Happenings at White Barn Farm

Hi there farm followers!

I figured it was about time to tell you what has been happening at the farm.

Progress! Lots and lots of little plant lives germinating in the greenhouse, graduating to the outdoors and finally landing themselves in the soil, poised to grow and produce food! We are also potting up lots of seedlings to six-packs and 4-inch pots to sell at our Plant Sale, which will be Saturday and Sunday, May 22 & 23. We hope all of our well-cared for little vegetable and flower prodigies will find a good home!

Here is an idea of what grows right about now in our greenhouse. We began with onions. They are grown up and getting used to the real sunshine, wind, rain and cold nights on the hardening off tables (uhh, pallets and cement blocks). We've given them a haircut and their growth is focused on the shaft. They will go into the ground this week. We have already transplanted our first crops last Thursday: broccoli (we're trying for a spring crop this year), Napa cabbage, bok choy, and small cabbages. Our first direct-seeded crops are in the ground and germinated: peas - snap and snow, arugula, radishes, salad turnips, and mustard mix. the carrot seeds are still waiting underground. we hope they show up pronto! Beets, spinach, kohlrabi, mizuna, and broccoli raab are all on the transplanting agenda for this week. Our rain barrels have been doing a good job of collecting rain to water our greenhouse and fill the water tank on our transplanter as well! There are lots of flowers for cutting started in the greenhouse, eggplants and hot peppers have already been potted up, tomatoes and sweet peppers are next. Basil, parsley, celery, lettuce, and more plantings of most of the afore-mentioned crops are all going too. It is a constant struggle to find more space to put all the plants! There is a certain relief when they are grown enough to move outside and finally into the ground.

If you are interested in volunteering in the greenhouse, please contact Christy at 774-210-0359 or respond to this email with your info. This is a very busy time of year in the greenhouse and in the fields. An extra hand for a few hours in the morning goes a long way in accomplishing the necessary seeding and potting up. It's pleasant in there, even when it's raining, particularly if you enjoy NPR and/or reggae tapes. 

We have been having very nice luck and generosity in acquiring organic matter to keep our sandy soil growing vegetables. We had two trucks from E.L. Harvey, each with two 30-yard containers in tandem, bring down compost from Brick Ends Farm (commercial composting). We used the black, magical stuff last year for our onion field and the fertility was quite impressive. At this time of year, they offer farmers free compost if we pay for the trucking, so it ends up being pretty affordable. We have also been getting in cow manure from Wright's Dairy Farm in North Smithfield, RI. My uncle generously lets us borrow his dump truck and even took the time to drive it himself and borrow a dump trailer to get us a really great stash of cow manure that we can mix with leaves (free from landscapers) and allow to break down a little more before spreading. Our refurbished manure spreader (thanks dad!) has been incredibly valuable for both making windrows for composting and for spreading compost on our fields.

We had an exciting delivery of Neptune's Harvest Fish and Seaweed Emulsion. We very specifically requested that the 275 gallon tote we ordered be delivered on a truck with a lift gate. Indeed, the truck had a lift gate - that had nowhere near the capacity to handle the 2550 lb load. And the delivery driver was in a hurry. We ordered the large container because we want it for collecting rainwater on a trailer to be driven wherever there is an irrigation emergency (to be pumped out with a solar pump is the idea). Anyway, the scramble began to solve the problem. Could we stack enough pallets to the brim of the truck and slide it. Could the pallet forks on the front loader of the Kubota, combined with the lift gate let it down easy? We ended up spinning the tote around so that the spigot faced out and frantically getting 55 gallon drums to fill. We had other farmer friends splitting the order with us, anyway. I bravely held the aluminum light fixtures acting as wide-mouthed funnels to allow a dribbling of fish juice to empty into the drum. Meanwhile, Chris and my dad, hurried to fashion faster conduits for fish sauce transfer. Finally, some PVC piping with the right configuration of elbows and caps allowed for a very quick transfer to 2 drums. That lightened the load enough to handle with our tractor forks. VERY EXCITING stuff!!! Now we can smell like the sea when it's time to "fish the greenhouse" and as we transplant our freshly dunked-in-fish-sauce trays.

We have a new storage area above our finally complete Wash Station. Now all those buckets, bins, and crates have somewhere to belong when they are not in use. We all want to belong!! This progress, combined with the organization of the "gas house" gives White Barn Farm hope that order will be the tune of the future!!! The root cellar and garlic room are next. So watch out, clutter!

The animal-free trend may be winding to a close this year. We finally cleaned up a brushy overgrown mess that wants to be a beautiful partial-shade herb and flower garden, wowing Grammie with its wonderous beauty. But bittersweet roots stand in our way! As Chris and I dragged debris to the burn pile, we simultaneously, independently concluded that pigs would do the best job of clearing out those roots. We are considering getting a pair of young pigs to raise for the season. We think it would be a great habitat for them and the fringe benefits on a veggie farm might be quite fine for a pig! We'll see. We are also on track to begin raising laying hens. We want to build a mobile coop that can be moved to fresh pastures or insect infestations in the fields. Chickens, too, really fit in to the natural cycle at a veggie farm. What fun to bring them all the trimmings from the wash station! Some fresh eggs would be a bonus! We will have several egg producers offering eggs at the CSA pick-ups/Roadside Stand. Get ready to frittata, scramble, and quiche! Don't rule out meringue, souffle, mayo, deviled, and sunny-side up! Nancy Rosenberg will continue to offer her rare and special breeds' organic eggs. Ken Oles and one of our CSA members will also offer their homegrown eggs. Finally, Ted at Brambly Farm in Norfolk will be a regular supplier of fresh eggs from real chickens doing real chicken living! White Barn Farm's egg producing has yet to be dabbled in . . . 

I must interrupt to apologize for the carrying on. Perhaps I should write less, more frequently!

Ha! But I have more tales to tell. We have been meeting all sorts of wonderful candidates to join me and Chris in the farm work this year. What an outpouring of interest!! This is a good sign, everyone. People want to eat good food AND people want to learn to grow it, as a job! The greatest obstacle is probably access to land. So we'll all have to keep that in mind as open space dwindles. Anyway, we have been having lots of work interviews and have met some wonderful people. We are down to the final few applicants - we've got to decide by May 1. This is another aspect of my work that did not enter my farm fantasies.

Finally, bedtime. SAVE THE DATES: our Plant Sale is May 22 & 23, Saturday and Sunday. 10-4 both days. My great artist friend, Heather Willey, from Plainville has made this year's poster and printed them. They are in the mail on the way here, so keep your eyes sharpened for them around and about. We will be selling lots of varieties of garden veggies and flowers for cutting. We will have some herbs, as well. I'll try to get a current inventory up on the website soon - it is constantly growing as we pot up more stuff. We are sure to have rare and wonderful varieties, as well as a larger selection of varieties good for containers for all you patio gardeners. Give it a try. There's not much to lose, and always lots to learn, growing a garden. Kids tend to eat food they pick themselves, too! It could be a cheap source of family fun :) As far as the sale goes, we are working on getting some other vendors to come and make it more of a spring fair atmosphere. For sure we will have Roger from Franklin Honey and Floyd from Burnshirt Valley Farm with naturally raised pork. We'll keep you posted. For now, try to resist the box store veggie starts . . . .

Thanks for reading, everyone. We look forward to seeing you all again (or meeting you for the first time!)

Keep your eyes out for cool woodland flowers when walking in the forests around here!