We wanted to start off by saying that our farm community is such an important part of our lives and we are thinking of you all and hope that you are staying safe and healthy. Right now we are planning and making preparations to try to ensure that the farm is a safe place to come get your vegetables and flowers once asparagus and tulip season begins in May. It will obviously mean some adjustments in the farm stand and CSA this year, especially as we think about layout configurations to maximize social distancing. We are also looking at doing more prepackaging of items. This was not the direction we had been intending to move this year, but public safety is the highest priority right now. We and our staff have always followed strict hygiene practices for food safety - those will be continued and enhanced this season.
Taking all of these extra precautions will of course require more resources and quite a bit more labor than before, so we are especially grateful to everyone who has signed up for the CSA and Barrett’s Bucks already, giving us and our employees a little more security going into a financially uncertain period ahead of us. Thank you also to everyone who has contributed toward our sponsored shares- to date over $2,000! We are still planning to offer reduced price SNAP CSA shares as well as to donate shares to Minute Man ARC and Dignity in Asylum, so we are very grateful to have such an amazing farm community supporting those efforts.
Despite the unpredictability right now, plants in the greenhouse, high tunnels and field continue to grow as expected! Daffodils and tulips are poking out of the ground outside, while spinach, carrots and ranunculus have been growing for the past couple of months in our high tunnels. Leeks, onions, fennel, scallion, salanova and stock flower seedlings are popping up in the greenhouse, and this week we will be seeding shallots, cabbage and kohlrabi. With the dry and warm weather, we have managed to chisel plow about an acre of ground in preparation for spring carrots, beets, spinach, greens and lettuce. We have also taken advantage of the early dry field conditions to start spreading lime on our fields to balance the soil pH. Last week we replaced the plastic covering on our large greenhouse - a big, once-every-four-years undertaking involving lots of ropes and very tall ladders - with the help of returning farmers Sarah and Rebecca, as well as super volunteer Paul! Finally, construction of our fourth high tunnel is underway, which will allow us to rotate tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers in protected growing space starting this year!
We want to emphasize to all of you how grateful we are for your support. Though it is a difficult time requiring physical separation from friends and family, we feel very connected to our farm community in spirit. We hope you can all take heart that fresh veggies (and pretty flowers!) are coming soon!
Fennel, stock (flowers) and parsley sunning in the greenhouse!