You are currently browsing the monthly archive for April 2011.
In early April I attended The Farmer Project Seasons Workshop at Appleton Farms in Ipswich, MA. In two nights and two days of workshop programming, I experienced an outpouring of hospitality. I was well fed and cared for by gracious hosts, and it rubbed off on me that welcoming guests and sharing your space must be part of the farm-based education experience.
‘To inspire enthusiasm’ was one of the early intentions set out by the workshop leaders, and that they did. The general excitement they built got me stoked and ready for the nervous buzz of setting up our student crews.
Creating a productive framework, however, involves setting firm limits. Physical limits, safety parameters, and interpersonal limits are all important when pushing towards an abundant season.
A student group from Gann Academy in Waltham did a wonderful service week with us at the end of March and they brought with them this quote:
“We had entered an era of limitlessness, or the illusion thereof, and this in itself is a sort of wonder. My grandfather lived a life of limits, both suffered and strictly observed, in a world of limits. I learned much of that world from him and others, and then I changed; I entered the world of labor-saving machines of limitless cheap fossil fuel. It would take me years of reading, thought, and experience to learn again that in this world limits are not only inescapable but indispensable.” — Wendell Berry
It is within those ‘indispensable’ limits that we can create an expansive world, explore minutiae, be flexible, and fill in gaps. Providing adequate tools and reasonable space to fill and nurture is our task at hand.
The last thing I took from the conference was be a fun friend! It makes work more fun. Food system inequity, the need for service, and hungry households here in Massachusetts are heavy on our minds, so let’s make it joyful to work towards the harder stuff.
Ciao for now,
Geeta Bhasin
Tractors have been a part of my farming career since I started seven years ago in Western Massachusetts, as I have always worked on farms that are too large to be without these powerful tools (although I do have a recurring dream of my future involving draft power). For a farm the size of Land’s Sake, tractors are indispensible, and our vision of Land’s Sake Farm as a training ground for future farmers means that our farmers-in-training, the “Assistant Growers” learn to drive these tractors and perform all the farm tasks we do with the tractors. So Melanie and I have spent much time thinking about how to best safeguard the lives and health of our crew (and ourselves) while training them all to be tractor operators.
Back when I was a farmer-in-training, I attended a tractor safety training led by an old-timer who spent most of the two hours telling us horror stories of tractor accidents that involved injuries and death. I am not easily scared by such accounts (but I am scared of ghosts…ah, how amazing is the logic of the human mind?), so I left the training with one piece of information that sticks in my mind to this day. This little nugget of gold was that females have quicker reaction times in general than males, so if something goes awry on the tractor, and you only have a split second to react, you had better hope that you are female! Honestly, I was relieved by this fact. I would be okay on the tractor because I can react that much faster than a dude doing the same thing, and hey, milliseconds matter! Now that I am many years more experienced on the tractor, with some close calls of my own, I know that tractors are a force with which to be reckoned and that vigilance, training, alertness, fear and respect all work to keep me alive on those roaring beasts, not my slight gender advantage.
Now, some of our future farmers come in with more of a sense of worry than others, especially around tractors or other dangerous machinery. Some come in with more natural aptitude or are automatically hyper-aware when driving on the road. Some can back right up to an implement for hitching without adjusting while others (and I was one of these) need many back and forth corrections before getting it right. Still others are better at noticing when something is not quite right with the engine or moving parts before or during use. Some can’t quite figure out how to finesse the clutch. Some love the power and some are terrified of it. Every one of these potential trainees will need to go through the same training before we can allow them to put their own lives on the line to do tractor work!
Unfortunately, these days there are no more tractor safety courses offered in Massachusetts, and yes, this does seem odd considering the resurgence of young people choosing to become farmers. We looked high and low for a tractor safety video that would serve as a starting place for any safety training that we lead, and this was no easy feat either. With our new drive towards safety at Land’s Sake, Melanie and I undertook to write our own tractor safety training guide for Land’s Sake as a whole. We also decided it was time to give back to our local Eastern Massachusetts farming community and volunteered to lead our first CRAFT (Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training) visit on the topic of tractor safety. So, this past Wednesday, twenty-odd farmers-in-training descended upon Land’s Sake to get their first taste of the nuances of tractor safety. And yes… they were all female aside from one male (just think of all those milliseconds of gained reaction time!). Small farms in Massachusetts, especially non-profits, are overwhelmingly run and staffed by female farmers. But, I digress. Despite the rain, we led this group of neophytes through our very thorough guide about safety with tractors. Remembering back to my first years with tractors, I am not sure that all that necessary information will mean much until they each have had some number of years on a tractor and probably some close calls, but that safety guide will be there for them to refer back to on a regular basis. I like to think that being presented with all that information must be a better start to life as a tractor operator than that old-timer spinning his grisly stories about strangers that seemed too far-fetched for the average farmer to experience. But really, I think that everyone needs both the information AND the stories of how things go awry and the consequences. Information becomes much more real and memorable when relayed alongside a tale of how someone we know had a relatable, scary experience.
