Views from the last season

First harvest 2019

Vigorous buckwheat cover crop from June

From August here's a colorful and bountiful harvest.

Heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, summer squash, cucumber and eggplants.

The farm prepared to return to a fallow field.

Cover crop mowed, field graded and seeded with ryegrass.

Equipment trucked away for sale.

Harrow, mulch-layer, mower and plow

Tractor goes last.

It was an amazing experience.

Another Season Begins

Three weeks of wet weather has delayed planting in the field.  It's been wonderful for the cover crops creating more biomass and thereby more organic matter in the soil.

Looking out over peas and oats, further on winter rye and a tarp covering the soil to smother weeds. 

Have been busy seeding and starting plants since February.  A few weeks ago this is what the germination racks looked like.

One of the racks that provides warmth, timed-lighting no predators and special care to give crops a great start.

After four years, asparagus sprouts.

Purple Jersey Knight pushing through the mulch. 

The last sunny day when the honeybees were active.

2018 Season Starts

While the onions, leeks and scallions were started in February, other herbs and plants were started in March and April.  Here's what the greenhouse looks like now.

Running out of room and looking forward to planting outside. 

Below are some scenes from the field.

Rhubarb, chives and perhaps next year's asparagus.

Broccoli, kale, collards, chard and beets under cover before the fence goes up to protect from the mammals.

Yesterday's weather was good for planting more onions. They'll be ready in July.

Finally hoping for surplus honey but, more importantly, for lots of honeybees for pollination. 

2017 Harvest and Scenes from the Farm

With threatening skies, looking out over the fallow fields in cover crops of blooming buckwheat and spent winter rye and vetch.

The cover crops are attracting pollinators and smothering weeds.  Hopefully, the pollinators will stick around and discover the flowering squash, cantaloupe and cucumbers. 

Flowering squash

Swallowtail caterpillar eating parsley.

Harvesting the first farm share of the season.

Spring 2017 Hiccups

Last week's storm with its ice and strong winds sheared the sliding doors off the greenhouse.

Looking inside the greenhouse

Once the doors were blown off, the wind worked to blow-out the southeast side.

Plastic ripped off from the frame.

Was able to repair the side with greenhouse tape and more rope. Now, I am awaiting parts for the door. In the meantime, kind Brooks' Facilities staff got the doors to mostly close.

Gratefully, the greenhouse can be repaired. Alas, I cannot say that for the honeybees and my overwintering hive.

Inside the dead hive.

Nothing happening here.

During that unusually warm spell in February, the bees were flying. I gave them some dry food. Came back at the next warm day, which was a month later sadly, and noticed no flying bees. Hence, I found a dead hive. Luckily, I was able to order bees and will work harder to keep healthy honeybees.

Kale and chard sprouting.

Seedlings started and the soon-to-be-full grow racks.

the bright spots

Scenes from the farm June 2016

Well, it's finally raining a bit so that gives me time to write this.

Buckwheat cover crop when I mowed a fox ran out.

Because it's been so dry, because I had help from Team Community Service, AP Environmental Science students and the larger Brooks community, I was able to plant earlier.  (So grateful!)  Hence, that meant the farm shares had carrots and beets in them before July.

Carrots ready for packing.

A glimpse inside the box with radishes, summer squash and zucchini and a bag filled with greens to keep them from wilting. 

The dryness really helped with weeds though.  Thus, the farm looked pretty good and relatively weed-free last week.

2016 Season Starting Early

Early start

Like in past years, the onions and leeks were started in February.  This year I had the great privilege of starting my seedlings on racks in the science building at Brooks.

The building is an incredible germination chamber, so to speak.

Peas, kale and chard in the high tunnel.

Except for my first year of farming, when I did not know any better, I have not tilled the soil this early.  Back to those early days when my late-husband figured out how to use the BCS and we tilled the heavy clay soils that we had in Dracut to plant carrots.  It was a mistake then.  Whilst today, it is not, the soil is different here - lighter and sandier. Moreover, the weather has been favorable for awhile and the cover crop did its good job in protecting and enriching the soil.  I have one more pass here and then hope to lay the "plastic mulch" to plant onions, leeks and shallots out.  Later maybe even carrots!

Re-seeded clover aisles and a newly tilled quadrant with other blocks waiting to be mowed.

Bees

Alas, I have become a reluctant beekeeper.  Last year one of the hives did not make it, so this year I bought another three-pound package of bees.  Because I am not the calmest person (like Kamal was - the bees were his idea) I dreaded my tasks at the hives.  When installing the package into the newly situated hive, I did everything wrong!  The gel feeder fell apart amongst the bees; I dropped the queen and had to fish her out.  In the end, I got the hive set-up and the bees are using entrance. Most importantly, they have a pollen patty and some sugar water to get them going before the nectar from the flowers are out.  

