Our Routine

So I think we're well established enough to be able to say that we have a 'routine'. Granted, it is always changing. But I thought it was fair to spell out the basics here:

Our most successful endeavor so far has been home and office delivery. It started by calling our friends at their homes and places of work and asking if they, their families, and their coworkers were interested in a delivery. We got a lot of positive responses, and we've made a list of people and places that we visit about once a week. The list seems to grow every week, and now we have three businesses and five homes that deliver to regularly!

How the delivering works: Dan and/or I load all the veggies into the back of the car after making some phone calls to see who is interested in veggies today. Then we drive over, and depending on the place, we bring all the veggies inside for people to browse, or we let people come out to our "portable farm stand" in the back of the car.

We also have done special deliveries, such as meeting people at a public location for a delivery. We really strive to be accommodating (I mean, if people want our veggies, they should be able to get them!) and we've made a lot of progress through this method of sale. Even with the farmer's market and whatever else happens, I still see home delivery continuing to be a big part of our future at the farm.

Other methods of sale? Not as much. We are starting the Greenfield Farmer's Market (or "trial market", this year..) which has not been very profitable yet, but seems to be growing! For the past two weeks, it has been just Dan and I, our small vegetable stand, and a couple posters, but this coming Tuesday holds promises of two more vendors -- one who sells goat milk soap and lotion, and one who sells gluten free baked goods!! I am so excited to see who shows up this week.

And our very last, teeny-tiny idea? We are hoping to get a farm stand. We've called a business with a currently unused farm stand set-up and asked for permission to use it and do maintenance on it. We're still waiting on a reply, with crossed fingers!

AND NOW.... Photos!! Just like I promised!

Here's our very first stand at our trial market!

This is how our veggies stay when they are not being delivered or in any other use. It makes our porch quite lovely!

Here's a dish my mom made from multicolored veggies AND pasta! It was so beautiful, and just as delicious!

Another shot of the stand, with a signage-close up. Dan looks so chill. :)

Our little helpers, displaying our veggies! They are so helpful.

So, I know it's not pictures of the garden itself yet... But those are coming soon! VERY soon, now that I have a useable camera! Promise!

-Terra

How we're doing... What we're thinking...

Cherry tomatoes ......................................... $2.00/pint
Green Beans/Yellow Wax Beans .................. $1.50/bag
Onions ........................................................ $0.75
Radishes (are back!) .................................... $1.00/bundle (~5)
Beets .......................................................... $1.00/bundle (~4)
Zucchini ...................................................... $0.75/ea
Summer Squash (Crookneck or Patty Pan) ... $0.75/ea
Cucumbers ................................................. $0.50/ea
Carrots ....................................................... $1.50/bundle (~6)
Soft-neck Garlic ......................................... $1/bulb
Kale ............................................................ $1.50/bundle
Eggs (From the Fletchers) ............................ $2/dozen

This is our current list! (not bad!)

Still battling with hornworms and other pests (Potato beetles attacked one of the groups of potatoes and completely demolished it! Agh!)

The other day I worked on building "squash towers", which was basically a desperate attempt to get the butternut squash away from the other plants, composed of 6 big saplings trussed together in a teepee shape with branches woven in between. I then wound the vines up and around the structure. Who knew that winter squash sent out such ridiculous vines?? I guess I should have known, but I wasn't ready! Next year I will be though. We're planning a whole separate field for winter squash - the way it should be!

Speaking of next year, we've been having a lot of conversations on that subject. As of now, we are planning on continuing, but it's going to rely heavily on the support of our friends and the community. We don't want our work and learning experiences to go to waste! If we do continue, here's (approximately) what it will (probably) look like:

A field for squash and a field for corn (perhaps manifesting itself into a "3 sister's garden", which we considered doing this year but determined it was not feasible with the time we had left.) So where our big garden is now, there may be a giant garden of corn, beans, and squash.

Perhaps something new and exciting!! We have lately been considering the prospects of honey, perhaps with a lovely field of berries to support it. We also have come back around to the idea of planting some christmas trees, as an investment in the future (they take about 5 years to mature from the size that we would buy them).

A weekly appearance at a farmer's market (or two or three!) We plan on re-applying to the Peterborough farmer's market and the Hancock Farmer's market, and we are still working on establishing a trendy new co-op sort of market in Greenfield for farmers, gardeners, home gardeners, bakers, and anyone who produced food and wants to share it with their community. I see no reason why Greenfield shouldn't be able to entirely support its community's food needs, given the amount of land we have and the number of people who have picked up gardening and farming and want to learn more!!

And altogether, hopefully the farm will be more established, a blooming business that is perhaps beginning to stand on its feet, or even just a comfortably large home garden that shares itself with the community. Whatever it ends up as next year, we hope that we continue to be supported in the endeavor and that we can keep working toward a positive change in our community! A garden is never a bad thing to have.

-Terra

PS. Pictures soon, I promise. Just gotta keep bugging Dan. :)

Where have we been???

It's hard to believe how long it's been since our last post. Things have been flying around here!

The squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes have exploded. It's been difficult just keeping track of them.

We're currently selling carrots, beets, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, purple broccoli, and kale. Because there are SO many vegetables, we've begun to sell more often. I usually bring a cooler of veggies into town every week day.

The tomatoes constantly need to be staked and re-staked, as they grow at an alarming rate, and there are so many of them! (4 rows!) Also, we've gotten a small infestation of tobacco hornworms, which we've managed to keep under control (they can devour an entire tomato plant in a matter of days!) but those need constant supervision.

The onions look like they're ready to be prepped for storage, which involves breaking the stem while they are in the ground and letting them sit for a while.

New crops need to be planted for fall. Spinach, lettuce, and whatever else.

And on top of all of this, Dan and I have begun to work toward starting a farmer's market in Greenfield. So far, we've attended a planning board meeting, and we were met with a lot of support! But there are a lot of obstacles to overcome. On Thursday, we will be attending the Selectman board meeting to share our idea. The plan is still a bit half-baked, but hopefully with enough community support, we can pull together a well functioning market that will help Greenfield to become a better town.

Now, I'd better go out and get to work! But hopefully there will be another post soon. :)

-Terra