Garden

Our vegetable gardening, and all our farming practices for that matter, follow the principles of regenerative agriculture. We also are growing organically, but go beyond those requirements. This means that we are trying to make the landscape healthier at the same time as we take a yield from it. We are building healthy soil and soil life, reducing erosion and other negative impacts in the area, and improving local biodiversity. So our garden is full of birds and bugs, though we do have techniques to keep pests under control. We use no synthetic pesticides, and our only additions to the soil are compost and mulch. Our methods allow us to grow tasty, healthful, local and sustainable produce.

Most of our garden production is the staple vegetable crops of the region, those that grow well in our climate. The biggest constraint on our crop choice is the relatively short frost-free growing period of the area. The last frost of the spring is generally late in May, and the first frost of the fall is around the beginning of October. Often we will have multiple varieties of popular crops, so for tomatoes we grow cherry, Roma, beefsteak, and heirloom varieties. In 2021 we grew tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet and hot peppers, zucchini, winter squashes, beans, peas, eggplants, cantaloupes, watermelons, lettuce, other salad greens, spinach, kale, Swiss chard, basil and other annual herbs, cabbages, Brussels sprouts, celery, beets, carrots, daikon radish, red and white radishes, green and globe onions, turnips, rutabagas and potatoes. We have added a nice patch of garlic for 2022. In 2023, our garden will be somewhat smaller so that we can focus more of our energies on other parts of the farm.

Our veggies are available in season in our on-farm store.