Week 14, 2015-16 Season

Finally back home from Guatemala and thank the good Lord, everybody is safe and sound and the farm is doing fine.  Kudos to Jenn for managing everything, expertly, while I was gone.  I had a very productive time in Guatemala working with La Floresta based in Coban, Guatemala as a volunteer in the Farmer to Farmer Program from USAID.  We also had a few classes with other producers and La Floresta's employees.  They propagate ivy, aloe, pony tail palms, liriopes, pothos, and philodendrons at three very different farms for export to the US and Europe.  I assisted them in making recommendations in changes to fertilizers, weed control, and worker protection safety along with some other harvesting ideas.  The main goal was to increase yields and reduce costs.  The bonus will be a reduction in the company's environmental impact and helping their employees minimize their exposure to pesticides.  I also learned a few things from them as well to implement with my growers and farm.  It was also somewhat sad to see the clear cutting of forests.  I was at one farm and could hear the chainsaws working on the nearby mountain side making room for other crops. This was especially poignant as this area abounds in orchids that grow on the forest trees.  In fact, I saw an orchid no bigger than the tip of my finger at an orchid reserve that was dedicated to protecting the plant and preserving their habitat.  When we lose a specie whether it be animal or plant we also lose a bit of ourselves in relation to that species.  All in all, it was a good trip and I learned a great deal more about and have a connection to, the people of Guatemala.  It certainly was a very beautiful country once you get out of the cities.  The country is very mountainous and reminded me of either Arizona in southern Guat. (very dry and desert-like) or North Carolina in north-central Guat (pine trees, tall mountains, cool and damp).  It was very interesting to see a smoking volcano when I touched down in the airport. (Pictures to follow soon.)  I was slightly nervous at times for fear of the unknown and the safety of doing different things but I had a good host and a colleague to assist with things.  I am also very glad to be back with my family and farm.

The farm is doing well and we will be harvesting beautiful lettuce this week along with other items.  The potatoes are doing great and our next crop of tomatoes are gearing up for outside planting.  Next in the line up to plant are beets, cabbage, more lettuce, broccoli, and more Swiss chard.  Within a few weeks we will be planting sweet corn, beans, squash, cantaloupe, and watermelon (yes, I will once again plant melons with the hope/fantasy of actually harvesting them.)

We captured two possums in traps near the strawberries and the electric fence.  My apologies to raccoons, as I figured they were the culprits.  I may have been quick to jump to erroneous conclusions, however I still don't trust those masked fiends.

Week 10, 2015-16 Season

It is interesting how I always think about the weather whenever I am starting to post a blog.  These past few weeks have been nice and cool with one day of about 36 degrees which frosted our eggplants and roselle.  I didn't worry too much about the cold at the time, but we did get some shoot damage from the weather.  We planted lettuce, parsley dill, and bok choi, to the field.  I sowed lettuce, tomato, mizuna, and cabbage in trays to get them started. The potatoes are just starting to break the surface of the ground.

I put in a electric fence to deter the raccoons that were eating all our strawberries.  I now know that it isn't working yet as all the red strawberries have vanished from the field with nothing but stems left over.  I'm not sure if he is going under or over the two wires that I put up but I made a few changes and will see if that keeps it out.  I would love to be able to harvest some strawberries for everyone at some point in the near future.  I am also hoping that maybe this will deter them from getting into our melon crop later on.

As an aside, Jenn and I visited my brother, his wife, and his two daughters in NYC last week for three days.  And speaking of the weather it was a very windy 25-35 degrees while we were there.  It was nice seeing my nieces for the first time.  One interesting thing that I kept thinking about while visiting was that there were so many people in the city.  About 8 million people are working in NYC in a given day and all those people are eating and producing waste and somehow all that food moves in and gets distributed and all the waste gets taken out somewhere.  And still amazingly somehow it all works.  I find these logistics staggering to comprehend.  

New electric fence

Raccoon tracks and damage to plastic

Week 7, 2015-16 Season

We have had some good rain and upper 40's for lows this past week.  In fact we even put on the fireplace for most of Sunday afternoon and evening for our enjoyment.  Here is the cooler, wetter weather I've been expecting since they announced that this would be an El Nino year.  Especially since this is predicted to be a greater than normal El Nino event.  In fact, the climatologists say this might grow to an even bigger event than the 1997-98 El Nino.  I remember the weather for this year as I was growing cabbage in Gainesville for a Master's thesis and I got something like 14 inches of rain during my project in a week.  The cabbages loved every bit of it and grew to the size of basketballs.  I will be planting lots of cabbage this winter as a hedge to see if we can replicate things.  If you'd like to see more about El Nino and what that mans for our locale, in a very nice web format, you can check out my work blog at http://hortagent.blogspot.com/2016/01/el-nino-summarized.html   We planted more collards, kale, lettuce and red potatoes this week to the field.  The cool season plants seem to be perking up with this cooler weather swing.  The greenhouse tomatoes seem to have been dropping flowers instead of putting on fruit for this week.  However we still have much fruit on the vine already in the green stage.

This last week I got a bit of a startle when harvesting sweet potatoes.  It was cool and raining as I was harvesting early in the morning.  I had already dug about a quarter of what I needed for the day.  I generally remove the plastic mulch and reach around in the soil to feel the potatoes then dig them out.  When I get to the edge of the plastic I generally peel back the layer a bit and then poke around underneath for any potatoes until I get to the point where I need to peel back more  plastic to reveal fresh ground to search.  I then gradually make my way down the row like this until I have all I need.  This last Saturday I was poking around underneath the mulch to my left and my hands were underneath the plastic mulch where I could not see them.  Not feeling any potatoes I lifted back the plastic and there staring at me in a tight coil was a corn snake just a few inches from where I was poking around for potatoes. Needless to say, my harvesting protocol quickly changed in light of the new data and now I pull all plastic back and harvest in front of the plastic line.  No more blind reaches looking for potatoes.  After I regained my composure, I quietly shooed him to the row middle and out of the way of my harvesting process so we both could get back to work; me with the harvesting and him with keeping the rodent population down on the farm. You think that a cup of coffee wakes you up in the morning?  You should try being surprised by a snake.

      Waking up the neighbors while harvesting.  I've got the stick next to his head as he pokes out from underneath the plastic to see what the racket is all about.