Weekly newsletters

Clare in Carrots

News from the Farm, Monday July 20th

Julie and Jack miss Leo. A lot. So does the rest of the crew. He’s only been gone for a week but he is being remembered fondly – Shawnee called him an “old soul”. Upon arriving in France he sent a lovely message saying that the time he spent at the farm was “probably the most important three months of his life so far”.

It was a short-handed week at the farm. In addition to Leo’s departure, Simon left us this week (he decided that the farm was not for him) and Jerod fell ill after a tick bite (we’re hoping to see him again when he feels better). Julie says that she feels it most at the edges of the day, when there’s animals to look after and watering to be done but the main crew hasn’t yet arrived, or has left for the day – it means that she essentially ends up being on 24/7. Hopes are high that another excellent WWOOFer will come our way – a new candidate, Isaac, is being interviewed soon. If you know any folks interested in volunteering and living here at the farm, we’d love help making a connection with them!

In the vegetable fields, the conditions have been ideal for growing – heat, rain, heat, rain – and the crew has been packing in the planting. A few beds of carrots that germinated poorly (as they tend to do) were replanted. Rutabagas and turnips have been put in. This week the tarp was removed from the new growing area (and former hay field), and the 16 new beds were planted with crops for fall shares and winter storage. Soon, the peas will come out and a new round of cucumbers will take their place. Garlic will come out soon, too, to be replaced by summer squash.

The NOFA summer conference started Monday – and it’s not too late to sign up. Included in the lineup of presenters are Julie and Jack, who will lead a workshop on “Soil Carbon: Raising More, Better Food while Easing Climate Stress” on July 27th. Check out the workshop timing, view the rest of the workshop lineup, and register here: https://nofasummerconference.org/

Sign up now for the NOFA summer conference!

The 46th annual NOFA Summer Conference starts on Monday, July 20th! Register now and enjoy more than 57 workshops with professionals representing the Northeast organic farming community.

Included in the lineup of presenters are Julie and Jack, who will lead a workshop on “Soil Carbon: Raising More, Better Food while Easing Climate Stress” on July 27th. Of this workshop, Julie says “A radical shift in our farming practices over the past 6 years has resulted in more and higher quality food, clamoring customers and farmer satisfaction. We’ll discuss the practices on our diversified animal, vegetable and fruit farm, all in the context of emerging scientific discovery about soil carbon”. Check out the workshop timing (and view the rest of the workshop lineup) at https://nofasummerconference.org/2020-workshops/

Full admission to live sessions as well as post conference access to the video recordings for *$100 (NOFA member price, $125 for non-members.) Or, you can purchase the video recordings only and view them after the conference for $50. Scholarships are available.

Read more and register here

Reaching Out Like a Tree: The Expanding Reach of NOFA/Mass Under Julie Rawson’s Stewardship over 36 Years

By Caro Roszell, NOFA/Mass Education Director

“The roots of NOFA/Mass are sunk deep in the collective realization of a generation: that the institutionalized drive for domination and power is inimical to a peaceful and happy society. Formed in the 70s in the wake of the Vietnam war, the civil rights movement and the invention of dangerous chemicals used variously in warfare and in industrialized farming, NOFA was a envisioned as a space of mutual support, education and collaboration for those who sought to create farms and communities rooted in a more humble relation to natural systems.

From this fertile ground came many organizations, NOFA/Mass and her sister chapters being among them—that advanced a vision of a better world in which humanity takes natural systems for their guides and seeks a place within those systems; not as masters over them.

NOFA/Mass has grown over the decades since its incorporation, much like a tree—quickly upwards at first with a central core team of founders and volunteers, then spreading outwards into branches, as staff positions and programs were developed, and along the way forming seeds—initiatives that NOFA spawned but that fell from the tree to become fully their own organizations. All along, the heartwood of NOFA/Mass has been Julie Rawson.”

Read the entire article here.

News from the Farm, Monday July 13th

The farm is in full swing now, with the recent rain and heat spurring lots of growth.

