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!

Fruits of Labor

Let me start out by saying that it's tough to beat a timeless summer Sunday at Grassroots Cooperative Farm. The toil and trials of cooperative market-gardening intertwined with a sense of place create a weekly experience I value as much as the crops we grow.

A three person crew and a loaf of monkey bread helped to get some solid amount of work in at the farm today. Sarah tackled adding more twine to hold up the tomatoes on the trellis, Galynn weeded between crops to stave off quack-grass infestation, and I ran the roto-tiller between the rows for combination quack-grass control and soil breakage - the roto-tiller offered an advantage to wipe out weeds at one time. But now comes a responsibility to maintain quack-grass free rows without additional use of the roto-tiller, which can compromise the soil structure.

More crops are reaching maturity! Today we got to bring home some member shares of kale, garlic scapes, peas, and parsley - it all looks delicious.

"new" sink and first deliveries

Yesterday was a very rushed, but productive day. Paul and I picked up a concrete sink from Don's house and brought it to Grassroots where we cut a hole in the white harvesting table and dropped the sink in it with a smaller table to support it underneath. It maybe sounds easy but I can promise you it was not. The sink had to be approaching 400 lbs. However, it worked out ok and now we have a sink WITH a counter. Kinda like a kitchen on the field.

The first deliveries of parsley, kale, and spearmint to the co-op and garlic scapes and kale to the New Scenic Cafe' were soaked in the new sink and delivered that afternoon. I didn't really talk to anyone at the Scenic,(just put it in their cooler and left the invoice on a clipboard) but I did talk with the receiver at the co-op and he was very impressed with the produce. Good work everyone.

As for the rest of the week the tomatoes definitely need to be trellised again and weeding weeding weeding. The quackgrass is trying to overrun the farm again. Unfortunately, we may have to run the roto-tiller through again when it dries up a little. I say unfortunately because every time we use the tiller we break up our aggregate matter and that results in the hard-pan we are starting to see on the field. However, the quackgrass is rampant and must be dealt with. Jennifer, the lady that is loaning the tiller, suggested we roto-tilled first and than wheel hoed religiously afterwards to keep the weeds down.

Once again, good work everyone. The deliveries were beautiful and as Jahn the assistant manager of the co-op produce section commented, "I would pay cash money for that (kale)."

Have a great weekend and if there is time, try to spray out the gunk in that watering tank by the garage so we can start using it!

Beans, Brassicas, and beautification

A dry, sunny day on Sunday. Galynn thinned out and weeded half the bean crop. I got to planting some remaining brassica transplants into the field, mostly cauliflower. A couple flats are left and there is still room to plant them.

The Grassroots Cooperative Farm is preparing to host a special dinner event called Tour de Farm. Some "farm beautification" tasks are taking place. I helped Linda get fence along the road in order. Woodland Hills came by later and helped finish the landscaping around the greenhouse.

Frida and the return of Philip!

Today Frida (former co-op employee and master of thai yoga bodywork...if your soar she charges very little...) and Philip the swede came to the farm with Kate and I.

We finished trellising and mulching the tomatoes.  All the "suckers" were taken off the tomato plants to encourage vertical growth.  Suckers are the "branches that grow out of the armpit of bigger branches."  I would have taken a picture so all could see but the battery died.  In a future posting I will post a picture so all know to pluck these little guys off the tomato plants.  A proper pruning will help them grow large enough to support the giant heirloom fruits in the future.

Fixing the trellis proved more difficult than originally thought as we had to tamp some in with the maul and redo some others that were broken/too small/too skinny.  We went with the horizontal trellising as the looks of the vertical trellis looked in need of fixing.  It was very droopy.  The horizontal trellising went well and was done quickly as Kate and Frida learned how the process worked.  To fix the vertical trellis, we pounded metal fence posts on either end for reinforcement.  It seems that will help but keep an eye on all the tomatoes for signs of problems.

Philip is staying the night and likely going to be put to work on the garlic weeding and parsley weeding tomorrow morning.  

On a last note, next week will be our first big delivery week!  We should be able to sell parsley, mint, kale, garlic scapes and more to the Scenic Cafe, UMD Farmer's Market, and Whole Foods Co-op.  Maybe we'll have a production meeting before Wednesday to talk about all these deliveries?... 

