May News

The music is back on. Peeper frogs, territorial barking of the foxes, and orioles in the peach orchard: spring is loud around here.

IMPORTANT LAST NOTICE: All future farm news will be sent through our farm website: www.thehickories.org. If you have still not signed in as a member of the farm, please do so. From now on I will be doing everything through the website.

Now to the real dirt: We can all sniff the summer and the seedlings in the greenhouse are jumping out of their trays. It is quite a spectacle in there: over three hundred trays with over forty different crops and countless varieties of fruits and vegetables make for a very delicate nursery. Each crop requires its own unique care and responds differently to the climate. Rob watches the thermostats like a mother hen. Volunteers help tuck the seedlings in at night with fabric row-cover. Each time seeing those two tiny leaflets emerge from the soil on their threadlike stem – I am brought back to kindergarten wonder.

SPRING IS A VERB… It is a time of year full of possibility, when outdoor work suddenly feels easy. If you are about to put in your gardens consider planting some edible crops. If you have an existing garden, consider caring for it without pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. To me, food gardens can be just as beautiful as ornamental gardens. I would put a strong stand of rainbow colored swiss-chard up against a bed of impatiens in any beauty contest. If you have a lawn, think about organic lawn-care. Dan Dalton, at Growing Solutions in Ridgefield, is a well respected organic land-care professional, and he taught me about organic lawn-care this winter. Compost teas, humates, and stronger grasses -- there are many effective alternatives to synthetic pesticide and herbicide applications.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR OFFICIAL SUMMER INTERNS: If you know anyone interested in learning about organic agriculture (high school student, college student or beyond) please send them our way this summer. We remain grateful for any and all volunteers who join us – and it is especially important for us, as teachers, to pass on the information we are learning about sustainable farming. Short term or long term volunteers are welcome.

WINTER AND SUMMER HARVEST: We have closed the greenhouse farm stand for the month of May and will open again in early June. I will send another email announcing the opening of The Stand shortly. Thank you for a wonderful first winter season! As many of you know, we sold our small winter harvest out of our greenhouse. The cold frames and hoop-houses were abundant with spinach, lettuce, and carrots straight through the coldest months, and we will certainly do this again next year. However, May is the leanest month: root cellars are empty, greenhouses are full of seed trays but no food yet. The canning and jamming and pickling of last August had May in mind.

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES: We have been so encouraged by those of you who offer to help on the farm that we are going to make it a regular calendar event. The morning of June 14th will be our first organized volunteer day. Check the website calendar to look for upcoming volunteer days and activities. There will soon be a description on the calendar of the work we are doing and if you are interested, please let us know and come get a taste for the earth here at The Hickories – literally.

CSA WAITING LIST: Our 2008 CSA is currently full: families were taken off of last year’s waiting list. However, we are planning on continuing to expand our numbers either within this season or next, so if you are interested in being a CSA member, please fill out the form on our website. You can get to the form from this description page: http://www.thehickories.org/our_csa . We will contact you as soon as a share becomes available.

Thank you again for all you have done to make our farm a wonderful place to live and work and grow.
All the best,
Dina Brewster