This week as the calendar flips to June we are right in the thick of planting, and especially loving one of our new tools; a water wheel transplanter. In the business of farming there is a seemingly endless list of available tools of the trade, ranging from the simplest hoe to the fanciest precision seeders. Our job is to figure out which ones make the most sense for us to purchase, given our scale, our soil types, the range of crops we grow, and our available funds. For many pieces of equipment it’s a question of return on investment. Is this new tool going to allow us to plant/grow/harvest/store our crops more efficiently and therefor pay for itself over time? This is the math-based approach. Tractor; yes. Automatic bean picker; not yet! Occasionally we will purchase a tool that is borderline on the ROI test, but will ultimately make our job more physically sustainable or our crew happier. This is the quality-of-life-based approach. For example, we really don’t grow enough potatoes to justify a mechanical potato digger, but if I had asked my crew to spend one more day on their hands and knees scraping their fingers through the dirt in search of spuds I’m sure they would have mutinied!The water wheel transplanter is a brilliant combination of better efficiency and a great crew morale booster. One person drives the tractor at a creeping pace while the wheels of the transplanter poke holes at regular intervals and dribble water into each hole. At the back 2 people sit with their feet in front of them, suspended just above the bed, balancing a tray of plants in their lap, and plunge each seedling into the muddy dibble holes. Suddenly, rather than carrying one or two trays of plants out to the field at a time and shuffling along on knees or in a crouch to place them in the soil, we are cruising along in style with a full bed’s worth of seedlings on a rack in front of us. The plants are healthier for the immediate watering in, and the exact spacing of the plants means we’ll have an easier (read more efficient) time when it comes to cultivating around them in a couple weeks.
Farmer tested, crew approved! We’re so happy to have this new-to-us unit in our arsenal of food-growing tools! Look for us this week creeping along the beds planting out chard, lettuce, fennel, sweet potatoes, pac choi, brussels sprouts, flowers, and more!Cheers,
Norah & the Sweetland Crew