Week 7

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All the delicious, sweet things are ripening, and the farm feels like a snack buffet custom made for small children. Joni and Ryah move from raspberries to blueberries in the back yard to the tomatoes and husk cherries in the field. I remind them of all the fruit options when they start fighting. If they are hungry enough, the lure of fruit is usually a useful distraction combined with movement taken to get there. I sit and watch while they are picking taking in the beauty of the farm this time of year and trying not to let the endless to-do list creep to hard into my head.

Stetson and the sheep yell at me when I’m in the barn, I’ve inadvertently conditioned them to expect snacks in the form of garden scraps when I walk by. Stetsons low nicker for food is mild compared to the three sheep baaa-ing endlessly while I work. I grumble about it and tell them to be quiet but ultimately, they get what they are asking for, bins of carrot tops and old lettuce, and stray leaves of kale guaranteeing they’ll yell at me again next time.

in the share:

please take 8 items

  • Sungolds

  • Red round tomatoes

  • Beans

  • Carrots

  • Chioggia Beets

  • Squash

  • Green onions

  • Leeks

  • Bib lettuce

  • Curly Kale

  • Green Cabbage

  • Kohlrabi

  • Parsley

  • Celery

  • Green Sweet Peppers

  • Eggplant

  • Jalepenos

  • Basil

July 30th week 6

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July is passing the way it always does, after much anticipation and a flurry of harvests, busy markets, and replanting for fall. My farmer friend Jennie sends me farm Haikus that give me a tiny window into her farm life often mirroring mine.

Woodchuck eats my plants

Some berries and a muffin

A slap, goes the trap -Jennie

I tried Haiku-ing in return, but the ridged structure feels limiting to me and so I gave up and decided I prefer to get hers instead, each one a whimsical surprise.

Surrounded by green

Biggest Broccoli ever

Summer is so sweet -Jennie

From an outside perspective they would seem disproportionately pest and rodent themed, but it is reflective of our occupation and therefore many of our conversations within our friendship.

Sea of black plastic

Fingers stained with bugs and eggs

Don’t lick your fingers -Jennie

In the share: Please take 8 items and 1 red round tomato

  • Basil

  • Swiss chard

  • Green Cabbage

  • Green Onions

  • Green Sweet Peppers

  • Eggplant

  • Kohlrabi

  • Green Curly Lettuce

  • Curly Kale

  • Hot Peppers

  • Celery

  • Parsley

  • Fennel

  • Bok Choi

  • Green Beans

  • Sungolds

  • Cucumbers

  • Carrots

July 23rd Week 5

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The bees swarmed last week. Joni, my mom, and I were on our way hiking when I got a call from Kyle. He and Joyce had noticed the bees acting funny and by the time he phoned me there were two swarms. One was buzzing over the sunflowers, and one was over the far gate in the field. He and Joyce fled to the greenhouse and said the bees were so loud you could hear them clearly from there. I connected Kyle with Bob who takes care of the bees, and he said they should settle quickly and were unlikely to be hostile. When I returned from our overnight trip there were still bees in the hive and also a group collected on a branch overhanging the gate where Kyle had originally seen them. We went about our day, working in the garden and Kyle flame weeded all the aisles. The next morning Ashlee who cuts flowers found a swarm cluster in the sunflowers. From afar she thought it was a chicken hanging out, and we all went to check them out and take a few photos. Amazingly Kyle must have flame weeded right next to them and didn’t notice and the bees didn’t react. I texted Bob who came over and suited up to try and catch this reachable swarm. Ashlee and I watched from a few rows over as Bob clipped off branches of the sunflowers and the bees fell into a “swarm catcher” box. All was smooth until Bob said “Oh shit” and a branch loaded with bees missed the box and fell to the ground. That was our cue to flee quickly and we watched from the end of the row as Bob stayed crouched down trying to gather up the fallen bees. Bob took the box home and investigated the remaining hive which to his eyes still appeared healthy. He said the hive was full of honey and they might have gotten “honey bound” and decided to shrink their numbers. Bob had added an extra box to the hive last week but he said they might have made a decision to do this weeks ago, and once they make a plan you can’t stop it. The whole experience was both very exciting and interesting, and left Ashlee and I both laughing about never knowing what we will experience out here in the gardens day to day and grateful for the variability.

