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010: Ellen Polishuk on Ego, Getting Adopted by a Farm, and Soil Fertility

4/16/2015

3 Comments

 
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Ellen Polishuk manages one of two locations for Potomac Vegetable Farms – hers is the “west” location, in the exurbs of Washington, D.C. Potomac Vegetable Farms has been around for about 50 years now, but Ellen joined it in the late 1970’s, first as a farm worker, and later as a manager and co-owner of the farm. Potomac Vegetable Farms runs two farmstands, attends farmers markets in DC, and has a CSA. We cover a lot of ground in this episode, including how Ellen got adopted by the farm, the weed control rotation she uses, making over 200 tons of compost on the farm each year, and how organic mulches work for Ellen as a weed control and labor-management tool.

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Show Links

  • Weed the Soil, Not the Crop - An article by Anne and Eric Nordel about their year of cash crop, year of cover crop rotation.
  • This article provides in an introduction to the Luebke composting method described by Ellen in this episode. 
  • Ellen’s project with Southern Sustainable Agricultural Working Group about record-keeping and cost of production with Southern SAWG is Growing Farm Profits.
  • Ellen also mentioned Veggie Compass, a related project based out of the University of Wisconsin. 
  • Ellen’s website about her own consulting and education work is ellenpolishuk.com. 
  • Ellen recommended two books for beginning farmers looking to learn more about soil: Building Soils for Better Crops and The Biological Farmer by Gary Zimmer
  • We didn’t talk about it in the show, but here’s a beautiful video about the history of Potomac Vegetable Farm.
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Ellen’s Favorite Tool:
  • Ellen loves her Imants Rotary Spader

Ellen’s Favorite Resource:
  • Ellen is a big fan of the Southern SAWG Annual Conference, where she says it’s super important to build your contacts and networks. This conference moves around from year to year.
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3 Comments
Linda Halley
4/25/2015 06:45:11 am

Ellen, Would love it if you made a video about mulching with square bales and how to get successful weed control, with plastic beds AND direct seeded crops if you use the mulch in the wheel track.
Thanks

Reply
Heather Ramsay
11/12/2016 08:00:55 pm

This episode was really helpful, as it was the first I've heard about someone being adopted into an existing farm rather than starting their own, which is very similar to my farming situation. Ellen's comments about cover crops, crop rotation and soil care were also helpful as I'm currently thinking a lot about how to improve the way we care for our farm soils here. And yes, a therapist could help a lot! Thanks Ellen and Chris for a great podcast episode!

Reply
Patti Armbrister link
12/24/2016 01:00:03 pm

This podcast is very valuable and I think needs to be reposted or something to get more viewers learning from Ellen. The soil life, mulching, and composting is wonderful.

Reply



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