Website

If you are reading this on our NEW website, welcome!! If you are reading this on our blog, you may want to check out cloverlyfarm.com for more information about the farm.

Getting a website has been a long, arduous process. We're very happy to have gotten this far! I am super excited to start posting information about our CSA, answering questions, and having discussions with people of the community. This is a very large and important step toward getting the word out and becoming more involved with the people around us.

We have given ourselves a deadline to recruit CSA shareholders, which means we have an even earlier deadline of fleshing out the last details of the CSA. There are many questions to answer, such as:

How many shares will we be able to handle?

Where will they be distributed to the shareholders, and how?

How much will a share cost?

How many vegetables will be in a share?

And much, much more.

We were hoping to get more community feedback, but it is a difficult time of year, and we understand that. So, we're going to make our own executive decisions and hope that it suits the community well.

To see all of our plans in their final version, stay tuned for the page "CSA" on our website, coming very soon. This will have everything you may need to know about what a CSA is, how it will work, and what ours in particular will look like. If you still have questions, pop into our Discussion board (also coming very soon. Maybe even tonight) where there will be a discussion regarding the Q&As of CSAs.

Thank you for being a follower of Cloverly Farm. We are really lucky to have people who are willing to stick with us through thick and thin. We hope that the website will offer you much better resources for getting involved and learning about who we are and what we are up to. Please visit and, as always, be sure to give us your input!

-Terra

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

Learning to Cope

Hey there y'all...

So as you know I am currently bogged down with end-of-year school work. I've found that I begin to get a bit loopy if I sit in my room doing homework for too long, so I decided to take a break and write a post.

I'm rather bummed right now, because a frost hit our dear seedlings, and a number of them (including most of our tray of chard) have permanently passed away.

This is the most difficult part of the year for me. I grow so attached to my little seedlings... even when I'm not there most of the time, apparently. When someone calls me from home, telling me that more seedlings have died, I get panicky. I go on wild searches on the internet for diagnoses and organic cures. Then I get depressed. I fall into a state of hopelessness, because what can I do, when I'm 2 hours away?

And if there's one thing that I hate doing, it's thinning. I know its going to happen, I plant 2 or 3 seeds in each plug, I don't do anything to avoid it, and then the day comes.... and I just can't. I can't pull up those little babies, who are working so hard to survive! Last year, for our little garden, I got my mom to do it for me. This year, Dan is taking on most of the dirty work. (It is interesting to note that "dirty work" in my mind means plucking little plants, but shoveling manure is perfectly clean).

It's a fact... I am just too attached to plants. As soon as a seed goes in the ground, I become its "mommy". I am crushed when one little guy plops over. Last year, I spent whole lot of energy on a couple of tomato plants that had been deemed the 'runts'. But I couldn't throw them away... so I made them their own little container. I was so proud when they bore fruit! (But it probably wasn't worth it!)

So how do I get over this? I've shoved aside the problem thus far, unrealistically reassuring myself that one day I will be such a good farmer, I will NEVER have to thin, and plants will NEVER die.

...Of course I know this is not possible. Its just a subconscious thing, spawning from my inability to cope with a regular part of nature and of farming. So how DO I cope?

I'm still trying to figure this out.

-Terra

PS. Meanwhile, here's a picture of my little babies!!

PPS. And NH, seriously, please don't snow again... not after we've all (including the plants) gotten used to the nice weather.