The Table Bluff Farm Community: Helping Our Gardens Grow
"A fertile soil alone does not carry agriculture to perfection."
~E.H. Derby
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| Farmer Nic tosses out an armful of farmer's gold—horse poop and hay— from the back of the Guppy, our friend's truck, into the future strawberry garden Farmer Hannah (2019) |
There are more than two people who make Table Bluff Farm what it is. These folks may never know how much of a key role they play in our farm, but that's ok…beautiful, in fact, in their selflessness. Just as a garden depends on a combination of essential elements (e.g., water & sunlight), key characters (e.g., beneficial insects & pollinators), and unseen processes (e.g., germination & photosynthesis) to thrive, so too does a farm as a whole. Without the benefits of a share economy—whereby those who have particular tools, skills, or knowledge will trade for the use of another's tools, skills, or knowledge—I don't see how anyone other than the very rich could farm. Not only would we not have enough capital to purchase all of the tools we would need to accomplish our goals, but we would be that much poorer in community. Tragically, we (and many others) would remain isolated, without any connections to those around us. As a result of taking a risk and reaching out to those with an ability to help in our community, we have expanded our toolbox (literally and figuratively), and we are more prepared than ever to take on life's challenges. Here's a highlight of just some of the kindnesses we experience all the time on the farm.
Products
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| And our ducks and chickens love all of the bugs that live in the hay, too. Just another benefit of the bimonthly poop runs. Farmer Nic (2019) |
As everyone knows, vegetables and flowers grow best with ample fertilizer, and one type we have in abundance is made by all of our cute critters on the daily. But even with all of the poop we perpetually produce here, we have required even more of it to help build up our soil. Our clay-loam soil is perfect for planting and for holding water, but it lacked organic matter before we arrived and hence was prone to swampiness. For going on a year now, we have made the mini-journey every two weeks to Hydesville to pick up two truckloads of horse poop and hay from our friends. After we put it down, then we play the waiting game. To ensure that every measure is taken to prevent any microorganisms being able to make its way from poop to plate, we we wait the required six months before seeding anything into the treated soil. The nutrients linger, but any potential for sickness has long since passed. Ever since, not only has the accretion of our soil improved, but hauling it away on a consistent basis has also solved our friends' poop proliferation problem. Everyone wins.
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| The makeshift pig transporter that wouldn't have been possible without the generosity of our friends Farmer Hannah (2018) |
And how do we transport all of that fantastic fertilizer to the farm? Two other dear friends have loaned us their truck every two weeks for this most distasteful of errands. When we first asked permission, we told them exactly what would be transported. We have filled their truck with sopping wet, stinky hay and mounds of horse manure without any protestations. And yet another set of friends gave us access to their truck for transporting Elmo the boar to our farm from the animal shelter. I have often been asked why I don't have a truck when I have a farm. Well, frankly, if I hadn't fallen into farming like I had, I would have purposefully made that purchase. So far, any money we make from the farm goes right back in for infrastructure. But one day, we won't have as much infrastructure to invest in and we can save for a truck of our own. In the meantime, we are humbled by the generosity of our friends, and all of the eggs in the world couldn't make up for their kindness.
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| Pre-neighborly tractor borrowing days. Farmer Nic (2018) |
This may come as a surprise to you, but pigs eat a lot of food. Sometimes when I'm looking for other potential feed sources, I stumble upon a really convenient connection already within my community. When we were first starting out, a friend from my off-farm place of employment mentioned that her husband brews beer at home and had been told not to dump the spent grains in the city's trash collection bins. We quickly exchanged phone numbers and arranged for me to swing by to pick up the mash whenever it was available. It was conveniently on the way home from work, and I loved the idea of being able to divert this perfectly edible grain from the landfill. Wet grain is heavy, and even if the trashcan was only half full, it was always a struggle for me to lift the can into the back of my hatchback by myself. For those leaner times, this was a boon to our pigs.
