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Eric Baum recently visitied Heirloom Harvest to help get some tractor work done. Eric started in farming when he was 14 years old, mucking stalls at a Sudbury horse stable. He has dedicated most of his farming career to growing organic vegetables, and now works as a senior farmhand at Land's Sake farm in Weston.
CSA shareholders spread hay as an organic mulch between rows of eggplant planted in black plastic.
Timely send-up of Star Wars with organic food as the beneficiary. (This is an editor's note: You can't blame John for this one.)
The cold, miserable week meteorologists are predicting will allow us to shift to different kinds of work from what we would be doing if it were warm. In most any other spring, at this point we would be racing to get as much crop planted out in the field as possible, but with a "spring Nor'Easter' coming, we are holding tomatoes and tomatillos until it passes.
The only upside of this weather is that weed growth slowed, but when we (finally) get the first couple of days of warm weather, they will catch up fast.
This is the coldest spring that I have ever farmed. We’re averaging 7 degrees Fahrenheit lower than what is normal, and if the pattern continues for the rest of the month, I understand this will be one of the 10 coldest springs in Northeastern history.
I have to thank the great crews we've had so far this spring, including a big crew on Sunday - many who came for orientation stayed after. We got a lot of work done. This last weekend, we got all of the eggplant and cantaloupe transplanted. We just planted out the basil, and we're halfway through tomato planting, so it's been a pretty productive time.
Afternoons and evenings around the farm you might see Graham and his remote control airplane looping above the fields. Graham is a former hot-air ballon enthusiast who says that he landed in the fields about 15 years ago at a time when there was no one farming the site.
If you're interested in what the little airplane might see from way up there, this satellite image (courtesy of Google) might give you some idea. To get your bearings: The cemetery one typically drives through is at lower left.
Eva Weiss started last week as one of our new farmhands, and she is pictured here on her first day of tractor training. She will be fulltime through the summer, and if you come to work at the farm, she may be in charge of the crew you work with. Eva has just finished her first year of college at the University of New Hampshire, though she has transferred to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, for the fall.
On a recent Sunday (from left to right) farmhand Eva Weiss, Stephanie Fletcher, workshare, CSA shareholders Teresa and Elaine, and farmhand Trish Stephanko transplanted brussel sprouts in the barn.
We’ve just spread composted horse manure all over one of the three fields from last year. We've put down many tons of horse manure there. It came from a stable in Grafton, but we no longer have that source. We are now looking for new sources of horse and cow manure. We need the manure and the transport, both, though. A second-best solution would be someone with a truck appropriate for transporting manure, because we might be able to find another source of the manure that doesn't have access to transportation for it.
We just transplanted about 900 row feet of summer squash and cucumbers. All beds were covered with white floating row cover, which acts as a physical barrier against pests. The main pest here is the striped cucumber beetle, which is devastating when plants are small, but once plants are large with blooming flowers, the beetles actually help with pollination. Obviously, we as an organic farm don't use chemical or synthetic pesticides, and that's one reason why. The row cover will stay on until first female flowers start to open, and then we’ll take the covers off. We also planted the first part of the potato planting. We take the spud and cut them into smaller pieces with eyes on them, and plant those. As for potato varieties, so far, we're doing Sangre red potato, Yukon Gold, and an heirloom variety called Green Mountain. We will be getting in a variety call All Blue (which is true to name, all blue), and more Yukon Gold.
We’ve started to move warm weather stuff, such as peppers, to the unheated part of greenhouse. That’s the first stage of their being prepped for transplanting out to the field. We have a ton of winter squash that needs to be seeded, and we would welcome help getting that started. To schedule your visit, call or email the member work coordinators Larry and Pat Bassett at 508-879-6768 or email us at padoo1-AT-rcn.com. (Please replace "-AT-" with "@" when you use this email address.) Canteloupe and watermelons are in the greenhouse.
The first watermelon variety is Blacktail Mountain - on the germination pad right now. That's an heirloom variety made for growing in more shorter seasons with a cooler climate. And I just seeded Brussels sprouts yesterday.
A young CSA member takes a turn in the seat of the cultivating tractor, which will soon be rumbling up and down the beds cutting down weeds. [Remember, no child is allowed to sit in the seat of a tractor without the permission and presence of a member of the farm staff.]
I have given permission to someone who is training search and rescue dogs to use the grassy areas around the farm fields. If you see her and her dog working, please realize that it's a special arrangement for the dogs to develop the dog's skill and ability. If you yourself have dogs, please don’t take them off the main roads (and never off the leash). Working dogs are trained to be "on task" and to ignore wildlife, which includes ground-nesting birds such as the bobolinks and the sandpipers.
In the field so far: kale, broccoli, collards, cauliflower, fava beans, parnsips, salsify, carrots, peas, onions, lettuce, and celery.
Celery likes a lot of moisture. We have it in the part of a field where it is going to get a lot of moisture, just naturally from the way the fields drain. Basically, what I’m still looking for is the best place on this field to plant celery. It needes moisture, it needs rich soil. I have fields that are sandier that drain well, but then I have a field that’s more of a muck field. (Editor's note: In this case, muck is a technical term, but it should be noted also that in this case, the farming is not exploitative as the definition notes some unsustainable practices may be.) I'm planting celery, onions, and that’s going to be a good field for those kinds of crops.
I’m still perfecting my method of growing the celery. I have probably my best shot yet this year, based on where I'm planting. If it doesn’t work out, well, you get strong-flavored celery good for soups, but tougher – not that rich, crackly celery you can get in a store.
No matter what, it will be useful. Going to be a good ingredient for soup with lots of flavor. It’s really one of those those things that’s way down the list of most CSA members, in terms of priority. So it's OK to take a risk.
