Farm Friends,
From storage cabbage and carrots in, to newly covered beds of greens and massive field cleanups, it’s been the kind of week that requires an extra-wide lens. As we pack up for our very last Hamilton Farmers Market day of 2021, we have enormous gratitude for all of you who have been a part of the farm this season. We’ll be there on Bedford, along with a few other farms, and with still a huge pile of veggies. These final markets are a little mellower, so we should have plenty of time to talk and visit, so we do hope we see you. If you’ve been curious about how the winter farm membership works, or what to expect, come chat with us at market to see if it’s a good fit.
Main-season members, thank you all, so much, for your support these last 6 months! The main membership wrapped up this past week, but we encourage you to shop the market and farmstore this week with your 10% member discount, as there is still so much good food: spinach, salad mix, spicy mix, kale, chard, radishes, salad turnips, onions, garlic, scallions, carrots, beets, cabbage, and some of the sweetest winter squash.
Read/ look on for the photos of the week, and as we roll into fall and winter, remember the farm and the farm food are still here for you.
farmlove,
Noah and Mary, SweetRoot Farm
Sabrina harvests the final scallions for market, while another team tackles the bulk radishes (now washed and stowed away for months of farmstore salad-supplies).
The BCS flail mower shreds finished plants in place, returning their leaves to the soil for the eagerly awaiting worms and soil microbes to digest over the winter.
Much of this week was extremely un-photogenic and also important work: field cleanup to remove summer-crop plant matter to the compost, pull up and stow the re-useable landscape fabric, posts, trellising, and all the supports for the crops like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and flowers. Flail mowing the spent plants of been, greens, tarping some blocks for winter to help residues break down. Already we are thinking and strategizing about which of those spaces will be best for spring, noting which need a spring cover crop, which could take the earliest greens. Some of this cleanup is a gift to our spring selves.
Friday’s agenda included many final harvests, like the salad turnips on the right, and also setting up the final of our three moveable winter “caterpillar” tunnels, set now over greens that were seeded and grew directly in the field until getting covered at dawn on Friday. With the whole team working in one block, Malaya couldn’t resist lounging in the headlands, supervising it all.
Snow on the peaks, gold in the trees, and deep deep green inside the caterpillar tunnels in the valley. Spinach and mild salad mix are now protected and happily waiting their turn to feed you in November, December, and January.
Bok Choy, despite many sub-twenty degree nights, stands proud and fresh under row cover. Row cover (besides caterpillars and high tunnels) is probably our most important farm tool to help extend our season. This will be at the market and farmstore all week.
Malaya, tired from all her greeting duties, sacks out next to a shipment of new-to-us, refurbished food-grade harvest bins. This week we literally filled most of them and they are safely storing produce in our walk in coolers and temporary rented space across town until we move into our new space.
What a crew! Three dogs and a cast of characters you haven’t mostly met, other than Sabrina (farmer on the far right). It’s hard to believe we’ve been running the ship this year with so many part time crew. It’s been awesome to have so many people; but we greatly underestimated the hours of training required for the various farm jobs. We did make one job offer to someone this week and are continuing interviews for full-time crew so, both in the field, and off the field, we can have a more sustainable farm life, finish our packshed, and continue to grow food for you.
The power was actually connected last week, but we finally snapped the photo this week. The new packshed build has sat idle for a few weeks while we get our major harvests in, secure winter crops (and winter farm members). This photo is one of those that shows a mundane thing that is a really big deal. Turning on power, with new service and a natural gas line that will run efficient backup and nursery heaters took about a week’s worth of farm proceeds during our main peak season.
We had storms all week, the rain coming in is good for both some headlands that function as pasture for the young laying flock and germinating cover crop in garden blocks. We were actually so worried about the late seeding date for this overwintering rye and peas, that we used some of our older row cover to help give it a boost for germinating and getting established in the limited days left.