Bird’s nest found while tomato trellising
Week 2
M-Team
I’ve been doing some work with the M-team and asked what the “M” stood for. Rachel, who is the leader in our two person team said people like to call it “mighty”, but she then admitted it means miscellaneous. We’ve had the special project of keeping all the Tomato houses up to date with trellising and snapping off suckers so the plant can focus it energy on the fruit. Regular tomatoes have one leader or one main stem, and any other stems that usually shoot from between the stem and branch, we take off. Cherry tomatoes have two leaders and we take off any other suckers. Then we wrap the twine around the stems, tight enough to hold it up and prevent bending, but not too tight the we snap it off. We work on that unit lunch and then we usually swap over to transplanting.
We use a high-speed transplanter (more on that to come-Machines), though the name might suggest something fast, the tractor crawls while the people sitting in the back are struggling to keep up with filling cups with ready to plant plants.
When we are not transplanting or trellising, we are helping irrigate. The summer months are extremely dry and irrigation is something that happens everyday in at least some field. Back home we hope for enough rains to never irrigate, but sometimes we will have to occasionally.
high speed transplanter
Tractor modified to carry irrigation pipes
Manuals
Over the first week I got a feel for how many farm truck their are. There are at least ten different trucks, while that might seem like a lot, there still seems to be a shortage when you really need a flatbed truck to transport transplants to field 8D10. And I’ve categorized them into two groups: ones I can and can’t drive. Most fall into the latter category because they are manual.
Soo… Rachel has been giving me lessons, I have successfully shifted to second gear and back down, but thats about it. It is a skill I feel I need and hope I come back to New Hampshire a proficient driver.
Meals
Working on a farm, one might expect good food and good farming to go hand in hand, on GTF it might even go one step farther. Everyday at 10:00 there is snack. Usually consisting of pastries or egg burritos, it is worth looking forward to during the weekends. Lunch is served Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 1:00. It is an even bigger production and the highlight of the day.
My Thoughts
It has been a great first two weeks. I’m still adjusting and starting to feel more confident about my work. I’m learning a lot about organization and prioritization and still have a ways to go (so those sections will be later).
what’s in: tomatoes