summer vacations northeast

alright! this is john kohler at growingyourgreens.comtoday i have another exciting episode for you coming out here from shelburne, vermont,and the reason why we're here today is actually we’re at shelburne farms. and this is anold-school estate, probably like, you know, founded in like, i don’t know, the 1800’sor something crazy; and it was a private estate of like some rich people maybe the vanderbilt’sor something, and now it's actually, the heirs of that whole clan, put this into a non-profitso it's kind of like a park but it's, it's a non-profit you could visit, check out. theyhave an inn that you can stay at, they actually serve food at the inn that they grew here,on site, they also have a working dairy; but the reason why i'm here today is to show youguys the fruit and vegetable farm that they

have here, the market farm, that they havehere at shelburne farms. and i'm going to show you guys, you know, how they add fertility,and bring fertility, to their soil here in vermont. so without further ado, we're goingto go ahead and drive into this huge estate, and try to find the market farm. and so now i've found the market garden hereat shelburne farms and, here it is right here, and this is where they actually grow the foodfor the inn, on site, and they have like, you know, high end restaurant where they actuallygrow the food here and use it in the restaurant, that's probably one of the main ways thisfood is used. another way is they have a c.s.a. program, so local people can actually geta share and purchase, you know, a share and

get the food that was grown here. and probablythey sell at the shelburne farmer's market, you know, and they sell the excess food here.so what i want to do in this episode for you guys is actually show you guys, you know,some of the things that are growing, the crops that are growing, and how they're growing,and how they're doing it; and also more importantly, you know, their fertility programs, becauseknow that's a big question for a lot of you guys is 'what kind of fertilizer do you useto grow your plants?' so they're using some of the best fertilizers that i think willwork the best for you guys, and they're actually doing it successfully here on a large commercialscale. so then i guess any case. let's go ahead and head into some of these hoop houses,and show you guys what's growing on inside.

so they have about five hoop houses here,and here is just one of them. they have a lot of, you know, flowers growing so theseare non-edible for cut flower arrangements, and if you're in business, you know, and sellingfruits and veggies, i want to encourage you guys to grow some cut flowers because there'sa lot of money in cut flowers and cut flowers one of the worst, things you could buy atthe store because they're often imported and they use lots of chemicals and pesticidesto grow cut flowers that are imported and then they're shipped all the way to america.and you could easily grow them, you know, just in a hoop house or just out in the field.and so here they have part of their market farm, and you can see they have some beautifulbasil, some beautiful sunflowers here growing,

looks like they've got some maybe, cabbage,over yonder. they're using basically just a drift irrigation, and they're enrichingthe soil that they're growing in. but what i want to show you guys is actually in thishoop house here and, let me tell you guys, if you live in vermont or north-eastern unitedstates, one of the things that you've got to put on your list is a hoop house. thisis a hoop house. actually this is on a track so this is pretty smart, they could actuallyroll it down to this side or that side, and this allows you to extend your short growingseason here in the northeast. luckily i have a nice long growing season, but the growingseason here is really short and by using a hoop house you can grow crops, even in thewintertime when it's snowing outside, when

you otherwise couldn't. now i wouldn't begrowing tomatoes in the winter, but you could still grow things like some of the brassicas,and leeks, cabbage, kale, that are, you know, more cool tolerant. and uh, check out insidethis greenhouse here. look at this. they got rows in row of nice large tomatoes here. andwe could just walk down one of these aisles. look all these tomatoes here, i mean, justtotally red, ripe, juicy. nice large tomatoes. and no doubt this is due to, partly, the varietywhich they are growing, a hybrid variety that's really large but also, it's the fertilityin the soil, and they basically also have this, mulched, to retain the water. so letme see if we could go ahead and get a nice large tomato, yeah, some of these things arehuge. i think actually want to go over like

one more aisle to the cherry tomatoes andshow you guys those, i mean, look at this, i mean, they're just tomatoes for days. andone of the things the manager here told me is that, he's growing these hybrid tomatoesthat produce like, i don't know, fifty pounds per plant per season, versus like, certainheirlooms might only grow ten pounds so he's really, you know, as much as he believes ingrowing heirlooms, and he likes eating heirlooms, and it tastes better, he's really growingfor quantity, and this is what happens in commercial agriculture sometimes unfortunately.this is a business, and they've got to make a business out of it, and they've got to beable to grow enough food to meet the demand. and if you're growing, you know, heirlooms,you might not be able to do that.

