I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but more rain this week has been taking its toll on the vegetable fields and hay crop. We really need a solid week to dry out, and then a second week to get caught up on cultivating and to get a start on this year’s haymaking. The kale plants look more like a groovy psychedelic painting than legitimate vegetables—the coloring smoothly transitioning from vibrant green, to mellow blueish purple into straight up magenta as the level of stress goes up in accordance with how wet the soil is along the row. So far everything is hanging in there, and a few things are thriving—the potatoes and dry beans are growing by the day.
Yesterday’s beauty—warm sun and a cool breeze—made everything seem doable again, like it actually is possible to grow vegetables in these fields (a sensation that has been waxing and waning with each passing storm). The vegetables seemed to believe it too, we were noticing this morning how much the plants had grown in just one day—new, green leaves unfurling from each growing tip.
On Sunday there is a big open house at Reber Rock Farm just a few miles up Jersey Street from our place. On Friday’s, after our share pick up, we sell our extra produce to Reber Rock for their farm store. They also stock cheese from North Country Creamery, lots of value-added goodies from Dak and Dill, local jams and jellies, and more produce from their own fields as well as Harvest Hill Farm. Come by during the open house for live music, tacos from the Poco Mas food truck and to check out what the store has to offer. All happening on Sunday between 10 and 4, 1699 Jersey Street.
This is the last week we will have our intern Emma here. She came to us for a few weeks last winter as an intern from St Lawrence and decided to come back to see what spring looked like on the farm. She’s been a huge help this last month—working tirelessly at whatever new, crazy project we threw her way. And cooking up delicious food for farm meals. She’s off to spend her summer working on Cape Cod. If you see her tonight thank her for the hard work and welcome her back for more farming and life in Essex.
In the Farm Shares
In the veggie share: Strawberries, rhubarb, swiss chard, scallions, radishes, napa cabbage, pac choi, hakurei turnips, mesclun mix, lettuce mix, lettuce heads, asparagus, beets, white and fingerling potatoes, wheat berries, whole wheat regular and pastry flour, cornmeal, dill and thyme. Coming soon: kale, garlic scapes, lots more strawberries.
In the meat share: All cuts of beef, pork, broilers and stew birds in the freezer. Stock and organ meats from beef and chickens, lard and leaf lard are available. A new batch of scrapple next week.
Related articles
- Full and By Farm: Dogged By Heavy Rains (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- Full and By Farm: Grants, Greens, & Volunteers (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- Full and By Farm: Surprise Visitors (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- Full and By Farm: Rain and Then Some (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
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