On the Farm- Events and Barn Update

Barn at sunset with wheat in the foreground

Yesterday, with the help of some generous friends who donated their time and strength, we put the walls up on the second floor of the barn. Barn building and farm projects have absorbed most of my time and energy lately and have kept me out of the studio. Bear with me while I pause on the 52 Form Project and work toward getting back in the swing of things!

Raising a wall requires a lot of hands to put the walls together, stand them up, and then hold them in place while they are stabilized and nailed in. It's a bit risky and tricky, especially on the second floor being so high up!

We're trying to get things ready for the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association Triad Farm Tour that takes place this coming weekend. There will be about 17 farms on the tour, giving people the chance to caravan with others and go from farm to farm, learn about a lot of different farming practices, see different kinds of plants and animals, and maybe taste some fresh veggies and other food!

Our own farm open house and pottery sale is coming up the weekend after, on Sunday the 15th.

My brother decided that our barn currently looks more like a Super Mario Brothers castle than a barn, so in his honor, I leave you with the ever-unforgettable tune of the Super Mario Brothers (if you get through 34 seconds, you'll see a castle):

On the Farm- SUCKERS!

P.Allen Smith and I at the Pottery Fair. Photo by Martha Hartley.

Before I get to tomatoes, I thought I would share the above photo taken at the Pottery Fair on the Square last Saturday. P. Allen Smith, gardener extraordinaire, came by the show and I had a chance to talk to him about flowerpots and pesto. I also had the pleasure of taking him through the MESDA (Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts) collection on Friday.

At the farm this week there has been a lot of weeding and bed management. I also took charge of the tomato plants in the greenhouse by suckering and trimming their branches. Suckering is when you remove the growth that pops up between the "arms" of the tomato plants. Keeping one "arm" rather than two or three helps the plant not get so bushy and to give more energy to the fruit production.

Tying up the tomato plants with pantyhose

One of my grandmothers had a knack for growing tomatoes and I think my fondness for the smell of the plant and pleasure in tending to them came from watching her. We use cattle panels for our trellises, it makes for easy moving, and you can gain better access to the plants as opposed to tomato cages. I use old pantyhose and tie sections of the plants to the cattle panel.

Carnage of the tomato plants

I also remove the lower branches of the tomato plant so that there are no leaves or branches touching the soil. I think this applies much more outside, but either way it protects the plant from any bacteria in the soil that can spread to the plant. Outside, when it rains, this can be a big deal because of the leaves are low enough, the rain will bounce bacteria from the soil onto the plant. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but when I have not done this, we have had issues with blight, spot, etc., and when I have done it the plants seem healthier. There's a lot of carnage when I am done, though!

We're working really hard to get ready for the First Annual Triad Farm Tour and our own farm open house and pottery sale on the 15th of June. This means I am giving up doing an early June kiln firing, so there may be fewer hanging planters than I wanted to offer, but no shortage of pots!

On the Farm- Bees and Zucchini

We have honeybees at the farm primarily to pollinate the produce and crops. I would say we are more or less lazy beekeepers except in the spring when we try to keep ahead of them and then do a split or two. We had a large hive that seemed to be working very quickly and filling everything we gave it at a rapid pace. Rather than continuously adding empty frames for it to work with, we decided to split it.

Sometimes this kind of split is called a "Poor Man's Split" because we don't add a queen to the new hive (and we hope that we have not removed the queen from the other hive). 

Now we are up to three hives as long as the new hive goes well. On the plus side, we just HAD to pull a few frames of honey!

Massive zucchini plants

Zucchini blossoms and zucchini

In other news, we have ZUCCHINI at the farm- producing prolifically! I grew up in Southern Ohio, and I never saw zucchini in early May. I can't say I have seen zucchini in early May anywhere that I have lived! Mike started zucchini in the new hoop house and I don't think he was expecting that it would take over the aisle and practically half of the hoop house! It's a wonderfully squeaky vegetable when you eat it raw or lightly cooked!

Tomatoes in the hoop house

Shell peas

Our tomatoes in the smaller hoop house are doing well and we harvested the first batch of shelling peas this evening. We will probably have snow peas, shell peas, and zucchini at the Greensboro Farmer's Curb Market this coming Saturday!

On the Farm- Chicken Shadow Puppets and Barn Progress

 We were heading to check on the chickens the other evening and as we approached their blue tarp-covered house, we noticed it looked like a band of shadow puppets playing across a stage. Once they realized the farmer was nearby, though, they all herded toward the door to greet him.

 Above is a photo of our newest additions. We don't know which ones are hens and which ones are roosters quite yet, but we're hoping for more hens than roosters! These little biddies will be our new laying flock.

Work on the barn progressed, and we now have flooring down! We're still working toward our 100 bottle goal on our fundraising, and looking forward to lots of events in June at the farm!

On the Farm - It's SPRING!

Arugula coming up in the greenhouse

Spring has sprung at the farm, and with a vengeance. We went from 30-40 degree (Fahrenheit) weather last week to 70-80 degree weather this week!

Zucchini went into the ground this week and into the greenhouse.

Small spring lizard spotted at the farm

I spotted our first lizard of the year while I was moving firewood the other day!

Honeybee on flower

Our honeybees are out and about. I spotted them on quite a few plants around the farm, including a flowering tree near the road that a lot of insects are enjoying (circled in red above).

We went into the hives this evening and saw a lot of activity inside. Mike unfortunately got bopped by one bee, but it looks like things are going well inside of the hives. Now we just have to stay ahead of them to keep them from swarming and leaving our hives!

Work on the barn/workshop is going well. Above is what the barn looked like yesterday.

