Lettuce - Lettuce

G'day Mates!!

Yes NEW DATA, lets go on then hey!

Right, we are on a farm and having a lot of adventures and so much to tell. It is a farm with a lot different sides, main thing is lettuce and as I already told you we are here on a free base and regularly we get delicious food like goose, duck, lam, eggs and of course lovely fresh picked lettuce, for that we are doing some work on the farm. Our main thing is picking lettuce haha!! But we have more jobs to do which I will explain in next stories, now it's time for lettuce.

This is a brilliant system; Hydroponically, let me explain how it works:

Besides Lorraine and David, company name; KI Fresh, Bridget is the main employee, besides the jobs we do to she also plants the seeds which become seedlings.

The very beginning;

seedlings;

this seedling becomes....

this lettuce, one of the seven varieties....

Here you can see the lettuce we are picking, actually it's cutting because we have to divide all leaves so we cut them a few leaves above the stem and than check all leaves before putting them in a tub. Leaves with spots, big or little will be chucked away, bugs and other animals who don't belong in there are being removed and we only put the best, crisp, leaves in the tub. That's KI Fresh’s speciality! the best lettuce from the Island and I reckon even from South Australia (maybe even whole Australia haha).

there are seven varieties; red and green coral, red and green oak, red and green butter and cos. 

They are being picked at half past 5 in the morning and we stop when the quantity is reached to cover the orders they have. Lorraine works in Kingscote, the "biggest" (approx. 1500 population) town of Kangaroo Island and she takes the lettuce with her to deliver them at the clients (mostly restaurants and hotels) before 9 o'clock, so we have to be ready before half past eight. 

Picked in the morning, at lunchtime on your plate, can't be fresher than that!!

Every tub we fill is being collected by a fully unrecognisable David because of all the cloths he is wearing; warm sweater, beanie, jacket with hood etc. he then disappears into the cooling room to pack the lettuce into bags of 500 grams. David has the Hawk eye who picks out the last bug, aphid or other creature which has been hiding in a curly leave, or even a leave with a little spot.

We also grow three herbs which is sprinkled over every tub and so mixed into the lettuce....

the end result...

As you can see this hydroponically system is for us grey nomads, perfect haha, no bending as the tables are at waist high, everything nice and clean without sand.

All the leaves we chucked onto the ground are going to the geese, chicken and ducks? When we finish a whole table we have to pull all the roots out and also that is going to our feathered friends. Fred is the person who brings the lettuce and they love it so much they nearly attack him

Don't skip this video because it's hilarious ....

In the beginning we had problems throwing all these leaves to the ground but as you can see, no leave is wasted, when Fred comes back with the second wheelbarrow, the first batch has already disappeared.

In the mean time the table is being cleaned as well and we can plant new seedlings which will take approx. 4 to 5 weeks to get to decent lettuce again.

Then we check the pipes if they are not blocked because the lettuce is getting water all the time through these pipes and channels, the water flows into a drain, then into a big tank where it gets filtered and pumped up again through the pipes and channels.

After that, the planted seeds and seedlings are getting watered and when it's hot weather that has to be repeated 4 or 5 times a day.

Well guys, this is the way this farm works on the lettuce. I hope you enjoyed looking at it and learned a bit maybe??

Till next time.

Cheers!