Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Mitch I've grown tomatoes in gallon pots before and transplanted to the
greenhouse beds, making holes with post hole diggers. Just the right size
for gallon pots. The larger pots do give you more leeway to deal with
weather.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net
-------------------------------------

 Season Extension
Marketing Strategies for Farmers and Ranchers
http://www.sare.org/publications/marketing/market05.htm

        Easy- to-construct high tunnels have been especially popular for
off-season fruits and vegetables that fetch premium prices.

Whether you’re selling at farmers markets, through a CSA or on your farm,
lengthening your marketing season can be critical to spreading your
workload and evening out your cash flow. It can also help maintain
relationships with customers and allow you to offer year-round employment
to key employees. While some farmers enjoy having off-season “down
time” to make repairs or plan for the coming year, others find that
practicing seasonal diversification makes for a more well-rounded farm
enterprise.

Season extension involves using greenhouses, unheated hoop houses, row
covers or alternate varieties to push fruit and vegetable crops earlier
into the spring or later into the fall.

In Oregon, farmers Aaron Bolster of Deep Roots Farm and Anthony and Carol
Boutard of Ayers Creek Farm teamed up with the Oregon Farmers’ Market
Association on a SARE-funded project to test the idea of extending a
popular Portland farmers market through the winter months. Customers got
acquainted with the wide array of local products available year-round,
while farmers gauged off-season demand. Deep Roots used hoop houses to grow
late-season greens and other cold-hardy crops; other farmers, like the
Boutards, offered value-added products based on their summer berries and
other specialties.

“This is an area where there used to be a lot more emphasis on winter
production, but with more shipping and competition from the South, it kind
of fell away,” Bolster says. “Now, with the demand for local produce,
there’s a real opportunity for farmers who are willing to take it.”

A key goal for Bolster and the Boutards was to keep people employed
year-round to foster good workers. They also found the winter market was a
catalyst for them to grow more vegetables year-round, then try shopping any
extra product to local stores and restaurants. “In winter there’s
certainly more risk, but it’s worth it,” Bolster says.
        farm field with high-tunnel in background
        This Rhode Island greenhouse offers options for producing before and 
after
the traditional season. Photo by MB Miller.

Sometimes, the key to capturing a valuable market is timing. Having the
earliest local sweet corn or tomatoes at the farmers market will command a
price premium; the trick is to keep customers coming to your stand through
tomato season and beyond. Thinking creatively about how to maximize the
overlap between peak demand and peak production is an important part of
direct marketing. Becky Walters of Burns, Kan., developed her distinctive
pumpkin salsa after selecting an early-maturing pumpkin variety to coincide
with tomato and pepper season.

Another part of season extension has to do with understanding the seasonal
preferences of your target market. Meat producers often find that customers
buy ground beef in the summer and roasts in the winter, for example. In
Colorado, the Groves have learned that they have to ship on Thursdays
because many people like to receive their meat on Friday for special
weekend meals. Moreover, the Groves say that bison sales are strong around
the winter holidays and into January, apparently because people resolve to
eat healthier meats around the first of year. Finally, raising heritage
turkeys for the Thanksgiving market has proven a yearly boon for many
poultry producers.