HI all-
Gaelan has been writing these great farm newsletters all year and we need to post them here!! We are moving into Fall here with a flourish. The dried leaves are littering the river and the dips are so refreshing. The light is changing and the mornings cool. Can't believe summer is on its way out. The hot crops are done. The field tomatoes have been ripped out and bedded tilled. The high tunnel tomatoes are on their way to being gone and peppers and eggplant refuse to give out more. It's always a sad letting go , but there are lots of new beds planted and seedlings popping up , reminiscent of the spring. The fall broccoli, cauliflowers brussel sprouts and kale have survived their August transplant which is always a shock- the heat and bugs are brutal. They are perking up and looking better. Gaelan has been a seeding fool , ready to leave summer behind and move on. The winter squash harvest was paltry but digging our potatoes out was like striking it rich! They yielded so well and some are so huge!
We've had quite a crew here this summer. Julie our stellar intern from OR has been a great worker and friend. My cousin Ryan has been here 3 months from Jersey, greeting us each morning, with "hey!" in a Jersey accent which makes us laugh. His sister and boyfriend have also been helping out which has been fun. So we've had lots of folks around.
We are planning our Farm dinner for Sept 22nd. The summer just got away from us and in the late August lull we finally had a moment to pick a date. IT will be a wood fired extravaganza unleashing the power of the cob oven Gaelan built last Fall with our interns, Nick and Grace (who are getting married!!).
So, we still have a whole season ahead of us til Christmas but it will slow and slacken a bit. Looking forward to it!!!

Hey Everyone old and new!

Just cut our grass for the first time,as it was starting to resemble a tropical rainforest,not a yard.Getting to the clothesline was starting to feel like Burton and Speke looking for the Nile's source.The smell of fresh mown herbiage will forever remind me of those glory days of summer.When all I cared about was which swimming hole I would frequent and which girl I had a crush on.............................anyway,now it's here again.After an early spring filled with perfect growing weather,peepers peeping and all things growing downright voluptuously.No other way to say it,when overnight,the green of the carrot tops goes from an okay green,to a bone jarring intensity.Broccoli glints in a grey ,blue ,green forest.Lucky,since when we planted it out we got the truck high centered on the only boulder on the farm.Rain pouring,ourselves drenched and grinning like the eternal optimist fool farmers we are.Somehow we managed to push,pull and mudhog our way out of the field,a dramatic start,now a footnote compared to the broccoli sure to grace your plate in the near future.Sometimes after a good shower,the sun shining again,I like to sit on that pesky boulder and I swear you can hear the thrilled calls of the crops as they photosynthesize and reach upward.I hope you all are ready to get it on in the kitchen.Every year, due to that psychotic symptom called optimism that we suffer from,I tend to laud this year as THE YEAR!But in all reality,each year has its enormous successes and abject failures.THIS IS THE YEAR.For what I am not sure yet,but the peas are looking sexy,basil is smelling fine,tunnel maters are flowering and those andean  miscreants the taters are poking lustily from the loamy soil.If you cant already tell,I am excited to be here again,sharing our lives and bounty with y'all.For those in Asheville,pickup is tomorrow at the Montford Market between 2 and 6pm.Celo folks,Friday at the barn,4 to 6pm.Here are your A team members!

arugula

spinach

lettuce

bunched greens

onions

radish

turnip

See you soon!!

peace

gaelan

 

Rain has been gracing us with its magic these past few days.Now of course the ground is saturated and the creeks running full tilt.Hard to envision those dust filled afternoons of midsummer when rainy times like this seem obscene and surreal.Peas and fava beans are in full bloom,reminding us that fruit is just around the corner.Pastures and forests are electric in there greeness.You can tell the pasture grass is growing well, when the sheep don't greet you with a chorus of baaing every time you enter the back field.Lambs are bulking up,no longer worried and skittish.Gerda our milk cow is expanding exponentially,her calf is due in July or August.The new piglets root their way around their pasture,discovering a whole new world from the concrete jungle of their early days.

