Life on an organic farm is…. Rainy, rainy, rainy.

Those hot days of summer weeding have gone on hiatus, and forced us into another ever so comfortable condition, weeding in the rain. Eric and I spent a good portion of our afternoon weeding in the garden, only to find that the snap peas we were so careful to uncover actually needed the weeds! They give the plants support and which produces a bigger pea pod. It’s hard to resist eating all the snap peas as you go through weeding; they’re so delicious!

Since the pole beans have begun to stretch out over the ground, going well beyond their small seedling stature, Eric and I posted up long sticks in a tee-pee like formation around the beans. These beans were planted in circles, and will need the sticks to twine up around when they really start to grow. This type of vertical gardening if you will, is a great way to produce a lot without taking up space in your yard. So all you bean lovers out there should give it a try! And once the sticks are completely covered with the bean plants, it’ll look like kind of like a Christmas tree! And really, who doesn’t want one of those in their yard?

On a more morbid note, Eric the intern found 5 dead chickens when he went to go feed them yesterday morning. We were unsure of the cause until Eric the farmer caught a raccoon in the coop when he went to close it up last night. It’s more than likely the raccoon played a role in the massacre, but still, chickens were pecking at their dead peers…. When I let them out this morning, instead of flocking right to their food, as they usually do, most strutted right over to where left over feathers sat on the ground…. Also, I noticed more food left over this afternoon… So yea, some funny business goin’ on with the chickens, maybe there’s more food because there’s less of them now, or perhaps it’s because their too full after eating their dead sisters? Who really knows…

Life on an organic farm is… hot, sweaty, dirty and intense when bailing hay…..

So the dreaded act of farming, the one that I had been warned about by at least 5 men upon saying that I was working on a farm, two being my grandfathers, finally arrived yesterday. Bailing the first part of the first cut of hay left us in nothing but sweat, with hay sticking to that sweat and a yearning desire to emerge our bodies into the pond. Ellyn and I loaded the hay from the wagons onto the conveyer belt to the barn, as Richard and his brother brought them in from the fields, and the Eric’s piled them up in the barn. It was the first day that finally felt like summer weather. The weather when cutting up fields for bailing, and the transition to the barn must be as idealist as possible, and boy did we feel it. Ellyn and I were sweating up a storm outside, but got a laugh when Eric the intern emerged from the sweltering hot barn with his t-shirt drenched in sweat after the first load. A workout it was, and after we finished the first of the 11 wagon filled with hay, equaling 1,600 bails for the 11 wagons, I downed Gatorade like it was the last thing I’d ever be able to drink. It didn’t take me long to regret my intake as I could feel it in my stomach, and never wish to drink that stuff ever again. Gotta love that high fructose corn syrup.... As the cows blissfully grassed away in the field from 1 to 7 yesterday, we began the grueling processes of making sure they have enough hay to eat throughout the winter; and they say humans are the higher species. The three of us interns jumped in the pond in our nasty clothes when we finished up, and I must say, it was probably one of the most refreshing experiences I’ve ever had in my life. :)

Today, the sun beat down on us, but once again, the cool water of the pond felt perfect as it washed away our grotesque bodies, and made the day’s work worth it. As the weather changes, we find ourselves switching from jeans and boots to shorts and sneakers, leaving the dirt to attractively stick to the sweat on the backs of our legs as we weed in the fields, where every minute it seems, you break to find a inch of clean space on your arm to wipe the sweat off your upper lip.

It’s as far a life from glamorous as you could imagine, but we’re supplying Upstate Vermonters with clean, healthy, fresh produce and beef from the most content cows around, making these intense days all the more worthwhile when the work is complete. Today, as I dried off from my swim, by laying down and reading about Micheal J. Fox's life on the grass, our chicken friend came up right next to me, but quickly jumped back a couple feet when I looked up from my book. I continued to read as clothes blew dry above me on the line in the breeze, could hear Maddie and Calvin laughing in their water buckets, and hear Heart (our calf) mooing in the background, and couldn't help but thinking that apart from the work, this truely is pretty close to paradise.

Life on an organic farm is...put on hold when you drive into town for creemees (soft ice cream for you New Yorkers) at the local gas station...

