conducting

As I wrote yesterday, today was my opportunity to "manage."
In short, I think it went well. D was happy with my planning and execution and E was rockin and rollin through the day. We got loads done... and I truly enjoyed it. Very important.
Before I get into the specifics of the day, I must say how grateful I was/am for being given the opportunity to actually call the shots. The amount of trust D puts in us is mind-boggling at times (we're only half way through the season too). As a result of the good day, I get to "conduct" tomorrow and Friday as well. How awesome!

The day actually started last night when I made my rounds of the crops. Priorities priorities. Organize organize.
We started in the office. I gave my thoughts as to what needed to be done and D & E seemed cool with it. What did we do?
2 BIG priorities.

Planting and Cultivating.

We were 7-10 days behind on some of the transplanting and direct seeding, so that was a definite. And as we're juggling quite a bit at the height of the season we don't have as much time to dedicate to fine cultivation.

So. E fertilized the bare beds in C, D & F (while D basket weeded herbs, carrots and beans in D). I followed with the chisel plow. She then followed with the rototiller and D followed with the bed marker. At times (and we all commented on this which was so cool) it looked/felt as if we were dancing around the field on the tractors. Weaving in and out, back and forth, prepping the soil. A well-oiled machine this morning.

This is what each bed looked like after our handiwork (props to E on the crazy straight tilling. good stuff)



As D is a whiz at direct seeding with the Planet Jr., I figured it best for him to be seeding 5 beds. Oh, as an aside, he seeded Arugula, Mustard Greens, Tatsoi and Goldenfrill (among many others). Yay!! My absolute favorites from the Spring crops.
As E & I fare well at hand transplanting we took care of 2 beds worth of Fennel, Lettuce and Swiss Chard.
Aand I used a little artistic license and set up the van beside the field with the radio on and doors open. Had us a bit of an accompaniment to the work. Felt good.

We took a 20 minute break at 10. Bagels, cream cheese and casserole.

Back to the field then. By lunch we finished all the planting in C & D, moved irrigation lines to them and got them watered in for the latter half of the day.



Lunchtime!! 40 minutes. Long morning.

The afternoon was pretty straightforward.

Direct seed Cucumbers and Summer Squash by hand in F, and cover with reemay.
E & I made quick work of it while D got started on wheelhoeing the brassicas (Broccoli, Rutabaga, Kale, Cabbage) in Z. Perfect time to be cultivating as the sun will bake anything that's not firmly rooted.
The three of us worked through 3 - 400' beds of brassicas by the end of the day.
With a few minutes left I gathered the roll of reemay and the sandbags from that field as we won't be needing them anymore. On our way back up the farm, we pulled 2 large tarps with us behind the van. They were being used to cover hay, but have since gotten a little moldy as they've been sitting in damp grass. Proper to get them out and cleaned.

A great day! We celebrated with a little re-hydration. Melon, of course.

And now it's time to switch my mind to tomorrow.
One word is screaming out above all others.... HARVEST!! Must and will. Lots.

Dig.

all together now

Five days. I can barely wrap my brain around the amount of "stuff" that has happened/we've done since I last wrote. I begin to realize how important it is for me to take pictures EVERY day. The problem is that I've not been taking pictures every day. So I sit here and try to reconstruct my Friday with zero visual cues. Good luck...

We harvested. I know that. But what?? And how much??
OOOOOOhhhhh yeah!!! We harvest LOADS of onions!!
And no, I have no pics to go along with my explanation... Dang...

....btw, just checked, E has pics on her blog.... nice one.

Anyhoo, Friday. As the greenhouse is fairly vacant at this point in the season, it conveniently becomes a curing room for thousands of onions. We set all of the tables up lengthwise against the sides to accommodate the tractor coming and going with the large harvest bins.
Short process shorter: The bins were carried on the loader forks down the bed(s) of onions and we (including Nancy, Katherine and Daniel) pulled as many onions as we could at a time. With both hands full, the onions are then placed side by side in the bins. When all bins were full, D transported the bins to the greenhouse one at a time. From there we layered them on the tables in one direction, giving each bulb the space it needs to "air out." (nts: we had a small number of rotten ones. d said if we would've harvested a few days earlier, perhaps we would've had less)
We broke in the middle of the process and finished up after lunch.

It was then time to pull out some shade cloth (a heavy woven black nylon mesh) to go over the whole greenhouse. The purpose of the cloth is to protect the onions from unhealthy high temps and the blazing sunlight. It works splendidly.

We just about finished the day by harvesting peppers and eggplants. Growing like crazy, those ones.

I made a few passes with the mower before quitting time and it was off to the train station to pick up h for a weekend visit.

--
26th
--

Saturday's distribution was colorful and well-attended. Why do I know? I actually got to stay in the barn to work it. Nice!!
Want a few pics of the harvest????







Later in the afternoon, we had our 10th Anniversary Picnic. A whole buncha members and friends showed up. There were: food, drinks, laughs, a hayride, costumes...(nice one, D),





and one mad, big bouncy house that I'm pretty sure most of the adults enjoyed as well.



