​I am a farmer who deeply loves using cover crops in my fields. By fixing nitrogen and adding organic matter, green covers are essential in building our sandy, nutrient poor soils. Although it can sometimes be difficult to establish a good stand of cover in the field (all depending on the season, the type of seed being used, whether it gets enough water, etc.), when you do it right, it feels like you won the agricultural lottery. Not because these covers transfer directly into dollars (although, I can use the field peas in bouquets!), but because you know you are treating the land right. 

Yesterday, I watched a monarch butterfly dance through a strong cover crop of peas and land on a nearby milkweed. Bees hum through the crimson clover, and ladybugs crawl over the delicate purple blooms of hairy vetch. When I reach into the soil below these covers, I find worms and moist dirt. The wild tangle of covers (usually in our fields inevitably mixed with a smattering of weeds) stands in sharp contrast to our long rows of vegetables and flowers. 

These contrasts in an ag field are the sign of a healthy farm. In order to succeed as growers we need both disorderliness and organization, wildness and cultivation.

So this is a week of honoring the cover crops: Praise to hairy vetch so thick the flail mower can barely knock it down! Three cheers for the beautiful purple field peas, excellent at adding nitrogen and filling bouquets! And glory be to sweet yellow clover and oats, happy place for bees and other beneficials! 

Well, here we are at the precipice of the 2021 CSA season. Our first veggie share pickups begin next week (flower shares will start in early July) and, members, we are ready for you! 

This year, we are offering either a Wednesday or a Saturday pickup, and I'll be sending a separate email to remind you which one you signed up for.  

As is typical of this time of year, we have been BUSY. Lots and lots going in the field each week and our two big hoop houses are planted out. The smaller of the houses has gone to tomatoes again this year, and the larger one contains a mix of things: eggplant, sweet + hot peppers, those wonderfully-long serpent cucumbers, ginger and a few overwintered dahlias. I've included a few pictures for you. I took these photos a week and a half ago and the tomatoes have already doubled in size! 

We welcomed Anna Swanson to the crew this week. She is joining us from Maine, where she worked for MOFGA helping to organize the annual Common Ground Fair. Anna will be with us three days a week, primarily working with the flowers. Welcome, Anna! 

We are a truly small but mighty crew: Stefan, Peter, Anna and myself work in the fields and Collins fills in on some of the behind the scenes maintenance tasks and keeps the farm looking sharp. I am so grateful to have such a positive, dedicated, hard working crew here as we head into the summer season. 

The schoolhouse farm stand is now open every Friday and Saturday. Juna was excited as I was about our first day (thanks to my husband, Ian, for capturing the moment in a happy photo). You'll notice a bit of sprucing at the stand, always nice to be able to have a fresh touch to a new year. 

Looking forward to seeing you all next week, 
​Lily