July 14

Last night I went to a "field day" through an organization H belongs to called Land Stewardship Project. Their goals include helping small-scale farmers with just about every aspect of their business. They hold "Farm Beginnings" classes every year, support political initiatives that assist farmers and, among many other things, promote and organize these "field days" at different farms around the region for people interested in a particular topic. I was at one earlier this summer that discussed soil fertility. Last nights was at a farm that has a CSA with 130 members and they showed us around their farm and some of their processes for filling those orders. It was very interesting to see their set-up.

Another hot and muggy day. A brief storm blew through, but didn't change the pattern. More of the same for the rest of the week, I guess. 

Today, we finished up the first harvest of the green beans (it was started Monday for the CSA boxes) and we finished up the garlic (pulled the rest of the plants, tied them in bundles of 10 or so, and tied the bundles in the barn to dry out). Grand total on the garlic...over 800 bulbs.

We also did some more weeding (strawberries today) and started some prep for Pizza tomorrow before the weather got the best of us. 

Can't help but wonder what the count will be this week for Pizza Night!!!

July 12

I arrived here three months ago. Hard to believe!

Today was a harvesting day. I suspect that as time goes on there will be more of them than planting days that filled April, May and June. I love seeing it come to fruition. I go out into the field on Tuesdays, when we pack the CSA boxes and I remember planting seeds or seedlings, and I think, Oh, my gosh! Someone is going to be eating this with their dinner! It's a wonderful, fulfilling feeling.

I can't even describe it.

July 11

Hi, everyone. Catch up day again, I guess!

The 8th was Pizza Night. Another 100+ night, can you believe it? All she can go by, as far as predicting the numbers, is the notes she has from last year. The Thursday after 4th of July weekend in '09 was 75º and sunny, no live music and there were 40 pizzas sold. This year was 82º and sunny, no live music and we did 112 pizzas. Go figure. We, of course, were totally unprepared. She has averaged a 30% increase from one year to the next, and there was a private party here on Friday, so we thought we had enough dough prepared at 88 pizza's worth. Not so much. We had to make two more batches of dough. She had her dad cover for her at the oven while she made the first batch, but for the second batch, she had me do it! Yikes! I did it, though, and the dough turned out fine. Maybe a little stiff, but, not too bad. Another skill learned!

Friday the 9th was a "challenging" day for me. It was very hot and muggy. C and I agreed to help her with the private party on Friday night, and we were hoping to finish up a little early so we could clean up and have a little break before the party. We got involved in harvesting the garlic, though, and ended up barely having time to shower. The party went well, though. Very different from a regular Pizza Night. The price of "renting" the place for a party includes 10 pizzas. So, we just cranked them out and gave them a chance to eat. When they started slowing down, she asked if they'd want more. They ordered 3 more, and we did those, then did clean up. C and I were done by 7:00.

I got to run the tiller on Friday, too. That was a little scary at first, a big, ornery machine that doesn't care if it's grinding up dirt or your foot, but once I started getting a hang of it's quirks, I think I was doing ok. The garlic was a good thing to learn about, too. Something I've been waiting for, since last fall we planted beautiful organic garlic in our yard, too. The tips have turned brown and started drying out. That's the main clue that it's ready. It can be used now, but it's considered "fresh" and has a shelf life similar to green onions, in the fridge. Most of it (like the stuff you get in the store) is going to be dried. We tied the garlic together (with about 10"-12" of green stalks still attached) in bunches of a dozen or so. Then, the bunches were tied to some rafters in the barn to dry. On Friday, we started working on the garlic after lunch. We got one partial row harvested, trimmed, and brought into the barn. Then, we got about 1/3 of those tied and hung to dry. We need to get the rest tied up ASAP, so they don't get moldy or rotten before they can dry.


Yesterday, I went to H's folks' house and did about 4 hours work for them, for a little extra money. They just finished building a new house, and have lots of little jobs to do. I helped wash the windows, then we worked on putting up a new electric fence around the corn. Saturday afternoon, C and I did a road trip into Winona. I hit "The Cinderella Shoppe," a fabric store with more John Deere material than you'd ever think possible. Got myself some new projects to work on.... Yeah, I needed that! Then, we had dinner and watched a movie together. A nice little girls night.

Today is a little more relaxing. Slept in until 7:15 -- that was a first for here, but it's cloudy and the sun didn't shine in the window at me! Had a nice bacon & egg breakfast and caught up on some emails. Plan on spending most of the afternoon finishing a book and sewing.

Love to all, and more soon!

Oh, I've got some new pictures on Facebook. For those that don't have access, here's a link:

Farm Internship Album

July 7

If you can't say anything nice (about the weather) don't say anything at all, right?

We finally finished the trellises on the tomatoes! Woo hoo! So glad that's done (and I think they are too!) We also moved the Working Girls to some new grass. They seem to be reaching the end of their laying-years. When I arrived here, they were laying about 2 dozen eggs a day. Now they are down to less than a dozen. The barn girls are taking up the slack though. (It was planned that way!) The new eggs are a little undersized, but they're getting there. Plus, we're putting a little marketing spin on the little ones, calling them Squeakers ("the girls are so new at laying eggs, they have to "squeak" them out!") and they're selling like crazy on Pizza Night. Go figure.

We also did a potato-beetle check on the eggplants (a ton of immature bugs--get 'em before they can multiply!!!), and did a little deep cleaning in the pizza kitchen.

