All is busy, busy here, but everything here is going really well. I have an extraordinary farmer's tan and much more knowledge about growing food than I did three months ago.
We harvest food three days a week, the more of distributions, so when folks get their food its as fresh as possible. Harvesting usually takes the whole morning and we spend the rest of the day tending to the fields: a lot of weeding, transplanting and maintenance of the projects we did in the spring.
I have spent the weekend on the farm and had some time today for my first food preservation activities. Our stipend may be small, but we have access to an abundance of food, so it is my plan to save some for the winter. Today I blanched some greens for freezing and pickled radish. Mmmm......
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
going and going
I am hotter, dirtier, smellier and more tired than I have been for this entire adventure thus far. We have been pushing this past couple of weeks to get as much as we can done before we start harvesting food. Because once we start harvesting, there won't be as much time to get plants in the ground, weed, hoe, fertilize and water...
This week's focus has been on tomatoes (and not getting heat rash in weird places)...we have planted at least 500. For each plant we dig a hole (shovel-deep), plant, then cover with straw mulch (it keeps the heat and water in and weeds out. that and tomatoes are susceptible to soil-born funk and the mulch protects them from that), add stakes in the ground and then trellis them.
We seeded all the winter squash and pumpkins today...and are busy trying to keep weeds out of everywhere. Our first distribution is next week! I am quite ready to begin feeding people and seeing results from all of our work...
This week's focus has been on tomatoes (and not getting heat rash in weird places)...we have planted at least 500. For each plant we dig a hole (shovel-deep), plant, then cover with straw mulch (it keeps the heat and water in and weeds out. that and tomatoes are susceptible to soil-born funk and the mulch protects them from that), add stakes in the ground and then trellis them.
We seeded all the winter squash and pumpkins today...and are busy trying to keep weeds out of everywhere. Our first distribution is next week! I am quite ready to begin feeding people and seeing results from all of our work...
Monday, May 26, 2008
much better
there are new pictures of the farmers on the website....much more attractive and less wintery:
http://www.wolfpinefarm.com/farmers.html
http://www.wolfpinefarm.com/farmers.html
guess
so, in an attempt to engage my readers (and to see if there are any readers), I present you with an opportunity to win internet prestige and possibly a fabulous prize (it might depend on if the winner lives nearby...) to the first person to correctly answer the following question:
What is the first trouble-shooting method used by myself and other wolf pine farmers when an implement will not come off (or go on) to the tractor?
(Our tractor has a three-point hitch and all the different tools we have to till the soil have to be put on the tractor to be used...you are welcome to do research...)
You can answer in the comment section....
What is the first trouble-shooting method used by myself and other wolf pine farmers when an implement will not come off (or go on) to the tractor?
(Our tractor has a three-point hitch and all the different tools we have to till the soil have to be put on the tractor to be used...you are welcome to do research...)
You can answer in the comment section....
resting
Memorial Day is a farm holiday (one of two for the season), so I have the day off and my body is pleased about that. The weeks of bending over to transplant have finally taken a toll on my back and my chest. The work no longer wears me out, we have fewer and fewer meals at the cabin full of exhaustion and just staring at one another, but I am aware that I need to be taking care of my aches more.
This week tomatoes went into the ground...they are also planted on black plastic. Next week will be potatoes, so we spent a couple of quiet afternoons cutting seed potatoes into pieces the size of 'a hen's egg' so they would be ready to be planted. I also had asparagus fresh out of the garden for the first time in my life. It was amazing, amazing and entirely worth the effort it takes to grow asparagus. It was a glimpse into the fresh, delicious food to come.
This week tomatoes went into the ground...they are also planted on black plastic. Next week will be potatoes, so we spent a couple of quiet afternoons cutting seed potatoes into pieces the size of 'a hen's egg' so they would be ready to be planted. I also had asparagus fresh out of the garden for the first time in my life. It was amazing, amazing and entirely worth the effort it takes to grow asparagus. It was a glimpse into the fresh, delicious food to come.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Sunday, May 18, 2008
what a cucumber is worth
I worked my first Saturday yesterday, Saturdays will always be half days, making the idea of working on the weekend significantly more bearable. We spend the whole morning on one project: cukes and zukes.
And as it turns out, a lot of work goes into growing any organic food, but your cucumbers and squash are especially spoiled. The tractor pulls an implement which lays down a bed of black plastic. So, picture a whole 180 foot bed with a path of any black plastic bag. Then we poke a hole in the plastic every 18 inches, and plant the cuke or zuke inside the whole. After being transplanted, all the beds have wire hoops placed over the beds every 5 feet or so and then we cover the beds with floating row cover (remay, as its called).
The black plastic is to keep the soil warm and the weeds out. Since plants in the cucurbit family don't grow straight up, but wander and spread out on the ground, they are much harder to weed by hand or with tractor implements. The remay and hoops are there to protect the young plant from the cucumber beetle (beasts that would be fought with pesticides on a conventional farm). The cucumber beetles eat the plants (no good) and sometimes infect the plants with a funky bacteria (also no good). So the remay stays on until the plants flowers, and then the remay comes off so the plant can be pollinated by insects (yay bees!)
And as it turns out, a lot of work goes into growing any organic food, but your cucumbers and squash are especially spoiled. The tractor pulls an implement which lays down a bed of black plastic. So, picture a whole 180 foot bed with a path of any black plastic bag. Then we poke a hole in the plastic every 18 inches, and plant the cuke or zuke inside the whole. After being transplanted, all the beds have wire hoops placed over the beds every 5 feet or so and then we cover the beds with floating row cover (remay, as its called).
The black plastic is to keep the soil warm and the weeds out. Since plants in the cucurbit family don't grow straight up, but wander and spread out on the ground, they are much harder to weed by hand or with tractor implements. The remay and hoops are there to protect the young plant from the cucumber beetle (beasts that would be fought with pesticides on a conventional farm). The cucumber beetles eat the plants (no good) and sometimes infect the plants with a funky bacteria (also no good). So the remay stays on until the plants flowers, and then the remay comes off so the plant can be pollinated by insects (yay bees!)
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