Farm update

It's been a little over two years since I posted last and a lot has been happening! We have settled in and started building our farm business. The first step was to uncover the gardens and amend the soil. We have heavy clay here and it needed a lot of compost to make it workable. I don't like tilling unless it's absolutely necessary, so the first year I planted a cover crop of buckwheat and clover. 

The next year we planted a few crops like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes, garlic and herbs. Things were growing pretty well until we had a drought mid summer. Between frosts in June and not getting rain for a few months, it was a year of learning.

In the fall, after planting garlic and shallots, I put down another cover crop of clover, wheat and perennial flowers seeds in most of the beds and covered the rest with crushed leaves. We left the dried stalks from the seasons crops, to help keep the soil from eroding and to add organic matter naturally.

The next spring the soil was loose and crumbly, there was also an abundance of worms. I was able to lightly turn the beds using a broad fork to prepare for the spring planting. I tilled up more rows to expand the growing area. We have been adding perennial crops like strawberries, lavender, flowers, horseradish, and Egyptian walking onions.

This year we had a very good crop of garlic and shallots. I harvested 30 lbs of garlic and 8 lbs of shallots. Some of that will be culled out to be planted in October for next year's crop.

In one of the newly tilled gardens I planted wheat as a winter cover crop to try to grow for flour. I did a 4' x 50' row. We harvested the wheat in July and still need to thresh and winnow it before grinding into flour. I'm looking forward to making homemade pizza and bread! It was a fairly easy crop to grow. Like garlic, you plant in the fall, cover with leaves and wait to harvest in the summer. We need to come up with an efficient system to harvest and clean the berries, but if it works well I might plant a larger area for next year. It would be nice to offer fresh ground flour in the farm stand!

After observing what grows best here and getting accustomed to a shorter growing season than we're used to, we decided that herbs and flowers will be the most logical main crops. We will still do a kitchen garden to feed ourselves and to donate to the local food shelter, but the main garden will mostly consist of perennial flowers, annuals for cut flowers, medicinal and culinary herbs and perennial vegetables and fruit. 

We plan on opening the farm stand as soon as we can get the space cleared and set up. This fall, if all goes as planned, I will be putting up a 10' x 30' greenhouse for seedlings and building the kitchen garden. I will also be building a couple chicken/duck tractors so we can use them to till the gardens in fall and spring. 

This journey has been difficult at times, but I am grateful for this opportunity to be able to do something I've dreamed about for such a long time. 

~Rob~

This is a Clivia that was given to me by my cousin several years ago. 

It is an offspring from my grandfathers plant.

I've had it for many years and it has never flowered.

This year it finally flowered!

 Dreams really do come true!

We sold our home in CT last November and moved into a rental on 100 acres just north of Woodstock Vermont. We thought this would be a nice place and had high expectations of being able to farm and connect with nature.

Not too long after moving in we realized this wasn't the place for us. We were promised land to farm and thought we would be able to do all the things we've been dreaming of, but that quickly changed. The happiness of finally moving to Vermont was replaced with anxiety and depression because we felt like we were under a microscope with the land owner living right next door and constantly being in or around our apartment. She didn't respect boundaries or personal space and couldn't understand when we expressed our frustration. We weren't really "living" there, we were just existing and it was time to find a new place to live.

Luckily after 10 months there we found a place that is a much better fit for us. We are now living in Middlebury Vermont on a 4 acre farm. We are close to a thriving downtown with amenities and people who are happy, friendly and welcoming, what a refreshing change!

We moved in June 1st and have an awesome landlord who gave us his blessing to do whatever we want here without having to ask! It used to be a certified organic farm with an attached farm stand. There are so many possibilities here and we can't wait to uncover the gardens and put our hands in the dirt!

Stay tuned as we begin our farming venture! I will be documenting out progress as we put into practice all the things we've learned over the years. Now we need to come up with a farm name!

~Rob~

Searching for farmland...

 

In the past couple of weeks I have decided to take the leap to start seriously looking for land to farm on. I have signed up with the Connecticut FarmLink Program and New England Landlink through the New England Small Farm Institute to try and locate farm land to either rent or buy.

Last week I looked at a potential property, a one acre flower farm about a half hour away. The farm is home to a thriving flower business, with the potential to expand to other crops. I met a very nice woman who runs the business and ended up working with her yesterday, helping to clear the gardens preparing them for winter. What better way to get a feel for a farm than to spend a few hours working in the gardens. This property may not be ideal for my particular visions of farming but it definitely has possibilities. If anything I got a chance to meet a fellow grower and may end up working with her part-time, learning more about her business.

In my search for farmland I have come across a very useful tool to help locate farm-able land, Web Soil Survey.

Web Soil Survey is a website that provides soil data and information provided by the National Cooperative Soil Survey and is operated by the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS). It is very easy to use, you just enter in the address of the property, use the AOI (area of interest) tool to draw the boundary of the property, and click the soil map tab to get a soil report.

When I entered my current property the report read: 

Soil Type: Agawam fine sand loam
Farmland classification: All areas are prime farmland

The report is lengthy, as well as soil types and farmland classification it gives you components of soil type, properties and qualities, profile, drainage, flood zone, and a lot of other very useful information. It is a great tool to use to quickly eliminate properties that aren't really good for farming.

Ideally we would love to move to Vermont, but with my business, my wife's job and our kid's still in school, it may not be the most practical thing to do just yet. The dream of living on a 10 acre New England farm is very appealing to all of us, but when the thought of uprooting our comfortable lives becomes a real possibility, it becomes a little daunting, so the new plan is to find local land to start farming on now.

My ideal farm plan is to operate a small 5+ acre organic market farm, selling through an onsite farm stand and to local markets and restaurants. Getting my feet wet (or dirty) in actually running a farming business is a priority to help gain experience before I take the big plunge. Gardening at home and managing the school gardens are fulfilling, but it's not the same as  running an actual farm business. We do have plans in the works to expand the gardens on our current property, add an additional greenhouse and talk to the town about getting a license to sell at farmer's markets. I am already licensed to run an in-home business so I don't foresee any potential issues.

I am in the midst of reading, Market Farming Success, which is full of great ideas and inspirations, and am a subscriber to Growing for Market which is loaded with very informative articles and publications on market farming. These publications confirm that the potential exists for market farmers to be very successful, especially with so many people wanting to eat healthier these days.
 
I have so many notebooks full of ideas for my farm business and have mapped out several enterprises that I would love to try my hand at once we find farmland.  The big plan is still to purchase our forever home, that New England Farmhouse with enough land to farm on, room for a few greenhouses, and a roadside stand to sell fresh organic vegetables and cut flowers, but in the meantime I will be happy farming on an acre or two to get some experience under my belt and start doing what I dream about doing every day!

~Rob~