01.15.12
Posted in Projects at 9:03 pm by Farmer
Last week Carl instructed Justin, Danielle and I in our first timber framing assignment. This gave us all a chance to become accustomed to the tools Carl bought especially for our Timber Framing projects. The great thing about this project was that the wood was harvested right here from the farm and our sawmill used to saw the timbers into lumber!
What I learned from our first class is that Timber Framing has the same type of joinery as is used in furniture building. That is, some of the older ways of furniture building, not necessarily the modern way of making furniture. Although most of these tools are commonly used in construction, this project taught us how to use the following tools specifically for timber framing, which I found very interesting. What we learned this past week:
- How to read and interpret timber framing plans
- How to use the various timber framing tools:
- Tape Measure
- Framing Square – Did you know these were designed back in the timber framing era? The widths of the farming square are for verifying your mortise sizes. How COOL!
- Combination Square
- Speed Square
- Caliper
- Chisel
- Mallet
- Slick
- Chain Mortiser
- Circular Saw – normal sized – a 7 and 1/4 inch blade
- Circular Saw – Big Daddy – a 16 inch blade
- Plane
- Large Drill
- How to mark and layout the various cuts
- How to cut/shape a tenon
- How to cut/shape a mortise
- How to make a brace (These are used extensively in timber framing, and I am am not that good at cutting these yet, so I am hoping to cut a few more of these so that I can perfect the craft.)
- How to make pegs
Carl showing Danielle how to layout a tenon. If you look closely, you will notice the plans on the left. Carl is using a pencil and a combination square.
Justin laying out a tenon using a pencil and the speed square.
This is the large saw that has been nicknamed "Big Daddy". Justin is making a cut with this intimating saw.
Danielle using the circular saw to make cuts for her tenon.
Danielle using the slick to shave off some wood off her tenon so that it correctly fits into the corresponding mortise.
Danielle using the caliper to check her tenon depth.
Justin using the chain mortiser to cut his mortise.
Justin using the chisel and mallet to clean up his mortise.
Carl making pegs from locust. He is shaving a 1x8, making it round, to fit into a 1 inch hole.
Carl explaining to Danielle and Justin about the drill bit.
Sawhorse before assembling with all the mortise and tenons cut.
Close-up photograph of the sawhorse joinery.
Carl getting the drill ready for drilling peg holes.
Carl marking peg holes. The pegs are used rather than nails.
Carl drilling pegs. Julie is assisting in advising Carl in keeping his drill level.
Carl using the sledge hammer to pound the pegs in to secure the sawhorse pieces.
Carl so proud of his timber frame sawhorse!
Greenhouse Guardian Kitties. How did Justin and Danielle get these kitties to pose like this?
Danielle with her favorite kitten who she is calling Fluffball.
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01.08.12
Posted in Projects at 5:52 pm by Farmer
Sorry I haven’t posted lately but I was busy using our daylight hours for timber harvesting and timber framing classes while utilizing our nighttime hours doing seed planning. I am happy to say that we have ordered most all of our seeds for the season!
I never imagined myself involved in timbering nor timber frame building but Carl has convinced me that we need to harvest trees from our farm and use these to build our Farm Vacation Cabin using Timber Framing. Timber Framing is a very precise and ancient craft so we have a steep learning curve since most of our construction experience is stick building. It is going to take us a bit of time to cut each mortise, dovetail and tenon before the cabin can be erected. Many structures built in the 1600’s, 1700’s and 1800’s still survive today because they were built using Timber Framing. And quite a few of those timber framed structures still standing today have even been disassembled and moved to new sites for preservation. Simply being able to move a Timber Frame structure tells a lot about the craftsmanship that went into building it. Our forefathers knew how to make timber framed structures last and that is our goal – quality building – that will last for centuries.
An example of timber frame joinery from a structure built in 1680.
It would be very easy to purchase a pre-made log cabin like this one pictured and the we could already be hosting farm vacations. Many folks up in our area have done this so that they can quickly share these gorgeous mountains with guests. Of course, being farmers, we wouldn’t qualify for a loan to purchase a cabin such as this so we are building a cabin as frugally as possible.
