Rainy Market

The end of May. Or is it? This season has been all over the place, but for the most part just late. luckily a few warm sunny breaks over May has helped to dry things out and give the crops a boost of sunshine and warmth. Today however, was not one of those days...

Today was wet and rainy. We started by gathering the various things for harvest; bins, scales, hoses, bags and knives. Then we found out that the tap we normally attach our hose to was broken, leading us to relocate to the covered bike parking area. We found a tap, set up our tent to give us a bit more dry space to work under and got to work. We quickly realized that this tap did not have the same water pressure of our old tap, meaning filling of bins for washing would take much longer to do. We also realized that there was no electrical outlet to plug in our large scale! After much searching and strategizing (maybe 5 extension cords could work... or put the scale in the rain... or...) we realized that the scale has a rechargeable battery and does not need to be plugged in while you use it!

We then went on our weekly walk-about to see what crops were ready for harvest. We found that leaf miners had made a home amongst the Swiss chard. Leaf miners are larva that hatch on leaves and tunnel their way between the layers of leaves, eating to their heart's content.

After much washing of bins, we began harvest for the market. Salad greens, Swiss chard, kale, scallions, arugula... on and on, yummy, fresh and diverse! And the rain continued to fall, and fall.

"Please," we cried, "lettuce just have a few moments of sunshine!"

While harvesting, we found that a lot of the lettuce had started to go bitter, and was no longer good to be eaten. So we spent some time ripping it all out of the beds to plant new lettuce transplants in their place. A whole wheel barrow full was taken out and sent to the compost.

The Terraces tend to have a quick turnover of plantings, so usually every week we're planting something new! Two varieties of lettuce, and three varieties of peppers were transplanted onto the terrace. One variety of lettuce and one variety of arugula were direct seeded on the terrace as well.











Unlike the Terraces, the Orchard has not been the most productive... mostly because we have yet been able to get in the fields to start planting because it's been soooo wet. However, last week we were finally able to get on the field to spread compost and prep the field. So a few of us headed out to the orchard to plant the brassica transplants that have been jumping at the chance to get out of their little trays and into the field.

Once we arrived at the orchard, we got into high gear trying to get the plants in the ground as quickly as possible, as we were quickly getting wetter and wetter. First we popped the transplants out of their pots and laid them nicely into trays so we could quickly place them in the ground as we went down the row.

The cabbages we planted 40cm apart in the row and 55cm between rows. The cauliflower and brussels sprouts were planted 60cm between plants and 80cm between rows.

















It took a while to get all the brassicas in the ground, and every step we took more mud would stick to our boots... it felt like walking in heavy snowshoes. But we got it done eventually! And so ended a very long and wet day.

Someone dripped the ball on the irrigation!?

May 23^rd, 2017 was our third Kwantlen St. Farmers Market of the year. This one was particularly hot with an afternoon high of 23°C. Before harvest and processing took place the class followed Mike and Rebecca through our weekly walkabout to assess the state of the terrace gardens. Unfortunately, the terrace irrigation system did not get turned on the previous Friday; however, everything made it through the weekend with no serious fatalities. Lettuce praise the water-holding capacity of organic matter for this! Besides the irrigation hiccup we observed the following:

·      The peas were beginning to flower.

·      The carrot transplants were dying.

·      Newly emerging sunflowers could potentially shade the emerging Dyers Matter.

·      There were a number of hoverflies around the lettuce crop.

·      There were a small number of cabbageworms on the upper terrace kale crop.

·      The newly transplanted tomato plants that were not doing well have successfully rooted.

Agroecosystems class on our weekly walkabout.

Although the recent seasonal change towards warm temperatures has been much more enjoyable to work in, the consistently warm temperatures have spurred quick growth in many of our leafy green crops. Due to these increases in growth, it was important for all of the students to do a thorough taste test of all of our greens to ensure that they were not too bitter for sale. After doing a taste test of all the greens we concluded that while the Merlot lettuce was far to bitter to be sold on it’s own, and the other leafy greens were good enough for one more harvest. This meant that the ‘cut and come again’ crops of leafy greens would be cut to the ground and re-seeded. Much like the leafy greens, many of the radishes had increased in growth, becoming tasteless and woody. The last of the radishes were harvested and the area was re-seeded.

