Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Kettle of 18 turkey vultures gaining altitude to continue their southward migration. Some are hard to see.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Winter is creeping in...
I awoke this morning to crisp air and crunchy grass. As I walked to the chicken pen, I noticed that there was patchy frost throughout our yard. It seems as though our crops were not damaged by this surprise frost, but this growing season still has a trick or two up its sleeve. Our first fall frost in the last seven years hasn't come before Halloween. I am hoping that we don't get a hard freeze before Halloween. That would damage our celery and chinese cabbage. Unfortunately the slugs have eaten nearly every head of lettuce that we planted. They are out of control this year. All the rains and wetness of the summer has provided the slugs with perfect conditions to become specimens that would make their west coast brethren proud.
Also, we think it is necessary to shorten further the pick up time on Thursdays. We were wrapping up around 7:30 for September, and that would allow us a few minutes to get everything cleaned up before it was too dark to see. We would like to move the closing time up to 7:00 for the month of October, so that we can see to clean up and you can all see to get your veggies. If you think you will be later then 7:00, please send Amy an email or call our farm. We will put together a share for you, so you can pick it up when you can get here.
Enjoy the brisk days of fall!
Also, we think it is necessary to shorten further the pick up time on Thursdays. We were wrapping up around 7:30 for September, and that would allow us a few minutes to get everything cleaned up before it was too dark to see. We would like to move the closing time up to 7:00 for the month of October, so that we can see to clean up and you can all see to get your veggies. If you think you will be later then 7:00, please send Amy an email or call our farm. We will put together a share for you, so you can pick it up when you can get here.
Enjoy the brisk days of fall!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Praying mantises are making egg cases. I found this one on a chrysanthemum that I was going to weed around. That flower will stay overgrown.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
A big spider in the carrot patch. It sent Shiela running (she is afraid of spiders).
A big spider in the carrot patch. It sent Shiela running (she is afraid of spiders).
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Pick up time changes
As the sun is setting earlier now, we find ourselves cleaning up the Thursday evening pick up in the dark. In years past, we have tried to use lights to enable us to remain open until 8 pm. Much effort was expended to find something suitable, but very few people came that late to pick up their share. We have decided that ending the pick up time at 7:30 for the month of September would make our lives MUCH easier. If you think you may not make the 7:30 pick up time, contact us. We can make other arrangements for you.
We will be hosting pick ups on our usual time on Monday (Labor day) evening (2-6 pm). If that is your pick up day and you have other plans, you are welcome to pick up your share on Thursday from 4:30 pm - 7:30 pm. If you think you might be here between 7:30 and 8 pm, let us know and we will make a share for you.
Some of you have begun to ask how long our season will run. Usually we end by Halloween because people lose interest in coming here to get fall crops. This year we suspect we will host pick ups through October 28 (That is a Wednesday. The last Thursday in October is Trick-or Treat night. We will host pick ups the night before instead.) Then we will begin to close down our fields and get our cover crops in for the winter.
This year we will have a final pick up the week prior to Thanksgiving. I am unsure of more details at this point, but I will post more here and email everyone as soon as we know more.
We will be hosting pick ups on our usual time on Monday (Labor day) evening (2-6 pm). If that is your pick up day and you have other plans, you are welcome to pick up your share on Thursday from 4:30 pm - 7:30 pm. If you think you might be here between 7:30 and 8 pm, let us know and we will make a share for you.
Some of you have begun to ask how long our season will run. Usually we end by Halloween because people lose interest in coming here to get fall crops. This year we suspect we will host pick ups through October 28 (That is a Wednesday. The last Thursday in October is Trick-or Treat night. We will host pick ups the night before instead.) Then we will begin to close down our fields and get our cover crops in for the winter.
This year we will have a final pick up the week prior to Thanksgiving. I am unsure of more details at this point, but I will post more here and email everyone as soon as we know more.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Slogging through mud to try to keep our potato tubers safe from late blight infection.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Our potato field before our harvest. Late blight was found in it
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Those large brown blotches are late blight. It is doubtful that we will have more tomatoes. We are doing damage control to keep the potatoes healthy.
Monday, August 24, 2009
This hornworm will be killed when those white eggs hatch and eat him. Nature is brutal.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Yesterday's 60 mph winds flattened our next harvest of corn. I hope it pops back.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
View of cultivating peas from the tractor seat. (Sorry for the foot. I had to hold in the clutch or it would've been disastrous.)
