Tool time.
This photo says it all. The Fix-It Team did such an amazing job of organizing our larger tools in the new shed. We shared a photo of another farm’s setup, and they took that idea and adapted it to our space. Judy used her artistic flair to arrange all the smaller hand tools. No more assorted buckets or avalanches of wood and metal tumbling down on us! A beauty to behold! The shed is open for tours daily 8-2. 🙂
Bob is tackling all the tunnel doors. He is helping us to resolve the issues and sharing the knowledge and skills so we can possibly be proactive instead of reactive!
Teamwork
We had the good fortune of having two women farmers volunteer on Wednesday. The wind was calm, so we decided it would be a good day to start replacing the plastic on tunnel 5. It was accomplished fairly quickly. It looks and functions so much better. Now we have a snug warm growing tunnel full of peas and lettuce.
We have the above-mentioned Fix-It Team, but we also have the teams who plant seeds and seedlings, prep beds, weed, water, and do it willingly in all kinds of weather. There are numerous volunteers who know what to do with all these various activities, and they mentor our newest members of the team. Here are some photos of those various teams working together to accomplish what needed to be done this week. These beds were broadforked, amendments were raked in, and 600 more lettuces were planted.
Adelle spent the morning with us and after the lettuce was in, she and another team prepped tunnel 6 and planted an entire plot of Hakurei turnips. These sweet turnips only take 38 days so they will be gone by the time the next crop, peppers, are ready to go in.
Our Bowdoin team came again on Saturday and once again gave us a big push. Luke, James and Ayden pounded in conduit pipes while Greta and Katharine spread wood chips. It was raining really hard, but they continued to smile and told me they liked the rain!
Teaching
We were so excited to finally have the 8 Farm Skills trainees come to the farm this week and get their hands dirty!
Carrie gave everyone a tour of the farm and explained the benefits of no-till and our passion for regenerative farming. We will be covering new topics each week and then reviewing most of the previous week’s activities. This week they did a soil test and learned how to make and plant with soil blocks. Our first group had a sunny 60 degree day so we were able to do some outside work, but group two had cold and rainy weather. Most of their time was spent in the greenhouse starting seeds. Our goal is to give them a broad overview of working on a farm and the skills to succeed.
Welcome to Brian, Jeremy, and Genevieve on Wednesdays and Lily, Logan, Casper, Rosemary, and soon Lily#2 on Saturdays. I appreciated all of your enthusiasm, and we are looking forward to sharing our experiences at G2G.
We have planted 2,500 lettuce seedlings, 1.5 plots of spinach, 4 beds of sugar snap peas (200’), and 1,100 feet of Hakurei turnips. If the weather cooperates we’ll be planting cabbage and onions very soon.
I am looking for anything green this time of year, even the smallest green garlic shoots gets me excited!
It was a great week, a bit soggy, but we can see and feel the farm waking up. Thanks to all of you who come and share your skills, time, and energy. We couldn’t do it without that middle T.
~Theda