August 1, 2013

I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that it’s August already! You’d think the oppressive heat, the time spent each day dragging hoses, and the truck-loads of dahlias coming out of the field would convince me. But my heart is still back in May.  With spring on the brain and still a little […]

By Andrew Mefferd I use a lot of tools and supplies in keeping up with my hoophouse crops. Some of them are very specialized and some are re-purposed. Here’s a look in my tool bag. Harvest tools For harvesting I like having some of the curved grape and tomato shears on hand. We don’t use

At our farm, where the average first frost date is October 14, the first half of August is our last chance to sow several vegetables to harvest before winter. Depending on your climate zone, your dates might need to be earlier or later than ours. Planning and timing are crucial – if germination fails, you

Setting up and running an irrigation system can be a constant challenge. Here I’ll explain some of the mechanics of getting water from your source to your field, and how to know what’s going on within the irrigation system. Figure 1 shows a typical setup for irrigation from surface water. There is a pump situated

Ever feel tired after the four-month sprint from June to September? For most CSA farms, summer is where the work (and money) is. In an attempt to level our workload, two years ago we decided to try extending our CSA season from March to November. To our customers, we offered two seasons, Spring (March to