July 2010

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.