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. :)

What I'm Looking For

I figured, since this is the beginning of the whole blog scene for us, that it would be appropriate to commence with a statement about what I am looking to gain from the farming experience -what my dream is, in other words.

1. Good Food

This means I know where it came from. I know it was grown with dedication and love. It was grown organically. It was grown sustainably. I know I can give it to my friends and family, and even to strangers, and feel good about it. I don't know what exactly makes home-grown vegetables taste better (is it because of the actual growing process, or just the accomplishment of having grown it yourself?) but it's no secret that they are simply better than what you can get in the supermarket.

2. Community

If there is one thing that I would like to bring my community together, it would be the food they eat. I think that we sometimes forget that food is essential for life. Why should we have to struggle so hard to get it? I would love to see my small town working together to produce all the food we need. (Goodness knows we have enough land...) So, one of my dreams will be accomplished when I see our community losing its dependence on the oversized supermarket, and spending more time in the sun, in the rain, together, smiling and growing and talking to each other.

3. Sustainability

The environment is of course a ever-growing concern on the minds of the public. There are a lot of issues that are out of my control, although I can do my part in reversing them. What we can do is to learn to live within the balance of nature (instead of fighting it, like humans tend to do). I am certainly lucky to have the opportunity given to me - especially the land and the time - to make a sustainable living situation for myself. I plan to take full advantage of the opportunity! As far as I'm concerned, I've lost enough time already! By the time I graduate college (probably just 3 more years) I want to be able to come back to a well-established, and always improving, sustainable homestead.

4. Experience

Lastly, of course, I just want the experience. This means a lot of things. Physically, I want to see myself at the end of the summer, or in a few years, tanned, hardened, calloused, ready to take on the challenges that I'm sure to encounter. I want to come back to school in the fall with stories as well as vegetables. I want to acquire the know-how to deal with practical situations, the mindset to be able to deal with business-related issues, and the knowledge of the workings of nature, plants, and animals. I'm sure that this path I have chosen will provide me with all of this. I see it as a wholesome career, filled with positive experiences. It's those experiences that I am looking for.

I believe that this covers most of what I am looking for... Love is difficult to define, you know. Even if you find it, you are always searching for it. So I'll just leave it with these four for now. And hopefully you can understand from these what makes me love farming so much!

Terra