Summer 2011 in Tweets

If I urban farm tweeted, instead of blogged, it would have gone like this with some introspective tweets thrown in for good measure.

Inserted hyperlinks nixay the 140 character count rule.

GENERAL AND GOODNESS

Looks like I fell into the ol’ farm blog summer cliché.

All in all, the summer was rad, slightly marred by rain and more marred by mice, but I’ll take it.

Sales tripled! But still nowhere near enough to live on. Onwards, upwards, and fine tuning is needed.

Most of that tripling was people based sales.

That being said, these restaurants treated me well: Fat Cat’s, Root Cafe, Sow Food and to a lesser extent Bar Cento. Mucho Gracias.

Mexican Sour Gherkins ruled the season. Next year, I’m sure there’ll be imitator growers :) and I won’t be able to say exclusive anymore.

As a farmer, don’t visit your mom on Mother’s Day. Sorry mom.

I found out that I’m legally zoned to have a farmstand without having to go to Cleveland’s Kafka-esque Board of Zoning Appeals. Sweetness!

Old Husher’s Farm now accepts WIC and Senior Food Coupons. So far none of these folks have been crackhead junkies like the teabaggers say.

If anybody knows the secret to selling heirloom peppers, please enlighten me.

This week, I pulled off my 1st farm-to-school fall veggie sampler at Berea Elementary. The kids ate kale chips and kohlrabi! Success!

I threatened the children with an “F,” if they didn’t try my veggies. Just kidding. Also, there was no Hidden Valley Ranch on hand.

Actually, it was on hand, we just didn’t need to crack the bottle.

LESSONS LEARNED

A good varmint is a dead varmint.

Skunks, groundhogs, possums, mice. I don’t discriminate.

In the epic 2011 Battle of Mice Versus Melons, the mice won (see representative photo).

There’s no such thing as a vegan vegetable. Something’s gotta die.

FUTURE

I found another quarter acre plot for Old Husher’s Perennial Expansion Farm (OHPEF).

OHPEF is located in the post-ghetto wasteland mentioned in my blog, http://thegardenlifeandtimesofjustinhusher.blogspot.com/2011/03/csa-share-revenue-bond-partnership-and.html. Funny how that works.

Next year, I either need to work on better spacing, or conversely better thinning.

I could use a trailer at this point in my life too.

BS

Some restaurants are full of total ish.

Momocho allegedly told me that they “wouldn’t know what to do with 10 pounds of ROYGBIV cherry tomatoes.”

Three Birds allegedly told me they “have a garden out back where we grow all that (regarding basil).” Upon inspection no garden was found.

Deagan’s allegedly wants a three month production schedule in advance.

My second year in, and already I’m competing with the big boys, Chef’s Garden.

I actually like competition so that last statement shouldn’t be in the BS section, but I didn’t know where else to put it.

DRAMA AND RANT

Pete Gagepro is still harassing me. The City of Cleveland still won’t commit to anything long-term and took four months to return my lease.

I’m more worried about Cleveland’s slackadaisicalness, than Pete’s neurosis.

The City says they want orchards, but won’t give us long-term leases or sell us our land affordably. That’s a mixed message.

What the City needs to realize is that they are training us to move (for cheaper land in the ‘burbs/rural lands) with piddly 5-year leases.

Conversely, there are some hardcore poser/slackers in our Local Food Scene. Self-absorbed and selfish, these folks make us all look bad.

That’s why urban homestead laws, like the one I wrote about in this blog, http://thegardenlifeandtimesofjustinhusher.blogspot.com/2011/02/cleveland-urban-homestead-law.html are crucial.