In the share:

Please take 8 items

I am picking basil this week as it needs to be topped, but always feel free to go grab as much as you need in the garden. Husk cherries are just starting to mature as well and those will be self serve in upcoming weeks also.

  • Sungold Tomatoes

  • Celery

  • Parsley

  • Green Curly Lettuce

  • Kale

  • Carrots

  • Beets

  • Green Yellow Onions

  • Eggplant

  • Green Sweet Peppers

  • Rainbow Chard

  • Kohlrabi

  • Cabbage

  • Summer Squash

  • Cucumbers

  • Basil

July 8th Week 3

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Moon and I walk around the pond early most mornings. My trail running friend Mary turned me on to these deerfly catching strips that have been life changing for me and my walking habits during July. They are double sided sticky strips that go on the back of a hat and claim to have no chemical attractants, just stickiness. It has almost completely eliminated the endless aggressive head circling the flies do when they come out this time of year. The back of the head placement must be where most naturally would choose to land, and they get stuck. I almost look forward to each morning walk, to see if my catch will top the day before. It’s hard not to check the strip mid-walk, the caught flies still buzz for a bit but lightly, so I often know by sounds if I have caught a good number. I feel like I am doing the animals of the woods a service, slowly draining the deerfly population for them now each summer. My phone camera roll is interspersed with close up pictures of my loaded fly strips, mixed in with shots of garden beauty.

Please take 8 items: and if you would like a few tips of basil I can show you how to start self-serving in the garden, just ask!

  • Cukes

  • Summer Squash/Zucchini

  • Snap Peas

  • Kale

  • Chard

  • Red Lettuce

  • Scallions

  • Beets

  • Baby Carrots

  • Caraflex Pointy Cabbage

  • Fennel

  • Kohlrabi

  • Parsley

  • Celery

July 2nd Week 2

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Joni and I disappeared for the day Wednesday last week. As we were packing up to leave our regular volunteer, a CSA member, and Ashlee who does the flower bouquets were all arriving and headed into the garden. Kyle was out there working on the beginning of harvesting for the week. Although we were headed out to hike it was a bit hard to leave, they were all out there moving around harvesting, chatting, laughing, being part of the farm.

Joni and I met up with friends and made a second attempt (after an incomplete version last summer) of making it up the White Cairn trail to Blueberry Ledge in Evans Notch. I had gone back on my own last fall to complete the loop and to assess how far we had gotten with the kids relative to the top. It’s become a favorite spot of mine, just enough of a climb with beautiful views to satisfy my mountain cravings. I knew Joni was ready for it this year, and the two girls made it up easily, energized by the long rock staircase just below the start of the ledges. We had lunch at the top while dogs rested in the shade and then both kids ran almost the entire way down until tired legs and possible a loose shoe gave way to a big fall. Joni had trouble recovering, but we managed to salvage the day with a visit to the Basin and then ice cream.

The garden is doing its thing, and I almost hate to harvest, it feels like ruining a finished painting. But we will replace many harvested sections with new plants for fall that are growing in their trays waiting for their turn to grow.

Please take 8 items this week:

  • Snap peas

  • Very baby carrots

  • Rainbow Chard

  • Summer squash/Zucchini

  • Purple Kohlrabi

  • Kale

  • Baby Beets

  • Red Scallions

  • Garlic Scapes

  • Parsley

  • Bok Choi

  • Red radishes

  • Red lettuce

  • Maybe Celery?

June 25th Week 1

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The days are filled with hours of hoeing, up and down the edges of the garden beds, switching lefty righty lefty righty lefty righty to not tire one side out. It’s strangely meditative, the flow only occasionally broken by bending over to pull a large weed growing up next to the plants out of the holes in the plastic. The resident killdeer family and robins know when we are working and join in behind us, tussling over who will be first in line to get the bugs unearthed by our strange tools. They hop along pecking the freshly scraped dirt doing their own type of work.

