News and blog

July 8

There is nothing but heat.  The clay crumbles where it has been worked, otherwise it reverts to a concrete like quality.  The moisture which lubricates it is gone.  We have delayed the irrigation set-up until now- and tommorrow morning our tasks will reflect the days' rising temperature- hard work first- bed-digging (after the chickens are fed), followed by the internment of the soaker hose into the bed soil- we'll start with the tomatoes and work "west" (northwest really) over the next four or so days in between other tasks such as setting up the pole-bean trellis and doing some weed clearing (the weeds are getting on my nerves),  making new coop quarters for the 100 chicks and 25 ducks arriving tommorrow and more improvements on the chicken "pens".  These large pens (the largest is about 35 by 90 feet I think) now have fresh water running through them.  As a result, the chickens are more heat tolerant as they spend their time in the shade (tree shade and we've erected some 8 by 10 sahara-desert caravan style tarp tents for them) or standing in the flowing water scratching the earth for worms or other bug delicacy.  Tommorrow we'll add a holding pen for those going to processing the next day- it's easiest to catch a chicken in the morning when it's having breakfast.  The trick is to be fast and not hesitate with the grab over the wings. Then I tell it to shush (talking to them does calm them down) and put them in the pen or carrier (dog carriers are what we currently use to transport them to the Beiler Family Farm).  25 Rouen ducks arrive tommorrow- at a day old they will spend two weeks in the coop before graduating to their large and separate pen.  We will have to build a duck-mobile which will somewhat resemble an early VW bug reject but without a motor (well, I'll be the motor).  A Wheelbarrow with two wheels and a hardware cloth bottom which serves as their evening pleasure palace to keep them out of harm's way.  We heard the cry of a red-tailed hawk yesterday but have had no predatory problems at all except once a month or so ago when a Great Horned owl (we are guessing) killed one of the larger chickens.  No predation since then though.  An electric fence line is planned however.

The bees swarmed out of our one hive which sits up top of one of the carraige house shed roofs.  I had hoped to avoid this but ordered the super too late.  Well, all this means is that the remaining bees will make a new queen and now they have more space.  They swarmed around noon and so I called one of Penn State's bee labs and spoke to Joshua who was very helpful and told me what to do if they ended up on a nearby branch of a nearby tree. Put a ladder up, and with a box (and bee suit on) negotiate the box under the bee ball (or beard- I can't exactly remember what he called it) and hit the branch so the whole 10-20,000 bees fall into the box and then close the lid, climb down the ladder and drive to the lab where they would find temporary quarters until Jeremy returned from Minnesota (where he's learning how to raise queens I think) and could sort the whole thing out.  Josh said that it would be no big deal-pretty easy because the bees will be rather souped up on the queen's pheromes and in their state of bliss probably won't bother to sting a man in a bee suit 15 feet up on a ladder doing acrobatics with a box, etc, etc.  He did mention at the end that it might be somewhat nerve-wracking however.  By the time I returned to the swarm site they were (thank God!) gone.  I was releaved that I would not be called to duty.  They did reappear later in the afternoon for only a few minutes- agiant buzzing orb that then began to roll up the mountain and lifted up to the tree tops- I tried to follow (both Jeremy and Josh suggested I do this) but lost them as they drifted high into the forest.

July 10

Market day I have nothing to offer the general public which is thin due to the ArtsFest in town.  I have distributions for six members and decide to work out the length and terms for the upcoming fall membership season which will begin on Tuesday, August 15 and run through Saturday, December 6 (from memory- may have the ending date wrong).  I'll get the particulars up on the website this coming week.  Of the 20 slots we will have available, two are already reserved for last season members who have been away on sabatical.  I speak to five people about it, all of whom seem very interested.  I don't think we will have any trouble adding 20 members.  Currently our planting program is to wrap up the summer season and start transplants for the fall season immediatly.  A second planting will commence mid-August.  This will be the late-fall winter planting and much of it will go into hoop houses.  I've also decided to commence a "value-added" program and have two products in mind that we can do in the next few weeks-  Basil pesto and hot pepper jam.  I will plant those Parisian pickles I forgot about and paln to make pickles in late August and September.  The idea here of course is to complement the winter squashes, root crops and greens we will have at the end of the season- gap fillers.  As the season progresses into the fall we will be able to offer some cheeses and wood-fired breads from our bread oven (outdoor).  By following Elliot Coleman's guide in his book "Four Season Gardening", we can have an excellent late summer and fall produce season which will be a welcome and uplifting end to a season full of struggle.  Finally we will feel like more of a complete farm than a hope, idea or dream of a farm.  We will still have a long ways to go but if we can achieve our goals, next year will progress with a bit more finesse.  The hard part will be to transition from the end of the season (sometime in December) to the beginning of the next season (April?).  It already feels somewhat awkward to imagine everyone  returning to the supermarket for their produce during that period.  I feel that we have a moral obligation of sorts to continue straight through the winter but we won't (will we?) because we can't.  We can't until next year or the following when we can afford a year-round staff and have all heated hoop-houses in place.  Maybe the real reason is just the thought of continuing- I am experiencing a serious degree of burn-out due to the extreme weather, the pressure of a double schedule and my occasional nagging (and negative) inner voice.

July 11

Up late and feeling caught up with sleep after two weeks of a dragging constant fatigue.  Worked in the fields until 1:30 pm transplanting the black sweet Aztec corn and Shamrock winter squash- three corn, one squash, etc.- I'll add the Marvel of Venice pole beans in the next couple of days (to climb up the corn stalks).  Will finish the job this evening between 6:30 and 9 when we'll watch a new production of Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express" with David Suchet as Hercule Poirot.  Took the afternoon off to go to the Artfest in State College.  Bought Valerie a pair of "Pistachio" natural pearl earrings and as we were paying, we were talking about harvest garlic, and about organic farming and got a discount which was a very kind gesture- the artisans said they knew how hard we worked and we didn't deny it.  I also bought from a stained-glass artist a small square piece with a sandblasted image of a chicken in the middle part, surrounded with orange-red flamed glass rectangels with prism pieces in the corners- don't have it in hand- she will mail it to us and then it will go into the central door of the chicken coop...   designed some improved feeders for the chickens this morning over a breakfast of pancakes and am still pondering the idea of having some geese to offer for Thanksgiving and possibly Christmass-- will take a poll. Probably just a dozen or so.

July 14-  Dirt

Back in 1971 when I was 17 or thereabouts I started keeping a diary.  It wasn't my idea- it was Miss Cransall's English class assignment.   All 15 of us (or thereabouts) had to keep one.  I don't think there was ever any other requirement except that we had to hand them in or show them to her once or twice so she could make sure we were in compliance.  I lsot that diary long ago but do have a broad selection of poetry I wrote at the time which I think anyone would agree was simply horrible.  I did however write one ditty which I am proud of and the nature of this poem (more like a limerick I like to think) has absolutely no reflection on my personal experiences at the time.  It goes like this:   feelings of gilt / earned the night before / when Satan ruled / and had me fooled        This is the scope pretty much of my literary accomplishments thus far and I am always on the lookout for pending inspiration.  Anyway, that aside, I have always kept a diary and have dozens of them.  They are mostly illegible, even by me and boring.  Oftentimes they served as an emotinal outlet of sorts but often also choreographic, design or other artistic ideas were recorded.  Poems also and some are readable but many depressing and very overworked.  Turns out that poetry and prose are not a strong suit for me.  If you're reading this, no doubt you've already figured that out but now to the jist of this entry.    What I'm trying to do is record my experiences as a farmer.  I'm trying to keep my comments as real as possible and I do try to record highlights of the week if I think they might be interesting for future consideration or in regards to the overall scope of the projects.  I am full of ideas, opinions, feelings and energy (or the lack of it) just like everyone else is.   This is my online diary.  I record as true to that moment as I can what I experienced.  I do my best not to remind myself that others are openly invited to read what I'm writing.  I edit if I feel I didn't get it quite right but not for content.  I've chosen to take on this task.  I know I've set the bar kind of high and when I accomplish something I go and set it a little higher.  I push myself and do so for many reasons but primarily in order to succeed.  I appreciate the concerns and comments I recieve from  those reading this blog but again I intend to keep true to my goal to express my experiences as accurately as possible.  So if I write about how exhausted I am, etc. well that's part of the experience.  One of the great aspects of this experience is the meeting and knowing of  the members of the CSA and others that I do business with.  I am fascinated by all of it and can't take it all in fast enough... as an artist I used to be somewhat shy and reclusive.. now there is a whole world of ideas to explore and people to collaborate in the development and fruition of these ideas.  It drives me to work harder and faster and certainly there are times of frustration and around those times I do try to step back and re-evaluate to make certain I'm not pushing the envelope too far.  On the other hand, working 80-90 hours a week is new to me but  not by any means to the farming community in general.  I do still rest when I become exhausted.  I do not want to fail at this.  I love the chinese proverb that goes something like this:  Fall down seven times, get up eight.  Well, got to get a load of compost and renew my driver's license which expired last March.  See? Time off from the hard labor for the next few hours....

