Lots of produce at Bozeman winter market

The Bozeman Winter Farmers Market began today in a big way. It is indoors, so photos are iffy with my simple camera, but I hope you, er, get the picture.

If you wanted tomatoes, there were lots!

In fact, fresh produce of all kinds was in abundance. I learned that area farmers use hoop houses and low tunnels (also known as row covers) to prolong the growing season. While this may have been the last market day to find so much fresh produce, there will be hearty vegetables -- like onions, potatoes, beets, carrots, and winter squash -- all season, and well see greens appearing early next spring.

I also learned that occasionally a vendor will resell grocery seconds, so be alert. One tip for assuring you get fresh locally grown produce at any farmers market: Look around at what most vendors are selling. If you see one with an out-of-season item or something that is only on their table, ask where they got it.

Laurie of Crazy View Farm near Wilsall explained to me that greens are in fact hardy even in Montana. They love cool weather and thus will bolt and die in August heat. But if you keep them watered and trimmed, you can have fresh greens into autumn.

You will always see piles of luscious greens at Lauries table. She also makes beautiful chard bouquets!

Along with fresh vegetables, some processed foods were available. Zeynep of Zs Old World Foods was offering free samples of her menu items that she will be selling in her new shop, Zs Meza Market, which will open soon on S. 19th in Bozeman near Main.

I have long enjoyed Zs hummus, which you can buy at area supermarkets, but I was overwhelmed by the tastes of Turkish-style tabouli, dill and garlic labne (similar to Greek tzatziki), red lentil soup, stuffed grape leaves (dolmi), Turkish eggplant . . . and more.

I sat at a table with six other tasters, and judging by the murmur of comments in between bites, Z is already successful: "Really good." -- "Yeah, really good." -- "Wow!" -- "The grape leaves are to die for!" -- "Every single one of them is fabulous." -- "Its definitely a restaurant Ill be visiting."

In the photo, Elizabeth and Matt, newcomers to Bozeman, are savoring a shared plate. They didnt say much; they were too busy eating!

Ill be writing more about Z and her culinary adventures, so stay tuned!

Meanwhile, back at the market . . . there was so much to see and buy I couldnt get a photo of everything.

One thing I especially enjoyed about todays market was the number of vendors promoting other area food producers.

I bought some lovely and delicious tiny cakes from Rendezvous catering, a company that proudly uses Montana products.

Their tower of goodies was spectacular. You can see why I couldnt resist one of each to take home.

The Cutest Business Logo award unofficially goes to One More Bite.

This business sells tasty chicken nuggets and veggie burgers, the latter made from grown-in-Montana lentils.

While Im handing out awards, I have to say that Melissa, who was selling onions and eggs, was definitely the happiest vendor today. What a smile!

And Amaltheia Organic Dairy might have the states best goat cheese. Now I havent tried *all* the goat cheese in Montana, but I think the rest of the producers are going to have to try extra hard to impress me now that Im enjoying Amaltheia. Be sure to look at their website for photos of darling goats.

Hyalite Farm was offering some tasty fudge made from goats milk. Fudge is so rich and chocolatey anyway that I couldnt really tell it was any different, but its a fun treat. They also were selling their Humble Bee Honey and goats milk soap.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable morning. Be sure to visit this winter when you are in Bozeman. Hey, why not go out of your way to get there?

Bozeman Winter Farmers Market

Emerson Ballroom, 111 South Grand Ave.

October 22, 2011 - April 28, 2012 (see website for exact dates)

every other Saturday, 9 am - noon

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Energy to Produce Vegetables

 I just read the article  "The Permaculture Solution – an Interview with Warren Brush". It said "Estimates are that the modern agriculture system uses ten calories of energy to produce one calorie of food."

Fearing that I too may be growing in a style of negative net energy. I immediately looked at the energy costs involved with my soil-less gardens and I published an article.
Chris Carr was kind enough to remind me that nutritional calories (KCal) are equal to 1000 chemistry calories (cal).    A chemist would probably use Joules and Kilo-Joules (KJ) rather than KCal.   But the we think of food in terms of KCalories rather than Joules, so Ill keep it in KCal also known as large or nutrition calories as much as I can.  There were other errors in my first draft,  so heres the rewrite.



