Those days

It’s Mother’s Day, and wet, heavy snowflakes are piercing the ground straight and fast as arrows. While I was starting lunch, Silas declared he was going outside for a bit, and ran to get warmer clothes. As he sat on a stool in the living room, pulling on sweatpants, he asked, “Mommy, do you like that I can do things myself now, or do you miss doing things for me?”

Smiling at him, and blinking back a sudden hot flood, I answered, “Well, I have to say that I do like that you can do so much for yourself now. But I still like helping you sometimes.”

Me and the little guy have been through a lot together on the farm, starting with my first year working full time as a farmer, when he was always at my feet, still nursing and never napping.

The other day, as I crossed the yard and passed under his window, I caught a glimpse of him at his desk, head lowered, snapping LEGO pieces together. We gave him our old clock-radio, and he had it tuned to a country station that plays hits from back when we were kids. The sound of music coming from his window stopped me in my tracks. With time seemingly accelerating as I get older, the teenage years suddenly don’t seem so far away.

When we were awaiting Silas’s arrival, and then when he was a newborn, older friends and relatives told us, in cautionary tones, to cherish “these days,” because we’d miss them when they were gone. It was hard for me to understand this advice at the time. Back then, and still now, there are no eras of my life that I miss. But there are people I miss terribly, and I think, perhaps, that’s what those friends and relatives were really saying.

As I type this now, he’s at my side, showing me how he can take off his own band-aid, a feat that used to require much mental preparation on his part. I certainly don’t miss giving a pep talk before pulling off a band-aid on a teensy little cut. I don’t want to go back to any time in our journey, but when he’s finally grown, when he moves on to the next stage of his life, and the house is quiet, I won’t miss “those days,” but I will miss that boy.

Jason took these around Si’s first birthday at our old house.

~ Stella

Mud and kale

Today, it’s like scooching along in extra chocolaty, chunky brownie batter. About 375 feet of kale went in this afternoon, and my trooper of a 6-year-old didn’t complain once. (That isn’t always the case!) About 1,000 more feet of kale will go in the ground in the next few days.

Home now with a cup of tea, and Silas clicking away at his plastic blocks. These pants are hanging outside.

~ Stella

Farm Talk & Tasting tonight with Fat Hawk Farm

Hello, friends! Tonight there’s a Farm Talk & Tasting with Garrett Gleeson, of Fat Hawk Farm. The evening starts at 6 at the Green Shoppe in Meadville.

Click here for all the details.

We're trying a new system for high tunnel vine crops

Tomatoes and cucumbers are climbers, and they can get out of hand fast, with vines sprawled across pathways and tangled, leading to spoiled and diseased fruit. We’re, ahem, speaking from experience here.

But when vining crops are given priority status on a farm’s to-do list, they can be bountiful and valuable.

A confession: we’ve struggled with trellising and pruning tomatoes. When dozens of things on the farm need our attention all at once, and the tomatoes need TLC, there hasn’t been enough L&C to go around.

So why are we entering this season thinking things will turn out any different? Well, for one, boundless optimism is a personality requirement for gardeners. But, in all seriousness, we’re just more ready. As our farming experience and knowledge accumulate, we solve old problems and make time for new priorities.

One such priority is a whole new technique in the high tunnels. It’s called the “lean and lower” system. Jason strung steel cables across the top of the Big Tunnel and one of the Cat tunnels. We dangled a Tomahook with a cord over every tomato plant, and we’ll attach the vines with trellis clips. When the cucumbers are in the Big Tunnel, they’ll each have a hook, as well.

Videos demonstrating the lean and lower system have us chomping at the bit to try it. As the vine grows, you give it more cord, and slide the Tomahook down the steel cable, freeing the plant to grow taller. It’s an intense production system, urging plants to reach their potential. A tomato vine loaded with fruit is heavy, around 20 to 25 pounds, if not more. We have about 60 plants in the Big Tunnel, so that’s potentially more than 1,000 pounds of weight. (The Big Tunnel is strong, and Jason added supports to the Cat tunnels, so the heft shouldn’t be an issue.)

We’re excited about this system, and approaching it ready for the required labor and time. We’ll post regular photos and updates of our vine plants this season, and you can see how it goes right along with us.

These are the Tomahooks. They hang off steel cables that stretch across the high tunnels. We’ll clip the tomato and cucumber plants to the cords with trellis clips. (P.S. See those small, bright green plants at my feet? Those are celery in the Big Tunnel.)

Jason and Silas hang the Tomahooks on one of the steel cables in the Big Tunnel.

~ Stella

P.S. For the outdoor tomatoes, which we’ll plant around Memorial Day weekend, we’ll still use the Florida Weave. For the weave, you use T-Posts and twine. The twine cinches the plants up, and more strands can be added as the plant grows. Side (but extremely important) note: our outdoor tomatoes, and, well, everything outdoors, is now safe from marauding deer, thanks to a 7 1/2-foot fence.

Drip, drip, drip

The mud goes squish and the grass goes squeak - thank heavens for good boots!

It’s been a rainy couple of days, but we’re harvesting from the high tunnels, so at least it’s dry when I’m picking. The CSA doesn’t start until June, but website orders and retail accounts need filled Monday through Wednesday.

We have a lot of plantings scheduled for the next few weeks, so Jason’s been working in the rain, too, spreading compost when he gets home from his day job.

