Potatoes and Wasmund's Single Malt Handcrafted Whiskey

Yesterday we planted onions. It was the first time that we planted something into the ground! Eric said they looked a little more roughed up than normal. They did look about half dead to me. Eric assured us that they would shape up (he hoped) once they got into the soil and came in contact with the moisture. They were dormant when they came via UPS to us. And wouldn't you know, it rained lightly yesterday afternoon to help them settle into their new homes.

We also planted potatoes. Though short-lived, we all had a lot of fun doing that! I need to get a picture up here about it, but planting potatoes involved sitting on planter seats at the back of a tractor and throwing potatoes in every other hole in the ground. Rachel and I were partners and did pretty well until we got the giggles. We had to holler up to Eric to STOP! while we rectified our increasingly misplaced potatoes. Eric said that potatoes weren't their specialty so they didn't give them too much attention. Last year they got about 10 times the amount of pounds of potatoes that they planted and we are hoping for a similar year this year.

We then seeded some herbs as well as did some spotting of tomatoes.































Over our lunch break I gathered everyone up and to go on the CopperFox/Wasmund Whiskey Distillery tour. They are basically located right across highway 211 from us. These guys do their whole operation by hand. One thing that I thought was interesting was that they sprout their barley right there on the floor of the warehouse. They just produced their 38th batch since opening in 2005. Their operation is in the same building where Skyline Apple Juice production used to happen. There are a few remaining apple orchards in the area, but many of them have gone under and have been torn down. I'm sure the apple juice company went under around the same time.

We spent the afternoon spotting tomatoes. I spent most of it with the Pink Girls. We'll see how those girls turn out!

And this morning we looked at the germination rooms in Eric's basement. When there are seeds in there, Eric checks the room 3-4 times a day, just like the weather! Once those seeds kick into gear, they really grow fast. For instance, we checked them first thing this morning and there was NOTHING visible in one of the flats. At lunch we checked it again and there were over a dozen sprouts knuckling up above the surface of the soil!

We also learned the tricks and hazards of watering the greenhouse and hoop house. Not too wet, not too dry is the summary.

This afternoon I spotted a few different kinds of chard and then plugged some rosemary into some sales flats. And there you have it, folks!

Project: Middle of the Night Rescue

Ok, so I got the ladybugs out. And then I got the box elder bugs out. And then I got most of the black furry spiders with fangs out. And then a couple of random bugs that I couldn't identify. And then a wasp, a bee, and a june bug. And then a few more different kinds of spiders. And I am thankful that the next thing wasn't a mouse. But come on, a FROG? It's 2:08 a.m. in the morning and a frog woke me up jumping around my room. Sheesh! I gotta sleep.

Visiting Mt. Vernon Farm

Today started with hand weeding spinach again. I like the weeding, but my back and knees seem to complain about it here and there. Today I wore pants, so that helped a little bit. I also don't think I'm getting any faster. Hmmmm...

At 10am sharp, Cliff, the landlord, and Mike, his assistant, met us at Waterpenny Farm. Cliff has had this land in his family since 1827. Right now it is a full-fledged organic (but not certified on purpose) grass-fed animal farm. The land that Waterpenny is leasing used to be an apple orchard that sold apples to England. Rachel and Eric have been on the land for 1o years, since 2000. They signed a 40 year lease five years ago, so they plan to stick around for quite a while. Cliff said he is glad about that because the land that they moved onto was going to be a nuisance to him once the orchard was razed. Cliff's children are not likely to take over the land from him, so he is hoping that Mike and his wife (they are from Colorado!) will take over the operation (but not buy the land). Cliff would like to keep it in the family if possible.
It was fun to walk around the property with Mike and Cliff. We saw the hogs that I ran into last night as well as a sow and her piglets. The mama happened to roll over right when we were there to nurse. Lucky us! And lucky I remembered the camera.





Next we went to see the cows and their calves again. I learned something new there, too. I have pictured a "healthy" cowpie. That's right ladies and gents, if you ever need to know what one is, come back and look at these pictures again! It's round and all in one spot. And when you kick it open (with "shitkickers?") you should see a bunch of bugs scurrying about. Dung beetles. They are creating tunnels through this stuff and back into the ground, in essence fertilizing the grass!



Off to the sheep next. They only buy lambs and keep them on the property for less than a year I think they said they bought 200 of them last July and the last of them will be processed by May Day. In this picture you an see Lleo the Llama. It was so fun to watch the sheep and Lleo walk around the pasture. Lleo kept a close eye on us in case we were thinking about hurting his little lambs. And everywhere that Lleo went the lambs were sure to follow! They were comforted that he was there, it seemed. He looked like a big brother or something. Cute! Well, Cliff said he would break my neck with his front legs if I challenged him, but cute otherwise.

And then we went down to the store to see the different things that they sold. I thought it was pretty neat that they don't mix any of their meat. If you buy ground beef from them, you can see that it came from one cow and which cow it was (via its number)! So if there is any problem, they can trace it back to the cow and even the cow's mother. I bought eggs from them on Easter Sunday - did I mention that we saw a bunny on Sunday? It must have been the Easter bunny - and they were pretty darn good. And yes, Mom, a bit more expensive. $4.61 per dozen to be precise. They run a respectable operation, though, and Cliff and Mike are excited about doing as many things sustainably as they can.