Left-sided newly installed bees with leftover package near the entrance to encourage those bees in the container to join the hive.

The photo above shows the work 1/2 done.  This mild winter has meant the bees have been out and I have been feeding them.  Hence, now is the time to check out how the hive has been doing over the winter.  It's supposed to be in the 70's on Monday so time to take off the winter wrapping.  

Thank God for protective clothing as I really stirred up the bees.  Moved one story from the top to the bottom, tried to separate the supers and picked up some frames from a lower super that were "glued" then unceremoniously dropped the frames to the ground.  Ah well, all of us were happy when I left the premises.

Scenes from the Farm July 2015

Here are some scenes from the farm this July 2015.  Starting with this first harvest without Kamal where I had beets for the CSA shareholders.  He would have asked, "Will we get beets, too?"  Surprisingly, I had enough beets for even the farmer.

Preparing chard for the first CSA distribution

Growing summer crops inside the high tunnel to extend the season.

Cucumbers (if they are still producing) and tomatoes bound for the Brooks' dining hall in September.

Other views from the field.

Cucumbers, squashes and melons

Onions, sweet potatoes in the foreground with tomatoes, cabbage family crops, lettuce, herbs and flowers in the background. 

Carrying On

On the farm, Kamal and I had designated tasks.  He liked concrete, fix-it-kind-of-things such as putting up and powering the electric fence, setting-up and testing the irrigation and any type of repair or working with machines. Weeding or planting and some times harvesting, he did not enjoy so much as they were more vague - especially if the directions came from me.

I guess that I learned some things from Kamal inadvertently - as I certainly did not try because I had no interest in those tasks.

My mother would be laughing now as I hated the infrequent times that I helped her with mowing her lawn.

Most of the big plantings have been done with grateful help from friends, family and the Brooks' community.  Getting the farm ready for planting takes a good deal of time, this task was eased by the tremendous help of 25 seniors for four hours!  With that they gave me a 100 hours that I did not have.

Here are some photos of what the farm looks like at the beginning of June 2015.

Getting the summer squash, melons, cucumbers and winter squash planted and later tacking down that landscape fabric to weed less.

In the background, all the heat-loving summer crops are planted such as peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos and eggplant.  While in the foreground, the kale, broccoli, collards are protected from the cabbage moth and the chard and beets are just transplanted.

New Beginnings

Thanks to the students at Brooks School, I did not lose all my hard work whilst I was grieving.  They and kind staff watered and tended to my starts.  Things look healthy and ready to plant.

Ready to go into the field

Also, today, I faced two of my fears and two tasks that I was hoping to leave for Kamal to do.  He was going to take care of the bees.  Well, with help from the Merrimac Valley Beekeepers and my brother-in-law, I installed a package of bees.

Here are my two hives.

Secondly, Kamal was going to drive the tractor and teach me along the way.  Now, it is full-on immersion with the tractor and implements finally arriving.  The cover crop was so tall that mowing was the first thing to do.  Later, the rye and vetch would be harrowed in.

This is me on the tractor mowing.

Because of the help of great teachers, I feel pretty comfortable on this tractor and look forward to doing more work tomorrow.

Working Hard to Get Your Veggies

Should have worn my snowshoes to get there. 

Part of farming and, in my case, growing vegetables is to maintain my infrastructure. Snow on the sides of the high tunnel can cause a collapse.  Lucky for me, I am farming at the Brooks School; wherein, I have some much-appreciated support.  Many thanks to Bill.

Here's what I had ahead of me until I was rescued!

Some gardeners call snow - nature's fertilizer.  As I was shoveling, I thought this might be enough for season.

The snow slid off the roof and down this south side.

Here's another action shot.

Putting the Farm to Bed 2014

We got some welcome rain today.  That will help my rye and vetch cover crop get established before the winter.  Next year, this mixture will suppress weeds and bring some nutrients and organic matter to the soil.

Looking south, clover aisles bisect the field with blocks of germinating winter rye and hairy vetch.

This time of year, it is a race to pull up the crops and sow the rye.

Kamal tilling where the sweet potatoes were.

Earlier in the week, I thought to try to sow into the spaces of the growing fall crops.  As I harvest the crops, I will leave the rye.  We'll see how it turns out. 

I spread the winter rye and cultivated it in between the lettuce.

We pulled out the stakes so there's less architectural dimensions in the field.

Looking over the former potato field with the only height of fading flowers giving some food for the birds and bees.

Still there are some bright surprises to be found.

A beet harvest... I was stunned to find these as they have been struggling and in the ground since May.

Giant Amaranth or Love Lies Bleeding