from the ground up

the first of the last

2008-10-28T17:42:00.000-07:00

Today was our last Tuesday distribution.

However, the day began with harvesting. Actually that's not exactly true. The day began by rinsing carrots in the root washer. Cold windy rainy morning. Cold wet activities.
With 390lbs rinsed, we moved to harvesting.
Lettuce
Rutabaga
Parsley
...and did I happen to mention it was COLD and raining heavily? Ok, last time.

Pam joined us in the relative warmness of the front barn to pack the city shares for the last time this season:

1 Rutabaga
2 Butternut Squash
2 Heads Lettuce
1 Bunch Turnips
1 lb Beets
3/4 lb Chard (which is even more colorful in the fall. same plants. different colors)
2 1/2lb Potatoes (Yukon Gold)
1 lb Carrots
1 Celeriac
5 Onions
1 Garlic
1 Bunch Parsley

Quantity aaaand quality right through the end of October. Nice.

E ran distribution at the farm and I made the trip to the City.
The director at the remote site greeted me with hot apple cider (perfect today) and half-black, half-white icing cookies... only in New York.

Going back north on the parkway was not as "bad-weathery" as was forecast (though I saw a little bit of snow/rain-lookin stuff on the windshield for a few miles). Very happy about that. However, my mind was clearly on other things on my return trip as I missed my exit off the parkway.. for the first time all year. Funny... Regardless, E and I managed an accident free season making the weekly 140+ mile round trip. Very happy about that too.

aside: Before I forget, yesterday, what did we do???? That's right.. harvested... all day. Back to today...

Sooo. 3 1/2 working days left that I'm sure will pass in a blink. Here's to hoping they move slow enough to allow for some reflection.

Dig.

Ohh, btw, in exactly one week, everyone better have vOted.

< one week

2008-10-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

So, umm, yeah... another 10 days since I last posted. And so it is.

At this time next week I will be back in my apartment in the city. I truly have to let that thought sink in.

....

Away from here...
Back to the rush of people, cars, subway trains, planes overhead, the sounds of another human conducting the ins and outs of their life just on the other side of your apartment wall.
Noises... well different than those here. The wind, chickens and an occasional car passing, the battery-powered clock on the wall of the office, the coffee maker, my fingers punching keys... ...Space enough to hear only one sound at a time.

I do look forward to being back in the city. I've missed it.
But I already miss the farm.

Before I get too far down the path of a misty-eyed recollection of the season, I'm going to refocus on what has happened since I last posted.

Not necessarily in chronological order:

- My Mom's Birthday was this past week. Happy Birthday, Mom!!!!

- We continue to spend most of our workday harvesting. E and I mostly, save for the weekly volunteers. The crops have been covered in reemay day and night due to the almost nightly visit from the evil spectre of frost. Down to 17 early Friday morning. And even though the reemay protects the crops from damage effectively, even the hardiest of fall crops are beginning to give a little with such wide swings in temperature.

- We've cleared by hand (and consequently piled all the dead plants for composting..): The eggplant rows, The 3 Sisters Field (H and I pulled the gazebo down last week. Boohoo), Half the flower bed, and some ooooold cilantro in D.

- This week E and I took turns drilling Rye seeds with the Brillion on the John Deere. (nts: make sure all bare soil receives seed. overlap sod and existing cover.)

- We made a last round harvesting peppers as a solid half have succumbed to the cold temperatures. 390 lbs in all. Nice.

- Last week about 50 people gathered at the farm to pay tribute to D and the farm's director for 10 years of hard work, community building and wonderful produce. They were each given a plum tree to have planted on the farm proper. Each tree has it's own plaque dedicating it to them. Congratulations!

- Last Saturday, H and I visited the prospective farm I mentioned before to get a more thorough picture of what they have (equipment-and-soil/field-condition-wise) and what they need. We also had a chance to speak further with the owner and their farming consultant. Another good visit.

... and finally

- Last night we had our Volunteer Appreciation Dinner. We spent the day prepping the greenhouse for the occasion. It looked stunning by the time the soiree began. Despite the nasty weather, the turnout was great and the good vibes were floating all around (I'm sure the Gluhwein I made, and handed out to almost everyone at the door, didn't hinder said vibes). D said some very thoughtful words about E and I and gave us both our own Leatherman with the farm's name inscribed on the side. Mad cool. Thanks, man. A truly wonderful time. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone who has given their time and energy freely to the farm this season. We could not have done it without you. FOR. REAL!

...I leave you with pics from last night. Dig.

dear blog:

2008-10-16T13:12:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted in TEN days and for that I apologize.

Things have been great on the farm, no doubt. But, see, the thing is... we've been doing pretty much the same daily routine for a few months now, and with only 16 days left until I leave, my concentration has been elsewhere.
What I mean to say is that, instead of repeating myself on a daily basis online(i.e. "Today, we harvested x, y, and z..."), I've been putting my free evening time into three things which have become priorities for me: the bench, rest/eating, and following election news. Indeed. Priorities for me. Especially the first two.

The three big pieces of news in the past week have been:

1. H and I are now entertaining a second farming opportunity. Just checkin it out. I went for an "interview" last week and things went well. Good conversation and a farming situation that reads in large as a blank slate. The two of us will be going this weekend to check the place out and perhaps talk with the owner again.

2. We went hiking last Thursday with two past apprentices, Paige and Justin (who, btw, now run a successful CSA in Atlanta, GA). We hiked at Mohonk Preserve. Actually, it was roughly half hike, half climb. The views from the mountain top at the end of our journey were other-worldly. I'll post the pics in a separate post later.

3. Sadly, the car that we wanted so badly to fix up (the Jetta) will have to be passed on. The repairs would be a bit pricey and would not guarantee a running vehicle. Sooo... off it goes. Probably this weekend.

Aside from those two things, E and I were taken to dinner by Peter (the rock man) and Danielle, his wife. Good drinks, good food and most importantly, good company. Many thanks!! I'll miss both of them...

Also, the farm/fields are undergoing their Fall transformations. We're beginning to pull plants from the ground, put away irrigation, clean the greenhouse, sort the tools, etc. Only two weeks. Very hard to believe.

That brings me through today.

And yes, in addition to all that, we've been harvesting... pretty much every day. And still... I dig.

Some photos you say??

Indeed.

Okay. This is insane. These are rocks. While harvesting potatoes, I found the "bun". Not 3 minutes later, E found the pattie. ...insane.

And below: Pulling tomato plants.

Just pulled/piled.

After removal.

Dig.

mercury falling

2008-10-06T14:57:00.000-07:00

First, as promised, a few pics of the changing foliage.

Also notice, in the foreground of the third picture, how thick the oats have grown already. The soil is much happier.

Thursday was, as is at this point, mainly harvesting. Of note, as it's pretty much only E and I day in/day out (D's got a house to finish), we have our hands full with that task alone. However, we did manage to get in some serious soil prep in F for Garlic planting.

I began on the Cub spreading powder fertilizer. 2-4-2 if I'm not mistaken. E spread compost/manure after me with, what else, the compost/manure spreader. In the meantime, Peter happened by to remove quite a few rocks that would have stood in the way of level bed prep (rototilling) and marking. Thanks as always!!
Next up was a quick chisel plowing to aerate the subsoil and mix in the manure.
(During all of this, E and I were trading off on the week's potato harvest.)
To end the day, I hopped the John Deere to get the 6 beds in F rototilled and formed. Curiously, on my first attempt, while the rows all came out mad straight, I ended up with about 5 1/2 beds. No good. So I made a complete second pass on everything. This time I started right beside the three rows that are already planted. And, going against all proper tilling methods, I worked my way up slope from bed to bed. Happily, I ended up with 6 evenly spaced, straight beds, ready to be marked and planted. ... but that would be on Saturday.

Thursday night I worked on the bench for a few hours (before the debate... which I watched... aaaand had a few opinions on...). Oh, forgot to mention that I moved the bench into 'the office'/'my house'. The floor in here is true level, so now I have a proper reference by which to do all of my hand planing. So, I scrub planed the underside of the bench. Not too shabby.

Next up will be squaring/planing the depth of the bench (actually that's as soon as I'm done with this post).

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

Friday? You guessed it. Harvesting!

The day was pretty chilly. But I do love the weather this time of year as it seems to give one a bump in energy. Thoughts and actions are a little clearer. The air a little easier to move through.

Our volunteers, Judy, Nancy and her daughter Eliza, helped us clear the bed of beans, pick tomatoes (which are looking sadder by the minute), and break apart garlic bulbs for Saturday's planting.

The afternoon saw Pepper and Eggplant harvesting and an early set-up for the next day's distribution (gotta help yourself out sometimes. Plus E was heading to Rochester so would be absent).

Friday night the temperature dipped down to 26. Luckily, D, keeping an all night vigil, covered several frost-sensitive crops with reemay around 2:30AM. Crazy man. He saved the Beans, Peppers and Flowers mainly.
A few pics of what I woke to Saturday morning.

Saturday's distribution, while chilly, was smooth sailing. We even wrangled a few members to help us break apart Garlic.

I ran to the train station right after to pick up H.

When we got back to the farm we readied for our Garlic planting work party (2-5pm).
Happy to report that 14 wonderful volunteers showed up to help us plug 7,200 cloves of Garlic into the ground.... in only 1 1/2 hours. NICE!

-----

Saturday eve and Sunday.

Relax. Cook. Eat. Relax. Cook. Eat. ... need about 1 straight week of that at season's end.

-----

Today we hit the ground runnin. Lettuce, Spinach, Swiss Chard and Eggplant all by lunch. (nts, we cleared everything we could from the eggplant patch as we expect a plant killing freeze tonight and they're just not giving enough to make them worth covering).

This afternoon, we picked beans as those plants (even though covered) will probably incur a bit of damage with the freezing temps tonight. Best to harvest what you can. After beans, we spent the rest of the time covering everything we could with reemay. Surely pays to be cautious when dealing with possible temps in the low 20's. Hopefully all will be well come tomorrow....

Send the crops your warm positive vibes.

Dig.

while you were away

2008-10-01T17:30:00.000-07:00

On Friday it rained. Very heavy at times. Nancy braved the rain with us. Second time this season. Rock on!
We harvested what was necessary as the week's share was going to be sizable due to our mad day of harvesting on Thursday. Pays to put in a full day from time to time. (On a side note, I keep waiting for our shares to get smaller as the Fall progresses, but happily... not so much. Always an abundance.)

At lunchtime D made the call and gave us the rest of the day off as it was to rain throughout. ummm... Rock on!!

I relaxed.

Friday night I watched the debate. ...and had some opinions about it...

Saturday's distribution went well. E gave a few demonstrations on how to make sauerkraut. People appreciated having options with their large heads of cabbage. Lactofermentation is a rather easy process to learn and hugely beneficial when it comes to both health and veggie storage.

E is behind the stand of produce.

----

My second to last city visit followed distribution. I realize as I write this that my last day on the farm is exactly one month from now. (Mind scrambler, that thought). At which time I will be moving back to the city (which, admittedly, I miss).

Great weekend.

----

Monday had us right back into harvesting. Picking enough for our Tuesday people.
Our Fall carrots were ready. On a whole they are pretty big as compared to our Summer succession. Same with Broccoli. Huge... and healthy.

Monday night I worked on the bench. This time I used a different approach to try to fare the inner curves. John (whose hand tools I've been using, THANK YOU!!) suggested I try drilling out the bulk of the wood that I couldn't reach with the adze. He gave me a LARGE drill and bit that could actually clear the width of the bench.
While it worked to a degree, there was still about half the wood waste left. What I needed at this point was a curved gouge and/or small chisel. More on this below...

----

Tuesday was a fairly typical one. Harvest the first few hours, 7-10:30-ish. By 11 it's time to start filling the 70 bins for our remote distribution. We were done and had the van loaded by 12:20. I made the drive this week. Of note were/are the wonderful colors of Fall on the drive (and around here). Pics of this coming tomorrow.

Tuesday night? Food. Cooked... then slept.

----

Today we began by clearing the mature Summer Squash plants from F in order to properly prep the soil in the first six beds for the garlic that will be planted there on Saturday. Yes, garlic always gets planted the previous Autumn.

We moved to harvesting right after as the next two days will involve some non-harvesting, garlic-related duties. Might as well cushion ourselves.
Radishes, Carrots and Broccoli were first up. Broccoli, while plentiful and beautiful this succession, is seeing a lot of green caterpillars. Seems they're coming from the cabbage that resides near the far end of the bed. No worries, they do no harm, just gotta rinse before eating (actually, not even as they are a source of protein... ha ha).
The rest of the day was spent on Sweet Potatoes (finally!).
We've been waiting all season for these guys to reach maturity. Yay. Slow process harvesting though. First all of the potatoes vines get hand pulled off the ground. Then the tractor goes through with the potato spade to unearth them. Then it's hands and knees picking and sifting, the whole 400'. Before we give them out they must cure in the greenhouse for about a week. I will, however, be trying some well before then. Believe it.

This evening? The bench. I finally got the inner curves roughed out. Did it with a rounded gouge. Worked beautifully. I then adzed and scrub planed the deck. It is, indeed, coming along.

Dig.

two sisters

2008-09-25T16:52:00.000-07:00

First things first.
We harvested today. As much as we could as we are staring down rain for the next two days.

100 bunches of Turnips
100 bunches of Beets
101 lbs of Beans
530 lbs of Potatoes
540 lbs of Tomatoes

Phew!

On tap for tomorrow:

Lettuce
Swiss Chard
Broccoli
Summer Squash
Peppers
Eggplant
Arugula
Red Mustard
Golden Frill
Cabbage

Perhaps more. Perhaps less.

This morning E harvested the corn from the 3 Sisters Field. I got the squash after work today. The beans have been an ongoing harvest.
A quick update and comparison and then more pics.

3 Sisters Field today

3 Sisters Field 1 month ago

Yeah, kinda sad, but, 'tis the natural course of things.

On to the Squash.

The Corn

Misc photos

Moving Drip Tape

Leaves Turning

My Agricultural Tribute to Richard Serra

Dig

mowathon

2008-09-24T18:32:00.000-07:00

Our power went out last night, incidentally.
Happy (or perhaps not) to have a cell phone as I would have had no other way to set an alarm for this morning. That being said I did wake up during the night to a restoration of power, but it was mad chilly in the room and there's NO way I was going to walk the 2+ feet to the clock to set it and its alarm. Gotta be kiddin. Anyway, thanks cell phone.

