TL;DR

With just three of us, on a stormy morning, we processed 48 dozen eggs, harvested and washed more bok choy, kale, and lettuce for the CSA, then planted peppers in the new greenhouse.

Washing All the Time

We wash, and wash, and wash. We washed 48 dozen eggs, washed bok choy, kale, and lettuce, and washed peppers. We also wash the tote bins that anything goes in…constantly. Every day, there are dozens of things to wash because sanitization is so critical in a CSA. Washing was all of this morning.

Harvesting Under Attack

In organic farming, there are a lot of insects. Because this farm prioritizes no spraying of insecticides, herbicides, or fungicides, there’s a lot of weeding and bugs…just like nature intended it. Some of them go after seedlings, some later grown plants. Other bugs such as spiders attack the nuisance insects and their eggs, which is nice. Today, small gnats and mosquitos we abundant while harvesting kale and swiss chard, especially because of the epic downpour from 8:30-9:30am. This is one of reasons why we wash our produce thoroughly.

Planting Peppers

We planted the two edge rows in the new greenhouse with carmine peppers. This involved weeding and sinking pepper plants into trenched areas that were already were amended with compost and ProGro 5-3-4. Just two of us planted about 4x 98-cell trays or roughly 350 plants in about 1.5 hours.

It was a short day, but we got a lot done.

AI Summary from Field Notes

Because the field notes were so short today, my homelab server only had a minor heart attack while transcribing (via Whisper C++) and summarizing (via homegrown LLM pipeline).

My next curiosity will be to use my Mac M1 to be the preferred node (or service) which does this work, since its GPU is compatible with faster processing libraries in both of these components. I’m not sure yet if I want to use my M1 as a Kubernetes node that joins on-and-off as necessary or if I want to build a process that spins up a cloud GPU instance joined to the cluster just for the duration of the processing cycle.

This is all because I can’t afford a $2,000+ modern GPU as they are in high demand and this would be a major undertaking in it’s own right. For now, I stick with CPU-based inference and patience to get simple summaries like this:

Summary

Field Notes Analysis: June 6th Workday Summary

Activities Performed:

Egg Washing: 48 dozen eggs were washed as the initial task of the day.
Lettuce and Bok Choy Cleaning: Produce from the fields was cleaned to prepare it for storage or further processing.
Mid-Morning Break: A break was taken, essential for maintaining energy levels during physical work.
Harvesting Kale and Swiss Chard: These greens were harvested post-lunch and washed again.
Barn Preparation: The barn was readied for the following day’s use, involving organizational steps.
Pepper Planting: Specifically planting carmine peppers in two of eight rows, utilizing interstitial planting methods. This involved weeding, composting with Pro Grow, and placing pepper plants into trenched areas.

New Terms Encountered:

Interstitial Planting: A farming method where specific areas are left for spacing or other purposes.
Carmine Peppers: A specific variety mentioned; further research could explore its characteristics and uses.

Questions and Future Research Areas:

Understanding interstitial planting practices and their benefits in agriculture.
Clarifying the process involved in closing out the barn for the next day’s use.
Investigating the impact of composting with Pro Grow on plant growth.
Exploring specifics about carmine peppers, including cultivation and usage.

Suggestions for Actions:

Optimize task order to enhance efficiency, possibly incorporating equipment or shade structures for effective produce washing.
Develop tools tailored for weeding light soil to streamline field tasks efficiently.

This summary encapsulates the key activities of the workday, introduces new farming terms, identifies areas needing further exploration, and offers actionable suggestions for improvement.

Part 1

Okay, so I'm looking at these field notes from a farm intern. The date mentioned is Friday June 6th, and it's all about what they did during their workday. Let me try to break this down step by step. First off, the intern starts by talking about washing eggs. They got 48 dozen, which is quite a lot! So egg washing was definitely a big part of the morning. Then they moved on to washing lettuce and bok choy from the fields. That makes sense; after harvesting or bringing in produce, it needs to be cleaned before anything else. Next, they mention breaking for lunch. It's always good to have a break mid-morning, especially when you're working physically. After lunch, they harvested more kale and Swiss chard. Harvesting these greens probably means they were ready and needed to be processed or sent elsewhere. Then they washed them again, which I guess is part of the post-harvest process. After that, they closed out the barn. Not sure exactly what "closing out" entails, but maybe organizing or preparing the barn for the next day? Then they moved to planting peppers, specifically the carmine variety. They mention two rows out of eight were left for interstitial planting. I'm not entirely clear on what "interstitial planting" means. Maybe it's a term used in farming where certain areas are left between plants for spacing or other purposes. I should probably look that up. The intern also notes that they had to leave early, around two o'clock. They mention working with another person, so maybe the team was small that day. Weeding and composting were part of their tasks before planting peppers. The soil being light made weeding manageable. They then dropped pepper plants and planted them in those rows. So, summarizing the activities: egg washing, lettuce/bok choy washing, lunch, harvesting kale/Swiss chard, washing again, closing the barn, planting peppers, weeding, composting, and more planting. For new things not yet encountered, interstitial planting is a term I'm not familiar with. Maybe it's specific to their farming methods or terminology. Also, carmine peppers might have specific uses or care requirements that weren't mentioned here. Questions and future areas of research could include understanding what interstitial planting is, the exact process of closing out the barn, how composting affects plant growth, and specifics about carmine peppers. Maybe the intern would also want to know more about the workflow from harvesting to washing multiple times. Suggestions for actions might involve optimizing the order of tasks or using equipment that could help with washing produce more efficiently. Maybe shade structures for plants during washing? Or better tools for weeding light soil. I think I've covered the main points. Now, let me put it all together in a clear structure.