Seemingly unproductive day ends on a productive note

I don't know if others have this problem, but every week when I go out to the farm I make a long (probably unrealistic) list of things to do. I never finish the list. Lately I've been making my list shorter and shorter so I'm not so disappointed. I don't know if it's because we're a cooperative and there's lots of people (tools in different places, not sure what to do or how to do it or if people will like the way you think you can do it etc). Don't get me wrong, I love going out to the farm and there's never a day I wish I didn't go out, but things seem to go a little slower than expected... maybe it's the nature of a farm.
Anyway, Tuesday began with a lot of hope and a not-so-long-but-long-enough list. But after I installed the last six rows of drip tape (yes, allllll the drip tape is in now. I forgot to test it though) things started to get a little crazy on the farm, Don Kinnunen was there with potatoes he wanted to plant and a water tank to fix. These people showed up with bobcats and other heavy equipment to move around wood chips, pea rock and brush. It was kind of a zoo and I decided to just accept that it was not going to be a very "productive" day (productivity measured by how many items I get to cross off my list).
After a long lunch and good conversation (with Kate, Alex and Don), I went back to work. Kate came out and went to work on thinning beets and carrots (another item on the list). I finished side dressing the tomatoes with compost. Yay! And Kate was a thinning machine and finished the beets (our first planting, which look very good, by the way) and had finished a good chunk of the carrots by the time I left (there may be a few rows of Mokum carrots left to thin). It turned out to be a great day!

Lessons Learned

Hey Gang,

I have been beaten by my enthusiasm, impatience and lack of planning. The Three Sisters plot is alive, but struggling. While watering today, I had some time to reflect. From my mistake, we can learn the importance of planning. I was going to set up drip tape in the area, but it would waste a lot of water in between the groupings of plants. By the way, there are beans and squash planted in that area too. I saw a few little plants coming up, and hopefully more will come with more water. So, here are some main points:

- plant in rows for easy watering and less wasted water

- plan before planting

- Don't let me get ahead of myself again, please

My watering solution is to attach a hose on the end of the main line at the end of the field. Water with both the hose and a bucket to get done a little faster. Any help watering that area would be appreciated. Also, pray for rain.

Thanks!

The Moon Hath Risen

Hey all,

Just adding a few pictures from out on the farm on July 5th with Paul... note the evil bugs on the cabbage pictures!

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Here are some pictures of the tomato trellises (or trellii? how would one pluralize that???) that we set up. We could keep doing them this way (they seem to be working well), or we could even mix up the trellis styles a bit (a few rows horizonal, a few vertical), and then evaluate them at the end of the year... thoughts?

Also I just wanted to say that Sarah made 4 super-kick-ass grocery bags and 4 adorable coupon-holders and we will be selling them at the Farmer's Market this Wednesday! Go Sarah!!!

Have a Farm-tastic Day!!!

Full Moon Risin'

The day after the 4th of July started out a tad slow, but ended well as the an almost-full moon reached its final height in the clear sky, helping us to find our way back from the field.

Tomato Trellis: Not complete. Eric "The Great" stopped by for a visit and helped with cutting trellis posts. Unfortunately, the saw petered-out halfway through the stack of lumber. All outlets in the garage work - the saw should be o.k. after cooling down. Their may have been too much stress on the motor caused by excess extension cord use - using too much extension cord can be hard on power tool motors. Also, excess pressure or stress from the cutting itself may have done it. Nevertheless, more wood to cut, more trellis to put in. On the bright side, Galynn and myself began tying up tomatoes to trellis already in place.

Later, Galynn weeded some stray quack-grass around the potatoes while I tried to finish the irrigation on the East side of the field. With jazz music softly playing from Galynn's portable radio, I cut and bent stakes out of metal wire, untangled drip tape, and eventually got a section of six lines in. Only one more section of six lines remains. The stakes seem to hold the tape well, but for extra security I would make them longer next time. As we left the field we turned the water on to give the potatoes, beans, and beets a drink.

The Roto-tiller is fixed!

At the farm thursday was Kate and Ruth, her med school classmate.  Mike Anderson also came to help me fix the clutch on the roto-tiller, a project long in the waiting.

Over the winter the roto tiller was stored with the clutch in.  Because of this, a thin layer of rust formed around the cone, essentially locking the clutch in gear permanently.  To fix it Mike and I had to take the engine off to remove the clutch.  After spraying lots of WD-40, we put the cone in a vice and squeezed it until the layer of rust of broken.  A very loud POP audibly signaled the clutch was fixed.  People who use the roto-tiller can now enjoy the luxury of stopping!

