This is a series I want to start to keep track of the progress on the farm. Every month, I will show the progress on the farm.
Bean me up before you go go 😁
We planted those beans as early as January, and I could not even correctly follow the string that you see, our neighbour that is helping me with the field work has way more experience than me, and I could feel some tension when he saw my lack of precision:
"How am I going to go through with the tractor?" Robert says.
"What tractor?" I replied.
"Are you going to harvest everything by hand?" Robert insisted.
I answered to him swiftly his favourite catchphrase while smiling: "Impossible n'est pas Français". (Impossible isn't French)
We both smiled, and I quickly understood that he had bigger plans for this land. Since we arrived, the old man helped me with pretty much everything that is farm related, and has been very important in our lives.
We often joke about the COVID and the pandemic, but that day he was wearing a mask. I can't really blame him, the way the elderlies are being targeted by the government and the medias lately, I would probably feel that I need to wear a damn hazmat suit if I start listening to them.
After a while, he takes his mask off and I keep my distance. It's a tough time for everyone, and it's important to respect everyone's sensitivity. No time for small talk, we get into business right away.
"The land hasn't been used for a very long time, this should be a good soil. It's rich, when you hold it in your hands, the way it sticks together, means that there is a good amount of clay and moisture. You want your soil to dry a little before starting sowing. Plus, I've seen this place freeze in May once, so we should wait for a few weeks before getting serious. It should give us some time to prepare the land."
I listen every time the man speaks, he sometimes repeats himself, which is normal for his age, but I am learning techniques that you cannot just figure out on your own.
I probably know as much in farming as this little guy up there. Of course, I planted tomatoes and weed for 10 years in South Africa, I know how to boost a plant with Nitrogen during the vegetative process, and how to use low stress technique (LST) to my advantage, or how to transplant, but this is uncharted territory for me.
I already made one rookie mistake. I planted my beans too early, and they got stunted with 2 weeks of continuous rain that completely drenched our land.
"You cannot plan your sowing in advance, nature will have a plan for you at every turn" he says almost meditatively.
He was right, I thought I could apply my botanic knowledge on a greater scale, but very quickly realised that this was way above my paygrade. The land needed some work, and lots of it. He also claims that I will require pesticide because grass has been growing here for a long time, and "there are some good and nasty things in the soil". I wasn't happy with his advice, coming from a "permaculture culture state of mind", but I will decide of the day what I will use on the land.
At the end of the day, Robert is right about a lot of things related to nature. Sometimes he can feel a change in the air, and says out of nowhere: "It is about to rain". Meanwhile, it's a full sun out there, and no sign of change, for only to realise few hours later that he was right, it's now raining 😄.
Preparing the fence for the Dogs and Chicken
We have to quickly make a perimeter for the dogs coming soon, we haven't set a date yet as we wanted to ride the bull run and use that profit to pay for the travel cost. You would not imagine the price to bring to dogs in France, roughly between 4000 USD and 4500 USD, I kid you not. It will take everything that we have and even more, but we will get them eventually.
The fence needs also to be high enough to make sure they don't jump it, huskies tend to be explorers, we have a lot of land but I don't want to take any risk
Before even starting the outer skirt fence, we need a smaller one to teach the chicken how to go back to coop on their own, from the grass land. Lucky for us, our neighbour generously gave us a bunch of them from a vineyard farmer that lives nearby. I don't know how many cheese cakes my wife will have to cook to repay them haha, but we will think about it later.
Edit: There has been a change of plan; we will use smaller metal poles that get into the ground easier, and keep that big posts for the larger house perimeter.
Sowing
We started sowing some of the seeds, in tray, that I keep inside at night, as the weather can (very well) get cold again.
Tomatoes, broccolis; rosemary, garlic, lettuces, and a little bit of this and that. It's just a first trial, I still think it's a little bit early; you need that warmth to kickstart the sprouts.
Once again, thanks to our neighbour, we have the chance to access tools that will truly gives us an advantage and allow us to grow more food that I've ever imagine. Taking care of the 3 kids lately, I also have very little time to take care of the land, I can tell you that from the moment robots are available to harvest the land, I might take one to help us here 🤖
We decided to keep 2 meters between each rows, so the tractor will be able to pass through the rows and harvest with a machine, except for tomatoes.
Vines
This has been for now the most time consuming project, taking the climbing vines off the trees as they tend to suffocate them.
If anyone has a good way to get rid of them that doesn't require the use of roundup, just let me know in the comment section!
