Parable of the Plow
"Discipline is doing what you hate to do, but nonetheless doing it like you love it." Mike Tyson
Rain blessings after a month of drought conditions. A stillness surrounds our home and farms as the plants take a well earned drink. These cloudy days come at an opportune time for all the seeds we’ve sown to take hold, saturate our garlic crop, and help plants get a jump for the upcoming CSA/market season.
A lot of time is spent studying weather apps during spring. Forecasted lows, chances of rain, wind all guide the daily happenings on the farm. Seeing the increased chances of rain I pushed through the weekend to get soil worked before the moisture.
Deeper tillage, especially plowing, feels intense. Plowing creates the conditions of a large reset/mining of the soil. A complete decimation of existing plant life creates opportune conditions for annual species, most of our vegetable crops, to take hold. In this act, soil life is lost. The complete turning of ground resets the majority of biological activity and will eventually, with repeated plowing, result in a net loss of topsoil.
Performing these heavier impacts before rain softens the blow and allows the soil to re-saturate. Like water grows plants, it also helps regeneration of soil biological activity. Plowing leaves the soil in a chunky texture that is not ideal for planting until a final, finishing, pass is made.
Sunday was then spent planting in a final push before the rain. Our seed potatoes had just arrived and I was eager to get them in the ground and off the to-do list. Using a walk-behind tractor I opened small furrows with two discs on the freshly worked ground. Then, I placed drip lines in the trenches. The potatoes were dropped on these drip lines and after turning the discs the opposite way I attempted to cover both the potatoes and the drip lines in one pass. Overall, 1500 feet of potatoes, hopefully yielding over 3000 pounds of product, were planted in about 6 hours. Because the ground had not settled my planting lines were not perfect. I spent about 30 extra minutes planting the potatoes that did not get buried.
Our farm often faces trade-offs between production, stewardship, and efficiency. I do not necessarily want to plow, but to guarantee the success of larger bulk crops deeper tillage is a proven model. I would love to plant potatoes by hand or in a large planter on perfectly groomed soil, but instead I use the tools at hand. While not every potato is perfectly laid in the ground, most are and will grow.
Do these compromises ever go away? Will we always be in a situation where ideal conditions are not always attainable? An internal duality exists within me. One side, a desire to scale-up and strive for increased machinery, acreage, and crops. The other, wants to scale- back and manage our fields through more human scale technology.
I have come to recognize the bittersweet consignments to be intrinsic to the process of refinement. While the other day we plowed, the goal is working towards steering away from such vilified tools. Yesterday, we planted potatoes haphazardly. Next time we can do better. Maybe this will be our best year for potatoes.
Farm News
This Wednesday, May 4th, the Farm Stand will be open! Our hours will run from 10-6pm Wednesday-Sunday through Halloween. Come by for plant starts, limited amounts of greens, eggs, value-added products, seeds, and more.
We have a few spots left in our CSA if you are still considering a share this year. Head over to Folks Farm for more information.
Intentions of the Week
Preparation builds success. What can we do now to make tomorrow better?
Early and often cultivation keeps our gardens flourishing. Discipline is crucial to maintain physical, mental, and spiritual health.
Love your writing, man. Don't know how you have time for it with all you do, but appreciate you sharing it with us!