We are cruising on our 2021 farm plan. Thank goodness we’ve started farms before. We know that this year (and next year, and a little bit the year after) will be a big push. The to do list will always feel immense, the urgency of important infrastructure projects will dominate the priority list, and there is a lot of learning and system building every day. You can expertly plan a farm (our friend calls it “farming of the mind”) but then you have to contend with reality: delayed contractors, challenging weather, a broken water heater, new opportunities . . .
We are doing GREAT. (Except we are delayed on listing our seedling sales to our online store. Our goal was March 1st but there has been a massive disruption in seed supply this year due to wildfires, drought and COVID-19 related disruptions – we didn’t want to list things for sale without having viable seed on hand. We are very close now and will send an email as soon as they are uploaded. No later than March 15th!)
We finally listed the FLOWER CSA SHARE on the online store! Our beloved Erin got a job working for Gaining Ground in Grafton. Gaining Ground is a non-profit farm that donates everything they grow to hunger relief organizations in greater Boston. Usually they take lots of volunteers (I highly recommend it, especially for groups) and hopefully will be able to take volunteers this year. Erin is their Farm Education Manager, which, if any of you have ever been on one of Erin’s tours or taken one of her classes you know it is a job she is well suited for and we are very happy for her.
I will be managing the flower share at the new farm this year with an old friend. It was a lot of fun putting the crop plan together and thinking about flowers again after a year off. I can’t wait to actually pick a few buckets of flowers this year! In 2019 I picked 30-50 buckets every week, last year I picked 0!
Our days are not this bright or beautiful right now – it’s mostly brown potting soil, black and beige seeds, silver greenhouse metal and gray concrete in the wash station. I’m so ready for some green!
We got the stanchion barn cleaned up in time for the concrete cutter to start removing the curbs (left photo). Our goal is to have a smooth, level floor with drains so we can ROLL vegetables around. Last year we picked up the produce so many times. One goal in designing new spaces on this farm is to preserve our backs and take advantage of wheels as much as possible.
We also removed 6 horse stalls which makes room for storage and work space (second photo). We saved all the wood for future use.
And we have made major progress on our greenhouses (last photo, which is not actually up to date, but it’s dark now and I can’t take one!). We hope to skin the first two next week . . . but in the mean time . . .
We planted the first seeds! Ali, Karen and Melissa (our Ashland/Franklin/Bellingham Team) came up for the day on Sunday to help us get off to a good start and see the new farm! It was so nice to see everyone and get work done! We seeded 170 trays, and we’ll do another 100 more tomorrow . . .
We are renting this greenhouse from a farm across the street. We are super lucky to have a fully functional propagation house available to rent. Thanks Phil and Lynn (and Frank for building such a great greenhouse – we are definitely stealing some design ideas for ours)!!!!
We hope you are all staying warm, and thank you, again for your continued support! We can’t wait to show up with veggies and see you all again soon!
Upswing Farm 