summitspringsfarm.net

Well, we certainly hope everyone had a healthy and happy Thanksgiving.  We had a great time here at the farm with my sister and her family, visiting from the Keene, NH area, plus Sonya’s old farming friend, Cynthia, up from Connecticut (those two met and bonded while working for the legendary George Hall a few years back).  The feast was superb and featured:  a wonderful turkey from our friend and fellow Portland Farmers’ Market vendor, Dan Perron; stuffing made with LolliePapa Farm’s bread; mashed potatoes with taters from Rippling Waters (alas, our own small supply ran out a couple weeks ago!); our own mashed carrots and turnips; our own squash; Cynthia’s creamed onions and mashed rutabaga; homemade cranberry sauce; Sonya’s excellent gravy…and, to send us completely over the edge, a trio of pies:  carrot, apple, and pecan.  Bliss…

Of course, some farm work always calls.  Last Friday, we took advantage of my brother-in-law’s muscle and my sister’s offer to watch Lydia and moved the younger, black chickens from Field 1 all the way across the farm to Field 3 behind the greenhouse.  Moving the portable coop was easy…it rolled along nicely in spite of the rain.  The hard part was rounding up and catching the 40+ chickens and moving them over to their new area.  Nervous chickens, plus a steady rain, plus a lot of mud made for quite a long and eventful roundup!  I made some flying tackles out there…  It wasn’t pretty, and we were all completely filthy after the fact, but we got all the chickens where they needed to be.  They’ll be more or less where they are now through the winter.  The other group of chickens are gradually making their way towards the front of the greenhouse where they will hang out until spring.

We also took a little post-Thanksgiving field trip up to Johnny’s to pick up our seed order.  It was a bit of a shock to get nearly $500 worth of seeds in a smallish paper sack!  Lydia charmed the pants off the ladies working in the shop there, and we impulsively picked up a few more odds and ends:  a few more hand hoes, another lettuce knife, and a Solo sprayer for foliar feeding.

We plan to leave on our winter road trip in less than three weeks, so we’re scrambling to get things in order.  With much of our seed now in hand, Sonya is working on next year’s planting schedule.  I’ve been cutting wood and doing random little jobs outside:  covering our mower, spader, and fencing supplies for the winter, sealing up the greenhouse sides, stowing hoses away, etc.  It’s a little odd but nice NOT to be in Portland this week.  I’ll be back next week, though, for the first installment of the winter market.  If anyone is interested in eggs this winter and can’t make it to Portland, feel free to call up the farm at 998-2196 to check on availability and pick ‘em up right here.

I completely neglected to mention here that Sonya worked the new Bridgton indoor holiday market last Saturday.  It’s happening each Saturday morning from 9-1 at the community center behind the Magic Lantern Theater.  Attendance last week was light as folks are still learning about the market and the vendors are trying to get more signage up and around town.  Check it out!  Sonya will there each Saturday until further notice selling eggs, carrots, and more.  I will be back in Portland’s Monument Square tomorrow, too, for the weekly market.

The season proper is over, of course, but the off season has been feeling pretty “on” so far this week.  Sonya’s been busy inside working on next year’s seed order and getting financial and renewal info. to our members.  I’ve been on the computer, too, getting the farm’s 2010 pamphlet together.  Outside work continues, too…next year’s garlic is now mulched and ready for winter, all of our harvest bins and buckets have been scrubbed down and stowed in the barn, and I’ve begun the process of taking down the deer fence around Field 2.  Never a dull moment…

And finally, many thanks to friend-of-the-farm extraordinaire, Hank Mosher, for his efforts last week installing a light in our veggie cooler.  It somehow never occurred to us during construction that a light in there would be a good idea, and we got through the season using a tap light (that lasted about a week until someone left it on) and squinting.  But now, the darkness has been banished!  Thanks, Hank!  Many thanks, too, to everyone who has hooked us up with leaves this past week.  Keep ‘em coming!  The garlic mulching is done, as I mentioned, but our goal is to have a stockpile of leaves bagged and covered over the winter and ready to use in the field next season for things like tomatoes and peppers.  You can drop them off anytime over to the right of the barn, or let us know, and we’ll come pick them up for you.

