by Simple Gifts Farm | Feb 22, 2018 | Uncategorized
I’m on my way back from my annual pilgrimage to California for the Board meeting of the Organic Farming Research Foundation. This time I am honored to announce that I have been elected to serve as the President of the Board! OFRF has been doing fantastic work...
by Simple Gifts Farm | Feb 16, 2018 | Uncategorized
We are in the midst of a new farming adventure right now. We have been cutting the heads off of some of our little tomato plants and sticking them on to other plants. What!? Grafting tomatoes is becoming a more and more common practice. The idea is that if you...
by Simple Gifts Farm | Jan 26, 2018 | Uncategorized
Microgreens are the quickest and most intensive crop that we grow. Parsnips take 120 days from seeding to harvest, heads of lettuce can be grown in about 60 days, while radishes and arugula, our quickest crops in the field, can be harvested as soon as 3 weeks after...
by Simple Gifts Farm | Jan 12, 2018 | Uncategorized
We seem to be at the end of this winter’s early cold snap, but it has been a doozy. The cold weather makes everything harder for us. Any time a hose gets used, all of the water must be drained out of it, or else it will turn into one long ice-pop. Even a little...
by Simple Gifts Farm | Dec 15, 2017 | Uncategorized
We are fully into the “Persephone Period,” that time of year when the days are short enough that there is very little growth in any of the salad greens. But by adding just a little bit of heat in some of the greenhouses, we can get some of the greens to...
by Simple Gifts Farm | Nov 30, 2017 | Uncategorized
One of our big early winter tasks is getting the low tunnels covered for the winter. We have about 2/3 of an acre covered in a mini-greenhouse system that will keep them relatively cozy and warm for the duration. One-third of an acre is a special variety of...
by Simple Gifts Farm | Nov 3, 2017 | Uncategorized
Amelia Bronder-Giroux comes to us from Malden, MA. She worked at several other farms prior to working with us, and was looking for more experience at a production-scale farm. We put her in charge of many projects here; she has been responsible for our greenhouse...
by Simple Gifts Farm | Oct 27, 2017 | Uncategorized
We are continuing on our series of profiles of the farm apprentices this week with a profile of Jansyn Thaw. I came on Jansyn out in the field working on harvesting celeriac on a beautiful fall afternoon. Jansyn is an Amherst native who lived here between 2nd grade...
by Simple Gifts Farm | Oct 20, 2017 | Uncategorized
One of the most important ways that we feel we give back to the community is our farm apprentice program. A substantial part of our farm crew consists of apprentices who work with us and get a year of training on the road to becoming the next generation of organic...
by Simple Gifts Farm | Oct 13, 2017 | Uncategorized
The farm season always comes in cycles, and one of our marks for the passing of time is when we borrow the onion-cleaning machine from Wally Czajkowski (that’s prounounced SAI-cow-ski). We sell our early onions with the scallion-like tops still attached, as a...
