To be successful at small scale vegetable farming — at least in my opinion — you must be a protean human. The reason I say this is that I just learned of this word and wanted to remember it by using it in a sentence. It is surprising that I have gone my whole life so far without knowing the word protean. I lead a sheltered life…
What’s happening on the farm? Find out after these brief announcements:
Our annual Potato Planting Party is tentatively scheduling for Saturday, April 30th starting at 1:00 and going until all the potatoes are planted. This is a great opportunity to come out to the farm to see what we are all about and meet your fellow farm members. Plus you get to play in the dirt planting potatoes. There are tasks for all ages and physical abilities so don’t let either of those stop you. Kids of all ages from 0 to 100 are welcome. Of course being an outdoor event it is weather dependent so if there is any doubt check the web site prior to coming out. A rainy Friday may result in the postponement of the event on Saturday so check the web site.
We are at 95% of capacity. If you plan to join please do so very soon.
We only have five EggShares left unless we can get another 15 people to buy eggs after the next five buy them. In other words, we need to purchase the eggs in 15 dozen cases. Buy your eggs soon and if you miss out please let me know and we will look into buying another case.
Feel free to buy ‘ShroomShare, CoffeeShare, FlowerShare and WinterShare as well. Plus if you want transplants please order them this week.
We are still in need of one more worker. This could be the opportunity of a lifetime for the right person! Learn more about the position here, then apply by sending in your resume to me.
We found a location for our 3M drop site and it couldn’t be more convenient. It is the exact same place as last year so it isn’t new. Please plan accordingly.
We have added a drop site in Stillwater near Manning Ave just north of Hwy 36. If you have friends or relatives in the area tell them to join the farm! Or if you want to switch to the new drop site let me know as well.
Farm News
In the past I recall being told that I “make people look better.” I assumed it meant that I cover for other people’s mistake so everyone on the team appears successful — even the ones who didn’t contribute much. Or maybe that I brought out the best in people. I always thought of it as a compliment. But then the other day when I heard it it occurred to me that it could have a completely different meaning. It could be that I am so ugly that I make other less ugly people look good in comparison. Makes me rethink my whole entire life…
Well the tomato grafting experiment was what I would call a qualified success. It of course is still going on and could easily turn into a complete failure. At this point I estimate there are about 114 good grafts out of 140 attempts. Now some of those 140 grafts were with very small plants that I probably wouldn’t graft in the future. But for this first year it was a good experiment to determine the best grafting size.
I moved the grafted plants into the greenhouse this past weekend to continue growing. If we get a forecast with night time temps above freezing for the foreseeable future we will look into transplanting them into the hoop house. Until then we’ll let them continue to grow in the greenhouse. I planted the outdoor tomatoes in the greenhouse this week and included a couple of flats of root stock plants. I figured I’d see if grafting helps outdoor tomatoes as well. This is a very complex experiment I must say.
Other than tomato grafting it is all about tractor repair and greenhouse planting while waiting for warm weather. Our main task with the bigger tractor is to try to eliminate the various fluid leaks. Last fall we replaced the radiator and water pump to fix the cooling fluid leak. This spring we fixed a fuel leak and one power steering leak. We still have another power steering leak we are trying to eliminate but as seems to always be the case, when working on old tractors you don’t know what parts you need until it is taken apart — then you have to order the parts for delivery several days to a week later. Makes for a long repair process. So right now we have the power steering pump disassembled awaiting a new seal kit — not the seal kit we originally bought based on the web site description but hopefully the right seal kit based on what this particular tractor has for a pump. There are no standard off-the-shelf old tractors…
We haven’t done anything outside yet but looking back over the last five years there was only one year we started prior to today. We planted peas one year around the 9th of April. But then the next thing we planted that year wasn’t until April 20-something. I suspect we jumped the gun and were surprised when we got a cold snap after the pea planting. A past season many years ago we started farming outdoors the last few days of March. The lesson we learned from that is starting early does not pay off. The peas came up at the same time as they would have if we planted them at the usual time. There was no benefit to starting early. In any case, while we are waiting for the weather to warm outside the plants inside are getting larger in the warm confines of the greenhouse so it is all good.
I believe that hits the word quota for this newsletter. As always, let me know if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, etc. I’m very protean so I’ll take just about anything.