December 2017

Ice and snow have slowed us down the past week. Thankfully most of the outdoor work is winding down. I spent three days at a farm conference in NH drilling down on wonky numbers like legume cover crop nitrogen fixation rates and walk-in cooler expansion valve settings. Like baseball stats these numbers are interesting and useful to a point but most reasonable people glaze over after a while. I’m happy to get back to the farm.

Maura, the kids and I spent a solid hour today (Sunday) cutting the last of the spinach and kale from our field tunnel. The sun is so low and the night temps so frigid we have but a few hours on a sunny day to cut these crops between thaw and refreeze. With more snow in the forecast for Monday and Tuesday (and no sun), today was our best option to ensure the greens were available for Tuesday’s pickup. We hope all of you are settling into the restfulness of late December and that the white stuff outside pushes you deeper into your book, meal or good conversation.

Blueberries and Maple Make Cold Days Sweeter

Let us know if you need a couple quarts of our dark maple or a few pounds of our own organic frozen blueberries to keep the family at bay. We have a cooler on the front porch for easy pick-up. Maple is $17.50/qt. and organic blueberries are $25 for 5 pounds or $105 for 30 pounds. Send us an email here

Late Fall Share Tuesday December 19th 3:00-6:00 pm

Our last last fall share…just in time for the holiday.

2018 Shares

What’s in the Share

Cabbage

Carrots

Beets

Delicata Squash

Kale

Spinach

Onions

Shallots

Sweet Potatoes

Garlic

The crew is gone. Frost is an everyday occurrence. I like looking at spreadsheets. It must be winter.

I’ve been out in the field more this late fall than in recent memory as the days have been warm and dry. Mowing and tilling under crops in the brassica family were the high priority. This family includes cabbage, broccoli and kale. This past spring we had major losses in our first plantings of brassicas due to a little fly and its larval stage, aptly named the cabbage maggot. The fly overwinters on fall plantings of these crops and then emerges in the spring to find new plantings where it will lay it’s eggs. The eggs hatch into maggots which burrow below the surface and eat all the roots of the young seedlings. We’ve never had big problems with this pest before but when conditions are right…(insert Murphy’s Law here). The memory of thousands of seedlings shriveling and dying is still vivid and as a result I’m being proactive, taking away the winter refuge for the fly.

In addition to field sanitation, I’ve also plowed up another four acres of ground, a new addition to our rotation for vegetables in 2019. While I have no plans to expand our production I do want to expand our ability to put ground in fallow to rebuild it’s fertility. I’ve found that taking land out of production, sowing it down to perennial grass and clovers for two years has vastly improved the health and vigor of the vegetable crops that follow it. In the past we have taken ground out of production for three to six month fallows with shorter life-cycle grasses and legumes but the fertility was lackluster. Perennials allowed to grow multiple years build more organic matter and rebuild microorganism populations that allow soil to hold onto nutrients and water longer while we grow beautiful produce.

Blueberries and Maple Make Cold Days Sweeter

As the real cold and serious holidays approach let us know if you need a couple quarts of our dark maple or a few pounds of our own organic frozen blueberries to keep the family at bay. We have a cooler on the front porch for easy pick-up. Maple is $17.50/qt. and organic blueberries are $25 for 5 pounds or $105 for 30 pounds. Send us an email here

Late Fall Share Tuesday December 5th 3:00-6:00 pm

Great produce this week. Lots of family pleasures for the holiday or just to tuck away for yourself!

2018 Shares

What’s in the Share

Rutabaga

Cabbage

Lettuce