July 15 Cheese dates and untimely deaths

Over to the Beiler Family Farm this morning after an hours worth of chicken round-up.  Thought we had a total of 34 but turned out it was 32.  Many are a bit underweight and I've got a new four foot super feeder in production so I don't have to worry about the birds running out of feed.  Jonas and I briefly discussed making 100 pounds of cheese and what the cost of the milk and rental of the facility would be.  We're still working out the details and I'm still combing through recipes and molds and bacilli- of which there are many.  Jonas insists that he doesn't know how to make cheese really- he has been taught colby, cheddar, swiss and one other which escapes me now- and here I am trying to figure out gorgonzola, gouda and saga- recipes, costs, time-frame (I want to have some ready for the members in the fall) and so on.  I stop by Barrie Moser's farm and he is generous on his offer to allow me to dig up his gooseberries, blackberries and black currants which aren't producing well.  He'll replace them with "Toro" blueberries from New Zealand which he is very enthusiastic about.  I don't make it back to his place when I return to get the chickens (now vacuum wrapped) because the temp is hovering around 95 and I'm in a hurry to get them refrigerated.  Josh returns tommorrow and we will be pell mell into bed building for the fall planting of the transplants we've already set.  Our goal will be a couple thousand more feet of bed.  Not much really- you can get 43,000 linear feet of bed out of an acre.  Not ours just yet- we're still pulling stone, adding compost, double digging, and adding sand to our 85% clay base.  Progress though.  Midday when it's a 100 plus in the sun I've decided is a good time to work on value-added products to be distributed in fall months.  So far on our tentative list: Pickled Grape leaves and hot pepper jam.  I see all the rabbits around and I'm wondering if I can do something interesting with them-  I ask Jonas if he has ever skinned a rabbit and no, have I? I tell him I'm chicken to do it.  He tells me I'd better watch it or I'll end up upside down in one of those killing cones.  It's a quick end and a better one than the death 17 of my three week-olds met a couple of weeks back.  There's an old farmer's tale about how turkeys can drown in a rainstorm if they look up into the sky.  There may be some truth to the story after all.  The 17 died in a rainstorm- it was a sudden downpour and they were so frightened they crowded in together to the point of some being trampled, soaked and suffocated.   Their shelter was less than three feet away.  I lost 4 ducklings the other day and fortunately figured out what the problem was.  They were eating the peat-moss which I had set down as a floor cover and not their food.  I quickly removed it and put in straw and now they are happy chirping very hungry ducklings- getting water all over the place (I was warned) and eating the proper food.  Daffy Duck.  Just like them.

July 18

I'm in air conditioning, just scanned through the New York Times, viewed the budget for the remainder of the year  and worked through the 2011 one and I don't want to get back outside into the heat just yet.  The chickens have new feeders- long four foot ones that won't run out of grain in midday as the others do.  They haven't got their tin roofs on yet so the smaller chickens delight in perching on the top bar ( and I'm sure some have already fallen in).  It's one less thing to worry about now.  Next on the agenda is to sow for all seedlings for the fall plantings. Tonight. And get that portable coop finished for the smallest yarded chicks so they will have more protection and shade.  Tonight.  Then get some of the finished beds planted. Then look over the budget again-especially next years' which will realize a gross of around $62,000 and loan payoffs totalling $20,000 leaving a net debt load of $7,500 but I can't balance it because there's no money yet for capitol improvements, and a negative result from the "Assistant to Head Farmer" (the Farmer that needs his head examined more like it), who gets to earn a whopping 10,000 plus dollars for 8 months of independent contractor employment.  This year's budget is going to run about $35,000 if all goes well- last year's was $16,000 so we are going in the right direction but it's very tough.  I don't recieve any pay worth a mention but the rent does get paid, I have a place to sleep and a truck to drive. Oh yeah and the adventure of it all!  The fish operation which I've been talking about may not happen next year.  Adding two to four pigs makes more sense... much less of an expense and I think I can house them in the woods (to be somewhat cleared) behind the chicken operation.  Would love to feed them acorns...  They will be marketable in 3 to 4 months (fish minimum 6 months) and start up costs are much lower and I think I can get more pork out of a couple of pigs (about 500 pounds) than fish.  We'll do the fish but maybe the following year when the vegetable and berry crops really kick in. I think the fish set up will cost at least $5,000 and a ton of man-hours. A Ton. Still have research to do on raising pigs, especially in a woodlot pen.  Grunt work.

July 20 - TOG

Tuscarora Organic Growers is a cooperative of certified organic farmers in the southern Pa and northern Maryland area.  They primarily service the Washington, D.C. area but there's commerce with the State College area.  I called last friday about buying from them and by this morning, Jeff, the sales/buyer manager had set up an account for Howard's End CSA.  All I had to do was get online and go through their available produce list and place an order which I did.  Since I had heard of this Co-op so many times through other organic farmers- both buyers and sellers, I wanted to see the operation for myself.  Once I dropped Susie and Sarah off following their four hour morning stint of weeding beds and picking Huckleberries in the fields (and picked up another 20 dozen eggs at their farm), I headed for the outskirts of Orbisinia having given instructions to Joshua as to his afternoon tasks schedule.  I had pl;ace an order for Broccoli crowns (2 boxes), baby Chioggia beets and mature Chiaggia beets both with their tops (4 boxes), purple italian eggplant (2 cases) and small red cabbage heads (2 cases).   We will supply garlic, some herbs, chickens and eggs for this distribution (Glick eggs).   Green beans I picked up locally from an Amish supplier in Mackeyville (3 bushels) who politely followed me to my truck apoligizing for being nosy while he politely quized me about the CSA and telling me that they did butchering too and about the East End organic farm which made cheese, did butchering, chickens.. so I make a mental note to check them out soon.    I'm on my way, it's 90 degrees outside and inside the cab and I feel a twinge of guilt leaving Joshua behind in the fields.  Usually I'm a carrier pigeon when it comes to directions but not today.  I fly by Lewistown missing the exit for 522 S thinking that Mt. Union is further along 322 towards Harrisburg.  37 miles later I stop at a small shopping center, go into a Subway eatery, buy a coke and two cookies (all of which taste terrible- I'm losing my affection for sodas, sugar and processed cookies) and ask the attendants if they know where 522 is or Mt. Union and they haven't the slightest idea (it's the "they're not sure how exactly they get to work each day"  kind of look they give me) so I go into a wine shop in search of a more advanced life form and behold the wine seller puts me in the direction back to Lewistown.  I must of been in that awake state of day-dreaming I am so capable of (primarily 5 a.m. in the mornings when I do alot of mental work and ditto on long road trips).  O.k. so a slight 72 mile diversion.  The final 12 or so miles to TOG are lovely.  Arrive at and pass through the town of Orbisinia (what a name!) with lovely old houses and a great old train station with a junction (Petticoat!) full of old cars, an announcement of upcoming church events (lots of Jesus proclamation signs by the roadside on 522), civil war enactment gatherings and a ice cream/antiques shop then into twisty mountainside roads, tall pine trees unfolding into vistas of alpine valleys (almost), Valerie calls on the cell, call is lost, calls again, again cuts out, then no service as the views turn from boy I'd love to live here to wow- a vallley suddenly opens up wide-eyed with steep walls of pine all around but not too close- broad swaths of sunshine embracing long expanses of pasture and at the end of this is TOG.   Once there I found a hallway which me to the office area and met Jeff the sales manager with whom I had spent most of the time over the phone speaking with.  He proceeded to introduce me to the entire staff and talked a bit about TOG and their success.  It was obviously a very well organized and run operation.  I made a mental note to learn more about how they conducted business.  He mentioned that they moved over a hundred thousand cases of produce a year.  I was there to pick up eight.  On the return home one thing I focused on where the miles upon miles representing tens of thousands of acres of corn and soybeans.  In all likelyhood those farms bought their seed from someone who represented Monsanto or some other corportate entity who have a virtual lock on the seed industry- much of the corn if not most would be a GMO strain.  Here I am, along with other organic farmers, growing small lots of black Aztec sweet corn or some other heirloom variety-  I will grown this corn for its kernels to reseed I've decided and see if I can't eventually grow an acre or so and improve the seed for local use.  It is called black Aztec implying that it's origin is early Mexican and in fact it is but it was grown by the Iriqouis indians in this country as a staple before We arrived.  They got it from the Aztecs.  If there's Monsanto corn in the area, and if some of that Monsanto pollen crosses with my Aztec/Iriqouis corn I could be sued to cease and desist the growing of my corn as I might be infringing upon their genetic copyrights.  Monsanto has put many a seed maker out of business.  They are beginning to lose some of their battles however especially in Europe.  This is another story for another day.  I distributed our german stiff neck garlic today and it felt good to set aside the biggest bulbs for next year's crop.  We are already participating saving and strengthening the local seed stock.  We have a large quantity of dried snap peas too. 

July 23 Art and the kitchen

A storm blows through and dumps a quarter of an inch.  With earlier oven-like conditions Joshua and I manage to finish up 140 feet of new and reconditioned beds- 120 covered in red plastic mulch and planted with winter squash seedlings.  By a quarter past noon I was off the field with a soaked shirt and leg muscles verging on the cramps.  Time for a road trip. Lura, Valerie's cousin and long time best friend arrived yesterday and has been a source of ideas ever since she walked through the fields approvingly and then came to talk to me about possible marketing ideas and products while I turned a bed.  It was a long bed and by mid-morning of this morning we were both tracking the Ebay auction sale of a 20 quart Hobart dough mixer and discussing the great potential merits of fresh medium-sized pizzas to be sold at the farmer's markets along with breads, herbal butters, cheeses, jams and anything  else we could come up with.  As there were about 4 1/2 hours of auction time remaining on this mixer which was holding steady at $520 (they retail for $4,700), I decided that we should go see Jonas and discuss with hinm the possibility of using his commercial kitchen for our endeavors in exchange for his use of our to be cheese cave and other as yet determined services or exchanges.  Lura tells me stories about her dad and both families on the way over and on arrival spot Jonas and a couple of his kids raking the gravel drive like an eastern master would rake his garden.  We, being westerners, cut two big tracks into his freshly patterned gravel and park.  Noticing my torn straw hat with the green visor as we pull in the Minnesota plates are no longer a mystery and he grins.  We are up in the kitchen in no time discussing the addition of stainless steel tables which I can provide, scheduling and the various permits which he has been issued.  A plan begins to take form and his plans for expansion become part of the deal.  Neither of us have  any time for anything but farm shlogging but by October we agree, things will be calming down a bit, it won't be a steam-bag ninities kind of month and I can participate in the fulfillment of his expansion dreams (which includes a large room to make yogurt and a walk in cooler he points out while his son exclaims on the heaviness of the large insulated panels which are attached to a couple of walls, or in stacks there and about- even hanging from the ceiling from a couple of chains), by being a good carpenter and following his bidding.  We tell him about the big mixer and talk about electricity, diesel engines and the bathroom instlled just for such the occasion as folks like us coming over to make cheese, jams, butters and the occasional pizza with natural organic fillings.

