Rock Raking

This week we were able to get our friend Matt to come and operate our rock rake on a few fields that we wanted to get ready to plant. This field was potatoes last year and we will be planting it with sorghum sudan grass some time in June. As a cover crop sorghum sudan adds large amounts of carbon the the soil, also known as organic matter, it provides the nitrogen producing soil organisms with food to keep them busy all next year when we will plant this field to vegetables again.

Ahhhhhh!!!!! This makes us happy, rows of rocks ready to be lifted by our rock picker. Though these rocks will be gone from the field forever tomorrow afternoon, there will be plenty more coming to the surface over the year. It is the nature of rocky soil to stay that way despite all our human efforts to change it. It will however make life easier for machine and man in the short term and in a few years we will pick this field again.

Tomorrow this will be in action...the rock picker, you can see the rakes that lift the rocks and deposit them into the rear box. Once full you drive to the ends of the fields and unload the rocks. Much smaller than those rocks used to make the famous stone wall all around New England, there must be something we can do with millions of fist sized rocks...ideas anyone????