News and blog
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.