June News 2010

 The Stand is Open: Our Farm Stand on Lounsbury Road is open for the summer.  We open the season with greens, salad turnips, and our other certified organic vegetables, picked fresh every morning in our fields.  Roadside farm stands are few and far between, as are working farms, I suppose.  I have been thinking a lot about that these days.  The endless proliferation of farmers markets has my mind reeling.  Just about every CSA program (including ours) is running a waiting list.  In this whirlwind, we sometimes forget to highlight how critical the good ol' roadside stand is to the survival of the small farm.  The roadside stand is a direct line to the farm: no middle man, no market master, no nothing. It is nice to know how to make an honest buck, or spend one for that matter: purchasing organic food from the farmer whose hands sow and harvest it at the edge of the land he or she is cultivating: that is too good of a feeling to be so rare.  Thank you in advance for supporting our work by building farm stands into your summer routine.  

The CSA has increased to 200 shares and we are off and running: To those of you who are following the growth of our small farm business, this year is a big gold star.  It has been a dream of mine come true.  Community Supported Agriculture sends a powerful message.  Our little group has collectively answered the "doomers" who make us feel there is no way out of this global maelstrom.  Our CSA program has a long waiting list, but I do not flatter myself that it is because I am a great farmer -- I know it is because this is an inspiring time to be in the food movement -- people really care and are willing, once again, to get behind the hand that steers the plow.  So to those of you who have signed up for this year's CSA program and for those of you who remain on the waiting list alike, your presence is an inspiration to many farmers.  To me, your sponsored farmer in the throws of an early summer drought, you are an intimidating mob of hungry people - but I am so darn proud to represent what you have made possible here on this farm - an intimidating mob of hungry people who help every day to make the world a much much better place.  

Baby goats!: Our livestock line-up continues to increase and diversify as our farm needs increase and diversify.  This year, we are experimenting with adding goats to our farm, for the purpose of land-clearing -- that is, when they are not dancing and prancing and prattling on for the cars on Lounsbury Road.  I am tickled to hear the mimicked goat bleets coming from the car-seats in the backs of the minivan traffic jam on the road.  Poison ivy and brambles are a goat's favorite food, so soon these little alpine goats will set to work on beating back the scaggle from the edges of our fields. Like all our animals, they will continually rotate to new pasture so keep your eyes open, you never know where they will be!  These little alpine kids came from Rainbeau Ridge, a beautiful goat cheese dairy and vegetable farm. While our little boys are chewing through the hedgerows, their moms are producing delicious cheeses for our CSAers -- I love a good little farmer to farmer food web!

The Tomato Watch: Everyone wants to know how the tomatoes are doing.   Our plants, which we raise from seed, look beautiful still and the first setting of fruit is swelling each day.  But with reports already emerging of 'late blight' (that plant disease that wrecked the 2009 tomato crop in New England) in and around Connecticut, it feels sometimes like the barbarians are at the gates.  Late blight in New Haven county.  Late blight in Cheshire.   I monitor my tomato plants daily and we all do our best to keep sharp eyes for any signs of a downturn.  We believe in the principles that guide organic agriculture, however, and that means that the health of our soil and the health or our neighbors remains paramount -- I will not compromise that, even if it means another year of white pizza.  But until I see otherwise, this looks like a glorious year to be a tomato plant at The Hickories.

Pick your Own: For now, given the size of our Community Supported Agriculture Program, our berry patches are no longer open to the general public but, instead, they are reserved for our CSA shareholders.  I know this news will disappoint some of you, but hopefully you will put your name on our CSA waiting list (www.thehickories.org/our_csa).  We will still provide some fruit in addition to the vegetables at our farmstand, so please come try some there.  

With the glory of summer now all around us, you will surely hear from me again soon.