Joni helps more in the garden this year than ever before with school being done . We’ve fallen into a routine of spending a few hours in the morning out in the garden, me weeding, her with books and animal figurines set up in a chair. It’s a mix of self propelled play and regularly appearing suddenly next to me to help or announce her extreme boredom with the whole situation, then repeat.

My sandal tan lines feel like one of my biggest accomplishments of the season so far, my feet being a filthy testament to the hours spent this year in the garden. Feet squished through the sucking sloppy mud of the early spring garden and are now happily traveling over drier ground, bending, planting, weeding, hoeing, reaching up on tip toes to tie up the tomatoes. The dirt on my feet and in the small cracks of my fingers and hands has become permanent for the summer season, stuck despite many vigorous washes.

The garden has become alive, the energies of the sun and the soil have been absorbed by the plants, taken up by their roots and absorbed by their leaves and given back in explosive growth. Time to harvest.

Some items are limited this week and will be first come first serve but everything will be in abundance soon…

Please take 7 items

  • Bok Choi

  • Rainbow Swiss Chard

  • Romaine Lettuce

  • Garlic Scapes

  • Baby Beets

  • Kohlrabi

  • Curly Kale

  • Summer Squash

  • Scallions

  • Parsley

April News

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April 2026 New

 Cold nights and these late season snow sprinklings feel like winter is having as hard a time transitioning to spring as I was having, although the sudden greening of the grass and ever persistent blooms of the daffodils make clear the inevitability of the change.  The peepers came back to life a few weeks ago which always signals it's time for me to start sleeping out on the screened porch, their chirping along with the distant sounds of turkeys doing their mating cry strangely soothing throughout the night.  Long hikes have shifted to early morning local woods walking and coming home with wet feet and a muddy dog.  

Kyle and I made a last-minute decision to put up a new small greenhouse to act as an intermediate space for more cold tolerant seedlings that are not ready to go outside.  We had been visiting a friend's farm and saw her seedling setup, and it gave me a good visual of what I felt like we needed to expand on here.  We fill up our small heated Seedhouse fast and usually move things out to the big tunnel. This new greenhouse will save us running many feet of hoses, is close to the house and is small enough to lightly heat during a below freezing cold snap as expected over the next few nights.  I made some phone calls and we were able to purchase, pickup, and build the new tunnel to completion just in time to move onions into it making space for the next round of seed starting.  The kids were amazingly tolerant of our rushed building timeline, Ryah in particular self-entertained near us working for a long amount of time, although at one point from up on the ladder I looked down at her crawling through the grass "roaring" having shed all of her clothes. The tunnel model is called a "bobcat" and we are keeping the name, as it feels an appropriate reference to all my track sighting this winter and spring. 

The sheep we picked up to keep Stetson company earlier this winter were listed as not bred, so the very distinct cry of a lamb last week when I went to do evening chores startled me out of my auto pilot feeding routine.  I glanced into the stall and saw a perfectly fluffy white lamb alongside one of the ewes.  There was a chaotic half hour of us separating the mom and baby from the horse (although he seemed quite peacefully excited about the new addition, his size is a hazard for a few weeks), but everyone then re-settled in.  Sometime between morning and evening feeding the Ewe had given birth to the lamb and cleaned her all up, so she was fluffy and dry.  Joni and Ryah were beyond excited, hanging over the stall asking to see the new "cub", a testament to their current obsession with all thing's lions.  We have yet to name the lamb, originally thinking we'd go paw patrol themed but I'm now leaning towards "Simba".    

The other bit of farm news is we are considering dropping our Organic Certification next year.  Many of the farmers in our circles have done this already or are thinking about doing the same.  The cost of certifying has become prohibitively expensive, and the federal cost share rebate has not come through for last year and it is unclear if it will at all again.  We also personally feel like the certification process through MOFGA is inadequate and doesn't fully capture the type of farming we do here.  I have a good friend who is a professor of sustainable agriculture at UMASS Amherst, and she is working with her students to come up with marketing signs and a survey for us to have at our markets and CSA pickup to see how people feel about the change.  Stay tuned...and tell me what you think! 

