Visiting Red Tail Organics
Our student program regularly goes out into the surrounding community to learn about farming. They recently made the trip to Red Tail Organics which is one of our vendors at Full Farm.
David Grebner is the owner of Red Tail and he spent time showing our students around his 43 acre property.
"It is always fun and good to see other local small producers and bounce ideas off them. Getting to talk with John is always a treat. Also, it's a good thing anytime you see younger people interested in agriculture and growing food."
During the tour he presented them with the growing areas that are currently under cover crop, showed how they do succession planting of vegetable for a continuous supply, toured their greenhouses and showed their management techniques for getting pasture prepared to grow vegetables.
Grebner worked at other local farms in the area for years before starting Red Tail in 2019. They have 10 acres in production and sell their produce wholesale only. Full Farm was one of their first accounts and they've been with us for three years.
"I worked a lot of farmers markets for other farmers and I didn't hate it, but it's hard and I don't miss doing it now," he said. "I like wholesale because I know what I'm selling before I harvest it. For farmers markets you want to bring more than you can sell since you don't know what the demand might be, and then you have to bring that stuff home. It's very time consuming and there's a bit of waste in it."
In the video you'll see David talking about seeding techniques, both in trays and direct-sowing in the field.
Teresa Terroba Rivero, a Deck student, focused on some of the chemical facts he shared about growing vegetables.
"We learned how they use organic fertilizer to grow crops, among them lime and fish meal. The reason for the use of lime is to regulate the PH of the soil. He said this is important because some vegetables grow better and certain PH levels," she said.
At the end of the tour they all sat down to enjoy fresh red and yellow watermelon.
