Back in Business 2012

Bootstrap Farm is coming back! I have been away from my dream now for two full years, and it is time to put the boots back in the dirt. I've informed the Cherry Street Farmers' Market Board that I will no longer be Assistant Market Manager next year, that I will instead be at the market representing my farm and selling my wonderful veggies.

This has been a erratic couple of years, trying to "cover crop my soul". I've grown a lot, and I feel like I have a much better emotional foundation. I'm currently living in Tulsa and operating another business - Incredible Service. I work on coffee, tea, espresso, and water treatment systems. I love that too, so I'll be part time at Bootstrap Farm for a little while. I won't be the first farmer to have a "day job."

I have learned a few things over the last two years. I learned that I haven't been asking for help when I need it. I feel like I would be much farther along in my life if I had learned to ask for help when I need it. I've learned to put my thoughts away and listen to my feelings. I put some effort into it and finally came to the realization that my dream is to own an organic farm and grow great food for my community in novel and efficient ways, but I never wanted to do it alone. It was hard to admit that last part to myself. I wanted to believe that I could do it all by myself. I wanted to believe that I'd fashion the whole thing out of straw if I had too. It turns out that I can't do it by myself and it was pathological to think so.

2012 will be my year to reconnect with the land, my customers, and my farmer self. I will have a modest, habitable home on the farm by March. I will grow a few low maintenance crops in medium quantities for the farmer's market and wholesale. I will produce a business plan for the complete operation and determine how much investment I want. I will find the help I need, from my customers, my friends, my community. This may mean technical help, physical help, financial help, and of course encouragement. I will involve the broader community in a meaningful and authentic way, because I can't do it alone.

Assistant Market Manager

I've been the assistant market manager now since April 2010 and I love my job.I'm just now finishing my second year in this position. I love being able to see all the customers and all the vendors every week. I decided to join the market in this capacity because I couldn't afford to operate my farm in full capacity, and because I knew I was the only person who had the commitment to get up at 3:30 AM to close the street every Saturday morning, regardless of what other priorities I had. The Cherry Street Farmer's Market is what distinguishes Tulsa from other cities on the map. It is what makes us extraordinary. Do you realize that the Cherry Street Farmers' Market is as big or bigger than the San Francisco City Center Farmers' Market? That is quite the appellation for a Midwestern city. There are very few people who have the focus and acumen to prioritize market on Saturday above all else. This has been a strain on my life and on the people I love. What would you think if your wife, husband, girlfriend, or boyfriend refused to "go out" on Friday nights? That's me, Mr. "No Life" on Fridays because of my commitment to the market. I go to bed at 8:30 PM. Bummer.

There is a lot of pressure on the Assistant Market Manager. If I were late to work, the vendors would go ahead and set up their tents in the middle of 15th Street without the appropriate safety systems. These are farmers after all, they don't stop for anything. I've seen some pretty crazy things in the early morning. Many of the people driving at in the early hours of Saturday morning are drunk or strung out. One time, I even had a guy in a clown mask pull a kitchen knife on me at 5:00 AM. To him is was a joke, really. It wasn't very funny to me. Well, next Saturday is the last market of the season and I hope everybody has enjoyed the season. I certainly have. Please come down to the market and say hi one last time before the market is over!

Getting By and Keeping Up

I'm a farmer; I guess I should face it sooner or later that time and money are two things I'll never have enough of.

The idea of taking a year off of farming to grieve my divorce and recover financially was supposed to simplify my life while keeping me close to my friends and family. While I have been able to stay close to the people who I care about, my life has become very hectic.

I have three part-time jobs not counting the farm so my schedule and workload fluctuates wildly from week to week. Unfortunately that means the income stream also vacillates which is a very stressful thing when you have a clear goal to achieve and a limited time to get there. At this point I'm wishing I hadn't jumped into farming so hastily. One of my cousins is a 3000 acre no-till farmer in Olustee, OK and the only advice he gave me when he heard that I was starting a farm was: "Don't quit your day job"

Whoops. Why do I have to learn everything the hard way?
Oh well, I guess I'll stop my bellyaching and get on with it.

Not much has happened on the farm except the steady progression from one cover crop to the next. I've chopped up all the cowpeas and I decided to put down Sorghum-Sudangrass since I was expecting droughty conditions. They should incorporate biomass and choke out the remaining weeds.The red seed above is the Sorghum-Sudangrass.

The day I decided to plant, I started my day at the farm way too late. I knew I was already short on daylight when I found my tractor with a totally flat rear tire sitting on the rims. Now, flat tires are not that big of a deal themselves, but when they weigh about 200 lbs and are full of another 500 lbs of water they can be a serious issue.

I had to drain all the water out, remove the tire and put it on the flatbed trailer to take it to the local tire shop. While I was in Stillwater buying my seed, the tire shop closed and locked their doors with my tire inside! Great I thought, I hope it is a cool night because I'll be sleeping at the farm tonight. Sure enough it was a very cool night. The great thing is a I got more sleep that night than any night that week even though I don't have air conditioning in the trailer house. I love listening to all the little bugs and frogs at night, they seem so loud when the night is so quiet.

