Gildrien Farm

Whew! Things are busy! We just finished the third farmers' market of the year, and this coming weekend is the start of our CSA! We've been tilling and seeding and transplanting away in our field in Salisbury, and we've opened up a new field in Middlebury, as well.

The land in Salisbury is pretty heavy clay, and it's been challenging to work with. We've spent a lot of time and sweat in the past few weeks moving about 20 yards of compost from piles along the edge of the field, into the pickup or wheelbarrows, and out onto the beds. This has improved the soil structure quite a lot, but it gets really cloddy if we work in it if it's even a little bit too wet. There's a smaller patch of land that we're using there as well, which had been a garden for a long time, and it's much more manageable. That's where all the potatoes are.

We've been proceeding slowly in the big field, preparing just what we need and waiting for the right conditions. But we've got cukes, zukes, winter squash and field tomatoes that are busting out of their soil blocks and they need a home now. So we got back in touch with a school in town that has some open land, who we'd talked with last year when we first started looking for a field to use. They were still excited to have us, so we mowed and had it plowed over the weekend. Jeremy has been out there all day today making beds, and I think we're going to plant tomorrow! Things sure move fast sometimes!

So that's the news from the farm. If you've been thinking about signing up for a CSA share, now's the time! If you're already a member, we can't wait to give you your first veggies!