Water, along with soil and sunshine, is one of the critical pieces of the farm mosiac. Plants need it, in the right amounts, at the right time. Too much can be as damaging as too little (which we learned dramatically after Irene), and, as a rule, it's easier to add water than to try and remove it. When we were searching for land, one of the challenges was to balance our needs – we wanted to avoid heavy clay soils, but many of the best soils in Addison county are river-bottom floodplain soils, and after our experience with Irene, we were pretty determined to avoid floodplains as well. We bought this land largely for the soil: a nice, sandy loam, not too gravelly or stony (though we've pulled out some good-sized boulders), enough reasonably flat to grow veggies on. It's proven a good investment. The soil drains nicely, with the small exception of one little hollow in the upper field that bogs down in the spring. It has a good organic matter content, which we've been cultivating with compost and cover crops, and that helps it to hold moisture through dry times. For established crops, we've found that we rarely need to water, and up until this month, we just avoided the boggy section of the field. But we know that things are changing, are likely to change more. Weather patterns are predicted to become more extreme – wetter in the wet times, drier when they're dry. In last year's spring, week upon week of rain, the boggy section spread over much of the upper field, and springs like that may become the norm. We were grateful for our sandy soils then. Stretches of drought are likely as well, and our current irrigation set-up – a sap tank on the back of the pick-up with a hose, which we need especially for new seedlings in dry times – gets less reasonable each time we expand. So, we're investing in some infrastructure in the name of resiliency and efficiency. Last year we began the process of putting in a pond, with the help of the NRCS. They finished it this spring, and we've been working on trenching and laying pipe to bring water to our lower field. From the pipehead, we'll lay drip tape or micro-emitters to distribute water to the plants when they need it. We've got a strong spring feeding the pond, and should have water enough for all our needs. It's been a fun project with Sonora to watch the pond fill, then fill with life, this season. Within a week of water flowing in, the toads had arrived. Soon the pond was thick with toad eggs, then frogs. A few weeks ago the tadpoles began to hatch, and at our last visit they were beginning to grow legs. The tracks of various creatures lead to the water and away. The site is pretty raw still – because of the sandy soil, the pond is lined with black plastic, and we haven't done any landscaping or naturalizing yet – but we can see that in the future it will be a lovely focal point for the property. On the other side, we've put in tile drainage under the boggy section of the upper field, and look forward to having a bit more good flat land to work with. It should help keep that field usable in wet years, and the pond should help us in dry ones. (Or, for that matter, in wet months and dry months, since the two can alternate drastically in a single season.) In all, we hope it will make our farm better prepared for whatever climate awaits us in the future, and it will certainly be better than truck-watering! |
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Paul, the farmer we apprenticed for, called this month around the solstice the magic time. There is so much sunshine, if the weather is good, everything will grow like crazy. And everything is growing like crazy! Corn is picking up and might hit knee-high by the Fourth of July. Potatoes are sizing up and we anticipate having new potatoes in the next few weeks. In the greenhouse, the eggplants are getting near harvest and the tomato plants are taller than Jeremy, thinking about turning their tomatoes red. Our early zucchini are nearly ready to start picking, and the late zucchini are close behind. Fennel and kohlrabi are also sizing up nicely. The next several weeks should see a lot of new veggies coming on.
