Details in the following mailout dated September 25th refer to notes regarding our 2010 harvest that you can reference in the previous post, complete with photos!
sent September 25, 2010
Dear Spudsters,
Congratulations on a successful 2010 harvest! For a detailed report and photos from the field, please visit our blog.
Please also note that the MEETING of SPUDS whole co-operative membership proposed in the harvest field for Monday, September 27th at Susan Marie's has been POSTPONED. A new meeting date will be set sometime in late October/early November so stay tuned. Planning for 2011 has already begun, and everyone's input is welcome and significant to our cooperative efforts!
In the meantime, if you have not already done so, please confirm your membership renewal so we have an idea of how many folks are on board for 2011...and please spread the word that more members are welcome!
........HARVEST FOLLOWUP:
All 2010 spuds have been divvied up and distributed among our active members (delivered to those who were unable to attend the harvest). 'Extras' set aside at the time for gifting have been, or are being delivered this weekend with notes of appreciation to the following generous SPUDS supporters ...
-Brian Miles for continually loaning us his hand-pulled roller when we've needed it to press our cover crop into the soil to increase germination potential, and avoid additional fossil fuel use;
- Mike Lindsay who has borrowed tilling equipment on SPUDS behalf, delivered it to and fro the field, and this time ploughed the whole field in preparation for total field covercropping... which we hope will now lead to a significaint decrease in fossil fuel use in the field next year;
-Derek Tanneker for his valuable input both on and off the field with soil management strategy, planting, covercropping and more;
-DI's Volunteer Fire Department for a total of four refills of our cistern during our long summer drought, thanks to organization by Charlie Johnston!
......COVER CROPPING UPDATE:
Mike Lindsay made it into the field with a tractor on Thursday, September, 23rd and prepared all four quadrants for reseeding. Jan, Lindsay, Fireweed and Mike of the FSC (field management sub committee) successfully planted our winter peas today in the one quadrant we will be using for potatoes next year, and clover in the other three quadrants with the help of member Ron Dobie.
Charlie, Mike and Fireweed will finish planting the hairy vetch in the two remaining clover covered areas waiting, on Sunday (that's a total of three quadrants planted with a mix of vetch and clover, one quadrant with peas only). Ron and Mike hauled the water-filled roller over the entire half of the field that has been fully planted, and the same thing will happen with the upper half of the field once the hairy vetch is down in those last two remaining quadrants as well.
The warm wet weather right now is ideal for sprouting, and we could see many volunteer peas already taking off throughout the field where this year's cover crop went to seed. High winds are a worry, so impregnating the seed into the soil with the roller will hopefully increase our chances of even coverage and good germination.
To avoid wasting any seed and to ensure best possible field coverage, each of our four quadrants was divided into another four sections today using stakes marked with flagging tape. The three cover crop seed varieties were then laboriously divided into just the right amount for each of the four strips per quadrant where destined, and in the case of the very tiny clover seed, successfully mixed with sand (at an approximate 10 to 1 ratio) to aid broadcasting coverage.
Total time cover cropping by hand this way estimated at 4 hours for the whole field.
......MULCH-
If everyone could put out feelers for spoiled hay, it's not too early to start finding sources of mulch for next spring's potato planting. Please get in touch if you have a lead on any free bales of hay! (Pickup can be arranged for mid October)
The next SPUDS update will include a date for the whole membership meeting and proposed agenda. Additional agenda items, thoughts/ideas for collective deliberation, etc, welcome. In the meantime, happy potato eating!
-Fireweed,
on behalf of the FSC
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