Tonopah Rob's Vegetable Farm

Last September an experiment was undertaken here on my farm by my website guru and photographer John Wise. John was given a 12 foot by 14 foot plot to plant whatever he chose. Over the next 10 months he had to prepare the land, plant seeds, weed, water (we helped on that front more than once), harvest, and replant.

Some of you may want to pay attention here because September is here again and if anyone out there were to want to start a fall vegetable garden, now is the time to get busy. John got started by rototilling the plot, although, as it was only 168 square feet, he could have easily turned it over with a shovel. Sure it would have taken longer and maybe unused muscles would have been tested, but this isn’t too large an area to work by hand. In order to enrich the soil, before tilling John added some chicken poop, pecan shells, straw, humate, three bags of Bioflora, and oyster shell.

 The plot was divided into two equal sections, one half north, the other on the south. He was too far along when I recognized his mistake, he should have bisected the plot east to west for best sun exposure between rows, but this is an experimental plot to see how someone with little to no experience would fare in planting his first crops in the desert – with a little help from yours truly. The reason for the two sections was to allow two different methods of watering, the leafy greens on the north side would be watered by sprinkling, while the south plot with root crops and cabbage would be flood irrigated.

That day was September 21st when John knelt down and started planting. Into the earth went seed for carrots (that never got thinned and in turn never really grew large), mantanghong radishes also known as beauty hearts, and few other varieties of radishes. Next up, 3 varieties of beets, collard greens, rutabagas, turnips, broccoli, cabbage, and borrage. This was the plot that would be flood irrigated. The center raised row separating the two halves had approximately 50 cloves of garlic planted in it. The other side of the plot was sown with chard, red mustard, orach, chual, green wave mustard, Tokyo bekana, mizuna, arugula, cilantro, salad burnett, spinach, corn salad, many varieties of lettuce, and chives.

The plot was fenced in with chicken wire to keep out the rodents and covered with bird netting to stop the birds from steeling seed and sprouts as they emerged. A few days later John and his wife spent a week in Washington D.C.

While away we watered his plot and then upon his first visit back to the farm John had the wonderful surprise that the first sprouts were poking through the soil.

If you should know just one thing about my friends John and Caroline, it would be that they like to travel. Not a month after getting home from D.C. the two of them took off to New York City and Philadelphia – more watering courtesy of Rob and Jerry! Upon John’s return it had been barely more than a month after the initial planting and much in the plot was already doing quite well, while some things were not. The lettuce had either been planted too deep or the ants made off with the majority of it, a replanting was in order, which occurred on October 26th. One strip in the north plot wasn’t sprouting so John tried planting some fenugreek, quelite greens, and huazontle greens (you’ll have to ask him where he came up with all of these exotic seeds for vegetables he thought would be interesting to try).

After this point his plot started to produce and change radically. His first harvest was just one day after replanting the lettuce. On October 27th John pulled up a half pound of radishes, 1.75 pound mix of arugula, mezuna, and Tokyo bekana – all salad greens. Two days later on the 29th another half pound of radishes were ready. And yet again 2 days later another half pound of radishes along with another half pound of mixed arugula, mezuna, and Tokyo bekana.

Like rabbits John and Caroline tried eating through their growing windfall of produce – salads were the dinner of choice for days. A short break until November 5th allowed him to get caught up before picking 1.1 pounds of mixed radishes. Four days later on the 9th saw another 1 and a quarter pounds of radish, 2.7 pounds of mix arugula, mezuna, and bekana, and his first harvest of 1.25 pounds of collard greens. At this point John was happy the lettuce failed and was being replanted as his refrigerator was starting to collect a quickly expanding harvest.

It would be 11 days and a trip to Florida for some snorkeling in the Keys and camping on the Dry Tortugas between harvests when on November 20th prior to watering his plot John would have to cut a third of a pound of cilantro, 6.5 pounds of radishes, 1.2 pounds of spinach, 2.6 pounds of Tokyo bekana, .75 pounds of broccoli greens, 1 pound of turnip greens, a quarter pound of borage, and a half pound of chual. He also counted 29 garlic sprouts in the center row. In less than 60 days John had already harvested over 23 pounds of food for him and his wife – and the harvest had just begun.

