadforking technique should result an easy, beneficial, and non-straining task with a good flow.

Note: Because the broadfork doesn’t flip the soil over, less weed seeds germinate than with tilling. Also, you can use the process with a mulch in place.
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