Last year when deciding that I wanted to make it my mission to preserve the small historic farm that I am now working on, I talked my dear friend Rebecca Rivas into capturing some stories from the farm on film with me.

We interviewed Caroline Mueller, the now-90 year old woman whose husband’s grandparents settled the farm in 1883. We dug up old newspaper articles heralding the health benefits of the organic produce that was unique to the Mueller Farm in the 1950’s (when the other farmers at the market would mock the Muellers). We found old photographs of the mules that pulled the plows even into the 1980’s. We interviewed lots of neighbors of the farm and residents from the Ferguson community who worked on the farm during the summer as teenagers or shopped their on-farm farmstand year after year.  We heard stories from Andy Ayers, a local restauranteur that started buying fresh produce from local farmers such as the Muellers to his patrons’ delight long before it was vogue. We even had a little jam session in Caroline’s kitchen with Curtis and Dennis Buckhannon, two brothers who grew up on the same block as the farm and who first started playing folk music with Al Mueller (Caroline’s husband) on their property and now have a popular bluegrass band in St. Louis.

The documentary is 14 minutes long, so unfortunately the whole thing isn’t on YouTube, but here’s a little teaser for it:

Connoisseur of Fine Foods – the short version of our farm documentary

(It’s named after a sign that Al used to have posted on a tree on the farm for customers to see as they were leaving the farm: “Thank you for being a connoisseur of fine foods!”)

This month has FLOWN by; we’ve been busy putting in some fall crops on the farm, enjoying the cooler weather at the farmers markets, and preparing for a jampacked few weeks of awesome food and farm related events in the St. Louis area!

As we rev up for our 2nd Annual Pesto Festo, I wanted to share with you all one of the main purposes of the event, besides to throw a wildly fun party and raise some much-needed funds.

Just as last year EarthDance honored lifelong organic farmer Caroline Mueller, we will again be honoring a local farmer for their contribution to the sustainable agriculture movement. To celebrate our full mission of growing and inspiring local FARMS – Food, Art, Relationships, & Music, Sustainably, we’ve decided to also honor a local artist, community activist, and musician for their contributions to creating vibrant and sustainable communities.

And, the recipients of this year’s EarthDance Mission Awards are… (drumroll, please)

FARMER: John Wilkerson

ARTIST: Autumn Wiggins

COMMUNITY ACTIVIST: Dwayne James

MUSICIAN: Colleen Heine

Each of them has made their mark in the St. Louis community and beyond, not only working towards sustainability and connectivity in their professional work, but also in their personal lives, and in their encouragement of others to do the same. We’ll be telling their stories through short videos that will be screened during the awards ceremony. Please join us in thanking them for their work in the spirit of the EarthDance Mission!

In addition to honoring these individuals, we’ll also be celebrating the end of our 1st growing season as an organization on the Mueller Farm! Our ‘Freshman Farmies’ will be completing their first season as apprentices with EarthDance. As a group, these beginner farmers have sold at 41 farmers markets, visited 12 local farms, learned at 29 enrichment sessions, and worked too many hours to count on the farm! It has been inspiring to work amongst 12 individuals who are so dedicated to creating a healthy and environmentally-sound food system for all.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for giving me the resource to share my experiences with farming.  As I said in my first post, I came into this summer with no background in farming at all – I had never been to a farmers market, and the only time I had spent on an actual farm was one hour of “volunteer” work picking onions on a kibbutz in Israel.  I have to say that I feel accomplished with my growth as an employee of a farm for several reasons.  First is my general familiarity with the farm itself.  Walking around the farm now as compared to my first day there, I know where I am allowed to step, which plants are meant to be picked (or not touched at all), the proper technique for using various tools, etc.  Second is my new appreciation for the farming community.  Meeting people that are so passionate about farming that they not only dedicated their lives to it, but also to teaching and encouraging others to get involved was amazing.  I was also very impressed with the farm’s first year of volunteers.  Despite joining a brand new program to encourage the practice of organic farming, I was able to see how much the volunteers developed as independent farmers themselves; not only on the main area of farm land, but also on their individual 10×10 plots.  Third, and probably most important, is that the farm changed me as a person – not just internally, but externally as well.  I developed large callouses on my palms from pulling weeds the size of small trees.  I now have a very defined line between my arms and shoulders – arms being a much darker shade of pale than the shoulders.  My hat has engrained a circular ring of matted hair on my head with tufts of hair sticking out to the side, even with hat off.  I now have dirt under my fingernails that will serve as a reminder of the farm for several weeks as cutting them did not remove all the dirt.  All these physical changes cumulated in one moment at our last work party when one of the farm volunteers walked by me as I was hacking at a large growth of weeds and said, “Wow Danny!  You look just like a farmer!”.  I took a short hiatus from my hacking, leaned casually against my scythe, and pondered that statement with a smile on my face.  Perhaps it was the combination of brown shoes, jeans, a sweat-soaked white t-shirt and hat, or maybe, just maybe, it was the general air of confidence I had developed for my work during my time on the farm.

