August 27, 2009

--Began the day by transplanting some more broccoli. Checked on the collards in the greenhouse and they are looking good and healthy. Soon to be planted in the ground.

--Major focus today was to harvest some of the cantaloupe. The cantaloupe field is about 50’x150’.. We only picked the ripe ones that were ready to be eaten. You are able to tell if the cantaloupe is ready by if the stem attached to the cantaloupe easily breaks away. This is called SLIP. You can gently press your finger against the stem and it breaks away from the cantaloupe.

--Tim and I both had our carry bags strapped to our backs and went through the patch picking the cantaloupe. After we loaded up the mule and the tractor with the good and bad cantaloupe we went to the barn and washed them.

--We washed one by one each cantaloupe, sorted them and packaged them in boxes and but them in the refrigerator to keep.

--After lunch we picked another load of cantaloupe and washed and cleaned and separated them.

--We also made a pile for Pounder the pig.

--We picked about 450 cantaloupe for the day. Here is a picture of me with the first load:

--Here is a picture of the cantaloupe field that we harvested. It is about 50'x150' and we only picked a little over half of it.

August 25, 2009

--Started the day by packing 500 peat pots with top soil to get them ready for transplanting of the broccoli plants. Then Tim, Lucy and I transplanted, watered the broccoli in the peat pots to get them ready for panting.

--Lucy and I next project was to pick the remaining squash left in the patch before Tim was to follow and spray organic pesticide to kill off the remaining bugs. The bugs will tend to jump from patch to patch when the host has been picked clean and move onto new plants. So it is key to spray the organic pesticide to kill the pest before they are able to move onto the next patch.

--The patch is around 25’ x 50’. We each took rows and went through the patch and harvested the remaining squash and then brought them to the barn to be washed and separated into the good ones and the bad ones/ too big/ rotten ones.

** The bad ones are later fed to pounder the pig. There is a neighbor organic animal farm.
We then measured the good squash and separated them into 20-pound boxes.

--Next I did a little weed eating of the zucchini patch and tomato patch. They also are about 25’X 50’. I did the weed eating between each of the rows that there were no black plastic laid and weeds tend to grow.

--Tim and I then walked the rows of the zucchini to check on how the plants were growing. We found a couple of great looking zucchini that were ready to be harvested. Zucchini tends to take off so in the next week or so we will probably harvest the rest of the field.

--LUNCH: Ham and Turkey Sandwich with potatoes chips. Fresh Cantaloupe from the field to add.

--To finish the day Tim and I fertilized and watered the tomatoe plant field. This is done through a drip irrigation line that is laid under the black plastic. We mixed a batch of fish sauce and added a little water to dilute it to about 100 to 1 and hook it up to the drip irrigation to irrigate. They are usually watered for about 4 hours or until nice and wet around the plants.

August 20, 2009

-- Started day by transplanting 950 collards and 50 broccoli plants into peat pots to get ready and plant them in the fields. Following this we irrigated each tray of 50 peat pots by submerging them in a mixture of fish sauce (grinded up fish for fertilization) and water. Let them soak until water was seeping through the topsoil of each plant. Left them in the greenhouse to grow a little bigger before planting.
-- Growing cantaloupes inside a deer fence, and on black plastic with drip irrigation

We picked the first two ripe cantaloupes. There were two more cantaloupes eaten by some type of animal. Below is a picture of a soon to be ripe cantaloupe.

August 18, 2009

First day on Flatwoods Farm with Tim and Lucy. They gave me a tour of the farm. They showed me all the different fields.
-- Asparagus Patch
-- Back 40 (5 acres) (planted with organic wheat for soil)
-- Darlin Patch
-- Lower 50
-- New 40 (3 acres) (planted with organic wheat for soil)
-- Teepee
-- Twin Pines
-- Upper 40 ( main field)(planted living and thriving clover that we have planted for our green mulch, cover crop and source of nitrogen. It is also very beneficial to wildlife. To plant a plot we first mow it, then plow the plot and till in the organic matter. We are then ready for planting.)