The warmer weather and rain combined for an explosion of green and wildflowers. On a sunny day last weekend, it was nice to walk home from the farm and hear the breeze swishing the baby leaves. The patter of spring rain outside has been nice, too. Splish, splash, squish, swish - the tune of May.

Warm and dry in the Big Tunnel today, but cool and rainy outside.

We haven’t touched the northwestern corner of the farm yet this season. Beautiful wild mustard brightens the day.

Onion planting

We used the weekend’s good weather to put onions in. We planted three beds, and each bed has three rows, so about 1,125 feet of onions.

About a third of the onion plants started in our basement. The rest came from Dixondale Farms in Texas. This year’s planting is a mix of red and yellow onions. We’re also trying a blush that blends the two, producing a champagne peel and pink interior.

We started planting Saturday in the late afternoon, and finished up Sunday. To pass the time, we played the tall tale game, “Two Truths and a Lie.” To Jason and Silas’s amusement, I’ve repeatedly proven inept at this game. “No, wait! I just told three lies! Sorry!” “No, wait! Those are all true! Sorry again!”

So, let me try it in print. Find the lie. Is it A, B, or C?

A. It took us about 3 hours total to plant the onions.

B. My back is not sore today.

C. I wish we had more onions to plant!

While the three hours went quickly, and my back is surprisingly fine today, I’m definitely content with a thousand feet of onions.

The trays of onions started in the house. The onions in the gray bins came from Texas.

We'll let the onions grow to about twice their current height, then tuck them in straw. After that, we basically leave them alone, except to weed eat the pathways. We’ll harvest them in the fall.

Have a solid week, friends. When problems come your way, solve them as best you can, and enjoy all the moments in between.

~ Stella

This morning's work

It’s May 1, and we spent the morning in the Big Tunnel. We basically did a second wave of planting in this tunnel. The first wave has already been harvested and sold (radishes, salad turnips, Asian greens, and lettuce).

Here’s what’s in the beds, starting from the left:

1.) 2 rows of peppers (planted today)

2.) Lettuce we’re currently harvesting

3.) Baby lettuce

4.) Tomatoes (planted today) and Asian greens

5.) Baby lettuce

6.) Tomatoes (planted today), oregano, and parsley

7.) 2 rows of celery (planted today)

8.) Baby lettuce

~ Stella

Thumbs up!

The tomatoes and peppers in Caterpillar 2 all survived the cold. They spent the night under buckets, flower pots, and landscape fabric, but the Cat tunnel did its job: one tiny pepper was forgotten on the end of the row, no cover whatsoever, and it was just fine. Better to be safe than sorry.

~ Stella

Freeze warning

The National Weather Service issued a freeze warning until 8 a.m. Saturday (today). Yesterday evening, every tomato in Caterpillar 2 got a bucket or flower pot. The peppers were tucked under landscape fabric for the night. Fingers crossed. While working, the farm had sun, heavy wind, hail, and rain. Pa. springs - sheesh! The wind took out our power last night. Always so grateful to the line workers who get everyone’s electric going again.

We’ll head up to the farm shortly to see how everything did. Beautiful weekend in the forecast. Plenty of sun, and 60 degrees today and 78 on Sunday.

~ Stella

What we add to the farm's soil

The amendments to the farm’s soil are simple. In a year, the farm spends up to $1,500 for one dump truck load of mushroom compost.

While the myth persists that mushroom compost has too much salt and can harm plants, Pennsylvania State University research found otherwise. Researchers concluded that fresh mushroom compost:

• improves soil structure;

• provides plant nutrients;

• increases plant nutrient availability;

• increases soil microbial populations;

• increases plant root structure;

• increases soil aeration;

• and reduces soil compaction.

In past years, we had to order the compost in the spring, when CSA memberships provided the money for it. This was a problem because the farm can be hard to reach that time of year, thanks to mud, and if you get the dump truck stuck, it’s $100 an hour until you get it unstuck. For this reason, we had the giant heap of compost dumped in our front yard, rather than up at the farm. No one liked this except Silas. We had to shift the compost up to the farm a little at a time (this was before we had a pickup).

The conclusion to this rather boring entry in the farm’s chronicle is that we set aside money last season to buy the compost early. So on a perfectly dry fall day we cheered the dump truck to victory as it charged up the path to the farm. Starting the season with compost at the ready has been helpful.

We spread compost by the bucketful, top-dressing the beds as we need them.

Mushroom compost is the only additive used in a significant quantity, but we also use a few bags of alfalfa pellets for Asian greens. Before we introduced the pellets, we had a problem with flea beetles chewing holes in the leaves. A few seasons ago, Jason decided to experiment with alfalfa pellets. For reasons we still don’t entirely understand, the pellets help. After becoming wet, the pellets kind of melt together and form a coat over the soil. Maybe this shields the plants from flea beetles? The pellets certainly help stop the weeds in these rows.

Here and there, we use a few other natural amendments, like a bucket of ash for tomatoes, or blood meal for garlic, but the most important addition is the mushroom compost.

His concerns about spiders and snakes are trumped by his devotion to endless digging.

Action shot.

~ Stella

Speaking of salt and soil … There are stories in history of people using salt to destroy an enemy’s crops. It’s unclear how many of these tales are truth or legend, but there is the case of the Távora affair in mid 18th-century Portugal. After an attempted assassination of King Joseph I, the accused Távora family was publicly tortured and executed, their palace destroyed, and their land salted. Thank me later if it comes up on Jeopardy.