Monday, April 26, 2010

Rain and Rainbows

Note to self: When ominous, dark rain clouds are rolling in and you have to make a decision between doing your lunch dishes or running to get rain gear before work starts on a farm, always opt for the rain gear! I made the wrong decision. We were to start at 2pm, which is exactly when the rain began POURING down. I had a raincoat on but hardly noticed it as my baggy jean overalls became heavier, colder, and wetter on my legs. The walk from the intern house to the barn through sideways rain completely soaked me. When we arrived at the greenhouse a few minutes later, the rain tapered off and the sun came out. Of course, right? I worked the rest of the afternoon in soaking overalls, learning my lesson the hard way.

Anika and I were the only ones working today. Since it's Monday, we only worked this afternoon. We worked in the greenhouse for quite a while watering and seeding cucumbers. Evidently lots of folks have trouble digesting cucumbers, so they've modified some to be burpless cucumbers?! Weird. That's what we were seeding today. Anyway, before we knew it, it was five o'clock. This left us only half an hour to pick a couple of pounds of kale and the whole field of asparagus. We also are supposed to wash and bag the kale after we picked it!

We high tailed it out of the greenhouse and into the kale fields. We threw some leaves into the bushel until we thought we had enough. Then we scurried over to the asparagus, trying to focus on only the spears that were sticking so high out of the hay that we couldn't ignore them. The rain started in again, of course, so there we were rushing under the rain to get our buckets full of asparagus. We both heard something, but hardly because we had our hoods on. Finally Anika looked up and saw Andy pointing way out behind us from the porch of the house. We turned around to see a magnificent rainbow stretching out over our fields. Both ends were in our property, in front of the trees and barn! It was amazing and beautiful and a glorious way to end the day.

I decided that ending the day on time was not important enough to work through the rainbow, so I ran out of the fields and into the shed to get my camera. Here are a couple pictures that I caught. Then I asked Andy to take a picture of me out in the asparagus field under the rainbow. I think the rainbow was fading by then, but that's me in the yellow raincoat with a harvesting knife and blue bucket. Do you see me?






Saturday, April 24, 2010

Markets, Asparagus, Mistakes, and Swimming Holes

What a week it has been! There were lots of things that I learned and that happened on the farm this week. Maybe I'll start with yesterday and work backwards. I forgot to take pictures, but yesterday was my first Farmers Market! I woke up at 4am (actually I woke up every half hour throughout the night because I was worried I was going to sleep through my alarm) in order to meet Eric down at the barn at 4:20am. It's only a 1-2 minute commute from my shed to the barn, but I had to grab some snacks and water and rain gear before heading over. We load the vans with plant starts for market the night before. In the morning, we pull the greens (yep, spinach and kale) from the cooler and hit the road. We were on our way at at the dark hour of 4:25 am. We left a few minutes early because (Eric is precise in his planning and) we needed to stop for gas along the way.

It was a slow market, said Eric. He said he was "bo-ored" in two syllables several times. The forecasters predicted rain the entire day and besides, there was a Dogwood Festival and Parade in Charlottesville. I had fun anyway. Getting off the farm, seeing customers excited to start their gardens and eat spinach from a local farmer, appreciating the camaraderie between other vendors/farmers and doing simple and fast math at 7am all contributed to a great day for me. And it didn't rain the entire day, just a bit here and there. No prob. Oh, and to top it all off, we ran around the corner to get a couple slices of pizza on the way out of town (this is Eric's weekly ritual). Yum.

Many other things happened this week. We learned to harvest asparagus! No, it's not difficult. What this really means (and why we were so anxious) is that we have more "official" permission to have some for oursleves. We get the seconds that won't sell as well at market. Fine with me! We have pretty big asparagus. I learned that it doesn't mean that these asparagus are older or less tender necessarily. The diameter of the asparagus has more to do with how much room they have in their row. Rachel said that the larger spears tend to be female and the skinny ones male. I took Rachel's advice and used a veggie peeler to peel off the skin of the bigger ones at the bottom, which left a lot of the tender, meaty part exposed to eat. Yum again!

I also watched Rachel and Eric navigate and negotiate a difficult situation together as a couple but also as business partners. Long story short, some of the seeds and seedlings were planted into bad soil this spring. This stunted their growth and caused their leaves to start turning yellow. In talking with the soil distributers, it was suggested to use a soil conditioner to help maintain the moisture. Unfortunately, the soil conditioner that was used ended up burning several plants leaves throughout the greenhouse. This felt like a hard blow for Rachel and Eric. This was several thousand dollars worth of plants not to mention several hours of work. This will affect their sales at their big plant sale on May 1st as well as delay planting on the farm and sales at market. We spent some time re-seeding some plants and re-spotting others. We also planted several rows of struggling squash and tomato plants into the ground this week to see if they would bounce back in the fields' good soil. Only time will tell how these plants will do and how this devastation will affect the bigger picture on the farm. So goes farm life, I suppose. Eric and Rachel have handled it well, knowing that the only direction to move from here is forward - with careful planning and a hopeful heart.