Buttered raisin toast, coffee and an apple was breakfast for me.

E and I first cleared all things from the W, Y and Z field areas in prep for mowing/weed whacking. She rocked the rotary mower and I the weed whacker. Happy to have done so as I enjoy detailing. I worked my way underneath the entire length of fencing in W.

D stopped by just before break and suggested that the blades of the rotary mower be either sharpened or replaced. After break, he and E set it up for inspection, removal of blades, etc. After a failed attempt to unscrew the nuts that held the blades, D gave up and took the assembly to a local shop that not only got the nuts undone, but had the proper model in stock. Eznuff

I took the riding mower to W and detailed the perimeter, inside and out. Finishing Y and Z area as well before lunch.

Oooooo, lunch was leftover pizza. Mad good cold pizza.

Afterwards I mowed the perimeter of the upper fields, in front of the chicken coop, all around the root cellar and the small hill behind the compost piles. Speaking of which, E turned 4 separate compost piles with the front end loader today. She also weed whacked the perimeter of Y/Z and the upper fields. Nice one.

The bench got my attention for an hour or so after work. Planing one of the broad sides with the adze.

Today's little respite from harvesting will not carry into tomorrow. We've got much to start harvesting for Saturday.

No worries though. I think I got my fill (maybe not) of groundskeeping for a "little" while longer.

dig

moving, mowing

2008-09-23T17:01:00.000-07:00

So as not to tax my brain too heavily, I'm going to pass on the hour by hour recall of last Thursday and Friday. Suffice to say we harvested and the end result was this on Saturday:

Two newcomers to the harvest were Watermelon Radish and Daikon Radish (top pic, top row, 2nd & 3rd from left respectively).

Saturday's distribution was quite the juggling act for me as D and Marie were both out sick and E was off to Rochester to meet with a prospective landowner. Happily all went smooth.

-----

Spent Saturday and Sunday with H.

-----

Yesterday it was E and I as D was still a little under the weather.
We pulled in Radishes (All 3 varieties), Turnips, Mustard Greens, Goldenfrill, Summer Squash (whose productivity has fallen drastically) ....and Celeriac. Celeriac is one of the first pieces of farm produce I saw/ate this season and it was from last season's crop. We finally got to start harvesting this year's.
The process: As they keep well in the ground, we don't have to pull them all at once. Yesterday we took only 220, enough for one per member.
To harvest Celeriac you can do one of two things, try to pull it out by the stalks on top or lean the root to the side and sever the large taproots with a knife. When you remove it from the ground, hold it by the stalks and chop the mess of roots from the main bulb. Then slice off the stalks approximately 2" from their base.
Not too difficult, but glad D was there to "learn" us.

Gordon helped finish Celeriac and pull in Summer Squash. Before work ended I threw the rototiller on the Deere and turned in the former bed of lettuce in D.

I spent a couple hours on the bench after work (spent a little time on it today too, but didn't get that much more done).

At the moment:

Again.. coming along. Little by little.

-----

Today we finished harvesting for Tuesday distribution. Lettuce (which, good gravy, numbs the hands something fierce this time of year when cutting and washing), Broccoli and Kale. When D and Pam arrived we pulled some bunches of Cilantro and Dill.

It was time for a small break and then to pack the 70 bins for our remote distribution in the Bronx. Crazy, we culled what seemed to be quite a measurable percentage of the tomatoes that were left. Luckily we still had quite enough to make sure everyone got at least 3 lbs each.

During my extended break before distribution I worked on the bench a little more (as previously stated), cruised, showered and began to set up.
Things moved along without a hitch. Very nice.

Our plan tomorrow is to... get this.... MOW! Pretty much all day too... It will probably be the last mowing for the lands immediately surrounding Y, Z and the W's.

You will definitely be made aware of how things turn out.

Dig.

taking shape

2008-09-17T18:06:00.000-07:00

I was stricken with a severe case of "mad-tired-full-belly" disease last night, hence, my lack of posting.

Speaking of "full-belly," when you have the means and time, roast the following in olive oil (together or separately): Delicata and/or Sweet Dumpling Squash; Potatoes; Turnips; Beets; Carrots; Fennel. Make a side salad. Eat. Pass out. Sooooo good.

Tuesday had us harvesting like mad to get the city shares packed by lunch. The last of the summer crops are in need of gathering as are the quick-to-mature fall greens and root crops. We started with lettuce (only one head this week. slowing down), then Tatsoi (thinning them), Turnips (two ginormous per), Radishes, Broccoli!(yay Fall Brassicas) and Chard (new bed in D). All of that coupled with what we had harvested on Monday left us with an insanely large share for our Tuesday people.
We were packing share bins until just before 1 o'clock. Worth it though.

The rest of my Tuesday was as usual. Drive shares to the city. Return and unload empty bins. Help tear down distribution.

After doing dishes and eating crazy good roasted food, I was toast. Slept well.

-----

I'm a coffee person. I drink 10-16oz every morning. Always enjoyable. Ritual at this point in my life. However, there are mornings when the coffee (same coffee as always) tastes so good one must wonder why it hasn't been outlawed yet. Maybe it was the cool cool air this morning too.

Anyway, we began by tackling the transportation of winter squash from the greenhouse to the back barn. Using the big wooden harvest bins, we filled them to the top with like varieties and moved them by tractor. After about an hour we moved to our rest-of-the-morning project: De-rocking the 3 direct seeded beds in F. Why? To actually give us a chance at proper cultivation, i.e. basket weeding and wheel hoeing. F field, while wonderfully low to nil on weed pressure, is quite high on rock pressure. Ergo, rock, young farmer... And that we did. Looks great and I got to go through the three beds with the basket weeder with ease. Spend time on one task, save loads of time on another.

-Lunch-

Afternoon was mostly wheel-hoeing and handweeding in D. The Purslane has no clue when to stop... so I gave it one. I also helped E finish moving the squash to the back barn. All done... and we now have a truly empty greenhouse. At least through the end of the season.

After work? 3 hours of bench work. The result?

Getting there! Nice. GORGEOUS wood too... really.

What I did:
After drawing the profile of the side of the piece, I flipped it so the underside was facing up. I made many parallel depth cuts with the chainsaw. And after knocking out the first few pieces in the middle (i worked my way outward) the rest of them came out pretty readily with 3-4 smacks of the adze.
With the "goof room" I gave myself, the bench is still a little thick, but now I can really shave it down bit by bit. Exciting.

One more pic before I forget. Hard to believe that just two weeks ago this field was crawling with winter squash. Now it's crawling with Oats.

Dig.

tomatoes, guitars and benches... good gravy!

2008-09-15T17:38:00.000-07:00

We sure meant to harvest tomatoes on Friday and knew there would be a little more than usual, but we didn't expect it to be one of the major harvests of the season.

1,700 lbs of Tomatoes!!

...and that's not even half of them...

Mad thanks to Nancy, Katherine, Daniel, Judy and Johanna!

During the afternoon I wrote another newsletter article. This one on Pedal Power. Something I have posted about before. Around 2 it began to rain so E quit the cleaning of the pepper beds. We cleaned the front barn and set up for the next day's distribution.

Friday evening I was lucky enough to be invited to two different members' houses. Johanna and her husband Mike had me over for dinner. Mad tasty food and great conversation. Thanks! From there we went over to Bob and Marilyn's for some laid back jamming on guitar/singing. A little wine, some old union protest songs, good times. Thanks again.

-----

A few pics from this week's distribution. We are getting into fall root vegetables. Our turnips are other-wordly large. Just as tasty too.

During distribution I helped prepped the tractor and hay wagon that I would be driving in the town's Community Day Parade. Every year the farm participates. Some riding the wagon dress up in costumes, others are just along for the ride. Either way... really fun. Tomatoes were handed out from the wagon (and thrown) to parade attendees. People dug.

After all was returned and put away, I picked up hb for her "remainder of the weekend" visit. Laid low that evening.

------

Sunday was kick started by groceries, coffee and a wonderful brunch. Yep.

From there it was time for me to "get back on the horse." The bench, that is.
The foot feels great and the weather, while a bit hot, was perfect for outdoor work. I rough planed the 3rd side of the log. 'bout 3 hours in all.
Take note of all the ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY precautions/gear when using a chainsaw. Very serious, potentially very dangerous stuff. Fun nonetheless.

-----

Today we began by harvesting Arugula, Tatsoi and Scallions (huge scallions). Beans brought us to lunch. After food I made my way to the newest (only) succession of Squash and Zucchini in F while E harvested/culled peppers. I joined the rather "rot"errific activity for the remainder of the afternoon. If you're wondering, a fair number of peppers rot on the vine and must be pulled out lest they spread bacteria/sickness to other plants. Not the most pleasant of smells/textures... but a necessary procedure for sure. Thanks to Gordon for showing up to help.

After the work day I made a beeline to the bench. Having only 1 more side to rough plane, I was excited. I chalked, chainsawed and adzed the final side in about 1 1/2 hrs. Not bad.

And, hey, I've already got some takers/sitters. Nice one.

Until tomorrow.

Dig.

state of the farm

2008-09-11T17:39:00.000-07:00

D has not handed the reigns to E & I, yet he has taken a step back in order that we have a chance to call shots, together, for an extended period. As the workload becomes incrementally lighter, we'll have the breathing room to weigh decisions/priorities that would take little to no time for D. Of course, he'll be around to help with questions etc, but we're definitely planning/executing most things day to day. Exciting.

At this point in the season:

W1, 2 & 3 are sewn into cover, save for 5 beds still growing (Celeriac, Parsnips, Kale, Chard).

Y is cover except for Half a bed of Chard, 1 bed of Sweet Potatoes and 3 of Tomatoes.

Z is still pretty active. 3 beds of Brassicas and 6 rows of potatoes (just hilled today by E as the Purslane was getting a little too comfy).

A is in complete cover

B is in complete cover except for a very small patch of Cilantro/Coriander being allowed to go to seed. Curry comin up!

C & D are where most of the action is (Asian Greens, Lettuce, Beans, Herbs, Turnips, Radishes, Chard, Scallions.... mas y mas)

E has just gone to cover (E, the person, tilled in the newly vacant Leek bed)

F, as of today, is down to 4 active beds (1 Squash/Zucchini, 3 beds direct seeded, by me, to Asian Greens, Salad Mix, Turnips, Radishes)

Upper Solar is losing a little bit of steam, but still going fairly strong with Peppers and Eggplants (The plants are actually flowering AGAIN. Soooo much Eggplant this season. They just don't wanna quit).

Lower Solar is half in tomatoes (that have probably another week or two) and half in cover.

The 3 Sisters Field is sadly on its way out. We're holding on harvesting the squash. Some plants are still alive. I ate some Red Noodle Beans from the gazebo vines. Quite tasty. The other varieties are dry beans so they still have a while to go. The corn is also being given time to dry.
E harvested the Amaranth today and laid it out in the greenhouse to dry.

Speaking of harvesting, today we knocked out some more items from the endless list for Saturday:
Chard (cleared and cleaned the bed)
Turnips (which are HUGE right now and which, I have just learned, are "squircle" shaped. go know.)
Squash/Zucchini/Cucumber (what was left of the mostly spent plants. we mowed and tilled them in before and after lunch.)
Peppers (285. There are more there to get, but we'll be doing so tomorrow with volunteers who will also help us pull all the "bad" ones as well. nice to have extra hands)

After Peppers I mowed some seedy weeds in the strawberry patch near W, weedwhacked the path between Chard and Kale in W1 and moved back to the farm proper to corral all the drip tape that has been sitting (and will now remain) idle.

And that was the end of my workday... of course I couldn't help mowing more after work. Just NEEDed to be done. I know there are those that can relate.

One more thing. I want to thank the ragweed in the area for having gotten rid of most of its pollen. My sinuses thank you...

Dig.

square wednesday

2008-09-10T17:03:00.000-07:00

A jacket this morning?
A jacket this evening?
Low of 40 tonight?
I am in heaven!

----

Started with a tour.
Weed pressure, mad low.
Mowing must be done.
Pasture weeds are seeding.

Mile long harvest list.
3 days to gather.
Incl: Kale, Chard, Radish
Turnip. Have missed them.

This morning we harvested
the last of leeks,
the first fall radishes
and yellow wax beans.

I jumped the tractor.
Attached the potato spade.
We made a decision.
Adirondack Blue for Saturday.

----

After lunch, harvesting potatoes.
One 400 foot bed.
Digging through the dirt.
900 lbs in all.

Finished up beans afterwards.
103 lbs in all.
Just scratching the surface
with what we harvested.

Finished up my day
by hitting the mower.
What else to do
in such beautiful weather?

Another thought on mowing:
I miss the angles
of the big city.
Nice to make some...

----

Forgot to mention yesterday.
D planted cover crop
this past Friday afternoon.
Watered in by Hannah.

Oats, Rye, Vetch, Clover.
Oats slow to grow.
Rye is much faster.
This in 3 days.

----

Here are a few
pics that I forgot
to post last night.

Err.. umm.. yeah. Dig.

what goes up...

2008-09-09T18:15:00.000-07:00

be that an adze... moisture (rain)... plants/crops... 12ft tall sunflowers.

up and down. cycles.

Thursday, as I recall, began at 8am. E & I chose to do so (nts: start at 7. the day ends earlier. more daylight left.).
We transplanted the last succession of lettuce for the season.

(on the left)

We moved to harvesting leeks after that. D joined us as we were finishing.

I think we hand-weeded for the better part of the rest of the morning after that.
In the afternoon we cultivated sweet potatoes. The heat was strangely stifling as the temperature wasn't that high, yet we were all pouring sweat.
E and I spent most of the rest of the afternoon hand-weeding herbs and beets in D.

Then....

I continued working on the log/bench. I was consciously attempting to plane, what will be, the bottom of the bench (though it's just going to be cut out) with the adze. Getting away from gas powered tools where possible is of interest to me. Safety is also of interest to me. That's why when I put the corner of the adze blade into the side of my foot I was definitely, umm, surprised.

Yeah, I made a good swing with the adze, but it glanced off the surface of the wood and through my boot to give me a nice bit of "wood carving memorabilia."

In short, I'm fine. I am healing without stitches. I have pictures. I won't post any more than this one.

Very grateful to have avoided ANY serious injury. And now I'm anxious to "get back on the horse and ride."

So I was sidelined on Friday. Being chair-bound while everyone else was harvesting like mad, was, well, maddening. As both D and I knew I was going to be out for Saturday's distribution as well, I made the choice to head to the city Friday afternoon.

