A New Year - Now accepting 2012 CSA registration!

It’s a new year and alot of new changes are happening at Full Moon. First of all, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Iwalani,  I am the newest smiling face to join the Full Moon Cooperative. I, along with Jack, our veteran farmer, am starting the season with much anticipation and excitement. We’ve had some big changes in this year. Most importantly, we are thrilled to now be farming at Roots Farm in Wintervillle as well. Roots has been in organic production for several years and we look forward to continuing their tradition of community and sustainability.

We’ve started the season off with a great start. Before the rains came, Jack was able to run the disc, so we will be planting our first crops of the year very soon. A few days ago we seeded lots off cool season veggies to go into the ground. Just to give you a little hint of whats to come, we’ve seeded cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, kohlrabi, parsley, pac choi, fennel, and escarole, to name a few. And they have taken off beautifully.

Today is the first day of our CSA registation and we are eagerly awaiting our new and returning members.  Please click on the link below for information and registration for 2012.  We are excited to share the season with you all!

fullmooncooperative.csasignup.com/

I look forward to meeting all of our returning CSA mambers and new members for this year. I also look forward to seeing ya’ll at market.

Your farmer,

Iwalani

Follow us on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Full-Moon-Farms/366291523397779?ref=tn_tnmn

Heat is here to live

Welcome to Summer!  Is it June?  Good gracious, it’s almost July.  I am finally getting to the most overdue journal entry of all time.  It feels awesome to be back on the helm.  Full Moon Farm has been chugging along with great growth, purpose, and dignity over the past several weeks.  Our little community has been eating well as farmers chase inspiration in what has been a warm start to the summer season.  But no complaints here, tomatoes have set fruit and begin to ripen, summer squash is on its usual rampage, and the rain has been steady over the past few weeks.  The only big issue I am fighting at the moment is the pesky deer.  The land we farm is currently fenced about 7 or 8 feet high around the perimeter of the property.  We use a heavy plastic gauge mesh betting that is tied up to rebar and fence posts.  It has held up mightily up to this point in the season, but lately I have been seeing more and more breaks and more and more tracks.  The deer are literally jumping straight through the “serious” netting.  I have got to find a cure before the break-ins get worse.

In other happenings, the summer routine is pretty serious. I have been spending my nights trimming up garlic that has finished curing in the barn, cooking dinner for my family, and watching summer cover crops grow strong with all this heat and water . I can’t wait to see a field of flowering buckwheat.  Oh the joy of summer.  Believe it or not, I have already begun to mentally prepare for the upcoming fall season.  I have more summer crop successions to get in the ground, but fall visions of lettuce, broccoli, and winter cabbage are dancing around.

Other news in the family since I last updated is the addition a new website for our sister project, Moonshine Meats.  Jason and Darla have energized the distribution of local protein here in north Georgia.  Check it out for more information on how you can get involved. 

Here are the last couple weeks of CSA that I haven’t posted in a while.  Enjoy

Week 6Week 7

Tractor Gospel

Summer in the shade.

Coffee on the brew.

Shake it on down.

2 man crew.

Your farmer, Jack Matthews



Week 5, Summer's Alive

Meet this week’s vegetables:

Baby Leeks, Cauliflower, Head Lettuce (Greenleaf, Butterhead), Beets, Carrots, Summer Squash/Zucchini, Kale, Garlic Chives

Once again I am happily overwhelmed with the power of support and energy behind this good food movement.  Even as the summer days get hot and patience runs just a bit thin, I am consistently satisfied in the community that a farm can create.  Since I took over this position with Full Moon Farms, I have received more inquiries about lending a hand on the farm or wanting to learn more about farming, or just connecting with a farm in the community.  Just the other day I talked to a high school student for a while who seemed to have such great fire and passion about what we were growing and how we were doing it.   We were shooting back and forth with one another about vegetable varieties on a Monday afternoon.  I could tell he was really interested in working hard towards becoming a farmer himself.  He didn’t have a family background in farming or land to inherit; he just grew up in the burbs feeling like farming fit what he wants out of life.  Go figure.

On another note, June 7^th, 2011 marks the premiere date of Grow! at Cine in downtown Athens.  The film documents the lifestyle and story of many young growers all across Georgia.  Farm255 is also running a dinner and a movie special in accordance with the premiere.  It will definitely be a night well spent!

Tractor Gospel

Better Breathe

Better Breathe in the farm

A Better Breathe

Your farmer, Jack Matthews

Week 4...

Meet this week’s vegetables:

Carrots, Head Lettuce (Romaine, Batavian), Collards, Green Garlic, Sugar Snap Peas, Bok Choy, D’avignon Radishes, Hakurei Turnips, Dill

Not much time for words this week.  Good food, High temps, and irrigation continues. Farm on!

TG

Trace the heat

Sing the sweat

Harvest the food.

Count those lucky stars tonight

Your farmer,  Jack Matthews

Week 3 in the books

Meet this week’s vegetables:Bok Choy, Head Lettuce (Romaine, Batavian), D’avignon Radishes, Baby Beets, Broccoli, Curly Kale, Spring Bunching Onions

I should not have said a word.  About 6 weeks ago I was calling for less rain and more sun, now in May we have sunny days, fluctuating temps, and absolutely minimal precipitation.  Embrace the game I say.  Luckily, we are keen on irrigation, so our plants are sucking up well water as I type.  I am a little late on this post but that is because the field has been a calling.  Last week we had a flush of beautiful broccoli crowns that decided to peak right when the weather hit 93 degrees.  None the less, we had a silly-good spring broccoli harvest.  There was plenty to go around for the CSA and our restaurants to enjoy…

Today, Sean and I had quite an epic tomato morning.  We put yet another succession of heirlooms in the ground, and went through quite a trellis battle in the hoophouse crop.  Like many other farmers and probably many of you, I keep priority lists that I intend to get through but never can seem to complete.  Trellising tomatoes is one thing that has gotten passed up on the list for the passed 10 days.  Well, that means as we finally got around to take care of the needed task this morning it took twice the amount of time that is should have had I been on top of it a few days ago.  But now they are nice and upright, and tomatoes are in our near future.  Yes sir.

Tractor Gospel

‘Sometimes’ is a strange times to feast.

Collards, Carrots, COMPANY.

Snag a beer, pick a tune, cook a beast.

Your farmer, Jack Matthews