Sunsets and scallops

We just got back from another great weekend at the farm. Alex was at the farm from Thursday, but I was able to take a bus to Portland and join Sunday afternoon for a couple of days. This weekend, we tilled the fields and even started planting! We drove the tractor up and down the fields to create drive rows, and Alex tilled most of the land to get it ready for planting. It was a cloudy and kind of chilly weekend, but a good time to plant right before the rains. No matter the weather, you can always count on Karnak for beautiful sunsets that literally last for hours. How did this farm get the entire sky?! We are so lucky.

When you visit, get ready for some beautiful sunsets.
This farm has a lot of sky!

Another great aspect of the weekend was the food. Driving back from Portland, we bought local Maine scallops and shrimp from another roadside store, and they were amazing. Cheap, local, fresh, perfect.

Mmmm... dinner in Maine

And this morning, we even started planting! Yesterday we had created seed beds by driving the tractor back and forth over a few rows. And then we measured out the rows, dropped in the seeds, covered them in dirt with a rake, and flattened the rows with a board to pack 'em in good. Easy as that! We planted radishes, collards, arugula, and kale. Slow process, but we will not be direct seeding the entire garden, and for now it is still fun!

Planting arugula

Alex will be returning to the farm Thursday, and continuing to plant and ready the fields. And then we are off to Israel for two weeks! Another adventure! When we return maybe our seeds will have sprouted?? We will also very likely return to a huge 8 foot fence around the farm, but that is a whole different story as well. Until then, we will just have to keep an eye on the seeds we started in our house in Somerville.... they're growing!! 

At least we will have plenty of habanero peppers

The season begins!

Well everyone, things have officially gotten started at Karnak Farm. We arrived Saturday morning, and quickly got to work. Our tasks included setting up the house, and starting to prepare the soil for planting. This is how we are planning on splitting up the fields this season: 

• Two acre chamomile pasture
• 6 acre elderflower orchard
• 1/2 acre vegetable garden
• 1 acre fallow for next year's garden

Each of the four sections will require different treatment and preparations. Before we plant the chamomile, we must first create stale seed beds-- sections of land that are completely free of weeds. Chamomile is a perennial flower, meaning that we will plant it once, this summer, and it will grow back essentially forever. Once chamomile has established its dominance in an area, it will choke out weeds from growing, and provide us with up to three harvests of flowers each summer. The two acres should yield between 500 and 1000 pounds of dried flowers each season. But the first step is getting rid of all the weed seeds in the area-- this is accomplished by repeatedly chopping up the top few inches of soil in each bed using a rototiller, pictured on the back of the tractor below:  

Basically, the rototiller is a box that you drag behind the tractor that contains about six rotating blades, positioned perpendicular to the ground, that can be lowered up to six inches into the soil. The blades are powered by tractor's engine, and are very effective at aerating and breaking up clumps of soil. Look at the difference below between the untilled soil and the area which Mia is driving over:

The elderflower orchard will be treated a bit differently than the chamomile section. We will first till the top few inches of soil. and then plant white clover as a low-lying ground cover that will not compete with the elder bushes. The half acre food garden will not be planted all at one time, so we will till that land as needed, before each crop is planted. The acre of fallow is the land that we are planning to use for next year's food production. This year, we will plant a mixture of peas, vetch, and oats in the area, and periodically dig the plants back into the soil using the rototiller. We will be using this mixture of plants  as a green manure- a crop which is grown not for food, but rather to to enrich the soil by being tilled into the ground in the fall, providing nutrients for next year.

Besides the field preparations, our work this weekend included setting up a temporary, makeshift compost bin, and putting together Ikea furniture (guest bedroom pictured below):

So, that is about it for our first weekend at Karnak. More updates to come later this week! For now, we leave you with a taste of what's in store if you come to visit this summer-- namely, the neighborhood lobster shack, which cooks your food for you, for free! Hungry?