In February there was a fire in the washhouse at Kingsbury Farm. The washhouse is the area where we pick-up our shares for Muddy Boots CSA. Thanks to good insurance and quick action by Aaron and Tonya (the farmers/owners), repairs are already underway. They are taking this opportunity to add some features they had been wishing for in the washhouse like bigger windows to allow more natural light in the area. While these improvements will lead to an even better pick-up day experience, the effect of the fire will not have any negative impact on this year’s CSA.
Archive for Farmer Update
Many people know that Aaron isn’t just one of my bosses with Muddy Boots but he is also a good friend. I have enormous respect for him and am excited about his vision for Kingsbury Farm now that he has purchased the property from the Vermont Food Bank.Eight years ago I worked on the team that helped conserve Kingsbury Farm. Aaron looked at the farm then and determined it would be difficult to make a living as a vegetable farmer with just eight acres of land that could be used for growing. As an organic farmer, you would need to set aside a portion of the acreage each year for cover-cropping to allow it to naturally replenish nutrients that are used to grow vegetables. This diminishes the growable land to just 4 or 5 acres each year.
It is a bit ironic that now, after leasing the land from the Vermont Food Bank for six years, Aaron has bought the farm he saw so little future in back in 2008.
There are many reasons Aaron feels confident he can make Kingsbury Farm work despite it’s small size, but it all comes down to being smart about the farming he is doing. While his ultimate fate as a farmer is in the hands of Mother Nature, he is always thinking about ways to become more efficient and effective with everything he does. Take just one acre of land at Kingsbury Farm…he can tell you how many pounds of carrots, salad greens or peppers he can grow in that space and then translate it into income after factoring the different levels of labor each would require and the market demand and price he can get for the crops at various times throughout the season.
Domingo! (Sunday in Spanish) started when Aaron identified an unfilled niche in the local market for roasted chili peppers. Freshly harvested peppers are a commodity in the peak of the harvest season and what he could make on them is dictated by the going market price. But, roast those same chilis and you have a product no one else in Vermont is offering.
Of course, roasting takes time and Sunday afternoons is the only free time for Aaron during the growing season so that is when he decided he would do his roasting – Domingo! Last year he tested the market and found a few food service accounts that loved his roasted chili’s and this year he decided to expand his offerings by growing and roasting more peppers.
There are two more Domingo’s this year – September 13 and September 20 from 4 to 8. It is a fun “Valley” experience. Aaron will be roasting his chili’s which you can buy for $2 on a stick – delicious with a sprinkle of salt and a cooling Sip of Sunshine or PBR that you can also buy there. You will be able to purchase fresh corn tortillas from Vermont Bean Crafters who also offers a limited menu of Mexican specialties including tacos, burritos, pasole and chili.
Domingo is just one of Aaron’s strategies to make his farm profitable and sustainable. He is a fascinating guy to talk with. If you make it to one of the last two Domingo’s of this season and have a chance to chat with Aaron, you will probably coax out of him some of the many other fascinating and interesting ideas he has planned for Kingsbury Farm in the coming years.
Last week Aaron wrote about the beginning of the bulk harvest season, which has definitely taken hold on this side of the mountain as well. We have a very large portion of our acreage in winter storage crops, so, half of our sales occur after mid-October.That means that this time of the year is a 2 month long squash-and-potato toss, filling bin after bin after bin with roots and fruits to keep deep into winter.
Coming out of the red haze of strawberry season always leaves me gasping for air. At the same time, there’s not much room for breathing as our farmstand kicks into what can only be described as “July.”
It seems as if everyone in the northern hemisphere is squarely in the middle of their respective summer vacations and summer mindsets. Folks come in wearing everything from swimsuits to pajamas, and smiles abound.
Wood’s Market Garden farmstand is a must stop next time you are travelling on Route 7 just south of Brandon. Be sure to mention that you are a member of Muddy Boots CSA!
“Where’s the corn?” is a most frequently asked question, even though everyone who asks it just walked right by the same table that has held my crop since I arrived at this farm sixteen seasons ago. Doing a little math in early July, I came upon the fun fact that sometime in August, that same hodge podge table I cobbled together in July 2000 will see the one millionth ear of corn sold since I got here….But who’s counting?
The whole Wood’s Market Garden crew.
Fields are brimming with summer harvests, and the ones we wait for and savor are starting to come in. Corn started this past week, the peppers and their promising rainbow of color are just beginning, and one of my favorites, the melons, will soon grace our plates. Most crops are looking on target and full of potential. As a lot of our cultivating [weeding] is completed, we turn into harvest maniacs for the next couple of months. The newly expanded walk-in cooler is quite full already, and none of us wants to remember what life was like before we put every cart and rack on wheels over the last couple of years.
Boys will be boys.
Our one unintentional experiment is with the straw crop for our strawberries this upcoming winter. We started raising our own rye straw to use as mulch in 2001. Never even remotely close to a failure, this June proved there’s always a first time. No different than most any farm in New England, we saw a lot of rain in June. Well, the baler wasn’t ready when the straw was, and consequently it ended up sitting through many a rain storm after it was mowed. Some inexperience on the processing end saw a youngster ted it way too many times. When the hired custom operator went to bale it for us, there wasn’t much left that wasn’t already broken up. Result? About 20% of what we hoped for, and need, for our berries’ winter protection.
Our attention turned towards our newly rented piece of close to 20 acres adjacent to where we farm now. We had planted sorghum back at the end of May. It’s a very tall and aggressive summer annual that we usually use for its soil improving attributes (mostly, lots of good organic matter). Well, we are now managing it to not go to seed so we can produce a weed free mulch. By mowing it now, it should regrow through the rest of the summer and into the fall, much like a 2nd cut hay crop. The idea is to let it get as tall as possible, after which a frost will kill it standing. The killing frost alone will cause it to dry down, just like your tomatoes or other sensitive garden plants do after a frost. From what I understand, we can then just mow it and bale it on a nice sunny day in October. I am keeping my fingers crossed, as that all seems a little too easy.
Note from Robin: How are the Brussels sprouts coming along you ask? According to Jon, they are looking great! For those who just joined us this year, many people last year asked for more Brussels sprouts this fall. Jon is doing his best to make that happen 🙂
Is it really getting to be the end of June? Today is, indeed, the first day of summer (Jon wrote this on Sunday). For whatever reason I just don’t feel like the majority of my seeding is done or that the largest summer harvests are just around the corner. But the calendar says it is so.
Though most crops are doing pretty well, this Spring has been fairly challenging. Everyone knows winter stuck around a little later than usual, and that we’ve had both extremely hot and dry weather and very cold and wet weather. But the steady drumbeat of violent rain events over the last two and half weeks has taken its toll.
Read More
And it begins… Another Vermont summer! Well-earned after last winter’s deep freeze.
So far at Kingsbury Market Garden things have been going along merrily. The one little hiccup is that we were a little late getting our first salad greens seeded-in so you guys won’t be seeing them in this week’s share. That said, all the plantings to date (we try to seed them every 4 days) look really healthy and happy so it won’t be long.
Salad greens are a little behind so far this spring, but they are looking good!