Is it monsoon season?

What a crazy spring! We have been battling the flood waters out at the farm, attempting to lay out new contours to our roads and paths so we don't lose any more of our beds. A canyon has eaten some of the cilantro bed, and some of our onions are precariously close to tipping over a precipice. We had to save some washed-out potatoes (now happily in the ground once more and growing quite well) and created some gullies to divert the raging torrents to keep any more damage to a minimum.

Perhaps it's part of a farmer's job to complain about the weather. Come August, we'll be looking to the skies for rain. A positive to the cool, wet weather is that our kale and chard are doing very well. We harvested quite a bit this morning at our space at Tuthill Farms and are very excited to have it for our customers tomorrow at the Brighton Farmers Market. Check out the Farmers Market page for more information on what we'll be having at market. Hope to see you in Brighton this weekend!

-Shannon

Another good week at the farm

This week has been a busy one! Then again, what week isn't this time of year? We've been battling the quack grass at Tuthill Farms and are slowly making a dent in the grass growing in the beds. The radishes are doing quite well out there—we had our first taste of them this week, mmmm! They will be some of our first edible items at market in a couple of weeks.

At the Stone Coop Farm property we have planted the entire hoop house with tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and basil. Those heat-loving plants have been growing like crazy this past week with all the hot weather we've been having. We got potatoes in the ground at both Stone Coop and Tuthills (a lot of potatoes) and have finally finished planting the remainder of the scallions.

As usual this weekend we will be at Brighton Farmers Market from 8am-1pm. We will have tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants available, including some wonderful heirloom tomato varieties. My sister-in-law, Jackie, will also be at market with us, selling her delicious and creative home-baked goods. In the afternoon we'll be back at the farm, pulling the wire for our brand-new deer fence that we've worked on this week. Let's hope for some good weather for market and fence-building!

-Shannon

First markets this week

May is here, and that means farmers market season has started! Our first market is today, Wednesday, May 4 at the farm 4:30-6:30. We'll be in the red and white tent above the gravel parking lot next to the fitness center. It's been a cold, wet spring, and that means we have less available this time of year than usual. We will, however, be selling tomato transplants at the market today. At Brighton's Farmers Market on Saturday we will have tomato, eggplant and pepper transplants available. Check out the Farmers Market page for updates on markets.

-Shannon

We have our hoop house!

What a great turn out on Saturday! With volunteers from Selma, UUAA and many individuals from the community, we were able to complete the hoop house in a day. A fun time was had by all, and I think we all learned quite a bit along the way. A great many thanks to everyone who came for the build! We couldn't have done it without you!

 Here we are completing the frame of the hoop.

 The plastic has been pulled and now we're wiring it to the frame.

 Rolling up the sides to set the automatic roll-up.

After a long day of hard work, the hoop is done!

To see more pictures from the build day, check out our Picasa photo album.

In other news, May is here, and that means this is the first week for the farmers market! We're very excited for our first markets this week. The first is on Wednesday afternoon at the farm, 4:30-6:30. Later in the week on Saturday we will be at Brighton's Farmers Market, which runs from 8:00am-1:00pm. Make sure to be checking the Farmers Market Info page during the week to see what we'll have available at market.

Hope to see you there!

-Shannon