...and Marie (whom I've introduced before) sang a wonderful song (accompanied by E on accordion) for everyone about giving thanks. So heartfelt. I teared up.

A few more pics from the picnic.











Indeed Saturday was a great one.

--
27th
--

Sunday was mostly about relaxing, though the storm(s) that blew threw sent a shot of anxiety into the middle of the day.
Quarter-sized hail at one point.





Luckily and happily, there was NO significant crop damage as the hail lasted for just a short while.

H and I drove around afterward and encountered quite a bit more damage than what I expected from a storm that size. Mostly downed trees, but still surprising.



--
28th
--

Monday, as is usually the case now, we harvested. (Of note: As D was indisposed at his house for the day, E was given the chance to be head honcho. She did quite well.)
Harvested:
Lettuce
Cilantro
Onions
Carrots
Summer Squash/Zucchini
Peppers
Eggplants

Late morning saw the arrival of 10 campers from a nearby sleep away camp. They helped us harvest Onions and Carrots.. and did a truly, truly awesome job, by the way. We took them on a tour of the farm and fed them watermelon (the first of the season) before they left.

I also had the chance earlier to fix a broken sweep on one of the cub implements. Good as new and ready to cultivate.

After work I needed to meditate, soo..... I mowed and weedwhacked... of course.
E trellised tomatoes in the lower Solar field. Not an easy one as the plant varieties are indeterminates. This means they just keep on growing upward. And if not trellised at the right time(s), they will fall all over themselves and present one with a very slow, involved trellising opportunity. So it pays to stay ahead of the game on this.

--
29th - Today
--

A fairly straight ahead distribution Tuesday.
Except first we learned how to use the root vegetable washer. (as I'm low on energy and don't have the pics uploaded yet, I'll explain it tomorrow)
We washed off yesterday's carrots with much less effort than by hand.
Leeks were up next.
And after that? Melons!
How do we do so? It's very similar to harvest onions in bulk insofar as the tractor and large bins are concerned. The picking/tossing method, however, is totally its own thing. Three of us (Pam included) tiptoed through the beds knocking on one melon at time listening for the right deep pitch that lets you know it's ripe.
Finding a ripe one, you pluck the vine from melon, lift it up, brush off the underside, swing it back between your legs and chuck it with all you've got to D standing 25' away. He catches each one and places it in the bin. Slowly, we moved our way down the patch. A truly fun (if not a little exhausting) harvesting process.

Before lunch we packed our remote distribution shares. Just about 20lbs of produce today. Man, that's some gooooood stuff.

I stayed here for distribution, which went very well.

While tearing down, D approached me about managing tomorrow.. and perhaps the next 3 days. Indeed. I'm down.
I walked the entirety of the farm this evening creating a status report/to do list.
We'll see what can be accomplished tomorrow. Whole lotta stuff to address.
Hmmmm. Never enough time.

We shall see how it goes.

Dig.

thursday already?

What a beautifully cool, rainy night. One that existed solely for sleeping.
I did. Deeply.

Woke to more rain. Close to 2" all told.



We convened in the front barn and took inventory. Seems we had quite a bit left over from Tuesday's distribution. Loads ready for harvesting though.
In the office we mulled over options for the day (including starting late in the afternoon as the rain was supposed to continue until then).
We settled on capping and cleaning more garlic.



Good rainy day work. And if the rain were to cease (which it did), we could get right to harvesting.

By the time the rain stopped we had been joined by Martha and Judy (good thing we chose to work). So, with the rest of the morning we harvested Leeks and Red Onions. Harvesting Leeks is a cross between harvesting Scallions and Onions. You pull them from the ground gently as you would a bunch of Scallions. Shake the dirt from the roots making sure to do so away from other allium plants as moisture/soil falling in between the layers can lead to rot. Remove an outer leaf or two for cleanliness (like scallions) and the remaining leaves are chopped to an arrow shape like onions.



Need a very sharp knife for this one. Wash gently and place in bin for storage.

The red onions are harvested and washed just like the others (except more beautifully... says me).









Lunch was up next. Which reminds me, I had Okra for the first time last week. Just like Purslane it has a mucilaginous texture inside which I think may be a turnoff for some. I quite like it. Very healthy for you.

After lunch we harvested some 330 Summer Squash/Zucchini (3 beds in use right now). Once the plants start producing, the fruit are ready every 2-3 days. Full grown too!! Amazing. Gotta get them while they're 8-14" inches. Much tastier than when they blow up to baseball bat size... and they do.

We moved on to cabbage afterward. (nts: Tendersweet, Farao, Super Red have fared well).



While we have 3 active Beet beds, we decided it best to hit the one in Y as they've yet to be fully thinned. But before we bunched them, we picked beans as they were just getting a little too big for comfort. Glad we did. They taste great. Another day or two and they would've gotten tough and flat-tasting.
Beets were right after.

With the day done and my clothes matted with dirt, water, sweat and onion juice, it was indeed shower time. Thank goodness for running water, eh? Much better and ready for tomorrow.

Oh yeah, wanna see the 3 Sisters Field?? I do.



















Oooooo. And this at sunset. I mean.. really.



