Project POWER at Our Community Farm

A cold morning brightened up on November 18th just in time to indulge a large group of AmeriCorps members on a tour of our Community Farm. Chris Link, SAHC’s Community Farm Manager, and Travis Bordley, our Roan Volunteer Outreach Associate, hosted 26 AmeriCorps members from Project POWER, which stands for “Putting Opportunity Within Everyone’s Reach.”

 

Project POWER is a local division of the national AmeriCorps program. Members of Project POWER work exclusively in Buncombe Country and with at-risk youth in schools, non-profits and faith biased organizations. SAHC and Project POWER have been fostering a relationship to connect people with the environment and outdoor experiences on conservation properties.

 

“The current group of AmeriCorps members with Project Power is a really special team,” said Travis. “They all are incredibly positive individuals with a passion for what they do. We think our resources at the farm can help to serve them and bolster our relationship with youth in the community.”

 

Chris capitalized on the warm weather and eager spirit of the AmeriCorps members. He led everyone on an in-depth tour of the Community Farm, guiding the group to check out goats doing invasive kudzu management, productive greenhouses growing fresh veggies, and a successful stream-bank restoration project. The tour wrapped up in our new Education Center, where the group had ample space to host their bi-weekly meeting.

 

Seventeen of the 26 visitors signed up with Travis after the tour in hopes to return to the farm with their children, and four members were also interested in doing environmental education programming on other SAHC properties. The beautiful weather really seemed to compliment a great relationship that is growing between SAHC and Project POWER!

We are thankful for our volunteers!

This month,  twelve 7^th grade boys from the French Broad River Academy (FBRA) volunteered at our Community Farm. We are grateful for assistance from these positive, hard-working students! Service learning is a vital piece of the FBRA curriculum, and they partner with us several times a year to help out with various projects at the Community Farm.

Last week, we had a challenge for the student volunteers: we needed to re-grade an erosion-prone section of the Discovery Trail and build a retaining wall on the up-slope side. The boys got to work right away, with half of them using tools to carve out a small wall and re-grade the dirt along the trail. The other half teamed up to carry logs for the wall as our farm manager, Chris, felled and bucked a few already-dead trees on the property.

Once the digging and grading were mostly done, the boys began to take turns setting logs in place along the wall, and using a post-driver and hammer to drive in rebar to hold the logs. Others helped back-fill the top of the wall with the dirt they had removed earlier.

In the end, they completed the entire sensitive area–roughly 60 feet of trail — and had a beautiful retaining wall to be proud of. This was a labor-intensive project, but the boys worked hard and got the job done. The wall will help mitigate erosion of the trail within the stream restoration area, minimizing sedimentation of a stream whose water eventually flows into the French Broad River.

The boys do clean-ups and learn paddling skills throughout the year on the French Broad, so they were able to see how a project like this can directly affect water quality and their experiences down-stream.

Thanks so much for your hard work, FBRA boys—we look forward to working with you guys again!

Upcoming SAHC Community Farm Events

Have you visited our Community Farm in Alexander, NC? We have THREE great opportunities coming up in the next couple of weeks!

Land Trust Day Hike
Date: Saturday, June 4
Time: 10 am
Difficulty: Easy (2)
Cost: Free for SAHC members; $10 for non-members. Pre-registration is required

Join us for a moderately easy, family-friendly guided tour along the Discovery Trail at the SAHC Community Farm in Alexander. Along the way, you will learn about the various projects under way at the farm, including our Farmer Incubator Program. We will walk through active farming areas, see the successfully restored streams flowing through the property, discuss our shortleaf pine restoration project, and give you a preview of our newly renovated education facility. We will accomplish all of this in plenty of time for you to return to town to shop and enjoy lunch at one of the businesses participating in Land Trust Day.

Optional: You may bring a lunch and blanket or camp chairs and enjoy a picnic on the farm following the hike.

For more info or to register, contact Haley Smith at 828.253.0095 ext. 205 or haley@appalachian.org. Directions and additional details will be provided after registration.