Happily, I got to rest my foot quite a bit and my short recovery time is a direct reflection of that. The rest of the weekend was great too...

-------

Oh, and thanks to the remnants of Tropical Storm Hannah for dumping (quite evenly) 3 inches of badly needed rain on the farm. And, yes, thanks to EVERYONE who did their own little rain dance. YOU ROCK!

-------

Yesterday was slow going for me as I was still in hop-along mode. I did, however, manage to work half the day on my feet. The other half was spent harvesting from a sitting position.

E and I got
Leeks
Squash
Cucs
Peppers
Eggplants
Tomatoes

We also had a few visitors throughout the day. D tended to them. The first visitor was a farmer from the lower Hudson Valley who wanted to see our operation and compare notes. The second group was from a different farm on Long Island. They were also here for the same reason. Talk to D and compare notes on operation.

Laundry was an evening necessity. Happy it's done now.

------

Today began with a moderate harvest list as we got quite a bit yesterday. E and I cut lettuce first (as usual). We moved right to turnips next, but were unfortunately, lightninged and thundered off the fields. As far as we could tell from the online weather station, the stormy weather was going to be around for a couple hours (we ended up getting 1 1/2". nice).

Change of plans. Straight to packing distribution boxes for the city while the rain came tumbling. Seemed to all work out rather well. We got done what we needed to and the shares were still up to par.

I ran distribution in the afternoon. All went smoothly.

I ended the day by walking the farm and taking pictures.
There are quite a few examples of "decline" right now. Kinda sad, but definitely part of the cycle...

Dig.

get rhythm

2008-09-03T18:35:00.000-07:00

There was a noticeably smooth rhythm to the day.
From breakfast to even now, it feels as if all events have taken just as much time as they've needed when they've needed it. Not sure if that makes much sense. A real internal flow to things today.

We began by moving irrigation (just E & I today as D was with his sons) from one side of the newer crops to the other. Turned it on. All was good.
Down to W field to move pipes from the Celeriac to the Chard & Kale (yes, the same beds that were planted in April and are still going. amazing).

With no D, we thought we should paint with the broadest strokes possible.
Meaning, tractor work. E harrowed all the bare fields with the Perfecta.
Yes, they are rather dry and we did lose a little topsoil (dust) in the process, but have no fear, our cover crop seed will be here Thursday or Friday and this is necessary prep for seeding. If you would like to help with soil preservation, do a rain dance for us. We need it. And we've already done our own....

I prepped 5 beds for transplanting and seeding. 2 in B and 3 in F (mad rocky in the lower half of F).
We took a short break (before which I switched irrigation flow from B to W) and I picked up the disc harrow with the John Deere and made some rounds on the recently vacated winter squash field. We use the disc for two main reasons: 1) It chops up the remnants very well without clogging, giving them a proper chance to fully break down so they can be turned back into the soil. 2) The disc doesn't tear apart the structure of the topsoil as much as a rototiller does.

Lunch

2 projects for the afternoon:

Harvest/Weed Tomatoes in Y (670+ lbs worth!). Thanks to Gordon for being an extra set of hands when we needed it.

Harvest Peppers. E z nuff.

Actually, while E and Gordon harvested Peppers, I made the 3rd irrigation move of the day. I switched irrigation flow from W back up to C. I also prepped the drip tape that's still in the Leeks in E so they can be watered in the morning.

A few minutes cleaning garlic and the day was done.

I immediately hopped on the riding mower and cleaned up the area around field A (former winter squash).

I'm a happy neat freak again.

After mowing I got the chainsaw ready for a little bench work. Made depth cuts on the opposite side that I rough planed two days ago. Like butter now that the teeth are sharp. However, cutting off each section laterally is still much more work than necessary so I figured I would try a hand method. The adze.
Worked like a charm! Made my way down the log, rough planing just as fast as the chainsaw and with zero gas used. I'm happy to be getting a better idea of the handtools' capabilities and how to use them. And, yes, I'm happy with how the log is coming along, but I must say that I am truly enjoying the PROCESS of working with the material. Discovering all the time.

That ended the day for me save for some eating and phone conversation.

A couple pics from my rounds closing up. Beautiful evening. For real.

Dig.

blogged

2008-09-02T18:45:00.000-07:00

Oatmealed
Lettuce
Leeks
Squash
Zucchini
Cucumbers
Washed
Broke
Packed
Rinsed
Lunched
Drove
Dropped
Returned
Stacked
Wheel-Hoed
Benched
Squared
Closed
Shot
Ate
Showered
Blogged

Tomorrow we start @ 8am. Nice.

Dug

labor days

2008-09-01T18:16:00.000-07:00

I've got a number of pics to post so I'll keep the words to a minimum.

Friday we harvested. Volunteers helped through the morning.
Arugula
Red Mustard
Goldenfrill

Dill
Cilantro
Parsley
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Potatoes (We finally pulled up the row of Cornell Co-Op Extension Trial potatoes. 15 different varieties. Some fared well. Adirondack Red/Blue. Marcy. Reba. Lehigh. Some not so well (riddled with Scab). Mostly Prince Harry.)
Squash
Zucchini
Cucumber
Peppers

Yep. That was a long one.

After work I moved straight to the bench project.
Made my first depth cuts with the chainsaw and ripped the first section off the deck.

While I was happy with the results, unfortunately the saw blades were very dull which made for about 3 times the work cutting out that piece. I remedied that today though. More later...

----

Saturday's distribution was solid. I was there the whole time too. Nice.

Picked up H for the weekend.

Later that evening we were invited to Gayle's (a star volunteer) house for some drinks and tasty food. Thank you! Thanks to Jada and Frank too!!

-----

Sunday was a late morning and a wonderful brunch. Eggs, toast, fresh fruit, coffee. Man...

In the afternoon, H and I cruised to Rhinebeck. We stopped in at the Beekman Arms Tavern for a glass of wine. Lovely place. Lovely wine.

When we got back to the farm we fired up the drip irrigation in Y. Broccoli, Cabbages, Rutabaga, Kale. Patched some small holes and were good.

Took an early night as I was crazy tired. Good to "catch up" on some sleep.

--------

Today we had a great turnout of volunteers for our Winter Squash Harvest. Quickly, the process:

Clip squash from plant with lopping shears.
Line squash up the length of the field.
Place squash in bin that sits on tractor forks.
Full bins get taken to the greenhouse.
Squash is placed on greenhouse tables to cure.

We processed 6,500 lbs of squash in 2.5 hours!! Go team!!

With the day finished after lunch (Thanks D!), I concentrated on all things "bench." My first focus was to visit our neighbor who (as a longtime woodworker) has loads of hand carving tools. After explaining what I was doing, he gave me: an Adze (or as he calls it, The Devil's Shinhoe. Funny), a Scrub Plane, and a Slick.

These in concert with a little chainsawing should get pretty much all the way.

Back to the farm to sharpen the teeth on the chain saw.

With that done I tackled the log.

I sawed with much less effort. Yay. With another 1/4" to 1/2" of planing to do to get to my desired depth, I took the opportunity to feel out the three tools I was borrowing. They all require one's full attention and quite a bit of finessing. But all were surprisingly easy to cut and shape with.

Where things stood when I finished for the evening?

So happy to have the first cuts out of the way. Feeling a little more confident that I'll be able to coax what I see in my head from the log. A little trial and error and A LOT of patience.

Dig.

just like a thursday

2008-08-28T18:03:00.000-07:00

A not-so-unique day today. Surely nothing close to negative in there, just very "meat and potatoes."

What I might mention before the meat & potatoes, though, is the ragweed pollen that's been kicking my nose's butt for the past week. Hoo wee!! Did you say you want me to sneeze... AGAIN?? Okay! Here goes!! ....Thank you sir, may I have another?!?!?!

For real. It's been quite the sneeze fest. Local honey has offered a modicum of relief, but with levels as high as they've been, nothing short of my own bubble is going to offer clear sinuses.

On with the day...

I began by pulling drip tape back into the peppers that we weeded a few weeks ago. This time though we are using only one line per bed as the plants have peaked and will not need such a big push. Plus their roots are far down and spread laterally enough to be able to tap water from a greater depth and distance.
Eggplants received a little water as well. Luckily the lines were still set up in the beds.
With the focus on irrigation (as our 10-day forecast shows little to no rain), I moved the overhead lines from our squash and cucumbers in F to the beans/herbs/chard area in D. Poised to irrigate, but not until peppers and eggplants were done. Must make sure to run one zone at a time so as not to exceed the capabilities of the well pump.

All the while, D & E were cleaning out the greenhouse. Major cleaning too. Looks awesome. All ready for the squash on Monday.

When that was finished, we all cultivated the two new beds of squash and cucs in F. The cucumbers are not doing too well for some reason. The germination rate was about 50%. And those that did germinate are barely over 3" tall. We cultivated them anyway (instead of tilling them in) to see what will come of it.

We took a quick break.

E & I went straight to harvesting. Lettuce first, then leeks.

We killed 10 minutes before lunch trimming garlic. Good time killer.

-------

After eating, I hopped on the Cub to basket weed the freshly handweeded beds in C. While handweeding is the most thorough method of cultivation, it's still good practice to turn over all the weedlings that were left for dead before they have a chance to re-root.

Turned on overhead irrigation in D then.

Straight to the sweet potato bed in Y to help D & E cultivate. My weapon was a collinear hoe. Now, the soil in that field is rocky to begin with, but add sunny/dry weather for over a week and you get a soil whose tilth is somewhere close to "sidewalk." Regardless we made our way through. As an aside, some creature(s) has managed to nibble its way down the length of the 400' bed. Taking the outermost leaves from the vines. Not bad damage, just don't want anymore than that.

Our last harvest of the day was peppers. All red all the time. Beautiful.

To end my day, I made a trip to a farm close by to pick up chicken feed. Wouldn't want those guys to miss out on their daily game of "pecking order breakfast." It can get kinda violent in there. Believe me.

After the workday, I moved straight to the log. Using a drawknife I shaved off all the unwanted bark and rotted wood around the outside. With that done I plotted a 13 x 15" rectangle on the end of the log so I can rough cut it with the chainsaw tomorrow.
More pictures then.

Laundry came after. Then a very tasty dinner and now this.

Ok, not as "meat and potatoes" as it felt. Perhaps... with a few tasty side dishes.

Dig.

(b)logging

2008-08-27T18:10:00.000-07:00

Hmmm. Spelt. Not my favorite grain for bread. Rather crumbly.
Just so you know.

This morning felt great. Cool. Sunny. Oatmeal(y). Coffee(y).
Can one ask for much more? Perhaps a little, but largely.. no.

I've been meaning to get some shots of the winter squash field. The plants are yellowed and on their way out. The squashes themselves look amazing. We will be having a squash harvesting get together this Monday, Labor Day. The field will be picked clean and the squash will be laid out in the greenhouse to cure.
Anyway, hows about a little time lapse photography of the field?

The first pic was taken on June 30 and the last one this morning.

Our day in short??

Trimmed and bagged onions. 850 lbs.
Handweeded spinach.
Moved irrigation over to moisten soil in beet bed with a 20min. shower.
Lunch
Handweeded beets.
Harvested Summer Squash, Zucchini, Cucumbers
Cultivated our 3 beds of Brassicas in Y field. Mad rocky field. Tough to wheel hoe.
Back to the greenhouse for more onion(ing). 200 lbs.
Day over...

Then??????

Time to retrieve my log!! I geared up with leather gloves, a 30' chain w/ hooks, and my camera. Hopped on the New Holland, dropped the loader bucket and headed to the woods below W field. It wasn't difficult to find a path to the log through the woods as 1. It's not densely wooded, and 2. With only the potato spade on the back of the tractor (and no big bucket on front), I could squeeze into tighter spaces.
The process was rather straightforward, albeit a bit of a chore to execute. Get one end of the chain wrapped around the log about 1/4 of the way down the length, and the other end of the chain secured to the potato spade on the back. Gear down to the lowest possible "crawl" speed and pull the thing out of the woods. Yeah, there was a lot of starting and stopping. Ultimately I shortened the chain length enough so that the back hitch could actually lift the front lip of the log about a half inch above the ground. Much easier to control and much less of a furrow left behind. I'll leave you with pics of the process. Feel free to create your own captions.

When I got it close to the barn, I pulled the chain, rolled it onto (recently attached) forks and placed it where I'll be working on it.

Done and done. Aaand mad excited.

Shortly after, Gayle (one of our star volunteers) showed up thinking we were doing a work and wine party. Unfortunately we were not. She, her daughter and daughter's boyfriend decided to stay anyway, so we put them to work trimming and bagging the last of the onions. Yes, of course we worked with them. With onions done (615 lbs. YAAAAAAAYYY!! Thanks, guys!), the day was truly finished, except for one last thing.... a nice long shower.

What a day. Dig.

days in one day

2008-08-26T17:57:00.000-07:00

I seem to have fallen into a routine of catch-up.
Why? Not sure. Just is.

I am learning no fewer things day to day.
I am working no less day to day.
I've got to acknowledge and record what's happening.

Here we go, however, with one more (hopefully) catch-up.

------

Thursday, 21

We began at the regular time, 7am, and harvested, if I'm not mistaken, lettuce and leeks. At 9am, we called it a day. Well, D suggested we do in light of the Dutchess County Fair being in full swing. Who am I to argue? If the man wants to go to the fair... by all means.

Although we all went separately, we all went. I took the (bad) car.

The fair was BIG. My hometown's county fair was rather sizable for the area, but this was, indeed, a happening.

I wandered the grounds by myself trying to take in as much as I could before I had to leave.
Highlights for me:
All the livestock
"Salute to Agriculture" building
Horticulture Building
A dog show (the obstacle course part. muy impressive)
Horse riding/jumping arena
A mop salesman "wowing" the crowd
And???
This exhibit (all running, by the way). Sooooo cool.

And this (below) which was rather interesting. One of the (if not THE) first forms of agricultural mechanization.
The running water falls into the carved out section on the right, which, when full, exerts enough force to lift the head.

In turn, the water naturally spills out and the hammer comes falling down on the stump. It was (and still is in some areas of Brazil) used to de-hull rice. Brilliant.

In all, a great time at the fair.

Picked up H afterward for a weekday visit. Made an amazing salad for lunch. Ate pizza for dinner. Nice.

Friday, 22nd

Man! Did we harvest...