Dr. Mike Bomford doing a lettuce taste test.

Although this was our third time harvesting and processing our terrace garden crops for the market, I feel as though our class is still figuring out how to efficiently harvest and process the crops smoothly. During the processing there was clearly a bottleneck caused by a build up of harvested produce with nowhere to go because the harvested produce was using up all of the bin space. Once the produce was weighed, washed, and bagged, our market stand was set-up and we were ready for market sales. Our market stand was looking particularly vibrant because of our first harvest of scallions.

A magnificent bin pyramid.

The first scallion harvest of the season.

During lunch we did our weekly Tool-Time and Web of Life presentations. Piper’s Tool-Time presentation focused on the subsoiler. The subsoiler is a tractor-mounted implement that is often used for deep tillage, allowing farmers to loosen and break up soils at depths that cannot be worked by the standard surface tiller. The subsoiler is essentially made of multiple blades that are pulled behind the tractor reaching soil depths of up to 30cm. Emily M’s Web of Life presentation focused on Wolbachia spp. Wolbachia spp. is a genus of bacteria which infects arthropod species, including insects and nematodes. It is one of the most common parasitic microbes in the world. Wolbachia spp. has the ability to alter the reproductive success of their arthropod hosts. This ability is increasingly being considered as a potential method for biocontrol programs.   

Tool time with Piper.

As the day came to an end we began cleaning up and I was shown how to add the days collected data to our new and improved shared data system. Once the data was collected we decided to turn our irrigation lines on to ensure that all of the lines were free of leaks. Unfortunately, there were a number of irrigation lines that began spouting water. Leaks were marked with colored tape, before the lines were shut off, enabling us to know where they must be fixed. Thus, started the week when someone dripped the ball on the irrigation.

Agriculture is fun! It ain't no rye!

Thursday May 18^th 2017

Sadly, there will be no more crimson clover bouquets at the Terraces

Straight from the get go this day did not go as planned! Our Agroecosystems management class was supposed to go spread compost out on the Orchard, but as this winter was wet and nasty the conditions are still to wet to allow us to start working. Fortunately, there is no shortage of other work that could be done on the Terraces!

Lets talk about the walk about!

The rye grass cover crop exploded during our three-week break from class, and it was starting to go to seed. Ideally we would have been able to cut it back a bit earlier, but as mentioned before things don’t always happen according to plan, and it is important to be able to adapt the best you can!

During our walk-about, we noticed that the colour of the rye grass was inconsistent, and we wanted to measure the difference in colour from area to area. A SPAD-metre was used to measure these differences in colour. A Spadmetre is a tool that measures the concentration of leaf chlorophyll in SPAS units. Areas of darker rye grass measured 40.0 SPAD units at its lowest concentration to 50.6 SPAD units at its highest concentration that we measured. Areas of lighter green rye grass measured from as low as 24.0 SPAD unites to about 33.0 SPAD units.  There was clearly a drastic difference in concentration of chlorophyll in the rye grass, even if we didn’t fully grasp all of the technical workings of this SPAD-metre, it was helpful to be able to quantify the intensity of the colour seen.

                

We discussed the possible reasons for these differences in colour and what it could mean for our crop. We concluded that the lighter green rye grass was not getting efficient nutrients in comparison to the darker green areas.  This could the result of a couple of different scenarios. Firstly, it could be because compost or other fertilizers could have been applied at different rates throughout the terraces, resulting in different amounts of available nutrients for the rye grass. Adversely, it could be that these areas of lighter rye grass could be the result of a faster burning rate of nutrients due to the high rate of drainage of the soil, or the higher temperatures due to the surrounding concrete structures.

 

When cutting down the rye grass we started from the top and gradually cut the grass further down as we went. This resulted in the rye grass being chopped up as much as possible before we covered it with a layer of compost. We wanted the rye grass to be chopped up as much as possible so that it could be broken down rapidly.  Instead of mixing the layer of chopped up rye grass and compost together with the existing soil, we decided that we could let the microbes and the earthworms do that work for us! Ideally a flail mower would be used to make sure everything gets chopped up, but when a flail mower is not available, this method is sufficient. In addition, it would also be ideal to let the chopped up rye grass dry up in the field a bit before adding the compost, however, time has not been on our side this spring.