WILLOW TREE WATER
Our friend @iaura brought some willow tree cuts, that we let simmer in the jar the whole day. It has incredible rooting properties, having a large concentration of IBA, that is easily soluble in the water and acts as a rooting hormone.
There has been a study about it.
There is also proofs that willow tree water increase the plant resistance.
Second round of sowing.
The first round of sowing went really slow, so I was hoping the second one would go a little bit faster, the temperature at night are still close to freezing temp, it's been also shown that sowing later than the advised time frame can bring tremendous results in term of yield.
As of today, nothing sprouted yet out of the bigger pots, however the lettuces and tomatoes, finally showed their faces 😍
I will probably give them some diluted willow tree water after a month grow, just to strengthen them.
First row of onions
Smooth operator
After turning the soil, we used a cultipacker, "that crushes dirt clods, removes air pockets, and presses down small stones, forming a smooth, firm seedbed" (google).
It will give the perfect smooth conditions to plant very soon.
Eye in the sky
We have our friend the buzzard, that has been gliding over the land for the past month, I would really like to get a clean shot for closer, but for now that's all I could get. They are a little bit smaller than eagles, but are known to attack much bigger preys, even chicken!
I've seen the buzzard since the first days of our arrival, and took it a sign of good omen 😄!
The land is just filled with worms, which is also a good sign.
I tried to keep the girls involved in the process, they had lots of fun collecting them. Soon I want to create a wormery, that will feed the chicken and create some amazing worm cast.
Aimée didn't like it as much haha
Spring is really here for good!
Or is it? As you can see, nature is sending mixed signals, we had the fig trees budding, same for the plumbs and pears, I was still on the fence and kept in mind what Robert told us about how the cold can sometimes come back out of nowhere.
And indeed, A week later, the frost came back with temperatures below 0. I had the opportunity to get some really great sunrise shots, but we will have to be aware of this cold front, as it will stunt the sowing.
That's it for today, I hope that you enjoyed this content, it is something that I would like to do once a month, it's a great way for me to keep our tracks of our progress.
Cheers!
Ed
You documented this very well. You're no rookie to the chain, this type of style takes time to be embraced. I dig your direction.
I'm blown away you got a whole got dang farm that needs heavy equipment to yield. Tell me on WhatsApp if you feel like telling me at all, maybe just tell me about the neighbor or something but I'm curious to know what something like that goes for in France. I'm an American so I'm programmed to believe debt is the way so something of substantial value like a home, I only understand monthly installments.
The joint itself has what, 4 beds I think and 3 baths? If I remember correctly, you're on 15 acres?
Thanks homie i will tell you on WhatsApp 😁
Don't you just love watching things grow. We are chomping at the bit to get our seedlings started.
Be patient, I say, I know starting them too soon can lead to disappointment.
Our project now is making maple syrup. Our trees have been tapped and it looks like it's going to be a great year for sap. In just a few days we have already collected nearly enough to do our first "cook".
How sweet it is.
Happy planting.
OOOOH maple syrup. I am reserving the first bottle 😄
I have a vague memory of seeing few posts of yours about it, am I right?
It's like gold coming out of a tree, and sweet. Sweet gold 😌
Oh yes, in fact my hubby @thebigsweed, just put out the first post about syrup making. I let him do all the technical stuff about the process and I just post about how fun it is to do.
With a 50 to 1 ratio of sap to syrup, meaning it takes 50 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of that liquid gold, it take time to do. But when you are retired and have the time, it can be so special. My kids are already lining up to get their share .
@dandays and @splatts have had a sample, seemed to enjoy it.
Your farm is really looking good by the way, there's nothing better in my book than to grow your own food.
Happy planting!!
The taste of your syrup is just so pure, clean and crisp. I could probably chug a bottle down like a beer. Except it may upset the kids.
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Hahaha, yeah I know the feeling, just so good.
We actually drink the sap sometimes, best, cleanest water you'll ever taste.
Just hide from the kids, let them eat cake.🥮
@splatts. In case you didn't catch that, I'm a gallon and you're a sap.
Now we are talking, gardening is a hobby that @farm-mom and I have been involved with big time since moving to New York state. For the past several years we have grown enough vegetables to take us from one growing season to the next.
With all the land you have at your disposal, I would imagine that you will be able to do the same.
It's great to see that you are getting your children involved. Watching seeds germinate and later on produce food, teaches them how to be self efficient, and gives them a better understanding of all that it takes to be successful.
Your neighbor sounds like a great dude, he sure did make your life a littler easier by letting him use his tractor.
