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Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Mid April. Spring is here.... right?

Since the last time I wrote we have had 80 degree weather as well as frost. In fact, we had frost 3 nights in a row on April 15, 16, and 17. You'll notice that my calendar said "Last Frost" April 15th. :( 
Lies!




Bees active on a warm day



We have had some gorgeous skies lately!

Harvest






Asparagus is trying. It gets going and then the nights get cold and it slows down again. Hopefully the 30 and 40 degree nights are almost over and it can really pick up. 




Asparagus and Shiitake Harvest





Our first flush of Shiitakes this year yielded about 5 lbs. We need a lot more logs but this harvest was better than last year. We can force the logs twice more this year.









Production and Distribution

Last week The Pig hosted a luncheon with a farm to table theme. The lunch featured pig of course, almost every part of it, and goat cheese from Pipe Dreams Fromage in Greencastle, PA. There was supposed to be a full complement of veggies from our farm but with the late, wet spring I didn't have much to offer. Brad Parker, the cheese maker and I each gave a little talk about our specialties and the advantages of the farm to table model. 
Asparagus, Rhubarb, and Herbs from the farm


Pig-licious buffet by Chef Bonk

This cheese cake was really light and fluffy and the pistachios
were so good with the creamy sweetness



Cultivation and Maintenance

Busy, busy time... everything is starting to grow and the bugs are coming out.
The rhubarb is sizing up
This is the Rhubarb Flower which has to be removed
to keep the energy going into the stems




















Rolled Up


Closed

We finally got the roll up sides done on the High Tunnel. It wasn't actually as difficult as I thought it was going to be. There was one bolt that was a pain to get lined up and through the pipe and the crank. After that it was a piece of cake. 
























Pests!


My sugar snap peas were sprouting and then falling over dead. At first I was worried they were getting too hot or not enough water. However, upon closer inspection I discovered that the seeds were being eaten by tiny little worms which were cutting the plant off from its roots. I collected a sample in a ziplock bag and headed to the extension office. 
Healthy pea shoot on the left with a dead one on the right
sample bagged up. You can see the hollow pea seed and the worms

The extension agent put it under his microscope. After conferring with other local agents they decided the problem was wire worms. They are the larva of the click beetle and are often a problem in fields that were formerly in grass or hay. That is just the case. This trouble is happening in our new field which was in hay until the fall when we plowed it in. 



Examining the sample
Our little wire worm problem

Now what? Well, wire worms are hard to control and once they have attacked a crop there isn't much to do to save the crop. Hopefully the pea plants that have made it this far are out of danger but the only thing to do is re-plant. The worms will become less of a problem as the soil heats up and they head deeper in the ground. Still, they stay in the ground for a few years before becoming click beetles so we want to get them out. I baited them in the high tunnel with cut up pieces of potato. We put the potato chunks on skewers and buried them about 4 inches down. A few days later we dug them up.

Potato traps in the peas
Here is what we found when we pulled them up. (Not for the bug-phobic). We actually found thousands of wire worms but also some thicker, white worms, possibly seed corn maggots?


Two kinds of worms and some rotten potato. Yuck. 

The next things the peas needed was to be trellised. We did this with T-Posts and some old deer fencing. 








In preparation for the tomato transplants going into the high tunnel soon, we laid irrigation and landscape fabric in their rows. This will help warm the soil and make it more hospitable for the summer plants. The warm soil will also help with the wire worm problem as it drives them deeper into the earth where they should not bother our transplants.


Asparagus Beetle

The next bug challenge this spring has been the Asparagus beetle. It is a small bug that is red, black and white and over winters in Asparagus berries. The first sign was these eggs that stick out perpendicular to the Asparagus stalks. They are gray/blue in color. The eggs hatch and the larvae eat the Asparagus from the inside. The adult beetles love to hang out on the top of the spears when it is sunny which makes them easy to pick off. In one day Gayle picked off (and squished) 96 of them. Once the eggs are laid you have to harvest the spear even if it is too small to stop them from hatching and disrupt their life cycle. 


Asparagus Beetle Eggs








Asparagus Beetle
When they see you coming they jump to the ground and
are harder to find



Deer Fence


It was time to move the deer fence down to enclose our new field. We had a gorgeous Saturday and help from Josh and Mara. This involved taking down the old netting which was full of holes. We are not re-using this in the new fence run but we are keeping it for things like trellising and patching holes. Everything on the farm should have at least 2 lives. Next we pulled, wiggled, dug, and otherwise yanked the fence poles and ground posts out of the ground and drove them into their new positions with a sledge hammer. 



Josh holds as Mara drives a ground post in


New placement of the fence encloses the new field as well




Mara, volunteer extraordinaire and future farmer!
You could have a picture in the blog too, come volunteer!





Planting

Heirloom Tomatoes potted up
Summer plants are coming along and the last of the spring plants are going in the ground. Our first round of tomatoes had to be potted up into larger pots so that they can get a bit bigger and ready to go out into the world. We also started cucumber, zucchini and squash which were fast and furious to germinate and fill our their trays. They are ready to go in the ground after only 2 weeks. 


Last round of Broccoli Raab being planted out

Gayle transplanting tiny leeks


Eating Well

Chef Bonk got all of Shiitakes at The Pig and featured them in a special with a fancy barbecue sauce. He said that they were so rich and meaty they needed their own plate. I wish I had been able to sample it but they didn't last long. 



Puddy Time

She loves laying on bare soil

With her dearest farm friend Maddie

Near the tools, pretending to help

She is so very lady like...

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Things are warming up


Happy Spring!!! We are in full on planting mode and our trees and flowers are all waking up and coming into bloom. On Wednesday we had a visit from some of our chefs who came out to get in touch with what is happing at the farm right now. They helped out by prepping some beds in our new field, transplanting and weeding.


Harvest




We actually had some things to harvest this week. The last of the over wintered spinach went to The Pig. 

First Shiitakes of the year

First Asparagus of the year













Production and Distribution

Well, not quite yet. This section will probably start to take shape over the next month as we come into our spring crops and have produce to deliver. As a stand in, enjoy these lovely Spring flowers....
Plum Tree Flowering


Peach Tree Blooms














Cultivation and Maintenance

As the days warm up the Greenhouse is getting a lot of attention. The doors have to be opened every day and closed every night. When it gets really warm it has to be watered two and sometimes three times a day.

I also finally got around to finishing two of the windows which can be opened during the day for additional ventilation. It got up to a sunny 80 degrees this week and I added a shade cloth to the top of the greenhouse to help keep it under 100 degrees inside. 



Garlic growing strong






Shiitakes doing great
Mushroom log set up

Chef Kerry helping prep beds for planting










Our chefs spent a few hours doing the thankless job (for which I am incredibly grateful)  of raking and pulling rocks out of a few beds in our new field. Here you can see the difference between the rows they did (on the left) and ones that haven't been done yet (on the right).








Planting

We did a whole lot of planting this week. Transplanted 4 varieties of Lettuce,  Radicchio, 3 varieties of Kale, Broccoli and Broccoli Raab.
Lettuce and Radicchio

David, Josh, Michael, Ben and Gustavo planting Broccoli





We also direct seeded more lettuce and Radicchio, Carrots, Beets, Spinach, Radishes, Turnips, Arugula, Choi, Cilantro, Parley, and Parsnips.
Direct seeding list













4 Lettuce Varieties



Eating Well

After the Chef visit, Chef Bonk of The Pig created this special using our spinach and wild onions. He also used eggs from Hancock Family Farms to make the pasta. 


Puddy Time