Though we started with cultivation. All of our spring greens that have been under Reemay and beets and beans needed some attention. Luckily we had some help.

Help with harvesting too.
Tomatoes
Potatoes
&
Beans

Oh, and Nancy made some of the richest, tastiest pound cake I've ever had. Hoo wee!

The afternoon had E and I pulling in
Squash
Zucchini
Cucumbers
Peppers
Eggplants

Large quantities of each at that.

Long day. Straight to the train afterward for an extended weekend in the city.

Saturday and Sunday, 23rd & 24th

Helped (along with my mom and sis) my brother tear apart his kitchen to ready for painting, new cabinets and counter. GOOD times!!

Monday, 25th

We began by hand weeding turnips in D. Painstaking. Root crops, despite their sturdiness when mature, are quite fragile early on.
We were rained off the field for about and hour. No worries, their were/are plenty of storage onions in the greenhouse to cut and bag.
A quick break and we finished weeding through the rest of the morning with Gordon, great volunteer.

Cucumbers and squash were up first after lunch. Then peppers. Then eggplants. Then tomatoes to finish the day.

Today, 26th

Harvested:

Leeks
Scallions (took sooo long!)
Arugula (yaaaay! nts: better to wait until dry(er) to harvest.)
Tatsoi
Beans

We packed shares. Mitch showed up and helped along with Johanna. Always good on a Tuesday.

During my downtime before distribution, D showed me how to use a chainsaw. After the demonstration we went to woods behind W field, to the large downed tree I spied weeks ago. I'm going to carve a bench from it. No worries, I'll be taking many pics of the process.
He sawed through one end of the piece and left the other end for me to cut later.

Distribution was quick and enjoyable.

Then it was down to the tree by myself to cut the piece from its trunk. The chainsaw felt very easy to maneuver and caused me no trouble at all. I made it through the log with ease and it fell to the ground. Now we've got to find a way to get the tractor into the woods to pull it up to the farm proper so I can begin to carve. I. Am. Excited.

...and the season keeps moving steadily along.

dig.

introspection

2008-08-20T18:41:00.000-07:00

Why is it that on some days one's voice feels/sounds so uncomfortably foreign coming from their own throat that they find it much easier to remain silent for most of the day?

Yeah. Rarely. But sometimes.

It was a quiet day. Reflective. Though we surely worked.

Lettuce needed to be harvested. Otherwise we would have lost a few hundred feet by Friday. Strange how fast some varieties bolt... even though the temperature has been relatively moderate for mid-August, i.e. Mottistone, always quick to bolt.
Straight from Lettuce to Swiss Chard in Y. This younger bed has not developed as many brown spots on the stems that the bed in W1 did. An easier/faster harvest. And surely more aesthetically pleasing. (nts: when harvested properly, one bed of chard can regenerate. lasting the better part of the whole season. impressive. space efficient)
From Chard we moved to Leeks. I love processing these guys.
Pull from the ground and stack in piles going one direction.
After all is pulled, sit next to a pile.
Pick one up, hold plant w/ root pointing right.
With razor sharp harvesting knife, cut off bottom 1/4" of plant with swift motion.
Pull off 1 or 2 outer leaves to clean.
Chop one side of leaves at diagonal.
Spin and do the same to the other side.

When you've done it enough times and perhaps have achieved a modicum of speed, the rhythm that develops is completely hypnotic.

After Leeks we cultivated the harvested Chard bed, then picked Beans until lunch.

In our off time (as we took a couple hours in light of our evening work party) I cruised and picked up a couple bales of wood shavings.... THEN??
Yep, cleaned the chicken coop. My singularly least favorite farm chore. Gloves, breather mask, powdered "droppings." Sheesh...
Finished right @ 4:30 and though I was greeted by D for our work party prep time, I insisted on (read: asked politely) showering the layer of "chicken" off me. Felt much better when done.

For the work party, two things:
1. We harvested a bed of carrots (which yielded about 493lbs). Most cool.
2. Nobody showed. That is until Judy (thanks!) showed a half hour before the wine portion of the evening.

This time we did up a little fire at the corner of what was the melon field.
Salsa. Chips. Trail Mix .. and wine.

Wine, idle chatter and warmth from the fire. A perfect end to the day

Heading to the Dutchess Co. Fair tomorrow. Should be a hoot!!!

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Dig.

rush rush

2008-08-19T17:06:00.000-07:00

Today we harvested. A lot. Quickly.

350 heads Lettuce
161 lbs Carrots
400+ Squash
100+ Cucumbers
200+ Basil
223 Peppers
255 lbs Potatoes

And that in under 4 hours.

Pam helped us pack city shares.

We broke for lunch around 1pm. I left for the dropoff by 1:30.

Back by 5:15. Helped break down distribution and walked the farm to take some pictures.

Dig.

whole lotta doin

2008-08-18T16:58:00.000-07:00

A week since I last posted? Indeed.
I shall do my best to recount most of each day... with a heavy dose of brevity.

Tuesday, 12th

D put E and I in charge as he was in dire need of house construction time.
We managed to harvest (the two of us, then joined by Johanna and Pam):
Cucumbers
Eggplants
Parsley
Lettuce
Peppers
Squash
Tomatoes

Not too shabby.
I stayed here and set up/managed distribution all by my lonesome. I really dug it.
Our "pick your own" list included:
Beans
Basil
Dill
Cilantro
Scallions
..and Flowers of course.

I was happy with the day's smoothness.

Wednesday, 13th

My day began by cleaning the greenhouse. Knee high in onion remnants. Making way for those arriving later in the day. After that, I prepped the onion harvesting areas with harvest bins and organized the tables in the greenhouse.
The late morning/lunch hour saw several teenage "vacationers" (who were staying with a counselor in the guest house on the property) helping us harvest our last 3 beds of onions. Storage onions on this go round. These ones will last through the winter if kept properly.
After onions, I went to work handweeding/hoeing the beds of Asian greens that are now coming up nicely.
E had family visit in the afternoon. Later she and her family laid out 2+ large harvest bins of onions on greenhouse tables to cure.
She laid out more in the post work hours, and even later I finished up the job.

Thursday, 14th

I started with the basket weeder.
The purslane growing in D (in Carrots, Beets, Chard, Herbs, Etc) is relentless.
Knock it down and if it's not completely severed and/or totally dried out by the sun, it's back w/in a day or two.
I was a little skittish about basket weeding the carrot bed as they are still seedlings and easily covered up by the flying soil coming from the weeder. I made my pass and it seemed to work. Asking D about it the next day, I realize I could've been even more aggressive.
(Events on Wednesday and Thursday are a little foggy, so I may be just a hair off on some of these. Rest assured they all happened though.)
We cultivated for the better part of the day. D was working on his house again.

Thursday night was our 3rd work and wine event.
We had a few wonderful volunteers show to help trim and bag garlic and onions.
Then we had wine. Simplicity. A gorgeous evening too...

Friday, 15th

Harvest harvest harvest.
With help too. Thankfully.
Lettuce
Leeks
Beans
Potatoes (the first time too...which I missed as I was harvesting Squash. I did volunteer to do so however...)
-afternoon-
more Squash
Cucumbers
Peppers
Eggplants (they are FINALLY slowing down)
Tomatoes

All ready for distribution. Quite a feat of harvesting.

Saturday, 16th

A few pics from distribution...

(first big tomato harvest! yay!)

(10th anniversary t-shirts, aprons and bags. nice)

...which I left early to mow/weedwhack all morning and into the late afternoon in preparation for our second BIG picnic of the season. Oh yeah, and in case you forgot, mowing rocks! Curiously within the first 10 minutes of weedwhacking I unknowingly hacked into a nest of yellow jackets. This I didn't even realize until I was already stung (in the temple...ouch) by a quick one. ^#%$*&!!! (Sunday the right side of my face swelled up. My eye all puffy. I looked like a prize fighter. Nice.)

Picked up H around 4.
People arrived around 5-5:30. We socialized, we drank, we ate good dishes made/brought by members.
Curiously (again), I entertained with a few songs on the old geetar and vocals. People seemed to dig. Martha (one of our regular volunteers) joined me for several more (we put them together just a couple hours prior). She rocked it.
And then...talk about cool stuff...two children of one of our members played violin and cello separately and together. Really awesome.
And then...!! Bob (member) used my guitar to bang out and old Woody Guthrie number to much applause.
And finally.. D sang one of his field songs for everyone to hear. Go D.
A truly wonderful evening.

(all pics taken by H. thank you.)

Sunday, 17th

I rested.

Monday, 18th

First up was an early morning run to the train station to drop off H.
Back in time to hit up the gas station for some coffee.
A slice and a half of cold pizza for breakfast and I was ready to break me off a lil Monday sumpm sumpm.
We took (what seems to be) our regular Monday morning farm tour. What did we see?

- Winter Squash plants are beginning to turn. We'll let them die out completely and harvest their fruit. Pretty self-sufficient plants.
- Asian greens are rocking right along.
- Cultivation, cultivation, cultivation. Everywhere. Not only do we want to give our growing crops as much space and nutrient access as possible, BUT, we want to seed our fall cover crops soon (in the used/bare beds/fields). However, we need to make sure we eliminate as much potential (and actual) weed seed as possible. Tough to do when they just keep coming. Perfecta will probably work best as it is a surface cultivator. Rototilling will turn any viable weed seed too deep into the soil, basically setting up another few years of that particular weed in that particular spot. Not good.
- We've planted too many leeks. Must harvest.
- Something has eaten a sizable portion of our fall kale in Y. As well as some Broccoli and Cabbage...and some sweet potato leaves.
Groundhog?
Rabbit?
Deer?
Not sure yet. We can't seem to find its route to and fro. We shall keep our eyes open.

We harvested leeks.
We harvested tomatoes (450+ lbs).
We hand weeded carrots in D.
I cultivated with the perfecta for the last 3 hours of the day.

Straight ahead farming stuff.

I made an amazing salad and roasted some potatoes for dinner tonight. SOOOO Good.

Phew!! Happy I'm caught up now.

Thanks for reading.

Dig.

serial minimalism.. or minimal serialism??

2008-08-11T16:46:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed distribution
I worked distribution
I relaxed with H
We put in the sheep

I slept like a log
I slept for many hours
I could've slept longer
We had a tasty brunch

I drove the car south
I saw countless installations
I had my mind blown
We conversed for hours

I think about the season
I consider it ending
I tend to panic
We seemed to have time...

-------

We toured the farm
We seeded lettuce
We harvested beets n carrots
I operated the root washer

We took a break
We cleared the melon beds
We each took a tractor
I disced melons and basil

We got a nice storm
We watched clouds rotate
We cleaned more garlic
I was crashing a bit

We harvested leeks in the rain
We needed sweaters
We are pretty sure it's August
I rested after work

We ate a huge meal
We need the energy
We are managing w/out D tomorrow
I enjoy the challenge

Dig

stiff backs and falling stars

2008-08-08T18:16:00.000-07:00

Did we harvest today??? Of course we did!!!

What did we harvest??? Of course we did!!! ...ooops. I mean...
A lot of stuff!!!

Lettuce
Leeks
Cilantro
Swiss Chard
Watermelon
Canteloupe
Beans
Summer Squash
Zucchini
Cucumbers
Eggplant (400+)
Peppers
Tomatoes

phew!!!!!

Can you believe that we are close to 32,000 lbs of produce harvested this season already?
I have trouble imagining 32 of anything, let alone 32,000.
Good stuff.

We would've harvested more tomatoes this afternoon had we not been chased off the field by very dark clouds that ultimately brought torrential rain. During the storm we cleaned garlic. A good rainy day "go to." That finished our workday.

Ooooooo.....

I forgot to mention yesterday that we saw meteors on Wednesday night. This is very exciting to me as (they were part of, and) August always means the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower. I have observed this shower every year since I was very young. 7 or 8 perhaps. My dad would wake us on the night of August 11-12 around 2 or 3am. We would sit on reclining lawn chairs in the backyard with blankets over us and stare skyward. Such wonder... and it hasn't faded. I'm always excited this time of year to catch a glimpse of a few (or many) falling stars.

Dig.

remember all those onions???

2008-08-07T18:11:00.000-07:00

So, yeah, yesterday we addressed (read: cleaned and bagged) 1000+lbs of those 10,000 onions we planted in early April. Not only did we (we 3 and 10 wonderful volunteers) work, we socialized, we drank wine, we ate watermelon... we washed our hands to no avail.

But let me rewind quickly...

The morning was cool (as it has been the past several days). Wednesday, being our "space to breathe" day as we don't have to harvest, afforded us some time to take a status tour of the farm.
Many things to do including (as always) cultivation. Before that, though, I took a little time to prep for the Onion party we had last night. I washed the mesh onions bags to try to free them of any past residue.
With bags washed I needed to find a place to dry them...

Voila. Like these pics.

While I was prepping, D was fixing the spray jets on the root washer.
After this, E and I spent the better part of the rest of the morning weeding and thinning beets in D. Badly needed.

We had our afternoon off as we were going to work in the evening. Though I still managed to work. I hopped a tractor and mowed all the areas of Y field. My fastidious side was plenty satisfied having done so.
Cruised then in "my" bad motomobile to get some chips and crackers for the post-work eats/drinks.

Back to the work party then.
What can I say? People arrived around 6. We cleaned loads of onions and bagged them. We talked and laughed And then we ate and drank. How awesome is this "job?"

THANK YOU, VOLUNTEERS!!

------

And today then.
What a strange day for weather. Coolish and partly cloudy in the morning, but still storms developed. Pretty intense ones in the area. Storms that would build to full size within a half hour, make some noise and move on. Just odd... The good news is that we don't have to irrigate for a while. Like that.

We harvested carrots first. (nts: d tried using the chisel plow to loosen the carrots. didn't work so well this time. using fork/shovels takes a little longer, but is more effective) And then we tried out the repaired root washer... like a charm. Nice one, D.

Our next move was to cultivate. I removed reemay, moved irrigation and then Basket Weeded our latest planted rows in D. Turned out very well. E used the Perfecta on every piece of field that was not planted and feeling weed pressure. D tilled in some headlands.

Lunch came quickly. Black beans and quinoa for me.

After lunch we ducked into the back barn to clean some garlic while we let a storm pass, then it was back to the tractors. This took me through the rest of the day.
A little hand weeding of carrots was thrown in there too.

Tomorrow's harvest is going to take a lot of doin.

Lookin forward to it. See what we can wrangle.