Community Farm Workshop: Protecting Your Biggest Asset on the Farm, Your Body
SAHC Community Farm, Alexander, NC
Date: Sunday, June 5
Time: 2 – 4 pm
Cost: Sliding scale $10 – $20 at the door

Presented by SAHC in partnership with Jamie Davis of A Way of Life Farm. During this workshop you will learn the most beneficial & efficient ways to move while performing various tasks on and off the farm to prevent injury and keep your body pain-free. We will cover manual task and machine task movement while thinking about how we use different body parts like the neck, shoulders, knees, back and wrists. All are welcome; this information is relevant to anyone who gets out of bed in the morning!

To register to attend, email Chris Link at chris@appalachian.org.

About the co-presenter: Jamie and Sara Jane Davis started A Way of Life Farm in January 2009 in Bostic, NC where they grow 2 acres of organic vegetables and raise organically fed non-gmo pork. Due to an injury earlier in his life Jamie found that attention to body movement and a daily practice of yoga on the farm was the way to sustain his work.

Learn more at http:// www.awayoflifefarm.com/ A_Way_of_Life_Farm/ Home.html

Community Farm Workshop: Pasture Walk – Invasive Plant ID, Control and Removal
SAHC Community Farm, Alexander, NC
Date: Thursday, June 9
Time: 5 – 6:30 pm
Cost: Free

Presented by SAHC in partnership with NC Cooperative Extension . During this workshop we will take a walk through the SAHC Community Farm pastures.  We will identify invasive species and discuss control methods, desirable and undesirable forages, soil testing and overall pasture health.  This will be a Q & A walk-about so everyone is welcome to bring their questions!  If you own and or manage land this will be a worthwhile and informative workshop.

To register to attend, email Chris Link at chris@appalachian.org.

Farm Workshop: The Two-wheel, Walk-behind Tractor

SAHC Community Farm and Food Program Associate, Chris Link, demonstrates the ease of steering the two-wheel tractor.

Why choose a two-wheel tractor for your home garden or small farmstead, instead of a standard four-wheel tractor or tiller?

This small but mighty tractor is a versatile investment. With over forty implements available, it is designed to be an all-in-one performer for hobby farms, market gardeners, and backyard homesteaders alike. It is a favorite around the world, known for comparative ease of maintenance and operation, with a lower initial price that puts it within reach of beginning and small-scale growers.

Chris explains how to connect various attachments which make the two-wheel tractor a versatile and efficient tool for small farms.

“The two-wheel tractor is just right for many operations — not too big and not too small,” said Community Farm & Food Program Associate Chris Link. “They are also particularly nimble and user-friendly on our hillsides and small pathways, and therefore, more efficient when you are working with a compact site.”

Last fall, Chris led a workshop demonstrating two-wheel tractors at our Community Farm.

“I first saw the two-wheel tractor used at a farm in Maine, which was scaled as a market garden around a homestead, under three acres,” he continued. “This is the size farm that is feasible for a couple of people farming. Although many farmers will scale up to larger acreages in time, others who practice intensive growing methods will stay right around this size and will not need larger equipment.”

Background

Attachments for the BCS tractor include a sickle bar mower.

In the United States, Gravely Brand developed a walk-behind tractor as early as 1911, but by the 1970s production had all but halted because commodity/cash crops had replaced much of what were once small family farms.

The BCS brand two-wheel tractor was first developed in Italy in 1942 as a walk-behind sickle bar mower for small-scale hay mowing on mountainsides. The design gained popularity in the 1950s and replaced draft power on small farms in Europe. With more than one million customers in 80+ countries, BCS is now the largest manufacturer of two-wheeled tractors and attachments in Europe.

Today, both Italian brands Grillo and BCS are available through dealers in the US, and are rising in popularity among small commercial growers as well as land managers, landscapers and hobbyists due to the lower cost point, reputation for quality, and versatility.

