The Worm in the Apple

I read a memoir titled The Orchard last week.  Written by a woman who currently lives in Wisconsin, it is about her short marriage to a man who grew up on an apple orchard in Iowa.  The story is typical of many of the memoirs being written these days -- lots of angst and dysfunction; she & her husband were very young when they married and struggled to find their feet within the marriage. The time was the late 1970s through about 1990.  Farming was different then, every type of farming.  Strong chemicals were being used, often without benefit of protection to the person using them, or those going into the fields after application.  Regulatory agencies (EPA) were working to change that & discontinue use of some of the worst chemicals, but those changes were slow in coming.  The husband developed a fast-growing cancer and died at about age 35.  The author blames the cancer on the pesticides being used -- and she could certainly be right since I suspect that they were spraying DDT (it is never named in the book).

Unfortunately, she got so much wrong about the pests that her book cannot be taken as a serious work.  It is strictly her memory of parts of her life, told the way she wants it interpreted.

I can't speak for every orchard, but I know what is being taught at conferences and workshops, and I know what other orchardists tell me at those meetings.  What went on in the 1970s & 1980s does not happen anymore.

In The Orchard the author tells about her husband showing her where the Codling Moth -- a major pest to apples -- are boring into the tree trunks.  Codling Moth do NOT bore into tree trunks, not ever.  They are a real and persistent problem -- the proverbial worm in the apple -- but they bore into the apples themselves, lay eggs inside the apple that hatch into worm-like caterpillars that then bore their way through the apple leaving brown trails behind -- and often the process hasn't finished by the time the apple is ripe, so the caterpillar-worm is still in the apple when you pick it.

A pest that does bore into the trees is Dogwood Borer -- another real and significant problem for apple trees.  [There could be other borers that I don't know about  that infected the author's orchard.]

As scientists have learned more about the life cycle of the Codling Moth, they have also developed ways to deal with the moth rather than spraying a broad-based organophosphate pesticide that kills everything in its path, good and bad alike.  Farmers have learned more about the inter-connectedness of nature and are concerned about taking care of the soil and the water, and still making a crop that can be sold to earn their living.  There are 'organic' sprays (remember, gentle readers, that organic label on your food does not mean no chemical sprays have been used).  The trouble with the organic sprays for Codling Moth is that they must be sprayed every 10 days from May through September, as well as after every major rainfall.  And they often don't work as well as 2 well-timed conventional sprays.

There are also pheromone disrupters.  This past year, Farmer Bill & I tried a codling moth pheromone disrupter for the first time -- with pretty good success.  Pheromone disrupters for Codling Moth come in various shapes and sizes.  We used one that is similar to a giant twist-tie.  At the beginning of the Codling Moth season -- determined by the number of degree-days recorded that year -- we sent a crew out to the orchard to twist a disrupter onto every tree, and extras on the perimeter trees.  The pheromone scent imitates the scent of a female Codling Moth and excites the males.  The males fly toward the scent, planning to find the female and copulate with her, so she can bore into an apple, lay her eggs, and complete the circle of life.  But with pheromones coming at them from absolutely every tree, the males get disoriented -- and the premise is that they will get completely frustrated, not be able to find an actual female, and not be able to fertilize her eggs.

For years we have had a pheromone trap hanging in the orchard.  This trap has sticky stuff on it -- the pheromone lure draws the moths in & traps them in the goo.  We hang the traps in April and check them weekly.  When the number of moths in the trap hits a threshold, it is time to spray the orchard.  In 2011, once we'd hung the disrupters in the orchard we never saw another moth in the trap -- they were all flying around trying to find those elusive females elsewhere.  And we had virtually no Codling Moth damage to our apple crop.  While not cheap, the disrupters are less expensive than the organic sprays available, and similar in cost to the conventional sprays.  If they work over the long term -- multiple years -- they will be far less costly than any spray program in terms of their impact on the environment.

I guess my point in telling this story is to remind my readers (all 3 of you) that you can't believe everything you read.  No one fact checked this author's book before it was published & she got her facts wrong.  I don't believe she was intentionally wrong, she just didn't know.  And she wrote about what happened on farms 25 - 35 years ago by the time the book was published.  There is a tendency among some groups of the public to vilify conventional farmers en masse.  But I don't think Farmer Bill is a villain.  He uses chemicals judiciously and sparingly.  He sprays early in the day or late in the day when the 'good' bugs are less likely to be active.  He wears protective garb and a ventilator mask and doesn't allow staff into the fields before the interval proscribed by the label.  We eat a lot of apples at our house, and a lot of our friends and family eat them, too.  We're not interested in poisoning any of these people.  We are interested in making our farm profitable -- and wormy apples are not saleable.

Winter

The strawberries were covered this past week; the blueberries were mulched; machinery was winterized & put away.   Farmer Bill took off this morning to pick up a new (to him) tractor in Virginia and won't be back for about 6 days.  I plan on spending a lot of time working in my sewing room while he's gone.  I hope to finish the wall quilt I started last spring, and make a start on a new quilt for our bed that I've been planning for almost 2 years.  When I need a break from sewing I'll work on a few home improvement projects -- light fixtures in the hallway come to mind -- and do some fall cleaning.

We had a light dusting of snow last night, which covers up the brown and makes things look very clean and pretty.  Not enough yet to get out the snowshoes...

We had a pretty good apple season this year, which helped make up some of the deficit from the strawberries (see posts about the river field).  But Farmer Bill will still be on an austerity budget -- except for the tractor -- this winter.  He's needed another tractor for several years; to be able to keep the employees busy and the work moving along in the summer.

Libraries give value for your dollar

I've always worked in public libraries, but I rarely used them as a child or young adult.  My childhood library was more than a mile away, not on a bus line, & I rarely had transportation (I didn't even have a bicycle of my own until I was 15).  My university was an alternative university specifically designed for adults returning to school and it didn't have a physical library.  We were eligible to use the libraries at the University of Minnesota, and we were encouraged to explore and use the public libraries.  [Minnesota has a somewhat unique arrangement for public library access that allows people to use one library card across the entire state at no charge.]  That's when I began using public libraries more often.  When my kids were young I took them to the library occasionally, but not regularly.  Our local branch had storytimes that we could have attended, but they were so crowded and noisy that the kids didn't enjoy them.  They preferred hanging out in the children's area, choosing books to take home & read.

When I decided on a career in public libraries I had no idea of the strange schedules I would be asked to work -- nor the interesting characters with whom I would be in daily contact.  But since no one would believe both issues are what they are, we continue to get people interested in working in public libraries (luckily for the public!).

Almost all of the branches in Dakota County Library are open on Sunday afternoons during the school year.  [The Library Board and administration would like us to be open Sundays all year round, but haven't yet been able to come up the the money to staff those additional hours.]  So between Labor Day and Memorial Day, my branch is open 7 days & 61 hours each week (check your local library hours & you'll see that 61 hours is a lot for a branch library).  And we have professional librarians on duty during all open hours.  [No, libraries can't be staffed with volunteers, and the average person can't walk in off the street and do what we do -- on the librarian side or the clerical side!]  Our branch lends 1800-2000 items every day, and takes that many returns as well.  A human being has to touch every returned item to make sure it gets back to its proper spot, in a timely manner, so we can find it again.  Five years ago a human had to touch every borrowed item, too.  Now most of the checkout is done by patrons at self-service machines.  Add on free Internet access for the public, several dozen subscription research databases, children's storytimes, author visits, book groups, constantly changing technology (ereaders, tablets, and more), and you have yourself some very busy librarians and library staff. 

The public gets great bang for the buck from public libraries.  In Minnesota the per capita tax expenditure for public libraries is about $35.  Public libraries are paid for through property taxes; every member of the public is eligible to walk through our doors and use our resources.  And a wide variety of them do!  The variety makes the job both interesting and exhausting.  No public library can possibly offer all of the services that people ask for on a regular basis: passports, birth & death certificates, notary services, legal aid, tax advice and preparation, small business services from copying to faxing to payroll, immigration services, resume & cover letter writing, tutoring (in every subject at every level from grade school through college), one-on-one computer training, in-depth research for personal topics and term papers, and more. 