We are still waiting to hear if we will receive USDA funding to put up another full-sized greenhouse out in the field along with funding to do pollinator habitat improvements like adding shrubs and bushes that flower at the tail ends of the season.  We expect to hear back sometime this spring,  

We will be attending Bridgton, Kennebunk, and Scarborough Markets starting in late June.  Our summer CSA season kicks off in late June, and we always look forward to our winter CSA cooperative the Foothill Farm Alliance.  

We have not received a huge amount of interest in the Earle Farm pickup, so please reach out if you are planning on joining for that pickup so we can make a timely decision on offering that location.  

Happy spring,


March news

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March 2026 Farm News

I have done little to no farm work since the last newsletter beyond the normal daily routine of chores, some sprinkled in spring clean-up tasks, and supply ordering.  The season is sneaking right up on us; we are scheduled to begin seeding in just about two weeks right around the middle of March. I'm trying hard not to mourn the passing of winter; it's been a really good one.  The pond froze solid again for the second year in a row which brings Kyle and me this unexplainable joy at having it as part of our winter playground.  We both are out there almost every day, together, separate, with kids, without kids, with dogs, with friends. Its gives us ice skating when there is no snow, and a magical place to ski around and access trails while avoiding the road.  The morning light out there is my favorite, if I can get moving fast enough, Moon and I are often cruising across just as the sun pops up over the trees casting bright shadows behind the frozen cattails and illuminating the tracks of all the woods creatures who have been out in the night.  From the pond we often cruise the loop I call the high-low rd. belonging to my neighbor or head up the mountain for some sunshine.  There have been lots of coyote and bobcat tracks this winter.  They like to use the snowmobile trails, and the machines act like erasers. If I'm first out, I know any tracks I see are fresh within the last 12 hours or so.  I've been trading tracking photos with a more knowledgeable friend on the other side of the Hosac Hills, and she thinks we share the same coyote pack between us. Her knowledge is a much more developed intimate relationship with the individuals, while mine is a distant fascination.  

The winter adventures have continued; a long ski into Zealand hut, many skis and hikes here including two up and over Hosac on xc skis due to perfect fluffy snow conditions.  One slightly too-epic trip on skis near the Kancamagus pass up the Livermore trail and out Greeley ponds. It was a bigger outing than anticipated luckily made a bit easier by the incredibly mild February weather.  Not to mention a few kid xc ski outings and many sledding gatherings, the most recent being down what Kyle described as a bobsledding luge up on Devils Den while I worked a shift at Kristas.  

Sigh.  Time left for a few more as we wait for the snow to melt and the real work to begin.  We are truly looking forward to another farming season here and hope to see some of you at our CSA pickups and markets.  

SUMMER 2026 FARM/CSA INFO
EARLY SIGN UPs HELP US PLAN OUR SEASON

  • Pickup at Hosac Farm Thursdays 3-6 pm 

  • Full Share Cost: $525.00 for 14 weeks Late June-October

  • Summer Share Cost $325.00 for 8 weeks July-September

  • We are considering an Earle Farm Pickup again but will need at least 10 people to sign up,  Details on the website.  

  • Sign up Online @ www.hosacfarm.com/csa

  • We are on instagram!? visit us there...https://www.instagram.com/hosacfarm/

  • We will be at the Bridgton Farmers Market June-November behind Reny’s

  • We will be at the Kennebunk Farmers Market June-October

  • Foothill Farm Alliance winter CSA operates every year from November-January, this is a cooperative share, and an amazing value, check it out www.thefoothillfarmallaince.com 

Week 14 September 25th

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We spent the last two Sundays and Mondays harvesting our cooperative winter squash and sweet potatoes up at the Albany Town Forest. It was an amazing haul of food, we figure about 7,000lbs of sweet potatoes (split between 3 farms), and probably that or more in squash. Kyle had help on the Sundays from our neighbor, and I joined him Mondays when the kids were in school/daycare. The other farms brought a mix of volunteers and paid crew, so it was a fun large group of people working on harvesting and cleaning up over the course of those days. Now all the food is curing in our Seedhouse, staying hot for a few weeks so the skin hardens, and the flesh sweetens. Next, we will move it to various locations around our house and garage loft, and Ill miss how our mudroom feels spacious without boxes of food.

