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To see Farmer Roger's latest entries, read on:
June 12, 2008
May 29, 2008
May 26, 2008
May 25, 2008
May 18, 2008
May 16, 2008
May 14, 2008
June 12, 2008
Cold & Wet, Warm &
Fuzzy
It
has been a long and eventful two weeks since I last made an entry here.
I’m not going to try to get into much detail here, but here are some of
the highlights.
We
did have a few days of good weather for fieldwork, but mostly the last
two weeks have been a long stretch of cold wet days. Almost every day we
had to change our plans, sometimes several times, to maximize our
progress in whatever way possible. In spite of the weather we did keep
pretty much on schedule. It does seem we are now coming into a drier
stretch and we should manage to get everything planted on time, if not
at the optimum times. Some of the planting highlights: We planted the
gourds, the eggplants, the hot peppers, the sweet peppers, corn maze
corn, the Pumpkin Patch pumpkins as well as most of the other Jack O’
Lanterns, our signature rows of sunflowers between the corn maze and the
Pumpkin Patch, the school tour pie pumpkin field, our lavenders, and
started on planting our Winter Luxury Pie pumpkins. We pruned and tied
the tomatoes in the hoop houses and set up trellises for the hoop house
cucumbers. We’ve done the first weeding on the tomatoes, tomatillos,
summer squash, and potatoes, and undoubtedly some other places I’m not
thinking of right now. Tomorrow after we finish planting the Winter
Luxury Pies I expect to finally get the melons and watermelons planted
out. We have several thousand more Jack O’ Lantern plants that will be
ready to plant next week, as well as thousands of miniature pumpkin
starts.
While accomplishing all this, we had a booth the Bastyr Herb and Food
Fair, set up for our first Farm Tots visitors, put up the big farmstand
tent and all the associated stuff inside, put out signs, brought in two
new recycling bins, mowed and generally tidied up, and opened the farm
on Wednesday with a ribbon cutting ceremony. Due to the cold the
raspberries and some of the other crops are coming along slowly, but we
do have a good selection of greens – pak choi, spinach, Swiss chard,
Tatsoi, mitsuma, and some lettuce, as well as snap peas.
Yesterday as we were preparing for our second open day, one of the Farm
Tots teachers called to me, asking excitedly if I had my camera on hand.
They had noticed a small visitor in the equipment storage hoop house. I
did manage to snatch this photo of the long tailed weasel. We do have
plenty of small rodents living about the farm, so we are happy to know
the weasels are on the prowl. There has been at least one family of long
tailed weasels living in the raspberries since we planted them back in
2001, but this is the first weasel I’ve caught sight of myself.
This is the day for photos of cute animals. Sabino (the white one) and
Faron (the black one) joined our farm today. These two young male
alpacas were born in November and December of 2006, so they are now
about a year and a half old. They have been buddies since birth. The
alpacas are shy but inquisitive creatures. Sabino and Faron will be
living with our African pygmy goats. The alpacas and goats are still a
bit uncertain of each other. Sabino and Faron were shorn last week, but
we have their fleeces. We hope to incorporate the fleece and fiber into
our educational programs.
Tomorrow and Sunday we will have our Welcome Back Celebration at the
farm, so I’m knocking off for now to go rest up for another two big
days.
May 29, 2008
Transplants, Tillers,
and Taters.
By
the end of the day tomorrow, we will have transplanted out more than
8,000 tiny plants into the field during the week. On Tuesday and
Wednesday we planted our fancy pumpkins (Cinderella, Red Warty Thing,
Padana, One Too Many, Lumina, Jarradale, Galeus D’Eysines, and Cotton
Candy). We finished off Wednesday planting our second round of summer
squash. Today we planted flowers (sunflowers, straw flowers, scabiosa,
celosia, and larkspur), basil, kale, Swiss chard, shiso (both green and
red), spinach, and bok choy. Tomorrow we will plant the gourds (small
and large) and then see how much time is left to transplant anything
else.
Early in the week I decided this would be a good week to get the corn
maze field planted. Due to the cool, wet weather some weeds escaped the
last tilling, so we needed to till the field one more time before
planting the corn. Yesterday, to our dismay, the big tractor-mounted
tiller finally broke down beyond repair during the tilling. After a
quick consultation with Claire at the Root Conviction Farm next door,
Claire sent her son Jeff down to finish tilling the field. Today, after
a few false starts and equipment adjustments, we started the corn maze
planting. We will finish the planting tomorrow. Meanwhile, Rob and I
made some phone calls and located a new tiller. Valley Supply in
Stanwood will deliver our new tiller tomorrow. That kills off our
budgeted emergency/opportunity reserve, so no more major breakdowns are
to be allowed.
