Angel's Farm Reflection 17

Angel Arias                            Silk Tree Farm                             5/21/13

Today we were doing some different things. When I came in I’d saw that again there was a tray of sprouts that was grown up high, like the previous sprouts. The last time I was there though, Cathy forgot to weigh the sprouts before feeding them to the chickens – something that she was reluctant to forget again. When she weighed them, I think the finished weight was something like, in-between three-four-ish pounds, and all that from one pound of seed sprouts. We were also doing some transplanting and splitting plants that had grown in the same tray, then moving them all into different trays of their own, of the same kind. I think there was mostly kale that had to be split, but there were some other plants as well. Sometimes farmers plant multiple seeds in the same place in case one of them doesn’t grow, or sometimes you just accidentally plant more than one. When you pick them apart, you have to be meticulous because if you pull up the plant too quickly or too harshly, you’ll rip off its root system and it won’t be able to get nutrients. Or if you’re lucky, it’ll grow a new root system, but it is better to not have that chance. We ended up splitting an overplanted flat into two or three full flats of individualized plants, which would end of going to sale as a plant, we weren’t planting it ourselves. Also, since we had the sprouts already, Cathy suggested we feed it to the meat birds to see how it would go over with them. They were hesitant at first, not a huge surprise considering their usually inactive demeanor, but after a bit they ate it right up, which was a surprise and a very good thing. Sprouts are healthier and more natural for chickens (As well as other animals) to eat than other things, but of course their diet should be supplemented with whatever is necessary for them. Besides everything I’ve already mentioned, we additionally collected eggs and worked on the blog.