“Overall, you could expect to pay $1,550 to $4,500 for a new machine (and add $800 for a diesel engine model),” commented Chris. “There are also used models available.”

Benefits and Main Features

Two-wheel tractors are designed with one engine that can attach to a variety of implements.

A two-wheel tractor is designed to attach many different implements in order to perform a variety of tasks, in contrast to the more traditional method of using multiple dedicated tractors/machines for each task. Less time, and money, are necessary to acquire, learn to safely operate, maintain and store walk-behind, two-wheel machine. Ease of switching multi-tasking implements and ease of switching implements is a major benefit of these smaller machines.

“The two-wheel tractor works best for a growing area between 5,000 SF and 3-5 acres. It is great for smaller, tighter cultivated areas because of its small turning radius,” explained Link.

Special features that come standard include: reversing handlebars, lockable differential with steering brakes, PTO drive (separate from wheel drive for different speeds), gas or diesel capability and electric start, quick-attach coupling, and being completely gear driven.

“As with traditional tractors, safety is paramount: all the same rules apply when it comes to safety when operating this smaller tractor as a larger one — it is still a tractor.”

Some of the most common implements for two wheel tractors include:

• Rotary Plow, Tiller, Power Harrow
• Wood Chipper, Wood Splitter
• Snow Blower, Snow Blade, Power Sweeper
• Rotary mower, Flail mower, Sickle bar
• Root Digger
• Power Washer
• Utility Trailer, Sulky

SAHC plans to host more educational workshops (free and open to the public) on our Community Farm throughout 2016. Visit Appalachian.org or follow us on Facebook for updates!

Utility Trailer Attachment

Wood Chipper Attachment

This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2015-70017-22854.  for Farm Pathways: Access to Land, Livelihood, and Learning.

“Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”

Black Soldier Fly Digester Build Workshop

Black soldier flies are native, non-pest species that can help digest garden waste and provide a food source for small livestock.

“Black Soldier Fly” — the name resonates with fear and dread, and perhaps even conjures an image of winged, facet-eyed soldiers wielding guns. In reality, black soldier flies (Hermetia illucens) are useful native critters that chew through organic remnants, helping turn organic material into compost while producing tasty treats for chickens.

The black soldier fly is a non-pest tropical and warm-temperate region insect useful for managing small and large amounts of biosolids and animal manure. They are native to this region but do not like to come indoors — so you won’t find them buzzing around the dinner table. They do not feed as adults or spread disease like other flies. Although large and potentially scary-looking, since the females can be about the size of a large wasp, they do not bite humans or livestock. After black soldier fly residue is vermicomposted, it can be used as a soil amendment.

A medium-sized digester can process about 80 lbs. of bio waste material in a day.

The total life cycle of a black soldier fly lasts just over a month. Black soldier flies lay 600 to 1200 eggs at a time, in dry crevices above or around moist waste material. After five days, the eggs hatch and white larva drop into the waste material and begin to consume it, growing to about ¾ inch over two weeks. Between day 19 – 33 of the life cycle, the larva turn into gray pupae and quit consuming material; this begins the migratory stage, when they crawl up and out of the bin to burrow. These pupae contain essential amino and fatty acids, which make them great food sources for pigs, chicken and fish.

Black soldier flies can reduce organic waste material by as much as 95%, depending on temperature and content. A medium-sized digester can process about 80 lbs. of bio material in a day. The Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy recently hosted a Digester Build Workshop on its Community Farm, to demonstrate how to construct a digester for organic material using black soldier flies.

Building a digester

SAHC hosted a digester build workshop to demonstrate how to DIY.

For a regular household – for example, if you’re going to be feeding kitchen scraps, garden waste or small livestock manure – a 20-gallon tub is a good size to start. For a small vegetable farm, a 100+ gallon size would be best. During SAHC’s Digester Build workshop, we cut an olive oil tank in half and used it to construct a medium-sized digester. Both small and medium-sized digesters are modular, so you can add as many as you need over time. The basic construction is the same for each: a tub or container to hold the organic material; ramp for the pupa to crawl up and out; collection bucket to hold the pupa that crawl out; cardboard or similar medium for oviposition by the female black soldier fly; and lid or cover if the digester is not placed under a roof, to keep rain out.

