home

     

Latest News on the Amazing 2010 Season

Enough about us, way overdue to introduce you to some of the very nice people that are growing pumpkins this year. Our vision was always to involve many small family farms and we've got a good start.

Say hello to Ben, Morgan and baby Adeline Tartakoff. Morgan is the daughter of our friends George & Gayle Adams. They are having a very successful first year with the pumpkins and we are so glad that they've decided to settle in Prairie Farm. Great additions to our little community.

The pumpkins are right on track. The leaves are getting beaten back with mildew and age, exposing the fruits to sun.  Hoping to get delivery of our custom made pumpkin harvesting equipment next week.

It's all over now but we had a spell of very uncomfortable hot &  humid days. We kept saying that it was "good for the pumpkins" as we sweated away. After a lull in deer damage, yesterday, Sunday 8/15/10, we were very unhappy to see 12 eaten-out pumpkins since our last walk of the field on Thursday.

Not acceptable. The leaves are beginning to age and deteriorate and the pumpkins and seeds inside beginning to ripen. Eventually they will be exposed and even more tasty and vulnerable. Abatement program back in high gear.

It is hard to see but I'm wearing a tape measure around my neck. The great guy building our pumpkin seed harvesting equipment needed to know the size of our largest pumpkins. We gave him exact stats.

The white beehive behind and to the left is thriving. Beekeeper Jay checked it today and they are now very gentle, lots of honey, lots of larva. All good. The bad times of the repeated bear attacks and possibly a time without a queen are gone. Everybody happy now.

Thursday morning we walked the field and were surprised to see very little new damage. This is Jay pulling up the stakes on the old damage. We did get a report from one of our deer abatement buds this evening that he had seen new predation. We'll do a complete walk over the weekend and see for ourselves.

In general, the pumpkins are amazing and we're really happy as long as we can keep a lid on the deer.

Ken will be spending time in the field over the weekend continuing to prep for 2011. We hope to increase production 2.5 times over 2010.

We've been really busy with our regular jobs and all the tasks required for building our new house after the fire. Details on our fire page here.

So far, one deer down with the abatement program, we'll walk all 1.7 miles of pumpkins in the morning to check on new damage. The shot on the left with the white poles shows the damage as of last weekend, we guesstimate about 10% of the total fruit. The shot on the right shows typical damage from a deer. They eat enough of the flesh to get to the prize, the seeds inside. We end up with hollowed out "pumpkin bowls".  Grrrrh!

It has been sorta heartbreaking. This fantastic growing season, now with pumpkins the size of basketballs and everyday for the last 10 days, we see fruit after fruit destroyed by deer. They are after the pumpkin seeds and we are helpless to stop them.

Last week the USDA Wildlife Specialists approved us for an abatement program, just yesterday the DNR was here to issue permits.

Hopefully we'll be able to take care of the problem in the next few days. We've lost lots of pumpkins but there are still lots out there and young ones maturing could make up for the loss by end of September.

Note new contour strips on the left for season 2011. This is a view of only about 1/3 of the rows, many more new rows facing the other direction.

The deer have also taken notice of the advanced pumpkins. We documented 13 eaten fruits this last weekend. Found another 20 today. In the past, we've used electrical fence to protect the pumpkins but now things are just too large for it to be effective.

We will meet with a USDA Wildlife Specialist tomorrow.

Vegan and anti-hunting friends move along now.

There will be permits issued to remove the specific deer responsible for the damage. In the past, we've had as much as 30% of the crop destroyed. There is no other option. It will be very limited and strategic.  We put together a page of images of eaten fruit from this weekend, you can view the carnage, pumpkin kill, here. Deer damage page.

The tremendous 2010 season continues with some pumpkins the size of soccer balls. We've never had fruit this developed this early.

So basically, everything is great. Report done. We will start doing daily inspections now, looking for deer damage. That is the next hurdle, keeping the crop safe from deer. Click the images to see a larger version.

Bees doing their thing
Lots of our bees are busy working the blossoms.

Expanding Pumpkins
Pumpkins are technically fruits and boy are they taking off. I love them at this stage, still very shinny before they develop the harder outer shell.

Tomorrow morning will do a field walk and take pictures. We've had more hot and wet weather and Pumpkin Heaven 2010 (BE THERE!!!) continues!

