What's happening at the farm this week?

In the back field, the pumpkin field was just cultivated and the field prepared for the winter rye cover crop. Some Waltham butternut squash is ready to be harvested.

In the north of cottage field, there's a lot that was ready for harvest this week: mustard greens, carrots, green beans, daikon and green meat radish. Come down to the farm stand to get some!
We also had a group of preschool children learning about harvest visit the field and pick green beans and carrots. They had a fabulous time finding out where their vegetables come from.

What's happening at the farm this week?

In the back field, the cabbage has all been picked. The summer squash, cucumbers, and eggplant are being harvested. And finally, the string beans are in flower and should be ready next week.

In the north of cottage field, it's time for some new plants. Red bunching onion and beet seeds have been planted.

For sale this week at the farm stand: eggplant, summer squash, cucumbers, cabbage, and garlic!

Update on garlic plants

The garlic that was planted in October grew well during the winter and will be ready for harvesting in July. The tops of the garlic can be cut off in June and eaten.

Garlic field

Close-up of Garlic plants

New year, new season!

The raised bed gardens are back! Scott has prepared them for the new season and started planting. He also just planted cabbage, onions, and kale in the field north of the cottage.

Raised beds

Lettuce

Planting in the north of cottage field

Garlic

Scott has started to plant garlic in the field north of the cottage. Not knowing which variety of garlic will perform well in our soil, he has selected three different varieties, all of which are reported to be very cold hardy and are of the hardneck type. Softneck varieties of garlic are the ones which are most commonly found in supermarkets. The hardneck varieties have a rigid stem, called a scape, that coils from the top of the garlic and has bulbils growing from it. Bulbils look like mini bulbs and can be cut off the top of the garlic and eaten or replanted.

The three varieties of garlic being planted are German Extra Hardy, Siberian, and Chrysalis Purple. A total of 65 pounds of seed garlic will be planted and if all goes well, we should have a total yield of 300-350 pounds of garlic around mid-July. The garlic will then go through a curing process of about 3 weeks.

North of Cottage field planted with garlic seed.
There will be four 100-foot rows of each garlic variety.

North of Cottage Field update

The north of cottage field began producing vegetables last week. The mustard greens and late-season green beans that were planted six weeks ago have been nicely growing. The first harvest was sold last week at Scott's new farm stand, with more produce available this week.

Delicious green beans

Mustard greens

The unplanted area of the north of cottage field has been cultivated and covered with compost. Cultivating means an inch or so of the topsoil is loosened up and turned over in order to prepare the land to grow crops.

North of Cottage

The crop field north of the farmer's cottage

In June, Scott began to establish a new row crop field in the animal enclosure. As it is located north of his cottage, he began to call it the North of Cottage field. He spread compost over the area to enrich the soil, then in mid-July planted a summer cover crop of oats.

Last week, the north of cottage field was planted with late-season green beans (which may not work), and seeded mustard greens and collard greens. Scott is now trying to locate some kale transplants. Where can he find them?