The other evening I was invited to join a group of artists called "The Bloomsbury Connection".  the original Bloomsbury group worked in the 30's primarily I think and while at this meeting I got the chance to fip through an art book and view a sampling of their work.  I found it wonderfully varied and expressive and worth a very serious study.  I can't say that I measure up to their talents but I do look forward to a small occasional diversion into sculpture and performance art.  Following introductions and exclamations of un-readiness a majority decided to commit to a casual showing in October or December at the Art Alliance.  This gives me the chance to follow up and complete three sculptures I began last year.  Each sculpture is made up of found stone, worked clay and carved wood- or found wood, worked clay and stone, etc.  I guess I would label them "totemic" in nature but probably naively so.  It will be fun the finish them.  I might even dance at the event (to be a three evening thing i think) and am thinking of covering myself with panels of some kind and putting a bag/mask on my head.  I might relate the choreography to the written word of one of the group's members and structure the movement using Labanotation as a device.  Labanotation is a written language that captures three dimensional movement on paper in a parallel manner as musical notation captures music.  With all of the physical labor I've done these past 18 or so months I imagine I have a newfound stamina and sense of center.  Guess I'll have to work on the flexibility though.  Even my hands are tight.

We didn't get the mixer.  Valerie and Maggie (her daughter) suggest that maybe the next step would be to make and sell some stuff.  My current budget has no room for a mixer so at the moment I'm just glad that we have access to a commercial kitchen.  Meanwhile, my relationship with this heat and humidity has to improve somehow.  I feel like I'm putting in half days.  We've got a couple thousand seeds becoming seedlings and we will need the beds to grow them come mid-August.  Joshua is off on a pre-honeymoon to Alaska with his fiance for the first couple of weeks of August so I will be on my own.  There's always progress and now there's a scythe in place of the Troy-built weed wacker which has blown a critical gear and is out for the count. 

July 29 Idyllic World 

3 a.m. in the morning and a timpani, light show and torrential showers open up directly overhead.  Immediatly wide awake, all I can think of are the ducks and chickens which are by now completely soaked and I fear that they will die from exposure.  The show is over after a quarter hour of heavy downpour resulting in a half inch in the rain gage.  I dress, find a small flashlight, grab a coca-cola ice bucket and head for the three and four week old chicks.  They are alive but wet little winged rag dolls packing together like sardines trying to keep warm.  they offer no resistance (unlike later this morning when they're flying and jumping everywhere as I try to ferry them back to their pen) as I pack them into the coke bucket and hurry them over to the coop house and under a heat lamp.  The ducks, who have only just been introduced to their new outdoor digs have decided to spend the night splashing about in the small pool found at the corner of their pen.  No matter- out they come and into the coop with the chickens. I've lost 12 of 25 ducks to internal problems (I don't really know why they died) and I'm not taking any chances with these.  they seem contented, and spend their time preening themselves and snapping at imaginary bugs (maybe they were there but I couldn't see them).  About 200 birds later I retire to bed and hope they are still with us in the morning.  A brief shower greets the new morning and all is well.  The ducks, back in their pen, march over for a meal, then head straight for the water to dip, splash and forage with abandon.  A half hour later they are all clustered together for a nap.  They repeat this routine over and over throughout the day.

Joshua worked the morning and is off for the next two weeks on his honemoon.  He's not married yet but I guess they're hedging their bets- want to enjoy the trip to Alaska and beat the summer humidity which haas been hanging around here- hey if gets cold feet at least they got that but considering the beautiful wedding invitation Valerie and I recieved seems they're serious about going through with the ritual.  There's also an invite to a family traditional chicken fry.  Hmm, maybe we should start one of those?  Working on a whole new series of beds where the soil is half decent.  The weeds are high but are no match for the 20 lb mattock.  Good to see a new part of the field coming to order.  Also started harvesting elderberries today.  got a good bunch from two bushes (more like small trees) and when I went to check a third found some elderberries which weren't quite ready but instead a large blackberry bush with very large succulent berries.  Picked a couple of pints right away and made a mental note to move this bush to a more accessible location and propagate it.  Blackberries can be susceptable to winter kill- especially those ordered from catalogues.  I'll bet this one will do just fine through our winter as it is already acclimated.

June 11, 2010

Weed wars.  Joshua and I will have to dedicate one hour a day to weed elimination.  Not that they are offensive- most are daisies.  the whole operation looks like a flower farm specializing in wild daisies.  You can see the sugar-snap peas but not much else- the Fava beans show a nose here and there, but the rest are obscured unless you're walking through. So it's weed wacker and perhaps a layer of newspaper with the wacked weeds tossed on top to hold them down.  We haven't bought a flamer yet, but will probably have to.  Among the weeds are wild yarrow and since we've got a recipe for yarrow beer and they are in flower, we'll be making a 6 gallon batch next week-probably in between bouts of heavy bed-building work.  Fenced in the field behind the chicken coop and let the birds fly, which they did.  As soon as I opened the doors to the pens the big ones came flapping and dancing out- boy were they excited.  The teen-agers not so much.  4 of the 90 plus ventured forth- the rest didn't know what to do.  A couple of days later though, things had calmed down- especially after the big ones decided to commandeer all of the food bins- but once everybody figured out that foraging was a fun chicken thing to do, food no longer became an issue.   Yesterday eve I threw in s bunch of wilting bok choi and by this morning it was all but gone.  Of course I still have to kick the teens out of the coop every day- many would rather just hang out there and have their food delivered than have to go get it themselves... 

June 12 New Market

It's late (10:30), hot and I won't be able to sleep awhile- will get through a few more pages of Michael Pollen's "The Omnivores Dilemma"- really interesting reading.  Earlier I'm sitting in the chicken field on the old pick-up bed-cap with my drawing tablet trying to sketch a chicken.  The chickens are eyeing me too-  or my shoes or shoe-laces or maybe the tick-tocking of my pencil as it works out the silouette of a head- but it's not quite right and I'm distracted by their displays of bravura on moment to their goofy attempts to eat the tiniest bits of food left on one of the red platters... I give up, find a photo, do a sketch, make some adjustments so it looks like one of my chickens, go back, rework the head successfully this time and then cut out the drawing with sissors so I can sketch it onto the new chicken door I'll install tommorrow.  Did you know that you can label a chicken as "organic" if it's being fed organic feed in a shed with 20,000 other chickens?  It's "free range" if for a week or two- about twenty minutes a day (or week?) it can walk on a grassy area.  At age 8 (weeks) it is then slaughtered.  My chickens are happy.  I mean it.  They are in their element.  they forage all day and run to me when I've got the bucket of feed.  They are still dinosaurs- that hasn't changed but they're happy dinosaurs.  You might be bigger than they are but they still check you out in case you might be a potential meal. True omnivores, just like us.  Sorry to keep going on about the chickens- I'll do a soliloquey on spinach at some point I promise except that I have trouble growing it.  I met Sunil Patel at the New Market today and rubbed shoulders with a number of other interesting people as well.  I was in no mood to be there.  I had reluctantly scrawled onto 4 small blackboards with light green chalk what I had for sale.  Sugar Snap Peas $3 for 8 oz, Romaine lettuce, Spectrum Greens (spicy asiatic lettuce/greens mix), and Pastured Chickens ($3.25 a lb).  I sat down in my chair and hoped people wouldn't notice that I was there.  I sold lots of stuff, considering.  it's going to be a very good market.  So Sunil and I introduced ourselves and he again expressed his desire to come out and see what I was doing.  I suggested in a couple of months- emphasising that most of what I was doing was still in the "conceptual but I'm getting to it" stage.  Come next year- I promise I'll be ready.  Well, I did get one chicken door built tonight and will install it tommorrow.  At the end of market, I was talking to Dana of Jade Family Farm- and the conversation got around to their loss of the sugar-snap peas and my bountiful crop. So we exchanged a little- my peas for some of her beets.  I like this idea of exchanging in general- and perhaps having other CSA's or organic farms as a back-up resource when problems arise.  We are going to be short of produce over the next 6 weeks- we'll always have some but not quite enough until the remainder of the fields are developed so working out exchanges will benefit all and may help set a precedent of cooperation. I don't feel that Howard's end is in "competition" with anyone- on the contrary, I think we should all keep in touch, learn from one another and share resources when the occasion arises.  Following market, I get home, my face and head is burned (because I couldn't remember where I had put my hat), but I get the truck unloaded and put everything away (unusual for me), take a nap (somewhat unsuccessfully), head to Lowe's to get the wood for the chicken doors.  Tommorrow it will be an oven so an early start is the only option if I'm gong to get the remainder of the peppers in and at least half the tomatoes in.  More beds too.  Need to start Hakuri turnips and get the other bed of Royal Burgundy beans planted.  120 Broccoli seedlings cry out to be established as do the 30 or so fennel I haven't done.  So mid-day, when I'm being basted in the sun, I'll work on the chicken doors.  And at night, when the second one is done- I'll take the walk from the End down to the Big House and watch the little flaming comets flaring all along the way making the magic that only fireflies can make at this time of year.

