Some announcements and then more farm news.
We are planning on having our annual Potato Planting event on Sunday, May 4th from 1:00 until done. Sorry for the late notice. We’d love for everyone to come out, see the farm and enjoy each other’s company. Oh, and while we are at it, let’s plant some potatoes! This event is an all ages event. With activities like standing around talking and cutting potatoes; sitting on a planter and planting potatoes; and some third activity since things always come in threes. Fun for all! We must have good weather and dryish soil otherwise we will have to reschedule or cancel. So if in doubt, check the web site before coming out. Let me know if you can make it!
We are still taking orders for the 2025 season. Once we sell out of our 2025 share we can start selling our 2028 shares. If you haven’t rejoined, please do so soon! You can order your share through our online store.
We still have some of the other shares like ‘Shrooms, Fruit, Flowers, Cheese, Coffee, and Winter. We have one EggShare left unless we can get 15 more people interested in eggs. We have to buy them in boxes of 15 dozen you see. If you want eggs and find they are sold out let me know and I’ll keep track of interest to determine if we buy another carton.
If you want more announcements you can check out the last newsletter that has some that still apply — like new drops site at Haskell’s on Ford Parkway and a baked goods share at Ginkgo.
Farm News
I recently mentioned a new approach we are trying to reduce the amount of deer damage to your future food. His name is Link. At first I thought he’d been doing a pretty good job. Every time I looked out the window, or walked around the fields I did not see any deer. It seemed like he’s gotten rid of all the deer. Yay Link!
But then I got up early one morning — before Link — and what did I see? Yep, a couple of deer walking through the farm like they owned the place. So far, with the wet weather, we haven’t transplanted anything into the field yet so no big deal. We did get some peas direct seeded before this last rain but being seeds they haven’t gotten to the deer eating stage of development. They are still in the ground squirrel eating stage. Not that they eat ground squirrels – though that would be quite handy — just the opposite. The ground squirrels eat the pea seeds. Just thought I would clarify that for those who were unsure of who eats whom (I think that is the correct use of “whom”).
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Link and his job ridding us of deer. Once I saw the deer I noticed Link was sleeping in his bed like he didn’t have a care in the world. Why isn’t he out there chasing the deer away? Isn’t that what I pay him to do? Yes it is, but I guess even dogs need a few hours off.
And that is why I am working on a solution to give young Link some needed time off once in a while. Over the winter I discovered a group of University of Minnesota Computer Science and Engineering students looking for an agricultural project that uses robotics. They posted a message on the U’s SUSTAG listserv asking farmers if they have any ideas for using drones. Guess who jumped at this opportunity. You are correct. Me. Farmer Chris.
An idea that has been kicking around in my sun-scorched brain for a while is the concept of using an autonomous drone to chase deer off our property. Many of the details hadn’t been worked out yet, like where do I get a drone that can chase deer, or will the deer be scared, so I though who better to figure out these issues than a bunch of computer science and engineering students. They’re smart. They have time on their hands. I don’t have to pay them or buy a drone. Seems like wins all around!
We started working together back in January where I proposed the idea over a zoom call. They were in awe of my brilliance. Prior to our call they were looking at using a drone to survey the fields to analyze crops for potential issues like nutrient deficits or moisture issues. Boring! Why have a drone if it just flys around looking at plants just sitting around? Heck, I can walk around looking at plants and if I can do it, it can’t be that hard.
The deer deterrent idea won them over. Yeehaw! Maybe now Link can get a good nights sleep. The team has been working on it for the last several months with my expert assistance. They came out recently to take a test flight of their drones. It was a team of more than I could count. I wasn’t surprised. As I recall back when I was in college, students seemed to congregate in large groups typically surrounding a keg of beer. I didn’t see a keg but they did have a couple of cool drones. Maybe drones are the 2020’s equivalent of 1980’s beer kegs. If true, my faith in the future of humanity has been restored!
They spent a bunch of time milling about — not unlike squash bugs by the way — and looking at computer screens — completely unlike squash bugs. They spent some time adjusting the drones and running out of battery power. They needed some AC power to keep working and were quite impressed by the length of my extension cord. I guess I never really thought of it as extraordinary.
Anyway, they took a few test flights around the farm checking some of this and some of that. Link even came out to see what the big deal was. He wasn’t impressed but I think he got the hint that he has to step up his game or he’s out of a job. From my perspective I would consider it a success since the whole time the drone was here we did not see any deer. But since Link was with us for part of that time he is trying to take credit for the deer dearth. We can’t be certain of the actual cause. I guess you would say it wasn’t a well designed and conducted experiment.
Nonetheless, the Deer Deterring Drone — Triple D for short (my name, I don’t know what they are calling it) — is ongoing and hopefully the team will win the grand prize in the Farm Robotics Challenge 2025. Based on the yawn inducing descriptions from other teams — Aerial AI for Automated Cattle Counting, Autonomous Corn Detasseling with Umanned Aerial Systems, Multi-Crop Health Monitoring in Banana-Coconut Intercropped Plantations — I think our team has a pretty good shot. Wish us luck!
That’s all for now, as always, feel free to send in questions, comments, suggestions, share orders or anything you feel would be helpful for drone development!