Chocolates and Tomatoes Farm is sustainable, regenerative agriculture farm.
Basically, that means that we strive to partner with the soil.
We return nutrients to the soil in between plantings, and we let it rest in the fall.
We do this a few different ways.
After we till under remnant plants...
We Bring in and Spread Manure
The manure comes from local farm animals. This helps those farmers get rid of the manure and it helps us bring nutrients to the field.
We have a friend we pay to shovel the manure, haul it over, and dump it in a very large pile.
Next, we need a couple of tractors to spread the manure. One tractor lifts up bucket-fulls of manure and dumps it into a manure-spreader and the other one pulls the manure-spreader around the field. Farmer Mark did the bucket-loading and dumping, we borrowed the other tractor and manure-spreader from another friend, and yet another paid helper did the spreading.
We Bring Back Nitrogen and Hold Down the Soil with Cover Crop
After the manure is spread out, we need to be sure that the soil stays in place. The best way to do that is to have plants growing in it. But, you need certain kinds of plants (called cover crops) to be sure that they feed the soil.
We use different types for different seasons of the year.
For Fall prep this year, we used Winter Wheat.
Just like regular crops, you have to plant at a certain time of year to get the full benefits.
In the spring, we will just till this under to add plant material to the soil.
Tomatoes Have Extra Steps to Clear at the End of the Season (Fall at the Farm)
We grow most of our tomatoes in our High Tunnel. To make promote tomato health and make it easier to harvest, each tomato plant in the tunnel has a guide string that clips to the plant and hooks at the top of the tunnel. This helps it grow upright (similar to using a tomato cage in the field). We also put fabric along the bottom of the tunnel to suppress weeds), and we have drip tape irrigation too. At the end of the season, we have to separate the plant matter from the string, hooks, drip tape, and fabric; clear it out of the tunnel and put each part away; and regenerate the soil in the tunnel.
The high tunnel is 104 feet long by 30 feet wide. Yes, that is alot of tomato plants!
It either takes many people or many days to clear out, sorting by hand, and carting away the plant debris by tractor bucket-loads.
Thank You Volunteers for Tomato Clean Up, Field Clean Up, and Squash Harvest!
This year, we were fortunate that the United Way wanted to support Farm to School Frederick for their October 4 Day of Action this year! Yes, Chocolates and Tomatoes is one of the partner farms!
20+ volunteers came out for several hours, and Farmer Mark manned the tractor.
Thank you Farm to School Frederick, United Way, and all the gracious and hard-working volunteers! We really appreciate you doing in just a few hours what would have taken us weeks on our own -- clearing out the tunnel, tidying up the field, gleaning tomatoes, and harvesting winter squash -- WOW!
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