Over the years I'm sure he has a book full of tips, and his willingness to share his knowledge with you is very cool.
Finding lots of worms is always a great sign that the soil is ripe for planting.
Worm castings provide so many nutrients to the soil and help to keep the dirt aerated.
Well, once this white stuff melts we will be able to get our garden started. Shortly we will be starting many of our seeds.
Last year I built this window box for starting seeds and it worked out great.
One of the best things about growing your own food is that you know exactly what you're getting.
Our mantra is no pesticides, no herbicides, no fungicides and all organic fertilizers.
Things are looking good my friend. I love the idea of keeping a garden journal. As the gardening season heats up, their are many communities that we got involved with last year, and one in particular was called Your Garden Journal, or something very similar to that title.
Have a great day!
Dude... This is the best comment ever!
This is fantastic, how expensive was the LED light?
I need to build the exact replica of yours!
Well he doesn't let me drive it haha. I think he is enjoying himself. He isn't always right, he is for pesticide and doesn't know anything about permaculture, so it's gonna be my turn to educate him if he is willing to listen. I don't know much neither but I am a fast learner.
Did you draw plan for that box you made or just freestyled?
Free style, I kind of had a plan in my head.
If you would like, here is the link to the post showing how I built it step by step.
The box was built to plug directly into a picture window.
https://hive.blog/hive-123046/@thebigsweed/diy-building-a-window-box-greenhouse
Here is the link for the place I purchased the light fixtures from.
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Monios-l/page/E101EFF4-1C93-46D2-8583-C3D6E623D3D7?ref_=ast_bln
This is what I purchased from them. If you scroll down just a little on the link you'll see it.
[6-Pack] LED Grow Light Strips for Plants 2FT, 60W (6 x 10W) t5 High Output Integrated Fixture Extendable 24 Inches Grow Lights for Greenhouse, Plant Grow Shelf, Easy Installation
One of the best features of these lights is that they can be hooked up in a series.
Thanks buddy, I am gonna get one right away. I saw a similar lamp on Alibaba, it might not be the same quality though.
You are one crafty man, I don't think I would be able to freestyle that well 😁
Très bon! Looking forward to see the progress you guys are making. I really admired your post and explanations.
And with bringing the dogs over, not sure from where exactly, South Africa? but I had the same with my dog from the states. To bring Molly to Germany from the U.S. cost me a fortune back then. Her plane ticket cost more than mine lol. But they are worth every penny.
See ya! :)
MErci!
Yes, from South Africa, I should have précised it! The crates to transport them seem to be the most expensive, they are kinda big dogs. I hope the forgive me for having left them for more than a year now!
Thanks for following back, I will be on the lookout!
Whaaaaat a year already? Gotta make up big time once they hit french soil 🍖🦴🥩🍗 😄. If they have a loving, caring person meanwhile to take care of them they might forgive you.
Joy my rescue Bulldog is from France. He still has a french passport :).
Are your dogs supposed to arrive anytime soon?
Yeah I know, it's been excruciating not to be with them. I haven't left my dog Jacky (the husky) more than few days for 8 years, it's a very long time, he deservers a good retirement now for the rest of his days. The other one is younger, so he will forgive me I think.
They were supposed to be here mid march, but we struggled gathering the funds. It might take an extra month, we are nearly there :)
Sucks, what's your other dogs name? Jacky and....? :)
Jacky and Charlie ^^
We're nearly there, it's been a long damn road! they're awesome guys...
OMG i just saw your post, that is so lovely of you Anna...
Oh my god thanks @qurator and @brumest !!! You guys rock, it means a lot to me!!!
Love love love loved this post and THRILLED you wrote one. I didn't know that about willow - I know honey is a good rooting hormone but unless you have bees, that's an expensive venture.
I really got a sense for your land with your photos and loved the low angle shots for many of them. The one of the sunrise is pretty special - a gorgeous shot.
Thanks SO much for sharing - this is a real gem of a post!
You also blew my mind, I had no idea. I used to use molasses in my water, I wonder if it's the same type of property.
Thanks so much for your great comment it warms my heart!
Again, so happy you liked it, I woke up so early for this one haha 😁
Now I am off to your posts ^^ Oooohh...Lotus chat... Interesting!
we use willow tree water on all our plants even the smokables at seedling phase and first few weeks, also helps give a boost if you get blight on tomatoes or a bit of a heavy burn in summer.
Good 'ol Robert gotta love him. Willow bark is also incredibly beneficial in medicine, but thats a story for another time.
