Sunday, May 29, 2011

A Busy Week



Last week was a very busy week here on the farm. After two full weeks of wet and cold temperatures the sun has decided to return and bring some heat with it. We have gotten all of our leeks and onions transplanted and the first round of broccoli & lettuce heads. A pile of veggies have been direct seeded including beets, carrots, turnips, Asian greens, radish, spinach, lettuce mix, dill and cilantro. The peas, onion sets and the first plantings of carrots/beets/lettuce mix/spinach/radish/asian greens are all growing well and will be in a bad need of a good weeding this time next week.


The field looks quite a bit different now after all that planting, I'll need to get another picture taken

I am hoping to return to the Summerside Farmers Market for the month of June with tomato and herb transplants and early greens but the two weeks of cold wet weather has defiantly set me back. Hopefully with the sun and heat the plants and greens will grow fast so I can get back there sooner.

We had five kittens born late last week but unfortunately 1 died last night so we're down to four. Ben & Jake love to check out the kitten several times per day and are going to be loving it when they start to wander around.



This week's weather is looking promising to getting more transplants in the ground including cabbage, chinese cabbage, joy choy, brussel sprouts, tatsoi, kale and turnips as well as strawberry crowns and hopefully the remainder of the potatoes. Even though it was a wet start to May I would like to see us get some rain fairly soon. Lots of our direct seeded crops are planted quite shallow and need a good soaking to be able to germinate. Hopefully we'll see some showers tonight or towards the end of the week.

Friday, May 13, 2011

This and that

It has been wet, cold and windy for about five days now. The sun has not made an appearance since last Sunday and its starting to get a little depressing. The long range 7 day forecast is looking similar to the last 5 days which is not encouraging at all. The one good thing is I've made some time for doing chores such as cleaning and organizing our porch, planning our new wash station that is going to be up in the new barn and finalising the purchase of our hopefully soon to be Allis Chalmers G cultivating tractor.

I am very excited about the AC G. From the research I've done over the past 3-4 years everyone who owns one, loves them. They are not much to look at but its a lean mean cultivating machine. Between the G and the eco-weeder it should basically cut down hand weeding by about 90% at least. It may take some time to get it all set up properly and we may not see all the benefits this season but I'm like a kid in a candy store. I have been watching way too many Youtube videos trying to see all the different cultivating options that folks have been using and I'm pretty excited about the basket weeder in particular. Oh, the options are endless.



This is not our exact tractor but gives you an idea of what I'm talking about. The beauty of this machine is the visibility you have when cultivating. The engine is behind you so you have full sight of the plants and the cultivators. I can hardly wait. The other great thing is the tractor also comes with an electric conversion kit so it will be run off batteries making it quiet and more sustainable.