so over here you could see we got, you know,just, they've really single stemmed up very nicely, different cherry tomatoes and, youknow, up at the top growth, that's where we're really going to see a lot of tomatoes comingon because, kind of down lower, it's kind of been picked through, and that what i wantto do next for you guys actually do a brix test. so i've done brix testing before onmy show, some you guys may be familiar, some you guys may not be familiar. but this isa brix meter, or refractometer, and what the brix meter does is, it measures the totalbrix, and people think of brix as sugar content but it's a lot more than just the sugar content.it's the sugar content combined with the protein, and also the minerals that are very important.so things with the higher brix will taste

better, they're going to have better storageattributes, and just be better for you. so let's go ahead and -unfortunately, you know,if you get, -you've all tasted tomatoes out of the store, and they're picked too early,they're still pink, they're not deep red, they don't taste good; they're going to havea lower brix. so, there's a standardized chart here that is put out by international agri-labs.and on this chart, it goes over the refractive index of crop juices, and they have differentvegetables and fruits on here. and we're going to go ahead and go down to the tomatoes overhere. you know, tomatoes, a poor tomato will read four on the brix, an average tomato readsix on the brix, and a good tomato will read eight on the brix, and an excellent tomatowill read twelve on the brix. so let's go

ahead and check out, this specific cherrytomato. now i do want to let you guys know that although there are standardized numberson the brix chart, you know, obviously some cherry tomatoes that are sweeter are goingto have a different range and higher than a standard large sized tomato. the other thing,you want to make sure you try to get like a nice deep red tomato, so we're gonna maybetry to reach up here and get a nice red one. and we're just going to go ahead and piercethe skin and get a little bit of a juice on there, and close our little lid. and we'regoing to look at this through the light. all right so that's reading about at ten. so aten on the list here, that's actually right between good and excellent. so these are actuallyquite good tomatoes. no doubt having to do

with the growing practices, but also the variety.so what i really want to share with you guys in this episode is, how they're fertilizing,and how they're making high quality tomatoes here because, they have several differentinputs, you know, a lot of them, some of them they actually produce on site, and some ofthem they actually import from local resources. so maybe let's go ahead over to the shed tosee if we could find the bag fertilizers that they might be using. all right so here in the shed they have bagfertilizers still hanging out here, i guess over there they've got some sulfur, some epsomsalt, and actually some other kind of, 464 nutrients made out of different, organic plantmaterials and animal products. they also have,

this stuff right here, the bone char and,some nofa vt custom blend organic fertilizer with no chilean nitrate. i was also told bythe farm manager they use things like, peanut meal, to enrich the farm here. and now theyall use these, like the bag fertilizers, in smaller quantities. they're not like, puttinga ton of this stuff out because some of these bags of fertilizer can be quite expensive,and that's what i encourage you guys to do. use some of the different bag products youmay think you may need, and that's actually what i do, but the majority of the nutritionshouldn't come from a bag, it should actually come from you know local resources. so that'swhat i want to do, and show you guys next, you know, they're creating their own compostand using other local resources, to even make

their compost better. so let's go ahead andcheck that out. so we're walking on our way to check out thecompost and we've basically come across these rows and rows of different berries and berry-likecrops and check this out man, this is really cool. many of you guys may never have seenthis. we got some raspberries here. you're saying "john wait a second, those aren't raspberries!those aren't red!" well, these are yellow raspberries. raspberries come in all colors,actually i'm growing ones that are actually like a black myself, these are yellow, let'ssee how they taste. mmm, wow. that's a good raspberry. now i always want to encourageyou guys to grow diversity. that's what they're doing here, they don't just have red raspberrieshere, they also have yellow ones, they also

have different kinds of berries. so this preventsagainst crop failure - maybe something won't produce this year, but another color will,and they have all different kinds of different vegetables and fruiting summer crops heregrowing at the same time to find out which ones will do the best, and also be able toserve them, you know, to the customers here at the inn, and the csa customers as wellas at the local farmer's market. let's go ahead and head out and check out the compost. and now we're in the area that they do allthe composting here at the farm. and you guys can see they have like, just a large pileof the woodchips. now, it's quite unfortunate that they usually add the woodchips to thefood waste so they got the carbons and the

