News from the Farm

Grab your gloves and your favorite weeding tool and come on down to the farm for some weeding and socializing. Come when you can, leave when you must.

Anything you can do will enhance the health of our farm this year and for years to come.

How? you might ask.
Every grass or wild amaranth or velvet leaf that flowers and goes to seed adds to the seed bank in the soil. These seeds will germinate next year or in the years after. They’ll compete with our food crops for nutrients, water, and sunlight. They will provide habitat for harmful insects and disease.

Get it?
So, come pull them out tomorrow! (or whenever else you can make it – the next week or so is critical!)

Happy Independence Day!

“Delightful Day at the Farm” featuring the Caseus Cheese Truck and Jordan Caterers –
Sunday July 10, noon – 3 pm

We have a few more spots left! We’ll have a wonderful lunch in a lovely setting. There will be kids’ activities, farm tours, hay rides and a silent auction. Please sign up online at www.friendsofboulderknoll.com/dayonthefarm. Tickets are $30 for adults and $5 for kids (there’s a small (under $3) processing fee). All proceeds will benefit the Friends of Boulder Knoll’s agricultural, conservation and environmental education work. Ticket sales close at the end of the day on Tuesday (tomorrow!!)

Help is needed to set up tables and tents, direct parking, sell raffle tickets and clean up. Please send Brenda a note to brenda@boulderknollfarm.com if you can assist with any of this. Tents will be set up on Saturday and everything else will need to be set up on Sunday morning. Thanks!!

Important time change for next Sunday’s pick-up

On July 10th, your pick-up time will be from 4 to 5 pm. This is so we don’t have a conflict with traffic from the farm lunch event. If you are at the event you may pick your food up when you are there.

Work needs

Thanks to all those of you who have done so much for the farm this season. A reminder about how it all works: CSA members’ work is coordinated by two members, Annmarie Golioto and Amy Wojenski (thank goodness!). When you receive the email from Annmarie telling the times that are available for work, you may sign up with Amy Wojenski according to the instructions. They’ll add your name to the work calendar. Please check the on-line farm calendar for your scheduled times.

Any time you can put in is helpful, so don’t be shy about coming for an hour or two. Harvests on Thursday and Sunday mornings are important so check the calendar for harvests you can help with. Signing up way ahead of time is great!

Educational events coming up
Please RSVP to Julia at educator@boulderknollfarm.com

• Beyond the Basics: Organic Gardening
  Tuesday July 5th 4-6pm 

  Already begun a garden? Want to take it to the next level? Farmer Brenda will lead this workshop in going beyond the basics of organic gardening. Using examples from the farm and drawing on Brenda’s years of hands-on experience in the field, we’ll cover many aspects of farming. Participants are encouraged to come with questions!

• Whats Buggin’ You?
  Saturday July 16th 10-12am 

  The CT Agricultural Experiment Station’s Kim Stoner will lead this morning workshop on insect ecology. Dr. Stoner, an expert in local pollinators and entomology, will help us discover different insects, their relationships to plants and their purpose on the farm.

• Friend or Foe? Invasive Plants and You
  Saturday July 23rd 9-11am 

  Join horticulturist and invasive plant expert Rose Hiskes of the CT Agriculture Experiment Station in understanding the plants that are threatening our native ecosystems. Brief lecture followed by a walk around Boulder Knoll farm and forest in search of invasive plants.

   

Events are free and open to the public. Bring your enthusiasm and dress for the outdoors!

The Gardens

As you may have noticed, peas are doing great, and squash, cukes, and tomatoes are not too far behind. I hope you’ve been enjoying the food. Your share will include some fruit from High Hill Orchard in Meriden starting next Sunday.

I’m hoping to have our first potato harvest in a week or two, so watch for a call for adult and kid helpers.

Weeds are coming in fast and furious, so weeders and mulchers are always welcome. I’d really like to get all of the paths mowed and covered with cardboard and woodchips in the next few weeks. This will really help hold pest populations down and increase air circulation.

We have had lots of sightings of special birds, reptiles and amphibians at the farm this year. We’ve seen turkeys, bluebirds, cedar waxwings, yellow warblers, chipping and song sparrows, toads, snakes, and even a box turtle and a snapping turtle. The birds have been enjoying the birdbath in Anne’s Garden.

Thanks to Julia and farm friend Ann Cherry, the patio outside of the hoophouse entrance has been turned into a shady, pleasant spot to rest or meditate. Please feel free to come early in the morning or any other time to enjoy this peaceful place to sit and watch the birds and chipmunks.