Dig.

must be the season of the eggplant

2008-08-05T18:27:00.000-07:00

Before I recap today's adventures, I must mention 2 things I neglected yesterday.

1. I have been playing Mother Nature with the beans in the 3 Sisters Field. Most of their tendrils missed their intended trellises. So.. I helped them along.

The canopy/gazebo has just GOT to look like I see it in my mind's eye. In a month, it should.

2. WE HAVE EGGPLANTS COMING OUT OUR EARS!!!
Yesterday we harvested 550 Italian Eggplants. Yep. 550. And that wasn't even the entirety of what was available. Now I have no real frame of reference for previous seasons' takes, but D cannot stop commenting on how much we're pulling in. It's blowin my mind too.
We had to harvest them in the same manner as melons (throwing them to a catcher posted at a LARGE bin on loader forks) due to the quantity. Personal harvest bins would've been ridiculously slow.

(bwah ha ha ha ha!!!)

I like this series of pics (in the eggplant rows, no doubt)

----

As for today, it moved along just like a Tuesday here should.

We harvested.
We loaded bins for remote drop off.
This week's Tuesday share?

1 Head Lettuce
1 Basil Plant (yes whole plant)
1 Bunch Dill
1 lb Carrots (topped)
2 Squash
2 Peppers
5 Eggplants
2 Onions
3 Tomatoes
1 Fennel
3 Leeks
1 Watermelon
1 Cantaloupe

craziness..

We had lunch.
Loaded up the van and I made the drop-offs. Uneventful.
Back to the farm. Unload bins. Fix van tail lights.
Wash dishes. Stretch. Yoga. Shower. Shave. Take pics around the farm.
Eat. Play guitar (as I'm playing a set at next weekend's member picnic).
BLOG.

Gonna keep it at that and toss some pics your way. The bed beckons...

mas manana.

dig

catch-up in four

2008-08-04T17:57:00.000-07:00

Need to set boundary
else I'll never finish.

----
Thursday was July 31st.
----
I was still managing.
Harvested more and more.
Lettuce, Scallions, Cilantro, Carrots
Summer Squash and Zucchini.
Picked our first Cucumbers.
Actually D picked them.
All by lunch time.
Martha and Amanda volunteered.

We had extended break.
Were working that evening.

My parents visited Thursday!!
Two on the left.

Their presence brought happiness.
We cruised for food.
Ate at Uncle Sonny's.
Who needs anything else?

"Weeding and Wining" followed.
We weeded Peppers, Tomatoes.
Parents stepped right in.
They rock. Most def.
Two volunteers helped us.
Had wine after weeding.
A truly nice evening.
A good idea, E.

----
Friday was August 1st.
----

I was STILL managing.
D must be crazy.
Harvested more and more.
Chard, Beets, Cabbage, Fennel.
Parents, Volunteers arrived then.
We did Beans next.
The variety was Romanette.
nts: harvest beans DRY.

Had a relaxing break.
Cruised with parents afterward.
Hit the local winery.
Got an impromptu tour.
We visited Wethersfield Gardens.
A total mind scrambler.

Parents then took off.
The visit was awesome.

Back to harvest work.
I missed the following.
Melons, Cantaloupe, Pepper, Eggplants.
E and I Tomatoed.
We all did Onions.
Quite a few rotted.
All others looked great.
D & E finished.
I kept on working.
Trellised 800' of tomatoes.
Dripping head to toe.

Laundry that evening. Fitting.
Happy to be clean.

----
Saturday was August 2nd
----

Two words. Huge Share!

Will let pics speak.

Managed that harvest. Yay!

I worked through distribution.
Set up D irrigation.
Cultivated potatoes with chisel.
Weed whacked Cornell trials.

Helped tear down distribution.

Bee lined to train.

Dreamy weekend in city.
Actually slept 11 hours...
all in one night.

----
Monday is August 4th
----

What to do today?????
Why, Harvest, of course!!

Leeks, Beets, Fennel, Melons.
Cantaloupe, Peppers, and Eggplants.
Btw. Rotten Cantaloupe? Terrible.
Can barely stand it.

After work I mowed.
Kept Buckwheat from seeding.
W1, W2 and W3.

Been sourcing, pricing fencing.
Must get things together.
Next season is close.
I surely am excited.
Just need to find
9 foot wooden posts...
And all is good.

Soon, young farmer. Soon.

Dig.

conducting

2008-07-30T17:50:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-28T18:00:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-07-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-23T17:13:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-22T16:25:00.000-07:00

Lettuce
Cabbage
Beets
Onions
Beans

Distribution

Rain!!!

direction

2008-07-21T17:20:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-16T18:12:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-15T18:34:00.001-07:00

THANK YOU, KATHERINE!!!

YOU. ARE. AWESOME!!!

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

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

Dig.

a working weekend

2008-07-14T18:10:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-10T18:29:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-07-09T14:02:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-07-09T11:35:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-07-07T18:52:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-07T17:50:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-07T17:18:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-07T15:11:00.002-07:00

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

2008-07-07T14:10:00.000-07:00

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.

human-ness

2008-06-30T18:07:00.000-07:00

I am excited about the coming week.
I am excited about the past weekend.
I am excited about future farming prospects.
I am excited about human-powered agriculture.
I am excited about raspberries
I am excited about ...............

The coming week:

Lots of mowing, for sure. We are hosting the next CRAFT visit (our topic is Mechanical Cultivation which D knows inside and out) and D wants the place to sparkle. So do we. The great news is that the place already sparkles. Just one more pass should do...
Lots of celebrating as well. My brother and his girlfriend.. and my friend Jonny all have their birthdays this week. NICE.
The 4th of July means fireworks!! NICE.
H will be visiting. NIICE.
We will be harvesting tons of garlic on Friday with members!! NIIICE.

The past weekend:

Distribution was fantastic.

The share was easily the most varied/colorful yet.

Beets
Broccoli
Carrots
Swiss Chard
Turnips
Summer Squash
Zucchini
Garlic Scapes
Head Lettuce
Cabbage
Kohlrabi
Scallions
Spinach
Goldenfrill

Amy from Wild Hive joined us this week. Sold a loaf or two from what I could tell (snark snark)...

Mike from Thunderhill Farms was selling fresh eggs as well. SO MUCH GOOD STUFF!

We crowned the winner of our 10th Anniversary T-shirt design competition. Congratulations. Dig the design. Think I'll get me an apron (oh yeah, available in apron format as well).

During distribution I got a chance to further cultivate the winter squash in A. Seems that Purslane has no idea when to quit. Pull it out and leave it in the row? It just re roots and comes back. And that in a few days. Tenacious, that stuff.
So I hopped on the Cub and worked my way down each row turning the soil with the spade attachments. The process is very similar to hilling potatoes (as it is just that, hilling soil to cover weeds), but it is so much more delicate. Squash stems are about as fragile as they come, so running an iron shoe down the row about an inch from each plant at a couple miles and hour took a little doin. And being right across from the members' parking area, on display, made the experience a tiny bit nerve wracking. Regardless, the result was satisfying.

After distribution it was straight to the train for a quick city getaway.
Simply, wonderful.

Future farming prospects:

H and I will be visiting with a land owner in PA in a few weeks. She has expressed interest in the possibility of the two of us farming her land. More as that unfolds. In short... we're excited. We shall see.

With that in mind, this past week has handed me quite a bit of brainstorming concerning human-powered agriculture.
More thoughts research on a bike/tractor/harvester.
Brainstorming irrigation possibilities... i.e. Pedal-powered water pump filling a large gravity tank. Hmmm.
This guy seems to have the right idea.
H sent me this. Also very cool.

Thoughts. Thoughts.

Raspberries:

Just that. Had my first one from our row. It was not fully ripe, but I couldn't help myself. I've got a bit of a berry fixation. Again... I've got a bit of a berry fixation.

-------

Today? Straightforward.

Harvested Kohlrabi, Carrots (note to self: buy big rubber/waterproof overalls. used d's today. aaand...being dry after washing 100+ bunches of carrots is really really nice), Scallions, E & D harvested Summer Squash/Zucchini

A new/old volunteer, Gordon, joined us for the rest of the morning and ALL of our afternoon. Now THAT's a trooper.
We weeded herbs in E. That took us to lunch.
Afterward I weedwhacked the paths between the beds of garlic. Kinda painful. Whole lotta flinging of small "stuffs" at my legs/arms/face.
Then it was down to Y to cultivate carrots, leeks, scallions, cilantro, beans and others I'm forgetting. Gordon wheel hoed and moved irrigation... by himself. Go on now...

After work, E and I made a trip to pick up a free washer/dryer from a kind soul that offered it to E online. We hook it up tomorrow and it's "good-bye" to painful remote washing experiences... Hello, convenience!! Thanks E. Good score.

Finished the day with some hand cultivation in the 3 Sisters Field. First half done, second half tomorrow.

Speaking of, I get to be here for distribution this week.

Dig!

work. celebrate.

2008-06-27T18:48:00.000-07:00

Nas in the phones.
Peanuts, hand to mouth.
Yuengling in a bottle.

Life requires celebration.
Large and small.

A rather physical day/week done.

We started the day harvesting in Y. Head Lettuce. I got to mow the headlands of the bed so our legs could remain dry during the washing part of the harvest. Yeah, all excited about mowing. Still.

Next up? W1. Spinach. Go know. We thought it was done/gone. Little did we know that bolting does not necessarily mean "over." It tasted great so we went for it. Got close to 90 lbs.

Next victim? Swiss Chard. A rainbow of watery fiber. Bunched by the dozen..ish.
Nancy and Judy pulled the yellow leaves from the row as D & E followed with their knives and twist-ties.

During all of this I ran to the barn, hopped the closest John Deere (w/ rototiller attached) tractor I could find and beelined back to W1. The (finally finished) Spinach beds needed to be turned over. I did just that.

Upon completion, D spun buckwheat seed (summer cover crop) by hand over the beds. Back to the barn I went to detach the rototiller and attach the brillion seeder (which, in this case, was to be used for its weight to press the cover seed into the soil). Before I could return to the field, everyone magically appeared at the office for a morning break.

Nancy brought muffins. GOOD! I heated up coffee. Drank it. Buzzed. Smiled. On with the rest of the morning... which consisted of pressing the cover seed with the brillion and raking the pathways beside the Swiss Chard beds. Many discarded leaves close to healthy leaves = Opportunity for rot/disease. I removed said leaves in a harvest cart and to the compost pile they went.

-Intermission-

Straight to summer squash (last piece of this week's distribution puzzle) after lunch.

-(aside) I'm having an extremely hard time putting together today's series of events in my head for whatever reason. I know we ended with trellising tomatoes, but I want to say some minor task directly preceded that as I remember D saying, "I'll go get ready to trellis while you guys do ...???" Ugh!!-

Anyhoo, we learned how to trellis tomatoes today. (note to self: we trellised a little late in the game. still effective, but way too much work. trellis tomatoes at around 12-18". much easier. better for the plant too.)
Not too complicated. Pound metal posts into the bed between every other plant. String 1 continuous twine, post to post, using a wooden stick (extends your reach to alleviate loads of back bending). Support plants about 3/4 high. Repeat. Easy.

After work and a quick hour of relaxing, I caught my second wind. What to do?
Hmmm. Tomorrow is distribution and I've got hours til dark?? Beautify!!
Mowing!! Rocked the mower for a couple hours... hit a hidden rock near the flower garden after most was done... bent one of the blades... had to quit... will fix on monday. Had a great time though.

Made my evening rounds with camera in hand.
A couple things stood out:

1. THE most gorgeous color (black purple??)/plant (to me) on the entire farm. Japanese Eggplant.

and

2. WE GOT BEANS!!! In the 3 Sisters Field that is. The Red Noodles are ahead of the pack.. then the Trail of Tears. No word from Scarlet Runner yet.
I feel like a proud parent. ...Pretty compacted soil. Fighters, these ones!!

Can.You.Dig.It?

I knew that you could.

Dig

processes

2008-06-26T13:53:00.000-07:00

Hand weeding A/winter squash:

Kneel in path
Identify weeds (mostly Purslane)
Discern from squash plant (easy, though other plants are not)
Extend hands, palms down
Thumbs behind base of squash plant
Push weeds/dirt away from base towards opposite side path
In return motion, sweep all fingers (small circles) through weeds/soil on either side agitating thoroughly
While moving to next plant perform steps 2, 3, and 4 so you can have your thumbs behind the plant by the time you're stationary.

Raking clumps in A/winter squash:

Stand in path at 45 degree angle from bed
Hold rake as you would a broom
Place rake about 2-3 inches from base of plant
Pull rake toward you through the soil
Move it slightly side to side at the same time to further break up clumps
Work your way down the row

Stirrup hoeing melons:

Much the same as raking squash except that you walk backwards along the path.

Harvesting carrots:

Stand sideways in path facing carrots
Place heavy duty pitchfork/shovel about 3-4 inches from base of greens
Force down into dirt with foot (as you would a shovel)
When about 6-8 inches down, pry tool back, forcing carrots up
Pull carrots by the bunch, gently shake off dirt and lay parallel in path
Tie 8-10 to a bunch
Rinse thoroughly and spray off with hose

Harvesting cabbage:

Force open leaves downward with your hands exposing head
With left hand push cabbage head to the side exposing the stem
Cut through stem
Place in bin

(no pics. sorry.)

Rototilling unusable crops back into soil:

Pull tractor to the head of the bed
Pull forward until rototiller is at the head of the bed
Engage PTO
Lower rototiller
Proceed down bed
Raise rototiller when you have reached the end of the bed/crop

Stretching at the end of the day:

Clear your mind of all thoughts
Stretch ALL muscles

Dig

small-scale living

2008-06-25T17:48:00.000-07:00

Last night I passed on blogging. Why?
Lazy? Nah.
Away from the farm? Please.
To bed early??? Nope.

Reason: I talked to my sister on the phone for almost an hour and a half. Really nice. I feel very fortunate to have family that I love and enjoy talking to and can be around for hours/days...even if we only get to do so once a month... or year. The basic things in life.

Thanks family!

-----------

So, yesterday, E and I continued our self-management stint. Though, to be fair, D was just about back in action. He spent the morning doing office work. Obviously just as essential as anything else. Also, to be fair, I think he should have been home resting more. A troo trooper, this guy.

The rest of the broccoli, 700+ sprigs of basil and 180+ summer squash were harvested to make up the balance of our Tuesday shares.
With the help of Johanna we got a jump start on filling the 69 bins to be taken to the city for Tuesday's drop off. With D laying low in the office, I seized the opportunity to take the "share picture" for the week.

