Tue, May 20, 2008 · Filed under Fieldwork, People, Spring, Veggies
Especially compared to yesterday, today’s mainly sunny, quite warm weather added up to a glorious day in the field. Lynn, Raechelle and Shannon were all on hand, plus the inadvertent pet chicken, Colonel Saunders (I guess there’s no going back to the flock for him now, he’s been separated for a few days and probably wouldn’t be welcome, but, uh, he will be eaten…). It’s so absolutely fun to do even the most potentially tedious tasks (like hand-weeding between tiny green onion seedlings—done!) in a group with such a happy vibe. Besides a good amount of weeding, and putting ALL the chickens outdoors for the first time (those White Rocks don’t seem to want to do anything chicken-normal on their own, except eat), we transplanted the first 100 tomatoes. These were the deluxe early starts (Juliet, Striped German, Big Beef, Stupice), and they got the best transplant treatment ever: a deep, dug hole with a generous amount of compost, burying to the topmost leaves, a thorough watering in, mulching with the oat straw, and then, floating row cover over top for the coming few cold nights—it’s hard to imagine this is a…commercial operation, especially when you’re selling toms for only $1.50-2/lb. :) We mulched directly around the plants with straw, I’ll fill out the rows with grass mulch as soon as there’s enough. On the marker stake, there’s the variety, seedlng start date, and today’s transplanting date. At the other end of the row, Raechelle and Lynn mulch (Shannon seems to mysteriously avoid the occasional snapshots most of the time…). With all of the recent cold, we’re definitely at least a week behind the last couple of years in transplanting and in growth, but with a few hot, sunny days to complement the decent amount of rain we’ve been getting (not usual in recent years at this point), we might even catch up… Anyhow, a fine day!
Permalink
Tue, May 13, 2008 · Filed under People, Spring, Veggies
What a funny thing: an instant photo shoot in the field! A few days ago, I (reluctantly) did an interesting-people-in-the-community interview/profile for one of the local newspapers, and early today, I got an email asking for a photo, or the columnist could come out and snap one. They were on a same-day deadline. I said I’d send something along in a couple of hours. Shannon (who’s here every day till June) was working with Raechelle, here on her day-a-week, so I asked them to come up with the photo concept, location, and do the, uh, art/set direction—anything but a typical, kinda impersonal shot of a guy with a field in the background. Karen (Bob’s partner) had dropped by in a wheelchair, her first time at the farm in weeks since breaking her leg. She takes nice pics, so I asked her if she’d do the shoot, and wheeled her into the field with my camera. The concept was: S and R would pretend to mulch the garlic (the mulching’s done, but it’s the only really visible crop in the field), and I’d be around, holding a…well, digging fork (closest thing to a pitchfork, I guess). Anyhow, Karen snapped away, and for an alternate they came up with feet in the air. We emailed both, with a tighter cropping on the top one so it’s about square, with the left chopped out. I found it quite hilarious, because in a past life, I’ve attended and organized “real,” sometimes ridiculously expensive, studio and location photo shoots, with creative meetings, stylists, props, shooting permits and cops detouring traffic, the whole bit. Recreating all the basic parts in an hour or so, in the field, with whoever was around, was great! Devolution on the tiny farm… :) I wonder which one they’ll pick… (Guest photos by Karen.)
Permalink
Mon, May 05, 2008 · Filed under Fieldwork, People, Spring, Veggies
A satisfying planting day: all of the onion sets (around 2,500) and 300 lbs (136kg) 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. In this batch, all varieties were about chicken egg-sized, so, no need to cut ‘em into pieces. 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, and potatoes are around the usual timing. 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 lots of room to improve?! :)
Permalink
