The Count of Monte Chickens

Our chickens keep getting out of the coop and it’s maddening.  For one, they’ve been laying eggs all over the place which is just a chick-fest waiting to happen.  Secondly, they have been coming into the barn to eat the cat’s food and poop.  Granted, there is already pile of seasoned chicken manure in the barn stall next to my bedroom…but, this stuff is fresh.  And, there is also the slip factor to think of.  Anyway, Friday night was our THIRD serious attempt to resolve the weak spots in the fencing, but lo and behold, Saturday morning comes and there they are, out by the compost pile clucking around, free as a bird. (Or so I was told by Bill who made a surprise special appearance at Saturday Market!).  The frustrating thing is, our work was so not shoddy.  We attached a new piece of fencing on top of the 7 foot piece that was already there, patched up holes and loose ends, and locked down the front portion of the coop like a high security prison – or so we thought.  And I always placed chickens on the low end of the intelligence scale, a now glaring underestimation because that is some Shawshank action right there. 

Bill and Lisa attempting to herd the chickens back into the coop. Back in February. 

We had a great spinach harvest on Friday, something that I have been anticipating for weeks.  Spinach Rocks Everything.  On top of being super dense in nutrients, it looks and tastes a-mazing, and in my opinion, is the most fun crop there is to harvest.  There’s a rhythm to it, as there is with all harvests, but for me, the motions unique to spinach feel like a qi gong session.

 I’m still refining my technique and gain inspiration from watching Debra harvest!

Lisa and Ashley lead  "Spinach-Washing 101"

Check.

-Rachael

Rollin up row cover cuz our basil's gettin big!

The Sun Last Week Was Awesome.



We’ve started out with a rainy week that will most likely continue through the weekend.  This will limit the amount of weeding we’ll be able to do - however, we’d almost caught up with cultivation by the end of last week so we’re still in pretty good shape.  Thankfully Lisa’s mom Kathy, who was here visiting from Michigan, toughed it out in the fields with us on Friday and helped us bust out all of our potato beds!

Kathy also cleaned out all of our flats!

Hula Hoe-ing the potatoes!

  The lack of sun will also mean no hot showers for awhile… but, I fear not – last season I unintentionally set the ‘no shower’ record at 9 days during an especially rainy period, and it actually wasn’t that bad (fortunately I don’t have much of a social life out here).  Looking back, I’d say that was probably on the extreme side – I could have easily boiled a pot of water or used Bill and Debra’s shower – but I think I was intent on having the full ‘barn living’ experience, an urge, that has at this point, has passed. 

We got a lot done this morning during our greenhouse plantouts of cucumbers and tomatoes!  In the past, cucumbers have struggled with the amount of rain we get out here developing what’s called ‘damping off’ – essentially: rotting of the stem.  This year Bill watered the starts less in hopes that they developed a stronger resistance to the disease.  We will also eventually plant a bed of cucumbers in the field, but without the extra protection and increased heat of the greenhouse, they will ultimately produce less.

Lisa at the stand!

Saturday Market has been great the past three weeks and it feels refreshing to be out and about among familiar faces.    Tomorrow we return to Tuesday market with a small but beautiful load of salad mix, head lettuce, and spinach! 

That’s all for now!
Check.

-Rachael

Ashley explaing how to thin the beets

Click.

Click, click, click.  This is the sound that keeps resonating through my ears.  The sound doesn’t come from the fields but instead it has been coming from inside my head.  Things around the farm have finally started ‘clicking’ for me.  When we started, I’ll be honest, there was much that didn’t make sense and even more that seemed simply strange.  Calling lettuce babies, the immense time and direction utilized in explaining the spacing of plants, and RCM, ‘totes’, ‘b.r.b’s’ and all the other acronyms or shorthanded phrases.   

This week while hoeing through the beds of lettuce, green onions and other vegetables things started to click.  I felt as though I was Adam Sandler in one of his more recent void of laughter, lack luster films with the noise ‘click’ resonating in my head.  Baby lettuce is a baby because we keep them small and in tight rows, the size and distance between rows and plants is crucial because of the type of hoeing we do and the list goes on.  This is the first week I can honestly say I not only feel like a farmer but I believe I am beginning to think like one too.  I site the recent lack of showering as evidence.  The new knowledge has given me rejuvenated excitement for our work, which I need when its 30 degrees and the fields are covered in frost.  I am excited for the coming weeks and months and all the mysteries of Horton Road Organic that will be revealed to me. 

