TL;DR
We harvested loose leaf red russian kale and escarole. Afterwards, I did some serious cleanup while the poultry was getting retrieved, then we packed the EV van for market.
Between the cleanup I did, the poultry processing center did, and what’s to come around the farm this month before season close, cleanup comes in many forms. It made me think about all the homelab and career cleanup tasks I’ve been deferring until I’m done on the farm for the year.
Until Kale Freezes Over
Kale, like many other brassicas, have built-in antifreeze properties because they produce both sugars and other compounds like glucosinolates. Soft frosts are not a problem for most kale, but next week is projected to get cold down to the high 20s. Still, we’ll have what we need for this week and next week, which is the last week of the fall CSA (and 2025).
An Escarole Escapade
Escarole is a leafy green vegetable that is kind of between a cabbage and lettuce in both taste and sturdiness. Its got vitamins A, C, and K. That said, the way I prefer it is blanched slightly and used as a wrapper for filling of some kind. One of my favorite childhood memories was helping my mother make stuffed cabbage in the crock pot.
The variety of escarole we grow on this farm is only slightly bitter, not even close to how bitter endives get, and chewier than lettuce. Unlike our lettuces, It grows flat to the ground, so harvesting requires a sub-soil cut into the root and then some clean up of the extracted base afterwards.
Deferring Still Takes Time, Just Not Now
There are many things on a farm that, during the season, you have to defer while you’re busy doing everything else more urgent and important. In the spring, setup projects and getting things into the ground at the earliest safe date usually take precedence over cleanup tasks. This is true for the fall as well, but instead for harvesting and other chores.
Why not stay later each day and do the deferred tasks? Sure, you could do that…today…then also tomorrow and next week and before you know it, you’re working twelve hours every day and still not getting everything done. You have to prioritize what’s most important and what will have the biggest impact on the farm’s success over completing everything you’d like to do.
Finally, today I got to clean up an area on the back side of the garage we have used for miscellaneous stuff throughout this year…some wood and metal scrap, some irrigation garbage tubing, tools, broken plastic stuff, extra pigtail posts and other odds and ends. It took about an hour to clean up and get everything into the back of the truck, then another half hour to unload it in the right places. But I felt a sense of completeness to the year by doing a project like this. Soon, everything will be yearly close-out tasks and then I’m in my home office for a few months.
AI Summary from Field Notes
I like that my summarization process caught a reference to the local bakery that I stopped at for lunch and whipped it into a suggestion about making local business partnerships with the farm. I wouldn’t have expected that kind of connection be somewhere deep inside the maths and pre-trained facets of the model.
But then I mention one little thing about limited parking at the general store pickup location and it seems to make a fuss about it, which I wasn’t expecting. The thing to remember is that LLMs aren’t intelligent, really. They’re just big mathematical models that have been trained on a vast corpus of text data and don’t contain true reasoning or []’run-time learning’ as Sutton puts it](https://youtu.be/gEbbGyNkR2U?si=HcvY_e636dD9SdrA&t=1148).
So for today, the automated summary from my field notes gets a passing B grade from me, but there’s plenty of room for improvement. I can’t wait to have many days in a week just to focus on building and improving stuff in my homelab over the winter.
Summary
Consolidated Summary
Main Themes
- Daily Farm Operations: Harvesting, cleaning, and preparing produce (carrots, kale, escarole).
- Challenges & Maintenance: Dealing with weather (wind), infrastructure issues (net disconnection), and cleanup tasks.
- Logistics & Coordination: Managing deliveries, moving poultry, and coordinating with the CSA (Falls CSA).
- Personal & Academic Responsibilities: Voting, lunch, and completing homework for a farm business planning class.
Activities
- Harvesting/Cleaning: Cleaned carrots, harvested/washed kale and escarole, and bent produce.
- Waste Management: Moved waste to compost, cleaned the back driveway.
- Chicken Yard Work: Secured a blown-up net, restructured the yard, and moved poultry.
- CSA Logistics: Loaded the electric van for CSA pickup.