Thank you all for joining us this summer, we appreciate your support and hope to see you again next year. If youll miss fresh food too much until then:

Check out our winter CSA www.thefoothillfarmalliance.com

In the share: Please take 8 items

  • Spaghetti Squash

  • Delicata Squash

  • Honey Nut Squash

  • Potatoes

  • Yellow Onions

  • Red Onions

  • Carrots

  • Radishes

  • Arugula

  • Sungold Tomatoes

  • Eggplant

  • Sweet Peppers

Week 12 September 11th

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Excited to be entering our 11th or 12th or 13th season of the Foothill Farm Alliance Winter CSA? Kyle and I are in disagreement about dates. We were part of the start of the FFA when we were interns way back at the Earle Farm in 2013 and 2014. Tom generously included us in the original planning sessions with himself, Old Wells Farm, Hancock Farm, and Pork Hill farm, all of whom have since become invaluable working partners and good friends. The FFA continues this year, consider signing up! www.thefoothillfarmalliance.com

Please take 8 items and pick your own basil, husk cherries, and zinnias

  • Yellow Onions

  • Red Onions

  • Leeks

  • Spaghetti Squash

  • Potatoes

  • Kale

  • Chard

  • Carrots

  • Sweet Peppers

  • Eggplant

  • Jalapenos

  • Green Tomatoes

  • Buttercup Squash

Week 10 August 26th

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The ground is dry; I disced in the finished areas of the garden and clouds of dust formed in the tractors wake. I bought oats to seed in as a cover crop, but yesterday’s rain prediction slowly disappeared throughout the day. The oats will have to wait, there is not enough moisture in the soil right now for them to germinate, and although they would sit patiently buried in dirt waiting for water, the crows like to walk around picking out the seeds as a snack. We direct seeded some fall greens where the onions came out next to the greenhouse and watered them in with a sprinkler. Joni and Joyce helped me, and we were all covered in a fine layer of brown dirt when we were done. Once they are up, they will be irrigated on drip tape like everything else. Fall greens in trays are looking strong, and likely we will have to begin pulling some tomatoes out to make room. I’m never quite ready to pull the tomatoes, but the greens need enough time growing in the ground before the light disappears and everything freezes.

Please choose 8 items

  • Green Cabbage

  • Kale

  • Carrots

  • Red Onions

  • Squash/Zucchini

  • Cukes

  • Celery

  • Head lettuce

  • Yellow Potatoes

  • Sungolds

  • Heirloom Tomatoes

  • Fennel

  • Eggplant

  • Sweet Peppers

  • Jalapeños

Week 9 August 21st

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We watched the weather change from the screened porch last night, puffy clouds glowing orange and pink backlit by the setting sun. The change started in the afternoon while we were outside with the kids unpacking from markets and jumping on the trampoline. Wind blowing in from the west slowly pushed out the hot humid air and threatened to rain on and off for hours. The rain never came, although we wished it would, but the cool air was welcomed with a big sigh of relief. The dogs felt the change too, running around chasing each other, re-energized by the drops in humidity and temperature. It’s a funny thing to wish for rain after all I did was hope for it to stop this spring, and I thought about this for a good time today. The weather is fickle, and I am always trying to learn to trust the farm and the plants and their ability to keep growing.

