First week of Harvest Camp in the books

Week two of summer camp and the first of three Harvest camp weeks just concluded as a resounding success.  Truly I worried that campers learning from Josh might become bored or distracted by the other activities going on at Mountainside.  I have major attention problems and I constantly find myself looking around to see if I am missing out on something cool.  I feared some children would defect to the climbing wall by day three knowing that their chance on the tower was reserved for Friday.  Not so.  In fact we got a resounding thumbs up from all the harvesters of every age.

Day one started with introductions and learning about good bugs and bad bugs.  The bad bugs ended up in paper cups filled with soapy water that lent to a clean death.  Of course each day was filled with planting, picking and eating healthy.  Broccoli slaw, stuffed green peppers, fried green tomatoes and cheese cake were some of the delicacies the children enjoyed.  There was some measure of envy from staff and regular campers alike as they watched the kids feast on Valinda's specialties at the end of each day.  Everything the kids ate came from the garden and along with a lot of learning came a lot of fun.  It helps to have a swimming pool just yards away from the garden and a Ga Ga pit to enjoy at break time.

This first session in June will be so different from the week two in July and week three in August where the harvest will be more varied and much more plentiful.  We had 24 campers working, learning and playing with Josh and KK, AJ, Sam and Valinda.  Even the staff that were assigned to harvest camp with no prior experience or pronounced interest in farming loved it.  I could not have hoped for more satisfied campers and a program that delivers to parents exactly what we promise.

The best way to tell this story is thru pictures... so here goes.

Farming is about anticipation

Geez you plant seedlings in February, transplant in April and wait and wait and wait.  Now that it is late June the wait is over.

For the past month we and other farmers have had the same offerings.  Lettuce, swiss chard, some carrots.  Ahh but now we have tomatoes, well ahead of the curve and a new batch of Shitake's.  Today should be a big day and next week is our first Harvest Camp.

The snow days put a huge dent in our first week of summer camp.  The Frederick County school system added 3 1/2 days to the school year which effectively gutted our first week of camp at Mountainside.  That said, we had campers in the garden every day this past week and the interest level is just like last year.  The kids are truly eager to learn and now they can help pick the fruits and veggies off the vine.  So much fun.  50 years ago I would never have considered picking tomatoes to be something that was fun.  Now I do and so do my campers.  How times have changed.

What is equally amazing is just how good farmer Josh is.  Ok so I am attaching a picture of a not yet ripe tomato that looks more like a pumpkin.  I know the technique all fishermen use when taking a picture of their prize catch.  Hold out the fish well in front of you so that the size of the fish is distorted to look bigger than it is.  My hand is underneath the tomato so there is no exaggeration of the size of this baby.  I will have a follow up picture in a future blog when it is ripe.  Ok it is probably time to stop, I am revealing just how far off the deep end I have fallen when it comes to farming.  But it really is fun.

Chocolate cake batter

Today I found myself back in the high tunnel tilling the soil where we just harvested the purple carrots.  Josh is readying the area for two more rows of peppers and his shoulder is healing and he is still unable to man the tiller.  I may be 58 but I am sure I have a few more good tilling years in me.

The soil in the greenhouse is pretty soft having been turned multiple times since December.  We till the weeds and plant remnants into the soil to enrich the dirt that already has organic fertilizer worked in.  Josh's previous boss at the blueberry farm used to tell him to get the dirt to look like cake batter.  Four passes with the tiller had the soil looking almost edible and ready for an egg and oil. The high tunnel allows for perfect soil conditions.  The thunder storm that hit tonight turns garden soil soupy only to be followed by hard packed cracks during drought periods.  Not so in the high tunnel.  Irrigation lines give the perfect amount of moisture at all times.  Thus you get cake batter for dirt every time you turn over the soil for crop rotation.