Dig.

dance, and you shall receive

First... Our most sincere thanks and appreciation to all who did a rain dance.
It started yesterday. Just a little during distribution. Then nothing for the rest of the night.
By late morning we received about a quarter of an inch which is great, but still not as much as we desired. Then??? After a cloudy work day that was flirting with moderate to heavy rain, we got what we were waiting for... and are still getting what we were waiting for. Actually we're under a Flood Warning. Good news is that were not in a low lying area. We should be fine. Our crops are already much, much happier. Again... Thank you!!

Our focus today was a result of the expected (and then present) rain.

E seeded our weekly succession of lettuce. (nts: 5 - 128flats/wk HERE. probably 2 flats/wk there).
Meanwhile, I began the long process of pulling down and trimming all the garlic that still hangs in the back barn. We're going to send them home with members to be peeled. Easy process (and certainly not as monotonous when performed with battery-powered radio headphones. thanks d):

Pull down 10 - 10pc bundles of garlic at a time.
Place them, bulb down, in a harvest bin.
Use pruning shears to cut off the bulbs about 1 inch up the stem.
Discard stems/leaves for compost.
With sheet metal grade scissors, cut off roots at base of bulb.
Repeat til done w/ 100.
Place in a mesh bag and hang from rafter for further drying.

The members/we will clean them throughout subsequent weeks for distribution.

E and I made it through about 1100 (of approx 5000) by lunch.

Post lunch had us heading straight to the newest round of Carrots in D for finger-weeding. E direct seeded them only a week ago and they've germinated already. Pretty impressive as the average carrot takes 2-3wks to germinate.
Anyhoo, on hands and knees we brushed aside tiny, tiny "weedlings" from the tiny, tiny carrot sprouts. It struck me how extremely important this early cultivation is (regardless of how painstaking is). By getting the weeds out at such an early stage we have eliminated 80% of the weed pressure that the carrots would have experienced otherwise, allowing them to get a great foothold in the soil and grow much more readily, aaaand saved ourselves (and Peter, our master weeder) hours and hours of pulling larger weeds. Must remember to keep early weeding in high priority next year.

That finished, we harvested beans for the remainder of the workday. E won (the unspoken competition). 21 lbs in about 1 hr. Impressive.

Of note post-work was my daily pilgrimage to the 3 Sisters field. WOW!! 8ft+ corn stalks!! Red silking already. Beautiful amaranth and sunflowers. Beans spiraling up the stalks. Squash plants spanning a few feet. WOW!! I didn't get pictures as it was raining, but rest assured I will have some tomorrow.
Also of note is field F. We have given it less attention than every other field so far and it's ROCKIN on its own. The squash and cucumber plants look amazing and the weed pressure is minimal. Go F!!
This actually makes me that much more excited at next year's prospects as we will be planting into newly turned ground. Yay organic matter and lack of weed seed!!

A great day all around. Good workin. Good rainin. Good eatin. Good thinkin. Good plannin.

Good gravy, it's about time to hit the bed.

Dig.

tuesday in 7 words

Lettuce
Cabbage
Beets
Onions
Beans

Distribution

Rain!!!

direction

With so much having happened in the past 5 days, and feeling rather brain dead from the heat (as I'm sure most are), I'm going to do my best to summarize... ummm.. with perhaps a modicum of detail.

Thursday 17

Early day as it was going to be a hot one. 5:30 start.
First up was moving irrigation in the onions in W2 (we have not had a GOOD rain in some time. seems we're moving irrigation lines constantly. somebody out there do a rain dance for us... we already have).
D & I harvested what lettuce we could in field E. Amazing how quickly certain varieties slipped passed us. E was washing.
D decided it a good idea to further break up the turned soil in W2 & 3 that I had plowed on Wednesday as neither plowed perfectly (due to dryness/rockiness). We passed on the chisel plow as the ground is a bit too compacted and dry. We settled on the disc harrow (our first time this season)



The implement is simply dragged behind the tractor. The first row of discs kicks the soil outward while the second row throws the same soil right back in. While doing so it slices up all the turned soil (hopefully), effectively severing all root structure. In action....



E continued with the harrow.

D and I spent the better half of the morning cultivating the melon beds. Very important to remove the purslane as it grows laterally like melon plants... and uses relatively large amounts of water.

---ok, i realize i'm not summarizing too well. try again.---

We took a break and decided to push on through the day, skipping lunch, ending early.

D & E hung flash tape in the melon beds to scare away the birds who have had a taste of several melons already. This is an effective non-lethal, non-poisonous means of pest control. Yay.



Afterward we staked and trellised 800 ft of tomatoes in Y. This took us to the end of the day.

--------

Friday 18

Started early again.
We had loads of help harvesting.... Which harvested all day, and seem to do about 4 (partial) days a week anymore. Great planning.

Beets
Scallions
Beans
Swiss Chard
Peppers
Eggplant
Onions

Thanks!

After all was done I was off to the city for the weekend.

-------

Saturday 19

I slept! Quite a bit. Relaxed. Actually managed to get my mind away from farming for a day. Well needed.