By now John was already learning that he’d planted the carrots far too thick and would be almost impossible to thin, same with the spinach. The spinach was having difficulty growing large as it was too crowded, some of it never grew more than a couple three inches tall. Another lesson, don’t plant what you aren’t really sure you know what to do with – that borage, well it all went into the trash, and it would continue going to waste until John, tired of cutting this prolific plant down, decided to remove it from his plot entirely.

December 3rd, time for the 7th harvest of the season: 1.2 pounds of lettuce mix (the second planting took), 3.8 pounds of mixed salad greens, 1.9 pounds of spinach, 3.9 pounds of turnips and turnip greens, .8 pound of beets with greens, and the last of the radishes weighing in at one half pound.

With cooling weather John’s plot was slowing down, another two weeks passed before the next light harvest. On December 19, 3 pounds of turnips with greens were pulled – that was it before the new year. And then on January 9th, 2010 John left the farm overwhelmed – he harvested, cleaned, and bagged up 18 pounds of food from his little plot on Tonopah Rob’s farm; 2.6 pounds of chard, 3.5 pounds of mizuna and bekana mix, plus 4.2 pounds of mizuna, bekana, arugula mix, 3.5 pounds of turnips and greens, 1.6 pounds of lettuce mix, .9 pounds of beets and greens, his first mini carrots tipping the scale at 1.7 pounds.

The next crop failure was becoming evident, the beets were not performing, the beet roots were small, most of the harvest weight were the greens. This failure though might be attributed to the weather this season as John and I used different seed stock and yet both of us had poor germination rates and small beets. We’ll both hope for better, bigger, more abundant beets this coming season.

Outside of watering and weeding John has done nothing else to his plot. Keep in mind, the kinds of harvest he was getting had a lot to do with the fact that he planted the rows very close together and the seeds close together. This intensive planting allows plants to act as ground cover to keep soils cool in summer and they retain warmth on very cold days to help prevent freezing – although that doesn’t always work and frost cloth may be required. On those really cold nights frost cloth should be put out, so it’s in your best interest to pay attention to your evening weather forecast. As this was John’s experimental plot where part of what he was testing was how would this 12×14 foot plot perform with a minimal amount of attention verging on neglect, figuring this was how many first time backyard gardeners were likely to treat their veggies as time dragged on.

To his great surprise John was constantly amazed by how prolific such a small plot with such short rows would produce so much food. Sure, he had seen how much food I pull from my plots but when a row is 40 foot long, maybe it isn’t so easy to correlate how much harvest might come out of a much smaller area of the garden or farm.

After the harvest on the 9th, John and his wife were off to Yellowstone for a week of snowshoeing. Then on January 27th with John claiming his fridge as close to bare while still retaining enough greens to feed a family of rabbits he began his next harvest bagging up 1.75 pounds of broccoli, 1 pound of beets with greens, and 1.4 pounds of carrots. Not a big harvest but the food is starting to add up.

February 18th and another big haul. Nearly 17 pounds total harvest from his rows of lettuce, spinach, carrots, and turnips with greens. At this point it was a bit more than 6 months ago, or 150 days that the first seeds were planted, over this time John and his wife had taken home 77.25 pounds of food from their plot. I do believe had this been all that John grew he would have been satisfied but he was far from finished. To be continued.

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Need fresh healthy eggs? This Saturday only out at the Farm Stand here in Tonopah, I’ll be selling eggs and a few veggies. Eggs will be on sale for $4.00 for 1 dozen, $7.50 for 2 dozen, 3 dozen for only $10.00 – but if you buy 4 or more dozen you’ll  be paying a mere $2.50 PER DOZEN! This Saturday only from 7:00 to 10:00 am.

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The Farm Stand CSA for the 2010 / 2011 season at Tonopah Rob’s Vegetable Farm is now formally announced!

This modified CSA program is an evolutionary step away from the weekly CSA to offer customers a less expensive option while also providing greater flexibility in regards to what produce a customer will be taking home. With the Farm Stand CSA the customer pre-pays for either a half or a full share, but instead of receiving a weekly basket filled by us with various produce , it is up to the customer to decide which Saturdays or Sundays they will visit the farm stand and precisely what they would like to pack up from the shelves to take home to their families.

