Making it Local Longer: Season Extension comes to Abbe Hills Farm

Wedge Community Co-op
September 8, 2009
By By Marcos Lopez-Carlson, Wedge Community Co-op

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As all local food affecionados know, our growing season for glorious, locally produced fruits and vegetables can be characterized by two words: short and sweet. With the threat of early and late frosts and a long winter in between, the season is way too short for those of us who know and love fresh, local produce grown in the Upper Midwest.

That's why some farmers in our region are taking matters into their own hands by exploring innovative techniques to extend the growing season. One tool that's helping them is Sow the Seeds, a project of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in partnership with the Wedge Community Co-op. Co-op shoppers and other supporters across the region have contributed generously to Sow the Seeds.

With support from Sow the Seeds, farmers in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin are getting new opportunities to learn about season extension techniques like the use of hoop houses. Hoop houses are low tech structures that make it possible to plant earlier in the spring and then grow into the early winter, all with the heating energy of the sun. Because they offer a controlled environment, hoophouses typically reduce pest pressure on growing crops and work well with organic production systems. And because hoop houses that are used to extend the season don't typically require artificial heating sources, they don't have the high energy needs of heated greenhouses. Yields-per-plant are often well above plants grown in the field, further adding to the volume of sell-able product and thus producers' income.

This article is the first in a series about farmers who are trying out new strategies for making locally grown produce available for a longer portion of the year. We hope you'll enjoy hearing about their experience.

Season Extension comes to Abbe Hills Farm
Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) is a non-profit organization with over 700 members in Iowa and neighboring states. Their mission is to research, develop and promote profitable, ecologically sound and community-enhancing approaches to agriculture. Last spring, a PFI member, Laura Krause, decided to expand her CSA farm by adding a new hoophouse. Laura purchased the hoophouse (an investment of about $7500) but needed help with the construction process at her farm, Abbe Hills, in East central Iowa.

That's where PFI stepped in. With support from Sow the Seeds, PFI organized a two-day hoophouse construction workshop. Workshop participants learned about site selection, site preparation, orientation of the hoop house and then worked together to build the hoophouse. The PFI event helped Laura get her new hoophouse into place and provided a great learning opportunity for Laura, other farmers, and community members who wanted to know the skinny on what it takes to construct a commercial-scale hoophouse on the farm.

I recently had a quick conversation with Laura about her farm and her interest in extending the season:

Laura, what can you tell me about your farm operation?
I've wanted to be a farmer ever since I was an undergraduate. I have agronomy and ag business degrees. I've always been more interest in growing food rather than [commodity] crops. I was a full-time teacher for 20 years in addition to farming, and a CSA [or Community Supported Agriculture operation] was a way to earn more income in the summer, not just from crops, but from growing high-value vegetables. I thought the CSA looked like a good fit with my time/management skills/land mix, plus I liked the CSA marketing model and thought I could make it work here.

Our CSA has about 200 families participating, and we try to grow almost every vegetable you can in Iowa. We use multiple plantings and grow several varieties of most things, to add diversity to the CSA and protect from the risk of crop failure. We also produce informed citizens and good eaters!

On our farm, soil conservation and water quality is very important. We use contours, contour strips, mulch tillage, cover crops, crop rotation, restored prairie, restored wetland, drip irrigation from a pond, compost, chicken manure, biodiversity, natural areas, IPM [integrated pest management] with very limited use of insecticides on a few garden crops, no herbicides, no fungicides, as well as honeybees and native pollinators. We're planning to be involved in some native pollinator research next summer, and hope to get a grant to install a solar powered irrigation system from the pond.

How do you think season extension supports your farm and our local food systems?
It adds a whole new income stream, and we are able to make money in times where we normally wouldn't. We are now able to grow high value crops in periods when those foods are not available. For instance, at the farmers market we have an almost unlimited demand for leafy greens in the fall. And we can get a jumpstart on planting in the spring too.

What are your expectations for using hoop houses in the future?
In this year's CSA registration, we had a box to check at the bottom of the form that said "our family might be interested in a fall CSA share." I figured I would invest in a hoophouse if we had 30 responses, but we had over 90! The hoop house will allow me to harvest into early December. I definitely plan on using more hoop houses in the future to extend my spring and fall seasons, and it definitely gives an advantage in springtime.

How will you actually use your hoophouse?
I originally intended to grow cover crops in the hoop house but this spring all our lettuce was getting eaten by deer. We moved all of our lettuce heads into it, as well as the lettuce of my neighbor who also runs a CSA. We've also found it's been useful for setting up bedding racks. [Bedding racks are used by farmers to start new seedlings for transplant in order to get a headstart on the growing season before the ground has warmed up enough to allow direct seeding.]

Why did you decide to host a hoop house workshop?
I had already been considering purchasing a hoop house, but I felt like I just didn�t know how to get one built. That's when PFI suggested hosting a workshop and that's how it happened.

What kind of expectations did you have going into the workshop?
I thought that maybe 20 people would respond -- that the house would get started, but maybe not finished. I figured that since I had already planned on getting a hoop house, maybe some people would come and help build it.

How did the reality of the workshop compare to that? So many people came out to help! We had 60 people here and everyone wanted to learn and build. At times I would see 30 people building at once! We had neighbors come out to help build posts the day before and then some college students came out to help build the hoops that afternoon. And lots of people just came out of curiosity. They would see it from the road and wonder what was going on, and they'd stop by and help too!

It was very instructional for all participants and Adam Montri [Hoophouse Project Manager at Michigan State University, who ran the workshop] was incredibly helpful and informative. I had gone to hoop house schools before and knew what questions to ask, but now I have ideas of what to do. And I gained the confidence and knowledge to buy another hoophouse in the future. I am very grateful to Sow the Seeds for supporting the construction workshop.

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems. www.iatp.org.

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Above graphic: Detail from Minnesota State Fair poster, c. 1920. Courtesy Minnesota Historical Society.