Looking good bro, the farm will soon be up and running.
Good to know! I know they are some deniers that says it's all bullshit, but they don't know shit.
Thanks homie; imagine the amount of green we bout to pull!
damn right, a self supporting ecosystem, the key to life 😁
I have uncles who farm large scale and use tractors as well. Me, only ever growing on a small scale world be totally lost in that world.
I have been wanting to keep a worm farm as well but they keep dying. When it's not one problem it's another!
Haha there always something that seems to go wrong at first, right now my beans are completely stunt, and we are expecting snow if few days!!! I have to cover them.
What sort of compost were you feeding the worms?
I give them coffee grounds, egg shells, tea leaves, hair, and banana peels.
I knew about all the above except for hair, I will check it out!
The shampoo in the hair could kill the worms? I m just rambling haha
It should be fine. However, I don't know if dyed hair would be bad... I would think so.
Naaah I am sure it's fine. Maybe something was eating them?
They were outcompeted for food by fungus knat larvae actually.
Wow, what a post!!! You will need a tractor, definitely for that land! You are a lucky one (sorry, correction, a wise one who chose to) have a field and live with the family in the countryside.
We live currently in an apartment, in a coastal town. But for long term, sometime in future I would prefer live in countryside, have a small portion of land, having own vegetables. Although I am aware it needs a lot of time, knowledge and hard work!! So...
OMG, that is a lot of money but I wish you can get them with you. So you moved from South Africa to France, I learn from your posts about you as I didn't know you from before.
Off topic, your neighbour has the same name as my son :)
Yep, that was us for the last 10 years. It's been our dream to leave to the country side, and we finally made it come true! Lot's of hard work indeed, hopefully soon the robots and AI can do the dirty job for us, before they overtake us 🤖
No worry! Yep, I lived for 10 years in South Africa, and we arrived the 2 October 2019 in France. We still waiting for our dogs to come, very soon hopefuly.
Is it "Roberto" ?
That is great. Happy to see when people are achieving their goals.😇
It is important not to give up on our dreams, and make everything what is possible to make them come true. Sometimes we can not change some particular circumstances, so we should accept, but the majority of the things happening in our lives depend on the energy and attitude we have. And work and time we invest in our ideas.
No, just Robert :)
You are very right, I am going to be blunt with you so forgive me for my honesty. There were a time when we didn't have enough money to eat every day, my wife and I were very skinny, no car, no health insurance, no clothes. And it was years after having had a huge success on French TV and a little bit of a celebrity, performing live with the biggest stars in the world, being rich, then move to South Africa and being very poor.
Why am I saying all this?
My point is that life isn't linear, success isn't neither. Some days you will feel on the top of the world, and other days feel like your reached rock bottom and all you want to do is give up. What matters is what you decide to tell yourself in those moments of sorrow and despair.
I remember every moment of harshness, I remember the day our dog died in front of us because we didn't have money to take him to the vet, I remember having to eat the same meal for a whole week because there were nothing else, I remember cutting off the electricity to make sure we can put the heater in winter, I remember the day my son hurt his lips and broke his teeth by jumping off the furniture and we had no money to go to the hospital, I remember every deliveries of our kids, done at home, with just a mid wife and no pain killers for my wife. I remember when I hated everyone for having something that I didn't have. I remember that roommate that stole my guitar that my parents gave me, never to be seen. I cried many nights about it, I couldn't do music for a whole year. My wife kept on telling me that one day I will buy an even better one (I didn't 😁, it was a custom guitar), I eventually got a new guitar, and started creating again.
I also remember the day we decided to change our lives, and to never look back. I remember every time my wife said, that one day we will have much more than what we had at the time.
To be honest, we are now bullet proof. After what we went through, if tomorrow we lose it all, we will rebuild ourselves and do it again. That's how damn strong humans are!
Ok I am done hahaha sorry about that!
Nothing to be sorry of, it is just a very honest answer and you needed to write it down. Every word. I can understand you, and I don't just say that because I want to seem nice. I can feel your pain, but I will not tell here my life story, this is your post :)
The life experience is what is giving us the needed passion to get up every single day, continue day by day. The more painful was your experience more stronger will you fight in the next life battle.
Would you now work on you field, have chickens, learning how to seed and harvest or thinking about a tractor if you had have an easy life before?
