summer overflowing

What's going on today on the farm...  everything.  (L to R):

1. The winter squash has gone through several cultivations, but there are still purslane weeds growing... they get uprooted then reroot themselves with the rain.  We'll have to take the tractor through them again I think before they send out vines.

2. The melons & cucumbers are vining all over the place.  Standing at the far end of the field looking back at the barns you get the feeling that the vines want to swallow the whole place.

3. Did you know that potatoes make fruits?  This round green fruit you're looking at is not a tomato, but they are in the same family, Solanaceae.  

I love swiss chard.

The fields are beautiful, with rows of lettuce, beans, herbs, leeks, and tomatoes.

These butterhead lettuce are really as delicious as they look.  And I can't wait for the fennel harvest... roasted fennel is one of my favorite vegetable dishes I think.

...as well as roasted zucchini & eggplant.  This eggplant is only the size of a pear, so don't get too excited yet.  And there are teeny green beans, which will quickly get huge with all the rain.  Summer crops are almost here.

The flower garden, which I planted almost entirely by myself from seed, is approaching full bloom.  It is very satisfying to think about that!  The yarrow (white flowers below) is a perennial which I didn't plant.  The one on the right is a Rudbeckia, a black-eyed susan, but this variety has "white eyes" I guess!  It was started in the greenhouse & transplanted.  

The blue flowers are Bachelors Buttons, one of my favorite cut flowers.  The orange daisys are Calendula, an amazing flower with medicinal properties, and edible petals!  Enjoy some on your salad.  And the picture below-right is California Poppies!  I guess you can grow them in New York after all.  Right now they are all closed up for evening, but they will open their 4 big orange petals in the morning if there's sun!

Some of my plant experiments (L to R):  Okra (the young pods are tasty raw!), Cardoon (french relative of artichoke but you eat the stems), and Mullein (a medicinal flower)

I found a Sassafras tree!  I may try some Sassafras root tea soon.  You use the root bark from young saplings.  Also, the leaves are edible (taste like root beer) & the dried leaves are used in Cajun or Creole cooking in a dish called File or Gumbo.  I'll be experimenting with that for sure... apparently it thickens soups.
   

I also found several Bolete mushrooms growing under the pine trees.  Most Boletes are edible, but there are some varieties that aren't, so I didn't take my chances.  Maybe someone is familiar with local edible mushrooms that wants to identify these?

The Japanese Beetles are here in force.  They definitely have favorite plants, like this Rhubarb, Elderberry, & Basil, shown below.  We've set traps out with pheromone lures.  The damage is pretty extensive in some places.

The Colorado Potato Beetle has also struck:

These bright orange larvae are chomping away.  There doesn't seem to be too many around thankfully, just on a few plants here and there.  They sure are weird looking.

garlic harvest party!

It was time for the garlic to come out of the ground, after growing there for 9 months.  Amazing how a small clove of garlic turns into a whole bulb in 9 months, with just water & fertile soil.  Oh, and lots of weeding too.  

Farmer Dave decided to take the tractor out with the chisel plow on it, to loosen up the bulbs so that they would come out easier.  

These curved blades ran right underneath the garlic, lifting them out slightly without damaging the bulbs at all.  Much easier than the way they had always done it before by hand, with digging forks.

Here's the little section we left with the garlic scapes still attached... they elongate & grow these little bulb-like flower heads, all pointed in the same direction, like little goose necks.  The bulbs they make underground are smaller, because the energy goes into the top part.

We had a great turnout of volunteers to help us harvest!  Here's some pictures:



Steps to harvesting garlic:

1. Loosen soil (chisel plow/ spading fork)

2. Pull garlic up

3. Rub palm of hand against the roots to remove soil that sticks to them

4. Clean up a little, remove the slimy brown leaf on the outside, etc.

5. Bunch in piles of 10

6. Tie with twine, just above where the leaves start on the stems

7. Hang in barn to dry

Farmer Dave says we maybe should have harvested it last week because of the wet weather we've been getting.  A few garlic plants broke off at the neck because the outer layers were starting to turn yellow & rot.  But not too many.  And since we cleaned them up a little & have a fan in the barn where they're drying, they will probably be fine.  We could use a little lower humidity in the air for the next week or two.  Too much to ask?
And here they are in the barn, hanging on nails on the walls...
...and on strings strung across the ceiling.  The smell in here is amazing.  I'm hungry.
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Friday's harvest-- we had awesome volunteers again!  We even had someone picking the extra lettuce in the field (it's all ready at once!) to donate to a local food bank.