June 17

It's 7:30 a.m. and I'm putting 12 week old chickens in the carrier crates.  I want to get 30 of them but an hour later, settle for 26 or 27- not sure how many I get. Hard to count them after awhile and since these are their last hours, I'm grabbing them as gently as I can- not by a leg to swing them upside down, or with a fishing net.  Two hands on the back- at the wings so they won't flap and then calming them by saying "calm down, calm down".  Joshua, goes and gets the girls- he starts on a new bed up at the top of the hill- near where the vineyard will be and Susie and Sarah pick sugar-snap peas.  Meanwhile, I get to the Beiler Family Farm and after a few minutes of watching some kids play house in a ramshakle out-building, Jonas, his son and a trio of his daughters show up to set up shop.  I put the headless chickens into a very hot bath for a couple minutes to release their feathers and then they go into a plucking machine which makes a constant whirring sound as the birds are spun around in kind of a spin-dry cycle while I, or Jonas' son, spray them with water.  Then to the cutting table, into a cold water tank and a quarter hour later they'll be in a walk in cooler to drip dry (for half a day) before being vacuum wrapped.  Jonas says to me during all of this- "you read books- I don't have time so tell me what are the ideal conditions for a cheese cave?  I reply: 52 degrees constant temperature with 93% humidity.  Jonas: I just made two 40 pound wheels of cheddar and I put some shelves down there (his cave is 30 feet down a ladder, through a narrow squeeze into a small room) and there's mold on the wheels.  I say: wipe them with a brine solution once a week and you should be o.k. Jonas: What else do I do? I say:  let me do some research and I'll tell you tommorrow when I come to get the chickens and grain I ordered.  I did a quick google this afternoon and I was wrong.  I'll call Jonas tonight and tell him to wipe his cheddars once day with a dry,clean cloth and turn them. Do this for 5 to 10 days then cover them with wax.  The heated wax will kill any molds on the rind and protect the cheese until the aging process is completed.  How long to age a chedder? In a hurry- minimum: 60 days (by law no less). Maximum- skies the limit- in Europe, some cheddars are aged for years.

June 22

Rain falls for a half-hour on the fields and give a much needed quarter inch.  Nevertheless, we begin installing a drip irrigation system tommorrow.  Hoses and brass "v" split junction-valves will allow us to control which soaker hoses the water will flow to.  We will complete the planting of the tomatoes and peppers and start shungiku, New Zealand and Malabar spinaches (neither are a "true" spinach ), Hakurie turnips (if they arrive from Johnny's) and Purple Mizuna.  Radishes, too will go in- I think.  The Daikon radishes are flowering so I have to check to see if they should stay in or be pulled.  Perhaps let them seed.  Distributed 30 more chickens between this past saturday's market at the Home Depot and todays on Locust Lane. Last saturdays' market was our best to date- we made about $250 in sales.  Not much really but we finally had extra produce to sell to the public (after our CSA distribution) and those at the market were ready to buy.  We nearly sold out.  So we're making progress with our fields.  We continue to add a few hundred feet of raised beds a week and I think in six weeks we should have enough for a wide variety for the CSA members and the two markets as well. Last year our gross reciepts came in around $16,000.  This year they look like $34,000 at least.  I had hoped for nearer to $50,000 but that was something of a dreamy projection.  Seventy percent of our time is spent on building beds I think.  We have a cheese cave to build and an outdoor "processing" area next to the hothouse and the water spigot.  I think we can start the cave by mid-July.  That's when we should have the fall crops started.  Even though we will still have hoop houses to build, they won't take too long.  by then, all of the berries should be in place- if not, they could wait until the end of September.  I'll have to let the girls go at the end of August due to financial restraints but Joshua and I should be able to carry on well enough.  There's another reason for getting to the cheese cave and it involves Jonas's cheese.  Jonas said to me the other day when we were picking up our chickens (vacuum sealed, etc), "why don't you take my wheel (40lb of Swiss which he had just made) and put it in your cave?"  He'd b e glad to make the cheese it turns out, if I wouldn't mind finishing it.  This sounds like a great idea and I plan to pursue it with him.  Jonas is of the mind that since I read books (and he doesn't have the time) that i know more about cheese-making than he does.  I seriously doubtr this- since he was trained by a cheese-master and I have only read a few recipes in a book or two and garnered bits of information on line and attended a seminar of cheese-cave building at this past February's PASA conference.   I think the jist of it is that I can get the information together to result in a finished product- Jonas is already producing Swiss and Cheddar cheeses among others but he's not doing it traditionally and objects to having to spend $4,000 on a vacuuming machine to press everything into plastic.  At least in jest he does.  Sometimes I can't really tell. But a collaboration I think would be really good for the both of us.  As a result, we might even create a few cheeses that will be original to this area!  Why do the French have so many cheeses? I think because there are so many caves, and cellars with so many slightly to greatly different conditions throughout France and of course, many official "correct" French opinions as to the proper way of doing things et voila you have a ton of different (and many very smelly cheeses).  Turns out that chickens like to eat cheese (Jonas tells me this)- even the cheddar that he made that smells like rotten eggs.  They love that one in particular.  Perhaps the chickens have some French ancestry or something...  Finally, there is no seed-savers' exchange in central Pennsylvania so I'm going to start one.  I'll begin by buying a book and doing a bit of a google on "seed saving" and "seed exchanges" and see if Joshua can set up a web-site for it.  I've got French sorrel seeds to collect and brussels sprouts seeds to dry and I notice the parsley is going to seed as well and that Daikon....

June 26              Heat

Back home from the market by 3 p.m. and I am so exhausted I decide to take off until 5.  I get a drink (juice) and sit down on the couch to watch the US- Ghana soccar match and fall half asleep.  by the time I'm feeling semi-anything it's 5:30 so I head up to feed the chickens and cats- the chickens following me around- always crowding my feet when I've got the feed in hand and continue to do this even when I've put feed down.  They just like following me around.  They're waiting for that special treat which they are convinced I have I guess.  The last of the first 100 will go for processing on Monday (about 25 birds) and I've already filled orders for 19 of them.  the birds are getting all kinds of greens (bolted lettuces, flowered broccoli raabs, sugar snap pea vines) and I notice that their poop is a somewhat emerald green.  Van Gogh would have been inspired.  Now it's 7 p.m. and I've got to get over to the Glick's for 8 gallons of milk which I need to make ricotta cheese on Sunday.  Sunday will be a marathon.  not only is there a full schedule of planting but  irrigation has to be half completed, and beds for the artichokes and squash brought up as well.  Olivier is coming and we are going to try our hand at making a batch of Yarrow beer.  I learned today that you can eat the yarrow flowers- but them in an egg batter and pan fry them.  We'll have to try that for lunch if there's time.  The ricotta is for the ravioli that all the members are going to recieve for the July 6 distribution- a asparagus and ricotta ravioli with a hint of cheese-truffle, etc.  We are "low in the patch" as Daniel Glick said today- not much produce ready for harvest.  We've pulled all the spring and switched to summer heat loving veggies and now must wait for them to start.  We'll have some here and there- but will have to buy from other organic farms and CSA's.  I'm going to lay off the girls for the next three weeks so I can afford this.  The good news is that we are getting close to having enough beds for a decent year-round operation.  I think by July 15- intime for the beginning of the fall planting season that we should be there. Not that we won't continue developing beds- we still have all the berry beds to do, an expansion of the strawberries and 6 hoop houses to raise and the worm farms to start too.  But we can get to work on the cheese cave some time in July which will be a happy cool break from the relentless sun.  Seems I have to drink a quart an hour just to be able to keep going.  Was faint a couple of times yesterday and hate the thought of losing time to heat exhaustion.  Tommorrow will be a challenge because that work has to be done... and it's going to be 90 or above.  The chickens aren't going to like that at all.  Emma Glick said perhaps they should "hang me on the fence" when I mentioned my exhaustion complaint and I said yea, and maybe then it'll rain and I won't smell so much.  They thought that was funny.  

May 8- Strawberries and Bees

Six o'clock this morning I'm lying in bed listening to the rain.  I've been listening to it since it started in the middle of the night, dozing in and out of sleep trying to be comfortable with my back which aches from the hoeing I've been doing recently.   Yesterday's hoeing was in the evening on the strawberry "Ziggarat", a conical hill with terraces spiralling up.  It started out as a large mound of topsoil, scooped up when the initial clearing for the building site was done.  Anyway, when I finally returned from New York (after six days spent mostly on a roof in sweltering humidity setting in new roofing shingles and only getting it half done), Wednesday afternoon, the farm was in weeds and being tired from the drive and previous days, I immediately fell into a despondant mood feeling that the effort to make all of this happen was just too much.   I decided that the next five days would determine whether I would continue or not so I drove over to Daniel Glick's, an Amish friend and neighbor of mine to see about the employment of his daughter Sarah that we had talked about.  She would come  over on Thursday, we agreed, and work for four hours until noon when I would leave to attend a funeral, buy feed for the chickens (we were out again) and pick up a load of compost before returning home to work.  Thursday went very well.  Most of the Fava beans were cultivated and all of the sugar snap peas.  Redemption reappeared as did my good mood.  That Ziggarat however was a huge mound of weed with strawberries poking out here and there.  I had given it over as a lost cause and vowed not to go planting strawberries on Ziggarts ever again but by Friday, having picked up my  box of starter-colony bees in Lewisburg and really liking their hum (no fear of them at all- in fact a feeling of comraderie if that is possible)  I decided to see if I could do something about that strawberry hill.  With stirrup hoe in hand, I worked it for over an hour and got the worst offenders out.  It is the 8th of May and some of the strawberries have a dozen berries on them. A dozen.  Well, obviously I'm a novice here but these plants have done well and are producing.  These were the original batch of 100 that I ordered from Johnnys Seeds last year "Earlyglow" and they sent off so many runners ("daughters") that by the end of the 2009 season we had 350 planted.  Though the daughters aren't as big as the original, they are a good size and will probably produce a half dozen berries apiece.

