Getting to Market, Fixing Combines and Forging

It’s been remarkably busy here the past couple of weeks. So busy, there was no time to write! We’re in a steady rhythm now with weekly farm walkarounds on Monday mornings to orient ourselves to what stage the crops are at and what tasks need to be completed (e.g., weeding, drip taping, seeding, transplanting, weeding, singulating, de-suckering, bed prepping, more weeding).

Market prep on Friday is ticking along smoothly. We are almost completely through harvesting the first run of crops in the greenhouse -- there are only a handful of beet green bunches left. Tomatoes and cucumbers have already been transplanted where the spinach, baby lettuce, arugula, and radishes used to be. Here is a lovely photo montage of what things look like on ‘market prep’ Friday mornings.

Andrew came back for another day of working on the All Crop combine. When I returned from an errand, he commented that the whole process was “a battle.” Although it could be taken that the size of the repair job was disheartening him, Tristan confirmed that Andrew is all the more committed to the task. It just might take a bit longer than originally planned.

And lastly, a farm ‘first’ happened this past Sunday. Golden Ears can say that it has its own forge now, thanks to Sam’s handiwork on his day off! Some spare metal pieces, a wheel rim, a bit of welding, and voila — a forge is formed. Tristan and Sam looked like giddy school boys as they gave it a try. Sam is drafting plans to make a knife and one can only guess what kind of crafty ideas Tristan has for this new-found tool. Who knows? Perhaps he’ll build a fancy market stand with it?

A huge shout out to Anne and Annelise for providing all of the fantastic photos in this post!