Today, Maplewood received added help from some of it's CSA members! They came to the farm to volunteer with planting as part of a scheduled day. Most of these fresh and willing workers arrived around 10 in the morning, but due to a massive down pour shortly after their arrival, we all ran for shelter in the barn until it passed.
A little under 20 people helped with transplanting tomatoes in the field, and planting raspberries and beans in the front garden. We broke for a delicious potluck lunch shortly after the ran stopped, which included three bean salads, bread, some sort of scrumptious brownie, free ranged burgers, and amazing homemade hamburger buns that Ellyn and I helped Hannah make yesterday:)
Some of these members will be returning to help out throughout the season, as part of a way to pay for half of their share. This definatly is living out the true meaning of Community Supported Agriculture!
Later, little Calvin helped feed the baby calf, who kept making him laugh as she licked his hand:)
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Life on an organic farm is.... Delicious! Warm corn bread with melted butter after a rainy day. Yum.
Eric the intern had quite the morning as he ventured off to feed the chickens. Breaking up the routine chore, he was greeted by a chicken dangling from a broad on the coop wall, by it's foot. Not the brightest in the bunch, the chicken could have been hanging there all night. Eric claimed it was well beyond half dead as he rode it back to Eric the farmer, who "disposed" of it with a shovel, Marie Antoinette style. I'll just leave it at that.....
Ellyn took the day off, leaving Eric and I to transplanting in the greenhouse, planting squash and picking sprouts off potatoes. In the greenhouse we transplanted more basil, and German Thyme. The oh so small Thyme plants needed extra patience, so that we wouldn't ruin their tiny roots.
We planted several varieties of winter squash in a newly used section by the field. This section housed Pretty and Jr (Maplewood's studly male cows) last year, and so now it's naturally fertilized with, you bettcha, cow manure. Hannah said that her father had a flourishing yield of squash last year from manure. So yea, I was digging my hand in manure all morning, I just smelled wonderful after. :)
Not to keep talking about manure, but for an interesting fact, raw manure, which this is, needs at least 90 days to be incorporated into soil before it can produce edible products. Since we're planting winter squashes, 90 days is more than enough time, so you can relax if you're a Maplewood CSA member reading this!
After the squash, potatoes! Hundreds and hundreds of potatoes are stored in the Noel's celler during the year, and this afternoon, Eric and I headed down to pick off their sprouts. It didn't take us as long as I thought it would have, and the potatoes are still completely fine to eat if they're boil or smashed. We didn't realize what a pretty purple color the sprouts were until we composted them outside, becuase it was so dark down in the celler!
I ended my work day by feeding my new friend, #91, the baby calf. :) She seemed stronger today and sucked the life out of the bottle I feed her with! A cows body temperature is higher than a humans, at about 101 degrees. Calfs bodies will recognize it's mothers milk by the temperature, and the way the neck of the baby is going upright, towards the mothers utter. Since cows have four stomachs, this sends the milk to the correct stomach in the calf. If it goes to a wrong stomach, it could make the calf sick, and die. So it's crucial that the milk is warmed up to 100 degrees before we feed it to the calf!
Lets hope for some sun tomorrow!
Ellyn took the day off, leaving Eric and I to transplanting in the greenhouse, planting squash and picking sprouts off potatoes. In the greenhouse we transplanted more basil, and German Thyme. The oh so small Thyme plants needed extra patience, so that we wouldn't ruin their tiny roots.
We planted several varieties of winter squash in a newly used section by the field. This section housed Pretty and Jr (Maplewood's studly male cows) last year, and so now it's naturally fertilized with, you bettcha, cow manure. Hannah said that her father had a flourishing yield of squash last year from manure. So yea, I was digging my hand in manure all morning, I just smelled wonderful after. :)
Not to keep talking about manure, but for an interesting fact, raw manure, which this is, needs at least 90 days to be incorporated into soil before it can produce edible products. Since we're planting winter squashes, 90 days is more than enough time, so you can relax if you're a Maplewood CSA member reading this!
After the squash, potatoes! Hundreds and hundreds of potatoes are stored in the Noel's celler during the year, and this afternoon, Eric and I headed down to pick off their sprouts. It didn't take us as long as I thought it would have, and the potatoes are still completely fine to eat if they're boil or smashed. We didn't realize what a pretty purple color the sprouts were until we composted them outside, becuase it was so dark down in the celler!
