Other research from California and Texas have shown that the advanced practice of drip irrigation reduces the emission of greenhouse gasses through better utilization of applied nitrogen. Excess nitrogen applied to crops is often volatilized as nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas. The more efficient application of nitrogen through the drip system a process known as fertigation and commonly referred to as “spoon feeding” only applies the nitrogen the plant needs greatly increasing the nitrogen use efficiency. This saves the farmer money and saves the natural gas often used to produce nitrogen fertilizer as well as reducing greenhouse gasses.

Forty years after Paul Ehrlich predicted in “The Population Bomb”  that we will not be able to feed the world’s growing population  modern efficient farming practices often derided as industrial agriculture is able to feed the world and offers the environment the benefits of that efficiency.

My family also picked wild mushrooms, dug clams, harvested beach plums and blackberries. I even tried my hand at collecting sap and making maple syrup and made my own bayberry wax candles. It is important to know where your food comes from. Foraging opens your eyes to new food options and flavors. It can help move away from everyday foods to more interesting even sustainable options.

It is also important to understand the limitations of the land. Even the most fantastic wild blueberry find will only feed a few. It does not take many harvesters to clean out a clam bed or fish out a stream. Wild mushrooms can be reduced to a few choice specimens in just a few years.

Feeding a growing world can not be accomplished through foraging. It requires cultivation and nurturing. It takes farming.

The set-up for our 20’ x 20’ booth space did not progress as smoothly as I had imagined. I arrived at the convention center with brand new graphics to emphasize the Netafim branding of “Quality Products”, “Experienced People” and “Reliable Partners”. These graphics were being used on the backdrop, counters and pillars.

The two 8’ tall triangular pillars located at both corners of the booth proved to be a challenge as we disassembled, affixed the graphics and tried to reassemble. As my co-worker stated during this often frustrating process, “It’s like to trying to attach a bumper sticker to a moving vehicle”. Needless to say, assembly of the first pillar took several hours. Since we learned all the “not-to-do’s” with the first one, the second pillar went up much quicker. Here is a photo of one of the completed pillars.

In a salute to the florist association Netafim employees wore a very colorful shirt each day. On Sunday the shirt color was Sangria (actually a mild hot pink), Monday was Kelly Green and Tuesday was Maize (yellow like corn on the cob). We received many compliments and I think the bright colors gave us a positive and uplifting feeling.

At times, our booth was packed with show attendees. Some were looking for drip irrigation products to help their operations save time and money and we were happy to show them all the solutions Netafim offers. While others who already have Netafim products, came to see share their successes and to see what new products we were displaying.

After three days, we closed another successful trade show. As we moaned about our sore feet (didn’t matter that there was padding under the carpet) and massaged our sore backs, we packed everything for the return journey to Fresno, California. And we’re ready to do it all again at the next trade show ….

During my first summer in my new home I was surprised to see a school bus full of kids rumbling down the street picking up mostly boys but some girls little older than me. I learned that this was not a summer school bus but was taking these young workers to the local farms to work. Most of the kids worked at the wrapper tobacco farms that blanketed the Connecticut River valley but some went to vegetable farms picking cucumbers for pickles, asparagus or sweet corn.

It wasn’t until my freshman year of college that I took employment on one of the tobacco farms, nine hours a day 6 days a week, for farm wages which were a bit south of minimum wage. My dad figured the long hours and hard work would keep an active teenager out of trouble. He was right for 54 hours a week, the other hours were another story. In any case the farms at that time still employed bus-loads of tweens picking and hauling the tobacco leaves out of the fields.

It is still common for the children to help out on family farms, but the fact is you won’t find many born Americans working as farm laborers. I read a story in the New York Times about an apple producer in Washington who fired half of their pickers because they were illegal and they couldn’t find enough non-immigrant to work those jobs. It’s too bad, because even though the work was long and hard I never found it unsatisfying.

My overriding goal in this venture was to create a connection between my customers and their food. It was not so much about buying local, although I supported local farmers whenever possible, but more about understanding that food does not magically wind up in packages. A lot of hand labor goes into producing the food we eat and the people who have made this their vocation deserve a nod of credit and praise.

As you can imagine I still have a strong interest in cooking and food. Yesterday, channel surfing while recovering from a minor operation, I landed on a America’s Test Kitchen a TV program from the folks who write Cooks Illustrated. Cooks Illustrated is considered the premier source for non-biased food information as they do not take advertising dollars. On this particular program they were rating California olive oils. Olive oil from California Olive Ranch came in first only a tenth of a point behind their favorite imported oil. It just so happens that California Olive Ranch is employing some innovative production practices and Netafim has been working with them to assist with their irrigation needs. Full circle from the food we grow to the meals we eat.