And, of course, the public still wants free access to physical books -- 1800-2000 of them every day, as I mentioned above.  In addition to the books, we offer the loan of music CDs, movie DVDs, and audiobooks, free (as long as you return them on time & undamaged).  We have free Internet access, free introductory computer classes, free research databases (mostly also available, using your free library card, from one's home computer) with material that can't be accessed free on the Internet, free troubleshooting help for the Nook you got for Christmas, free wireless access, free children's programming, free teen and adult programs, and more.  It's a great resource at a great price.  Please be supportive of your public libraries, and considerate to the staff, who are not paid more than their private-sector counterparts, and don't really have super marvelous benefit packages, and who work evenings and weekends all year-round.

End of the apple season

Zestar!, Ginger Gold, Chestnut Crab, Cortland, Sweet Sixteen, Honeycrisp, Haralson, Honeygold, Regent, Keepsake.  Ten varieties of apples on about 2600 trees, ripening in turn starting about August 20 and continuing through early October.  The trees were planted in 2003 and are just starting to really produce.  Farmer Bill and I are still learning how to manage the trees and manage the harvest.

2011 was a pretty good apple season.  Straight River Farm had only a couple of very short hail events with only minior damage; a light frost during blossom and a cool, wet spring kept the Zestar! and other early apples down in number -- but not grievously so.  We managed to keep most of the diseases and pests at bay and harvested a large crop of salable apples.  It's October 30 and virtually all of the apples have been sold.  Farmer Bill may take a load downtown one more Saturday, but that will be it.  The large cooler will be emptied, cleaned, and turned off for the winter.  The preparation-for-winter farm work has already begun and will continue for several weeks.  Strawberries will be covered with straw, fields will be plowed, hoop houses emptied, machinery winterized, the orchard mowed.  Enough work for Farmer Bill and a couple of men through November.  Farmer Bill is looking forward to being able to stay at the farm every day & work on taking care of the place.  The shorter days -- and no markets to get to -- mean being able to sleep until 7:00 a.m. most days.  Pure luxury.

How I became a librarian

I occasionally think I should write about my work as a librarian -- especially since that's the job that pays me a salary.

When I went back to college to finish my B.A. I wasn't sure what to study.  I went to an alternative college where I could design my own program, and I spent a lot of time talking to my advisors.  The first advisor talked with me a couple of times and then suggested that based on what he was hearing I should switch to someone else.  The second advisor became someone as close to a mentor as I've ever had.  She encouraged me to call my baccalaureate degree "Information Management."  I focused on the liberal arts, and tossed in a handful of classes surrounding managing information.  For one class, I organized a collection of documents pertaining to the early years of the school & created a searchable database using a software that is now surely as extinct as the dodo bird.

I was thinking all the time that I'd like to work in a library; in fact, I'd taken a part-time job shelving at our local library to get a feel for the work.  I love the orderliness of libraries, I love books and reading, and it seemed like a good fit.  So with my newly-acquired degree I started looking for work with a little more responsibility than shelving.  I quickly discovered that most libraries require a Master's degree before you can work as a librarian.  However, one local county library system did not -- and in the fall of 1994 they were hiring!  The jobs were all half-time and the starting pay was not great (for librarian work), but they were jobs.  I was able to qualify and got an interview.  I interviewed -- badly, as I always feel I do -- and was hired by the best boss I've ever had, or ever expect to have.  Her name is Ruth, and I've always been grateful that she saw something in me worth giving a chance in her library.

I worked at the Forest Lake Library for 5 years.  Ruth retired and left after I'd been there about 4 years.  The manager after Ruth was just biding time until she found a job out west -- she went to Montana -- where the sun shines more often -- and although she was frustrating, she wasn't there often enough or long enough to have a huge impact.  The manager after her was the worst boss I've ever had and I hope the worst I ever do have!  Shortly after she arrived I started actively looking for other work.  I applied for several jobs and was hired by Ramsey County Library as a substitue librarian.  I tendered my resignation to Washington County Library, took the cut in pay, and jumped ship immediately.  Within months of starting with Ramsey County, I was called for an interview at Dakota County, after which I was offered a 3/4-time job, at a very good starting salary.  At that time, Dakota County Library was the up-and-coming library system.  There seemed to be a lot of creative juices flowing, librarians were encouraged to be innovative, and the pay scale was about the best in the Twin Cities.  I took the job -- that was July 2000 -- and I've been with Dakota County Library ever since.

Agritainment and wedding anniversaries

Yesterday was our 29th wedding anniversary.  We pretty much decided to stick it out for another year.  And we sort of took the day off.  It was a rotation day for me; I work every other Saturday, so on those weeks I get Thursday off.  Farmer Bill will often go to help for the first half of the Thursday market, but didn't this week.  I spent the morning catching up on some bookkeeping.  The chimney sweep came about 9:30 and swept the chimney, so we're ready to go for this winter.  Farmer Bill organized a load for the Thursday market & sent Ryan off by himself -- the traffic is slowing down at markets so 1 person can handle it pretty well.  Then Farmer Bill & I went out for lunch (!) and drove to Spring Valley, WI to visit an orchard and talk to the owner about using his equipment to press apple cider.  It is a long drive, but a pretty one in the fall.  We talked about farming, about being married for 29 years & all the things we've experienced together.

The kitchen this orchardist built was compact and tidy.  They bake some pies on Fridays and Saturdays.  On Sundays they make apple crisp.  New this year they started making doughnuts, which have proved very popular.  They bottle honey from their own hives, make some jams and jellies out of their own fruit (pears, plums, apples, and grapes), and sell maple syrup tapped from their own trees.  The orchard includes about 30 acres of trees and is set up for people to come in and pick their own.  I could see the wheels turning in Bill's mind (& that usually makes me nervous).  We've toyed for a couple of years about having a store on SRF to sell our apples.  But we really don't want to go the agritainment route.  No jumping pillows, no corn mazes, no petting zoo.  And our orchard is definitely not set up for pick-your-own.  The rows are too close together; each row is a different variety that ripens at a different time.  Keeping pickers -- especially young ones -- on the right rows would be impossible.  And making SRF a destination is difficult when there's nothing to do but buy a bag of apples or a jar of jam.  It's hard to see why people would come to our place when they can go a dozen other places & be entertained.

This winter we'll have more conversations about what to do & how to do it.  Stay tuned.

What are you doing this weekend?

I see the last post was on August 25, a full month ago.  Since then Farmer Bill has worked non-stop, averaging 16 hour days, seven days a week.  The apple harvest is different than strawberry season.  For one thing it lasts much, much longer.  Strawberry season averages 18 days; apple harvest averages 6 weeks -- for the picking -- 10 or more weeks to sell the crop.

Last year Farmer Bill managed to find a farmers' market on Mondays, which used to be his day off marketing.  So he now markets 7 days a week.  Good news is that he found a great employee, Ryan C., who goes to markets for him several days per week.  Of course, Farmer Bill just found other markets to go to on those days.  But I suppose the more markets he goes to, the more apples he sells & the sooner his crop is sold.  But it can be pretty exhausting.

Because Bill is such a people person, and is so conscientious about his farming, he has begun to develop relationships with agritainment orchards.  An orchard in Delano has purchased large quantities of our Honeygold apples for 3 years now.  Honeygold ripen about October 1; they are a green/yellow apple with a firm texture & a mild sweet flavor.  They eat and cook well, but sell very slowly, and SRF always has more Honeygold than we can sell at farmers' markets.  So the relationship with Apple Jack has been a great boon.  This year Bill found an orchard that needed Zestar! and was able to sell 50 bushel at a good price (before they softened -- and before the Honeycrisp came in).  That same orchard is now interested in some of our Honeycrisp, which means they were pleased with the quality of the Zestar! they got.  These are small orders in the scheme of things, but huge for our operation.  A third venue that may work well for Farmer Bill is a produce auction in northern Iowa.  Bill took apples there 2 years ago, but last year's crop was so small that he didn't need additional outlets (except for Honeygold!).  This week he sent a load of apples down and it sold -- very well at very good prices.  Additional apples will be going to the auction next week.  All of these sales are down to Farmer Bill.  He seeks out possible venues.  He develops relationships.  He treats people fairly, respectfully, and evenly, always.

