Yesterday, our fields group pruned again at Blue Ox Farm. It is funny how it takes the eye a while to assess the needs of a blueberry plant. Once one gets up to speed, one can step up to a bush, assess what it needs and step right up. I described the process in an earlier blog installment but here is my refinement: step up and snap off (or prune) all the dead wood. Clean up the base and thin the yearling shoots, if there are more than four. Then, walk around the plant, taking out spindly branches, branches that don't have healthy looking buds with a focus on clearing out thick places.
This was Monday morning. On Monday afternoon, we worked at the greenhouse. First we had a journalling session with Carlen. She gave us some ideas on how to sketch and what information to collect. Then we had some quiet time to observe and sketch. We'll have several more sessions over the next few weeks.
When this session was over, we did some seeding of more lettuce and chard for the CSA. When that was complete, we thinned out the lettuce and brassica plants that had more than one seedling in the cell. Brian and I gathered up the "micro-greens" and took them home. They were delicious and made a great Monday evening dinner.
 |
| Emily and Caitlin choosing seeds |
 |
| Brian choosing a spot for the chard |
Tuesday morning our group spent time with Carlen continuing to refine our practice of gardening. In particular, we focused on the home garden planning details. We went outside to decide where our crops would thrive. After that was complete, we drove over to the greenhouse to continue seeding plants for our home garden.
 |
| Carlen discussing the sweetcorn in the triangle project. |
 |
Caitlin choosing a space for snow peas and melons
|
 |
| Cow herd? What do I care what a cow heard? |
This afternoon, we all discussed beef herd management with Olivier. We went through an exercise to figure out which is more costly--buying in "feeder beef" and raising them for almost two years on pasture and hay compared to inseminating the cows and raising the young beef to maturity. The numbers came out pretty close. Just accounting for the purchase of young beef, the rental of a bull and the cost of hay, it turns out it is slightly less costly to raise "feeder beef." As the discussion rolled on, it wasn't so clear cut to me. Acquiring cattle versus raising them involves other issues--genetics, being sure that the animals are healthy, etc.
All-in-all, a good two days!
Yesterday, our fields group pruned again at Blue Ox Farm. It is funny how it takes the eye a while to assess the needs of a blueberry plant. Once one gets up to speed, one can step up to a bush, assess what it needs and step right up. I described the process in an earlier blog installment but here is my refinement: step up and snap off (or prune) all the dead wood. Clean up the base and thin the yearling shoots, if there are more than four. Then, walk around the plant, taking out spindly branches, branches that don't have healthy looking buds with a focus on clearing out thick places. 
This was Monday morning. On Monday afternoon, we worked at the greenhouse. First we had a journalling session with Carlen. She gave us some ideas on how to sketch and what information to collect. Then we had some quiet time to observe and sketch. We'll have several more sessions over the next few weeks. 
When this session was over, we did some seeding of more lettuce and chard for the CSA. When that was complete, we thinned out the lettuce and brassica plants that had more than one seedling in the cell. Brian and I gathered up the "micro-greens" and took them home. They were delicious and made a great Monday evening dinner.
No comments:
Post a Comment