Hi Folks,

The dry spell has officially ended! I guess it’s too much to ask, to have a balance between the sunshine and the rain and we have to accept the feast or famine pattern that has become the norm. Fortunately the fields here in Andover are very well drained and have been able to absorb the 7” of water that fell last week with no flooding. The greatest challenge during long rainy stretches is getting the harvesting done. (more…)

Howdy Folks,

Summer has officially ended and with it go the warm weather crops. The tomatoes are definitely over for the season; the peppers should continue producing for a few more weeks. The eggplants are full of small fruit but they are sizing up very slowly. (more…)

Hi Folks,

We received a bit more rain this past week from the storm that passed through on Thursday. It wasn’t much, perhaps a quarter of an inch, nothing like the downpour experienced in the eastern part of the state and NYC. Fortunately we were also spared the high winds and hail that accompanied the storm in these areas. (more…)

Hello Folks,

We had some light rain and drizzle here at the farm this past Sunday. I don’t think it amounted to even a 1⁄4 inch of precipitation. It will help to germinate some of the recently planted seeds and will also help the lettuce and some other newly transplanted broccoli and kohlrabi starts. (more…)

Hi Folks,

I hope you had a pleasant Labor Day weekend. There’s no 3 day weekend here at the farm of course, we’ve got to harvest your food! Besides harvesting, the major project for Monday was to finish erecting a temporary fence around 4 acres of field to keep the deer from destroying the pumpkin and winter squash crop. (more…)

Hi Folks,

As predicted we received some much needed rain this past week, a total of a little more than an inch, that fell mostly as drizzle and light rain over four days. Such a protracted period of precipitation makes the harvest more challenging, especially for the potatoes, which had to be dug by hand, without the help of the potato digging machine. I’m not complaining though, after such a dry summer we’ll take whatever we can get, and be grateful for it. (more…)

Hi Folks,

It’s been a dry summer and we’ve been waiting and hoping for some rain. Many of the scattered storms that have been about have missed us and we finally had to hand water most of the recently transplanted lettuces last week or risk losing many of them. Now it seems we’re headed into a rainy stretch for the first half of this week. (more…)

Hi Folks,

This will be a brief update since I am late in writing it. My computer died last week and after determining that it was not worth fixing, today I purchased a new one. Between setting it up, learning my way around a different operating system, and getting the farm work done, it’ been a hectic day. (more…)

Hi Folks,

It’s been getting rather dry again here on the farm — nearly 2 weeks without a substantial rainfall — and while there is still some moisture deeper in the ground, the surface is essentially dust. This makes it a bit challenging to get good germination on the many crops that we are currently seeding, such as carrots, turnips, and mustard greens. (more…)