The Bug Catcher.

So I’ve been on the farm for three months now and farm work is starting to become routine. Not boring, but now we have planted most of the years crops we are left with basically two tasks to occupy our days. Harvesting and Weeding.

My work day starts at 7am and begins with harvesting. I hate getting up early which probably doesn’t make me a good candidate for being a farmer, but my body has finally adjusted to this early morning shock. In order to adequately caffeinate myself I have to get up at 6:30 am!!

Every day we have a pick sheet which is basically a wish list of what we need to harvest for the farm stand, farmers’ market (Thursday and Saturday) and the CSA (Tuesday and Wednesday). The field crew (usually 5 or 6 of us) then set out to all corners of the farm to harvest the veggies. It can take anywhere between 1 and 3 hours depending on the day and what is on the pick list. Harvesting is actually great fun and quite gratifying. Last week we harvested parsley, basil, squash, collards, chard, kale, lettuce, broccoli, radishes, beets, cucumbers, spinach and strawberries. Pick your own strawberries are one of the main attractions on the farm and every morning carloads of people file into the fields to load up on the sweet red goodies.

After harvesting is finished we then begin the arduous task of weeding the many acres of crops we have in production. First and foremost are next year’s strawberries which just got planted a few weeks ago. We have four acres (about 38,000 plants) which will be weeded until the fall when they will be covered in a nice winter blanket of straw. We also have many acres of vegetables to deal with. Some are pretty easy to control, pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. But others are a pain in the ass, carrots, leeks, and onions are top of that list. The idea is to get on top of the weeds right away so your crop gets a good head start and you can rely mostly on tractor cultivation. Of course this never happens as like most farms we are constantly playing catch up. It’s rained a lot here this summer too which means that we can’t always use the tractors because they compact the soil.

As part of my apprenticeship I have just recently begun a very special project. I am now training to be Cedar Circle’s resident entomologist. Last week I got a beginner’s insect preservation kit in the mail from UC Davis and I am now busy at work building an insect collection so the staff can identify insects and problems before they get out of control.

It goes something like this. I run around the field with my bug catcher’s net swiping it back and forth across the plants. I then empty whatever unfortunate critters I have happened to catch into a small glass jar containing alcohol. This part is painful to watch as the insects flail about wildly in the toxic environment. I tried putting in more alcohol but it still takes a few minutes for them to die. The jar is then emptied out and they are mounted on pins, identified and labeled. The mounting part is pretty easy, but identification is quite difficult. I ordered a huge textbook which should be coming any day as the insect books I currently have are not that good. The project is going well so far but the other day I looked at the pinned up insects and noticed that one of them was still alive and wiggling it’s legs madly a day after it had been crucified. My most heartfelt apologies to that poor Japanese Beetle.

Compared to the weeds, insects are a minor problem, but some do have the potential to ruin entire crops. Flea beetles like brassicas (cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage etc) and we control them by using row covers to keep them off the plants. Aphids like pretty much everything and we buy in masses of ladybugs who love to eat them. Public enemy number one, however is the Colorado Potato Beetle. When they’re not eating potato and eggplant leaves they like to fuck each other and make more of themselves. For the potato beetle we spray Spinosad, an organically approved insecticide derived from soil bacterium.

On a non work related note I would like to announce a personal boycott of Wal-Mart. I ended up going there twice (after three unsuccessful visits to local hardware stores) but have now discovered the joys of Big K-mart. Big K still has the same sweatshop low prices and it’s just as good for mullet spotting. Out here the local mullet variety is called the Vermullet. I hope you (if anyone ever reads this blog) will join me in this bold political statement.

Farmer Simon