Gretta says we're going to have transplanter races

The new transplanter makes a lot of sense when you see it, but as a weekend volunteer with only one growing season's dirt under my fingernails (and minimal prior experience with any farm equipment larger than a shovel), I wasn't sure what to expect.

Imagine a Rube Goldberg kind of creation with hoses that drip water from a tank into wheels that dibble-and-water the earth as they travel the length of the bed. Now picture riding behind this in a bucket seat mere inches above the ground, with a tray of seedlings in your lap, popping seedlings out of their cells, dropping them one at a time into the pre-dibbled ground, and pinching the dirt over the root ball: pop-drop-and-pinch, pop-drop-and-pinch, pop-drop-and-pinch.

Or, if you're familiar with the I Love Lucy Candy Factory episode, that image would probably serve equally well. Even though Mehitabel (the tractor) is only moving at a slow creep, the pace feels considerably more brisk when you're racing to get the seedlings into the ground before the ground gets away from you.

With almost all of the beds already planted with the first round of crops, Team Mehitabel is off to an impressive start.