July 1st, 2008

Dear Friends,

As I sit and watch the rain through window of the farm office I’m reflecting back on the last two weeks and the seemingly relentless series of downpourswe had just about every day. One of these dropped about 3.5 inches of rain on the farm in just over 24 hours. The saying rings true, “There’s never been a day without weather”. How does this weather affect the farm you might wonder… well we had quite a bit of standing water in just about every field with a few crops actually underwater. We spent more nights than I’d like to remember awake in bed praying for the rain to stop and sleep to set in. It seems like the worst is over (knock on wood) and when we look out there we see the fields brimming with food and only a few minor setbacks.

Probably the single most difficult thing for us when we get that quantity of rain is the waiting game we play until we can get back into the fields to kill weeds or to seed. On an organic farm the single biggest challenge is weed control and for this we depend on regular intervals of baking sun to kill the weeds we uproot with tractors or by hand. Anything short of baking sun and we are only setting the weeds back a bit until they re-root and grow again.

Other than the flourishing weeds the only other notable setback is the loss of about 75% of our second cucumber planting which was at the seedling stage when we got all that rain and sat in standing water for 3 days before eventually croaking. We will replant but most likely will have a gap in the cucumbers between when our first planting stops producing and our second planting starts.

Although it was stressful couple of weeks, we are quite fortunate to not have been hit like they were in the mid-west. I feel for those folks. Seeing how poorly I mentally handled a few inches of rain makes me wonder what I would do if we got a few feet. Without thinking about that for too long let’s talk about something pleasant. We seeded the first of our fall storage roots last week (parsnips and beets) and will seed all of our carrots and a few more beets this week. We’ve seen some pretty sizable green tomatoes on our first tomato planting and the tassels on the corn tell us it will only be a few short weeks until we start picking. Until then enjoy the harvest!!

On behalf of the crew

Your Farmers,

Meghan and Rob

WHAT’S NEW THIS WEEK

THE MIX and MATCH SYSTEM. This is the time of year we shift the share over to the mix and match system with the “hard vegetables”. This system works similar to the way we do the greens. We give you a bag size and you pick and choose what it is you’d like to fill up your bag with from what we have available. Additionally there are some vegetables we will still offer by the count. Your share will be structured this way for the rest of the season. It can be a little tricky to get used to but it ultimately offers you more choice.

COMING SOON

Cucumbers both picklers and slicers are about to start cranking prepare for the flood, Fresh Onions we’ll have the cippollini’s for this week and next and then move on to the large fresh onions.

U-PICK (see U-PICK board for amts. and location)

Hours: Mon.-Sun. daylight hours

Look at the U-pick boards for how, when and where to pick.

Strawberries: Unfortunately the strawberries are just about done. Feel free to scout around in there for any remaining berries and look forward to twice as many next season.

Peas: There are 3 varieties of peas out there for picking 2 with edible pods (sugar snap and snow peas) and the shelling peas which you must peel open but boy is it worth it. When picking peas please hold the plant with one hand and pull the pea off this way you avoid damaging the plant and more peas will grow!!

Flowers: It is great to come to the farm prepared with a container of water to bring home your bouquets and an extra pair of scissors for cutting. Cut the flower stems that come off the main plant so they will keep growing. Sunflowers, Poppies, Agrostemma, and Bachelor’s buttons are on their way.

Herbs: Cilantro, Dill, Basil are rocking. We seed these 3 in successions all year so there is a constant fresh supply. Other herbs in the flower section include Parsley (curly and flat), Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary, Sage, and Lemon Balm.

Check out the website for Summer Squash and Zucchini recipes !!

Week #3 June19–21

Dear Friends,

Here we are halfway through June and what a season it has been so far. Hot, cold, wet, dry, thunder, lightening, and never a dull moment farming in New England.

I was just thinking the other day about all the little tricks we use to get crops a little earlier in this climate. Which then made me think how grateful we should all be for the creation of polyester. Probably the single most effective measure employ on the farm to achieve earlier crops are row covers. If you’ve ever come by the farm in April or May your likely to see a large portion of our fields covered in white blankets. We cover just about everything we plant in the spring with these spun-bound polyester row covers that most people call reemay. It is a love-hate relationship we have with these covers. Don’t get me wrong they are definitely amazing… they warm up the soil, let in light and moisture, and keep a myriad of pests from attacking the crops. But what a royal pain in the you know what it can be to deal with them sometimes... especially when it is windy (which is more often than not on this farm) or they are wet.

As much as we curse them though… so much would not be possible without them. We definitely would not have beets or broccoli in early June without them and as for the turnips and radishes and greens well they would be small and all the leaves full of holes. We use reemay for the whole season on our successions of greens plantings mainly to protect them from flea beetles which eat shot holes in the leaves.