After lunch we headed back to the greenhouse to spot tomatoes. I can't wait for those babies to fruit! Miranda said they have a blind tomato tasting in which people take notes and then vote on their favorite ones. I can hardly WAIT for that party. Any of you want to come out for it? It's an open invitation!

And last, we planted asian cabbage out behind my shed and then put ground cover over it. Eric said that this was unusual to plant here but he needed a dry place to plant and some of the interns last year kept a garden. Yes, you heard me correctly. After they got done farming all day, they came home and worked on their garden. What the?! Um, I'm not doing that. Except I may plant the Moonflower seeds that my aunt gave me two or three years ago and hope for the best.

There is something to my left chewing away at my wall in the shed. It was here yesterday. Eeeck. I'll let you know what it is if it makes it's way all the way through...and no, it's not this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail that I saw on my lunchbreak.

Going to bed earlier tonight

I am a bit tired today. I think it's because I have woken up early every day that I have been here, no matter what time I go to bed. I'm excited to hear the sounds outside and to enjoy the beautiful weather we have been having.

Today was spent in the greenhouse. I seeded sunflowers in the morning, one of which was named Sonja. It made me think of my dear friend in DC, Sonia, and so I smiled as I sowed those seeds. We then moved a few rocks and then went back to the greenhouse to spot basil in the afternoon.

In the evening I went up to the other side of the property and saw the male piggies. WHOA. They were a lot bigger than the other piggies that I put pictures up of yesterday.

Easing into my first full week

That was a short work day! Or at least it went fast because it was only a half day. Andy started today. He'll be here through the rest of the season. So first on the agenda was for Eric to give the two of us a more detailed orientation to the greenhouse and hoop house. I'm not sure if I remember all of the numbers precisely, but I think Eric said:

• small plants/starts make up 20% of their sales for the year
• they sell about 25,000 plants (for people to start their own garden) each year!
• they raise about 50,000 more plants to raise on the farm
• they will be growing 36 varieties of tomatoes this year (yesssssssss!)
  
• some farmers markets charge a flat rate fee and some markets charge a percentage of your income in order to have a stand there
• the plants/starts are a lot less work and are more reliable than planting in the field

We seeded melons, cucumbers, and squash today. They are all hot weather plants, so they go into Eric and Rachel's basement into the warm 85 degree germination room until they germinate. Once they germinate we will be back at spotting again. The picture on the left is a seeding and spotting station. The picture on the right is the soil mixing truck bed.






After we got done seeding and moving the plants to the basement, we moved some pallets into the hoop house. Then we moved rocks! Basically we were filling in ruts in the roads around the farm so that when it rains and floods (the majority of the fields are in a flood plain of sorts) the road is not too mucky to drive through. Basically, I'm a mason now in addition to being a farmer. Ha! There are a couple trucks that are used here on the farm. Eric said that at least one of them averages about 500 miles per year just driving around the farm!

Last, here are some piggy pictures:




Good night!

First Weekend at the Farm

Last night was my second night sleeping in the shed! Both nights went pretty well. Due to my heroic efforts (if I do say so myself) the bug population has decreased several fold. We (I) went from hundreds, maybe a thousand, live and dead bugs to about 20 maybe 30 bugs. They tend to want to keep me company during the day and then wander off (where?) in the evening. I can live with that. Well, I haven't been so kind to the spiders. I relocate the box elder and lady bugs. The spiders, well, Skype me and I'll show you what I do with those babies.

I didn't blog on Friday but I feel like I should have. So let's see,what did we do? We started by mulching the asparagus patch with hay. Eric and Rachel (the farm owners and cultivators) and their staff have found several First Nation relics over the years - arrowheads, ax heads, etc. So of course all of us interns are keeping a watchful eye out for treasures as we work. Several of us found beautiful quartz, no maybe diamonds, in the fields on friday! And then we remembered that Eric said asparagus are tolerant of salty conditions. He used chunks of (beautiful!) salt to discourage weeds from growing in this patch. The weeds are more of a nuisance since this field doesn't rotate to a different place every year and there's less of a chance to till. They tried to plant the asparagus low enough so that they can till the top soil for weeds and not disturb the crop. And that's also why were heavily mulching with hay...to discourage the weeds from competing. Luckily the asparagus are strong-willed enough to pop up through the hay. Rachel, one of my cofarmers, eyed two little spears coming up already. They were purple and proud. Exciting!

