Joe's Farm Cares

You may have noticed weeks ago that we were raising money on Joe's Farm to help Red Cross disaster relief in Haiti. The amount of money raised was probably very large based on the traffic that Joe's Farm generates. Even though money is tight in these difficullt times Joe's Farm does not stop caring. Let me be very clear, we still care about Haiti, but after a long vetting process and scores of applicants we have decided to start caring about children with cancer. Since we don't know anything about curing children with cancer we are going to help someone who is raising money for people who know about curing childhood cancer. If they wanted to raise money to build a thriving and productive farm in the middle of the damn desert they would contact us but that is not what they are trying to do.

The lucky winner of our support is actually a part of the Joes's Farm family. He is the unofficial head of Joe's Farm legal council. Go to this website http://www.firstgiving.com/jit2010 and donate money. It does not matter how much money you donate, just that you do. This is safe and secure. I know this because Joe's Farm has been donating for years.

So unless you hate children or love cancer go to http://www.firstgiving.com/jit2010 and give some money.

Questions

I decided to take time away from the farm to address some questions that were submitted by huge, HUGE fans of Joes Farm.

Question #1 was submitted by Scheuer79 who is a monster fan of the farm and asked about the free gallon of compost offer that is available to followers of the Joes Farm blog that take a free tour of the farm. Scheuer79 asked, "Hi Joe's Farm. Is it possible to maybe sign up twice in order to receive two gallons of that stuff?"
The answer to that is yes. You will get 1 gallon of compost for every follower after taking a free tour of the farm, this of course, is all based on availablity.

Question #2 was submitted by ihaveuc who is a die hard fan of the farm and asked, "What the heck are you growing in the jar, looks like a dinosaur doodie? Could you mail one of those out this way or is that a Las Vegas specialty?" on our spring is upon us entry on Feb 3rd.
The answer to that is that it is in fact not a piece of dinosaur doodie it is a sweet potato that i had bought at the local supermarket and while it was sitting on the counter it started to sprout some eyes. So we had the bright idea at Joes Farm to prop that up in some water and watch it grow. This is something that is available anywhere that sweet potatos are available not just in Las Vegas.

Question #3 was submitted by Big J who has followed Joes Farm from Day one, His question was on our latest post Big J asked, "Joes Farm, what type of plants are growing on the wooden poles shown in the picture?"

The answer to that question is several varities of tomatoes. I have planted Hawaiian, cherokee purples, beefsteak, and the brandywine. I put the bamboo poles in place so that I can attach the tomoato plants to the pole for support when they start to grow.

Joes Farm Version 2.0

We have had some major changes at Joes Farm this past week. In these trying times when many farms are burying their head in the sand Joes Farm has decided to stay the course and continue improving on the its already outstanding farm infrastructure. This past week we have undertaken several capital expenditures to improve and upgrade our main plots.

The planning for this upgrade has been going on for several months. The land was surveyed, the blue prints were drawn up, and materials were purchased. This past week construction began. We started by harvesting crops on the southside of the plot. It was painful to harvest these crops before they had the chance to reach their full potential but we knew that it was what needed to be done to move Joes Farm to the fore front of Las Vegas farming. Several onions, carrots, lettuce, spinach, and radishes were harvested. Much of the spinach and lettuce was donated to a local realtor who is a huge fan of Joes Farm.

Step 2 was to begin deconstructing the old beds. The old infrastructure was removed and we had to bring in an earth mover to clear space for the new struture. The lumber was brought in and we decided to use premium douglas fir because we demand the best for Joes Farm.

Step 3 was to bring in our aggregate to create our soil. We blend our own soils here at Joes Farm. We can't disclose the propotions of our blend or any of our secrets but I can tell you that we use the highest quality compost created here on property by the I Care Organics division of Joes Farm in the E-Composter. We take this high quality compost and blend it with the other aggregates to form the perfect blend of nutrient rich, porous, yet moisture and nutrient rich soil in the world.

Step 4 was to add some worms. We have been doing a great deal of research on the benefits of worms on the farm and when the opportunity came along to purchase some hard working worms we jumped at the chance. The list of benefits is too long to list here on Joesfarm.blogspot.com but lets just say it is a big W for Joes Farm. We also took some of those worms and put them in the E-Composter. The addition of these hard working worms is going to take I Care Organics to the next level. In the coming weeks and months we will have some vermicompost that is ging to be a big benefit to the crops at Joes Farm.

Step 5 was to water and plant some crops. For the crops that were planted today we purchased these plants at the local nursery. We are still in the early phases at Joes Farm and I wanted to experiement with some plants that were not grown from seed here at the farm. We also started the pilot Topsy Turvey project. The Topsy Turvesy have taken the farm world by storm and these 2 Topsy Turveys are going to be given to the loving household of Mr and Mrs Andrew Walczak. The Topsy Turveys were provide by Mr and Mrs Walczak and once the plants get settled in they will be transfered back to the walczaks for the duration of the season.

I Care Organics Compost - First batch

The business end of the E-Composter provided by Richard and Susan Walczak

The new plot on Joes Farm. 8'x4'x2'

The side view of the new plot

from the inside

Watering the new plot

These are after the crops were planted. Several varieties of tomatos, beans, and carrots.

The Topsy Turveys with a couple tomato plants.