Also, we fixed the hitch on the cultivator so that we can rip up the south side of the field (next years garden patch).  The only problem is we need more to somehow put more weight on the cultivator so the shanks dig into the earth.  Mike and I (and later Ruth and kate) stood on it for the day, but something might have to be done for later to apply the weight.

In the meantime, Ruth and Kate were weeding machines.  They essentially finished the weeding for the rest of the field. Nice work!  Everything looks great now.

At the end of the day, we planted a row of pie pumpkins, one over from the other squash rows on the south side of the field.  We applied compost and laid mulch over the seeds and we were thinking the same should be done for our tomatoes.  Apparently, most of the diseases tomatoes can get are from the leaves touching the surface of the soil, so the mulch really helps prevent that.  Also, a little compost could go a long way in getting our tomatoes up to size.

We noticed that the east side of the field is going to need some work in the area of irrigation.  Maybe that could be done Sunday?  Also, good luck with the tomato trellising. 

hi, i'm Linda and this is my first blog.  i've been watering watering watering watering watering watering and more watering - in the greenhouse and the lathe house and Brian's pumpkins, all three!  i'm also trying to keep up with Alex and the other farmers.  kate is done with school now and will be at the farm alot more.   the brassicas' are doing well. the quackgrass is basically under control; theoretically, that is.  Paul and Gaylen, along with Sarah and Lucy are the Sunday crowd.  Leah and Serena are the wednesday gang.  Eddie is the crewleader on saturday.  he is pest control replacement for Peter Karsh (by the way peter, your squirrels are still nailed on a board in the garage!  Yesterday, monday, i moved the echinacea to the field.  a perennial field needs to be designated, but in the meantime...Melanie is the queen crewleader on tues - she tills, she plants, she weeds, she built the lathe house and she always makes a truly delicious lunch (with rice).  Lupita, single handedly, hosted the fundraiser at the thirsty pagan and, according to Adam, we raised $400-$500.  way to go Lupita!  Jim hall played at the fundraiser and raised a lot of fun with the new song he learned for the farm -  The Garden Song.  he continues to be very chatty and is also playing every tues. at the new club, Live.  we should support him!  Congratulations to all the farmies that make grassroots possible.  well, back to watering......................

Windy Day at the Farm

Hey Y'all!

I spent a couple hours at the farm this afternoon.  Planted some more pumpkins I had started at home, along with a couple plants from the Coop.  I also planted the rest of the corn from the greenhouse (all 3).  On Wednesday, I am planning on extending the drip tape to the pumpkins.  I'm also going to figure out how to set up drip tape in the Three Sisters plot, something I hadn't considered when making it a crazy shape.

On a side note, I bought an extra Rain Barrel at the sale last Saturday.  It can potentially be used at the farm!  I was thinking we could put a downspout on the tool shed and rig it up there, for a nice proximity to the field.  Thoughts?

Brian

Early Today I started out quietly attempting to finish the tomato trellis. Unfortunately, productivity caught a snag and I ran out of trellis poles. Either asking farm friend, resident, and local troubadour, Jim Hall to cut some more; Farm friend and mentor Don Kinnunen to offer some lumber scraps, or find something around the house to finish the row and a half of tomatoes left. The rest should go fast since all the holes are dug using Don Kinunnen's magnificent hand drill.

After the trellis, I went to weeding. While weeding the wind from the West went wild! Fortunately, the previous day's rain kept the soil intact. Some of the drip tape not yet fully installed got a little messy, but remained tied to posts until it can be connected into mainline and staked in - nothing blew away. The pea and unfinished tomato trellis confidently took a stand against the wind. Most important - all the plants seemed unharmed.

Weeding revealed some openings for additional planting. Two prepared rows and a half- finished row of peppers may just be the spots for the last of the greenhouse transplants, more peppers anyone?

On my way back to the green house to fill out the farm's logbook (Yippee Book), I found some beautiful manure that looked in need of shoveling . . . maybe I should have left it for Laddie and another "farm freeze" dance move.

Hip Hop & Weeding

                                                   Philip the Swede weeding.

Yesterday we had lots of help at the farm.  First there was Laddie, Jenna, & Sarah who came all the way from the twin cities to help weed our carrots (which are coming up and looking great).  Kate, fresh out of her first year of med school was also there to tear our the quakegrass.  Later in the afternoon "The Boys" came out.  That is the Woodland Hills boys arrived and did some landscaping around the greenhouse.  In between rain showers, we planted a row of Costata Romesca Zucchini, a row of buttercup winter squash, a half row of pickling cucumbers, and a half row of delicata squash.  The irrigation tape is out but needs to be tested before the straw mulch is put on top of it.  