May 10

Freeze scare last night so row covers were put on the flowering strawberries and some of the courtyard flowers.  The 10,000 bees are sequestered in bales of hay to keep them cool but not too cold.  I will spray them with sugar water today to certain they have enough to eat.  In the meatime, I will paint the new hive and continue reading about the do's and don'ts of how to get these bees safely into the hive, placement of the hive and other stuff.  It will be in the low to mid thirties tonight so I think they will have to remain where they are.  Tommorrow it rains so that isn't good either.  I guess they will have to stay where they are until Wednesday.  I'll call the bee supplier and hear what they have to say.  In the meantime, Valerie is convinced that the chickens (first batch) are ready for market.  They are 11 days shy of their 8 week anniversary so at some point in the next couple of days I'm going to take a bathroom scale and set it on a level piece of ground, weigh myself and then grab one of the bigger chickens and weigh again.  come to think of it, I should do this in the middle of a vast open field so that if Google Earth is watching it could catch the image of a man standing  on a scale with a chicken, looking up, with a big grin on his face.  The chickens (all 192) are eating about 25 pounds of feed a day which means collectively they are adding half of that to their collective weight.  Yesterday, some managed to break out which I only discovered when I decided I had better feed them.  I panicked a little but as they were hunger it was quick work to cajole most of them back into the pen.  Alas, there are always a few who just can't figure out how to get into the pen through the door ending up jammed against the screening getting as close to the food as they can ( I don't know what else they could be thinking) before being grabbed and shuttled in.

The Bees.

I was catnapping with my cats in the late morning when I heard voices.  Jeremy and his friend had arrived to install the Penn State bees up at their site which is at the top of the hill next to the forested mountain.  My bees were still in their shipping box sitting in the middle of a bunch of bales to keep the cold out from the previous night.  Jeremay said they needed to get out ( to go to the bathroom.  10,000 bees holding it in until they got to their hive....).   I had to work fast.  The hive needed priming, then painting and a platform had to be built on the shed roof where they were going to be placed.  Hard for bears and skunks to get to.  Got all of that done about when they were finished installing their bees (8 colonies) and had made the 50/50 solution of sugar water as instructed.  put on my bee hat, and gloves and began.  First I thumped the bees to nock them to the floor of the box and spread them out a bit.  I sprayed them with the sugar water solution.  I pried off the little hatch piece and pulled out the can of syrup they had been feasting on for their travels.  The queen was in a little box (about 1 inch by 2 inches) that had fallen into the mass of bees at the bottom of the box.   Fished that out with the hive tool (looks kind of like a little crowbar) to check and see if the queen and her attendants were still alive.  They were- very active.  Actually, Jeremy did that part.  He was talking me through this process- he's the head bee-man in charge of the Penn State bees which are in the upper field for studies.  Don't think I mentioned that before.  He's also doing an internship on the production of hops at Howard's End too-  more on that later, probably.  Then I had to get the bees into the hive.   Three of the upper supers were removed so the bees would land onto the lower part of the hive.  I had to thump and shake them out of the box and following a couple of thumps there was a mass of bees in the hive and thousands flying all around me.  I gave the box to Jeremy so he could finish.  We popped the cork out of the side of the queens' little box so the workers could eat through the candy stopper and release the queen.  The upper supers went back in and the little box was stuck in between two of them in the middle.  Top back on and sugar water dispenser applied to the front and that was that.  Not a single sting at all but I had had enough there with those thousands all around me.  It is now Wednesday and they look content- out of sugar water yesterday morning and again this evening so those little bees do have hearty little appetites.   I've been thinking of writing a children's book entitled "Howard and the dancing vegetables".  You know, "the purple top turnip does the subterranean tango" and that kind of thing.  Maybe there's a place for the bees in there.

May 13-  The next 30 days

From now until the middle of June- even a little before, evrything that hasn't been planted has to go in.  the hardest part is the creation of new beds from scratch.  Many of the plantings are being sown now in seedling containers so they will be ready to go when needed.  Okra, collards, cabbages (red, savoy, chinese and others), bok choi (some already in but more are needed), and amaranth  will be started as seedlings as will the melons, cucumbers and squashes but not just yet- these will be started near the end of the month as they germinate very quiickly and will go in the first week of June (I'm writing this from memory so I might be somewhat incorrect).  Beans, corn, soybeans go in in a couple of weeks when the ground has warmed sufficiently.  Potatoes should be in now but aren't- their beds aren't ready.  Peppers and Huckleberries will go in this weekend and hoops and with plastic mulch to keep them warm.  The first hoop house (100 feet by 16 feet) goes up at the beginning of next week and will accommodate tomatoes and eggplant.  Asparagus is also on a holding pattern- temporarily in peat moss- until those deep (2 feet plus) beds can be assembled.  Artichokes go in in the next few days- their beds are under construction and I hope to have the first 30 plants in by Sunday.  Some of those plants are bursting out of their pots.   It's all I can do to keep calm and just keep digging and digging and digging.  There is no machine that can build the deep beds that we are making.  All lof the beds are a minimum of 18 inches in depth.  The hops beds which are currently under construction will be at minimum 3 feet high- their root systems go down 5 feet on average.  Three feet of amended clay with copious amounts of compost and sand.  The same formula for the artichokes and asparagus.  Celery, celeriac and rhubarb all demand the same.  Pole beans demand a structure and the sugar snap peas as well- we almost have all sugar snaps fenced and then they need to be mulched- as do the strawberries.  It doesn't end here.  There are planting of greens that must go in every two weeks to keep up the supply and sprouts have to be started every ten days.  I would almost rather work straight through the days and nights just to have the peace of knowing that it is all done.  Fortunately I have some help now and more coming so I think we'll finish this marathon- alive.  And the peanuts have to be planted too.  I do look forward to the middle o f June when we will have met this challenge.  Got to go put the chickens in for the night.  They got out again (my fault- gave them the key to the door... )  but we herded them up and now the portable pen has to be redocked with the mother coop, star-trek-like and when night comes they will all be inside- all by themselves amazingly. 

May 18- first CSA distribution

The day before market is always hard.  What's hard is the anticipation of the market day itself especially when the season is only just beginning to show its' promise and I am behind again.  True, I have many more crops in the ground than this time last year and planting, for the most part seems to be on "time".  And yet, I wish I had more produce to offer for the first distribution.  I wish I had the sweet purple asparagus that will come in three or four years following its' careful preparation (lots of compost, sand, bonemeal and very deep soil-3 feet is good), Now (capitalized because I can't seem to get the word italisized for some reason), and some spinach (slowed due to the early heat and lack of rain), and radishes (because I couldn't find where I put the seeds even though all the seeds are sorted- still couldn't find them).  But Henry at Hilltop farm is my back-up man, and Daniel Glick is my source for eggs, and I do have lots of produce coming (won't even try to italisize it now- need to retire soon), just about everything planned so far except for the fish which was so unreasonable of me to expect that I could somehow manage to get that whole shebang together this spring as well.  When I feel good I feel like I can somehow get it all done.  Fortunately, I have hired good help and they help me (italisized, I guess) get it done.  I think what I'm getting at here is that you have to be willing to drive long and hard if you're going to start a farm.  I want it all done in a couple of weeks. 

So Tuesday arrives, and I've managed to remember juat about everything except that I miss- counted the eggs but that's no big deal and people start to show up at my tent which is held together by three heavy-duty hand clamps on one side because it has seen a few too many football games and isn't my tent.  My tent needs a new canopy and I want Daniel Glick's Amish girls to sew it together for me because they are learning to sew and though I can sew (used to do some upholstery), you can guess the rest.  I'm learning to designate tasks.  Broad bands of yellow between thin bits of red.  That's my current visual on the new canopy.  Everybody is very cheerful- though the weather is only just bearable- but not raining so we all manage on nice smiles and introductions or re-introductions.  Something like that- for me it is always so pleasant to have a chance to talk to everyone- find out what they've been doing or where they're going, the new baby, how's school and then to tell them a little of what they can expect for this season with the final question (usually) "do you want a pastured chicken"?  I was talking to the lady selling bison meat earlier and she was telling me how bison (buffalo but they're supposed to be called bison- ) won't herd, don't tame, and eventually when a tree falls on your fenceline, inevitably they get out.  Or maybe you forgot to close the gate- they get out. sounds all very familiar to me- like the chickens except must larger I think.  Will stick to chickens for now.  One of the new members has C S A scrawled on her arm.  I imagine it's a reminder note to herself.  Maybe it said something else and I'm just being nosey.  Well, I'll just keep planting and it will all grow, especially if I keep it weeded and thin it out on occasion and keep building those raised beds.  I should say "we" now since I have help and a number of the members expressed a desire to come out and volunteer.  Very heartwarming.

May 21  pick axe, new market meeting and severe cramps

I've been building raised beds that will become part of the raspberry maze.  First though, since I need beds for so many crops and only have 200 raspberry plants (reds), I'm going to use these beds for the peppers and maybe the huckleberries as well. It is tough going.  The soil is a very dense, compacted yellow clay.  Much of it I toss to the outside base of the beds where it can be further broken down by weeds, mulch, worms, etc and not interfere with the plants' growth.  It's a hot sunny day and my T-shirt soaks with sweat in no time at all.  I'm constantly  craving fluids and take a few drinks with every break.  Later, at the new market meeting my gluteus maximus muscles(oops, wrong ones, I mean the "hamstrings"), in both legs go into spasm.  Fortunately, the host has some gatorade which dissipates the cramping.   I will have to add stretching and electrolytes to the water and skip on the juices.  Anyway, I'm using a pick axe to break up the soil instead of the shovel which works a little faster.  The beds are long and have to be separated by at least 8 feet so the future raspberry plantings will get enough sun.  Most of the time there is a tune running through my inner ear which I keep repeating over and over.  A chain gang tune would be more appropriate than the bit of golden oldy that I'm singing though- and then I get this idea- why not make the future maze more interesting by adding some levely of difficulty/mystery to it?  Here's the idea-  once you solve the maze (not too difficult a task I think), you could take the next challenge by solving the cryptic symbols which are found at the base of the raised beds- a series of symbols which I've carved into the retaining "walls" which one would have to record and translate.  A difficult task.  Once solved, a riddle is revealed which also has to be solved and the result of the completion of that task reveals a hidden treasure.  Not an original idea, as there used to be puzzle books you could buy with beautifully done artwork and riddles in the form of sing-song that if you solved would lead you to a pot of $25,000 or something like that.  Well, I have to build the raised-bed maze first then probalby next year, we'll get to the "runes", etc.  Went to a new-market meeting tonight and boy there were lots of chefs cooking that stew!  Including me.  About half-way through the cramping kicked in and all I could do was squirm.  it wasn't too bad of a meeting, really, but I've got a 14 hour day tommorrow and it's 11:20 p.m. and now I'm awake- ugh.