Not terrible, but not even close to what D can capture.

With bins loaded and placed back in the cooler, we took a short break. Coffee and cookies. Chips Ahoy cookies. Yeah, yeah, I know. Questionable ingredients. But, good gravy, they tasted awesome!! Thanks Johanna.

Before lunch I managed to rototill two beds in F and help finish hand-weeding the carrot row in E. Carrots are, without doubts, the most painstaking weed experience on the farm. For me anyway.

After lunch we loaded the van, I made myself comfy in the driver's seat and sped off toward the city. A truly by-the-book drop off. No news is usually good news when on the road.
On the way back I stopped for groceries. My body was screaming for some fresh fruit. ...all is good now.

I cultivated the sides of the path in the 3 Sisters field after I got back. And must say, AGAIN, it's looking really good.

Look at that corn!!

This is one of the MANY reasons why I will pursue (and stick with) small scale farming. One has the luxury of being able to pay attention to detail. Individual plant growth.
Dozens of acres of corn?? Numbers. Figures. Works for some... not me.

---------

Today. Wednesday. June 25th! Already.

We played catch up. Seeding flats, (trans)planting and cultivation. Rutabaga & lettuce in the greenhouse,

herbs/parsley/lettuce/scallions in D/summer squash in F, and winter squash in A...respectively. I learned how to direct seed with a Planet Jr. Love the human-powered implements. We then pulled out the drip tape to water in the transplants as the sun was pretty merciless this afternoon.

So, yeah, F saw its very first seeds today!! Cucumbers and squash! Now, come one soil..Do it up!

This afternoon we weeded A (Winter squash). Period.

I don't have a "before" picture, but this is what it looks like now.

Just reinforces that small-scale notion. This could not be done so thoroughly/carefully were it on a larger scale.

Post workday had me mowing around the 3 Sisters and F. Meditation time...

A full belly and a shower earlier finds me quite satisfied and happy with this Wednesday. Another great day with its own unique discoveries, successes, failures (or "learning opportunities), laughs and reflections.

I'll end this post with that thought... and some pictures of the sheep, older chickens, "teen" chickens and baby chickens at the request of my sister. All from today.

The teens and Scrawny were hanging out on top of the root cellar.

for H.

Dig.

exceptional

2008-06-23T17:15:00.000-07:00

This weekend was exceptional. In all ways.

Distribution had a great energy to it (or so I was told...).
I got to mow for the first hour.
I spent 10 hours afterward cleaning the back barn.
D's son had his 5th birthday celebration.
H made her train.
I shaved.
The longest day of the year came and went.
It was gorgeous.
The drive from the train station was breathtaking...
Exceptional amounts of rain = Exceptional growth. So lush. Everything.
Wine and pizza. Does it get any better...?

-Sunday-

H & I direct seeded 3 bean varieties in the 3 Sisters Field.
Cherokee Trail of Tears (in the outer corn stalk mounds)
Scarlet Runner (in the inner corn stalk mounds)
Red Noodle (around the base of each canopy branch)
We also strung together and secured the branches of said canopy.
Storms rolled through at regular intervals.
So happy/excited about the results and can't wait to see the beans begin their ascent...

In the evening I got a call from D.
He was LAID OUT with a major sinus infection/fever. Resting Monday.
It definitely had to be serious. D works non-stop.... really.
E & I were to move and shake the farm for the whole of Monday.

-Today (didn't get any pictures as it was raining on and off for the duration)-

First, I would like to thank the semi-elderly cab driver (same one each time. same woody station wagon too. nice.) who "hustled" to pick up H this morning. Again.. she made her train.
E took inventory to determine what and how much we needed to harvest.
I loaded the van with the proper tools/bins and we hit W1.
Bok Choi
Broccoli
Head Lettuce
Scallions
Kohlrabi
Turnips

Not bad for a two-person venture.
E spent the afternoon writing up another Member Newsletter article.
Me? I cleaned the perpetually dusty/dirty office. Lookin good now.
note to self: forevermore, use a LARGE window fan to draw dust out of enclosed spaces when cleaning. yeah, sometimes it's the obvious that hits you last.

A very successful "apprentice-led" Monday.

Pic time? I'd personally enjoy it.

H holding the canopy branches together as I rush to get the twine (well, yeah, enough time to snap a picture)...

Crazy twine-tying concentration

Voila! Now picture it with long burgundy beans hanging all over it and vines wrapped inside and out. Dig.

wikipedia even says "sputnik"

2008-06-20T18:34:00.000-07:00

Waking up this morning (after having dug holes and pounded in branches.. after having weeded all day yesterday) took some real conscious effort. Crouching down to pull pants from the bottom dresser drawer required the help of both hands/arms. While I surely don't consider myself old (nor do I think I ever will), I was definitely letting loose a rather unfamiliar collection of grunts and groans. Where did these come from?? What can I do to make sure they do NOT become permanent "me-isms?" More conscious efforts I guess. That and a little more stretching....

As is our Friday order now, we headed directly to harvest.

- Chinese Cabbage (Different wider variety; Huge; Like the taller ones better though)
- Bok Choi (We know the drill)
- Kohlrabi (Funky Sputnik-lookin veggie. Part of the brassica family. Tastes like broccoli stem) Wanna see????

- Head Lettuce (Some have bolted by now so they were left to be tilled under)
- Turnips (Capped. Judy and Nancy harvested them single-handed)
- Scallions (Pulled in bunches gently from the soil. Such fragile leaves. Washed and bunched)
- Broccoli (I'm not sure if I've made it abundantly clear by now, but harvesting broccoli is fun... believe me. You oughtta come by and try it...)
- Mustard Greens (Tended to those myself. Tended a few bunches right into my mouth. Mmmm)
- Basil (First harvesting out of Field Y. Cool)
- Summer Squash (E & I. Yellows and Zucchinis. Their skin is so easily damaged. Even the plants spiny stems/leaves can completely score them. Gotta be careful)

A picture of today's group

Judy, Nancy, Daniel, Katherine, D & E.

Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, remind me to tell you about the deep inner joy one can experience by throwing a Bok Choi Grenade. I'll explain when I have pictures for support.

Somewhere in there we had a nice sit-down break with coffee, pumpkin muffins (thanks Katherine), and banana bread (thanks Nancy), aaand donuts (thanks D), aaaand Irish Soda Bread (thanks Amy). Stuffed.

These pics from midday. The white on blue was blowing my mind. As well as the blue itself.

After lunch I mowed... period. How wonderful is that?
W3, W2, Y and Z all had rye about to go to seed and it was my job to prevent it from doing so.

E and I visited a local winery after work, had a tasting and made a couple purchases(of which I am presently partaking).

This evening... strawberries were picked and eaten, more branches were cut for the 3 Sisters field and my guitar was played for a while. A truly relaxing evening.

Tomorrow... distribution and H time.

Dig.

quickly, but not

2008-06-19T19:01:00.000-07:00

Today was a quiet meditation.

I transplanted approximately 600 tomato plants by hand.
That was the first task of the morning.
Same body movements up and down the beds.
I had help from Martha, a new volunteer.

After the tomatoes were planted, we mulched them with the hay we received last week.
Same body movements spreading the hay over the three beds.
I was in my head for most of the morning.
Repetitive movements. Repetitive thoughts. Absence of thought. Breathing.

Tomatoes. Before and after.

This afternoon we weeded the melons in Field B.
Same position and movement for three hours.
I was definitely in my head for the duration.

I am continually amazed at what our bodies are capable of doing... over and over and over...
I am grateful for the opportunity to find out.

My evening continued the meditation.

A walk to the gas station for Coke, Peanuts and Beer. Essentials.

Straight to the 3 Sisters Field to dig holes for, erect and secure 8 - 8 ft branches with which I'm fashioning a mini gazebo in the center. Will have pictures of this tomorrow when I am finished. Exciting.

Was all in my head for that as well.

Enjoying some beer now and envisioning a long night's sleep... in my head.

Dig

just another weeding wednesday

2008-06-18T13:40:00.000-07:00

A cool, cool morning. Cool by me.

The temperature was to reach only into the low 70's.
How perfect is that for weeding? Umm. Apparently, really...

We weeded today.

Our initial focus was on the Onions/Leeks/Scallions beds in W2. I drove the Farmall to the field and basket weeded the scallions. There was scarcely enough room between the rows for the weeder, but it looked to me that the scallions were not harmed. They were only leaning over slightly in the direction of the tractor after I made the passes. When D arrived he was a little surprised by the decision to machine weed and reinforced the point that the scallions' leaves (leeks and onions as well) are rather fragile and can grow poorly/die or be susceptible to disease if broken or disturbed (so true. barely breathe on these things and they break). I felt kinda bad. Perhaps I should have passed on machine weeding as the scallions looked a little disturbed.
In a short while, though, D said that the basket weeding was a good decision as they didn't really look bad after all and it saved us quite a bit of hands-and-knees work. All good...
I wheel hoed and hand weeded the rest of the morning away.

Also, this morning saw several volunteers from the Salvation Army harvesting Spinach. How great to have direct charity activity as such. Glad to have the help and glad to be giving...
A few pics, eh?

A "tool" of the trade... ???

The "Official Vehicle...."

with the "Official Dog" inside. Nice.

Just before lunch I basket weeded parsnips and carrots in W2 as well. The carrots weeded very well. One row of parsnips got a little too much dirt kicked on them by the path-scraping tynes on the tractor. I uncovered the row by hand. Don't want to lose any tasty parsnips at this early stage... or at later stages either.

After lunch we "hung out" in Y. Doing what? You guessed it. Weeding.
Three B's. Beans, Beets and Basil. Easy weeding... well, compared to, say, carrot seedlings.
Funny. D's son, J, an almost 5 year old bundle of energy, entertained us with a few improvised songs. One of which we ended up all singing together... over and over again.
The lyrics? Simple.
The message? Well, that depends on how deep you'd like to go...
---------
Get on the dirt bus!
Get on the dirt bus!
Get on the dirt bus!
Yeah!

Get on the dirt bus!
Get on the dirt bus!
Get on the dirt bus!
Now!
---------

A fantastic afternoon. Oh, almost forgot to mention that D and I tossed the Frisbee for a while after work. Yay! Frisbee. Definitely a must-have in my life.

As I write, it's raining. Has been for a couple hours now. Moderate, but steady. Such a rainy season so far. A "growing" season...
which leads me to an impressive fact:
The total weight of harvested vegetables so far this season??
5600 lbs.

Dig.

storms. brain- and rain-

2008-06-17T15:26:00.000-07:00

Saturday.
7am.
Distribution day.
The air was heavy. Humid, but cool-ish. Before the morning ended, though, I must have lost a pound in sweat. Warmed up quickly. We met in the office to check the weather and talk through particulars. I, somehow, drew the lucky card. I got to MOW! Quite the oddity too as all "beautification" is usually taken care of Friday or earlier. However, D wanted a "path" mowed in the grass to the peas in Solar Lower field as we were letting members pick their own if they wanted. No argument from me.
Before I could dig in, though, we had to set up the distribution area in the barn. As E & I set up tables, scales, bags, etc., D usually draws up the master share sign for the day.

It shows the members what their "take" is for that particular week.
For example:

1 Head Bok Choi
2 Heads Broccoli
1 Head Chinese Cabbage
1 Bunch Turnips
1 1/2 lb Spinach
2 Heads Lettuce
5 Garlic Scapes
1/4 lb Snap Peas -or- Pick Your Own! (Sign are posted at the bottom of the beds to demarcate the picking area)

With set-up done (close to it, anyway), I dashed off to the mower and began carving my "paths." Amazingly, after I was done, D gave the green light for me to continue. Nice! Kid in a candy store... For real. I got about an hour in when D pointed me in the direction of the tomato, pepper, and eggplant beds. Cultivation. Muy necessito. With the help of the same 3 volunteers from the day before (Thanks! Again!) we weeded about 10 beds altogether by the end of distribution. All of the plants (and weeds too) have been thriving in this tropical weather. Quite a few peppers in view... Can't wait.

With distribution finished and everything cleaned and packed up, E motored me to the train station. My bi-monthly trip to the city. Whirlwind, but definitely needed.
A great time as always. H and I checked out the neighborhood gardens. Seems they're benefitting from the hot, humid weather as well. Sunday evening came quickly and I was back on the train upstate.
Spent my time brainstorming ideas for a pedal-powered (multi-person?) farmall. One whose basic purpose is harvesting, but could have implements added and be used for cultivation, seeding, towing, sidefilling, fertilizing, etc. The biggest obstacle is power. Horsepower, to be exact. With the best cyclists in the world being able to sustain little more than 1 hp for short periods, and, for example, a Farmall Cub sustaining about 14 hp at speed, one can see the limitations pretty readily. What to do? Employ a heavy flywheel/pto combo to up the torque? Design with only one "lightweight" application in mind, i.e. harvesting? Both? I believe any step away from fossil fuel is a positive step, but if the time is going to be taken to develop anything, then the goal(s) should be realistic. I've got some basic things mapped out in my head already. To be mulled over... Will update from time to time.

----------

Monday

To start the day/week, we made our rounds of the fields to see "what condition our condition was in..."

Pics from the tour-

3 Sisters Field

Beans sprouting (adjacent to the drip tape..)

Basil. Soon to be harvested.

Before(left) and after(right). Carrot seedling cultivation. Painstaking...

First picked garlic bulb of the year. Beautiful.
Looking to harvest around July 4th.

Potatoes in Z

Leafhoppers on potatoes (sorry, bad pic). Important though. D is rather skittish about these guys, and rightfully so, as an infestation could decimate the potato crop in no time. What to do? Hold on mowing down the rye/vetch area beside the potato field until the entire field can be reemayed. The leafhoppers have (more than likely) set up shop there and, if forced to move, will "hop" over to the potatoes.

Hay that was delivered on Friday.

Kohlrabi

Kale.

Rather than explain the consequent project list, here it is (well, most of it):

As you can see under "Cultivation," it was finally time to flame weed. And flame weed we did. Pretty easy. Aim a propane-fueled flame at a row as you walk the length of it. Singe weeds. Fun stuff.

From there it was straight to W1 to harvest Chinese Cabbage and Lettuce. The cabbage was ginormous.. and so was the lettuce. Crazy big.
While E & I harvested, D brought out the rototiller to turn used beds back under.
How wonderfully strange to witness/experience. The entire cycle in just 60 days.