At the end of the workday, Linda organized a hip hop dance off.  Listening to Linda's ancient hip hop music blasting from the Subaru,  Laddie from the cities and Corey from the boys showed off their best moves. 

 Corey started out with a bang as he pulled off a smooth backflip.

But Laddie countered with a "farm Freeze" in the manure pile. 

After it was all said and done,  Linda (the judge) called it a tie.  But not before she got her own lesson.

The Pea Massacre of June 16th (a delayed entry)

Yes, it is as bad as it sounds. I went out to the farm today. There was volunteer that offered to help me on the field. My plan was to weed the peas and put up the pea trellis. I gave her a stirrup hoe, demonstrated how to use it and emphasized avoiding the drip tape. I worked at the other end of the row with the wheel hoe where the weeds were much thicker. Half an hour later we began examining where to put stakes for trellis. I then saw a few peas that had been cut by the stirrup hoe. Then I looked down the row and saw that all the peas were cut... I had not shown her what a pea plant looked like. About 75% of the pea plants were dead.

The trellis was another disaster. It was so tangled in one spot that we had to cut it. But the bottom string is cut (or chewed?) through in some places making the trellis ineffective until you get up 2ft or so. I ended up not securing the trellis (it is strung around the posts up to the point where we had to cut it) because I didn't want to invest any more time in it with the likely possibility that we would have to take it down and redo it. There is some hog fence that could be used but it won't go the whole lenth of the field. Any other ideas?


One last sad thing- some animal (vole? ground squirrel?) ate a bunch of the pumpkin seeds in the flats. I'd say it ate about 1/2 of the seeds planted. There are still some in the flats, but none have germinated. Oh and some little critter seems to really like the red cabbage out in the field- it selectively munched on every plant.

One positive thing: the brassicas were transplanted into 2 inch blocks today. So, as far as I know, nothing needs to be transplanted in the greenhouse (into larger blocks).

Soon I think Linda would like help transplanting basil (into the field) and spearmint (into the metal tub outside greenhouse). Positives: The spearmint looks really great. And our field is almost full.

(Pea update: Alex replanted peas so it's still possible that we'll get more that 10 pea pods each.)

Fairwell Phillip

A young Swedish gent named Phillip visited the farm over the last two days. Fueled by massive amounts of food and root beer, Phillip added a hard-working hand to the Grassroots Cooperative. His hard work and politeness made him an exceptional representative of his country. YAY SWEDEN!

What a difference two days make! Weed growth reduced significantly; bean, beet, and cilantro seeds sowed; squash rows prepared for planting; and additional irrigation added to the field.

The irrigation is almost caught up with the plantings. Finding used pieces that worked in the field took some time and patience, but it's all ready to go - just needs to be inserted into the mainline that's in place and some stakes to hold in.

The infamous tomato trellis still in limbo - I think we have a good method for putting it in, just need to finish. Tomatoes look great also!

Hopefully the winter squash gets on it's way, the seeds have beautiful composted rows waiting for their arrival.

Last and certainly never least, quack grass. Lookin' good thus far, let's keep it up.

Potatoes, Peas and Basil

The infamous Don Kinnunen has helped us solve the tomato trellis dilemma.  He built a hand drill to loosen up the soil enough to jam a trellis pole in and tamp it down.  I had time only for a couple but took photos for the next person (Paul possibly...) to see how it's done.

First Measure out the trellis pole to approximately 6.5 ' - 7'.  Chop or saw (hatchet is available in garden shed).  Drill a hole every 3 plants and place the trellis pole in the loosened and pound in 1-2'.  Once you are finished, tamp the soil around the trellis pole with Linda's large, black ash tray.  I would post a picture of it, but it takes forever to post these pics!

The peas are replanted and ready for the trellis to be reinforced.  The carrots are just starting to peak through the soil.  ALL the potatoes are planted but need drip line, and the rest of the basil has been put in the ground.

Everything is ready for the rains to come, I pray they actually do come!

The weeding was a bit overwhelming by the onions.  Especially on the south end of the rows.  Maybe Paul can run the roto tiller over them?

That's it for now!  I will have to take smaller picture next time so they don't take an eternity to upload.

