The downfalls of cooperative farming (alt. title: "Where's are the damned tools?"

Now, please no one take offense to this blog entry. I'm not pointing fingers, because if I did, a few would be pointed at myself. But, alas, this has been my major (and maybe others') frustration this summer. My day started off like this:

Foggy, humid and sluggish- both out in the field and a little in my brain too. I started off with some wheel hoeing to clear the mind and the field. I only did one row, but it was a very bad row surrounding the rainbow chard. I think we might get a harvest out of it now that they have a chance... just maybe if the weather can hold out a little bit longer.

Then I fed Aspen and cleaned out her stall.

Then I went to the Yippee book to get things together for the Co-op order, but...hmmm.... no scale. I looked in the greenhouse, in the house and in the shed. Then I looked again. Unfortunately, I may not have looked where it is suppose to be because, some tools (especially newer ones) don't have a home quite yet. It may be with Harvest Fest stuff. Or maybe hiding in Linda's house. I was ready to give up and call the co-op saying we wouldn't be able to deliver today, but then Alex showed up and saved the day (or atleast the co-op order). He showed me what sizes to make the bunches (one great skill he has learned working produce for years). He then left in a flurry to run a bunch of other errands.

So I went to the field ready to harvest... but where were the harvest knives (and the herb scissors)? I found sheaths, but not knives. I decided to use a pruners for the parsley and for the kale I just tore off stems (hope the co-op doesn't mind the jagged ends). Unfortunately I caught the drip tape in one place with the pruners. I should turn on the water to test the drip tape and should fill up the sinks to soak the veggies... but where was the hose to fill the sink? And wait, is the irrigation isn't even hooked up to the greenhouse and I can't find the several hundred feet long chunk of hose to connect it too.... You get the idea.

After all was said and done (as always) it was a good day. The co-op got their deliver around 6pm (minus the spearmint- due to the lack of water it was in a pretty sad state). Leah came out to collect for the farmer's market tomorrow- it was really nice to have someone out in the field. It gets lonely out there sometimes, (Linda was gone yesterday, along with Eddie and I think Jim too). The clouds lifted and the sun came out and Serena looked happy to be out amongst the veggies again and so was I.

Weeds? What Weeds?

Today was a pleasantly uneventful day of weeding and some "yard work" around the field. After a fine cup of coffee - no milk,  and a bit of the 'ol chit chat with Linda - I headed out on the bike to the field to start weeding.  A short walk up and down the rows reveal a lot of excellent looking vegetables ready to go including some of the smaller tomatoes.  To aid in showing off the beauty of our crops I took to the field with stirrup hoe in hand and began the art of close weeding.  

Later on in the day, I helped Linda do some trimmng around the fence - a simple but important task, because Linda emphasized that the willows growing along the fence "can make our quackgrass look like Mother Teresa!"(Mother Teresa = a Roman Catholic nun who is famed for ministering to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying and founding the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India.)  With that said, I grabbed the loppers (loppers = a general gardening/landscaping tool used to trim and prune rather thick branches) and cut weeds like the world depended on it.  

Other jaberwacky (jaberwacky = see flapdoodle) and flapdoodle (flapdoodle = see jaberwacky); with produce looking as delicious as ours we have a good chance of doing well at the Bayfront Harvest Festival this weekend.  I plan on attending and joining other local farmers in  sell-ebrating our harvests.  Good food, music, and people; should be fun!

Carrots!

Hello Farmies,

Good news on the Tour de Farm. Linda and I spoke with the organizer of Tour de Farm and he was full of answers. Yes, they will pay for everything, (tent, tables, insurance, ect.) Yes they will bring volunteers (up to 12 from the cities, who will likely camp overnight sunday at the farm). Yes they will pay for the produce. Overall, I think there is absolutely no reason to stress. Just focus and farm beautification, which does include the immense weeding challenge we have ahead, yikes they were big today.

Other good news is that we had a delivery to the co-op and New Scenic Cafe toda

y. Carrots were on the list! They look great.

Galynn was wondering about how to harvest carrots today. I took a few pictures to help explain. Basically, you just use the "digging fork" to loosen the soil by the carrots and then pull the carrots by hand. I recommend taking the greens off right away (unless they are to be used for green top carrots of course). The reason for this is that the greens take away from the carrots nutrients. So the longer they stay on, the more they deteriorate the carrot.

Wednesday's Activities

Hello Again Farm-Landers,

Yesterday was a successful day at the market. I think we were helped out quite a bit by the UMD Stores Sidewalk Sale. Maybe this is something to remember for the future. We sold out of peas right away, sold out of broccoli and sold most of our kale. It'll be nice to bring more and more variety to the market in the coming weeks.

At the Farm, I finished planting the row of late brassicas. I filled in the spaces where things had bit the dust, and extended the row some. There are two packets of lettuce seeds in the greenhouse. These can be planted at the end of the brassica row, if anyone feels inspired. Linda and I had talked about how we didn't have any lettuce to provide to the farmies. Linda thinks there is still time. I hope to get to fixing up the pumpkin row soon! Attached is a picture from a few weeks ago at the market. We need some more pictures to make this thing interesting!

Weeds and More Weeds

Hello

Mr. Jeremy Beckman accompanied me out to the farm yesterday. We worked on weeding along the front of the rows (mostly Jeremy's doing). If I had a gold star to give out, Jeremy would get it. Also did some watering and farm chores. Tomorrow I am planning on weeding around the pumpkins, straightening the rows, and willing them to grow fast! I'll be doing the same with the Three Sisters plots.

As for the Farm Dinner coming up, Linda and I talked some more about what needs doing. I am working with the Scenic Cafe people to arrange a car pool option for the dinner attendees. We'll see how that goes. See you at the meeting on Wednesday!

Brian

Weeding, weeding... and weeding

That pretty much sums up my day. It was very wet outside (but it didn't rain while I was in the field). The weeding tools were not working well because it was sooo wet (the clay just clumped at the end of the tools and the hoes just stripped the weeds instead of cutting them off at soil level). So, I used my hands. They were stained slightly green by the end of the day, but the parsley rows look much better (the lambsquarters (a "weed") were past my knees). Hmmmm... rain is forcasted for this coming Tuesday. That would make it the third rainy Tuesday in a row. I have mixed feelings about that.

I think whatever munched up all the red cabbage came back and munched most our replacements (even though they weren't red cabbage). Some critter seems to like to eat at the same spot. At least it doesn't touch the other plants, such as our fabulous looking kale. Also, there's one random head of broccoli amongst some other brassicas (on the west side of the peas). It's about to flower, so some one should pick it and eat it quick!

To the Market We Go!

So today Leah and Brian and I manned the market, which started off rocky when it started pouring! However, we moved inside, made our table as cheerful-looking as possible, and proceeded to do quite well!

The peas sold like candy, the scapes and kale did well, and we sold almost all of Sarah's bags!!! In ONE afternoon!! Woo-hoo!

I'll try to get some pictures up here!