What's New this Year?
NEW FARM CSA PICK UP SCHEDULE
We have rearranged our CSA farm pick up schedule to allow for us farmers to have more time to farm. Tuesday is THE day to pick up a CSA share at the farm. We decided to consolidate all the farm pick ups to this one day a week. Farming can both be a joyous activity and a grueling one. We decided that we just need more time to produce the crops as well as a little less hectic schedule.
A NEW HIGH TUNNEL
The biggest new news is that we recently finished putting up a high tunnel! We are looking forward to growing early and late season crops under this protective cover. It is a real joy working in a high tunnel when it is cold or raining out and all those little plants are growing. We can continue with tending to and harvesting even when the weather is less than ideal outside. A high tunnel helps to minimize the risk of farming as we are not so exposed to the weather but it does require a higher level of management,
POND REPAIRS
We are looking forward to fixing our irrigation pond this year! We've been talking to contractors after having gone through the permitting phase. The pond was initially constructed in the the late 1970's and all these years later the pond pipe has rotted out allowing the water to just run through rather than "pond up". This is a really big project that we have been working at behind the scenes now for several years. To have an abundance of irrigation water is a delightful thought!
NO MORE ORCHARD
We removed our old peach and apple trees this Winter. The orchards became old and tired and unfortunately it was no longer feasible to continue cropping them. This is a sad thing, but it is reality. It was time to face the music. We have fruit growing friends who specialize in tree fruit, and we plan to purchase peaches and apples from them. We can support other local growers and continue to offer a fine product both to csa and retail customers. We continue to grow red raspberries and blackberries and of course lots of different cantaloupes and watermelon just not tree fruit.
ASPARAGUS
This should be a good year for our asparagus field. We planted a 1/4-acre field 4 years ago. This should be the first year of a sizable harvest. Up until now it has been a lot of work with eyes to the future.
DEER FENCING UPDATE
Though no longer "new" we continue to fully appreciate the investment in our deer fence that we made a few years ago. What a complete game changer! We spent a lot of money to keep these cute though highly destructive creatures from destroying our crops! We are now thankful that they are on the outside.
NEW CROPS IN THE MIX THIS YEAR
We’re experimenting with new varieties of melons, peppers and leafy greens this year. We are also expanding our sweet corn growing this year!
There is literally always something "new" we are working on. When you are on a farm you underline "working on"
