August

A simple summary:

jalapenos are still tiny

Fall tomatoes are close

Garlic is drying

Tool Review - Hooke n' Crooke Heron

Tool review!  We use all sorts of tools on the farm, some of them are a pleasure to use, others, not so much.  I should put a disclaimer at the beginning that I am not affiliated with the tool manufacturer or have been asked by them to write a review or anything.  Why the disclaimer?  Well I think this thing is freakin' great, honest.

This tool is a specialized hoe called a "Heron" made by Holdredge Enterprises, LLC. in their Hooke 'n Crooke series of tools.  http://holdredgeenterprises.com/

Here is the business end.  It's built super burly, and has a ridiculously nice label.

For the most part, it's like an overbuilt stirrup hoe, with one side missing.  You can use it to slide just under the soil surface and sever the roots of weeds that have just sprouted.

Stirrup hoe for reference.  

Generally I like tools with a specific purpose, but the Heron performs a bunch of functions and does them well.  Say you're out in a field weeding with a smaller stirrup hoe and come across a big overgrown weed, you're probably not going to go back to the shed for a bigger tool.  First thing, you'll probably hack at it with the more delicate tool, and when you realize you might break that delicate tool, you'll stop, bend over and pull out the weed by hand.  That gets old fast.  With the Heron, it handles delicate weeding and can really chop at the big ones.

You can't do this with a stirrup hoe: Weed under drip tape!  This is by far my favorite use of the tool.  It's way too easy to put off weeding if there is drip tape in a bed.  If there is drip tape you have to either pull the tape out of the bed, hand weed, or just go careful and slow.  All of which results in eventually ignoring the weeds until they choke out the crop.  Chances are that if you've installed drip tape, the plants are going to be there for a while and will need weeding at some point.   When using the heron to weed under drip tape, the main thing you need to do is move away from the drip tape header line as you weed, so you're effectively pulling the tape straight.  This prevents the drip tape from getting pushed into incorrect locations.

If the drip tape does get knocked out of position, just pick it up and scoot it over with the tool.  No need to bend over.  Easy on the back.

Flipped sideways I slide the tool along the edge of the hoophouse boards and slice the grass rhizomes that are sneaking in from outside.  Yeah, I should put down landscape fabric on the outside edge, but in the meantime...

And you can pick away at tight spaces using the tip.

This tool also makes it easy to be lazy about what tool to bring out to the field.
Making furrows for a quick seeding.

Spun 90 degrees counter-clockwise, it also functions well as a narrow rake to close up the furrow after seeding or pulling out severed weeds from the bed.

 You can really use this thing for hacking out grass clumps.  Seriously, a good windup and chop!  And use the tip to pick out the clump.  I think it's most effective for clumps where a spading fork would be overkill.

But,oh yeah, the spading fork is back in the shed so...  we'll just go after the really big clump.  Chop away at grass that really got out of control and turned into a bunch of sod by slicing along the edge to sever roots, and then pry it up.

 It's handy to weed the edges of perennials that hang into the rows and hide weeds.  The handle does not bash the plants and the blade slides underneath.

Voila, the blade has taken out the weeds, but has not hit my perennial.

Negative aspects:

My main complaint is that if the weeds are really out of control, you end up chopping with the tip of the tool a bunch.  Because the sharp chopping tip is offset from the center axis of the handle, each chop will cause the handle to twist in your hands.   So, you hold on tighter to keep it from twisting, and eventually your hands are aching.  I know when I chatted with one of the sales reps from Holdredge the main line was essentially "if you feel like you're working hard, you're not using it right."  Probably true, and perhaps I'm pushing the limits with how much chopping should be done.  I was envisioning a sort of wrist brace bolted onto the handle to stop the twist, maybe I'll try a modification.  Or I should be using a rototiller on the really weedy stuff.  But man, this tool makes you feel like a rototiller.

It's listed for $54 at http://holdredgeenterprises.com/#tools.  Definitely pricey if you compare it to $16-$30 hoes from the big box stores.  However the price is in line with other high quality specialty tools at Johnnys.  You really are getting what you pay for.  There is a good chunk of metal on the end, it's a well designed specialty tool and it's made in the U.S.A. (woo!)

Last complaint, I frequently find myself wishing it had a longer handle when I'm using it like a stirrup hoe.  Though the length is right for the chopping, and finer work.  With the way they mount the metal bit in the handle, I don't think I could replace the handle.

I admit I didn't like the Heron name when I saw the tool.  But now that I've been using it, the name makes complete sense.  Picture the ever so graceful Heron (the bird) delicately walking through a shallow pond, making barely a ripple.  Then BAM! he spears a fish with his big 'ol beak.  