Rather than purchasing a pre-made cabin or a cabin kit, like that pictured above, we are going to be building a vacation cabin using trees from this farm. This farm has around 80 acres of timber so Carl felt that harvesting and using our timber is good use of our forest. We can selectively cut trees, carefully leaving the forest as untouched as is possible, and allowing the forest to remain as a means for sequestering carbon helping to clean the air of atmospheric carbon dioxide. We think of our forest as a HUGE carbon sequestering machine and we are thankful for these large, elegant trees, so we want to only harvest a few each year in an effort to maintain a healthy forest.
The first phase of the Farm Vacation Project is harvesting trees and sawing the timber. Carl and I have spent this past week doing just that – harvesting trees in preparation for sawing the timber for the cabin – and it is probably the scariest job that I’ve done in my life. Harvesting timber is quite different than harvesting veggies and I must say I enjoy harvesting veggies much more than trees. I have gone from “tree hugger” to forester in my short life on this farm and I am sad we are cutting down these large elegant trees. On the bright side, at least we know the source of the wood used in the cabin and, that the wood was not shipped here from the west coast.
Most of the trees that we are harvesting are hemlocks which are dying from the woolly adelgid. This evil terrorist is the white fuzzy stuff between the hemlock leaves, and should have been on our government’s list of “most wanted”, in an effort to save our beautiful hemlocks.
One of the very few leaves on the hemlock without the adelgid.
Carl sharpening the chain saw. Carl spends a lot of time sharpening chains. I tried it a few times and can’t get my chains sharp so Carl has become the designated sharpener for me!
Carl and I pulling a hemlock off these mountain slopes. Carl fells the tree then we both limb and buck it so that it is small enough for our tractor to pull. This is a very interesting job that nearly pulled the tractor off the side of our roads. One must be very careful doing this job, because the trees rolling down the slope of our mountains gaining momentum, is a lot stronger than our tractor winch pulling the tree up the mountain. This photograph shows a snatch block (red and yellow tool tied to the tree) to pull trees uphill and around curves. We also are using chains and winch to pull these trees out of the forrest. THANKS TO Supreme Forrester (Lee Stover) for teaching us to safely cut these trees.
Anyone who has been in our propagation greenhouse the last few years can appreciate project “Get Rid of the Muck out of the Propagation Greenhouse”. Danielle and Justin have been spearheading this project and are doing an excellent job!
This past week Danielle and Justin took out the black landscape fabric that was “our weed barrier”. It was loaded with weeds and mud and I am not sure how they got the fabric out of the greenhouse.
Danielle and Justin took out our Propagation Bench Tops. They are around 8 years old and many have rotted. We are replacing these with metal or plastic so that this job doesn’t have to be done again in my lifetime!
Danielle and Justin took out our Propagation Bench Frames.
Julie sawing wood. That is the story of our life this past month! Notice the helmet and chaps because Supreme Forrester taught us a lot about safety. Before Supreme Forrester we didn't have chaps nor a helmet.
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12.25.11
Posted in Projects at 8:07 am by Farmer
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12.24.11
Posted in Projects, Vacation Cabin Rental at 8:17 pm by Farmer
We are having a good time on our most recent endeavor into logging and sawing – learning so much about looking at a tree and with our cut list – trying to figure what sizes of cuts will make best use of the tree. This would be an interesting math assignment in school!
Our First Sawing Project
We have found, over the years of having our neighbor dump slabs from his sawmill for us to burn in our wood boiler, was that sawing chaotic piles of slabs into sizes that fit in the wood boiler is much more energy intensive than the heat generated from burning the slabs. One thing we learned from Lee Stover (a.k.a. Supreme Forrester by Townes) was that managing slabs is a very important aspect of a sawmill business. Thus the reason for our first sawing and building project – a rack for holding slabs – just so they can easily be cut into sizes that fit into our wood boiler. We will have no waste from our sawing operation, as we will be using the slabs for heating our greenhouse and the sawdust we will use for either growing mushrooms or mulching blueberries,
Carl after finishing bucking the hemlock that Supreme Forrester downed last year. Bucking is when one cuts the tree into sizes that are straight and small enough that our tractor/winch can pull. We will be sawing a lot of hemlock because they are dying.
Our “Slab Racks” that were built with only 1/3 of the hemlock pictured above. We had a great time sawing the wood for building this rack. One person runs the sawmill to cut the logs into lumber while the other stacks the lumber and hauls the slabs to the slab racks. You will notice yellow paint on the slab racks indicating the area that is cut with the chainsaw so our slab pieces are 30 inches long.
