Bouncing Back

I’m feeling more like my real self, the person who loves farming, teaching and being close to the soil. For months I’ve felt like farming was sucking the life blood from my veins. It certainly drained my heart.  On top of the third consecutive shitty growing year (I grow and harvest year round so it’s [...]

What a summer

I didn’t realize I hadn’t written in a month.
Seriously.  What a summer.   August was nice so what’s left of the garden is producing well. The tomatoes that haven’t been wiped out by late blight are doing well and ripening.  The potatoes didn’t fare as well. It killed all of them but I think they had [...]

Late Blight

I found late blight on tomatoes in the greenhouse this morning.
DAMMIT!

Quik Shade

We bought a Quik Shade canopy for farmers’ market.  I made the mistake of not ordering an E-Z Up.  I was sure I could pick one up at a big box in Bangor.  I was mistaken. We decided the Quik Shade would be ok because it was a commercial grade canopy.  We were mistaken.  I’d [...]

Rain

I’m not going to market tomorrow.  There’s enough ready to harvest for my local customers but not enough for market too.  I’m surprised at how well plants are growing.  The potatoes are beautiful and putting on blossoms, broccoli is heading up nicely, lettuces are doing well.  Unfortunately the pigweed and hairy galinsoga are growing faster.  [...]

A New Hoophouse!

I bought a 1600 sq ft hoophouse this afternoon.  When I called about it a few days ago I missed it by a couple of hours.  The seller kept my name and number just in case and fortunately for me, just in case happened.  It will be delivered in a few hours! This brings our [...]

Fresh From GH1

Broccoli.  The heads we picked this evening are 8″ across.  The broc and cucumbers shown here were grown in the unheated greenhouse.  They were planted in April.

Still a baby at 4″.

To Do

I’m back to being the sole farmer so I’m trying to get organized.  There are things I want this year – a packing shed, refrigeration, another unheated greenhouse.  If I stay organized and focused I’ll have them all by the end of the year.
Red has not yet been finished.
Water Greenhouses
Move stuff to seedling house for [...]

The phone is ringing off the hook…

….with people asking, “Is it true?”
Yes, it’s true.  Domtar is reopening the Woodland mill on June 22.  Steve is going back to work tomorrow.  Some are already back.  He’s in the middle of a project at his interim job and doesn’t want to leave it unfinished.  Let the chaos begin – the man thrives on [...]

Summer Planting

Summer planting starts today.  This is where I start asking myself what I was thinking.  I’ve never had the greenhouse open for seedling sales and summer planting fall at the same time.  One ends when the weather warms up and the other begins.  The last of the late spring crops go in today. When that’s [...]

Free Range Onions

They didn’t really “range” any where but I’m going with the term anyway.  Late last summer I neglected to clean up onions that went to see in the cold house (high tunnel/unheated greenhouse/hoop house) and they started to grow last fall.  They were dormant for a while before starting up slow growth.  One plant started [...]

Early May

I feel like we’re a little bit ahead in spite of the long winter.  The peas are up.  I haven’t checked the rest of the seeds outdoor but will this morning.  It’s warm enough at night to not have heat on in the seedling house.  I’ve used a third of last year’s propane by waiting [...]

What’s Growing in the High Tunnel

Winter Density
Lettuce
Bok Choi
Spinach
Endive

Moving Right Along

I’m being lazy today. I had errands to run earlier but I’ve been home an hour and a half and accomplished none of my physical work.  Emails have been answered, a little research done but not one seedling has been potted up.  Not one plant in a greenhouse watered, picked or one inch of ground [...]

Late March

I know it snows in late March in Maine sometimes but that doesn’t make looking at it better.  Ugh. Enough already.  I do feel a little tropical this morning though. I’m writing to you from the tomato plant jungle.  Note to self: late January might be a little early to start seedlings. They resemble redwoods.  [...]

Visiting Eliot

Eliot explained the new six-move rotation he’s worked out for his new movable green houses.  One 1,000 sq ft greenhouse covers 6,000 sq ft of ground a year. We paid close attention.

Going to Four Season Farm

Sarah, Keith and Alison are here from Kentucky.  Why someone leaves 71* and sunshine to come snowy Maine (and fall through the ice, but that’s another story) is easily explained.  We’re going to visit Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch today.  Keith would like to start four season farming with vegetables on his farm, Black Bridge [...]

New Plans

I’m settling in to Steve’s pending unemployment. It hit me hard even though I knew it was likely to happen.  Rather than let it sink in and catch my breath I jumped into action.  Then I sat back and wondered what I’ve done and a whole list of “holy crap!” worries.  It’s ok now. [...]

In the Greenhouse

In one of the greenhouses today:
Tatsoi.  The seedling on the right had been nibbled on this morning.  When I went back in this afternoon to put the row cover back on the plant on the left had ben eaten and more of the other eaten.  I put traps out.  Meadow voles will go into [...]

A Snow Day

We went to bed with flurries and woke up to 14″.  A drift blocks the window where I sit to write. Yesterday I watched birds eating 2′ below the window.  Today it’s a 6′ drift and I won’t be seeing out for a while. When the snow falls off the roof it will make the [...]