The best part of the day, I have to admit, was the cool shower at the end of it.

Oh, then I went to Wine & Women Wednesday at Danzinger Vineyard. It was fun, but I got there too late for most of the food! Still a really great atmosphere, and got a little tour of the wine making facilities. The wine maker seemed like a really fun guy!

July 6

I got off pretty easy today--not too much time in the heat and humidity.

This morning was packing day for the CSA's. Luckily, I was in the barn for most of it, washing kale, kohlrabi, chard and napa cabbage (in very cold well water up to my elbows!), then filling boxes.

Lunch in the air conditioned house.

There was a couple of hours of misery moving the meat birds to some new grass. We closed them into their shelter, and I moved the fence. Because they're still kinda stupid and they won't just follow us, the grain, or even each other around, we had to catch them all and put them in crates. Move the crates out of the shelter, move the shelter into the newly fenced area, then bring them back into their new space. (Speaking of stupid, some of them had to be physically removed from the crates...)

We were going to move the Working Girls, too, but the belt broke on the lawn mower.

While H and C worked on the mower, I somehow got lucky enough to move into the house to work on updating the newsletter for the CSA members. I listed out what is coming in their boxes, and inserted recipes for most of the veggies. (H had already picked out the recipes.) Before I knew it, it was the end of the day.

I was still really dirty-feeling even though I was really only out in the sun for a few hours.

I think I sent most of you the link to the Winona Daily News article about the farm. The big news is that #1 the article appeared on the FRONT PAGE of the hard-copy paper, and #2 there was a picture of C and I weeding right under the headline! (Our pic was even bigger than the one of H?!?! What's up with that???) The bad part is that the silly reporter wrote, next to the pic of C (age 21) and me, "Young and Middle Aged Going Back to the Land."

Middle Aged?!? Excuse me?!?! Ha ha!

CSA boxes, week 5: Kale, napa cabbage, kohlrabi, green onions, garlic scapes, and the full-sized shares got a few small summer squash. (Can't believe it's week 5 already.)

July 5

Today was tomato day. We spend pretty much the whole day putting more trellises up for the (hundreds) of plants we put in May 18 & 19.

She's trying a new support system for some of them. It's called a "California weave". We put in large metal stakes, about 16' apart. Toward the bottom of stake #1 we tied twine, then weaved it back and forth around all the plants up to stake #2, then, around stake #2 and back around each plant on the other side, creating a figure-8 pattern. Because the plants have been in the ground so long, we were ready for the second step in supporting them: attaching more twine up about 8"-10" from the first. This one isn't weaved around the plant, but just circles them between the stakes. We will continue to watch their growth and add more circles of twine as they get bigger.

In a perfect world, shortly after they had been planted, the neighbor would have come over and made hay from her back field. This would have been spread as mulch under them by the neighbor, just driving down the rows. Then we would have put up the trellis before they got very big.

You may have noticed, though, that the world is not perfect. Since she is mostly bartering for the neighbor's haying services, her field has been low on his list of fields. Now, even though he's been able to do it for a couple weeks, the timing on the rain here has been off and he can't do it. In the meantime, the tomatoes are just doing what nature intended: Growing. Because we waited so long for the trellis, the plants are already going a little crazy and aren't too keen on being tied up in "strange" positions! The stakes and twine are up now, which is good, but when we do get some mulch for the tomatoes it will have to be hand-shoveled in the rows.

Overall they look good, we got a lot of weeds out of the rows, too, and they will be happier with a little breathing room. (And, I think between the 3 of us, there's a couple dozen fewer potato beetles chowing on the poor leaves.)

We saw quite a few fruits on the plants, too! That was exciting!

July 3

Didn't realize I was this far behind!

Tuesday was CSA packing day. This was the fullest box we've had so far. Green onion, garlic scapes, kohlrabi, beets, kale, napa cabbage and leaf lettuce, and some peas. Still lots of green-colored stuff. It's strange, but all the more colorful veggies (well, except for the beets) will come later in the season. After packing the boxes, we had a little more time to weed before calling it a day.

Wednesday was more field work. The morning was spent at H's dad's property, weeding the sweet corn that is there for the CSA boxes. I know she's told me WHY it's planted at her dad's, but I can't remember! We got about 3/4 of the rows weeded before lunch. Guess what will be on the schedule for next week?!?! After the corn, we did more weeding at the farm. Also, started some of the mowing to prepare for Pizza on Thursday.


Pizza Night on the 1st was a record-breaker! 142 pizzas. Phew! We did really well. We had plenty of help and things ran very smoothly. It was a long night, though! The yard areas were packed with people. There was live music, too. I think that attracted a lot of people, and kept them at the farm longer. (Good for sales of beverages, which is new this year.)


















Friday was a late-start day (finished with clean up on Thursday about 10:00), and because of the holiday weekend, an early-finish day. H had plans to go to the river camping with family, but I know she really wanted to stay home and work. Some people almost have to be forced to relax!

J actually rode his bike down on Friday! Then, happily rode back home in the truck. It's good to see him and the dogs again for the weekend, and to reconnect with other family and friends.

P.S. Anyone want a rooster? This fella was actually chasing H's little boy around the yard trying to peck and claw at him. Scared Ethan pretty bad! The rooster is headed for Craig's List now!!!