The flexible ramp rests on top of bio material. Migrating pupae crawl up the ramp and drop into the collector bucket, to be gathered for small livestock.

Although you can build a digester with ramps that feed into a collection bucket located outside the digester, our design incorporates the collection bucket and ramps within the digester, which works well at a medium scale. The ramps should have a trough and or small sides so the pupa do not crawl off, and they must also be flexible so they can adjust to new organic material being added without becoming buried. Ramps could be made of PVC pipe, wood, old gutter, siding, etc. Place cardboard on the inside walls of the digester, so that the eggs laid by the female will be above the organic material. Locate your digester under an open-sided shelter, or place something over top to keep water out. When covering the digester be sure to leave enough room for the female black soldier fly to get to the cardboard to lay her eggs.

Starting your own colony

Attach cardboard above the bio material, to give adult females a place to lay eggs.

Because the Black Soldier Fly is a naturally occurring insect in our region, you can attract the female to lay eggs near a food source with a strong odor. Start a compost bin with a mix of kitchen scraps that are a couple of days old. The females will detect the chemical signal of a larval food source. It is important to give the female black soldier fly a location to deposit her eggs, so place a stack of corrugated cardboard on the inside wall of the container. Within two weeks, you should have black soldier fly eggs in the cardboard, which you can then transfer to the wall of your digester. The larva will hatch and fall into the organic material and start growing.

For more info, or to visit SAHC’s Community Farm and see a black soldier fly digester in action, contact chris@appalachian.org or 828.253.0095 ext 203.

Last chance to purchase fresh CSA shares from Our Community Farm!

Casara Logan and Matt Coffay of Second Spring, part of SAHC’s Farmer Incubator Program.

Sign up for Asheville’s first 52 week CSA! Second Spring Market Garden has a handful of shares remaining for their CSA this year.  Learn more about their vegetable offerings and share options at www.secondspringfarm.com/csa.  You can sign up online or send a check by mail.  Beginning in May, CSA members will receive fresh vegetables every week of the year, even in winter. The CSA is nearly full for the year, and their sign up deadline is April 25, so check them out and sign up now!

What is Second Spring growing at our Community Farm? Turnips, radishes, peas, carrots, beets, spinach, head lettuce, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, baby salad mix, garlic, onions, potatoes, kale, cilantro, dill, and bok choy are growing in the ground now. They are pre-sprouting ginger and turmeric, and tomatoes should be ready in late May. Yum!

Second Spring First Annual Plant Sale

Second Spring Market Garden will host its first annual plant sale on Sunday, May 3rd from 10 AM – 5 PM.  Stop by to visit the farm and pick up your spring vegetable and herb starts. They’ll have heirloom tomatoes, lettuces, kale, chard, and other veg, along with herbs such as rosemary, thyme, mint, and more. Visit

Meet the Farmers at Our Community Farm!

Matt and Casara of Second Spring Market Garden, working land leased through SAHC’s Farmer Incubator Program.

Matt Coffay and Casara Logan of Second Spring Market Garden are in the house! The greenhouse, that is.

We want to send a big welcome to these first vegetable producers in our new Farmer Incubator Program, and a thank you to all the volunteers who helped put up infrastructure so they can start growing.

Second Spring Market Garden offers Asheville’s first 52-week CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) supplying fresh produce year-round. They will be growing a variety of vegetables using organic methods and efficient four-season production with two heated greenhouses now in place on our Community Farm.

SAHC currently has two farm ventures — Second Spring Market Garden and a heritage breed Pineywoods cattle operation — participating in our Farmer Incubator Program. The program provides low-cost access to land and resources for new or expanding agricultural operations and is aimed at helping the next generation of farmers fill the gap left as aging farmers retire.

