Delano Farms Blog

Farmer Scott — Tue, 01 May 2012 00:30:00 GMT

The past week has seen us dig 40 furrows that are 350' long, cut 1200 pounds of potatoes, and plant them. It all went smooth and as planned. Even the burying of them was fun. We set up the ACG with its little discs and set about driving over the beds to put get the eyes a rollin'. It was almost to much fun. It made me wish we put in more acreage of spuds. The fall will be the tell tale time of our successes. Now we need to beat the Colorado potato beetle, leaf hoppers, and other pests so the taters can grow strong. We will be taking the G out several more times to rebury the plants and weed. Taters only grow spuds from the original one up so the more you bury them the more lunkers you get to pull out of the soil.

Can bees recognize the bee keeper?

Lisa — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:00:00 GMT

This past week I had the pleasure of attending a meeting of the Kalamazoo Bee Club here at the Nature Center. Beekeeping is gaining in popularity as a backyard hobby, and that was apparent at the meeting.

Cut Taters

Farmer Scott — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:08:30 GMT

The taters are cut. They go in the ground on Thursday. I like me some french fried taters, mmmhhhmm

Taters

Farmer Scott — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:47:45 GMT

We are putting taters in the ground on Thursday if anyone wants to stop on by and help. Come out in

Community Gardens in Kalamazoo!

Carrie Cohen — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 16:35:25 GMT

I am thoroughly excited today, as we were just donated a truck load of wood chips from Pretty Lake Adventure Centre! The wood chips will be used for pathways that help delineate where students can walk without stepping on plants and reduce the number of weeds poking through.

Notes from the Field

Lisa — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:30:00 GMT

Once I collected 20 samples from the field, I crumbled them together and mixed them up thoroughly, labeled and sealed the bag. We manage seven fields in all, so that day I took 140 samples total. We'll send them to a lab to discover what amendments we need to apply to the fields for now and the future.

Laurel Blomquist, DeLano Farms

Green Things

Farmer Scott — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:14:04 GMT

Spring Greening

Farmer Scott — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 00:36:00 GMT

A little but long snippet of our spring greens care and whats going on down on the farm...

Lisa — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 20:00:00 GMT

From Laurel Blomquist, DeLano Farms staff
The nice thing about working with tractors is that they can do certain kinds of work for you that would be nearly impossible to do otherwise.

Burning

Farmer Scott — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 02:58:52 GMT

Last week we burned a 7 acre portion of the growing fields. These, as well as all the other, fields

Taters

Farmer Scott — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:58:13 GMT

The taters arrived on a skid today. We have enough seed potatoes to get almost one whole acres of

Transplanter-ators, Galore!

Carrie Cohen — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 20:56:42 GMT

A huge thank you to our volunteers who came out on Friday to help us transplant our thousands of onions!

Transplant Onions

Farmer Scott — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 02:02:50 GMT

Hey all,We are going to be skipping the seeding of our tomatoes this weekend (they got done last

News from the Farm

Lisa — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 14:15:00 GMT

If you’re like me, you’ve been eating more storage items (like potatoes, canned, and frozen goods) over the winter, and your body is CRAVING something fresh and green. Never fear! Fresh greens will be heading your way soon.

germination station

Farmer Scott — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 11:29:01 GMT

We have seeded all the peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants in the greenhouse for the growing season.

Farmer Scott — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 00:51:07 GMT

We were out hoeing the strawberries that were planted last year. They got a bit weedy last year and