Small Town Pride

Just west of Cottonwood Falls, is the town of Florence, Kansas. This mural can be found on main street - it is impossible to miss it. The picture speaks for itself. I love it.

Chase County Courthouse

On a trip to Oklahoma to see my extended family, my Mom and I stopped in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas. The town of 950 is in the heart of the Flint Hills. There can be found the Chase county courthouse. If memory serves me right, it is the oldest continuously operating county courthouse in the state of Kansas. Also, in Cottonwood Falls is the Emma Chase Cafe. They serve the best chicken fried steak I've ever eaten. And the gooseberry pie is divine. Their sign above the kitchen reads "pie fixes everything". Amen to that.

Rolling Onions

The onion crop is maturing. As each plant ripens, the top falls over. However, they don't all ripen at exactly the same time. So when a 'good amount' of plants are ready, the whole crop is rolled. It helps the onion begin the drying process. The roller is a four foot wide plastic drum. It can be filled with water to make it heavier. But for rolling onions, we leave it empty. I love this task. It has an elegant simplicity that appeals to me.

A New Use for the Brush Mower

Now that the harlequin and blister bugs have arrived in mass, it is time to till in the kale rows. Before that is done, the plastic needs to be removed. And in order to make that job easier, we use a brush hog mounted on the tractor to mow off all of the above-plastic plant material. Seen here is the row after the kale has been mowed. All that is left is a two inch piece of stem. I can't imagine trying to lift the plastic without mowing it first. It would be nearly impossible to separate the plants from the plastic.

June Corn

Thanks to Stuart Pollack we have a rare variety of field corn. It's called Mexican June. But we just call it June corn. It's called June corn because it is planted in June. (Most corn around here is planted in early May). June corn is well adapted to this climate. Despite having been planted at the start of a mini-drought now in it's sixth week, this corn is growing without any problem. Another added benefit of this corn is it' size. It grows ten feet tall or higher. Because of that, the ears are out of reach of hungry raccoon hands. Many modern sweet corns grow to around 5 or 6 feet. This is well within the reach of our local hungry wildlife. Though June corn does not make for a good sweet corn, it is superb as a flour corn. Made into cornbread it is superb. The old saying is knee high by the fourth of July. Well June corn is already up to my chest.

Desert Life in the Midwest

Wouldn't you know it. The Missouri River is in flood, but down in Saint Clair County we haven't seen a productive rain in over six weeks. Everything is dry. Thankfully, the farm well is a good one - capable of a continuous flow of 5000 plus gallons a day. However, it is not enough to water all the fields according to our weekly schedule. To help alleviate this - we have resorted to spot watering with three tanks. They are filled from a second well about a mile up the road. The two tanks shown here each hold 275 gallons of water. Combined with a third tank which holds over 500 gallons that gives us almost 1100 gallons to water with. Ideally, two trips to the second well give us 2200 gallons of additional water per day. It helps. But what we really need is some good rain - and a reprieve from the heat and humidity.

The 500 Gallon Tank

The third tank mounted on a trailer, holds 500 plus gallons.

Potato Digger

When it comes to digging potatoes from the garden, I get out the digging fork. When it comes to digging potatoes on the farm, out comes the potato digger. It mounts behind a tractor by way of a three point hitch. When the PTO is engaged, a conveyor of metal slats digs under the potato plant. Dirt, weeds, plants and potatoes are moved up the vibrating conveyor. Then the whole mass of earth and vegetation falls off the back. Then workers - like me - sort through this mass to find and pick out the potatoes. I should say that before this machine is used - a brush hog is used to mow off the withering potato vines.

Bacterial Wilt

This is the effect of bacterial wilt on cucumber. It is a disease spread by biting insects like cucumber beetles. In addition to cucumbers, summer squash and melons are highly susceptible. The only effective way to deal with this problem is a continuous replant. The idea is to be replanting a fresh crop every two to three weeks. That's a lot of extra work. Sadly, organic methods to control the cucumber beetles (and therefore the diseases they spread) are largely non-effective - especially in the numbers that are present on this farm. 'Surround' kaolin clay will work when the plants are young - but it can't be used once the plants begin to flower. And sticky traps don't work. I've seen the cucumber beetles 'swim' right out of them. Bacterial wilt is a huge problem for organic growers in the midwest.

Musquee De Provence

This photo shows the importance of growing varieties suited to one's own region. The lifeless brown vines are Musquee De Provence squash vines which have died from bacterial wilt. Being from France, it has not developed a natural tolerance to the insects and diseases that thrive in the hot, humid summers of the midwest. My goal is to know which varieties of squash do well here and which do not - Musquee De Provence does not.