It is truly amazing to me that the same material that caused people so much pain in the 70’s in the form of tight fluorescent bell bottoms can produce beautiful, early, pest free produce. What interesting creatures we humans are. They say necessity is the mother of invention. We try out one thing and it’s not a huge success and so we use it in a different application and it’s indispensible. I’m not sure tight fitting polyester pants were a necessity but I know that for us...reemay is. On any given day you could likely hear us curse it but in truth we couldn’t do what we do without it. Enjoy the harvest!!

On behalf of the crew Kristen, Victor and Jesse

Your Farmers,

Rob and Meghan

 

 

WHAT’S IN YOUR SHARE THIS WEEK (go to website for recipes)

Head Lettuce: This is the last of the head lettuce for a little while.

Beets: roast them to bring out their sweetness.

Scallions: Try making scallion pancakes

Bok Choy: Sweet, crunchy, delicious !!

Chard: similar to beet greens

Chinese Cabbage: make your own egg rolls.

Garlic Scapes: This is actually the garlic flower that we pluck off to encourage more growth to the bulbs. These are very flavorful and can be used in many dishes. Check out the recipe on the back.

Kohlrabi: crunchy like an apple. Similar flavor to broccoli stalk. Don’t be intimidated by it appearance.

Fennel: Anise flavored

Salad Greens

Turnips: This will be the last of these beauties until fall

Coming Soon: squash, zucchini, carrots, cucumbers, basil

U-PICK (see U-PICK board for amts. and location)

Hours: Mon.-Sun. daylight hours

Look at the U-pick boards for how, when and where to pick.

Strawberries: Beautiful red jewels. This is one of my favorite times of the season, when all the kids have berry juice running down their chins.

Our berry field is a little small this season so you may have to pick at other farms to jam or to fill the freezer.

Peas: This is the first of many peas. They are Sugar snap peas sweet and juicy and you can eat the pods. It is helpful when cooking to break off the little tops and peel down the middle rib like a zipper. When picking peas please hold the plant with one hand and pull the pea off this way you avoid damaging the plant and more peas will grow!!

Flowers: These are just starting. It is great to come to the farm prepared with a container of water to bring home your bouquets and if you have an extra pair of scissors for cutting. Cut the flower stems that come off the main plant so they will keep growing.

 

Dear Friends,

Happy winter!! Here we are in early February and we have so much to tell you. Probably the most exciting news is that Meghan and I are in striking distance of closing on the new 12 acres of land we were farming last year as well as the house that is right across the road from the share room. We are all moved into to our new place and are excitedly setting up shop in the house and barns to make our operation run a little smoother. We are very pleased to have taken our commute down from 2 miles to 0 miles. It’s funny how far those 2 miles can seem when you are worried about the weather that’s coming in or the greenhouse temperature dropping too low.

We just sold the last of our storage crops at the hugely successful Winter Fare Farmer’s Market in Greenfield yesterday. Those of you who made it were among the over 400 attendees. We were very impressed with the number of people who were interested in local food in February and also the array of farm products available at the event. On Thursday Meghan and I spent a portion of the day shoveling snow from some mulched sections of the field digging the carrots and parsnips we had stored in the ground. This is not the best storage technique because of the potential of the roots freezing but it sure is a cool winter activity to get all suited up and pull some food out of the ground. We were astonished by how much insect life we saw in the soil in the dead of winter. We were wishing we had our camera out there that day… I think that would have made for some nice pictures for our website.

Speaking of the website… we are currently having it updated by a friend of ours who will make it possible for us to post the newsletter, recipes, and other important farm updates weekly to better keep you all in the loop. This will also enable us to email you the newsletter and potentially save a bunch of paper every week. In the first week of the share we’ll have a list for you to check off if you’d like to receive the newsletter by email only.

In other farm news… we finished the crop plan, seed order, crop rotation, and organic certification in record time this year! We have a few new tricks up our sleeve in terms of getting certain crops to mature earlier that will hopefully bring you a bounty of untold proportions on the first share week. We are also trying a few new and exciting pest control strategies. One of these is in partnership with the UMASS extension service and will be part of the NOFA Conference (Northeast Organic Farming Assoc.) this coming August. It involves the release of parasitic wasps called Trichogramma into our corn fields that will actually prevent the hatch of ECB (European Corn Borer) eggs bringing you entirely worm free corn!

Can you tell we’re excited about the upcoming season?? For the next month we’ll be hitting the equipment repair/building improvement task list hard as we lead up to starting up our greenhouse in early March! Another great season is upon us and we are so glad to be sharing it with you. Until then pull your socks up and enjoy the snow!!

Your Farmers,

Rob and Meghan