nitrogens, that break down and form the compost,and that they actually don't really use the compost of the woodchips directly. so whati would recommend is actually composting woodchips, since they have so much space is to just layhim down and let them rot for a couple three years, and then after about three years you'regoing to want to, you know, take out the rich black soil that it creates. of course you'regoing to want to add some rock dust and some mycorrhizal spores, maybe some mushrooms inwith the woodchips, to help it break down further and, that in my opinion is some ofthe best, compost you can get which is the, you know, cold sourced, or cold processed,without heat, fungal dominant and rich, wood chip compost. but what they're doing hereis they take some of the wood chips from different

tree trimmings, on site because, this propertyis huge, and they mix it with some of the food scraps and evidently some of the foodsscraps still have some foods in there, because you can see all the seagulls there. so let'sgo ahead and go over to the compost and show you guys what they're composting. so this is their compost and for the mostpart, what they're composting is all the waste from the inn that is preparing the food here.so they've got not only the vegetable and fruit wastes, and whatnot, but they also havethings like, pieces of bone, and other stuff, so they're composting, you know, animal products,and vegetable products. i'm not a big fan of composting animal products myself, butthey add it in with the wood chips, and they

turn it every once in a while. now, this islike normal composting procedure, but the thing they're doing special is actually overin their fish pile. it's over there let me go ahead and show you guys the finished pile,and show you the difference, and also, let you guys know what they're adding, to maketheir compost, much much better. than just simply making compost. so this is the finished compost pile, andthis was already finished earlier in the season, they got it covered so it doesn’t all blowaway. and on the bottom here you can see the finished compost. and this stuff is prettygood quality but you'll notice this is a lot lighter in color than the compost that's stillworking, that i just showed you guys, and

that's because they're adding a special ingredientthat i encourage all my viewers and all you guys that make compost to add this ingredientyour compost because it will make your compost work better, and what that is, that's therock dust. so you want to add about twenty pounds of rock dust per one cubic yard ofcomposted material. and you want to do this before it actually starts heating up so doit as you're making your compost, add the rock just in, because the rock dust will actuallygive a food source for the microbes, and they're going to go crazy and digest your compostquicker. plus, in the end, you're going to have the minerals of the rock dust, more availablefor the plants when you put it in, and your compost is already going to be pre-inoculatedwith the rock dust. so they get a lot of rock

dust, half of it goes into the compost, andhalf it just gets spread directly into the fields, to grow some healthy crops. so i guessthe next thing i want to do is i actually want to take youup to one of the fields to show you guys how beautiful the vegetables look here. so now i want to share with you guys anotherarea of the garden and because they have so much space they could just, grow in certainareas and leave certain areas fallow and actually, up top here they planted cover crops, whichis another way they add fertility to the soil. and surely if i had a lot of land i wouldgrow cover crops but because i live in a standard american tract home, i don't have a lot ofspace so i just want to have the most nutrient

rich soil, and i don't tend to do any covercrops, because if i’m growing cover crops, that’s space that i'm now taking away fromfood crops. so as you guys can see, this is just amazing, there’s rows and rows of differentkinds of vegetables, and even flowers. so let's actually go up in there, and i’llshow you guys my favourite vegetables to grow in the summer. so two of my favorite crops they're growinghere that you don't often see are: number one, these guys, these are known as the groundcherries, and it might look like a tomatillo to you because it's in a little wrapper butit's not a tomatillo, it's related, and to get these right guys, you're not going tolook on the plant, you're going to actually

look down on the ground. they actually falldown when they're completely ripe, and the husk usually turns like a little bit, youknow, brown or tan instead of green and then you could reveal the little fruit inside andoptimally this should be a little more yellow. so let me see if i can get one of these guysthat's like, more yellow in here. all right here we go. so there's one that's halfwaydecent. they remind you a little bit of a tomatillo but they're actually quite sweet,and i recommend these guys because just look at this, there's so many different fruitson here, this is so bountiful and productive, and they're quite good. this i consider nature'scandy, you know, pre-wrapped for you. another thing i like is just right next door here.they're getting some ‘pm’ or powdery mildew