Organic Certification
What a crazy year. We're doing all we can to keep up with stuff but have delayed submitting the required paperwork for our organic certification. Our certifier, MOSA, (Midwest Organic Services Association)  has been great and more than understanding but have given us the ultimatum. We made a big dent in the paperwork this last weekend and should have it all in later this week. Sorry MOSA!

Hay River Pumpkin Seed Oil Label in Contest
Just found out today from our label designer that our label printer wants to submit our labels to the 2010 HP Digital Print Awards. We're sending off a bottle for them to photograph. From the beginning, we knew we were going to have a premium product that would need to look the part. The bottle and label have been important in communicating the quality that is on the inside.

Maybe tomorrow the long promised talk about pumpkin sex...

This pumpkin is about the size of my hand and is weeks ahead of schedule. Today, many of the fruits we will harvest in October had their beginnings.. Abundant male and female blossoms, bees busy at their work.

Just no stopping that life-force thing.

Our friends are very happy that some important things are going our way.  The pumpkins are thriving like we've never seen before. Lots of male and female blossoms, this year's fruit is being set right now.

Look at those gorgeous plants!

A neighbor rents the land not used for pumpkins to grow hay. There are now 70 huge, 5' x 6' round bales in the field. The look cool, always remind me of giant shredded wheat. I mowed the strips between the pumpkins, everything is nice and neat.

The pumpkin are visibly bigger every day, many female blossoms but no males open just yet. They guys should start doing their thing in just a few days and then, we'll have that chat about sex.

The very first blossoms are opening and this one is female. You can easily identify them by the tiny, immature pumpkin fruit just below the blossom. Pumpkins are classified as "monoecious", meaning that individual plants bear both male and female blossoms. Stay tuned, tomorrow, if I can get a shot of a male... blossom, we'll talk about sex.

We are so fortunate to have the support and friendship of our nearest neighbors, Jim & Kathy Potter, Mark, Christine, Alecia & Hunter Shaw and Jim & Jill Huber. This year we are growing pumpkins in a new field and had intended to spend this year doing work to improve the field we've grown in the past few years. With the house fire and all, things  just got away from us. The field we were going to improve had weeds 6' tall. All about to bloom and make a major  contribution to the soil weed bank. Yikes!. What to do? Jim Huber came by with a huge mower and made short work of the weeds. We still have a chance to do the work to prep the field for next year.

Thanks neighbor!

Oh, it is still way early in the season and really too soon to say this, but in our 7 years of testing and growing these naked-seeded pumpkins, this is the best year ever. It has been hot, way above normal temps with abundant moisture. Very uncomfortable for humans but perfect if you are a pumpkin.

The plants are gorgeous. Not a single cucumber beetle (our insect nemesis) in sight and the rows are weed free (for the moment). A combination of the new tine weeder implement for the tractor and expert hand-hoeing by Liana, Telea, Alecia & Hunter (THANKS guys!) has kept the long strips picture perfect. To someone not familiar with farming, we actually look like we know what we're doing.

The bee hive continues to flourish with the properly grounded electric fence keeping the bear and critters away. In just a week or two, they will have some major pumpkin blossom pollination duties to perform.

Onward!

That is the sound of 5,000 pumpkins SHOOTING out of the earth. After setting the transplants 2 weeks ago it began to rain. And rain, and rain. Perfect timing, wonderful soil moisture. Then yesterday it turned hot and sunny. The seedlings developed extensive roots during the rain and now are ready to rock. They love the heat and sun.

All signs continue to point to a great season.

Maybe I shouldn't say it so loud but it looks like Jay's got the bear situation handled. After having the hive demolished for the fifth time last Saturday he called for help.  Turns out that we had too small of a solar charger and it was in shade a few hours in the afternoon. That, plus a wimpy ground stake meant that the charge did not last though the night and the bear just walked on in.

Jay has summarized the tips below and would be happy to share them in person too.

Bee’s & Bear—Oh no!

After having to put my angry bee’s hive back together five times in a row, I got desperate and called the DNR. They were great and a fellow came out to the farm the very next day. Here is a list of what he suggests anyone with a hive do. He’s an expert with bear abatement and helps 150 beekeepers in six counties.

·         Use ½ “thick poly tape for fencing. Bears don’t see wires at night.

·        Your first fence line should be no more than 6” from the ground and 6” apart up to the 4‘mark.

·         Fences needn’t be any taller than 4 feet.