Today's happy discovery was that the potatoes had sprouted since I
looked at them last weekend. Our new approach to growing potatoes this
year is to cover the potatoes with leaf mulch instead of soil. We're
hoping this will mean fewer weeds to pull and also more easily harvested
potatoes.
Next week we will need to transplant out the melons, watermelons,
peppers, and eggplants. We still have some herbs to plant out and yet
another round of lettuce and other greens. We also have some new
lavender plants to transplant. We are growing Royal Velvet, Maillette,
and Super. I'm sure there will be some weeding to do. We expect to start
the tomato pruning next week. We will also be starting to focus more on
preparing for Opening Day, Wednesday, June 11.
May 26, 2008
Blackberry Blossoms
First Flower Alert!
Today I noticed that the Marionberries had burst into
bloom. When I went to check out our thornless blackberries, I was
astounded by the number of flowers blanketing some of varieties.
I have never seen our blackberries so densely covered
in bloom.
I searched several rows of the raspberries, but I
could only find a single raspberry blossom. I did see a number of
honeybees cruising the raspberries looking for flowers.
With our cold, damp spring I’ve been having many
conversations about how crops are late this year (excepting maybe the
grass at our farm). I went back to the office to try to figure out an
average first blooming for our berries. I looked at photos of the
blackberry and raspberry flowers from other years. Since I took photos
when I happened to pass by and notice the flowers, I can’t pin down a
first flowering date for any year. I also did a search on my blog
entries and found that the raspberries were blooming in mid-May of 2006.
Since we only have six years of growing raspberries, I would hesitate to
pick an average date. Given all that, it looks like our raspberry and
blackberry flowers are at least one week and more likely two weeks
behind a typical year. I am a bit confounded because my impression has
always been that the raspberry bloom is usually earlier than the
blackberry bloom, the reverse of my observation this year.
I don’t know how all this will affect the first
ripening of the raspberries and blackberries. The weather in the next
month or so is unlikely to be right on the average. A string of extra
warm days could do a lot to push the crop along. We’ll just have to wait
and see.
The optimistic view of this year’s dazzling blackberry
bloom is that we can expect an outstanding crop for the year. The
pessimistic view is that the early flowers are just blooming late and we
may have a typical yield, but with all the berries ripening at the same
time. If we can get the word out and coax people to the farm in time to
pick them all, I’d be happy with that, but for now I’ll look forward to
a bounteous blackberry harvest.
Extra alert!
On my last pass through the farm on my way home I
stopped to look at the peas and found the first planting of snow peas
are in bloom. A lot will depend on the weather between now and June 11,
but I have hopes that we might just have peas to pick on the farm
stand's opening day.
May 25, 2008
Cold showers don’t stop the planting frenzy. The weeding season is
picking up. A big week for experiments – oyster shell and paper.
We had a series of cool, rainy days this week, so I
had to adapt and change our fieldwork plans daily. We did manage to beat
all our planting deadlines this week, but I would have liked to get even
more things planted out.
We planted out all our cucumbers this week. We filled
two of the hoop houses with cukes. The rest of the cukes are planted in
the field, under low tunnels for now.
The field where I planned to plant our winter squash
this week has stayed too wet to put in the raised beds. Finally on
Thursday I decided to rearrange the planting map and put the winter
squash in the field I had planned for Jack O’ Lanterns. This won’t
affect the crop rotation plan, since pumpkins and winter squash are
closely related and are interchangeable in the rotation. Both fields
were fallow last year. When the pumpkins are ready, we’ll plant them
where we had planned to plant the winter squash.
On Tuesday when I had the crew pull the row cover back
from the broccoli and cauliflower we found extensive slug damage. We
have always had some slug damage, but it has usually been just a few
plants gone here and there. I’ve figured that in the long run it was
easier to sacrifice a few plants than to spend time running around
fighting the slugs. This year they have gone too far. We’re trying
crushed oyster shell as a barrier around the transplants. Supposedly the
slugs don’t cross over the sharp shards. It does add some time to
planting, since someone has to go back and sprinkle the oyster shell
around each tiny plant. The oyster shell will add calcium to the soil as
it breaks down, so it also acts as a soil improver. We planted broccoli
and cauliflower back into the same slug-ridden beds, so we’ll find out
pretty soon if the crushed oyster shell does the trick.
Brian is starting to see some flea beetle damage. I
haven’t seen any yet. I’ll try to keep the brassicas covered.
Also this week we weeded the onions & leeks, the peas
and the lettuce and other greens. Late this week we finally got in our
last Jack O’ Lantern seed. Evert started planted about 4000 today in
flats in the hoophouse.
