Have you ever grown broccoli?  If so what advise can you give to a high altitude farm just starting out. Any help would be much appreciated.  Are your products sold in Colorado?  I would love to check them out.

Thank You,
Mark
Diamond Tail Ranch

Hi Mark;

I don't know how much help I can be but here's a shot. 

1.Do you have a market for broccoli? That is the first thing to think about.

2. How is freight from there? We developed a market for our fresh products but shipping was a very difficult, expensive, and a prohibitive element... eventually.

3. Look for a variety that will work in your area. You can contact seed houses...ASGROW has some delicious varieties and sends out GREAT seed samples.  They have a catalog of beautiful varieties and discriptions of each. Excellent help there.

4.Who would be your competition and do they have market advantages over you due to your location?

5.Get in touch with Agricultural Universities in you area (or WSU) and  ask them about the soils you have ...what nutrients you may need...pests you may encounter

6. Get in touch with you County Extention Agent and see if they have soil maps. That will tell you alot. Send soil samples to a lab to find out what you need.

7.Find org fertilizers and green manure crops that will get nutrients into your ground.

8.Find out about equipment you may need and packaging you may need to get the soil ready, stuff planted, grown, harvested, & and packaging you may need to get the product to market.

9.What about help? Do you have people to work for you? Broccoli is hand labor usually and LOTS of hands per acre.

10.Get Organic Certification and ask your rep. everything you can think of.

11. READ

Yes, we are sold in Costco. Corn, Peas, Mixed Vegetables, Edamame, & Green Beans we have a real time keeping them supplied... but we are getting there. If they are Out of stock it's because we are just today starting our 2002 harvest of green beans...and that starts harvest off pretty well...

God Bless you in your venture and Let us know how you do.

Margaret Ann Walser
Willow Wind Organic Farms

Margaret,

Wow!  Thanks for the great advise.  I didn't realize it was so involved.  I think we can make a go of it, but it won't be easy.  I was able to find a ton of information on the internet as well.  Your list covered many items that I didn't even think about. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me out.  I hope you don't mind me asking you questions as I go along?  This is very new for me and I am sure I will have questions. 

Thanks,
Mark

From: Starr

Subject: planting corn

Our corn came up very spotty so I recently re planted. The shoots poked up through the the ground about an inch. Last night I went out and could see one had shriveled and was laying on top of the soil as were two others that I poked back in. Two fresh looking tops were laying there as though they had been cut off.  Is there an insect that attacks corn shoots?

Starr

Hi Starr;

Cut worm. They work at night. Check with your county extention group and find out about their life cycle. See if there is a vulnerable time in their cycle that you can disrupt to control them. Look for biological organic products that will work on the bug.

Good Luck,

MA

From: Eli
Date: Tue, Dec 3, 2002, 7:27 AM
Bad crop of corn

Dear Folks

I grow my own organic corn and freeze it at home. But my corn continues to turn it out soggy when I defrost it. Yours is perfect. This year I experimented and rather than cook it for 2 mins like the Ball cookbook said I tried 1 min and even 30 secs. I then put the corn immediately in ice water. This year I used a hair dyer after the ice water. On some batches I tried skipping the ice water. Do you have any suggestions. Had some of your corn at Costco in Santa Rosa Ca and love it.

Thanks
Eli

Can you provide us with any information regarding the use of fir bark to treat potato seed, your supplier....etc, etc.

JR Farms
Certified Organic 

Greetings Ruth;

We have used fir bark as a seed piece treatment when we were growing potatoes from cut seed potatoes. We used a powdered bark, from Lilly Miller I think, and mixed it with dolimite powder. It did the trick. No seed piece rot. I am sorry it has taken so long to get back to you. But Steve has been out of town for too long, and I can check with him when he returns about exactly where we got the bark product we used. Are you planning to farm... big time.. or garden....? The bark was really nice to work with but it was a bit dusty. We cut our own seed by hand at first and ran it through a drum with the dolimite and bark blend.

I just thought I better let you know that I hadn't forgotten your QQQ. So... Steve should be home tomorrow and I'll get back to you with the sure deal about where we got the bark and more on how we used it... God bless your spuds... there may be even better ways to do the seed treatment out there...but the bark worked well.

Blessings Always,
Margaret Ann Walser
Willow Wind Organic Farms

From: Indra
Subject: farming techniques

Hi, I'm interested about your farming techniques that would help to inhibit soil erosion.  In particular, I was wondering why there was tilling on your farm and had you considered the option of a no-till farm and if so, why you chose to opt for conservative tilling? 

Kind of a long-winded question but I'm writing an article on soil erosion for my environmental studies course and I'm just trying to get a feel from people who actually work the land on farming practices to prevent soil erosion.

