Tomato seedlings are up

And they're off!

We started our first tomato seedlings today!!

First, some background. We grow a lot of tomatoes around here. We start our earliest tomatoes for the greenhouses inside, and then when we turn on the greenhouses in March, we are able to fill the houses up quickly. Up until now our seedling operation in the basement has consisted of a bunch of florescent light fixtures with plant/aquarium bulbs in them. Lights like these ones.

Here is another view.

But the past couple of years we have grown to where out setup is an impossible tangle of fixtures and cords, and it makes watering and plant handling a nightmare. So this year we bought a professional high density light that covers a lot of area, has a better light spectrum for our plants, and makes watering and handling so much easier. Here is a picture of the light, with the remote ballast on a the cement block to the left.

Even though the light wasn't cheap, we are convinced it will pay for itself quickly in saved labor/hassle, and in improved plant quality. Other growers tell me that legginess will be a thing of the past with these lights.

And here is the first tray of the 2008 season ready for some seeds!

And now in its new home. Grow!

Pumpkin patch

Tomatoes

It is tomato season here now. Yum!

Be where I am

Garlic hanging in the shed to dry

Garlic hanging in the barn to dry

Garlic garlic garlic!

They have music on the green on Sunday nights in Danville, which is the next town over. I was lying there tonight, staring up at the blue evening sky and white puffy clouds through a canopy of green green maple leaves, listening to a very silly country western swing band, and I thought this is exactly what I want to be doing. Which is pretty remarkable really. I had been pulling garlic all day, I was up at 3:30am yesterday for what turned out to be the busiest market day of the year to date, and I was up at 3:30am on Friday for what has become a 16-18 hour routine of harvesting, CSA distribution, and then back to harvesting. So I was tried, and new week looms ahead with its emergency weeding needs, and its urgent field prep needs, and its must-get-transplanted-today seedlings, etc. But such is life on a vegetable farm in mid-July in Vermont. And this is what I want to be doing. And these are the people I want to be doing it with. Which is a nice feeling.

Lettuce

Peas that the kids planted

Starting to take off.

Hothouse view

The hothouse up top. Sun gold tomatoes with napa cabbage planted beside -- the napa cabbage will be done and out before the tomato plants need the space. Heirloom tomatoes with salad turnips in the next rows. Remay cloth for laying over the plants for warmth on cold nights. Up against the far baseboard, peas. Outside the greenhouse, the old cub cultivating tractor.

More seedling photos

Onions.

Salad turnips

Sun gold cherry tomatoes.

Sweet peppers.

Beet seedlings

Snow yesterday, crazy windy today, even windier tonight. As bleak as things look now, I suspect that between the strong spring sun and the good spring winds, it won't be long now till the fields are dry enough to plant.

Tomatoes growing

Tomatoes are looking good.

Planting tomatoes

Cornelia seeded sun golds.

I transplanted the first two rows of red (buffalo) tomatoes.

Those are our new greenhouse fans at the back. Almost all tomato disease problems come from moisture on the plant, so the fans should help keep the plants healthier. Also the air moving through the greenhouse also helps to develop the plants develop lignins.

Planting another row of peas

As Peter mentioned in his post, yesterday the kids and I planted another row of peas along the south side of one of the new hoophouses up top. When we went up Saturday, we went up first thing in the morning, so the snow was still frozen and hard enough to bear our weight. Yesterday we went up in the middle of the day and the snow (and mud!) was soft so it was tougher hike up that hill. Wavy and I were fussing at each other on the way up -- it was not quite as idyllic as these photos suggest, though we did have fun. Another effect of going up later in the day is that it was warm and steamy up there -- even the lense of the camera got fogged a bit.

Also this time even Henry got in on the planting action.

Italian seeds

We got a bunch of seeds from Italy today.

Henry running off with the zucchini costata romanesco seeds. It's nice to have a professional food writer for a neighbor and customer; that's who prompted us to get that variety of zucchini.

Other fun things we got in our box of Italian seeds that we are trying this year for the first time -- cardoon (!), artichokes, some new pepper varieties, and some fancy Italian torpedo onions. Plus, we also want to try jerusaleum artichokes, salsify, some new melon varieties, and Peter even ordered a little bit of horseradish root (!). This time of year is fun because the possibilities for the upcoming season seem endless! And although it was -18 degrees F this morning, spring is right around the corner!

