Tiny Farm Blog Organic micro-farming with two acres and some tools ~ a daily photo journal...

The chickens are blowing up! At least, the White Rock Cornish X super-converting chickens are, turning feed into meat at a startling rate. The 10 or so Frey’s Special Dual Purpose are sleek and speedy, and all their feathers are in, but I guess that’s not what a truly modern meat bird is supposed to be like. Most of the White Rocks are double the size of the Frey’s. When I think of the chickens these last few days, it’s a vision of pink, partially-feathered butts in the air, circled round the feed… Oh well, we’ll see what happens when we get them outside and cut back a bit on FOOD…

Meanwhile, despite entirely different sizes, speeds and eating habits, they’re still all getting along. My first chicken adventure continues…

The days have warmed up now, mostly around 60-70°F (15-20°C), but the nights are unusually cold, dropping sometimes to freezing or a few degrees above. Frost burning off in the early morning sun is pretty when you don’t have anything in the field for it to kill, which I don’t… Let’s see: broccoli, cauliflower, radish, carrots, spinach, chard, beets, peas, parsnips, all-lettuce mesclun, tatsoi-mustard-arugula-bok choi mix… Nope, no worries there. (Funny thing, while pea plants are hardy, I believe the pods aren’t… I’ve never seen that in action, fall peas haven’t worked for me so far, and I don’t think there’ll be frost 40 days from now when this year’s first peas come in…). Meanwhile in the unheated greenhouse, although I’ve only fired up the kerosene heater once, just to be safe, row cover goes on all the tender stuff (toms, eggplant, peppers, and now, cukes, pumpkin, melons and squash, just about to poke up): on in the evening, off in the morning, better safe than toasted!

A satisfying planting day: all of the onion sets (around 2,500) and 300 lbs (136kb) of potatoes are in. For the onions, Raechelle (first day in the field), Lynn, Jamie (a new CSA member), Shannon (here for a month), and I made quick work of the onions: Stuttgarter yellow cooking and yellow Spanish. It’s amazing how much fun people working together in a garden can be, there’s a positive, happy, energy that I think comes from sharing time in the dirt (maybe that’s just the tiny farming romantic in me, but I think not… :). Plus, potentially tedious tasks are done in no time! For an encore, Shannon and I polished off the potatoes, finishing just as the sun set and another chilly evening set in. This year, I used the furrower attachment on the Horse walking rototiller to plow what turned out to be excellent trenches, in ground that had been tilled up about a week ago. Varieties are Yukon Gold, Chieftan (red), and Kennebec. This time around, all varieties were about chicken egg-sized, so, no cutting into pieces required. In-row spacing is 12″ (30cm), between row is 24″ (60cm), with a bit wider path every two rows. We covered them by hand-raking. In all, 40 x 50′ (15m) rows, which is about 2000 plants. Every year, I’ve tried a different potato approach—last year, I made much shallower trenches with a hoe: as far as set-up, this time around was the best yet. The onions are in a bit later than usual, I’ve had them done as early as mid-April, but no worries, potatoes are around the usual timing. For a market garden, I grow a relatively small quantity of both of these crops, they always sell out, and they feel like a good fit for CSA and farmers’ market from the middle of summer on, so having them at the absolutely earliest date isn’t that important at this stage. And what would tiny farming be without always lots of room to improve?! :)

Moved the first wave of tender seedlings—100 tomatoes, plus eggplant and sweet peppers—to the greenhouse yesterday, with zero (32°F) predicted for the overnight. There’s just no more waiting, with all of the light space in the Milkhouse…taken. It’s a long way from the ambitious barely-heated greenhouse plan of February, but there’s row cover, and the new KeroWorld heater is ready for action (it’s the white box in the middle)… That’s how some plans go when you’re dealing with the WEATHER. Elsewhere in the hoophouse, I’ve let the early lettuce and mesclun blend with volunteer lettuce and arugula from last year’s early stuff going to seed. It’s unruly, tasty, and growing fast. I don’t know how much of it will make it to the farmers’ market: since there’s too much to do around here, I’m not aiming to go extra early this year (yesterday was the first market day), but one way or another, the greenhouse greens will get eaten!

It’s a gray day today, as it’s been for most of the last few, but out in the field, it feels green. We’re at about 1.5″ (37cm) of rain in total, and the ground is nicely soaked (and a little too wet to work). The grass surrounding the garden is looking particularly inviting this year, since today’s lush green carpet is tomorrow’s GRASS MULCH. The temperature is up as well, and some sunshine is on the way (no doubt…). All in all, everything’s a little delayed, but looking pretty good!

With the cold snap about to break, the final potting up is fully underway, a few days later than last year, but no worries. Even with the new, fourth grow rack, things are tight, with four trays to a shelf instead of the ideal two—better to give ‘em all an equal ration of light for a couple of days until the first wave is out in the greenhouse, than leave some of them on unlit tables. At the same time, started the cucurbits: several varieties of cucumber and summer squash, with melons, winter squash and pumpkins soon to follow. The rain so far has been good, over an inch (25mm) in the last couple of days, and a bit more apparently to come. OK, cool. Then, bring on the heat!

Ah, it’s really raining now… Still chilly, but wet! The jumbo rain gauge, entering its third season, is definitely a winner when it comes to recording in millimeters how much rain actually came down, BUT, the puddle on the path outside the Milkhouse front door is really the first line of rainfall appreciation. It’s amazing how heavy a downpour can look, sound and FEEL, without delivering much water at all. But the puddle doesn’t lie. It takes about a half inch (12mm) of rain within a few hours for it to even show up, so once it’s there, you know it’s good times for growing… No numbers to process, just…RAIN!

Looks pretty good from here, the bottom end of the field is well-prepped and partially seeded, but the weather is COLD. As forecast, this time, the cold snap arrived Sunday, and we’re now treated to daytime temperatures around 5°C (40°F) or lower, and, after the incredibly warm last couple of weeks, what seem like FRIGID nights going down to -7°C (20°F). Seedlings are piling up in the Milkhouse, but I’m waiting until the cold breaks, which should be around Friday, to start moving things out to the greenhouse. On top of the usual everything-to-do-at-once of April-May, the late melt-off followed by instant mid-summer weather were a little disorienting, and germination of the early direct-seeded crops is SLOW, first hindered by the dryness, now, not helped at all by the sudden cold… Next, I still haven’t settled plans for help this season (people in the field!), which makes a BIG…psychological difference, head space, whatever, it’s harder to focus when you can’t even estimate what will get done each precious day. There’s quite a line-up of potential volunteers, and one person coming later in the week to check things out who may stay on for the season, but it’s all UP IN THE AIR until it’s happening. And these are the few weeks that largely set the quality of the entire season… So, the Almost Overwhelming days are in particularly fine form this year… Of course, take a deep breath, think about it, and really, what’s to worry: tiny farming is all about long odds and doing the improbable… That sounds kinda cool to me! :)

The first peas suddenly popped. A bit of welcome action in the field, amidst all the dryness and slow germination. These are Sugar Ann snap peas, edible pod. There’s 1000′, double rows, 3-4″ row spacing. They’re coming up well in stretches, but a lot haven’t yet appeared. Well, there should be some real rain tonight! On the right of the pic, a fine example of PIGWEED doing its stuff as well, keeping pace with the gardening effort all on its own. (Yes, lying on your stomach in the dirt is the easiest way to get the macro centered on these little guys!)