on it. and these are the lemon cucumbers.so it looks like sometimes they let him get a little bit too big. i wouldn't actuallyeat these when they're this big, what i would do is juice them because they're quite goodjuiced. so they've just been putting them aside, and they're just kind of wasting them.i think they should, i don’t know, give them away to somebody for juice or something.but what you want to do is you want to harvest them when they're young and baby, like this.so here's a mature one with better juice, here’s one really good for eating. it’sa little bit dirty, so i’m gonna go ahead and wipe it off on my shirt. but the reasonwhy i like these lemon cucumbers is because, -a lot of you guys maybe never heard of thembefore, unlike the regular standard marketmore

or large cucumbers with the green skin thattaste kind of bitter, these guys have no bitter flavour on the skin, and i really like thata lot because i love to eat my cucumber skin. crunchy like an apple, not quite as sweetan apple, but definitely better than other cucumbers.so another summer crop that i personally like to grow a lot is actually these guys righthere, peppers, and they have lots of peppers growing, different varieties, and i like peppers,more than i like tomatoes, and it looks like they're doing quite well here. now, in myopinion peppers are more nutritionally dense than tomatoes, as well as, especially if you'regrowing your own food, peppers, in general, cost more than tomatoes if you had to buythem. so i want to always encourage you guys

to grow what is expensive to buy. you knowi've seen organic peppers sometimes as much as like $8.99, $9.00 a pound, and tomatoesare usually hovering around $3 a pound. so yet another reason to buy the peppers alsois, i find that the peppers store better for longer into the winter, whereas tomatoes tendto rot a lot quicker. plus, i love my dried peppers. now besides the peppers i want toshow you guys over this side, you know, they've got a whole row of flowers. and these arefor cut flowers right, so they're pretty, you know, and they're not edible but, i wantto show you guys this right down here. this is how they're keeping their flowers erect.now if you have problems with keeping your flowers erect, you might want to use somethinglike this, this is basically just the plastic

fencing, that they put some stakes up, andthis basically allows the flowers to stand up and out of the way instead of fall over.this could also be a very useful technique for growing something like peppers that youwant to stand up, instead of them having to fall over. really cheap, inexpensive simplesolution to a common problem. now the other thing they're doing here is, you can see,they've got this black plastic down on the ground, and they do that because this allowsthem to lengthen their growing season. so, because it gets cool here, and doesn't warmup too quickly in the springtime, putting the black plastic down will allow them toheat the soil up a little bit sooner, so that they could be growing, that much sooner. alsoit helps with moisture retention because the

drip irrigation is actually below the plasticso that it's going to hold more water. so yes, i think this can work in a system likethis, especially with the row crops. looks like it's doing great. i guess the last thingi'd like to do is actually go over to one more area of the garden, where they're growing,mostly, leafy greens all right so now we're in another area ofthe farm and if you guys can check this out, they've got like little hoops over their beds,over the rows, and this will keep the bugs out. so a lot of times i get e-mails – ‘johnhow do i keep the bugs out?’ well, just put like some remade fabric, with some steelsupport structures, and just enclose everything so that the bugs can't get your stuff. behindthat they have other crops actually, that

are growing really nicely, and i really likehere that they're just growing more than just the standard green lettuce or green vegetables.they've got, red lettuces, and different kinds of red beets that are red stemmed, and chard;and they have a whole spectrum of different kinds of leafy green vegetables growing. andi want to encourage you guys to grow a variety of the leafy green vegetables. now, one ofthe coolest plants that are growing is actually, -you can’t see but it’s way back there,it’s actually known as brussel sprouts, and those they'll be harvesting actually,through december, through christmas day, even if there is snow because it is an establishedplant and if it doesn't get too cold, the plant will survive and actually, with thecool temperatures, the brussel sprouts and

as well as the leaves which are edible, geta lot sweeter and they are a lot more delicious to eat. so, no matter what time of year itis, depending where you live, you always want to have something growing for the next season,and for things coming up. so they have even new plant starts in their greenhouse, they'restarting now to plant out here, within the next few weeks. the next thing i want to dois actually i want to go ahead and interview josh, the farm manager here, to talk aboutmore about his fertility program and some of the benefits he's had from using the stufflike the rock dust. so now we’re here with josh carter, themarket garden manager here at shelburne farms, and we’re just going to go ahead and askhim some questions regarding his fertility

