Fruit at the farm

Finally got some rain...about two hours after we finished a two and half day blitz of digging a 6ft deep trench from the house 100+ft towards the creek (with a small storm water catchment basin before it reaches the creek) cutting a strip through the broken-up concrete layers in the basement and hand digging another 6 inches and running 4in pipes to drain the basement when it floods in the spring (which it does basically from February to mid-June). Now we won't have to worry about the sump pump burning out anymore, and we'll have running water to our new wash station. Thanks to Ken, excavator-extraordinaire , who made it possible for us to do all this on our budget and in the midst of a busy summer.

Now I can get back to the wonderful fruit we've been harvesting this year. Our strawberries were ripe and then gone in about two weeks in June, the pie cherries have about had it, and we're wrapping up a good year for the 'wild' black raspberries. The mirabelle plum trees (Prunus x domestica ssp. syriaca) that the farms previous owners' (our friends Kate and Jeff) planted are getting old enough to produce, and we've been picking 10-30lbs about every other day (except over the weekend where all we did was dig ditches and break up concrete) for the last week.

It also looks like a good year so far for our apple trees. Both the house apples and the orchard (which are cider apples) all seem to be loaded with decent fruit. Of course we haven't sprayed anything on our trees, so the fruit isn't picture perfect, and we have some scab and other blemishes showing. Last year we had the chickens in various sections of the orchard during what we think are certain life cycles for these pests, but damage to the fruit was still pretty pronounced. Some combination of low-toxicity sprays, like a refined kaolin clay, and hungry chickens will be next year's effort.

The hardy kiwi's didn't bear fruit this year (transplanted mid-year 2009). Last year we lost all but a few blossoms to a late frost with high winds, but nothing this year, but they are growing well, so better luck next year. The semi-wild blackberry areas that I've half-heartedly mulched and weeded, are showing lots of berries starting to change color, and areas in the unmanaged hedgerows show some healthy blackberries on the way too. We'll enough of a mid-day break, time to get back to picking the blueberries before the birds peck away at any more of the ripe fruit. More updates later on the red raspberries, highbush cranberries, elderberries, and aronias.

Summer fun

The wet spring has led to a bumper crop of black raspberries, raspberries, and cherries this week. We shared some for ice cream toppings at a friend's birthday party last night, and Amelia from Felicia's picked up a few quarts of black caps for their mixed drinks. We'll have to head down for happy hour this afternoon to try their "Black Cap Yap".

The 3,000 row feet of potatoes for Westhaven are getting hilled with hay mulch. We had planned on using discs to just push dirt on them, but between the last start, and equipment issues, we just skidded a few round bales from the field and spread them around the plants. More hand labor than we'd like, but with the exception of the voles picking at some of the above soil potatoes, we get pretty good yields. I also wonder about the cover of the hay being good for beneficial insects. We've seen very little colorado potato beetle pressure in our hay mulched beds. We also plant buckwheat nearby to provide cover and flowers which attract beneficial insects. Squash beetles are another concern of ours, and I'm hoping our tests with various compost teas will work again with the larger sprayers (one 12v cart-mounted and one PTO driven) that we picked up with the Farmall this year.

Pigs and tractor

We picked up a "new" tractor and the pigs have finally gone out on pasture yesterday. The wet spring really put us behind schedule, which was a bit of a frustration. But getting a 1953 farmall super A on the farm is very exciting. The jeep tractor has been great, but as we are expanding our acreage under cultivation it's become clear that we weren't equipped for the all the new crops going in the ground.

The pigs are now out on pasture with a new shelter and rolling water/feed cart. We're playing with using the electric net fencing to rotate paddocks around the shelter. Last year we had a movable shelter, but it would often get stuck in the mud, and was too heavy to move without getting the jeep into the paddock with the pigs.

Since we have 6 pigs (4 last year) we have to move them more often, so anything to make their moves quicker and easier seemed like a good idea. The cart came with the farmall purchase, and it fit a 55gal drum with two feeders mounted on the sides. We'll see how well it holds up to the pigs' abuse.

Ramping up for the new season

We planted ramps last year...time to go check and see if they're sprouting in the Marshie Marsh. This year at Tree Gate Farm brings a ‘new’ electric tractor (built in 1949), new plantings, and new farm relationships. We placed a large seed potato order, our other seed orders are in, and our tiny greenhouse is already almost full of seed trays, and pots filled with overwintered plants.
We’ve been busy looking at the numbers from 2010, planning for 2011, and repairing the roof on the tractor shed. We still have to do something about the roof over the shop and decided we’ll also have to rebuild or deconstruct the potting shed before it further deconstructs itself. Currently it seems like our farming life is more about repairing old stuff (equipment, buildings, and me) than about growing things, but I guess that’s the nature of the season.

Late last fall, I purchased an old, Grand Haven Tractor. It’s a cultivating tractor, built between 1948-51, and was one of about 1500 made by the Grand Haven Stamped Products Company (Now known as the GHSP Co.).  The tiny, simple machine was intended for cultivating over a single row of crops, and with a 27” clearance, it can continue to weed a row long after most machines would be causing damage to the crop’s upper leaves. I took the tractor to our local BOCES heavy equipment class, and they’re working on some welding repairs and installation of a 48 volt electic motor, controller, and batteries for me. I’m really looking forward to putting it into use this year as we’ve already doubled our garlic plantings, have ordered 10x the potatoes, and will have significantly more pigs, chickens, corn, beans, squash, etc. over last year’s crops. So a little mechanized help with the weeding will definitely be appreciated. More on the tractor when we get it back to the farm.

