Farm Report: May 2007
by Kelle Carter

Happy Spring to all! Things are exceptionally busy these days on the research farm. The weather has been great for planting. Sunny days and an almost daily afternoon rain have been keeping the plants and the planters happy. Due to the changing weather patterns nationwide, we have had an unprecedented amount of rain so far this season. No one can complain about too much rain when you live in the desert.

We have been busy trying to get everything from the greenhouse to the field. Broccoli, tomatoes, onions, various herbs and flowers, leeks, lettuce, are just a few of the crops we have already planted. The next few weeks will have us planting potatoes, peppers, corn, and all of the other heat-loving crops.

Every season we experiment with different methods of Integrated Pest Management on the farm to see which cultural methods work within our system. The past few weeks we have been covering our tomato plants to protect them from the leafhoppers, and the broccoli plants to avoid flea beetle damage. We have also been planting beneficial attractant flowers throughout our field crops, hoping to bring in advantageous insects and creating habitats for them.

Marcos Morales Evan Snow Emily Wright

The species we have planted include Bachelor Buttons, Ammi Visnaga, Sweet Alyssum, Cilantro, Fiddleneck and Dill. Emily Gatch, our Greenhouse Guru, recommends planting the seeds of these beneficial flowers and herbs close to the time you would plant tomatoes. That way you can get a jump on the season and transplant them in the field alongside your crops.

Our farm staff has nearly doubled in size in the past few weeks with the influx of interns to the farm. We are lucky to have four interns now, with two more arriving in the next few weeks. Marcos Morales, who recently graduated from Florida State University with a degree in biology, has been working on helping to establish our on-farm-composting plan. Evan Snow comes to the farm from Virginia, a recent geography major at Virginia Tech University. Evan has been instrumental in getting chickens on the farm. He designed a chicken tractor to be used in the field and last week we received a "peeping" box with 27 chicks! Emily Wright has a degree in Environmental Science from Colorado College. She has been in the Santa Fe area for a while, recently returning from the state of Chihuahua in Mexico where she worked to establish community gardens. She will help implement our Permaculture design for the farm. Daniel Garcia is a resident of Puerto Rico with an interest in medicinal and culinary herbs. He has a great skill of baking vegan cookies, which actually taste great. Daniel will design and plant an herb spiral on the farm. Many thanks to our talented and skilled interns- this place looks great thanks to all of their hard work and dedication.

Joe and Wade have been busy building a new shade tent to be used for lettuce and greens rotations. This tent will allow us to rotate the greens with a cover crop and let the soil under the existing shade tent have a rest.

Lots of activities are happening here; we hope you can come see our farm if you are in the area. We designated two dates for farm tours this season; August 26 and September 16. Please click here for more information.

Kelle Carter
Farm Field Coordinator

Photo Captions: (1) A garlic trial coming on at the Research Farm (2) The frame of a new shade tent for greens production