June Second I like to use the first Newsletter of the season to introduce ourselves. For many of you who have been returning CSA members for several years, it’s like hearing your Aunt Helga or your mother re-tell the same story you’ve heard them tell 1000 times before. Just call me Aunt Jill, humor me […]
“Spring, Spring, Spring”, sang the Robin Farmers are forever optimists. We have hard seasons, but we survive them and spend our winters recovering from them while dreaming of Spring and rebirth and renewal. Alas the Spring arrives and the farmer is filled with a renewed sense of hope and anticipation. Something primal comes alive from […]
Tuesday, March 9th, 2021 Spring on the Farm Winter unofficially ended on our farm this week. The snow is beginning to melt. The maple sap is running. The birds are singing (loudly!) Onions are being seeded and there is smoke coming out of of the greenhouse chimney. It is beginning to look, sound and smell […]
October Fourteenth On the final week of Summer Share deliveries I feel gratitude running thick in my blood. I feel thankful for a bountiful harvest that the good earth has offered us even through a challenging growing season of drought. I feel thankful for my health and the health of my small family. I feel […]
Octobrt Seventh Fall on the farm is turning into a glorious and smooth harvest season. Fall colors had their peak about a week ago, but with all of the sunshine this week we will continue to enjoy the array of colors as the sun lights up the leaves as they shimmer in the breeze when […]
September Thirtieth Fall on the farm feels very different this season. It feels different because we are getting many of our storage crops out of the ground a little sooner than in previous years. We are also not doing Farmer’s Markets this year due to the fact that the market that we usually attend on […]
September Twenty-Third We have a humble tradition in our farm house of holding hands and taking turns saying at least one thing that we are grateful for before we share food together. It provides a moment of pause in our fast-paced lives to see, feel and recognize one small thing that we have to be […]
September Sixteenth The kitchen on the farm this week has been steamy and warm and even a little sloppy. Momma Jane and I have been busy canning tomato sauce with the culled tomatoes from the farm this week. We’re peeling garlic, chopping onions, plucking herbs, cleaning jars and canning our little hearts out. It feels […]
September Nineth I knew from the very first time I worked on a farm at the ripe age of 18 that the countryside was where I belonged. The feel of plants and soil between my fingers, the feel of the breeze and sunshine on my skin and the subtle sounds of nature all around me […]
September Second Dear Adam, This is a letter for you because we don’t get all that much time to talk to each other these days between the sounds and needs of the children, the demands of the harvesting crew and the pressures of the farm. By the time the table is finally cleared and the […]
August Twenty-Sixth It’s funny how as we get older time seems to speed up. I watch our children pass the days away on the farm laying in the grass, picking flowers, building forts, climbing trees and just dreaming up projects and play for themselves. They graze the vegetable field harvesting only what looks tasty to […]
August Ninettenth This week on the farm has been busy and heavy! Farmer Adam continues to find ways to get water to the crops that need is most. We are on a very long stretch with no rain. We did receive 1/10th of an inch last Friday night which was very quickly absorbed and seemingly […]
August Twelfth Vegetables farmers do love dry weather. But when it doesn’t rain for over three weeks in the middle of summer, a vegetable farmer in Wisconsin hoping to pull off Fall crops has to get busy! We love dry weather because vegetable plants do not love to have wet leaves for very long. Wet […]
August Fifth It is so interesting how a little weather shift with some cooler temperatures has us thinking and feeling Fall. There is never a dull moment on the farm. We are busy harvesting, weeding, and yes, even planting still! The running gear wagon is loaded up with transplants scheduled to go into the ground […]
July Twenty-Nineth Many important harvests began on the farm this week! We started harvesting our garlic and onions this week. Some of these larger harvests need to happen in one big swoop in order to get the crop out of the ground and curing before they sit in the field too long and potentially begin […]
July Twenty-Second We are now entering the part of the season that is the most exciting, sweet, popular and delicious of all of the vegetables. These long, peak-summer days give us the warmth and sunlight that ripens many of our summer crops that we have all been waiting for. We are watching the sweet corn […]
July Fifteenth There is a buzz on the farm. A mid-July hum. The sounds of the farm include the crickets, the frogs, the lightening bugs, the farm truck, the mower, the workers chatter, the tractor , the irrigation pump, the ice machine, the cooler compressor and any day now the cicadas. The faces of the […]
July Eighth One of the most beautiful parts of our Small Family Farm, I believe, is the community we are cultivating. There is so much more in this experience than the food. Since forever ago, whenever there is food being cultivated, there is community interwoven within. There are families and stories and children and faces. […]
July First I find it fascinating to watch plants and their life cycles. With their sensitivity to daylength, light, temperatures, fertility and moisture, it is so interesting to watch plant behavior. Plants seem to have a knowing of when the days are getting shorter and when it’s time to get busy bulbing or flowering. They […]
June Twenty-Fourth As a child I remember feeling excited by a thunderstorm. I loved the rush and thrill that I felt from lightening and thunder and heavy rain. I loved lying safe and snug in my bed falling asleep to the sound of rain and wind. I know that some children are freightened by thunderstorms, […]