We want everyone to fear the tractor. Not an immobilizing fear that prevents learning and gaining skills, but empowering and respectful fear that protects lives. We feel we have done a good job of that with our Assistant Growers. We repeat information about tractor safety constantly, and we watch them like hawks and guide and correct them, even two and three years into their tractor operation experience. The key is to never become complacent, even with repetition and monotony. The next time you see a farmer on a tractor think about how much time has gone into that person being able to do that task safely! And you should always steer clear, pass safely, give a wide berth, and respect the tractor yourself.
Here’s to your health and ours!
Stephanie, Assistant Farm Manager
- The beauty of a well-made woodstack adds a sense of acccomplishment to a long day in the woods
Spring! Sun! Warmth! As the last glimmers of light stretch across our fields and yards well past 6:30 these days and our farmers are already planting and disking, it is easy to forget about our winter’s work in the woods. And what a winter it was.
Though it needs no mention, the snow was incredible… and the work slow. To fell a tree, cut off its limbs, buck it into 12 foot sections, then skid it up to one of our logging trails is hard work. Try doing it in snow waist deep!
There is light at the end of our log tunnel though–we have completed all felling for the season, and are now knee deep in splitting and stacking.
Volunteers help split and stack firewood in the Highland Forest on Saturday, April 2nd
Why are we in the woods, cutting down trees and making a big mess, you might ask? Woodlot management keeps the forest healthy by removing damaged or deformed trees before they fall naturally and cause damage to strong, healthy ones (like Sugar Maples!). Without the clutter these damaged and deformed trees add to the forest canopy, healthy trees have room to spread their branches, and sunlight can filter down to the forest floor and start new life.
And the product of all this forest meddling? Local, sustainably harvested firewood! If you are interested in helping us split and stack the rest of this year’s wood, we will be hosting three more volunteer days:
WHEN: Saturdays April 16th, 30th and May 14th–9:00 a.m. to noon
WHERE: The Highland Forest. Meet at the trail head on Wildflower Lane
Please RSVP to jordan@landssake.org
OK–hike the trails, enjoy the woods and happy Spring
Jordan McCarron
Conservation Land Manager
Just as the snow began to fall late last Thursday afternoon, Hilary, Stephanie and I completed our large planting of peas and fava beans.
As far as cultivated, annual crops that are grown here in the Northeast go, fava plants grow from what are the Clydesdale of seeds. Far too enormous to fit through the largest holes in our push seeders, we planted them by hand, almost one by one. I’ve never planted favas before, but have heard rave reviews from farmer friends about their tastiness. I can’t wait to try ’em in a couple of months. It sounds like they are delicious grilled, per the suggestion of my favorite vegetable recipe blogger, Heidi Swanson, over at 101cookbooks.
Stephanie painstakingly planting favas.
We planted shelling peas, along with the more popular snap and snow varieties. Sixteen beds total, plus the favas. It was a great way to end a week, with the three of us converging on a field to complete a full planting of something that we all are looking forward to so much, with the knowledge that we had accomplished quite a bit that week tucked in the back of our heads.
Hilary seeding snap peas.
Pea seeds in the Planet Jr. I love this trusty seeder.
Check out our **BRAND NEW TRACTOR** at work, pulling a disc harrow in the big Green Power field. In case my capitalized letters and asterisks aren’t enough of a hint to you readers, a new tractor is a very exciting thing to a farmer, indeed. We got about 5 acres disced up in Green Power on Thursday with the new 75 horsepower, green and yellow beauty. The area we disced is where we are going to plant our early brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, kale, etc.), our large onion planting, and some quick spring cover crops in preparation for the many crops that we will be growing in that field this season.
Starting a new season with a new tractor is pretty awesome, to say the least. We are so grateful for this more powerful (and good lookin') tractor.
Spring is all kinds of exciting, as it tends to be, what with all of the waking up, growing, and brightening in color that is happening.
Tiny onions started back in the first week of March creating a sea of green in our tiny greenhouse.
Our greenhouse gets greener by the day, and we actually have no more space for new trays of plants to be set out, and won’t have anymore until we pull some trays out to harden off early next week. Also, check it out–our garlic is poking through its straw blanket.
Our garlic is beginning to grow!
Happy April!
Melanie Hardy, Farm Manager
For the Sake of the Land 