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Genesee Valley Organic Community Supported Agriculture |
by Elizabeth Henderson
Rains finally brought us relief from the drought. On August 16, 3/4 of an inch
fell. On August 19, a heavy downpour filled our rain meter to the 4 inch mark.
Three days later, John Gardner, excavating for our irrigation pond in the Fairville
Field, struck a gusher only 7 feet below the surface! Water - a lot of water
- flooded into the hole John was digging. John and Greg had to set up two pumps
working simultaneously to pump the water out of the hole so that John could
go on digging. Doug Kraai, who has had a lot of experience with ponds and wells,
made the decision to put in a well instead of a pond. John excavated an area
the size of a large swimming pool, Greg helped him set a four foot in diameter
well head in the center, and then dump trucks filled the hole with gravel. The
gravel holding area guarantees a capacity of 5000 gallons of water, but with
the rapid recharge rate, the supply of water for irrigation is far greater than
the 2000 gallons a day that we need. The waterless misery we suffered this summer
will not happen again.
After many trips to the Fairville Field with our truck groaning under the weight
of five or six 50 gallon barrels of water, we were able to clean out and mobilize
a 500 gallon tank-on-wheels of Doug's. It took one of his large tractors to
pull it. He allowed us to pump water from one of his duck ponds to fill the
tank. Greg was able to connect the 500 gallon tank directly to our trickle system,
so that we could stop watering with hoses. That relieved us of many hours of
tedious work watering plant by plant. Greg calculates we transported 13,500
gallons of water. The pond water contained a lot of sediment, which clogged
up the filter, so Greg had to monitor the watering closely. Still, it was an
improvement. The new well's water is clear, clean, and requires no trucking!
Since the weather has continued to be on the dry side, we have been very happy
to be able to switch to the well water.
With the rains, I immediately spaded the waiting beds and seeded spinach, kale,
collards, arugula, mizuna, bok choi, Chinese cabbage, mustard greens, senposai,
cilantro, dill, and tat soi. Those plantings took well, so there will be an
ample supply of greens for the fall. Ammie, Rebecca and David took turns seeding
cover crops: oats on the beds for next year's early crops, such as onions, spring
greens and peas, and rye and hairy vetch for later crops, such as fall broccoli
and cauliflower. Because of the long drought, we were not able to plant any
buckwheat, our summer cover crop for beds which had spring greens or where we
plan to plant garlic. Since we spread the rye, vetch and oat seeds, the weather
has continued to be dry, so germination has been slow. A flock of pigeons has
been getting fat eating the seed. Fortunately, they miss some of it, and oat,
rye and vetch seedlings are starting to appear. The cover crops are important
for holding the soil to prevent erosion over the winter and for adding organic
matter to the soil to feed our crops for next year.
We have suffered some losses to the heat and the drought. The sweet corn did
not grow to its normal size, and many ears did not fill out completely. The
red cabbages are mini-sized, as will be the Brussels sprouts. The few surviving
parsnips may be woody. Many tomatoes and peppers developed blossom end rot,
which makes an ugly black, rotting spot on the blossom end of the fruit. This
disorder seems to be common to many farms and gardens in our area. When it finally
rained, many tomatoes cracked. A benefit of the dry weather has been a reduction
in the numbers of pesky insects like Colorado potato beetles, Mexican bean beetles,
and Japanese beetles. But rodents more than made up for what the beetles did
not eat. Woodchucks and mice nibbled on peppers in the hoop house. Very few
of the beautiful yellow peppers escaped their sharp teeth. Raccoons gorged themselves
on sweet corn, undersized though it was. To confound their constant nibbling,
we are building a mouse proof cage out of hardware cloth in which to store winter
squash for the fall, and we sprayed the cabbage and broccoli plants along the
stream with stewed hot peppers mixed with a fish oil sticker-spreader.
The rows of carrots look comically uneven. There are tall patches where the
carrots came up from our watering, and long stretches of babies where the carrots
waited till the rain came to germinate. This fall, we will supply you with genuine
baby carrots. Maybe someone would like to do a comparison study with the lathe-turned
baby carrots they ship us from California...
As we have shared with you in the past, one of our farm goals is for the three
of us farmers, Greg, Ammie and me, to learn all of the skills needed to operate
this farm. In pursuit of this goal, I have begun teaching Ammie to use the spader.
For these first three years, I have done all the tillage with the spader. Until
we hitched it up to Wanda, our 1974 John Deere tractor, in June, I used the
Kraai's 1988 Ford tractor to run it. Getting used to the older tractor took
some practice. The position of the power take off (the lever that turns implements
on) was not designed with ergonomics in mind. Ammie, accustomed to driving an
even older tractor, had an easier time with Wanda, and is picking up spading
quickly. The week of her first lesson, we both had to wear face masks while
spading because it was still so dusty.
Another job we have not shared so far is mowing. Greg mows all of the sod strips
between the beds and all of the field edges. This kind of mowing is very hard
on both the machine and the person behind it. Most mowers spray their clippings
to one side, which works well when you want to mulch a crop with grass. But
when a bed is planted with lettuce, a heavy coating of clippings is the last
thing we want since we will have to wash it all off again. Few mowers combine
the qualities we seek - extra heavy duty, easy to handle, and rear discharging.
Greg is on a quest for the perfect mower.
Besides the terrible national tragedy we have all had to face this fall, a more
personal sadness was visited on Ammie's family the week of September 11. Her
stepfather of 25 years passed away from cancer at the age of 78. He died peacefully,
at home in Massachusetts, with his family around him. Ammie and Helen stayed
almost two weeks, helping Ammie's mom through his final days and the funeral,
while Greg traveled back and forth. Having two mature interns this year turned
out to be an extra blessing. Rebecca and David were able to take more responsibility
on CSA harvest days, so that even with two partners gone, things ran smoothly.
On the topic of gratefulness, local member Joe Maressa, a skillful carpenter
and talented designer, made the farm a present. With some help from his buddy
Tom Muscolino, Joe built a special shelf high above the back beds in the greenhouse.
This shelf will provide space for 30 more speedling flats. In the spring, when
the greenhouse bursts at the seams with seedlings for the farm and member gardens,
we will have more room. Joe also devised a long watering arm so we won't have
to use a ladder to reach the flats on this shelf.
Difficult times lie ahead for all of us. We hope that the farm will serve as
a tranquil haven and source of nourishment for more than just your bodies. Please
keep in mind that, besides coming to Peacework to work, members are welcome
to come to seek peace, to walk, or to picnic, or just to be amidst our gardens,
fields, woods, and streams.
Copyright © GVOCSA 2000. All rights reserved.