May 2010

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.