Renewal: A farmer’s Easter story

When I first saw the land where the farm is it looked like this.

And to be honest, I didn’t want to post any pictures of it until I could show the transformation that I knew was about to begin.  So after a few weeks of clean up, adding manure and compost, and turning beds by hand and by tiller, you can see the beginning of the transformation back to a farm.

 laying of compost

two rows, planted

 rototilling

Side note: I found that rototilling feels very similar to guiding the cultivating tool when working with draft horses.  The machine itself is doing the propelling, as the horses do, but you have to muscle it into the ground and into going where you want it to go.  I still think I like horsepower better, but at least I got to reminisce.

Next steps: Now that the field has been tilled there is much work to be done pulling out grass roots, forming beds, and setting up irrigation lines.

Let the growing begin

Today the first seedlings of the season have poked their little green heads out of the dirt.  Those little plants include, onions, peppers, eggplants, and kale.  The farm may be far from ready to welcome these seedlings into anything resembling a bed, but the force of nature that brings peppers out of the ground ten days after seeding, will I presume also make sure there is soil to welcome them when the time comes.  So, here’s to a season full of more joy and green than anything else.