Week 4
Today is Monday July 23, and this marks the second to last week of the semester. It's amazing how fast this month has gone by. It seems like we were just starting the class talking about what we were going to do for the class for the month. I’ve only had two classes out on the farm and after last years struggles I wasn’t sure what to expect but things have turned out great. A few of us are starting to get some leeway at trying to make a difference and I'm really excited to help inject some life into the farm for my last year at Appalachian. One of the things I love about farming is the thrill of chasing after what you want. There are no upper or lower limits in farming. It is 100% on you to make what you want and all on you if you don’t make anything or lose money! The only limits are by the land and nature, artificially breaking these natural limits is what industrial farming does and this kills the land. No one will make your farm how you dream it will be, you might find some help, but its all on you. It was cool to hear chip talking about his business shipping tomatoes. I hope I can craft a successful family farm business one day. We went into discussing Greenhouses and Cover Crops. These are two areas I want to become more knowledgeable and useful in as I have seen many job listings asking for those experienced in these things. It was cool to hear the difference between intercropping and row cover cropping. I think a successful mix of these things can be extremely beneficial for organic farmers. It can smother weeds and save time pulling, help combat soil erosion, and build up the soil quality. This seems like a win win win so I’m not sure why its not being utilized more? Maybe there are issues im unaware of.
On Wednesday July 25th we turned the BS shed into something new. We took off the old 4m poly covering the hoop house and laid on a fresh new piece. There is still a lot of work to do on the inside cleaning it up but at least we got it looking good to where you want to clean it. It’s a big space with a ton of potential it will be cool to see what it could turn into. Sometimes with big projects that aren’t fun we don’t know where to start or don’t even want to start because the task seems to big to complete or overwhelming. My grandpa always said to eat a elephant you take one bite at a time and I always think of that when taking on big tasks. It was good to see the group work together well and everyone complete the task with a good pace.
On Friday we went back to the greenhouse to do another good amount of clean up. We arrived at the farm pretty late due to a new driver not really knowing proper protocol on how things are done. It reminded me of how this can happen on the farm if good communication isn’t utilized. It’s nice to see that the greenhouse is starting to progress further into the plan on the remodel. I will be taking farm ops 2 in the fall and i'm excited to get to see it come full circle.
Jordan Palmer
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