Cover Cropping The Soul

The first round of cover crop on the new land was a success and a failure. The cowpeas had fantastic germination. Every little bean sprouted due to the especially wet and warm June. Unfortunately, the weeds appreciated the great weather even more than the crop. The weeds had a veritable party in the fresh tilled soil. There was Johnsongrass, Bermudagrass, Fescue, Perennial Ryegrass, Crabgrass, Sour Dock, Lady Finger, Pigweed, Coreopsis, Horse Nettle, and more! The Crabgrass was the real life of the party - it flowered first and was forming seed when I disked it under this week. I had hoped to let the cowpeas flower before turning them under but I wasn't willing to risk a field full of even more crabgrass seed. Oh well.

While I hated disking it so soon, I felt like a real competent farmer making a hard decision like that. My pride was dashed later in the day when I stopped to chat with my neighbor. He stopped cutting hay so we could talk. He and I visited in the field with our tractors idling in the background to catch up on the local news. When I mentioned I was chopping up the crabgrass before it could set seed, my friend said "It won't make any difference, there is enough crabgrass seed in that piece of ground for the next ten years!"

I can only hope that my labors make a difference. The only thing I know for sure is that I got more chiggers out of those cowpeas than I've ever had in my life!

Soil Improvement

This year, I hope that I can cover crop not just my soul, but the soil as well. The soil on the new farm has really fantastic texture. It is very sandy and has very little clay which is great for veggies. On the other hand the organic matter is very low at 1% and the pH is extraordinarily low at 5.2. This is due to years of conventional farming. Applying chemical fertilizers has two major unwanted side effects. It "burns up" the organic matter in the soil and also drives the pH down. The organic matter is what supports healthy soil microorganisms and regulates moisture levels, and a proper pH (should be 6.5 or so) allows complete nutrient availability for the crops.

Raising the pH is the first priority. All that requires is ground limestone and time. I called my local lime company (Root Lime) and had them bring a spreader truck with 15 tons of lime to spread on 10 acres of the farm. The lime will react chemically with the soil over the next year to bring the pH up to around 6.5.

I decided that Cowpeas would be the best choice for my first round of cover crops. They grow very well in Oklahoma in all kinds of weather conditions, they establish quickly, and compete well with weeds. Most importantly, they are legumes and will fix nitrogen into the soil for the next crop. They are a very beneficial cover crop. I wasn't sure if I would be able to find the seed in significant quantity but the mill in Stillwater fortunately had them in 50# sacks and they weren't too expensive either. I had some old wheat seed around and mixed that in too. Hopefully it will come up and not try to set seed before the cowpeas are ready.

-Don

Farm Tragedy

It has been more than three months since I've posted to my blog because this has been a tragic winter. It was wet, blizzardy, terribly cold, and very lonely. Without going into great detail, I will just state frankly that Boostrap Farm is now operated by Don Drury alone. My wife and business partner has moved on to pursue a life outside of farming.

I have decided to take a one year sabbatical from farming. Emily at Three Springs Farm recommended taking a year to "cover crop my soul." That is meaningful and heartfelt advice that only farmers can understand. I am in the process of repaying all of my CSA investors while working and living in Tulsa. I still own the farm in Yale, and with a lot of hard work and even more luck I will be able resume where I left off in February 2011.

Farming is full of crop failures, sad surprises, and dissapointments. But it is also a source of wonderment, beauty, and joy. I've decided this tragedy will not derail my dream. I promised myself to keep going. I will not have failed until I have given up on myself.

The good news is that I am now the Assistant Market Manager at the Cherry Street Farmers' Market for the 2010 season. Please come visit me at 15th and Peoria from 7 am until 11 am every Saturday morning! I'll be waiting for you at the Market Manager's booth with a smile!

-Don

The (not so) New House

If I had it my way, I'd be starting transplants right now but we haven't even built our greenhouse yet! We're still working on the house. Chelsea and I got a trailer house for the price of hauling it off and it's a real winner. It's not actually even a house it is an old office trailer with a 7' celing. I'm 6'3" so I won't be wearing my cowboy hat indoors. We had it professionally hauled in, but then decided to move it to a different part of the property, so a kind neighbor pulled it from one side of the farm to the other with his Ford 4000.

We'll move in by Jan 31 whether the house is finished or not because that is when our current lease is up. Hopefully by then the office, bedroom, and bathroom will be finished. That will make us foodies sans kitchen. Whoops!

After two weeks of bitterly cold weather, I noted that most every body of water froze over: Keystone Lake, the Cimarron River, and our pond. Chelsea and I scooted and slid around on the ice before it melted in the sun.



Fortunately we chiseled another field in December just hours before the snow came in. It will be field rotation number two. This is the view from our front door! We'll have veggies and cover crops 50' in front of our house. We are so excited about the new soil and the new farm layout! We are going to have six 2-Acre production fields and a 1-Acre garden. This means we will be allowed to have a 6 year rotation without any double cropping!


Keep Warm,

Don