News | barkingcatfarm | Barking Cat Farm

Frank, the 'Barking Cat'

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 12:42:13 -0600

Frank, the cat who inspired the farm name, passed away this week. He was 14.5 years old. We've added photos of Frank and explained how he helped us name the farm. Click here for more photos.

NRCS Funds High Tunnel

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:46:12 -0600

Some good news this week, we found out that our farm has been approved for a grant from the USDA for high tunnel construction. We are one of seven to be funded in Texas. High tunnels have been around for awhile & there are already high tunnels in Texas. However, this is the first time Texas has been included in this NRCS program which is part of the USDA's efforts to expand sustainable agriculture.

A high tunnel looks a lot like a greenhouse, except it is usually not heated. They are used for season extension, crop protection, soil improvement, water conservation and many more things. You can read more about the NRCS program here:

NRCS EQIP Seasonal High Tunnel Initiative

We're very excited about this great opportunity. There's lots of work to do now to get the tunnel selected & constructed.

10 Questions to Ask Before Joining a CSA

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:48:10 -0600

With the soaring popularity of local food, lots of folks are looking for sources. Unfortunately, in the DFW area, there are not enough farms to meet the demand. Here at Barking Cat Farm, we've been working off a waiting list for our Food CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) for a long time ourselves. In recent years we've often been asked for guidance about what to look for in a CSA by folks looking to join one, so here's our best advice to ensure you put your money into a worthwhile enterprise. Of course you may not want to ask all of these questions, but we've tried to give you a complete list to help you be a better-informed prospective CSA'er!

Will a CSA be a good fit for you?

This first question is an important one because the CSA model is not for everyone! A CSA is probably a good fit for you if, in addition to desiring natural, locally grown, farm-fresh food you and your family:
- have the time to cook, and like cooking and preparing meals or dishes from scratch;
- are willing to experiment with new ingredients and recipes;
- are okay with occasionally getting something in your CSA share of which you aren't particularly fond;
- are willing to eat seasonally because a CSA usually cannot provide a grocery store selection of produce. For example, there will be no tomatoes in January!
How long has the CSA farmer been farming?

New farmers are more risky to work with, but investing in a new farm may be important to you. You'll need to decide how much risk you are willing to take. We need more real farmers in this area, so taking a risk with a new farmer can help build new farms in the area. However, you need to be prepared that possibly more things will go wrong initially.
How long has this farm been running a CSA?

This is an entirely different question. New CSA's are inherently more risky than established ones because growing for a CSA is not like growing for any other market. If the farmer has previously grown vegetables commercially, and this is the first time growing for a CSA, that's more likely to go well than working with a farmer who has never grown commercially before and this is their first venture. Again, it all depends on the amount of risk you are willing to take!
Are CSA members allowed to visit, tour, and/or help at the farm?

If CSA members are not allowed to visit the farm, this should be viewed as a red flag. All farms have wildlife, potholes, dirt, dangerous machinery, etc., but those are not valid reasons for restricting CSA member visits. Neither are liability concerns. By and large, all farms have farm & product liability insurance; if they don't, find out why. It's not very expensive and is a well-known cost of doing business for farmers as well as many other small businesses. While it is true that serious farmers work long, hard schedules, and are often taking advantage of every minute of sunlight to get chores finished, we are proud to show off the efforts of our work. And besides that, you have the right to see where and how your food is going to be grown. Transparency should be a no-brainer, and lack of it should raise a BIG red flag. As a service to our fellow producers, here's a page that lists liability insurance providers.

Some CSA's have a work requirement. If the one you're interested in does, be sure you understand what is being asked of you, and make sure that you are willing and able to fulfill it. This is especially important because CSA's with work requirements have built that help from members into their yearly plan. So if the members don't help out, the CSA may not have a great season.

Read how Barking Cat Farm CSA's handles this here.
What's the refund policy of the CSA?

While every CSA has different rules, many “hard core” traditional CSA's offer no refunds. So if there is another disastrous year like 2011's drought, your CSA payment may not be refunded and you may not receive much, if anything, for your payment. Other CSA's will refund or don't charge for missed shares due to weather issues, and there's a whole spectrum in between these two extremes. Find out what this particular CSA's policy is, and make sure you are comfortable with it. Just as with any other contract, before you sign and pay, read the fine print.

