Week 1 Newsletter
Week 1 Newsletter: Week of June 1st
Welcome everyone! Welcome back to our returning members, and welcome to our new members. We are so happy to have you here with us. This is already shaping up to be a wonderful season.
It has been really nice this year to step onto land we’ve worked for one full season already, and continue to build on systems we created last year as well as expand towards some of the vision we hold for this land. You might have seen the picture of the water tank in a recent email. While last year’s fall irrigation project is not completely finished, we are getting closer! The addition of the 5,000 gallon water tank doesn’t actually increase the number of gallons of water we have to irrigate in a day, but it does allow us to water more fields at the same time, which is incredibly helpful.
We have shifted the U-Pick areas of the farm, moving them east towards the front of the property as much as possible. That southeast corner field that we never used last year (it remained tarped for the full season) was the first U-Pick we planted about a month ago with kale, chard, collard and peas. Turns out that the bunnies also love that field, so in the first week we saw a lot of plants eaten, and had to replant and cover with reemay to protect our little transplants. That did the trick, and the kale has now grown beautifully under the reemay. There also is a bit of a dip in that field, and the plants in the lower portion have struggled to grow…it’s kind of like a failure to thrive strip through the center of a few rows. We believe that the ground being too wet is the cause, and are hopeful that as the ground continues drying out, the plants (which are still alive, just small) with start to flourish.
U-Pick this week. We debated with opening U-Pick this week - compared to last year the plants are so much bigger than they were at this time, especially the kale. However, we decided that it would serve them best across the season to have one more week to grow, so we harvested kale for you that’s growing in one of the back greenhouses to get you through this week.
The herb tunnel is in the same place as last year, and we have added a partial row of purslane, with likely more being transplanted in the next few weeks. The field behind the two front greenhouses is planted with U-Pick flowers. It wasn’t quite enough space, so they will continue in some other U-Pick fields. We will work on a map to have for you in the next few weeks to help you see where everything is this year.
One of our visions of the property is to add more fruit, and we’ve made a few small steps in that direction this year. Along the north edge of that field in the second half we planted a set of blueberry bushes. I don’t have them in front of me right now to count, but I believe it was 17. They went into the ground in March and are doing really well. There will definitely be some fruit this year and within a few years they should be producing like crazy. The kids garden had strawberry plants last year that were mildly productive, but they have gone crazy this year so kids will have some strawberries. We also planted a row of red raspberries in the kids garden along one edge. They transplanted fairy well – a few holes to fill in – but won’t produce this year. Sometimes farming is a patient game.
The herb tunnel is in the same place as last year, and we have added a partial row of purslane, with likely more being transplanted in the next few weeks. We will also be adding tulsi and Thai basil, so that you have a bit more variety in basil than last year. Mint is coming soon as well, and will be planted in a few metal troughs.
Chickens – As some of you might remember, there was some predator pressure on the chickens last year. We decided to start a new flock this year, and currently have 24 tiny chicks of 5 carefully chosen varieties. They are currently living in a metal trough (one that will be used for mint as soon as they are moved out of it), and while they are growing they will have a new coop built and we’ll fence off a slightly larger yard for them to roam in during the day, all with a similar location to where they have always been on the farm. Moving forward, we are trying to have the chicks at the farm each day and appreciate any socialization! If you want, please say hello, pick them up, and help us get them used to human contact so that as they grow they will continue to be highly social birds.
I know this is getting long already, but I want to take a moment before wrapping up to recognize the amazing crew we have this year. Last year’s farm manager Simon helped us get this season rolling before stepping back to go on paternity leave with his son, who was born in February. Franklin, who is in his third year with us, stepped into the role of farm manager and is simply wonderful. We have a lot of staff returning from last year – Sydney, Laurianne, Kay and Gerry, as well as a few fantastic new faces and Jacqueline, who worked with Alex and Ecolibrium years ago and has returned to the farm this year part time. We’ll introduce you to the crew more in the coming weeks, but I would be remiss if I didn’t recognize them and all of the work they have put into this farm already this season to get us here.