May 22

The rains kicked in around 6 pm or so, so I took a short break which grew into a long one.  I'm going to have to hire more help.  Valerie helped so we got two more beds done and planted.  Pick-axe is working well.  Two additional beds are nearly complete and will be planted tommorrow.  I picked up a load of sand in the morning- much of that I mixed with compost and spread on  some of the courtyard beds which are still "tight".  Then, around 3 pm we went down to Shady Hollow greenhouse where I picked up some red cabbage, basil, yellow pear tomato, Italian parsley seedlings and 5 rhubarb plants for the farm.  Then over to Emma Beiler's farm to cut some asparagus which we immediately put in an inch of water to keep fresh and to chat about getting some cut flowers on monday and rhubarb too.  the final stop was at Daniel Glick's farm for a couple dozen eggs and a 6 pound bag of asparagus they had just cut.  Home, off-load the plants, a quick drink and right back to Daniel's- in the rain this time to load some well-aged horse manure which was well wet.  Had a peanut gallery of his children supervising.  Broke the first shovel after a few heaves and about 40 minutes later was glad to quit and get home.  Tommorrow it will be peppers (using the freshly acquired manure in the soil), all the herbs and the red leaf lettuce.  Monday and Wednesday will have to be for the Artichokes.  Thursday I've got the Glick girls all day so they'll cultivate and I'll haul another load of Daniel's lovely manure and start putting in the tomato and eggplant beds.  In between the planting will be picking strawberries, mesclun salad mix for the Tuesday distribution and heading back down to the mill to pick up the first 500 pounds of my custom ordered chicken feed.  Gone will be all the vitamin and other additives.  The chickens will get those from the grasses and bugs they are (hopefully) eating.  I am behind on the chicken operation- will have to make a temporary chicken tractor out of one of the mini-greenhouses that have been laying around unused.  a couple of wheels and chicken wire instead of the greenhouse plastic and the second flock of chicks can start foraging tommorrow.  The third 100 arrive next Saturday just when I will be taking the first 50 for "processing".  

May 27 -Closing in on the planting schedule

Quit at 8 pm this eve- I was getting "pick-axe" arm and chopping chunks of clay into little bits had lost its' appeal.  Made lots of progress with the long list of planting "must do's" and If I can get 4 large and 2 smaller beds assembled tommorrow, I think we might be allright.  The chickens are being neglected somewhat- meaning that I've put off putting together a couple of smaller "chicken tractors" until tommorrow as I am determined to get the crops in the ground one way or another.  Joshua will be helping tommorrow eve after he finishes work (his final day before he begins working for me full time), and as of next week I've got Sarah and Susie for 20hrs a week for the next four months.  It was 93 in the shade today and I was a walking drip hose... and awed by Sarah and Susie who just kept going and going in their amish dresses without nary a concern about the heat.  They are solid, consistent workers and when 4:30 came around I ran them by the Dairy Queen for chocolate/vanilla twists which we all enjoyed.  The fields are beginning to come to order and I am feeling a little relief.  There's no time to step down from the 12-14 hour day as of yet but I do feel we will be able to meet our obligations (promised) to our CSA members and have produce for market by the beginning of July if not before.  The lawn remains unmowed and very ragged but Jeremy points out that there are interesting legumes popping up and the honeybees love their flowers.  Molly, our fuzziest cat, was walking around yesterday with her tongue hanging out- or rather stuck out and I was looking at her thinking oh no, she has some tongue lockjaw affliction or something until she popped it back into her mouth as if nothing was amiss.  I was amiss the other day due to dehydration, despondancy (sp?) and exhaustion; Valerie was planting the red cabbage too closely together so I yelled at her and I guess continued treating her badly as her reponse was barbed as well (or at least I took it that way), by the end of the night I was yelling at her to back off, etc using rather inappropriate terminology... she ended up going down to the big house and locked all the doors while I went into the carraige house and bolted the front door.  I had the advantage I think when I pulled one of O's artisinal beers out of the little refrigerator in the kitchenette and fell into the couch with the elixer soothing my poor nerves.  Valerie proceeded to come back up after a while and following a stint of pebble throwing at the back windows with a follow up of getting up on the shed roofs with a ladder (this is at night mind you)- well enough is enough and all ended well and following apologies (mostly on my part), I vowed to Valerie and myself to see if I could find a way to stay calm or somewhat collected when I am totally exhausted, etc.  Perhaps an earlier beer might have made a difference but rather than drink myself out of this quandery, I have to find some kind of "Zen" or "Amish Farmer ?" way.  I obviously will have to work on it.  I hope to Never yell at or abuse my help in any way shape or form and I must include the one closest to me as well.   I do plan on purchasing some lemon and/or lime (mini-tree) plants at Lowe's over this memorial weekend though Valerie suggested that I not spend the money.  Well- if the king of France and other 17th century notables can have an orangerie, then I will too- on a smaller more suitable scale but which means building some kind of orangerie at some point and since I like projects....  

May 30

Picked up a lemon and lime tree yesterday and some water lillies for the pond which dropped a foot overnight.  The past few days' forecast for rain has yielded nothing so we'll have to water since the irrigation systems planned aren't in yet.  Yesterday, at 6 am, I loaded 52 chickens for the trip to their processing and arrived at the Beiler Family Farm just past 8.  I took part in the process and while doing so, mentally distanced myself from what was actually happening.  Killing anything is unpleasant and disturbing.  We are omniverous beings and once the dispatched birds were looking like the chicken you see at the supermarket, well, it seemed o.k.   I will still care for the birds as best I can- I have to admit I like taking care of them and as I was on my way, recieved a phone call from the post office that a 100 new chicks had arrived in the mail and needed to be picked up.  Valerie went down to the post and as she has picking them up, heard a story on NPR about raising chickens and picking them up at the Post Office!  They ended up in the bathtub until late afternoon, when their coop-brood apartment was finally ready.  The teenagers (4 weeks) were moved to the back (more space) and the elders  (32 of which came back from the Beiler Farm because the birds weren't large enough- the 21 processed averaged only 3 1/2 pounds) were put in the portable pen.  I'll build a "chicken tractor" today and ramp to introduce the teenagers to foraging- they are a bit overdue.  I've also decided to fence in the entire "back" field (where the sand mound is) for the chickens and electrify this fence.  This will allow the birds much more freedom to graze and allow them adequate protection from coyotes, raccoons, skunks, opossums, dogs and to a certain extent, bears.  We would also be able to increase our flock size if there was the demand for pastured chicken.  It will be hot today and I have two large and 2 small beds to build and a lot of weed-wacking to do.  The lawnmower is still out of commission and the weeds are more prominent than the crops in places.

Memorial Day- Night of the First Chicken

It may be a holiday but not for us.  We've been weeding, watering, transplanting and harvesting from the raised beds all day.  Susie and I measured out the fence line to enclose the field where the chickens will be pasturing while Sarah sets seeds in the seedling trays since we don't yet have beds for many of the hot weather crops. While they pop into action- and I say "pop" because germination becomes very rapid these hot days for many crops- we'll somehow get the beds or for many it will be "mounds" or a trellis set up or rolling mound scenario which will describe (I think) the corn/bean/squash sister planting I have planned for the upper field.  Our bounty is beginning to size up.  For tommorrow's market and CSA delivery we have asparagus, strawberries, chickens, spicy mesclun salad mix, wildfire salad mix, young Daikon radishes to eat as a salad or to stir-fry, eggs and a half dozen flower arrangments.  Not much really but the selection portends of a greater diversity to come.  By next year, we should be able to offer, at just about any time, chickens, fish, eggs, artisinal breads and cheeses,mushrooms, and the produce.  We are slowly building a repertory of "found & wild" ingredients such as yarrow (to use in beer), elderberries (multiple uses in drinks and jams, etc), ostrich ferns from which you get the fiddlehead in early spring, wild black raspberries (in abundance this year and if we can clear some of the asiatic honesuckle from some of the larger sites, we'll have more) and possibly morels.  What else is out there? Possibly deer and wild turkey?  Meanwhile, we still struggle to get crops in but they do and each time another is added, I breath a sigh of hope that maybe we'll make it.  Meanwhile, at Lowe's I can't resist purchasing 16 thornless black raspberries on sale for $20 and a couple more Meyer lemon trees and Mexican limes and a pair of Navel Oranges.  Boy I wish they had figs and laurel.  So we cooked one of "our" chickens and ate it.  It was small but tasty.  Room for growth and improvement.  Valerie's dad fed some to our two "dinner" dogs who stand to either side of him waiting somewhat impatiently for multiple hand-outs which he lovingly gives them.  Valerie and I pass rolling eyes between each other.  That's our dinner routine.  I told Bob  No Chicken for the Dogs.  Two seconds later he forgets and gives them some.  I nearly have a hollywood moment- you know throwing some kind of overblown histrionic fit but I don't.  I just don't think that the memory of the chicken is served well by being fed to the dogs even if the dogs are nice, and keep him company, etc. 

