Week 9, Spring ‘21
By Remi Welbel
It’s our ninth week here and our shelterbelt may be done, but we are just getting started!
On Monday, we kicked off the week with our All Hands Meeting. Then we set out to make our watering rounds and start a biochar burn! While rotating to tend to the burn, we took pH samples in our strawberry test plots and conducted methane and carbon dioxide emissions tests in our corn and hay plots. Later, we worked on weeding and maintaining our thriving veggies and herbs in the greenhouse. We transplanted all of our asparagus seedlings from their flats to bigger peat pots. Peat pots are made from peat moss and can be planted directly into the ground when the plants are ready to be transplanted as they biodegrade into the soil. Then, we harvested and weeded our spinach in the bed outside the greenhouse. We joke that our spinach seems to grow back overnight! Later in the day we thinned broccoli and radishes and weeded in the Miracle Garden and continued digging out more beds in the Goat Garden. As the day was ending, Jesse ran back to the house with some alarming news, all of our newly planted chestnut saplings had been uprooted. We rallied together, bringing buckets of water and wheelbarrows of soil mix to the clearing in the woods to re-root the chestnuts. Unsure of what caused the damage and worried about our saplings’ survival, we called the chestnut tree expert who sold us our saplings. He told us deer were likely the culprit and encouraged us to get blood from a slaughterhouse to spray on the young trees to keep away deer and other predators. Fortunately, he seemed hopeful about their survival.
For dinner, Gavi and Jesse made red lentil-baked patties, salad with garden spinach and radish turnips, pesto from our radish greens, and tahini dressing. After dinner, we ventured outside to sit and take in the gorgeous pink super moon. Lilly made a moon-themed cake and Sophia made her famous banana ice cream. It was so wonderful sitting outside listening to music and watching the moon and stars together.
On Tuesday, Jesse and Lilly bravely set out to a nearby slaughterhouse to obtain blood to spray on our vulnerable saplings. With buckets, gloves, a spray bottle, and admirable persistence, they sprayed all our chestnut trees and some of our other young plants. Meanwhile, we mapped out and flagged the spacing for pawpaw planting. Pawpaws love shade, must be planted in pairs for pollination, must be at least 6 ft apart from each other, and must be about 10 ft away from neighboring trees. Fortunately, across the road, we found some perfect places for our pawpaw queendom. Then, we got to planting our hazelnut trees. Because they are for our research, we prepared soil mixes with precise ratios of biochar, manure, and soil. Using the auger (a large drill for planting trees and putting in fence posts), we dug out holes and spaced out our hazelnut saplings. Inside, Brendan planned the construction of our wash station and mapped out a schedule for all the grants we will be writing in the coming months. While some of us got all 18 trees planted, the rest of us rolled up and put away all our plastics coverings for the season. Then, it was time to plant our shelterbelt and pawpaws! While Gavi, Jesse, JR, and I went to the East side of the pasture to plant our pecans and serviceberries, Lilly, Sophia, and Tuomas went to plant our pawpaws. Gavi, Jesse, and JR operated the tractor and tree planter while I mounded soil and stomped down each of them. We got over 100 trees planted!! Before turning in for the day, we fenced out the cows from our newly planted saplings.
For dinner, Bren and I made split pea soup, roasted sweet potatoes topped with pomegranate molasses, carrot salad, and lemon-vanilla cake for dessert.
On Wednesday, we greeted the drizzly day with a team meeting to discuss our goals for the day. Then, we got to work catching up on our “indoor work” and finishing up greenhouse maintenance. Before the real rain came in, we ventured outside to construct a protective fence around Miracle Garden. Back inside, we met with Kaitie Adams from the Savanna Institute to discuss potentially collaborating on an agroforestry research project. Then, we finished planning our summer apprentice orientation and continued planning for the transition from spring to summer. In the evening, we watched a documentary about indigenous food sovereignty called Gather, and Lilly and Hannah led a context conversation surrounding the purpose and meaning of land acknowledgments and what it means to meaningfully engage in justice for indigenous peoples.
For dinner, Lilly and Sophia made pesto from our garden spinach and radish greens, pasta, roasted chickpeas, and a radish and daikon salad.
On Thursday, we gathered for our team meeting to share our hopes for the day and plan our Lag B’Omer celebration in the evening. After our meeting, we stayed sitting around the table for a full-team goal-setting meeting! We spent time writing, sharing, and discussing the goals we are striving to accomplish by the end of this spring season, by the end of the summer, and in the longer term. It was an incredibly productive meeting and we all left buzzing with excitement for what our future holds! In the evening, we started a Lag B’Omer biochar burn.
For dinner, Gavi and I made rice and tomato soup and then wrapped potatoes, sweet potatoes, and marinated tofu in tinfoil. Then we headed outside to the biochar burn where we tossed the potatoes and tofu into the fire. Before we ate together around the fire, Gavi led a beautiful Lag B’Omer meditation. After dinner, we sang and danced until we were ready to head to bed.
On Friday, we had a quick team meeting before getting to work! Due to the rain, we were alleviated from our watering duties, but a group of us set out to take soil cores and pH measurements. Inside, we spent a great deal of time strategically planning and ordering all the materials we’ll need to establish a drip irrigation system. Later, we extracted water samples from our soil cores and conducted alkalinity titrations on them. We also had a research meeting and found out that our pH data is looking really interesting! From our preliminary data, it seems that our test plots with high concentrations of basalt are reacting with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, resulting in a lower soil pH. We will keep you all posted as we learn more from our research! In the evening, we came together for Kabbalat Shabbat songs and some reflection on our week.
For dinner, Lilly and Shachar made Thai lentil soup, turmeric rice, roasted radish and chickpea spinach salad, ginger maple sweet potatoes, and challah.
It was a very full, very fulfilling week at the farm. As always, we are so grateful to our community living together here, and for all of you for supporting our vision and our work.