Linda Chores, Pumpkins and Kids

Howdy,

Leah and I were at the farm on Wednesday, the 17th. Leah busied herself with fixing drip tape and shoveling some new rocks for around the greenhouse. Once I finally got there, we began planting some pumpkins in the south side of the field, beyond where the beans will be. With the help of our friends Dustin and Alexis from down the road, we managed to complete 6 mounds with three little pumpkin seeds each. I plan on planting more at some point soon, as well as finishing up work on the three sisters garden plot. Leah requests that everyone remembers to water the plants in the Lathe House, because they get dry and people forget they are there. That's it for now. Let's hope for some more rain!

Brian

Sunny Day. Happy Corn. Need Water.

Hello All!

I started planting a three sisters garden plot today.  The plot is located next to the hops, at the far end of the field.  I intend to get more corn from seed in the ground in the next couple days, as well as beans and squash.

Here is a simple explanation of a three sisters garden from a Kids Garden website: 

http://www.kidsgardening.com/growingideas/PROJECTS/MARCH02/mar02-pg1.htm

There is lots of good information out there!  I'll keep everyone posted on the process.

". . . with a little help from my friends"

Beautiful Sunny Sunday. I fired up the tiller, cut those 3rd leaf sprouting quack-grass bastards where they stood.

GRF member Emily showed up and we planted a row of parsley - finally all the parsley is in the ground!

Drip tape got laid on all rows without irrigation, we could use some metal stakes for future drip tape installation.

Did I mention Beautiful Sunny Sunday?

Some extra tillage and close weeding of carrots closed out the day . . . oh yeah, Adam stopped in and began cultivating the South end of the field with his tractor, Thanks Adam.

Up Next: well, there's still spearmint in the greenhouse trying to make it's way to the trough just outside for planting. The tomato trellis; there's a stack of poplar branches next to the garden shed . . . if anyone can get those in the ground among the tomato rows go for it! I did not attempt any trellis today so it's possible the ground will allow for someone to drive in the branches with a post pounder or mallet. Also, the are two rows of parsley on the farthest West end of the field that need the drip tape flipped so seam side of the tape is exposed.

Well, no pictures today ( I need a camera), but the field looks good - All plants well on their way and the weeds not overrunning the field. Emily job well done today and special thanks to Adam for donating his time and tractor.

Paul

Tomatoes set!

Today Paul and I planted 5 rows of tomatoes. It was a little difficult determining the varieties as the labels were either lost or washed away, but we managed 4 of the 5 rows to be identified with the remaining 5th row labeled "Mystery Row."

We were not allowed in the house because Linda's daughter and sister-in-law were having a spa or something involving silk kimonos, but lunch was good. Mike the photographer came over and dropped off pics of the farm which hopefully will be posted later.

After lunch we planted the peppers and brassicas located in the lath house. We laid drip tape for the tomatoes and would have put the trellis poles in, but it proved difficult to actually pound the posts into the ground. Either the post pounder is too long and skinny or we need new trellis poles. Don K. has donated 10 very nice poles that will fer sure work, but we need at least 40 more!? Any ideas? Maybe we can make do with what we already have and a day with drier soil will prove easier for pounding poles in....? If you have any ideas please write to the google group.

The brassicas and peppers were hand watered and Paul will lay the drip tape out tomorrow for those respected rows.

This next week we will hopefully have all the potatoes put in the ground and the pea trellis put up. The 3rd leaf quackgrass method has been somewhat succesful, but there certainly is a lot coming back up and will need to be taken care of very soon...:( especially by the onions...)

Linda has a new dog, a dingo ish dog named fast eddy. He will be on squirrel patrol for the farm so watch out for him.

For everyone reading this (likely for the first time) this blog will hopefully evolve as a functional and entertaining place to get updates on what's happening on the farm. For myself, I will be bringing my camera out to give visual updates on happenings for the day I am crew leader. Paul and I were thinking this blog could be a great tool for crew leaders to keep everyone up to date and involved in day to day activities at grassroots. Inputs? Ideas? Please use the google group account still for less public and more organizonal issues but look forward to entertaining blog posts to come!

The fundraiser last night was a great success. Lupita and Jim Hall did a great job doing the bulk of the organizing. Lots of great art and gifts were auctioned off and great pizza and beer were enjoyed by all. Thanks to all farmies and farmie supporters!

A few Farm Pics from 2008

Welcome!

Greetings and Welcome to Grassroots Cooperative Farm's Blog! We look forward to this blog being used as a space where we can communicate and share ideas with the local community and fellow farmers. Please bare with the mess as we are setting everything up! Check Back Soon!