It's Easy Being Green

The whole reason you have a farmers market is to support local agriculture. Apparently the City of Evansville and GAGE have a different idea.

I think the title of this post says it all.  It was another attack on a family farm.  Within the past 24 hours here in Evansville I’ve seen a local farmer and his products accepted, shunned and then welcomed once again at the downtown farmer’s market.  The weekly farmers market is put on by an organization called GAGE or the Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville.

There have always been problems with GAGE’s attempt at trying to create a farmers market for the city.  When the market was first created it was the city’s creative reuse of an old brick warehouse type building that had sat empty.  Before we moved to the area I’m told the inside portion contained a deli and other fun food merchants like that along with the weekly spread of produce and other goods.  The City of Evansville and GAGE have always run the market for only three months out of the year.  It’s an idea which makes little to no sense, especially in our area that sports a growing season at least 6 months long.  The indoor market essentially failed.  The city couldn’t keep up with the cost of keeping the building empty for most of the year.

Now the market has been brought back around again, this time as a way to attract people to the downtown area.  The market is held in an open field in the center of a city block every Friday morning and every other Saturday.  To most of us who go, that schedule has never really made sense either.  Most are working on Friday mornings and to only have it every other Saturday just gives more time for people to forget the opportunity to shop at the farmers market even exists.

On Friday, the farmer we buy our locally grown, grass-fed organic meats from as part of a CSA, was banned from selling his frozen meats.  Keith Canon who owns Stonewall Farm was inspected by the Vanderburgh County Health Department at opening day of the farmers market and passed inspection.  He was told he was following all code.   But GAGE, in talks with the Vanderburgh County Health Department, decided that it wasn’t a good idea to allow the sale of frozen meat at the farmers market for fear of mishandling.

Stonewall Farm already has a decent customer base and uses the downtown farmers market as a stop for customers to pick up their monthly take of meat, eggs and other goods bought as part of their CSA.  By shutting out Stonewall Farm, GAGE was essentially turning away a huge base of potential customers for the other vendors.  Stonewall Farm is also offering a locally grown product.  Many of the fruits and vegetables currently sold at the market aren’t even grown nearby and the people selling them aren’t even farmers, they’re distributors.

Many of us who support eating locally and organically were outraged by GAGE’s decision and let them know it by inundating their telephones and emailing.  An impressive social networking campaign also kicked up just a couple hours after the initial decision to ban the meat sales.  People who were angry contacted them via Facebook and Twitter and let them know it.  My favorite local coffee shop, Penny Lane, also reacted.  They’ve announced they want to start a farmers market with all locally grown products.

Today we drove out to Stonewall Farm to pickup our monthly take of meat and eggs.  Keith told us the good news that the upswell of support for Stonewall apparently made GAGE reconsider their decision.  They will once again allow Stonewall Farm to sell their frozen meats!  This just goes to show how bureaucratic decision making can sometimes be changed by simply speaking our minds.  I think that’s great.

I hope the Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville has learned an important lesson.  They have a golden opportunity to create a worthwhile farmers market.  A farmers market that actually supports and cultivates the idea that local farmers do actually have a place they can sell their goods and that people looking for local produce can find it.

Other suggestions for GAGE’s Evansville Farmers Market:

1)  Make it every Saturday instead of every other

2)  Consider extending the season beyond just 3 months of Summer.  I know several farmers in the Evansville area with greenhouses that would be willing to heat them and grow if they had a place to sell.

3)  Find a permanent and covered location for the market so it can go on even if there is inclement weather.  There are awnings along the back of the old Greyhound Station, what about using that space?

4)  Force vendors to label where produce is coming from and if it’s organic or not.  I think too many people believe they’re buying food from a local farmer who may not use pesticides and other harsh chemicals when in fact they may not be.

5)  Grow the market.  Make it a true event with food and entertainment.

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Welcome to our SFG

My square foot garden (I’m going to resort to calling it an SFG from here on out to save space) has reached an important milestone in it’s development this week. It’s 6 weeks old *tear, sniffle, sniffle* and my how it’s grown!

At this point every square is filled in with the exception of several dud strawberry plants that did not grow. I ended up purchasing these boxes of plant crowns grown by Van Zyverden at Sam’s Club this spring. I ended up with 80 strawberry crowns and not a one of them sprouted. While being disappointed, I’m not surprised. This green thumb hasn’t had a very good track record with Van Zyverden products and have had to write to them on several occasions to get replacement plants. A simple internet search shows the web awash with similar experiences. I have a letter off to them even as we speak and have resorted to giving up after 6 weeks of no life and have started planting over the top of the dud strawberries.

Peering over the gate at the SFG. Notice the rain water barrel against the house. It usually is full with only one storm.

Looking to the west in our SFG. The tepee in the center used for the snap peas and snow peas is made from the giant sunflower stalks I saved from last years garden. They're strong and light!