The last time we needed a tractor, our next door neighbor let us use his Kubota. We were elated, never imagining that someone we barely knew would offer up a costly piece of equipment like that. He said he had seen Nic using a rototiller from Redi-Rents, the local equipment rental shop, and he wanted to help us out. We were honored by his trust in us and by his desire to help out how he could, by lending us a piece of equipment that enabled Nic to accomplish in a couple of hours what used to take him two full days. Not only that, but the physical strain that he was saved from enduring is priceless.
Services
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| Just one of the 40-ft-high pines and its widow-maker branches. Farmer Hannah (2018) |
When we first moved up off of Table Bluff Road, we recognized that we would—in the very near future—need to remove the pine trees growing in our pasture. (We were told they were bull pines, but a quick search of that term led me to several species, none of which are this particular tree's identity.) Not only did these pines take up lots of precious grazing room, but they were notorious for "widow-makers" (branches prone to dropping suddenly and deadly), growing up and dying quickly. We endured them for a year, building around them or moving our plans slightly to accommodate their bulging roots. We would have preferred to take care of them immediately, but a lack of cash flow turned them into our White Whale, and we cursed them as they daily dropped limbs big enough to cave in a head or completely wipe out a flock of chickens. And then came a day that forever changed the game plan of Table Bluff Farm. Nic met a local arborist who was willing to trade food and a small amount of cash for his tree-falling expertise. And just like that, our lethal trees in the back pasture were no more.
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| A hatchback full of almost-expired bread. Farmer Hannah (2018) |
Perhaps one of the biggest boons to our farm has been a local bakery that, instead of tossing their expired bread, they offer it to local animal owners who can use it to feed their flocks and herds for a nominal price. We have used this service for three years now (since before Table Bluff Farm when we were on Roundabout Farm—see my first blog post for details!), and I cannot emphasize the sheer quantity of sliced bread, donuts, baguettes, and bagels that we have been able to divert from the landfill to help raise our pigs. Every couple of days, I call the bakery and ask if there is a transporter available. (That's what they call three shopping carts full of bread and bread products.) If they say yes, then I drive on over and load up my transporter (or two) by stacking bread like bricks in my hatchback until it's too full to risk having a bread-valanche in the parking lot, and I close the hatch and start tossing bread in through the side door. The ladies who work there love seeing me pull up because their stock of stale bread gets removed, and I love them to death because they have allowed us to build up our sounder of swine for a fraction of what it would cost otherwise.
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| Farmer Nic demoing a dry-run on how to butcher a chicken (or a rooster as pictured). Mike Billings (2018) |
We have gotten to a point that during the growing season, we could really use some help, especially with weeding, feeding, and planting. We posted an ad on Craigslist asking if anyone had an interest to work on a real farm (given the profusion of cannabis farms in this area), and we shared photos of the animals, the flower garden, and the row crops to entice potential takers. And we promised that for every 4 hour shift, we would send volunteers home with a box of veggies. Surprisingly (to us), we got quite a few folks interested in coming to help out on the farm. Some came once and never came back. Some never came in the first place. But two very special volunteers—a couple living in nearby Fortuna—helped us accomplish several projects, like building the frame for our 20'x40' greenhouse and planting a whole cycle of greens. In addition to their box of veggies, they gained some knowledge about how to (and perhaps even more, how to not) do certain things when starting a farm. We shared our struggle of the Ducks Who Refused to Lay and cautioned them against acquiring livestock until they were settled into a place they knew they would be for a long time. We shared which plants to seed start in a greenhouse or direct seed into the soil. We exchanged some knowledge and a little food for their time and energy. And we came away better for the rich community we were cultivating.
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| A typical weekly CSA (farm share) box Farmer Nic (2018) |
Just as we promote choosing local when we're out food shopping, so too do we try to first use the products and services generously bartered for with members of our local community. And it's a community within a community within a community; yes, we are part of the Humboldt County community, but we are also part of a subsection who support local farmers. And within that, we have supporters of our farm in particular that comprise our own Table Bluff Farm community. Each community and subcommunity in which we belong enables us to become a fuller version of ourselves. And each helps me realize we aren't in it alone, and that there will always be someone for whom I can bring eggs of gratitude.
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| Two coturnix quail eggs, adorably spotted Farmer Hannah (2018) |
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