“Without the Incubator, we’d probably still be looking for farmland,” says Matt Coffay.

“We’d spent several months looking for land,” explains Coffay. “We were selling out of produce each week with our existing markets and needed to expand up to about an acre-and-a-half of production in order to really be able to earn full-time incomes as growers.  Land access is one of the biggest challenges facing young farmers, though — especially in an area like Asheville, where relatively flat, inexpensive acreage is hard to come by. Plus, in terms of leasing a property, renting cheap land with no infrastructure (water, electricity, vehicle access, etc) makes starting a farm –which is already no easy task — even more challenging.”

Second Spring Market Garden offers local, pre-washed bagged salad mix year-round.

“When we found the Farmer Incubator Program, we knew we’d finally landed at the right spot.  The folks at SAHC are assisting us with building the infrastructure we need in order to farm effectively on a small scale.  We’ve also been given access to land at a rate that’s affordable for us.  Without the Incubator, we’d probably still be looking for farmland.”

Casara Logan of Second Spring, which offers Asheville’s first 52-week fresh veggie CSA.

Second Spring is now taking sign-ups for 2015 Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares. Paying for crop shares early in the year gives farmers some stability and provides up-front capital for supply purchases. Members of a CSA are then provided a weekly box share of the crop throughout the year.

“We’re really excited to be offering the first 52-week fresh vegetable CSA in Asheville,” added Coffay. “We believe that local food only really works if it’s available every week of the year.  Community Supported Agriculture really does create community, too: our customers get to know one another, and we always invite folks to come out and see where their food comes from (and even lend a hand on the farm if they’d like).  It also makes an enormous difference for us when people pay for their share at the beginning of the year, when expenses are high and income is low; so, we always ask that our members send in their payments as early in the year as they can manage. We’re also open to working out a payment plan for folks who can’t afford the full amount up front.  Check out our website today to sign up, or send us an e-mail for more info!”

Pineywoods cattle at SAHC’s Community Farm.

Also participating in the Farmer Incubator Program is Gina Raicovich with her herd of Pineywoods cattle, a resilient but now rare heritage breed. Her agricultural operation will involve breeding of Pineywoods cattle and grass-finishing for market (selling yearling heifers and grass-fed beef), utilizing 26 acres of pasture on the Community Farm with rotational grazing.

Last fall, Raicovich chose to lease land through the Farmer Incubator Program because it provides an affordable pasture lease with proximity to town, allowing her to keep a regular job while growing the herd.

Infrastructure improvements at the farm include off-stream watering tanks for livestock.

“My lease at the SAHC Community Farm is allowing me to access land close to downtown Asheville so that I can easily grow a small herd while I continue to work full time and look for a more permanent land base for my operation.  Ideally I’ll grow my operation to a profitable size before it’s time to leave the farm and shoulder a mortgage on my own land.”

The  Farmer Incubator Program was introduced last year, and continues to accept applicants on a rolling basis. Funding for the successful launch of the program has been provided by the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, Southern SARE, US Department of Agriculture, and New Belgium Brewing Company.

Helping Hands on the Farm – French Broad River Academy

French Broad River Academy students volunteered to work on the Discovery Trail at our Community Farm again this Fall.

Middle school kids these days have a bit of a bad rap — they watch too much TV, they have no work ethic, and they never go outside. Well, whoever says that has never met the students from the French Broad River Academy. Over the past year-and-a-half the 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th graders from FBRA have volunteered over 700 hours at the SAHC Community Farm!

The French Broad River Academy was founded in 2009 as a place “to build character and integrity in young men for a lifetime of learning and service.” Since then, it has grown to the point that next year FBRA will be opening a middle school for girls. Service within the Asheville community is an integral part of the FBRA education and, as such, many of their “Field Lesson” Wednesdays are devoted to helping area non-profits. In 2013, the school contacted SAHC in hopes of working with us on some of our protected lands. We have since worked with the students numerous times on the Community Farm, and the school has been a valuable partner in so many of our projects.