Mike showing us how to tie off the ends of
the irrigation tape 

Next we layed down irrigation tape on the western terraces, but using the same system used in previous years. Instead of using a solid PVC pipe, a flexible PVC pipe was used, this gives us the ability to add more lines if we want, instead of having to take apart the whole pipe if more lines need to be added. This flexible PVC pipe is cheaper, easier to set up, and can withstand being run over by wheelbarrows without breaking.

Our next task was to lay out the irrigation tape. Unfortunately we were unable to hook it all up completely as we were short on connector pieces, but it was good to get an idea of the layout of the irrigation, and see which empty spaces needed to be filled in. 

Compost on top of the chopped up rye grass 

Meanwhile, other aggies were transplanting tomatoes in the North bed.  These tomatoes were looking pretty sad, and had not had an easy life before getting to their final resting space in the Terraces.  We were a bit late transplanting these tomato plants, and they had grown too big for their initial pots and needed to be repotted. After being re-potted, they were accidentally placed under 24 hour light, so they were pretty stressed out to say the least! Plans had changed, yet again, shortly after this re-potting, and they were transplanted into the terraces without first being hardened off. To help them out with this transition of environment, we covered them with a floating row cover protect them from the direct sunlight and our chilly spring nights.

Tomato varieties that were transplanted include: Sungold, Old German, Blackrim, Sunrise, Sungella, Pazzano, Taxi, and Purple Bumble. 

Our sad, stressed out tomato transplants :( 

Nasturtiums were also transplanted in the South terraces. The nasturtiums had been a bit ignored in past years, and had never been given a home of their own. This year, however, they have been given a bit more thought, and will definitely have an opportunity to thrive. 

Isabel excited to teach us about the plow!

WOW, THE PLOW!

 Isabel did our presentation of the day!  She discussed the history of the plow, and how it has become the plows that we see today. The discussion that resulted from her presentation was how plowing can increase carbon emissions from your field and how and why this happens. Essentially, a bloom of microbial activity occurs after plowing. The extra oxygen throughout the profile allows microbes to access carbon it would otherwise have no access to, resulting in the increased decomposition, and increased emissions. 

During out initial walkabout, we noticed that our carrots and parsnips were starting to go to seed. Although saving seed from these plants may not be ideal, the opportunity to practice could not be passed up! So the carrot and parsnip were transplanted from their prime real estate spot, to right next to our rhubarb plant, and the class will practice saving seed later on in the year!

And like most of our Agroecosystems classes, it is hard to not find a day where the students get a bit silly!

Finished product of the terraces at the end of the day

PTOs and Strawberry Rows

April showers may bring May flowers and the wonderful pollinators that follow, but ask your average farmer about wet weather in the spring and you’ll most likely get a grumbling response about how it’s keeping them from the field, delaying bed prep, planting, and other essentials needed for a timely and bountiful harvest. The best life lessons come from experience, and the Agroecosystems class have been learning just how much work can be delayed by a super wet spring.

We spent the day at the Orchard laying the foundation for a successful season, playing catch up with bed prep and weeding, learning how to properly and safely operate a tractor while the Power Take-off or PTO is active, and about the delicious-but-deadly fiddlehead fern.

We started the the morning with a brief walk-about, laying out the plans for not only the day, but days to come. Greeted by a full 60 yards of compost from the friendly neighbourhood Net Zero Waste in Abbotsford towering in the parking lot, we knew we had our work dug out for us. The two main fields in the orchard eagerly awaited the 30 yards of compost that would provide a bountiful nitrogen source over the next several years, as ammonia present in the healthy organic matter undergoes the slow process of nitrification and becomes available for plant uptake in the form of Nitrates and Nitrites. Our “Shovel and Wheelbarrow” method employed at the Terraces clearly would not be efficient enough to prep the fields - especially considering the late start to the year - so the collective sigh of relief was audible as Torin brought the tractor and compost spreader around, with promises that we would all get a turn to learn how to operate them in the field.