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
This Saturday we will be doing more weeding like this from 8-10:30. Join us please.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The eggs are coming! The eggs are coming!
I received notice from my friend, Chris, that the 31 hens he bought in the early spring in hopes to have them begin to lay eggs for us in July have indeed laid some eggs. Today he gathered 17 eggs. Yeterday he gathered 6. Some of those may be smaller eggs (also known as pullet eggs), and some may be medium or large eggs. I am not sure if we will have eggs to purchase on Thursday, but I suppose it is time for me to gather the final information on the egg shares from him and pass it on to you. (Chris was nervous about offereing egg shares in case the hens never laid any eggs). I will verify his plans for offering all of us eggs and then let you know the details like price per dozen and how to get them during your pick up time.
In case you are wondering about how these hens have been raised, they roam the great outdoors during the day and are put inside a coop at night (to protect them from predators). They are fed a natural feed, but it is not certified organic. They are not given antibiotics to prevent them from getting sick. (They don't need it since they can graze on pasture as they like and get plenty of fresh outside air.) They are a sturdy breed of hen that has been around for a while, and has not been terribly overbred in order to get maximum laying production out of each bird. Chris describes his hen keeping as "the way they were raised 100 years ago". If you have any questions post a comment, and once I know the answer I will post one back. Or send me an email.
In case you are wondering about how these hens have been raised, they roam the great outdoors during the day and are put inside a coop at night (to protect them from predators). They are fed a natural feed, but it is not certified organic. They are not given antibiotics to prevent them from getting sick. (They don't need it since they can graze on pasture as they like and get plenty of fresh outside air.) They are a sturdy breed of hen that has been around for a while, and has not been terribly overbred in order to get maximum laying production out of each bird. Chris describes his hen keeping as "the way they were raised 100 years ago". If you have any questions post a comment, and once I know the answer I will post one back. Or send me an email.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
So many things...
I feel like I owe you all an apology for not posting snippets more frequently. I will do some research this week to learn how to easily post from my Blackberry whenever I get a chance. Having to sit down in front of my computer to post with only peace and quiet to keep me going, has resulted in my falling asleep everytime. When the sun is up, I can't possibly devote time to do only computer work. I might be able to work on a post while I whip up dinner or wait for Ethan to find the right way to put his shirt on (he can do it himself!).
Some of you might have heard about the late blight that is afflicting tomatoes and could wipe out potato crops across the east coast. It has been the topic of a few articles in the Patriot and Lancaster Farming. For a few days we were panicked, I must admit. We are banking on lots of tomatoes, and we planted our potatoes late to avoid intense pressure from the potato bugs we had last year. Late blight this early could devstate our potato crop. Luckily we haven't seen any signs of late blight on our farm. We do, however, have septoria leaf spot which is not as fatal to tomato plants as late blight. We might be helped out by the recent string of dry days and warmer nights. This change in the weather pattern, while not great for lawns or gardens, does lessen the conditions at which spores will thrive. We might be out of the woods. Time will tell. I will keep you updated.
A quick beet update: We started them in our greenhouse early this spring, transplanted them out between rain storms, and they are growing pretty well in our field. We also sowed some beet seeds for fall directly in the beet bed, and they are popping up. Each beet seed is actually 6 or so seeds in a cluster, and we must pull out the weaker plants in each cluster so the strongest plant has room to make a beet root. We will be thinning them over the next month and will include them in our shares as they are ready.
Oh the beans! Two weeks ago Andy finally got an opportunity to cultivate the string beans with our little Farmall Cub. The ground had dried enough to accept a tractor without packing too hard. The grass was high, but needed to be controlled ASAP and nothing is faster than tractor cultivation. The first two rows went beautifully. The weeds came free from the plants and exposed bare earth between the rows to make picking easier. The next six rows didn't go as well as the first two, and there were a few sections of sweet potato vine that got wrapped around the cultivator tines and wiped out rather large swwaths of bean plants. Andy was furious at himself for trying to help us control weeds quickly. The next day when she saw it, Mom cried. She was really bummed. We quickly readied another plot of land, and planted some extra seeds. Since then we noticed that our first planting of beans has recovered pretty nicely. It is not all that we intended, so the second planting will be nice. We should be able to have enough beans to preserve some along the way. We have a total of 3,200 feet of bean plants. That is alot of bean picking.