We got bees this week! No, we don't d0 much with them. Just sell the honey in the self-serve station at the barn. The beekeepers just ask to keep the bees on our land for the summer. When I went to take pictures of the kale going to seed, I noticed that several of the bees had already found the kale flowers a few fields over.




At the end of one day last week, Eric took us to a field in the middle of their land to show us tilling radishes. We all know by now that most of the fields are planted on a nice flat flood plain. That means that sometimes standing water gathers in the field, though. So last year Eric and Rachel planted tilling radishes. They do just what it sounds like, tilling into the ground and leave a hole once they are harvested or once they rot. Rachel and Eric were pretty happy with the results and will likely plant them again this year. This is picture that was left at the end of last season and was found again this year next to its hole.

We mulched a fair amount of fields with hay this week. I think this will be a regular blog topic, so be forewarned. So far I'm still laughing as we build our muscles trying to push those huge rolls of hay in pairs while Eric passes us while pushing one by himself. Sigh. Oh, and we all decided that we need to find some masks. Not only does that stuff end up all over our bodies, it gets in our throats and lungs, too. Ick!

Also, my relatively new, stainless steel water bottle transformed into a piece of wall art this week. A couple of us left our bottles at the end of the asparagus field, and the farm truck ran smack dab over them. That's what I get for leaving it in the "road" I guess!


Last but not least, Sonia came to visit this weekend! She hiked while I worked yesterday and then came to the farm for dinner. We has roasted asparagus, with a spinach and tempeh salad. And for dessert, chocolate banana bread that Eric and I bartered plants for at market! Today Sonia and I walked around the farm and then went in search of a swimming hole. We found one! It is on Cliff's farm on the Thornton River. We brought a picnic with us and reveled in the surprise sun and 70 degree weather. The forecasts told us all week that it was supposed to thunderstorm all day. Not a drop of rain did we see! Here's what we saw instead:
I'm off to do a tick check, boil some water for tea, read, and catch some shut-eye...

Saturday, April 17, 2010

The Kale is Going to Seed...

...which makes it harder and harder to harvest! We had to eek out something like 9 bushels of kale for market tomorrow, but the leaves are getting limp, small, and sparse. This makes the harvesting take longer and longer. We did it eventually! Then, in the afternoon, guess what we did? That's right, harvest spinach! Ooooooooooo, but guess what reward we got today? The "seconds" of the asparagus! We still weren't taught how to harvest it for ourselves, but we'll take the leftovers. Which ones are considered seconds? The ones that are starting to open on top, that look gnarly, that are eaten by asparagus beetles, etc. Basically, anything that's not pretty and likely won't sell at market. They tasted delicious in my beans and rice, despite the ugly factor.

I also found out (did I write this already?) that I will be going to the Charlottesville market next Saturday. I'm looking forward to it!

Oh, and I finished my book by Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol. Thank goodness! I liked the message at the end, but the rest of the book was way too violent. It stressed me out, and I'm trying to de-stress out here on the farm. Sheesh! Mom, I still can't believe you recommended that book...and that you still give me a hard time about taking you to see The Matrix! Ha!

Friday, April 16, 2010

Watering the Greenhouse

Watering the greenhouse was the new skill I practiced today. It's very methodical and a little comical, too. The methodical part is trying to maintain the same level of moisture from plant to plant throughout the greenhouse, passing your water-wand over each and every plant in there. The comical part is wrangling your hose so that you don't knock over, behead, or get caught up in any plants or pallets of plants while you try to reach every plant in the very full greenhouse! I felt like I should have been wearing my c'girl hat and roping cattle with that hose! We also harvested spinach and kale for tomorrow's markets at Warrenton and Charlottesville. Andy, Anika and I are all working here on the farm tomorrow while other folks run the markets.

I woke up thinking about a haiku that I started the first day that I arrived here. I finished it from bed:

Chirping like small chicks,
Frogs sing me to sleep at night.
I wake with bird songs.

G'night!

The work we accomplished Thursday


Today we worked really hard and really fast. Here's the short of it.