In the share please take 8 items

  • Heirloom Tomatoes

  • Sungold Cherry Tomatoes

  • Kale

  • Parsley

  • Celery

  • Cabbage

  • Red Blush Lettuce

  • Sweet Peppers

  • Eggplant

  • Jalapenos

  • Squash/Zucchini

  • Cucumbers

  • Green Cabbage - lots! plan on making sauerkraut

  • Yellow Potatoes

Week 8 August 14th

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Onions started coming in yesterday. We pull them and arrange them in the seedhouse to dry bottoms up. The seedhouse has a ventilation system that kicks on automatically at 75 degrees, but on these hot days it will stay over 100 degrees in there for the bulk of the day, and with the fans running allows for good curing. In a few weeks we will start slowly trimming off their stems and selling them at the farmers markets and offering them in the CSA. When the inside of the stems no longer have any moisture left we will trim up the rest for winter storage. Now starts the slow process of gathering all the food out of the fields and stockpiling for winter, while also still harvesting summer crops that are in full swing.

Please take 8 items and pick your own basil and husk cherries

  • Yellow potatoes

  • Sungold tomatoes

  • Heirloom tomatoes

  • Green Cabbage

  • Red Blush Lettuce

  • Sweet Peppers

  • Jalapeños

  • Eggplant

  • Carrots

  • Squash

  • Cucumbers

  • Beans

  • Kale

  • Beans

  • Celery

Week 7 August 7th

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In the age of internet oversharing, I've become resistant to doing what feel like cheesy gratitude posts. I even jokingly thought perhaps I should balance out all the rosy Instagram farm and homesteading content by doing a farm fail page. It would be all too easy and realistic, with some shots of the kids being uncooperative or screaming thrown in. Someone has probably already thought of this, I haven’t bothered to check. Having said that, last week we had such an overwhelming outpouring of unsolicited volunteer and friend help it feels necessary and with genuine gratitude that I share about it here. Joyce has been volunteering with us since Joni was born, and she is typically here with us twice a week for anywhere from 2-4 hours at a time helping with anything and everything we are doing. She was here Monday and Wednesday last week weeding holes and picking beans. Jay was here Monday as well and helped Kyle harvest all of our cabbage that now sits happily in our walk-in cooler. Jay used to participate in our CSA at the Earle farm, and for the last few years has driven all the way here to Cornish to help us, as well as at our Conway field. My friend Jane asked to and took Joni swimming for a number of hours Tuesday which left me free to do emailing and cleaning. Ruby showed up with 4 of her Pine Root Farm interns on Thursday and got all of our early potatoes that were planted here bagged and into storage. Friday, Jay, his wife Kim, and their daughter Paisley and a friend came back for the morning. Kim and Jay weeded carrots and beets, and Paisley and friend gave my two girls the endless amount of undivided attention they crave, which left me free to do random small farm tasks that never seem to get done. Ashlee was here twice doing her flower arranging and always surprises me by weeding perennial flower beds randomly. It was a week that made me feel very proud of the farm and all that we’ve created here, and it all demonstrated the support that is essential for keeping us going. Even after my first draft of writing this, more volunteer support is pouring in for this coming week in various ways from current csa members and friends. People often ask us how we do it all, and the answer is its hard and with a lot of help. We are so grateful. Thank you.

In the share: Please take 8 items and PYO Basil

  • Sungold tomatoes

  • Squash

  • Carrots

  • Yellow Onions

  • Heirloom Tomatoes

  • Kale

  • Beans

  • Cukes

  • Sweet Peppers

  • Jalapeno Peppers

  • Eggplant

  • Celery

  • Summer Crisp Red Leaf Lettuce

  • Green Cabbage

  • Kohlrabi

  • maybe husk cherries if we can get them picked

Week 6 July 31st

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Its the season of hot mornings out early harvesting before the sun is up and wilts the plants. Afternoons are catching up on weeding and weed whacking, our hands and clothes now permanently stained with grass and dirt. The cherry tomatoes have almost reached the 6-foot-high lower metal bars spanning the greenhouse, and we tied them to their trellis string for the last time. From here on out they will grow a bit taller and then flop over heavy with the weight of their fruit. We will push through them to pick, a tangled jungle of vines and sweet orange treats. The first round of squash is done in the tunnel and in the next week we will seed those beds to winter carrots. Kyle harvested all of the cabbage with a volunteer this week, and it now sits in 8 huge bins in our walk-in, and that section of the garden will soon be turned into a green cover of oats for the fall. Early potatoes are next to be pulled. If we are lucky on time these hot evenings we’ve been bailing early on the farm and heading over to long pond. Although it’s hard to stop working, the transition from busy day to night is sometimes tricky and seems to be made easier for us all with a short swim.

