Planting, weeding, equipment, harvesting, farmstand opening - the story of a month on the farm
Whew! I haven’t written an entry in quite a while. Let me tell you, it is not because nothing is going on here at the farm. There are a host of things to get done in May & June if we are to have a successful year. May & June are planting season. By this time we have finished most of the planting. Now we are in weed season. Keeping ahead of the weeds is our critical task. In addition to the field work, there is lots more to do. Last week we opened the farmstand, had our first school tour at the farm this year, had our first two Farm Tots sessions, bought a new (used) tiller, and ordered a new cultivator.
For this entry I’m going to keep the writing to a minimum and just show photos and list some highlights since my last entry. I have to admit that it gets hard to remember details. I take lots of photos, and Rob & I keep notes to keep track of things.
Today (Monday) is the crew’s day off and I’m nursing a sore back, so it’s a good time to try to get this up to date. I probably should be on the tractor cultivating weeds in the corn. Yesterday I did take Father’s Day off. We went to the Fremont Street Fair and I had my traditional (second year now) massage from Larry Karr at his Seattle Sunshine Massage booth.
Fri May 19 to Sun May 21
Back in mid-May we started the greenhouses ready for planting. On Friday 19 we planted cucumbers in two houses. Saturday the crew planted most of our distinctive pumpkins (red, blue, green & gray – all great eating) and some of our winter squash. In our monthly business meeting I brought the committee up to date on farm happenings. Sunday we took off to go to the University District Street Fair.
Using the Jeep to transport flats of cucumber seedlings. The angular Jeep look is functional too!
Transplants growing in the starts greenhouse. The greenhouse is still overstuffed with flats of growing plants.
Mon May 22 to Mon May 29
We planted every day this week. Monday we planted tomatoes in the hoophouses. For another farm first, we are planting sweet potatoes this year.
Sweet potatoes planted under low tunnels. We are planting the sweet potatoes in black plastic-covered raised beds. We will keep the low tunnels of clear plastic on until the plants grow to touch the clear plastic. You can see the gourd plants in the beds in front. Our raspberry patch is to the left and up the hill..
Tuesday we planted the rest of the hoophouse tomatoes and a house full of hot peppers. The crew took a break from planting to weed the onions. Thursday we planted winter squash for Claire Thomas’s Root Connection Farm.
On Friday I started planting the corn maze. This is the earliest I’ve managed to get the corn maze started. I knew rain was coming, so I hoped the rain would get the corn sprouted and off to a good start. Unfortunately the rain started while I still had about a quarter of the field to finish. When the mud started gumming up the planter works I had to give up planting for the day. Saturday was an extra day for the crew. We planted eggplants and sweet peppers and the outside cucumbers and tomatoes. We took Sunday and Monday (Memorial Day) off.
Planting sweet peppers. Luis is using one of the dibblers to make equally spaced planting holes. In August we’ll move the farmstand tent to the usual late summer/fall location near the NE 124th St entrance, so the field will be convenient for visitors to pick. The first two rows to the left in this photo and most of the rows at the far end are filled with newly planted tomatoes. We’ll plant pole beans to the right. Last year this field had pole beans and potatoes.
The first dahlias have sprouted. The photo also show our dripline which we use to irrigate crops all over the farm.
Tues May 30 to Sun June 4
We still did a lot of planting this week, but weeding and mowing took up a growing fraction of our time. The crew weeded the greens, peas, and cole crops, put the low tunnels over cucumbers and eggplants, mowed raspberries and elsewhere, started work on a new door for the hoophouse Brian vacated this year (already planted with tomatoes) and worked on expanding the waterlines to the new fields. We also set up a taller post for the radio repeater for my new weather station, which greatly improved signal reception up at my office. The soil dried out enough by Tuesday that I was able to finish planting the corn maze field. On Thursday the crew planted out most of the Jack O’ Lantern pumpkins. Taking a good chunk of the day, they planted over 6000 plants by hand; planting over 4 plants per minute each. Later on we planted other pumpkins with the mechanical transplanted, but the ground was pretty wet when we planted out on Thursday. This is another reason I like the black plastic covered raised bed system – you can even plant in the rain.