April 5

With the unseasonably warm weather it is time to plant.  I've been planting since the beginning of spring with peas and fava beans the first to go in.  Many crops, such as beets, cauliflower, broccoli and choi, have been started indoors and will now go into the fields. The first 100 chickens arrived on the 26th of March and have been in intensive care ever since.  Or rather, I've  been giving intensive care ever since.  They really are like little dinosuars... and they have voracious appetites.  They are ten days old now and are onto their second 50 pound bag of feed.  The feed is ok, not organic but not medicated either and we've just located a supplier of organic feed so should be able to make the switch soon.   The chicks, all male, have doubled in size and are working hard on establishing their pecking order.  One of the projects this week, will be extending the chicken house by adding an addition to the rear to accomodate this growing flock and to make room for the next shipment due to arrive at the end of April.

Today however, is all about planting.  Enough crops to get the season started.  About a quarter of an acre has been tilled, composted, sanded and readied for planting.  That's half of todays' schedule.  The other half is the hothouse which needs to be prepared for all the peppers, tomatoes and other hot weathers arrival- perhaps by tommorrow.  The plants have outgrown the flourescent lamp set up in the carraige house.  The hothouse will be completely full so by the weekend, the overdue construction of hoophouse #1 needs to be tended too so the 170 artichoke plants will have a place to go... along with the 350 asparagus plants and all the onions which still demand protection from any rogue frost that is bound to hit between now and May 15.  The weekend (or next few days) also will see the transplanting of the black and red raspberries into their new beds and the newly-arrived hops rhizomes into their beds as well.

Another chore for this week is the construction and establishment of a half dozen "worm farms" which are basically boxes filled with horse manure and covered with burlap.  Wetted and given a handful of worms they (the worms) will eat and prosper and following a few months we should have well composted horse money and reams of worms to disperse to all the raised beds.  With the heavy clay soil, even though we've added compost and sand, we still need the worms to help the soil integration along.  Our biochar operation won't start until the fall so the worms are our best bet for soil improvement.

April 10.... Clay

Most days are long for a farmer; there's just so much to do.  Yesterday, however, was longer.  It started with the feeding of the mini-dinosaurs (the chickens) who generally put up a fuss when I come in (even though I always tell them I'm coming to try to calm them somewhat), to remove the trashed water and food bins for cleaning and refilling.  I've learned to keep good supplies of food and water for them... the other day I must have not left enough for the overnight feeding because the following morning they rioted when I put the food in.  I'm not sure when we lost that second chicken but I think it might have been during that riot that it got trampled.  After they had calmed down (i.e. eaten), I discovered it spread-eagled on the floor, lights out.  I must say that aside from the disappointment from losing the bird, it looked very funny because it was just like it would have looked in a cartoon.  I do care about my remaining 98 birds (and the two we've lost so far- the average being 5 lost per hundred) but I'm not attached to them emotionally.  They have more than doubled in size (closer to tripled) these past 15 days that we've had them and they are growing up to be warring gladiators for all I can tell (did I mention that they are all males?).  They constantly spar for pecking order and are curious too... once they've calmed down that is... especially when I'm refilling all the food bins.  They like to watch.  I haven't got to the "clay" part of this entry yet which is the main part... but I have to go feed those chickens now so later, following some field work (this is a very important planting day) hopefully I'll get to that.

April 14... Planting

Making really good progress getting crops in.  Red Choi, Chioggia Beets, Purple Top Milanese Turnips, Shungiku (edible Chrysathenum), and Spinach  beds were all planted on April 12.  Mexclun Salad mix, Red Wing Salad mix, Hong Vit (a Vietnamese edible radish top), Tuscan Kale (Itlay), Purple Mizuna and Spectrum Greens (a spicy asiatic salad mix) all went in yesterday and this morning I have been working on a 36 foot long deep sandy bed for St. Valery carrots (france), Daikon Radishes, and Root Celery.  This is the first of 4 deep beds that will have to be built... not including the very large asperagus bed and artichoke beds which will need a loamy soil depth of at least 2 feet.  Later today I'll put in some Black seeeded Simpson Lettuce and a bed of Black Summer Choi.  In between the planting, the hot-house sun-pit next to the residence will finally be complete enough to take the hundreds of potted plants (mostly tomatoes and peppers but others as well) that desperately need a better home than where they are right now.   I also need to add 100 square feet to the chicken coop no later than tomorrow.  Well, lunch break is over. I've refueled, so back to work.

April 16

Two more rows of Fava beans planted.  White grapes and black thornless Blackberries heeled in where the artichoke beds will eventually be- to be moved later.  The hothouse is finally operational and is full of plants (over 60 trays) .  Will spend a couple of hours on that next and then spend the afternoon completing the portable chicken "tractor" pen and start constuction on the coop addition which is sorely needed.  Next batch of chicks arrive next week.  The current batch of little monsters will be moved into the new 100 square foot addition.  The movable pen will be placed at  the back to take and redeliver chickens after a day of foraging on grasses, etc. 

April 23 

Time has a mind of its own.  It moves quickly at time, otherwise it's a slow process.  Rather it's my experience of it.  This week  has been productive but frustrating...  I've made progress... work always results in some kind of progress but the progress has all been uphill... against a lagging energy and a mind that won't keep quite and just tend to the important matters.  But the ants are in my brain and so my mind is ping-ponging around with an inner busy chatter. 

Meanwhile the chickens grow.  They are now four weeks old and are more than four times the size they were when they arrived.  They appetite is incessant and unrequieted and I am gradually learning their vocabulary (right now about 4 "words or states" that I've been able to identify) and their social behavior which I observe as being primarily based on rampage.  Breakfast being served?  Rampage !  What you like some tea? (i.e. water) Rampage!  How about some grit (one book said they wouldn't need grit until they were eight week old but I beg to differ).... well that was a rugby match.  In fact, I surmise that the origin of Rugby comes from some poor sod  spending alot of time around chickens... and because we don't have chicken feet, well, the rules were changed a bit to accomodate our puny feet... later of course two chickens decided they would just plunk themselves down into the middle of the grit (most of it devoured... they polished off a 1 lb bag in a couple of hours) and decided that was a choice spot to be.  Other chickens (the individuals whom I shall not name but you know who you are.. decided that perching on top of the food feeders was a really cool idea even if they did eventually end up inside the feeder- you know the expression "Prince Albert in a can" (refers to sardines I think...- well, I had to dissassemble the feeders in order to get them out, not to mention what they've left behind....   Maybe part of this week's frustration has been from the attention that I've had to spend on these charming chickens.  I feed them and then go and work on the chicken coop expansion which, I must say, interests the chickens greatly.  They like to watch me cut the wood once they've finished freaking out over the noise.  After that, it's groovy and they like the music from the radio too... back to the pecking order chest-butting and eye stare-downs and occasional chases; you know- the chicken dailies.

I ordered 100 Beauregard Sweet Potatoes and 100 purple Asperagus crowns and one Rhubard (I've got a few growing from seed so I just ordered one).  I also have 12 pounds of Jerusalem Artichokes coming.  They are related too and look like sunflowers.  Started 48 Cardoon (related to the Artichoke- a large thistle-like plant that Italians like to eat) and will probably start some more.  Will get the hops planted in one of the semi-circular raised beds up near the top of the "salamander" field- they will stay close to the ground their first year and produce a few hops but next year will shoot up a vine around 25 feet long so I'll set up a "Maypole" and run nylon lines up to the pole, and with pulleys at the top be able to drop the vines to the ground when they are ready to harvest.  the past couple of days, has been exciting also because Jeremy- who I think of as the "Bee Man of Penn State" (for lack of a better idea) has been coming out to set up hives of "survival colonies" of bees (survival refers to the fact that the colonies have made it through one or more winter- these have made it through five which is very rare in these north climates- most bees coming from the south these days) for study.  So we've been talking about that.  Yesterday, one of his associates, John was along and asked me why weren't the rows straight and I said that the vegetables didn't care whether the rows were straight or not and that some of them were sort of and then he said but they aren't parallel but then I replied but they are (sort of) and I'm not driving a tractor or anything and then he said that well he didn't know and I said I didn't know either and after all I'm an artist and then I pointed out where the salamander's head was and the front feet and then the rear as we walked up the hill towards the potential bee sites.  Tommorrow is blue and white day but more importantly it's the arrival of another 100 chicks. Man, when it rains, it pours!

April 24

Like an expectant father... I wake early and don't want to get out of bed as I'm anxious about the arrival of the 100 chicks.  All goes well- 99 have survived and I decide to follow the books' advice and show each chick the food and water.  They immediately dash off when released in a very wound-up chaplinesque way- finally free from the confines of the posted box.  Happily pecking at the peat-moss floor cover they find their way to food and water on their own.  I'll check back later and make sure everyone is up to snuff on what's what.

April 28

Everything takes so much longer than what I project.  The Big chickens were moved into the big coop apartment yesterday fortunately as the winds blew the portable outdoor pen they had been spending their time in into a stone wall and broke one of the sides today.  I will have the rear outside "foraging" pen ready for them tommorrow morning.  Just a couple of things left to do there.  Planted Chinese kale, southern giant mustard, romano lettuce, st valery carrots (french heirloom), and Daikon radishes today.  Got the second batch of cauliflower transplants in yesterday and tommorrow, before I head to New York for 4 days (more work- very overdue) I hope to get the Jerusalem artichokes in and row covers on many of the crops to protect them from flea beetles and aid in moisture retention.  It will be another hectic day which will end with a 250 mile drive to New York in the early evening.  Will start prepping the blue seed potatoes this evening.  Seed potatoes get cut up; a few eyes on each piece (not too small)and are put into a tray in the shade where the cut area will cauterize and the eyes will sprout.  Then they go into their as-yet -unprepared beds.   The new little chicks, now 7 days old are doing just fine.  Four have died.  Seven is the average (we are told).  The big chickens are down to 97 with one quite ill.  Might be gone by tommorrow.  Don't know what is wrong with it.  He's isolated and warm.  Maybe he will recover.  As for the rest, they are happy as long as they have plenty to eat.  And I'm developing "Pied Piper Syndrome".  Every time I open one of the access doors to give them food or refresh their water, they rush over.  I feel like a Pop Star.

