Tag Archives: organic

Crops Update: Week 23

Posted on October 16, 2018 by Kelly R.

Finally, we had our first frost of the season last Saturday night and are expecting harder freezes this coming Wednesday and Thursday. In light of this, we are hurrying to finish the sweet potato harvest (half the patch yet to go), and will need to cover tender greens by Wednesday afternoon. Today at the stand you’ll find the last heirloom tomatoes of 2018, harvested slightly under-ripe on Friday, but beautiful and flavorful right now. You’ll also find a number of pumpkins and gourds for sale, prefect for pies from scratch, carving, or decorating your home this autumn. It’s easy to impose characters and personalities on the eclectic collection of various sizes, colors, and abnormalities, all of them eagerly awaiting a home!

Harvesting sweet potatoes ends up being very time consuming, in part because of their complicated root systems.

Our other big job we’re looking to complete as soon as possible is garlic planting. October 15th is our target date to have that finished, but we’ve been taking advantage of the warm weather to maximize harvests of summer crops. On Tuesday of last week, volunteers from AER (Atmospheric and Environmental Research) came back to the farm for a second year in a row and harvested carrots, tomatoes and more sweet potatoes (pictured above). They worked so quickly that we had time to weed a few problem areas while moving between harvests.

Harvesting the last of our tomatoes.

On Friday, volunteers from Upland Software helped us pick paste tomatoes for market (pictured above), and then they pitched-in digging, yes more, sweet potatoes. Thanks all for helping us bring in what these amazing fields have to offer! If you’re interested in volunteering in the crops fields during the end of this season or the next, please email our Volunteer Coordinator. We could always use help around the farm!

See You in the Fields,

Your Farmers

Drumlin Farm Crops Update Vol. 7

Posted on June 27, 2017 by Staff

By Drumlin Farm Crops Manager Matt Celona

Strawberries Continue to Thrive
The team is picking strawberries right now for restaurant orders and for the farm stand. Some people came out during Saturday’s rain and humidity to take advantage of Strawberry Day and were rewarded with what one chef has told us are “best tasting strawberries around this season.” Last week, we had lots of strawberries ripening in the patch, and volunteers from Net App helped us pick pints for the CSA. This is something we would not have had the people power to do on our own, so CSA members can thank Net App for the treat!

Volunteers Continue to Be Great
We are now scheduling a weeding job for each volunteer group because the weeds are really taking off with the rain and long days. Civil engineers from Green International Affiliates (one of our new Community Partners) weeded carrots, planted basil and picked sugar snap peas for Saturday’s market. Thanks for your focused work, Green International.

On Saturday, parents and children from Marathi Mandal of Boston volunteered in the field. We enjoyed weeding carrots, planting sunflowers, and harvesting peas with these volunteers.

And finally, we’re approaching the last big planting project of the year: One half-acre of pumpkins with the help of volunteers from Phillips Medisize.

Crops Team Continues to Plant and Harvest
Last week, Andrew, Josh, and Avril worked late to put the first line of twine on all the early tomatoes and planted the second succession of tomatoes. Thanks all for the extra time and effort.

We also have storage crops on our mind. We will soon transplant storage cabbage to the field and seeding carrots intended for the root cellar. Purple spring onions are just now reaching bunching size, and we will soon be harvesting the first summer squash and cucumbers of the year. Garlic scape season has ended, and the bulbs have a few more weeks to grow before we bring them into the barn.

See you in the field,

Your Farmers

Drumlin Farm Crops Update Vol. 6

Posted on June 12, 2017 by Staff

Heatwave #1

Looks like the first heat wave of the year has arrived. It’s 95 in the field where volunteers Anne and Shelia are crawling along over the hot soil thinning beets—amazing! The heat will push the strawberries and peas along, and we’ve moved Strawberry Day to June 24 because not enough of the berries will be ready by this weekend. We do plan to pick strawberries for the first time tomorrow morning and bring them up to the stand.

Google Volunteers Planting Dahlias

This past week we got lots of great help from three large groups. On Thursday, volunteers from Google planted dahlias. Their company made a donation to help us purchase the plants from a nursery. After planting the dahlias, the volunteers thoroughly weeded four beds of celery and celeriac. Thanks for the help!

Thanks, Camp Counselors!

