Yes Virginia, there are still shares available at Nitty Gritty Dirt Farm. When we first started, there were 17 CSA farms listed with Land Stewardship Project. A few years later there were 33. This year there are 60. It is a wonderful problem to have, so many farmers growing so much good food. What this means is that we could use your help getting the word out. "Like us" on facebook. Tell your friends to check it out and JOIN NOW!!!!!!
We are offering a Great Share and a Good Share, two sizes this year. We also have meat options available.
Our first share will go out on June 16th. Watch the blog for more updates.
Here are some pictures of what has been going on over the last few weeks at the farm....
Although it is impossible to tell, two of our interns are clothed in what they call their Oompa Loompa suits. (Ask someone who has seen the original Willy Wonka movie.) Liz and Elizabeth are checking the hives to make sure the queens have been freed from their little cage and successfully adopted by the colony.
The first things into the field each year are potatoes and onions. Robin is setting out small chunks of potatoes that were previously cut up and allowed to callus over before being planted. Next, she'll walk along the row pushing dirt over them with the sides of her shoes, and then walk on top of the row once to pack it down.
After a fortune spent on propane to heat the greenhouses, the days are nights are warm enough now to no longer need supplemental heat. The cabbages along with some others are the first to be transplanted into the field. Karla counted over 4000 transplants that were planted on Tuesday. Robin counted over 3000. We'll see who is the better math-a-magician.
This little two-wheeled wonder is a seeder. The seeds go into the red hopper and fall out one at a time as the seeder is rolled forward. We string out twine along the planned rows and keep the seeder on that line to try and keep the rows straight. It makes weeding and harvesting easier later on.
Karla is refilling the seeder with peas (I think)
These round bales of hay mulch were delivered just in time. Our crew of interns put the mulch down between the rows of onions.....25 rows of it. They did a great job, knowing that if it got done before any weeds grew in between the onion rows, we would have to weed them all before we mulched.
Nice job guys!
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