Oh to have a zuchinni... Last season we struggled to get summer squash to grow. We thought there was something wrong with our nutrient management program, and we even called the county extension agent to check out our plants. He recommended a few things, and we made some significant investments in soil amendments with the assumption that we would see a return on our investment this year. When we were a smaller CSA we grew our squash in the soil that we had always used and maintained. Now that we are trying to be large enough for the CSA to cover all of the costs of running a farm with one full-time employee, we have moved our squash patch to a larger area. That field is new to us, and it seems to deter summer squash. We have decided to continue to grow what plants we have up there, but we are putting some plants in the plot that we used to use for our personal garden. Next year we will move our vegetable production to the low lying section of our soil that is the most fertile. We had hoped that we would get better production out of the 3 acres that we are currently using. We think that land may be better utilized by planting fruit trees, blueberries, or raspberries, and possibly introducing some grazing animals and laying hens. Any preferences?
Also if you haven't seen Food Inc., I recommend it. Links to more info about it can be found here.
Some of you might have heard about the late blight that is afflicting tomatoes and could wipe out potato crops across the east coast. It has been the topic of a few articles in the Patriot and Lancaster Farming. For a few days we were panicked, I must admit. We are banking on lots of tomatoes, and we planted our potatoes late to avoid intense pressure from the potato bugs we had last year. Late blight this early could devstate our potato crop. Luckily we haven't seen any signs of late blight on our farm. We do, however, have septoria leaf spot which is not as fatal to tomato plants as late blight. We might be helped out by the recent string of dry days and warmer nights. This change in the weather pattern, while not great for lawns or gardens, does lessen the conditions at which spores will thrive. We might be out of the woods. Time will tell. I will keep you updated.
A quick beet update: We started them in our greenhouse early this spring, transplanted them out between rain storms, and they are growing pretty well in our field. We also sowed some beet seeds for fall directly in the beet bed, and they are popping up. Each beet seed is actually 6 or so seeds in a cluster, and we must pull out the weaker plants in each cluster so the strongest plant has room to make a beet root. We will be thinning them over the next month and will include them in our shares as they are ready.
Oh the beans! Two weeks ago Andy finally got an opportunity to cultivate the string beans with our little Farmall Cub. The ground had dried enough to accept a tractor without packing too hard. The grass was high, but needed to be controlled ASAP and nothing is faster than tractor cultivation. The first two rows went beautifully. The weeds came free from the plants and exposed bare earth between the rows to make picking easier. The next six rows didn't go as well as the first two, and there were a few sections of sweet potato vine that got wrapped around the cultivator tines and wiped out rather large swwaths of bean plants. Andy was furious at himself for trying to help us control weeds quickly. The next day when she saw it, Mom cried. She was really bummed. We quickly readied another plot of land, and planted some extra seeds. Since then we noticed that our first planting of beans has recovered pretty nicely. It is not all that we intended, so the second planting will be nice. We should be able to have enough beans to preserve some along the way. We have a total of 3,200 feet of bean plants. That is alot of bean picking.
Oh to have a zuchinni... Last season we struggled to get summer squash to grow. We thought there was something wrong with our nutrient management program, and we even called the county extension agent to check out our plants. He recommended a few things, and we made some significant investments in soil amendments with the assumption that we would see a return on our investment this year. When we were a smaller CSA we grew our squash in the soil that we had always used and maintained. Now that we are trying to be large enough for the CSA to cover all of the costs of running a farm with one full-time employee, we have moved our squash patch to a larger area. That field is new to us, and it seems to deter summer squash. We have decided to continue to grow what plants we have up there, but we are putting some plants in the plot that we used to use for our personal garden. Next year we will move our vegetable production to the low lying section of our soil that is the most fertile. We had hoped that we would get better production out of the 3 acres that we are currently using. We think that land may be better utilized by planting fruit trees, blueberries, or raspberries, and possibly introducing some grazing animals and laying hens. Any preferences?
Also if you haven't seen Food Inc., I recommend it. Links to more info about it can be found here.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Food Inc. is coming to the Midtown Theatre on Friday
The politicos in D.C. are even talking about this movie during their legislative sessions! I am not sure if that is good or bad, but that is not the point of this post. The point is that you have an opportunity to see Food Inc. on the big screen! The movie is described as "an unflattering look inside America's corporate controlled food industry." You can watch a trailer at the movie's website that I linked above. It will be playing at the Midtown Theatre, in Harrisburg from July 17 - July 23 at 3 pm, 5pm, and on Friday at 7 pm. Tickets are $7. Directions to the theatre can be found here. I know I'll see you there!
