Rock & Roll Farm |
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Wednesday! Oct 12 05 // 03:29 pm // permalink Color!
 This was the last Wednesday distribution. Three more days…
Check out more new photos. Wednesday! Oct 05 05 // 01:43 pm // permalink Still summer?
We’re reaching record high temperatures here in Washtenaw county today. I’ve just returned from market sweaty and tired. But whatever…that’s pretty much been my existence since May. It’s supposed to cool off a little soon, maybe tomorrow? It’s been a tough season with the drought and heat. We work so much that a month before you realize you haven’t talked to any of your friends or family. A few weeks back I realized I’d hit burnout but there’s not much I could do about it. Hence not many updates. Next week is the end of the CSA, though, so the end is in sight. Instead of writing one big update about the whole three months I’ve been off - because that is obviously not working - I’m going to try to do it in chunks. If anyone has any specific questions about the farm, organics, etc., leave a comment or email me and I’d be happy to answer. Monday! Sep 26 05 // 01:17 pm // permalink Hoes I’ve Known: Diamond
 This is my second favorite hoe. We sing a lot out in the fields and early this year I decided to try to sing every song I know before the season is over. The hardest part of singing every song you know is trying to simply remember the songs - harder than remembering the words. The diamond hoe reminded me of about seven diamond songs. Now whenever I’m diamond hoeing I sing that Mary Lou Lord song, She’d Be a Diamond. I select the diamond when the tiniest weeds need to be removed. When all four edges are sharpened to a razor’s edge, even the microscopic sprouts are cut down. Easy to maneuver between seedlings and larger plants. Monday! Sep 19 05 // 02:22 pm // permalink Like bees
 Four more weeks of CSA. Been incredibly busy, but I think that’s understandable. This week a new intern starts, so we’ll have 6 workers. I hope to have a little more time to finish a post I started last week. So, sometime this week look for a post that covers the last three months. Highlights: Drought, fatigue, a wedding, some stitches, a swarm, tomato fights, record high heat, plans for the future, a frost date pool, new music, and the relentless sunshine. Thursday! Sep 15 05 // 08:15 pm // permalink Hoes I’ve Known: Wheel Hoes; Stirrup
 We use this one a lot for clearing larger weeds from the paths between rows. When it’s sharp, it’s a real go-getter. Just don’t flatten that tire… Sunday! Jul 17 05 // 05:00 pm // permalink Approaching critical mass
 CSA; Day 48 Quick updates on the major issues: Rain: a little more regular since my last post. Weeds: still quite a bit of pressure. I tried to pick fava beans on Friday but I could barely find the plants. In some places the weeds are taller than I. We’re still spending like 30 hours a week weeding. Harvest: we ate the first sweet corn yesterday. Apples started to come in last week. The black raspberries are going crazy. Broccoli and kale are huge and plentiful. We brought in a few major loads of onions and garlic last week, that we’re still cleaning and prepping for storage. Crops coming soon: summer squash, cucumbers, tomatoes. Crops in early stages: we have a few beds of parsnips, carrots, and leeks that are limping along. Between poor germination (a problem all over the farm since the start of the season), little rain and major weed pressure, I’m surprised they’re doing as well as they are. Pests: the deer have destroyed the equivalent of a full row of beets. It’s heartbreaking. The raccoons have started on the corn. We are going to put up an electric tape barrier, but I don’t know how well that worked last year. Heat: it’s hot! Friday! Jul 01 05 // 02:06 pm // permalink rain, finally
CSA, Day 32 It rained yesterday! It had been 17 days. We’re almost over the hump with the weeding. Soon we’ll be spending most of our time harvesting. Planting is almost entirely done, except for the fall crops. Market Wednesday rocked. I sold out of everything. Including the asparagus that I forgot to put out until an hour before we left! Tomorrow’s market is going to be great. We have so much beautiful produce! I’m super busy, but I’ll give you a rundown of what we’re harvesting today: sugar snap peas Saturday! Jun 25 05 // 01:35 pm // permalink hot hot peat
 CSA day 26; Market day 7 This is what it’s like. In case you were wondering. What it’s like at about 2 p.m. when it hasn’t rained in weeks and the heat coming off the ground is like sticking your face in the oven. There are two other people sleeping in the room but didn’t fit in the frame. This photo was taken about two weeks ago, but not much has changed. Last year there were around two days that it reached 90, and just barely. This year, well, it’s a horse of a different color. And that horse is on fire. Market was nuts today… and there’s been a lot going on around here… but I may be too tired and hot to post. In fact, I am. Saturday! Jun 18 05 // 01:09 pm // permalink Rolling along