See you at the farm!
Brenda

CSA member Tricia D will be joining us periodically to chronicle her experience as a work-intensive shareholder at Boulder Knoll Farm. This is her first post, originally published on her blog, Cheshire Cat Sunflower.

Today was my first day of work on Boulder Knoll Farm. After having followed the farm’s CSA program since its inception three years ago, Bryan and I finally decided to join. Our own vegetable garden has, for the past few years, been an exercise in frustration: each spring we turn the soil, clear the beds, plant the seeds, fix the fence, wait for the harvest, and then watch as our beans, peas, tomatoes, and other vegetables and herbs are ravaged by deer, moles, Japanese beetles, and a host of other insects and mammals.

So this year we decided to learn something about successful gardening by participating in a work-intensive CSA program. In exchange for 30 hours of work on the farm, and a small sum of money, we will take home a share of the crops every few weeks from June until October. Even more exciting than the booty, however, is the opportunity to participate in a community agricultural program. Today, before starting work, I looked at the rows of empty beds, at the folks working in various corners of the field, and thought about how great it would be to document, day by day, the subtle changes, changes wrought, in large part, by the hands of a small group of dedicated workers.

But before that, I was sitting in my dining room, reading freshman essays and sighing anxiously, working my way through the paper pile and pausing to consider other piles—laundry, dishes, clothes to be sorted through for spring. I looked at the clock and swore, wishing I hadn’t chosen today—a day I really needed to use for catching up on work—to volunteer on the farm.

At 11:20, I headed over to the farm. My first task was to harvest some parsnips that had “over-wintered.” I had help from two other women, both of whom were delighted by the surprise crop of vegetables. Who knew we’d take home a share on day one? Even more amazing was the fact that these hearty roots had survived the weight of this year’s unusually harsh winter. So many of them, too. And they hadn’t just survived; they had thrived! I dug the pitchfork into the ground, and it took all of my weight to break the roots from the dirt. They clung to the soil, secure in their subterranean shelter. I reached down and pulled, gently but firmly, and was surprised by the girth of these hearty vegetables. The other workers were awestruck, and at the end of a half an hour, we had filled a laundry tub with parsnips. We all agreed that this was a positive omen: an unexpected harvest on the first official day of the season.

I spent the next ninety minutes lopping dead flower stems and pulling out roots to make way for new seeds. It wasn’t intellectual work, and it wasn’t overly physical, but there was a supreme satisfaction in pausing to look at what I was able to accomplish in a relatively short amount of time. In my own work, my school work, there is rarely a sense of completion. I hack away, perpetually behind in my grading, my reading, my prep, and always feeling as though I could be doing more, or doing something better. On the farm, my task was simple, and I could easily set a reasonable goal. Pull parsnips. Clear four beds. Dump the debris in the compost pile. Write the time in the log.

“This is a wonderful place,” said one of the other workers who passed by me as I pulled roots. “It’s amazing to stand here and look at these fields and know that, in three months, everything will have blossomed as a result of our work.”

Though he was right, I wasn’t thinking that far ahead at the moment. I wasn’t thinking about much of anything, in fact. The sun was dancing in and out of the clouds, my fingernails were dirtier than they had ever been, and the work pile on my dining room table was, for the moment, a matter of little consequence.

Roasted parsnips, anyone?

Produce this week

I anticipate that the following will be in your share this week:

• peas
• chard
• kale
• scallions
• maybe on the choice table – lettuce, escarole, wild crafted greens like lambsquarters, baby carrots, rhubarb
• herbs

Sometimes if something isn’t big enough to harvest, I’ll wait until Thursday to take it, and the Sunday group gets it the following week. It all evens out.

I am attaching the member list again for our Sunday (3 – 5 pm) and Thursday (4 – 6:30 pm) distribution. If you need to change your day or cancel a week, please let me know the day before the affected harvest. You can come later than the given times, but no one will be there in the shed. Come anyway! Your food will be waiting for you. If you can’t come that evening, I’d like to hear from you by noon of the next day – otherwise it might not be saved for you.

Anne’s Garden

We had a great group at the farm last evening planting the teaching and demonstration garden in honor of Anne Giddings. In attendance were friends and members of the farm, Anne’s husband, Bob, their son Bob and daughter-in-law Lisa, as well as Cheshire town manager Michael Milone and Council members Tim Slocum and Dave Schrumm. The garden is a mix of edibles, medicinals and butterfly attracting perennials and annuals. Anne was a great flower lover, environmentalist and teacher and this garden is a beautiful tribute to her life. Those of us who knew her miss her very much. We’ll be doing more work on it in the next few weeks if folks want to help.

