Platte Prairie Farms - EcoSystems Management

Platte Prairie Farms Spinach

 

Stop by and get essential local healthful in season organic vegetables.  I will be selling in season crops I have grown with loving care knowing my responsibility to nurture our Community back to health.

Then take a walk along the Missouri River at English Landing Park. Or have a picnic with your family and friends. Then you stand  on the three pilliars of your Primary Healthcare System… Healthful Local Foods, Exercise and Community.

Wednesday market will start on June 10th, 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Parkville Farmers Market will offer plants, spring vegetables and a variety of jams, jellies, bread, coffee, honey, meat, etc., and a lot of friendly vendors ready to serve you. The variety will change as the harvesting of crops turn through the spring, summer and fall.

Shanti means peace in Sanskrit, and that is the philosophy I hope to practice in creating and maintaining Shanti garden. Peace to the environment will be observed by using no-till and organic methods, and by implementing permaculture design. By using no-till planting methods, disrupting the natural ecosystem that exists (everywhere in all soil) is avoided. The life that exists in the soil is allowed to continue and flourish. This is beneficial to the plants grown on top because of the nutrients released by worms, insects, healthy bacteria and fungi, etc. Also, it is beneficial to the environment because carbon (a greenhouse gas when not affixed to soil) is not being released into the air.

The correct carbon to nitrogen ratio (30:1) is met by many gardeners and farmers - small scale and industrial alike - by adding pertroleum based fertilizers to their tilled soil. There is too much blood spilled over fossil fuels to include these products on Shanti Garden. Since we are not releasing the carbon in the soil into the air, the ammendment here is simply nitrogen. Something that good ‘ol (organic) chicken poop will take care of! I am not lecturing on organic here, only stating how it relates the the theme of my garden

I also agree with Steve that it is important - now more than ever - to build sustainable and local food sources. Food is one of the foundations of a culture, and it seems that ours is becoming watered down. Having food security is something that we as a society take for granted, and is something that may not always be there. By creating a local and sustainable food source, we are decreasing the chances of ever having to fight for a food source. Also, in my opinion, growing your own organic food is a huge step towards decreasing our dependence on foreign oil as a nation.

Finally, I want to express that I do not view Shanti Garden as my own. I view it as anybody and everybody’s who has an interest, helps in any way, or supports community agriculture. To anybody reading this, my garden is your garden. I also want to thank all the volunteers who show up and help in their spare time. I have the vision, but cannot do all the leg work on my own. I want to thank Steve for being my inspiration. Steve, you are the first truly like-minded person I have been honored enough to work with.

I’m done rambling now.

Namaste’,

Katie

shanti Volunteer Community Supporting Agriculture

We hear a lot about CSA’a now days even on Channel 5, I’m told(don’t watch the Big Eye myself). It seems usually it’s from the point of view of the farmers and growers. Who speaks for the Community? Who speaks for Earth? If we turn off the static of the cultural indoctrination we are likely to absorb from that Glowing Eye in the living room we can hear the voices of our Community, of our Home Planet and realize we belong to this Community of Life around us. What an exhilarating sensation to feel In Place on Earth. When the community gets involved with growing its food, talking, sharing the moment, bonding into a family. Do you see it? The vision of our home community, Main Street the folks that have the human energy to supply our needs. Forget about the shell game hucksters on Wall Street. Embrace the Local Living Economy. Grow Food Not Lawns!

Since I’ve sworn off straight rows I’m trying out some concepts I learned from the founder of modern Permaculture, Bill Mollison, swales, keyholes and edges.

My Tessellated Edge Beds consist of mini- swales created by mounding and shaping a mulch/ compost/bio active peat mixture into the desired shape. In this bed I run a zigzag swale between keyholes that are flipped. I placed a growing medium on the top and in triangular areas on the sides. On top I planted carrots. In opposite side beds I planted radishes and lettuce. The carrots will love the deep, loose growing mixture. All three carrots, lettuce and radishes are companions and thrive together.

I will plant peas on a series of bamboo trellises weaving horizontally down the length. Pole beans will be planted in early May after frost season. The peas and beans above the tender lettuce will shade it and extend its season into summer. At each end of the bed I will add a pile of rocks with lots of spots for toads, salamanders and lizards to live.

Brother Toad I welcome you to my garden today.

Bring all your family and friends.

Feast on squash bugs and slugs

and stay In the rock house I build you.

oatmeal, steel cut oats, rice, raisins and black beans

  With Platte Prairie Farm’s CSA you can add in organic commodities from the Squash Blossom Coop to your weekly food bag. We have oatmeal, rice, peanut butter, raw almonds, seeds for sprouting, flower, dry beans and other household commodities. And if we’re lucky, morel mushrooms.

The spirit of my grandfather visited me today in the form of a red winged blackbird.
He perched on the branch of the bamboo in my grove.
His song spoke to my soul.
He told me he has blessed my fields and I would have a bountiful harvest.
Put your hands into the rich earth, feel the life, feel the yearning
for the bright Sun, the sweet rains, the warm winds, he sang.
Oh grandfather I miss you so.

kamutgrass

If you got a shot of Kamutgrass juice last year from me at BadSeed you know what an energy boost and detoxifier Kamut juice is.  We will be offering a Kamutgrass CSA this year. Get a flat every week and give your immune system all the vitamins, proteins, minerals, enzymes, chlorophyll and antioxidants needed. to take you to the next step in your quest for optimum health. Just $12 weekly for fresh organic Kamutgrass. Other organic grains and blends available.

Eagle over Line Creek

I’ve been seeing a flock of bald eagles soaring and diving in the Line Creek valley and at Platte Prairie Farm. Both were homes to early farmers. Near my home the Nebo Hill People lived, hunted and farmed six to eight thousand years ago.  The Hopewell culture, People of the Black Sand lived in a village  along Line Creek over the hill from me. I feel this connection when I work my soil and plant food for my community. Seeing the wide winged eagles really brought this home again.

Using edge in a keyHole potato bed

 

Had one of those DUH moments last Saturday at Creekhouse Organic Community Garden where I have a No-Till plot. Toby and I were preparing to plant potatoes so we picked out the spot. I looked at the neat rows we had planted last year to the left and the three Sisters Squash patch on the right and knew I didn’t want to plant in straight rows ever again. Habits developed over many years are hard to break. I have been planting in straight rows for thirty nine years. Mother Nature said “wake up my boy, do you see me using any straight lines around you? Well !” So now I’m l lookin to do curves and keyhole  beds. Annidation or stacking, layering, tessellations and working the edge effect, Yea babe! I’m observing and seeking to use the Mothers own designs.

Potatoes planted in keyhole beds

Platte Prairie Farm’s first CSA season starts June 2nd and ends October 27th

Our distribution will be at the main farm 5223 N Merrimac KCMO or at BadSeed Farmers Marker on Friday evenings.  The CSA will run for 22 weeks.

 This year we will be growing beets, green onions, chard, carrots, lettuce, arugula, cabbage, radishes, turnips, kale, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, cucumbers, onions, green beans, sweet corn, melons, yellow squash/zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, winter squash,  collard greens, sweet potatoes and assorted herbs.

Call Steve  at 816 746-6595 to set up a visit and become part of our agricultural community. 

csa@prairietrading.com