Tomatoes and cucumbers!

Here are some pictures of cucumbers being trellised in one of the high tunnels. The cucumber plants are loaded with small cucumbers! Should be ready in a couple weeks. We also just started working on staking the tomatoes today. They were starting to run on the ground and were really getting out of control, but they look much better now. Working in the high tunnels in the cool evening is much more pleasant than the heat of the day.

Planting, weeding, and more planting

Lots of plants and seeds have been going in the ground lately: broccoli, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, beets, swiss chard, lettuce, carrots, spinach, radishes, arugula, turnips, scallions, peas and more. We've also been working to stay ahead of the weeds in the first rows of greens that were planted in late April. Here are some pictures of greenleaf lettuce, scallions, onions, and swiss chard seedlings planted on the muck.

With the rain we've had lately, the garlic is growing really fast. It's also making the weeds grow fast too, so we've been working on hoeing and cultivating the rows with the tractor. I'm looking forward to pulling those first big bulbs. Only 2 more months to go!

Our Egg Layers on Pasture enjoying the beautiful weather

Our egg laying flock is housed in a new movable coop we designed and built over the winter to be able to move our flock every few days to fresh green pasture. It is amazing how fast they can tear up the thick clover as they eat it and forage for bugs. The chickens are also very safe from predators at night because we take down the ramp to the door so there is no way in.

High Tunnel tomatoes and cucumbers all planted!

Yesterday we got all the high tunnel tomatoes and cucumbers planted. About 253 tomatoes and 100 cucumber plants. Before planting, I spread a few yards of composted goat manure and amended the soil with aragonite(a sea mineral high in calcium), greensand(contains 30+ minerals) and a bagged organic fertilizer. Then drip irrigation was laid. Can't wait for the first tomato and cucumber salad!

New bee hive

Here are some pictures of my younger brother(14) installing our new bee colony a couple days ago. We had purchased the hive box and all the supplies about a month ago and were waiting for the bees to arrive. They should be very useful for pollinating all the tomatoes, peppers, melons, squash, etc. We also hope to get a small amount of honey by the end of the season too. Its important when working around bees to move very slowly and calmly and not agitate them.

Garlic Growing

The garlic continues to get taller, especially after it was amended with a high nitrogen organic bagged fertilizer and 400 lbs of kelp meal to the acre. Kelp contains many minerals and micronutrients from the sea and is very beneficial to plant growth.

First Spring Broccoli and Cabbage

Last Friday we got the first Spring broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and kale planted. I was also able to get a second planting of sugar snap peas in. The rain over the weekend was very good for the transplants to get rooted in the ground. Can't wait for the first cabbage to make sauerkraut with!

Preparing and planting on our muck land

Yesterday and today we got some planting done on our rented piece of muck land. First, I used the big New Holland tractor to Chisel Plow the ground, then the small New Holland tractor to rototill the ground. Then I marked the rows and we planted about 3800 sweet onion transplants, 250 scallion and pearl onion transplants, 200 lettuces, and direct seeded spinach, arugula, turnips and radishes. It was really nice to be able to plant without dealing with any stones, unlike our sandy loam ground. Muck is excellent for growing onions, spinach, carrots, lettuce, celery, etc., so I'm very excited to see the yields.

Plants ready for the field

We're anticipating having a few days of mild, dry weather to get the first broccoli, cabbage and lettuce in this week, and start working on getting the sweet onions in. In addition to the transplants, I should be able to get in the first sowings of radishes, turnips, spinach, arugula and carrots. They will be going in on the muck ground we rented down the road from the farm. I will have pictures of that soon.

These young celery plants won't be set out in the field until early June - temperatures below 50 degrees for more than a few days will make the plants bolt. They will also be going on the muck soil. It's rich and moist - perfect for a high water demanding crop like celery. Celery is one vegetable that is hard to find organically grown, so I believe our members will especially appreciate having it in their boxes this summer.

Tomato and cucumber transplants getting ready to go in the high tunnels late next week. The smell of the those tomato plants is wonderful, to me its one of the great smells of summertime.
I'm hoping to have cucumbers to put in the first or second share boxes, and tomatoes for the boxes by mid July!

Garlic

The garlic has grown a lot in the last week. Very soon I will be putting the Spring fertilizer application on and then start cultivating it

Out discing today

I disced up some ground today and planted oats as a straw crop. I'm going to let it grow to full height and then mow it and use it as mulch around tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.

New happenings at the farm

Here's a shot of our garlic field. Young garlic plants just emerged earlier this week.

trays of tomatoes that will be planted in the high tunnels

Broccoli and cabbage plants growing. We're hoping to have broccoli in the first or second share box.

Yellow sweet onions and red onions growing very well in the greenhouse. In another month they will be going in the field.

We were also able to get some ground tilled up. Our ground is early ground and drains well. The soil was shallowly plowed with a moldboard plow to turn it over and get rid of the clover cover crop that had been growing since last Spring. Then it was disced and oats were planted as a cover crop to protect the soil until it's time to plant warm weather crops in late May and early June. The soil will then be chisel plowed for deep aeration and then disced to form a seedbed before planting.

With the warm weather the last week and a half, we were able to get the plastic on two high tunnels, which will be used for growing early tomatoes to put in our members share boxes. We hope to have these by mid July!

New Baby Chicks

Here is some pictures of our new 5 day old chicks. They should be laying eggs in about 5 1/2 months from now. The main flock is Delaware's, and for an experiment we ordered a few Golden Polish. They seem to be doing very well, and we'll have them out of the brooder and on pasture at 4 weeks

First tomato seeds of the season started today! I'm growing four varieties of heirlooms and also a hybrid variety that has worked out very well. They will be on a heat mat until they germinate, then after they've been up a couple weeks will be transplanted into 36 cell trays. These tomatoes will be going in my three high tunnels around the 3rd week of April.

New high tunnel

The last few days I have been working on constructing a new high tunnel. This tunnel is 26x48 and will not be heated. Just a single layer of greenhouse plastic will protect the plants from the weather. I will be using this tunnel to grow heirloom tomatoes. Heirloom tomatoes, while very tasty, have little disease resistance, which makes a high tunnel perfect for them, because they are protected from weather extremes, mainly too much rainfall. The plastic will not be going on until the first week of April.

starting onions

Although it was cloudy and chilly out, today we were starting the first seeds of 2010: onions. About 3700 of them. 2500 Ailsa Craig Exhibition, which is a yellow sweet onion and 1200 Redwing, a red salad onion. The onion plants will be transplanted on muck soil in about 10 weeks. They'll require frequent cultivation and hand weeding, but hopefully by early July we'll have the first sweet onions ready for the share boxes.