Cutting the “Slabs” on our slab rack. We designed the racks so that we can run the chain saw cutting the slabs into 30” pieces that can fit in our wood boiler. Lee Stover suggested this and it has made cutting slabs exceptionally easy. Once the slabs are cut, they are stacked in our wood shed, so that they remain dry until they are burned.
Slabs are the outer edges of the tree, that are cut off to square the log, so the log can be cut into lumber. Normally slabs have tree bark with a little wood.
Our first “Timber Framing” project
In the next couple of weeks Carl will conduct his first Timber Framing class for Danielle, Justin and Julie. In order to cut the frame for the vacation cabin, we will need some stout and sturdy saw horses, mostly because a few of the beams (lumber for building the frame for the vacation cabin) will be REALLY HEAVY and we will definitely need to use our tractor for dealing with these beams because none of us farmers are strong enough to lift them. So, we will be building our saw horses using “Timber Framing”, and these saw horses will be used for all our future “Timber Framing” projects, in cutting kits to be sold. I must say I am very excited about our first project because I haven’t yet done any construction using this traditional building method. Construction using the “Timber Framing” technique is a dying craft and one that we are trying to revive on this farm.
Greg, Carl’s brother, is an expert cabinet builder and has been specializing in kitchen and bath designs for the past 30 years. Greg has been advising us on the variety of trees for our timber framing projects, also helping with the design of the Farm Vacation Cabin and drawing up detailed cabin plans that can be submitted to our county so that we can receive our building permits. We are thankful that Greg uses a professional software package for creating the cabin plans that can be accepted by our County in granting us building permits. Greg suggested using poplar for our saw horses because it is a light hardwood so hopefully the saw horses will be heavy enough for cutting our the frame for the vacation cabin yet light enough so that we can move them around. We have spent the last couple weeks harvesting poplars and sawing the few trees we have harvested into 4 feet by 6 foot lumber. We think we might have enough lumber sawed for building 4 saw horses which is what Carl estimates will be needed for our project.
Greg, Carl’s brother, cleaning up a lap joint. This photograph was taken at a Grand Oaks Timber Framing class that Carl and his brother attended.
Carl just cut down a poplar from the cabin site that will be sawn into timbers for building our saw horses. We are harvesting all timbers, which are large enough to be cut into lumber, from the cabin site before the site is graded. All timbers that are not large enough for lumber will be used for heating our greenhouses!
Hauling the poplar logs out of the forest with the tractor and winch.
Putting a poplar log on the sawmill.
Sizing up the poplar log. Carl, using a tape measure, is trying to figure out what sized lumber we can saw the log into. Our project requires all lumber that is 4 x 6 in size.
Squaring the log. As the log is squared one must look at what lumber the log might yield. In this case, we were able to get a few 1x1’s for use as siding or sheathing, in addition to a 4 x 6 x 12.
Carl so proud of his 4x6x12!
Poplar 4x6's for our saw horse project. This wood was sawn from poplar trees harvested at the Farm Vacation Cabin Site. Our building project list keeps on growing now that we have a sawmill and can make our own lumber!
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12.03.11
Posted in Projects, Vacation Cabin Rental at 7:41 pm by Farmer
This past week Edward and Ruth Zimmerman delivered our sawmill. It was great to have the EZ-Boardwalk delivered to us by the inventor, designer and manufacture. Both Edward and Ruth provided our initial training so we think we got the best training possible. This mill is going to be a workhorse because it will be used for sawing all the timber for a pavilion over our outdoor pizza oven and the Farm Vacation Cabin Rental. Our plan is also to sell Timber Frame kits that can be delivered to a building site and assembled in just a couple days.
I enjoyed talking with Ruth Zimmerman, who does a lot of the customer support for their sawmill business, and particularly enjoyed hearing about her family. She has 9 children all who are entrepreneurs and self employed in family run businesses. Either the children help with the family sawmill manufacturing business, work growing crops on the farm or in the family vegetable garden, owner of a food co-operative or involved in building and selling wood boilers. The Zimmerman family grows corn, wheat, soybeans and strawberries. Ruth mentioned that their retail farmer market sales have declined, mostly because of their market not being well managed and with the start-up of new markets nearby, which are some of the same things we are finding here in Western NC. She said they are growing less for these markets and are now mostly focusing on strawberries.
