4/29
It’s ok – as far as we can tell, nothing got damaged by the 29F frost. The photo on the left is of one of our Asian pear trees. Our friend, Dan Kelly, who has an apple orchard, assures us that 29 will not hurt the fruit blossoms.
Gigi and I attend a local foods dinner at Truman University in Kirksville – part of the week long Earth Day celebrations organized by students. We both signed up to be discussion leaders at individual small tables. There is a good turnout and a lot of good discussions. It is encouraging to hear thought provoking conversations about eating more locally.
Finally! we do some planting in the field: we plant clover into our wheat crop (planted last fall) to help build the soil. The wheat will be harvested in early July and by then the clover will be about 10” tall and keep growing and put a lot of nitrogen into the soil, as well as feeding various other soil building organisms (eg earthworms). The clover will be incorporated (that is, killed by chisel plowing, discing, etc) into the soil either in the fall or the following spring to feed the next crop – sorghum.
Planting clover: we do it by hand – the way seed has been planted by our ancestors for thousands of years: it feels good to carry on the tradition. Well, we do have a minor variation: I imagine our ancestors flinging seeds on the ground by hand. We use a simple, cheap ($25.) gizmo that consists of a cloth bag with a shoulder strap to carry the seed in, and a spinning wheel to fling out the seed so that it is spread evenly. The seed trickles from the bag onto the wheel which is spun by a hand crank; we walk through the wheat field, cranking the gizmo, and the seed is flung out in a 12’ swath. It takes a lot of walking to plant a one acre field. This year, new member Apple, planted all the clover. The clover seeds wait until the next rain to germinate and begin growing in the wheat fields.
