This week, Zach and I started out with the most seeding we’ve done so far! On Wednesday, we seeded dill, salanova, peas, spinach, and cucumber. Everything is germinating very well and luckily, although we’ve been having lots of cold weather and snow, the propagation house is staying pretty warm.

We also harvested out the first bed that I helped seed here on the farm, which was a French Breakfast bed. This week, I decided to test Prema’s soil for one of the research papers that I’ve been working on for this quarter. The focus of my paper is comparing the effects of no-till farming and farming with conventional tillage. I found a small farm (called Bee Here Now) similar to Prema that uses conventional tillage practices and tested their soil for compaction and organic matter content several weeks ago. And because Prema uses no-till practices, I will be comparing that data to the results of Prema’s soil tests. So, at Prema this week, I used the penetrometer to test both cultivated areas and uncultivated areas for levels of soil compaction. I found that the cultivated areas at Prema are much softer than the cultivated areas that experience conventional tillage at Bee Here Now. Also, Bee Here Now had a layer of compaction about 6 inches deep into their soil, which Prema did not have. This is likely a result of the use of heavy machinery, like a BCS, for conventional tillage practices. I also took a small bag of soil from Prema and Bee Here Now that I will be testing to find organic matter content.

We also had a representative from Johnny’s come to the farm on Thursday. We were supposed to have a farm tour as a part of a farm conference happening in town, but it got canceled because of snowy roads. Megan, the representative, came out anyway to see the farm and talk about some tools that Johnny’s is selling that we might be interested in. She specifically showed us the newest tool from Neversink Farm, a hoe with interchangeable heads, which we got to test out.