Rutkowski Farm

So today I finished mulching the garlic for the winter months.  All in all, I’m really happy with how the field prep went for the actual planting. All my beds were uniform and straight, and there wasn’t a lot of organic material (ie plant stubble) in the field to wrestle with.  In short, I corrected a lot of the mistakes I made last year.  I’m hoping that I can carry that forward in the spring and do an additional mulching once it’s popped up.  I really need to do a better job of keeping the weeds under control this go around.

So, what did I learn this time while planting?

• The dibbler does not reach the ground when it’s mounted on the tractor.  I had the brilliant idea that I’ll pull the dibbler behind the tractor, so that my rows would be very straight.  I went as far as buying additional parts for the dibbler to adapt it to fit on my hitch.  Unfortunately, I mounted it and it just spun in the air. Doh!
• Any task that I’m going to ask others to help me with has to be done first by me.  I spent a good deal of time measuring and remeasuring to get more accurate numbers of what I was planting.  Because I spent the time, I have a great deal more confidence in my counts this year.  I’ve noticed that when I have others working for me, this kind of information gets lost.  I always appreciate the help, but I now see that I need to develop a methodology on my own before bringing others into the task.
• I can manage the whole process on my own.  That said, given my current task load, 10,000 head of garlic is a pretty realistic maximum.

As a side note, I’m hoping to make a batch of garlic powder soon.

I have more to write about garlic planting, but for the moment, I just want to throw out a reminder/notification that we’ll be at the Ballston Spa Indoor Farmers Market this Saturday from 9am to Noon.  We don’t have a ton but here’s the rundown:

• Garlic
• Garlic Braids
• Sprouts
• Potatoes (White and Blue)
• Butternut Squash
• Sunchokes (aka Jerusalem Artichokes)

We hope to see folks there!

Here’s a map for those that don’t know where…

So.. while I was planting all of that garlic, I had to pass the time somehow.  The iPod was plugged into the truck stereo and thrown into shuffle play.  Now, there really isn’t anything on my iPod that I wouldn’t want to hear, but there are definitely songs that seem to match the moment so perfectly.  No…I don’t have any songs about planting garlic in my iPod, but there’s definitely songs that keep me moving forward and possibly make me work just a little faster.

To keep my day moving, I decided that I’d have a contest.  The song that popped up on shuffle that pushed that “awesome” button in the best way would win.  What would that artist win?  A small bag of garlic for each band member.  There were, of course, a couple of disqualifying points.  The artist can’t be dead.  The artist has to reside in North America.  With all due respect to our European (and other) friends, I’m not messing with customs.

OK….so drumroll please.  The winner is:

Yo La Tengo – Nothing to Hide

So, James McNew, Georgia Hubley, and Ira Kaplan your garlic awaits you.  Now to track down an address…

Update: It looks like YLT are pretty solidly on tour until December.  I’ll be sending the garlic to their PO Box then.  Congratulations YLT.

Tuesday was a very productive day.  I got up bright and early and started planting as soon as I could.  Basically, all that was left was a row of Spanish Roja and then 5+ rows of German White.  It took most of the day, but I got it all in.

Towards the end of the day, Kathleen and Asa surprised me.  At that point, I had 50 heads of German White to break and plant.  Kathleen and I broke all the heads and then she planted the final row while I walked around with Asa on my shoulders.  He had a blast as I ran up and down the rows.

In the end, I didn’t have time to spread any of the straw, but hopefully I can get that done in the wee hours at the start and end of the day over the next few days.  I have 4 rows covered so far.

Now for the counts of what I planted:

Music – 665
MarJean – 763
Ukranian Red – 2,739
Spanish Roja – 2,152
German White – 4,159

All these numbers are based on field measurements.  There’s no doubt they’re not 100% correct, but they’re really really close.

Frost in the air can only mean one thing…it’s time to plant garlic again.  We always aim for Columbus day weekend and never quite hit the target.  That’s ok though because the broader target is the month of October.

After wrestling with the Allis D17 and ultimately replacing a dead battery, the field finally was plowed, disked and tilled over the course of three days.  Daylight is scarce after I get out of work, so I have to do what I can with the little daylight there is.

As you can see from the picture, that bit all went well.  The bad news was the weather forecast.  They had forecast rain and snow in minor amounts for the whole weekend.  Terrible conditions.  I don’t think I’ve ever been happier that the forecast was dead wrong.  Saturday started with sun and ended with clouds with some blue sky in the distance.  We were on the edge of the cloudbank for the nastiness our neighbors to the south and east experienced.  With the additional prep work, we wound up getting 2 full rows of Ukrainian Red in.

Sunday morning, I got up slowly, but was finally in the field by 8 or so.  As you can see from the picture, I was greeted by frost.  Pushing garlic cloves through that frost layer hurts the fingers.  Lucky for me it didn’t stay frozen for too long.  I worked until about noon, getting the rest of the Ukrainian Red in, as well as all of the Music and Marjean.  At that point, it was a break for lunch with Kathleen and Asa.

After a long lunch, Kathleen joined me in the field while Asa napped and we knocked out a row and half of Spanish Roja.

At this point we have 6 full rows done and between 5 and 6 to go.  Those will happen Tuesday…until then…adieu.