Evaluating Waxy Maize Germplasm

This past winter my good friend Castanea at Homegrown Goodness was kind enough to send me some bulk packages of Waxy Maize seed from Lion Seed. Three varieties in total which I posted pictures of on the blog back when. Two of these were hybrids and a third was OP all being white and 90 days to maturity (he also sent a yellow flint which was high oil and ended up in a backcross to Amanda Palmer this season).

I set out to test the germplasm this summer past. Due to cross pollination concerns with the wide range of DTM in my Amanda Palmer and flint corn populations I didn't bother to plant the Waxy corn until late June/Early July. I knew this would have a major effect on it's productivity. As well it was planted on unamended soil which had not been treated with lime in several years.

The corn germinated quickly and seemed to grow well. It had a a bit of a nitrogen deficiency but continued on quite well regardless. By mid-October some of the corn was drying down and ready for harvest. As expected the harvest was a bit nill due to the late planting and fertility factors, none the less, I was rewarded with plenty of good seed for replanting this coming season.

A few observations about the corns growth that I made. It seemed to me the stalks were a bit fragile and pithy but this could be due once again to lack of nitrogen. The cob formation seems quite squat and the way the husk develops and connects to the handle is a bit odd with the husk itself having almost a vegetable quaility to it with a texture like that of the inside of a cabbage at the base of the cob. I did sample some of the corn in the milk stage and the flavor was similar to that of an SU sweet corn. Once I had dried ears in hand I took some of those that I rejected for seed and fed them out in an animal preference test to the pigs as well as the turkeys. 3 to 1 the animals seemed to prefer the waxy maize to Amanda Palmer, likely even they know they are able to process more of the starch than in a dent line.

This coming year I hope to grow a quarter acre and take a better look at the corn in more ideal conditions. One of the other major issues I experienced with the waxy corn was the preference deer and raccons and squirrels also showed for the corn so it's going to have to be planted somewhere a bit closer to the house and human activity that I am accustomed to planting Amanda Palmer for instance. This season I will also add a sample of colored waxy maize I recieved from my good friend Joseph Lofthouse as well.

New Peace Seeds Blog and 2012 seed list

Check it out at peaceseedslive.blogspot.com lots of great stuff!

Also gotta love anybody who uses the term "OG since 73"

And I got a shout out in there too, that's kind of tantamount to Geddy Lee giving me a shout out at a Rush show.

Tobacco Lath Display Racks

One thing that I've always been at a loss for at the farmers markets I've done is good display racks for handmade stuff and seeds. Recently I started building a few out of tobacco lath. I've had some luck selling some of these and thought I'd share with my blog readers as some of you might be interested.
These ladder racks are fantastic for displaying handmade washrags exct. Or if you screw some i-hooks into them are great for displaying earrings. 20.00 plus shipping.

Next up are these custom made soap racks, they fold flat with the addition of a bolt and wing nut. These are 15 x 15 inches. I can make them like this or vertical racking as well. 25.00 each plus shipping.

Next up are seed racks we did for Fresh Start Growers supply in louisville KY. We can make these of any size you might want or need and make custom signs for them if needed as well. We also currently have three Face Of The Earth 10 variety seed racks for sale at 225.00 (the seeds alone would normally be 300.00) with your choice of seeds from Face Of The Earth (Amanda Palmer is completely sold out however). We can make you a custom seed rack for your needs. Just shoot as an e-mail or phone call (812-967-2073) for particulars

Uncle Penns Circle W Old Fashioned Lye Soap shipping prices and cataloug.

Left to right/top to bottom: Working Man, Grit Getter, Aunt Hazel, Honey Wine, American Castille, Mull Digger, Dumb Ass Country Boy.





Grit Getter and Polenta from our newest recipie; much better lather with a balance of cleansing and conditioning properties. We haven't yet designed a wrapper for Polenta so allow me to introduce it: Polenta is a spin off of grit getter, this time without honey and with the addition of chamomille, lots of corn notes in a fresh clean scent. Great lathering properties and fantastic for getting the dirt off at the end of the day. The corn is well ground and close to corn meal in consistency so is suitable for a body bar. 5 ounce bars.

