Gardening by the Moon - Literally!

Monday morning at 5 a.m. I donned my flashlight and wheelbarrow and filled it with plants and organic soil goodies and headed out to the pasture to put plants in the ground in anticipation of the moved up schedule in the rain.

See, I had last heard the rain wasn't supposed to hit till Tuesday - then, Sunday night as I retired, it was supposed to come at midnight – it was too late and I was too worn out to go back out and do it. I had messed with the irrigation system all day long and never heard the update - and it didn't really "feel" like rain yet. So much for my built in weather predictor this weekend. Way off! Anyway, when I heard I had another window of opportunity to get some crops in the ground before the rain hit, I jumped at it. I have had some seedlings in 2 inch pots for weeks that were very ready to be planted. Mostly they were some warm season things like tomatoes and cucumbers, but that's ok. We may still have enough warm weather ahead to harvest a bit of summer’s goodies, too. The rest were some poor squash plants that already had flowers on them. They really wanted to get planted badly!

So, here I was out in the middle of the pasture digging and planting my little seedlings. Nary a soul was in sight, and it was pretty quiet as well; just the faint sound of my roosters back at the barns alerting everyone of the soon to come sunrise. Then, a flash of lightening. No thunder, so I kept going. Then, about 10 minutes later, another flash and a few drops of rain. Thunder - and then the rain came down! Wonderful, steady, gentle rains. It is amazing how it soaked in just perfectly and even helped to melt many of those chunks we started out a bit concerned about. That is what the farmer from the feedstore told me would happen, and sure enough it did! That sandy red clay just falls apart when it is wet. All you have to do is barely touch it and it mashes.

Life on the farm is kinda laid back, as the song goes, but, in just a matter of a few days, it can go from a crawl to a race to get things in the ground. Before the irrigation system was ready, we couldn't do much more than hoe ground, turn over weeds and dream of what the crops were going to look like and where they'd go.

Then, all of a sudden, you can get water to the rows and it is time for the rain to come and....let the planting begin! I must say that generally I am a pretty early riser most days. But Monday morning when that clock went off and it was the voice of the weatherman saying the rain was still 2 hours away - I shot up out of bed, got dressed, grabbed that flashlight and loaded up much faster than I've ever rushed out of the house for any regular job, that is for sure. Ah, life on the farm….

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

It's Here - Sort of....

Well, the irrigation system finally arrived. I opened it all up and started to check in the parts - only to find it missing the end caps for the hoses! Now how can that be? We can't let the water run out the other end of the hose. So I called and the very nice people arranged for a Saturday delivery - which came! I was never so eager to see the UPS man - but, I opened the box and wallah - the wrong parts!

I think I am going to improvise until the correction can be made and I've sent a note to the makers already asking for guidance. I read through all of the other sized kits and it seems most instruct a way to seal off the ends without using these caps. So, tomorrow, that is what I'm going to do. And then get the buckets up on the platforms and run a few tests for water flow. I really want to get some of the bigger seedlings in the ground to catch the rain that they are promising this week.

The CSA workmembers did an awesome job rolling out the drip tape today and keeping after the weeds - which, remarkably, haven't been very bad at all.

I wish we were further down the road - I know you guys are all anxious to start seeing the fruits of the labor, too. Erica, I look up at your note to me, wishing me lots of joy, patience and great weather. The Patience is the BIGGIE as we crawl on to the next step.

The good news I guess you could say is that we continue to get new inquiries. The closer I get to my goal of 30 shares, the closer it brings me to being able to do this more hours a week than I can commit to now. Most of the first season's share money has gone to start up costs. Once I get all of that out of the way, the second season should help with the living expenses so I can focus more on the farm during the week, too.

This isn't my first start up projects over the years, but it is by far the best. I have not ever had the kind of support I have this time. This truly couldn't happen without YOU! I am constantly encouraged by many of you to keep the faith and keep on keeping on, even when it is two steps forward and one step backwards. I think next year this time we'll be so much ahead we'll need to read back to see where we were.

I am also encouraged by the interest in local food as a whole. It seems people are finding out how important it is to support this way of life. Not just for the sake of the farmer's lifestyle, but for the sake of feeding ourselves in general. Corporate farming has started to crumble it seems, in some cases, and certainly seems to have gotten away from us as far as providing what kind of foods many of us wish to eat. Safe, organic, fresh and as nutritious as it can be.

I do have pomegranates that are ripe. If any of you want some, please feel free to let me know and I'll pick some for you to pick up at the next market day - call it a preview share.

Let me know you are out there from time to time with a comment here or there. And I'll get more pics posted soon, too.

Thanks for the prayers and support,


Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!

Update on Eden's Garden

It has been a bit slow going, but as one of our work share members exclaimed yesterday, "it is finally starting to really look like something!" Indeed the rows are just about all in and seedlings are ready to go into the soil - as soon as we can irrigate them!

Word came Thursday that they finally were able to ship our irrigation system and I expect it any day this week - hopefully by Tuesday. I can then lay out the drip tapes and we can test the flow, making any adjustments to the grade of the rows needed, and next Saturday - plant those babies!

The bases for the irrigation system's buckets arrived today.

All we need now is the steps to the top and to attach the pallets/platforms.

We are using a gravity-fed bucket irrigation system - totally sustainable once we set up the workshed and rain harvesting barrels.

We'll also direct sow some seeds that have been waiting for this cool front that is promised, too.

Welcome to farming in North Texas - just hurry up and wait...

I'm comforted to know that a long time farmer colleague of mine in Grand Saline hasn't gotten his crops in yet either. We had such a dry spell, seems no one could work the soil when we wanted/needed to. But, that just means a later harvest. And, going forward, the soils will need less and less preparation for planting of some things so we'll have carryover from things planted in the summer to fall, plantings from fall carryover to early winter and so on. This being our first planting - there isn't any carryover yet.

Those who work the field will probably have a different appreciation for things as they can see how long it takes to hoe a row, to level the soil out, and in some cases, to remove some of the huge chunks the tiller didn't manage to break up sufficiently. Yes, some of them will have to go - Kevin will be happy to know I'm not going to plant in the huge chunks.

We saved a lot of time though yesterday not worrying about breaking up everything as we were going. We've got through 17 rows - 100' long and 4' wide - that is going to be a lot of veggies!

I'm linking an old story that I thought did a great job on explaining CSA's and it features one of my mentors, Brad Stufflebeam. I thought you might enjoy reading it and seeing other CSA's, too.

I'll keep you posted - come on out to Market Day next weekend - we are hoping to have carving pumpkins and a local art show featuring some winners of the youth photo contest and photos by Jenice Johnson, professional photographer and local newspaper editor that also is one of our CSA subscribers.

Marie
Eat Your Food - Naturally!