News From the Farm, Monday June 29th

We worked really hard in this week’s extreme heat. Although there is so much work to be done, Julie feels that we have a good, strong handle on it all, and that we’re further along than in previous years.

In the vegetable fields, the lack of rain means that our veggies aren’t growing very fast. The silver lining is that the weeds are not growing very fast, either. 🙂 This week, we were able to clean up, mulch and plant the South field. The front of North is weeded and mulched too. The corn, chard, parsley, lettuce, tomatillos, celery, carrots, beets and sweet potatoes are all well taken care of. The watermelons and muskmelons have been tucked into the hoophouses.

For the coming week, our vegetable work will focus on the full season onions, leeks, peppers, eggplant, basil and broccoli. We’ll also thin the peaches so that the weight of the fruit won’t break the branches. First, the crew will give the trees a good shake, then they’ll pick off some of the fruits by hand. With thirty peach trees, this is a substantial task! The black raspberries will receive some attention as well – the bindweed and bishop’s weed need to be cleared, and the berries need to be re-mulched with more wood chips before the harvests start, which will be soon.

In staff news, Jerod (not “Jarod”, as I misspelled last week – sorry Jerod!) will be coming out to the farm from Medford each Tuesday-Thursday and camping out in the orchard. A new WWOOFer, Simon, will start on July 4th and will hopefully be with us through the summer. Simon is from Newton, MA. Our good friend Leo has begun formulating plans to return to France on July 12th. He doesn’t yet have a plane ticket, and Julie says “We are not pushing him out the door”! Finally, Cathleen and Shawnee both celebrated their birthdays on the farm this week, with seasonal fruit treats and serenades. Julie says “if you want to come to the farm and work on your birthday, we will make cake and sing to you too”. Birthday or no, do please know that if you’d like to come to the farm, we’d love to have you – we work hard, but as Julie says “we have lots of fun, with lots of singing, dancing and making jokes”, and as Pat Howe says, “we get there at eight and don’t stop til noon – except for the 10 o’clock break for peanut butter balls”.

The food is beginning to feel more plentiful, and so we will open the CSA for additional registrations, for a limited time – so please tell your friends! New members can pick up shares starting the week of July 6th. We’re offering pickup on Mondays in Princeton, Paxton or Barre and on Fridays in Holden or Barre (sorry, no Wednesday or Worcester share options at this time). Share prices and delivery fees have been prorated to reflect the July start. Large shares cost $540, Medium shares cost $365, and Small shares cost $270. An additional one-time delivery fee of $34 will apply for shares delivered to Princeton, Paxton and Holden. Read more and sign up at https://mhof.net/csa-share-options/.