Row cover decision
After a chilly and only reasonably busy day at the farmers’ market, it was a bit of afternoon nap time, and then on to making the first frost decision—to cover or not to cover—of the fall season. I “consult” four … Read the rest
Tools
Equipment for large-scale agriculture is too big or too expensive, and many home gardening tools don’t work efficiently on larger jobs or break easily. Tiny farming on plots up to two or three acres requires its own special gear…
Screen table
The new screen table was this year’s big addition to the washing up section of our little post-harvest processing area. Building it earlier this year was quick work: some 2×6 and 1×2 lumber, screwed together, with 1/2″ hardware cloth sandwiched … Read the rest
Trying fall rye
With the oats experiment going good all around the field, it’s time for experimental green manure-cover crop #2, fall rye (starts and grows well in cool weather). Reading about cover crops online, I found one apparently popular method for seeding … Read the rest
A spot of tea…
Steeping compost in water is all it takes to come up with a healthy batch of…compost tea. Here we’ve taken some composted cow manure and let it sit in a 55-gallon barrel of water for a few days. There are … Read the rest
Early harvest day…
Harvest Fridays begin with empty bins. We have around 50 harvest containers right now, the white and the blue and the green trugs (heavy duty plastic baskets with handles). On any one Friday, some are washed and ready, others have … Read the rest
Pigweed piled high
A vast repository of uprooted pigweed is collecting by the wagon load in the southwest corner of the field. It’s crazy the amount of effort that’s been put into pigweed pulling this year, that in addition to hoeing and tilling … Read the rest
More from the Market
Today’s wares set up behind the stand at the farmers’ market. First thing in the morning (that’s around 7 am), we open and arrange all of the crates and use them to stock the stand and assemble CSA shares. Here, … Read the rest