Do I look like a small time farmer??? Is that the determined face of someone heading out to land to work for her food? Weeeeellllll, sort of. Here's the update.
#1 hassle : thistles
#2 hassle : wandering children looking for the tractor.
We spent 2 evenings out at our little farm recently and left it ankle deep under straw. Potatoes, Onions, Cabbage, Brussel sprouts are all looking fantastic. Our strong plants even seem to bounce back from a small child ( or adult trying to get a small child) trampling them ALL down. The Beets, corn & squash are still pretty small but hopefully we gave them a fighting chance my, again, weeding. We mulched using 17 bales of straw so hopefully the walkways & weeds will give us a break. We still have one 10x10 patch that needs turning & tilling, hoping to fill it with pinto beans. Our experiment is to let the beans grow & dry on the vine, giving us our dried beans for the winter, we'll see.
While the initial thought was to make it a family affair, that idealistic scene where the children are helping and learning from getting their hands dirty. When in reality, my children anyway, are pretty uninterested. Felix goes and plays pretend on a large pile of rocks yelling " someone come play with me!!!!" And Oscar, when not falling down or fighting over the shovel, just wants to be on my back, just hanging there. Sounds sweet but this child is 30 pounds! So this weekend we remembered ,a duh moment, is how fun it is to play in the bed of a truck. Our farm partners brought out toys, coloring books and crayons, filled the back of the truck with snacky food and we all got some work done with the kiddo's played. For a while anyway.
I also have to put in a huge plug for the gentlemen on our farm, they came out on their own a week back and did some major clearing, so we wouldn't be nearly this far if they weren't such good thistle fighters.
So that's all folks, more updates in july I hope. By then the corn & squash will hopefully be knee high. How's your garden growing??
3 comments:
We have done dry beans with good results. I get about a quart of dry beans out of a 3'x6' area, tho I plant pretty intensively, 6 inches every which way.
Good luck! I am enjoying hearing about your small farm journey!
Yeah - I've been fighting the same reality with kids in the garden. "Here kids, come in and help me plant. No, not like that. Watch out - don't step there! Ok - everyone OUT of the garden!"
I think that working together and hands-on learning comes in 2 minute spurts here and there. Isadora helped me put in a few seeds, got bored, then went to play elsewhere. But she still takes ownership in it, which is the point, right?
Happy thistle pulling! Hope you have a good pair of leather work gloves...
Oh good for you. This venture is so exciting. I hear you on 'kid involvement'--frankly I sometimes just miss the mindlessness of concentrating on things like this WITHOUT thinking about how to involve kids.
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