The 2010 / 2011 season will operate from November 6th through approximately July 17th – weather, crops, and natural disasters permitting. During this time you have NO weekly commitment, you may pickup from any location I am selling produce at on Saturday or Sunday. Keep in mind that the Farm Stand here in Tonopah on Saturday mornings will offer the greatest selection.

Half shares and full shares are offered and only a limited number of shares will be sold. The half share costs $200 while the full share is priced at $500. All shares must be paid in advance. What do you receive for paying in advance? You qualify for a 10% bonus with your share. Pay me $200 and you will be picking up $220 worth of veggies, pay me $500 and stuff your bags with an extra $50 worth of produce.

Some folks have already sent in their money to guarantee their share, they also qualified for my early bird discount. For customers signing up prior to October 15th, I am offering an extra $10 credit on their account.

I can already hear some people asking, but why should I give you my money in advance? The answer is, because of the great bargain I am offering with the 10% bonus and the extra $10 if you send payment prior to October 15th. Maybe $30 doesn’t sound like all that much, consider this, your bank is likely paying at best about 0.01% interest on the money you have in your savings account. On $200 you are going to earn 2 cents over the course of the year, that’s 5 cents for your $500. To earn what I’m offering you, you would have to have $200,000 in your primary saving account or $500k for the larger share. But who would keep that kind of money in a simple savings account, ok, so you could lock up that money in a 5 year CD that would pay you the same in interest that you are saving with me. Not only are you getting a great bargain, but you are doing something positive for your health and your local economy.

Still not convinced to part with your cash, here, let me show you what $30 of free food looks like:

You are looking at rainbow carrots, jalapenos, Anaheim chilies, eggplant, onion, squash, garlic, green beans, bell peppers, cucumber, tomatoes, new red potatoes, a bunch of beets with edible beet greens, a basket of cherry tomatoes, and a dozen eggs. And if you subscribe to the $500 share, this amount doubles!!!

We will keep track of your purchases in a ledger and update you regarding your balance on each subsequent visit. There are no refunds for monies not spent during our 9 month growing season, you spend it, or lose it. If during the season you would like to upgrade your $200 share, no problem, we can do that for you at any time. There are NO downgrades allowed, meaning, if you buy a $500 share, you may not shrink it to a $200 share.

There are no food restrictions as to what you may take to fulfill your share, if one week you want 5 pounds of a certain product, no problem, although it would be a courtesy to let us know beforehand that you are considering picking up a bulk order of a particular item. Your share is not limited to produce, you may also pick up eggs, flowers, and honey as part of your order.

To sign up, fill out the application form that you can find here or in the links in the top menu. You must pay with cash, check, or money order – sorry but no credit or debit cards permitted for payment for the Farm Stand CSA.

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Strange thing happened on the way to the plow the other day, the economy jumped out and killed the CSA. No, this isn’t a pun nor is it exactly how it happened, but the fact is that my traditional weekly CSA is going the way of the dodo bird into extinction. It would appear that the poor state of the economy last year had many folks preserving money and not feeling comfortable about parting with a chunk of change to participate in my CSA program, and so without a flood of requests or even a trickle coming in during the first half of this year, I’m laying the weekly CSA program to rest, while the smaller, more flexible Farm Stand CSA will continue to LIVE!

I quietly rolled out the Farm Stand CSA last year as a lower-cost option to the traditional CSA and some of you became subscribers. In an upcoming posting I’ll give everyone the full details regarding this program along with the form for you to sign up.

I have to say how peculiar it is that while the CSA appears to be a victim of our economy in shambles, my farm stand business was better than ever during the past nine months. It has been so successful that we expanded our Saturday farm stand to the Sunday market that started out at an ACE Hardware parking lot and ended up over a Walgreen’s parking lot in Goodyear. And now we are adding a second Sunday market up in Wickenburg that will coincide with our grand reopening around November 6th. So, business and demand is skyrocketing but still there is evidence that folks are nervous about spending.

There’s a lot more information we’ll be posting here very soon, hopefully a few things that will be both entertaining and enlightening. Stay tuned.

This “old” photo was posted back in May 2008 and is still a favorite of mine.

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So here it is, one of those rare summer openings where I have a few things and I’m sure that after a month absence some of you are in need of a fresh food fix. Oh how I would like to tell you I have perfect corn, lots and lots of yummy corn. Well what I have is definately sweet and yummy but from the storm damage and poor pollination, the corn I do have might be hit and miss in the appearance department. But I’ve tried it and feel that many of you will enjoy it too.