I ended my work day by feeding my new friend, #91, the baby calf. :) She seemed stronger today and sucked the life out of the bottle I feed her with! A cows body temperature is higher than a humans, at about 101 degrees. Calfs bodies will recognize it's mothers milk by the temperature, and the way the neck of the baby is going upright, towards the mothers utter. Since cows have four stomachs, this sends the milk to the correct stomach in the calf. If it goes to a wrong stomach, it could make the calf sick, and die. So it's crucial that the milk is warmed up to 100 degrees before we feed it to the calf!
Lets hope for some sun tomorrow!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Life on an organic farm is.... Resourceful. Old yogurt containers are used for scooping, and cut up for plant labels.
It was a cold, rainy day on here Maplewood, as we dug through the field to transplant 3 rows of Fiesta Broccoli. My hands felt numb at times pushing through the soil, especially covering the plant when the soil got hard and clay-like. We enjoyed finishing, that's for sure! But before we left, Hannah let us three interns try out using the rototiller. We tested it on rows that currently don't have plants in them, and for a good reason! My trips down the row with the rototiller would have uprooted any life planted there! It's much more of a powerful machine than I could have imagined, and pulled me more than I pushed it! Not sure if I'll be up to trying it out again any time soon....
Mixed in with the broccoli we planted Cosmos and Calendula flowers. Every 6 broccoli plants we'd put one of the two flowers. The Cosmos attracts beneficial insects, while the Calendula attracts bees, but also repels unwanted insects. Many different types of flowers act as natural attractants or repellents to desirable or undesirable insects, a practiced called companion planting. It's an excellent idea for all you vegetable gardeners out there, and necessary for organic growers wishing to decrease their chances of a pest problem!
Here are some examples of plants that will offend unwanted pest:
- Onions to keep out Carrot Rust Flies
- Tansy for Colorado Potato Beetles
- Marigolds Mexican Bean Beetles and Eggplant
- Basil as well, for Eggplant
- Nasturtiums for Squash Bugs
- Marigolds, Mint or Thyme for Cabbage Moths
I finished my day with feeding the mother-less calf. I as some of you may
know, have been obsessed with cows since I can remember, and so this was a remarkable experience! She was moved into the old dairy barn this morning, after a cold night outside, where she now lays on a hay patch under a heat lamp to stay warm. Hannah and I heated up some milk for her in a bottle, which basically looked like a bigger size of one you'd use on a baby. Her back legs shook as I feed her from the bottle, as if she was still too weak to comfortably stand. Hopefully she'll be able to survive, as we're all getting to grow quite fond of tag number 91! She's a cute little thing, and drank everything I feed to her this afternoon, so can only get better soon enough.
Mixed in with the broccoli we planted Cosmos and Calendula flowers. Every 6 broccoli plants we'd put one of the two flowers. The Cosmos attracts beneficial insects, while the Calendula attracts bees, but also repels unwanted insects. Many different types of flowers act as natural attractants or repellents to desirable or undesirable insects, a practiced called companion planting. It's an excellent idea for all you vegetable gardeners out there, and necessary for organic growers wishing to decrease their chances of a pest problem!
Here are some examples of plants that will offend unwanted pest:
- Onions to keep out Carrot Rust Flies
- Tansy for Colorado Potato Beetles
- Marigolds Mexican Bean Beetles and Eggplant
- Basil as well, for Eggplant
- Nasturtiums for Squash Bugs
- Marigolds, Mint or Thyme for Cabbage Moths
I finished my day with feeding the mother-less calf. I as some of you may
know, have been obsessed with cows since I can remember, and so this was a remarkable experience! She was moved into the old dairy barn this morning, after a cold night outside, where she now lays on a hay patch under a heat lamp to stay warm. Hannah and I heated up some milk for her in a bottle, which basically looked like a bigger size of one you'd use on a baby. Her back legs shook as I feed her from the bottle, as if she was still too weak to comfortably stand. Hopefully she'll be able to survive, as we're all getting to grow quite fond of tag number 91! She's a cute little thing, and drank everything I feed to her this afternoon, so can only get better soon enough.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Life on an organic farm is.... oh so fresh. Last night our dinner was entirely home grown!
madeleine elizabeth :) Beet bear cat <- (Maddie just wrote that herself!)