Uncle Penn's "Workin' Man": That he was! And of course theres that song ("I get up, seven yeah, go to work at nine" so what if the lyrics were a bit of a late starter!). This ones a straight up coffee scrub with a bit of honey for some "smellum good". Lot's of coffee grounds (home roasted from Sweet Maria's fair trade) for that extra grit you need to scrub out those deep workin man stains and as always some honey to help moisturize. 5% superfated too with the light scent of honey

American Castille! This ones made from Sunflower Oil as opposed to Olive Oil. Sunflower and Olive oil share many similar properties with sunflower giving a bit of vitamin E to the mix. We use an Elderberry Wine base and add some homegrown honey to the mix with 5% superfat. A great skin conditioning soap for those with dry skin! 5 ounce bar.

HomeBrew/Honeywine/Yeah Buddy: A blend of homebrewed wine and beer meets up with old fashioned lard and lye (along with coconut and sunflower oil) and some Avena Nuda oats (farm grown) with a bit of honey and chamomille to give you that kick in the pants you've been looking for. 5% superfat and honey keeps you moisturized while the slight natural scent of honey and chamomille make you presentable for the speakeasy crowd.

Uncle Penns "Mull Digger": For those who don't know what a "Mull Digger" is down in the hills of Kentucky it's a term used to refer to a lazy or otherwise useless dog (or lazy person/a cheat) who digs for moles but never catches them, instead leaving only distruction and subsequent work in it's path. Here we use it to refer to our pine tar soap which harkens back to the days of "patent medicines...". Pine tar has been used for centuries to ward off bugs, deal with skin conditions, and mask the smell of hunters from prey. 3% superfat, coconut oil, sunflower oil, lard, rain water, and bees wax makes this superior to others. 5 ounce bars.

Uncle Penn's "Manda": Great grandma 'Manda Burns spent a lot of time rendering lard from homegrown hogs and screening potash for lye to make her families yearly supply of soap. This here is nearly as authentic and "real" as it gets. Straight up lye and lard by popular request. Pure as the driven snow and white enough to prove it. This one is 3% superfat but we can make it 0% by request. Old timers claimed it good for drying out poison ivy, washing stains from clothes, and dealing with other skin issues as well as washing out some "dirty" mouths when needed. 5 ounce bars.

Uncle Penn's Castille: Straight up olive oil with 5% superfat, a great conditioning soap with a long and strong heritage. 5 ounce bars.

Brand new and improved soap recipie and brand new shipping prices for the new year! All soaps are now 3.00 each and shipping is 3.00 a bar for single bars. Bulk prices: 6 bars for 30.00 (shipping paid) and 12 for 40.00 (shipping paid)

If you live local don't forget to check out our stands at Addison's Graphics in Salem Indiana and McCarty's Sunoco in Pekin Indiana.

Questions, inquiries, or thoughts about a custom soap order can be directed to bishopshomegrown@gmail.com or 812-967-2073

Send orders with either postal money order, check made out to Alan Bishop or well concealed cash to:

Alan Bishop

5604 S. State Rd. 60

Pekin IN 47165

A few (not anywhere near...) spring (wishful thinking) updates!

I've used the past couple days of warmer weather to get a jump start on farm activities before the spring thaw (doesn't it have to freeze first?) sets in. Mostly I've focused on getting the greenhouse cleaned up after letting it go to weeds last summer and prepping the old goat pen for a new garden this year.

Here is the goat pen as it was after I moved the goats. The goats have been in this enclosure for about 3 years so there is a great layer of cold composted organic matter accross the ground. I added several five gallon buckets of wood ash and worm compost to the top of the soil by hand.

I then proceeded to turn with a soil fork. All that's left now is to add a thin layer of nitrogen (since goat manure is low in nitrogen) which is accomplished easy with a minimum of physical effort by simply luring the turkey and duck flocks into the enclosure and feeding them scratch grains accross the surface of the pen and then enclosing them for the day for a period of a couple of weeks. By the time planting time comes along the pathogen issue should be well taken care of and the usable nitrogen level should be acceptable. I always ask myself this; Why bust ass if you don't have to?