·         You need at least 3,000 to 6,000 volts. More is better. Less is not going to keep the bear out. Trust me.

·         90% of fences fail due to ineffective grounding—your ground pole should be in at least 3 feet up to 5.

·         Bait with foil and peanut butter to give bears something to ‘investigate.’

·         Test your fence each time you check on your bees.

·         Keep bottom fence line clear of weeds by using old carpet, a weed-whip or hand-trimmer.

·         Remove the solar charger unit during the winter and store according to directions.

Feel free to email me if you have more questions or if you don’t live too far away, I’d be happy to come over and help. Bears are nearly as important as bees—nearly.

If you follow the suggestions above, you should be bear, raccoon and skunk free! Now, about those pesky humans…

The season is starting off very nicely. 1/2" of rain right after we planted on Saturday then another 1/2"+ today.

Should be warming up later this week with 80s next week.

It just couldn't be better.

Click on image to embiggen

It was a rough start but a perfect ending to our planting day. Woke up to discover that for the fifth time, a bear had demolished the hive. The hive is just above the contour strips. Jay was beside himself with frustration but had to get right out there and put it back together before the crew arrived.

We had the same great crew that had planted the seeds only 13 days before plus our friend Jen Bush. The six 1,400 ft rows were planted by early afternoon just as it started to rain. Perfect timing.

Later in the afternoon we put up another round of bear fortification and then took some pictures of the field. Suddenly, the sun broke though the clouds and a rainbow appeared at the end of the rows.

The growing season begins.

Click on images to enlarge. Last week the new, smaller hive Jay set up was upended. Jay was told that a ring of carpet tacking would be a deterrent. Apparently the bear said, "Pfft" to the stuff. Yesterday morning we discovered the main hive demolished. The shot was taken from inside the very closed Blazer. Jay considered giving up, giving the remains of the hive to Bee-Bob, and typically, that lasted about 15 minutes.

Jay did some research and found a recommendation to surround the hive with 2 ft. wide strips of plywood with 4" nails every 3". Evil Jay spent the day and evening hammering these nasty looking boards.

This morning Jay and friend & neighbor Kris Chew will go to right the hive and set the nail boards.

Pumpkins are doing great, now with first true leaves. We have a crew coming in tomorrow to apply the customer fertilizer blend then we'll get started transplanting this weekend.

It was hot this last week and the pumpkins loved it. In six days, almost 100% of the 13,000 seeds have sprouted with their Cotyledon (seed) leaves. They'll form their first true leaves in the next day or two then will get pulled from the greenhouse on Friday.

We greenhouse start the seeds because Wisconsin weather can be so erratic. Last year we had three days of frost in the first week of June and had to delay planting until the second week. Not this year. Anything can happen, but all bets are on an early, long and hot summer.

We will transplant the seedlings in the field next Sunday, June 6th.

2010, what a great year to be a pumpkin!

The amazing planting crew 2010. On the front left, Telea Dodge, middle, Alecia Shaw and on the right, Liana Dodge. Unimportant, older cranky guys in back.

Ok, we're off!
It felt great to get the seeds going. These beautiful gals worked so fast it was hard to keep up with them. Teenagers today! They had to be forced to take breaks, finished an hour before I had estimated, were fun to work alongside and were sweet with each other. Do you believe what we had to put up with?

We generally just assisted and then stayed out of the way.
Jay filled the trays with organic potting mix, I delivered them to the gals, took away the completed trays and kept the planters stocked in pumpkin seeds. We use our friends Steve & Kate Hearth's greenhouse to start the seedlings. They take off fast, we'll plant them in the field June 4th.

A new queen?
Ken has finally admitted that he's actually a little afraid of the bees. From a very safe distance, this is a view of Jay with his bee-buds, Bee-Bob and Naomi. The hive looks healthy but they are forming new, special cells to make a queen. It could mean they are getting ready to split the hive and swarm. Jay set up another hive nearby. This week's bee visit should tell more.

We B Busy

Time seems like it moves so fast right now, we're so very busy with fire related tasks, our "day" jobs and getting ready for pumpkin season 2010. Last weekend we got delivery of 5 tons of a custom fertilizer blend that was formulated based on our soil tests.  I ruined the PTO linkage on our rotovator while doing the final prep on the pumpkin beds. Drat. Will have to get it replaced tomorrow. Got delivery of a brand new "Williams Tool System" cultivator this week, custom-made for pumpkins. Have a crew coming Sunday to greenhouse start the 10,000 seedlings. Faster, faster, f  a   s    t      e      r............