One chicken has been keeping us company out in the field for the past week or so. She’ll remain fairly close to us as we travel too and from the field, and I’ll even hear her squawkin’ behind me when I’m bent down in a row digging in the dirt, look around and see her slowly inching towards me in her typical chicken-wobble head-strut. She never dines with her fellow chickens in their designated fenced in area, or lays her eggs in the coop, as she used to always lay her egg in the greenhouse. No, this chicken isn’t a conformist, she'll forage to find her own food and seems perfectly content doing so. I can’t blame her though as her peers aren’t always the brightest bunch. When I went to feed them this afternoon, at least 6 chickens were wandering around outside the fence by their coop. Once they heard me coming though, they flocked to the fence to get inside. I was able to pick one up and fling her over the fence so she could eat, but the others didn’t let me catch them, they’re loss if they want food. But eventually, most, not all, but most, of the outside stragglers found a hole in the fence to squeeze their way back in to chow down.

This afternoon, as we weeded rows with action hoes and transplanted flowers into their freshly stirred soil, Eric the farmer and Richard, Eric’s dad, drove the four-wheeler in between the potato rows with a plow attached to the back, to build up the mounds. As the plant of the potato continues to grow above ground, the dirt heap surrounding the plant must continue to build up steadily throughout the season. We watched the guys ride around in their farm equipment as we usually do, and I’m sure our chicken friend did as well. :)

Life on an organic farm is…. All about keeping the pests away....

With our second CSA drop off tomorrow (Monday) in St. Albans, the Maplewood crew went to work this morning harvesting, washing and bagging our vegetables. Most of what we provided in our shares last week is again, what we will provide this week, but with some additions. Black Seeded Simpson and Red Fire heads of lettuce were ready for harvesting in the field! Such big and beauteous creations aid in the weeks harvest, which will only continuously grow in its bountifulness throughout the season.

When we prepare for the CSA pickup (Community Supported Agriculture for those of you just logging on), the washing and bagging of the vegetables takes place in the milk room of the old dairy barn. It’s a break from the sun, or sometimes rain, the fields, flies and more, and to all our listening pleasure, allows us to crank up the radio to some classic hits on local radio stations, where Elton John is played at least twice... It’s vital that the harvesting be done in the morning, so that the vegetables don’t wilt in the hot sun towards the middle of the day. Weeding can’t be done right before harvesting, or you’d stir up unwanted extra dirt on your vegetables; and there’s already enough dirt, grass, hay and more to remove off the vegetables (lettuce especially) before bagging them!

Between the almost instant spurts of sunshine and down pour in the field of Maplewood this afternoon, we weeded celery, eggplant and peppers. The last task of the day was searching through the many rows of potatoes for Colorado Potato Beetles! These little pests will eat at the potato leaves and lay their yellow eggs on the underside of the leaf. Three generations of this beetle can be produced in one summer, so they have the potential to be extremely damaging! Being an utmost importance that we squash them and their eggs when we spot them on the plant, I mashed one freeloader between my fingers, leaving its yellow mushy insides to lightly coat the tips of my fingers.

Life on an organic farm is…. Bringing us back to more primitive ways.

Yesterday, Eric, Ellyn, Hannah and I took a break from farm work and headed down to Shelburne Farms, for a day of foraging! Shelburne Farms sits on a 1400 acre lot just outside Burlington. It’s a gorgeous and huge old, fully working farm, with an extensive cheese making production, sheep, cattle, gardens, an inn, children’s center and lots more. We took a “workshop” on wild edibles, but workshop luckily wouldn’t exactly be the best word to describe it! We foraged through the woods of Shelburne digging up burdock, rolled up our pants and trampled through the marshy muck to peel and pull up cattails, and plucked the flowering top of milkweeds on a hillside by the garden. We also pulled up some edible weeds, like lambs quarter in the garden, but seeing as this was a day away from pulling up weeds; I decided to take some pictures at that part instead! After our group finished our foraging adventure, we all helped prepare lunch at a rental house on the Shelburne property, which overlooked an astonishing lake front view of Lake Champlain. My camera unfortunately couldn’t even come close to capturing it's beauty! The meal tasted delicious, and the four of us were especially fans of the milkweed, which we ate in fried little fritters and sautéed with butter and garlic in our pasta.

Don’t overlook all wild plants or even weeds in your garden! Many of them may surprise you and taste quite good, but make sure it’s edible, there’s a lot of look a likes! Here are some wild edibles we foraged for and ate:

Amaranth (Also known as pigweed, used in the salad)

Stinging Nettle (They’re a pain to weed and leave you with stinging rashes on your hands if you’re not careful, and surprisingly can be eaten when cooked, but none of us were a big fan of this in our pasta.)

Lambs Quarter (Very common garden weed, and good on a salad!)