Not everything loves the sun and heat, though - the peas are wrapping up in this hot weather, and one planting of lettuce went to seed. It can also be hard on the crew, but our new pond is helping a bit with that. (More on the pond next week!) Peas are one of spring's great joys - sweet, green, and so easy to eat! There are three kinds of common peas, and each one has its particular best uses. All peas are sweetest soon after they're picked, so don't hang on to them too long, and all peas should have their stems and strings removed before eating. Snap peas (top left in the photo) can be eaten whole, except for the stem, and do not need to be peeled. Their shells are thick and juicy and the peas inside should be plump. They can be eaten raw, chopped for salads or stir-fries, or sauteed lightly. They don't benefit from long cooking. Shell peas (top right) have tough, inedible pods and delicious little peas inside. These are the peas you find frozen in bags at the supermarket. We find the best way to open the shells is to pull the stem backward, down the side of the pea that curves inward with a slight indentation. This unzips the pod, which you should be able to easily open to scoop out the peas. These can then be eaten raw, or steamed for 5-10 minutes, depending on how you like them. Topped with butter, salt, and pepper, they're pretty amazing just like that! You can blanch them in boiling water for about 2 minutes and freeze. Snow peas (bottom) are also edible-podded peas. In fact, the pod is most of the action in a snow pea; the peas inside are usually quite small. Like snap peas, they are good eaten raw, but are probably most well-known in stir fries and other Chinese dishes. They can be sauteed or steamed, just briefly, or added to salads. A quick, tasty side dish can be made by sauteing snow peas in sesame oil for just a minute or two, then tossing with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Because fresh peas are so good, and the season so short, we tend to prepare them in simple ways that really highlight their own flavor (ie, sauee for a minute and add butter). But, of course, there are lots of options to incorporate peas into many other dishes - here are some ideas for snap, shell, and snow peas. The season is upon us! We're excited about some new infrastructure this year, including the addition of two new tractors and an irrigation pond. Jeremy picked up a pair of Allis Chalmers G cultivating tractors, which you can see in the photo - they look a bit like dune buggies, very stripped-down so that the driver can have a good view of what the cultivating equipment is doing. We got them from a farm in western New York, and they've been getting tuned up over the past few weeks. These are sturdy old machines - they were built in 1949! They'll each be outfitted with a different weeding implement, and should be a big help in keeping the weeds in check - always one of the major challenges in organic agriculture. We're hoping to have them ready in time for a stretch of sun predicted for next week, so that we can get ahead of the weeds. The sunshine will also be good for getting the potatoes hilled, which is when we push a bunch of dirt up against the plants. Potatoes get planted into a furrow in the ground, then buried with several inches of soil. The plants grow up through the soil, and new potatoes grow off the stem - they don't grow below the level of the original seed potato. To enable the plant to grow more potatoes, we bury more and more of the stem as it grows. Usually we hill two or three times during the season, and they are due for the first round. We are looking forward to the first new potatoes, which are one of our favorite treats! Before it gets buried in the rest of what I want to say, here's the core: We have community members who would like to take part in our CSA but can't afford to -– but you can change that! If you are able, please donate to the NOFA Vermont Farm Share program and help us make our food available to everyone. Enter any amount, choose Farm Share Program, and designate Gildrien Farm. It's a tax-deductable donation and it will make a huge difference in the life of a local family this summer. (Read on or click here to learn more about Farm Share.) If five people donate $25 each, a family that otherwise couldn't afford our CSA will be able to join. Can you help? Now, the rest: One of the major complaints leveled against the local & organic foods movement is that those foods are expensive. The truth of that charge varies depending on exactly what products one compares: organic processed food (cookies, cereal, etc) is often more expensive than conventional counterparts, but organic produce in season at the farmers' market is often cheaper than conventional in the grocery store. (It's true.) Buying through a CSA, like ours, is generally an even better deal, since most CSAs, like ours, give a 10-15% discount on the product as a "thank you" for the early investment. That early investment itself can be a challenge for many families, however. Even if you know you'll be saving money in the long run (and eating well, and, perhaps, getting to know a local farmer personally), coming up with a season's worth of grocery money in one lump might be out of reach. We do offer a payment plan, to help mitigate that burden. But we also want good food - fresh, healthy, local, organic food - the food we raise - to be accessible to everyone in our community. A payment plan doesn't help if you simply can't afford the cost at all. As a family who have ourselves been on food stamps, we get it. Calorie for calorie, junk food is usually cheaper. The fact that cheap food is artificially cheap (and, for that matter, usually artificially food) doesn't change the fact that it is more affordable, especially when time is as tight as money. (If you counting nutrients instead of calories, or if you are able to prepare most of your meals from scratch, the equation changes – but it also gets a lot more complicated.) All of that is why we believe and participate in NOFA Vermont's Farm Share Program. Farm Share works by gathering community donations - raised by the farm (like this right here) and by NOFA during the annual Share the Harvest fundraiser. Limited-income Vermonters apply and are matched with a local farm. They pay half the cost of the CSA, the farm-raised donations pay one quarter, and the NOFA-raised donations pay the other. It's really a phenomenal solution - people in need get access to good food, local farms get new customers. At times, we've had up to a third of our membership participating through Farm Share, but we need the community's support to make it work. Can you donate $25 and make a season of local, organic food possible for a local family? Are you dreaming of summer yet? Put a deposit down on this summer's enjoyment by signing up for a CSA now!
