Heirloom Harvest

Generally catching up

The greenhouse is bursting with transplants, and we are getting them out into the fields now. We welcome anyone who would like to come and get their volunteer time in early in the year. The weather is still cool and insect issues are low!

The brassica vegetables and a lot of the onions are out. We direct-seeded lettuce, the first greens, and red beets. We’ve started with our tomatoes. We’re growing assorted modern varieties, but also some heirloom and classics including Black Krim, Great White, Striped German, and Red Iraq At least so far, deer pressure seems to be reduced this year. There’s less tromping damage, in any event.

The bluebirds are also back on territory, as are the tree swallows, and the bobolinks appear also to have returned. All grasslands birds are precious, but bobolinks in particular are declining across much of their historic range, and it is a measure of the value of the sustainable agriculture we practice that they remain here.

Velocity Raptors

The land around the farm is a public commons, where people come to enjoy a variety of activities. Some are familiar, such as bike riding and nature walks. Others are less so, such as exercising falcons, as Upton resident Bill Johnston is getting ready to do here. One of these raptors was raised by its parents, and so is quite sensitive to the presence of people. The other was raised by humans from 21 days of age, and is consequently far more tolerant of people.

Deep in the Leeks

At the Fall Equinox, Renée Moelders captured images of her son, Moritz, and a leopard frog among the leeks. As she points out, the leeks look like a jungle when seen from Moritz's perspective. The frog might well feel the same way, on the damp earth under lots of leeks to keep him moist.

Eeeeeeyaaaah!

Here is a tomato hornworm, which not a worm, of course, but a caterpillar. A very LARGE caterpillar, as evidenced in the hold your editor has on it, under Farmer John’s sharp but unpictured eye. If you picked up your produce Sunday before last, you may have met this worm where John had it set out for show and tell later in the day.

If not, then you probably didn’t see one, as Farmer John applied Spinosad that Sunday night to reassert the members’ desire for the tomatoes. Spinosad, as you can read for yourself, is a means of controlling pests which is also responsible and is approved for organic use.

Please the Bees

Editor's Note: Tragically, native North American honeybees are greatly reduced due to modern environmental stresses. The bumblebee is a major replacement in terms of providing pollination services in the wild and in cultivation. Bee gentle with them. (Sorry.) This one was working on a cherry tomato blossom last Sunday. By now, the blossom is already changing to a tomato fruit, thanks in part to the bee.

Learning Lessons

The deer have staged a comeback and we have discovered that they like soybeans. We have more than 50% failure on soybeans due to deer. We’re just finding out what they eat this year. So, now we're doing some research on deer fences. You will start to see some floating row cover like what's in this picture to foil deer (and other pests).

Graphic Arts

Editor's Note: I suspect that many of the farm's members may find this mood piece of a graphic novella, Salamander Dream, as compelling as I did. The themes are suburban sprawl, the resilience of life and love for the land, and the romance of science.

Meadow In Summer

Editor's Note: When I went out to pick peas Thursday, I heard:

Tree swallows

Hermit thrush (in the woods)

Red-winged blackbird

Song sparrow

Green frog (I think - sounds like a long thick rubber band being plucked)

I hear birds, because I'm a birder. Joe, my 4-year-old son, also hears insects -- he's got a shorter horizon. Maybe you listen differently -- to small engines, to people's voices, to songs or to stories. What do you hear at the farm?

Slow and Steady

Please be careful driving into the farm, no matter how steady your car is. The turtles are out laying eggs, which brings them into the roads in much greater numbers than typically is the case.

Birds' life

The farm is coming alive with the natural life that benefits from diversity.

We’ve had coyotes and turkeys in the back field wandering around. The lightning bugs have come out at night, and there are a LOT of them.

Bluebirds are back living in some of the houses on neighboring property. The houses are in pairs, you may have noticed. That’s because tree swallows and bluebirds like the same kind of house, and tree swallows are more aggressive than bluebirds and will evict bluebirds if there’s only one house in a “neighborhood” to take. But once the tree swallow has a home it’s happy with, it won’t attack the bluebird. Both kinds of birds provide some natural pest control, although this is a good time to remind workers and pickers and collectors that insect repellent is always a good idea.

Here's a tree swallow flying next to a house it's inhabiting in this picture, taken by your editor Sunday (between mosquito bites). Click the pic to see it more clearly.

We would welcome any wren houses that members might have to donate or loan, as a wren house placed judiciously along the woods line would provide us with even more pest control. “As far as its feeding habits are concerned, the house wren may be considered entirely beneficial to the interests of mankind,” noted Arthur Bent in his encyclopedic study of bird life.

We could use some of that insect destruction capacity, so let us know.