Tomato Begining to Trellesed

I am so surprised how fast these Bumble Bee's are growing. This makes 1 month in the hoop house since they went in the ground as transplants from AVI. Every week now, if not 2 times, they have to be pruned and trelleded. Not only because they are growing so quickly, but it seems like I am still finding spots missed week's ago.

Tomato Pruning

This will be the first year that I am able to work with these plants from beginning to end. In the Hot House this year we have planted Sun Gold and Bummble Bee cherry tomato's. The plants are raised on a system that Mr "A" has developed over the past years and is one that everyone that has worked with tomato's in the past says is the best they have seen. In regards to production and efficiency, and over all organization this is the method to learn and use. The plants have been planted 30 inch's apart in the middle of the raised beds and given an opportunity over the last few weeks to establish themselves. Drip tape is the irrigation we will be using and has been laid down on both sides of the plants. Once we were sure that we would not need to replace any more of the plants after the initial transplants and we had given the plants the time to get themselves going, it was time to prune and trellis them all. First off, all the plants were pruned, starting from the bottom and working towards the top, all "suckers" were removed from each plant to assure the plants would continue to grow straight up. Once I was satisfied with each plants appearance we trellised them all to the twine we had earlier hung down from above.

Salad Harvest

A lot of the blocks have in them, for the first half of the summer harvest season, greens. We have an extensive contract with a major local purveyor who purchases as much of our "blend" as we can produce. Basically it is 1 part Braising Mix, 1 part "Ovation" Mix to 1/2 part Salad Greens. These types of salad greens, among most, do not grow extremely well in Full Sun plots. But since we harvest these greens so quickly, one after another, they do not have a chance to "molt" and burn up in the sun. So we are able to make a good amount of our budget off these greens in the first 3 months of early summer. Basically planting them in late February to March, first harvest coming the end of April, and then through out May into early June we will make 4 to 5 harvest, with one final large cutting mid June. After this last cutting, we rip out the entire beds and replace them with what's next on the crop plan for the year. This year, that crop with be peppers. I was AVI the other day to see the plants that they have started for us over in the green house, sweet bell peppers and Lunch Box peppers will be what we will be replacing the greens with this year. So here are a few photo's of this years first greens harvest at Rodeo Farm.

Radish

Block D is our radish block, we have 6 different varieties over here, everything from Ice cycle to French Breakfast. These are all overdue to be thinned out, which should be happening this week.

Farm Photo's

As you can see, the farm is finally growing. And quickly! We just harvested greens out of block A, F, and K on last Thursday, and in less than a week, they are ready to be cut again. All of the rain we have received along with all the daytime sunshine has made for perfect outdoor growing conditions. That means a lot of greens to be processed these coming weeks.

Bell Pepper and a Yellow Heirloom Tomato

These plants are coming along really well. As I mentioned below I had to bring them inside up here at Lill, it's supposed to be very cool here over the weekend. We have a lot of "starts" going in the sky light room, both tomato and heirloom squash. In a couple of weeks they will be going outside into Plastic #3.

Pineapple Sage Tea (Hot or Cold)

This is a recipe for tea using our pineapple sage up on Lill. This can also be made into a hot tea, but I wanted to post a recipe for Iced Tea, which I think will be a great addition to a bar drink menu. At least this is the idea, it sounds really "sweet" to me, so these measurements probably need to be adjusted. I really just wanted to get this idea jotted down to work with in the future. And its great that even though I'm not in the kitchen right now, I can still get my ideas being I am around these plants and vegetables all day long every day of the week. Think that I"m on my 7'th week right now of the course, that means only 6 more to go! 1/2 cup pineapple juice, for ice cubes in the iced tea 1/2 cup packed fresh pineapple sage leaf 1/4 cup local honey (From Rodeo Farm!) 1 lemon or 1 lime Freeze the pineapple juice in ice cube tray. Bring 1 quart of bottled water to a boil and pour over the sage leaves. Stir in the honey and lemon or lime juice to taste. Steep for 20 minutes. Cool in the ice box until chilled. Pour into a tall glass filled with the pineapple ice cubes. Maybe use a few more leaves, and the flowers if available. If serving hot, pour straight into tea cups with one sage leaf in the bottom.

Pineapple Sage

This is my pineapple sage plant that Haley talked me into getting as one of this years herbs for the house.

Garden at Lill

My small garden on Lill is finally coming to life. Unfortunately we had to bring in a bunch of stuff again over the weekend because the highs are only in the low 50's. That kind of temperature drop is not enough to kill the tomato or pepper plants, but it is enough to give them a shock. Better safe than sorry. But with the plants that are permanent in the garden, they are really starting to make some moves. The raspberry vines and our Forsythia bush especially. The top photo is only 2 weeks prior to the bottom!

Beds at AVI

Since it has stopped freezing here, we have been able to remove the covers on the beds at AVI. Spinach, Braising Mix, Salad Greens

Salad Greens, Mixed at AVI

Pok Choy

This is some Pok Choy we raised in the Aqua System at AVI. Things like this and the salad greens come out in these perfect sized bundles that would work great for salads in the restaurant. Dressed with a light vinaigrette, nothing more will be necessary because these greens are so delicate and are as soft and subtle as anyone would imagine or consider possible that has never tried greens from one of these systems.

Drip Diagram

Drip Tape

Yesterday we installed a LOT of drip tape on the farm. This is what we will use for an irrigation system at Farm Rodeo. A lot of older pipe and tape was left over from the previous seasons, which meant that a majority of that had been patched, spliced, nicked, or had just split from the large temperature variations. So, we put in new. Good call, it was a bit of work, but now we have a solid, reliable method of water transport on the farm for this summer. Think we will continue to replace tape bed by bed daily until we have an all new irrigation.

The system is pretty simple, we have access to a hydrant about 100 yards away that we were able to tap into and run a 2.5" pipe onto the farm property. From there, using a system of shut offs branching out of the main pipe, the water flow's into 1" diameter plastic tubing which runs individually to each bed where the drip tape is punched into it.

Planting Tomato

Purple and Pink "Bumble Bee" Tomato Plants went in the soil today(4 row's of each). They were soil blocked in advance at AVI, 1 and 1/2 month's prior to today. The plants are 30 inch's apart from one another, planted 6 inch's deep in the center of the beds. We have the drip tape laid out and the twine put up directly above the plants, so when the tomato's get to the point where they can be clipped and secured, we can. That should begin by the time June comes around.

Veg plus Fish equals FOOD

These are some photo's of the Aqua Ponics system at AVI where this relatively small system produces head's of various lettuce's and strawberries through out the year. It is the very small version of what is being built at "FOO"(farm on ogden) by one of the other Core teams. The main, and really only significant difference between the two is that the Aqua system uses fish and their waste's to feed the plants vs the Hydro that use's only pure water. I have not gotten, or had the time to really get into the main specific points, but the idea is that the fish are typically raised in indoor tanks, troughs or outdoor ponds, where they produce excrement. The water with the waste from the tank flows to a hydroponics tray where plants grow in the water without soil. The waste is toxic to the fish but is a rich fertilizer for the plants. As the plants absorb the nutrients, the water is purified for the fish. The clean water can then be recycled to the fish tank.