Weather Forecast: Low to mid-60s, partly sunny.
On the agenda for this week: planting! And more planting. By the end of the week we hope to have carrots, turnips, arugula, pac choi (2nd planting), broccoli, beets (2nd planting), mustards, cilantro, and dill in the ground. And maybe even (if the weather looks cooperative), the first tomatoes. We also need to get our cucumbers, melons, and squashes started indoors.
I think all of you (or at least most of you) had an opportunity to see our new seedbed roller last week. We hope this tool will help speed up our planting process by marking rows and transplant holes quickly while firming the garden beds. I talked with some of you about the need for new designs for good small-scale tools to match the new/old farming methods that are being both revived and innovated upon. Here's a short article that describes an project that's working to fill that need: https://www.stonebarnscenter.org/farm/news/slow-tools-fast-change.html.
Another movement working on appropriately-scaled farm technology is Farm Hack. Take a read through its website to find out more. Make sure you watch the 3 minute video on the "Getting Started" page: http://farmhack.org/wiki/getting-started.
And here's a short video report on a Farm Hack event in Manchester: https://vimeo.com/149761716.
I also really enjoy browsing through the Slow Tools Facebook page. Some of the links they've got posted feature tools that are neither slow nor small, but they're still fun to watch! I think the robotic tomato grafter is my favorite. https://www.facebook.com/slowtools
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