Vinaka Urban Farm

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Vinaka Urban Farm

Vinaka Urban Farm Turning unused lawns into fresh, local produce using sustainable and regenerative practices.

21/07/2022

Just a Proud Plant Papa and nature nerd gawking over collard greens.

07/07/2022

I have totally fallen in love with collard greens this year. They're one of those crops that looks SO gorgeous every time I walk out on to the farm, tall, upright and vividly blue-green. I've also discovered they're excellent sauteed in a little butter or bacon fat with some salt and pepper and eaten with eggs and breakfast sausage from .grass.dairy in the morning. So delicious, in fact, that I was too busy devouring them to take a picture today 😳👨‍🌾🍳

Veggies are looking happy in the morning sun after all that rain. It's a great day to be a farmer.

06/07/2022

Rather a magical night in Plant Paradise.

24/06/2022

Caught you blushing! The Sungolds are starting to turn! Might have a few quarts next week...on the unlikely chance any escape my ravenous on-the-job snacking 😬👨‍🌾🙃

16/06/2022

Showers this time of year can be a real difference-maker 😁🥕☀️

15/06/2022

Forget the lettuce. I'M wilting in this heat! Still, the weeds don't take days off, so sometimes neither can I. Therefore, it's 5am wake-up times, bust, ahem, *hiney* until 2pm, and siestas and pool time in the afternoon this week.

Is working so far! Record harvests of beets, carrots, radishes, kale and collard greens, none of which apparently take days off either! Compared to them I guess I'm a lazy farmer 😁👨‍🌾☀️

Come see me at market this week and make the work worthwhile! Who am I kidding? It's . If course you'll be there. 🧡🤍💚🥕🥬

#614

01/06/2022

Look who surprised me this evening!!!

31/05/2022

Taste-tested three varieties of early carrots pulled from the field this morning. HOLY MOLEY these things taste nothing like the orange wax sculptures of carrots you get in the stores. So vibrant, and with a texture that's crunchy but still somehow soft and not chewy. Incredible!!!

They're still between 1-3 weeks away from harvest size (I'm a novice carrot grower, so it's hard for me to tell), but it looks like there will be plenty when they do! I'll be so excited to add orange (and, on occasion, yellow and white - I'm trying out a few heirloom varieties) to the market table soon!

👨‍🌾🥕🤓

14/05/2022

No time to snap a photo at market today because the Clintonvillains swarmed High Street as soon as the bell sounded and I couldn't dish out greens fast enough to satiate their appetite for fresh veggies. But I did manage to grab a selfie as I sipped my tea in Plant Paradise (aka home) before I left.

Perfect day. Perfect market. Thanks to everyone who came out to and kept me busy loading, spritzing, selling and smiling. This really is the best market in town, probably in Ohio, and possibly in the world.

#614

06/05/2022

ENORMOUS harvest this week!!! The sky may be gray, but come out to market tomorrow morning at and you'll be bombarded with all the colors Plant Paradise has to offer.

Brave the rain for a few minutes and get to taste the freshness of spring all week? Sounds like a good trade to me. 🌈🥬🎪

#614

03/05/2022

Bursting with life: a top-down view of plant babies thriving in the spring. Most of these are from Plant Paradise, my experimental home garden, but some are also from the farm.

Palnts are beautiful. 'nuff said

1: Spinach
2: Tomato
3: Vinca
4: Marjoram
5: Lisianthus
6: Moroccan Mint
7: Dracula Plant
8: Asiatic Lily
9: Oregano
10: Lettuce

29/04/2022

It's been a cold and cloudy spring here in Ohio and the plants are geowing about as slowly as I trudged to the bus stop as a 3rd grader, but the hoop house managed to squeeze out a few pounds of lettuce mix this week (the fields are ready to erupt with more than a few pounds next). A good thing, too, because I promised the folks at City Folks Farm Shop () I'd have greens for them this week!

City Folks is one of my favorite shops in town. They carry supplies for farming, gardening, and homesteading and are HUGE supporters of local, sustainable, ethically run businesses. Going in there feels like stepping back in time to a place where you run into the same neighbors over and over and just plain feels like home. The surroundings of tools, seeds, jars and cast iron skillets practically beg for you to stay a while and jaw about the weather (as if us farmers needed any encouragement)!

In addition to supplies, City Folks carries a small assortment of local foods, including the pictured Vinaka greens. But they ALSO serve as a pick-up spot for local good that people can order online. This arrangement gives customers access to the full array of goods produced by local makers/growers while making those makers/growers' delivery routes a lot more manageable. This year, I'm one of those producers, so if you can't make it to market on Saturday morning you can pre-order from the full range of veggies to be harvested that week (link in bio) and pick it up at City Folks at your leisure. I drop off before 11am every Friday morning.

If you're in or around the Clintonville area, you should definitely pay City Folks a call. Just be warned: to go there is to run a serious risk of acquiring new hobbies that become obsessions in no time.

👨‍🌾🥕🍳💛

#614

22/04/2022

Made a very special first restaurant delivery of the season to this morning! Since this was the first delivery of the year, I decided to harvest and deliver on the same day (normally I harvest the day before).

Ampersand has bought my produce consistently over the past year, working with me even though I'm a very new farmer and still have a ton to learn. They genuinely care about the freshness, quality and sustainability of the produce they source. Additionally, head chef Joshua Cook (pictured) was recently named one of the top chefs in Columbus. It's a pleasure and an honor for them to buy my greens.

So, if you're planning on going out tonight and the idea of supporting a business that supports the local sustainable, farm-to-table agricultural community (I happen to know they make some mean and very creative Asian-inspired cocktails too) consider heading down to the intersection at 1st and High. You won't regret it.

