Onions

Turns out onions are one of the most widely used crops in the world. They add an abundance of flavor, can be eaten raw or cooked, store well in proper conditions, and can be harvested fresh with the tops or cured/dried and stored.

Over the years our process of growing onions has changed as we figure out the “best-way” for us and try different systems, and of course weather, temperature, timing, and available space play into this decision.

The last couple years our focus has been on 3 different varieties:

Ring Master: white, sweet onion harvested with green tops and sold as Spring Onions.

Red Wing: A beautiful red storage onion with firm, crisp layers and a some serious flavor. Perfect for slicing fresh into salads, sandwiches, or cooking into hearty fall and winter dishes.

Patterson: The classic yellow storage onion. This crop is firm, flavorful, and built to last. These onions are rich in flavor and perfect for cooking, from soups and stews to roasted veggies.

Our main crop of storage onions went in the ground at the beginning of May in Garden 8 out by the blueberries and in between GH8 and GH9. Typically used for greens, we set this garden up for onions by amending and resetting beds with the broadfork, covering the beds with plastic mulch and leaf mulch in the pathways. The mulch helps control the weed pressure over the duration of the season and the leaf mulch becomes an organic matter input for the garden. About 13,000 onions were planted by hand over a few days.

We bring in onion sets, while also typically starting a few ourselves by seed. At such a volume, space in our seed-room becomes challenging to manage, and bringing in onion starts has been a helpful space saving solution.

Mid august the tops of the onions began to brown and fall over which is the sign they are ready to harvest. We worked as a crew to bring in crates and crates of onions for storage and sale. We hope you have been enjoying this years flavorful onion crop.

As you can see in the picture above, we quickly transitioned these beds over to greens. As relatively weed free, these beds were easy to transition into Salanova Head Lettuce, direct seeded greens, Kholrabi, Salad Turnips, and Radishes.

The chickens arrived!

Jav, Colin, and Evrald went and picked up 700 Pullets one evening and introduced them all to the farm. They have been settling in nicely. Jim has been monitoring feed, water, and making sure they have the space they need with new roosts and easy access to the moveable coop that Tim moved into place. Jim reports the first couple eggs from this group of chickens has been layed. As daylight hours continue to decrease and our older hens drop off production a touch, we are looking forward to more eggs coming in from the pullets.

Check out the cover crop seeds drilled into G7 by Tim. As we approach the fall season, we have continues our efforts to nurture and feed the soil by planting more cover crops on the main farm and the oxbow. The dead cover crop mulch in G7 is a perfect place to use the drill seeder for the next succession of cover crop. We are working on adding more organic matter to the soil in this section of G7 while utlizing the cover crop to break up some soil compaction.

The wash-center on a busy harvest morning.

Wyatt repaired some shovels that have been waiting for new handles for at least 20 years!

Pickup

Come anytime between 3 pm and 6 pm to choose your share on the day you chose when you signed up, so either Monday or Thursday.

Please bring your own bags or box to gather your choices.

If you signed up for an add-on, don’t forget to pickup your Coffee, Flowers, Eggs, and Pork sausage.

Remember to contact us in advance if you will be unable to pick up on Thursday, so that we can store your share in our walk-in refrigerator to keep it fresh. You can email or call us to let us know. Thank you to all of those who have already arranged another time to pickup!

School is back in session!

Woodland Community School, who shares the same address as us, is back in session. Please be careful of kids and parents as you enter and exit the farm for pickup!

Here's what you will find in this weeks share:

Something we will ask you to take and then

Full shares receive an additional 11 choices and

Small shares receive an additional 7 choices.

Please use the tally sheets to keep track of the number of choices you are taking at pickup. We want to make sure you receive all 8 choices if you are a small share and 12 choices if you are a large share!

We have run out of MSF Potatoes (we literally grew new potatoes just for you our CSA) and are now bringing in Sparrow Arc farm potatoes. They are local out of VT and are not organic. They limit spraying, and grow as naturally as they can.

Lyman View corn is also from off the farm. Dick has been as central part of the Littleton Farmers Market and phenomenal corn growing in the local area for 30 years. He is not organic.

Pounds of Basil ($15/lb) and flats of B-grade tomatoes and or Roma Tomatoes($30/15 lb flat) are available as supplies last. Let us know and we can have them ready for you to pickup on your CSA day. Email us to reserve yours!

Summer CSA Pickup #12