The early variety’s are out of the ground and the rest of the crop is ready to follow. Were planning on having the great harvest party this Sunday July 18th starting at 2 oclock in the afternoon. There will be snacks, hopefully some live music to kick your feet to, lots of garlic, and a horse drawn walking plow demonstration while we open up the new piece of ground for this fall’s planting of garlic. So come at 2 or anytime after and have some fun, get dirty, try some garlic, meet the animals and walk around. Feel free to give either of us a call or email if you need directions or have any questions.

Finally got the new trailer finished and hauled over to market last weekend. Were looking forward to hauling her around all summer to Lee, Newmarket, and Derry for a bunch of fun markets.

Ye ha Garlic Scapes are here! Annalisa has got in a really big harvest and is under way on a big batch of her wildly delicious SCESTO…Garlic SCape pESTO. Ask to try it if you haven’t had the chance yet…it will knock your socks off. This is also just a reminder of all the wonderful garlic to come..its on the way and looking great we’re thinking of having the big Garlic harvest party on the 25th of July..the last Sunday of the month.

Other crop news…

 Were starting to see lots of little green tomatoes in the new high tunnel!   -   Snow Peas and Shell Peas are weighing down the vines and ripe for the picking.  -  The strawberry patch is filling in with shades of green and red, although not a huge harvest is expected. Try to get to market early for a box.  -  As to be expected for the rest of the season there is lots of Kale, and other leafy greens.

Our new flock of laying hens have just started to figure out what it means to lay an egg and were expecting a whole lot more volume of eggs soon.

Look for us a Lee Farmer’s Market every Thursday for the rest of the summer and at the Stone Church in Newmarket every Saturday for the summer as well. Derry’s new Farmer’s Market is starting on July 7th..we hope to see a good turnout and are excited for the start of a new Farmer’s Market.

The world is in bloom and the bee’s are happy. This years blackberry blossom’s are busy with the new honey bee’s and promise to turn into a bountiful harvest of those big juicy August treats.

  Our Farmer’s Market season is just about officially underway. The first Lee Farmer’s Market was last weekend and boy did it pour on us! Our new market trailer made it’s debut trip and we couldn’t be happier. Even in the downpour the produce and ourselves stayed dry..kind of… Anyway look for the red roofed gypsy trailer at a market near you. Newmarket Farmers market is set to start Saturday June 19th. Then close behind, the brand new Derry Farmers Market is set to start on July 7th! We’re excited to be bringing fresh produce back to Derry where I grew up and to see a new market starting up that seems to have lots of enthusiasm behind it. If your able to come and check it out it’s going to be on Crystal Ave. in Derry on Wednesday evenings from 3-7. 

Happy spring!  -Cheers-

It’s really exciting this spring to see the ground that we have opened up slowly getting planted to lots of really good veggies. The animals are happy to be out on pasture, were happy to be able to do the work were doing and thankful every morning for the environment in which we are able to do it. The high tunnel is finished and about to be planted to this summers big crop of tomatoes. The onions and garlic are coming up nicely, and the Kale we have already been able to start harvesting. Here are a few shots that have inspired my thankfulness.

Smiling Pig??

David and I have been getting a lesson from the old pro’s (Queen and Queenie) about how to work the old fashions horse drawn walking plow. I must admit to being a bit apprehensive about plowing because I have never done it before and there is a lot of variables for doing it well. We have a dealine for getting these fields open and planted and I didn’t even know if we were going to be albe to work the darn thing. 

The ground were opening up is coming out of a hay sod and being planted to flint corn, pumpkins, winter squash and sunflowers. Besides being apprehensive about learning to handle the plow, I was also worried about the act of plowing in itself and the affect it can have on our soils. There is a whole separate discussion involved in that, although I will say that overusing the moldboard plow does have its drawbacks on soil health but if used concienciouslly and at the right time it can also be just the tool needed while still keeping out soils health in mind. In our case I decided that if I was going to plow in the spring, that it was going to be as shallow as we could handle to kill the sod and leave as much of the soil in place as possible to retain soil structure and capillary action while the ground is still cool and wet.  The sod is then undercut, flipped over and kept nearer to the surface so that it can decompose quicker and more affectivly than if plowed deep and buried.

Anyway after all this talk, we did manage to walk some semi strait lines while turning over ground as we had planned. Much thanks to the two veteran horses that have walked a furrow many times before and let us spend our time trying to fix the plow instead of trying to steer them too much.

After some follow up passes with Whisper on his new single horse disc harrow setup followed by the old single section of spring tooth harrow we have a fairly decent seedbed for our first attempts, that means we should be able to get the plantings in on time. Ye ha!

Here’s a line up of some the ”new”  field tools… a little rusty but brought back into action for another round of sustainable horse powered agriculture here in New Hampshire.

Had a big bonfire in the old apple orchard the other night to burn up some prunings and brush in the new cow pasture.

For the past two days Casey and I  have started putting up the new high tunnel, one of the biggest spring projects on our list and its really great to see it finally coming together!

Yee ha!

Just finished the second chicken tractor of four today and got to give the young laying hens some more room and some fresh grass! They were very happy to eat it up. This summer we will be running about 55 laying hens in these chicken tractors..or portable chicken coops. The idea is that we move them every day to a new spot with fresh grass so they are on new ground everyday. Not only does this diversify their diet and give them more chances to scratch for grubs and other insects, but they also get to eat fresh grass every day. A chicken that is allowed to feed on these sort of natural foods gains a higher tolerance to diseases and produces a much healthier egg. Studies have shown that pastured laying hens will produce an egg that is higher in Omega 3 and have a much darker and richer yoke. This is the unique seal of quality in a fresh egg that was produced by pastured hens, the dark rich yoke will hold better together than ANY egg you can buy at the supermarket, organic or not. Not only are the eggs we will be bringing to market be produced from hens on certified organic pastures but they will always be fresh. Most likely gathered that morning or within a few days before, unlike the supermarket eggs which may be organic and claim free range but have been in refrigeration for a few weeks or more already by the time they are available to the customer.

Check out our new side page with some information about pastured laying hens…