Tina, a CSA member, plants fall beans to ensure adequate quantities before winter.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Week Six already!
I can't believe we are six weeks into this distribution season and we are only just scratching the surface of our supply of lettuce. We always have a hard time selecting only a few varieties to grow during the seemingly short springs and this nice cool (sometimes too wet) season has allowed us to enjoy the diversity that exists in lettuce. We still have some oak leaf types to give out and a few standard red leaf types. Eventually we will get into the dense summer lettuce that they grow in Hawaii. (We though that we could grow that when it got hot here - that might happen sometime.) The kale and chard are also still going great guns - I know it is hard to keep eating it week after week sometimes. You can freeze both of them - steam or blanch them first f0r about 2 minutes. Then chop and freeze. They are wonderful in soup in the winter.
Over the weekend, I heard a recap of the weather statistics for June. The average temperatures were more than 2 degrees below normal and the rainfall amounts were more than 2 inches above normal. Putting cool with wet has made for some nice cabbages. We will tap into them next week. Unfortunately though, it made our snap peas rot before they developed full pods. The plants were so heavy with peas that they were weighted down and then once the rains came, the peas were laying on the ground. Our summer crops are not blazing their usual path. Our squash plants have few female flowers, and if this keeps up, we may harvest the males for squash blossoms to give out. Our peppers are doing pretty well. We may have a few hot peppers next week. The tomato plants are looking very good, and there are pretty many fruits that are still very hard and green. I would like the night time temperatres to stay out of the 50's, so they will ripen and not get terribly malformed. They will still taste good, but these few nights of cooler temperatures that we are experiencing, might bring on some goofy looking tomatoes. We shall see. I don't care what they look like if they taste good and produce enough quantities to satisfy all of our tomato needs.
Japanese Beetles are upon us. I am happy to report that we have covered our basil in time and should have little damage from the beetles (unless the cover blows off). They just love basil. More pictures to follow this week.
Over the weekend, I heard a recap of the weather statistics for June. The average temperatures were more than 2 degrees below normal and the rainfall amounts were more than 2 inches above normal. Putting cool with wet has made for some nice cabbages. We will tap into them next week. Unfortunately though, it made our snap peas rot before they developed full pods. The plants were so heavy with peas that they were weighted down and then once the rains came, the peas were laying on the ground. Our summer crops are not blazing their usual path. Our squash plants have few female flowers, and if this keeps up, we may harvest the males for squash blossoms to give out. Our peppers are doing pretty well. We may have a few hot peppers next week. The tomato plants are looking very good, and there are pretty many fruits that are still very hard and green. I would like the night time temperatres to stay out of the 50's, so they will ripen and not get terribly malformed. They will still taste good, but these few nights of cooler temperatures that we are experiencing, might bring on some goofy looking tomatoes. We shall see. I don't care what they look like if they taste good and produce enough quantities to satisfy all of our tomato needs.
Japanese Beetles are upon us. I am happy to report that we have covered our basil in time and should have little damage from the beetles (unless the cover blows off). They just love basil. More pictures to follow this week.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Where have the posts gone?
Boy last week flew by! I wanted to post a bit about the chickens we are raising, but it seems as though I don't know enough about them to tell you anything yet. They are growing, and enjoying the variety of plants offered to them in our orchard. I find myself watching them each morning after I move them to fresh pasture to see what they eat. They graze like they are at a salad bar-a nibble of plaintain, a peck of clover leaf, and a small piece of chicory. I wish I could offer them a wider variety each day to see if they might like grazing in our fallow vegetable beds. Our long term plan for our farm involves grazing animals in parts of our vegetable fields to remineralize them. This batch of birds is our first step toward this goal.