Interestingly, all my friends from real life like to tell me all their thoughts, problems, happy moments. They don't even have to ask for an advice, they just tell I listen and in the end they know all the answers and what should they do. Maybe I am good listener hehehe 😇
You can tell me your life story and I will read it all day 😁. This isn't my post, this is all ours. Plus it didn't bother your the other day to have a full fleshed convo with the other Ed in my comments hahaha.
You summed it all up. Everything we have been through led us to this moment in time, and resulted from it.
Haha look at you boasting a bit. I like it! We often say musicians and teachers are one step away from being psychotherapist LoL!
To be honest, I wrote what I just said on the blockchain, so maybe one day someone will go through this comment section, had a bad day, and recognize himself/herself in it.
Haha, I didn't even notice it was on your comment section 🤦🏻♀️😂 Some 5 days passed when he replied, so I didn't notice where it was 😋
Sorry 🙏☺️
Agree!!!! 😁
I realise I might have been oversharing a little too much. I did not drink before writing it yesterday, just coffee, a lot of it though...
☕
I am drinking my afternoon coffee right now...
What effects should I expect now? 😅😋
You really tried,this is amazing ,funny enough am an agric student and I would really appreciate it if you can teach me more about farming privately.
Lol dude! Private farming lesson? it sounds like a trap 😁 thanks for your feedback, all I can say is that I don't know much and learning a bit more everyday. Welcome to hive brother where are you from?
Hey that's so cool! I love the idea of the series!
When you talked about the soil etc, this French man Claude Bourguignon popped up in my mind, not sure if you are familiar with him, but since you are french, tu peux un peu écouter & voir si ça te parle 🙃
Cheers!
Claude deserves a Nobel Prize. OUi, en effet cela me parle plutot haha 😃 merci pour le lien!!!
Thanks so much, I have to admit it took me 12 days to write, I kept on adding up, it was meant to be posted on the 1st of March 🙂.
The part of the video about the pigs almost made me want to throw up, what the fuck...And then we consume that meat, it's already ethically wrong, but we also carry the energy of these animals with us, in us.
Donc tu parles Francais aussi?
Ahahah de rien!
Better late than never! Sometimes these posts take us longer than planned, especially when we learn so many new things in the process :)
Yes, that's why I stopped eating meat a while ago. And in general, now I'm not particularly against meat-eaters, I think the best question is: "am I eating slave energy"? Because that's what our agro-industry is today..
Yes, ma langue maternelle lol grand-mère parisienne 😝
Oh wow so you're fluent french or?
yess indeed, même le verlan si tu veux hhhh
ouech bien ouej!
rémenca! 😝
Claude deserves an entire post, incredible man...I feel so stupid when I listen to him
Ahah you still got Life ahead of you to find out even more than he did ;)
I just love how they bring the focus on a subject many have totally forgotten today.
I must admit when I travelled to Ardeche and Provence, I was quite creeped out at how dry the soil is there. That's why I especially appreciate him drawing the line between dead soil that needs to be 'doped' to even produce anything, and rich living soil that just creates out of Abundance.. Can you feel the difference? 😉
The thing is that it's not the first time I come across the name and all, but it takes time for me to pay attention haha. There's also fascinating things about the concept of "terroir" in France, and that the rocks, soil and fauna gives a richness through "oligoelement" to plants and food. His concept about the development of the roots on plants is really interesting.
Ahaha Yes, absolutely it's all an ecosystem for itself, a living entity with so many layers, not just a 'blank canvas'!
Je suis toujours en train de regarder la video, donc je ne dois pas labourer? Moi j'ecoute les vieux 😁
Bah zut alors... Bon je vais essayer le BRF, mais ce sera pour l'annéee prochaine probablement...
Edit: J'ai aussi trouvé des contre arguments pour le labourage, donc je vais faire un post dessus je pense.
Bring it on, brother! 😃
Curieuse de lire tes reflexions !
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STOPAnd rearing of different animals too especially dogs,I also rear chickens for sale in my house.
do you have a farm also?
Congrats on the Qurator feature. I don't wanna hear no more shit now.
Wooop wooooooooooooop
Wow you have got lots of space to grow, that's great. I have a few different gardens on the land I am on, some for winter some for summer. But it's hard going here in the summer cos it is so dry. You have a great set up and I look forward to seeing more of your progress.
I'm on the lookout for another spot to park my home and look forward to planning a new garden. Much love xxxx
Yeah lots of space, that's quite overwhelming! We gonna do a bit more and more every year (if we end up buying this place, which is another story)!
I know all about dryness, I was combatting that all the time in South Africa. I also had few spots, and even some weed spots to grow my stuff. Lucky for us there were a park nearby!