For a while now Brian has wanted to use paper as mulch
instead of the thin plastic we’ve been using. A couple of years ago he
laid some paper by hand. (Check out my blog entry from April 13, 2006 -http://www.farmllc.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,2a870f52-56d0-4ce6-9a1d-a205fc10358b.aspx
). One big advantage of the paper mulch is that it can be tilled into
the soil at the end of the season. The plastic mulch must be pulled up
and then thrown away. Of course the paper will start to deteriorate in
the rain and sun, allowing weeds to sprout. Even so, we are thinking
that it might do well with pumpkins and other sprawling crops with big
leaves that shade the soil and out-compete the weeds once the crop is
established. The paper’s role is to provide the time and opportunity for
the crop to grow large before the weeds take over.
Chef Brian Scheehser with his new
mechanically-laid paper-covered raised beds. In the upper left corner
you can see our John Deere tractor with the bed-former attachment.
Brian went out and bought a couple of 1000-ft rolls
of paper and on Friday we experimented with laying paper-covered raised
beds. The thin plastic works well because it stretches and fits tightly
to the soil. We knew we would have to modify our technique, since paper
rips rather than stretches. However, with some adjustments, slow careful
tractor speed, and the proper care, we got some nice beds. One key is to
maintain a consistent tension. We were getting close, but still getting
rips, when Brian discovered that by walking on the bed immediately
behind the bed-former he could keep that consistent tension. He &
Enrique then finished that bed and did three more 250-foot long beds
without rips. They then put in another 6 rows behind Brian’s new hoophouse.
We were pleased and excited with the results. We
will be doing some more experiments to speed up the process, reduce the
wrinkles in the paper, and try laying dripline under the paper. Brian
has already planted some lettuce and other crops into his new beds. We
will have to also adapt our planting methods to the paper. My roller
dibbles that save so much time on the plastic-covered beds are obviously
not the best choice on paper-covered beds. I’ll be watching Brian’s
paper beds closely this year. Maybe we’ll see our pumpkins on paper next
year.
This coming week I’m planning to plant out more summer
squash, our fancy pumpkins, a second round of flowers and herbs, more
lettuce, spinach & other greens, and maybe the gourds, if we get that
far. In the starts greenhouse we’ll be planting more lettuce, our
miniature pumpkins, and some brassicas.
Sunday,
May 18, 2008
Berry blossoms, Curious
caprines, Bitten-off brassicas
Since my last entry on
Friday, I finished a big chunk of paperwork yesterday, Evert planted a
lot of pumpkin seeds in the greenhouse, and Kerri led our first group
tour of the year. While checking things out yesterday and today I took
some photos I’d like to share.
Our first group tour
was a special-needs group from a local park system. Usually our group
tours are given on weekdays. Kerri led this group last year and they
insisted that they wanted to come back on a day when Kerri could lead
the group again, so they ended up coming on Saturday.
Today while checking
for slug damage in the fields, I discovered extensive damage to the
broccoli and cauliflower plants. I had seen some damage before, and I
expected this year would be a big year for slugs. The tiny plants are
under row cover, and so cannot be easily observed without pulling back
the row cover. Tomorrow I will have the crew pull back all of the row
cover, and we will assess the damage. We do have more broccoli and
cauliflower plants in the greenhouse ready to plant out.
The goats settled in
quickly after the move to their summer enclosure. Here is Stella,
wondering what I'm holding in front of my face. That's Luna standing in
the background.
People have been
asking me how the raspberries are doing. I've been telling them it is
still too early for flowering. Last evening I visited the raspberry
patch and took this photo of raspberry flower buds just starting to
form. The raspberries appear to be just about right on schedule, in
spite of the long cold spring. I also found some early buds in the
Marionberries.
The blueberries have
been in flower for a while now. Today I tried, without much success, to
take some photos of the tiny newly formed blueberries. I did get this
photo of blueberry blossoms.
Tomorrow will be an
onion-weeding day, while we prepare the fields for planting winter
squash and cucumbers.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Tiny plants, baby chicks, and an elderly
tractor
Our much-loved 1952 Ford 8N tractor has been
using a lot of oil and has lost power. The consensus is that we need to
rebuild the tractor's engine. Disconcertingly, the estimates we received
for an engine rebuild were greater than the resale value of the tractor.
Although hard to justify based on strictly economic considerations, I
really wanted to keep the tractor as a part of the farm. The Ford 8N
pulling our hayride wagon always attracts a lot of attention. I was very
pleased when David Oliver, one of our partners, talked his friend Rob
Matson into taking on rebuilding the tractor engine as long as the farm
paid for the parts. We still have been using the Ford for lighter work.
Yesterday, Luis drove it while spreading fertilizer on the corn maze
field. Finally today David hauled it off to Rob's place in Enumclaw. We
will probably miss it for our opening weekend hayrides, but we're all
looking forward to seeing it come back stronger and pull many more
hayrides.
