When starting a farm, it’s hard not to use whatever random stuff is lying around to build the farm’s tools and infrastructure.  The random stuff is free and convenient, and both those things trump the aesthetics and longevity of new stuff.   Our farm is endowed with one particular type of stuff over all others.  [...]

Senator Jeff Blake (R-AZ) thinks universal background checks on gun sales are “a bridge too far”.  For some reason, regulating guns seems like a scary proposition for Congress.  And yet, state and federal legislatures find plenty of time and motivation to regulate women, poor people, and farmers.  Just not guns.   Over the past few [...]

The day-to-day of farming lends itself well to audio content.  Whether we’re hoeing, weeding, seeding, or pulling buckets of rocks out of the fields, our ears are always free for listening.  Without podcasts, I listen to the unnerving sound of cows peeing in an adjacent field.  With podcasts, my ears have better things to do.  [...]

At last week’s inaugural Philly Farm and Food Fest, Landon and I tested the chicken wits (or blind guessing ability) of the event attendees with a Match-the-Chicken-to-the-Egg Challenge.  Out of 60 contestants, 7 of you got the right answer.  Sorry everybody–it was a little harder than we intended it to be. For those of you [...]

Sanitation of farm equipment is one of those boring things farmers do in the winter.  We wish it could all be seed catalogs and daydreams, but some things things just have to get done. Over the past few months, Landon’s cleaned out loads of plug trays, burned some field debris, and cleaned off tools–all with [...]

You know those default conversation topics you fall back on when the need for small talk arises?  Television.  Baseball.  The absurdity of Rick Santorum.  Recently, I’ve found myself adding chicken tractors to my go-to mix.  “So, how ’bout those chicken tractors, huh?”  I just can’t stop chatting about them. So, what’s so captivating about chicken [...]

A few weekends back, Landon and I spent half of Saturday and most of Sunday shoveling manure from the barn floor to the spreader, rinse and repeat.  Toward the end of Day 2, our very supportive and well-intentioned landlord finally saw it fit to intervene:  “You know, it’s good exercise to be doing what you’re [...]

Farming can be a volatile profession. One week, you’re on top of the world, Scrooge McDuck-ing it into giant piles of heirloom tomatoes and wallpapering with collard greens. The next, you’re pulling thousands of rotten carrots out of the fields. OK, the first part didn’t happen, but the second part is the g*d-honest truth. Landon [...]

Hoo, baby.  August was a hectic month on the farm.  I started working at a local engineering firm to bring in some extra dough, and Landon continued to bust his butt in the fields.  I’d love to give you a full run-down of August-mania, but I’m just going to post this video instead.  It talks [...]

Root Mass Farm has been blessed with visitors lately.  As a matter of fact, we’ve had folks come to the farm for the past 4 weekends and plan to make it a 5th.  Our friends are the nicest.  This past week, Landon and I got to share our home, our farm, our swiss chard, and [...]

Bug Scale Rating: -2* You’ve seen the damage they inflict–tiny little holes in our radish greens, kohlrabi leaves, and mesclun mix.  The greens look like they’ve been assaulted by an unstable David the Gnome wielding a tiny, gnome-sized pool cue (maybe smaller than David the Gnome, though–didn’t he ride a fox or something?).  Unfortunately, the [...]

Most things in life evolve too slowly to notice in the moment.  I know my face is changing, but I can’t say where or how.  Roads develop new potholes and trees grow more rings, but who knows when.  It just makes me yearn for time lapse videos of everything–the expansion of my cat’s girth, the [...]

Being a farmer has its advantages. No, they don’t include steady income, access to affordable healthcare, or regular hours. But they DO include wicked fancy salads! Every time I thin flats in the greenhouse, I end up with a wicked fancy salad.  Here at Root Mass, we throw dozens of insurance seeds into every flat [...]

Over the past few weeks, Landon and I have been dealing with the realities of our hardpan.  It’s a nasty, compact layer of soil about 4-6 inches beneath the topmost layer that causes all sorts of problems.  Most maddeningly, it interferes with root growth and prevents proper drainage. We’re not sure quite how it got [...]

This past Thursday, Landon and I celebrated our unofficial six year anniversary.  We had long-standing plans to get some portable speakers for the iPod, but things were a little too hectic last week to make that happen.  Instead, we celebrated by doing what we like to do best when the weather’s dry–sticking things into the [...]

Landon and I love selling at Headhouse Market.  It’s well-organized, the customers are terrific, and the vendors are super supportive.  Well, that’s why we love it as business owners. As people who love food, we love it for the shopping.  Landon and I make sure to snag some groceries toward the end of each market, [...]