Rise and Shine! Spring Happenings Around the Farm

Spring Has Sprung! We mark our third spring here on the farm. Amazing how much it has changed in two years, and how much farming has changed us. We get busier and busier as the ground wakes up. Spring flowers – daffodils, crocuses, tulips – have put on a show-stopping performance in the lawn in front of the house. As each spring, there are lots of great updates – and more projects than we have time for – from the new hops yard to orchards to the first garden greens.

Crocus below the schooldesk stairs

Apples and Daffodils

Our impact on the farm is most visible in the orchards. When we arrived three Marches ago, the apple orchard looked like a troop of Kraken sea monsters. We dramatically pruned them back, fighting poison ivy and braving wintery winds to lop out a third of growth each spring. (And held our breath that the trees were not too shocked.) The most dramatic change is probably clearing the overgrowth around the orchard that shaded them and prevented much-needed air flow. In this third spring, many trees are getting their pleasant umbrella-shaped form back.  We snip off sucker shoots, clear out the “mummies” (dead apples that stay on the trees), rake up the leaves where disease winters over, and chip the deadfall to compost and apply as mulch next year. According to “The Holistic Orchardist,” decomposing wood will promote fungal and microbial growth, which helps apple tree root systems.

  

The Thorough Organic Orchardist

Now, the fruit trees are budding. Just in time for an upcoming workshop we are hosting: The Thorough Orchardist: Planning for Success with Tree Fruit. On Saturday, May 11^th 1-4pm, Mike Bilonten of Red Jacket Orchards will be on the farm to discuss planning and planting an organic orchard, sponsored by the Northeast Organic FarmingAssociation-New York. You can register here. We hope to learn a lot from him for the future u-pick orchards.

 Farm to Pint Glass

In April, we had the pleasure of giving a talk at Beerologyat the Buffalo Museum of Science, called “From Farm to Pint Glass: The Art and Science of Growing Hops.” We got to talk about one of our favorite subjects – growing hops – and tag-teamed with a knowledgeable home-brewer who explained brewing with hops. As it was a beer-tasting event, it was a lively audience discussion. Then, McCollum Orchards’ Cascade hops were used in a special Porter-style beer at Cole’s for Community Beer Works’ one-year birthday. We were thrilled to taste the hops in a delicious beer! The beer events piqued a lot of interest in this year’s harvest party, which we plan to make bigger and better.  

Talking hops in front of a big audience.

Rich tilling the new yard

Once again, we are expanding the hopsyard on the newly cleared acreage. (Will there ever be a spring when we don’t lug 21’ poles around?) The expansion required de-rocking the area, discing, tilling, amending with organic fertilizers, and hilling for the 400 Centennial and Chinook rhizomes to be planted this week. Best yet, we will use locally harvested larch poles for the trellis system.

The Mini-Jungle

Garden seedlings are in full swing! The farm stand will open in just two months on Thursday, June 27^th. We will also be at two farmers’ markets: Lockport Community Market and Farmers Market at Grider. Now, our office space is a mini-jungle. We start everything from seed (non-GMO and most USDA Organic). Since we must use every inch of the ½ acre garden space as efficiently as possible, we start 99% of plants as transplants, even beets and peas. We can’t afford to have any non-starters that oftentimes occur when seeding directly outside. There’s nothing better than brushing my hand across the top of the tomato starts and smelling that earthy tomato scent!

Baby Peppers, Celery, Onions, Peas, and flowers

This year we have a great selection of tomatoes – seven varieties in all. We will offer better slicing tomatoes this year, along with cute cherry tomatoes, huge heirlooms and a tried-and-true paste/sauce tomato. By demand from our neighbors and customers, we will grow lots of butternut squash, pumpkins, and other winter squash.  We are adding cut flowers to the mix, too!

Flowers, Birds & Bees

Spring has brought the return of flowers, birds and bees to the farm. Spring flowers, probably planted generations ago by Rich’s great-grandmother, have sprung forth with unbridled exuberance. In March, there was a purple carpet of crocus across the front lawn that stopped cars down N. Adam Street for several weeks. Now, daffodils are popping up in unexpected places like bursts of little yellow fireworks. Some black tulips are even emerging and the lilacs are just about to bloom. Blooms and warm weather have brought out bees in droves, which is great for pollination around the farm.