On Friday morning, Zach and Emma brought the camp counselors to the field to learn about our crops program and to get trained for the upcoming “Weedouts”—the mornings when campers get dirty and pull weeds. Thanks counselors for making camp a rewarding first connection to Drumlin for so many kids and families, and thanks for pulling those weeds in the radicchio and peas!

Storm Volunteers

On Friday afternoon, Care.com brought volunteers to the field just in time to plant the sweet potato slips. A thunderstorm passed through, but the gang brushed it off and happily set 2,500 plants in about an hour. Thanks for all your great work and for the donation!

Summer CSA Countdown

The summer CSA opens this week just as many new crops are about to come in. We are close to our first harvest of chard, beets, carrots and garlic scapes. We’re excited to see what’s ready come Wednesday morning. If you’re interested in grabbing a last-minute share, visit massaudubon.org/drumlincsa.

Your Farmers

Summer Crops Update: August 30

Posted on August 30, 2016 by Staff

Crops Updates are written by Drumlin Farm Crops Manager Matt Celona

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Mighty Crops
It’s surprising that any plants are thriving under these hot and dry conditions. But the soil retains some moisture, and we’ve had a great melon and tomato season. We are reaching the end of our sweet corn harvest. We have white corn available at the stand today and perhaps for a few days more. We’re also beginning to harvest our last watermelon variety of the season—little baby flower. It’s red-fleshed and meant to be small or personal-sized. You can find a bunch at the farm stand.

The Greenhouse
During last Friday’s quick shower of .15 inches, we sheltered in the greenhouse and seeded the next round of lettuce while waiting it out. Lettuce and bok choi are the only crops we’re still starting in the greenhouse at this point in the season. The greenhouse is now primarily a place of storage for winter squash, pumpkins and sweet potatoes. Feel free to step inside and take a look during your next visit.

Keeping Up with Demand
Mid-August through September is the busiest time at Union Square Farmers Market. People are back from vacation and eager to buy all the summer favorites. Each Saturday, we mount an intricate and large display under three tents, including a whole table devoted to cut flowers. Farmers Sarah, Jessica, Katie, Cara, and Erin have been doing a great job keeping up with long lines of customers on some scorching days on the pavement in the city. Thanks to you all and to the market volunteers for doing such a good job representing the farm and Mass Audubon!

See you in the field,
Your Farmers

Summer Crops Update: August 16

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Staff

Crops Updates are provided by Drumlin Farm Crops Manager Matt Celona.

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We Got Rain. We Need More.
We did get about one inch of rain on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Many crops look revived and happy. However, it’s a good bet that the warm weather will last, since the outlook is for 90s continuing into next week and beyond. That’s not good news for the farmers or the crops. According to Weather Underground, Lincoln received 16 inches below the precipitation average in 2015. To date in 2016, we are 19 inches below average! This drought is at least two years in the making.

How Are the Crops Doing?
The young bean plants that we watered through the driest stretch are now mature and looking good. The second round of eggplant is fairing much better than the first. These are perfect for grilling whole or sautéing. Our last round of sweet corn is beginning to mature, while storage beets, rutabaga, turnips, and radish have finally germinated. Unfortunately, it looks like the seedings of storage carrots are not going to come up. We’re in uncharted territory with the emergency carrot seedings that we tried over the following weeks —we hope that we can still get a good harvest out of these, but it’ll depend on how mild the fall is.

We’re going to have to take very good care of all fall crops in order to maximize yields from plants that are already stressed by the heat and lack of water. We’re hoeing and fertilizing storage crops, stringing the second succession of tomatoes, and preparing fields for fall cover-cropping.

Many Thanks to Our Volunteers and Workers
This morning, teacher-naturalist Sally Farrow brought a group of Lowell City Corps youth to help us harvest onions. The kids apply to the city for summer employment in environmental work, and thanks to Sally’s relationship with Lowell schools, they have come here for the past two years. Additionally, volunteers Anne and Sheila removed crab grass from the Brussels sprouts patch—not an easy job even when the weather is nice!

Last Friday, we said goodbye to fieldworker Maggie as she returns to Colby for her senior year. Thanks, Maggie, and all of our volunteers for your good work and positive energy!

See you in the field,
Your Farmers

Summer Crops Update: Special Water Zombies Edition

Posted on August 9, 2016 by Staff

Crops Updates are written by Drumlin Farm Crops Manager Matt Celona.