Okay, I got a Saturday off from marketing today -- a total fluke -- so now I have to quit messing about on the computer and go make good use of this 'free' time.  Applesauce to make, apple rings to dry, and the usual laundry to work on and bathrooms to clean, although very little housework gets done this time of year beyond keeping the kitchen clean and trying to keep us in clean underwear.  By the beginning or middle of November I should be able to start doing a thorough cleanup...

Are the apples ready?

Have I mentioned that Farmer Bill is a stickler for waiting until his apples are perfectly ripe before he picks them?

Here's what we use to help us make that decision -- along with taste tests of course!

What is that bottle...?  It looks like...?!?  Yes, it's iodine, the kind you might use on cuts or scrapes, or take along camping to purify water.  Now think back to your chemistry classes in school & reaction experiments.  Iodine reacts with starch and turns black.  It reacts with sugar and loses its color.  The apples in the center of the picture show white in the center and black outside that.  The bottom apple is a Zestar!, the middle apple is a Chestnut Crab, and the top apple (almost all black) is a Ginger Gold.  As apples ripen the white center grows.  At just slightly more white than is pictured, the apples are perfect for picking.  Apples in normal storage will ripen and sweeten.  Apples picked too ripe & put into storage will not keep as long.  Apples picked too green will ripen & sweeten some, but may not gain the full flavor the grower and consumer would like.  Just a few more days now & we'll be in the apple business for this season.

The apparatus in the top left corner is a refractometer.  It measures the Brix.  Brix is a measurement of the sucrose in a liquid solution (look it up in Wikipedia if you want a more thorough explanation).  Because the apples also have fructose and other stuff in the liquid we squeeze from them, the refractometer only gives us an approximate sugar level & really doesn't tell us when the apples are ready.  But it's pretty fun to use -- and we got to spend a bunch of money on it -- and it has a cool name.

Of course, the best way to tell when the apples are ready is to taste them.  We have been tasting for a couple of weeks now -- and the 'green' taste is almost gone from the 3 earliest varieties.  Coming soon to a farmers' market near you: Straight River Farm apples.

Apples

The apple season is nearly upon us.  When Will & Aimee were here on Sunday we went into the orchard to look things over.  The Zestar! have gained a lot of size and are starting to turn red.  The Honeycrisp were not thinned enough -- so there will be a lot of them.  But it remains to be seen what that lack of thinning does to the size and flavor of the apples.  It's time to turn the apple sorter on and make sure all the parts are working.

It looks like we'll have about as many apples this year as we did 2 years ago -- when we sold apples well into November.  Having enough Honeycrisp to sell at markets through the month of October is very important because it is our most popular apple & draws people in.  If they want to make pies, freeze, or can we can sell them apples for that at the same time, but Honeycrisp is the apple of choice for fresh eating.  We'll be short on the Sweet Sixteen, which didn't set well at all, and short on the Ginger Gold, which is our 2nd best early apple and very popular with people who have tried it.  We'll only have enough of our newest apple, SweeTango, to make a tasting for us and a few lucky friends, family, and customers.  But considering that the trees were planted only last year (2010), it's pretty incredible to have any at all.

But first we have to get through August -- which means sweet corn and cantaloupe -- grown to fill the gap between strawberry season and apple season.  And, of course, tomatoes.  Farmer Bill loves tomatoes, but is still working out the logistics of growing them.  If he ever nails it, they'll be another good interim crop because Minnesotans crave tomatoes all winter and go crazy for the first on the markets.  He found a very good tasting variety this year -- we really like the flavor.  But the extreme heat caused growth problems for them in the hoop house, and the extreme amounts of rain caused problems in the field.  While we can't adjust the weather, we can adjust how we react to it, and next year Farmer Bill will have a little more knowledge to help him out.

Jam

Jam is possibly the easiest thing to preserve.  I've made enough jam now that I can do it almost without thinking about it.  So it was fun to invite my daughter-in-law over to participate in making a batch of blueberry jam on Sunday afternoon.  She had asked about learning to can this summer, we both turned up free on the same day, and I had some blueberries that needed to be put up, so it worked out perfectly. 

I'm working this summer with a new pectin product that allows one to make jams using lots less sugar than traditional pectin, and to double or triple recipes. So we made 11 cups of blueberry jam using only 2 1/4 cups of sugar.  A traditional low sugar pectin would have needed 5-6 cups of sugar for the same batch of jam.  I'm excited to try using this pectin on the peaches that are coming in next week.  Last year I made peach jam that was very good but very sweet even though I used a low sugar recipe.  This year I'm hoping to be able to make a peach jam that lets the peach flavor really shine through.

What does a family of two do with all of this jam you ask?  Homemade jam is a gift to many neighbors, friends, and family over the course of the year.  I love to give it away, but always make sure to keep enough for Farmer Bill (and me) to eat, especially our personal favorite, raspberry.  If there is ever a little farm stand on the farm I will consider making extra jam to sell.  Homemade jams at farmers' markets bring pretty good prices, and I expect we could get a good price at a farm store, too.  And if I can double or triple my recipes -- and use much less sugar -- my costs are lower in both time and materials.

Huh, I just looked out the window to see that there is a gorgeous sunset happening.  I think I'll go watch it...

Putting food by

Okay, I really should be working right now and not writing, but here I am.

The first field of Jubilee sweet corn came in, so I have 3-4 dozen ears that I made Farmer Bill leave behind for me to freeze.  Freezing corn is pretty easy, but messy and sticky.  Fortunately we haven't mopped the kitchen floor for several weeks, so I can get the whole mess in one go after I'm done with the corn.

There's also a box of blueberries in the downstairs refrigerator that need to be dealt with.  I have made Farmer Bill his favorite Blueberry Buckle a few times, and he's had blueberry pancakes many mornings.  But they won't keep forever.  Jam or syrup is in their future... and one more big Buckle.

The week after next the peaches come from Colorado -- that's been a treat the past few years & this year we're getting 3 boxes.  There's nothing like eating a really tasty peach in the middle of the winter to make you forget the cold outside.

Soon we'll have enough tomatoes that Farmer Bill will let me can some.  The market has been so good for tomatoes that he's wanted to sell everything that ripens.  The late spring and wet summer has made it a poor year overall for tomatoes, and they look pretty ugly.  But we ate all of our canned tomatoes from last year, and the last jars of salsa from 2 years ago, so I really have to make more this year.  Fortunately, tomatoes keep going until frost, so I don't have to worry about them quite yet.

I enjoy filling up the freezer and the storeroom shelves with good things to eat.  I enjoy it even more because we have air conditioning!  The amount of heat and steam created to preserve food is unbelievable.  I have huge admiration for people who are able to work in extreme heat.  Mostly I just get crabby.  And for some reason it's always hot when it's time to put up food.  Sort of like making hay.  Do you know the phrase "Make hay while the sun shines"?  Farmers always make hay when the sun shines -- rain on your cut hay makes it mold and decreases the nutrients.  So it's generally sunny and hot when you cut the hay, rake it (turn it over so it dries evenly), and bale.  And the hayloft of a barn (or the top of our machine shed addition) is always  hotter than outside.  Stacking bales is an art.  Farmer Bill grew up stacking bales every summer.  I did not.  I have learned a lot & am pretty good, but I don't have the upper body strength to throw bales effectively -- and we just stack straw bales, which weigh about half of what a hay bale weighs!  I have stacked straw in heat over 100 degrees -- and lived to tell the tale.  But I much prefer to put up food in a relatively cool, clean kitchen.  Fortunately for me, Farmer Bill loves to eat, so he's happy to have me putter about canning.

That's enough for now, going to get started on the corn.

Sweet corn

Some of you probably think you know what constitutes good sweet corn.  Some of you may even think you've eaten good sweet corn.  Most of you would be wrong.

Unless, that is, you've put the pot of water on to boil, gone out to the field & picked some ears of corn, stripped them on the way back to the house, and plunged them into the boiling water for exactly 5 minutes.

Fresh is hugely important for good sweet corn.  Maturity (ripeness) of the ears is also hugely important.  Most corn that I have purchased in the past 10 years -- from Farmers' Markets and farm stands both -- has been over-ripe.  If the kernels don't pop when you bite into them, if they aren't crisp, it's over-ripe.

And most hugely important of all: variety.  There are literally hundreds of sweet corn varieties.  The new varieties are called 'super sweets.'  And they are pretty much all to be avoided at any cost because they taste like candy, but not like corn.

