Welcome to Home Shalom and Shalom Farm. We pray your visit here be blessed. We are learning to walk in the Ways (Torah) of our Father YHWH and follow Y'shua, His Messiah until He returns to "set things straight". We call it a "Messi-Life". Our walk is neither tidy nor perfect, but it is filled with passion, devotion and desire to serve our King. We are learning to be humble servants, and to be good stewards of the things that He has entrusted to us: His Word, our marriage, our children, our family, our community, our health, and our farm. Hitch your horse and stay a while--our door is always open!
We are selling the farm! This is such a bitter sweet decision. Yah has granted so many memories and adventures here. He has granted us so many learning experiences and times for growth. He has granted us the sweetness of friends and family. We have ministered too and been ministered too.
We have poured ourselves out in this place. Blood, sweat and tears have gone into our land, our buildings, our animals and community. We have feasted here and gathered here on Shabbats and every day of the week! We have loved it all and we are so very thankful for this time here on Shalom Farm.
We are not moving far. Because our community is scattered all over the Middle TN area, we will still stay connected. We will look for place closer to Nashville, another farm, hopefully; So that we can be closer to my husband's new work territory. We are excited for the next season and what Yah has for us in it. He rained on us and reigned in us all that is set apart and good. He is faithful and He teaches us to be as well. I firmly believe that we should leave a place better than we found it. This is our father's way and it is good - oh so good! So we'll see what He has in store for us next. We'll keep you posted when it unfolds!
Here are photos from our Realtor (and sister in Messiah and The Word). Spread the word if you know anyone who is looking for an (uncertified) organic farm in the Middle TN region. (Summertown, TN)
I am so very excited to share with you a little peek into our "Winter Garden". It has been sown directly from seed that was planted in the last couple of days in October and we covered it with homemade hoop houses. We have collards, kale, lettuce, swiss chard, spinach, sweet peas, and a few beets. This was an experiment for us and we are SO very pleased with the results. I am hooked. I actually prefer this season of gardening over the traditional summer garden! (No sweat, much fewer bugs and weeds!) Rich greens are a delicious, nutrient dense food, that we can not get enough of! Since my kids have been raised on them, they love them. We have had to "pace ourselves" so we don't over harvest our greens. We didn't know how much to plant or what to expect, but now we have a better idea for next year. The thing that is great about greens, is you can just clip off the plants and partially harvest it by taking the largest leaves and it just keep growing for you! Next year...LOOK OUT, because I am going to get serious about what we plant! I want to have enough to juice (a lot) and sell or share! I have visions of cabbage, broccoli, beets, leeks and greens dancing in my head! I used to buy my greens from a bulk organic wholesaler (for $50-70 a case - YIKES), or get from our local health food store owner's personal green house, but those days are quickly becoming a thing of the past! (YES! It is so satisfying and delicious to grow your own food! )
Here is a short video tour of the hoop houses we made and how they work:
All the covered rows you see in the video are not growing things. We tried to use up some old seed and much of it did not "take". Here are a few peeks under the plastic. The photos were taken on December 18th. Our weather has been typical for TN at night (zone 6 planting). It is rather flippant, cycling between cold and not so cold. Wet and not so wet. Gray days and sunning days. You never quite know what you will get. The nights usually freeze and frost is common in the morning (at least). One of the things that we are susceptible to here on our farm, is high winds. Storms blow through all year long and when we see them coming we have be sure that we "batten down the hatches" before it hits or will get things sent in the far away fields. (It has happened! I have chased and tried to hold down a portable shed,( in the rain) that we THOUGHT was staked well enough. I thought I was going to Kansas! I couldn't stop her..I let it go and had to retrieve it from a far off barbed wire fence that it got caught on, after the storm.) We have had a really could test since these row covers were installed and they passed the test with gleaming colors! We tired miscellaneous clamps to hold the tarp on at first and they did not ever come close to passing the test. Then we found some wonderful clamps (that are linked in the supply list below). They get 4 stars - we are set! We expect it to get colder in Jan and February. I hope to update this post or link another then.
