Turns out there are a number of things I have trouble doing one-handed. I had to hire in an extra worker to help at the farm yesterday, so it turns out the broken wrist is also painful in the wallet.

The continuing series of rains has kept the fields too wet to work, so as the fieldwork falls behind schedule, at least I can blame the weather rather than my broken wrist.

I can mouse around on the computer and turn pages, so I’ve been doing more research on a number of topics, including possible herbs to add for essential oils or teas and additional plants to use as cover crops. I have been adding more tasks to my list at a much greater rate than I have managed to complete any.

I’m hoping that soon I can get back to shrinking the task list. There’s a whole lot to get done.

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.

Much is changing, but some of your favorites will remain.

The partnership that owns the farmland and has operated the farm for the last 10 years has decided to get out of the farming and farmstand business. Instead we will concentrate on renting the land at The South 47 Farm to other farmers and farming organizations. The partnership feels this is the most sustainable way to keep the land in farming.

Carol & I have decided to take on and continue some of our favorite projects as our own family farm, Dr. Maze’s Farm. We will continue the familiar fall harvest farm activities and the teas and the essential oil distillations, and we plan to add even more excitement. Other farmers will be growing vegetables and fruit.

In September and October visit Dr. Maze’s Corn Maze & Pumpkin Farm for harvest time fun! Explore our fabulous mazes, pick a pumpkin from the field, greet the goats and alpacas, shop at the farmstand, take a hayride, and enjoy refreshments. Discover our three dozen varieties of pumpkins and winter squash, as well as gourds, cornstalks & other fall decorative objects.

Visit Dr. Maze’s Botanicals where we create herbal teas, essential oils, mists, and other botanicals from lavender, rosemary, mints, chamomile, and other plants grown right here at the farm. We plan to expand the herb plantings and start production of a variety of new items in addition to our essential oils and hydrosols (herbal mists). We are planning to start with foaming hand soaps, lotion bars, and bath salts. Stop by to see our two hand-made copper stills and check out our selection.

Keep in touch with our website, blog, & twitter to see the new developments.

Our goal is simple, but not easy:

We want someone to be farming this piece of ground when all of us are dead and gone.

For the best chance of making that happen, we must:

1)     Work to protect and improve the piece of ground we are working, including impacts and interactions with the land surrounding the farm,

2)     Create a farm business that supports and engages those farmers and farm workers who step forward to take over the farm, and

3)     Strive to become a vital and valued asset to the local community.

If we keep this simple goal in mind with each decision we make, we can’t help but walk that journey towards sustainability.

Seeds are starting to arrive. Territorial Seed came first, then Johnny’s, and, yesterday, Seed Savers Exchange. I’ll spend some time on variety choices some other time. Our drip line also came last week. We drip irrigate almost everything. It saves a lot of water and also saves a lot of time. No more spending hours dragging hoses and sprinklers around two or three times a day.

Claire & I still have a myriad of things to work out for production this year. We met for several hours yesterday and decided to schedule a weekly Tuesday morning meeting until we get to the point where short spontaneous discussions work better. We are working on a number of ideas new for the farm this year. Here are two: We’re hoping to be able to deliver to a number of restaurants. We will be at a Farmers’ Market this year. We haven’t yet decided on which one to apply for, so if you have a favorite, let me know.

We will also be recruiting someone to apprentice with Evert & Claire to become the Veg lead next year, responsible for growing & harvesting veg, flowers, & herbs.

There are a couple of beekeepers who want to keep bees at the farm this year. I’m hoping we’ll see over 1000 pounds of honey in the farmstand.

Faron, our black alpaca

Sabino, our white alpaca

This time of year the farm is not very photogenic, so I took a few photos of our alpacas. Here are Faron (black, a Huacaya alpaca) and Sabino (white, a Suri alpaca). These two guys were instant crowd favorites when they joined the farm last June.

I’ve been researching blogging software and got sidetracked into Twitter. I am now microblogging on Twitter at http://twitter.com/FarmerRoger.

If you don’t know Twitter, entries are limited to 140 letters, so they must be short, but I can quickly add a Tweet anytime I have something to share. I’ll write what I am focusing on that day, and what is going on at the farm. Follow my Tweets to be one of the first to know when tomatoes are finally ripe. I’ll also be entering the day’s weather and changes during the day since a few miles distance from the farm can make a huge difference in the weather. You may want to check before deciding it is too rainy outside for a visit to the farm. You don’t have to join Twitter to follow my day, but you do if you want to write back.

We are planning for another great year at the farm. The first big round of planning is complete and we have mostly decided on our crops for this year. I’ve spent a lot of time this week with the seed catalogs. Yesterday and today I ordered most of the seed for this year. We use a number of different suppliers. I look for favorite varieties, organic seed, and price. This year we ordered mostly from Fedco, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Osborne, and Seed Saver’s Exchange. I buy seed potatoes from Milk Ranch and onion starts from Dixondale Farms. I also check out Territorial Seed, Baker Creek Heirloom Seed, Harris Seed, NE Seed, and High Mowing Seed. Check out their websites. I enjoy the paper catalogs more. I take out a pen with green ink and draw big circles around all my old favorites and anything else that catches my eye.

You do have to wonder how the catalog writers manage to come up with glowing descriptions for each and every variety. Amy Goldman has a new book out: “The Heirloom Tomato From Garden to Table”, which follows the same format as her books on squash and melons. I highly recommend all three books. I’ve been pouring over her tomato descriptions this week. Unlike the seed catalogs, in her book not every tomato gets high rankings.

This year we will be growing twenty-eight different pumpkins and winter squash from seven different suppliers. I first learned about some of our favorite squashes in Amy Goldman’s squash book.

I’m still thinking on the varieties of tomatoes we will offer as plants in the spring. We sold a few leftover plants in 2008. This year we plan to sell veg and herb starts, mostly varieties we grow here at the farm. There is every indication that lots of new gardeners will be growing some of their own veggies this year.

New crops this year? Kohlrabi, collards, bunching onions, a small butternut squash, and some wild new pumpkins are a few of the new things you will see in the farmstand in 2009.

And this year the wait for opening won’t be as long. We will open the farm a month earlier, on Wed. May 13. See you down on the farm.