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      You are here: Home / Agriculture / Essex Farm: So Begins the Cycle of Seasons

      Essex Farm: So Begins the Cycle of Seasons

      March 16, 2013 By Essex Farm Leave a Comment

      Setting up seeds at Essex Farm. (Credit: Essex Farm)
      Setting up seeds at Essex Farm. (Credit: Essex Farm)

      Enjoy this Essex Farm Note from Kristin Kimball at Essex Farm, in Essex, NY!

      The first seeds went into soil this week. We have onions and shallots in the germination chamber, and leeks in the greenhouse. So begins the cycle of seasons. We use soil blocks to start our seeds. They are made out of potting mix with a tool that presses the soil into little 1 ½” cubes, and then spits out the cubes as a block of 20, into a flat, which can hold 160 cubes. The advantage of the soil blocker is that there are no pots to buy or store or dispose of, and when done correctly, the soil blocker leaves a little space between each cube, so the plants air prune themselves, keeping their roots to their own cube, which leads to less shock when they are transplanted to the field. But soil blocking is an art. The potting soil must be neither too dry nor too wet, and the blocker must be slammed down just right so that the soil packs the block completely, then pressed out carefully so the blocks are uniform and the cubes are separate and whole.

      The soil blocker was invented by Eliot Coleman, and Matt and Aubrey have both worked at his farm, so they are accomplished soil block artists. The seeds go into a divot on top of each cube, and are covered over with a little more sifted potting soil, and then watered in. Jane seeded a whole flat of shallots by herself this year – a fine job for little fingers…” (Continue reading Kristin Kimball’s Essex Farm Note)

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      Filed Under: Agriculture Tagged With: CSA, Essex Farm, Essex Farm New York, Essex Farm NY, farmers, Kristin Kimball, Mark Kimball, seeds

      About Essex Farm

      In 2004 Mark and Kristin Kimball founded Essex Farm in Essex, NY. It was the first full-diet CSA farm formed (as far as they know)! Kristin wrote her memoir, The Dirty Life, chronicling her transition from city girl to farm wife and the first year of life at Essex Farm. Since then Kristin continues to chronicle life on the farm on her blog, which we give you snippets of here on the Essex on Lake Champlain Blog.

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