Last week we made the decision to take control of pollinating our cucumbers ourselves. Usually we leave the crop exposed so bees can visit the flowers and impregnate all the female flowers with pollen from the male flowers. Unfortunately we are under attack by cucumber beetles. They are a small green and black striped beetle that carries the Cucumber Mosaic Virus from infected plants to healthy ones. Infected plants wilt and die within 2-3 days after infection. If we did nothing, we could lose our entire crop within a couple of weeks. We decided to spray Pyganic in the early morning and still found plants were wilting at midday. We covered the plants with row cover in a effort to keep any new beetles away from the plants. This is helping, but now we can not rely on bees to pollinate the flowers for us. Every morning now we must hit the fields, remove the row cover, locate a male flower (it has a straight stem and long pointy center), peel off its petals, and rub it in the center of the female flowers (it has a tiny, fuzzy cucumber on the stem and a creased center. We hope that we will be able to keep the cucumber beetles away from the plants long enough for us to get tired of eating cukes. More tomorrow night.
Last week we made the decision to take control of pollinating our cucumbers ourselves. Usually we leave the crop exposed so bees can visit the flowers and impregnate all the female flowers with pollen from the male flowers. Unfortunately we are under attack by cucumber beetles. They are a small green and black striped beetle that carries the Cucumber Mosaic Virus from infected plants to healthy ones. Infected plants wilt and die within 2-3 days after infection. If we did nothing, we could lose our entire crop within a couple of weeks. We decided to spray Pyganic in the early morning and still found plants were wilting at midday. We covered the plants with row cover in a effort to keep any new beetles away from the plants. This is helping, but now we can not rely on bees to pollinate the flowers for us. Every morning now we must hit the fields, remove the row cover, locate a male flower (it has a straight stem and long pointy center), peel off its petals, and rub it in the center of the female flowers (it has a tiny, fuzzy cucumber on the stem and a creased center. We hope that we will be able to keep the cucumber beetles away from the plants long enough for us to get tired of eating cukes. More tomorrow night.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Rain, Rain, Go Away
If you were planning to come to help us weed this morning, don't. We are not going to be doing field work. We are considering growing rice. Our fields are paddys, and moving through them would be highly detrimental to the soil structure.
We do still need help though, so if you have a chance to help us once the weather changes, let Amy know. Our time in the fields has been condensed by all the rains, and when we can get out there we are planting and fighting bugs. Weeds are becoming a HUGE problem, and we are trying to keep up.
We do still need help though, so if you have a chance to help us once the weather changes, let Amy know. Our time in the fields has been condensed by all the rains, and when we can get out there we are planting and fighting bugs. Weeds are becoming a HUGE problem, and we are trying to keep up.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Week 3 already
The new traffic pattern seems to be working out thanks to all of you showing courtesy to your fellow members. Thank you all. After too many days of rain last week, I tried to order some stones in an effort to reduce the levels of mud in our lane, the parking area, and the new exit. The conversation between the scale master at the quarry and I went rather badly. After telling the grumpy lady that I wasn't going to buy stones from such a snotty person, and hanging up on her (it was warranted, I promise) I remembered that she was the most affordable quarry around. I just can't wait to call her back this week...
On a more professional note, the crops are growing great guns. We have some little tomatoes. They are tiny, but in another month or so, we should start to see some luscious fruits. The peppers are in blossom. Cucumbers are a good week away (though they have cucumber beetles worse than I have ever seen them). Some broccoli has begun to form tiny heads (we will watch for that %$#& tarnished plant bug that chews off the tops of all the florets leaving brown nubs for us). Some cabbages are starting to head up (some got lost in the grass that grew during the last period of rains). The kohlrabi patch is big and great looking thanks to Howard weeding it last weekend. And most importantly our corn is out of the ground and looking pretty good. One last thing to warn you about - shell peas. It is looking like we are going to have plenty of shell peas. We will show you how to shell them if you don't know how. Maybe I'll figure out how to post a video here...
We got behind last week with all the rains. There are many lettuces that need to be planted. Our flowers for the beneficial insects are ready to be planted. Some potatoes need to go in. Our onions and leeks are in desperate need of weeding. Bug pressure is lower than in past years, so far (weed pressure is going way up though). This week we will begin our seeding for our fall plantings, and we don't want to lose our spring and summer crops during that time. This coming Saturday we will have a working (weeding) Saturday from 8-10:30 am, but if you want to come during the week instead, let Amy know. The sooner we uncover the plants, the better for them.