After mulching, Rachel came down with her son, Isaac, to teach us about soil sampling. They are sending it to two testing labs: one that is free and basic and one that is run by an past staffer who is starting up her own business. They borrowed a $400 cylindrical 1-inch in diameter tool that we pushed down into the soil about 6-8 inches throughout the field. It costs about $35 per sample, and I think I remember Rachel saying that they would send in about seven of these. We were careful to wear gloves and take samplings thoughout the field and then mix it all together for a balanced sample.
We then headed back to the spinach patch to hoe the rest of the row and then weed by hand. After weeding for over an hour, I realized that I had only made it about 15 feet down the row. Not sure what Eric would say about my efficiency? Hopefully I'll get faster.
We take lunch breaks from 12 to 2pm, the hottest part of the day. The weather has been gorgeous, but I am already thankful for this mid-day break as I think back to living in an attic in DC in the middle of summer. Ew. Hot, sweaty, almost unbearable. I'll be even more thankful for that break as the summer heats up.

In the afternoon we met at the greenhouse to do some more spotting. I spotted peppers again. Hot peppers, orange peppers, medium hot peppers, sweet peppers, pretty peppers, and so on. Between the team of us (Rachel, Anika, Miranda who worked here last year with her boyfriend, Nathan who volunteers once a week, and Eric, the farmer) we spotted hundreds of plants in one afternoon.






We then spotted (or plugged?) plugs. Eric and Rachel order plugs of plants that have seeds that are harder germinate. We put them into sales flats and then label them. Here is a picture of some Sage that we spotted and then labeled...


This weekend I continued to settle into the shed. I like to make my space homey, so I continued to move and organize the shed. My coworkers had a long weekend, so they took off in their cars for the city. While this is the time and space that I have been longing for, I think I felt a bit lonely as I settled in alone on Saturday. I taped the screens (not windows) shut, unpacked my clothes, set up some more crates to use as shelves, and pulled out my digital piano. I asked my parents if they thought I had it rough with my own space, electricity, digital piano, guitar, and laptop with printer and internet and the ability to video conference them?! OH, and the intern house - pictured left - a few feet away that has the shower, full kitchen, another computer and heck, Rachel and Eric even buy us our own copy of the Washington Post! They laughed. My dad told me that he worked on a farm for one summer (who again, dad?) and that he thinks he remembers a bed and a light by his bed...and he felt thankful for that. I guess times are a-changing.
I also drove into Culpepper , one of the nearby "big" towns, on Friday night after work. It took about half an hour, and I borrowed Anika's car to do so. Other things this weekend: I found the pigs that belong to Cliff, the landlord and neighboring farmer, over the hill and behind our farm. I went back to visit his calves, too, because my mom asked why I didn't take any pictures of those little ones! Here mama:

It's probably too small to see in these pictures, but there is a small white-faced calf sitting below the mama white-faced cow in the background of the right-side picture. Look closely! The pig pictures will come in an upcoming post.



Last, we pretty consistently all have Monday mornings off. So I had this morning to run to the post office in town (timed it: 5 minute bike ride, 15-20 minute walk) and TRY to balance my checkbook. Ugh! I also stopped by the only distillery in Virginia, so they say, to set up a tour for lunch break on Thursday. I am working this afternoon.
In 10 minutes, in fact. Time to go! Glad I don't have a long commute! I'm still in my pajamas!

Day One: Hoop House, Spinach, and Spotting

My fingernails are dirty! I was hungry for my meals! I was in the sun all day! I feel alive!

One of the most exciting things about this experience is that I know NOTHING about what I'm doing, about farming. So every little thing that Eric mentioned today was new. For example, Eric said to handle the plant starts (Ace peppers) by the leaves as we spotted (transplanted) them because a it is more likely to recover from a damaged leaf than a damaged stem. Or when my co-farmer Annika told me what she had previously learned about the asparagus: that you can't harvest it for the first three years as it gets established, so you really need to invest into that patch long term in order to get any results (and thus, asparagus is one of the few crops that is not rotated).

The first thing we did this morning was to put plastic on the hoop house. That was one BIG piece of plastic! I learned that the hoop house is not like the green house next door to it because it is not heated. On a nice day like today (upper 70s!) we lift the sides up in the morning and put them down at night. We covered it because the green house is about full to the gills and we are needing more space to put all the "baby plants" (technical term).

We then headed out to the spinach patch with hoes. We hoed as many rows of spinach as we could before lunch. I think I did about two and a half loooong rows before we headed in for lunch. And what did I eat? Well, fresh spinach salad, of course!

After lunch we spotted plants for the rest of the afternoon. I worked on Ace Peppers most of that time. These peppers were seeded on the first of March, so spotting means that we were moving each little baby sprout to it's own baby container. And again, baby is the technical term here. Achem.

I invited my two co-farmers over to the shed for happy hour (about 50 feet away from their residence). We sat in the grass, drank a beer each, and soaked up the setting sun. Then we went for a walk to the neighboring farm across the highway. Why? To see a handful of new calves that were born this weekend! One of the calves was bounding in circles around it's mama; it looked like a dog that was begging for someone to play with it. So cute!


My hands are already feeling a bit rough. That's with the use of gloves part of the day and with one application of farmer's salve, too. Wonder what they'll feel like at the end of summer? We shall see!

My coworkers each took a shower at the end of the day. Does farming mean that I have to shower every day now? Don't tell them, but I'm gonna sleep on this one...without showering beforehand.