Beets
You may notice a difference in the spinach that is in the video and the spinach in this picture. It is the same bed and it just keeps coming! (YES!)
Low Bush Cascadian Sweet Peas are pictured above.
I think these take a really long time to bear their peas when done over the winter...
so we watch and we wait...
Swiss Chard (We let it go a little long so we harvested the whole bed after this photo was taken.) It looks a little droopy but we had some for lunch and it was delish! This is our buggiest bed. Not sure. Does anyone have any idea?
We were originally inspired by Eliot Coleman's 4 Season Harvest. He does this up in New England and I figured if he could, there is no excuse for us down here in TN! He has also authored helpful resources hat I have read, called The New Organic Grower and the Winter Harvest Handbook. I have posted an item of his on my 'wish list' that I have not had a chance to preview yet, his DVD Year Round Production. It was a workshop that he did on 2 DVD's. It's an investment, but it is not likely I will be able to go to one in person any time soon..so it think it would be worth it! (In due time, in due time! I know it will be fabulous.)
I highly recommend this method and winter gardening. The secret is the covering. This protects your cold hardy plants from frost and freezing. Our hoops might be a little taller than need be, but we wanted our row covers to double as a our seed starting green houses for spring. We are optimistic and hoping we will need the height for some of those plants. (We have not had large success in starting our spring/summer garden from seed - to our satisfactions - yet. Maybe next year is "our year".)
Most supplies can be purchased at your local hardware supply store. Here is the supply list that covers our 4ft wide Winter Garden beds of various lengths:
1" PVC pipe, cut into 2ft lengths and driven into the ground about 4ft apart.
1/2" PVC pipe cut to 80" lengths (This left 40" of waste on each 10 ft pole purchased. You could make your pact wider or try to make your row higher, but we saw not need for the extra plastic needed to do that or the increase possibility for the wind catch it.)
We used 8 mil plastic cut into strips 7ft wide for our 4 ft wide beds. We added 7 feet to the length of the bed length for the rows to allow for coverage on the ends to be fully enclosed.
Here is a wonderful link to tomato disease report Iowa Extension done by Iowa State University an extension that has information about tomato diseases. It describes the most common tomato diseases and gives pictures. I have found it to be a wonderful tool to identify my tomato issue we had this year. It does not offer the solution - but it helped me identify the problem. Once I knew what it was, I could research the solution.
Blossom End Rot seems to be our issue this year. (Pictured to the left)
We are not sure if anything can be done for the plants already effected this year. Some local friends just told us they pruned their infected fruit off and their plants seem to be producing uninfected fruit afterward, when they had it. So we are hopeful..but unsure if we will have the same result. We wonder if we should just clear the beds and plant something new fro the end of the season. The causes are so varied it might be tricky to prevent next year, but at least now we are informed! The "short of it", is that blossom rot occurs from a lack of calcium absorption to the plant. Just like calcium absorption into our bodies, it is not simple a calcium supplement that is needed, rather the other factors need to be in place for the proper absorption of that is present to take place. This is the first year we have ever had this issue and it is only in our Roma and Amish Paste varieties. My Tomatilla and yellow pear tomatoes seem unaffected. If anyone has wisdom, solutions or experience to share on this topic, please share it in the comments.
This is a wonderful video which combines the best of simplicity, permaculture, and Biblical precepts in gardening. Having moved to a new farm (where the soil was not planted in before we came), we quickly learned how much work our very rocky hard hungry clay soil would require. (Around here they call it "chert".) We amended it a little last year and planted in it, but the health and productivity of our plants was nothing like our previous experiance of gardening in raised bed gardens we in our smaller garden in suburbia. (Which was very discouraging!) We struggled to figure out how to implement raised bed ideas into a much larger scale. Our friend did it with an almost 15000 investment. We have so much else that needs to be done on the farm, we didn't feel we could do that, but we were resigned to the fact that it would require SOME capitol if we wanted to grow successfully right away. We knew we would have to make some big changes if we were going to try to live off of the food we produce. The method shared here is the method and philosophy we will be implementing on our farm starting this year. It's simply genius because it follows the design our Creator has put right in front of our eyes!