Yesterday on the farm, we hosted several high school students who wanted to get more involved with the local farming movement.  Vicki, the same neighboring farmer from last post, showed them around the farm and gave them a similar tour to the one she gave us on Monday.  After the tour, the students were ready to work, so we took them to the potato row (German Butterballs) and began to dig.  Karrie, another neighboring farmer, was planning on bringing 10 pounds of our potatoes to a farmers market, so Vickie and the two students kicked into high gear and set off harvesting the 10 pounds.  Within a minute, the harvesters had developed a digging and picking system – one that was so efficient they were pulling up a potato every 15 seconds.  After about 10 minutes, the formerly empty basket was filled with the German Butterballs and Karrie had enough to bring to market.  The students were clearly satisfied by their achievement, and luckily I was able to be standing right there to appreciate the whole experience.

Every Monday evening, EarthDance hosts an enrichment session either in a local library classroom or on the farm itself. Last night, our session took place on the farm as the sky was clear and the air was not too hot (a fact that has decided our slow tomato growth this year). Before our enrichment session began, Vicki (a neighboring farmer) walked us through our own farm and gave us tips and pointers on our crops. I found the tomatillo explanation the most interesting as I had never been exposed to this vegetable before. After Vicki finished her little tour, we sat in a circle at the far end of the farm and prepared for our enrichment session. Presenting yesterday was Tina who talked about peppers, and Cassie who talked about potatoes. Tina read some basic information on the growing habits of peppers, the varieties, and the popularity of these varieties. After her informational presentation, she laid out a wonderful spread of peppers and pepper hummus – the peppers ranging from orange, yellow and green, to several sun-dried varieties. After we all took turns trying the different types of peppers and pointing out our favorites, Cassie took her turn discussing potatoes. After her presentation, she passed around an amazing potato salad that she was quick to point out contained no mayo. We have these enrichment sessions every week to allow all our volunteers to learn from each other and share their love and knowledge of farming.

Yesterday on the farm, I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and was given the opportunity to try out our new sprayer. I dug the unopened box out of the back of the shed (which happens to be infested with a wasp’s nest right now – I’ll be borrowing a fellow farmer’s bee keeping suit for this (story will come in another post)) and began to set up the sprayer. The directions were easy enough, and within minutes I had the liquid reservoir strapped to my back, pump in one hand and spray handle in the other. Carrie, the farmer who had prepared the pesticide, calmed me down from my excitement and poured the bluish liquid into the container. I noticed a slight hint of fishiness wafting from the container and asked what the liquid was made of. She explained to me that it was a mixture of Bt (a bacterium that serves as a natural pesticide), a homemade fish emulsion (as fertilizer) and water. Once the liquid was in, I primed the pump and set off spraying the tomatoes. Scenes from Ghostbusters came to mind as I sprayed the plants, and I imagined that I was performing a much greater task than simply squeezing a handle on a backpack sprayer. After spraying a full row of tomatoes, I passed the important duty on to a farm visitor and proceeded to study the manual to familiarize myself with the ins and outs of this amazing device. Carrie requested a demonstration and I could tell from the look on her face how much easier her work on the farm had just become.

