sift.ncat.orgSIFT 2019 Continuing Lessons from a Small-Scale Urban

Toggle navigation HOME About Us What's New? Videos Calendar About Small-Scale Farming Resources DONATE -- Submit Submit MORE About Small-Scale Farming Resources DONATE -- Zoe Carlberg instructs AmeriCorps and Food Bank volunteers in preparing the bed for the Food Bank Garden on the SIFT farm. Zoe and Camille Green harvest vegetables to sell at market. Setting up for SIFT's weekly Thursday-afternoon farm stand. Zoe and Tammy Howard brave an August hailstorm to sell SIFT produce. SIFT's EnergyCorps volunteer Mike Daniel helps visiting kindergarteners harvest spinach. On a fall visit to NCAT headquarters, Senator Jon Tester stops by the SIFT farm to chat with Camille, Zoe, Marcia Brown, and Carl Little about the project. Buckwheat growing as a summer cover crop attracts many buzzing pollinators. Camille explains winter bed preparation techniques during a workshop held at the SIFT demonstration farm. Tammy assists customers at SIFT's first annual plant sale. Row covers protect outdoor crops from October frosts. Camille and volunteers stretch polyvinyl over the braces of a hoop house. Before switching to the farm stand for marketing, Camille and Zoe sold SIFT's produce at the Uptown Butte farmers market. Zoe adds expired vegetables from Albertsons to trenches dug in the soil for over-winter trench composting. Mike with the cold frame he and SIFT intern Nathaniel Mack built. Nathaniel tilling in the cover crop of buckwheat to add organic matter to the soil. Volunteer Kaleena Miller and Zoe finish mulching garlic during a blustery early October snowstorm. Welcome SIFT (Small-Scale Intensive Farm Training program) was created to help every community increase their food security by producing their own healthy food. SIFT, with NCAT, is developing a working, sustainably managed, demonstration farm on five acres at our Butte, Montana, headquarters. This farm serves as the backdrop for an intensive, hands-on training program that teaches farmers and future farmers, urban food producers, community leaders, and citizens how to commercially produce high-value, nutrient-rich food on small parcels of land. SIFT's Demonstration Farm: Click map to explore! -- -- Plot 0 A small section of perennials including: raspberries, rhubarb, and strawberries. Plot 1 20' x 40'. Originally tilled up in 2011 and amended with compost and manure. Currently growing: asparagus, Butter Lettuce, Romaine, mixed lettuce, Chard, scallions, Arugula, and green onions. Plot 2 20' x 40'. Originally tilled up in 2011, and amended with compost and manure. Currently growing: strawberries for outdoor trial, three varieties of carrots (Nelson's Hybrid, Purple Haze, and Sugar Snax), and three varieties of peas (Sugar Snap, Oregon Giant Snow, and Cascadia Snap). Plot 3 20' x 40'. Tilled up in 2013, and amended with manure. Currently growing: three varieties of strawberries for an outdoor spring trial. Plot 4 20' x 40'. Tilled up in 2013, amended with manure. Currently growing: three varieties of beets (Touchstone Golden, Round Red, and Bull's Blood), Bok Choy, Sugar Snax carrots, and two varieties of broccoli (Umpqua and Arcadia). Plot 5 20' x 40'. Tilled up in 2013, amended with manure. Currently growing: a cover crop of peas, soil splitting rasdish, rye, and oats. The Garage The garage houses NCAT's company Priuses, but SIFT also uses it for storage purposes. Most of our tools and hoses hang in here, as well as many of our seeds. Under the overhang on the north side of the garage where we hang our garlic to cure, we have a wash station for produce processing. Hoophouse 1 12' x 40'. Built in 2011 using untreated 2"x8" hemfir boards for the baseboards, rebar, 2" PVC pipes for the hoops, 1" PVC pipes for purlins, untreated 1x4" hemfir boards for hipboards, plywood for the north end, and 6-mil greenhouse film from Farmtek as a cover. A 30% reflective shadecloth covers the top of the hoop house to block some of the hot sun, and the sides can roll up