08 Jun A Day in the Life of a Farmer
Posted at 14:49h
in Blog
Written by Janette Adams, Produce Assistant at The Well Community Garden
It’s Friday harvest day at the Well Fed Community Garden! There are many things that go into keeping an urban farm up and running, especially with the warmer weather settling in.
Let’s take a look at a typical day for our farmers:The sound of the rooster crowing tells us it is time to rise for another day — yeah, just kidding! First thing we do is scout to make sure no chickens have gotten out of the fencing, feed them, and make sure they have fresh water.
The garden chickens hanging around their coop
After watering the seedlings, the harvest begins! Warm Carolina temperatures in the afternoon force a sense of urgency to get all the harvesting done in the morning. Many of the greens become wilted in the humid heat.
Freshly harvested basil
Freshly harvested beets
Each veggie is then washed then dried and packaged for the Irregardless Cafe or community distributors.
Orache (also known as Mountain Spinach) in the salad spinner to be dried
Edible flowers, Bibb lettuce, and radishes packaged up before heading to the Irregardless Cafe
After cleaning up the processing area, radish and buckwheat microgreens are seeded along with Bibb lettuce in the hydroponic cells to ensure a steady supply.
Recently germinated microgreen seeds
Hydroponic Bibb lettuce seedlings
Lunch is a great time to catch a quick nap under the car port…
Sweet farm dog Bella resting her eyes
Depending on the needs around the garden, the rest of the day is filled with weeding the beds, cover cropping beds that are in transition, trellising tomatoes or pole beans, mowing the pathways around the beds, or checking plants for any pests. As we transition from spring to summer, our beds also transition to the next season’s crop.
Mowing the lettuce down with the BCS walk behind tractor before cover cropping with cow peas
Every week the Garden hosts different evening events such as cooking classes, farm dinners, and volunteer hours (come to Wine and Weeds every Thursday night from 6-8pm)!
Volunteers at the weekly Thursday evening Wine and Weeds event
As dusk settles in, a quick check on the chickens is done before heading in for the night to ensure everyone is safe and sound. I think I can already hear the rooster crowing…