Yearly Archives: 2012

I planted about 120 feet of garlic on Monday. I’m hoping to get another 60′ or so in after the Local Food Council meeting today. Providing the deer don’t eat it beforehand, I’ll have young Red Russian kale at the Clintonville Farmers Market this Saturday. Maybe some beets, too.

Hey, folks, I’m going to give the beets and kale another week before bringing them to market. I’m hoping they’ll get a little bigger by then. That being the case, I have only a couple handfuls of tomatoes and seven jars of peach glaze to sell–not enough to justify getting […]

It’s nice to see someone who gets it. “Americans can buy butchered, trimmed, plastic-wrapped cuts from the meat counter that are as easy to cook as a vegetable. Simpler still, pre-cooked rotisserie chickens and frozen products only require a little reheating to serve. Restaurant dishes usually have no bones, scales, […]

I should have looked in the mushroom patch before I left for the Clintonville Farmers Market Saturday morning. When I came back, I found EIGHT giant puffballs growing there, a few of them quite large. I doubt they’ll keep until the market next Saturday, but you can still come pick […]

I’m not going to be at the farmers market this morning. I have stuff to sell. I have a few quarts each of tomatoes and hot peppers, as well as about 30 jars of peach jam. My car starts, too. We bought a new battery last weekend. Aside from a […]

Sorry, folks. My car wouldn’t start this morning, so I’m not at the Clintonville Farmers Market as I had planned to be. Once we open our own store, this won’t be an issue. In the mean time, I have a couple handfuls each of pawpaws and assorted hot peppers. Most […]

Sorry, folks. I’m not going to be at the Clintonville Farmers Market this weekend. I don’t have any vegetables ready, and I don’t have enough jam left to sustain sales for the duration of the market. I do have more peaches in the freezer to make more jam, but as […]

There’s a great article in Columbus Underground about a homesteading family in Clintonville (where else?) doing what more people ought to be doing. There are also several pictures and a well produced video there. If you’ve read John Jeavons’ “How to Grow More Vegetables,” you’ll recognize the painstaking planting technique […]

Between thieves and predators, I’m down to one hen. I’ve shot a couple raccoons and a ‘possum in the hen house, but critters still manage to find a way in. This one hasn’t laid in the several days she’s been alone. I think maybe she’s lonely. If anyone can give […]

The drought made the mulberries this year really small, and a storm knocked a lot of those small berries off the trees, so we didn’t bother picking mulberries this year. We did have some in the freezer from last year, though. I got all the bags of mulberries I could […]

I’ll have a limited supply of two new products at the Clintonville Farmers Market this weekend: Peach Jam and Chunky Peach Glaze. The glaze is suitable for use as a sauce or marinade on meats, as a topping for waffles or ice cream, or as a sweet salad dressing. The […]

The zucchini and chard were coming along great! The fishing line fence seemed to be working. That is, until a few days ago when I found the zucchinis missing all their leaves, half the chard was gone, and there were hoof prints all over the new bed of kale that hasn’t […]

…at least not from farmers, bakers, artisans, or anyone else who sells something they make. Ohio Revised Code 715.63 License power – exception. Any municipal corporation may license exhibitors of shows or performances of any kind, hawkers, peddlers, auctioneers of horses and other animals on the highways or public grounds […]

Good news, guys! Thanks to genetic engineers tinkering with the DNA of our food supply, we no longer have to worry about getting chewed on by corn borers! And hey, let’s not forget to give due credit to our legislators who blocked the labeling of GMO foods in the recent […]

This is only tangentially related to the farm, but I’ve got to say something publicly, even if only for the safety of others in my neighborhood. At the end of April, I related in this post how I caught a couple guys who stole a pocket knife out of my […]

City Officials order the destruction of a Tulsa woman’s garden, claiming herbs and fruit trees are “tall grass.” I’ve complained about the same broad language in Franklin County’s health code. It outlaws “all vegetation” over so many inches, effectively criminalizing trees and shrubs. “We have no intention of enforcing it […]

Columbus Proposes Crackdown on All Commerce Outside of Store Business Columbus foodies are pretty proud of the wide array of food trucks across our city. ECDI has created a supply hub for these trucks called “the Food Fortress,” and there are entire tour groups that do nothing but go around […]

A public service announcement from the FCLFC: Do you live, work, play or eat  in Franklin County?  If so, you should be taking our survey. Franklin County Local Food Council’s community survey is designed to solicit feedback from the public about the current state of the local food system and assess areas for […]

Yesterday, we got a thick envelope from the Columbus City Board of Health saying that it’s come to their attention that we may be raising chickens, and that we need to either get rid of them or go through their application process to get a license. Included in the envelope […]

Last year, I planted probably a couple hundred feet of onions in the spring, but the weeds got so thick I didn’t even see the onions anymore. I thought they had died. Not realizing that onions are a biennial, I got excited when I saw onion sprouts popping up in […]