My day started off today at 6:30 with chicken chores, which ended up being a nice change from vegetables! They need to be feed twice a day, the second around 4 in the afternoon. Each time they take the same mixture of food, 3 scoops of shelled corn meal for energy, a half a scoop of rolled soy beans for protein, and a dash of kelp for added minerals. The clattering of about 80 chicken's feet rustled about inside the closed coop as I proceeded towards it this morning. Once I opened it up and put down ramp, for the most part, they each took a turn carefully walking down to the ground to gobble up their breakfast.
Yesterday, Eric taught us three interns how to ride on the 4-wheeler! It's quite fun to drive I must say, and the only way to bring 5 gallons of water to the chicken coop in the morning:) During my afternoon trip to the coop, along with feeding, I collected eggs, 18 to be exact. Each is a slightly different color and size. Colors range from off white, creamy white, light pinks, and some with darker shades. These free ranged chickens eggs have a really yellow yoke!
Later, as we were weeding around the raspberries, Eric rolled in on the 4-wheeler with a 2 week old baby calf. Her mother's apparently not a very good one, since this weak little calf had not eaten in awhile and hadn't been watched over in the pasture. Eric made a small closed in area for her, where she lays now, and has been feeding her the raw milk that we drink, out of a bottle.
My day started off today at 6:30 with chicken chores, which ended up being a nice change from vegetables! They need to be feed twice a day, the second around 4 in the afternoon. Each time they take the same mixture of food, 3 scoops of shelled corn meal for energy, a half a scoop of rolled soy beans for protein, and a dash of kelp for added minerals. The clattering of about 80 chicken's feet rustled about inside the closed coop as I proceeded towards it this morning. Once I opened it up and put down ramp, for the most part, they each took a turn carefully walking down to the ground to gobble up their breakfast.
Yesterday, Eric taught us three interns how to ride on the 4-wheeler! It's quite fun to drive I must say, and the only way to bring 5 gallons of water to the chicken coop in the morning:) During my afternoon trip to the coop, along with feeding, I collected eggs, 18 to be exact. Each is a slightly different color and size. Colors range from off white, creamy white, light pinks, and some with darker shades. These free ranged chickens eggs have a really yellow yoke!
Later, as we were weeding around the raspberries, Eric rolled in on the 4-wheeler with a 2 week old baby calf. Her mother's apparently not a very good one, since this weak little calf had not eaten in awhile and hadn't been watched over in the pasture. Eric made a small closed in area for her, where she lays now, and has been feeding her the raw milk that we drink, out of a bottle.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Life on an organic farm is.... Filled with interesting smells! We've got it all from garlic, to cow manure, to hay!
This slightly rainy morning started off with some transplanting inside the greenhouse. Prize Choy occupied my time as I had to ever so gently remove the small seedlings of this plant, which were growing altogether, into individual cells of a six pack. You have to be careful to maintain as much of the root system as possible when transplanting, so that the plant won't die.
Everyday, the same chicken sits in the corner of the greenhouse to lay her egg. When Ellyn and I came in this morning, I think we disturbed her routine as she kept making noises and unfortuantly I don't think she ever laid her egg!
As the sun slowly emerged from the clouds, we headed out into the garden to weed around the garlic. Once again we used the Action Hoe, but couldn't use it too close to the garlic, so by hand pulled a majority of the weeds. After weeding, Ellyn, Hannah and I set up a drip irrigation system. Long flat plastic tubes were dragged out from the cobwebs of the old dairy cow barn, to the main garden. We connected them to the hose, and pinned them down with arched stakes, close to the rows of garlic.
Plants need at least an inch of water a week, so this system brings water right to the soil by the stem of the garlic plants in case it doesn't rain. It's conserves more water that traditional, overhead watering, where much water is lost by evaporating off the leaves.
After the water system was set, we mulched with hay. Maddie helped as we loaded hay from the wagon into our wheelbarrows. The hay prevents weeds from growing, meaning less weeding for us! It also traps in moisture. Weeding, setting up the irrigation and hay mulching for the 6 rows of garlic took us just about the entire afternoon!
And lastly our final crew member arrived today, another Eric Noel oddly enough! He'll be working with Maplewood's Eric Noel with the cows.
Everyday, the same chicken sits in the corner of the greenhouse to lay her egg. When Ellyn and I came in this morning, I think we disturbed her routine as she kept making noises and unfortuantly I don't think she ever laid her egg!