Hello all,

We recently created a youtube page where we will be posting short videos about our experiences on the farm. Please support our page and subscribe!

http://www.youtube.com/user/EarthDanceFARMS

Last Monday EarthDance held our monthly farming party to allow all our volunteers a moment to enjoy the farm together.  Typically the farming parties consist only of farming, but this time we had two new aspects to our festivities.  First was the potluck aspect, as farming delicious organic vegetables easily goes hand in hand with cooking and eating them.  Second was the presentation of plans for a new cobb shed as well as the initial constuction and layout of the shed.  A group from Architecture for Humanity attended our farming party, explained the benefits and expectations of constructing and maintaining a cobb shed, and gauged the interest of the farm volunteers in helping with this project.  The volunteers were very open to the idea as most of them said they would volunteer their time to help an important addition to the farm become a reality.

I myself was also able to learn about an integral aspect of farming that I had previously only seen from afar: plowing dirt.  After weeding for over an hour I was in the mood for something more interesting, so I wandered over to Brian who was measuring out the area of dirt for planting pumpkins.  Asking Brian if he needed any help – he just looked at me, then at the plow on the ground, then back at me.  I quickly got the hint and picked up the clunky metal object, lining it up with the invisible path Brian had outlined.  I assumed that the plow would cut through the dirt like a warm knife through butter, but after pushing about a foot, it got caught on a piece of grass and just stopped.  About 5 minutes later I finally made it to the other end of the field where I was soon informed that I would be going back and forth on this path until the divet was deep enough to plant the pumpkin seeds.  Not wanting to stumble across the field as I had the first time, I threw off my shoes and pushed the plow back barefoot, feeling my feet clinging to the damp dirt below.  This passing was much more enjoyable (mostly due to the barefootedness) and once I was back at the start I was quickly told to put my shoes back on – unfortunately my muddy fun was short-lived.  Recommendation: if you know the dirt you are working on and are comfortable with insects crawling on your feet – farm barefoot!

This past Tuesday evening we had our first farm concert with the band Ave Marling.  We chose to locate the concert in the front of the farm to not only allow those who planned on coming to find the show easily, but also to allow passers-by to come and share in the fun.  Seeing as that it was a farm concert, we seized the opportunity to sell some of our produce and set up a tent near the performance area for those who wanted to purchase some of our vegetables.  Our purple green beans were the biggest hit – mainly due to the novelty of the item to the customers (this is something we have found not only with the vegetables themselves, but also with our displays at the markets – the more unique the offering, the better the product sells).  The highlight of the night was without a doubt Ave Marling – two young women who filled the farm with their unique blend of folk and melodic soul.  After the show, they thanked us for allowing them to play on our farm and told us how much they appreciated our organization.  It was a great ending to a great night!

The crowd at the Ferguson Farmers market this past weekend was rather sparse when compared with previous weeks.  We did sell out of many of our vegetables and the only leftovers were the expected culprits (collard greens and the uglier potatoes).  This left a lot of time to discuss the market in general with the other local vendors, as well as the other two EarthDance volunteers.  Many of the discussions revolved around the topic of farmers market techniques, such as putting bags of ice under the vegetables themselves in the baskets to keep them fresh.  Yet we also discussed the Ferguson farmers market and what makes it unique when compared to other, larger markets.  I brought up the fact that I was able to recognize most of our customers after only having attended the market 3 times.  Others brought up the sense of tradition related to the farmers market; from the infamous distant steam whistle that marks the beginning and end of the market, to the live folk music that weaves it way through the air and around the market every Saturday.  I know I’ve said it before, but I’m learning that there is so much more to farming than the crops themselves.