A week ago Randy and I returned from the Southern Sustainable Agriculture small farm conference known as SSAWG (pronounced “sog”).
To be honest, I almost didn’t want to go. After the Mississippi Fruit and Vegetable Growers conference I was feeling pretty information saturated. We already had a plan for this year. I didn’t want any new ideas. Conferences ALWAYS give you great ideas about NEW enterprises and strategies. I just wanted the chance to get a little more experience with our farm. I wanted to stick to the plan.
After the first break-out session on Friday – I had gone to a presentation about financial benchmarking – I met some very excited young farmers talking in the hallway about the session on soils that I missed. They were raving about no-till vegetable production.
“The thing I don’t get about organic no-till,” I said, “is how do you manage weeds?”
“You don’t have any weeds!” he exclaimed. Sure. That’s a good one. Has he been reading too much Fukuoka and doesn’t believe there is any such thing as a weed, or does he just live in fantasy land?
But by the end of the weekend, I had done a complete 180. I was convinced that we needed to get a roller/crimper RIGHT NOW. Was I swept away by the excitement of the conference? Was I seduced by graphs and charts? Either way, the conference got the better of me. So much for sticking to the plan.
SSAWG was even better this year than last. The big difference this time around is that we now have a year of farming our land under our belts. We have context. Our pest problems are no longer hypothetical. We know our soil. Here are a few things we will be doing differently this year as a direct result of SSAWG:
1. Record Keeping. We know we lose money on some of the crops we grow. Obviously we lost money growing squash last year. And sweet corn. And beets. And broccoli. And salad mix. But I think we made money growing eggplant, arugula, cabbage, and head lettuce. Randy and I sat down and made a list of the crops we thought were profitable, which ones we thought were break-even, which we thought we lost money on, and which we plum didn’t know. It was terrifying.
I desperately want the things I love growing, like carrots and tomatoes, to be money makers. The only way to know is to keep really, really good records. Thankfully, some very smart people have made some very sophisticated spreadsheets and all we have to do it keep diligent track of our hours and our income. That should be easy enough, right?
2. Farmscaping. This year we are planting habitat specifically for beneficial insects. Every tenth row in the field will be planted with a special mix of plants to provide pollen, nectar and refuge for insects that prey on our pests. I thought a lady bug was a lady bug, but I just learned that there are four different species. I find the whole topic of pest management fascinating because I find insects so interesting. You’d think that I’d be better at it….
3. More Diverse Cover Crops. We know biological diversity is good, so why did I have to see this graph before it sunk in that our cover crops should be blends of 7 or 10 species – not just 1 or 2? I had to hear the soil gospel preached by Ray Archuleta. Hallelujah! Cover crop cocktails is a very simple first step we can accomplish this year to improve our soil health. Until we find that roller/crimper, that is.
4. Compost Tea. Another revelation: compost is not fertilizer. Compost is where you breed microorganisms that increase the effectiveness of your fertilizer by a factor of ten. Duh. Thank you Pat Battle of Living Web Farm – you can watch a video here.
How was the conference? I would say that I heard some things that I already knew, but that I needed to be reminded of. And I got some strategies for implementing some of those things I knew we should be doing. A friend of mine told me that you need to hear something six times before you really learn it. I probably need to hear things seven or eight times. I think we will be better farmers this year because we went to SSAWG.