Season 3; Week 3 : June 29: Hay is for ... tomatoes!

Hay was delivered in rolls, and we used it mulched the tomatoes in the far field; when we could we rolled it out like carpet to fit in the rows, otherwise we broke it apart and spread it down to avoid weed growth.

We also weeded squash field from the blossoming mustard plants. Distribution: 

Season 3: Week 2 : June 22 Greens!

We started to harvest spinach. "Instructions: Slice the top inch from the bottom. Avoid the yellow leaves"
Then we moved to weed the parsnips The 3 row bed was overrun with purslane and other weeds, and we needed to get on our hands and knees.

I noticed the squash came up (from direct seed) and were thinned, and so we covered the squash with acroban fabric to provent squash bugs from establishing residence.

Season 3, Week 1: June 15 : Back to Work!

The farm added another two fields across the road bringing the total land use to about 6 acres.
Year 1: about 3 acres, Year 2: + 1.5 acres, Year 3: +r 1.5 acres

Not all the acres are planted or in use, but the expansion is clear. There are 200+ members this year and still 2 distributions and a very cramped freezer. There are 3 FT interns with some PT interns that help out now more than the work traders.

We crossed the raod and were handed squash seeds and pumpkin seeds. The row was about 175 ft long and our task was simple : place 3 seeds to a hole every 6 inches.
"Push the seeds down with your thumb, cover with soil, move on.  Maybe two will start and one will be thinned out."

My work partner and I did about 6 rows, and we finished about ¾ of an acre.  

Distribution :

Season 3; Week ?: June 8: /The farming life is about community/

It was decided that the first week of work/distribution will be the week of June 13.  My first work day is the afternoon of Wednesday June 15. (My Wednesday workshift will mostly be preparing for the distribution that occurs on Thursdays.) We will probably be working until mid-November.

There was an article in the local newspaper today about a close rural area now becoming a popular suburb, and how agri-businesses are being enticed to sell their land for further development. My work-farm was mentioned since the property is currently leased and may very well be under consideration to be re-purposed. This was my online response:

"Farming is not clean nor pretty nor easy nor wildly profitable. Done well, (as in the case of Mud Creek Farms), it strives to be personal, transparent and natural in this world of overly convenient, non-nutritious, chemically loaded, plastic wrapped food. Eating is an agricultural act as Wendell Berry writes. And thus good food production takes a community of dedicated farmers with good land and clean (i.e. chemically safe) water, and participants willing to understand the efforts and costs it takes for the food producers NOT cram thousands of chickens into a henhouse, or spray down pesticides or herbicides. Whether the effort is personal (raised beds in the city,or a few acres on hobby farm) or more commercial (CSAs, farmer markets), food is about the very real and eternal connection between people, life, nature and well-being. The profit-driven decision in land development for another economically (and class) segregated community -- or even more franchise themed stores (to litter our lives with more stuff we are told we need to buy) -- in no way can compare to the values of relationship, sustainability and good stewardship."

Season 3; Week ?: June 1; Not-so-fast!

Transplants into the farmland started late this year due to the rains in April. It was just too wet to start and pushed the normal first distribution date (the first week after Memorial Day) back one week or possibly two...stay tuned!