We've got a few new developments for the CSA this year, which we're pretty excited about. We're adding some new produce to the mix, including fennel, sweet corn, and strawberries. We've also partnered with several farmer friends to make meat, cheese, bread, eggs, and honey available to our subscribers. (See the CSA page for more details.) For folks who pick up on the farm, we're expanding the "market style" pick-up that we trialled with the Winter CSA into the summer. We got really good feedback about this system, which gives you a bit more variety and control over what you take home each week. We'll have a few tables set up with several types of produce on each, and you'll be able to choose what you want from each table. (Some items, like early tomatoes, will still be distributed more tightly to make sure everyone gets their share.) We're also expanding our workplace delivery program to reach more businesses between Rutland and Vergennes. Those who get deliveries will have traditional set boxes -- but they will get them delivered directly to their place of work! If you think some of your coworkers might be interested in a CSA, let us know! We are happy to talk to HR or office managers about the program and how we can make it work best for your business or organization. If you have any questions, please get in touch. Remember last week, when we said that we'd nearly sold out of winter things? Well, after good sales at last week's holiday market, it's reached the point that it no longer makes sense for us to go the Farmers' Market. We'll be selling winter squash, onions, and carrots wholesale (or to individuals who want to come by the farm), and we've got a strong finish for the last weeks of the Winter CSA, but not enough variety for a market stand.
Though we'd been hoping to stay at the market until the end of December, it will be nice to have two weekend days again for a while. As of now, we're planning to be back when the market starts again in March, with greens; we'll keep you posted as that gets closer. If you'd like to purchase squash, onions, or carrots, just give us a holler! December is here, but we are still farming! We've been seeding greens, carrots, turnips, and radishes, with an eye towards the early spring; the seeds should just sprout in the next weeks, then hold during the dark and cold of deep winter, to start growing again in late February and March. Our winter sales this year were much higher than we'd expected; we've sold out of nearly all our storage crops except onions and winter squash and what we're saving for CSA. We planted twice as many potatoes this year over last, and next year we'll be planting even more. Same with carrots, beets - even our parsnips are nearly sold out! It's a great sign of the maturation of the local foods movement - for farmers and consumers both - that winter demand is growing. No longer must localvores follow the plenty of summer with turnips all winter - though winter's pickings are certainly slimmer than August's, there is a huge increase in variety and quality over what was available several years ago. On our own farm, we were excited to be able to provide food for our neighbors for an additional two months this year with our Winter CSA and at the farmers' market, and hope next year to expand our winter growing even more. This Thanksgiving week, we're grateful for so much: a healthy, happy family, first and foremost; a strong community of friends where we can find support, understanding, and last-minute babysitting; a solid network of fellow farmers, where we can find advice and used equipment; good soil; a new pond; a great preschool; and on this coldest morning of the year, a blazing wood-stove to combat the drafty breezes in our 200-year-old house.
And of course, we are grateful for all of you: CSA members and market customers, neighbors and friends, folks who stop by the farm to help or root for us from afar. Without you - and all the people all over the state and country who are helping to rebuild local food systems, who are willing to invest in small farms like ours, week by week and season by season - we'd never be able to be living this dream of ours. So, thanks. And we hope your Thanksgiving is as full as ours. |
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