-------

Sunday 20

H and I met with a land owner in Eastern PA (the one I have mentioned before).
In short: The area is gorgeous. The property is beautiful. The woman is very nice and knowledgeable..and sincerely wants to have her land used sustainably. She and the 2 adjacent farms have an array of farm equipment. We would get 10 acres to grow into. The soil is a silt loam (fairly ideal).

Ummm.. do we have a farm? I. Think. So.

Excited? Yep!

Lotta planning/work ahead? Ooooh yeah!! Can't wait!

Amazing how life has a way of happening.

This will hopefully be looking quite different in a year's time.



-------

Monday 21

Woke to this.



Winter Squash in A. Can you see any soil? Neither can I.

We began by moving irrigation in the onions again. Darn heavy drinkers.

We had several priorities in mind, but ended up tending to our ailing broccoli and cabbage transplants in Z. I ran the buddingh through them right after we took the row cover off.

Before we got into heavy hand cultivation I ran the sweeps through the Summer Squash and Cucumbers in F (while E thinned) and the Sweet Potatoes in Y... and busted one of the sweeps. nice.
I changed the sweeps out for the marker and did up a bed and a half in Z for transplanting broccoli and rutabaga. We hand weeded the rows first.
That done we hand transplanted 600ft of plants... faster than the mechanical transplanter.
Drip was run after planting and we took lunch.

The second half of the day was spent harvesting.

Summer Squash
Peppers (still just the green guys. let the reddish ones get redder)
Eggplants (quite big at this point. ideally want to harvest them a little smaller)
Beans (D beat me by 1/2 lb)

That was that. I napped after work. Go figure. My third time in a week napping. I swear I haven't napped since I was a kid...

Tomorrow is E's birthday. Happy Birthday E!!

More then.

Dig.

plowy mcgee

Not too much to my day.

This was good news as the quick heat of the late morning/afternoon rather impeded my higher brain functions.

With the heat/sun sizing up to dominate the next few days, we decided to pursue weeding and plowing. Why? The persistent heat/sun will lay waste to anything that is not securely rooted. Bad news for weeds. Good news for crops (as long as we keep them irrigated).

Began with a little tractor maintenance:
Bled the fuel filter/water separator and the fuel tank itself. D added coolant. 50/50 mix.
Off I went.

First up was rototilling a few beds in field D as E was going to take a crack at direct seeding (followed by running drip tape). ...though she began her day by thinning/weeding the beans that I direct seeded a couple weeks ago.

I then ran down to Y to till in used beds (hard to believe we are tilling in beds in Y already). Lettuce, Scallions and overgrown Carrots were turned over. As I'm worried about jinxing myself, I hesitate to say this, but I'm happy with how comfortable I'm becoming operating the various tractors/implements on the farm. They feel quite second nature at this point.

I hopped the New Holland afterward, dropped the mower and picked up the Perfecta II to prep/cultivate the previously tilled soil in D and E. What is the Perfecta II?

(pic from the Unverferth website, www.unverferth.com)



It's function is two-fold. It weeds and preps soil.
The tynes have a bit of spring to them so they vibrate laterally as they slice through the ground. Immediately behind the tynes is a row of steel spikes (angled backwards) that further break up clodded soil. And behind it all is a barrel that rotates as it moves through the soil upending the weeds and further refining the tilth. ...now you know.
The benefit to using this as opposed to the rototiller is that it is a little gentler on the topsoil and you can make passes at a higher speed. The drawback is that it does not leave the bed totally ready to mark and plant like the rototiller does. Close... but alas....

So after Perfecta-ing I switched yet again. This time, the plow. Seems our cover crops (mostly rye and vetch) in W2 and W3 (and Y.. tomorrow) need flipping so they can be incorporated into the soil so that the mid-summer round of cover cropping can commence.

The rest of my day was dedicated to finishing this job.

What to cover the fallowed fields with next? D and I spoke briefly about it this evening. Thinking it best to go with Buckwheat on the majority and perhaps try a little Sudangrass (Sorghum) on a few beds as he's never tried it on the farm before. Both make for quick (2+ month) biomass before the winter covers are planted.

With our day done, I took my crazy dirty laundry (in my mad bad moto) to a neighboring town and had what was, surprisingly, a very nice laundromat experience.
Yay for surprises.

E cooked up some rice and steamed veggies for dinner and I closed up "shop" for the night.

It's an early one tomorrow (4:30 wake up. beating the heat) so I'm signing off.

Dig.

tuesday in 2

THANK YOU, KATHERINE!!!

YOU. ARE. AWESOME!!!




and... This for a share! (MIA: carrots)



Good gravy!! Must remember to pinch myself...

Dig.

a working weekend

There is a DEFINITE reason for this blog...

My retention is a tad sub-par.

I've been wracking my brain for a while now trying to recall what was accomplished on Friday. Hmmmmm. Ahhhh yes.

As it was just D and I, our focus was on harvesting for Saturday's distribution.
We began in Y trying to play "catch-up-with-the-fast-growing-semi-bolty-lettuce." A tough game when you realize just how much lettuce there is and how small your window of time is to harvest it. Also, lettuce is not so "waterproof." It's fairly sensitive and needs a good balance of rain and sun. If the soil remains wet for too long, leaf rot is right around the corner. We saw quite a bit on the heads we were targeting. Luckily most heads were still beautiful past the outside layer of leaves. We got what we could, plus some escarole. Johanna had joined the crowd by this point.