Photo courtesy of Michael Ammermuller

Back-Breaking Debris Clearing

It is a good thing there are so many pretty flowers and birds to look at outside these days because we are usually outside cleaning up rocks and roots from the recently cleared fields. This is a necessary step to be able to get the tractor in to disc up the compacted soil. Luckily for me, Rich enjoys wrestling 30-year-old roots and prying out rocks because sometimes I just want to fall on my knees and cry, “Why?!” Okay, that is dramatic. We are racing against time before weeds hide the debris. The hard work of getting the fields cleaned must happen before we can mark out our permanent rows for the farm’s next evolution.

View past heirloom pears and new hops to the cleared field and new hopsyard

The coolest thing is that land clearing unearthed another ancient rock wall that marked a field boundary. It is fascinating to think the 180 years ago, the same family was clearing the same land…and probably mostly by hand like us! Now, we have horsepower tractors to help, whereas they had horse power. Just like Hiram, Silas, et al did back then, we are working hard to get the job done  so the fields can grow delicious fruit, berries and vegetables once again.

Keeping Busy

What Do Farmers Do in the Winter? They Keep Busy

People often ask us, “What do you do in the winter?” After the last squash is sold and the tools are stored, what do we do until next spring?  We get asked this question so many times that we have a short answer and a long answer. The short answer is, “Prepare for next year.” If you want to know how we are preparing this winter to be better farmers, grow the business and restore the property, here is a quick run-down! 

A fresh coat of paint turned a creepy hallway into a bright living space

First (after we exhaled, washed some clothes, cleaned the house, watched a movie and had a beer) we evaluated what went well and what we can improve. We talked with customers about what they liked and what else we could offer.  We did a post-season recap while it was still fresh in our minds. Everything from seed varieties to harvesting methods was discussed. This helped us make a new game plan. (One that includes a lot more Butternut Squash and some new flowers, too!)

Do More Every Year

Then, we plan, plan, plan.  We drew up a planting and harvest schedule spreadsheet for all 50 types of fruits, vegetables and herbs we will grow next season. The plan covers germination, planting, transplanting, cultivating, and harvesting. One new approach we are trying for next season is to map out now a plan for every week of the growing season. Our goal is succession planting, so we have steady harvests of fresh green beans, squash, and lettuce throughout the summer. We will also track how long each task takes. These two tools will help us get even more efficient during the high season. Then, in January, we placed our orders for seed, rhizomes, equipment and fish fertilizer. 

Seed packets all organized for next season

We did a farm business analysis and prepared and filed farm taxes. It is the easiest thing to put off and the most important to get done early in the winter so it does not hang over our heads.  

Re-charge and Renovate

We have fun, too! We reconnect with friends and family and explore some of the great restaurants and bars this area has to offer. We went snow-shoeing and sledding on the property when the weather was right and tried to go outside as much as possible, enjoying the farm’s winter beauty. We also adopted a puppy – an Australian cattle dog/shepard mix – named Ruby – that has us very busy training. 

Fresh snowshoe tracks from an evening hike

There is nothing like the satisfaction of seeing the place come to life with a few repairs and fresh coats of paint. There are so many renovations needed on the old buildings that the list seems never ending. Last winter, the growing project list completely overwhelmed us. This year we made a rule to finish a project before starting a new one. The list is prioritized by farm/house and then indoor/outdoor categories, so we have projects for any weather. This has allowed us to get more accomplished with less stress. Activities like painting hallways, repairing tractors and sharpening tools are prioritized. Big items like building cold storage space and putting up hoop houses are coming soon. Funny thing that when a project gets crossed off this list, a few more get added. That list never goes away!

Fixing a chainsaw on a cold winter's day

Winter is our time for learning. The NOFA-NY WinterConference in January provided a perfect injection of energy and new ideas to get us fired up for the coming season. We also attended workshops and classes through Cornell on everything from cost of production to pest management.