And an extraordinary 5-year old farm-kid has helped us in the field for 2 days in a row now, all day!  We converse about the dietary preferences of japanese beetles versus cucumber beetles,or different styles of hoes, and he knows just as much as I do.  And we make up stories or songs sometimes too.  Great fun.

climate and farming

I found a great website that lays out the recent research about how climate change will affect agriculture in the Northeast.  

www.climateandfarming.org  

Some basic ideas I took from it are: 

1. Plants might grow faster & have a longer time to grow in between frost dates, but weeds will grow much faster.

2. Pests & diseases will increase.

3. More frequent intense storms will increase potential erosion.

4. Hot spells will stress livestock.

5. Varieties & even species grown commonly in the NE might have to change.

6. Irrigation systems might be more necessary.

I need to research & learn creative ways to deal with these challenges...  we will see how the years play themselves out.  I think one of the most important principles I plan to follow with my future farm is to grow a large diversity of crops.  So that if one fails, another may succeed, in this unpredictable weather.

mechanical cultivation

This morning I took the Cub tractor out with the "sweeps" on it, to go through the winter squash field again.  The purslane was trying to grow back.  But not anymore!  It was a lovely dry, hot day, and now the only weeds left in this field are between the plants, which we'll have to go through with our hands or hoes and knock out again.

It was challenging to operate the "sweeps".  While steering with my right hand, avoiding hitting any of the squash plants, trying to keep a straight line several inches to the right of the line of plants, my left hand was on the depth adjuster, making sure all the blades were deep enough to scrape every inch of the surface, but not too deep that they would damage the tender roots of the squash.  I made 2 passes on each row in either direction.

Here is one toolbar-- 2 of these get hooked up under the tractor for "sweeping".
I then removed the sweeps & put on the rolling bed-marker.  Nick had been chisel-plowing & rototilling all morning, and we needed to plant into 4 of the beds today, so I marked the beds.
I took the tractor with the basket-weeder and cultivated several rows of carrots, herbs, beans, leeks, and parsnips.

Then I planted, by hand, a 200' row of cucumbers (spaced at 4" apart), and another row of summer squash & zucchini (spaced 8" apart).
And a nice view of the harvest bins, stacked up in the barn.  Every few days we take these out to the field, fill them with vegetables, put them in the cooler, then bring them out to distribute, spray them down with the hose, dry them in the sun, and stack them up again here in the barn.  A nice, satisfying routine.

toast

I just wanted to share this article.  

From CNN.com Tue June 24, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Exactly 20 years after warning America about global warming, a top NASA scientist said the situation has gotten so bad that the world's only hope is drastic action.

James Hansen, sometimes called the godfather of global warming science, testifies Monday

James Hansen told Congress on Monday that the world has long passed the "dangerous level" for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and needs to get back to 1988 levels.He said Earth's atmosphere can stay this loaded with man-made carbon dioxide for only a couple more decades without changes such as mass extinction, ecosystem collapse and dramatic sea level rises.

"We're toast if we don't get on a very different path," said Hansen, director of the Goddard Institute of Space Sciences who is sometimes called the godfather of global warming science. "This is the last chance."

Hansen brought global warming home to the public in June 1988 during a Washington heat wave, telling a Senate hearing that global warming was already here.To mark the anniversary, he testified before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, where he was called a prophet. He also addressed a luncheon at the National Press Club, where he was called a hero by former Sen. Tim Wirth, D-Colorado, who headed the 1988 hearing.

To cut emissions, Hansen said, coal-fired power plants that don't capture carbon dioxide emissions shouldn't be used in the United States after 2025 and should be eliminated in the rest of the world by 2030. That carbon-capture technology is still being developed and is not cost-efficient for power plants.

Burning fossil fuels like coal is the chief cause of man-made greenhouse gases. Hansen said the Earth's atmosphere has got to get back to a level of 350 parts of carbon dioxide per million. Last month, it was 10 percent higher: 386.7 parts per million.

Hansen said he'll testify on behalf of British protesters against new coal-fired power plants. Protesters have chained themselves to gates and equipment at sites of several proposed coal plants in England.

"The thing that I think is most important is to block coal-fired power plants," Hansen told the luncheon. "I'm not yet at the point of chaining myself, but we somehow have to draw attention to this."

Frank Maisano, a spokesman for many U.S. utilities, including those trying to build new coal plants, said that although Hansen has shown foresight as a scientist, his "stop them all approach is very simplistic" and shows that he is beyond his level of expertise.