Our next move was down to W1 to, first, get cabbage and then pull yet another round of Swiss Chard. Unbelievable how many times the same bed has been harvested. Nancy, Katherine and Daniel joined us as well. We made quick work of the Chard and rallied back on the farm proper for break time, then to gather summer squash.
(By the way, gotta hand it to summer squash... nice natural defense. You scratch my arms so readily. I'm almost deterred. But, alas, I win...)

During our break we made our way through the first 100 bulbs of garlic. Snipping peeling and cleaning for distribution.

Before lunch, D and I moved the irrigation line from Y to Z to give the potatoes a little drink. We tried moving the pipes "rowing crew" style. 6 at once, piled on our shoulders. Supporting both ends. A tad painful. Not so light and my shoulders are just a bit bone-y. Either way it was effective and the potatoes were happy.

The afternoon had us hand washing carrots in REALLY cold water. D was even wincing.
With hands properly numb, I was off to the greenhouse to fill flats with soil for our weekly lettuce seeding. After seeding, it was over to the chicken coop for a thorough cleaning and laying of wood shavings. Just like the potatoes, the chickens were happy. ...well, not like they told me or anything, but they certainly didn't argue.

The week was effectively over.

I picked up H from the train station, we picked up pizza, we plopped ourselves down in my quarters and ate. Work hard... eat hard???

Saturday's distribution was beautiful.. from what I could tell. D, H and I set up and then it was off to other work with me. H ran the first part of distribution. Good stuff. D and I moved irrigation from Z to Y as the sun has been fairly relentless for the past 10 days so the crops begin to think they're doomed and they start going into "seed! seed!" mode. A little water and the stress is gone. Ahhh...

The rest of my morning was buddingh rows in E and running drip tape for all things planted in D and E. 16 lines in all. H helped (thank you!). D ran distribution. The plants drank heartily.

With E gone for the weekend I tended to all the animals. Happy to. And might I say, the sheep were very well behaved. Lined up at the fence to go back inside for the night.. both nights.

Sunday was a work/rest day. H left early and I had a few things to address.
Peppers and eggplants needed a bit of water so I did some maintenance on the drip lines that are still there and got them running.
Afterward I spent a couple hours in the 3 Sisters Field. A bit o hand weeding. The result? Quite nice.



------

Last night I woke to the sound of rain (just as predicted. the rain, that is.). This was/is very good news as it alleviated any need for irrigation today.
I woke this morning to this.



Again. Good news.

First up, a walk around the entire farm to get a status report on everything and to prioritize the day/week.

The big priority was to get lettuce seedlings OUT of their too-small cells and into the ground in D. And that we did, along with scallions.

With E back from her trip it was then time for the two of us to play "catch-up-with-the-fast-growing-semi-bolty-lettuce." Y was the target again. That took us to lunch. After which time we went straight back down to finish clearing the bed (with the help of our volunteer friend, Gordon). Beans and summer squash also made the list of harvest items today.

My evening has been taken by soil exploration. I've been digging through the online soil profile of H's and my prospective land offer. Amazing how precisely the usda has mapped out and profiled the soil of pretty much the whole country down to, at least, the acre, if not the square foot. Impressive.

Tomorrow I'm going on a hunt for a log (after a full day's work of course). Said log will be fashioned by me into a one piece bench for the 3 Sisters Field gazebo/canopy. Must. have. meditational. space/seat. Can't wait to try my hand at wood craft. Will let you know how things move along.

That's all I got for this one. Hmmm. Got this as well, though.



Dig.

cycles

This mor...
Upon waking...
Last ni...
I was considering even bef....
Whatever one might thi...

A wonderful cold(er) front moved in early early this morning around 3:45am. I was woken by the breezes through my room. Immediately felt the need for a blanket.
At 5:50 I rolled out of bed to what was a truly COOL morning. Amazing.

I took this picture



and knew that I would be comparing it to this in my post.



All things in cycles.
All thoughts/emotions come back around.
Colors wait. Colors arrive. Colors leave.
3 months have changed me.
4 months and I'll be leaving.
Enough time to cycle through these things once again.

------------

Today was a bit harried. On all sides.

We accomplished quite a bit though.

Transplanted Broccoli, Cabbage and Kale (yay mechanical transplanter!! ...and Judy and Martha!!!) in Z. Ran drip lines throughout and covered in reemay.
In the meantime we hosted (hosting again??? 3 times this week!) volunteer teens from a summer camp in NY. They helped us weed and harvest carrots. Big help! They'll be coming once a week. Good news all around.

This took us through lunch.

After lunch (I think this phrase, "after lunch," may be my most used to date), we harvested scallions and onions (first onions of the season!). BIG BOYS. Called it a day shortly after.

E left for an extended weekend and I'm stickin around to tend to the day to day here. Hope all moves along smoothly.

D & I are the only soldiers on the farm tomorrow. Lookin forward to it.

Dig.

macro. micro.