Please choose 8 items and PYO Basil

  • Celery

  • Cabbage

  • Parsley

  • Sungold Cherry Tomatoes

  • Sweet Green Peppers

  • Eggplant

  • Squash/Zucchini

  • Green Beans

  • Butter Crisp Lettuce

  • Kale

  • Carrots

  • Beets

  • Yellow green onions

  • Kohlrabi

  • Fennel

  • Maybe Cukes?! These are being slow.

Week 5 July 24th

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Kyle stayed on the farm yesterday and with the help from our volunteer Joyce tackled some early in the week harvesting and then weeding in what I call the “first garden”. Joni and I took off after dropping Ryah at Little Farm School and met up with Ruby who owns Pine Root Farm and her daughter Juni. Both of us are feeling hard July farmer burnout and needed some mountain scenery to re-ground. We carpooled up into Evans notch and spent the morning hiking the White Cairn Trail off the Stone House Road. It was a slow hike, lots of stopping for snacks and collecting items for fairy houses, and we kept re-motivating with the promise of chocolate chips at the designated turn around spot. We looked at fallen logs half rotten by rain and time, thick beech stands, funny rocks, and streams gone dry just to a trickle. We left some fairy objects in an old stump that might be home to a gnome and brought a few found trinkets home in a bag for later construction. Moon frolicked in the woods running back and forth amongst the kids and I absorbed his obvious joy of being in a new place taking in the peace of the weather and being off the farm. We didn’t make it as far as my original hope, but the kids ended happy and spent the whole car ride home chatting and giggling, a sure sign of a successful outing. Evan’s notch has always been a favorite spot of mine, having spent weeks working on the East Royce Trail during my trail work summers, as well as patrolling all the various loops and ridges the Appalachian Mountain Club maintains. The Baldface circle trail is a hike I try to do every year, something magical and appealing abouts its long open rock ledges and views. Last year my friend and I completed it on a perfect November day via the Slippery Brook Trail avoiding the steepest ledges so I could bring the dog, seeing no other humans for the entire 10mile loop. Today was a child sized hike but satisfying in its own way, a readjustment in expectations, the simple pleasure of sharing the mountains with friend, dog and children.

Please take 8 items and PYO Basil. If you took cucumbers last week please leave those for someone else as they are still not in full production yet.

  • Green Beans

  • Fennel

  • Cucumbers

  • Summer Squash/Zucchini

  • Beets

  • Carrots

  • Sweet Green Peppers

  • Green Yellow Onions

  • Green Red Onions

  • Parsley

  • Kohlrabi

  • Crisp Head Lettuce

  • Kale

  • Chard

  • Sungold Tomatoes

  • Red Radishes

July 17th week 4

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Mid July is the peak of it all. The few weeks where we feel like everything needs our attention all at once, and priorities must be made. Fall brassicas go in the ground, weeds are exploding, harvesting is increasing with many plants like tomatoes and squash needing to be picked twice a week, and the field and pasture is due for its once yearly mow. We are chipping away at it all, almost done today making a thorough sweep of weeds through the whole garden after some early morning harvesting. The field is mowed but the pasture will have to wait. In a week or two the weeds will slow down and as hot season crops like peppers, onions, and eggplant start producing we will be pulling done broccoli, cabbages, kohlrabi, slowly shrinking our garden maintenance back down.

Please choose 8 items and pick your own basil. Please ask us to show you where. If you are an Earle member who wants basil in addition to the 8 items please indicate this in your email.

  • Carrots

  • Bok Choi

  • Beets

  • Red Onions

  • Yellow Onions

  • Parsley

  • Kale

  • Chard

  • Kohlrabi

  • Buttter Lettuce

  • Fennel

  • Cucumbers

  • Red Radishes

  • Summer Squash/Zucchini

Peppers, eggplant, and cherry tomatoes are likely just a week away.