I did fire up the hotbed we built last year to make sure the heating element was still working ok and to prepare for starting onions and long season hot peppers in the coming days. All was good to go so I went ahead and built a box fram accross the top to help hold up the plastic this year as the condensation on that sheet of plastic last year was more than enough that a few mornings I came out and the plants were laid out flat due to the water collecting on the plastic. Somewhere around here I have some grow tunnel hoops that I need to affix to the box to help support the plastic and get some more light penetration, if I can dig them out in the coming days I may go ahead and do that.





I've still got to get the rest of the propigation equipment sterilized and the floor swept and ready to go but at least all the tables and equipment is in place and still functional for yet another year. As you can tell the greenhouse isn't much of a "commercial" destination, just one for utilitarian commerce and production of good plants. Nothing fancy here, just usable and functional.

Being the scavenger of materials that I am I long ago canibalized the cinder blocks and the hog pannels that I bought with the greenhouse and used for tables for years in order to make trellis systems for blackberries and raspberries and beans exct. Instead these days, as with most other things I build that don't have to be permenant, used pallets do the trick.

Finally, just for fun a pic of the turkey and duck flocks respectively.

Uncle Penns Circle W Old Fashioned Lye Soap

Uncle Penns Circle W Lye Soap inventory.

We've been refining our products the past couple of weeks, changing up the recipie a bit and finding what shoes fit us best. It's our goal to provide a useful, healthful, and well rounded American product that is utiliterian in nature (no need to pretend to be Bath and Body supply for us!) and speaks to those folks who like life like us, simple. What we've come up with fits our personality here ...at Bishop's Homegrown: The Southern Indiana source for Eco-Logical produce! well and matches our needs (cleaning and conditioning of the skin) and we believe our customers would agree! In this spirit we have decided on a number of utiliterian soap types including Grit Getter (corn and honey), Polenta (corn and chamomille), Home Brew/Yeah Buddy (Elderberry Wine, Honey, Chamomille, and oats)Workin Man (coffe scrub), Manda (old fashioned lye soap with well water), Mull Digger (pine tar), Castille (Olive Oil and well water), American Castille (Sunflower oil, Elderberry Wine, Honey) to make up the bulk of our year round offerings. Other soaps will be seasonal in nature. All of these soaps use the same formula consisting of coconut oil, lard, sunflower oil, and beeswax (except of course Manda, Castille, and American Castille which are lard, olive oil, and sunflower oil respectively) and all (except "Manda" which is 3%) are 5% superfated for their moisturizing properties

honey to the mixAnother new one we came up with; American Castille. This one is made from Sunflower oil which has much in common with Olive Oil just with the addition of naturally occuring vitamin E. We throw in some homegrown honey and beeswax and superfat to 5% with an Elderberry Wine base.

For those with retail locations we do have soap racks available complete with retail racks for our other future products including kisser fixer. Get with us at bishopshomegrown@gmail.com or 812-967-2073 about getting a rack in your location!

All of our soaps are now 4.00 each. Were still working on some new bulk shipping prices and options. Individual bars are 3.00 each shipped. All soaps are at least 4.5-5.0 ounces.

Send order inquiries to bishopshomegrown@gmail.com or call Alan Bishop 812-967-2073

Now Accepting 2012 Farmstand Credit customers

Tell me this isn't an awesome deal? More bang for your buck and more choices! Please pass it on!

Bishop's Homegrown Farm Stand Credit Program! A new local/regional CSA program alternative. Providing more convenience and better value to our community. For 2012 Season.Bishop's Homegrown is a small Eco-Logical and self sustainable farm in the town of Pekin Indiana. We are family owned and a fourth generation farm focused on providing quality produce from yesteryear as well as the new food and flower crops of the future to our valued friends and community members.

We use the strictest possible sustainable guidelines for on farm food production and make no exceptions. We feel that it is of utmost importance that locavores, members of the slow food movement, and community members, know who and from where their food comes from and how it is grown. We produce 90% of our own seed crops as well as 100% of our own organic fertilizer and we never ever opt for chemical options to control pests or disease issues on farm, feeling that growing food “eco-logically” is the only alternative to our failing food system in the United States.

We have searched the world over to bring you the most unique, exciting, and rare food crops from diverse cultures the world over with an emphasis on nutrition and taste! Our doors are always open to our community and customers who we encourage to visit the farm in order to see and know where and how their food was grown. Food security begins when a relationship is formed between the community and its farmers, this essential connection is what allowed civilization to flourish 10,000 years ago.This year we would like to introduce you to our newest program which we feel you will find immense value in!

