September 20, 2004
Like My Tractor?
On Saturday I went for bike ride, and when I came back up the driveway I saw Til on the front field. Never one to miss an opportunity to take a gratuitous tractor picture, I dashed to my apartment and grabbed the camera. Til has been spending an awful lot of time on the tractor on this so-called holiday (this, of course, should come as no surprise - he is, after all, Lorenz's brother). He doesn't leave until Tuesday, opening up a lovely little tongue twister: "Til tilled 'til Tuesday".
More specifically, he was harrowing, which means you drag a heavy frame with all these nasty teeth over land that you are preparing to seed. The front field was plowed for the first time (since Lorenz moved to the farm in the late 80s) this past spring. The moldboard plow turns the sod, exposing the roots of all that is growing there. The roots then dry out, and the plants die (at the same time, the plants themselves are incorporated into the soil, adding to organic matter content and fertility). But plowing it once only breaks the sod, it doesn't prepare a seedbed - after that, you need to disc it repeatedly to break up the clumps and level it. This particular field is supposed to now get a cover crop - probably oats and field peas - which keeps the weeds down and, once plowed down in the spring, adds more fertility (the peas, in particular, would fix nitrogen). Before anything is planted, though, the field will get an application of greensand. Greensand is a soil amendment, and it really is sand-like. That is, if sand contained a lot of glauconite, which is a souce of potash and thus potassium. Potassium is one of the three macro-nutrients given in fertilizer NPK ratings (nitrogen:phosphorous:potassium). Greensand's NPK ratio is approximately 0-1-5. In comparison, well-rotted cattle manure is about 1-1-1, and conventional chemical potassium fertilizers based on potassium nitrate come in at around 13-0-45. Greensand has several advantages: for starters, it is not chemically altered (greensand deposits occur naturally, in areas that were once part of the marine environment). More importantly, though, it is a slow-release source of nutrients, meaning one application gives nutrients for a much longer time than a water-soluble chemical fertilizer which gives you a big boost the year you apply it, but then you have to keep doing it. Using fertilizers with big numbers in the NPK ratio also means that there is greater chance of "fertilizer burn". Fertilizer burn happens when the plant takes up too much fertilizer and thus has too high a concentration of mineral salts and can't take up enough water to dilute. It's the plant equivalent of severe dehydration, and plants will turn yellow and, in extreme cases, wilt and die. Needless to say, potassium nitrate is *not allowed* in organic production.
But let's not develop a fertilizer fetish. At least not before we've satisfied the tractor obsession for this week. After bugging Til with my camera, I wandered away. And then my ears picked up the diesel roar of another tractor, up on the hill. Well, double bonus for me! I went up to the field and took more pictures of Lorenz on the other tractor, tilling away. He stopped to chat, and then Til came up, and I managed to get both Eppingers into a picture with a tractor! And if you look at the big picture above, you'll get to see both of them on their tractors at the same time.
When I wandered up to the fields the other afternoon, I came across Sean and Justin harvesting tomatoes (and they showed me a new-to-me critter, the tomato horn worm. Apparently, it becomes a moth at some point). Sean says, proudly, "Justin got to drive the tractor!". Driving the tractor is a special privilege around here. Not so much because everybody is eager to get a lung full of diesel fumes, but because Lorenz is quite possessive of his machines. 
This may or may not have something to do with big repair bills when people with little feel for driving farm machinery were still allowed to do so. It may even be connected to the time when one of the interns decided to drive the tractor up the hill with the bucket down (the hill did not need grading). So, the new rule is: only people who either already know what they're doing or have the skills to fix it if anything goes wrong on the tractor. The short list of people who qualify is Ruth, HP, Til, Piet and now Justin (who is not new to the trator driving thing).
It's not just tomatoes that the triplets are harvesting (and it's no longer the triplets, JP has buggered off to go to university, so the triplets are just Justin and Sean). On Saturday, I watched Lorenz box up a huge order of purple cauliflower, and the cooler smelled like fennel because of the vast quantities of that vegetable in there. 
There have been buckets of eggplant and peppers in the barn, not to mention boxes of greens and crates of summer and winter squash, melons, cucumbers and more, and bunches of chicory, basil and beets. There have even been buckets of sunflowers, since these are being sold at markets now (they're also being picked by me, as I love the look of a vase crammed full of sunflowers in my apartment).
One of the things Greenfields is particulary great at producing is carrots: Greenfields carrots are the sweetest, crunchiest carrots known to humanity (it is no coincidence that the Greenfields logo has a carrot on it). I look forward to Greenfields carrots as much as I anticipate local tomatoes. This year, however, some of the carrots grown here, though still far better than your average carrot, are not perfect. The later planting of carrots has a much higher proportion of white ones, which means wild carrot and not sweet or tasty at all and thus compost. 
Furthermore, the carrots themselves don't have that straight shape and aren't quite as yummy. This morning, while Lorenz was bunching carrots, he explained that he has no control over this: when you buy seed for an organic farm, you have to buy organic seed if it is available. That sounds like a good plan, since by buying certified organic you are buying certified GMO-free, and you are buying seed stock for plants that have not been bred to want to suck up 13-0-45 or whatnot fertilizer that would sulk if they weren't given their chemical additives. The flipside is, though, that the seed isn't as standardized as conventional seed, so if you are buying from a source that isn't entirely on top of weeds or otherwise good at breeding, you can get seed that isn't what you expect. In most cases, the organic seed is as good as or easily better than the conventional stuff (which you can use, with permission from the certifier, if no organic alternative is available). In rare instances, though, you get this happening. In another year, the romaine lettuce didn't work out because of the seed. Sure, you could save your own seed - and Lorenz uses his own sunchokes and garlic from year to year, and he's been growing tobacco for seed - but then you're getting into a different area of expertise and have to get into hybrids and exclusive rights and complicated matters such as this.
But, let's not get the idea that it's all complicated discussions of seeds and eager climbing on the tractor around here. Yes, it's a working farm, which means people... well, work. 
And it's a super-busy time of year for vegetable farmers. However, Lorenz isn't just a busy vegetable farmer, he has a life. Right now, his brother is here, which is pretty special (and not just because Til does so much work!). And don't forget that Lorenz has kids, and that HP (who is Til's brother-in-law, if you're trying to figure out the connections) is only here for another few weeks (and yes, there will be complaining about his departue on these web pages. I can understand that he wants to get back to his own life and the lovely Birgit, but dammit, he's fun!) When I came down the hill from my tractor obsession photo shoot on Saturday, HP roared up on his motorcycle, and thought we should take advantage of the wonderful weather and drink some beer in the garden. My arm does not need to be twisted. Malcolm came and joined us (minus the beer), and put on quite a show of posing. 
Ever since Malcolm found his own picture on the internet, you might as well cue some runway music when he sees the camera! HP spent some time explaining the logic (?) of overpriced running shoes and sweatshops, and Malcolm paid attention. Then Til came and joined us, and after a while Lorenz too. Hanging out with the Eppinger clan has been very fun lately. The whole kit and caboodle took off for Toronto yesterday, and Vanessa and I decided to spend the day with them eating dim sum, wandering on Queen Street, and putting some crepes out of their misery. It's a good place to be, Greenfields.