Edward Zimmerman and Carl setting up the mill and discussing the features of the sawmill. Edward designed the EZ Boardwalk mill and has a shop building these mills. It is mostly a manually operated mill, meaning that we will be required to manually adjust the saw and push the saw along for cutting each board, so hopefully not too many parts will break and we will get a lot of use out of this mill. Carl is not very interested in another “Fix It” project which is why Carl is especially excited about this mill
Ruth Zimmerman. She provides most of the Customer Support for the mill, organizing the sales and deliveries, and does the record keeping for the family business.
Ruth Zimmerman helping with the placement of the leveling feet.
Edward Zimmerman leveling the sawmill.
Loading a log onto the sawmill.
Securing the tree on sawmill with the clamps.
Edward Zimmerman making the first cut. Notice that he is manually pushing the sawmill blade along the log for the cut. I mentioned to Ruth that Lee Stover said this mill can wear a fellow out with all the walking but her comment was that since we are used to growing vegetables then we are used to walking! Edward said a sawmill is not for someone who is allergic to sawdust and hard work.
Carl making a cut.
Carl making another cut
The cutting scale. One manually aligns the saw blade with the scale for making the various cuts. The scale takes into account the curvature and thickness of the blade.
The sawmill blade and engine rides on a track so that it can move the length of the log.
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11.30.11
Posted in Family, Friends & Neighbors, Nothing in Particular at 10:21 am by Farmer
Since the beginning of April we pretty much work 6 days each week with only a couple weekends off which is why we take an entire week off for our annual “Thanksgiving Vacation”. During our vacation this year, we spent a few days doing a little “spring cleaning”, then simply enjoyed spending time with Mom, Dad and exploring these beautiful mountains where we live!
In the Spring, we just don’t prioritize cleaning so our “Spring Cleaning” happens in the fall. In the spring we are much too busy doing things like starting plants, preparing fields, and gearing up for the season doing all the gazillion farm jobs that come up on a daily basis. The reason we work so many hours is because we are a small farm and just don’t have the income to hire enough labor just so we can work a little less. So our house cleaning falls by the wayside during our vegetable growing season mostly because we don’t spend time indoors. During the winter we spend a little more time indoors so it is nice doing our “Spring Cleaning” just before winter.
So what is Spring Cleaning to us? I can assure you that our house is never as neat nor as well organized as my Mother’s, but what we do each fall is recycle obsolete paper/tax files, wash windows, dust off our furniture and ceiling fans, getting rid of all our beneficial spiders and their webs, vacuum the carpet, and get rid of ragged T-Shirts, Socks and Jeans. Now our goal is to keep up with the Flylady because she has a GREAT process for keeping ones household organized and ready for company at any given time.
During our vacation we shared a FABULOUS Thanksgiving dinner with Mom and Dad, and as usual it was a completely made from scratch meal with most of the food raised by us and our friends. The main ingredient we purchased was flour, and I think that it might be pretty cool to try growing some wheat for our Thanksgiving dinner next year. We had Spinach Salad, Roasted Chicken, Broccoli, Pumpkin Pie (made from our Sunshine Squash), bread dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy.
This is our “Shop Vacuum” that is used for our first pass in vacuuming our carpet. It is of industrial quality and can nearly suck up everything on the floor except the carpet. By next year our goal is to replace most of the carpeting with fake hardwood floors. Once we build our final house we will hopefully have real wood floors milled with trees from the farm.
Mom and Dad at Mt. Mitchell on the Blue Ridge Parkway. There are incredible views at Mt Mitchell and I do want to visit one fall just to see an incredible sea of colors.
From left to right: Carl, Mom, Julie and Dad. We are enjoying the views on the way up to Mt. Mitchell.
Our last “major” harvest of the season. Corina and Drew visited the farm this harvest and the below photographs were taken by Corina. THANKS CORINA! We will be harvesting a few veggies for the holiday market on December 10th and 17th
Danielle weighing Arugula.
Justin processing Japanese radishes. We love these crunchy and sweet radishes.
Julie processing carrots. Our carrots have grown exceptionally well this season and have been incredibly sweet.
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11.13.11
Posted in Veggies, Winter Stash at 6:28 pm by Farmer
Last Sunday we made a batch of kimchi for our winter stash, and after allowing it to ferment for a week, we jarred it today. Most of the veggies were from our farm with a few from neighboring farms. We did purchase scallions, ginger, rice flour, fish sauce and salt from the store. This is the first fall we’ve had to buy scallions because our fall crop of is still in seeding trays on our propagation benches just waiting to be transplanted. We will probably end up feeding these scallion transplants to the worms who will turn them into beautiful soil.