Slowly we are recuperating from the storm damage, the big tree is gone along with the awning it took out. The farm stand still stands tall though and it will be under that starting at 7:00 am this Saturday August 14 that this ONE DAY sale will take place. Maybe some of you would like to stock up on some fresh eggs? I have them and you could bring back the old empty cartons too! So come out early before the heat picks up and visit the farm this Saturday.

• Sweet Corn
• Okra
• Carrots
• Fresh Eggs
• Eggplant
• All kinds of assorted peppers
• Lots of Onions
• maybe Winter Squash
• maybe garlic

Call 623-386-3033 if you need help finding the place. We’ll be open till 11:00 with the credit card machine fired up and ready to go.

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It’s the time of the year when I must take some time off and tend to a few small vacation get-a-ways.  In between my get-a-ways I will hold a few one day sales as my late summer crops ripen.  I cannot give a specific date because I don’t know exactly when the crops will ripen-it all depends on the weather.

 I just returned from the New England area July 28th, 2010.  July 29th around five thirty in the evening my farm was hit by a devastating storm.  I had several thousand dollars worth of damage to some of my structures.  One of the oldest trees growing next  to my house fell onto the patio missing my home by less than a foot but took out the awning.  One of  the greenhouse frames and several other structures were bent and twisted into odd shapes.  The east side chicken coop was blown over, that damage is yet to be determined.  About five other trees were torn apart and my beautiful crop of corn is mostly laying flat on the ground in a criss-crossing pattern.  Scores of birds were killed and their bodies were scattered all over the yard and farm.  In the 13 years I have lived here in Tonopah, I have never seen such violent weather let alone have all this damage.

I hope the corn crop will survive  so that I may include it in my one day sales.  The pepper plants took a hard lashing and most of the  plants look like they were braided into a weird design.  The okra plot looks like it was sheared by a huge pair of loppers.  It looks like the rows of beans are missing plants.  Maybe they were uprooted and tossed somewhere on my farm or into the neighbors yard because I have yet to find them.

My plans to begin fall planting will now be on hold until I can get all of the debris out of the way.  If you would like to help me out, I would like to make a suggestion-say a prayer, keep your fingers crossed or throw salt over your shoulder and wish the farm good tidings.  Whatever you do will be appreciated. 

If you want to be kept abreast of the situation, please email me and ask to be added to my weekly email list.  I probably won’t be updating my blog for quite some time, there is way too much for me to do right now and I must concentrate my efforts on the farm.  You may email me at tonopahrob@gmail.com.  

Thank you,

Tonopah Rob

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This Saturday out at my farm in Tonopah I will be celebrating Customer Appreciation Day. This one-day sale, held exclusively at the Farm Stand on my farm, is my way of saying thanks for the fantastic season and all of the support I receive from so many very wonderful customers. Lots of stuff will be on sale with some items priced at the same price as I would offer for bulk sale. This is your opportunity to stock up and put away the great flavors of summer to carry you through the coming months until I re-open for regular hours in November. What can you do with so much food? In the photo above green beans, carrots, onion wedges, a few slices of garlic, and some chopped peppers are all thrown into a quart bag and then frozen for steaming later.

Or, lets say you buy 125 pounds of tomatoes like John did (I hope you are not that crazy), he spent the last week cooking and canning nearly every day. When he was done he had canned 54 quarts of pasta sauce and V8 – that’s 13 1/2 gallons of sauce and juice! The pyramid you are looking at is 3 bottles deep on the bottom row, 2 bottles deep on the second row, and two single rows sitting on top plus the crown. Two bottles are missing, the two quarts he has already shared with me of his yummilicious V8.

Cut up carrots, I don’t bother with peeling them, dip them in boiling water for a few minutes before dropping them into ice water to finish blanching them, it really only takes a few minutes of your time to bag up and freeze carrots to enjoy over the next months. Same with green beans, pull off the stem, boil for a minute or two and dip in ice water. And for the recipe up top, boil water in a large pot, put the carrots in and set your timer for 3 minutes; with a minute and a half left, add the green beans. Remove from boiling water and immediately immerse in ice water. The onions, garlic, and peppers do not need blanching, bag it up the mixture and freeze.

