3-10-10

HOLY SHIT! (LITERALLY!!)

JEN PLANTS STRAWBERRIES

WHAT'S UP, DOC?

Since we've arrived at New Talavan Farms, we have transplanted tangerine trees, lemon trees, asparagus, strawberries, cilantro, kale, and chard. We have harvested carrots, red leaf lettuce, arugula, collard greens, mustard greens, and broccoli. It finally feels like we're working on a farm.

We are learning a tremendous amount of new skills here, and reinforcing some very important skills we learned since we began our trip. Something everyone stresses is the importance of compost. We have been adding compost to the fields at every step. Something else we added to the soil today was fresh cow manure. We drove a pickup truck to the near by fields where the holy cows graze, and filled up the flat bed with over 1,500 pounds of manure. The three of us collected all of this manure using our hands. The smell was surprisingly not as bad as one might have expected. We speculated cow excrement smells horrible when the animals are fed industrialized feed supplements, but when left to graze on grass, the manure isn't foul smelling at all. We spread the nutrient rich manure on a row that will house corn and squash this summer. Heavy manure is needed for plants that take a lot of nutrients out from the soil, like squashes. But we learned you never want to put heavy amounts of manure in areas that will grow root vegetables, such as potatoes.

In addition to prepping the rows and doing lots of weeding, we learned there are various techniques used for sowing different crops. The asparagus and strawberry plants are placed a foot apart, two inches underground atop a small mound. The roots must be totally covered by soil, but they shouldn't be too deep or packed in too tightly, because they will have a hard time shooting upward. The leafy greens are planted directly into the soil, only about 5 inches apart. You only want to cover the root with soil up to the seed leaf (the very first leaves that sprout). This assures the plant is stable, but no root is exposed to wind which can hinder its growth. In addition, we learned if you harvest the bottom leaves of lettuces slowly, instead of pulling up the entire head, you can get a much higher and slower yield of leafy greens. Lastly, we learned when transplanting a small tree, you should separate the levels of dirt when you dig the hole. Once the tree is in the ground, cover the roots with the best top soil, and use the deeper, less nutrient rich soil to create a moat around the tree, so if it rains, water will be absorbed instead of potentially running off. Soil preparation, spacing, and weeding all are critical in growing strong plants.