The majority of the oats are now golden but some are still green, which means they're still not ready to harvest. Next week?
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The results from June are in. According to the office of the New Jersey State Climatologist, June 2014 was a little warm, it ranked as the 29th warmest since 1895, and a little dry, the 47th driest since 1895.
The state climatologist notes: "More than a few people may be inclined to think the month was cooler than average. This might be due to the absence of an extended hot spell, the thermometer remaining below 90° over most of the northern third of the state, or a continued reaction to the earlier cold start of 2014." Though not yet ready for harvest, the oats are beginning to turn the right color.
At the weekly farmers’ meeting, the talk was largely of an age-old nemesis: weeds. What's the definition of a weed? Anything growing in the field that a farmer doesn't want growing. At Howell Farm this year, the often means thistle and jimson weed.
-On Saturday, Farmer Ian cultivated the potatoes. -Ian also noted that the field corn is now beyond the state at which it can be cultivated. -On Tuesday, Farmer Rob ran the combine through the wheat field. It was weedy—lots of thistle. -The spelt field, not quite ready to harvest, is overrun with thistle. Other discussion was of the small but important details of running a farm—the supply of cat food for the barn cat, the price of Skin-So-Soft to keep the flies off the horses, when to schedule the next visit from a farrier, Sunday chores schedules, mowing priorities, etc. etc. Backing a horse-drawn wagon full of wheat sheaves into a barn is kind of like parallel parking, but harder. Farmer Ian demonstrates good form.
At the weekly farmers’ meeting, usually held on Wednesday mornings, the farm staff gathers to discuss the progress of the previous week and to plan the week to come. Some highlight from this morning’s meeting:
-In the past two weeks, about 700 bales of hay have been cut, dried, baled and put away in the barn. Farmer Ian said the quality of the hay was pretty good. -Howell Farm’s second wheat field is almost ready to harvest. The quality of this field is significantly lower than the field that was harvested on Saturday—it’s filled with thistle. A 1960s combine will be used to harvest the wheat sometime next week. -With rain in the forecast—thunderstorms may start this afternoon—it’s time to bring in the 30 shocks of wheat that have been drying in the first wheat field. That job is scheduled to begin today at about 1 p.m. Weather.com calls for a 95% chance of thunderstorms at 3 p.m. -This morning, Farmer Jeremy started cultivating the cornfield with a team of draft horses at about 8 a.m. It’s going to be one of the hottest days of the year so far—about 92 degrees—so the horses appreciate the early start. Hot days are also a good day for weeding. The hot sun kill weeds that are brought to the surface. -The potatoes, which are not fenced, have been sustaining deer damage. They are also covered with, as usual, potato beetles. They are due for cultivating and hilling. Today is the occasion of one of the most beautiful of all historic farming activities: the wheat harvest.
Of Howell Farm's two fields in wheat this year, the smaller field is ready. The larger field still has some growing to do. Farmer Jeremy remarks that the quality of the crop in the smaller field is excellent. Jeremy seeded the field a little heavier than usual in the fall, and this seems to have done the trick to crowd of the weeds. Some years thistle is all over the place; this year there's hardly a thistle to be seen. The wheat harvest relies on a piece of 1800s technology, the reaper binder, which cuts the wheat and ties it up into sheaves using twine. Humans then pick up the sheaves and build upright mounds using 8 to 10 of the sheaves, including 2 sheaves on top to help keep out the rain. These mounds, called shocks, let the wheat dry outside for a few days until it's ready to be threshed. When Howell Farm first started using a reaper binder, Jeremy recalls how the binder would mis-tie every 4 or 5 sheaves, and the sheaf would have to be tied manually--a big hassle. Then, after a trip to Lancaster to visit the Amish, the farm started using the same higher quality twine the Amish had been using. Problem solved. The invention of the reaper binder in the mid-1800s was a huge step forward for agricultural technology. For about 10,000 years beforehand, wheat harvests had been very similar and very tedious: the wheat was cut and collected by hand using a short-handled sickle. It wasn't until the 1830s that Cyrus McCormick invented a horse-draw machine that cut wheat stalks close to the ground, and then it took another 45 years or so for the tying part of the equation to be invented and perfected. According to an article by farm historian Larry Kidder: "About 1905 an Illinois farmer commended that when he first began farming, 'It took ten men to cut and bind my grain. Now our hired girl gets on the seat of a self-binder and does the whole business.'" On farms across New Jersey, haying operations are now in full swing, and it’s no different at Howell Farm. Hay has been cut in several fields, raked, tedded and is now ready for baling. This is also the time of year where the farmers pay very close attention to daily weather reports and track incoming storms.
The market garden this year wil be planted with sweet corn and popcorn. On Saturday Farmer Rob used his team of oxen to pack the soil. It’s now set to be disc harrowed and then planted as soon as possible.
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The Furrow is the online newsletter of The Friends of Howell Living History Farm. We will be updating this site about once a week with crop reports and other insights into life on a horse-drawn living history farm. Archives
June 2015
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THE FURROW: The online newsletter of Howell Living History Farm |
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