Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Transplanting
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Playing with fire...
On Friday we got to mess around with:
Electric fencing...
A tricked out weed wacker...
And a flame thrower.
The flame thrower was insane, I definitely see how it could repel zombies. Sadly, our target was quite a bit smaller. We were attacking weeding the carrot bed with it, pre-carrot germination. Carrots take a solid couple weeks to come up when direct sown, and the weeds will overtake them very easily unless thoroughly weeded beforehand. Hence, the flamer.
Just another day in the life of a farmer, I suppose. ;)
Electric fencing...
A tricked out weed wacker...
And a flame thrower.
 |
| Our flamer wasn't quite military grade. Just as much fun though! |
Just another day in the life of a farmer, I suppose. ;)
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
The Hidden Blog...
Morning all! Thanks for all the well-wishes yesterday, they did some good: I had an awesome B-day full of sunshine and cake! C:
Running off to ICF in a few minutes (one of the host farms) but wanted to share a link to the "official" Farmer Apprentice Program before I forget: http://learn.uvm.edu/farmerblog/
The marketing rotation will be updating it periodically, starting this week, so watch out for some new posts!
Running off to ICF in a few minutes (one of the host farms) but wanted to share a link to the "official" Farmer Apprentice Program before I forget: http://learn.uvm.edu/farmerblog/
The marketing rotation will be updating it periodically, starting this week, so watch out for some new posts!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
I have had lots of little adventures lately, and now have a few pictures to share! First and foremost, here is our little plot of land (soon to be expanded):
It's hard to see just how much we've planted because of the angle of the picture, but there's lots of already-planted goodies there (and more to the north and south, outside the picture frame).
We're getting our irrigation source hooked up tomorrow, so in the top picture you can see a water tank hooked up to the tractor. We were watering in plants this day since it was incredibly hot (upper 80s at least) and dry.
The second picture there shows out little shed where we store all our tools, and the southern corner of the plot.
Today we were double digging some of the beds, which is definitely labor-intensive. Double digging just means digging down, by hand, about 2 feet (most small rototillers can only penetrate the top foot - if that). While you're down there, you can add compost to improve soil fertility, and increase the air space available to plants with spades and digging forks, while maintaining the soil structure (rototillers don't maintain those strata). The result is soil that can support twice the number of crops that would otherwise have gone in there (potentially even more). That's a HUGE increase, and on small farms, it's definitely an interesting option for increasing production, despite all the labor that goes into it. We'll be comparing these beds with others that are already planted, to see if there is any return on our labor-investment, later on.
We also found out our rotations today! I'll be at ICF Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next 5 weeks, and I am SO PSYCHED. They have a huge CSA, and while the size of their farm (near 50 acres) is a little larger than what I'd aim for (5 acres), I would like to learn lots about that marketing strategy.
Speaking of marketing and selling, Diggers Farm gets to cruise around in a mobile farmstand! I would totally chase this thing down the street in place of an ice cream truck.
We're getting our irrigation source hooked up tomorrow, so in the top picture you can see a water tank hooked up to the tractor. We were watering in plants this day since it was incredibly hot (upper 80s at least) and dry.
The second picture there shows out little shed where we store all our tools, and the southern corner of the plot.
Today we were double digging some of the beds, which is definitely labor-intensive. Double digging just means digging down, by hand, about 2 feet (most small rototillers can only penetrate the top foot - if that). While you're down there, you can add compost to improve soil fertility, and increase the air space available to plants with spades and digging forks, while maintaining the soil structure (rototillers don't maintain those strata). The result is soil that can support twice the number of crops that would otherwise have gone in there (potentially even more). That's a HUGE increase, and on small farms, it's definitely an interesting option for increasing production, despite all the labor that goes into it. We'll be comparing these beds with others that are already planted, to see if there is any return on our labor-investment, later on.
We also found out our rotations today! I'll be at ICF Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next 5 weeks, and I am SO PSYCHED. They have a huge CSA, and while the size of their farm (near 50 acres) is a little larger than what I'd aim for (5 acres), I would like to learn lots about that marketing strategy.
Speaking of marketing and selling, Diggers Farm gets to cruise around in a mobile farmstand! I would totally chase this thing down the street in place of an ice cream truck.
