September 29, 2009

--Very wet still from all the rain we have been having. Need to get the Collards and Brocolli into the ground as soon as possible. Tim began to prepare a couple of fields for the planting. Needs to be alittle drier before we plant.

--Picked Zucchini and washed. Patch is not producing as much Zucchini now that is has started to get a little cold a night, the plants like the warm hot weather. Only picked about 15 pounds.

-- Finished ripping up the plastic in the Cantaloupe patch. A lot easier to rip up now that the plants and old Cantaloupe have all decayed.

--Moved all the irrigation lines out of the patch so that we can now till and plow the field and get it ready for the winter grasses thatt will be planted.

Picture is a example of the black plastic that helps with weed control and that Tim and I had to rip up by hand.

September 15, 2009

--Picked Zucchini and washed. Got another 40 pounds.

--More weed control on the Tomato Plot and Zucchini Plot.

--Learned what the Florida Weave is. It is a process to string up Tomato Plants as they grow so the tomatoes will not touch the ground. If a tomato touches the ground it is pretty much ruined.

--Tim and I strung up about 8 rows of Tomato Plants. Tough work. A lot of strain on your back. Here is an image that shows the process.

September 3, 2009

--Gathered some PVC irrigation lines today out from the TeePee Patch. Had to make sure they were all picked up that Lucy wouldn’t hit them with the Bushhog.

--Picked Zucchini. Good batch. Picked right on time.

--Did some tractor work. Learned how to hook and unhook BushHog, Tiller, and Spreader.

--Road Trip to see Pounder the pig. We had some leftover Cantaloupe. So, when we got there he was pretty excited.

September 1, 2009

--A beautiful morning. Little overcast with a little breeze. Great day to be out in the woods and on a Farm.

--Tim and I started today by boxing 100 Cantaloupe to be sent to Athens to be sold.

--Then we went to the Zucchini patch and picked. This patch is about 25’x75’. We ended up getting around 200 pounds. The Zucchini will grow literally over night. It is pretty amazing. So we are going to have to keep and eye on them and try to pick everyday.

--We washed and cleaned the Zucchini one by one and separated into Good and Bad. aka pounders food.

--I then did some weed control by cleaning up some of the fields

--The tomato plants sure have grown since the fertilization of the Fish Sauce last week. Pretty cool to see how that works and affects the plant so quickly.

--Lunch: Great Tuna Tomato and Lettuce Sandwich and Homemade Bread from Tim. For
some reason great sandwiches taste so good after a busy morning.

--After lunch I had my first tractor lesson. It went pretty good and I caught on pretty quickly. (tim is also a good teacher and very understanding) Never thought I would be learning how to drive a tractor but it is pretty cool and a great experience.

--Tim then had me plow and till The Lower 40 to get it ready to plant the winter Rye and Clover. Pictures to come.

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.