Farmer Bill grows 2 main corn varieties.  The early variety is a bi-colored corn called Temptation.  It is sweet, but not super sweet, and the ears are on the small side.  But it is really very good.  The 2nd variety is a 'heritage' corn called Jubilee.  Jubilee is the corn Farmer Bill's father raised for the canning factory in the 1950s.  It is a traditional all-yellow corn with large slender ears, and a most excellent corn flavor, and it is what we try to freeze for our winter use.  But don't buy Jubilee and expect to keep it all week in your refrigerator.  Because it is an old variety it hasn't been modified to keep its sugars from turning to starch.  If you keep it more than 2 days it will be starchy and tough.  There is a 3rd variety, with a number for a name (it's escaping me right now, I'll add it in later).  It's a sweeter variety like Temptation.  And like Temptation it tastes great and will keep a bit longer in your fridge.

If you ever get the chance, eat a really good ear of sweet corn picked fresh from the field. 

Or maybe you shouldn't, because it will spoil you for ever eating restaurant or grocery store corn again... you'll only be able to eat sweet corn in July, August, and September for the rest of your life.

Oh, that rule doesn't apply to me

As I get older, I find myself getting crabbier about people who assume rules don't apply to them.  This week I'm particularly peeved about library patrons who think they should have special dispensation because, darn it, they're special.

Some examples.  A woman using the Internet has used up her first hour.  To get additional time, without logging off and starting over, she has to click a button every 10 minutes.  Very annoying, can't I just give her an additional hour?  No, that's not an option for me.  A young man who has come to the library to use the free Internet hasn't bothered to bring his library card although he knows he needs that to sign on, can't I just give him a guest pass?  No, not without some ID (this is our policy for very specific reasons that I won't go into here).  A patron has one of our 1-week, no renewal books checked out but hasn't finished it in 7 days.  Can't I extend the loan just 2 more days?  No, that's the point of a 1-week, no renewal loan period: no extensions.  The back-breaking straw.  A local teen center brings in 20 4th, 5th, and 6th graders without advance notice & wants them all signed up for our Teen Read summer program.  None of them are interested in the Children's program because the Teen program has the cool prizes this year.  None of them are interested in getting books as prizes -- they want the store gift cards, state fair tickets, candy, etc. that comes with the Teen program.  In the end we sign them all up for the Teen program.  But because I tell the group leader that we are making serious exceptions to the rules for them and that we'll need to hurry the process because they arrived only 15 minutes before closing & it's now only 5 minutes to close, I am called on the carpet as being unfriendly and unwelcoming.

For the past month, I have been telling our neighborhood 10 & 11 year olds no to signing up for the Teen program... Now I hear that the library is working on stronger collaborations with this center, and we can expect them to come in early next summer to get the kids signed up and reading.  That's great, I'm in favor of kids reading.  But if we're making exceptions for the center kids, I'm going to sign up my local neighborhood kids at ages 10 & 11; in fact, I'm going to sign up anyone who asks -- because they're special, too.  But mostly because the neighborhood kids are the ones I need to foster relationships with, so they are less likely to pose behavior problems in the library and more likely to pick up a book or magazine to read.

Over the 10+ years I've been at my current branch library, I have seen kids go from childhood to teen -- for better or worse -- to young adult.  One young man who was a regular breaker of rules is now in college and doing very well.  Another young man, who has the potential to go either way, seems to be moving in the 'right' direction. Girls who regularly tried to push our buttons now come in to get suggestions for books to read.  These patrons come back because the staff at my library has worked, hard, at being welcoming to everyone.  I am very proud of how well most of our staff does in dealing with the constant demands of our patrons.

Fame (still waiting for the accompanying fortune)

When Farmer Bill and I visit with family and friends we could easily spend the entire time talking about the farm.  I like to recite anecdotes about how I avoid farm work (by updating the website, blogging, working on the accounts, etc.).  Bill is generally happy to talk farming to anyone who will listen -- and especially to people who are genuinely interested.  And there seem to be a lot of people interested in what he does here on Straight River Farm.  I think that many family members like the fact that they still have ties to farming and talk about us to their friends.

Yesterday we celebrated a birthday with a group of family.  A friend of the birthday girl is one of Farmer Bill's biggest boosters.  She gets a delivery of our strawberries every year and says that every other strawberry -- home grown or not -- is compared to Farmer Bill's berries.  And most of them don't hold up well.

Nieces and nephews bring their children to SRF to experience picking strawberries.  And I think I put myself on the hook to host an apple-picking party with multiple children sometime in September.  We don't offer pick-your-own apples to the public, but I've had a couple of nephews who've come multiple years to pick Honeycrisp.  We didn't have any family come pick apples last year because our crop was so light that it got picked, packed, and sold in short order.  This year the crop is bigger and we should be able to provide a Sunday afternoon outing.  Favorite things are riding in the Gator and watching the apple sorter work.

It's really nice to have kids here, so show them how things grow, and let them experience the country up close and personal.  These days most children don't have any family members who farm; we like being the part of the family who does farm.

Raspberries

I made two batches of raspberry jam -- one black raspberry & one mixed red & purple -- today.  A couple of trays of raspberries were frozen for the winter.  And I made a peach-raspberry crisp for dessert.  Not bad for a Thursday.  I really like canning and putting up food.  I'm terrible at eating fresh fruit when it's around, but offer me anything baked with fruit inside & I'm happy to eat that instead of a meal.  I love dried apple slices in the winter... hmmm, I wonder how raspberries would be, dried?  Next batch of leftover raspberries go straight into the dehydrator.  Of course, now I've got to go dig it out of the storage room downstairs, and clean the trays so it's ready.

Would you be willing to live in the country?

Farmer Bill retired from teaching in 1999 at the age of 55.  He had been wanting to get out of teaching for a few years, but assumed that he'd have to teach until at least age 62 to get his pension.  But a chain of events put into place in 1970 made it possible for him to retire at 55 instead.

He tried several different part-time jobs after he retired.  None of them were a good fit for him.  More and more he began to talk about moving out of the suburbs and into the country.  He wanted to raise strawberries and apples, he said.  More strawberries than we had in our surburban farm (about 1/2 acre) and just a small orchard.  The strawberries he'd market through pick-your-own and various farmers' markets.  The apples would be sold at farmers' markets and wholesale.  Would I be willing to live in the country? he asked.  Show me your business plan, I replied.  And that was all the encouragement Farmer Bill needed.  I think he was online the next day looking for a real estate agent to help him find a farm.  I never did see a business plan, but was able to make one requirement stick.  He had to stay within a 60-minute drive of my job.  I wasn't willing to commute longer than that -- and if I'd known how high gas prices were going to be just a few years down the road, I might have tried to keep him even closer.

Farmer Bill often says it's no problem to finance a farming venture: Work 30 years at a job with a pension plan, save as much money as you can, marry someone willing to work off the farm for pay and on the farm (for no pay) when not at work, cash in your retirement savings, sell your house in an upturn in the market, borrow as much money as the banks will lend you, and you're all set.  That's what we did.  And now we get to live on this pretty little piece of land with a river running through it and wildlife traipsing across it.

Barn swallows

I do a lot of mowing on the farm.  We have a 6-foot wide zero-turn riding mower, a rotary cutter that gets pulled behind a tractor, and (when it works) a 32-inch riding mower.  Today I was mowing with the Toro -- the zero-turn.  Cleaning up the paths along the driveway, mowing the ditches alongside the township road, around the buildings, and in the orchard.  As I mowed, I gained a following of barn swallows.  If you've never seen barn swallows in action, come visit some sunny summer afternoon and I'll treat you.

Barn swallows have beautiful, almost fluourescent, blue backs.  Their undersides are cream to pale orange/rust, and their tails are deeply forked.  They eat insects, so they migrate south in the winter, and I look for them to return each spring.  When I mow, I disturb insects in the grass & weeds.  The insects fly up to escape the mower (often into my mouth, eyes, ears, and nose) & the barn swallows, who come flying when they hear the mower, swoop past me, now grazing the ground, now soaring into the sky, snatching insects out of the air.  It must be something of a smorgasbord for them.