Well, the day began with rain and now is ending with it.  It’s maddening!  I did check the extended forecast, though, and it looks promising:  rain tomorrow but then dry for most of next week.  It’s a good thing because we have TONS of stuff in the greenhouse waiting to be planted outside once we’re able to do so.  We also sowed a ton of seeds today with the hope that we’ll have a warmish and long fall.  We got the potatoes for the weekend out of the ground this morning and then retired to the greenhouse to sow beets, chard, lettuce, kohlrabi, and Napa cabbage.

A few people have mentioned that they enjoy the blog but would like to see more photos.  Amen to that!  It’s just a matter of finding the time, folks.  As we gear up for this weekend’s weeding party and potluck, I’d like to post a few pix of our wonderful volunteers this week.  I didn’t get a picture of Heidi and Kate, but here’s Carney, fresh out of the mud in the potato beds:

Today, River Foss came by to help Kate and I with the sowing:

And, just for fun, I spied a rainbow over the greenhouse a few afternoons ago after one of those lovely thunderstorms we’ve been experiencing recently:

That’s it for now…hopefully, I’ll be able to take and post some photos this weekend!

Also, a friendly reminder for those of you CSAers who are following my random musings and updates here:  This is a blog!  The idea is a non-static, back-and-forth kinda thing, with posts, threads, and all sorts of other things.  I’m not just fishing for random comments…Sonya and I would really like to know what you all think of your shares and what you’re up to.  What did you make with your veggies this week?  What worked out well and what didn’t?  What veggies did you like and which ones could you live without?  How are your home gardens going?  Etc…  We’ve love to hear from you, and I would guess that your fellow CSAers would, too!  Let’s get some dialogue going!

I (John) am flying solo this weekend. Sonya is with a big group of her Westbrook High friends floating down the Saco River on their annual canoe trip, cocktail probably in hand. So far, so good here on the home front. Lydia and I are having fun. The weather, alas, has kept us close to home, but that’s fine. (As I type, a pretty intense thunderstorm is happening.) Lydi is crawling now, by the way, so life has become much more interesting. She likes to chase the cats (they let her get just about to them and then casually slink away).

Many thanks to all of you who have responded to the announcement of next week’s weeding party and potluck, both the yays and the nays (especially the yays…yay for yays!) We look forward to getting some serious weeding done and appreciate the help!

If any of you out there do the Facebook thing, the Portland Farmers’ Market now has a page featuring web sites and contact info. for most of the participating vendors as well as market photos and news. If you search for “Portland Maine Farmers’ Market” it should come right up. Become a fan today!

The downpour is now over, the sun has returned, and a rainbow is arcing over the greenhouse.  Gorgeous!  Any rain, though, makes me nervous.  Rain is good and necessary, but I fear another stretch of wetness like we had for June.  Luckily, the farm has dried out considerably in July (which is almost over…how did that happen?)  Last week, we did some mowing, weeding (of course!), and more planting:  transplanted cabbage went into our brand new third field, plus lettuce into Field 2, and I finally seeded our salad mix brassicas.  The season keeps on rolling along…

No, this post is not a tribute to the late, great King of Pop…there are plenty of those elsewhere on the Internets. Billie Jean is our plucky farm truck (my old Saturn wagon is Bessie, for the record…any vehicle with whom you have a history deserves a name). We feared the worst after Kate’s fender bender last week but got some good news for a change: the damage to the truck was pretty minimal, as it turned out. A few tweaks here and there plus a new grille and Billie Jean is back in business. She did just fine yesterday in Portland and today in Bridgton. Sonya and I, however, have realized that we need another vehicle, and we may launch a cargo van hunt this weekend.

