Spring Newsletter
Holland self propelled Celery & Onion transplanter
It was a long winter filled with equipment updates, repairs and the endless quest to find replacement parts for some of our antique equipment. This was the winter of the Holland self propelled Celery & Onion transplanter. It’s a wonderfully simple machine that saves countless hours of transplanting that previously had to be done on our hands and knees. The original machine of this type was designed and built in Holland, MI by Ben Poll along with his two brothers, Henry and Louis. In 1927 the brothers quit farming and began the Holland Celery Planter Company. The more modern transplanters, like ours made in the 1950’s, haven’t changed much. Work that previously took us 1.5 hours to complete can now be done in 10-15 minutes and truth be told the quality is better when using the planter than when done by hand. Mr. Poll’s son Howard, who I believe is in his 70’s, still makes parts for the transplanters and was a huge help in providing advice and supplying replacement parts for our machine. I’ve already begun my wish list for 2011 and it includes transforming this machine from gasoline powered to electric, if this is your area of expertise and you’d like to help just let us know.
Finally a spring we can enjoy!
After 2 years of cold, persistent and torrential rains we finally have a decent spring season! Needless to say Kathleen and I are thrilled to have a more normal planting season underway. I say “planting season” but the truth is here on Balanced Harvest Farm we plant throughout the spring, summer and early fall. The last seeding will take place in September and those crops will be harvested next spring.
Overall the veggies look great. Some of our early plantings did not germinate quite as well as expected, but all the transplanted veggies look wonderful. The poor germination was in part due to heavily crusted soil following a big rain a few weeks back. Those of you who’ve been with us for a while have endured my complaining about the Carmel Clay (I believe they really did name our area for its clay). We have wonderful silt loam soil mixed with clay and when the conditions are right it can turn as hard as cement. Well, that’s an exaggeration but it does seem as hard as cement when you’re trying to get seeds up or to cultivate. The issue really is that the soil gets hard and then clumps as you cultivate. Seeds like soft soil and uniform conditions and the clay just doesn’t provide that sometimes. Like most springs we have some veggies ahead of schedule, some on schedule and some behind. Overall we’re very pleased with the progress we’ve made and the condition of the farm at this point.
Since it warmed up things have really begun to grow, some just right and some too fast. The early season greens don’t like hot (warm is fine, hot is too hot). Our early planting of broccoli rabe (rapini) and cilantro have already gone to seed, which means the plants put all their energy into making seed, making the plant itself inedible, but we still have time to replant before the long days of summer hit. The weeds are growing, we’re busy hoeing & weeding and there’s lots more planting to do!
2010 CSA
First distributions for our CSA members will begin next week on June 14th. For those of you that are scheduled to pick up At Ferrin’s Fruit Winery…you may be aware that the sadly the Ferrin’s have decided to close their winery and store. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. We should have a replacement pick up site in Carmel announced later this week. We are focused on a nearby site with ample convenient parking.
Farmer’s Market
We will be at the Carmel Farmer’s Market each Saturday this season. Please stop by and see us!
Slow Food Indy Father's Day Spit Fest
On June 20th Chef Chris Ely is roasting a pasture raised hog at Dave Randle's Farm in Lebanon, Indiana and SFI is hosting a local foods pot-luck side dish competition. First prize is 2 Tickets to Jack Johnson at Verizon Wireless Music Center on Friday, July 23rd & 2nd prize is a Gift certificate from Goose the Market! Buy your tickets now on BrownPaperTickets.com