Friday, June 3, 2011
Farmer-in-Training
Hey all! I'm in Burlington! Farm school has been in full swing since Tuesday, and lots has been going on. First things first though, I absolutely, sincerely, love it here, and am amazed that a week has flown by as fast as it has... cool people, and awesome adventures. Can't ask for much more, right?
I have unfortunately not taken any pictures of our site or any of the host farms yet, but I can give a quick run down of the things I was working on this week (I promise I will do better with the picture taking in future!).
The program at the moment is in "orientation" mode, which means we do most everything as a large group, and receive more basic instruction so everyone is on the same page after these first two weeks. Eventually, we'll shift over to our "rotations," where we'll have certain days we're working with a particular farm and other days we're working out at our own farm, plus one extra day for field trips and classroom instruction.
Our own farm site is located at the Hort Farm - or Horticultural Research Farm, where there's lots of other things going on. Currently, we have about 3/4 of an acre in a back field, and will be expanding on to a full acre soon. We'll also be bringing a second acre into cultivation over in the adjacent field. We've done lots of work here, both learning about basic techniques and vocabulary, as well as getting some actual work done. We've got lots of things growing in there, including a ton of brassicas, winter squash, cucumber, basil, flowers, beets, braising mix, radishes, spinach, beans, corn, potatoes... and more to come!
We've also spent a good deal of time at the Intervale Center, which manages a huge chunk of land that's rented out at affordable prices to farmers. Two of these farms, ICF and Half Pint, were common visits over the past week, and we'll be doing regular rotations here as the season progresses. The Intervale has several programs going on (ours included!) and a few more in the works; it's a very interesting place.
Other sights included Bread and Butter Farm, which is a bread and dairy farm (cows!); City Market, which is a food co-op/grocery in downtown where we'll be doing work in our marketing rotation; and the Food Shelf, which is the local food pantry where we'll be donating our extra produce. There's some fabulous restaurants in the area too, which I'm excited to visit - I'll put it simply: Burlington is awesome.
There's really so much to this program it's hard to get down just what an amazing opportunity this really is. At the end of the day, you'd think I'd be tired from walking 5 miles, bent over in the field during a 90 degree day, or sloshing through the floodwaters that have yet to subside. But honestly? I'm psyched at the end of the day, and I'm excited to think about all the things I'm going to learn (and have been learning). Bring it!
I have unfortunately not taken any pictures of our site or any of the host farms yet, but I can give a quick run down of the things I was working on this week (I promise I will do better with the picture taking in future!).
The program at the moment is in "orientation" mode, which means we do most everything as a large group, and receive more basic instruction so everyone is on the same page after these first two weeks. Eventually, we'll shift over to our "rotations," where we'll have certain days we're working with a particular farm and other days we're working out at our own farm, plus one extra day for field trips and classroom instruction.
Our own farm site is located at the Hort Farm - or Horticultural Research Farm, where there's lots of other things going on. Currently, we have about 3/4 of an acre in a back field, and will be expanding on to a full acre soon. We'll also be bringing a second acre into cultivation over in the adjacent field. We've done lots of work here, both learning about basic techniques and vocabulary, as well as getting some actual work done. We've got lots of things growing in there, including a ton of brassicas, winter squash, cucumber, basil, flowers, beets, braising mix, radishes, spinach, beans, corn, potatoes... and more to come!
We've also spent a good deal of time at the Intervale Center, which manages a huge chunk of land that's rented out at affordable prices to farmers. Two of these farms, ICF and Half Pint, were common visits over the past week, and we'll be doing regular rotations here as the season progresses. The Intervale has several programs going on (ours included!) and a few more in the works; it's a very interesting place.
Other sights included Bread and Butter Farm, which is a bread and dairy farm (cows!); City Market, which is a food co-op/grocery in downtown where we'll be doing work in our marketing rotation; and the Food Shelf, which is the local food pantry where we'll be donating our extra produce. There's some fabulous restaurants in the area too, which I'm excited to visit - I'll put it simply: Burlington is awesome.
There's really so much to this program it's hard to get down just what an amazing opportunity this really is. At the end of the day, you'd think I'd be tired from walking 5 miles, bent over in the field during a 90 degree day, or sloshing through the floodwaters that have yet to subside. But honestly? I'm psyched at the end of the day, and I'm excited to think about all the things I'm going to learn (and have been learning). Bring it!
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