We :
-harvested a bushel each of spinach, Red Russian kale, and curly kale.
-spotted tomatoes.
-stirrup hoed the new spinach and pea field.-schemed about how to get Eric to teach us to harvest the asparagus that is now coming up, achem, so, you know, we can try it.
-moved pallets full of plants
-planted red and green lettuce into the ground.
-planted kale into the ground.
-reflected on the smell of our fishy hands (they use fish to fertilize as we plant).
-covered the red and green lettuce as well as the kale with row cover (to make a mini-green house).
This is Rachel, caught red-handed with ONE LARGE STOLEN PIECE OF ASPARAGUS. I won't tell if you won't.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Photo Essay of Field Trip to Mountain View Farm


Love,
Kelly

PS. Here is more information about the farm that we visited Wednesday afternoon. http://www.blueridgecenter.org/food-and-farming

Tuesday, April 13, 2010



















I made it! I hiked and camped alone this weekend (Sunday and Monday), and I probably owe my courage to Jami. She always invited me to go hiking or camping with her, and we usually did it together. However, the times that I was not up for going, she would venture out by herself! I hadn't really had the chance to, nor did I create the chance to go on my own until this past weekend. I borrowed Rachel's car (first time driving a Prius hybrid...pretty fancy!) and journeyed into the middle of Shenandoah National Park.

The first day I went on a 9.7 mile long hike (Tuscarora-Overall Run Trail Loop), labeled as strenuous, which turned into about a 15 mile hike. The road to the trail head was closed, so that added a couple miles to my hike. And then the map in the book that I had did not match the map that the Park Service gave me, so that added another few miles to the hike. I have new boots; I was reminded of this in the last couple miles of my hike because of the sore blister on my right heal.

I stayed in the main campground because I was not able to get a back country camping permit in time. I didn't sleep soundly, but I did get some sleep. More about that in the highlights...

And then the next day I did a small hike, hoping that I could ignore my blister if I put the right bandages around it. No luck. My 3.3 mile hike (Lewis Falls Trail Loop) was long and painful. That is, until I remembered I had my dorky Crocs in my backpack. So I walked the rest of the way with one hiking boot and one Croc. Since I wasn't going far, this worked out great!

Highlights about my weekend hiking and camping:

  • Panoramic views of the whole Shenandoah Valley
  • Incredible mid-70 degree weather
  • Butterflies lining my entire walk
  • Transcending from one season to the next and then back again by descending and ascending 2ooo feet on my hike
  • Brilliant pink flowering trees (Redbuds?) set against a backdrop of bright spring green leaves of most other trees
  • Three different screaming racoon fights throughout the night
  • One yelping/terrified dog (because of the racoons? i'll never know)
  • Practicing with my Pstyle some more
  • Deer walking and chomping constantly within inches of my tent, again, throughout the night
  • Three beautiful waterfalls
  • Two 12-week-old Pomeranians that reminded me of Honey. Honey the Pomeranian that I fostered jumped off my three story house and lived without a wound to prove it. When the owner of these two pups said she was going to set them on the top of the brick wall while she took a picture of the waterfall, I grabbed them and set them on my lap! And they were tuckered out from the walk down to the falls, so they fell asleep on my lap. Phew.
  • eating a whole hamburger at the end of my hike
  • and a lot of time to think of and miss and love and send warm thoughts into the universe for each of you...my friends and family













Sending love to you today!









Saturday, April 10, 2010

Peed standing up

Oh, and did I mention that I peed standing up for the first time? Yup, like, no squatting here. Nope, didn't even wet my pants. How did I accompish such a thing, you ask? Well, I must thank my good friends Emily and Al for my new ability. They gave me a pStyle for my birthday. And a rainbow pouch to put it in! I recommend it to any womyn who needs to pee and doesn't have access to a warm, hospitable toity. Ha! Here's some more info about it: www.thepstyle.com. And yes, it was an odd sensation when I started, but it worked, and I think it's brilliant! And simple. And you should get a DivaCup while you're at it.

Wintered Harvest

I can't believe that I forgot to mention that we harvested for the first time yesterday! And we did it again this morning, which is why I remembered. We harvested spinach and kale. The kale is going to seed, so we are harvesting as much as we can this week and maybe next week before the leaves start dieing. We harvest the spinach just about the new growth in the middle so that the plant can regrow once more before it gets too hot. We are two thirds of the way through the spinach field after this morning and we hope to get the rest of the way through the patch plus one more run through the field before it goes to seed. They planted the kale last July and the spinach last August. They harvested some kale before the end of the season last year and then both the spinach and kale went through the winter. Many of you either heard about or experienced three different BIG snowstorms over here on the east coast, and Waterpenny experienced them as well. They were wondering what affects it would have on the wintering crop. The spinach and kale look great, both Rachel and Eric say, so they think the snow insulated the kale and spinach from the harsh winter air and then watered them well once it melted.

Eric went to the first market (Takoma Park) two weeks earlier than last year in order to take advantage of the good conditions. Last Sunday was his first time to Takoma Park this season, and this morning he added the Charlottesville market. Next week we'll add in the Warrenton Market on Thursdays. We are selling spinach, kale, strawberry plants, and then other plugs and plants that they seeded in February or early March.




I won't get to go to market for another couple of weeks, but I'm already excited for when that time comes!