Yowza! So busy.

Wow everyone! These past two weeks have been a crazy whirlwind of everything imaginable. I've got a ton of stuff to do to prepare for tomorrow's market, so this farmtastic blog will be a short but sweet.
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I'm moving all the chickens to the farm! The mamas happily live at my house now, but I couldn't resist the temptation of closing the loop and consolidating my farming adventures at one place. They'll have a bit more space and wonderful acacia elm trees to snooze under. I'll post pictures asap!

She's ready to go. 

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Let's hear it for another crazy farm project! I'm proud introduce my new (and very farmy) adventure:

Craigslist never fails me. I couldn't have asked for something better!

Here's the plan. Insulate the heck out of it, install a cooler, and wa-la. Walk-in-cooler on wheels. The cooler at my house is working great, but yet again... I couldn't resist the urge to consolidate everything to the farm. Now I will be able to harvest and refrigerate immediately, which, believe it or not, helps you out too. The shelf life of the veggies will be far superior if they can be chilled within just a few minutes of harvest. Call me a nerd but I'm pretty excited about this fact. Hooray for cold vegetables!

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I've made an executive decision regarding the important problem of plant fertilization. I know, sounds serious right? I've decided to ex-nay the very easy and convenient "organic" option of fish or seaweed emulsions. Here's how they work. Follow the directions, mix with water, douse the roots, and the plant receives a steroid shot of nutrients. Call me crazy but this seems to bear a lot of resemblance to conventional farming techniques. And besides, shipping 55gal drums of emulsion weighing at least 500 pounds from Alaska just doesn't do it for me. So my executive decision is to experiment with making soluble fertilizer from those cute little alpacas in my last blog.

You're gunna use my poop? Cool, dude. 

The pelleted poop does wonders for the soil, but the nutrient release is slower than molasses. So why not leach the nutrients into water, play around with concentrations, and pump it into the irrigation lines? Well, duh! As if that wasn't obvious. I have serious faith in this procedure, and it has nothing to do with Alaskan fish waste. Thumbs up that.

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Alright, my wonderful air-conditioned writing time has expired. Back to the field I go!

And hey I'm still looking for a volunteer Wednesday Weeder! And let me know if a Saturday evening weeding and eating farm party sounds appealing to anyone. I need many nimble fingers to help catch me up on weeding. Have a wonderful Friday everyone! :)

-Christina