BEER!

I like beer. Beer is good. So, a funny story about beer. I was tilling yesterday and came across a poker chip from the pub for a free beer. I was laughing and yelling BEER! BEER! yeah baby beer. Well, everyone else thought I was yelling DEER. It was'nt until late in the day when we all had discoverd what had happend. Funny, Well... ok, guess you had to have been there. It's always fun when something cool turns up in the soil. One day we found an arrowhead, another day a wedding ring. One day a buried homesteader was found ( not by us but at one of our sites) creepy.

Finding things in the soil has always been fascinating. I remember one day when I was about 10 years old I was at my grandpa Gids homestead out in western Oklahoma. Grandpa had passed long before I was born so I never had the chance to meet him. I'm always thinking about him though. He was a farmer and a blacksmith. Anyway, I remember finding and old metal snap one day out where his garden used to be. I remember thinking that must of been and snap off a pair of grandapas overalls. I 've long lost that snap but the memory of that and that of ol Gid still live on. I wonder if Grandpa liked beer?

Here on the farm I'm always coming across something, mostly old tools. Makes me wonder about ol man Pinneo. You know we have it so easy these days. Just think how different things were back at the turn of the century. Life was a lot harder back then. We bitch about everything. We have about six ferries a day. Hell, back then there might a been six ferries a year!

Things have changed alot and are continuing to do so. Looks like we're headed for some $5.00 gallon fuel prices this summer. Hang on to your chonies folks, prices is goin up! Good time to be thinking LOCAL.

Keep it real,

John

Good Times

Times is good on the farm. We could'nt be much more on it. We are filling ordedrs and sowing everyday. Prop house is full to the brim. The first tomatoes are germinating and we have an entire 3rd succession sown right behind that. Yes, I've completely gone mad once again. By my calculation theres somewhere close to 4,000 tomato seeds sown. Maniacal!

We'll move outside today and direct sow more peas and greens. Just need to form up a few more beds.

Short ordered on favas but I'll order some up today. Fava beans are my new favorite veg. Definately food of the Gods. I used to not eat them much because I felt like I didn't have the time to deal with them. They are a little time consuming, especially if you take off the inner peel. I have a quicker way that works best for my busy schedule. Simply shuck and steam for about 5 minutes, then pop em into the food processor and spin with olive oil and salt to taste. I use mine for pizza but it's great anyway.

So here's a little fun background on fava's taken from Saveur magazine. March 3rd is Festes De Medir in Barcelona Spain. During this annual festival comemorating Saint Medir, the patron saint of favas, who was martyred in the fourth century while planting them, People riding on horseback through Barcelona's streets toss candies symbolizing favas to crowds of children below.

I feel so informed, I had absolutely no idea there was a patron saint of fava beans...... Crazy Spanards.

I'll certainly celebrate the day by planting them that day.

Anyway, good times.

Farmer John

Garlic?

Last minute desicion to put in some garlic. It's late I know and I'm not for sure if will work but it's in. Six beds of it. I think the worst case scenario is that it comes up, grows but does'nt form bulbs. We'll just use it as green garlic then.

Started a few more flats of toms yesterday. Have a few more to go. We'll be seeding peppers and eggplants here real quick too. The greenhouse is ridiculously full. We've got flats everywhere. Hopefully we'll begin transplanting within the next week or so. First things out will be spinach and lettuce followed up by choi, broccoli raab and kale.

Today is a bit of a clean up/catch up/ organize kinda day. Dump run, burn pile, mowing/weed wacking, table building, seed sowing, firewood splittin, seed ordering, fence building, chicken coop cleaning, soil sifting, worm feeding, greenhouse cultivating etc, etc. Just another day at the office.

If I can get some beds made up we'll sow some outdoor peas. Who knows.

Keep those Csa sign ups coming in folks. We need 20 more members!

Take care,

John

A Great Start

This last week the weather has pretty much been perfect. Highs in the low 50's low's in the low 40's. Sunny and dry. I've been getting a little more field work done each day. We're off to a great start. The prop house is bursting and all of the beds I planted in the hoophouses are up and looking great. I hav'nt checked out the outdoor beds I sowed last week but I would'nt be surprised if some of them were already germinating.