Read how Barking Cat Farm's CSA handles this here.
Does the farm grow everything included in the CSA share? If not, where is the rest of the share coming from?

If the farm is only supplying a minimal amount and supplementing the rest from unnamed “sister farms”, “partner farms”, or “East Texas” (all of these phrases usually translate to: “We bought it out of wholesale distribution ”) then it's really not a CSA and is a food buying co-op. See our FAQ for details on the difference.

If they do work with other farms, they should readily tell you the names of these other farms. You should have the opportunity to meet the other farmers and ask questions about how they grow the food. If organic is important to you, then ask how these cooperating farms’ growing methods were confirmed. Did the CSA farmers visit the cooperating farm personally? If not, are you comfortable with how they verified it? Again, transparency is the key. You have a right to know about all farmers that are growing the food you are paying for, if that is important to you. In general, small and/or organic farmers are not hermits and are not secretive about who they are and how they are growing. If that information cannot be produced for you when you ask, it is another red flag.

Read how Barking Cat Farm's CSA handles this here.
What was in the CSA shares in the last term?

Ask for specifics regarding sizes and amounts. For bonus points, ask for examples of what varieties were grown. A farmer who is actually growing the food can tell you variety names.
How did this CSA handle the 2011 drought, and what is their water source? Did their growing operation get interrupted? What are they doing to plan ahead for the next season?

Drought and temperature extremes are apparently going to be the new normal for Texas. Many farms in North & North Central Texas ran out of water in 2011 and had to interrupt their growing operations.
What can you learn from other CSA members about the CSA?

Ask if you can talk to other CSA members (past and present) about how they like the CSA. What is the turnover rate for the CSA (how many people don't rejoin at each renewal)? And if it is large, ask why. The size of the CSA does not matter nearly as much as the turnover rate, as a percentage of the size of the CSA. Whether small in numbers or large, if a large majority of the customers do not renew at the end of each session, find out what the farmer has to say as to why this is happening. If the turnover rate is high, it might indicate any of a variety of reasons why people do not want to re-invest in the CSA. If the turnover rate is low, that tends to indicate the customers are in general happy with what they are getting in return for their investment in the farm. High turnover rate in general is a red flag, but gaining more details from the farmer and former and current customers will help you understand it if there is a good reason for it.
What can you learn from Local Harvest?

A great resource for finding local farms is Local Harvest. Their website is www.localharvest.org. Read the reviews for the farms on Local Harvest, but take them with a grain of salt. A lot of very bad reviews might be a red flag, but also keep in mind that a lot of good reviews could be falsified. Local Harvest is great resource for finding local farms; however, reviews are not fact-checked and anyone, including people who are not customers or CSA members of a particular farm, can post a review of that farm or of any other.

More About Why We're Sharing These Questions

You might be asking yourselves, “Why are these Barking Cat Farm farmers telling me about how to pick a CSA when they don't have room to let me join theirs yet?” Great question, and here's a little more detail about our goals in providing this information.

We have been farming for 8 years and running a CSA for 6 of those years. It is extremely challenging to grow food anywhere, particularly in Texas. Even so, it is very rewarding to see the fruits of all that labor and to have a connection to our customers. We also have come to know many likewise hardworking local farmers and food producers, including produce growers such as ourselves along with meat producers, dairy farmers, cheese makers, bakers, chefs, beekeepers, and so forth.

New Service, Email Subscriptions Open Again

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:10:18 -0600

We're switching to a new email service, finally. We plan to occasionally send an email update to our subscribers again. Our update will keep you informed about what's going with the farm and with our local producer friends. We also discuss what's going on with our CSA and our CSA drop-off. You can also choose to receive updates on other things like plant sales. Here's a brief description of what kinds of information you can sign up to receive:

General Farm Update - news about the farm & the CSA's.

Off the Truck Sales - get notified by email when we will have extra produce for sale to the public at our CSA drop.

Gardening Tips & Class Announcements - we teach organic gardening classes, stay informed on when classes will be held.

Plant Sales - from time to time we sell vegetable plants for home gardens to the general public. We are a licensed Texas Nursery.

Please note that sometimes we'll combine topics in emails so you may receive an email that has a farm update & news about plants sales, for instance, even if you only selected plant sales.