Red Clover (I think I might have been one of the only ones in our group not to know this was the Vermont State Flower! It’s pretty as well as tasty, and makes a nice topping to a salad)

Cattails (Peel off the bottom husks, and slip the stem out of the ground and there’s a gooey aloe like covering! The white part of the stem can be chopped up, tastes a little like a cucumber, but not as flavorful. This was the most fun and most messy wild edible to forage for!)

Burdock (The root of first year burdock plants can be dug up and cooked, and the middle stem of second year burdocks can be peeled and eaten, but we found that the work getting these isn’t necessarily worth what you get out of it.)

Milkweed (So delicious! Fry it up into milkweed fritters, easily a crowd pleaser, also tasty sautéed with different seasonings, or with the ever wonderful butter.)

There were a lot more, I just can’t really think of them right now! But defiantly look around your yards and parks for some of these wild edibles! Make sure you take noticed of where they are however, plants close to a road side aren’t the best places to forage for example, due to possible run off’s from the road and such. Weeds from your garden might be your best bet and milkweed of course!

And lastly, for a farming related side note, many of you I’m sure have become all too accustomed to hearing about the hardships of dairy farmers in our country. Prices drop at unbelievably fast rates and so many family run dairy farms are forced to end their operation. Here’s something you can do to help! It’s a letter to push the urgency of the problem to people who can actually make decisions to fix the crisis. Sign if you wish! http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/vilsack_milk/?r_by=4487-857473-XJ1kkTx&rc=paste

Life on an organic farm is....growing up more and more from the ground everyday!

By harvesting, washing and bagging lettuce, Swiss chard, mixed kale, spinach, chives, radishes, oregano and rhubarb on Sunday, we prepared ourselves for the first CSA pickup of the season! I loved finally being able to harvest some of what we’ve worked hard at planting, transplanting, mulching, watering and weeding. Digging up the radishes is a risk, as you can’t really tell which ones are big enough sizes to harvest, pretty much until you pull them up from the dirt. The red color though was so bright! Aaaaand this is how I can tell I’m getting a little too into my vegetables ha ha, commenting on the vibrant colors; but it is quite rewarding watching your vegetables grow, but perhaps not as rewarding as eating them. :)

Hannah and I loaded up the van later this morning with all our fresh veggies and headed down some country roads to the hospital in St Albans (a larger town about 10 minutes away from Highgate). Set up was similar to the farmers market, and we laid out all of the components of this week’s share on a picnic table outside the hospital, so people could choose for themselves which ones they wanted. Four people however, didn’t pick up there share this week! It’s the first week, so perhaps they didn’t remember, but regardless, it their loss, as the three of us interns made an apple crisp with some fresh rhubarb in it last night and it tasted quite delicious. :)

When we returned back at Maplewood, I joined up with Ellyn and Eric in the field for an afternoon of weeding. Thunder from afar and threatening skies in the distance kept us anticipating a storm for the last couple hours of weeding, but luckily it held off pretty much until we ran inside from the rain at the end of the day.

Life on an organic farm is...possible through people buying your products.

Today, a mini van and a Rav4 filled with frozen meat, fresh lettuce and more, headed down to Westford, Vermont, for the first farmers market of the season! We went out into the garden this morning to cut a mix of lettuce, which we when washed, spun to dry and bagged to sell, and then packed an assortment of frozen beef cuts into a cooler to sell. At the market, which welcomed about 10 or so vender's, we sold the meat and lettuce, along with eggs and sauerkraut, all from Maplewood, and bottles of sunflower oil, which their neighbors produce. Hannah, Ellyn, Eric, Maddie, Calvin and I all went to sell. Most of the time, farmers just stay by their stand, but at the end it's interesting, because some really get into bartering with you. We ended up trading some of our eggs and ground beef for some delicious bread from one eager barterer! I walked around for a little bit with Maddie and Calvin, who love to save their pennies to spend on treats at markets. They chose some muffins and brownies, each under a dollar, and but wandering Calvin would walk off with his treat without paying for it first! It's good thing I was in charge of his money!

Since the market was fairly small, and it was the first one of the season, the turn out unfortunately wasn't the best, but Maplewood defiantly got it's name out there.

If you don't live in an area where much CSA action goes on, or don't have the right type of yard for a garden, buying veggies, meat, jams, honey, maple syrup, bread and so much more from markets is a great way to support local and hard working farmers! The food is fresh, not always necessarily organic, but local, cutting back on the environmental impact of the food. Sometimes food at farmers markets may seem more expensive, like meat, but other times you're saving compared to grocery stores, like with vegetables. Either or though, your money's going straight to the person who prepared the food, and goes directly into building your local economy. Wallets are tight, but this really is a great way to spend your money, and think about it, would you rather buy bagged lettuce from your grocery store, when you don't know where it came from, how long it's been since it was harvested, unsure of what chemicals it soaked up while growing, over lettuce picked that morning from a farm less than 30 miles away???