CSA, Day 19; Market, Day 5 Market has been slow the past week, but somehow I’ve still managed to rock it. (This is a special Tantre term, meaning to sell out of nearly everything one puts out on the table). Must be my winning smile and sparkling wit. Or it could be that we have really nice organic, local, hand-picked vegetables and people are taking notice. Eat local! Remember the chickens that were supposed to lay green eggs? Well, they’re dead. They hadn’t even reached full size yet, so they weren’t able to make good on the green egg claims. Based on the evidence, we’ve decided it was the rooster, in the chicken yard, with the beak. None of us were surprised because this rooster has been trouble from the start. The three-year-old calls him “Scratchy Boo-Boo” because he’s bitten her, and her friends, and a lot of the CSA members’ children, several times. There are only a few adults left who are brave enough to go inside the chicken yard anymore (which of course includes me, I ain’t afraid of no rooster). It helps if you don’t run, and if you carry something large to shield from his attacks. I go for the plastic lawn chairs. More animal bad news, yet another attempt to breed the cow has been thwarted. This time the vet was in the hospital and couldn’t even make it out to the farm. Last cycle we didn’t get the order to our semen supplier in time. Each of the three cycles before that were actual breeding attempts, but they didn’t take. Save the mosquitoes, seems like we are in some sort of reproduction twilight zone. We planted peppers, eggplant and cucumbers on Thursday. The peppers and eggplant were seedlings and the cukes were direct seeded. We used black plastic row cover and drip tape (of which I hope to skip-out on the removal). We really should have the summer squash in the ground by now, but, you know, sometimes that’s just how it goes on the farm. At least this farm. We’ve had a nice amount of rain this week. Which means the crops are happier, but then so are the weeds and pests. Flea beetles made lace of the turnip and radish greens, but the roots came up nicely. Three or four generations of arugula and spicy greens are obscured by pigweed and lamb’s quarters, but we plant a few beds each week so the wait for a nicer batch won’t be too long. There’s a lot of pressure from sedge in the brassica field, and you can’t see the parsley for the shepherd’s purse in the herb garden. Between the second and third hoophouses is a virtual jungle of dock and lamb’s quarters. You can barely see over it. We’ve been talking about going out there with machetes. Strawberries have been going strong, and won’t last much longer than Wednesday. That is if the robins and raccoons don’t step-up their attack on all three patches. Some people put floating row cover or some other netting over their strawberries to keep the birds from devastating their crop. Spending time protecting the berries isn’t really a priority for us so we take our chances with the critters. Sugar snaps, shellers, and snow peas are in. Those sugar snaps taste like watermelon. I can’t help myself eating pint after pint at market. One of the rows didn’t get trellised, but was planted next to a row of favas that ended up providing adequate support. Wednesday! Jun 08 05 // 01:08 pm // permalink Weather woes
CSA, Day 9; Market, Day 3 It’s been 90+ the last two days and we haven’t had rain in two weeks. Maybe longer. The ground is too hot to go barefoot, which is the prefered mode here. We’ve been taking swimming breaks in the pond/swamp. Yesterday it was so hot that we took an hour break at around 4p.m. That is totally unheard of around here. Breaks? What are those? Market was slow again today, but fun. I made a t-shirt that says “Tantre” on the front, and on the back, “Who let them in?” I sold almost everything on the table, which is kind of nice. The reason we are there is more to distribute shares, but rocking-out at the table is what I like most about working on the farm. The distribution this week is almost identical to last week. No spicy greens or asparagus, but tatsoi instead. Tatsoi is and asian green somewhere between spinach and arugula in taste. There’s a Korean woman who makes the best Kim Che with our tatsoi. With the heat, a lot of our stuff has exploded in size in the last week. We had probably 1,000 heads of lettuce ready to go yesterday! The cow has been giving more milk lately, a mystery to all of us. We got three new chickens, and someone told me they are the breed that lay green eggs. I’ll believe it when I see it. |
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R&R Farm sans sheriff archive Weather in Ester, AK |