to the hipboards, approximately 4' above the baseboards, to provide air circulation in summer. Soil amended with manure. Total cost: about $1,500. Currently growing: Currently growing: A variety of summer squash. Hoophouse 2 12' x 40'. Built in 2011 using untreated 2"x8" hemfir boards for the baseboards, rebar, 2" PVC pipes for the hoops, 1" PVC pipes for purlins, untreated 1"x4" hemfir boards for hipboards, plywood for the ends, and 5-mm Solexx as a cover. Total cost: about $1,800. A variety of tomatoes including: Stupice, Taxi, Siletz, Celebrity, Big Beef, Bell Star, and Red/Gold Cherry. Hoophouse 3 12' x 40'. Built in 2011 using untreated 2"x8" hemfir boards for the baseboards, rebar, 2" PVC pipes for the hoops, 1" pvc pipes for purlins, untreated 1"x4" hemfir boards for hipboards, and 6- mil greenhouse film from FarmTek as a cover. The sides of the hoop house can roll up to the hipboards, approximately 2' above the baseboards, to provide air circulation in summer. Total cost: about $1,500. Currently growing: A variety of peppers and beans. Hoophouse 4 12' x 40'. Built in 2011 using untreated 2x8" hemfir boards for the baseboards, rebar, 2" pvc pipes for the hoops, 1" pvc pipes for purlins, untreated 1x4" hemfir boards for hipboards, plywood for the north end, and 6-mil greenhouse film from Farmtek as a cover. A 30% bulk shadecloth covers the top of the hoop house to block some of the sun, and the sides of the hoop house can roll up to the hipboards, approximately 2' above the baseboards, to provide air circulation in summer. Soil amended with manure. Total cost: about $1,500. Currently growing: Three types of Strawberries and a variety of herbs in secession including: Basil, Dill, Parsley, and Cilantro. The Greenhouse In addition to the greenhouse attached to the south side of the NCAT building (not pictured on this map), the SIFT farm includes this freestanding greenhouse. Built in 1978 as a demonstration of a low-cost passive solar greenhouse (meaning we add no additional heat), and facing due south to capture the maximum amount of sunlight, NCAT employees used it for years to grow vegetables in the raised beds. SIFT took over management of the greenhouse in 2011. Currently growing in the freestanding greenhouse: No crops in the greenhouse—we're in the process of improving the greenhouse. The raised beds in front contain chives, mint, dill, thyme, oregano, garden sage, and nemorosa sage. Currently growing in the attached greenhouse: Cucumbers. Compost Piles Constructed in 2012 from old shipping pallets and revamped in 2013, the majority of SIFT's composting happens in these four large bins. With donations from local grocery stores, cafes, and community members, as well as scraps from around the farm, we build our own valuable soil amendment. Compost is great for adding nutrients to the soil, as well as binding together soil particles to improve soil structure and better retain water and nutrients—an essential when your soil is as sandy as ours. How-To Composting is essentially just speeding up the natural process of decomposition and using it to your advantage. It will work whether you have a fancy bin or a hole in the ground, whether you turn and aerate it regularly or leave it alone. But the fastest way to make great compost is to alternate layers of a few inches of "brown," high-carbon materials (like dried leaves, straw, strips of newspaper, coffee filters) with a few inches of "green," high-nitrogen materials (like fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, eggshells, garden scraps). Keep the pile moist and make sure air is getting inside by turning the pile with a shovel or pitchfork once every week or two. If it's getting aerated, the microbes in the pile doing all the decomposing should heat things up to about 140 degrees F; regular turning maintains this temperature. Once the pile has cooled down, if none of the inputs are recognizable and the compost smells like good soil, it's ready to use. If turning the pile isn't an option, it w...