Tomatoes started

Tomatoes are up and going.

Everything is still inside for now.

Broccoli and cauliflower

The recent warm weather, or, more accurately, the lack of freezing cold nights, has kept the broccoli and cauliflower going strong. It is hard not to get my hopes up that the broccoli and cauliflower will make it to the Thanksgiving market.

Market day

We do the Mad River Green Farmer's Market every Saturday.

Yesterday was market day, and this week one of our tables had a lot of orange and white.

Carrots, leeks, golden beets (after all the red beets had sold), and salad turnips.

There are five veggie growers at that market and we all get along remarkably well. I say it is remarkable because on some level every veggie grower at a market is competing with each other, but on another level there is a shared sense of community. We try not to view other veggie vendors as competitors. Instead, we figure that as long as big supermakets in Vermont carry produce from California, it is up to all the small local growers to work together to increase the size of the farmer's market pie. The demand at a particular farmer's market is not static, and if we can all work together to get more people buying local, we can increase all of our sales.

Anyway, this is all a long way of saying there is another grower at our Saturday market that we really like -- Tunbridge Hill Farm. They are, in some ways, what we aspire to be -- family run, quality produce, local sales, and a healthy does of fun. And Jean and Wendy are really nice to deal with, and always willing to talk shop.

In fact yesterday, Zea from Tunbridge Hill (who is 7) invited Wavy to come over and help her sell mini pumpkins.

Wavy brought over her babies (in the carriage at left), and they had a blast. It is nice that Zea is so nice to Wavy. See you next week Zea!

Beets

Pulling in the oars

We are expecting our first frost tonight. This is early for us, but not unheard of. In an average year, we get our first frost around the end of September. But today was autumnal, no doubt about it -- sunny, dry, high of 63.

But frost tonight means that we have to harvest certain veggies now, and then cover certain crops to try to nurse them along for a few more weeks. We ran out this morning and pulled all our onions, and all the winter squash that was ready.

And we finally remembered to bring the camera up into the field when we went up to pick onions this morning.

Wavy doing a little empty onion truck dance when we first got up to the field.

Maryellen and Henry picking while Wavy and I gathered and stacked.

Hmmmm . . I think the CSAers may get a French onion soup recipe this week.

Wavy sitting on top of the FIRST full truck of onions. There was at least one more onion load, plus winter squash loads. Then we had to cover what we could cover with remay for the frost.

But even after that we still had time to go for one last swim at Harvey's Lake (it was cold), and then out to eat at the local greasy spoon. So it was not a bad way to bid adieu to summer.

Crop shots

Onions drying on racks.

Carrots starting to size up for fall.

Hail letter

This is the letter that Peter wrote and we have been giving out to folks over the past week. Everyone has been super nice and supportive, which we really appreciate!! And things are actually looking better even than when we wrote this, but, in the interest of chronicling the ups and downs of our efforts to get the farm going, I thought I'd post it.

Hello friends, neighbors, CSA members, and regular customers,

On Tuesday, July 18th, a severe storm passed through Peacham and Barnet, Vermont. Apparently, the Karme Choling Buddhist monastery had 80 mph winds, only a few miles from our farm.

The storm brought damaging winds and marble sized hail to our farm. The damage to our crops was substantial. As hard as we try to bring you the freshest and healthiest variety of vegetables, there is little we can do about the weather.

The hail damage means that for the next few weeks, we will probably not have any mesclun, arugula, spinach, head lettuce, or beets. We also suspect that we have lost our onion and leek crops for the season, and we are also expecting a significant reduction in our melon, corn, winter squash, and heirloom tomato crops.

We appreciate your support and wanted to explain in advance why we may trouble serving you in the near future. However, we anticipate getting back on our feet quickly, and we are already looking forward to a great fall.

Maryellen, Peter, Waverly and Henry

Very soggy

Well, it was the wettest May on record ever in Vermont, and now the wettest June in over 100 years. The result is we are very wet. Just this week we had 3 inches on Monday, 1 inch or so Tuesday night, and now they are predicting thunderstorms for this afternoon with high winds and hail. Great. . .

