Farm Report 6/28/23 – Another set of eyes
Since I was away from the farm this week, I asked the team to keep me updated with a glimpse of the farm from their perspective, and this is what they shared.
From Carol:
This Monday we had our first weekly glean with both the Androscoggin and Cumberland County Gleaners at the farm together. They harvested peas, rhubarb, lettuce, Napa cabbage, kale, chard, and LOTS of Hakurei turnips!
We were also busy drying out row covers. We had a break in the rain this week and uncovered many of the crops like tomatoes, pumpkins, and watermelon.
One of our Bowdoin interns, Riley, has been working on the effects of sugar kelp on a bean plot.
I think Riley is talking about her project, but I thought this was a cute picture of her with the weed wacker slung across her shoulder and pulling the cart.
With the drier weather, our mowing specialist, Judy, was finally able to get some of the jungle mowed. Here she is mowing between the elderberry bushes.
Here’s Riley’s update:
Beds of Beans
This week we planted four beds of Red Tail Bush Beans. The plot started off pretty weedy with tall grass all around, but it was quickly transformed into the home of our beans that will be ready to pick in August! These beans are special because they are being used to test some new fertilization techniques. This Spring, Greta Bolinger (Bowdoin ’23) donated kelp that she grew during her project at Bowdoin’s Schiller Coastal Studies Center. Now, the kelp is being used on our bush beans as a compost and as a liquid fertilizer to test its effects on plant health and growth.
From Dylan:
(This was Dylan’s first full week at the farm, and he shared a learning experience with the Fix-It Team as his mentors. Thanks, Fixers.)
I went around today with John, John, and Bob, checking the irrigation, checking for leaks and also the banjo clamps that came undone. John mentioned making sure that we turn off the water before we leave and keep an eye out for loose banjos when we walk by. Between Carol and Genevieve earlier this week and John today, I feel I have learned quite a bit and feel fairly confident in working with the irrigation, hopefully memorizing what goes where, LOL. We did have three or four blowouts today, but John and Bob showed me how to fix them. I did two on my own, so I should be able to do that now.
Lots of mowing and weed wacking was accomplished before the next batch of rain, and John showed us how to clean out the mower deck.
(Thanks, Dylan, that was a lot for your first week!)
From Neena:
The interns tackled the other tunnel of peas which had grown out of control, hiding the watermelons on either side. Here is Megan leading the way and parting the sea of peas.
From me:
Apparently I missed out on a delicious Friday potluck whose theme was Rainbow.
Megan shared these photos including one of Zoey under the table waiting for any morsel to drop!
Libby had a nice food photo to share also, but just so I didn’t think nothing else was accomplished, she included a photo of suckering tomatoes.
Carrie had several volunteer groups this past week.
An abundance of rain coupled with warmer temperatures has led to a surge of growth–and not only our veggies, but also weeds and grass! The sheet mulch in our newer hedgerow, installed in 2021, has finally deteriorated and giving the bed a major weeding keeps falling down to the bottom of the To-Do list. On Tuesday, we were so grateful to have a crew of environmental researchers and employees from Stantec who had knowledge of perennials plus the endurance and patience to get in there and extract 6+ cartfuls of weeds! They even got started laying down new sheet mulch, a project that will be completed once we have more cardboard to use (anyone have any to donate?) It already looks 1000% better!
The Wednesday gleaners cleared out the 170 remaining lbs of napa cabbage in plot two, and then a second Stantec crew worked along with other volunteers to flip it to a plot full of peppers and flowers, plus room for another companion plant TBD.
Removing row covers that have been concealing their contents for the past few weeks has led to a lot of weeding projects. On Saturday, we were grateful to have a team of volunteers engage in weeding out the watermelons, the elderberries, and the garlic. We also hosted a group of 22 adults and children from All Saints Parish; they helped rake grass clippings from all the mowing we’ve had to do and then used them to mulch a bed that still needed it.
Thanks everyone for all the support and keeping up with all the daily tasks of growing food for our community.
The wildflower meadow has started to come to life with all this rain and it has bloomed beyond our expectations this first year. Full of poppies right now and a little beauty called 5 spot.
Always grateful,
Theda