For the past two years, Diane Peel of the NEK 99% community group has faithfully picked up CSA shares from our farm. Later that day the two large shares would be divided up into smaller units and offered at a free table outside the NEK 99% gallery for anyone looking for some fresh produce. The table is always staffed with a volunteer to help with veggie identification and prepping tips, as well as recipes. 
We love to hear where the produce is ending up. An elderly woman who wants enough cucumbers to make a small batch of pickles. Kids who love the snap peas. For many people this may be their only source of fresh vegetables for the week, no matter how small.
When we have an overabundance of a well received veggie we are happy to donate extra to the project. At the same time we really appreciate that the NEK 99% raises funds each year to purchase shares from us. It makes our time and labor feel valued, and our need to earn a living respected. I like to say that the project “feeds two birds with one seed”, we get income, and many people have access to some fresh veggies.
This year, the NEK 99% has raised funds for one large share, but they would love to purchase another large share. They will be raising funds at a yard sale this Saturday May 27, 8-2pm on School St. in Newport, VT. Go support them and the veggie project and check out a myriad of other yard sales at the City Wide Yard Sale event. I imagine you could also just drop by and give them a donation as well.
For more information about all the other cool projects that the NEK 99% is involved with check out their newsletters or follow them on Facebook.
We are happy to have a new tiny green house for starting plants in, just outside the house. Though we have two larger hoop houses, they are both a good distance from the house and we’ve never felt justified in heating them. We’ve always started our earliest plants inside the house under lights, until the weather gets warm enough to put the least temperature sensitive starts (like onions, lettuce, spinach) out into the hoop house. We really feel like natural sunlight produces much better, stockier plants than those under lights, so we are happy to be able to get them out in the sun early now.
We originally planned to put in a wood stove, with the pipe coming out through the solid end wall. My parents offered us a quartz electric heater for free, so we decided to give that a try instead. We’ve also added some barrels filled with water to store and release solar heat overnight. They seem to help keep the heat more even. The little electric heater is just used at night to keep temps above freezing. We’ll see how our electric bill is affected, and maybe switch it out for a wood stove next year if necessary.
We’ve even have nifty ski pole window props!
We first started growing Shiitake and Oyster mushrooms on logs in the spring of 2015. This past summer we finally tasted our first home grown mushrooms. We are pleased to have had some success, but also know that there is much more to learn. By far our biggest fungal project has been inoculating birch logs with Shiitake spawn, we now have 200 logs. We had tried three strains of Shiitake (Jupiter, West Wind, and Miss Happiness), and so far only the West Wind has fruited well. Jupiter and Miss Happiness are cold weather strains, meaning they should want to send out mushrooms in the Spring and Fall when cued by appropriate temperatures. So far we only harvested a few in the late fall, though they were nice and big. Some of the logs have Turkey Tails growing on their ends, so they may have been taken over by other spawn. We’ll wait and see if these logs produce in the year ahead, perhaps they are slow due to the dry summer conditions. In general we are learning that we probably need to intentionally water our logs on a regular basis and can’t rely solely on the rain.
Hopefully this coming season with twice as many logs fruiting we can start to sell them. We’ve now established that the Shiitakes will grow on Birch, the follow up question is how many years will they keep producing? We also realized how much humidity plays a role in the size and quality of the Shiitake that fruit. Our first mushrooms picked during a hot and dry period were cracked and smaller (but still delicious).
In 2015 we had inoculated some stumps with Oyster mushroom spawn as well. For the oysters we just used the stacked cookie method (layering sawdust spawn between chunks of log). This was pretty quick and easy to do, but it felt like it used a lot of spawn compared to the drill and fill method used for the Shiitakes. The cookie method also seemed to allow the spawn to dry out more easily. A few of our Oyster logs did fruit in the spring, but the dry conditions limited growth. Little black beetles also proved to be a challenge. It appears nearly impossible to grow outdoor Oysters without a beetle infestation. We’ll keep watching to see what our little cluster of logs does, but we don’t have plans to gear up in outdoor Oyster production.
The asparagus beds were full of grass and in need of a real overhaul, so we weeded, laid down cardboard, and covered between the rows with wood chips, and around the plants with hay mulch. We didn’t finish this until September, so we won’t have results on the Stropharia production until next year. Our hope is that they will produce in clusters and eventually spread out through all of the asparagus planting on their own or with our help. If nothing else, the asparagus should be a little happier.
Garlic varieties were rated on heat and flavor. Here the averaged results for heat and flavor, from highest score to lowest:
October 16, 1-4pm All are welcome to stop by for our 4th annual open farm and tasting event.