Whenever I feed the swallows, I am reminded of the interconnectedness of creatures living on our planet.  I just finished reading a novel set during the time of the "Great Leap Forward" in China.  In the late 1950s there was a great famine in China, in large part because the government, run by city dwellers, didn't understand those interconnections.  Birds, especially sparrows, were killed by the millions so they wouldn't eat the plant seeds, or the grain in the fields.  But then the insects that the sparrows also ate didn't have a predator and ate the grain.  The government thought you could grow twice as much grain if you just planted twice as much seed, and that any crop would grow anywhere if the people just worked hard enough.  They didn't understand that there were reasons for the sparrows, and reasons for the traditional crops in a region.

So even though the barn swallows also like to try to build nests in our buildings (picture poop all over the floor), I welcome them back each spring.  On a summer evening they come out of the trees and swoop and dart through the gathering dusk... and I cheer them on because one of the insects they eat is the mosquito!

Too busy to think, let alone write

Strawberry season is intense, relentless, and rife with potential.  Opening for both morning and afternoon picking makes for very long days for Farmer Bill.

This year the picking season started 2 weeks later than last year.  And looks like it will run only about 14-18 days.  The river field, which would have been in its 2nd picking year, is gone.  The 'new' field for this year -- the upper middle -- did not flourish.  The berries there are small and thus the picking is slow.  [Farmer Bill is talking about taking it out and starting over.]  The lower middle field is very good, and the upper field by the house has been reasonable.  So, with only one good field to pick, the operation will probably go to mornings only very soon.  It will be a short season which means less income and less expense.  The balance is hard to gauge at this point.

There are, however, a lot of raspberries ripening in the new raspberry patch.  So that needs to be mowed, weeded (thistles to be pulled), and prepared for picking.  Decisions about advertising for the raspberries need to be made & implemented.

Other crops,  melons & sweet corn, are in the ground and if we get the warm, sunny days we've been promised this week, we could probably stand in the fields and watch them grow.  They've been waiting anxiously for these conditions.  I have no idea when to expect sweet corn this year -- it's been standing still in the field waiting for the rain to quit and the sun to come out.  My guess is melons will be ready in mid-late August per usual.  We're still waiting for our coolers in the store to be finished, but hope to be able to sell corn, melons and apples in the afternoons at the farm.

The apple crop may be our savior this year.  It looks terrific right now.  If we can remain a hail-free zone (and keep the apple maggot population down), we'll have a very nice crop of apples to sell.

More about pesticides

Every year the USDA puts out a list of fruits and vegetables they've tested for pesticide residues.  This year apples topped the 'dirty' list.  But that basic report doesn't give enough information and is unnecessarily alarmist -- imnsho.  We don't know where the produce comes from, what pesticide practices the growers use, or when the last sprays occurred.  We can only assume that the produce is being grown 'conventionally,' which means the growers may be using synthetic chemical sprays. 

But now organic produce is starting to be tested.  And guess what?  Pesticide residue is being found in organic produce.  Because 'organic' doesn't mean no pesticides.  'Organic' means that the pesticides used by that grower come from a specific list of approved weapons against bugs and fungi.

For more information, read this: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/06/18/137249264/organic-pesticides-not-an-oxymoron

Strawberry season

omg, strawberry season officially opens on Monday.

Bug night

It's Wednesday -- bug night at Straight River Farm.

Here at SRF, we prefer to use as few pesticides as possible.  In order to decide when to use a fungicide or insecticide on our apples, we use pheromone traps to attract the most worrisome pests and a data logger that logs degree days and leaf wetness.  Once a week, on Wednesday nights, I go through the orchard and pull out the trap liners -- covered with sticky stuff to trap the bugs -- and collect the data logger from its hook.  I download the data into our computer and print it out in table format.  The traps get new liners and the data logger gets re-activated and goes back out in the orchard.  Simple & effective.

The whole process is made a lot easier thanks to the MN Department of Agriculture.  They have an ongoing study of apple horticulture going on.  The data I collect gets emailed in and the MDA puts out a newsletter every week during the apple growing season.  Our data, along with data from orchards across the state, is published to help apple growers make decisions.  They provide us with the trap liners each year and gave us the data logger 6 or 7 years ago.  Knowing that they are waiting for the data and that we're helping others by providing it, helps me remember to do the counts each week.  If we didn't have that responsibility I'm afraid there would be plenty of times when we'd blow it off, or manage to 'forget' to collect the bugs.

Because of the data we collect, we haven't had any apple scab (a nasty fungus that is a huge problem in Minnesota) in the orchard for years, usually with only 1 or 2 sprays.  In an orchard with active scab problems a grower might spray 4-6 or more times.  In a strictly organic orchard, one needs to spray for scab every 10 days starting when the apples blossom, and in between those 10 day periods if there's a significant rain event (about twice a week this year).  We have minimal insect damage to our apples, too, because we're able to time the insecticide sprays to the developmental stage of the problem bugs without killing off all of the beneficial bugs.

So tonight is bug night.  But I have a new work schedule at the library and I'm off every other Thursday, so tonight I'm ignoring the bugs and will go collect them in the morning since the data doesn't have to be in until 10:00 on Thursday morning).  It's not totally laziness... it rained 2 inches yesterday and today and everything is just plain wet out there.  I'm waiting overnight to let things dry up a little bit...  And, since Farmer Bill took the night off to go to the Twins game, I'm also planning to slip down to my quilting table and work on a project for a little while tonight.  If he can take the night off, so can I, right?

More Customer Service

Okay, a good story to counteract the previous one.

A youngish man (late 20s, early 30s) was using our Workforce computer station to apply for a job.  He had rudimentary internet skills and worked on the application for a long time.  Finally, he came to the desk and asked about printing it out.  I walked over with him -- to see what kind of document it was and how many pages.  Turns out it was 18 pages long, almost 3 dollars to print, and we don't take plastic at the printer, or have an ATM in the building.  He has completed some of the pages, but wants to print it out & complete the rest by hand, then return to type them up later.  If he leaves to get cash, he'll lose the document -- his terminal will log itself off from lack of activity before he could return.  I could just print the document and ask him to come back and pay us on a future visit -- I've done that before in similar situations.  But instead I ask him if he has anyplace he could print the document if we saved it on a USB drive.  He says yes, his wife would be able to print it out for him.  Eureka, problem solved because:

Our regional library system recently got a grant to help job seekers.  Part of the grant pays for a job-seekers database where you can write, store, and get advice on resumes, link to job listings, write cover letters, get encouragement, etc.  A small piece of the grant went to providing about 25 USB drives to each library -- for librarians to give out as they see fit.  I hustle back to the service desk and get one of those flash drives.  Returning to the patron, I stick the drive in, show him how to save something to the USB drive, and how to access the drive -- and the saved application -- from any computer -- and I pull the USB drive out & hand it to him, saying "This is for you to take with you."  When he says, "But don't you need me to pay for it?"  I am able to tell him that it's free because of a grant we received.  His face lights up with pleasure at this problem solved, and he leaves the library a happy customer.  One who may even sing our praises, or at least won't bad-mouth us. 

I didn't like or dislike that man.  But he was polite and respectful while we found a solution to his problem.  And I was polite and respectful in return.  He didn't demand that I perform an expensive service for him for free; he just asked me to try to help him.  I like to help patrons solve problems and answer questions.  Most public librarians are librarians because they like to help others.  [It didn't hurt that he said "Thank you" to which I was able to reply "You're welcome, I'm glad I could help,"  and mean it.]  Those are the interactions that keep me from chucking it all in & going farming full time.

Customer Service

Both of my jobs require a lot of customer service.  Some days I get to wishing that I could just go to my bedroom and read a book, or to my sewing table and work on a quilt.  Serving the public is often challenging, to say the least.  And being polite to people who feel no requirement to be polite in return, is downright hard.

A regular patron at my branch library has returned, now that we are re-opened for business.  He is older -- probably mid-80s -- and obnoxious.  For some reason he always gets under my skin.  I give myself pep talks about how I shouldn't let him get to me, especially since he treats everybody the same way.  But I am usually unsuccessful.