March 12, 2010

    I've spent the last week on a "mini" excavator... big enough, about the size of an SUV.  Valerie is under the impression that it's "fun" to operate one of these, especially if you're a man. Men and their tools.  Well there probably is something to that.  I do like tools.. they make it possible to get things done.  Anyway, for me, the first three or four hours in the excavator are pure frustration as you have to use both your right and left hands to operate the bucket and depending one whether you flick this way or that and the combination between the two hands will determine what happens.  If you're only doing this on average about once a week per year, getting up to speed in a state of calm can be a real challenge.  Especially with a full schedule of digging, plowing and brush clearing planned.

February, and officially (for me anyway) the 2010 season is underway.  No more lying in bed until 8 or 8:30 am.  7 a.m is the new "up" hour because now the days will be full.   Oak logs have to be inoculated with Shitake mushroom spawn today and I'll be picking up my first load (3 cubic yards) of compost for the season and unloading it (45 minutes with a large scooping shovel).  This load will go into what will be the future asparagus, celery and celeriac bed.  The seedling operation has to be completely set up in the carraige house today which entails hauling in the big plastic shelving units, flourescent lamps and fixtures, and then making seed blocks to start  the onions, leeks, hot peppers, artichokes, cardoon, herbs and others.  These tiny 1/2" square blocks go into platic trays which are then moistened and covered with saran wrap and placed on top of the flourescent lamps so they get heated to around 85 degrees and quickly germinate.  Then they go under the lamps for a week or so... depending on the variety, some will go into the as yet uncompleted hot house for a cooler environment (50 to 60 degrees), some will go into the first hoop house which will go up the weekend of the 20th. and those that need high temps will stay in the carraige house as they grow, to be put into larger soil blocks and eventually pots;  the artichokes for example.  The artichokes, in order to fruit the first year, have to be tricked into thinking that they've gone through a cool season... once they are big enough and in pots, thry have to be moved outside when the temps are in the 50's during the day, then moved back in for the evenings.  This will go on for 5 weeks befor they can go outside permanently.   This year their bed will be the 300 ft long raised "salamander" bed which just happens to be slithering down the mountain side.  Each year we are going to raise it's raised bed a little higher so the salamander will seem to be gradually pulling itself out of the ground.

Lots of outside work to do.  First, while the ground is still frozen, hauling in a few loads of compost a week and ordering a delivery of 5-10 tons of yellow sand will get the soil improvement regimen off to a start.  We have a PASA (Pa. Assoc, of Sustainable Agriculture) conference to attend of Friday and Saturday (4th, 5th Feb) where we listen to keynote speakers, attend lots of workshops and make new connections, etc.   Before and after that, the lower field needs to be cleared of brush and young weed trees so that the earth can be tilled, compost added and that area's use planned.  Where to put the chickens has to be worked out and on the weekend of the 20th, a mini-excavator will be rented to fix the upper irrigation pond (which is leaking to the point that it doesn't hold water), install the small vineyard (by digging 6ft deep by 3 ft wide trenches, removing the clay, adding drainage, then a combination of screed [ground limstone] and clay so the soil will drain well, dig holes for the various fruit trees that will be planted in mid April, excavate the fish "tanks" for the tilapia fish operation, move the topsoil from where the hoop houses will go (compost and sand will be added to the topsoil and put back in minus all the perennial weeds) and level out the area where the large herb garden is going to go.  All in two and a half days.  Of course I'm hoping that the soil is only frozen down the first twelve inches or so at that point, and that we're not in the middle of a blizzard.  When I'm not in the machine, I'll be working with Beth and Olivier (CSA members) who are going to show me how beer is made, and to further excite the schedule, we are going to attempt to make some kind of cheese since we can get raw milk from a neighbor.

Last night I worked out how many cubic yards of compost we need for this year.  I drive a Ford F-150 with a long bed and if you fill the bed entirely and add a heap on top of that you get 3 cubic yards.  Well, we will need at least 90 cubic yards which means 30 trips.  Since working outside is still something of a challenge considering the frozen ground, etc. , at least half of these trips will have to be made this month.  I could have it hauled in by a tracker trailer, but they charge alot for the haulage and it would all have to be dumped at the entry to the farm.  so I make the trips with my pickup (adding some chores on the round trip) and run the loads out to the various needed sites around the fields.  Fortunately I don't have to load the pickup- unloading (a shovel operation) takes about 45 minutes.  

February 5-6    PASA conference

Once a year, farmers and many others involved in sustainable agricultural practices attend a two day conference at the Penn Stater.  Last year I was very excited to attend; this year I wanted to continue field preparations I had started during the week but since there was a rather large snow event on the way dragged myself  to the conference hoping it would be worth the 300 plus dollars we had spent in admission, etc fees.  It was well worth it.  What I learned was worth a great deal more.  Two of the highlights were workshops on preventing Downy and Powdery Mildew (and possibly Late Bight) and Biochar. 

 The workshop on Biochar in particular was very exciting.  Biochar is another name for activated charcoal and without getting into the details too much here, when you add it to the soil, there are many, many benefits.  It is not a feritlizer at well but makes the soil more microbiologically rich which in turn makes plants thrive more readily.  It also has a sponge like quality, reducing the loss of nitrogen and phosphorus from the soil.  You can't buy it... but it can be made on site.  More about this later.  It should make a huge impact on the quality of what we grow this year.  I will be adding a pound per 10 square feet to start and expect to be able to create about 100 lbs a week minimum.  It has to be "inoculated " first.  This is done by putting it in some compost and letting the compost/biochar mix "assimilate" for a few weeks before incorporating it directly into the raised beds.  Since you are adding carbon too the soil (where it will remain for 1,000 plus years) you are also reducing your carbon "footprint". 

The third workshop on cheese cave construction was also very informative and currently I am trying to figure out if I can build one sometime during the spring of this year.  Since I have no extra time that might proove be something of a pipe dream until next year.

February 26

Seedlings are doing very well thus far.  The artichokes look large, healthy,  impressive and will soon need to be transplanted into individual containers so their tap root will have room to grow.  Kiwi fruits are up; asparagus, all the onions, rhubarb, peppers, tomatoes... only the thai papaya refuses to show but I am told it could be three weeks for that seed to germinate.   the hot-house is coming along and, though behind schedule, should be ready for seedlings in a couple of weeks or less.  Running out of room in the carraige house.  The heat from the flourescent  lamps keeps the place at 70 degrees- no other heat source needed except at night when they are turned off. 

The ground is beginning to thaw so the excavator work will be scheduled for the first weekend in March.  A bit later than ideal to set up hoop houses so beets and broccoli will be started indoors so as not to get behind.  Picked up an antique cheese press which, once it's rebuilt will take its' place in our arsenal of tools... also purchased a 130 year old cider press in good condition which can be used to press cider, grapes and other berries and cheese as well.  Got a 10 gallon crock at that auction too for pickling or making saurkraut.

January.  I'm glad it's January though it's freezing outside. For Howard's End this will be a busy month in preparation for February when new heated hoophouses will be erected and thousands of seeds will be planted.  So this month is the time to determine which seeds to order and how many.  That task demands a complete count of the seeds onhand.  It is also a time for intense research.  This will be our second season and I am very much a novice at all of this so... as Valerie brings in the books on farming from the library (or on occasion from the bookstore or Amazon.com), I read them, taking notes and telling my brain to remember.

It's also a good time to work on the unfinished residence.  I will be here for a week before I have to head to New York (to earn some extra cash ) so one of the tasks I hope to accomplish is getting the rest of the straw into the walls so that in between farming tasks (in March, April and May) I can start stuccoing the exterior walls.  A second task this week will be to make a half dozen ceramic tiles from clay which we will display for sale at market and other venues.  In fact, some of the research I'm doing this winter involves the construction of wood fired kilns for raku pottery.  Since the hoophouses need to be heated, why not a heat source that also provides pottery? 

It's funny, but up until the past couple of years, I never even thought that I would ever farm.  My grandfather farmed, two of my uncles farmed (all in Kentucky) and my brother has been farming ever since he left high school. Farming and playing tennis.  I always loved visiting my relatives in Kentucky when growing up, oftentimes travelling from Belgiuim, or Holland or whever we were living at the time.  Our family- we were the "city slickers" and I always felt a little looked down upon.  We didn't know what hard work was.  That was a long time ago.  Now I talk to me uncle about the meaning of "sustainable agriculture" and I must admit to cringing when my mom gave him our brochure (oh no, Here We Go!).  But the conversation went well and he agreed that there was a place for "niche" farming (which meant diversified farming).   I let it go at that.  I like farming.  Organic farming demands that you know how to maintain a rich, healthy soil while all the time removing nutrients from it.  Soil chemistry, microbiology, plant chemistry, weather science, companion planting and crop rotation, geology, insect cycles, germination and propagation, accounting and other business skills make it a stimulating business.  Since I am an artist first, (well was anyway) I'm finding ways to make the topography of fruits and vegetables more interesting (or peculiar) by adding earth sculpting, mazes, standing sculptures and, since there is alot of stone to be had, finding creative ways to install stone walls, menhirs and other stone-age constructions.  Not this month however.  that will come later when things warm up.