#614

21/04/2022

Managing the low tunnels takes a lot of schlepping, but there is nothing like the feeling of uncovering all that vibrancy and color once they're removed. 😍

First in TEN DAYS!!! Mark your calendars! 🥳🥬🥕

#614

10/04/2022

There's nothing quite like the day Ohio finally lets you take the plastic off the tunnels in spring. Still leaving the frames up for the (inevitable) next cold front, but in the meantime, sweet mercy, it's good to see fresh vegetables growing in the sun.

First day of outdoors in downtown Clintonville is April 30th! Mark your calendars!

#614

24/03/2022

Digging Week was interrupted briefly by putting low tunnels over all the recently transplanted crops in preparation for the coming cold spell. Fear not, little seedlings. The sun will come again. 🌞

Now, back to the shovel...

21/03/2022

The beds are filling with life! Some direct-sown greens and radishes have sprouted and the first transplants are officially in the ground.

Pictured:

Spinach
Arugula
Radishes
Green onions
Bok choi
Tatsoi
Proud Plant Papa

Much more to come in the next few weeks! It's happening!!! 🐦🌸🥬🌤

08/03/2022

Morning everyone! Took advantage of the perfect weather (a warm day to work in followed by some rain to get seeds sprouting) to get the first direct-sowed seeds in the ground and thought I'd share the process.

First, I prepped the ground with my Ellia 3000 tilther. It's a drill-powered tool that grinds the top 1" of the soil into finer particles and levels the ground. The fine tilth creates ideal conditions for germination for direct-seeded crops, while the shallowness of the tilth means I don't disrupt the soil, which creates long-term compaction and destroys the environment of the all-important soil biology. And the fact that it runs on a drill means I don't burn any gas when I use it.

Next, I waited for the rain, which Mother Nature duly supplied on Sunday evening and Monday.

Finally, today I covered the beds with poly low tunnels. These are cheap but highly effective mini-greenhouses that are easy to make and portable, making them perfect for small-scale farmers like Present Me or obsessive home gardeners like Past Me. To make them, I just bend 10' lengths of EMT conduit, stick them in the ground at 5' intervals and cover them with 10' wide greenhouse plastic (you can also use rolls of 4-6mm clear plastic, which are sold at home improvement stores).

One danger with these tunnels is that wind can easily blow them away, but I've found that by clipping them to the EMT with spring clamps and putting sand bags on the plastic at the sides, even bad wind storms aren't a problem. Another danger is that on sunny days they can get VERY hot! I recommend opening the ends any time it's sunny and over 50 degrees out. You'll be shocked the first time you feel the rush of heat come out when you do!

These tunnels are amazing. They extend the growing season by at least a month in both spring and fall and allow me to protect the plant babies against the big weather swings we see here in the Midwest. They also lock in moisture and warm the soil, both of which help with germination, which should start in just a few days. I'll send along some pictures then. Meanwhile enjoy the crocuses and snowdrops! Spring is here!

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Videos

Just a Proud Plant Papa and nature nerd gawking over collard greens. #collardgreens #naturenerd #veggiesarebeautiful #growyourown

People at market have been asking how we have lettuce in this brutal 90-plus August heat, so I thought I'd make a short video explaining the main secret - automated sprinklers to cool down the lettuce in the heat of the afternoon. Other essential parts of the process: - I start all my seedlings indoors (70-75 degrees F) for their first two weeks, then gradually garden them off outdoors for the next two weeks before putting in the ground. - I transplant in the evening, preferably during a temporary temperature dip. - If it hasn't been raining, I water thoroughly in the evening to give them the maximum time to soak up coolness and moisture before the sun comes back and dries/heats the soil surface. - I harvest EARLY in the morning when the weather is at its coolest and immediately rush the seedlings to the walk-in cooler. Let me know if you have any more questions! Hope to see some of you at market this Saturday. Make like a lettuce farmer and come out early to beat the heat! 👨‍🌾😎🥬 #lettuce #summergreens #howto #columbusohio #columbuseats #columbusohiofood #freshveg #saladgreens #urbanfarming #smallscalefarming #beattheheat

Farming has totally revolutionized the way I view insects, spiders, wasps, bees & other tiny critters. I used to be some combination of scared and grossed out whenever I saw a bug of any kind. But once I started growing plants I realized most of the bugs I saw were helping out. Everyone knows bees pollinate flowers, but did you know that... -Many wasp species prey on insect pests like aphids and caterpillars -Centipedes, ants and other tunnelers make aerated pathways for veggy roots to grow through much more easily than through insect-less dirt -Bacteria and fungi play an essential role in making nutrients available to plant roots A thriving, diverse bug population in your garden is a strong sign that you've created an environment where life can thrive and most pest populations can be kept under control. So next time you see a creepy-crawly rummaging through your plants, consider pumping your first in celebration rather than squeeling in terror and running for the hills. #beneficialinsects #organicfarming #biodiversity #teamingwithmicrobes

Spinach is amazing, but doesn't grow in the heat of summer...but Tetragonia, or New Zealand Spinach, does. If you're a Spinach fan, it's well worth trying out in these muggy summer months.

Good morning everyone. Waking up to the farm is one of my favorite feelings in life, so I thought I'd share. #thisisthelife #livingthedream #beautifulmorning #urbanfarming #veggiesarebeautiful #foodscaping #lawnsintogardens #ediblelandscaping

Harvest day! Here's how I wash off the dirt that kicks up on greens on rainy days like this. #smallspacefarming #diy #saladgreens #saladsfordays #simplebuteffective

Germination trays, February 15th and 16th. My, what a defiance a day makes.

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