We continue to prep the slope where this year's 5,000 pumpkins will grow and bear fruit. It has been a gorgeous spring and all local farmers predict a warm summer. Perfect for pumpkins. Shot taken from the tractor.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for our mention and link in yesterday's paper!  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/dining/28oils.html

This year we are moving our pumpkins to a new field. It should be ideal, a south facing slope that is just now coming under organic certification this year. A few days before the fire, the Dunn County conservation agent spent the morning with us and we laid out the path of contour strips to prevent erosion.

There will be a 5' strip where pumpkins are planted in long, 740' rows then a 5' strip of mowed hay. This is the first strip that went in on Sunday, will do more tomorrow, it will look beautiful when it is done.

Pay by Check

In addition to using Google Checkout for credit cards, we also welcome payments by check. Just mail to the address on the home page (no street address needed, Prairie Farm is a very small town). Previous customers can call or email us with your order and we'll send you a bill. Easy.

Good friends drove north today to pick up bottles of oil, we got a new batch of labels this week and we've set up a temporary shipping department at the motel. We're sending out our first three orders since the fire tomorrow.

So good to be back!

We've had a disaster. Our house burned to the ground in the early hours Saturday morning. We don't know how but when Jay woke up about 2:30 AM he noticed an odd orange light outside. He looked up to see flames shooting out of the attic. In minutes the house was engulfed and we live in such a remote location, it takes about 45 minutes for emergency response. We knew right away that all was lost. The good news is that all our farm equipment is fine and we have 712 bottles of oil stored off-site. Hay River Pumpkin Seed Oil continues to grow and move on with big expansions plans in 2010. Click here to see daily pictures as we blog our recovery. Many thanks for all the love, support and good wishes! Ken & Jay

Our philosophy on paying people that help us.

Sometimes it's better to let your friends do the talking. Our friend and neighbor Mandy Glasgow Berg speaks about our philosophy about hiring people to help us here on the farm. Thanks Mandy!

BeeZ!
Last year we began beekeeping. Not so much for the honey but for the early pollination service for the pumpkins. It was a beautiful 40 degrees this afternoon and we decided to see how they did over the winter. They form a cluster inside the hive and maintain 95 degrees around the queen at all times. It takes a huge amount of energy to maintain that temperature when it is 20+ below zero in Wisconsin. We left them  plenty of food. A honey super (box with frames of honeycomb) and a candy board. We lifted the lid today and there were thousands and thousands of them. They are doing just great and have plenty of food left.

We had been concerned, the beekeeper Jay was trailing last year had opened his hives two weeks ago and everything was fine and then on a second check last week, all the bees had died. He does not yet know if they are dead and at the bottom of the hive or if CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) has occurred.

We plan on adding two more hives this year.

Glad to be buzzing.

The conference was a huge success. We had not attended for the last 8 years and were blown away with how much it has grown. Especially impressive was the large numbers of people in their 20s and 30s.  People are young, smart, serious and just looked cool. This is definitely not your grandpa's farming. All of this gave us a real sense of HOPE for the future of food production.

We learned tons, now have a weed management program, a "naked" pumpkin seed breeding program and we learned about the world of grants out there to help new farmers. 2010, bring it on!

We're on our way to attend the 2010 Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse, WI. This is now the largest organic conference in the nation and we are ready to learn. We've signed up for an all-day course at their "Organic U" on organic weed management. We are gonna win that battle this year!

Woo Hoo! Just got the word that Cooking Light magazine is considering us for an article in the October issue on the best eight artisan foods in the Midwest. Submitting a bottle for their taste testers. Will us luck and we'll keep you posted.

Scrambled Eggs with Pumpkin Seed Oil pulled from the Recipe page

Do scrambled eggs even need a recipe? Ok, here's how we do it. Take a non-stick pan and melt a teaspoon or so of butter. Break 6 eggs in a bowl and beat in 1 to 3 teaspoons of pumpkin seed oil ( 3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon). plus 1/8 cup of milk (or so) and salt & pepper. Cook. Eat. Enjoy the slightly nutty flavor and know that you are getting a remarkable source of zeaxanthin, a carotenoid recently found to be important for eye health and macular issues. Learn more on the Health Benefits page.
Print version

After the seeds are harvested we run them though our seed cleaner. This is a once a year operation and sometimes we get a little rusty. Here's a fun, quick one with Jay Gilbertson.

