Day 41

Harvest Day! My morning was spent in the rain pea picking, those little guys take forever because there are so many. Also on Friday's we have our fiesta time where someone cooks. It was Daniel's turn so he went to his Mexican restaurant and brought back some food. Either he's a cheater or way smarter than the rest of us.

Twenty Million Peas, or it felt like that

We had our two week evaluations, which I've been here for two months so turning the tables on Cory I think he could work on time management Heyohhh! After those we harvested strawberries, garlic flowers, and onions. We've had a set back with the strawberries, they are planted in three different locations: hoop house, pasture field and Gus' Field. The hoop house had some weak results and lots of these little flying bugs around them. Cory doesn't know what they are but now they moved out of the hoop house (don't blame them it's way too hot in there) and gone into the other two fields where the strawberries are now suffering. We were going to pot them up and save them but because of this infestation will probably have to plow them up :(. If Cory doesn't find out what kind of bug it is, he can send it to a state university extension agent who has information on what's been going around and different insights about the farm in general, very useful guy.
We also went to check on the potatoes Daniel and I planted a couple months ago in Newborn and they're coming up quite nicely, all except the ones in a lot of red clay soil, you can visibly notice a difference between the successful potatoes in lighter dirt and the lack of potatoes in the darker red clay spots. Oh, and just for you, I've included pictures of other plants (previews) cause it's excitin round here with everything coming up.

Zucchini and their Edible Flowers

Day 40

Tobacco soon to be transplanted

Day 40? Oh Lordy, I've been here forever and have blisters to prove it! Still working on the big guns though.

First off we threw a shade cover over the greenhouse since it's heating up and the plants were drying out too fast. Oh, bet you're wondering what's up with the tobacco. Cory is using it as an experiment of sorts, and will sell it to Burge members as cigars.

All of us trellised tomatoes the whole morning and were dying by the end, so hot. I never could seem to pull as tight as I wanted to on the trellising. I read about some farms not using stakes, letting the tomatoes naturally grow on the ground, just using straw mulch to prevent disease. Around noon I was wishing I was on one of those farms. In the end (after many cuts and blisters) I got to pull out the suckers to help my little trees grow which cheered me up! I had to change clothes at lunch to give you an idea on the work/heat.

I love pea vine tendrils

Next, Erica and I irrigated the orchard and onions, lettuce, etc. it was lots of irrigating folks. We checked on the plants in Jeff Cook field and it still amazes me the seeds I planted grew into such beautiful plants, I feel like I pulled a Harry Potter and they grew. After irrigating we did some pea picking keeping the sweet snap peas separate from the English peas (you can't eat the shells on those).  The picture below is Cory discing the field, the disc's will move around the organic matter in the soil and make it more fertile and aerated ready for some new goods. Finished off the day with asparagus; love you asparagus, but I won't miss the harvesting!

Cory discing the field between peas

Day 39

I figured out why people wave at each other in the country. It's because you know everyone that drives by, crazy right?! Think about all the people you drive by everyday, then half that a couple times and poof you know all of them.  And you wave at the rest in case you know them, just to be on the safe side.
Oh yeah, so anywho my day was...active. We finished up harvesting asparagus and strawberries bunched and pinted them up for 90 CSA members. You heard me correctly, 90, the number has gone up!

 

We formed our assembly line with the boxes at one end, heavy food first then ending with flowers.
This weeks line up:
Choy Sum (new guy in the ring)
Arugula (stats are impressive)
Asparagus (Last game, has had a good run)
Strawberries (crowd pleaser) 
Red Onions (looking tough)
Kale (on it's last leg, not favored to win)
Chard (tagged in last minute)
Radishes (large and in charge, from Nicholas' Farm)
Red Lettuce (been playing well this season)
Romaine Lettuce (classic and fan fav)
Garlic Flower and Scape (unique, but may be all looks and no game)


After we assembled the boxes Erica and Cory went on the same run I went on last week while Jason went on the Decatur delivery (Farmer D's, Shield's Market). I decided to go get a manicure because my nails have been a mess. That last sentence didn't happen but it probably should have. Daniel and I transplanted okra, sunflowers, watermelon, and zinnia's with Sandy the owner. Sandy likes to drive really fast on the tractor so it feels like you're in some kind of planting race and you feel lots of stress which reminds you of sales jobs and why you don't want something like that and then you're happy again.

Okra about to be planted at lightening speed

Daniel and I finished planting eggplants in the lower field then harvested zucchini. Some zucchini were ginormous, and some were deformed (so I got to keep those, discarded veggies keep a full fridge and Farmgirl can really eat these days). I learned a lot from Daniel about when plants are ready for planting and when they can be harvested. In general, you can tell a plant is ready to be planted because a couple leaves will turn yellow and their roots will wrap around the soil in the container pretty tight. You want to get them before that though, just check on them frequently, talking to them...optional.

Sprocket, hey could you...where are you going?

Home life: As soon as the mice left, there have been these tiny black beetles infesting the house or at this point let's call the house a big tent. They fall from the ceiling and lie there until they die, nice. They are everywhere, in the bathroom, in the kitchen, in our beds. We told Sandy and he just brought over flea spray. Thanks...for that. So instead we've been training Sprocket to get um! 

Any second now he's going after those bugs, I'm telling you

Day 38

Choy Sum

CSA dazey day. While Erica, Jason and Daniel planted okra this morning, Cory and I harvested arugula, choy sum, and red onions. I learned a lot about bugs today, unfortunately for the plants there was plenty of learning to be had. The two main culprits are the harlequin bugs and imported cabbageworm. I'm going to warn you, both look pretty cool. Don't be fooled by coolness, these bugs are baddies and must be destroyed with machine guns...or sprayed. The harlequin stink bug has the ability to destroy the entire crop where it is not controlled. This murderer injures the host plants by sucking the sap of the plants, causing the plants to wilt, brown and die.