The raspberries were still flowering heavily when I took this photo on Wednesday. The raspberries were starting to form small green berries. I also noticed on Wednesday that the peas had started to flower.
On Saturday and Sunday we shared a booth with Chef Brian Scheehser at the first-time Washington Wine Highway event at the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery. Brian was invited to represent the Sorrento Hotel where he is executive chef. He asked if he couldn’t invite the farm along to share his booth. It was a good opportunity to introduce the farm to a lot of new folks, but I was also pleased to meet a lot of people who already knew the farm and were happy to find out that our season opener was coming up soon. Judging by the turnout, I expect the organizers will repeat the event next year.
Chef Brian Scheehser (left) is serving samples of the hotel signature salad at the Washington Wine Highway event. Danielle (right) is telling visitors about The South 47 Farm. Danielle will be in our farmstand quite a bit this year. I’ve also promised to train her to drive the tractor and give hayrides.
Mon June 5 to Sun June 11
We still had a lot of planting to do this week, along with more weeding and mowing. We saw more signs of crops coming along.
On Monday I found the first plantings of the sweet corn and the corn maze were sprouted. The peas were flowering strongly.
By June 5 there were lots of green berries in the raspberries.
On June 5 I first noticed the broccoli heading up.
Another sighting of the elusive blue heron, once again near the raspberries. (June 5)
On Tuesday we planted some more winter squash for Claire. We also weeded and hilled the potatoes for the first time. The potatoes had gotten pretty weedy, but now it looks good.
Wednesday was another mowing day. I saw a pheasant on the farm again and noticed that the dahlias were now mostly up. We got the mechanical transplanter going and Enrique and Jaime finished planting the rest of the Jack O’ Lanterns. We started a new field up on the hill near the entrance from Redmond-Woodinville Rd.
On Thursday I noticed that the corn in the second section of the corn maze field has started to sprout. Enrique and Jaime planted about a third of the pie pumpkins using the mechanical transplanter. Luis and Juan kept on mowing in the blueberries, which seem to be coming along well.
Friday morning was wet, so we worked on putting up the farmstand tent. Opening day was just days away.
The crew is now starting to ask me to take photos. Here we have just finished putting up the farmstand tent. Left to right: Enrique, Jaime, Luis, and Juan.
Friday June 9. The Swiss chard has now taken off and will be ready for Opening Day. The lettuce in the near front was planted recently. The lettuce in front of the chard is several weeks from picking, but earlier planting behind the Swiss chard are nearly ready to go. This staggered planting is called succession planting.
On Friday we also had our farmstand staff orientation meeting, including the first hayride of the year. We have some great people back and some promising new staff too.
On Saturday we finished mowing in the apples. They also look pretty promising so far. Juan and Luis worked on mowing to pretty up the farm for Opening Day next week.
Enrique and Jaime planting pie pumpkins for the fall school tours. To make it easier for the kids, we don’t use the raised beds and black plastic for this field.
Mon June 12 to Sat June 17
This week’s challenge was to open the farmstand while still completing the necessary planting and weeding.
On Monday we had an extra workday. Enrique and Jaime planted the last of the pie pumpkins. We still had the miniature pumpkins to go.
The starts greenhouse on Monday, June 12. The shelves and benches are finally starting to empty.
I found a used BCS two-wheel walk behind tractor at a good price on craigslist.org. This model is a couple of steps up from the BCS tiller we bought a few years ago from an equipment rental place. This one has a mower and a sickle-bar mower in addition to the tiller. Rob got it going without much work. It sounds good once started, but is still touchy to start, so he ordered a carburetor kit. We like the BCS brand – much sturdier and more powerful than the brands you find in the hardware stores. We do have a Troybilt tiller that we use for smaller jobs and tighter places – the BCS tillers and big and weigh a lot more.
