Bootstrap Acres

Our first soil blocks. We’d tried and failed before, but...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:29:10 -0500

Our first soil blocks. We’d tried and failed before, but it turns out following the recipe really does help.

Soil blocks are a way to start seedlings in an environment that’s as close to the field conditions as possible. They’re supposed to reduce or eliminate transplant shock. We’ll see how this goes.

Soil-blocking ingredients fill a corner of the basement.

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:27:55 -0500

Soil-blocking ingredients fill a corner of the basement.

Everything else was ready to build a backyard hoophouse for...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:23:57 -0500

Everything else was ready to build a backyard hoophouse for seedlings, but there was this issue of snow. So shoveling it was.

Seeds, tools, and other supplies have been arriving for weeks....

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:11:47 -0500

Seeds, tools, and other supplies have been arriving for weeks. Here our research team explores the new Earthway seeder.

You’re invited to a special Bootstrap Acres event on Tuesday,...

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:12:17 -0500

You’re invited to a special Bootstrap Acres event on Tuesday, March 23. We will be demonstrating how to measure produce quality in Brix.

Here’s the event information we’re sending out:

You can measure food quality simply and easily!

Great produce is a potent source of nourishment and energy. But even very low quality produce can look beautiful. So how can you know which produce is the most nutrient-dense?

Ryan and Nicole Platte of Bootstrap Acres will demonstrate how to measure nutrient density in Brix units. We will analyze produce and milk with a refractometer, and discuss what we find.

How to measure your produce

What Brix tells you about nutrients

Why high-Brix foods and organic foods may or may not be the same ones!

What gardeners can do to increase the Brix of their produce

Bring along produce to measure—some of the results may be surprising!

We’re very excited and hope to see you there! Event details:

Tuesday, March 23, 2010, 7:00 pm
$5 donation suggested to cover event expenses
Bring produce to measure!
Artisan Church, 1235 S. Clinton Ave., Rochester NY (map)

Thanks to Laura Villanti and the Rochester chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation for making this event happen.

Watch this space

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:10:39 -0500

Our site has been quiet, but Bootstrap Acres is a flurry of activity. Lots of tools, supplies, and plans buzzing around the house. We’ve never planned a farm season before and are excited and a bit intimidated.

Over the next few days many elements will be coming together. We will be sharing the birth of the farm here as it progresses!

GMOs: an unacceptable risk

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:02:31 -0500

I wrote the following to a radio show that had an episode promoting the notion that genetically-modified crops had a place in organics. This is a horrifying notion, that consumers would not have any label information available that would let them choose not to eat genetically-modified food!

Michael,

I am writing to you to ask you to consider cancelling publication of your upcoming podcast promoting the idea of GMO use within organics.

Research from this May has shown that the cp4 epsps transgene from Roundup Ready® corn was identified in microarthropods, nematodes, macroarthropods and earthworms sampled within the corn cropping system. That finding is published in a paper available here:

http://bit.ly/6gauyk

This means that the foreign proteins created by GMO crops are indeed transferring to other organisms. Monsanto and the other creators of genetically-modified organisms are creating a global disaster nobody can predict or control, and they’re using your show to help promote it.

For details of this unprecedented threat, you can review this information:
http://www.bangmfood.org/publications/4-short-leaflets/1-genetically-modified-gm-foods-renewed-threat-to-europe

I’m aware that this will seem to be a large and unusual request, but upon reflection I hope you will agree it is an appropriate one given the scale of the threat posed to the human race by genetic modification of food.

Take a stand, Michael, and represent the interests of our children and grandchildren.

Our mission

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:04:22 -0500

The mission of Bootstrap Acres is to provide our community the most flavorful, nutrient-dense food available anywhere.

We will build both demand and supply of nutrient-dense food by teaching, supplying, and helping consumers, retailers, and farmers.

Rick Bishop of Mountain Sweet Berry Farm in Roscoe, New York....

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:03:32 -0500

Rick Bishop of Mountain Sweet Berry Farm in Roscoe, New York. This is the kind of farm we want to create.

An acre and a half of our field is plowed and waiting for the...

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 07:00:40 -0500

An acre and a half of our field is plowed and waiting for the next step. We have tested the soil and are ordering a batch of soil amendments so it can grow nutrient-dense food.

This is the start of something exciting!