I get that using the rule of thumb that a soil garden should get about 10 gallons of water /day /100 sq. ft. is not exact, and everything from soil condition, weather, crop, and stage of growth will affect these numbers, but its the average I want to start with.
Lets say you irrigate 100 square feet of garden with 10 gallons per day, and you are pumping water from lets say 100 feet below the surface. 

To calculate the power used to pump 10 gallons per minute 100

P_whp = q h sg / 3960

where

P_whp = water horsepower (hp)
q = flow (gal/min)    = (10)
h = head (ft)              = (100)
sg = specific gravity = (1)

P_whp = 10x100/3960 = .2525whp = 0.04497210699688 KCal/sec
This could also be expressed as 188.2892175745  J/sec which is the definition of a Watt.

If you are following along and checking my math you can use the Power Unit Conversion to find the Power.
Energy is what is delivered and Power is the rate at which it is delivered.
In the above example we deliver 188 Watts for 1 minute or 3.138 Watt-Hours, but Im going to stick with KCal units.



We pump for 1 minute so
0.04497210699688 KCal/s  x  60sec = 2.69 KCal / day to supply 1" of water to soil

Below is a list of common vegetables which I got from.

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calories_in_vegetables.htm
Highlighted cells are used below.

Tomato can be expected to yield as much as 37500 lb per acre or 37500/43560x100 = 86 lbs per 100sf
80 KCal per lb x 86 lb = 6880 KCal
Lettuce can be expected to yield as much as 27000 lb per acre or 27000/43560x100 = 61 lbs per 100sf
67.37 KCal per lb x 61 lb = 4176 KCal
 

The yield statistics below come from eHow.com and johnnyseeds.com

Using the numbers from vegguide I have determined that on average lettuce will take about 50 days to mature and tomatoes will take about 80.

Soil

Here is the energy required to pump the water for these two crops till harvested.
Tomatoes - 2.69 KCal x 80 days = 215.2KCal
Lettuce     - 2.69 KCal x 50 days = 134.5KCal

Tomatoes - It takes 215.2 KCal to produce 6880 KCal of tomatoes.  About 31.9 to 1 . 
Lettuce     - It takes 134.5 KCal to produce 4176 KCal of lettuce.      About 31.0 to 1 .

Bioponic

Im going to use a pump size that is far below what you are likely use to make the best case for soil-less gardening.
If you use a 20 watt pump 5 hours a day.
Thats 20 watt-hours x 5 hours/day = 100 Watt-Hours / day 
Each W-Hr is equal to 0.859845227859  KCal
 0.859845227859  KCal  x 100 Watt-Hours / day = 86.0 KCal to pump water each day.

Tomatoes - 86.0 KCal/day x 80 days = 6880 KCal
Lettuce     - 86.0 KCal/day x 50 days = 4300 KCal
Tomatoes - 6880 KCal to produce 6880 KCal of tomatoes.  About 1 to 1 .   
Lettuce     - 4300 KCal to produce  4176 KCal of lettuce.       About 1.03 to 1 .

Compared to soil gardening the power efficiency of soil-less gardening is staggeringly bad, but water is also a commodity worth preserving.  Water use gets pretty complicated if you consider that some of the water applied to soil returns to the aquifer, but aquaponics and bioponics are definitely more efficient with water, and far more wasteful of power, which in some cases will be fossil fuel  

My comparison only scratches the surface.  Our home gardens may not be much better than the modern agriculture system which Warren Brush said uses 10 to 1 times more calories than it produces.  The cost of mining and producing nutrients for our gardens must also be included as well as the gas for those trips to the store for our gardening supplies and fish food.  Keep in mind petroleum is the main source of fertilizers, and even a source of power for production of organic products. The list goes on, and Im sure I would not be able to think of all of the items on that list.

There are ways to improve each type of garden.  Solar power for water pumps, air pumps, and heaters.  Wicking beds and other Permaculture methods for soil based gardening as Warren has suggested,  Kratky Method for hydroponic gardens, but hydroponics use synthetic fertilizers.  In most cases I believe much more power is required in an aquaponic garden compared to a bioponic garden, but the trade off is protein from fish...  Finding the exact number seems out of reach - we can only try to make better decisions,
We are quickly out growing our planet, and its resources. I hope this has been  food for thought.   I hope you will share yours.

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