Camp opens in less than two weeks and I found myself happily tilling dirt.  There would never have been time to engage in chores like that before Joe III took over the helm with Bar-T.  I would have been pouring over bus routs and last minute staff changes.  I am happy to assist him whenever I'm needed, but an hour later I made a trip to Southern States for 6 foot stakes to be pounded into our cucumber patch.  I'm just in such a different and calmer place now than I was just a year ago.  Don't get me wrong, I will be heavily engaged with my campers this summer and every summer I am able to walk hereon but I just do not mind turning the majority of the responsibilities to Joe, and my great directors.

Josh and I are finding that unique produce pays dividends and the farmers markets.  You can get orange carrots and red tomatoes at Wegman's.  But indigo tomatoes and purple carrots are just what the customers are looking for at farmers markets.  Mushrooms, ground cherries, and wasabi arrugula are the order of the day and you really have to offer something different at these markets in order to stand out.

Now the just be consistent with a steady supply of unique from week to week.

The Maters are coming! the Maters are coming! Soon!

And so are beautiful colorful peppers, purple carrots, potatoes, broccoli snow peas and some other stuff within the next 2 weeks.  Cantaloupes, water melons and squash a few weeks later.
                         
OK I have to admit it but I am something of a tomato freak.  Chocolate too! But there is nothing like a plump juicy August tomato.  I eat tomato sandwiches, tomato salad, heck I virtually subsist on tomatoes in the late summer.  Ha! I get to start of my tomato gluttony in about two weeks because of the High Tunnel.   In Freaking mid June!!! Those plants are taller than I am and we clip the ever growing plants to a string that stretches 9 feet above the plant.  The tomato plants will climb(with help and a lot of pruning) all the way to the top of the string and back down.  Dude I am getting weirder by the minute.  I was having so much fun helping Josh prune the plants and clipping them higher and higher on their string.  When you touch the leaves or stem of the plants the scent clings to your fingers.  I love that smell.  Am I going off the deep end?

I had so much fun following Josh on his evening tour of the gardens.  Every day he goes around and inspects every row and virtually every plant.  He checks for deer damage, insect damage and the progress of the healthy plants.  Figures out what to weed and the just what needs the most attention each day.  Unfortunately there are thousands of plants and it is almost impossible to get to everything that need his attention.  It is hard for him to get to everything and some plants just get away from him.

Indigo tomatoes that are purple on top and red when ripe

With camp opening in less than two weeks we are trying to get the word out to parents on what is available to purchase and how to go about getting their produce.  We had hoped to form a CSA but we are still trying to gauge just how much produce we are going to have and if we are going to have an over supply or not.  The important task is to let as little a possible go to waste.  The stuff Josh grows is so beautiful and tasty.  Anyone can come out an pick and purchase,  campers at Mountainside will have to opportunity to order on line and have the veggies go home with their campers.  If we have ample supply we will serve families at the Ranch as well.

All Heck is about to break loose (actually more like bust out of the ground)


                                                                                                   broccoli head emerging from the plant

A Picture can be worth a thousand words.

It is hard to describe the phenomenon we have experienced introducing children to gardening at Mountainside.  Phenomenon is a bold word but children are really into what we have been doing and Josh is a really good teacher.  Today was the last day of Bar-T Harvest Clubs for the Spring.  School is winding down, summer camp is gearing up and during the final days of the school we will be hosting 5th grade and Middle School end of the year parties at Mountainside.  The staff will be stretched to the maximum hosting these groups so the Harvest Clubs are shutting down.

So the last group of children came to Mountainside today to pick some lettuce, wash it, put it in a vegetable spinner, and bag the green goodness to take home.  The farmers markets to date have been a little disappointing.  Everyone is after our mushrooms which is great and we need to harvest a lot more in the future...but, as beautiful as our mixed greens, tennis ball lettuce and Nancy lettuce (that is actually a variety) are, we are not selling much.  Our hope is that our parents will see how beautiful and healthy the lettuce is and we hope to have our summer campers take it home with them on the bus.  The pictures below tell the story better than I can.

                                                                 edible pom poms

                                                       tennis ball lettuce great for wraps

Mounding Potatoes?