We have gone through all the checklists, and I
think we are ready for our first school tour group of the year, which
comes tomorrow. The meeting shelter has been cleared of winter storage,
cleaned up, and prepared for tours. We moved the goats, the ducks, and a
few chickens down to their summer homes at the farm. We set up a straw
bale pyramid for climbing -- always a favorite picture spot.
There will be lots for the kids to do and learn.
They will learn all about seeds and how they grow into plants. They will
see tiny plants growing in the greenhouse and then look at our lettuce,
spinach, and other greens growing just outside. They can also peek in
the other greenhouses to see our tomato plants growing. They will plant
bean seeds in tiny portable greenhouses they will take home and observe.
They will also plant pie pumpkin seeds in flats; we will grow the plants in
the greenhouse and then transplant them out into the field, where the
pumpkins will be harvested by
our fall tour visitors.
They will hunt for worms in our worm compost and
search for worm eggs. This has become one of the most popular activities
we provide.
Ruth purchased our baby chicks yesterday. Here is
a chick’s-eye view of a Barred Rock chick. After meeting the chicks, our
tour visitors will have a chance to meet our goats, ducks, and chickens.
They can then burn off their remaining energy climbing on the straw bale
pyramid.
Chris and I met this morning with Andrea Rose,
who is taking on updating our website as a school project. She presented
three layouts with lots of different color schemes. We liked them all,
and ended up taking bits and pieces from each to put together our
favorite layout. There’s lots more work left to do before we make the
switch.
Today we got in another big burst of planting out
transplants. Lots of flowers, millet for birdseed, chamomile,
and parsley. The flowers were amaranths, Bachelor Buttons, cosmos,
larkspur, statice, and zinnias. Enrique tilled the fertilizer into the
corn maze field, so we are ready to plant corn from the corn maze.
Next week will be planting more spinach and other
greens, including Tatsoi, kailaan, and kale. We will also be
transplanting out most of our winter squash and our cucumbers. Check
back next week for updates.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Roger’s South 47
Farm blog is back! (After a fashion.)
There's lots going
on to write about at the farm right now. Last year I got behind and
never attempted to start the blog back up again. We will see how we do
this year.
I have been
wanting to get back to writing the blog, particularly when I saw the
first pea tendrils peeking above the ground back in mid April. I've
missed announcing the first blueberry blossoms, the apple blooms,
discussing our plans for the new year, and sharing my worries in the
snow last month, but we’ve had some technical problems with the blog
site. So for now, my entries will be posted directly onto the website.
When we get the technical issues squared away, we will post these
entries with the prior entries. To check out those older entries, visit
www.south47farm.com/blog
We've been working
hard, getting ready for the farmstand opening on June 11.
It's been a long,
cold spring. Our fieldwork is pretty much on schedule, but plant growth
has been slow. I was excited to get the peas in the ground a lot earlier
this year, but I'm not too sure we will be picking any earlier. The
whole region of the Puget Sound and down into Oregon has had only one-third of the normal heat units to date this year so far.
This year we have
accelerated our planting on a number of crops. We planted the tomatoes
out at the end of April. The potatoes are in the ground. We have made a
couple plantings of broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. Today we made
our third planting of lettuce and spinach. We also planted our first
planting of summer squash, our tomatillos, the first sunflowers, sorrel,
mizuna, bok choy, & other greens, and endive (new this year).
We covered the
tomatoes with low tunnels. Last year we had cabbages in this field. The
raspberries are just to the left in this photo.
In the greenhouse,
the tables are just about full. We will be transplanting out a lot
more flowers and some of the herbs this week. We're trying to transplant
as soon as possible to make room for more plants in the greenhouse. The
winter squash and the cucumbers will be ready to plant out next week. Evert started most of the Jack O' Lantern pumpkins last week. This week
we'll be starting pie pumpkins. Next week we will start all the
miniature pumpkins.
We've also been
preparing for some school tours next week. More on that later.
We were pleased to
make arrangements with a beekeeper to place a number of beehives at the
farm. He brought the hives over in the last couple days. We're looking
forward to providing this honey at our farmstand starting about
mid-summer.
Carol and I went
to Ohio last weekend for our daughter’s college graduation. I hope, in
the next day or two, to write up and post some of my thoughts and
observations from that trip. Things are happening fast at the farm, but
I will also try to hit some of the recent past high points as we go.
Our June 11
farmstand opening is less than a month away, but if you want to see us
before then, here are two events for your calendar:
Washington Wine Highway
on Saturday and Sunday, May 24 & 25
Bastyr Herb
and Food Fair on Saturday, May 31
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