Delightful Day on the Farm – July 10, 12 noon – 3 pm

Tickets ($30 adults, $5 kids under 10) are available in the hoop house at distribution or on-line at Friendsofboulderknoll.com/dayonthefarm.

Join us for a terrific lunch by the Caseus Cheese truck and dessert by Jordan Caterers, hay rides, silent auction, farm tour.

Space is limited, don’t delay!

Work needs

Check the work calendar at Boulderknollfarm.com for available times to work. Please especially check for harvest workers needed on Sundays and Thursdays. Sign up with Amy Wojenski amywojenski@yahoo.com or Annmarie Golioto agolioto@srhs.org.

Distributions begin!

Our first CSA distribution will be next week (Sunday June 19th and Thursday June 23rd).

Pick-up times are Sunday between 3 and 5, and Thursday between 4 and 6:30.

Late pick-ups should look for their bags of food in a cooler in the hoop house. If I hear from you by the next day, I will leave your food in the cooler for you. If I don’t hear from you by noon of the next day, I may donate your share.

I anticipate that you will receive:

• garlic scapes (the flower stalk of garlic plants can be chopped up and used like garlic)
• herbs (mint, cilantro, etc)
• a basil plant
• Swiss chard
• peas
• pick your own strawberries if they’re still coming
• other depending on the amount of sunny days!

Switches and Cancellations

Please read this carefully. You may cancel a pick-up or switch to the other day that week (from Sunday to the next Thursday or from Thursday to the previous Sunday). I need to know at least the day before if you will be switching or cancelling so we and our fruit grower harvests the right amount. Please note: If you are a Thursday pick up and want to switch to the previous Sunday that week, I need to know by Saturday.

There is a Switch/Cancellation clipboard in the hoophouse at distribution that you can use to communicate with me. Email works too.

Of course you can let someone else pick up your share if you’re going away. You don’t have to tell me ahead of time.

Please let me know if you have questions about the Switch/Cancellation policy.

Work needs

• Harvest and prep
  The quality and amount of our CSA distribution often depends on the quality and amount of our harvest crew. Harvest begins at 830 and ends when we’re done (usually 2 to 4 hours) Harvesters who can stay, and sometimes an additional prep person, work in the shed from about 1030 to 2 to wash, sort, bag and label the produce. The farm work calendar at boulderknollfarm.com will indicate the number of people we need for each harvest. Please sign up for harvest or prep jobs on Sundays and Thursdays. If you sign up weeks ahead of time, that will take a lot of stress off Amy and Annmarie, the work coordinators. And me.

• Field work needed
  We need weeders and mulchers. The vast majority of our plants are in the ground. Weeds are coming fast and furious. If we weed, then cover the bare soil with mulch, it will make a huge difference. It’s easy and satisfying. We have lots of wood chips and cardboard for paths – another satisfying and very important job. Please check the farm work calendar for available work times and sign up with Amy.

Wish list

• Cardboard in large sheets, without holes or slits
• Someone to plumb or otherwise set up the washing sinks in the hoophouse.
• Ecologically friendly dish soap
• Plastic grocery bags
• Rubber bands
• Scrubby brushes and sponges (for counters, harvest bins and produce)
• Recipes posted on our website/blog – boulderknollfarm.com
• Good quality garden carts or plastic wheelbarrows

Upcoming events

• Anne’s Garden Planting and Dedication
  Friday, June 24th from 4-6 pm
  Planting Anne’s Garden between the tool shed and hoop house

• Exploring Ecosystems on the Farm Part II
  Tuesday, June 28th 4-6 pm
  We will revisit the same path we took around the farm during the first ecosystem walk and note changes, seasonal highlights, wildlife spottings etc.

• Organic Gardening: Part 2.
  Friday, Tuesday, July 5th 4-6 pm.
  More than just the basics. A chance to ask questions of our farmer.

• Insect Ecology with Kim Stoner, Entomologist, CT Agricultural Experiment Station
  Saturday, July 16th 10-12 am
  Check the website for more details

A Delightful Day at the Farm

Sunday July 10th, 12 noon to 3.

Join us for a delicious farm lunch by the Caseus Cheese Truck with dessert by Jordan Caterers, hay rides, kids activities, silent tea cup auction. Email member Meredith Berger meredith.berger@yale.edu for tickets. Adults $30, Kids under 10 $5. This event will be limited to 75 people and tickets will sell out fast.

More details to follow.