So here is the deal.  With this farming thing I am learning something new every day.  Some days I learn several new things.  I would never have admitted this when I was a teen but I love learning even at 58 when you think you know everything.  The difference between crochity 58 year olds and 14 year old "know it alls" is that 58 year olds forget what they know faster than they know it.  Enough for the tangent.

So yesterday Josh hooked up this small disk apparatus on the back of my tractor.  Big tractors have disk things that cover 15 feet at a time.  We are a small farm so ours was just two feet.  He instructed me to drive the tractor dead center over our potato plants (which are growing very well) with the disks on either side of the plants. The disks pushed dirt up to and nearly covering the nice green plants.  The task would have been a lot easier had Josh planted the potatoes in a straight line. It was easy to center the front of the tractor over the plant but the disk was 8 feet behind the front and he constantly barked commands to me to "go left" or "hard to the right".  We are going to work on straight planting for next year.

Ok so it makes sense that you mound the potatoes. They grow underground and no one cares about the leafy plant above the surface.  I did not know but kinda figured that potatoes have a leafy stem above the surface.  How else would you know where to dig?  It also makes sense to nearly bury the plant under a mound so that the root vegetable can grow and is easy to harvest.  All very understandable but still new to me but I did not know what the disk thingys actually did
until yesterday.  Another new thing I learned.

The big revelation came from Josh.  I am amazed on how much he knows but I want my readers to do some research on this fact.  He told me that Potatoes that get exposed to sunlight can turn green and become poisonous.  Really!  I asked him twice if this is true and he emphatically said yes.  Potatoes can be poisonous?  How many Irish people had to learn that lesson the hard way.  If any of my readers can refute this information I would like to hear from you.  Josh is a graduate of West Virginia after all so we can't take this information totally on his word alone. He knows a lot mind you but I do not want my blog to be like Wikipedia.

Racing to get everything into the ground

This past week we planted over 2 acres of sweet corn that were kindly donated to us by my good friend Mike Dixon from "Seeds of Life Nursery".  While Jason Wood was planting 50+ acres of field corn we strategically selected the acreage closest to my house for the sweet corn.  The neighboring deer can make short work of sweet corn, so our hope is that my here-to-for useless dogs might be able to ward the corn predators off when they are not napping.  It is notable how very expensive sweet corn is.  It comes in small bags that barely large enough fill to bottom inch of a corn planting bin.  Each bag is $50 and is comparable to opening a bag of chips that contain more air that chips.  Since the corn was planted on Monday we have yet to see any appreciable rain.  In fact we are getting off to a very dry start this Spring which does not bode well for the hotter months to come.

We also laid 8 plastic covered rows, each roughly 200 feet in length for our pumpkins, watermelons and lopes.  Marlo Leafty,  another generous friend, lent us a plastic row layer (I know that is not what it is called) that enabled us to prep the rows in less than an hour that otherwise would have taken a full day and back straining work and shoveling.  The plastic inhibits weeds from taking over the rows so that we grow only what we want.  The cool thing about Marlo's attachment is that it lays down irrigation line in the center of the row at the same time.  Even if the summer is dry we will be able to get the plants the water they need.  Last year we enjoyed Josh's amazing yellow watermelons which were planted on less than 100 feet in our garden.  We should have 5 times the number of melons this summer.

For those of you less knowledgable,(which include me) pumpkins and watermelons spread out and are not susceptible to deer and rabbit damage.  Since there is no need to plant the seeds in the deer protected fenced garden, we have a lot more room for other veggies.  To date; half of the fenced garden is currently planted, the greenhouse has lettuce and spinach ready for picking, the 6 rows of potatoes and sweet potatoes are already sprouting and the 8 rows of Melons and lopes get planted this week.  If all goes well, should quadruple our output from last summer with sweet corn and potatoes added to the mix.

We concluded the week with our first farmers market in downtown Frederick.  It is early in the season but we did pretty well selling mushrooms and spinach for about $250.  It is a start.

                                           

Jason with the little $50 bags of sweet corn

                                           Plastic covering attachment for the melons and pumpkins