Just to increase knowledge of the food industry, the movie Food Inc. hits theaters soon, here's a link to watch a preview! http://www.foodincmovie.com/

Life on an organic farm is...wet and muddy.

A day old calf ran off into the woods this morning, leaving the Eric’s to search for her and spend a much longer amount of time with the cattle this morning than expected. It’s crazy to think how helpless a human is for the first year of their life, let alone day, and a cow is out running within its first 24 hours of living. She had been resting in the “buffer zone” this morning when they went out to move the cattle. The buffer zone is a 50 foot wide space between the Noel’s property of Maplewood and the adjacent farm. Since that adjacent farm isn’t organic, there needs to be this space. Anyways, so the calf was lying down in the zone, wasn’t with her mother, and just took off into the woods when it came time to move. Eric the farmer had been back and forth a couple times throughout the day, into the woods to look for her, but I’ve just heard word that he found the little runaway. After attempting to run her out into the field, he ended up having to tie her back legs to her head, so that she wouldn’t be able to move, and going back to the 4-wheeler to drive her back. Quite the procedure for such a youngin’! Cows get up off the ground by sticking their necks and heads up and then pushing their butts up, so tying their back legs to their head is a guarantee way of not having them move again on you!

After days of no rain, we finally got a dose of it throughout the past two days. Yesterday, the morning was spent transplanting peppers and eggplant into the ground of the greenhouse, after it had been tilled. These plants do better in a slightly warmer temperature. We also planted marigolds every 6 eggplants, because they help aid in their growth. Jalapeno and sweet peppers can’t be planted close to each other though, because they cross pollinate with each other, so only sweet peppers were planted inside the greenhouse. Then we mulched a variety of already planted vegetables outside with more hay! :0 Gotta love that hay... The wind blew the it up to our faces as we’d transfer loads from a wagon hooked up to the tractor, to our wheelbarrows to the plants. By the end of the day I had a lot stuck in my hair….

Today, we mostly did some transplanting of extra peppers and eggplants into the big field and weeded, leaving our pants and hands very muddy after kneeling in the freshly soaked soil!

Life on an organic farm is....building my muscles.

The atmosphere surrounding chicken chores always feels the most "country-ish" to me. This morning as I chugged along on the 4-wheeler up towards the coop, mist rose from the pond, and the astonishing Canadian and Vermont mountains decorated the background view. Morning dew soaked my boots as I walked through the tall grass, and chickens surrounded me as they flocked out from their nighttime slumbers. Sounds quite picturesque and serene, yes? Well I received a lovely reality check as the farmer across the road mixed and spread manure in his fields in the late morning all through the afternoon.... :0

The smell snuck through as we piled compost from the pile, to the wheelbarrow, to the field, to cover the corn and beans. It grew stronger as we started clearing out the greenhouse to make room for peppers and eggplant. The smell became so intoxicating that I chose to tuck my nose under the top of my T-shirt to smell my disgustingly sweaty body over the outside air. I looked across the way and just saw the manure flying from the farmers machine, his cows didn’t even notice and just continued grazin’. Calvin’s a fan of looking at all this, and calls it “poop spreading”.

I can conclude today was one of the more physically exhausting days in the 3 full weeks I’ve been here at Maplewood. Exhausting in a good way, one in which we all broke a good sweat, felt great to sit down, and once again, Hannah’s dinner will taste superb. :)

As seedlings and young plants begin to grow in the greenhouse, they sit on big wooden crate like planks, if that makes any visual sense; I’m not entirely sure of their proper name…. We moved as many trays of plants as we could to the far end of the greenhouse to make as much room as possible for the peppers and eggplants. We then had to carry the planks and the barrels filled partly with water that they sit on top of, out of the greenhouse (to the outside smells of manure!), over to be stacked and stored. Dirt kept falling on my face as I’d lift the planks up by my shoulders to carry. The barrels, now there’s another story. Ellyn, Hannah and I would have to fling them up and thunderously plop them down in about three feet increments, because they were too heavy to carry all in one go! After we cleared out the greenhouse, we racked the hay to the side and started to cover the ground with compost, which will be lightly tilled tomorrow.

Just guessing that I'll be sleeping good in the camper tonight....

