Patience

I planted beet seeds about two weeks ago, before the first round of rains. I have been watching over them, waiting for signs of life. I have generated several theories as to their fate - that they were damaged by lime, that they were drowned by the rain, that I completely misplanted them. It's a continual nightmare of mine, that things just won't grow, and the beets seemed to prove this to be true.

My mom told me about how my Great-Grandpa Hoadley would plant beet seeds, then get impatient with them and plant more seeds in the same spot thinking the first round was not going to germinate, only to have both sets of seeds finally germinate. I saw this too at Hands of the Earth farm in Austin; peas were sowed in after beet seeds assuming that the beets had failed, only to have beets start popping up everywhere after the peas started germinating.

I think this is the lesson of spring. Perhaps even the lesson of farming. You must wait. Patiently.

This past week has been so wet - we got 2 1/2 more inches of rain. I felt like I was going to burst out of my skin with impatience to plant and do some tractor work (I'd borrowed a tractor just the day before the rain started). During those rainy days I did get my first round of summer crops seeded into the greenhouse, but I really wanted to be putting things out into the field. Now the rain has stopped, but the field is still far too wet to mess in, and needs at least another day or two of rest in the sun.

I walked out there today to check on things, the ground looked stable but with each step I sank into several inches of mud. I teetered through the narrow walkways, stopped to squat by the beets, and stared, training my eyes in on tiny, red stalks. The first beets came up today (thank goodness!), 16 days after I planted them. When I came back into the house I noticed a little message on the windowsill - one of those tabs from a bag of tea with a quote on it, left behind I believe by my friend Liz. It said: "Our patience will achieve more than our force." Easier said than done.

Neighbors

On Sunday I was out raking around the compost pile. Louise, my neighbor who is 80 and grew up on a farm near Boone, stopped by to tell me I was working too hard. She gently scolded me, calling me "baby doll," "little child," and "little Carolyn," as she always refers to me. Later when I had come back in the house there was a knock on the door - it was Louise with some potato soup, fresh off the stove.

Jack is another neighbor; he and his wife Lulu live on the lot contiguous to mine. Jack was born in the house they live in, and his parents worked at the Beacon Mill just up the road (a blanket factory, now demolished, and the reason that all these houses are here in the first place). Lulu was born and raised just 5 miles up the road in Black Mountain. She helped plant the pine trees growing outside of the primary school where I work when she was in Kindergarten. Those pine trees are HUGE. Jack and Lulu met in high school - they were in the first class at Owen High School, the first year that the Swannanoa and Black Mountain high schools were combined into one. Jack farmed my field for at least 8 years up until 3 years ago when the property changed hands. His family, the Wards, was neighbors with the family that originally owned this house, the Moodys, for 70 years.

On the other side of the field is Jeanie. She was also born in the house that she lives in, though she and her family make their life in Florida now. They've just been living in the house and getting it ready to sell since the passing of Jeanie's mom, Loula May, last year. Their yard is quite a menagerie - several dogs and cats, a goat named Billy, and 2 chickens (who are for all intents and purposes wild, they were abandoned 2 years ago by their original owners, now they live mostly in the woods but are fed often by Jeanie).

My other contiguous neighbor, from the treeline to the ridge, is the Cliffs of Swannanoa. From my window you can see the No Trespassing signs tacked onto trees in a young forest - a forest that has regrown since being clearcut during the Beacon era. A forest that Jack, Jeanie and their children know like the back of their hand. Many of the special spots they remember there are gone, dynamited to make way for roads, tunnels, golf courses and multi-million dollar houses. And now they and their children are trespassers on land that shaped them and their community.

My driveway is used as a through-fare by neighbors as it sort of connects Central Ave to Fountain Way. Thus I am very often face-to-face with my neighbors, whether I'd like to be at the time or not. In fact, Jack's dog Trouble refuses to exit their yard but through the gate that leads into my yard. Neighbors stop by to check up on me, to see what's growing, to tell me stories about their childhood working on their family's farm. Jack points out areas of the field that need extra lime, shows me where he grew his beans, corn and tomatoes. My neighbors are happy with what I am doing, happy to see the land used again. Though I think they might also think I'm a little crazy, especially when they pass by on their way to church on Sunday morning to see me out in the field raking up horse manure.

Rain!

Last Sunday the leeks made it out of the fridge and into the field! A momentous day, the first planting. 1800 leeks were set out with help from some friends and my parents. A few days later the rain started (and is continuing), but not before red onion sets and beet seeds were also tucked into the ground. And so it begins...

Over the next two weeks I'll be planting out carrots, more beets, various greens, radishes and hakurei turnips - tender, delicious, crunchy, salad turnips. I'll also be starting summer crops in the greenhouse - tomatoes, peppers and eggplants in particular.

As much as there is to be done in the field, there's an equal amount of work to be done in the office. One office accomplishment of the past week was my new website - check it out!

All of this planting, and everything else I'm doing, couldn't happen without the large community network that I am so grateful to be a part of. My family, my friends, my neighbors, and fellow farmers from around WNC have been, and will continue to be, crucial in getting this farm going.

Next week there will be an addition to this community; I have a new housemate moving in on Wednesday! Kelan is her name, and she will be joined in April by her husband Link. They are both interested in helping out on the farm when they can, but mostly I am excited to have a little community within the house.

Here's a couple photos of the accomplishments of the past couple weeks:



Here Ian, Kathryn and Erin put up plastic on the 'Sprout House.' It's not totally done, but it is usable. I will be growing sunflower sprouts in here, a nutty, crunchy, nutritious green that can be produced year-round.



The first seed to sprout on the farm! I'm running several trials of sunflower sprouts to find the best way to grow them in this structure.




And here's what the field looks like on this rainy Saturday - leeks and onions to the left, then on the right is my next row marked off ready for seeds.

Composting the Best of the Valley

The past two weeks have seen me driving up and down US70, bringing back various materials for a grand windrow compost pile.

These materials include:

- Manure from the Bilmore Estate equestrian program

- Spent grains from the Pisgah Brewery. I just picked these up this morning, they were still steaming and smelled delicious!

- Coffee grounds from the Dynamite Roastery. These also smell delicious.

- Tea bags from an organic tea house.

- Cocoa hulls from a chocolate producer right here in little ol' Swannanoa! These smell the best of all.

Given a few months and a few churns with a rototiller, this will be the basis for farm fertility.


There's the load of manure, with my boyfriend Boris (he does all the heavy lifting).

And so, now here it is March 4th and I am waiting for the snow to melt and the soil to dry out so that I can get it prepared for planting. Onion and Leek plants crowd my fridge waiting (patiently?) for the day (maybe this weekend?!) when they will be tucked into the field.

How long can a leek survive in the fridge anyway? This is a question of great interest to me, given that they've now been in there (dare I admit it?) since Valentine's day. The information that came with them said they're good for 3 weeks...until March 7th that is. So this led me to the Leek Experiment:

I "planted" half the leeks in potting soil. The other half are still in the fridge - don't put all your leeks in one basket as they say.


After only two days, they've started standing up! I take that as an excellent sign.