When blogging I find myself, more often than not, having so much potential material everyday that it's rather difficult to sufficiently touch on the few daily points I do (let alone mentioning what's perpetually growing/dying in the fields we don't work in that particular day). ..and then there's all the stuff that happened the day before that I wasn't able to get to... ad infinitum. Then the issue is, "on what level do I focus (Personal? Entire farm? Field? Crop? Plant? Leaf? Seed? Pest?)?" Then what time frame? Last week? Today? Right now? Next year?!?
A little overwhelming at times.
As this seems to be more so the rule than the exception, I fear my posts have begun to stagnate. To wit... From my previous post:

Harvested cabbage, beets (W2 first picking, thinned) and summer squash in the morning.
E's friends helped again.
Johanna and Pam helped.
We ate tasty chocolate cake.
I cultivated the winter squash in A and the summer squash in F with the Farmall sweeps while the distribution bins were filled.
Stirrup hoed our failed cucumber bed in B.
Took an extended lunch.
Packed the van.
Cruised to the city and back. Enjoyable.

A foreshortened overview (yes, even the overview is foreshortened) of a full day's events in clipped prose that does not even begin to dig into the intricacies/specifics/processes/elation/frustration therein.
..except for maybe "We ate tasty chocolate cake." That I like as is. We did eat chocolate cake. It was, indeed, tasty. Nothing else needed.
Inversely, "...cultivated the winter squash in A...", doesn't even come CLOSE.
That process magnified to the next power??

....
Is it dry enough to cultivate?
Is it going to rain by the end of the day?
What method of cultivation will work best/most efficiently?
Hands? Hand tools? Tractor sweeps?
If tractor sweeps, then is the implement on the tractor?
If no, put it/them on.
With sweeps on stand beside the tractor and open the fuel valve.
Turn on your power switch, make sure you're in neutral, pull starter rod.
Choke if needed.
With tractor running drive to the field.
Make wide turn to line middle sweep with right side of squash at beginning of first row.
Into neutral. Brake on.
Adjust hydraulic tool arms to lower sweeps.
If a little too deep, inch them up until you THINK the depth is correct.
Adjust throttle. Clutch in. Shift to 2nd.
Inch tractor forward so sweeps start to dig in to the row.
Too deep? Too close to the plant base? Gonna tear leaves?
If all is good proceed.
Steer to 4-5ft in front of the tractor. DON'T hit the plant base.
Look behind you from time to time.
Adjust sweep depth according to how the row looks behind you.
If all is good sweep through the end of the row.
Lift sweeps with the hydraulic lever before leaving the row.
Determine which row (halfway down the field) you are going to next to maintain efficient travel patterns
Do next row following the above procedure.
At the end of the row do a three point turn and make a 2nd pass on the row.
After that go back to the initial row and make your 2nd pass on that one.
Wide turn to the row on the far side of the 2nd row you just did.
Repeat this for the entirety of the field.
....

..and yes, there are many further magnifications of those steps/processes.

As you can well imagine, I would do nothing but blog were I to adopt just the first level of detail as a rule. Balance is key then. No?

My ultimate concern in all of this?

Upon my second reading (a month from now... a year from now when I don't have the safety net of the apprenticeship) of the "clipped prose" posts, will I be able to recall (any of) those fine details?

Sure, some. Perhaps, all. Perhaps, none.

If "some" or "all" I'll have to remember to thank my past self. If "none" then I'll remember to not dwell on that "d'oh!!" moment and appreciate the adventure it offers.

So then, my post for today?

----------------------------

I had a "day off" today as a result of the 6 hours of work I put in on Sunday.
I worked at least half of the day. Just not good at resting.
I hand-cultivated the 3 Sisters Field this morning.
It looks great!
Everything's getting big. Especially the corn.

Pics? Indeed. Note to future self: Enjoy the adventure.

Before



After

















Dig.

if you're out there takin pictures, give us a call...

Yesterday:

Harvested cabbage, beets (W2 first picking, thinned) and summer squash in the morning.
E's friends helped again.
Johanna and Pam helped.
We ate tasty chocolate cake.
I cultivated the winter squash in A and the summer squash in F with the Farmall sweeps while the distribution bins were filled.
Stirrup hoed our failed cucumber bed in B.
Took an extended lunch.
Packed the van.
Cruised to the city and back. Enjoyable.

Toured the farm proper and took pics.
Watched a great documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car?"
Researched electro-conversion for tractors.
Slept.

Would you like pics with that day? I would.





































































WooHoo!!!! Tasty!!!



Dig.

rewards (updated below)

Sooooo. Yes. It has been a week since I've blogged.
Never fear! For I have remedied my absence by retro-blogging the past week.
Read the four posts below to see me slog my way through a fierce game of catch-up.

Don't worry... I'll wait.

And now that you've read all the posts below... I trust you have...
..highlights of the weekend.

-Friday pizza
-Saturday distribution (didn't harvest enough carrots initially. H, Gail and I made up the difference in 25 minutes. mad skills. happy members.)
-Grocery shopping followed by a pick-ur-own strawberry experience. ...followed by... ANOTHER NAP when back at the farm.
-Pasta and artichoke sauce dinner. Handmade bean dip.
-Sunday. Worked 6+ hours in preparation for today's CRAFT visit. Mowing/weedwhacking. That's it.
-Some of THE best Banana/Cherry bread, Fruit pie and Strawberry Jam I've had in..hmm.. ever. Yeah. Thank you.

