by Simple Gifts Farm | Jun 7, 2019 | Uncategorized
We are embarking on an experiment this year into reducing tillage here on the farm. As many of you may have heard, our agricultural soils are one of the largest potential places to sequester some of our excess atmospheric carbon. One of the techniques that people...
by Simple Gifts Farm | Mar 8, 2019 | Uncategorized
I had the great pleasure to go in and talk about farming with the Wildwood 6th grade class yesterday. They are reading the book The Omnivore’s Dilemna, which talks about 4 different food production systems, and talks about the ways they impact our lives and...
by Simple Gifts Farm | Jan 25, 2019 | Uncategorized
My old cross country skis wore out last winter, so I got a new pair for myself in December. One of my great winter joys is skiing to work at the other end of the farm, but this winter, I didn’t get a chance to put them on until last weekend after our first...
by Simple Gifts Farm | Nov 2, 2018 | Uncategorized
Rainy Day activities get a little hard to find in November, and we have a big crew on Fridays. But there’s still some garlic left to crack! The garlic seed that we plant is just cloves of garlic planted in late Fall. Each clove grows into a head; before you...
by Simple Gifts Farm | Oct 19, 2018 | Uncategorized
The forecast for Wednesday was for a SW wind, around 15 miles per hour, with gusts up to 38 miles per hour. On our list for Wednesday: covering our late fall salad greens with row cover, and raising the Harvest Festival tent. In other words, two jobs involving...
by Simple Gifts Farm | Aug 31, 2018 | Uncategorized
This season has been challenging in many ways, not least of which was the 15 inches of rain we received in the late July and August. You all were probably aware of all the rain, but you probably didn’t know about how much trouble we have had this season with an...
by Simple Gifts Farm | Aug 10, 2018 | Uncategorized
Tuesday morning, a little after 7 in the morning, my little text notification sound went off. Was it one of my crew, telling me that the box truck was stuck in the mud again? No, it was the Cucurbit Downy Mildew alarm system, telling me that Downy Mildew had been...
by Simple Gifts Farm | Jul 6, 2018 | Uncategorized
New Potatoes are one of our fun crops of early summer. We usually start harvesting in late June or early July. In my early farming days, it was a stretch goal to get them in by the Fourth of July, but now we regularly harvest them a week or two ahead of that thanks...
by Simple Gifts Farm | Jun 22, 2018 | Uncategorized
When our kids got big enough that it was clear they weren’t going to be reading any more picture books, we took our sadly discarded picture books by the boxload to various book sales and other outlets until a few of the best ones remained. Those, some of which...
by Simple Gifts Farm | May 25, 2018 | Uncategorized
The seasons in New England are truly a roller coaster ride, especially for those of us who make our living with the seasons. The winter resembles the long slow chug up the first hill, building up kinetic energy for the long breath-taking hurtle down the track, which...
