TL;DR

Third day of my first week and all the areas of my back are hurting. Not complaining, just realizing that doing this full-time for decades does things to a body. No wonder some farmers say that chiropractic care is so important.

Kale Fields Forever

Today we started in the field that was used for peppers at the end of last season, hilled rows covered with black weed fabric. We set up low tunnel hoops, ~3mm thick row cover support wire, first by taking bunches of them over shoulder and dropping them over the rows about 10-15 feet apart. This was the easy part. Then down 6 rows about 300 ft long, straddling the hilled row and pushing one end of the hoop at a time into each side, we distributed about 180 of them throughout.

This field will be used for kale and doing setup early like this helps us know how much floating row cover survived from last year intact enough to use and how much more needs to be bought. This was from 8-10:30am, then we transitioned to cultivating the planting holes in the fabric by sticking a spear trowel down in and turning a bit, which will loosen the soil for the kale to take root well.

Potato Planting

Because the weather was so nice, we got pulled to help plant a row of potatoes in the “dry” field near the garlic we planted last fall. In the past, I’ve bought potatoes in a supermarket and never thought about how they were planted, maintained, harvested and distributed. In prior years, I’ve received some potatoes in CSA shares, often buying them from farm stands as a “specialty commodity item”, never realizing how much work it takes to bring them to my table. Never again will I take for granted a potato, especially the freshly harvested kind.

Monty Don has a great episode of “Fork to Fork” on potatoes (can’t find it on youtube), where the gist is: though versatile, potatoes are the best when you harvest them the hour (not day) you plan to consume them. Boil them in salty water, drain, then let sit with olive oil and fresh mint covered with a towel until cool enough to handle. Serve with salt. That is all.

Dry Farming by the Ocean

This field is far into the property and looks out at the Crane estate across the Ipswich river and a snake-looking estuary which keeps the surrounding areas from drying out too much. “Dry farming” is where there is no irrigation other than what nature provides. The soil in this area is not sandy, not quite clay. Because it is a sort of flowing, undulating field with wetland around it, it doesn’t need much cultivation by a tractor to become workable with the hands.

Lunch and Chicken Coop Construction

Then we had lunch. Tuna salad on potato bread. I added thin slices of apple and chips for some extra texture. The property handyman who was working on a new mobile chicken coop joined us for a bite, then we helped him get plywood sheets up on the top of the framed roof.

The ‘mobile’ part of the chicken coop is a lean-to style roof, about 6-8 foot high, sat on a small dairy trailer suspension system. It has a door on the front and spaces for windows that are screened and can be closed up with a hinged flap as needed. This season, the 300 chickens now will be doubled to 600. Two of us helped to hoist the plywood to the builder on the roof.

Back Down to the Ground

Then we went back to potatoes, finished up 4 more rows 300 feet long, the first two fingerlings and the last three red varieties. The process of hand-planting potatoes goes as such:

Make a row, usually with the tractor and an attachment specifically to cultivate 4 inches down, leaving a 2-in trench Amend the trench with whatever is needed based on soil tests and intended crop needs; in this case, it was rock phosphate and Pro Gro 5-2-3 fertilizer (chicken bedding product) Fill 5-gallon buckets up with seed potatoes, chunks specifically grown late in the prior season to chop and store for planting, then “drop” the chunks in the trench about 8-10 inches apart By hand, go down the row and push the seed potatoes down into the soil, then cover over with soil…”scratch it up” in this field to exfoliate excess grass roots and clumps to the top and deposit them in the walking area of the row Repeat…thousands of times…400-450 times per row, 5 rows today.

I’ll be honest, after doing the first fingerlings and knowing what the rest of the day held, I took lunch to mentally prepare for the back-pain that the rest of the afternoon would mean this weekend. Fortunately, the crew already knew what I was only realizing then, and offered ample opportunity to take the “drop” option until there was nothing else to do but “plant”.

Planting in even a pre-cultivated field is not easy. Not all parts of the row are the exact same soil type and compaction towards the end of the rows is especially problematic. Also the tractor cultivation attachment depth really needs to be dialed in, otherwise you then have to “cultivate” by hand each potato you push down.

Tech Note: Context Templates and Changes

I plan to adjust the templates I use for map/reduce template fed to the LLM because the output still isn’t yet as useful as I’d like. I’ll include it below so that you see how it doesn’t compare yet to what I can write as a human myself. In May I’ll be 44. I’ve been reading and writing since I was 3. If someone invents an AI that can write my blog posts better than I can, maybe I’ll pay for it. Until then, I will write my own posts.

AI Summary

Here is a consolidated summary of the summaries:

Main Themes:

1. Field work and manual labor in farm settings
2. Equipment usage and operation in farming
3. Crop management and cultivation techniques
4. Organic farming practices and certifications
5. Business operations and customer relationships
6. Challenges of working with grants and specific conditions

Activities:

• Setting up row covers, planting crops, and cultivating soil
• Assisting with building a chicken coop, planting potatoes, and tussling weeds
• Converse with colleagues about various topics related to farming and business operations
• Reviewing and updating soil samples, setting up garden plots, and navigating grant requirements

New Things Not Yet Encountered:

• Using metal hoops for row cover
• Working with tractors and attachments
• Planting potatoes in a field setting
• Rock phosphate fertilizer
• ProGro fertilizer

Questions and Future Areas of Research:

1. Why are there different types of fabrics used for row covers?
2. How do you measure the size of rows on a farm?
3. What is the optimal spacing between fabric spikes to ensure proper row cover coverage?
4. How does one deal with running out of rocks or other materials needed for row cover maintenance?
5. How to estimate the number of potatoes dropped during planting
6. The process of applying for grants, specifically federal grants from the USDA
7. How to balance the cost of organic certifications with business operations
8. How to navigate matching specific grant requirements with a farm business
9. What are some best practices for grant writing, particularly in relation to agricultural projects?

Suggested Actions:

1. Measure rows using Google Maps to improve accuracy
2. Invest in more fabric spikes and spare parts for equipment to avoid shortages
3. Consider creating a system for tracking crop growth, soil health, and weather patterns to inform future farming decisions
4. Develop strategies for dealing with physical labor fatigue and back pain in farm work
5. Review and update soil samples to ensure they are receiving adequate phosphate
6. Consider alternative fertilizers or methods that may be more cost-effective
7. Explore grant opportunities and research ways to apply for federal funding
8. Seek guidance from experienced farmers or grant writers on how to navigate complex grant requirements
9. Research and explore non-profit organizations like The Carrot Project that provide resources and support for grant writing and agricultural development