Winter has left the building and we are busy! It’s been a while since we updated you on the comings and goings at the farm…read all the way down for payment info, new member orientation and other offerings at CSA pick up.
Its May and we are now caught up on our planting schedule. The first two weeks of April were quite February-like but then overnight the snow left, the fields dried out and we were able to get some seeds and plants in the ground. I’m brimming with optimism as late springs have generally turned in to mild, temperate summers with fewer long stretches of cold rain, heat or drought. This time of year brings to the forefront the great wager we have with the weather. Starting plants in greenhouses covered in snow and feeding animals the last bales of hay seamlessly transitions into the ground thawing and first blades of grass appearing. Every year it always renews my trust in the calendar.
We have a great looking crop of tomatoes this year. They are still in the greenhouse but will be heading out into our field tunnels in about a week. The past few years we have been experimenting with a new process for this crop called grafting. When we graft plants we take a strong rootstock and put it together with a fruiting top from a variety we like. The root stock is 
specially bred for resistance to many common diseases but doesn’t make good fruit (in this case tomatoes). The fruiting top or scions come from several tomato varieties we have grown for years and think have great flavor. The problem we have found recently is that we are having a harder and harder time keeping these varieties we love healthy (especially the heirlooms), which is why we are grafting to the disease hardy rootstock. To make this happen we start seed for both the rootstock and the scion and once they are a few inches tall we cut the tops off the rootstock and attach the tops from the scion. Nothing is more unsettling than taking your beautiful tomato seedlings, cutting them in half and hoping the will live stuck onto another plant. After a couple years of trials we have figured out the pitfalls and have been able to do this successfully.
Fish, Egg and Mushroom Shares…
We will have Fish and Mushrooms shares available again this year. Next week’s newsletter will have all the details!
Spring CSA payments and Shares
We have just a handful of Brunswick Shares left for the year and Portland shares are getting close. If you have been putting off signing up please don’t wait. Many thanks to those of you who have signed up.
- If you put a deposit down and have made your payments (due February and April) you last payment is due June 1.
- If you are unsure what you owe and cannot locate your own records, let us know.
- The total for a 2014 Brunswick share is $525.
- The total for a Portland area delivered share is $315.
Make a payment by clicking here
- If you would like to make another payment by electronic check or credit card please follow this link.
- If you have fallen behind in your payments you can still make a April/May payment here online or mail us a check for the balance.
Brunswick Share New-Member Orientation
If you are a new Brunswick on-farm pick-up member we will have orientations days Saturday May 31st and Sunday June 1st at 4pm. This is not a mandatory event but it is a great time to see the farm, meet the farmers and get the inside scoop on how to pick up your share this summer. We will have a upic field orientation for Portland members in July. Look for more info and a date soon. Hope to see you…
Lambs and Piglets
We are overflowing with small animals these days. We have a litter of 12 piglets and spring group of over thirty lambs to add to our winter group of 75. As the grass greens up everyone will be heading outside to enjoy the bright and start working on the grass that is growing fast.