In the meantime, everything else is off to the races. We’ve been unseasonably cooler than normal around here in southwestern Indiana the past few weeks with a plethora of rain. Snow peas and snap peas are still doing wonderfully, climbing their sunflower stalk tepee and producing a handful of new pods every few days. It’s enough to whip together shrimp and snow pea stir-fry which is currently on the menu.

Snow peas and snap peas climb the sunflower stalk tepee, reaching toward the sky. The tepee would work great for any type of light, climbing plant like a flower, peas or beans. I saved and dried the stalks from my giant sunflowers last year and tied them together to form a tepee.

A half dozen mustard greens have produced non-stop this Spring and are still going as we race toward Memorial Day

Mustard greens will also find their way into this stir-fry having put on a new flush of growth every couple of days. It’s enough to fill up a colander and they’re delicious any way we’ve prepared them.

The broccoli plants are beginning to form their heads this week and the brussel sprouts look like they’re about ready to grow their hardy stalks too. Our summer veggies are beginning to take hold as our temps edged into the 80’s the past couple of days. The tomatoes are getting a good flush of first flowers while also putting on good top growth. The peppers, while still small, are flowering too. Sweet corn is about 3-4 inches already. Squash plants and melons are beginning to stretch out and ramble around. Potatoes look like bushes already. We got to pick our first two strawberries of the summer on our homegrown plants and they were delicious.

Little E and I picked up these great strawberry plants from the Southwest Indiana Master Gardeners plant sale. There are three different varieties growing. We're going to see who does the best!

Weeding the SFG is an amazing experience. The soil mix makes it so easy to pull out the weeds and grass. In fact, T and I can blitz the weeding chore every few days and it only takes about 15 minutes to get the whole garden done. I’ve never met an easier garden to weed other than the one that doesn’t exist! I can’t wait for the bounty to come and am so pleased with how well the SFG is growing. So how does your garden grow?

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Literally oh my! I can’t believe it’s almost mid-May, making it nearly a month since I’ve written last. I figured I should write a quick update from the Hoosier Half-Acre Homestead and get you caught up on all the happenings around here.

Little E, my now toddling daughter, has quickly picked up the pace when it comes to moving around the house. Her speed crawling has gotten out of control this past two weeks so we’ve been furiously baby proofing the homestead house and trying to keep the little one occupied. She’s coming up on 11 months old and we just can’t believe she will be a year old soon. Little E loves the garden and has spent many mornings outside with T and I planting away.

While gardening, Little E has discovered earth worms (also tried to eat them too) and the taste of fresh-picked lettuce. Strangely, she loves munching on the salad greens and everything else that’s plucked fresh from our garden beds. We both think it’s great that she has so much fun with us out in the veggie garden.

Speaking of the veggie garden, things are going great guns out there. We’ve had storm after storm of rain over the past three weeks so things are growing like weeds out there. All of the greens and salad veggies have been harvest ready about once a week, if not more these days. Our summer veggies are now in the garden. A couple weekends ago the Southwestern Indiana Master Gardeners Association held their yearly fundraiser plant sale and we picked up a lot of great heirloom tomatoes. I’ll save that for another post!

We also took a Saturday to go out and enjoy WNIN’s Urban Seeds Garden Party. It was an awesome event here in Evansville, Indiana with dozens of like-minded people hanging out and enjoying each other’s company. There were several food booths offering up natural or locally grown foods and now I think we’re even convinced to join an organic meat CSA. That’s another post too, just a preview of what’s to come in the next few days.

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I’ve been without a lawn mower going on two years now and in the land of green grass, that’s proving to be a bit of a challenge. I’ve been borrowing mowers from my neighbors but have decided I just need to get me own. I’m tired of having to work the lawn around other people’s schedules and prefer to be as independent as possible.

I’ve known for a long time that my new mower was not going to be gas powered. I get tired of listening to the almost constant hum of gas powered lawn equipment here in southwestern Indiana. To top that off, the air quality here is already poor since we’re surrounded by several very dirty coal-fired power plants. Just this last week we had two ozone warnings with local officials urging people to avoid fast food drive-thrus and trimming their lawns. The warnings certainly didn’t stop most people around here from doing what they wanted to do and spewing even more pollution into the air.

Originally I thought about just getting a push-reel mower. We have a fairly small front and back yard to begin with so there wouldn’t be a ton of effort required to push-reel mow my grass. Secondly, we live in a small home with a one car garage and don’t really have the room for a big clunky mower to sit around. A push-reel mower could hang up on the wall though and take up no floor space. Then there’s the idea of actually getting some exercise while you’re doing lawn work, something most people seem to try and avoid.

The last couple of weeks though, I changed my mind, thinking I would rather have an electric rechargeable mower. There’s several different versions available right now but T has been questioning just how long the batteries really last and how long it is before they won’t take a charge anymore. The prices aren’t easy on the pocketbook either, ranging from about $250 to $450.

So now I’m back to the beginning again, thinking about getting a push-reel. I’m looking for something that’s going to hold up well over time and has some decent features. The hunt is on! If you have any suggestions or a brand and model you’ve tried out, let me know. I’d like some feedback here!

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