Check. 

Stuart

I can't wait to eat this stuff!

What a wonderful week of sunny weather!  And, boy did we relish every minute of it…even our backaches felt less painful with the sun beaming down.  Plus, we got some farmer tans started! 

We’ve almost finished digging out all of the greenhouses- a major accomplishment.  We even planted two beds of basil in greenhouse 3, which already smells amazing- and as Stuart put it: “like bruschetta”. Soon all of the beds in the greenhouse will be filled with tomatoes and cucumbers - crops that need a little extra heat and protection. 

Hallie, Stuart, and Dawn planting our new strawberries!



Misty morning strawberries

Another major accomplishment this week was all of the plantouts we did. On Monday we put over 1,000 potato plants into the ground.  On Tuesday we did 6 beds of onions and shallots.  Wednesday brought more lettuce and broccoli, and Thursday, more baby lettuce.  And today we got to plantout strawberries.   Since strawberries are perennial fruits, it isn’t necessary to plant them anew every season (though most big strawberry operations do).  In fact, we’ve been harvesting strawberries from the same plants at Horton for the past three years.  However, as time goes on, the plants start to grow more fruits per plant, but the fruit is significantly smaller.  We spent some time cleaning up the older strawberries – clipping their offshoots in hopes that they will begin to produce larger berries, but Bill thought it was time to start some new plants, which we may not harvest from for commercial use until next season.    All in all we planted over 2,000 strawberry plants!  I can pretty much already taste the jam.  

Hallie has been baking bread like it is her job, and it seriously could be – we are all super impressed and thankful for her bread making talents!  However, David (one of our barn cats) broke into the kitchen Tuesday night, most likely taken by the smell scrumptious cooling bread, and left a partially nibbled on loaf in the middle of the floor.  Unfortunately that one went to the compost. 

Today’s Pie Friday marked the end of another great week in which we celebrated Ashley’s birthday (albeit, a day early), with Tiramisu.  Happy Birthday Ashley!

Check.

-Rachael

Sugar snap peas!

Gettin' our 'Greenhouse Workout' on!

Last week whizzed by!  We had some sunny afternoons that allowed Bill to get out on his tractor and direct sow (planting the seed directly into the soil as opposed to starting a seed in a flat and transplanting the start – the method we use for most crops) cilantro, spinach, radishes, and carrots!  Plus, the crew did two big plantouts of lettuce, baby lettuce, broccoli, green onions, chard, and kale. There’s also a bed of salad greens on the way and today Ashley and I put up the pea trellis.  I am super excited to start popping those sweet little guys.  Now it’s only a matter weeks before we all get to enjoy the fresh, delicious, nutritionally diverse tastes and flavors of Horton Road! 

Showin off our muscles!

During the rainy periods of the day we’ve been working on digging out our greenhouses.  It’s an extremely physical task that is sure to bulk up your biceps, abs, and back muscles in under a week.  Seriously.  Someone could market a workout video based on it, kind of like “8 Minute Abs” or “Beach Body Breakdance” but instead of lunges and squats, you’d be in a bent position, turning over heavy soil with a digging fork.  J  The purpose of digging beds is similar to why you would use a rototiller.  It is a way to prepare the soil for planting – loosening it and turning the organic matter and chicken manure back into the bed, in a way, that unlike rototilling, produces a less-compacted sub-soil. Bill tills most of the beds on the farm with his tractor, but he can’t get to some of the beds in the greenhouses, so that is where our bulging biceps come in!  It is also good practice in learning how to do this work by hand - as first-time farmers rarely have the financial means to acquire all of the available modern, technological tools/machines right off the bat. 

In other exciting news, my mom came to visit this weekend! I'm so proud of her for braving a night in the barn :) We had a great time, and she even got to attend Pie Friday!

That’s all for now – Dawn is about done baking some chocolate chip cookies, and I can’t focus on anything else but that right now.

Check.
-Rachael

Hallie, giving a reference point for the giant slug we happened to notice on the window the other night!