I am looking forward to hearing from you,

Indra

Hi Indra;

No till farming is typically used on grains, dry beans, and field corn. Usually these crops are fertilized with chemicals that are sprayed onto crops. Our crops are fretilized with fertilizers like compost, rock powders, cover crops, and manures blended by tilling, into the soils. Our organic crops are weeded by cultivation and by hand, not herbicides. No till farming techniques are generally accompanied by heavy chemical use.  Erosion can be a problem, especially if you are not replacing nutrirnts and organic materials used by crops. With our organic techniques we actually build the soils, replacing nutrients by incorperating more organic material into the soils with crop rotations, &  by adding compost, manures, and discing in cover crops. I'm afraid no-till just wouldn't work for our crops.

Blessings to you today;

Margaret Ann

From: Darin
Subject: organic compost

To Whom it may concern:
I am curious to what ingrediants are in the compost you are using in your fields. If possible could you tell me the amount of nitrogen and other nutrients that are present? I would greatly appreciate this information.Thank-you.

Darin

From: "Woody Deryckx" woodyd@willowwindfarms.com
Date: Thu, Jul 3, 2003, 7:56 AM
Subject: organic compost

Dear Darin

Thank you for your interest in our farming methods.  Since we grow many different crops in different areas,  we and our growers actually use many different kinds of organic soil amendments for fertility and soil health.  In every case we carefully consider the soil's  best health as our ultimate goal while providing enough nutrient for abundant yields of top quality produce,  be it peas, sweet corn, green beans, potatoes, carrots, etc.    The background consideration for soil fertility is a crop rotation which is balanced and tailored to feed the soil biological community.  All of our growers employ green manure crops - fields of crops grown specifically to plow down in their prime to strictly to feed soil organism, to support the soil food web, provide soil tilth and fertility, prevent erosion, and many other benefits.   IN addition to green manureing,  we apply natural rock powder products,  animal manures, compost,  and sometimes fish fertilizer, seaweed preparations and other materials which feed and benefit the soil biological community.

Your question is specifically about compost -  some of our growers are using composted cow manure some of which has been prepared with added  straw bedding, other fields receive composted chicken broiler manure which contains sawdust or chopped straw and is composted in hot piles.  The cow compost delivers about 20 - 30 pounds of nitrogen per ton applied and a similar amount of phosphorus - somewhat more potassium.  Chicken manure compost is more potent - we figure about 50 pounds of N per ton.  Often we find the composted cow manure only releases a relatively small portion of it's ultimate nitrogen contribution in the year in which it is applied so we often apply relatively large quantities - enough to provide noticeable soil quality benefits without over fertilizing our fields.

In general we try to apply manure based composts and manure only in advance of our vegetable crops - growing a green manure crop with the help of compost and then incorporating the green manure to enrich the soil for our corn or potatoes or beans. 

Organic farming is a management intensive, complex biological undertaking.  We need high levels of soil fertility to produce processing vegetables and all the nutrient that supports our crops comes to the plants by complex biological pathways in the incredibly complex community of soil organisms in the organic matter of the soil.  Since every pound of nitrogen that goes to support our abundant and healthy crops passes through perhaps thousands of microbial hands in the soil food web, the soil is maintained as a vibrantly healthy and robust ecosystem.  This is one of the benefits of organic farming  - we feed the soil first - then the soil feeds the crop which in turn feeds us.

As I hope you can see,  our organic farmers don't treat the soil like dirt.

I hope this helps answer your question.  I would be happy to discuss other aspects of our farming techniques, show you some of our fields or introduce you to some of our organic farmers if you are in the area. 

Be well,  enjoy organic food, feed the soil...

Woody Deryckx
Field Department
Willow Wind Organic Farms

Alejandro
Subject: Re: Education

Dear Mr. Walser,

I am a nineteen year old living in Costa Rica, My father is a rancher, producing cattle and alder. I am interested in organically grown produce. My father is willing to let me use some of his land but would like me to develop a plan I have his encouragement and we have enough land, 1200 hectares, and lots of water. I would be grateful if someone like you with your experience would offer me some guidance to help me move in the right direction. I am willing to work for someone who could teach me. Thank You

Alejandro

Greetings Alejandro;

The first things to look at are;

1. What grows best in your area ? What would you like to grow?

2. What is your target sales area ?

3. Do you want to grow for the fresh produce market(if you are near a large population) , or processed market (if you intend to export or store product)?

4. Are there processors near your farm ?

5. Is the labor force sufficient near your farm ?

6. What equipment is available for field work at your farm?

7. What organic resources are available near your farm ? manure, Straw bedding, etc. ?

We will be happy to help you in any way we can. Please feel free to contact us with questions anytime. There is a certifing agency in Costa Rica now, recognised by the USDA...they will be a great information resource for you also.

Eco-Logica
Apardato 132-2020
Costa Rica
506-280-6592
e-mail; ecologic@mail.powernet.co.cr
e-mail; ecologic@racsa.co.cr

Thank you for your request for information. I hope this helps you to define your direction for the future. Our best wishes and prayers are with your endevor.

Blessings Always,
Margaret Walser & Your Friends at;
Willow Wind Organic Farms