May Weeding

Yes, Julia's laughing, not crying:)

The weekends have given us great weather for farming. Anna and Julia get in on the action for as long as Julia will last in the pack. A couple years ago it was Pieter on Anna's back, now we guide him out of the rows trying to avoid trampled broccoli and lettuce.  Most of the time he's pretty good about staying in between plants.

Some rows had enough weed pressure that the whole bed, vegetable seedlings and all, had to be turned under and replanted.

Drainage

We constructed hoop houses to get a jump on planting but they were too wet in April due to poor drainage. The three hoop houses are built about 4 feet apart and they are about 50 feet long. The three ditches I needed to dig felt like a lot of shoveling so I decided to use the tiniest excavator I could find.

Their was barely enough room for the machine but I am happy to say I did not ruin any plastic or hoops with an errant swing of the bucket

Chris relieved me after a couple hours of digging. He connected the ditches and is sending the water down hill.

Flame Weeding

Flame weeding is used to kill all of the newly sprouted weeds before they get large enough to compete with the planted vegetables. I am flaming the weeds in a bed that was planted a week ago. The lettuce seeds have not yet germinated and they are safe from the torch under the cover of soil.

I bought an inexpensive propane torch at a hardware store and every time I let go of the thumb trigger, the flame would go out. The torch is designed so that you open a flame adjustment valve on the handle to set the maximum flow of propane but the propane will not pass to the end of the torch until you push a thumb trigger. When you let go of the trigger, the torch is extinguished.

I pulled the thumb trigger apart and put a scar in the valve assembly so just a little propane will constantly leak past the trigger when the flame adjustment valve is open.  Now when I let go of the thumb trigger the torch stays lit and I don't have to reach for the striker at the end of each row.

When the lettuce finally pokes through the soil it will be greeted by a weed free seed bed.

Join Our CSA

click the on the picture above to view the membership form

The seeds are planted and we are excited to start our CSA this June! 

 CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. In short, members pay for a "subscription" to a farm and receive a box of produce each week.  By paying up front, subscribers provide capital for seeds, labor, fuel and soil amendments in the spring, which is when a farm incurs its greatest expense.  In our model, customers will receive a weekly box of local, fresh produce straight from our farm for 20 weeks for $500.  Membership supports a small business and local family and ensures a supply of seasonal organically grown vegetables beginning in spring, through the summer and into fall.   

We would love for you to join us in our adventure. We'll do the growing (including weeding, planting, weeding, harvesting and did I mention weeding?) and you serve and enjoy vegetables on your table.  In order to secure your share, click on the membership form above to download a form.  Send it back with your payment and you're all signed up! We'll be in contact to let you know when to expect to pick up your first week's supply of crisp, fresh veggies beginning the last weeks of June.

We want to thank all of our members ahead of time.  We truly believe in the food we eat and grow and are so thankful that we can share it with you.  It is one of our goals for Farmer Vince to be able to have his hands in the soil full time.  Your membership gets us closer to that goal.  Oh yeah- Pieter and Julia thank you too.  They hope you enjoy fresh veggies as much as they do!

Marking Rows

What a beautiful weekend - the third in a row and we have planted up most of the prepared seedbeds. The Allis Chalmers G never fails to start.  Even if the battery is dead, I can grab the hand crank, spin the engine over and away it goes to mark rows. Up to this point I have been keeping up with the weeds using a wheel hoe but I will need to mount the cultivators soon.

Happy Easter

We had beautiful weather over the Easter weekend and I was able to seed about a 1/4 acre of vegetables.

We tilled the beds Thursday night and marked the rows using the cultivating tractor. After the beds are made, I follow the marked rows with the Jang seeder. I mark each row 1 foot apart and 3 rows to a bed.

We seeded all of our spring crops, some of which should have been planted 4 weeks ago.

First Field Work 2012

We had dry weather last weekend and lots of help.  Farmhand Chris chiseled the beds that had cabbage, broccoli and other fall crops.

I was able to rototill some of the field we pre-bedded in the fall.  These beds were left without a cover crop and hilled in November.  This is not the best for building soil organic matter but the trade-off is that these rows will dry out quicker in the spring and it allows me to plant during these small windows of nice weather.

Kyle and Hunter spent the afternoon transplanting on raised beds.  After a lot of experimenting and adjusting, we were able to get the new bedder to work.  When everything was operating correctly, the beds came out even and firm.  I hope this translates to beds that are easier to cultivate and maintain.