Up with the sunrise

Our days have been full from the rise of the sun

until we settle in to enjoy the early season bounty of greens around the dinner table.

On occasion, we have escaped the frenzy of spring planting to enjoy a row along the coast.

And always we stop to smell the flowers....

We keep thinking the last frost date has passed and twice we've blanketed parts of the garden to prevent damage and awoke to find crystals on the grass in the morning. Knock on wood, we think we are in the clear and are now embarking on a mass planting of the seedlings in the greenhouse. The greenhouse is so controlled, the water, the temperature and the attention. Once we take the leap to plant everything out into the garden, we really let go of control. Our little babies have to find their way in the world and we have to reconcile our trepidation and hope for the best. Flora blesses them all by saying...."Oh little babies, find your peace with it....." What kind of hippie midwife mother is she quoting?

A few updates about the CSA.... We are watching and waiting to determine what week the distributions will begin. We anticipate either the 2nd or 3rd week of June, but it is all weather dependent.

We have created GoogleMaps for the pick up groups and are planning to send out email announcements this week regarding the organization of these groups. If you are interested in being a part of a pick up group but have not yet indicated to us this interest, this would be a great time to do so.

On Saturday June 13th at 9:30, we'll be hosting our Junior Counselor orientation. We are excited about our camp season and have room left in some of our weeks for campers but we are all full for junior counselors. If you are interested in more information, please check out the Camp section of our website.

We are planning a CSA open house for Sunday, June 14th from 9:30 to 12:30. Please feel free to stop in for a tour and an opportunity to get aquainted with your farm and your farmers and the routine of CSA pick up.

Please stay tuned for information about the start of the Pick Your Own strawberry season. The plants are fruiting and looking bountiful!

Blessings on the meal,
Stacy and John

May: When the rubber hits the road

The past few weeks we have not posted any updates... can you guess why? We are entering the busiest month of the season. Next week, we will start waking up another hour earlier t0 get in some early morning planting and weeding. The long days are spent preparing fields, planting, and acting on some of the long term plans we've been dwelling on all winter.

Above John covers long rows of potatoes under supervision of Flora. Below Stacy models our newest piece of field preparation equipment: a Perfecta harrow.

We are making a big push to get in a lot of perennial plantings in the ground, including the trees pictured below. Many of these were donated by Royce O'Donal-- former owner of O'Donal's Nursery on Rt. 22. Many more are flowering shrubs we intend on adding to cut flower arrangements. We are also planting some fruit trees, blueberries, and grapes.

Many of our infrastructure projects are related to hosting apprentices for the season.

This small outbuilding had the white vinyl treatment of the rest of the barns at the farm. In taking off the siding in preparing for renovation, we find a nice red shingle siding with white trim. Not having a deep knowledge of the history of this farm (formerly the Meserve Farm) we are always so curious about its story over the past decades and centuries. Renovating the buildings is sometimes literally a peeling away of the layers, and always mysterious.
Here, Cameron (our most recent apprentice) checks out old egg records stashed up in the eaves of the building, along with dozens of spent light bulbs.
We have about a month to go before we start to harvest vegetables from the garden. We are planting peas, spinach, lettuce, herbs, onions, asian greens, and as we flirt with the last frost date... EVERYTHING else!!!
Blessings on the planting,
John