program because as you guys saw, you know,he uses the rock dust, the compost, and you know some small amounts of bag products, toadd fertility to the garden and, one of the main things about this episode is, he’susing the rock dust, and it's not a lot of commercial, large scale operations like thisthat are using the rock dust yet, and i believe that needs to change. so we're going to askhim, and talk to him about this. john: so, josh, why did you decide to startusing the rock dust, and, getting that into the soil? josh: sure. well our fertility plan here is,it's twofold; it's one: that i want to grow crops this year, so i want to make sure thatthe plants have all the nutrients they need,

right now, so that i can harvest lots of potatoesand tomatoes, and do a really good job, this season. we're also thinking, five seasonsdown the road, ten seasons down the road, and every time that you grow those crops youjust have to buy fertilizer every year to make sure that you’re feeding the plants,or you’re feeding the soil to grow the plants. but with rock dust you kind of -you're playingthe long range game, so that you're, you know, bringing in more material, this ground findrock dust and, it's not available right away to the plants and so that's why i think alot of commercial farmers are, apprehensive about spending money on things that aren’tgoing to grow plants right away. it's plants that i want to grow in five years, and tenyears, that i'm building the soil fertility,

i'm filling this gas tank up so that wheni want to plant vegetables ten years from now, that i don't maybe have to buy as muchfertilizer, in these bags, from who knows where, you know, of miscellaneous quality;by using rock dust and adding that, every year to the soil, that i'm really thinkingthat in five, ten years from now, i won't have to spend as much in fertilizer. john: right. so he's putting literally moneyin the bank by banking on the rocks and putting it in the ground. let's talk about actuallythe soil fertility here on the property, as you got it, because i mean this was used for,you know, farm and, how is the soil here? and is it nutritious or not? and did thatplay a factor in choosing to use the rock

dust? josh: certainly. so we took soil tests toget an idea of, what sort of minerals do we have in the soil and, some things like calcium,we have lots of, it's a limestone soil here, but things like potassium and magnesium, we’reshort on. so yeah i have to fertilize with potassium and magnesium every year. but i'mbuying these rock dusts that have potassium, magnesium, a lot of micronutrients in it toothat we kind of, overlook, in commercial agriculture, that are helping build the soil. so yeah,i'm paying attention to specific nutrients in my soil that these rock dusts can add,so that, you know like i said, five, ten years down the road, i don't have to input the fertility,that it's right there in the soil, the microbes

are going to do the work for me, and i canjust put the plants in the ground and hopefully they'll grow. john: yeah, they look like they're growinggreat, as you guys saw; and so i want to talk about how you apply, the rock dust. so youguys saw in the video that he actually applies the rock dust actually, to the compost thathe makes, and then he also adds it into the soil as he plants, or before he plants. sodo you want to talk about why you do each of those different ones? and why not justone or the other? josh: certainly. it's mostly logistics, thati want to get lots of material on the ground. i'm dealing with, you know, we did a calculation,fifty four tons of material. which is a huge

amount of material. so, it's hard to get allthe material on the ground this time of year, so we usually spread it in the fall. we addabout half of it, to our compost that's ready to go into the fields, for next year's fertility.some of the compost isn't quite ready to go at the end of the year so we add that rockeddust right into the compost and basically inoculate that compost, where all those microbesare, that are breaking down all that organic matter. we throw in some rock dust and they'regoing to be super happy to get that too because they're going to be digesting that. we’llspread that, the following year, and, so all those microbes in the rock dust, well someof them at least, are going to be more available to the plants. so we need to get some outon the field, and then we want to add some

to our compost so that next year we spreadthat, it's more available to the plants. john: that's awesome. so, let's talk about,you know, you bought fifty four tons of the rock dust? is that right? josh: that's about right, yeah. john: wow so, i mean, the thing is, luckilywhere we are here, he has actually local sources of rock dust, -well actually he sourced itfrom rockdustlocal.com, and literally it's like what? pennies a pound, for the rock dust?so is this a much better, you know, dollar spent for fertilizer than other bag productsthat may cost, you know, $1.50, 30 cents a pound?