TODAY!! FINALLY!!

And, funny enough, I'm gonna stop for now as I've passed out twice in 10 minutes.

Suffice to say that we hosted this week's CRAFT visit today and it was great. Really. Great. We (read: D) walked our 30 visitors through several different means of mechanical cultivation while E and I demonstrated. I had a wonderful time. I think most everyone else did as well.

Anyhoo, elaboration and pics tomorrow.

Thanks for reading (and commenting)!!

-------------

(update)

The morning began with harvesting in Y.
Lettuce and Escarole. The day was sizing up to be a hot one, therefore we took care of the leafy greens first lest they wilt in the midday sun. E had friends visiting, so fortunately there were extra hands in the field.
Our lettuce is really growing fast... a little too fast. Plus with the large amounts of rain we've received this season, the underside of the heads are experiencing some rot. Not enough to be a problem per say, but definitely slows harvesting down and makes it possible for diseases to begin and spread. So.. just a little more sun/dryness would be nice. Of course, not too much though.

On Sunday I spent 5 hours mowing the grounds in prep for the visitors, but did not get to finish. After lettuce and escarole were in the cooler, D and the others headed to W for more veggies while I donned the weedwhacker. (As an aside, I think I'm beginning to take issue with said tool as I've been experiencing and inordinate amount of spit-back while using it. In the face, on the arms/shins... even up the nose. Ergh! Aaaand (this one was my fault) I laid waste to a small patch of Poison Ivy. Yep. Good news is that I washed it off in time and got only the smallest hint of a rash on my arm. Doesn't even itch or anything. Either way, the weedwhacker and I are having some issues.)

After all was done:





Lunch was short. Seemed to be anyway.

D, E and I assessed what was left to be done before the visit. I took the rototilling side of things. We tilled 4 beds in D (or E, don't remember) to be used for demonstrational purposes as well as for real planting purposes. E marked up one of the beds for our hand-transplanting demonstration and I wheeled down to W to till under the first half of the carrot bed. By this time it was 20 til 2 and people were about to arrive. Back to the farm proper to get things moving.

I was so impressed at everybody's punctuality. Of course, the farming type is usually extremely concerned about time issues, so it stands to reason.
With everyone gathered (about 30 in all), we started in the barn. Going around the group, everyone said where they were from and a question they might have about mechanical cultivation. Then, D gave a history of the farm, the owners and his association/employment.
Our first stop after was the back barn to see all of the garlic that was harvested on Friday. Smiles on faces, always good. Especially on those of fellow farmers.
We then moved to our first demonstration site where both Farmalls were waiting with implements attached. D began by explaining the physical layout/measurements of the beds, fields, rows, etc. then had me demonstrate how we mark our beds. Without a hitch. Yay. While I was on my way down the row, D and E showed how we hand transplanted lettuce on the grid. All were very engaged in what was going on. I felt proud of our team and what we've accomplished. (Also, I was given yet another opportunity to truly appreciate the experience and tutelage here as I heard comments from other apprentices about only beginning the most basic functions on tractors at their farms. D puts a lot of trust in us, and sometimes we make booboos, but we've been presented with the entire spectrum of skills necessary to run our own farms already. Indeed, D is a great mentor). E then demonstrated the basket weeder while I took the marking tractor to the barn to switch out the marker for cultivating sweeps. The anxiety-inducing procedure of sweeping winter squash was up next.
All came to A and watched me hum right down the first row of the field without a hitch. Niiiiice. Quite pleased.

We made our way to the greenhouse and talked through D's construction of it his first year. Then it was over to the 3 Sisters Field. People really dug the whole layout. I was/am truly happy about that as E and I have put quite a bit of work into it.

The rest of the visit was a tour of the other fields interspersed with questions/discussions about pest control, irrigation, farm implements and crop rotations/cover cropping. I had some nice conversations with a few of the other interns. It's great to get a feel for how other farms are going about meeting the same basic goals.

When all was done, D offered a tour of his house to anyone who was interested. About 15 went. Very cool.

I cleaned up the demonstration areas, smiled, congratulated E and D, sat down and cracked a beer to celebrate. Job well done, everybody!

A few pics from the visit. Dig.

friday the 4th

Before anything else... Happy Birthday, Brother!!

Aside from being my brother's birthday,
The 4th of July = Garlic Harvest!

A few things and then... pics.

- We had 25 volunteers show up to help. How. Awesome!
- Though rain had caused a little brownness on the garlic leaves and the stems to become a little weaker, we got to the bulbs just in time.
- D made a call to chisel plow the garlic beds to loosen the bulbs for ease in pulling. Good call, man. For real. Can't imagine how long it would have taken otherwise.
- Note to self: Bunch in 10s. Tie with trellising twine. Hang over wires in barn to cure.
- Love the smell!