Seems about right.  

Recipe Generator & Michael Pollan's new book

The New York Times recently posted a "Farmers Market Recipe Generator."

Excellent!  You select a produce item, it then gives you a method of preparation and a garnish.  The combination is sort of like the game of clue, Professor Plum, in the Conservatory, with the Wrench, but you can't go wrong in this case.  You'll always end up with a neat recipe.  I would love to see this expanded.  Anyone know of something similar out there?  A more complete ingredient list?  Seasonally /regionally adjusted lists?  Anything that makes turning fresh produce from the farm into a tasty meal easier is great in my opinion.

On this line of thought, I highly recommend Michael Pollan's new book Cooked.  He delves into the idea that we have outsourced much of our food preparation to corporations, and the result is a loss of skills, deleterious effects on our health, and unsustainable food systems.  How to fix this?  Cook at home!
Perhaps a more thorough book review will be coming along here.

Meanwhile...
Basil is looking good.  Plenty has been harvested off here so far

Lil' chicken supervisor

 Cukes are going gangbusters

Time to get the garlic out!

You can't see it, but I did snap some of the scapes off.  Mostly I leave them on though.  Reports are that if you leave the scape on, the cloves won't get as big, but they store for a longer period of time.  So far, I think my experience confirms this.

Soggy

Gosh it's been raining a bunch.

But, the bee balm and elderberries are blooming!

But in the hoophouse, it's dry and I got some cukes trellised up.  Nice tendrils grabbing onto the twine.

I had a young supervisor today.  

I think she's telling me to clean up those clippings.

Or she's just admiring the fine veggies.

Meanwhile, back in Portland, some random interesting pictures of the day.   A big oil tanker is running it's engine at the dock.  It's vaguely farm related, fossil fuel use is intertwined with so many parts of agriculture. 

 [insert oil dependency rant]

The smoke trail did do some neat stuff over the bay though.

And as I followed it around the peninsula, it led me to this.  Wow!

Little projects

The farm is partly on paternity leave this year.  But we still have some tasty projects simmering.

Garlic and Herbs are looking nice

Rosemary is cruising

and the chive blossoms are very pretty in omelettes

We also got to take our first ever father/daughter trip to Fedco!

Inspecting the sage blossoms.

Wintery Summary

What happened this winter?

First the ground froze...

...and I thought that would be a great time to plant garlic.

The chickens found The Great Pumpkin.  (and ate it) 

The deer found my parsley (and ate it)

I moved the chicken coop to another field...

...but the chickens had other ideas.

The hoop house got buried in snow...

...as did the truck...

...and the chicken coops...

so we eloped!

(that makes sense right?)

Meanwhile, the deer ate everything left in the field...

...and we had a baby! 

 Looking forward to spring!

Fall Cleanup and Hurricanes

Hey there!  Here's what has been going on as we finished the summer CSA and started fall cleanup.  The farm looks pretty nice.  Plenty of older plants in the ground, and many more blank spaces as others have been tilled in. 

The left side of the hoophouse still has some perennial flowers growing, but they'll come into their own in the spring.  There are still a few onions out there and some broccoli to keep them company.

The winterbor kale has ben trucking along and shows no signs of giving up!

But it can look a little goofy after picking all season.

We took down the yurt before hurricane Sandy.  It was a nice shelter for some of the nastier weather this fall, but I did not want to deal with strapping it down for a hurricane.  It's been in plenty of high winds, but mostly the canvas takes a long time to dry.  After a few nice sunny days, it was ready to pack up for it's next adventure.  Where to?

We finally took down the pea trellis!  That only took,...uh, 4 months...  Other things were going on ya know.

The netting is strong stuff though, so it's ready for use another year.  Ah, there's a nice blank space in the field now, ready for some winter rye.  Or maybe garlic?

To prepare for the hurricane we added extra wiggle wire on the parts of the hoop house which normally roll up.  There is normally a little gap there, but in a high wind, it could lift up the whole side, and then possible the whole hoop house.

We also added more soil to hold down the row cover over the herbs and salad greens.  This worked ok,  the wind caught a few holes in the row cover, and ripped it open in places.  But most of the row cover stayed in, or close to the bed...

And then the storm blew in.  The sound of the wind in the trees was mixed with raucous ocean waves crashing!

The air was thick with misty rain and smelled of the sea.

The trees were waving around plenty too.

This was the worst of it down in the creek.  We feel very fortunate, and hope that others who got hit by the hurricane harder can recover quickly.

And then it was Halloween.  Say, I've got an idea for a jack-o-lantern!

 It met mixed reviews from the trick-or-treaters...