Hi, I'm here to ruin your day

Even harlequin eggs look deceptively cool

 The imported cabbageworm is disguised as a pretty white butterfly which I thought was good luck when I saw one, little did I know they were vicious serial killers. One of the most deadly enemies of the cabbage family and can chew their way through a crop. Their kryptonite are floating row covers, BMT, or bright yellow sticky pads with pictures of Mariah Carey (you know, because she sang that Butterfly album and they like pop culture).

Manson and Bundy don't got nothing on me

Now, the good stuff. Ready? You can eat the garlic flowers and stems! They are beautiful and edible! They are going in our CSA boxes tomorrow whoohoo! Also, garlic scapes, which have a unique shape and are edible too. I'm excited to get the boxes ready tomorrow, this batch is so unique.

Garlic Flower

Scapes

I made deliveries to Square Perk in Covington and LA Fitness my old stomping ground. Then came back to bunch kale and chard before calling it a night. Oh, and Erica and I made pizza it was delicious and should be mentioned.

Day 37

Today=Hotness, not the sexy kind, moreso the "AH, I got sweat in my eye, where's my water, man I'm sleepy" hotness.

Black Peanuts

The hose won

We finished shelling the black peanuts and got the rundown of today's events! (no exclamation point needed, but it wears me out thinking about today, so a little more enthusiasm in punctuation is needed for me at least). I went to the orchard to check on the grafts we did a few weeks back, and they are looking good, I think they took. I worked with irrigation in the orchard and did battle with a hose going to the small greenhouse. Harvesting asparagus and strawberries was back on the table today; however, I believe we're coming to a close with them both. They'll probably make the CSA boxes this week and that'll be it.

 I learned something today, I learned that if trellising tomatoes were a sport in the Farming Olympics 2012, I would not place. I am making improvements though, when you start to develop blisters, you finally have it tight enough. Daniel interweaves the twine through the plants while Cory pulls straight with just a couple wrap around the poll times. We have a lot of practice ahead too! The lower field is only about halfway complete, but Erica and I successfully trellised the hoop house tomatoes, and those little guys look happy! Well, not really happy they don't like hot weather just warm, which being from South America you'd think they'd soak it up. Anyhoodle, they better man up because it's gonna be hot from now on.

 Also, new edition, this is Sprocket the mouse killer, Erica's cat. As you can see he's been out of the game awhile so we'll be playing the theme song to Rocky to pump him up before he hits the gym each day.

Time for some Kitty Craig

Day 36

Market Day! But the really hard workers stayed behind, me of course ;) Erica and I made it happen yesterday and completed everything on the list, which is just never done. Here's the scoop:
Started off the day with a big helper, Puddy, Erica's dog. Since I love dogs so much you'll have to excuse the excess of Puddy pics.

We did a lot irrigation wise since there's no rain in the 10 day forecast we had to set up drip irrigation for fields and rows that had none and there was new planting. We split up watering the greenhouse's which is no small feat due to lack of hoses and hidden greenhouse plants. Okay, so I forgot about the blackberries under the table, I'm not proud of it but it's done now, happy?

I'm a Mini Truck

Let me introduce you to Mini Truck. She just got a new fuel pump and is ready for action, and action she got! I think she's some exotic European because her steering wheel is on the right side.<correction: Japanese> We had to fertilize Jeff Cook field's onions, so I sat/stood on the back spraying the fertilizer while Erica and Puddy drove.

Next to the onions are Burge's heirloom elephant garlic found native to the plantation growing in the fields. Ricky and Cory decided to grow more and sell them at market. The plant is beautiful because it flowers out on top. Elephant garlic is like it sounds, large! I haven't tried any yet, but I'm excited to.

After lunch we set up more irrigation by Main House field where I'm terribly allergic to something, so I wore one of those Sars masks, took an allergy pill and loaded up on Kleenex (take that field). We then journeyed back to the greenhouse and Erica weedeated while I watered with a sprayer backpack. Also, this just in! Black Peanuts!!! The shell is normal but the peanut part is black, how awesome! So we are shelling those tonight.   

Day 35

Pea Pickin

What time is it? It's pea picking time and even nature knows which is how a "P" ended up on that leaf by the peas! Crazyness, I think some bug was marking it for his friends (I'm no Nancy Drew but I'm sticking with that story).
We have two different types, the sugar snap peas and English peas. The interns were left to our own deductive reasoning on how to trellis the peas, and we (of course) did it wrong, so Erica was trying to coax them towards the trellis while I picked them. We are using the English peas for the bicycle pea sheller at market tomorrow; intern Jason will keep the rest of us updated on the response.
Today for Friday fiesta I cooked everyone Veggie burrito's consisting of red and green bell peppers, squash, from the farm spring onions and garlic with cumin, coriander, and salt in the enchilada sauce. Next was the Guacamole Bean Dip out of my favorite recipe book The Kind Life: refried beans, guacamole with lime, Tofutti sour cream with taco seasoning, olives, and diced tomatoes on top. For dessert I wanted something from the farm so beets, with sweet potatoes and carrots cooked in brown sugar with cinnamon and nutmeg. Not bad for a vegan eh? Everyone loved it and the dip was a big hit! 
After lunch I helped prep 250 onions for a store pick-up Farms on Floyd, a cute local store that sells products from their own farm and from local ones like ours. Then I helped Cory prep some rows for new plants to be a planted. Before finishing out with harvesting my old friend asparagus.

This moment of silence brought to you by veggie burrito