- Personal Tasks: Took lunch at the Sandpiper Bakery, completed homework on farm business planning.
New Things Learned
- Techniques for handling specific crops (Red Russian Kale, escarole).
- Net installation and troubleshooting for wind-related issues.
- CSA coordination in a busy area.
- Efficient waste management practices.
- Weather impact on farm infrastructure (e.g., chicken coop net).
Questions & Future Research
- How to secure nets in high-wind conditions?
- How to optimize parking for CSA pickups during contractor activity?
- Strategies for a sustainable farm marketing plan.
- Designing resilient farm structures for weather events.
- Best practices for sorting and disposing of farm waste.
Suggestions
- Secure Net Installation: Use additional anchoring methods for the chicken coop net.
- Monitor Weather Advisories: Adjust operations based on wind forecasts.
- Improve Parking Planning: Coordinate with the general store for overflow parking.
- Document Farm Practices: Keep records for academic and operational reference.
- Collaborate with Local Businesses: Leverage partnerships (e.g., Sandpiper Bakery) for resources.
This summary integrates key operational, logistical, and academic aspects, ensuring clarity and actionable insights for the intern’s work and growth.
Part 1
Main Themes
- Daily Farm Operations: Harvesting, cleaning, and preparing produce.
- Challenges and Maintenance: Dealing with weather-related issues (wind), cleanup tasks, and infrastructure maintenance.
- Logistics and Coordination: Managing deliveries, moving poultry, and coordinating with the CSA.
- Personal and Academic Responsibilities: Voting, lunch, and completing homework for a farm business planning course.
Activities Performed by the Intern
- Harvesting and Cleaning:
- Cleaned carrots.
- Harvested and washed Red Russian Kale and escarole.
- Washed and bent produce.
- Waste Management:
- Moved waste to the compost area.
- Cleaned the back driveway.
- Chicken Yard Maintenance:
- Removed chickens from a blown-up net.
- Secured the net, added pigtail posts, and restructured the yard.
- Poultry Handling:
- Moved poultry boxes to freezers.
- Helped load the electric van for CSA pickup.
- CSA Logistics:
- Prepared and loaded the van for the Falls CSA pickup.
- Personal Activities:
- Took lunch at the Sandpiper Bakery.
- Completed homework for a farm business planning class.
New Things Not Yet Encountered
- Specific Crop Handling:
- Techniques for harvesting and preparing Red Russian Kale and escarole.
- Net Installation and Maintenance:
- How to secure a net over a chicken coop and troubleshoot wind-related issues.
- CSA Coordination:
- Managing logistics for a CSA pickup in a busy area.
- Farm Waste Management:
- Efficiently moving and disposing of agricultural waste.
- Weather-Related Farm Challenges:
- Dealing with high winds affecting infrastructure (e.g., chicken yard net).
Questions and Future Research Areas
- How to Prevent Net Disconnection:
- What are effective methods to secure nets in high-wind conditions?
- CSA Parking Solutions:
- How to optimize parking for the general store’s CSA pickup during contractor activity.
- Marketing Plan Development:
- Strategies for creating a marketing plan for a sustainable farm.
- Farm Infrastructure Resilience:
- How to design farm structures (e.g., chicken coops) to withstand weather events.
- Efficient Waste Management:
- What are the best practices for sorting and disposing of farm waste?
Suggestions for Action
- Secure Net Installation:
- Implement additional anchoring methods for the chicken coop net to prevent future disconnections.
- Monitor Weather Advisories:
- Stay updated on wind advisories and adjust farm operations accordingly.
- Improve Parking Planning:
- Coordinate with the general store to manage overflow parking during contractor activity.
- Document Farm Practices:
- Keep records of crop harvesting, waste management, and infrastructure maintenance for the farm business planning class.
- Collaborate with Local Businesses:
- Partner with the Sandpiper Bakery or other local vendors for resource sharing (e.g., lunch, supplies).
This structured approach ensures the intern addresses both immediate tasks and long-term goals, balancing operational efficiency with personal and academic growth.
[end of post]
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