This week has been pretty rainy, as I'm sure you've noticed. Though it isn't always pleasant to work in, we're glad of the rain: we direct seeded carrots, arugula, and snap, shell, and dry beans, and the consistent moisture is key to getting good germination, which of course is the first step towards getting a good crop.
Last Saturday we had a break of sun long enough to spray the brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower) with a product called Deer Stopper, which is a delightful mixture of rotten egg, mint, and rosemary that deer hate the smell of. (Unfortunately, we've sine determined that the creature nibbling on the brassicas is a woodchuck, not a deer, and he doesn't seem to mind the smell.)
Now that our seeds are all up, we're looking forward to some dry days ahead: dry weather is good for weeding, and the weeds also experienced good germination in the rain. The various weeding attachments for the tractor that Jeremy has been investing in will start paying off quickly now. Weeding is typically the largest single labor cost on organic farms, and our labor time is at a premium. Though there is something satisfying and meditative about weeding by hand, the tractor do in less than ten minutes what it would take our crew of three several hours, and those are hours that we can use in lots of other ways. And of course, the tractor will always miss a few, so there's never a shortage of hand weeding to be done anyway.
Last Saturday we had a break of sun long enough to spray the brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower) with a product called Deer Stopper, which is a delightful mixture of rotten egg, mint, and rosemary that deer hate the smell of. (Unfortunately, we've sine determined that the creature nibbling on the brassicas is a woodchuck, not a deer, and he doesn't seem to mind the smell.)
Now that our seeds are all up, we're looking forward to some dry days ahead: dry weather is good for weeding, and the weeds also experienced good germination in the rain. The various weeding attachments for the tractor that Jeremy has been investing in will start paying off quickly now. Weeding is typically the largest single labor cost on organic farms, and our labor time is at a premium. Though there is something satisfying and meditative about weeding by hand, the tractor do in less than ten minutes what it would take our crew of three several hours, and those are hours that we can use in lots of other ways. And of course, the tractor will always miss a few, so there's never a shortage of hand weeding to be done anyway.
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