THANKS TO MOM AND DAD, who kindly gave us the fermentation crock last year for a Christmas gift, this crock is being used to ferment our veggies into soured kimchi. Hopefully within the next month we will also be making sauerkraut for our winter stash. Kimchi is not for everyone because it is fermented, with a “sour and spicy” flavor, and perhaps an acquired taste. (Just think of the probiotics that we will be getting in the middle of winter to ward off those winter colds.) Danielle’s friend Meaghan was here this past week and I asked her if she ever tried kimchi, and her being a foodie and all, said something like, “No, I just could never get past the smell.”. Like I said, Kimchi isn’t for everyone, and I am not sure I can eat it everyday, but perhaps once a week in the winter. Oh, THANKS Meaghan for all the help you did in harvesting and packing our CSA Shares, doing chores, etc..
We followed
Maangchi’s recipe because from reading recipes on her website, she seems to us anyway, the “Queen of Kimchi”. We did modify her recipe a bit because we are using our dried peppers that are very HOT and we do want the kimchi to be edible. (She calls for 5 cups while we only used 1 cup. Perhaps next year we can mix some dried Anaheim and cayenne so we can use more peppers without the heat.)
Our Kimchi Recipe
The Veggies:
22 pounds of napa cabbage, cored, chopped into bite sized pieces, and salted as Maangchi suggests, then drained and rinsed with water. (We used 1 cup of salt per 10 pounds of napa cabbage. We could fit another 10 lbs of cabbage and goods in the crock.)
2 cups minced onion
4 cups daikon radishes (GORGEOUS and purchased from Flying Cloud Farm)
8 cups green onions (scallions) – sliced diagonally
2 cups carrots (we got tired of slicing these)
Carl coring and chopping the napa cabbage
All 22 pounds of the napa cabbage chopped. Normally we eat the cabbage that was "cosmetically challenged" by the bugs but Carl decided that our kimchi deserves the best cabbage in the field. So that is what we used.
Carl slicing Flying Cloud's beautiful daikon radishes. We had radishes but after seeing Annie's at Market, I couldn't resist buying them for our kimchi, and I am certain that these radishes will enhance the flavor of our kimchi.
This is a photograph of all the veggies prepped with the exception of the napa cabbage. These veggies look so lovely that we had to resist the urge to eat them as a salad. We controlled ourselves, just so we can have some kimchi for our winter stash, and it will be worth it come January.
The Porridge:
6 cups water
1 cup unbleached rice flour (We bought our flour from bulk at the grocery store, but next time I want to look for Bobs Red Mill, the sticky rice kind)
1 – 1/2 cups Fish Sauce (We used the Thai Kitchen brand name)
1/2 cup turbinado dark organic sugar (coarse sugar)
1 cup cayenne pepper (dehydrated from our 2011 crop)
1 – 1/2 cups crushed garlic (cut it back from 2 cups because our garlic is STRONG)
4 tablespoons minced ginger
The Porridge.
Fresh Kimchi before fermentation.
Loading the crock with fresh kimchi.
Peppers laid out on our dehydrator racks and ready for drying. Tony was the king of grading peppers for market and setting aside peppers that didn’t meet his market standards into boxes labeled, “Farm/Dehydration Peppers”. He will be pleased that I finally dehydrated these peppers for our winter seasoning.
After the peppers are dry, I pull their stems off, then grind in our food processor. The air in our trailer was filled with pepper dust causing us to sneeze and even having to walk outdoors until the air settled.
Peppers with the tops pulled of and in the food processor.
Our Ground Cayenne Peppers. This is one of our main ingredients in our kimchi and adds flavor to our meals throughout the winter and into the summer before we have fresh peppers.
We jarred our kimchi after it fermented for a week into 1/2 gallon jars. It is very sour and delicious. This batch made 2 - 1/2 gallons of kimchi I am hoping that this should last us through the winter. Another 1/2 gallon is being filled while I took this photograph!