I also ordered a Buddingh Basket Weeder for the Allis Chalmers G. It does best on small weeds, but you can go fast. It is set up for our corn spacing. I’m hoping to do a better job on weeding the corn maze this year. If it works as well as I hope, we may be able to expand our sweet corn planting next year. It’s a bit hard to describe, so I’ll show a photo later. It is due to arrive about Wednesday this week (June 21).
On Tuesday we had our first group tour of the farm for the year, a group of high school students in a culinary program. We took them on a tour around the farm and talked about sustainable farming (and restaurants) and fruits and vegetables. It was a good group – lots of good questions and interest shown. The teacher is talking about maybe coming back in the fall when we have all different crops. They were the first visitor group to ride on the newly painted hayride wagon. I meant to take a photo of the group, but I guess I was too busy talking with them the whole time.
The Ford 8N tractor and our newly painted hayride wagon.
Wednesday was the first farmstand day. As I expected, we had lettuce, Swiss chard, spinach, peas, and baby bok choi for sale. I was a bit surprised that we were also able to offer broccoli and the large bok choi. We saw a lot of familiar faces on Wednesday. After picking the first day’s produce, the crew weeded and mowed for the rest of the day.
Our first 2006 farmstand sale was broccoli. Here Chandra (on her first day at the farmstand) is watching Danielle place the broccoli in a bag.
Thursday was the first Farm Tots day. I was pleasantly surprised to see the number of kids. Apparently some had been impatiently waiting for some time for our 2006 opening. I was happy to recognize a number of familiar faces. I did get one knee-high hug. Friday’s group was also good, more new and familiar folks. I decided to use one of our hoophouses as a shelter for the Farm Tots, and I was glad I did. It worked out well with room for everyone.
Thursday and Friday while Enrique and Jaime planted the miniature pumpkins, Juan and Luis weeded the pickling cucumbers, onions, leeks, and garlic. While stopping by to check the weeding progress I noticed that one variety of garlic had already developed scapes. The flowering stems of hardneck garlic curl back on themselves. These stems are called garlic scapes, garlic curls, and a host of other names. I don’t really know if it really makes a difference, but many garlic growers cut off the scapes so the growing plant devotes energy to making bigger garlic cloves instead of making flowers. Even if it makes no difference to bulb formation, it is still worth clipping the scapes – they are delicious! Cut at the right time, the scapes are tender, with a mild but distinct garlic taste. This is the first chance to get fresh garlic while the bulbs are still weeks away from harvest. You can use them to season a dish, like you would with green onions or you can go all out and use them as you would green beans – steamed or sautéed. Last year I made garlic scape pesto for sale at the farmstand. By Saturday we sold all the first picking, but there are other garlic varieties that are just starting to form the scapes. I didn't keep any out for myself. This week I'll be sure to set some aside.
Garlic scapes ready to harvest. The variety here is Zemo.
On Saturday we had our Grand Opening Celebration. We had animals, hayrides, stories by Storytelling Steve (Steve Bourne), and music provided by Banjo Andy (Andy Blythe), Sue Peterson and John Lockney, with special appearances by Carol and Andrew Calhoon.
Banjo Andy on the guitar. We adapted our hoophouse shelter as a music venue. We took off one side and put on shade cloth to reduce the greenhouse effect, but the day was very pleasant. We’ll have to wait for hotter day to test the limits.
On Saturday John did his first solo as hayride guide and operator. Danielle is away this week, but I’m hoping to also get her trained soon. Last year Rob & I traded off on giving all the hayrides. It is fun to do hayride, but it does mean that one of us can’t do anything else all day. Rob and I will both be happy to share the fun with John and Danielle.
While all that was going on, the crew weeded melons and pulled the clear plastic off of the summer squash, which are now in bloom. I’m hoping to start picking summer squash in a couple of weeks.
Sun June 18 and 19
It is now Monday June 19, the crew day off, and I’m finally caught up with the blog. There’ll be more exciting stuff this week. Tomorrow’s task list includes putting up the bird netting on the blueberries and planting pole beans and basil. Plus, we expect to start picking raspberries this week!
What’s playing today in the Jeep CD player? The Simon Fraser University Pipe Band – Live in America