I mentioned the poison ivy...I got it while working at our orchard when the UMich people were here. Our orchard is 700 trees large. We have nothing but pecan trees. They're separated into 3 sections: the upper, middle, and lower orchard. Pecans produce bi-annually. If a tree produces this year, it won't produce a good nut until two years from now. When we have on years we get close to 15000 pounds of pecans. On off years we may get 100. This is normal for pecans. There's a lot of testing that goes on when looking for pests. There're pecan nut case bearer moths that get into the nuts and make them infertile. All around Texas farmers test for these, using a white grid to see how many appear on it, and report back to the state where the spread can be tracked. It is important to kill the moths within 3 days of them burrowing to prevent contamination. I went for two days and weed whacked around irrigation poles. In the Fall the pecans are harvested. In the Winter, the orchard lies dormant until April. Now our pecan intern is going full steam ahead on getting the orchard ready for this Fall's harvest. Getting the weeds down and spreading fertilizer are two things that have been done recently. Apparently last year we only had one half of the trees produce due to a late frost. The frost only affected the upper orchard meaning that, now, the upper and lower orchard will be producing on alternate years (which would mean only looking after half the trees at once). The middle orchard hasn't been taken care of over the past few years so it's not producing very much. This is mainly due to the sheer amount of trees we have there.
A few weeks ago we went swimming at the orchard just before a storm rolled in. The orchard is set on the Brazos River. We ventured down to the river front to find a sift flowing current and a ton of mud. We mad a rope swing and swam across the river. The current was so strong that by the time you made it over to the other side you were at least 100 feet down from where you started. Swimming back across was even harder. We left the orchard in time to watch a major storm float across the sky and feel the cold front sweep in.
The garden is transitioning from winter to summer vegetables. We have tomatoes, peppers, okra, melons, squash, peas, and corn either in the ground or coming up. The garden crew's been working on getting the tomatoes and peas trellised. The finally finished Friday. It is important that tomato pants have outside support because of how heavy they get. If the fruit is on the ground it is easy prey for insects and pests. Something interesting about corn that I didn't know is that each plant puts out 1 or 2 ears of corn (if you're lucky). There's so much effort put into growing it and it's found in almost everything...it's surprising that we chose this plant to working with. Okra is something that grows so quickly that we have to harvest it every day to prevent it from getting woody.
I've got a rabbit that I'm taking home with me. It's a long-haired mixed breed. Her name is Marshmallow!
I've gotten really attached to the rabbits since I've been here. We're expecting two of our rabbits to give birth any day now. I'm afraid it's too hot but only time will tell. They're so soft and have more of a personality than most people would think...they're just not the smartest creature in the world.My chicks are doing well. They're getting to be quite big for 10 week old animals. We have a grab-bag of breeds. It's interesting to see how fast each of the breeds grows. Some are more suited for meat while some may be better for egg laying. I'll post some pictures on my next post.
My plot is starting to bear fruit, finally! We have corn, peppers, tomatoes and chickpeas coming in.
Chickpea pods are huge! Our lentils didn't make it. Since they were grown using store bought lentils I'm not surprised. I hope that some of everything is ready before I leave next Saturday. I'll be doing a container gardening class when I get to school to help students learn how to grow their own food even in their rooms.We had some cool classes these past few weeks. We had a 3-part class that covered on-farm trials. Neil Rowe Miller, the farm executive director, talked about the experiments he's done in Haiti, Uganda, and Central Michigan. Haiti and Uganda were tailored to seeing what western farming techniques could be used to help increase their yield. In Haiti they farm on sloping hillsides. This can lead to gullies and land slides. Neil went there and helped them setup barriers that would promote soil buildup to build terraces. These flat terraces would then be easier to farm and hold moisture better. In Central Michigan, Neil worked with farmers to determine if more nitrogen on corn would increase the yield. He used a GPS receiver and a sprayer that changed nitrogen flow every 30 feet. He found out that the weather conditions affected the crop more than nitrogen levels. We also had a class on looking at fecal samples. We went to a community college nearby and diluted fecal samples to determine if the animals have any parasites. We found that some of our animals had a lot. It was a pretty cool experience overall.
A few weekends ago I had weekend duty which meant a day off! I biked into West, Texas, a small Czech settlement about 10 miles up the road. They're known for their bakeries. Most everyone sells cinnamon rolls, kolaches, and meat. Some high school students had come to volunteer and gave me the low down: Gerik's is where it's at.
I decided to give it a try. I was not let down! I got four kolaches and a cinnamon roll. Oh man, all I can say is that biking back to the farm was much harder than biking there!My time here at the farm is coming to an end and I can say I don't regret anything that's happened so far. I'm sure the next week will be the same way.
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