Sat, Nov 22, 2008 · Filed under Autumn, Farm lab (research!), People, Winter
It’s taken a couple of days of this pretty intense cold snap for me to realize it’s yet another whimsical display of the crazy weather we’ve been having for the last six years or so. It’s not that overnight temperatures around -14°C (7°F) are unusual for southern Canada, just not in November. This time last year, there was a ton of snow, but without the unreasonable deep freeze. The winter before, I posted here in mid-January that “winter’s a no-show”—I was still digging carrots! Interesting… Inspired by the cold, I decided to see what it would do to chicken eggs and left a couple out overnight (there was a kinda practical purpose, it’s pretty cold in the chickenhouse). Of course, they froze as hard as hockey pucks. And cracked..
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Thu, Nov 20, 2008 · Filed under Autumn, Fieldwork, Harvest, People, Veggies
What’s a little snow when there’s crispy-sweet CARROTS buried under there? Lynn (the new Celebrity Farmer) and Raechelle headed up the field late this subzero afternoon, digging forks in hand, and scored sackfuls of Nelson and Napoli, no problem. It’s been well below zero (32°F) recent nights, and for the last couple of days as well, but the ground isn’t nearly frozen, and the layer of snow, fresh from overnight, actually acts as an insulator and helps soften it up. For now… The season’s not over until we SAY it’s over… :)
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Wed, Nov 05, 2008 · Filed under Autumn, Harvest, Local food, People, Veggies
We’re still digging potatoes! Ryan, Corrie and their youngest, Hannah, came out today to salvage some potatoes. There are still a few 50′ (15m) beds of Chieftan and Kennebec. With all the rainy summer and wet ground, a lot of the potatoes were coming up with rotten spots (I heard this from other growers at the farmers’ market as well). With lots of sorting needed, and quite low yield in some rows, I decided to harvest the post-season balance only as needed. I mowed down the whole potato plot and invited anyone who wanted to dig. It looks pretty scary, in this particular spot, grass and other weeds didn’t take long to start taking over, but in the bright sunlight, it seems a lot worse than it is (a bit of tilling and left to overwinter, and it’d be right as rain). To find the treasure, locate a couple of the dried potato stems—they’re short but easy to ID once you know what you’re looking for—then dig in a line! The haul of crisp, red skin-white flesh Chieftan potatoes was pretty good! The fall harvest continues…
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Fri, Oct 31, 2008 · Filed under Autumn, People, Veggies
Well, Friday harvest is over…what to do? A few onions and a little winter squash you’re set for ALL-TERRAIN ONION BOCCE. Libby used yellow cooking onions (Stuttgarter), Grant took a mild white (Superstar), I went red (Red Wing), four onions each. A stunted orange acorn squash (Table Gold) served as the target ball. Toss away!
The rules are simple: the player with the closest one or more onions to the squash scores a point apiece. The all-terrain part means the winner of a turn gets to toss the squash anywhere. We played up and down the gangway to the barn, through gravel, long grass, chicken hazards (roosters peck onions)… Good thing no-one got really competitive, ’cause onion bocce is pretty imprecise, what with eventually exploding onions (largest piece counts), and ragged edges that make down-to-the-millimeter measuring kinda futile. Still, we did get out the tape measure… Wholesome outdoor fun on the farm. With veggies. Must be a new age of innocence! :) (Guest measurement photo by Libby)
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Thu, Oct 23, 2008 · Filed under Autumn, Farm lab (research!), Harvest, People, Veggies
About the last thing anyone is likely ever to see first-hand is the amazing root structure of plants! I’ve been fascinated by the massive size and complexity of ROOTS since I first saw a sketch of a full root system, and way more so after browsing the wealth of technical drawings of garden veggie roots in the fantastic and fully-online Root Development of Vegetable Crops. Root systems can be VAST, but they’re incredibly difficult to actually see since the mostly fine filaments that tunnel everywhere simply break off when you dig up a plant. Today’s parsnip harvest yielded a couple of unusual, still very partial root specimens that only begin to illustrate what’s going on down there. Who knows how just a few managed to come up with so much intact… For parsnips, according to RDoVC, after a season’s growth, “at the 8-foot level roots were common and a maximum penetration of 9 feet was determined.” In the top 10″ (25cm) of the soil, lateral roots extended up to 3′ (90cm). Pretty cool, huh?! (Thanks to hand-and-arm model Lynn.)
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Mon, Oct 20, 2008 · Filed under Autumn, Fieldwork, People, Tools, Veggies
A bit of unusual activity in the field today, a mini-video interview! Raechelle and Lynn brought their friend David, who brought some video gear. The whole thing was casual, the video being mainly to record our impressions of tiny farming for a possible magazine article. Still, with the tripod and the boom mic, a certain “we’re on TV!” flavor hit the field for a couple of hours. We each did a sit-down interview (it was fun watching Lynn rustle up sound bites to describe the simple pleasures of…fieldwork), then David taped some atmosphere: digging carrots, chasing chickens,… And we had cake! Earlier this season, we had our own, self-styled, TFE version of a photo shoot for a newspaper article. Now, this! Are we becoming increasingly…media-friendly?! ;)
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