We will be planting our garlic this week. Way later than normal. In fact I was'nt even planning on growing garlic this year, however so many of the the other farmers had trouble with mold last year due to the wet conditions, I am thinking there won't be as much as a havest this year so it should be in higher demand.

We might actually might be able to transplant out a few flats of spinach this week. We sowed it on the 31st of January, it's just put on it's true leaves and is looking great. I have some direct sown outdoors and another round of 20 flats in the greenhouse. We're going to be needing more space here real soon so transplanting season may start a little earlier than normal. Yeah!

I cranked out another 60 flats of assorted items yesterday like celery, parsley, lettuce, raab, choi, and fennel. We'll be sowing alot more this week. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, broccoli, gailan. It's here! It's going to be a kick ass year.

I'm very focused, directed and on task right now. I've got my blinders on and am trying to eliminate the minor annoyances and white noise in my world. It's hard. There is always so much to be done and so little time to do it. Lots of people wanting to take my time. I've got my head down and focused on farming and family right now. If you want in you're going to have to be pretty darn compelling. ( or have a check in your hand. lol ) It's an important growth year for the farm. We have some big hurdles to get over and it is my intent for this to be the most successful year ever. So far it looks like we are on track. I can't recall ever starting off this well.

Time to go.

Keep well, keep real.

John

Weather Dodging

If you live in this part of the world you are high fivin. We have dodged so much of the wild weather this year. Very moderate well spaced rainy times, no floods, a little snow and mostly mild temps. We'll see sun again today for like the 7th day in row or smething crazy like that. As most of the northern US prepares for yet another arctic blast next week, we are tilling and planting our spring crops. This whole global climate change thing really seems to be working out well. (you know I'm kidding right?)

Rant for the day: Sustainable wannabes, Stay away and respect my privacy! Do not knock on my door. Do not enter my house. Don not leave me your conformist ideals of how you perceive the world should be.

And now a quote from Wendell Berry.

"the trick is to keep the talk intelligent. Sustainable is already virtually a useless term. We're going to do durable next or something like that. We'll be reduced to long-lasting or permanent or eternal. Terminology has to be specific and elaborate. And that simply means that you've got to have people who insist that thier food comes from good farms, and that means they've got to recognize what a good farm is."

Good day,

John

Rock & Roll Farming

Yesterday I found myself with an unexpected absence of what to do. The weather turned out to be much nicer than called for and I found myself with a last minute plan change. What to do? I decided to go ahead and sow some outdoor crops. Peas, fava beans, radishes, arugula, and a few other beds of assorted cold tolerant greens. For the most part this is right on schedule. Perhaps a tad early but most likely not. It felt so good to be planting again. especially fun with the ipod cranked.

In the process I made a new discovery that seemed to work well. When I plant peas and favas I use a 36" raised strip and make two furrows about 18" apart with tool on the tractor. I normally go back and cover the seed by hand with a rake. This method takes a long time and I have been experiencing some tendinitus in my elbows for the last couple of years and the raking is painful. So I was thinking of an easier way to cover the seed using the tractor. Finally it dawned on me. I ran my furrows a little deeper than normal, sowed the seed then made a pass with the tractor using my small 36" tiller/bed shaper running it at a low rpm and very shallow. It worked great! The seed was covered and the bed was re-shaped and now looks like it did prior to planting which will make it easier to cultivate. I love it when I have an idea and it works:) Were talking a couple thousand row feet here. I did in ten minutes what would have taken two hours by hand and achey elbows for days. Body pain is the mother of invention.

So we continue, slow and steady. Not so much to do that I run around all confused but enough to keep me busy enough to stay at it all day. Hopefully this little dry spell will hold on. After planting yesterday I only have three beds left open and soon we'll need space for plants coming out of the grenhouse's. Where's it all gonna go? If it dries up a bit I can make more beds.

It's getting light, time to go

Keep well,

John