Clagett Farm Notes

Last week of May

Among other things during the last week of May, we transplanted sweet potatoes, u-pickers hit our two strawberry fields hard, and we started to harvest garlic scapes. The appearance of garlic scapes usually indicates that garlic bulbs themselves will be harvested about a month later. As Carrie noticed, the garlic plants are drying somewhat earlier than usual. We are not exactly sure what this means. The drier than usual spring is certainly a factor. Perhaps we will start harvesting garlic sooner than expected and perhaps our bulbs will be smaller than in previous years.    

May turned out to be a fairly dry month. The farm probably got less than half the usual precipitation. All in all this has been a dry spring: in terms of rain, April was a good month, but it was sandwiched  between a March with virtually no precipitation and a fairly dry May.

Last Saturday we were surprised by the number of worksharers that came to the farm--almost forty individuals. In August we can keep such a crowd busy harvesting, but there is simply less to harvest in May. Nonetheless, once the harvest was done we kept everyone fairly busy with weeding some of our beds as well as raking recently mowed rye grass and hairy vetch (cover crop) and then piling it all up on a compost heap.

We appreciate our volunteers and worksharers, and we understand that most of them are unable to come to the farm during the regular work week. But let me lobby for Tuesday as the day of the week to come. If you want to work for a share or simply volunteer at the farm, you will be especially welcomed on Tuesday, which is our most intense harvest day.

And now a few photos.

Above we see Dave clearing a heap of just-mowed cover crop that was in his way. Dave was using the tractor to prepare a couple of beds with a mechanical spader. (Photo by Sarah Tooley.)

Worksharers and Gail (foreground) weeding one of our beds.

Kenji engaging in close combat with new green stuff on his compost pile.

Great to be at the farm

We had a week of beautiful spring weather. It was a good week to come to the farm and that's precisely what many of you have done. The picture below was taken on Saturday morning. Among the harvesters we see Kathleen and Dave on the foreground, the rest are worksharers. I cannot speak for the worksharers, but it seems that they enjoyed the work. Well, we certainly appreciated their help and good spirits.

And speaking of Saturday's harvest, here are some glimpses of it. Carrots fresh from the ground:

Garlic scallions:

And strawberries for dessert:

And here is a photo taken by Carrie of two Clagettistas that can often be seen around the farm.

They are wearing typical farmer headgear. Perhaps not exactly typical for Maryland, though. Dave (on the left) has been wearing the hat that his parents brought to him when they recently visited from Wales. Not to be outdone by Dave, I (Kolya, the guy on the right) decided to wear a hat I bought in 1990 in a little Siberian village hours away from the closest paved road.

First Week of May

The first week of May was a busy one. Seeding, transplanting, weeding, cultivating, and so on.  Much of the time was spent on laying drip tape to irrigate many of our crops. This can be a time consuming process. Besides making all the connections, it involves holding the drip tape by hand and walking down each row and making sure the tape is properly placed along the row. To give you an idea, one of our brassica fields has 33 rows that add up to a total of 6,900 row/feet. That's more than 1.3 miles of drip tape in that one field.

Cassie gives Kenji a welcome interruption from his work. Kenji was connecting drip tape to an irrigation hose.

We also increased the size of the herb garden by the Wash Station. There will be some herbs this season, but it would be in a couple of years or so when the newly planted perennials reach an acceptable size.

Dave working on a foot path between the herb beds, while Kenji and Carrie are figuring out what to plant in one of the newly dug beds.

Gail Taylor digging out garlic chives to move them to a new location. Gail was a frequent volunteer last year and now we are very happy that she is part of this year's farm staff.

Susan Topping and Janie Hill-Williams seeding trays for one of Susan's projects at the farm. Susan works for the Capital Area Foodbank and Janie is a Clagett Farm volunteer.

Upside Down Tomatoes

Have you ever seen tomatoes growing upside down? If not, you may see some in our high tunnel below the wash station. Carrie decided to experiment and see how they'll turn out. The plants are small now, but we hope that later in the summer you'll enjoy some of our big beef and sun gold (which are tiny) upside down tomatoes. The vast majority of our tomatoes are grown the normal way and they'll be maturing somewhat later than the high tunnel upside down tomatoes.

Here we see Dave Vernon installing the irrigation hose for the upside down tomatoes. The fact that Dave is a tall and handy fellow made him perfect for the job. We put up the tomatoes the day before, a job that provided a good work out for arms and shoulders.

Bluebirds and groundhogs

Many of you, no doubt, noticed the nest boxes we have around the farm. One of them is right by the Wash Station and this spring we are enjoying the busy comings and goings of a pair of Eastern Bluebirds that are nesting there. Judging from their activity, they have little ones. If you come to the farm, though, do not try to take a peek inside their home!

The furry creature in the photo below lives in an underground dwelling on the pasture, only about 60 feet down the slope from the Wash Station bird box -- a groundhog (aka woodchuck). Maybe cute, but definitely unwelcome. 

Transplanting Tomatoes

We transplanted tomatoes this past Friday, April 28. It was a glorious spring day, just perfect to work outside. Farm workers and volunteers enjoyed a day with few glitches. Here are a few photos to show you what we did. First, we see Rob Vaughn disking the cover crop.

Next, Megan Caine, a dear Clagett Farm veteran who now often volunteers, is pulling out tomato seedlings from their trays to place them in the transplanter container. Tuz Boy is the dog checking out the operation.

And in the last picture, Kenji Warren is driving the tractor and volunteers Sean O'Harra and Terry Victor are sitting on the transplanter working as tomato seedlings setters.

Our transplanter is very old and was originally used for tobacco. It's a very ingenious device. For a quick explanation of how it works, click here to read one of our posts from last year. 

A Healthy Cover Crop

The lush green field in the foreground of the photo is a cover crop--a mix of hairy vetch and rye grass seeded by Rob last fall. Here is a closer look at this healthy mix.

In not too long this cover crop will be incorporated into the soil with a tractor-pulled disker. After that the next step will be to transplant vegetable seedlings. And those seedlings will produce yummie veggies that all of us will be enjoying later in the summer. I believe that the field above is where our eggplant will be this year. To learn a bit more about cover crops, click here to read what Rob wrote about them back in 2004.

Flowering Strawberries

Our strawberries are in full bloom, which means that in a few weeks shareholders will be enjoying fresh Clagett Farm strawberries.  Expect a few by the end of May, but most of them will come during the first half of June.

Springtime!

Hello everyone,
I went to the farm on Sat., April 15. I helped Kathleen and Kenji cover the potatoes with some straw to protect them from bugs and weeds. Here are some photos. Click on the image to see a larger version.
Roshani

Thanks to all gleaners

People came to the farm during each of the gleaning days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. From what they told us, they were happy with what they got, even when a particular crop they were interested in was already all gleaned out by the time of their arrival.

The photo above was taken on Friday--on the foreground is the straw-covered strawberry field. It was a cool, crisp and sunny day. And this beautiful autumn weather stayed with us during all three gleaning days. Nice.

Best Thanksgiving wishes to everyone!