From there we harvested the remaining garlic scapes and the next round of mature summer squash. Speaking of which... update:

Lunch was a luxurious 45 minutes.

As we opted out of the day's CRAFT visit (2+ hours away?? not so much), we set to work harvesting Bok Choi from W2. This Bok Choi was not as nice, in my opinion, as what we harvested the week before. Still, tasty as all get out.

The last part of the day saw E focus on weeding the aspargus bed while I removed a downed tree that fell on the fence around W and replaced my fiberglas fence support booboo of last week.

Evening came on, muggy and calling for severe thunderstorms. I dig me some storms, so I was excited when the rain really started to fall and the lightning and thunder punctuated it all. However, I was on the phone with H when a call from D came through. A tornado. Yep. One of those. 5 miles away in the next town. Coming this way. I thanked him, confirmed it online, hung up the phone and ran to tell E. We made our way to the basement underneath the office (brick building)... and listened.... It was all I could do to stand still. I was excited and a little frightened. I've always wanted to see/experience a tornado, but would rather it from a bit of a distance. I called H after about 20 minutes of waiting (and hearing nothing) and asked for her to go online to see if the threat had passed. Seems that it had. Good news all around. We were fine and so was the farm (all except two not-so-fortunate beds of spinach that got torn by hail. booo.). Yay!

Later in the evening I made (for the first time ever) Kimchi. Four jars of it.

I'll let you know in 2 days how it turns out.

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

Today

3 words: Spinach, Broccoli, Distribution

Sooo straight forward.

We harvested the beat-up spinach first. 83 lbs of it.
And then, with the help of our friend, Johanna, we leveled almost 2 whole beds of Broccoli. 460 heads in all. The harvest process for broccoli is definitely enjoyable. Thwacking the stalks with a big knife and furiously pulling leaves from below the head only to chuck it underhand (or overhand) to a designated catcher who places it in waiting bins. Quite fun.

Before

During

Sneaking a bite

Post...

We took all of our goodies back to the barn where shares for remote distribution were put together. Would you like to see what today's share looked like?

Yeah. Pretty nice.

Today's pick up was relaxing. Everything flowed pretty smoothly. We even managed to get our 17 tee-shirt design entries hung up on a huge canvas just as distribution began. Members got to vote on their favorite design. The winning design will be used on the official 10th season shirts. Community. Definitely.

So, I think this could very well be my longest post yet.

I truly have nothing else to add at this point. Well, two things.
Thank you, as always, for reading this blog... and...

dig

recap

2008-06-13T18:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday.
We harvested in the morning.
Spinach
Head Lettuce
Bok Choi
The morning remained cool.
D and I moved to laying down drip tape.
We laid approximately 1 mile by the end of the day.
-Leeks/Lettuce in E
-Melons/Direct seed veggies in B
-Winter squash in A
E and Judy seeded mass quantities in the greenhouse.
After work, E & I worked on the 3 Sisters field.
Looking good.
I also resuscitated 39 heads of wilty lettuce that were left in the field.
Mea culpa.
I slept soundly.

----------

Today.
We harvested in the morning (with several helping hands).
Chinese Cabbage
Beets
Turnips
Snap Peas
The morning was a little warmer today.
Before lunch we weeded the Summer Squash bed.
After lunch 3 different volunteers helped us through the end of the day. Thanks!!
We weeded Y.
A lot.
Really small plants/weeds.
At the end of the day we received 70 bails of straw.
They will be put on the tomato bed in Y.
Did my regular post work chores.
Showered.
Blogging.
Falling asleep.

Dig

looking to learn

2008-06-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

Last night. Closest I've come to capturing lightning. Next time...

How every workday begins

Summer squash update

Grounded 7000 plants by hand today... including: Scallions, Leeks, Lettuce, Melons (D&E), Eggplants, Winter Squash

Eggplant flats

Melon flats

Solar Lower prepped for transplant

Amazing tilth in this field. Thanks in LARGE part to Peter (he rocks..or de-rocks)

Previous round of eggplants. Beautiful.

What flea beetles can do when eggplants are not covered.

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

Our afternoon was spent finishing eggplants, laying drip and hand planting all of Field A with Winter Squash. No pics.

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

After work I passed out for a solid half hour in the chair at this computer. Felt good.

Then...

To work on 3 Sisters Field. I decided against woodchipping the path. Going to let it grow over with natural weeds. Will keep it trimmed and contained. Like that look much better already.

and I'm not sure what this "knee high by the fourth of July" stuff is all about. Apparently the corn didn't get the memo: It's JUNE 11th! Awesome, really.

The youngest members of the farm.

The sweetest members of the farm... Am I excited? Indeed. Woohoo! Berry season!!

The road back to the farm "proper."

A cooler day. A gorgeous night. A pillow that beckons.

dig

tuesday haiku

2008-06-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

Last night after work,
with weeds growing, I wheelhoed
in three sisters field.

The sod that I tilled
does not want to die just yet.
Hoe was sweating too.

E was detailing.
A handheld weeding tool worked.
The field looks great now.

With the corn growing
we started to mound them up.
A little to start.

Next to plant is squash.
Why not protect from weeds soon?
We'll direct seed them.

Beans plant in 3 weeks.
Direct seeding around corn.
Should be plenty tall.

---------

Today we started
close to 6 to beat the heat.
Sweating by seven.

We harvested lots.
Lettuce and arugula.
Radishes, turnips.

Broccoli was fun.
I didn't cut my finger!!
Woo! and Hoo! I say.

---------

Then we prepped soil.
Fertilized A, B and F.
E tilled quite nicely.

(Realizing something.
I didn't take many pics.
Crazy busy day.)

I helped pack some shares
for remote distribution.
Pam volunteered. Yay!

My turn to drop off.
I left the farm at one ten.
I was back by five.

Drop offs are fun.
The driving part is quite nice.
Good to have "me" time.

---------

This evening brought us
a pretty heavy downpour.
Soooo much cooler now.

The weather forecast
shows lower temps tomorrow.
Crossing my fingers.

Good rain plus sunshine
equals amazing plant growth.
Can't wait to see them.

dig dig dig dig dig.
dig dig dig dig dig dig dig.
dig dig dig dig dig.

yeah, it was hot

2008-06-09T13:50:00.000-07:00

I considered avoiding any talk of "the heat" today as it is/was surely on everybody's mind. But, really. 96. Feels like 102. 46% humidity...

This by lunch (actually by 10am).

Ok. More on that below.

First, my weekend. Beautiful!

Saturday morning was our second distribution.
On the menu:

Spinach (some of the best ever grown on the farm, says D)
Broccoli Raab
Turnips
Radishes
Head Lettuce
Bok Choi
Tatsoi
Garlic Scapes
Red Mustard Greens
Goldenfrill
Arugula (just a little left)

There seemed to be quite a few more visitors this Saturday. Lots of talking/laughing/socializing. Enjoyable.
The sheep are certainly becoming minor celebrities in these parts. Unfortunately the fast heat of the morning forced E to reconsider keeping them out for the day. I imagine I would feel the same if I had been in a heavy wool jacket. They made it through distribution, but were put in shortly after by me. I've grown quite fond of them. The oldest one had a little sinus congestion, so E fed her some garlic scapes as a "clearing" agent. She seems much better now. Also, fyi, getting them back to the barn is a GREAT deal easier when their harnesses are already on. Believe me.

The rest of the day and most of Sunday was spent with H. We did all of the daily farm chores together (as is the case when she visits) as E was visiting a friend. In short... awesome.

Sunday evening, after closing up for the day, I put some time in on the 3 Sisters field. Basic hand cultivation. The soil which has (very fortunately) had an even rain/sun/rain exposure for the past week is perfect for cultivating. Crumbles with little effort, but doesn't blow away in a dust cloud when worked through.

This, in fact, is a handy segue into today: Perfect (hot) cultivation conditions.

Our intent (I think) was to harvest until lunch for tomorrow's distribution.
At 6:30ish am (after taking inventory of the weeks remains) we were in W1 rounding up the majority of the rest of the spinach. And while the spinach beds were leveled with a degree of ease that's been unseen to date...

I still managed to cut myself twice. That makes 7 this season already. Not quite sure what to make of that number yet. Still thinking...

Onward.

We moved to Bok Choi after weighing and storing all the spinach we gathered.

Bok Choi is a pretty easy harvest. Straightforward cut and gather. Counting the heads aloud as they go in the harvest cart, washing and placing them in containers for cooler storage.
We took a quick bagel/coffee break after harvesting. It was at this time D made the decision to pursue cultivation for the rest of the day. Can't blame him. Save for the oppressive heat, the process was a relative breeze. Speaking of breeze, it does not exist a foot above the soil. Only radiant heat and humidity. Pretty stifling.

We worked (read: basket weeded, wheel hoe'd, hand weeded, raked) through the melon beds in B and the vegetables/herbs in Y. After lunch, I finally got to try my luck at hilling potatoes (note: sidefilling 5:1:1 with the tractor attachment at the same time works well as the hilling plates cover and kick the fertilizer right to the side of the potatoes) with the Farmall.

Why hill potatoes???

1. The plates loosen/aerate the soil and allow for better growth. The soil can also more readily drain/shed water.
2. If the potatoes are exposed to the sun they will green.
3. Hilling covers/kills weeds. Less work for your hands.

D was satisfied with the results. Though I must remember to hill up one side at a time as to avoid a "ridge and valley" effect which kind of defeats the purpose of hilling.

Our day was done shortly after. Aaand shortly after that we were invited to take a dip in the pool that's owned by the farm's governing organization.
What can I say? I went from "brain-dead and over heated" to "full sentences and 98.6" in 30 minutes. Amazing!

Looking forward to tomorrow as I now know what hot days feel like and am prepared for all those ahead.

Big morning harvest and a trip to the city for our remote distribution is on the docket. Good stuff.

Dig.

fridays for good

2008-06-06T18:18:00.000-07:00

This morning... IT RAINED!!

At 5am it started and did not stop until around 10. Rather heavy at times.
We harvested (I realized that Fridays through the rest of the season will be very similar to this one, work-wise)...water rolling off of every limb. I must say I truly enjoyed it all. The work. The rain. The work in the rain. The soaked pants/sleeves. The camaraderie. Very nice.

As we did little more today than harvest for tomorrow/Tuesday's distributions, I think pics (and some captions) will tell the story well.

Proper gear? Absolutely essential. Faux bad attitude? Optional.

Approx 7am

Judy, Nancy, E & D

Today we harvested:

Spinach (loads of it...still)
Lettuce
BokChoi
Radishes
Turnips
Golden Frill
Mustard Greens
Broccoli Raab

This was by noon.

At which time the rain had stopped and we found this in our Member parking area.

What to do? Syphon, of course.

At the time of this post, most of this puddle has been syphoned to the downward sloping driveway about 50' away. Success!

After lunch we harvested garlic scapes (stems that will eventually hold the plant's flower), very tender, very tasty.

Heavy competition.. Who's faster? Mentor or Apprentice? My money's on the guy with 10 years of experience... but I'm always up for a gamble.

With that done, D called the day for us. Woohoo!

The evening?

I weedwacked what I did not have a chance to address in W's fields yesterday.

Closed the greenhouse/chickens. Did the dishes and shortly afterward, at the beginning of my quest for food, I turned this

Into this

It was actually a little disconcerting how completely the thing disintegrated.

Done and done. Cleaned and fed. Happy.

Looking forward to the morning's distribution. Socializing with/giving fresh food to members = Good Times.

dig

melons, yams and fireworks! oh, my.

2008-06-05T16:16:00.000-07:00

When life hands you a perfect day to plant, what better to do with your time than, well, plant.

We woke to rain Wednesday. Not a whole lot of it but enough to give us pause before we made moves toward planting.
The watermelon and canteloupe seedlings were breaking out of their flats. Before they could hit the ground, however, we received a package (more than a week late) of our sweet potatoes (they arrive in bunches looking very similar to leeks). We ran with it. To Y we went. One 400' bed of yams.
Luckily the soil was easily workable as the rain continued. A metal-tipped wooden dibbler in my right hand and yam sprouts in my left, I made my way down the row. All was caked with mud within minutes. Awesome. Really.

Right after that we set out to get about 900 melon plants in the ground in field B.
Was rather happy with the rhythm I was able to attain in getting these guys grounded.

Just as we were finishing, two of my three guests for the day arrived. My brother, J, and his girlfriend, M.

Lovely kids. This is their first visit to the farm, so D very kindly let me have an hour lunch to show them around. They (as most are) were loving the chicks/chickens. Can't blame them. Aaaand they were up for some post-lunch harvesting.
We spent the afternoon bunching radishes and slicing off leaves of spinach.

Many laughs and two minor wounds (like brother, like brother) later....

we finished our field time and weighed up our take.
63 lbs of radishes and 81 lbs of spinach! Go team!

Very soon after, my third visitor showed. It was H's birthday and she made the trek to the farm to hang with me, bro, M, E and the chickens. How cool is that??
We broke open some rather tasty biodynamic Petite Sirah & Pinot Noir and enjoyed a beautifully warm evening. Pizza also made an appearance. "Mad good pizza!"

My brother (who also enjoys fire(y) things) brought a few small "party favors." As soon as it turned dark, we went to one of the lower fields and had a very small birthday celebration.

A great day. A great evening!

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

Today's tasks were (inadvertantly) studies in minamalism... if you like.

We began late today at the suggestion of D. 9am work call. What a cool guy.

With the weatherman calling for scorchers from Saturday on, we had a hard time deciding whether we wanted to focus on irrigation prep or move on some neccessary weeding. D made the call to weed and we headed out.
Parsnips and carrots in W2 got some TLC. The first time we weeded carrots (in W1) this size (really tiny) I was confused as to why we were doing so. We were brushing away dirt from in between mini carrot tops with no real weed in sight.... Let's just say, I get it now. Taking the time to brush out all of the weeds at their "white thread" stage saves sooo much time later, and allows the vegetable to have space/energy to grow right from the start.
Beets also got thinned along the way, giving them room to grow.

Before lunch, on our way out the field, D got curious to see what was doin underneath the surface in our White Clover cover crop. A quick chop with the hoe into the soil revealed wonderful nitrogen-fixing nodules all over their roots. These unseen processes continually blow my mind.

The latter half of my day was mowing W2 lawn and rye/vetch crops. Inside. Outside. Upsidedown. New Holland. Riding Mower. Weedwhacker. What can I say? I enjoy it.

