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.