Down in the main field,the soil sits ready for the onslaught of planting that will happen this week.Rye cover crop slowly melts into the soil,releasing clumps of fungus and masses of wriggling worms.Fecundity,decay,the anticipation of the unknown yet familiar.The broccoli and cauliflower have started to button up,carrots are sizing up,beets look delicious if only the deer didn't think so too.Taters have sprung through the brown loam with alacrity and show good vigor in a field hitherto unused by us.This spells good news for y'alls stomachs and plates,palates too.Just looking at the cherry tomatoes dangling temptingly in the high tunnel ,while still green, they hold the promise of summer.Here are the characters for this weeks farce.

spinach

lettuce

onion

greens

radish

turnip

perhaps something else as yet to be decided.Enjoy these greens,for the heat shall soon be upon us and they will be a mere figment.Peace

gaelan

 

Nicole DelCogliano
Gaelan Corozine

murphy's law

Today the air was lush with scent. We went out early in the shadow to plant. It was sopping, the rain yesterday soaking the beds to a sponge like quality. Today was tranquil compared to yesterday.
We had about 4000 seedlings to transplant with our trusty Planet Junior and Senior (Me and Gaelan's arms). The broccoli, cauliflower, kale, chard and onions do not wait for weather. Really though we should have waited,. but due to G's leaving for a trip, we've got to get these babies in the ground.
Yesterday started by G trying to fix the broken lug nuts on the tractor tire, which caused it to almost fall off! That in, in of itself proved okay, almost got the truck stuck in the mud while trying to help out! We got the tilling and planting mostly done, racing against the thunder and lightening. Just keep bending and keep planting , the rhythm almost mesmerizing, the motions done over and over. ..
As the thunder crashed we dashed to the truck and sat in a downpour. I asked " do you think we can get the truck out of here " as I see rivulets of mud streaming down the gravel path we are to take out. I guess I jinked us because it just got worse! The truck got stuck and then sort of in the way of a huge boulder we excavated out of the field some  years ago. We had to use the tractor to move the boulder, in the process of which the irrigation tubing got all tangled in the spader which was dragging on the ground for leverage... Then the tractor had to push the truck out of the muck!! All said and done, covered in mud and soaking wet, we prevailed in getting the truck out of the field and home. Today all the plants were planted out and we did not drive into the field! We learned something for once.
The air was so fragrant today and the plants happy!!

Planting out

What a great day to plant out! IT was in the 70s again. Our neighbors from Mexico say "Marzo loco" and I agree, March is crazy! We started out the day setting out our onion seedlings - white and red. We hoed our little lettuces and spinach that we sowed in Late January. They're so cute! Direct sowed beets and carrots too. The tractor had a tire hiccup at the end of the day- the lug nuts broke on the back tire! That 's why  I don't drive the thing! Hopefully we'll fix it tomorrow so we can prep the beds for all our beds of broccoli, cauliflower , cabbage and greens that need to be planted out before Gaelan leaves for the Grand Canyon Sat.
Farming is on!

February planting

It was 70 degrees today! What a day for planting. It's been nothing if not mild, so hopefully our January planting will give us an earlier start. We went out in the field today to plant another seeding of radishes, turnips, greens, arugula, spinach... We started off spreading one load of  compost on the beds and as we returned for the second load, the tractor quit. It had been belching some black smoke earlier... IT took almost an hour of clearing the gas line of diesel junk to get going again. G spent some time sucking on the lines trying to clear it, but we had to disconnect hoses and thread wire through the hoses to get blockage out. Lesson: don't run the diesel down to empty..... we knew better...
All ended well, the girls helped on the tractor as Carmella chanted for me as I ran the seeder down the bed. The smell of soil and hot sun on the back felt great! Onward to Spring!!

New season 2012

Wow, we haven't added anything since the crush of August. That can happen after August. It felt like a marathon.. September and October mellowed out somewhat but not enough to blog I guess!!
Well, 2012 is upon us already. We luckily ordered all our seeds right after Christmas and had a big package waiting for us on our return from Puerto Rico (our January getaway!).
It has hardly been a winter here and most places. So, ala global warming, we decided to plant some seeds outside a month ahead of when we normally do. Although it feels good, in a way, it also feels really weird. It's warm, the sun is shining birds are chirping but it's January (or was). We sowed spinach, turnips, radishes, lettuces, greens, fava beans, beet and carrots (all outside under remay cover). If it stays mild they should actually grow. We also started our onions in the greenhouse as normal.
Somehow even though it's warm, my body is still hibernating. I don't have Spring fever yet to be out and active entirely, at least in a farm work sense. I still feel the need for rest and reflection. The markets and serious busyness will be upon us before we know it and then I will lament the hours I can't spend reading by the fire.
I read Jane Austen's "Persuasion" in two days over the weekend. I hadn't read her since high school  probably and while I"m not going to go on a Jane Austen spree, I enjoyed it. The writing is so subtle and the lifestyle expressed SOOO different from mine, that is in interesting.
I am also reading Galileo's daughter- mostly a book about Galileo and his life and work, but also about his relationship with his daughter reconstructed from letters she wrote him. Very compelling.
So, that's kind of where I am. Contemplating the busyness to come, the season is certainly spiraling our way. Intern references to check, market meetings to attend, seeds to plant, but also books to be read by the fire still!
Nicole