Independence

IMG_6867The forth arrives on friday this week and will will be open for pick-up at the farm. Our guess is that most of you will be grilling, boating and not coming to the farm so we are harvesting heavily in anticipation of a busier than usual Tuesday pick-up. As we crest into July there are many new things almost ready for your table. Peas are flowering heavily and we expect that we may be able to open them next week. Carrots and our second round of broccoli are looking great and should be coming in the next week or two. Large and cherry tomatoes are having a great year to date and we hope to get all of you picking cherries by the middle of July and have our first round of beefsteaks by August. Many of these long season crops are coming early which is odd knowing what cool spring we have had. IMG_6868

What’s More Patriotic Than…Cabbage?

Cole slaw is the perfect balance to everything else we might be eating this holiday. Luckily we are giving you some great heads to work with…Take a look here for recipes to tackle this weeks’ (and last weeks’) cabbage and turn them into cool satisfaction to balance out the chips, burgers and ice cream.

What Else are We Doing on the Farm?IMG_6844

While planting, watering, weeding and harvesting vegetables takes up most of our time we have a few other irons in the fire this time of year as well.

  • Maura is gearing up for the start of farm camp next week and we will have 20+ kids running the place; feeding livestock, harvesting carrots and just soaking up the farm everyday.
  • We have also been cutting winter forage for sheep and cows the past few weeks and have baled and wrapped about 120,000 lbs of hay and silage and 5000 lbs. of straw from about 44 acres. This first cut is our biggest of the year and we be followed by a second cut in late august/early september that will yield about half the volume but with higher quality. All of this forage (except the straw) will be fed to animals over the winter months who will convert most of it into manure that we then use to feed the vegetable crops next year.
  • We have some new help on the farm with the addition of a new sheepdog pup named Wynn. She is just 12 weeks old and I can’t really say she is helpful except for keeping us laughing and talking in high voices a lll the time. In the fall when she is 5-6 months old we will introduce her to our flock and then her work will begin. Our older dog Nell is great with her and has been very tolerant of this new addition to our family pack.IMG_6785

What’s in the Share this Week…

Cabbage

Kohlrabi

Lettuce

Chickories

Kale

Chard

Salad Turnips

Arugula