This week's example: Mike came in and wanted 2 addresses.  One for William M. Daley (President Obama's Chief of Staff).  This is no problem.  The Chief of Staff has an office in the West Wing of the White House, so you can send mail to him at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C.  The other address was for George Mitchell, who just resigned (May 20, 2011) as the Special Envoy for Middle East Peace.  Mitchell's home state is Maine.  There is no public listing via online telephone directories for a George J. Mitchell in Maine. [Surprise, Surprise]  Mitchell no longer has an office in D.C.  He does head an Institute in Maine, at which he would, presumably, receive mail.  I offer the address and telephone number for the Institute as a possibility.  Mike's reply: There is no one there -- I don't know whether he will ever get anything I send there -- why didn't I pick up the phone and call Washington to ask them for Mr. Mitchell's address?  My reply: we can't make long-distance telephone calls for patrons: here's the number if you wish to call.  Him: is it an 800 number?  Me: no, there is no 800 number.  Him: what good is the library to me if you won't do these things?  I say this to try to convince you to take initiative and go the extra step.  Me: I'm sorry, but long-distance calls are actually blocked on our telephones.  My job is to try to find the contact information for you, then it's up to you what you want to do with that information.  Him: if someone asked you this question, someone that you liked, would you do this for them?  Me: no, we're still not allowed to make long-distance phone calls for patrons.  Him: do you have reciprocal agreements with other libraries who might do this for me?  Me: I can give you the telephone numbers for any other library that you wish to call and ask; my belief is that they will all tell you that it's up to you to make the telephone calls.  Him: are there services that will do this kind of work for people?  Me: I expect there are for-fee research services; I don't know of any off the top of my head.  Would you like me to find some contact information for them for you?  Him: what about the number for the State Department?  Me: There is more than one number for the State Department, I have a directory here that lists quite a few.  Him: are they 800 numbers?  Me: no, they are not.  Him: I need a piece of paper.  (I gave him a sheet of scratch paper to use and offered a pen.)  He said: Thank you -- sorry to bother you.  And walked away from the desk.

That's how my interactions with Mike always go.  It doesn't make me feel any better that the other librarians get the same treatment and have the same issues.  I wish, just once, that he would come with a straightforward question I could answer to his satisfaction; although it's possible I would never satisfy him.  He's right, of course, that I don't like him.  But I work hard at being polite, giving him a pleasant welcome, and answering his questions despite my personal feelings.  That isn't the first time he's wanted me to make long-distance calls or use a research service (at the library's expense) to find information for him.  He also has a germ phobia (I think).  When he sits waiting for us to do our searches for him, he turns his chair so it faces away from anyone; same when he stands near the desk; he stands turned away from people (rotating as necessary).  Once when he came in a librarian at the desk had the remains of a cold & coughed while he was there.  He demanded the manager and threw a fit, insisting that she should not be in the building because she was sick.  He also insisted, by phone and by letter, that there was no need for our building to be remodeled, it was a complete waste of time and money.


And, he doesn't even have a library card.

Staff

Stafffing is an ongoing issue for Straight River Farm.  For most businesses I guess.  Our friend who is a manager in a food co-op is regularly hiring new staff.  At the library, we wish we could hire more staff because there aren't enough hands to do everything we need to do and we play perennial catch-up.  Farmer Bill does have some workers who have come back several years for the strawberry season & we really appreciate them.  He also has a couple of good, hard-working 'hired men' who come and help him on a regular basis.  It's hard to find good employees because Farmer Bill doesn't have year-round work for anyone, and he isn't eligible to pay unemployment so his seasonal workers can't collect unemployment.  [Who knew you had to be 'eligible' to pay unemployment?  Since the States and the Feds pay a big chunk of unemployment, they don't let everyone in because when we lay people off we just increase the costs to them...]

One year 2 or 3 years ago, when Farmer Bill advertised for workers in the local Workforce Center, we got zero inquiries for one of the jobs.  There were no unemployed persons who wanted to take a temporary, seasonal job on a farm -- even in the middle of a recession -- imagine that.  [It's enough to make one want to turn a little bit to the right.]

So every year is a bit of a scramble to find enough people to help manage the strawberry picking, go to the Farmers Markets, and keep up with the weeding, watering, and fertilizing.  Not to mention someone to do a little maintenance on the machinery.

Weather

I assume that all farmers are obsessed with the weather -- but I sometimes suspect that Farmer Bill takes it to an extreme.  One day (actually many days, but who's counting...) I came upon him checking the radar on the National Weather Service website.  [Farmer Bill & I agree that using other weather websites makes no sense, since they all get their information from the NWS anyway.]  He was looking to see whether we could expect rain that afternoon.  I looked at him watching the radar screen, I looked out the window at the black clouds gathering in the western sky, I looked at him watching the radar screen.  I shook my head -- figuratively or literally I don't recall -- and went on with whatever I was doing.  He's got reading the radar movement down to a fine art and is surprisingly accurate a lot of the time.  His daybook/calendar is a Minnesota Weatherguide calendar that I've bought for him every year for about two decades now.  Christmas morning wouldn't be complete without Farmer Bill paging through the calendar and coming up with a couple of trivia questions about Minnesota weather.

Of course Minnesota has a lot of weather to talk about.  We have cold winters, hot summers, rain and wind, hail and sleet.  So Minnesotans, in general, are obsessed with weather.  We complain about the heat and humidity in the summer and the cold in the winter.  We complain if there isn't enough snow and if there's too much snow (which amount seems to vary from person to person, if you can imagine that).  We whine when it's dry and whimper when it's wet.  Except for Farmer Bill.  He doesn't complain, whimper, or whine about the weather.  Like so many things for him, it is what it is.  Now, he may privately think that getting 90+ inches of snow last winter was ridiculous.  And he probably doesn't like it much when it rains every other day -- putting severe cramps in his spring work schedule.  But he doesn't say much; he just gets on with it, whatever 'it' is.

The River Field

Straight River Farm was originally 30 acres.  About 500 feet wide and 1/2-mile long, the farm started at the Straight River and rose up in a series of long narrow fields, divided up the middle by a gravel field road.  The former owner had horses and farmed as a hobby; a lot of the farm was in pasture, some in alfalfa, and the rest varied from year to year.  Farmer Bill changed most of that.  A field on one side of the road became the apple orchard, the field across from the orchard was split into 2 parcels that became strawberry plantings.  At the top of the field road are the house and outbuildings on about 5 acres.  Above the buildings, abutting the township road, are 2 flat fields that also became strawberry plantings.

Then there was the river field.  The river field was next to the river -- hence its name.  It was a lovely little field, just over 3 acres tillable, surrounded by trees and brush on 3 side and the river on the 4th.  To get to the river field, you drove down the field road that bisects the farm, across a gravel 'bridge' over a backwash of the Straight River, and came out into a lovely, secluded field.  You never knew what wildlife you'd surprise as you came down: deer, wild turkeys, pheasant, racoons.  And I get a Bald Eagle sighting at least once every year.

The river field was the first planting of strawberries.  The plan was to have 5 strawberry fields in rotation.  A planting year, 3 picking years, and 1 year off.  Strawberries were planted in 2003 and tended carefully, to be the first cash crop in June 2004.  But Mother Nature had other plans.  In spring 2004, the Straight River flooded.  A flood like the locals said they hadn't seen for years, maybe decades.  The river came up over the bank and flowed across half of the river field, gouging huge holes and leaving behind sand, rocks, and debris.  Our pick-your-own option was out of the question -- it was no longer possible (safe) to allow customers in the field.  Farmer Bill found some workers to pick strawberries and changed his plan -- taking all of the berries to farmers markets.  More labor & expense involved, but since he was pretty much the only strawberry seller at the market, the berries sold well.

Then Bill brought in a bulldozer and filled in the holes, built up the bank again, smoothed out the field, and started over with the half that had been flooded.  But every year the river flooded at least a little, especially during snowmelt.  At the very least, the road across the backwash would get partially washed away.  Bill has spent a lot of time and energy rebuilding that piece of the road.

Then, the flood of 2010 occurred.  And in the fall rather than the spring.  It was a particularly wet late summer and early fall, with so much rain so regularly that the ground became totally saturated.  Then one night in September, we had 6 or more inches of rain in a couple of hours.  And the Straight River flooded as it had never flooded before.  The entire river field was under water for days.  After several days, when the water had started to go down, Farmer Bill took our canoe down, and he & Isidro paddled across.  Irrigation pipe buried 4 feet below the surface had been uncovered and tossed around.  The river carved itself a new path, half way through our river field.  When the water receded, it was clear that the field would never be able to be farmed again.  Rocks varying in size from golf ball to basketball size were strewn across the ground, and sand dunes were scattered here and there.  We were awed by the incredible power of running water.