On a more professional note, the crops are growing great guns. We have some little tomatoes. They are tiny, but in another month or so, we should start to see some luscious fruits. The peppers are in blossom. Cucumbers are a good week away (though they have cucumber beetles worse than I have ever seen them). Some broccoli has begun to form tiny heads (we will watch for that %$#& tarnished plant bug that chews off the tops of all the florets leaving brown nubs for us). Some cabbages are starting to head up (some got lost in the grass that grew during the last period of rains). The kohlrabi patch is big and great looking thanks to Howard weeding it last weekend. And most importantly our corn is out of the ground and looking pretty good. One last thing to warn you about - shell peas. It is looking like we are going to have plenty of shell peas. We will show you how to shell them if you don't know how. Maybe I'll figure out how to post a video here...
We got behind last week with all the rains. There are many lettuces that need to be planted. Our flowers for the beneficial insects are ready to be planted. Some potatoes need to go in. Our onions and leeks are in desperate need of weeding. Bug pressure is lower than in past years, so far (weed pressure is going way up though). This week we will begin our seeding for our fall plantings, and we don't want to lose our spring and summer crops during that time. This coming Saturday we will have a working (weeding) Saturday from 8-10:30 am, but if you want to come during the week instead, let Amy know. The sooner we uncover the plants, the better for them.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Weekly update week 2
Whew! We made it through the first week of pick ups with the new traffic pattern and through this last series of Rain. Now that we are drying out we will focus on pulling all the weeds that are overtaking most of our fields. If you would like to help with that, let Amy know.
Before the rains came we planted the first round of corn planted and all of the beans - green, yellow, purple, and lima. I expect to see sprouts in the next day or two. We have never done well with early corn since the Japanese beetles are usually out and about when it is pollinating and they eat all the corn silks off. (In case you didn't know, the silk carries pollen from the tassel to the kernel and only then will the kernel form. No silk, no pollination. No pollination, no fruit.) We are tired of trying to grow early corn only to yield a bunch of empy cobs. Our cucumbers have some blossoms, and are looking good. The tomatoes are doing well, and are sporting blossoms also. They are really starting to grow really fast. We must get our tomato stakes in this week. Today we planted more summer squash plants. The last round that we put in were transplanted from starts that we sowed in the greenhouse. They seemed to be doing poorly, so we are going to the old standby of planting seeds directly in the garden. I think it will work much better, and can't wait till I can have some summer squash. Our watermelons should be planted out this week, and if all goes well we will put out our potatoes. Usually we plant them really early and by now the potato bugs are eating off all of the leaves. I think that by waiting, we could miss the majority of the bugs and wind up with many beautiful late potatoes.
All of the spring crops are doing very well. The bugs are a bit annoying (slugs and flea beetles in particular), but the moderate temperatures have helped the cabbages and broccoli grow beautifully. This has been the best pea season in many years. The shell peas will be ready in a week or two and I suspect that we will all be tired of shelling them.
I posted a poll about lima beans on the right side of the blog. Please take it. My mom and I have always disagreed on the popularity of lima beans, and you can settle it for us (at least for this year). I can't wait to see the results. See you around the farm!
Before the rains came we planted the first round of corn planted and all of the beans - green, yellow, purple, and lima. I expect to see sprouts in the next day or two. We have never done well with early corn since the Japanese beetles are usually out and about when it is pollinating and they eat all the corn silks off. (In case you didn't know, the silk carries pollen from the tassel to the kernel and only then will the kernel form. No silk, no pollination. No pollination, no fruit.) We are tired of trying to grow early corn only to yield a bunch of empy cobs. Our cucumbers have some blossoms, and are looking good. The tomatoes are doing well, and are sporting blossoms also. They are really starting to grow really fast. We must get our tomato stakes in this week. Today we planted more summer squash plants. The last round that we put in were transplanted from starts that we sowed in the greenhouse. They seemed to be doing poorly, so we are going to the old standby of planting seeds directly in the garden. I think it will work much better, and can't wait till I can have some summer squash. Our watermelons should be planted out this week, and if all goes well we will put out our potatoes. Usually we plant them really early and by now the potato bugs are eating off all of the leaves. I think that by waiting, we could miss the majority of the bugs and wind up with many beautiful late potatoes.
All of the spring crops are doing very well. The bugs are a bit annoying (slugs and flea beetles in particular), but the moderate temperatures have helped the cabbages and broccoli grow beautifully. This has been the best pea season in many years. The shell peas will be ready in a week or two and I suspect that we will all be tired of shelling them.
