Tomatoes!

Picked 100 pounds of tomatoes today.  Not too bad considering it's the third week of October.  Great to still have fresh tomatoes.

Weird and Wacky Fruits and Vegetables

Twins!

Vegetables and fruits usually grow into an unusual shape due to environmental conditions.

When a root vegetable is growing and the tip is damaged, it can sometimes split, forming multiple roots attached at one point. 

January......

What we do all winter? It's a question we get quite often this time of year.  Winter is still a very busy time for us.  Here is a list of some of the jobs we've been working on:

1. The first job on our list was for Larry and Caleb  to make sure we have enough firewood for next year.  We are fortunate that other local farmers allow us to cut up some of the apple trees they have pushed out to make room for new plantings.  We love to burn apple wood!

2. Larry has also been cutting back some fence rows so the trees are not shading our fields.

3. Normally we get one good cold week a winter, but the rest of the winter isn't as bad.  Not this year!  With temperatures in the single digits or even -4 on the coldest morning, for most of January, we had to work to keep fresh water to our chickens.  Larry would go to the hen house at 5:00 am to gather any eggs so they wouldn't freeze, then Caleb would check them again at 7:00 am before heading to catch the bus for school.

Of the 25 eggs gathered this particular morning, 13 were frozen and cracked open.  This encouraged an earlier egg gathering time.

3. About once a week, Larry and Caleb bring a gator load of wood to the porch.  They had to time the deliveries to work around the many snow and ice storms we had.

4. Larry thought he would put the chains on our John Deere 60.  This is the tractor that was my Uncle Mike's, and we bought it at his farm sale after he passed away a couple of years ago.  More on that story another time, but at the sale we were also able to buy the set of tire chains for this tractor.  It's amazing how much more traction it has in the snow!

5. Our biggest winter job is pruning the black raspberries.  With the firewood job getting done mid-January, Larry decided it was time to start pruning.  We both enjoy pruning.... you can really see how much you've accomplished when you look back over the row where you've already pruned.

black raspberry bushes ready for pruning.

after pruning

several rows to work through yet

Larry tried something new this year ... using hedge shearers for the initial cuts.

6. Shoveling, shoveling, shoveling!  We were snow-covered most of January.  Most of our snow storms only delivered a few inches at a time, but we still scraped it off the driveway so it wouldn't be icy.

The snow created some beautiful scenery.

7. Getting absorbed in seed catalogs and placing orders for this year.

8. Winter is also a good time to do some maintenance on our equipment.

9. FUN!  Even with all the jobs that need done in the winter, we still try to take some time for fun.

Larry & Caleb making ice cream

Jennifer walking in the snow

Water!

We realized early on in our endeavor to grow produce that we needed some sort of irrigation system.  Fortunately for us, we had an underground tile drain running thru a portion of our property that ran all year.  The easiest, cheapest solution to our water needs was to bury a 1,000 gallon tank in line with the tile drain.  The water would fill the tank and excess would flow thru the overflow pipe and continue on its way.  A small submerged pump and a pressure tank that sat at ground level and connected to a 1" line and we were able to get water where we needed it.  Then we connected 'trickle tape' to the 1" line for each row of crop we needed to irrigate.  Even in the driest year, we could still count on that tank filling at least once per day...which meant we had 1,000 gallons or more to serve our needs.

This solved our problem....temporarily.  At first we were looking for water only for the strawberries.  Then we added the black raspberries, tomatoes and finally sweet corn.  What we found was we didn't have enough water or enough pressure to irrigate everything and everywhere we needed. 

So early last summer we drilled a well.  To me this sounded like gambling: I was going to spend a lot of money with no guarantee of hitting the jackpot.  Fortunately we live in an area with high success of good producing wells.  We hit a good water supply at 160 feet.  *see my happy face*  Thirty gallons per minute is plenty of water for our small farm.  Now I have both enough water and enough pressure to go anywhere on the farm.

The second part of our water project was to bury a 2" PVC pipe through part of the farm.  We were finally able to do this a few weeks ago when we had nice weather for a few days.  From the pipe, we have 15 risers at various places that we can connect a 1.5" tubing that lays on top of the ground and we connect the 'trickle tape' into.  The trickle tape fills with water, then every 12" along the tape is a small slit that water seeps out of.  This allows us to water our crops slowly so the water seeps into the ground where needed and there is no runoff.  Plus, the water is where the roots are, so the water is only applied where needed.

This is a huge step forward in our management.  From one central location I can inject fertilizer into the line that will feed our crops for healthier plants and increased yields.  We have water where and when we need it.  Watering the crops is no longer a chore of being able to water just a few rows at a time. We will be saving electricity by being able to irrigate a larger area all at once instead of watering smaller areas over several days.  Hooray!

 

 

Hurry up and wait!

Hurry up and wait.  That seems to be the way it's been the past several weeks.  Planting in the high tunnel didn't happen when I hoped it would.  The crops that are planted are not growing as fast as I would like them too (due to too many cloudy days and temperatures being too cold.)  I have an irrigation project to complete, but need a few days with temperatures above 50 degrees to be able to glue the pipes together.   


But today, things seemed to happen.  We've decided to construct one of our old high tunnels.  (This was a homemade tunnel.  We would put it up every spring and take it down every fall.  That way we could plant tomatoes in it every year, but by moving it to a different location we didn't have to worry about disease build up in the soil.)  Our 30' x 96' pemanant high tunnel isn't big enough to plant everything I'd like to plant in it, kindof like the machinery shed is never big enough to house all of the equipment!  The homemade tunnel is 12.5' x 80'.  I will be able to plant two rows lengthwise in the tunnel.  My plan is for one of the rows to be zucchini and the other peppers.  About two weeks ago I was able to drive the ground stakes in that support the PVC pipes.  Today we were able to get the PVC pipes on as well as connect the tracking that holds the plastic in place.  It became too windy to get the plastic on today, so we are hoping to get that done in the coming days. 


Also today, we planted our newly ordered red raspberry plants.  We have never grown red raspberries before, but thought it was something we wanted to expand to. 

I was able to get the pepper and cucumber seeds started this week, however, due to a miscommunication, the grape tomatoes I had started were left in the wrong place overnight and froze.  Back to the starting point for those. 


I received a phone call this week from an organization that hosts a Thursday Farmers' Market.  I am still checking into the details for that, but am hoping it will work out.  This will make a fifth market we will attend this summer.  We are preparing for our third year at the Gettysburg Farmers' Market on the square on Saturdays, and our second year at Cross Keys Village/The Brethren Home on Tuesdays.  New this year, we are attending two markets associated with the Adams County Farmers' Markets.  One is on Wednesdays at the Rec Park in Gettysburg, and the other on Saturdays at The Outlets of Gettysburg.  (See sidebar for more information!) 

The forecast for the coming week has temperatures in the upper 60's!  We will continue to plant onions, will pick up tomato plants for planting in the tunnel, need to plant the asparagus plants that just arrived and prepare for hosting a belated family Easter Dinner celebration.