Season by Season

Needless to say winter keeps us busy. But it is a different kind of busy than the long days of summer.  By this time in March, we are itching to be back out in the field. With the first break in the weather, we started pruning the apple orchard with our new pruners. It seems everyone is ready to mark the passage into Spring. Birds start to sing. Geese fly in their V-formations overhead. We feel so lucky that we get to watch the land wake up for another year. 

Who put 'Grow a beard' on the list?

Growing Garlic in the Orchard

Vampires beware: McCollum Orchards expanded the garlic crop this year!

Last year, we posted about our initial experiments growing garlic.  We planted three varieties in the fall of 2011 and had our first commercial harvest in July 2012.  150 bulbs seemed like a lot at the time, but the resulting large, healthy, storable garlic bulbs convinced us to expand.  So, to commemorate the end of the Twilight teen vampire saga, we planted 1,200 cloves of garlic last November.  

New garlic bed with fresh leaf and straw mulch

In addition to increasing the number of cloves, we also added a few more varieties. Some were from the previous year’s crop and others we added from local sources. Here are the varieties we planted:

Garlic cloves from previous crop

1. German- hardneck with white skin
2. Siberian – hardneck with purple skins
3. Northern White – porcelain
4. Italian - softneck
5. Old World Sicilian - softneck
6. Wild field & Wild forest garlic – mystery and spicy
7. Lotus (Turban)  - an early harvest variety

Wild Garlic Found on the Farm

While clearing eight acres of overgrown farmland last fall, we discovered two different stands of garlic growing wild on the property. One variety grew in an open field. It had smallish cloves and tasty scapes. The other had large cloves and was found in the overgrown woods near an old burn pile.  A Cornell Cooperative Extension agent thinks it may be an old commercial garlic that got tossed out decades ago and took root near the pile. It was healthy and has a great flavor, so we harvested some to see if we could cultivate it.

Large-Clove wild variety found on farm

Another variety comes from the ‘Old World.’ Kind neighbors shared with us garlic that was originally brought over from Sicily by their parents. They have grown it in their garden ever since. 

How We Grow

Last year, we cut scapes in June and harvested bulbs in July.  We built a drying rack in the old fruit packing shed to cure them for nearly two months.  We had some garlic available at the farm stand that was great for cooking and sold out instantly. The biggest bulbs were stored for re-seeding to build up the crop. Like most vegetable seeds, the bigger cloves will produce bigger bulbs. 

Garlic Harvest 2012

This year, we tilled a 6x100-foot bed in the pear orchard. It was prepped with local slow-release organic chicken manure fertilizer from Kreher’s Poultry Farm.  We planted by hand on a 6” grid with space for a drip irrigation line. Everything was covered with layers of straw and mulched leaves to protect the cloves from frost heave during this winter. We’ll lay drip irrigation line once the ground begins to dry out in May.  Scapes will be cut after summer solstice.  Once the scapes are cut, the plant puts all of its energy into growing the bulb underground. The 2013 garlic crop will be harvested and cured a few weeks later.

Measuring the new bed

Learning by Planting

Learning from last year, we will improve our growing technique for garlic. We will make sure they are properly irrigated this time. They need about an inch of water per week. Last summer we kept waiting for it to rain, but it never did. We will also add more nutrients to the soil in the form of organic slow-release fertilizer.

On the positive side, we chose the right varieties – hardy hardneck – for this climate. We also ordered large seed cloves, resulting in bigger bulbs. Cutting the scapes at the right time caused the bulbs to grow almost three times larger than ones without the scapes removed. Mulching heavily helped protect them in the winter and building a good drying rack for curing helped them store well until re-planting.

The same variety garlic with and without scape

As the birds start returning and the air gets warmer, green garlic shoots can now been seen peaking out of their beds of mulch.  It makes us hungry for all the basil and tomatoes we are planting this spring to combine with our garlic for a delicious summer pesto. It’ll be here before we know it!

It's Springtime!  Here comes the garlic!