This Saturday is the one day of the year that I offer greatly reduced prices. This is also my last weekend market before I go on vacation. If you are interested in buying bulk weights please contact me as soon as possible at 623-386-3033. The Farm Stand will open at 7:00 and will close at approximately 11:00.

For you Sunday shoppers on Estrella Parkway and Van Buren, I will be open this Sunday at the Walgreens parking lot but this one day Customer Appreciation sale is only being offered out at the farm. So if you have never visited me out in Tonopah, this might be your weekend to take the drive.

• Roma canning tomatoes – bulk
• Large heirloom and early girl tomatoes – bulk 
• Georgia Peach Tomatoes 
• Lilac Bells, Anaheim’s, Assorted bells, some with color, Italian sweet peppers, jalapenos, all in bulk 
• Beans 
• Carrots – bulk 
• Onions, yellow sweet, Italian red tropea, white pearl, and more in bulk 
• Garlic – bulk 
• Cucumbers 
• Eggplant 
• Fresh Eggs 
• Nectarines 
• Figs 
• maybe a few strawberries 
• Winter Squash 
• Okra 
• maybe SunRey’s Citrus Farm-ruby red grapefruit-omg is it yummy

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It was a carrotty day in the carrot patch back behind the carrot barn. The Farmer, one Mr. Daucus Carota was busy preparing Queen Anne’s Lace for lunch and couldn’t be bothered to notice that a devil’s plague was overtaking the patch out back. Farmer Carota had been warned by his friend Jeff Chiplis of Cleveland, who is also known as the Carrot King, that he must pick early and pick often for the carrots to be in their prime. But our Farmer seemed to have carrots in his ears and wasn’t paying attention this day, he was going to finish his meal and then get to preparing for his vacation, for this year farmer Carota was heading to Holtville, California “The Carrot Capital of the World”!

Scratching his head he tried to remember how it is he came to learn of Holtville and their annual carrot festival. It may have been that famous Japanese farmer Mr. Ninjin whom Carota had met at Hotel Carrot in Kawaguchiko, Japan while on vacation a couple of years back. And, sticking to this theme, it was just last year that his vacation took him to Belgrade, Serbia to imbibe at the famous Irish Pub called The Three Carrots. But this is getting off the matter at hand: Farmer Carota and his girlfriend with the impossible name of Umbella Feray would have to harvest the remaining 10,866 carrots and get them to market before they started turning into Carrot Whiskey.

Just then the phone rang, it’s Romana Zawarti over in Newport, Rhode Island. Stick a carrot in me, I’m done, thinks Farmer Carota. Romana goes on and on about her carrot collection and how her Bed and Breakfast is just doing great. Now that she’s been crowned the Carrot Queen having attained a collection of carrotabelia of over 2,000 pieces she’s begging that the California trip be canceled and that Daucus and Umbella head back East to witness the largest carrot collection in the world. The more he thought about it the better this idea sounded, maybe he’d book a couple tickets to Boston and drive on down to Newport, heck it’s only 73 miles, and he could include a visit to Johnny’s Selected Seed company up in Maine on the same trip. It was a thought and anyway he had heard that Romana’s carrot jam was the best in the world.

In two weeks he’d be on his way but until then his customers had but a couple more chances to stop by and buy his perfect carrots. His Farm Stand out in Tonopah, Arizona and the Farmers Market on Estrella Parkway and Van Buren would be open from early morning to just before lunch. You better make plans to get out his way, time is running out before the Farmer is away on vacation and your chance to munch on his carrots becomes a distant memory.

• Huge Juicy Carrots
• Field Garlic
• Italian Garlic
• Red Tropea Onions
• More Onions
• Delicious sweet Tomatoes
• More Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Red and Russet Potatoes
• Dragon Tongue Beans-my favorite
• Yellow and Green Snap Beans
• Italian Flat Pod Beans
• Carrots – that’s what I’m talking about.
• Okra
• Some Strawberries-farm stand only
• Maybe Nectarines
• Lots of sweet peppers like Marconi’s and Bull Horns
• Lilac, Green, Red, and more colors of Bell Peppers
• Summer Squash and maybe Winter Varieties
• Honey
• Eggplant
• Fresh Eggs
• Figs
• Tomatillos

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