Phinney Market

Had our best day ever, at Phinney. I harvested 125 lbs of tomatoes for the market today.

Things they are growin'...

The blur that is the farm has hit us yet again. As we look over our fields, Deanna and I often wonder how and when "that" got planted... I have no idea how this thing comes together, but it seems to work itself out, regardless. We are now in a full on rotation of weeding, de-suckering tomato plants, transplanting and seeding. Our first CSA box is coming up this Wednesday - June 17. We started markets a couple weekends ago, Issaquah and Meadowbrook. I've posted some pictures of what's growing on the farm. Enjoy!

-Matt

What the heck have we been doing?...

OK, so we've been just a wee bit busy lately, so our posts have been few and far between.

We transplanted 250 Tomato plants into 1 of the greenhouses yesterday, and transplanted about 700 lettuce plants. Also, last weekend we planted 975 row feet of potatoes! We're doing 4 varieties - Purple Majesty, All Red, German Butterball and a French Fingerling. I don't know who is going to harvest all these potatoes?
Here's the recap of what's in the ground:

Garlic
Onions
Kohlrabi
Broccoli Raab ( Rapini )
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Cabbage
Kale
Beets
Carrots
Radishes
Spinach
Lettuce Mix
Lettuce - Leaf
Potatoes
Peas

Plowing, finally...

Well, we recently took out yet another loan to pay for our BCS walk-behind tractor and 2 greenhouses. The BCS was delivered on Wednesday, and man is this thing cool! We purchased the rotary-plow attachment and it is pretty amazing! The BCS has an 11hp diesel, which we are running on bio-diesel. Friday, March 13 was the first full day with the BCS and it worked as well as advertised. The rotary plow goes through the soil quite smoothly, although as with any two-wheel tractor the undulations in the ground do make for some sore muscles the next day... This is not your average sissy roto-tiller. The BCS weighs 300 lbs and has a PTO - power take-off - which means that like a 4 wheel tractor, this thing will accept a multitude of implements. It was nice to finally break ground, but it would have been nice to have the tractor a couple weeks ago. After plowing, we let the soil 'rest' for a couple weeks. This helps break-down all of the humus and kills off the grass. The next step will be to run through with the rotary plow again and make raised beds. We should start planting in about 2 weeks! There are already thousands of little seedlings growing and our pace is starting to pickup each week. 

Minerals, Minerals, and More Minerals!!

Yesterday - Monday, Deanna and I spread 1750 lbs of minerals on this seasons field, by hand!!
We used a combination of a Scott's push spreader and carried buckets and broadcast the minerals by flailing about in a controlled fit, hoping to spread the pellets in a uniform manner. In the end, we ended up spending about 4 hours toiling in the field. When we were finished, our bodies began to tell us we should probably do this with some type of mechanical spreader next time... Who knew? The purpose of adding minerals to the soil is to try and bring the acidity, or pH level, to a neutral balance. Our soil is more towards the acidic side of things, so we used recommendations from Kinsey Agricultural Services to try and bring our pH level closer to neutral. The minerals included calcium, magnesium, phosphate, sulfur and potassium. In the future, we hope to alleviate the need for mineralization by using our cover-crops and field rotations as a good way to build soil fertility. The bottom line, however, is that we do need to replace some of the nutrients we are removing through the growth of our vegetables and herbs. We are now awaiting the delivery of two 24' x 60' greenhouses - which we hope to make mobile, more to come on that - and our BCS walk behind tractor. It's almost time to break ground!

CSA Share Finder

This post has been created to help you find other individuals that might be interested in splitting a share. There are a few of you out there that would like to join the Sol to Seed Farm CSA, however, are not certain you can consume all the contents in our weekly box. This is your opportunity to find other people in your area that would like to split a box. All you need to do is post your name, the area you live in, and anything else you think would help match you to a "Share Buddy". This is a great way to support the farm and get to know other members!
Click on the "Comments" link below to leave your information and comments.