1. Hoophouses help to extend the growing season for fresh vegetables in Michigan. Tell us how you decided to bring the concept to this area and how long have you been in business.
Through the continued work and patience of many others including the Michigan State University (MSU) Student Organic Farm, The Giving Tree Farm, and others around Michigan and the United States, we have been working with hoophouses for the past eight years. For us, farming without a hoophouse was not really an option. Our first sale was on November 4, 2008.
2. We hear that you both work two jobs and have a baby how do you find the time. I don’t know, do you have any to spare?
In reality, we spend a lot of our “free” time working on our farm. It is something that we are passionate about and have wanted to make happen since before we were married and are willing to put the work in to make it happen. We have tried the approach of not doing things around the farm to see if they would do themselves, but unfortunately they did not.
3. One of the best things about a hoophouse is produce can be grown in all stages at the same time. By simply placing plastic over the crops, as many as three hardiness zones can be circumvented. Explain the concept of the hoophouse.
A hoophouse is basically a structure covered with greenhouse grade polyethylene (plastic) that is passively cooled and does not use any supplemental heat or light, even in the winter. We use the hoophouse to plant warm season crops earlier in the spring and keep them later in the fall. We then plant cool season crops from August 1st to about the middle of October, let them get up to size before the light levels and temperatures get too low for good growth and then harvest as needed throughout the winter. In the coldest part of the winter we add another interior layer of agriculture fabric (row cover) to act as an additional blanket.
4. Is it organic? What is organic?
Our farm is not United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Certified Organic. We use organic practices but have made the decision to not become USDA Certified Organic at this time. More information about the USDA National Organic Program and that definition is available at http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/ofp/ofp.shtml
5. How do consumers know that you have produce to sell?
We send out an email on Sunday nights listing what we have available and how much each item costs. Customers then send back their orders by Tuesdays at 4pm and we harvest to order. We have a running distribution list that we add people to if they are interested. We also have a Local Harvest listing and people can find us and email from there (http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M25189). A lot of people have found out about us from other customers via word of mouth.
6. Gardens promote sustainability and the importance of fresh foods and vegetables. How do you see the local environment reacting to the burgeoning trend in the next three years?
It seems that more and more people are producing some of their own food at various scales. In the next three years we see more people gardening and more people farming too.
7. We hear that organic vegetables taste good. What are the benefits of eating organic vegetables?
There are many things that contribute to the taste of a vegetable including (but not limited to) the variety or cultivar, production practices, and how the vegetable(s) were handled after they were harvested. Clearly there are numerous benefits to eating fresh vegetables and fruits, and when they are purchased from someone that lives near you there are also numerous economic benefits too.
8. What kind of vegetables do you grow?
We grow a number of different vegetables depending on the time of year. Right now we have asparagus, onions, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, salad mix, turnips, zucchini, peas, yellow squash, kale, fava beans, and green beans growing. In the winter we also had spinach, cilantro, mustard, and radishes. This year we are still planning to plant broccoli, cauliflower, basil, cabbage, and a few other crops. We are also thinking about putting in some blueberries and raspberries in the next few years.
Ten Hens Farm is located at 7539 Clark Road in Bath, MI. For more information
e-mail them at
tenhensfarm@gmail.com.
