Author: Bryan Housel

Hi Everyone!  So, it was another reasonably good week weather-wise here on the farm.  Temperatures have been mild (at least until today), and we had a midnight deluge on Wednesday night.  A slow steady rain is always better than a downpour, and this one only gave us about a quarter of an inch, but it was helpful for getting some seeds up and for watering the brassicas and the root crops.  As we head into late June and July the rain often starts to diminish and we start worrying about a drought.  Many of the summer crops are watered with drip irrigation.  For other crops we have overhead sprinklers, but it is a lot of extra work for us.  We just seeded some okra and lima beans and I am in the process of planting the winter squash and pumpkins so a little rain will be much appreciated. (more…)

Hello Everyone,  I am happy to report that the weather has been uncharacteristically cooperative this past week. The temperatures have been moderate and we have had several nice gentle overnight rains.  I think that there are few people other than farmers who can find such joy in a nice rain; perhaps an Englishman away from home and missing his native climate. (more…)

Hi Folks,  I hope you had a pleasant Memorial Day weekend.  I apologize that I have not been able to get a farm update out to you until now.  It has been a very difficult spring for us here at the farm.  I am sure that most of you noticed that winter hung around well into April this year.  We still had snow flurries flying on April 13!  As a result we were unable to begin planting until Mid- April; about 2 weeks later that normal for some crops.  In addition, the cold soil caused poor emergence in some of the early direct seeded crops, such as peas.  We worked diligently to get caught up with our spring planting and had largely succeeded.  We were then a bit behind on setting out some of the warm weather crops.  We were getting caught up on these when we had a week of rain, including a strong storm which ripped the plastic off one of our high tunnel greenhouses and knocked power out for three days!  We are now back on track and continue to work hard to ensure a bountiful season. (more…)

Registration for the 2018 season is now open!  Know your farmer, know your food.

Farmer John is happy to announce two share options again this year, and the prices remain the same from last year! (more…)

Hi Folks, thank you again for your support this season.  I am very thankful for the tremendous participation in the stock up share program and to those who purchased shares for donation.  I have been very worried that I would finish out the season in debt but, thanks to your help, I will be able to pay off my debts and hopefully have money to pay the mortgage through January. (more…)

Hello Everyone!  So, we have arrived at the end of another CSA season; a sad time for many of you and perhaps a relief for some of you as well.  I know that it sometimes a challenge to put to good use all of the produce you receive in your share each week.  We try to give a good value but sometimes we overwhelm.  We have tried our best to provide variety and quality, and I believe for the most part we were successful.  In any growing season, there are challenges and disappointments; this year it was with the tomatoes and, to some extent, the melons.  Both of these were the result of a wet summer.  For next season, we will be constructing more high tunnel greenhouses to grow tomatoes where they are protected from wet conditions.  We have a few of these now and were continuing to harvest a few tomatoes each week for market but never enough to ship to members, at least until last week when we suddenly had a preponderance of ripe fruit.  We sent a few out to several groups and will be attempting to cover the rest this week. (more…)

Hi Folks!  So, we’ve enjoyed a very mild fall thus far but it seems that is about to end.  We are expecting frost every night this week, and temps are forecast to dip into the teens on Friday night.  This is quite worrisome, as temperatures that low can damage even the hardiest of crops.  We are going to have to harvest a lot of stuff ahead of the deep freeze and cover whatever we can that is left in the field.   (more…)

Hello Everyone!  So, we received 4 inches of rain from Sunday’s big storm.  We lost power around 8:30 just as we were sitting down for dinner.  Power was restored at around 2 AM.  We still maintain a considerable amount of produce in the walk-in coolers, so it is always worrisome to experience an outage.  Fortunately, it was brief and we did not suffer any damage from the high winds.  We have some very muddy conditions in the field to contend with, but all in all very lucky to have been spared the damage that has befallen much of New England.  I have come to accept worrying as an occupational hazard of farming.  One of the first songs I ever learned on the guitar was “Worried Man Blues,” an old folk song popularized by the Carter family (and covered by just about every folk and bluegrass artist).  I didn’t know back then just how well it would serve me! (more…)

Hi Folks!  A week after our frost event we are seeing the damage that was caused.  It seems bit strange, but while the peppers and beans were not completely killed, we had damage to some crops that are usually quite hardy.  Lettuce, which is much tougher than one might think, had quite a bit of tip burn, as did the chard.  Even the broccoli and the kale have some white spots on the leaves — a sign of frost damage.  (more…)