Hey Folks:
A lot of food is growing in the ground! Fennel, brussels sprouts, potatoes and beans are putting up small sprouts. Transplants like tomatoes, peppers, and celery are taking root. As well, we’ve planted the next round of spinach, coriander, and planted our first round (ever) of corn.
The potential for a lot of food is there. Will it grow as expected? Is the celery going to go to seed early due to the cold it experienced earlier this year? Did the precision seeder plant the spinach too deep to germinate? Is it too hot for the coriander to germinate? Were the tomatoes too stressed by the transplanting to set a good flush of fruit? Did I plant enough snow peas for everyone?
During my internship at Elm Tree Farm, I learned that two factors determine the success of a small farm. Finding and using small efficiencies in time management and land use is one of these factors. The other is the ability to keep a cool head while making tough decisions under pressure.
I started the new beds for corn production earlier this month. For the past couple of weeks, they have been a low priority. As the corn planting deadline approached, it became clear that the beds were going to take an extraordinary effort to build and prepare for the planting. By the time I got to them, the beds had a healthy turf of switch grass and the soil was so dry that forking was going to be very slow going. What to do?
My rent includes a few hours of custom tractor work from Dick, so I decided that some of these hours would be wisely spent getting the beds into shape.
Dick was busy, and as it turned out, Friday morning (harvest day) was the only day that he was available. He rolled into the farm about the same time as Erica, while I was getting the harvest cleaning area prepared. I soon found myself in three places at once – trotting from the prep station or leaf beds (instructing Erica and overseeing the produce cleaning), to the other end of the field, where Dick was dragging the grass off of the soil surface with the cultivator. In between, I was picking spinach as fast as I could. It would have been much easier to curl up between the rows of garlic and hide. That was Friday.
Saturday marked the weekend for the corn planting. I walked out to my new beds and looked at them with dismay. The switch grass was mostly pulled up, but there was still a lot of residue in the ground to clean off. Julia and I got to work – picking up the loose clumps of grass, shaking the soil out of them, and tossing the grass into the cart. We progressed over 40 feet of bed (out of the 300) in just less than half an hour. Then we tried different methods. Finally, we found that raking the residue seemed to accomplish 80 per cent of the work. I kept telling myself that it would have to do. After we finished raking, I turned on the tiller, Julia got the buckets, and we worked in tandem – me driving the tiller through the beds, and Julia collecting the rocks kicked out by the tines. After half a day’s work, the beds were as good as they were going to get. We turned our attention to other priorities, and I kept telling myself I still had twenty-four hours to hit my deadline.
On Sunday I faced the corn beds again. There was noticeable improvement, but still a lot of partially broken down organic matter – which corn does not like to germinate in. It was going to take too much time to clean it out. I returned to the barn and filled a bucket full of seedling mix. This soil is very clean (and expensive), but I decided that it was a worthwhile investment given the situation.
I marked out the beds in a grid and dibbled a small hole into each seed site. I put a small scoop of mix into each hole, then the seed, then a second scoop of mix. With the corn now sandwiched in between two layers of clean soil and watered in, I was able to take a breath and head on to the myriad other tasks requiring attention.
All these decisions required consideration. Having chosen my course, all I can do now is not worry too much if I have taken the right one. There is not enough time to worry and no room for second thoughts.
So the corn is in. “Fisher’s Earliest” is an heirloom variety known for having a true corn flavor. Many modern hybrids focus on the sweet quality of corn, but I believe there is more to corn’s taste than just sugar. One of my textbooks suggests that modern sweet hybrids are not as nutritious as the heirloom varieties. I am looking forward to trying some Whitsend corn on the cob in about 70 days – presuming of course, that I made all the right decisions on the weekend!
Talk to you soon,
Bob
PS: One other bit of news. We have new tenants at the farm. A pair of Tree Swallows have moved into the birdhouse. These birds have an interesting song and a brilliant flash to their plumage. However, what I most appreciate is their extreme agility in flight. This species feeds "on the wing". In other words, they eat bugs while flying. I have no doubt they will find plenty of deer flies, horse flies, mosquitos, gnats...
PS: One other bit of news. We have new tenants at the farm. A pair of Tree Swallows have moved into the birdhouse. These birds have an interesting song and a brilliant flash to their plumage. However, what I most appreciate is their extreme agility in flight. This species feeds "on the wing". In other words, they eat bugs while flying. I have no doubt they will find plenty of deer flies, horse flies, mosquitos, gnats...