Out Standing in our Field

  • Posted on: 14 May 2016
  • By: Previous Farm

~ by Gianni on our previous farm
An opportunity to grow a lot of sorghum to make syrup, prompted us to Plow, Disc and Till a small field.  It doesn't seem so small when you're planting a seed every foot.  We intend to use No Till, Winter Kill Crop Covering tactics to never have to do ALL that again. 

Unfortunatly the sorghum seed did not cover as much ground as we thought it was going to.  Fortunatly we had a lot of "leftover" seedlings and volunteer plants that needed relocating.  Volunteer Roma Tomatos from last years greenhouse plants have been moved onto last years tomato trellises in our leftover field space.

Currently Out in the Field:
Hulless Pumkin, Pink Bannana's, Patty Pans, Crook Necks, Lungo Bianco, Blauhilde, Black Crowders, Roma Tomato, sweet peppers, Romanesco, Black Beauty, Paprika, Stowells Evergreen Sweet Corn, Virginia Gordeseed, Sunflowers, Borage, Greasy Grits, 1/2 Runners, Mung Bean, Popcorn and soon basil.

Ye Olde Tomato Bed
Last years tomato bed has been tripled in size this year and the tomatos are growing in the new 2/3d's.  After much deliberation about how to support the 1 to 4 pounds EACH Mortgage Lifter will sport I decided on 8ft 2x1's from which will hang as many trellis clips as are needed.  The remaining space in the bed holds Ashwaganda, Basil, Borage and our Heirloom Treva beans that are just being grown for seed this year.

Freshly Plowed
Freshly Plowed

Comments

Looking good. Hope you get lots of good crop.

hi been growing sorghum for about 5 years unfortunately my seed reserve is down as i had a bad crop last year. my problem is how to squeeze out the juice. its easy to find these machines in panama but here who has a cane juice extractor. heavy and expensive to ship is why i haven't shipped one up here. i bought a little one from taiwan but i don't think it will handle the volume if you have a large field. mthollowfarm@gmail.com

howdy David, I got the seed from a friend who traded a planted 1/2 acre of sorghum for the syrup making equipment. The current owner of the equipment is going to teach us how to use it while together we turn 2-3 acres into syrup. I hope it all works out, right now I can't tell the difference between the sorghum and the grass. Maybe we could process yours to, I'll look into it. I don know anything about the size of the system.