As the sun slowly emerged from the clouds, we headed out into the garden to weed around the garlic. Once again we used the Action Hoe, but couldn't use it too close to the garlic, so by hand pulled a majority of the weeds. After weeding, Ellyn, Hannah and I set up a drip irrigation system. Long flat plastic tubes were dragged out from the cobwebs of the old dairy cow barn, to the main garden. We connected them to the hose, and pinned them down with arched stakes, close to the rows of garlic.
Plants need at least an inch of water a week, so this system brings water right to the soil by the stem of the garlic plants in case it doesn't rain. It's conserves more water that traditional, overhead watering, where much water is lost by evaporating off the leaves.
After the water system was set, we mulched with hay. Maddie helped as we loaded hay from the wagon into our wheelbarrows. The hay prevents weeds from growing, meaning less weeding for us! It also traps in moisture. Weeding, setting up the irrigation and hay mulching for the 6 rows of garlic took us just about the entire afternoon!
And lastly our final crew member arrived today, another Eric Noel oddly enough! He'll be working with Maplewood's Eric Noel with the cows.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Life on an organic farm is.... Dirty! Every day I pick the dirt out from my fingernails and watch the dirt continuously depart from my clothes....
Today concludes my fifth full day working at Maplewood Organics. Operating this farm includes Hannah and Eric Noel, along with their children Maddie, 5 and Calvin, 2. Grass feed, free ranged cattle, mostly including Galloway and Angus, free ranged chickens, and an enormous variety of certified organic vegetables are the products of this family run farm. With the help of myself, Ellyn and Eric, live in interns and farm hands, we all grow the vegetables and tend to the animals in order for Maplewood to deliver to it's weekly CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) members.
In short terms, Community Supported Agriculture acts as a way for members of a community to directly support local farms. People buy shares and recieve a weekly box of delicious and fresh food. Each week, the food can variey depending on what's ready to be harvested. It's a great way to support local farms, and recieve the freshest food around, considering that the average food consumed by Americans takes over 1,500 miles to be shipped from the farm to the kitchen table! Many times that food stops at factories to be processed. Buying CSA shares guarentees clean, pure food grown in a way less environmentally damaging.
This morning, Ellyn, Hannah and Suzzie, a CSA member helping out, and I covered the cabbage in the field with a floating row cover. It's a thin white cloth that protects the cabbage from cabbage moths. The sheet was 250 feet long and didn't even cover two of our three rows of cabbage! Cabbage moths lay their eggs in the cabbage plants, and as soon as the eggs hatch, the larva begin to eat away at the cabbage. Hannah explained these little white moths to us yesterday as we were planting, and sure enough, when I headed out of the field after hours of planting cabbage, what do I see but a little white moth hovering over the rows of freshly transplanted cabbage....
After the cabbage Ellyn and I climbed up the massive pile of compost to weed. I never realized that you would need to weed through your compost, but weeds do grow, and will expand their roots in the compost if you don't tend to it. So gardeners who compost, make sure you weed! We used Action Ho's. They work great at lifting up the weeds. After the weeding we picked some rubarb for a pie which tasted amazing after a long day at work!
Stay tuned for more updates from up here in Highgate!
In short terms, Community Supported Agriculture acts as a way for members of a community to directly support local farms. People buy shares and recieve a weekly box of delicious and fresh food. Each week, the food can variey depending on what's ready to be harvested. It's a great way to support local farms, and recieve the freshest food around, considering that the average food consumed by Americans takes over 1,500 miles to be shipped from the farm to the kitchen table! Many times that food stops at factories to be processed. Buying CSA shares guarentees clean, pure food grown in a way less environmentally damaging.
This morning, Ellyn, Hannah and Suzzie, a CSA member helping out, and I covered the cabbage in the field with a floating row cover. It's a thin white cloth that protects the cabbage from cabbage moths. The sheet was 250 feet long and didn't even cover two of our three rows of cabbage! Cabbage moths lay their eggs in the cabbage plants, and as soon as the eggs hatch, the larva begin to eat away at the cabbage. Hannah explained these little white moths to us yesterday as we were planting, and sure enough, when I headed out of the field after hours of planting cabbage, what do I see but a little white moth hovering over the rows of freshly transplanted cabbage....
After the cabbage Ellyn and I climbed up the massive pile of compost to weed. I never realized that you would need to weed through your compost, but weeds do grow, and will expand their roots in the compost if you don't tend to it. So gardeners who compost, make sure you weed! We used Action Ho's. They work great at lifting up the weeds. After the weeding we picked some rubarb for a pie which tasted amazing after a long day at work!
Stay tuned for more updates from up here in Highgate!
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