Weed Management

May 16, 2019 Garden techniques, Market newsletters, Tips & Tools, Weekly Updates

Although pest and disease management are the issues that most readily come to mind when thinking of organic farming, keeping the weeds in check is actually a more consistent challenge. Starting in early spring and continuing into the fall, we spend time every week making sure that the crops stay ahead of the weeds. In order to do this both effectively and efficiently, we rely upon a variety of techniques and tools. While we certainly do more than our share of pulling weeds by hand, we aim to minimize our time spent doing this by taking preemptive measures to help the crops outcompete the weeds from the get-go. Cover cropping...

Coming soon

May 9, 2019 Market newsletters, Weekly Updates

As spring moves towards summer, more and more crops are becoming ready to harvest, so the selection at the market continues to grow nearly weekly. I’ve had a lot of questions about what new things will be available in the coming weeks, so wanted to do a quick update about what crops to expect soon! In the next few weeks, look forward to the first kohlrabi and spring onions. Spring onions look like huge scallions, but are really the uncured form of the onions most of us are used to eating. We harvest them before they are at the life stage when they can be cured for storage, so, like...

New things coming

May 2, 2019 Market newsletters, Weekly Updates

As we enter our second growing season, we’re starting to look ahead and to work towards some of our more long-term goals. The most exciting of these by far is the addition of fruit to our crop plan. This past month, after much research and hard work, Mike planted our first bed of strawberries along with twelve blueberry plants! As most fruit plants takes one or more years to become productive after planting, neither of these will be at market this year. We should have our first strawberries next spring and the blueberries the year after that. This week, I spent some time picking all of the flower buds off...

Green garlic and more hot weather

April 25, 2019 Market newsletters, Weekly Updates

The hot weather continued this week, with temperatures over 80 degrees on Tuesday, meaning the hoop house was up in the 90s! Warm springs sound like a good thing, with plants grower faster and getting ready for harvest sooner. The peas are about twice as tall as they were at this time last year! But in fact I find this type of weather at this time of year pretty trying. Spring is already the busiest time on the farm for us. The majority of what we grow is planted sometime between mid-March and mid-May, meaning that we are putting in an unprecedented number of seeds and seedlings along with trying...

Warm spring

April 18, 2019 Market newsletters, Weekly Updates

It’s been another busy week on the farm. Our new challenge this spring has been dealing with the rye cover crop that we planted in many beds to protect them over the winter. It’s our first year getting in a decent cover crop, which is an important part of maintaining soil health on an organic farm. However, rye can grow quickly and become a challenge to manage as temperatures increase in the spring so it’s important to get it mowed down and tilled under in time. After much reading and talking to fellow farmers, we are employing a system of mowing down the rye about 3 weeks in advance of...

First market 2019!

April 11, 2019 Market newsletters, Weekly Updates

Welcome to the 2019 season! We’re excited for the first Burke farmers market this coming Saturday, April 13! It’s been a strange spring on the farm. We started off with some incredibly cold weather when we were first planting in our hoop house which slowed germination and initial growth of most of the early plantings. And now we’re at the other extreme, with very warm, sunny, and sometimes even humid days that feel more like early summer than early spring. Fortunately, with our first season now behind us, our operations on the farm are a little more streamlined. Last year at this time, we were still in the process of...

Spring has sprung

March 26, 2019 Uncategorized

Apologies for the long time between posts. We’ve tried to make the most of some down time and family time over the winter, but we’re truly back into the swing of things at this point. Our hoop house is full to bursting with spring greens and each week more and more outside beds are getting planted. So far, we’ve seeded and transplanted an assortment of baby greens, carrots, onions, kale, collards, and bok choi, among other things. And in no time at all, the market season will be beginning. Make sure to mark your calendar for Saturday, April 13 and come visit us at the Burke Farmers Market for our...

We’re back!

January 23, 2019 Weekly Updates

It’s hard to believe that, with the 2018 market season ending only last month, we’re already back in the swing of things. Our family was able to enjoy a few weeks off around the holidays, but now we’re back to work for the 2019 season. Last week, I started seeding the very first transplants that will be planted into the hoop house in mid-February. I always go through a period of anxiety with the first round of transplants, wondering if they will germinate and within a few days of planting, was rewarded as the first green leaves sprouted above the soil. Even though we’ve been thinking about and planning the...

Last market

December 6, 2018 Market newsletters, Weekly Updates

It’s hard to believe that this Saturday will be our last farmers market of the 2018 season. It honestly doesn’t feel like that long ago that we were preparing for our first market (pictured above). Reaching the end of our market season is both a sad and happy benchmark for us. We will miss seeing all of our wonderful customers at the market for the next several months, but are also looking forward to a much needed break (and to a few months of getting to sleep in past four in the morning on Saturdays!) The farm is certainly starting to look like the season is at an end, with...

Nearing the end

November 29, 2018 Market newsletters, Weekly Updates

After a long season of hard work, it’s difficult to believe that we only have two farmers markets left this year! With a heavy freeze last week on Thanksgiving night and temperatures dipping into the mid-teens, almost all of our harvest at this point is from inside of our hoop house, but there is still plenty growing in there! (See below for our full harvest list.) With most of the outdoor beds now done for the season, we’re moving on to mowing those down and putting in the last bit of cover crop. While we might not get much early winter growth off of the cover crop at this point...

Two Feet in the Dirt

Two Feet in the Dirt's

Spring has sprung