What happens next we still don't know.  The State may be willing to give Farmer Bill some money in exchange for a permanent easement across that field.  What the easement means is not exactly clear.  We'd still own the land and have the use of it, is all I'm sure of.  Since small farmers like Farmer Bill can't really do crop insurance, a little money for an easement would be very welcome.  He's lost the income from that field -- $8,000-$10,000/acre from the strawberry crop on it -- for this year. 

Of course, since he bought 20 acres next door to Straight River Farm, he has plenty of other places to start new strawberry fields... but the 20 acre addition is a whole other story.

Frost protection

Fruit blossoms can't take much frost.  Apple blossoms can take a couple of hours of temperature between 30-32.  Some will freeze, but some will just get frostbitten -- and perhaps the apple will have an odd deformity because of it.  Strawberry blossoms are similarly tender, but if they get bitten, you get nothing.

To protect the strawberries from frost, Farmer Bill runs sprinklers over the fields from the time the temperature hits about 33 until it comes back up above 33.  Anywhere from 3 to 10 hours.  I don't know the exact science, but essentially it's this: water creates heat as it freezes, so if you keep adding water to the plants, they stay heated enough not to freeze.  Or maybe it's this: the constant movement of the water doesn't allow it to freeze, so the blossoms can't freeze.  Whatever the reason, it works.  But having to run the sprinklers means a sleepless night, and getting sprayed with cold water in freezing temperatures.

In the day(s) leading up the a frost during blossom time, Farmer Bill sets up his irrigation system.  It's pretty ingenious, if labor intensive.  A large hose goes into the Straight River.  A pump is attached to the hose on the river bank, and the pump is powered by a tractor.  A series of 6-inch pipes leads from the pump across the farm -- originally this pipe was all underground.  In the middle of the farm, between the strawberry fields, risers are attached to the underground pipe, and smaller 3-inch, 30-foot long pipe goes from the risers across the aisles of the strawberries.  At the end of each 30-foot pipe is a sprinkler head.  It's a big job to get all of the pipes laid end-to-end and all of the sprinkler nozzles cleaned of debris.  Occasionally, the pipes burst apart.  Sometimes the nozzles insist on plugging over and over.  In the summer setting up the irrigation is not an unpleasant job because the river water is cool on a warm day.  In the spring it's a cold and wet job.

We have some tools that only come out during frost season.  A warning light -- that can be seen 1/4-mile or more away -- gets perched on a couple of milk crates in a low spot of a field.  This year, since we don't have to worry about the river field anymore, it will be easy to place the light where we can see it.  [In previous years, it was quite a trick to find a spot where we could see the light from the house, and it would still be in one of the lowest areas to give us the earliest possible warning.]  This light has been a wonderful thing.  It works very well, changing color from green (above 34), to white (34-32), to red (32-30), to flashing red (below 30).  Because it can be seen from the house, it means Farmer Bill doesn't have to get dressed and go outside to see a thermometer.  And it was much less expensive than a remote thermometer system that could read from the river field up to the house.  We just take the battery out and store it from spring to spring.  Another spring tool is a huge battery-powered lantern.  It shines a very bright light a long ways.  The light lets Farmer Bill see whether sprinklers are running without having to traipse up and down all of the rows of sprinklers.  Since I helped him do that traipsing the first year or two, I know how wonderful that light is...

Apple blossom time

The apple trees -- especially the early varieties -- are in full bloom.  I was sitting under them on Thursday morning, trying something called bridge grafting, and the bees were buzzing in and out of the blossoms: hundreds of blossoms.  The trees are definitely trying to make up for last year's poor crop by producing a large crop this year.

The apple orchard is my favorite part of the farm, I think.  I really like to eat apples, and I really like all of the varieties we grow -- for different reasons.  I even like to sell the apples -- but don't tell Farmer Bill I said that!  I'm not so fond of strawberries or raspberries -- although I like the jams I make, and I like sweetened fruit on angel food cake, and fruit pies, and fruit breads (I'm sure you're seeing the trend here).

Our Minnieska trees -- which will produce an apple called SweeTango -- are also covered with blossoms.  Because they're so young -- only planted last year -- we'll have to carefully thin them down to almost no apples per tree.  It's hard to do that, but important for the health and future growth of the trees.

I enjoy most of the work involved with the apples -- pruning (which Farmer Bill doesn't really like), shaping, mowing, harvesting; I just don't have much 'spare' time to give to those activities.  Farmer Bill takes care of the bug and disease treatments when necessary, but I check the traps & data logger each week and keep the tally that indicates which pests are at a threshold where we need to do something about them.  I've learned more about apple orchards than I ever imagined, and there's always more to learn.  I can't walk through the orchard and spot things from yards away, but then I don't walk through every day either.  Maybe if it quits raining this afternoon, I'll walk through the orchard today.  I noticed that the tent caterpillars are starting to hatch out, so I could knock down whatever nests I can find along my walk... lots cheaper and almost as easy as spraying.  I'll take the camera along and try to get some pictures.  I'm not a great photographer, and it's very hard to capture the loveliness of an apple orchard in bloom.  You really need to stand in the middle of one yourself.  Especially on a sunny, warm day, when the bees buzz, the birds flit, and the scent wafts around you.  But it's a short, fleeting time before the blossoms fall, so don't let it slip past without notice... apple blossom time.

Taking risks

Risk-taking thresholds vary from person to person.  And farmers must have the highest risk thresholds of anyone I've ever met.

The other day a colleague at work asked me how things were on the farm.  I told her they were as well as could be expected, given that we were having a very cold, slow spring this year.  We expect strawberry season to begin about 2 weeks later than 'normal' and if it doesn't warm up soon, it could be later than that.  She asked me "How do you do it, I couldn't stand the uncertainty."

If I weren't married to a farmer, I would never do anything like this.  I might plant a tomato and some green beans, or I might just shop at farmers' markets, or subscribe to a CSA.  The risks involved with farming -- the weather, the diseases, the insect pests, the animals (deer, racoons, birds) -- any one of which can destroy enough of your crop to ruin your income for the year -- are overwhelming for me.  Farmers seem to sort of thrive on the riskiness of their ventures.  They'll tell you that's not so, but I believe it is.

Of course, farmers also farm for a myriad of other reasons.  Growing food for people to eat is an honorable thing to do, and most farmers really enjoy that part of their profession. Farmers tend to be very independent, they like to be the boss & enjoy not being tied to a set work schedule.  Living in the country is also very nice (I often think it's the part I like best of all).  Our nearest neighbor is about 1/4 mile away & we can't see her lights most of the year.  And I imagine there are other reasons -- as many as there are farmers -- for why people farm.

As I type this, I can see Farmer Bill and a potential summer intern walking the farm on a tour.  They've walked past the hoop houses, out through the blueberries, the raspberries, the newly planted strawberry patch, and possibly a sweet corn field.  Now they're walking through the apple orchard, where the apple trees are ever-so-slowly waking up this year.  Last year by this time the orchard was almost finished blooming.  We'd had a hard frost on the blossoms just a few days past and we were waiting to see how much damage the frost had done (turned out it cut our apple crop to about 40% of normal).  This year, we haven't yet seen a single blossom on apples or strawberries yet.  And we've had rain a lot more days than we've had sun.  I'm not walking with them because I have a bad cold, and am just not up to walking the entire farm in the drizzling rain.  Sometimes the thought of all the work Farmer Bill has yet to do to get things ready this year makes my stomach hurt.  I am definitely not the risk taker in our family.