You can read all about it here, here, and and here.

Since people have been asking, I thought I would report that we are actually more fortunate than most. Our land is pretty well drained -- some veggie and dairy farms up here are basically wiped out for the season. But even we are feeling the impact of all this rain. We have tomato diseases in the greenhouse created by too much moisture and not enough sun. Our field is a mess because we haven't been able to plant our successions as planned, we haven't been able to mechanically cultivate our weeds as planned, and there is one whole section of our field (our wet spot) that we haven't been able to access at all yet. So while we aren't wiped out, our yields are down (particularly our tomatoes), our consistency will be way off, and our disease and weed problems are way up.

What I am learning is that every year something will go wrong. No matter what. That is hard for the perfectionist in me to accept. But it is the truth. So I need to learn to roll with the punches more, and figure that in the long run it all evens out. Because every year some things will go very very right, and things do, in fact, have a way of evening out. And in the meantime, we are doing fine, and having a blast. Just check out the puppet show post below.

The scene at market

Cornelia and our new set up -- tilting display table, rectangular umbrella.

Baby beets and beet greens.

Salad turnips!

Bok choy.

Cornelia and Henry.

Good times.

Picking Pruden's Purple

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

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.

Harvest tomorrow

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!!

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!

Garlic's up

The garlic we planted last fall is coming up in the field. And it has taken until late April for me to get 2 weeks behind on everything that needs to happen this time of year. I think last year I was 2 weeks behind in late March! So that's progress. And it looks like another beautiful day today. It is hard not to be optimistic about this season these days.

Seedlings

Beets

Cucumber

Tulips

The tulips are pushing their noses through the warming spring soil.

Seedlings

Spinach

White salad turnips

When we start the second greenhouse, we are going to plant these between the tomatoes. They'll be done and out by the time the tomatoes grow big enough to need the space, and we'll have fun stuff to bring to the first May markets in Waitsfield.

Greenhouse #1 is on!

Peppers!

The new container culture system (plus Wavy's tractor).

Mud season is here a little early this year.

Tomato tropics

The tomatoes are growing and growing. We have them in a room in our house, the room that will someday be Henry's, waiting till it is time to move them to the greenhouse. We tried a colder room this year compared to last, hoping to get stocky, sturdy plants. It seemed to be a little too cold, though, inhibiting the plants from getting the phosphorous they need from the soil, so now we have a space heater going in there off and on. Plus a fan for good circulation which also helps keep the plants healthy - prevent damping off and to get the stalks strong. So it's lovely in there, green and breezy and balmy. Makes me excited for greenhouse season!!

In the photo above in the very forefront you can see some newly sprouted tomatoes, better view below. The first ones we planted are already in 4 inch pots. There are also some sweet pepper plants way in the back there.

And so it begins

The first tomato seedlings have been planted. Not enough to be worth firing up the greenhouse, so they're in our house under lights. Welcome 2006 season. I got a good feeling about this one!!

Picking apples

It's been a great year for apples. Even the wild old trees in our overgrown pasture are putting out lots and lots of good apples. We spent part of Sunday afternoon picking and enjoying them.

Tomato jungle

Waverly loves to go into the greenhouse to pick and eat sun golds straight off the vine. She is really good at it too -- she only picks the ones that are perfectly ripe. Here she is in her Papa's rain hat.

Sweet corn is here!

It must be summer

The very first melons of the year are here.

We grow a French charentais type melon that is super duper sweet and tasty, right off the vine.

Here, Aleda enjoys a slice, sitting on the rear gate of the pickup, while her crazy boss insists on taking her picture. Yum!

Seeding fall carrots

Beans

Just coming up.

Leafing out.

First buds.

Baby beans.

The beans are coming along nicely. As of last Sunday, when I took these photos, the beans on the first plantings were about an inch long, so they should size up and be ready in a week or two. There are three more plantings behind them, to hopefully keep us in beans till frost.

Bee pollinating melon flower

Don't count your melons before they ripen, but . . .