Life on an organic farm is...filled with interesting techniques! Today, we used a blow torch:)

Carrots in the smaller garden by the house, were planted in early May. Right before they begin to sprout above the ground, they push up on the soil, creating a little ridge; and this is when, Hannah says, is the best time to bring on the blow torch! I never realized this was a technique used for weeding, but it makes sense. Instead of being on your hands and knees pulling out the little weeds, like we did for most of the day with strawberries and asparagus, we burnt them down. You only have to use a small flame and leave it over the weed only for a short amount of time, just long enough for the plant to start to wilt. Since some wood chips still remain towards the end of the row, tiny little fires would start, leaving me to stomp them out with my foot.

After some transplanting of Cilantro (which still has a strong scent even when it's just a seedling!), Hannah showed us how to prepare some organic fertilizer. They apply it to their greenhouse as well as to the plants out in the field about once every two weeks. They choose a fish and seaweed solution, and pour just two ounces of it into a sprayer, which they fill the rest with water. After the solution and the water are in the sprayer, it's compressed (their sprayer has a pump built into it, that when pumped will compress). Once it gets harder and harder to pump, it's ready to be sprayed. If you're interested in applying something like this to your vegetables, apply it either in the early morning or evening. It can't be too hot out because you apply right to the leaves, and it could evaporate off quick, or the fertilizer could burn the plant with too much sunlight on it.

I've defiantly started to feel my guns bulk up a little bit, guns meaning muscles, am trying to avoid getting a farmers tan as much as possible, but have very defined tan lines from my rings, and by the end of the day feel dirty as ever! Yesterday I finally made my bed for a first since I've been here, and spent more time wiping dirt and grass off of it than one would probably like. Ellyn decided we should call our camper a bachelor pad, since it's beginning to look like it with our mess, compared to Eric's nice neat and organized room in the house!

Life on an organic farm is... Noisy! Tractors, 4-wheelers, horses next door, Maddie singing, it's rarely quiet here!

It's always an interesting experience feeding the chickens. In the morning, they're so loud in the coop, hustling about, and probably hear me coming in the 4-wheeler as they know it means the day's about to begin. As soon as I open the door, some will instantly fly/fall out, while others wait for me to put the ramp down, where they will proceed to trout down to the ground. Others, apparently hiding out higher up in the coop, will just flop down on all the chickens waiting for the ramp.

When I come in the afternoon for the second feeding, they all are gathered in a flock by the fence, waiting for me to put more food down. Quite a few wanderers will get out of the fenced in area, and just roam around the farm, dig in the garden, lay eggs in the greenhouse; but the ones close enough to the coop will race to try and get back into the fence as soon as they see me coming. It's funny to watch as they run to stick their heads through an opening, only to bounce backwards in a failed attempt.

Most of today was spent weeding through the onion rows in the field. Earthworms were abundant, meaning a healthy soil! Sometimes I'll see the dirt move by the onion sprout before I get to it, just giving me a heads up that a little worm will shortly be emerging from the soil. Maddie joined us for a bit out in the field, helped out by jumping on Eric's back and sitting on my lap, and wouldn't get off, even as I shifted down the row!

Still pretty cool up here, but the sun did shine through some clouds by the end of the day. Lets just hope summer weather is one it's way so that we can all start workin' everyone's favorite, the farmers tan. ;)

life on an organic farm is.... problematic if there's frost! But sometimes it's just a false alarm....

As I explored the great city of Burlington, yesterday on my day off, Hannah, Ellyn and Eric creatively covered the newly planted tomatoes upon hearing of a possible overnight frost. Row covers, small buckets and yogurt containers all helped to fend off a June frosting! In the morning however, we discovered that weather reports had falsely predicted frost, and the previous day's efforts were unfortunately, unnecessary. So, this morning the three of us uncovered the tomatoes. The row covers didn't come off as easy as I thought! Since dirt holds them down from blowing up in the wind, Ellyn and I were covered in dirt and mud by the end, after rolling the covers up with our frozen fingers.

After that, we hammered in poles throughout the tomatoes, for a future rope that will be intertwined between them, so the tomato vines can eventually grow on it.
Then, we sat on our butts and did some weeding. Carrots, leeks, beets and onions all are just starting to sprout up above the ground. Because of the way they're planted, some of the carrots are all growing in clumps, so need to be thinned out. This entails separating each carrot from each other a couple inches, and removing the carrots in between like a weed, so that they have room to grow. This type of weeding takes a lot of close looking and patience, because they're so tiny now so it's hard to tell them from little weeds or even blades of grass!