As we quickly approach another wonderful season of hard work and good eats we often get caught up in all the “going ons” here on the farm and forget to reach out to all of you with a little update on how we are doing and what we have and will be doing to provide you with real nutritious food that you know.
Last year had its challenges. Mainly with mother natures providing more water then needed. New London County, in which we farm, was designated a “Natural Disaster” area by the USDA. We were amazed at what we were able to provide in such conditions. For more information click here. Unfortunately as a diversified farm and not a farm producing a commodity, we would not qualify for aid of any sort.
We have been quite busy in the early part of this year recruiting apprentices to learn Organic and Biodynamic methods of farming and to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Although we stress a lot every year around January, we seem to always – “Knock on wood” – attract a very energized group of young adults who are determined to get as close to their food as possible and obtain the skills necessary to produce them. A desire we believe is spreading around the globe.
Since the last week of February we have been sowing in the greenhouse peppers, celery, celeriac, tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, leeks, scallions, onions, swiss chard, kale, pac choy, dill, & egg plant. All but some of the tomatoes and peppers will eventually be transplanted out to our fields. This week and next we are watching the weather closely as at this time of year we have to take advantage of every sunny/dry day that we get. It’s important to have an opportunity to till and prepare our beds in order to stay on a very rigorous CSA sowing schedule. For instance this week & next we have scheduled to direct seed and transplant into “roughly” 2 acres, spinach, peas, carrots, parsnips, turnips, salad greens, pac choy, onions & potatoes. So far it looks challenging with the rain today and chance of rain for the rest of the week.
We are very excited to announce that through a long term lease, we have ”reclaimed” 10 additional acres for Organic/Biodynamic vegetable production. This land is currently in the second year of transitioning to certified organic (a 3 year process). It’s always a very good feeling when “we” have an opportunity to transition (reclaim) land that had been conventionally farmed back to its natural state and rebuild its soil utilizing biodynamic, organic and responsible farming methods. I do not use this word, “WE” loosely. It does not take just us the farmers to accomplish this, but you the CSA member, a member of our farm as well. It takes this support structure to have a chance at taking back what is rightfully all of ours, “real food” one knows. In this lands case it was 10 acres of hay fields that was not treated awfully but did have commercial fertilizers put on it as recent as 2 years ago. We are going to grow part of our vegetables on this land this year, which means that some of our vegetables are going to be in transition to organic while the majority of crops will be certified organic as usual.
We look forward to another season and hope to see some of you on the farm some day soon.
–David and Julia
Woodbridge Farm