Farming and holidays

Although some of our modern holidays have a connection to the growing year, many do not.  Most modern farmers don't take many Sundays off during planting or harvesting season -- and Farmer Bill is no exception.  Mothers' Day, Fathers' Day, Independence Day, his birthday (August), and Labor Day are pretty much all work days for him.  We are often open for PYO during the morning of July 4th, and close for the afternoon.  But there's usually other work to be done if the weather is good, and always paperwork to catch up on if we can't be outside.  Farmer Bill isn't good at relaxing between April and November so we rarely go out to see fireworks.  We've sworn that 'one of these years' we'll go see the old-time threshing event in Dundas over the Labor Day weekend, but so far we've never made it.  Depending on what day of the week his birthday falls, I might be able to take him out to dinner that night.  Halloween hasn't been big since we moved to the country.  We never have visitors although I always have candy ready just in case... Farmer Bill & I always get to eat it ourselves and we don't mind a bit.

Time on his hands...

Our farming year starts in January when Farmer Bill has a little time on his hands and comes up with new schemes for spending money, er, expanding the farm.  This year he is opening up a small storefront on the farm to sell his produce & planted 800 blueberry bushes.  Last year he put up two hoop houses, using a low-interest loan available from the MN Dept. of Agriculture, and bought a plastic layer and a planter to plant through the plastic to expand his cantaloupe growing.  We started with 8 apple varieties and about 1900 trees.  We now have 12 apple varieties and about 2500 trees.  The original farm was 30 acres, but last year Farmer Bill finally talked the widow who owned an adjacent piece into selling it to him, so now we have about 50 acres.

A back bedroom was turned into a greenhouse last year & this, but I can definitely see Farmer Bill wanting to put up a 'real' greenhouse before too much longer.  He planted hundreds of tomatoes -- grape tomatoes as well as slicers, and will soon be starting some melons.  The first set of tomato plants went out into a hoop house weeks ago.  The next batch of tomato plants will go soon out to hang around in the hoop house until the frost danger is gone & will go in the ground outside after that.  Sugar-snap peas will go in the ground soon -- to be available during strawberry season -- they're quite popular with our PYO customers.

Another piece of the history

There was actually a 4th sort-of farm in between the 2nd & 3rd farms.  For 15 years we lived in White Bear Lake, where Farmer Bill taught school.  When we'd been there about 2 years, living in a rented house, Bill passed a For Sale sign on a house with a 1-acre lot and knew he had to have it.  He drove me past it to take a look; then called the realtor and we did a walk-through.  The house was totally uninspiring -- old paint, old carpeting, smelly, cigarette-smoke-stained walls, and cheap paneling in a walk-out lower level.  Since it had been on the market for over 2 years, we made a low-ball offer that was accepted.  Before we moved in, we pulled out all the carpeting, washed and painted every wall, painted the ceilings, installed hardwood tongue & groove flooring in the dining and living rooms.  Over the years we were there, we continued to update and expand.  Two years before we moved to Straight River Farm, we did the big expansion I'd been planning and dreaming about since we moved in -- adding a 4-season room and deck off the kitchen, redesigning & updating the kitchen layout, countertops, and floors, and expanding the walk-out level family room.

In the backyard -- the 1-acre lot -- Bill planted strawberries and created a PYO business.  We called it Bill's Backyard Berries and it was a pretty successful little business for 10 years, until Bill retired from teaching and wanted something more than a part-time farm.

Did I say weekends off?

It's Easter Sunday morning.  Later this morning I will drive from the farm to the Twin Cities to spend the afternoon with my mom, our kids, siblings, nieces & nephews.  However, before that happens I'll spend a couple of hours with Farmer Bill laying out the ground where he's planting blueberries tomorrow.  And Farmer Bill will stay behind and finish the job; he's got help coming to plant tomorrow and he doesn't want them standing around idle while he does the laying out.

This is how most of our holidays go.  Neither of us is particularly religious -- holidays are just an occasion to visit with family and/or friends that we don't get to see often.  But holidays that happen between April 1 and December 1 are just squeezed in between the farm work.

Bill could, of course, come along later to have dinner and hang out.  But the deal we made before we were married still holds: he doesn't have to attend my family gatherings and I don't have to attend his.  It's worked pretty well for us over the years -- except when the kids were little and we both needed/wanted to be there to care for them.  Then I spent long interminable weekends with his family and he spent the occasional 3-hour stint with mine.  Not that I'm bitter or anything...

Weekends off

Most librarians who work in either academic or public libraries expect to work some Saturdays, some Sundays and an evening during the week.  For a few weeks I've had a Monday-Friday schedule with no night or weekend work; it's different.  I think I could get used to it. 

But starting in June I almost never have a day or evening off until November.  If I'm off from my paid position, I'm on for the farm.  During strawberry season (June 10-July 4) we go to Farmers' Markets on Saturdays & Sundays and are open for PYO at the farm every day -- unless it pours rain -- which never seems to happen on my days off from the Library.  And pouring rain just means a slower day, not a day off, at the farm.

A piece of the history

Farmer BIll & I were married in October 1982.  We met in March 1977 on a Greyhound bus out of Minneapolis.  Farmer Bill likes to say that he was running away from his marriage and I was running away from my family.  Mostly true in both cases.

The 5+ years before we married were a series of ups and downs.  The 28+ years of marriage have also been a series of ups and downs -- but there must have been enough ups to make the downs bearable because here we are, still together.  We have 2 grown children and 2 children-in-law.

In his previous work life Farmer Bill was an elementary school teacher.  But he's always dabbled with farming to one extent or another.  Straight River Farm is his 3rd farm.  The 1st farm was in northern Minnesota -- 20 miles outside the arctic circle -- in the 1970s 'Back to the Land Movement' and it put the final nail in the coffin of his first marriage.  The 2nd farm was outside Osceola, Wisconsin in the 1980s.  That farm fell prey to the bad economy, high interest rates, and Farmer Bill's tendency to believe the best of everyone.  This 3rd farm is pretty darn successful, as farms go.  But boy howdy it's a lot of work and a lot of investment.  I'm a Librarian by training and nature -- not a risk taker.  Farmer Bill is the risk taker, the planner, the dreamer.  I'm here to put some restraints on him so he doesn't go completely wild... So far I've been marginally successful, although there are several hundred tomato seedlings under grow lights in my back bedroom...

Book Group

For the past 3 years I've been the facilitator for a book discussion group at my library.  Before that assignment I had never been part of a book group & I was a little apprehensive.  But the group has expanded and evolved to be something I look forward to each month.  The members are thoughtful readers with great insights into the characters and themes of the books we read.  While the library was closed for renovation the group met at our local Barnes & Noble store and took over part of their cafe.  Next month we meet in our brand new meeting room back at the library.  We're all looking forward to it!

At the library

We're in the 3rd week of getting the library ready to re-open after a major renovation.  It's a lot of work and many of my muscles and joints are complaining about it.  All of the collections had to be shifted to fit into their new spaces.  Most shifts went swimmingly well, except for the non-fiction -- the largest collection -- of course.

What is it about managers (or maybe it was because that particular manager is a man?) that they don't listen to the people who know stuff?  Early on in the process, he asked me about what shelves to use and how full to fill them.  Then he proceeded to ignore my answer.  Which means that the entire collection will have to be moved again... before we open if there's time.

Theme of the year

Last year the farm theme was "Making it look easy."  It came from a nephew who spent about 6 weeks with us, working the strawberry season.  While here, he broke up with his girlfriend and in a discussion about relationships he said "But you guys make it look so easy!"  We loved and appreciated the comment and decided it should be the farm theme for the year.

A previous theme was "Easy Money" which I remembered coming from the same nephew after a Saturday market.  Market Saturdays go something like this: up at 4:00 a.m. drink one quick cup of coffe while walking across the farm to load the market vehicle, load vehicle, drive to market, set up market stall, sell produce until 1:00 p.m., return to farm, unload vehicle, take short nap before getting up and making sure produce and vehicle are ready for Sunday market (we get to sleep in until 5:00 a.m. for Sunday markets).  In other words, it's something like an 18-hour day.  Meals are catch-as-catch-can.  Now, Farmer Bill says he's the one who first used the phrase, and while I'm sure that's true, the way Nathaniel said it that afternoon was priceless... and that's how it became the theme of the year.

The only other theme that I remember is "Nothing To It."  This theme came from that phrase being repeated by Farmer Bill in response to my questions of "How are you going to..."  Of course, it ain't true that there's 'nothing to it.'  Farmer Bill works incredible hours over the course of the summer -- and I put in a few myself.

So far there isn't a theme for 2011.  We'll have to wait and see if one appears.