Square Peg Post

My folks bought an antique cider press at a farm auction in the early 1970′s.  I vividly remember the trip to pick it up including the tag hanging on the press which included our misspelled last name and the sales price of $40.   We used the press over many years and a cider pressing turned into a pretty fun afternoon for lots of neighborhood kids.

The original wooden frame eventually got loose and sloppy so I asked my friend Matt Presley who owns Old Green Woodworking to rebuild it for me.    Matt brought the press back to the farm today and I was blown away.  He used quartersawn white oak, the same wood used when the machine was first built at the Eagle Machine Co., Lancaster, OH, circa 1900.    The original construction lasted for about 100 years so it was the pattern for the rebuild.  However, I agreed to some of Matt’s ideas for making the rebuilt frame more robust and easier to use.  The biggest change is that the tray that holds the pomace basket and captures the juice has been made into a removable component which makes it easier to clean and makes the whole press easier to move.  In the original design the tray was an integral part of the frame and provided much of the structural rigidity.  This function is now provided by the two longitudinal runners that connect the front and rear legs and several other improved joining techniques.  The only down side of the project is that our nicest piece of furniture is now a cider press that spends most of its time in a machine shed!

Matt and his Handiwork

I volunteered to refinish the castings – and will do so soon.  More pics when that happens and when we grind and press our inaugural apples.

From Left: new pressing block, pomace basket with one new slat, removable tray, new basket slide, rebuilt frame (notice new runners that connect the front and rear legs.)

The boards in the original tray were butted together and nailed. Matt's version uses dovetail joints and glue.

The runners on the basket slide fit into grooves on the slats.

Cleats on the bottom of the tray keep it in place when located in the frame.

On Sunday, July 10th we will remember our dear friend, Richard German, during a bike ride originating at Square Peg Farm.   Friends of Richard’s are invited to gather at 10 AM to prepare for an 11 AM departure on a moderately difficult course that Richard often rode during his summers at the farm.   With an easy pace the ride takes about 90 minutes.  Please bring a potluck dish to share and the beverage of your choice for a post-ride meal.   Map Quest directions to 6370 NW Evers Road, Forest Grove, 97116 are easier to follow than those from google maps.

A couple of years ago I bought a 1953 International Farmall Cub tractor for cultivating vegetables.  For reasons too lame to explain here I really never tried to use it despite attending a very helpful tractor cultivation workshop in Spring ’10 taught by Josh Volk of Slow Hand Farm.   But the new year brought new motivation and a few days ago I started tinkering with the Cub.  I added fresh fuel and was amazed when the thing started on the third try.  I changed the oil, greased a few fittings, put some tools on the toolbar and waited for the soil to dry out.

Earlier in the week Amy had planted tomatoes in the bottom of a series of  8 trenches I had made down the center of some two hundred foot long beds.  She had covered the root ball of each plant but the trenches were still largely open.  Closing them with a rake is a boring, arduous task but easy work for a properly set-up cultivating tractor.

Tomato transplants into an open trench. Plenty of lime helps prevent Blossom End Rot

My first few attempts were less than satisfactory because the tools weren’t properly set and because the tractor was running poorly.  The engine was bogging down under load and I couldn’t get enough speed to get a good curl, like a wave coming into the beach, on the soil as I tried to hill it into the center of the bed.  My friend and fellow Cub owner/operator Mike Paine of Gaining Ground Farm answered on the first ring (cell phones are extremely useful farming tools!) and helped me through the carburation problems that were slowing me down.  With the tractor running at speed I could properly adjust my tools and finally got what I wanted – a nicely hilled bed with a slight furrow to hold the drip irrigation tape in place.

I went back to redo my earlier work which proved to be trickier than I expected.  At one point either the rear tire or one of the hilling tools got caught in furrow made on a previous pass and the very lightweight Cub got thrown a bit off course.     Luckily, I only uprooted a single plant.

This one got replanted.

Normally the light weight of the tractor is an advantage for cultivation as it minimizes soil compaction.  Notice in the pic below the very high clearance of the Cub which allows this kind of cultivation over the top of relatively tall crops like these tomatoes.

The off-center engine and transmission allow the operator to see the crops passing below him - very helpful when "belly mounted" cultivation tools are in use.

Here is a better pic of the detail of the tool setup.  For this operation I had to adjust for depth, angle of attack, and width.

Two hilling tools attached to special hilling tool bars. I couldn't use the standard tool bar which is positioned perpindicular to length of the bed and spans the width of the bed. When lowered to allow the tools to enter the soil the tool bar would break the stems of these tomato starts.

The star of the show – the Farmall Cub.  These machines were made by the tens of thousands in the post-war golden era.  They are simple and reliable and there are still lots of them around.

On Sunday, July 10th friends of Richard German’s are invited to join us on a bicycle ride on one of Richard’s favorite routes.  We will gather at 10 AM at the farm and depart at 11 AM for the 90 minute ride over a moderately difficult route.  After the ride we’ll share a potluck meal.   Contact Amy with any questions: amy@squarepegfarm.com.

