5.15.18 Tomatoes and Potatoes!

We are very excited to let everyone know that we have started transplanting our heirloom tomatoes!

This planting is a couple weeks ahead of last years schedule, so we are hoping for some early season tomatoes! The last couple of days we have transplanted over 1,000 tomato plants! We plan to be planting tomatoes over the next month or so. Last year we had an immense amount of rain through the spring which set us back on planting because the fields were too wet. This year we feel like spring skipped us- we went straight from winter to summer weather! This isn't necessarily a bad thing, just as long as we get some rain along with the sunny weather! When it doesn't rain we are forced to be watering the plants by hand.

Along with tomatoes, we also planted potatoes! We planted some blues, some reds and some double reds (red skin and red inside). Potatoes are unique when compared to most produce because to get potatoes for this year we simply plant leftover potatoes from last year!

There are many spring jobs on the farm which we enjoy however trimming apple trees is not one of them... If it weren't essential to do, we would not do it. It's one of our least favorite jobs on the farm but we love good apples so it's a must! When we trim the trees we mainly try to cut off the water sprouts, unless more major trimming is required. If we let water sprouts continue to grow they'll turn into full branches. Water sprouts typically grow straight up reaching out to get as much sun as possible. When trimming apple trees you don't want branches overlapping, growing together or growing straight up. This causes issues as they get bigger. This is why we work hard to eliminate those sprouts to keep the trees growing healthy and producing good fruit!

5.3.18 Outdoor Planting Season Begins

The snow has melted, the ground is drying, the sun is hot and we are ready for the spring weather! We have taken this opportunity to catch up and get back on track from a lonnggg winter!

You have to start by determining when the field is ready to be worked up. Do it too early and it will be too wet and the soil will clump too much. Do it too late and the field will be too dry and won't have enough moisture to promote early seed growth. We are at the perfect spot right now!

We are currently in the busiest time of the spring season, planting. We started working up the ground earlier this week to prepare. Today we planted our first set of sweet corn, so we are prepared for an early batch!

We've also got some garlic coming up! This is always exciting because garlic is planted in the fall with hopes that it all comes up in the spring time! We see it as one of the first true signs of spring around here.

We'll have another update soon, so check in the next couple of days for that! :)

Spring Time is Upon Us!

Spring is always bittersweet.The tranquility of the winter season comes with a feeling of rest and relaxation. But when winter gives way to spring, we feel the pressures of the upcoming season bearing down on us. In order to have a successful harvest season our crops must be planted in a strategic way. The spring season is very important for the success of the upcoming season. We plant over 20,000 transplanted plants and over 100,000 seeds planted straight to the field. This is spanning over 50 different types of produce.

During the spring season we also spend a lot of time cutting down dead trees. Firewood is very important and valuable to us. Not only does it heat our homes but we use a massive amount of wood while making maple syrup! This last week we worked on cutting a lot of firewood, among doing other things. We finished knocking down a huge red elm today. We had to cut it, pull it with bobcat, cut it some more and finally it fell! We'll use some to heat Todd's house, some will go towards our syrup fire and we will put some for sale at our roadside stand!

Enjoy your week everyone, we sure are looking forward to the 50's that are on their way!

2.26.18 Maple tree tapping has begun!

With temperatures now teatering above and below freezing, we decided it's time to begin tapping our maple trees! We tapped 29 trees trees along the driveway. We always start with trees along the driveway, because that is where the sun and warmth hits first! Maple trees begin flowing once the trees warm up during the day and then freeze again at night.

Last year we tapped around 49 trees, we hope to add more taps this year so we are able to yield more syrup for all of you! Tapping trees and set up are the easy part. Once we get syrup flowing, we are going to have hours of hard work before us! We will have to rebuild our boiling station and then we'll be carrying hundreds of pounds of sap to be boiled over an open fire!

We'll update all of you once we are onto the next steps of the process!