The crew accomplished a tremendous amount of weeding this last week, thanks to large groups of workers on Thursday (11 people) and Friday (13 people) – and a flat tire on the tractor that turned the focus away from pulling up tarps (and preparing the ground underneath for planting) and towards more weeding. Julie reports that the entire west and pond fields have been weeded, the back of north field is done, and the asparagus has been unearthed from an overgrown patch that “looked like a pollinator garden”.

This week also saw the beginning of a campaign against the Colorado Potato Beetle. The larva and adults feed on the foliage of potatoes (and other related crops) and can defoliate a planting to a destructive extent if left unchecked. At this point, Julie notes that most potatoes are looking good, though she noted with a laugh that “a few don’t have very bright futures”. At Many Hands, these pesky bugs are managed by knocking the insects into buckets of water, and providing lots of support to the plants in the form of more frequent nutritional sprays to maximize their potential for good health (plants have received three or four foliar feeds, up from their usual once a week feed). Insecticide is not applied. This approach of managing crop health – a focus on good soil health, setting up the conditions for maximum plant health and nutrition, and allowing the health and vigor of the plants to be their best defense against pests and disease – mirrors the approach that Julie takes to her own health. She centers on nutrition, doing work that she believes in, laughing a lot, and surrounding herself with good company as key tactics in building a strong immune system and ensuring continued good health.

Elsewhere in the vegetable fields, the team also planted three beds of brassicas (one bed of cabbage, two of broccoli) and put carrots in a now-spent bed of lettuce. Holes in the collard and kale beds (where some plants didn’t make it) were filled with new transplants.

In staff news, Leo ended his three-and-a-half month sojourn with us and has headed back to France. Julie and the crew saw him off with a celebratory supper on Saturday. Leo has been a helpful, positive-spirited, kind and thoughtful presence on the farm and he will be missed! He came to the farm with an interest in creating a farm on his family land, and is thinking seriously about doing so once he’s home. We also welcomed AJ to the farm this week, who has come to us with a desire to dig in to the important wok of raising good food right now. Welcome, AJ!

chloe and meat birds

News from the Farm, Monday July 6th

The rain of the last few days has been an amazing blessing. It’s something to revel in – the feeling of standing outside in the warm-but-not-too-hot sun, bare feet planted on well-watered soil, with vigorous growth underway on all sides. It’s ideal growing weather – what a thrill!

The rain provided ample opportunities to plant seeds and seedlings under great conditions last week. Celery, kale, cabbage, radishes, turnips, cilantro and parsley all went in the ground. Weeding has been completed on our onions, leeks, cilantro, kale, collards, basil, peppers, winter squash and much of the lettuce.

Weeding will be a big feature of the vegetable work this upcoming week – Julie has her eye on the remaining lambsquarters and pigweed in particular, which are growing at the enthusiastic rate of 6 inches a day and need to come out. Mulching remains a priority too. It’s also time to pull up two more tarps from our new growing areas in the former hay fields.  In this area of approximately 6,000 square feet, the crew will put in rutabaga, parsnips, dill, a third succession of beans, carrots and beets, a second succession of summer squash and cucumbers and basil.

In animal news, this year’s turkey poults arrived on July 2nd, cute as buttons. We raise broad-breasted whites from Bob’s Turkey Farm in Lancaster. These beautiful, active birds are fun to have around and provide loud and entertaining commentary on farm goings-on. They grow to a reasonable size (16-18#s for hens, 20-24#s for toms) and, when the time comes, have a superb texture and rich flavor. They are available for pre-order now at https://mhof.net/organic-meat/, along with chicken, pork and more.

In staff news, our new WWOOFer Simon is close to finishing his first week here and is already proving to be a “quiet star on the farm”, in Julie’s words. Jocelyn restarts as a working shareholder on Friday. She has been with us off and on for about 25 years. Overall, Julie continues on quite happy with the state of things on the farm, despite always having way more to do than can be done.

This week we’re welcoming 13 new members to the CSA. Welcome! 🙂  We also have a few spots left  for a first pickup on Friday July 17th in Holden or Barre. Share prices and delivery fees have been prorated: Large shares now cost $510, Medium shares cost $345, and Small shares cost $255. An additional one-time delivery fee of $32 will apply for shares delivered to Holden.  Please ask your friends to read more and sign up at https://mhof.net/csa-share-options/ – and thank you to those who have already helped us make this connection!