60 Yards. First Down. #sportsjokes

First things first however, we took a look at some of the problem spots in the orchard. Due to the high water table and wet soil, Horsetails (known by their Genus name Equisetum) continue to make themselves a nuisance, growing quite voraciously in several areas of the orchard.

Horsetails and Rye battle for supremacy 

Simply cutting them back would be inadequate, as they proliferate by spores, which can be released when the mature plants are disrupted. Since common labour intensive weeding methods would prove ineffective, alternatives need to be experimented with to find the most effective way of dealing with this persistent weed.

One area that was particularly flush with the long stalks had been solarized in the previous season in an attempt to destroy the plants without spreading their spores. Solarization is the process of covering the field in plastic (generally clear) so that solar energy roasts the plants, killing them in place without spreading more spores. The area was then seeded with ryegrass to push out the surviving horsetails. While some persistent ones did pop back up, the rye was largely effective at covering the area, towering over even the tallest students.

If you're looking for Piper, you can catch her in the rye

Once our walk-about was completed, Torin took some time to explain how to safely and properly operate the tractor and PTO powered compost spreader. PTOs work by using tractor engine torque to power any tractor-attached farming implement; this happens by spinning the PTO at a high velocity which transfers energy to the implement.

Torin with the Ins & Outs
of Tractor Time

The PTO is one of the more dangerous tools we have on the farm, but as long as the proper precautions are taken, such as being aware of when it is on, allowing it to shut off when not sitting in the driver’s seat, and keeping the guard in place it is an effective and innovative method of reducing farm labour. After our driving and safety lesson, Torin took it out into the field to calibrate the rate at which compost would be spread, doing a few runs to demonstrate for us, and then it was up to us. Loading the spreader with compost is a job in and of itself, and using the tractor’s front loader is less efficient with more people-power, so shovels and shoulders did most of the work. 4 or 5 of us at a time would take turns shoveling, with a lucky student getting to spread the load and swap out with the rest of the class, who spent most of the time diligently weeding the strawberries.

Using farm equipment you are relatively unfamiliar with can be a little intimidating at first, but Eric led the student charge, delivering the first student-driven load of compost to the field.

Eric is ready to roll, while Torin teaches and Jordan "Supervises"

Jordan followed, taking care not to destroy the water lines and fences that had been recently revealed as we took turns cutting back the grass with the mower. Kirsten and Emma Lee also got a chance to spread a load, but with so much compost to spread and the learning curve of driving a tractor for the first time meant that not everyone had a chance, although that will likely change over the course of the next few weeks. This compost won’t spread itself, so everyone will get a chance to practice operating arguably the most critical piece of farm equipment.

Kirsten at the Helm

The rest of the day’s labour was far less glamourous, with grass to be mowed and strawberries to be weeded. Manual labour on farms is one of the highest monetary costs to many operations, and can account for a large percentage of on-farm expenses. The Agro students received an excellent display of this, with 6 to 10 students weeding strawberries over the course of a few hours. While our strawberry row is relatively small compared to many fields, there was still about half the row to do by the time we had to pack it in.

Weed-Eating, Weed Pulling, Berry Gawking

This kind of work is often its own reward however, and the large section that was finished by the end of the day looked glorious and ready to start bringing delicious fresh berries into our lives within the next month.

Move in, now move out
Hands up, now hands down
Back up, back up
Tell me what you're gonna do now
Keep mowin' mowin' mowin' WHAT

Last but certainly not least, Jessica taught us about the tasty but dangerous fiddlehead fern over lunch. The variety known as the Ostrich fern is poisonous if the fiddleheads are eaten raw, however if properly cooked they provide a source of antioxidants, omega 3s and 6s, as well as high iron and fibre content. The fiddlehead fern was an important food source for many aboriginal groups, although some types that were native to BC had carcinogenic properties if eaten in excess, even when cooked. Because of this, the ostrich fern has taken over as the main fiddlehead fern used for human consumption, and is even grown commercially in places, and compliments the “shrub” layer of food forest plans for climates such as the one we have on the pacific coast. 

It was not the most glamourous day down at the orchard but spirits and rye were high, and all felt pride at some hard work done well. We may not see ourselves as Rockstars, but I bet the strawberries do.

Rock and Roll. Actually no, don't roll, that's a terrible idea even with the roll-bar.