The year of Hansen's original testimony was the world's hottest year on record. Since then, 14 years have been hotter, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Two decades later, Hansen spent his time on the question of whether it's too late to do anything about it. His answer: There's still time to stop the worst, but not much time.

"We see a tipping point occurring right before our eyes," Hansen said before the luncheon. "The Arctic is the first tipping point, and it's occurring exactly the way we said it would."
Hansen, echoing work by other scientists, said that in five to 10 years, the Arctic will be free of sea ice in the summer.

Longtime global warming skeptic Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma cited a recent poll when he said in a statement, "Hansen, [former Vice President Al] Gore and the media have been trumpeting man-made climate doom since the 1980s. But Americans are not buying it."

But Rep. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, the committee chairman, said, "Dr. Hansen was right. Twenty years later, we recognize him as a climate prophet."

Although this subject depresses me, I don't want to be in denial of it.  Climate change is actually happening, fast.  And I do really believe that if people changed their lives drastically we could make a difference.  I think we all have unique skills that can be utilized in the movement toward a sustainable future.  Take a look at your life-- at your job, at your lifestyle, at the resources you consume, and the potential positive change you could create in the world.  I think these changing times present a call to action-- it feels like some kind of hollywood movie plot, but it's real this time I think.

And as for the whole "greening" of the capitalist world... while using environmentally-friendly products, and even buying "organic", feels good, it's not enough.   We can't create enough change through just our consumer dollars.  I believe that at least.  We need to vote with our lives.  The 24 hours every day we all have.  What are you doing with them?

another beautiful day.

Today we harvested all morning, packed CSA boxes, and then I drove the van to the distribution points in the city.  Upon returning from freeway traffic & so-called "civilization", I was struck by what an amazing piece of ground I live on.  A brief afternoon thunderstorm had passed through while I was gone, and it lowered the heat (85 degrees today) a little, but soon the hot sticky humidity was back, and the golden setting-sunlight made the air just visible.  I took advantage of the moist soil to cultivate (wheel hoe & hands) my row of beans.  After a few minutes sweat was rolling off my nose, chin, back, dripping onto the soil.  I wiped my soil-clogged hands on my brow & swatted flies off my arms.  Oh, summer.  I will remember this moment in December, fondly.

The melons are really sprawling out now, reaching for their neighboring rows.  Remember that melon plants have roots that reach out even further than the surface vines, intertwining with eachother & mycorrhyzal fungi & earthworms & rocks. 

And the first melon-- a cantelope.  The size of a quarter.
And this spunky little watermelon.  May you grow up to be a juicy sweet capsule of water.
The buckwheat Dave planted as the "harvest lane" in the melon patch is huge!  A foot tall already.  And you can see, with this dense planting, how they quickly shade the ground so that no weeds even have a chance at making it. A very efficient cover strategy-- like a blanket, but growing.  And then you can till it in, and have lots more organic matter to improve the soil!
Pests are starting to show up in greater numbers & diversity.  Japanese beetles are among them.  We may set out traps for them soon.  Here are some, mating on an eggplant leaf:
Peppers are big already, but not red.  Not even yellow yet.  (I tried one green anyway, I couldn't wait.  It was good.)
And the first eggplant!  It's about the size of a pea right now.  This variety is an asian eggplant.
And a sneak-peek at the tomatoes.  They are hidden in the middle of the vines, which are quickly sprawling and need more string to support them.
These tomatoes are sungold cherry tomatoes!  They are more lanky in their growth habit, but I think we'll see ripe ones first here, and boy, are there a lot of flowers:
Here's my long-beans, just barely reaching the trellis.  They sure are taking their time.  I hope they grow really fast to catch up, so I can harvest beans for a decent amount of time before the frosts come.  
Scarlet runner beans.  Showing scarlet, and starting to run:
And the prize-winning climbers, the Cherokee Trail of Tears black beans:
You can't see it too well, but the field I plowed last week is breathing up thick steam into the setting sun.  It's almost supernatural.
These are the first batch of baby chicks, looking (and eating) like adult hens these days.  Actually quite a few of them are roosters I think.  No crowing yet.
And the sheep are still enjoying the lush growth of the grasses (and poison ivy) around the farm.  I move them every day to a new spot.  I provide only a bucket of water & they are quite content.  I need a strategy for giving them shade though.  I bring them into the barn during the hottest part of the day, or set up an easy-up tent.  They're quite spoiled actually.  But this would work better if I had larger fields (more sheep) with trees on the edges that I could enclose in the fences every time.  Or if I was grazing them in an orchard, which I envision myself doing in the future.  
A barefoot walk around the farm just before dusk: