|
|
|
Farm News From Farmer Paige-
Howdy good food enthusiasts!
And Happy Summer Solstice! It seems like it's been summer for weeks now, but today is the day...we counted down yesterday as summer rolled in.
I hope you're staying cool with these crazy confused June days. I hope you follow our routine and keep on chuggin' the water and eating well. Luckily we'll have some goodies in the share this week that will make killer chilled summer salads.
I thought it might be fun to walk you through a day in the life of a farmer.
Here's my Monday:
5:20 am -- wake up. coffee. check email. coffee. consolidate items from last week's list that we didn't get to.
6:30 am -- arrive at farm. gather supplies necessary for morning harvest. Gretchen and Ashley feed and water chickens.
6:45 am -- quick team meeting, list tasks for day, prioritize and assign tasks and task masters. break off into groups and begin day.
6:50 am -- field walk with John, lots of lists and writing what we
see that needs to be done for week. list includes, but is not limited to: watering, weeding, harvesting, trellising, bed prep, tilling, mowing, cover cropping, thinning, pruning, weeding, planting, seeding, weeding, fixing things, setting up irrigation, moving chickens, turning compost, fence maintenance, tractor maintenance, weeding, and weeding.
Gretchen begins working on the fence line, completing where I mowed the farm yesterday with our new rotary mower (score!).
7 am -- begin round 1 of irrigation (from lake pump). This involves turning on switches, setting pressure and flow, and walking the lines to check for leaks, kinks, and to make sure settings are proper.
7:15 am -- meet up with rest of crew. today's morning includes harvesting carrots, green onions, plus washing and bunching these items. In the heat of these days, we harvest the cool items in
your share on Monday mornings and the warm stuff (summer stuff) in the afternoons. Tuesday mornings are reserved for harvesting the remaining items, herb harvests, packing, and prepping.
9 am -- check greenhouse. water dry plants.
9:15 am -- back to harvest and washing; carrots, green onions then on to pick beans and pull plants (beans are slowing down...don't worry new succession coming on soon)
noon -- finish up morning harvest and packing. ensure that every bin that goes in walk in cooler is labeled and weighed. clean up wash station, take culled crops, outer leaves, other compostables to back compost pile, wash bins.
11 am -- switch irrigation to next section. check greenhouse.
12:15 am -- lunchtime. time to fit in as much office work as possible while chef+farmer Justin prepares me lunch. (Justin rocks!) office work includes: returning phone calls, returning emails, entering invoices and checks into finances database, working on promotional emails, and setting up this newsletter. also, working on recipes for blog.
1:15 pm -- meet back at farm. harvest potatoes, tomatoes, harvest cucumbers.
3 pm -- switch irrigation to next section. check greenhouse. bag up potatoes, and finish bunching and washing.
5:30 pm -- home again, home again. finish up office work for day and relax for a few hours till bedtime. fun time includes: puzzles, cooking, cleaning, and/or watching top chef or anything humorous on hulu.com.
As if this isn't enough bulk to put into the newsletter, I thought I'd write a little something about our fantastic crew this year.
<Insert John into this photo.>
I think I've met most of you. If not, I'm Paige, 28 years old, 5'7"
brunette. I handle the overall orchestration of this gig, do
marketing/communications, make way too many lists, try to have a handle on all that's going on, plan the planting, crop rotation, fertility, etc., and boss everyone around. Perfectionist at heart, I realize on the farm nature has the upper hand and to nature I say 'Cheers' for making me learn to relax a little. I also like singing duets with Gretchen to annoy Ashley and Justin (and probably John though he doesn't complain).
Next, Justin Dansby, second in command. He's my sweetheart (although he doesn't like to admit it :). Justin's one of the reasons why we have so many carrots, turnips, and other delicious items in abundance this year. He's the direct seeding, pest control, and irrigation master on the farm. He is a fantastic cook, is incredibly real and keeps everything grounded. He's good at almost all of the 'blue' jobs, you know the typical boy things...mechanics, fixing stuff, tractors, etc. We poke fun though b/c I think girls can drive tractors better than boys. Justin works hard, really hard and plays really hard too. He's also my behind the scenes sounding board and keeps me in line. Oh, forgot, he also is an IT professional (need your computer fixed? too bad, he's on the farm...he he).
Next, Gretchen Weiher, first apprentice to arrive at Serenbe Farms 2010. If you ever want anything done to perfection, G's the one to ask to do it. She's got a Michael Jackson glove and isn't afraid to bust her butt and smile at the same time. Gretchen wakes up in the morning singing a cheerful tune and never frowns, screams, gets upset, or anything like that...all glitter and gold. Gretchen moves seamlessly from task to task and always digs to get the hows and whys to develop her toolkit. Gretchen comes from a small retail running shoe company and surely knows how to interact with customers, plants, volunteers, and her coworkers. With an admirable understanding of how things work in the world, she's a true pleasure to have around and is a really talented farmer...she's also a trip after she eats too much sugar.
Next, Ashley Rodgers, second apprentice to arrive at Serenbe Farms 2010. If you ever want anything done with impeccable speed, Ashley is the one to ask to do it. She's a little thing, but can lift more than you or me. Especially if you challenge her. Ashley is down to earth and tells you what she feels. She's worked in restaurants before so she embodies the efficient spirit but also is savvy with her clientele. She's got a cute pipsqueak of a dog. Ashley loves 'busting stuff out' and after completion utters a resounding "okee-dokee," usually meaning "What's next?". I think Ashley really likes harvesting things but she's also good at those really difficult and somewhat acrobatic tasks too. And, like Gretchen, Ashley's got the skills and is another talented farmer to have on our team. Can't wait to see what these girls do in the future.
Lastly, John Ashley Davis, third and final apprentice to arrive at Serenbe Farms for 2010. John has worked with us before as a regular volunteer. He's started working full time as of May 31st. Hard be believe it's only been 3 weeks as it seems like he's been here for months thanks to our marathon days and evenings. John will be a very successful farm manager soon. He has previously been an efficiency guru at a medical supply place and I think that once you know efficiency, you know efficiency. He never complains, is always willing to do whatever is asked of him, can dig the best and fastest raised bed this side of the Pacific. John is a soon-to-be-dad (happy father's day!) and his lovely wife Sonia is a nurse in labor and delivery. John looks to merge the very spiritual side of farming with the practical and production side of farming. He's a great one to converse with in the fields and like all the rest of our team, pours the positivity into everything he does.
And our rockstar weekly volunteer, Stephanie Pearce. Talk about giggling, silliness, and positivity. Stef exudes all of these things. A very talented massage therapist and yoga instructor (www.stephaniepearce.com), Stef understands the importance of what we do...in terms of work and in terms of the difference farmers make...feeding the land, our bodies, and our souls. She's a joy to have around and works just as hard as all of us...maybe sometimes even harder. On rare occasion we'll remind her of our motto for the year "Heads Down, Hands Down", but that's really just a little joke or when she starts laughing way too hard. Catch her at Serenbe for yoga on Tuesdays at 1:15pm. Email her keepintouchwithstef@mac.com.
Well, there it is. Our great crew for the year. Things are going great. Please contact us with any feedback you have, we always like hearing what you think.
And, here's a reminder, bring your own bags! We're trying as hard as
possible to keep our footprint (and plastic usage) to a bare minimum. We'll definitely take your discarded grocery bags too (please no yucky ones though).
Thanks for all your support and for making it possible for all of us six
lucky folks to work hard doing what we love.
Cheers,
Paige
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Find recipes here.
This week's share prediction (shares will contain most of the items below):
(subject to change since we haven't harvested everything yet)
green onions
potatoes (my fave variety: red gold)
cabbage
onions
cucumbers
tomatoes (hopefully 2...more to come!)
head lettuce(s)--did I hear BLT?!
basil
kohlrabi and/or fennel
carrots--big ole' bunch
Things to look forward to in the coming weeks:
blueberries
watermelon
many more tomatoes
more summer greens
cherry tomatoes
more beans
edamame
|
|