January 17, 2010
News Update.

Quick, what's the connection between pumpkin seed oil and your bladder? Well actually, from what I can see, not much, but that has not stopped Sanhelios from selling their "Bladder Caps" made from pumpkin seed oil. To make a health claim you have to have pretty solid scientific research and after reviewing some quality internet sources such as www.pubmed.gov, there just isn't much research published. Pumpkin seed oil is a remarkably healthy oil to incorporate into your diet but we stand by our philosophy of using it because it tastes good. One note to any Sanhelios Baldder Cap purchasers, you are paying $22.95 for a bottle of 30, 1 ml capsules.

So, Sanhelios Bladder Caps = 30 ml for $22.95 
Hay River Pumpkin Seed Oil = 250 ml for $21.95...um, eh, we win.

One of our core values is sustainability, not only for the earth but for people. A long-term goal for Hay River Pumpkin Seed Oil is to create jobs in our hometown, rural Prairie Farm, WI.

This video was shot by our friends Carrie Maloney & Mark Given. Clearly, they were limited by the on screen "talent". See the amazing and hilarious creative work they've done for some of the biggest brands in the world on their demo reel here.

Pumpkin seed meal and pumpkin seed butter. After our pumpkin seeds are cold-pressed, the oil rests for about a month. Tiny particles of seed settle to the bottom and the oil is decanted off the top. What remains is pumpkin seed butter. It can be salted, sweetened and used like any nut butter. We use it to make Thai style sauces for vegetables. Although our focus this year is on the oil, in the future we’ll be offering packaged pumpkin seed meal and pumpkin seed butter. For this year, both are available by request.

December 9, 2009

Growing up in Southern California, I don't think I'll ever stop marveling at the dramatic change of seasons in Wisconsin. The June picture was taken just after planting 3,500 pumpkin seedlings. Today's picture speaks for itself but where did all that chlorophyll go? Cold tonight, way below zero. The earth rests and renews.

Dichromatic. Di-chro-matic

This is so cool. Dichromatism is the scientific name for an amazing property of pumpkin seed oil. When you see it in the bottle it is deep red, in a thin layer, it is green. How can this be? I am not able to adequately explain this scientific phenomena but think it is remarkable that of all substances, pumpkin seed oil is one of the most diachromatic on earth.

 I told you, this stuff is special. Get some and see for yourself.

Hay River Pumpkin Seed Oil on the radio!

Chef Erica Wides does a terrific show on specialty and high temperature oils. We appreciate her mentioning us at about the 9 minute mark. She goes on to do an excellent review of some of the intriguing aspects of pumpkin seed oil, including (word for the day?) - dichromatism.

Heritage Radio Network, "Why We Cook"
Erica casts a lens on exotic oil varieties, explaining their origins, their extraction methods, and how to best use them in your dishes.

December 2, 2009

The color is RED

This year we may have perfected the "light roast" of the pumpkin seeds before pressing the oil. Our 2009 vintage has a fuller; nuttier flavor and we've never seen it be such a deep red color. Here's a bottle before we applied the label and decorative cap. 'Course the cat had to get involved.

That red color is more than just beautiful, it signifies the high level of lipid-based antioxidants that provide many health benefits. One special carotenoid that is abundant in pumpkin seed oil is zeaxanthin. In the body it is found in greatest concentrations in the macula of the eye.

April 1, 2009
First off, it has been one long, cold winter. It got to 20° F below in December, hit 30° in January and it is still cold.

This is not entirely bad, the over wintering larvae of our insect nemesis, the Cucumber Beetle (Acalymma vittatum) doesn't make it past 30 below and we are not at all sad. Hopefully this summer they will not be so much of a problem.

Snow Melt
Just how the snow melts off the land is always a concern. A long slow warm up like 2008 means the ground gradually thaws and captures the moisture from the winter's snow. This year gave us the recipe for the worst possible outcome. In mid-March we had a series of days in the 50° F range. Everything rapidly melted and ran off. In our main field, because we had dug for perennial weeds in September, we've had considerable erosion. Never again! We'll always go into the winter with something in the ground to avoid this.

Fortunately most of the soil eroded was deposited at the low end of the field and recoverable.