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11.06.11
Posted in Veggies at 9:05 am by Farmer
We had a crop failure with our spring planted potatoes which was very discouraging because potatoes are one of our main storage crops that we sell throughout the season. We were lucky to have potatoes left over from our 2010 season, and that cultivar being Red Chieftain, that we planted early summer and finally dug those this past week and are so excited about the yield! Thank goodness we had Red Chieftains left over from last year because they are an early maturing potato and yielded about 500 pounds from a 300 foot row.
We are thankful to be eating and offering these potatoes to our CSA because potatoes have so many nutrients such as vitamin C, vitamin B6, potassium and fiber. Since these are new potatoes, the skins are very thin and many have torn, and that is what makes new potatoes so INCREDIBLY DELICIOUS! New potatoes are potatoes that have been dug without allowing time to cure in the field after the vines have died back. Once potato vines have died back, ideally a farmer leaves the potatoes in the soil a bit, just to give the skins a chance to harden, mainly so the skins are not damaged while digging the potatoes. We needed to dig these potatoes without curing them so that they could be offered for our CSA shares. The farmer can also cure potatoes by storing them at 45 to 50 degree temperatures with a relative humidity of 80 to 95 percent for a couple weeks after digging. Curing them in storage will also allow the skins to harden and those skins damaged will typically heal.
Last week we are very pleased to have completed planting our garlic crop, after which it received a nice rainfall, which will help it sprout. Most folks LOVE the cultivars of garlic we grow because of their intense and strong flavor. These cultivars are known as “Hardneck Garlic” and need to be over wintered to achieve nice sized and flavorful bulbs.
The following are interesting newspaper articles that we have been reading the past few weeks so wanted to share those with you readers:
We use the middle buster plow (also known as a single row plow or 1 bottom plow) for digging potatoes. This plow exposes the potatoes by throwing them to the side allowing the farmer to gather them.
So exciting to see all these potatoes that need to be gathered. I’ve always taken growing potatoes for granted until this season after having a crop failure with our spring planted potatoes.
Danielle gathering potatoes. We have had a great season thanks to Danielle’s dedication to growing food on this farm! THANKS DANIELLE. I know you hate posing for photographs, as do I, but I do appreciate you doing so!
Julie processing carrots. We seed them, then weed them, weed them again, then weed them once again, dig them, wash them and bunch them. Carrots are a lot of work on a small farm.
These are the prettiest carrots we have grown! We and the groundhog (or rabbits) think these carrots are exceptionally sweet. These carrots have been dug, cleaned, bunched and ready to be packed in our CSA Shares.
Production Note to Self: Planted a late crop of potatoes, Red Chieftians, planted on July 25h and dug on October 31st. Yielding about 500 pounds per 300 foot row. We planted garlic on 10/26 and 10/27.
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10.23.11
Posted in Projects at 8:46 am by Farmer
I haven’t posted in a bit because I have been meaning to charge our camera batteries just so I can take pictures and I just can’t imagine a post without photographs. We must Thank Danielle for these photos because she has been the farm photographer the last couple weeks. Once again, we have no photographs of the killing frost celebration, mostly because we were all just too busy to even consider taking photos. Barbara Sloss took some photographs so I might try and get a few from her. I do know that it is a lame excuse for not updating our journal – that is the camera battery not being charged – but then again I am full of lame excuses!
Congratulate Asheville City Schools (mostly Cindy Byron) for connecting science to farming and the food we eat! It is all about the “periodic chart” when identifying the nutrients needed in soil to feed our plants thus turning our crops into healthy, nutritious and edible food for our body. Such micro-nutrients found on the periodic chart and needed in our food include: phosphorous, nitrogen, calcium, potassium, iron, copper, manganese and zinc. All these found on the periodic chart and needed for our health and well being. In addition, our food also contains many of these same micro-nutrients that are found in the soil, so if ones soil isn’t healthy with these micro-nutrients, then how can the food grown in the soil be healthy? That is our job as organic farmers, to nurture the soil making it as healthy as possible using cover crops and manure, just so our food is as healthy as is possible.
Last Monday we hosted Cindy Bryon’s 10th and 11th grade chemistry class at the farm, complete with a tour, and a chance for them to pick food for their pizza then allowing them to make their own pizza with ingredients from the farm. It was a great experience for the farm crew, because our views of young people have been slanted by what we read in the newspaper, mostly related to folks their age not wanting to eat fresh, whole food. It was so exciting to see these students choose kale, broccoli, tatsoi, onions and arugula for their pizza toppings. We heard a comment from one student who indicated that they love their “Hippy” science teacher because the field trip was fun and they weren’t quite sure how to connect this field trip to chemistry. The best part about this field trip – is Cindy connecting the field trip to chemistry assignments in the classroom afterwards – so THANKS CINDY!