Well, the slow spring and a series of equipment problems left me a little bummed out about a month or so ago. But we have had heat, rain, heat, rain, since then, which is great for the veggies. And it is getting to be the time of year where everthing is just busting out.

One of the most encouraging developments this year is the melons. We grow a French charentais-type melon that is about the size of a softball and very sweet and tasty. And they are starting to size up already.

Normally, melons are very hard to grow this far north because they like a long, hot, dry season. And frankly, most Vermont summer are not long, hot, nor dry.

Last year was not kind to the melons. There is a fungal disease that often affects melons at the end of the season up here. But last year was so cold and wet the disease emerged mid-season rather than at the end of the year, and we basically lost our whole melon crop. We were all pretty heartbroken.

But this year, the melons are looking good, and we are starting to get cautiously optimistic that we will actually have some to market this year. We shouldn’t count our melons before they ripen (which will (hopefully) be in early-mid August) but it is hard not to get our hopes up at this point.

Cucumbers

Cucumbers are in!

Summer squash

For your eating pleasure, presenting, summer squash!

Picking potatoes

The new potatoes are in!

We had a great visit with the Providence Griffins this past weekend, including some fun picking potatoes.

Even brand new baby Judy got in on the action, but she knew enough to say no to the papparazzi!

Peas

We brought fresh peas -- sugar ann peas, the kind you eat raw, pod and all -- to market this morning. Market opens at 9:00 a.m., and I think we sold out of peas at 9:04 a.m. CSAers each got a nice big bag too.

Here's a photo of a later planting of peas coming along nicely. Thanks to the Cub for the lack of weeds!

Morning harvest

We've switched this year to a morning harvest. That's Laura cutting baby arugula above, and Peter and Cat below.

Last year we harvested in the afternoon. But, especially by the end of the season, we would run out of light at wash time, because we could not start harvesting until the heat of the day was gone.

Now we start harvesting at 6 a.m., and get all the vegetables in while its still cool, and then have time to wash afterwards. So far, it seems to be working well.

Morning harvest also makes Friday evenings less hectic for us as a family, though it still seems that things come up that need to get done Friday night. Like Peter's on his way to the market in Waitsfield right now, to drop off some things. (Since our truck is in the shop, a friend (and CSA member!!) lent us his truck. It's a little smaller than ours, so Peter's making an extra trip to make sure everything else will fit in the morning.)

Planting out peppers

The weather here is perfect for planting out warm stuff. Warm days and nights, sunny in the morning and rainy in the afternoon. We planted out red and yellow sweet peppers and Hungarian hot wax. The Hungarian hot wax are a medium hot orange pepper, and I'm already excited for orange salsa with Hungarian hot wax peppers and sun gold tomatoes. Yum.

We will still have red, yellow and orange sweet pepper seedlings, plus a few Hungarian hot wax, jalapenos and cayennes for sale this weekend -- Saturday 9-1 in Waitsfield or at the farm. We'll also be at the co-op in St. J on Friday from about 12-1. (We'll also have tomato seedlings, cucumbers, squash and other stuff.)

Some of our baby peppers were lucky enough to get a kiss goodnight from Waverly.

To read the blog, you might think Waverly is our main farm help. That's just because the only time we seem to remember to bring the camera is when Wavo comes out to help. Plus being with Waverly helps us slow down enough to remember how much fun we're having.

We actually have an awesome farm crew this season (all very part time). Here's Cat.

And Donna.

More about them and the rest of the farm crew later.

Garlic up

The garlic we planted last fall has come up. Mmmm, garlic.

Planting out peppers

We planted out peppers into the greenhouse today with Ethan, Emma and Dana. And another wave of tomatoes. The first wave of tomatoes are just starting to flower.

Which reminds me of other very exciting news. The bees are flying!! It was a warm day and they were flying like crazy. Very wonderful to see. Peter said he even saw a few in the greenhouse, so maybe they will figure out that is a good source for early flowers.

Cutting collards

Going out at 5 pm to cut collards requires a headlamp this time of year.

There are still some nice collards out there though.

If you can see the rows covered in white in the first photo above, that's spinach seeded under remay, sleeping soundly (we hope) ready to grow early next spring.