Two Spruce Farm: newspaper + field prep + green

Two Spruce Farm and Northland were featured on the front page of the Cortland Standard on Saturday. This is mostly for my mom, so she can print it out and hang it on the fridge like when I was a kid and got a hit in T-ball. The only difference, really, is that now I'm pulling dandelions with intention instead of absentmindedly in the outfield. Jokes there are a lot of other differences. Also sorry if you're interested in which parts of Cortland are going to be included in the upcoming film released by Left Coast pictures, you are only going to be able to read like a quarter of that article.

We also marked out the big field for transplanting/ direct seeding after dragging the spring tine harrow, the chain harrow and a board drag over the plowed ground. We used a custom forecart of Donn's with a 36" wheel spacing (so we can make 36" wide beds, most of which will be single-row) to create shallow furrows for transplanting, and a two-horse cultivator with hilling discs for the first time to create hills for direct seeding and transplanting.

Donn, Connie and George with the forecart & row marker

The fitted field ready for marking and planting

Row marking/ creating a furrow for transplants

Testing out hilling on the cultivator on the garlic

Tomorrow or Wednesday (depending on rain) will be a big transplanting/ seeding day for us, and we plan to put Napa cabbage, kohlrabi, onions, shallots, scallions, cauliflower, cabbage and our seed potatoes in the ground (as well as doing a bunch of direct seeding: carrots, beets, spinach, radishes, etc). Reinforcements (two friends from PA who do not yet know they will be engaged in agricultural work) will help us make the main field look less like an empty field and more like a market garden. Transplants have been growing great thanks to the consistently warm weather & the application of some compost tea Daniel cooked up. Plus most of the trees have just started to leaf out and the sheep (lambing is done, also, final count: 60) are now on pasture- a large, sudden and welcome influx of green into our daily routine. Bring on the spring.