This Week on the Farm 12/7
Well it has been awhile since we last updated the website. The fields are covered with snow and any vegetable left in the field is frozen in until spring. We had been able to pick lettuce and spinach until the week before Thanksgiving. Needless to say our row covers worked pretty darn well. With a little rearranging and perhaps a layer of plastic, we think we could get lettuce from June through November.
Lately Tyler has been working on cleaning out the barns to make room for all of the equipment and to give him space to clean and fix some of the equipment. The potato equipment we bought in October needs some work. We were told that our planter is circa 1900 and since it hasn’t been used in some time, it needs some work. It is missing a few pieces that need to be replaced in order for the potato pieces to be picked out of the hopper and placed in the ground. In addition to replacing stuff, all of the equipment needs to be sterilized. Since we use organic practices we don’t want to introduce anything that could possibly carry disease. Even a small piece of soil carried from a contaminated field to a new location could possibly spread disease, so therefore we need to remove any soil that is on the equipment before we use it next spring.
The rest of our time is spent brainstorming for next season. There are a lot of questions that we need to answer before next spring. Topics include irrigation systems, soil erosion controls, possible expansion of drop off locations, expansion of our germination greenhouse, and farm events for next year. If you have any ideas about farm events that you would like to participate in next summer let us know. We are always looking for feedback to help us improve your experience with our farm.