May 31, 2009: Week 1

May 31 was my first day of working at Mud Creek Farms, a new Organic CSA formed in Victor, New York. In exchange for 20 weeks of work at 4 hours a week of farm work, I get a weekly share of the organic food that will be grown. The first thing i saw was about 1.5 acres of planted farmland, and another 1 acre or so tilled for future sowing. I was amazed that 1.5 acres can feed about 60 families for the summer and fall season. This is wonderful and mysterious to ponder. Anyway, the 1.5 planted acre had 5ft spaced rows with planted crops in the middle. Some crops had multiple rows between the 5ft spacing; some, like the tomatoes, just had one row of crop. My first job was to spread straw (hay?) around the tomatoes about 4" to 5" inches up the stem. This was to keep the weeds away, as well as to maintain moisture (if i remember correctly). Then I helped run irrigation lines down the 200 ft (?) rows and make sure the water dripped well. Finally I planted tomatoes from the potted plants. I was told that tomatoes could be planted deeper than I thought, actually up to the first branch; it just seemed so weird placing the stem so far in the dirt...