2010 Lessons Learned

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 19:05:07 -0500

Cattails are much easier to cut down than bamboo.
Everything planted must be mulched some how; life is too short to hand weed 100's of feet of bed
Deer are smarter than they look. 
Algae and iron bacteria will quickly clog many different kinds of irrigation devices. 
Deer can jump very high and for very long distances as well as limbo amazingly low.
Having replacement electric fencing materials on hand is important .
Six months of deer-free crop fields can change overnight if they learn there is something there they really love to eat (see previous about having replacement fencing materials on hand).
Deer really love to eat mature sweet potato vines.
Putting up electric fencing in the pouring rain is not really that much fun. 
Picking produce in the pouring rain is also really not that much fun.
Raccoons can do the limbo under electric fencing.
Solar powered electric deer fencing packs quite a wallop.
You should only ever say: the Deer Fencing is working SO FAR .
Supportive customers are priceless.

2009 or “The Year it Rained Too Much

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 10:48:58 -0600

2009 was a disaster for us and many other farmers across the country. In our area, we & others had complete crop losses due to the excessive rain. We also know of at least one local CSA that went out of business due to the incredibly bad weather. In the NE part of the US, too much rain was also an issue as well as a large outbreak of late blight spread accidentally by big box stores to commercial growers.

If you are farming, you are at the mercy of the weather. We do plan ahead for problems, but this last year was overwhelming and there was really little that we could do. First we had a late freeze in April that killed crops normally okay to plant by then (tomatoes, peppers), followed by heavy rains in May (preventing replanting of tomatoes, peppers, direct seeding squash, rotting the Akin potato crop in the ground), followed by scorching heat that lasted all summer (algae bloom in the pond that clogged the drip lines, killing blueberry bushes), and then record heavy rains in September & October (disrupting fall planting of broccoli, cabbage, carrots, beets, etc, wiping out the Akin Fall bean crop).

Spring News from the Hen House 2009

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 08:46:39 -0500

Young Pullet

By Jacque Kirk, Moon Dance Farm

Here at Moon Dance Farm we are having some heavy turnover in the hen department. We’ve had multiple dog attacks on our free-range hens. It started with the New Year’s Day massacre. An unknown dog broke into our secured hen house early in the AM and killed 7 laying hens, including several green egg layers, and 2 big guineas. Since then we’ve had two more attacks by a neighbor’s dogs, who have killed at least 4 laying hens. Our hens were just minding their own business in our fenced backyard and pasture. The neighbor was considerate to come over to ask what they can do to prevent further destruction. The main thing is to keep their dogs locked in their fence.

We wanted to make you aware of what is happening as it is affecting our egg business. If you buy eggs from us, you may notice the eggs are a bit smaller than the usual huge ones you’ve been getting. Some of our hens are pullets (young hens), 6 months old, but laying really well. Their eggs just aren’t full size yet. I am including some of the larger pullet eggs in the cartons. The eggs will get larger throughout the summer. We have 15 other very young chicks in training as well.

Food For Thought: Don't Be Fooled – Stay Educated About Your Food Purchases

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:49:13 -0500

As Spring arrives, roadside produce stands and farmers markets will be booming with customer traffic. These can offer excellent opportunities to purchase local, healthy food while also helping the local economy and local farmers, but sometimes these venues are not what they appear. So, depending on your priorities when it comes to food, don't be afraid to keep the vendors honest by asking the right questions regarding how and where the food and flowers they are selling were grown.

Is organic or beyond organic important to you?

If so, ask the sellers how their produce and flowers were grown. Certified organic or not, were the crops sprayed with synthetic fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, and the like? If you ask if the crops were grown “conventionally” and they vendor answers yes (or worse, they don't know), then they are not organic.

Who grew the crops for sale? Is knowing the grower important to you?

Not long before we started growing crops, Laurie stopped one day at a new country roadside produce stand. The lady there had a large table and a beautiful display of a bounty of fresh vegetables and fruits. Turns out she had purchased them from a wholesaler at a large nearby farmers market and was simply reselling them. She had no connection to the farms or farmers who grew these crops - neither did the wholesalers from whom she bought them. It wasn't clear where these crops were grown. How can we know how they were grown if we don't know even where or by whom they were grown?