Marie and H below. Just wanted to turn attention to Marie as she's been volunteering on the farm ever since it started. She helps run distribution as well. In short: She's fantastic. Entertaining and endearing. It would not be the same place without her. Good work, Marie.



H and I gathered up bunches in a harvest cart and wheeled them down to the back barn to begin hanging them.









After all was hung and the volunteers left, a few of us got an impromptu tasting of E's homemade sauerkraut. Quite good, quite good.



The rest of the day had THE rest that I'd been looking for. I actually napped. AGAIN! Something strange going on if farmers are napping... Truly truly needed though. Must remember to maintain balance.
Work yourself to the bone if you so desire, but also remember to rest.. fully.

Dig.

thursday the 3rd

As Friday was the 4th (which just happened to be our annual Garlic Harvest too) we needed to focus on harvesting for Saturday's distribution.

In short, we got:
Carrots
Cabbage
Cilantro
Parsley
Lettuce
Summer Squash
Scallions

While we're still pulling from W1, we actually are/have been pulling quite a bit from Y.



E & I finished harvesting activities with about 1 hour left in the day.
Winter squash is right outside my door and needed a little collinear hoe attention, so we went for it.

The crazy saturated green of the squash leaves. Nutz!!





After work we watched another tape. This one was a seminar given by Anne & Eric Nordell of Beech Grove Farm in PA to future farmers. It had to do with crop rotation/cover cropping/cultivation and horsepower (which I find truly interesting as a possible avenue for work power). Much learned. Much more to learn.

I picked up H from the train station mid-evening. An extended holiday visit. Nice.
-Though-
We were in the office around 10:45pm when we heard tires screech and the unmistakable crunch of metal just outside. We ran with a lantern to find a girl standing on the road just outside the entrance. Her car (and she) had done a 180, flipped over and landed in a ditch by the road. She was not even scratched. Thank goodness. A wonder. A speeding truck had forced her to veer off the road and she lost control.

Good gravy, how lucky?? The authorities showed up shortly after and she was tended to. Thanks guys.

Kinda nice to know that we have systems in place to help in case of emergencies.. even if your emergency is on a small back road in the middle of farm country NY.

Dig.

wednesday the 2nd

With Tuesday distribution behind us, we felt we had a little more room to breathe in the morning. So, we took a "tour" of the farm and made up our "to do"s.

A few images from our whirlwind tour.

Beans in E that I direct seeded with the Planet Jr. A little on the thick side, but D says we'll go with it



Squash in F!



A wonderful view across A (winter squash) through B - E (squash... melons).



..and yes. Raspberries. Finally!



We reconvened in the office to map out priorities and the "who does what?"s.
I pulled the TRACTOR card for the day. The whole day.

C, D, & F all needed chisel plowed in preparation to till.. in preparation to plant. It was important that these rows be tilled well (read: straight as an arrow) as we were to host the next CRAFT visit. Our topic: Mechanical Cultivation. How can you have efficient cultivation if you don't have straight rows? Indeed.
So, I hopped the John Deere, took off the Brillion from the previous week and hooked the chisel plow up.

The view from the cab as I back up to the implement:



It took a couple hours to plow, but the job got done, and that right well.

Next up? Tilling. ....straight.

Happy with the job (after an initial flub or two)? Definitely.



I also tilled Kohlrabi under so we could spin on Buckwheat.

My last task of the day was "dispatching" peas.
With the pea beds having grown fast and furious and the members picking with the same fervor, D figured it time to till them under. So as not clog the rototiller tynes, I pulled all the drip tape and headers (not really to "not clog the rototiller tynes" on this one, but more as a rule) mowed the peas down first and then plowed them row by row.

For reference: Before, Mowed, Tilled







They will add great organic matter to the topsoil for next season's crop.
Thanks peas!!

After work and dinner, E and I view an old VHS tape all about mechanical cultivation. The farmers/demonstrators were from farms all over the northeast. Most with large(ish) operations. I was happy to see that I knew/used a good portion of the implements that were demonstrated. I must say that I was a bit put off by a couple farmers' overuse of mechanization/fossil fuels. A 6-nozzled trailing flame weeder?? That they were looking forward to augmenting the following season?? C'mon.
Lot of useful info though.

Looking forward to keeping things as human-powered as possible on my own farm. We shall see if I can avoid the fossil fuel monster.

Dig.

tuesday the 1st

Today we harvested. A morning harvest (of course) for our Tuesday afternoon distribution and share drop-off.

With all the rain/sun/rain/sun/etc the crops are growing like mad. It seems that everywhere we look there is lettuce to be harvested before it bolts. So we did just that.



Cilantro was among the other goodies we harvested for the day.

With the help of Johanna and Pam we packed boxes for our remote drop off while D worked on his house. Work, man, work.

The van loaded, E took the trip to the city while I oversaw the onsite distribution. We got a good 1/2 hour of rain during, but it did not deter members from venturing into the flower bed to pick their own bunches.

Truth be told I did not feel all that well on Tuesday, so the latter half was spent horizontal. I actually napped! I'm not good at that. Really. Quite the chore.

Regardless, it must have been a 24 hour bug as it passed quickly. Yay, immune system!!

Rest is/was welcome.

Dig.