We were on to the second bay of floor joists today. I had never heard floor joists called "sleepers" until I was talking to someone later in the evening. The person who said it told me that "sleepers" is just what carpenters sometimes called the joists.

We launched our "Help Raise Our Barn" fundraiser campaign in order to offset some of the costs for building such a large infrastructure for both of our businesses. We are grateful to the responses we have received and look forward to our 100 bottle goal!

On the Farm and in the Kiln

Some exciting things at the farm include the fact that the sun is shining, it's trying to dry out, the weather is getting warmer, and there are GIRDERS going on the piers for the barn!

 The boards are getting laminated together and then screwed in and nailed.

Equal in excitement is the fact that the spinach direct seeded into our new greenhouse is coming up!

 After the ice set back on Tuesday, I got back in the kiln on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday and got it halfway loaded.

 It was pretty cold at the farm when these photos were taken on Wednesday. The hard brick in the kiln retain the cold temperature and it feels like loading pots in a frozen tomb!

Above is a photo of the kiln all loaded up. I've got it pretty stuffed, but hope it won't make for a difficult firing.

Then I bricked up the door, making one flat wall on the front.

Finally, I mudded up the door with a mix of refractory clay and sand. I once again forgot to leave a brick free to check the cones in the front. This seems to be my repeat "oops" moment. 

Mark your calendars, we have set a date for the farm open house and pottery sale at the farm in June! Sunday, June 15th from 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

On the Farm and the Wheel Debacle

Well, late last week (Thursday and then into Friday morning), my trusty wheel motor died. If any of you fine readers happen to have a Creative Industries Model MP (earlier model, probably not 1 HP) wheel and could tell me some specs on the motor, that would be awesome. I'm hoping it is just the bearings, and have ordered some replacements, but the labels on the motor were removed at some point so I do not know the RPM, horse power, or voltage. If I don't have the specs just right, I can blow the controller! I'm limping along with an older Shimpo that also has a motor going out, but the photo above is where Week 9 of the 52 Form project got stopped! I've been playing a lot of catch up this week, so week 9 & 10 may just have to get combined when I can get things back in order!

Other projects this week in the studio have been mostly small items easily thrown on my rickety wheel. Bowls, mugs, and bottles have been filling the tables and shelves up!

New basket shapes

I was excited to make a few more of the basket shapes based on trials from one of my earlier forms from this year.

Pouring soil into the beds

Beds filled!

Plastic on!

In other news, we have plastic on the greenhouse and soil in the beds! I personally raked and hoed about 24 cubic yards of soil into the beds! The greenhouse plastic went on this past Sunday just before we had some snow and ice on Monday.

This morning's adventure was to pick up some wood for future kiln firings. This weekend is the North Carolina Potter's Conference. I'll be there on Friday and Sunday, and think it should be a good time.

On the Farm and Kiln Firing

Blue skies!

It was an absolutely gorgeous day for a kiln firing yesterday! Everything was all loaded up, the overnight preheat went well, and other than some strong winds that wreaked havoc on the pressure in the kiln, it was a good firing! When the wind is strong, it keeps the chimney from drawing quite as well, and plays around with the fireboxes, but we did not have a lot of stalling out or holding at one temperature, so that was nice.

I cannot say it was a successful firing until tomorrow when I open it up!

The draw rings, as seen above, which are pulled when I am salting the kiln, looked nice. I put about 10 pounds of salt in, then drew some of the rings out. The first round of ring were not quite as salted as I would like, but the blue slip color looked nice. I added a little more salt and then pulled some more draw rings.

Greenhouse under construction

Yours, truly, volunteered today to help the Farmer with some projects at the farm while the kiln cooled. No rest for the weary! We worked in the morning on pulling dead plants from the garden beds and getting the lining on the raised beds in the new greenhouse in place. Here are some photos of the lining going in:

The lining will keep the grass from growing up from beneath the greenhouse and (hopefully) help keep the weeds down.

While weeding the garden beds this afternoon I came across some lovely worms, which excited me to no end. Our farm was historically used for tobacco and then hay, which can deplete the soil. Earthworms are not present in large numbers where the is depleted soil. When we first started putting in the gardens, we saw very few earthworms. Now, they are all over the place!  This means we are getting lots of good organic matter into the soil.

I also came across a very tiny little frog. Can you find him in the photo above? If not, check out this photo:

We have been enjoying the tiny frogs' return to the creeks and ponds near the farm. Their chirping sounds are such music to my ears!

Of all of the things we did today (which also included bonding over cutting potato starts in the evening), feeding greens to the chickens was perhaps the most entertaining thing of all.  Above is a photo of the chickens eating on a random plant of kale I pulled from the garden. Here is what it looked like after a few short minutes:

Death to the kale plant

The chickens love their greens! I am happy the daylight is getting longer as that means we are getting more eggs from our chickens, so we have a few more options for kitchen adventures! Speaking of the kitchen, I highly recommend trying The Palate magazine's recipe for Brazilian Chicken Stew. We used one of our farm chickens we processed last year, sweet potatoes from the late fall harvest, and tomatoes canned last summer. The flavor of peanuts (I used peanut butter), tomatoes, coconut, and sweet potatoes was fantastic! I also love that it was described as "a kindred spirit to the many aromatic one-pot meat dishes that followed the spice trails and trade winds from the western coast of Africa, to the eastern coast of South America, up through the Caribbean, and into the deep ports of the colonial South."

You might be thinking, "Brenda, where is your 52 Form Project from last week?!" For you who are wondering, I hope to have a surprise from the kiln firing tomorrow about last week's form! Stay tuned!