This evening has seen a bit of brainstorming as to how I'm envisioning the path in our 3 Sisters' Field. For now we're sure we want dual-branch arches over the length of the path, perhaps to plant beans upon so they could dangle down for easy pickin. We'll see... exciting though.

Tomorrow is an early harvest day in prep for Saturday's pick up.

Sleep is a must.

dig

"goin on" goin on... (updated below)

2008-06-02T18:14:00.000-07:00

I am continually amazed at how much can be accomplished over the course of one workday, let alone from waking to sleep...

Friday was ALL about harvesting for our first Saturday share pick-up at the farm.

It was an EARLY one for all.
4:30am looks something like this.

When 5:30 hit, we wasted no time getting all the necessary tools (knives, whetstone, harvest bins, tally sheet) for our day in W1. Tools collected, we headed down to the field to see what was ready to be gathered.
Our focus ended up on Spinach. Right time, right size, right taste. All told we harvested about 160 lbs. That's quite a bit of spinach.
Lucky for us, our Friday volunteers (Nancy, Johanna and Judy) showed up mid-morning to help make quick work of Radishes, Turnips and Tatsoi. I got to "mow down" some Red Mustard Greens myself. Note to self: Mustard Greens = Amazing

The sun stared down at us rather fiercly, which made our break that much more enjoyable/necessary (I like these pics):

-----continued------

We ended our "workday" around 2pm, but as you may have guessed by now, the work usually continues.

I was eager to do the final soil prep on our 3 Sisters field so we could get the corn in the ground. "Knee high by the 4th of July," you know...
The chisel plow was up first, but yielded a none-too-spectacular result.
The previously plowed/rototilled sod seemed to be too compacted/dry. I made an attempt in 4 wheel drive, but didn't want to take the chance of breaking a tyne on the plow. So, I set the plow to a comfortable depth and made my way through.
Afterward I de-rocked the field (1 front-loader bucket full) and rototilled a final time.

Huzzah!!

By this time E had joined me and began gathering seedlings, compost, tools, etc. as we didn't feel like waiting to plant. In the meantime, I dove head first into the creation of the path that will run through the field.
I wanted 2 things out of the path:
1. No angles.
2. When the corn is high enough you shouldn't be able to see out either entrance when standing in the middle.

So, this is what I came up with.

Closer look (with soil tamped in prep for wood chips)

I am happy with the results and can't wait to get the woodchips down.

E and I then planted a few dozen Hopi Blue Corn seedlings at 3' intervals. We dug a hole for each about 8" deep and mixed a little compost in at the bottom. Placed the seedling and brought dirt back around.

Closed up and satisfied with day/week, I hit my bed for some much needed rest... Saturday would be the first "Saturday member pick-up" at the farm. Nice.

-Saturday-

The day started @ 7 as the first members would arrive @ 8.
Not a whole lotta prep as we had taken care of most the previous day.
Weigh produce to see what we have and how much each member can take.
Set up wonderfully fresh greens/roots on stands, write up our share signs and let the chips fall...

I had quite a good time meeting/talking to several of the members. Thanks again for being an active part of sustainable agriculture. We appreciate it.

All was put away by 11:30 and I made a mad dash to the train station for a whirlwind 24 hour trip to the city.

-Wonderful time...-

Arrived back at the farm around 11pm Sunday night and went directly to bed. zzzzzzzz.

----Monday----
Morning.
This on April 3rd...

This yesterday...

(....yeah....)

D & I spent the morning harvesting in W1 (so much time in W1...) while E rototilled A, B and F in prep for this/next week's planting of winter squash and melons.
Harvesting was rather frustrating. I could not, for the life of me, get into a rhythm that seemed to carry me fast enough. Fumbling hands for some reason.

Actually took this pic before harvesting. Funny, that.

We made our way through Lettuce Mix (cleared our 1st half bed. kinda sad),

Swiss Chard (beautiful colors. really. cartoonish) and Red Russian Kale.

Right before lunch we direct seeded summer squash and cucumbers in B 2 & 3.
4" & 6" spacing to be thinned to 1'.

The afternoon had us laying drip tape for both beds. Was feeling a bit better by this point as the sun worked its magic on my mood...

Spent the last hour of work (plus 2.5 more) mowing/weedwacking to beautify for Tuesday's member pick-up. Also, pounded soil in the path through the 3 Sisters field.

Closed up greenhouse n chickens and called it...

----Tuesday----

Early morning. Straight to the field. Harvesting.

Spinach, Arugula, Turnips (enjoy washing these guys), Mustard Green (btw, 1.5 cups of these greens by themselves has your entire daily dose of Vitamins A & C), Golden Frill (spicy n good), Tatsoi, Broccoli Raab (just a lil bit).

Regulators, mount up...

Back to the barn for distribution prep. The shares for our remote drop-offs were up first.

Thanks to Johanna and Pam for their help.

Well-oiled machine...

Before lunch I jumped on the New Holland and leveled some rye in B through E that was starting to go to seed. Once again... I enjoy mowing.
After an extended lunch we packed up the van and E took off for the city. I helped D at his house for a spell and came back to ready for the Tuesday pick up.

Hmmm. Pics might be good now.

Another chance to meet more members. Good stuff. Packed up by 6:30. Day was done.

Ironically, my free evening has been spent playing "catch-up" here.

Happy that I seem to have remembered it all...

By the way, we have 9 more chicks!! More on them tomorrow.

Until then, sleep.

D.I.G.

and then...

2008-05-29T15:05:00.000-07:00

there are days when a single task/movement is repeated (out of necessity) over and over.
And then, the day is over.

Today it was plugging transplants into the ground of field Y (and lower Solar) by hand.

Lettuce
Swiss Chard
Parsley
Fennel
Leeks
Scallions
Tomatoes

Before any of this could happen we:

1. Moved irrigation from W1, W2 and E to Y.
(Y field is 400' long.
Twice the number of pipes needed.
13 - 30' pieces in all.)

2. Rototilled the beds to be used. (E did so)

3. Marked the beds with the Cub. 1' sq. grid.

4. Watered all flats to be transplanted and loaded them in the van.

5. Punched 128cell flats on punch board for ease of removal.

Then we planted. And planted...

Enjoyable conversation.
Bad impressions.
Made up lyrics.
Meditative spans.
Fugue states.
-
Lunch came (and went) quickly.
-
We tried using the mechanical transplanter for leeks in the afternoon, but it was just NOT agreeing with us. We were unclogging it every 10 feet.

Hands were/are faster...

So, with scallions done, it was off to lower Solar field to plant the rest of our tomatoes (and run drip tape). Aside from our stock varieties that we planted, E has been experimenting with about 20 different varieties she chose. They, unfortunately, have not been faring well in their flats, but we still planted them. However, to give them a little "boost" we watered them in with fish emulsion.
Now, I like all the "smells" of the farm. Some that others might even find offensive... But, really, the smell of fish emulsion is truly a fist to the chest.
Nothing one can do but put some gloves on, shoulder down and get those tomatoes in the ground as fast as humanly possible. FOR REAL!

Seriously, I hope they outgrow their "fish-less" neighbors. Make it all worthwhile...

The evening was taken with rototilling our Three Sisters field (many cool plans, btw. Will write more soon), shutting up the greenhouse and cleaning my own quarters (amazing how messy/dusty it can get).

Tomorrow we start work @ 5:30 due to the large amount of greens harvesting that needs done for Saturday. Keepin it cool...

Watch out 4:30 am. Here I come!

Dig.

moving water... and thoughts

2008-05-28T17:45:00.000-07:00

Today saw a lot of motion.

My hands.
My legs.
My mind.
My eyes.
My problem solving skills...

We laid drip tape all day (in the Solar fields, the flower bed and the garlic beds). The first time I had ever done so.

Joints
Lengths
Pivot points
Clamps
Headers
Valves (Solenoid, Manual plastic)
Kinks
Holes
Scissors
Connectors
Posts
Goof plugs (lg & sm)
Blowtorch
Hole punch
Pliers
Screwdriver.....

As it was a long day in the sun, I am giving in to rest. Posting pics now. Perhaps a few captions as well.

Thorough cultivation before...

200' lengths from last season

Pivot tapes 1 at time around posts, up rows

It's aliiiive

y mas

1st tomato of 2008

F fence booboo fix

Three Sisters - Hopi Blue Corn.. exciting...

Good stuff!

To catch up on some sleep now...

Dig

CSA

2008-05-27T18:12:00.000-07:00

I woke feeling a bit drained as I did not get enough sleep due to late blogging.
No worries. Fresh hot coffee is never more than a 5 minute wait. Pour. Fill. Push button (twice). Wait...
Automatic awake.

Ready for the first distribution of 2008!

Oatmeal was the breakfast. Greenhouse was the first destination.
I was happy to see that our 6 flats of fennel were standing again. Yesterday I set the dill out to harden off. It was windy. Fennel is not so sturdy due to its broad top and comparatively narrow base, so the wind had it all laying down by the end of the day. By midday today, it was back to its healthy vertical self.
Note to self: Watermelon leaves are about the diameter of a baseball; Corn is just showing sprouts; It took only 3 full days for tomatoes in 20 rows to sprout; Lettuce is ready to be transplanted again.

From the greenhouse we motored straight to W1 to harvest for today's distributions.
Radishes
Turnips
Mustard Greens

Some pics, perhaps?

Satisfied with our take we laid out irrigation (as it was already hot and aiming to get that much hotter) and headed for the barn to prepare the shares for the drop off location.

Every member received:

3/4 lb Arugula
1/2 lb Spinach
3/4 lb Salad Mix
1/4 lb Tatsoi
1 Head Lettuce
1 Bunch Radishes

Putting it all together.

All together now

After it was all prepped and loaded in the van,

(aaaand after a long-ish lunch) we headed toward the city for our drop-off.

Parkway. Pretty. Hazy.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures from the drop-off as I forgot my camera in the van during the visit. Suffice to say that the grounds on which the pick-up occurs are stunning. The mighty Hudson rolling by... The old stone buildings, grandiose and quiet... Rooms with views.
(Thanks to the director for the research information she gave me. Very thoughtful.)

On the way back upstate we encountered quite a deluge. 2-3 miles of blanket rains. 3-4 inch pooling on the roadway. Traffic slowed. As quickly as it happened, though, it was done.

We made it back to the farm just as the last "Tuesday" member was picking up their share.

The set up.

A brief clean up was followed by my usual trip to the greenhouse for closing.

Pats on the back all around for our first distribution day! Maaaany more to come. I hope all are enjoying some wonderfully tasty greens, radishes and turnips tonight/tomorrow. As I alluded to last night: The connection one feels to the community, through CSA, is something truly special/unique. It stands only to grow...

dig

hit the brakes

2008-05-26T15:42:00.000-07:00

Are we really harvesting already? For the first distribution??
Is my weekend already over?
Have I not posted since Thursday night?

Well... crazy, but, yes. Indeed, time seems to be moving at a much faster clip than it was in early April. I do, however, feel as though we're hitting a stride. The day-to-day groove feels rather second nature now. Sure we are just now starting distributions which will take some time to understand/execute well, (and there are many forthcoming parts of the season with their own intricacies) but, if I'm not mistaken, I think I'm really beginning to internalize this experience.

My partner/girlfriend (visited this weekend) and I were trying to remember what we did over Memorial Day weekend last year. To recall, I had to dig through old emails. Turns out I was working all weekend and saw a friend's band play a small club in the city. What I was NOT doing was imagining that in exactly one year I would be here... farming... loving everything about it (the process; the connectedness; the community; the empowerment; on and on) and looking forward to next season... when, hopefully, it will be our farm that I'm experiencing. Life happens sometimes...

(I kinda want to leave the post at that, but I've got sooo many pics and particulars to share, so, onward)

Friday was just about as picture perfect as it gets for a spring day.
D was taking a well-deserved long breakfast (as it was his birthday), so E and I hopped to it and dug right in. I began by fixing my diagonal tension wire booboo on the F field fence. I'll have to get a picture of my solution as I was happy with how it turned out. Fence is as good as new.

What to do for the rest of the morning?? Weeding. Lots of weeding. The garlic beds & W1 were looking pretty hairy in a few places. With the help of our (many) volunteers, Severine, Nancy, Johanna, Katherine, Daniel & John, we made quick work of the garlic, lettuce, kale, bokchoi, mas y mas...

Some real breathtaking sights that day

Helping hands

Wow! Love this picture!

Lunch was a GINORMOUS salad of fresh greens, seeds, nuts, raisins, oil, lemon and pepper. Man oh man.

The latter half of Friday we spent "beautifying" an already beautiful farm. Believe it or not, it looked even better afterward. I weedwacked the entirety of the fence line around the main area of the farm, put tools away and headed toward the weekend.

H (girlfriend) and I spent all of Saturday working on the car. Mostly interior work. She directed (read: did most of the work).

Amazing. From this...

To this.

Serious voodoo on that one.

Bad news is that it still does not run. But now I know why. NO TIMING BELT. Go figure. Also, a length of chewed up extension cord (from a diy repair job gone wrong) stuck in the crankshaft gear. Anyway, very difficult to get the crankshaft, camshaft and fuel injector pump turning when there is nothing there to turn them. The installation of a timing belt (while certainly possible) requires the removal and replacement of way too many parts (cylinder head/gasket, fuel injection lines, alternator among them) to list and too much time to do so. Therefore, I have made the decision to pursue professional repair help. I am still rather determined to get this guy running as Jetta diesels are great cars.

Sunday was relaxed and had us weeding lettuce and spinach in W1 in prep for today's harvesting. Which leads me to today.

H stuck around for the morning's harvest. Good stuff.
First thing was to remove the reemay. That fabric is much heavier when saturated with dew. E can attest. Definitely a 3-person job.

With pro guidance from D, we sliced our way through a couple beds of lettuce (100 heads of salad mix alone) and spinach. Yes, I snuck a few bites. Wait.. Yeah, ok, I did. Too good.

E harvests

The Harvester

All greens were weighed and stored in the cooler for distribution. Don't remember exact weights, but we did quite well.

After regrouping we continued our lawn care project. I hopped on the riding mower and H manned the weedwacker (E finished her first member newsletter article). About 45 minutes later H took off. I finished mowing. E finished weedwacking and the day wrapped up early as D gave us some Memorial Day time off. Thanks!

I'm excited to head down to the city tomorrow for this season's first remote pick-up for members. I get to meet those who will be enjoying all the food we've helped grow. Hope they like it as much as I do...

Dig.