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