We welcome to the farm my dad, Jeremy Sayles, this weekend. He met me at the sunny and busy Bridgton market today on his way in from Vermont. At the farm, he quickly launched into his favorite activity, pruning. His initial goal was to take some limbs off the walnut tree near the barn to allow for cleaner vehicle access. We appreciate his efforts!

Pruning was exciting but even more exciting was the capture of a woodchuck in our “Have-a-heart” trap. Yes, one of our fuzzy, buck-toothed friends has been actively sampling our kale, parsley, kohlrabi, and more in recent weeks and effectively evading capture. We finally baited the trap with sliced apple, and that seems to have been too much to resist. Late year’s members might recall the newsletter guest column from Luther, the farm’s very first woodchuck capture. Luther was swept out of his simple life and into the world of high tech retail (if you have no idea what I’m talking about, it’s OK…I’ll post Luther’s story up here soon for those who don’t know it). Alas, “Luther Jr.” was NOT given a similar opportunity for a new beginning, except in the metaphysical sense. With the help of our neighbor, Larry, we put a swift end to the ‘chuck’s, er, indiscretions. We do this with little enthusiasm but with a realistic sense of what’s at stake. Farming in general, and this season of farming in particular, is hard enough without the added heartbreak of a large rodent eating our/your wares.

It has occurred to us that mid-July is almost upon us, and we haven’t scheduled a potluck yet. We’ve decided to skip this month entirely, actually. We have weekend plans and family/friend visits galore this month and figure many of our CSA members might be in the same boat as summer proper really gets going. Thanks for understanding, and we will definitely get an August potluck date set up soon!

We hope everyone is enjoying this week’s share! Over the past few weeks, at least one item a week has come to you in cardboard pint containers. These convenient little suckers are expensive, so if you have no use for them, please bring them back to the farm or to your future pick-ups! We can reuse them! Also, we can always us egg cartons and plastic grocery sacks!

Finally, still no word back from the Cooperative Extension lab up in Orono about the leaf samples I sent in last week. Late blight? No late blight? Something else entirely? We’ll let you know when we know!

No way!  It doesn’t seem possible that it’s raining AGAIN, does it?  After just about a solid week of rain last week, here we go again.  We must not forget, however, the lovely few days of sun we had.  The fields dried out quite a bit and it felt like you could see the plants responding to the light.

With the start of the CSA, our farming schedule is set.  On Tuesdays and Fridays, we harvest…on Wednesdays and Saturdays, we (or some of us) go to market…the rest of the time, we try to tackle weeding, planting, and everything else!  Much of our free farm time has been spent weeding:  the potato beds are now clean and freshly hilled…the tomato beds were weeded and await a blanket of mulch…etc.

My uncle, Tom Hughes, swept through last week to see the farm for the first time and meet his grandniece, Lydia.  The two hit it off wonderfully!  Tom came with me to the Bridgton market on Saturday and helped out here at the farm with slug hunting, daisy slaying, and strawberry harvesting.  Now, he’s headed back to Albuquerque for the summer.  Come back soon, Tom!

Tomorrow, Son’s dad and step-mom arrive, also to see the farm and little Lydia for the first time.  They’ll be staying a week, and we have all sorts of things in mind for Ron, a builder, to work on.  Chief among them is the construction of a cooler in our little barn.  Until now, we’ve managed without any refrigeration…we simply harvest our veggies, wash them, pack them in bins with wet burlap sacks over them, put them in the shade, and hope for the best.  This is less than ideal on very hot summer days!  So, Ron’s going to build us a heavily-insulated box rigged with an AC unit that’s been tricked into running constantly.  We’ll keep you posted on the cooler’s progress.  You can all meet Ron and Drenda in person at our next potluck:  Monday, June 22nd, from 5 - 9 right here at the farm!

Many thanks to CSA member River Foss, who spent Thursday morning at the farm and helped us finish up the weeding in the aforementioned tomato and potato beds!  We always welcome volunteers, and now is an especially busy time as we try to keep the spring weeds under control.  Give us a call or shoot us an e-mail if you’re interested in helping out and let us know when you’re available.  Thanks in advance!