Then we went to an outdoor growing area to install and observe Netafim’s new MegaNet rotating impact sprinkler. We used two MegaNets – a blue nozzle (1.98 GPM) and an orange nozzle (2.86 GPM) – both with a 24 degree trajectory angle. This outdoor growing area is currently irrigated with another type of impact sprinkler. Once we set up the MegaNet sprinklers, it was easy to see the performance and uniformity difference between the two. Even though it was very windy, the MegaNets performed exceptionally well and I was able to take some really impressive video footage.

We’ll be using some of this video in a presentation at the Ohio Short Course Trade Show in July. Another big thank you to Alex and Color Spot for allowing us to visit.

Recently I attended a grower seminar on producing alfalfa using drip irrigation. This area of agriculture, commodity type crops, is very new to drip irrigation. Because drip irrigation requires a significant up front investment it is most commonly associated with high value crops such as wine grape fruits nuts and vegetables. More recently, growers have applied drip to lower value crops such as cotton and processing tomatoes because they found the improved crop management that is afforded by drip irrigation could be used to improve yield and quality while reducing the amount of water applied.

Some farmers who have experimented with drip irrigation on alfalfa have found they can increase yields dramatically with improved quality applying no more water than with their previous method of irrigation. You see, in order to dry, bale and move the cut alfalfa the growers must shut off the irrigation for up to a couple weeks. The stress the plants feel during this dry period can greatly affect the next crop in both yield and quality. With drip irrigation buried below the surface water can be applied even during cutting if required which greatly reduces plant stress improving yield and quality.

This is not to say drip is for everyone. The greatest yield increases have been found in the arid southwest from West Texas to South Central California with yield increases of 4+ tons per acre and high “dairy quality” hay all through the hot summer. It might be worth a look. Go to: www.netafimusa.com/alfalfa to learn more.

Plants growing through a cool wet spring do not grow a very robust root system. They do not produce the plethora of root hairs they need to overcome a hot day. There may be enough water in the soil but the root system is not big enough to bring the water rapidly to the plant leaves. As a result some of your garden may show signs of wilting. Under these conditions adding more water is just about the worst thing you can do. Overwatering will literally drown the roots by reducing the oxygen in the root zone. Plant roots respire, breathe, like you and me and if the soil gets flooded they cannot breathe and the entire plant will drown. This is why during a flood trees will actually wilt.

So plants exhibit the same response to too little water as too much water they wilt. How do you know if your plant is suffering from drought or flooding? Feel the soil. If it feels damp there is probably enough water around. Also if the plant seems to show some wilting during the middle of the day but recovers and looks good in the morning the root system cannot keep up with the water requirements during the heat of midday. The best thing you can do if this is the case is to shade the plant from the midday sun.

I like the locavore movement because I like the public taking an interest in where their food comes from and as importantly how much it costs to produce. Talk to your local farmer at the farm market and find out how long it took to harvest the food you are buying. Farming is hard backbreaking work and not extremely lucrative. There is a certain amount of love involved in being a farmer.

The locavore movement also helps the buying public appreciate what the earth has to offer. You have a cold spring and the strawberries may not be as sweet as you remember. This does not mean they are bad they are different because each growing year is different. Fruits and vegetables are in many ways like wines. They change from year to year and understanding this is a giant step to appreciating you’re the bounty of the earth. Expecting each strawberry or tomato to be a little sugar bomb ignores the balance that makes a fruit perfect. Just like wine needs balance so should your fruit and vegetables.

Working with what the earth gives you is part of great cooking. Adding a little sugar or even vinegar to create the right balance in your tomato sauce is not a sin, it shows a real understanding of flavor. Appreciating the flavor of what the earth gives you and understanding the reason behind the unique flavors is one reason that buying local is good for all of us.

One could argue that drip irrigation was not invented by Netafim. A number of researchers around the world had been experimenting with drip irrigation as a more uniform way to supply water since the 1930’s. In the U.S. this research focused on potted flowering plants and greenhouse production. However, It was Netafim, formed by Kibbutz Hatzerim in 1965 that proceeded to commercialize drip irrigation worldwide as the most effective and efficient form of irrigation.

The singularity of purpose that lead Netafim to the leadership position it still holds today was due to one simple fact; the members of Kibbutz Hatzerim were farmers and they experienced first hand the dramatic growth response of plants watered in small metered amounts. The proper rate of water application helps balance the air and moisture in the soil reducing plant stress while providing an optimum moisture environment for the roots.

Drip irrigation has become a success worldwide but we are still learning how to manage the soil conditions to maximize growth rates. Netafim still pioneers new drip applications and it is still the farmers who are on the cutting edge of optimizing the system.