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TL;DR

We spent three hours moving chicken coops, harvested sunflowers, and planted lettuces. People are preparing to go back to school, student and staff colleagues alike, and the bees are just as busy as ever.

At home, another five pounds of tomatoes went in to the dehydrator, making my whole house smell like a sandwich shop. In other words, yum.

Amongst the Sunflowers and Bees

While cutting sunflowers, I noticed that the bees were just as busy as ever. They were buzzing around the flowers, collecting pollen and nectar, and coincidentally me to no worry at all. How methodically they work. I can only aspire to be as efficient and effective as they are.

Dehydrating Everything

Let me start by saying that I never meant to be like one of those all-natural, zero-preservatives MAHA nutters that John Oliver cracks jokes at. And I’m not…I just love good food that I can understand. How it grows, how it’s made, how it’s processed. I like to learn and know about things.

Working on a farm, there’s a bit of otherwise non-sellable produce that is fine eating but doesn’t look as good as the rest. As a farmer, you want to put your best foot forward. So when there are things that we won’t sell…like split or scarred tomatoes…they either go to the chickens and pigs or into the compost. That is, unless someone claims it.

Dehydrating Tomatoes

With the absolute joy that fresh tomatoes in season are, I’d rather take the 15 minutes to cut around the splits and cracks and little blemishes in order to reclaim otherwise 85% perfectly fine tomato mass and slice it thick for dehydrating. Most of the water leaves so that there is longer storage life. The flavors intensify. The color deepens.

Each tomato is different and thus each dehydration batch takes a little attention throughout the process, but for the most part it’s a ‘set it and forget it’ thing with a dehydrator. I was able to get a like-new Cosori dehydrator from a friend and have been trying out anything that comes from the farm. So far, the tomatoes are a huge win.

“So They’re Like Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Right?”

In the past week, I’ve been sharing them with people I think I can get an honest read from…family, co-workers, and people around town. Most often, the first thing people will respond with is “So they’re like sun-dried tomatoes, right?” Sure. Yes. Fine. Mapping to something known. Got it.

No, they’re not like sun-dried tomatoes. They’re dehydrated tomatoes. They’re not treated with sulfur dioxide and dried in the sun. They’re dried in a dehydrator. They’re not as intense in flavor as sun-dried tomatoes. They’re more mellow. Personally, I used to hate sun-dried tomatoes because they seem far too intense to use directly, like on a pizza or in a bread loaf.

Storing Dehydrated Tomatoes

Dehydrated tomatoes are usually dry packed, not packed in oil like their sun-dried cousins. They can be stored for up to a year in your pantry (if stored properly in an airtight container), or longer if done the same and frozen. I don’t think mine will last this long unless I do a lot of them while the getting is good in-season.

Since I don’t have a chest freezer (yet) and I plan to do this again next year, I’ll store most of mine in the pantry in a bag inside a jar, both airtight and away from sunlight. Some will also go into the freezer, double bagged and off to the side so that I can compare methods next fall as well.

Late Night Tomato Indulgence

The other night when I couldn’t sleep and wandered into the kitchen, I had this idea to wrap fresh cherry tomatoes in some of the dehydrated tomatoes. With a pinch of salt, it was…indulgent. At first the juice of the fresh tomato pops in your mouth and the taste of yesterday’s summer harvest is right there with you. But as you chew, the new tomato flavor subsides to the growing intensity of the dehydrated tomato, like a crescendo of flavor that’s both familiar and new at the same time.

I don’t think that this is for everyone, just the epicurus amongst us. It is very acidic and not for the faint of heart. It’s more for the epically-curious about the extremes of flavor that a single fruit or vegetable can bring to the table. Like I’ve written about potatoes, some vegetables don’t need much to elevate them to their greatest heights.

Weekend Spike Work

This weekend, I did find some time to add API endpoints to LLMBO matching that of Ollama’s out-of-box schemas. I even got streaming responses to work with a little attention to detail around HTTP chunking support. This enables me to point anything…including even Ollama tooling…to LLMBO and use it just the same as Ollama.

What this really enables for me is that everything in my infrastructure looking for an LLM can now use LLMBO without any changes to the code. This includes my own tooling like Autoscribe which uses Langchain Ollama libraries, but also third-party tools that I use like Karakeep that has experimental Ollama support.

LLMBO is primarily a dynamic router, managing concurrency and inbound requests with sessions so that I can scale it out as needed. It also prioritizes any backend agent with a GPU over that which doesn’t, but really in the future this scheduling will be done by a more sophisticated algorithm that understands the capabilities and capacity of each backend agent.

In the future, I want to add more features to LLMBO, such as better support for multi-modal inputs and outputs, and more advanced scheduling algorithms. I also want to add more observability (i.e. OpenTelemetry signals) to help with debugging and monitoring that I’m sure will be needed the more features and advanced behaviors are added.

I also want to make it easier for others to use and contribute to LLMBO, so it’s likely that I’ll be open sourcing it just as soon as I get to a minimum-viable (useful and stable) version.

