Yearly Archives: 2017

When people ask how this season has been, I usually respond with the noncommittal, “We’ve had better”. The more accurate response of “Worst yet” just sounds too dire. True, one whole field was under water for most of June and July, and we ripped out a good chunk of tomatoes […]

Better Luck Next Year!

 in Blog by
With the season winding down, Landon and I are turning our attention to some of the items on our comically long “Winter List”. There’s a lot of work to do around here in the off-season, from ordering seeds to repairing the tractors to building a permanent deer fence. It’s enough […]

Hobby Time

 in Blog by
It will come as no surprise that Landon and I have been pretty shaken up by all the devastation going on around us over the past few months. The magnitude of need is overwhelming, so we decided to combat those feelings of helplessness by doing something small. This week, we’re […]

Farmers for Farmers

 in Blog by
Even as the harvest dwindles and crops succumb to their annual cycle, fall on the farm always has an optimistic feel to it. It’s an “out with the old, in with the new” time of year, as we tear down the remnants of this season in order to lay the […]

We’re All Pollyanna

 in Blog by
We get pretty excited around here when it starts to feel like fall. The weeds slow down, the days are shorter, and everyone looks great in a sweater. But us farmers aren’t the only thing that gets sweeter as the temperatures dip. Once we start getting some hard frosts in […]

Getting Sweeter with Age

 in Blog by
In order to ensure a continuous harvest, we try to practice succession planting: a method in which several smaller plantings are made at timed intervals, rather than all at once. The plants mature at staggered dates, establishing a continuous harvest over an extended period. The cauliflower, for instance, was planted […]

Calling All Cauliflower

 in Blog by
For the first time all season, our veggies needed water beyond what falls from the sky. In a regular season, we irrigate via drip tape–a thin plastic “hose” that runs the length of the bed and drips water at regular intervals. Drip tape is an efficient way to get water […]

Flat-Footed Irrigation

 in Blog by
We’d been resistant to growing romanesco cauliflower for many seasons. Among growers, it has a reputation for being a primadonna in the fields–fickle about soil, climate, and transplant date. Turns out, it’s reputation is well-earned. Our entire second planting (with the exception of one plant) died under the row cover. […]

Growing Primadonnas

 in Blog by
                  After our stalwart carrot variety under-performed last season, Landon and I decided to move away from the red-cored Chantenay and test some new options. The short, stubby carrots were too hard to bunch and looked less pretty on the market table […]

Carrot Trials

 in Blog by
In the weeks leading up to this newsletter, I knew exactly what I wanted to feature–our new O’Henry sweet potatoes. O’Henry taters are a white-skinned, white-fleshed variety with a dry, starchy interior great for roasting. They’re part of our 2017 push to grow more unusual varieties, and we planted about […]

Mystery Tater

 in Blog by
The farm isn’t looking very photogenic on this gray, rainy day, so I didn’t bother taking any pictures in the fields. Instead, I decided to include this picture of Landon and Frankie on one of our morning walks to open the high tunnel. During the growing season, it can be […]

Family Chores

 in Blog by
When I was a kid, I ran over the hose with the lawnmower so many times that my parents stopped asking me to mow the lawn. When I was 16, my driver’s ed instructor insisted I take extra lessons if I wanted to pass my license exam. When I finally […]

Driver’s Ed

 in Blog by
Some changes we make around here mark big shifts in the way we farm: the purchase of our Celli spader and construction of our high tunnel, for instance. Most changes, however, are small and incremental, but no less important to the overall success of our operation. The switch from a […]

The Little Things

 in Blog by
Our fourth and final cucumber planting is currently climbing its way to the high tunnel rafters. While the field-grown cucumbers are largely left to their own devices, the tunnel cucumbers are a very orderly affair. The plants are pruned to a single stem in order to tie them up more […]

Success in Succession

 in Blog by
As a kid, my dad insisted on cooking things hot. “You can’t grow up in this house if you can’t handle the heat.” I developed a love for the spicy through brute force and haven’t looked back since. Most dinners I cook boast at least a little heat, especially during […]

A Pepper Primer

 in Blog by
If you’ve ever walked by our market display and thought, “Those veggies look dreamy!” (or something of that ilk), you have Aislinn to thank. For more than two years, Aislinn has been the bedrock of our farmers’ markets, showcasing our veggies and helping customers with equal parts style and warmth. […]

A Bittersweet Farewell

 in Blog by
With all the rain we’ve had this season, it feels like nature has been more enemy than ally. Landon and I have been dashing around the farm for the past few weeks, fighting against nature’s arsenal of weather, pests, and disease to save our veggies. As in any conflict, we’ve […]

Picking Our Battles

 in Blog by
The middle of July is always a big transition point on our farm. The tomatoes are just starting to come in, but we are busy moving our fall greens out of the greenhouse to transplant in the field. In the photo above you can see that our onion and shallot […]

Split Personality

 in Blog by
This morning, Landon found a turtle in the road! Instead of bringing it straight to the stream on his way home from daycare, he brought the turtle back to the farm and gave me a call: “Hey Lin, I picked up a friend on the way home, and you’ll probably […]

The Neighborhood

 in Blog by
The late-spring lull is always a nervous time on the farm for me. Strawberries and peas–the stars of June–have hung up their boots for the season, but summer’s stand-outs are still a few weeks away. It feels like we’re treading water, waiting for the day when our pick buckets once […]

The Late-Spring Lull

 in Blog by