The Sunday before her class arrived we hosted a farm open house, giving the folks who eat our food, a chance to touch the soil and pet the critters where their food is grown and raised. To us this is the time of the year for celebrating the earth, which is the foundation for growing/raising the food, in providing the nutrients to the crops/animals while it is being grown/raised. We celebrate the water used for keeping the crops/critters alive (Meadow Fork Creek), the farmers’ who have worked so hard growing/raising the food and the people who eat the bounty from the this farms soil each week throughout the season. This is the beginning of the season when both the soil and the farmer get the much needed rest; the soil because it is too cold to grow crops and the farmer because the day length decreases. (Most crops are also dependent on day length.)
A photograph of the farm tour guides and pizza hosts. From Left to right: Julie Mansfield (Pizza Maker), Danielle Keeter (Tour Guide), Townes Mozer (Tour Guide), Carl Evans (Pizza Baker)
Thank the bus driver for safely driving that bus loaded with 30 students to the farm over our crazy curvy roads! Our photograph of the bus driver didn’t turn hot so good.
Students meet Sir Bud!
Students meeting the 3 Little Pigs
Julie Mansfield demonstrating to the students how to make pizza with the wood fired oven.
Students making pizza with onions, kale, tatsoi, broccoli, roasted peppers, arugula and sausage! All toppings are from the farm.
There is nothing like pizza on a gorgeous fall day! Danielle captures some beautiful photographs of these Appalachian Mountains.
2011 Killing Frost Celebration. The entire farm crew is much too busy to be taking photographs. Perhaps next year. This photograph shows the pizza line.
We also hosted a CRAFT (Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training) which is a coordinated effort to bring established farmers, farm apprentices, and students of agriculture together for a comprehensive training program in sustainable agriculture. Our focus educational area was “Sustainable Small Scale Forestry” since we are preparing to harvest trees for building a Farm Vacation Rental Cabin. How much more sustainable can a building be than using ones own lumber?
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10.09.11
Posted in Veggies at 9:12 am by Farmer
The photographs in this blog entry have been contributed by Danielle Keeter.
Each year we continue to experiment with season extension – we have learned that plants must grow to their full size before the cold weather and low day lengths of November and December set in but just last week we transplanted another succession of lettuce, tatsoi, baby boc choi, swiss chard and kale. If the weather is warmer than normal these crops will probably be sold at market otherwise tilled back under.
In preparation for putting Greenhouse #5 into production, we spent a couple weeks preparing the soil, which includes pickaxing the ground. We added a couple tons of our vermi-compost to the soil so thank the worms for turning our compost into beautiful soil! We pickaxe and turn the soil with a shovel to work in the compost and loosen the ground so the transplants have an easier time putting down good roots and becoming healthy edible plants. It has been a couple years since when we did this in our other greenhouses so forgot how time consuming and tiring this job can be. THANKS TO CARL AND JUSTIN for doing most of the incredibly hard job of pickaxing the ground. Danielle and I hauled and spread manure while Tony burned holes in our “black Landscape Fabric” that is used to prevent weeds from overtaking the crops.
We have added 2 tons of compost to G5 in preparation for placing G5 into production.
Justin and Carl working in the compost and loosening the soil. This photo is of Justin pickaxing to loosen the soil while Carl is working the compost into the soil. Pickaxing is a workout and something to be considered at the Gym.
Thank goodness for the pickaxing tool and Justin’s muscle power. After pickaxing the ground in G5, we appreciate SO MUCH the work our tractor does with the turning plow and rotovator.
Finally… We transplanted Kale, Collards and Swiss Chard into G5. It seems as though this day was never going to happen.
The 3 Little Pigs following Carl.
Our laying chicks 3 weeks old!
Our broiler chicks 3 weeks old!
Production Note To Self: Lettuce/Tatsoi/Baby Boc Choi: Seeded 8/26/11 and transplanted to the field 10/6/11. We will see if it grows to size but intend on making hoops so we can row cover these plants. On 10/7/11 we transplanted Kale, Collards and Swiss Chard to greenhouse #5. If our spacing works, we need an extra 240 swiss chard plants.
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