A visit with Farmer Roger

What do you need to farm? If you were starting a farm from scratch, what would you need to pull together to make a go of it?

Every farm is different. The crops or livestock grown, soil type, climate, amount of cash available to invest, accessibility of water, farming style, zoning and other regulations associated with the land, attitude of neighbors, and many additional factors all affect the farmer’s choices. Even so, there are common themes and tasks, including planning and record keeping, planting, weeding, harvesting, animal care, maintenance, buildings, water, and crop sales. In this series I will look at our choices here at Dr. Maze’s Farm.

This is a good time for me to take on this series. I have been spending a lot of time recently contemplating just this question.

The year 2010 is a transition year for us personally. The partnership that owns the land and that has operated The South 47 Farm since 2000 has decided to step back from farming and make the land available to farmers to rent.

Since the partnership no longer needed me as a farm manager, I was left free to decide what exactly I wanted to do next. My wife Carol & I have grown a strong attachment to the farm and to the community working on and visiting and supporting The South 47 Farm. After much thinking and discussion, we decided in the end to take over some favorite projects of the many endeavors of The South 47 Farm and to continue them as our own venture, renting the necessary acreage at The South 47 Farm.

And so, Dr. Maze’s Farm was born as a brand-new family farm with a 10-year history.

We have spent much time thinking and planning the transition. Gradually the momentum of the new farming year has gathered. We are now starting the first farming activities of the new year. We have ordered and received three dozen varieties of pumpkin and winter squash seed. We have purchased tractors, hand tools, and endless other items. Chamomile is sprouting in the herb garden. Tomorrow I have two field workers coming in to help start weeding the herb plantings.

For this series on the tools of a farm I envision a series of small snippets, rather than trying to cover large areas at time. As the year progresses I’ll look at tasks such as planting or weeding. I’ll show how to create a corn maze and how to set a fencepost. I’ll show some photos and describe our equipment and why we made the choices we’ve made. I have some videos of equipment in action and I hope to put together and post a few videos. I am going to define “tools & techniques” rather loosely to include anything I find useful or necessary around the farm. We’ll see if I can keep writing when things get really busy on the farm.

I’d like to start out the series with two elements common to all farms, a farmer and soil.

A farmer's hand gets to know the soil.

Not really tools or techniques, I suppose, and perhaps it is obvious, but it is worthwhile to reflect that the person and the place both have tremendous impact on how the land is farmed. Organic or conventional? Bananas or boysenberries? Lamb or legumes? Wholesale or farm market? The list goes on. Just as the photo shows my hand, this series will reflect my own personal experiences and biases.

Here on The South 47 Farm this year there will be six farms-within-the-farm. Other renters include CSA farms, chefs, and farmers’ market sellers. All will be different. Different crops, different techniques, different styles, different ideas. How is it that Famai’s peas are always earlier than any one else’s? Will Brian’s experiments with paper sheet mulch and cover cropping between rows continue to prove effective? What refinements in tomato pruning with Claire come up with this year? I’ll be watching.

If I were to try farming elsewhere, I’d have to change my techniques. I might have to give up some favorite crops and try growing different things. How long should I go between waterings? When is the earliest I can expect to drive across the fields? How much heat can I expect in the summer? What crops will my neighbors want to buy from the farm?

I always try to put a photo or two into my blog entries, so when I decided on this theme I cast about for various ways to represent the farmer. The back & shoulders to represent work and perseverance? The brain for knowledge & curiosity? The eye or ear for the senses and information gathering? The mouth or ear for communication or enjoyment?

I was struck by how well the hand does at representing all these characteristics. Grabbing, holding, touching, hefting, lifting, nudging, typing, writing, waving, patting on the shoulder, patting on the back, shaking another hand, holding another hand; a hand does all of these.

I was also struck by how much easier it would be to photograph my hand than any of the other options I was considering to represent the farmer.

What then but to show the classic test for soil moisture, squeezing soil in the hand,  giving me the additional benefit of allowing me to show the soil and the farmer in the same photo. Camera in my right hand, grab some soil in the left, shoot a few different angles, and the job is done.

Efficient use of time and resources is another useful trait on the farm.

I’m looking forward to this year on the farm. I’d be pleased to have you along for the journey.

I had thought I would write next about tools for information gathering and record keeping, but I took a photo today of Famai’s tulips that has inspired me to write next about microclimate manipulation.