Soil is the fundamental component of any farm and improving and protecting it is perhaps a farmers most important job.  Soil conservation is kind of like contributing to a savings account – at the time there always seems to be a dozen important ways to use the resources but years down the road you are always glad you did it.  One important component of soil conservation is cover cropping which, in simplified terms, is the use of non-cash crops to cover the soil until the next cash crop cycle begins.  Green Manures are cover crops that are knocked down and worked into the soil when they are still green and full of nitrogen and other soil nutrients.    They serve a similar function as brown manures, real animal poo, without the smell and without the added work and cost of spreading the brown manure.

Here are a few pics of our current cover crops.

Formerly hog pasture, this 3 acre plot is planted to cereal rye and vetch, a nitrogen fixing legume.

The light green, viney vetch with its oval shaped leaves will climb the dark green rye as they both mature.

Last years squash patch was planted to annual rye and crimson clover.

Annual rye and crimson clover in early Jan. By April foliage will obscure our view of the soil

In the foreground is a patch of sudan grass planted last summer and left to winter kill. The straw and intact root systems serve to protect the soil from the compaction and erosion of winter rains.

The whole field of sudan grass straw was nicely alligned when it was knocked down last fall by a wind storm.

When I was a kid my dad wouldn’t eat bananas.  “I ate real bananas during the war in the Phillipines.  Those things from the grocery store are not the same,” he would declare with contempt.   I feel the same way about strawberries – I eat real strawberries in May and June in the middle of my strawberry patch.  Those things in the store are not the same.    Let me be unequivocal – I am a strawberry snob.  I do not eat California berries because no decent berry can withstand the packaging and shipping.  I will eat local berries in august and september that come from “everbearing” varieties but usually just to be polite.  The best strawberries come in the spring and are done before summer really gets going.  We plant two such varieties of June bearing strawberries: Hoods and Shuksans.  These two are top tier for flavor and that is why one eats strawberrries, no?  Some other varieties make bigger berries which means less labor to fill a pint and still others bear throughout the spring, summer and into the fall.  None of these approach the quality of our favorites.

Lot’s of work happens before the flats show up at the market.  We planted a new patch in July 2010 that we will begin to harvest late in the spring of 2011.  Below is the story of how we plant them.

Amy trims the roots of the strawberry plants we bought from a nursery.

The trimmed plants are placed in a kelp solution which stimulates the roots.

On the left, the trimmed plants are much easier to plant without doubling over the roots.

Amy loads the plants into the planting cups on the transplanter which is pulled down the row by the tractor.

Several plants line up waiting to be planted by the machine.

Several rows of planted strawberries waiting for drip irrigation tape and some delicious water.

The same rows in early January. The foliage will fill in as the days get longer. April's flowers will be May's berries!

Most of our insect pests are dormant, keeping their powder dry until the temperatures rise when they will resume their rapid reproductive cycles and their voracious and unauthorized consumption of our crops.   Their warm blooded partners in crime, however, continue the destruction and are more desperate than ever to eat, burning calories just to stay warm.  Pocket gophers have been our worst pest since we started here in 2003 and they remain a serious foe but a different rodent has joined the race for the title of Public Enemey Number 1.  The cute and cuddly meadow vole has exploded in population and every one of the little rascals wants to eat, grow, and reproduce!

Burrow entrances like these riddle the farm. Voles are everywhere!

This young apple tree was "girdled" by voles who ate the nutrient rich bark from the bottom half foot of the tree.

THe roots of this tree were severed by gophers and voles. Only the tap root keeps it from falling down completely.

A vole burrow - probably excavated by a coyote. Notice the clipped grass fronds and the big pile of green poo. They are herbavores!

Because Square Peg Farm is a certified organic operation and because we are opposed to willy nilly spreading poison over the land, our options for control are limited.  We have done some gopher trapping with decent success but it is time consuming.   Our best hope is to provide habitat for natural predators and this is where the USDA’s EQIP program comes in.   With EQIP funding we have erected raptor houses and perches and installed some owl boxes.  Some kestrels have taken residence in a couple of our bird houses and kestrels and red tail hawks frequent the perches.  The owl houses went in a  week ago and so far no one has taken up residence but nesting season hasn’t started yet so I am still hopeful.

A kestrel perching above a raptor house. Kestrels eat insects, amphibians, and MICE!

A red tail hawk on a perch. The hawk is much larger than the kestrel and can eat gophers. They also eat carrion and are often seen perching by highways.

An owl "box" made from a concentrated grape juice barrel hangs in the rafters of the barn. No residents yet - part of the housing glut?

Shouldn't you be hunting?!?!

Last Wednesday one of our young gilts delivered her first litter of pigs.  8 of 10 made it through the process – not bad for a first timer.  One of the most interesting things to me is the instinctive nest building behavior that hogs perform prior to farrowing.  Even though our new mom-to-be had a hut full of fresh straw she proceeded to uproot a massive amount of grass from her pen to build her nest.

A bit of nervous energy may have fueled this housing bubble

Is this a door or a nest?

After building her nest we all went to bed and the next morning she had done her work.

Learning how to not step on/be stepped on can take a day or two

After being born young pigs immediately find a teat and begin to nurse.  They are amazingly ready to cope right out of the womb.

Finally, a little bit of sun!

For the next six weeks the mama’s job is to make milk and the babies’ job is to eat and grow!

All hands on Deck!