Volunteer Day!

Volunteer day was a great success! We had such a great time and got SO much done thanks to our tireless volunteers.
We started out the day with several tasks in mind, but the most important was getting the potatoes planted.

We started around 9:00am with 140lbs of seed potatoes, a few rakes, hoes, shovels and a lot of lemonade. Sharon started us off and Linda came down shortly after. The four of us managed to plant 15 50 foot rows of potatoes in just a few hours!

On the left, you can see Sharon placing the potatoes down the trench Shawn made in one of the beds. Josie is raking the soil up and over the potatoes to create a bit of a hill.

It was a beautiful day for working outside! The wind was persistent but the temperature and off-and-on sun were really nice.

After lunch, Lauren, Shelley, Daniel, and Abby all came out to help. It is amazing how fast everything gets done with 8 people! We are so used to it just being the two of us.



Here, Daniel and Shawn are digging trenches for the potatoes. Then, after placing the potatoes, Abby and Lauren raked the soil back over the top.

Dig, dig, dig!

We planted 33 50 foot rows of potatoes - four different varieties - amazing!

We also managed to transplant some greens. We planted 3 rows of pak choi, 3 rows of red mizuna, 3 rows of green mizuna, and 3 rows of toraziroh mustard greens! (Mizuna is a type of mild mustard green as well.) Here is Linda digging the holes for the transplants (no fancy machinery here, just a good old fashioned trowel :) )After the holes were dug, we would come behind and place the transplants in each hole and gently cover up their roots.

Sharon with a beautiful flat of green mizuna.

Look at those roots!

Volunteer day is clearly a very serious day. VERY serious.

Photo by Lauren Bland

Photo by Lauren Bland

Shawn with his leg in a groundhog hole - yikes!

Photo by Lauren Bland

Photo by Lauren Bland

And no volunteer day is complete without a moment with the chickens.

Photo by Lauren Bland

Photo courtesy of Lauren Bland

Thank you so much to everyone who helped out yesterday, we got so much work done and had so much fun doing it!

Some Helpers

Last week Danielle (who Josie has been friends with for a few years) brought her one year old daughter, Sadie, and her lovable dog, Ollie, out to the farm to help do some planting.

Ollie and Jaxxy get along great, they spent almost the whole day sprinting around the farm. Most dogs don't have the energy to tolerate Jaxxy's playfulness - but Ollie does. He can't get enough!After some tea and a little time to catch up, we sent the dogs out to play and headed over to the garden to with our flats of cabbage. We are growing four types this year: Golden Acre, Early Jersey Wakefield, Mammoth Red Rock, and Frigga Savoy. We should have some early and some later, as long as we can keep those pesky cabbage worms off of them.



Sadie did a great job. We brought over a shovel for her to play with and even found a big red ball in the grass near the garden!
We got four rows of cabbage planted, one for each variety. So far, they have been tolerating the freezing cold nights pretty well. Hopefully they make it through tonight - we are hoping its the last night in the 20s.


After a long morning of planting and a little snack, Sadie was almost ready for her nap. We were so happy to have them come out and work with us!
After they left, we spent the afternoon planting the rest of the spring crops. Peas, kale, lettuce, mustard greens, pak choi, parsley, radishes, and kohlrabi. Josie's mom came out to help too!
When we were done, we covered the cabbage and lettuce with row covers to help keep pests out. They help keep the moths that lay the cabbage worm eggs from finding the plants and will hopefully keep the rabbits and groundhogs from finding the baby lettuces.
We had a really productive day, thanks Danielle and Sadie!

Gearing Up For Fall

As summer peaks we are finally getting a small break from the blistering hundred degree days - temperatures have plummeted to the breezy low 90s. Summer crops are starting to pass by, tomatoes are just gearing up, and we are planting fall crops. As we pull things out we are tilling up the empty beds...ahhh a fresh start. We have tilled up about 15 beds.
We are planting mostly root veggies in the ground: carrots, beets and parsnips. We planted one more succession of beans and put in some late squash and melons.

The garden across the street where we planted beans and some chard:

and squash, pumpkins and melons:

We also started some seedlings a week or two ago for some of the cooler weather crops. This way we can transplant seedlings like we did in the spring and have a better chance of a successful fall garden.

Kale seedlings:

Spinach and Cabbage seedlings:

Along with the kale, spinach and cabbage, we planted brussel sprouts!

Most of what is left in the gardens is doing really well. The tomatoes are going crazy, peppers are starting to ripen, and chard is continuing to grow. The melons, pumpkins, squash and other fall stuff we planted a few weeks ago is flourishing - even without enough water!

Sunflowers in the main garden:

Our new favorite vegetable: the red noodle bean. It is a burgundy bean that grows 18 inches long! They are delicious and don't loose their color when you cook them. They are convenient because you don't have to use as many for a meal and so you don't have as many of those annoying little ends to snap or chop off. We will be bringing them to market from now on, but you will definitely see more of these from us next year.

Red noodle bean flower:

Sweet potato plants:

Squash and pumpkin patch:

New England pie pumpkin (it will turn orange when it's ripe):

Melon patch:

Watermelon! It is about the size of a softball at this point, we got them in late:

Amish melon, tastes like a cantaloupe:

We will be on vacation in Cape May, NJ for the next week, and are happy for the break. We are really excited to see how things look when we get back!