Article on Brix for the everyday shopper

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:04:00 -0500

Article on Brix for the everyday shopper:

This is great information about how to measure your food for quality and nutrition.

Ryan is at the Acres USA conference in St. Paul, Minnesota. What...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:03:54 -0500

Ryan is at the Acres USA conference in St. Paul, Minnesota. What a fantastic gathering of bright American farmers!

Here speaker Michael Meléndrez is being introduced. He presented some fascinating and advanced information about humic acid, including some hints about original research he is conducting. Humic acid plays an important role in making soil nutrition available to plants.

Cherriette and baby daikon radishes.

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:35:04 -0500

Cherriette and baby daikon radishes.

View Larger Map We were out of town visiting relatives when our...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:35:00 -0500

View Larger Map

We were out of town visiting relatives when our plow contact came through. Right now Steve is driving a tractor over 3–4 miles and receiving training on how to operate it. Wish we could be there to see it!

Frosty leaves at night.

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:42:08 -0500

Frosty leaves at night.

We’re hoping to hire a plow this week to prepare 1.6 acres...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:29:14 -0500

We’re hoping to hire a plow this week to prepare 1.6 acres of bed area for our first year of production!

Laying out some of the 125 windows we’ve collected for covering...

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:02:33 -0400

Laying out some of the 125 windows we’ve collected for covering our crops over the winter months.

Nicole and Herman kick it backstage with the glamorous greens....

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:40:01 -0400

Nicole and Herman kick it backstage with the glamorous greens. In the green room, if you will.

Here’s our mizuna. It has a mildly peppery flavor that’s “just...

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:40:10 -0400

Here’s our mizuna. It has a mildly peppery flavor that’s “just enough.”

What’s even better than USDA organic certification?

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:39:00 -0400

Here’s something that shocks some people. We’re not USDA certified organic, though we may participate in that program at some point. The word “organic” began as a description of farming the old, natural way, without using chemicals to push plant growth and kill weeds and pests. Now the government has annexed the word so that organic growers must pay money, create copious documentation, check every move with their certifier, and share revenue with the government in order to be allowed to breathe the one word that best describes what they do already. We think we can do better than that.

If possible we would rather let our customers talk straight to us to certify that we’re growing food right than paying government to declare that we jumped through their hoops to their satisfaction! We have nothing to hide, so let’s be transparent and we think you’ll love what we do. How’s this?

Our present leased land hasn’t been farmed for 10 years. We have not applied any plant food, pesticides, or herbicides.

Our soil preparation has used the following inputs, all of them to provide needed minerals and nutrients for our plants to use:

Agricultural lime (provides calcium carbonate)
Ca-Mg lime (provides calcium and magnesium carbonates)
Gypsum (provides calcium and sulfur)
Rock phosphate (provides phosphorus)
Soy meal (provides gradual release of nitrogen, as well as some phosphorus and potassium)
Greensand (provides potassium and many trace minerals)
A small amount of bloodmeal (boosts nitrogen)

We mix these ourselves into a carefully-proportioned fertilizer that we apply to the top of our soil so rain, earthworms, and other friends can slowly break them down for our crops to use. All of these ingredients are directly from nature with minimal processing. Here’s what a batch of this custom natural fertilizer mix looks like:

We combine this with

limited watering
shallow tilling
not enough weeding yet! :-)

We strongly believe in feeding the soil ecosystem and treating the causes of weak growth and plant disease. We have not yet applied any plant food, herbicides, or pesticides, organic or otherwise. Should we desire or need to do so in the future, we will carefully research what treatments are best for the health of the plant, the soil, and especially the eaters—we’re nourishing our young family with this food, too!

We plan to compile a list with detailed information about all of our inputs: what’s in them, why we use them, and when we applied them. We won’t have such printed materials about our inputs ready for our first day at market on Saturday, but I want you to know that that’s something we care very deeply about.

Our goal is beyond “non-toxic food”, though of course that’s non-negotiable for us. Our goal is to grow nutrient-dense food. Vegetables, conventional or organic, can provide poor flavor and nutrition while still looking quite beautiful. We want to stuff our crops with health and nutrition rather than doing the minimum necessary to make an organism form leaves.

We will be glad to answer any questions at all about our practices and inputs. Please ask us anything at all!

Updated: removed a statement I couldn’t back up.