Last fall, students removed dead Virginia Pine saplings from the Shortleaf Pine restoration area so that it could be prepared for the planting of 2500 additional Shortleaf trees. They helped to remove invasive plants along the trail corridor. This spring they mulched nearly a half-mile of trail that runs through one of our pastures. Upon returning this fall, they have worked diligently restoring sections of the trail that have been eroded.

SAHC Community Farm Assistant, Yael Girard, leads the middle schoolers on these service days and had this to say about them: “These students put their all into everything that they do. They work tirelessly with hand tools for hours, despite the fact that some of them only weigh 80 lbs. The teachers that lead the crews are incredible role models and I feel very fortunate to have had a chance to work with this group for the last year and half.”

Thank you all for your service!

By working on the SAHC Community Farm on a regular basis Andrew Holcombe, the teacher in charge of these outings, hopes that the students will find the value in striving towards a long-term goal and watching the changes on the property. He feels that they will become more invested in the projects and be more likely to understand conservation as something that affects them personally.

We thank them for their service!

Year-round gardens growing in greenhouses

Pulling the sheeting onto the new Community Farm greenhouses required teamwork.

If you have ever visited a nursery or a commercial farm, you have probably seen large “hoop houses” stretching out sometimes as far as the eye can see. Without these structures, farmers would be limited to growing only during the warm season, thus drastically cutting their production. These season extension devices can range from an unheated plastic covered tunnel too small to walk through, up to engineered glass buildings with automatic venting and precise temperature control. The main objective, however, is the same: to allow the propagation and growing of plants during the colder months of the year.

The SAHC Farmer Incubator Program was lucky enough to receive two of these hoop houses (also known as greenhouses or high tunnels) this fall. Cathy and George Phillips, of Early View Nursery, learned of our need for heated growing space and offered to donate two greenhouses. Although one of the donated houses was too small for our program, we were able to sell it in order to raise funds for other much needed improvements. The second new greenhouse for our Community Farm came through the TVA Ag and Forestry Fund grant that we were awarded this summer.

As you can see from the photos, the greenhouses that we have put up are steel hoops wrapped in a double layer of plastic. The double wall allows for an air pocket between the plastic, and greater insulation. The houses will be heated with propane furnaces and vented with fans that will be on timers. Putting these greenhouses together required work of numerous volunteers and real team effort. In fact, a group of volunteers will be coming out to the farm this Friday to put the plastic sheeting and final touches on the second greenhouse.

Thanks to everyone involved, Matt and Casara from Second Spring Market Garden will soon be able to produce vegetables to sell throughout the winter. This will greatly increase their sales and ability to compete in the local markets. When their time at the SAHC Community Farm is over, the greenhouses will be a resource for the next set of vegetable producers.

New farm operation moo-ves into the Community Farm

Gina Raicovich watches her herd of Pineywoods cattle settle.

Last weekend, we welcomed Gina Raicovich and her herd of Pineywoods cattle to our Community Farm in Alexander, NC. Gina started and managed the 60-acre educational University Farm at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN, and is now branching out in her own agricultural venture.

Pineywoods cattle are a threatened heritage breed that thrives in hot, humid climates and can graze on lower quality forage. Originating in Spain, Pineywoods cattle were once used across the Southeast, but now only around 1,000 remain.

The sun sets on heritage breed cattle at SAHC’s Community Farm.

Gina’s agricultural operation within our Farmer Incubator Program will involve breeding of Pineywoods cattle and grass-finishing for market, utilizing 26 acres of pasture on the Community Farm with rotational grazing and the possible addition of goats as inter-grazers. She is passionate about conservation and rejuvenation of this unique heritage breed, and feels that her interests (and needs for the herd) align well with the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy’s mission as well as the resources offered at our Community Farm.

We look forward to seeing these charismatic cattle flourish. Stay tuned for future updates!