I posted a poll about lima beans on the right side of the blog. Please take it. My mom and I have always disagreed on the popularity of lima beans, and you can settle it for us (at least for this year). I can't wait to see the results. See you around the farm!
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
XPN talks sustainability
If you haven't heard it yet, you might want to tune in to WXPN in the afternoons. I was running a few errands this afternoon and was lucky enough to be in the car when they aired an interview with Judy Wicks, founder of White Dog cafe in Philly and cheerleader for local living economies in the Philadelphia region. She was talking about how much distance has been put between eaters and food producers/processors. She touched on how damaging it has been to our culture and economy that we have gotten away from enjoying the simplicity of using what is available to us - finding local investments, buying clothing produced as nearby as is legal (PA can't grow cotton, but can grow hemp.), and supporting local farms and food processors. I have given it a cursory review, but the webpage that XPN has developed, Sustainability: The New Frontier, looks intriguing. Check it out.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Ready. Set. Go!
This week marks the first pick ups for 2009. We have been so busy the past few weeks that all I can manage to post are quick photos from the field while I walk to my next chore. Mom has been working as hard as she can (and that is pretty hard) to get everything planted in the fields between the rains. We did manage to get into our lettuce patch today to plant some in the field. Also we were finally able to plant our summer squash.
Even when it is raining, we are here doing farm work. Mom was working on transplanting lots of flowers and lettuce into larger cells. I was working on a new sign for the end of our lane, and the handbook for 2009 CSA members. The handbook should be finished for everyone next week. I usually have it ready long before the season starts, but this season we have initiated several things - the cheese CSA, a different traffic pattern through our neighbor's right of way, egg shares (they will start in July) and a earlier pick up time. These things have all taken more of my attention that I have first expected, and I am so sorry that I haven't been able to tie up all of the loose ends sooner.
Tonight they are calling for frost in the northern tier of the state and snow in NY. It is not helping us much. Though the average temperature for May was normal, the cold night time temperatures that keep coming at us are slowing the growth of our very leafy crops. The lettuce is staying lower to the ground that I wanted. It is very sweet though.
A new blog with recipes and information about the foods that we grow will be unveiled tomorrow eveining after I order milk. (If you want to have milk here for your next pick up, I need to have the order by sundown on Monday.) A link will be posted on the right of this page to take you there. The address is http://www.sharedearthfarmeats.blogspot.com. It will explain how to post your favorite recipes for others to try. You don't need to have any special ID to post things. If you aren't comfortable posting anything, please read the recipes and get ideas of what to make for dinner.
See you this week! I can't wait...
Even when it is raining, we are here doing farm work. Mom was working on transplanting lots of flowers and lettuce into larger cells. I was working on a new sign for the end of our lane, and the handbook for 2009 CSA members. The handbook should be finished for everyone next week. I usually have it ready long before the season starts, but this season we have initiated several things - the cheese CSA, a different traffic pattern through our neighbor's right of way, egg shares (they will start in July) and a earlier pick up time. These things have all taken more of my attention that I have first expected, and I am so sorry that I haven't been able to tie up all of the loose ends sooner.
Tonight they are calling for frost in the northern tier of the state and snow in NY. It is not helping us much. Though the average temperature for May was normal, the cold night time temperatures that keep coming at us are slowing the growth of our very leafy crops. The lettuce is staying lower to the ground that I wanted. It is very sweet though.
A new blog with recipes and information about the foods that we grow will be unveiled tomorrow eveining after I order milk. (If you want to have milk here for your next pick up, I need to have the order by sundown on Monday.) A link will be posted on the right of this page to take you there. The address is http://www.sharedearthfarmeats.blogspot.com. It will explain how to post your favorite recipes for others to try. You don't need to have any special ID to post things. If you aren't comfortable posting anything, please read the recipes and get ideas of what to make for dinner.
See you this week! I can't wait...
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Mom and I finished planting the last eggplants just before sun set. Happy Memorial Day!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Kale
I just checked on the kale that we are growing under row cover. Row cover is a polyspun fabric that lets sunlight, rain, and air through. It keeps any frost and hungry bugs away. I was disappointed to find flea beatles there. We had covered the plants hoping that they would remain free of bug chew holes, but unfortunately those tiny black beatles beat us again. Above is a picture of the tender kale under the white row cover. We will have to mix up one of our favorite coctails of calcium, liquid fish, kelp, and Pyganic (an organic pesticide). That should lessen the damage.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
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