Photos below are from this week’s Tuesday afternoon CSA pick-up!

It’s been a very busy week here at Summit Springs Farm, and I wanted to take a bit of time here this morning (Sonya is out spading, and I’m on Lydia duty) to try and tell everyone what we’ve been up to.  First, Sonya has been spending a lot of time on the tractor, spading and respading both fields, making beds, etc.  Our field planting is really underway now.  I added another bed of sugar snap peas to the three I planted last week, plus half a bed of our salad mix:  arugula, kale, mizuna, tatsoi, etc.  We’ve also started transplanting little plants from the greenhouse into the field, including beets, broccoli, Napa cabbage, lettuce, Lacinato and red Russian kale, and kohlrabi.  It’s starting to look like a farm around here!

I also spent a day putting up our 3-rope electric deer fence around Field 2, the bigger of our fields out past the greenhouse.  We use fencing and general equipment purchased from Wellscroft Farm in Chesham, New Hampshire, and we were very pleased with the results last year.  Our fences are pretty simple and not very high; a deer could easily leap right over.  The key is to get the fence up early, before any crops are in the field, and to bait it early and often.  I use peanut butter!  I wrap strips of aluminum foil around the fence rope and make a little packet at the end filled with peanut butter.  The idea is to lure the deer in, let their curiosity get the best of them, touch their little noses or tongues to the foil, and ZAP!  Hopefully, a lesson learned!

Thanks to our friend, Wes Covey, for coming over yesterday afternoon to help out for a few hours.  He helped Sonya do some general farm clean-up and then helped me put row cover on a couple of beds in Field 2 and start the process of erecting the deer fence around Field 1.  Thanks, too, to Sonya’s mom and our next door neighbor, Litha Thurlow, for hanging out with Lydia for a couple of mornings this week so her folks could get some planting done.

Finally, belated thanks to everyone who participated in our potluck last week!  We had a small but spirited group, including my sister and her family who were visiting us from New Hampshire.  Our next potluck will be on the evening of Saturday, May 23rd, so mark your calendars!

The photo above is of our chicken coop which I moved out of the greenhouse today and into the yard with the help of our friend, Hank Mosher (the grinning fella in the photo).  Our place is so muddy right now that we had to use old boards to create a rail system of sorts to get the coop out and over the slop to higher ground.  Many thanks to Hank; this job would have been a real pain to do alone!  He also worked to dig some simple drainage ditches for us around the greenhouse in an effort to speed the runoff.

Hello, all!  I figured it was about time to post a farm update here and at the same time, try to master this blogging business!  Going forward, we’d like to post farm updates and announcements here and try to cut down on the mass e-mails.  Also, once the season proper gets going, we’ll be posting a sort of “e-newsletter” each week with farm notes, announcements, a list of what our CSA members received in their shares, links to recipes, and more.

To state the obvious, spring is here and so is the mud!  Our land holds water very well, so the yard, fields, and even the inside of the greenhouse are all pretty mucky.  We hope that things will gradually dry out in the next couple of weeks so we can get the tractor out in the fields to begin the process of getting ready for planting.

In the meantime, Sonya’s been keeping very busy in the greenhouse, sowing seeds like crazy.  We’re thrilled with how things are progressing out there.  It’s a nice change from last season when, at this point, our greenhouse still wasn’t even finished!  We’re also very happy to have proper greenhouse tables in place, purchased this spring from Rounds Farm down in Hollis.  Last year, we simply used pallets on the ground for our trays.  Proper tables up on concrete blocks, however, allow for much better airflow, drainage, and heating.  Our little seedlings look very happy!

As for me, I’ve been trying to cut wood.  I took down some trees last fall along the double rock wall that runs through our hay fields and took a few more down last week.  Also, I cut down an old apple tree and two old pear trees in the yard that were hollow, half dead, and simply too far gone to try and salvage.  We plan to visit the annual Fedco tree sale in a couple of weeks and may try to find some replacement fruit trees.  As for the downed trees, the wood will help keep us warm next winter.