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.
I have found myself in the "pick myself up and dust myself off" mode lately. We have hauled ourselves through our usually ambitious winter shake-down of clean up, construction projects, revamps, and rejiggers of the farm's infrastructure. A dusty and greasy old barn bay has yielded to a bright and lovely (and sort of heated… gasp!) new farm office. My beloved desk of five years, a board propped up on two beehives, was retired. The epic mess in the "side-barn" has been sorted and swept and is ready for another season's abuses. Tractors and harvest records and been combed over and our slate has been cleared for a new season. Everything changes, and with those changes we learn and grow up.
As mythical Persephone packs her bags, the farm is getting ready for another New England quiet season. But with all the hubbub around the fields and barns, it is apparent the autumn task list remains long. Things are far from quiet now. We are plowing under summer crops, seeding winter cold frames and cover crops, and repairing fencing. The highlight of the month, our Hayride and Harvest weekends start in a few days: the pumpkin patch is ready, the haywagon is greased and hitched, and the pigs, turkeys, and chickens are rehearsing like mad. We have had another eventful summer decorated with new friends, volunteers, and CSA members, all bound together by good, nourishing food.
The barn swallows at The Hickories gathered for one final party before beginning their long migration to the warmer climes of South America. It is a journey for which they have prepared all summer, each flying up to 600 miles per day in search of insects, their only food source. For us farmers, their departure seems an appropriate time to peek over our shoulders at the months gone by, as well as prepare for those to come.
In a season marked by wildly unpredictable weather, devastating tomato blight, and frightening soil erosion, there is comfort in observing the patterns of the farm that have continued undisrupted. The swallows still fly south, the squirrels still hoard their acorns and hickory nuts, the pasture grasses still grow long, undeterred by mowing. Nature quickly shakes off a sucker punch the likes of this season, and in doing so, teaches us how we might do the same.
A week of rain is Mother Nature’s polite memo to farmers that we work for her. Comparing what we see in our crop plan spreadsheets to what we see in the fields, we are reminded that we are still pretty green at this. Resignation is not the right word, but learning to be calm and have faith amidst the oscillations of the seasons is part of what we are faced with this year. It may not feel like June; it may not look like June; but June will come – even if it comes in July.
Pick Your Own Strawberries Opens June 13th – The patch opens this Saturday and will remain open daily from 10am-5pm throughout the strawberry season. Rain, shine, wind… (and did I mention rain…) the strawberries are certified organic, and the many different varieties mean lots of interesting and subtle flavor differences. Taste a few of each to be sure!
I have found myself in the "pick myself up and dust myself off" mode lately. We have hauled ourselves through our usually ambitious winter shake-down of clean up, construction projects, revamps, and rejiggers of the farm's infrastructure. A dusty and greasy old barn bay has yielded to a bright and lovely (and sort of heated… gasp!) new farm office. My beloved desk of five years, a board propped up on two beehives, was retired. The epic mess in the "side-barn" has been sorted and swept and is ready for another season's abuses. Tractors and harvest records and been combed over and our slate has been cleared for a new season. Everything changes, and with those changes we learn and grow up.
As mythical Persephone packs her bags, the farm is getting ready for another New England quiet season. But with all the hubbub around the fields and barns, it is apparent the autumn task list remains long. Things are far from quiet now. We are plowing under summer crops, seeding winter cold frames and cover crops, and repairing fencing. The highlight of the month, our Hayride and Harvest weekends start in a few days: the pumpkin patch is ready, the haywagon is greased and hitched, and the pigs, turkeys, and chickens are rehearsing like mad. We have had another eventful summer decorated with new friends, volunteers, and CSA members, all bound together by good, nourishing food.
Dear All,
