A full and lush farm

We have reached this moment of the season where all the beds are filled with plants on the farm. We do not have enough space that we can plant all our generations of veggies on new beds everytime. Instead, we “reuse” them – a process that we call flipping. This is a moment where silage tarps come in very handy : the remainder of the old crop is mowed, and tarped. The organic matter from the previous chopped crop will decompose quickly thanks to the tarp and nourish the soil. The weeds won’t have a chance to sprout and the bed will stay clean. When we need it a few weeks later, we peel the tarp, amend the bed with chicken pellets manure, rake it, and it’s good to go! 

The tarps that aren’t useful in the fields will soon be moved on a new section of the farm. The principle is the same as when we flip beds, but on a larger scale. The tall grass will be cut very low, then the tarp will do its smothering job. Later, the parcel will be cover cropped to keep it (mostly) weed free, add organic matter to the soil, improve its structure. In a couple of years, vegetables will take place.

You might have seen on some of our pictures that we keep the tarps down with many sandbags or sometimes (used) tires. The tarps are massive (100x30ft) so if the wind catches under them, they act like a sail and can just blow away. Once it rains and they have water on them they become pretty heavy and won’t move anymore. In fact, it becomes very hard to move them, they’re incredibly heavy! Also, they can become nasty with the trapped stagnant water and smell quite bad. When we have a group of helpers on site we usually take advantage of the situation and move the tarps around. It’s so much easier and faster… Another down side is that they are made of polyethylene (i.e. plastic) which we don’t love and try to avoid on the farm. Fortunately, they’re quite sturdy and we will keep them many years. They’re so incredibly efficient to kill weeds in a passive way and keep beds under control that we forgive their imperfections. We can’t do farm them! 

In the tunnels, we have started trellising our tomatoes. They are looking very healthy and have grown so much in the last couple of weeks. We did the cherries last week and this week, we took care of our tomatoes slicers with some help from our friend Carly. It’s a big job, as tomato plants will have to be trellised every other week during the whole season.

As for this week’s recipe, I wanted to share some inspiration with Napa cabbage. To taste all the crunchiness of your cabbage, you can eat it in a slaw. You just have to thinly slice your cabbage with onion and blue cheese. Then emulsify a sauce with olive oil, garlic, apple cider vinegar, dijon mustard, honey and salt and pepper and toss it on the cabbage. Let it chill for 5 minutes and enjoy!

Raphaëlle