Jo pounds in wooden stakes for a somewhat catch-up version of tomato staking. I think of it as the Modified Sprawl. There are about 600 plants, with maybe 250 in home-style tomato cages. The rest are so far on their … Read the rest
Fridays put this tiny farming system to the test, if we don’t get everything done for market and CSA shares, things would simply…CRUMBLE!!! Rain or shine, Friday is the main day for bringing in the weekly harvest, when we have … Read the rest
The one dark secret of this organic field, something you couldn’t really tell from selected photos, is the prevalence of pigweed (amaranth, mostly or all Amaranthus retroflexus if I’m ID-ing correctly). About two-thirds of the garden seems to be completely … Read the rest
Somehow, bicycles figure quite prominently in this season of people in the field. Everyone comes in one or two days a week each, mostly from the town 12 miles (19km) away. Andrea and Jo both usually bike in and get … Read the rest
Setting up a stand at the local farmers’ market reminds me of a traveling circus, at least, the way I imagine one to be. Everything has to be compact, easily packed away in a limited space (in our case, a … Read the rest
Since the start, the idea of a daily full garden inspection—”doing the rounds”—seemed to make sense. It sounds easy enough, but somehow, it doesn’t get fully done all that often, there’s almost always something that seems absolutely pressing to do … Read the rest
Andrea and Conall harvest Cioggia beet greens in the hot mid-afternoon sun. In tiny farming, it seems that every action has several different effects and offsets, some good, some not so, and a balance, hopefully leaning to the positive side, … Read the rest