The Farm Stand Credit Program: The concept of Community Supported Agriculture (AKA. CSA) is generally defined as a mutually beneficial arrangement between a farmer and his customer wherein the customer agrees to share in the risks and rewards of local farming for the benefit of their food production and the farmers well being. The CSA consumers become by proxy shareholders in the farm and it's well being by paying an upfront membership due which covers the production of food in a “Share” system. Generally a traditional CSA allows for the consumer to pay for up front costs of the farmers start up cost with the farmer reciprocating by preparing a predetermined amount of produce every week through the growing season which the shareholders pick up once a week. The farmer generally picks the produce that the customer will receive. Bishop's Homegrown is looking to create a viable alternative to the traditional CSA program by creating a farm stand coupon program which will allow customers to still share in helping us get our business going during the part of the season in which seed and implements and other essentials are being purchased while also making the relationship more convenient for the farmer and the shareholders. In this arrangement, instead of the farmer putting together a box of produce weekly he has selected for you you will instead receive credit from our farm which will allow you to visit our farm stand or farm where you can make your selection of produce that we have available including also a selection of seedlings, nursery stock, seeds, compost, poultry and other items from our farm.

This program gives you the opportunity to decide what you want instead of us deciding what you want. Every $100 you invest will also get you a 10% discount which means that you will actually get 10% more produce for your food dollars.

Our produce will be available to you via Washington County Artisans and Farmers market held at Pekin Park in Pekin Indiana on Saturday Mornings from 8 AM to 12 PM as well as at all subsequent “winter markets” held at the Pierce Polk Vol Fire Dept. in Pekin Indiana (as well as any additional events) For convineince you can also schedule a time to pick up things or peruse the fields here at the farm!. It is important to note that we don't usually deal in custom ordered bulk produce on a normal basis (i.e., a bushel beans, or a bushel of corn) but that when these items are available at market, as they often are, your credit can be used to purchase them as well.

FAQ
How much does it cost? The investment levels start at 50.00. An investment at the 100 dollar or above level will earn you a 10% discount which means that an investment at the $100 level only costs you $90! Thats right; $100 dollars of credit only costs $90! That's essentially the same as getting $10 of produce free just for paying ahead of time! Your credit is good for two years which means that whatever is not spent this season can be carried over to next season! The maximum investment is $500.

Here is the layout:
$50 credit for $50
$100 credit for $90
$200 credit for $180
$300 credit for $270
$400 credit for $360
$500 credit for $450

How will we keep track of your credit?
Good old fashioned pen and paper, anytime you make a purchase we will deduct that price from our ledger. You will receive a receipt after each transaction so you too can keep track of the amount of produce purchased.What if I make it to market late and you are out of what I want? Unfortunately this may happen from time to time which is why we are keeping the investment level low to start with. Sometimes we just flat out run out of an item due to popularity. The best bet is to show up to market early, the best of the best goes quickly!

There are occasions when we may not be able to make it to market from time to time due to emergencies or just the need to take a break here and there but we will inform you a few days ahead of time via e-mail (unless it's a last minute emergency) that we will not be at market in the coming week.

What can I purchase with Bishops homegrown credit? Does this offer only include produce? No, any item we bring to market is eligible for purchase via this credit, including seeds, plants, seedlings, poultry (chicks), occasionally rabbits, compost, fishing worms, handcrafts including soap and wood working or any other product we have at market or our farm stand. We also occasionally have winter produce available. This also covers poultry butchered here on the farm including a Thanksgivning turkey. This also includes nursery stock and our new Face Of The Earth Seed company seeds!

Payment is due by the February 2012 in order that we know what we have in the bank and can plan accordingly. Payment can be made by check, money order, or well concealed cash. Credit takes effect immediately and rolls over for a two year period.

Make checks or money orders payable to: Alan Bishop 5604 S. State Rd. 60 Pekin IN include a note with your full name, address, e-mail address, phone number and a list of people who you will allow to purchase items with your credit if you need to send someone to the farm stand in your place! If you have any questions feel free to e-mail bishopshomegrown@gmail.com or give me a call at 812-967-2073