Back To Eden Film This is a full length film that runs almost 2 hours. You might want to have your spouse/family watch it with you if your work together in the garden, please allow yourself time to watch the whole thing. It's a must see! Please come back and comment if you did watch it. I would love to hear what you think. It connected so many "gardening dots" together in my brain to solidify the direction we will go. (YES! Halleluyah!)
It is coming upon that time of year - when we need to collect our seeds (if you weren't able to save them last year) for the coming year's gardening. Or at least request catalogs! I would love to hear where you like to get your heirloom (hopefully organic) seeds from? Please share links in the comments
The companies I have used in the past are:
Seeds of Change - big business, that has been out of things I have tried to order in the last couple years.
Fedco is a co-op that Ben's mom has used for years (which is how I learned of them). It another "grass roots effort" and great place to look for trees too!
Horizon Herbs - Best selection of herbs in my opinion!
Baker Creek wins the most gorgeous full color catalog award, as far as I'm concerned!
2 new sources I hope to try this year:
I hope to try a new source this year. It is a family owned and operated business. They have a very nice selection to choose from and a user friendly website. (They are also believers.) Heirloom Acres Seeds They use no chemicals at all and amend their soils only with organic mulches, green manure and animal manure.
Another seller I just found, and hope to try this year is Ohio Heirloom Seeds. If your budget is especially tight - you might want to check here first. They seem to have the least expensive seeds on my list. Important Update: Buyer Beware - Please see my comments below - as readers have used this company do NOT recommend them. We still have not tried them..and with such good experience with the other seed companies that we HAVE used...I do not think we will.
Hopefully, before too long, we will get the hang of saving our own seeds! However, until then, I am very thankful for places like these, to supply us with seeds each year and seeds for the foundation of our seed saving projects! These are farms worth supporting!
When chatting with Mary, an Amish lady who has a nursery on her farm; I was given a little tip, on natural bug control for our garden plants. Since she has been successfully gardening/farming without chemicals as a lifestyle for longer than I could imagine...my attention was glued to her every word. She claims the recipe works on "all bugs". I thought that was a claim worth remembering, especially since I am committed to organic methods and am still learning my garden insects; it is all still intimidating to me! Having a simple remedy for "all bugs" was very attractive to me! :-)
We had an infestation critters on our 4 little eggplant plants, they had chewed up the leaves pretty good before we noticed them, so we were instantly in crisis mode. When we tried to identify the culprits, we weren't having much luck. That is when I remembered Mary's advice. I didn't want to loose precious time on researching while they were eating my eggplant (I saw my baba ganoush disappearing before my very eyes!) So I figured I would try Mary's recipe:
Amish Bug Spray for "All Bugs" 1/2C Brown Sugar to a gallon of boiling water (to dissolve the sugar) Let it cool off! Than spray all over your plants, being sure get all the leaves as best you can.
Too simple (and cheap) to be true right?? Wrong! It worked! We sprayed them well one time and the little rascals disappeared! I have to mention here that Mary warned me that it wears off in a week (especially if it rains) and it is best to reapply weekly - so keep that in mind - but in this case, we didn't have too. It has been over a month since then and we have not seen ANY bugs on those plants! The plants are pitiful looking. The leaves are almost like lace since we didn't catch it early in the infestation. They are still small too (no wonder -since their sun collecting leaves are easily at half capacity with all those holes)! However, we just noticed that we have eggplants forming now anyway! So we are excited!
As for Mary's natural spray for all bugs - It's a keeper in my garden notebook!
