Down on the Farm

Sun golds

The sun gold tomatoes in the greenhouse have begun to ripen and some are already ready to eat!!

The idea that shook the world

An article from the LA Times about the beginnings of farmer's markets, twenty seven years ago, from my sister Jessica.

Seedling Sale Sunday

A sign of the season that we're hammering things with the butt of an axe. It's a little hectic around here!!

Uther (the dog), Mark and Tamara came to visit. In between them cooking and cleaning for us, taking care of the kids and helping on the farm (Mark made the sign, Tam got the hollyhocks planted), we did manage to squeeze in a visit to the alpaca farm. Which was awesome.

Quinn, Waverly and Tam enjoying the shade of the farmstand during the seedling sale. It was hot!! We'll be doing the seedling sale next Sunday too, if you want to come by. Directions here.

Picking Pruden's Purple

Waverly at market today, helping Linda pick Pruden's Purple seedlings. Pruden's Purple is a tasty early heirloom tomato.

Scratch and sniff

We got 20 tons of composted chicken manure. Stinky, but it'll make the soil (and in turn the veggies) happy.

Seedling sale, week one

The first week of the seedling sale went great. We had a little rush in the morning, and then the rain in the afternoon gave us enough of a break to get the kids some lunch and naps. Big sellers were basil, tomatoes -- especially the heirloom short season ones, lipstick peppers, and eggplants. We'll be selling seedlings at the farm again this Sunday and next, 10-4, for more information click here.

Henry is six months old!

Kat and Wavy

Kat's one of the stars of our crew. She's been staying with us, mostly in her tent up in the field, but all this rain has driven her down to the house more lately, which has been awesome.

Harvest tomorrow

Walk in cooler

Kat working on the walk in cooler. It will basically be a well insulated box, with a recycled air conditioner modified to use to cool it off. We'll use it to cool and keep veggies post harvest. On the topic of refrigeration, we really need a glass fronted refrigerator for the farm stand -- like an old snapple cooler or something. If anyone out there knows of a good deal on one, please pass it on.

Practicing for market

Our first farmer's market of the season is this Saturday!! Henry is ready though. Here he is practicing napping outside on a blanket, and he's already a pro in the backpack.

Seedling sale

We will be selling seedlings at the farm in the last two Sundays in May and the first in June -- May 21, May 28 and June 4 (Sundays) from 10-4. We grow all our seedlings here on the farm in good Vermont Compost Company potting soil.

We will have a good selection of tomatoes, including some heirlooms (and some not). We will also have several different varieties of peppers -- colored sweet peppers, hungarian hot wax, jalapeno and more. Plus the regulars -- broccoli, lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, winter squash, kale, melons, culinary herbs and flowers and more! The seedlings we sell are the same varieties we grow ourselves for market, so they are good for our climate and good tasting.

Directions to our farm: From the center of Danville, at the blinking light on Rte. 2, take the Peacham Road 7.9 miles to our farm in South Peacham. We’re 168 Peacham-Groton Road. If you’re in South Peacham with the Bayley Hazen Store (closed) on your right and the West Barnet Road on your left, go straight (south), and we’re the fifth house on the right.

Upper hoop house

The hoop house up top has early zucchini in it. Sort of a process of elimination. Crop rotation ruled out tomatoes, and there are cukes in the second greenhouse already. We hope to have zukes in June!!

Seeding trays

This time of year there is an almost infinite amount of seeding to do.

Alex.

Aleda.

Waverly and Emma planting early corn.

A few days later, Waverly checking on the corn that she and Emma planted.

Maxine

Maxine Long came by this weekend. (Maxine has Henry on her lap, Quinn is in the Sox cap -- that's a Paw Sox hat on Wavy.) She is the great-granddaughter of the original Shaws, a great-niece of Frank and Nellie Shaw, the operators of Shawmeade during what I think of as the farm's heyday, and cousin to Agnes Shaw and Kay Johnston who grew up here. Maxine lives in New York, so it was a treat to see her!!

Maxine told us that the chicken coops were not where our greenhouses are now, as we had previously thought, but that there were manure piles there, which explains the excellent fertility in that area. (The chicken coops were between the greenhouses and the shed that we use for a farmstand, which the Shaws used as a garage, and the Seidens used as a sheep shed). Also, we had found this cool flat rock by the stream recently, good for hanging out on, and, totally unprompted, Maxine asked us if we had found the flat rock yet. She said as a girl they would go take picnics to the flat rock and hang out, splashing in the stream.

Shameless promotion

We made our first delivery today to the St. J Food Coop -- salad turnips and spinach!

Go there and demand more OSF yum yums! The season is upon us!