Last week Sharon and I dug some horseradish for our friends at Felicia’s Atomic Lounge, who use it in their amazing Zen Mary’s. The owners have really been appreciative of our fresh horseradish and it’s been apparently very well received by their customers. We just have to remember to wash the roots outside as they're rather potent! We replanted the tops and smaller pieces of the roots, as well as two buckets full of small pieces we stored in the basement from last year’s fall harvests. We now have over 200 row feet planted, and we still have a dozen pots in the greenhouse with 3-5 tops from last year which are just sprouting and will get planted out elsewhere in the field in a few weeks. Our rhubarb plants have started budding up through the mulch, and we’ll be transplanting more divisions from my mom’s garden shortly.

Off to go open the greenhouse before it get’s to hot.

Corn-Beans-Squash, and lipstick on a pig...

Earlier sunsets couldn't have come too soon. All of the harvesting, weeding, and soil preparation for next year's beds made for some long days in July and August. I thought I'd share a few quick pictures and updates. Here's a picture of our 600 row feet of sweet corn, two types of pole beans and various squashes (and a few watermelons thrown in to see how they would do).

Not too bad for our first attempt. This is a photo from late July. It looked fairly orderly back then. Now the rows are nearly impassible with squash and beans running amok and a few corn stalks getting pulled over in the chaos. The corn has done great, beans are everywhere, and the squash vines just keep on spreading. The squash in the southern-most row seemed to get too much sun, and the watermelons south of corn row 2 (out of 6, 1 farthest north and 6 farthest south) was a bit too shaded. Looks like next season we'll try the CoBeSqua in a series of northeast to southwest diagonal rows, where we had our potatoes this year. We'll have to see how that changes the overall shading of paths. There will also be more space between the rows of corn. I may even try a double row of corn to see if that helps them stand up better.

Our friend Scott has been teaching us some of the ways that Native Americans have traditionally managed their "Three Sisters" mounds (he calls our variation on the theme "the three amigas"). Here's a picture of how great his look:

Yeah, that's him, shaded by the monstrous corn, partially hidden by the out of control peppers, and the huge tobacco plants in front. Did we mention that he's 6 feet tall? Scott's garden plot always looks much better than the rest of the farm. He's a great teacher and we've learned a ton from him.

It's been a challenge to find farm partners who fit with our beliefs and goals for the farm -- we'll miss him and his influence here when he moves on from Ithaca.

We hope to find someone who will take his plot for next year, but our friends who rent next door -- and who grew potatoes on our side of our shared fence -- it looks like they might be moving, too. sigh.

On to a more light-hearted topic: The funniest photo of the week. "Lil' red," who is no longer a little pig, had quite a feast with the left-over elderberries after we made the latest batch of syrup. And yes, the purple pigments from the berries kept their color on her snout and mouth for a couple of hours. Even longer than the spa-quality clay stuck on her forehead. She's one glamorous girl!

Family Farm-ing

June flew by. Late plantings, setting up irrigation "systems" (and I use that word loosely), and learning to move our 3 not-so-little-anymore pigs around the pasture kept us hopping. Speaking of hopping, we have several rabbit families invading our farm from the various hedgerows and neighboring properties. Seems that young beans and peas have been their favorite snacks so far this month.

We hosted my sister here for a few days last week which along with the semi-regular weekly visit from my parents made for an interesting "family farm" feeling. Mom worked with her flower beds, Dad did a terrific job weed whacking the out of control undergrowth in the orchard, and Sis put in several hours moving hay into position for mulching potatoes and mulched the paths in the 3-sister's planting area. It was great to see how much got done in a few short days.  Here's a picture of Sis and some of the potato beds.

I finished mulching up under the potatoes this morning. We're told that the potatoes will produce additional tubers up in the hay, and to harvest, we won't have to dig so deep to get them out. We'll see how this works out. If nothing else, it sure was lighter than hilling with dirt (by hand). 

You can see the buckwheat row in the left hand side of the picture. I'll cut them down before they go to seed, and replant for a second buckwheat cover crop for this year.

Spring Tilling with the Jeep Tractor

Yes, that's my 94' Jeep Wrangler with a set of discs tilling up some sod around one of our cherry trees for new planting beds (more on our permanent bed designs in a future post). Last November we bought a 3 point hitch that is part of the "Dirtworks" system from Kolpin Powersports. Since we're working with narrow permanent beds and "forest farming" areas, we're not plowing up acres of field at a time, so the smaller scale attachments (called Category 0) work perfect for us. And since the system attaches via a standard two inch receiver (with some additional bracing) it was easy to use our existing farm vehicle.

We tested the chisel plows and disc attachments in the fall, and the rows that we broke up are so much lighter and dryer than the surrounding soil. Our field has been used primarily for hay over the past few decades, and the soil is compressed, heavy clay, with lots of rocks (hence the stone walls popping up all over the farm). But the Kolpin pops on and off the Jeep pretty easily, and we've been able to plant over an acre of berry bushes and trees in the past two weeks.

We'll post more about our adventures with the Jeep Tractor soon.