Friday, April 29, 2011

I was thinking about the last post and realized there were two things I forgot to say that contribute to my being able to have such a bright outlook re the flood.  The first is the silt, which you can see in this picture dumping into lake Champlain.  May not be great for the lake, but for farm land in that delta, it's basically like the Nile, we are getting a lot of nutrients dumped on our soil.  That plus pretty quick draining is an overall positive. 

The second thing is extra labor.  In a more normal season I get things in over a long period, maybe a month.  It's mostly just me planting.  It will cost money but at least it is possible to do the same thing in a week or two with enough help.

There, a more complete picture.

For those still looking to sign up, a link to the brochure is on your right.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

NOT Turning on a dime


The dime is stopped in mid-air.  For the uninitiated, what am I talking about?  The Flood, or more appropriately this year, The Floods.  As members and veg lovers who have been with us and other Intervale farms for a while will know, we do get flooded from time to time.  Usually it is in March or April when the snows melt and then maybe again in mid to late October, but the late one is only every once and a while.  Well, with the extreme snows we all knew we were going to get something, but add the late spring and almost three times the average amount of rainfall this month and you've got some continuing and large floods.


 I had just looked at this graph page before I went out and seeded radishes, carrots, parsnips, and hakurei turnips (which are awesome if you haven't had them, a tender sweet turnip you can eat raw.  I will include a pic just to have something a little more fun than a graph.)Well, just like the weather, the predictions side of the graph is not always right, in fact you can often count on it being wrong.  Despite things being a few weeks late I have a feeling it will still be a very productive growing year.  To keep it in perspective, all we have really done at this point is pushed back carrots and early lettuce a week or two, assuming it doesn't rain forever. 

It does make perennials look really attractive to me.  The rhubarb is looking happy as a clam, and the trees are starting to take off (I planted to more this year (one peach, one plum).  With that in mind I have decided to add two beds of asparagus this year, instead of one.  I think I will still have a few asparagus plants to give away to members, worry not (extra rhubarbs found a happy home a few years ago).

On a "how politics actually effects me note" it turns out this flood gauge page that I and lots of farmers look at a lot is being shut down for lack of funding.  They're asking for donations at the web-page.  They should let the military hold a bake sale and let us keep our flood gauge. 

Sunday, April 03, 2011

Turning on a Dime

This is shaping up to be the week I think where we move into that next gear on the farm, and I think as Vermonters also finally see Spring as sprung.  This week on the farm we hope to

1. Compost the fields
2. Disk at least where the alliums (onions and leeks) will be going.  The disk is one of my most used implements.  As you can see in this pic, it basically just chops the first 6 inches of soil or so into a crumble.
3. Put our first plants in the cold frame (with remay on top, a blanket that will give the plants a few degrees frost protection (though its just onions we will be starting with so they don't really need frost protection))
4.  Start mulching the garlic with some peace corp volunteers help (Rachel and I were in the Peace Corps in Ivory Coast (we had nothing to do with the current problems I swear!))

we were out today helping Half Pint farm get there hoophouses up, and it was so nice to hear the hum of the John Deere running. 

remember, brochure is linked to on your right.