We grow a lot more than vegetables! We grow community!

I was struck this week, getting ready for our Farmyard Jam, with the amount of pride that was evident all around me. I only needed to remind our crew that this was our moment in the sun, so to speak, for the 2024 growing season. Everyone stepped up to the challenge, making the farm shine, and it sure did! 

There were so many compliments from everyone regarding the work we do and the beauty of the place. I am told we had over 600 attendees and with Diana’s boots on the ground and Carrie’s sneakers on the roof, it was a well documented celebratory event! 

One of our regular volunteers, who happened to join one of my farm tours, quietly remarked “This makes me so proud!” Yes, Wendy, it makes us all proud and it is our community of volunteers that enables this magic to happen.

 Our farm community had to say goodbye to one of our longtime volunteers and friends Amy Fagan. Amy has been with us for the last 8 years, coming on when we were still trying to get our act together! Amy stuck with us and became family. A Saturday ritual was 2, then 4, then 6 or more regular volunteers coming together with our hands in the dirt, healing ourselves from whatever the world threw at us. Amy, we will miss you, but we carry you in our hearts, and are forever grateful for all those volunteer hours and jars of jam that helped bring us to where we are today!

Now, as it happens this time every summer, our wonderful interns start to disappear, just as our harvest increases. This Friday it will be Margaret, who will head back to Colby. What a great summer of interns! Margaret designed a fun educational poster, called soil-centric farming practices. We can use it as a teaching tool as it is chock full of information about our regenerative farming practices.

Margaret never shied away from any task and was often seen smiling and speckled with mud. Thank you Margaret for joining our farm family this summer. We love you!

Hannaford interns come annually for our garlic harvest. Thanks to them, all of our garlic is sorted and laid out to dry, plus they always leave us a new set of gloves!

Thanks Hannaford!

Revision Energy also came to help. It was a steamy hot Friday (we seem to be getting a lot of those) and they helped us with gleaning and then with various other August tasks. Thanks to these corporate groups, we are able to check lots off of our to-do list. 

The heat of August brings us into the high harvest season and this is when we also start seedlings of cool weather crops. Cauliflower, collards, parsley and one last batch of zucchini. Lots of carrots are being direct-seeded, including some in the Rimol greenhouse. Poor Gabrielle, this was her job and it was not easy as it was like a steam bath in there!

For weeks now, we have been sending out fresh green onions, some of which are off the charts in size!  Now as the season heads into late summer the onions are being harvested to cure and dry for later donations. What signals this transition? When the onion stalks bend naturally it’s time to pull!

Our Friday potluck was a sendoff for Margaret and a welcoming back for Dylan. He will help us through the next few months. Glad to have you back Dylan. I put him right to work to wrap prime specimen tomatoes for seed saving.

It has been a couple of tough weeks weather wise. The sun is blazing hot and the humidity takes a lot out of us. We try to keep hydrated and keep our sense of humor in it!

Once again, thanks for all your support, whether by supporting us at the Jam or volunteering at the farm.

Always grateful,

Theda