AI Summary from Field Notes

Today’s notes have only one or two minor blips, mostly coming from a known issue with the LLM not really understanding that when I say ‘other people did X’, it should split out what I did vs. what they did as activities I performed.

Summary

Okay, the user provided a detailed summary of field notes from a farm intern. They want me to distill that into a consolidated summary with main themes, activities, new things, questions, and suggestions. First, I need to make sure I understand the original summary. The main themes are farm operations, seasonal prep, weather, and field management. The activities include moving coops, harvesting kale and sunflowers, planting lettuce, loading crops, and team collaboration. New things are expanded planting space, sunflower patches for CSA, winter squash planning, and bok choy monitoring. Questions are about coop effectiveness, sunflower yield, bok choy timing, winter squash prep, and coop movement efficiency. Suggestions are monitoring bok choy, assessing new coop area, planning for winter squash, optimizing sunflower management, and documenting coop movement. I need to check if there's any overlap or redundancy. For example, the new things and questions might have some overlap. Also, the user might want the summary to be concise but cover all points. The original summary is already well-structured, but I need to present it in a way that's easy to read and covers all the key points without repetition. I should ensure that all the points from the original summary are included. Maybe combine some of the questions into broader categories. Also, check if any details were missed, like the mention of the 50 feet more rows or the hill between coops and the fence. The original summary mentions that moving the coops was a longer process due to the fence and hill, which is a point to note in the suggestions or questions. I need to make sure that the final summary is clear and each section is distinct. Also, use the exact terms from the original text where possible, like "sunflower patches for the CSA" and "winter squash for the fall share." Avoid adding any personal interpretations, just present the information as given. Now, structure the summary into the five sections: main themes, activities, new things, questions, and suggestions. Make sure each section is a list with clear, concise points. Avoid using markdown, just plain text with clear headings. Check for any missing elements and ensure that the summary is accurate and comprehensive.

Main Themes

Farm Operations and Planning: Repositioning chicken coops, crop harvesting, and seasonal planting schedules.
Seasonal Preparation: Fall planting (lettuce, bok choy) and winter squash planning.
Weather and Conditions: Cool, breezy weather (67–70°F) affecting work pace.
Field Management: Expanding planting space by repositioning coops and optimizing field use.

Activities Performed

Moved chicken coops 100 yards to free up space for future crops.
Harvested 130 kale heads and stripped sunflowers for storage.
Planted 4 lettuce rows (600–800 feet total) for fall.
Loaded 98 lettuce cell trays into trucks for distribution.
Collaborated with the team during lunch and post-lunch tasks.

New Things Not Yet Encountered

Expanded planting space: Coops repositioned 50 feet further, creating 300 feet of new row space.
Sunflower patches for CSA: A new sunflower patch for summer CSA.
Winter squash planning: Preparation for fall squash share.
Bok choy growth monitoring: Observing bok choy planted weeks prior.

Questions and Future Research

Will repositioning coops improve field productivity?
How will the new sunflower patch perform for the CSA?
When will bok choy be ready for harvest?
How to prepare for winter squash planting?
Can coop movement be optimized for efficiency?

Suggestions for Action

Monitor bok choy growth to determine harvest readiness.
Assess new coop area for future crop planning.
Develop a fall squash planting timeline and resource plan.
Optimize sunflower patch care to ensure CSA yield.
Document coop movement challenges (e.g., fence, hill) for future improvements.

Part 1

Okay, let's tackle this query. The user provided a transcript of field notes from a farm intern and wants me to identify main themes, list activities, new things, questions, and suggestions. First, I need to parse the text carefully. The intern is talking about their work on a farm on Monday, August 18th. The main themes would be the weather, the movement of chicken coops, harvesting kale and sunflowers, planting lettuce, and planning for future planting and harvesting. For activities, the intern moved chicken coops, harvested kale, harvested sunflowers, planted lettuce, had lunch, stripped sunflowers, and worked on preparing for future planting. New things not yet encountered: The intern mentions moving the chicken coops further away, which is a new method. Also, the intern talks about the sunflower patches for the CSA, which might be a new area or a new crop. The mention of winter squash for the fall share is another new thing. Questions and future research: The intern might be wondering about the effectiveness of moving the coops further, the timing of sunflower harvests, the growth of bok choy, and how to manage the increased planting space. Also, the intern might be concerned about the steep hill between the coops and the fence. Suggestions: The intern might need to monitor the bok choy's growth, plan for the winter squash, and maybe evaluate the new coop area's productivity. Also, they might need to check the sunflower patch's yield for the CSA. I need to make sure I didn't miss any details. The intern also mentions that moving the coops was a longer process because of the fence and hill, so that's a point to note. The lettuce planting is for fall, so maybe the intern is planning for seasonal changes. The mention of the 50 feet more rows is a significant point about the field expansion. I should structure the answer clearly, separating each section as per the user's request. Make sure to use the exact terms from the text, like "sunflower patches for the CSA" and "winter squash for the fall share." Also, check if there are any other new things or questions that weren't obvious. The intern also mentions the time taken for moving the coops, which could be a suggestion for future efficiency.