05.31.10
Last week and for the next couple weeks is “Peak Workload” for the season….
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From around mid May into the first or second week of June we HAVE SO MUCH WORK TO DO. Unlike “Peak Oil”, “Peak Workload” will disappear only to reappear next year at this time. It is at this point in the season when we need to transplant those warm loving plants, those that must stay inside the greenhouse until after our last expected frost date which is May 15th, and most of these crops are transplanted by hand onto black plastic mulch because they are in the fields the entire season. In addition, we must maintain (mostly trying to keep the weeds at bay) all the crops that have been transplanted/direct seeded since the beginning of April. On top of these chores, we are harvesting, packaging and selling produce (We definitely are trying to grow more than we should on our small scale.)
It certainly feels great to be harvesting, processing, packaging and selling produce because it is at this point in the season that the farmer has already paid out money for supplies then to FINALLY have some cash to offset those expenses! (Supplies purchased at the beginning of the season include: seeds, fertilizer, labor, parts for equipment maintenance, a new seeder, row cover.) WE ARE THAKFUL for the MANY CSA Members WHO PAY for their PRODUCE at the BEGINNING OF THE SEASON which helps OFFSET OUR EXPENSES!
So why is it Peak Workload? There are only 4 of us farming full time (we just hired, Chirs, another part timer who will save our bodies from being over-worked!
Here is a typical work week for us:
(a) Tuesday and Friday is spent harvesting, processing and packing produce
(b) One of us goes to market Wednesday for most of the day
(c) Two of us goes to market Saturday
(d) One of us has a half day off on Wednesday (because we worked extra hard at Market the previous Saturday) leaving 3 of us for half the day on the farm in the morning and 2 of us on the farm in the afternoon
(e) So that only leaves Mondays and Thursdays when all 4 of us are on the farm for doing all the work outside of harvesting, packaging and selling.
So WHAT are we doing from mid May until June????
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 We pressure washed our black landscape plastic, we then burried the edges under the soil (by hand), and finally HAND transplanted around 1400 plants of basil, peppers and eggplant. The eggplant is covered until it begins growing to prevent the flea beetles from destroying our crop! |
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By the end of the week we hope to transplant field melons and winter squash. (That requires us pressure wash/sterilize black plastic mulch, place the plastic it in the bed and burry the edges so it doesn’t end up in the trees and then HAND transplant over 500 plants to the field.)
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All the while doing the above mentioned jobs, we must maintain existing crops, which requires us to hoe/hand pull weeds from approximately 3800 bed feet of crops. We normally like to hoe, but some weeds got away from us so yes we are hand pulling weeds!) These crops are: green cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, swiss chard, beets, and onions!
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 Chris did our first pass at trellising our greenhouse pepper crop. We use the stake and weave system and it works fairly well at keeping the plants from breaking once the bell peppers begin ripening. |
 Carl, Noah, Sabrina and I transplanted our first succession of corn right before a light rain shower this AM. We have tried direct seeding our corn only to have the crows eat it. It is risky transplanting corn because if it stays in the greenhouse too long it might bolt (tassel) without forming ears. We are praying that this succession forms ears for our CSA! |
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So YES we are SUPER BUSY. Once these warm loving crops have all been transplanted to the fields it is just farming as usual except we have a great sense of accomplishment to have these crops out of the greenhouse and growing in the fields!
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