June Farm News

The farm sometimes feels like a Roman chariot.  In perpetual motion, pulled round and round the track by a team of horses eager to break away from the restraint of their reins.   We are the charioteers, trying to learn the feel of those reins, how much to pull, how much to give, finding balance.  We are currently on a corner of the track now, digging in, getting all those seedlings put in the ground, racing against them as they outgrow their potted cells and the coming summer’s heat.  After the plants are in, we can give a little and catch up on mowing and all the other general tidying that has been pushed to the side temporarily.  Then the weeds come, and we will race against those into harvest time. 

The farm has expanded this year.  We are growing on all available space here at Hosac Farm, using areas that we have, until now, kept in cover crop in an attempt to slowly improve soil conditions.  The gardens stretch from the greenhouse to the far tree line bordered by road and the pond, skirting immovable boulders and a stone wall.  We are also being generously gifted the use of extra garden space this year just down the hill from us on Rt 5.  The property owner, Sharon, says the garden was formerly known as Berry Ledge Farm, but was thinking we should refer to it now as “Lower Hosac”, which made both Kyle and myself smile.  This space has been in and out of cultivation for about 30 years at least.  Sharon has welcomed us into her space and we have been down there working the ground, preparing some beds for her own gardening, putting in all of our potatoes, and getting recently fallow areas into cover crop in preparation for future cultivation.  The ground down at her place feels like a farming dream, our tractor pulled discs sunk into soft soil and pulled along almost noiselessly, in contrast to up on our hill, where there is the ever-frequent jarring bang of metal hitting rock as we disc. 

We have a person named Ebyn working with us this year.  Ebyn has been coming on Mondays for the past month, and has made a huge difference in our ability to keep up with this new growth, helping me seed carrots, flip the greenhouse into summer production, plant out brassicas, and most recently get all of our potatoes into the ground at lower Hosac.  This in combination with grandparent babysitting, some good friends and community members volunteering their time for us regularly has kept our motivation up and our momentum forward into planting season. 

We will be attending the Bridgton Farmers’ Market, and the Kennebunk Farmers’ Market starting in Mid-June.

The CSA starts the last week in June, with the additional option of a flower share this year.

HAPPY SUMMER