Hey Folks:
Thanks to those of you who are visiting this site for the first time. We hope you enjoy our farm website as much as the real thing. Unfortunately, the electronic farm experience is not quite as tasty. I hope it will whet your appetite for fresh, certified organic produce.
If you have any questions about the farm, feel free to contact me at the email address or phone number below.
Your advance payment will ensure a share of this year’s harvest. Harvest deliveries start in June and run through to the end of October. There are a couple of deliveries anticipated for November (cold hardy leaves and storage produce such as carrots and kidney beans).
Why I use Flyers to find customers:
To keep our doorstep delivery cost efficient, I restrict my customer base to particular neighborhoods. This renders print and electronic advertising somewhat ineffective.
I use very simple flyers (printed at home on standard print paper) to keep costs down. I realize most flyers will wind up being recycled, so I do not create extra expense with glossy, professionally cut flyers.
I do not leave flyers if I see a “no flyers please” sign on your mailbox. If I did not notice your request to this effect, please accept my apologies.
Still room for more customers...feel free to call the number at the bottom f the page, I am in most evenings.
Bob Whitmore
Hey Folks:
For a variety of possible reasons, the second round of onions did not germinate very well. The first round had left me with a little over half of the onions I required for this season.
As mentioned in previous posts, timing the start of the onion crop is crucial. Onions are a long season crop - the onions will be ready for harvest 95 days after transplant, so an early start is required to ensure the plants have enough time to grow. More importantly, onions 'know' when to form their bulbs after the days start getting shorter. If they are planted too late, then they will not be ready to start forming bulbs after the summer solstice and will have small or poorly formed bulbs at harvest time.
The window for planting onions was running short, and I was out of seed that I could trust to germinate fully.
So, I called my onion supplier, William Dam Seeds, and asked if I could get a rushed order to cover the rest of my onion needs for this season.
Of course, this is probably their busiest week of the year, and no doubt there are many folks and farmers frantically requesting rushed orders as well.
Nevertheless, the new seeds arrived in under seventy two hours; I might have received them sooner if i had been waiting at the mail box, but as it was, they arrived with plenty of time and (read on) all has turned out well.
With so many bad experiences from retailers of various types in the past (disappointing products, un-knowledgeable staff, etc.), I find it especially rewarding when I come across a supplier who says they'll try to get them to you as soon as we can and then delivers a little beyond my expectation.
Good to know there are still good places to shop out there...
For a variety of possible reasons, the second round of onions did not germinate very well. The first round had left me with a little over half of the onions I required for this season.
As mentioned in previous posts, timing the start of the onion crop is crucial. Onions are a long season crop - the onions will be ready for harvest 95 days after transplant, so an early start is required to ensure the plants have enough time to grow. More importantly, onions 'know' when to form their bulbs after the days start getting shorter. If they are planted too late, then they will not be ready to start forming bulbs after the summer solstice and will have small or poorly formed bulbs at harvest time.
The window for planting onions was running short, and I was out of seed that I could trust to germinate fully.
So, I called my onion supplier, William Dam Seeds, and asked if I could get a rushed order to cover the rest of my onion needs for this season.
Of course, this is probably their busiest week of the year, and no doubt there are many folks and farmers frantically requesting rushed orders as well.
Nevertheless, the new seeds arrived in under seventy two hours; I might have received them sooner if i had been waiting at the mail box, but as it was, they arrived with plenty of time and (read on) all has turned out well.
With so many bad experiences from retailers of various types in the past (disappointing products, un-knowledgeable staff, etc.), I find it especially rewarding when I come across a supplier who says they'll try to get them to you as soon as we can and then delivers a little beyond my expectation.
Good to know there are still good places to shop out there...
These are the onions at about three weeks. Each are promoted into their cell packs in groups of five.
The oldest ones are trimmed. As they grow taller, the onion shoots tend to fall over. This causes them to get caught between the tray and the nursery wall and become damaged or uprooted.
As of March 29, I have reached my desired quota of 120 cell packs of onions, each with 5 onion shoots. Assuming that about 1 5th will fail in the nursery, hardening off shelter, field, etc.; and 1 5th will be too small to deliver, there should be about ten onions per basket.
That does not take into account how many the leek moths will take. Last years efforts at out-witting this insect improved upon previous years. I feel confident that I can continue this improvement curve, that is why I have set aside two beds for onions this season instead of one.
The above formula also does not take into account what kind of season weather we shall have.
Onions like lots of sunlight and plenty of moisture. I can't do much about the sunlight, and the irrigation hose can only mitigate a lack of rain. So as far as onions are concerned, hope for many sunny days with a moderate amount of rain...
These are the celery at about three weeks. I say about, as they germinate anywhere from 7 to 14 days from planting, so there is a bit of a discrepancy in their age.
The celeriac looks exactly the same at this stage.
Closely related crops follow a similar growth pattern at their earliest stage in life, and knowing the appearance of these leaves allows me to identify other sprouts that are closely related in the field, such as wild parsnip.
This is the first eggplant to hatch. For some reason, some of the sprouts are unable to completely break their seed casing, preventing the primary leaf from unfurling.
I very gently cut the seed casing on this one with a small pair of scissors. The leaves should unfurl in the next few hours.
Not shown (as they look exactly the same) are the peppers and tomatoes.
In the coming weeks, the next round of celery shall be started. Along with the first lettuces, kale, and chard.
After a heavy snow pack such as last year, I had to dig a few drains to allow the field to release it's ground water a little quicker.
Unfortunately, this season has had much less snow to melt, and the melt has been much more gradual than last year.
The improved drainage is working fine, but I need a winter like last year to know for sure.
One item that organic certification agencies are interested in knowing is how water drains away (or into) my growing field. For example, if a neighboring field was growing genetically modified crops, I would have to take steps to ensure that no run-off from that farm entered my own growing area.
In this instance, I have two photos showing the road side of my boundary fence and the growing field side of the fence.
The road side shows the ditch, with a small amount of standing water between the fence and the road.Below is the field side of the fence, which is dry.
This demonstrates that the run-off from the road stays in the ditch, instead of draining up into the growing field.
It is not well displayed here, but the electric fence line (visible with the yellow insulators to the right) sits up another 4 inches or so, giving some additional buffer between the crops and whatever washes off the road in the winter.
So this time of year is not just about sowing seeds in the nursery, there are always a few other tasks that need to be taken care of.
Talk to you soon,
Bob