Sunday, April 13, 2008

A day at the farm Part I

This whole writing a book about farming is going to be a lot harder than I thought. Last week I went over to the farm to take a few pictures of the early planting. I got a ton of pictures and it's only the beginning of the long farming season. So I think for now I will just take the pictures, write about them and then at the end of the season I can review all of them and pick and choose the best pictures to make a book for Anthony. Sorry but blogging about it seems the easiest way for me to keep track of it all, so if you like the TV show Unwrapped, you will find this interesting.


These are the trays where seeds are first planted. They call it a 512 tray because it has 512 cells for seeds in each tray. (The seeds are planted in these trays by a machine, I missed that process, but if they do it again I will try to get a picture of it, it's pretty cool the way it works.)It takes 3 to 4 weeks in the greenhouse (depending on the type of plant) before the plant is ready to be transplanted into a bigger tray.Here is a close up of Eggplant that is ready to be transplanted.Daddy showing Anthony the greenhouse.
In this greenhouse they are transplanting over in the corner.
Soon this whole greenhouse will be full of plants. Here are the 512 trays that are ready for transplanting.In another barn this machine, called the flat filler, is filling up the bigger trays with soil.Each plant is transplanted by hand.The new soil filled trays move down this conveyor belt as each plant is replanted.We let Anthony have a close up look at the process.
He didn't get too excited about getting his hands dirty.
I'm sure that will change soon.

After the trays are planted they are lined up in the greenhouse. This is where they will stay until they are planted in the field.
Anthony with his Dad and Auntie Lisa. Auntie Lisa is in charge of the transplanting process.
This greenhouse is full of Eggplant transplanted into trays with 24 cells.
And that's what Anthony and I learned on the first day. Now I need to let Todd proof this to make sure I got it all right.

Turned out to be a good thing I had him proof it, I had a few things wrong.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

Cool. I look forward to learning more!

Francie said...

I love the side-ways picture of the rows of green plants. Nicely done!
It's cool that you're telling us all this farm stuff!
Can't wait to eat some tomatoes and veggies!

Mandy Lou said...

This is so cool - I love seeing all this! The book is shaping up already, and I'm sure Anthony will love it.

~ V ~ said...

Oooh...I have machine envy. And greenhouse envy. OK, I have field and vegetable envy also. I started our seeds last week. I have Roma tomatoes poking up now. They should be ready to set out in the garden by 6/15, our last frost date. Our season is too short. Last year I only set out 2 eggplant plants, we got to eat 2 eggplants from our garden before the plants were killed by the frost.

Rachael said...

Hmmm. I had no idea it was that complicated!

Hey, I found the coolest website for you for when you're ready to write your book:

http://www.blurb.com/

Tina in CT said...

Wow, I learned a lot from your blog today. That is really interesting and your book idea is terrific. Just think how little farmer wanabee's will love it. Keep it coming.

I can't believe how Anthony has changed. He is starting to look like a real little boy and not a baby.

Lori said...

Rach, thanks for the website, that looks like a perfect idea.

Paula said...

That is really interesting. I had no idea it was done that way. Please do updates, I can't wait to see the greenhouse full of eggplants.

Cecelia said...

This was very interesting. Great idea on the book. I love the pictures. Anthony sure has a great life ahead of him on the farm with his daddy. This book will be a treasure for him. I enjoyed reading about it too.

PrincessGreen17 said...

I think this is a really neat idea for a book! It's interesting to read about. And the pictures of Anthony checking things out are the best!

Natalie said...

Thats so cute! Anothony is so adorable! I'm going to add my pictures of him from this weekend hopefully soon. I have to do taxes today though:(

Denise said...

What a great idea! I can't wait to see the finished product.

Scoobers said...

Seriously, Lori. What a neat idea! Good luck on the book! I can't wait to see more of your progress.