josh: yeah if you're doing your economicsover a longer period of time then certainly the payback is, it's gonna be there, becauseyou're spending so little per weight of material, compared to a fifty pound bag of fertilizer.what you really need though, is to pay attention to the soil, because you need that biologyin the soil, you need those microbes in the soil, so you need to take care of the soil,because that rock dust will just sit there, unless you have the microbes to digest it.so we have to make sure that we're fostering those microbes too. but certainly, it's costeffective, in the long term. john: yes i mean this is on a large scaleobviously, for home gardeners you’re going to buy a fifty pound bag or thirty five poundsthrough the mail, it definitely could get

a lot more than pennies a pound. usually ifyou've got a mail order, it's maybe around a dollar a pound, maybe a bit less. so josh,another factor you talked about was the microbes. besides rocked dust, you know, microbes areessential to plant life and, how do you encourage the microbial growth in your soil so thatthe rock dust works efficiently, and your plants are able to absorb and get all thenutrients they need? josh: so we're trying to build organic matterin our soil. so the organic matter is the living, decaying, part of the soil, that themicrobes are feeding on. so you always need to make sure that the microbes are gettingfed. we're feeding them our compost, and then we're also keeping the soil covered with covercrops. so we just see that our fall cover

crops -peas and oats, and vetch and rye willgo in soon. so that's going to cover the soil, and as the plants grow about the ground andphotosynthesize, the roots, below the ground, are sloughing off into the soil, feeding themicrobes with sugars so that they have something to eat, and it’s also covering them. youdon't want your microbes in your soil, bare and exposed, you know, because nothing inlife wants to be so exposed like a desert, you want it to be nice and covered so youwant something green on there all the time. john: awesome. so you talked a little bitearlier about rock dust as a long term investment, and i know now you've been doing this forabout what? five years, with the rock dust? so, what have you seen as some of the improvementsthat you've seen just within these five years,

even maybe before five years, maybe even aftera year or two, have you seen any improvements in the crops and the yield and whatever you'regrowing and, -what is it? what's happening? josh: certainly. our yields have gone up,the quality of produce has gone up too so, we're not just harvesting, you know, likea big head of cabbage, we're harvesting a cabbage that you can put into storage andgo back, three weeks, four weeks later, and pull it out, and it's still a nice head ofcabbage. so it's increasing, not only the quantity of the yield, but it's the qualityof the produce too that's increasing, by making sure that that plant has the food that itneeds. john: awesome. yeah i mean, this is what irecommend to you guys whether you guys are

a big market garden, or commercial farm, orjust home gardener, i think we all got to get on the rock dust. so josh, any last commentsyou’d like to share with my viewers today regarding the farm here, and the mission ofthe farm, how to get more information if they want to come visit you, or anything like that. josh: so yeah we're at shelburne farms, inshelburne, vermont. we have a website: shelburnefarms.org. we are a destination for people to come andvisit, to walk around the farm, to take tours of the farm, and we have a lot of educationalprograms for kids primarily, to get them exposed to a natural environment, an agriculturalenvironment, so they know where their food comes from and they care about that.

john: yeah i mean, i definitely encourageyou guys, and recommend visiting shelburne farms here. it's been really fun for me andespecially if you’ve got kids, or you live in the area, you want to get involved in someof the summer classes and programs because, above all else, as much as i teach adultsthese topics, the kids really need to learn where food comes from, it comes from motherearth, you know, it comes from the ground, it doesn't come from the grocery store, itdoesn't come in packages right? and we need to eat more fruits and vegetables. so anywaysi really hope you guys enjoy this episode, if you did please give me a thumbs up to letme know. maybe i’ll try to come back to shelburne farms next time i'm actually intown visiting. also be sure to click on subscribe

button right down below, i have over 1,100videos, and i'm coming out with new videos all the time on topics so that you guys cangrow food more effectively, and grow higher quality food for you and your family. andbe sure to check my past episodes, i have and wealth of knowledge contained in all myepisodes, and i like to visit farms and show you guys different ways of doing things, andhopefully, after watching this video you've learned a lot of new ways to improve the healthof you and your family as well as the crops, by using the rock dust. once again, my nameis john kohler with growingyourgreens.com, we'll see next time and until then, remember- keep on growing.