Photo by Pei Ren

Call Us Water Zombies
All day long and into the night we haul barrel after barrel of the precious ichor to our plant overlords, and yet they are forever thirsty. We became Water Zombies on Saturday, when yet another round of thunderstorms decided we could do without it: “They have so much organic matter at Drumlin Farm, they can get by on humidity! Let’s go rain on a place that really needs it.” (While it’s true that our soil is very rich, we still need at least some rain to keep our crops healthy!)

We’ve started watering the tomato patch to keep this important crop from flagging. In these relentlessly sunny and hot conditions, the precipitation we had last Tuesday didn’t go far. We’re encouraged by the forecast for thunderstorms over the next several days, but we will continue to water and seed until we get a real rain.

First Watermelons in Two Years
We will begin harvesting storage onions and watermelon this week. We never watered these crops, but they still look good! The electric fence has so far kept the coyotes out of the melons. We are excited by the prospect of our first watermelon harvest in two years. We are now harvesting larger quantities of husk cherries, cherry tomatoes, and heirloom slicing tomatoes. Tomato flavors are intense this year as a result of the weather, so, if you’re a tomato lover, come to the stand today to sample one positive side of the drought.

See you in the field,
Your Water Zombies

Summer Crops Update: July 19

Posted on July 19, 2016 by Staff

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Potato Beetles: 1, Potatoes: 0
The potato plants are nearly gone now, having been entirely defoliated by the Colorado potato beetle. Much of the potato crop is still safe underground, but our yield may be smaller due to the early defoliation. Now the weeds are growing quickly with no competition from the crop, so it’s a good thing today is Weed Out #2 at camp. The work of the campers will make harvesting potatoes much easier. Thanks to Emma, Cara, Katie, and the counselors for organizing the weeding in a very buggy field.

Other Plants in Danger of the Beetle
We noticed the potato beetles leaving the potato patch over the weekend in search of more food. They are now on every crop, with eggplant and tomatoes at high risk. We’ve spent hours over the past two days picking them off the eggplant as we wait for delivery of an organic pesticide: Mycotrol (made from the spores of Beauveria bassiana, a fungus). If it works, it will take several days for the fungus to multiply in the gut of the beetle. So we’ll be picking beetles off eggplant, and possibly tomatoes, until we get control of the situation (or until we wave the white flag).

Where’s the Rain?
Yesterday’s thunderstorms went to the south and north of Lincoln. We saw beautiful lightning, but received no rainfall. About a quarter-inch of rain has fallen in the past week—helpful for direct-seeded crops, but not reaching the roots of established plants. Drumlin Farm’s impressive soil keeps amazing us by producing healthy crops in these dry and dusty conditions. We put a lot of effort into building soil organic matter through fallowing fields and spreading compost. The organic matter holds what little moisture there is. We hope the plants can hang on until the fields get the soaking they need.

Volunteer Shoutouts
Last Friday, volunteers helped us harvest crops for Saturday’s Union Square Farmers Market. They picked string beans, cucumbers and eggplant before digging all the potatoes for Wednesday’s CSA distribution. Thanks also to the weekend farmstand volunteers who have sampled veggies and shared recipes to (hungry) curious visitors. Nice work, all!

See you in the field,
Your Farmers

Patio Dining + Drumlin Farm = Perfection

Posted on July 14, 2016 by Staff

One of the best perks of summer is when all of our favorite restaurants open their doors and break out the patio dining, serving up grilled eats, ice-cold drinks, and all the twinkle lights you can handle.

Did you know that nearly 20 restaurants in the Boston area receive produce from Drumlin Farm? And oh yes, some of them even have patio seating.

Here are four local spots that combine (what we think) is the best of summer: Patio dining and fresh Drumlin Farm produce!

The Independent | Somerville
Brunchers, get ready for an Irish breakfast, roasted beets, and baby kale salad. Sunscreen optional.

Bronwyn | Somerville
If you’re looking for a cozy, casual patio experience, stop at Bronwyn for some knödel with hakurei turnips, radicchio salat, and pickled eggs with beets.

Cambridge Brewing Company | Cambridge
The pizza specials at Cambridge Brewing Company are amazing: fig and arugula or peach and dandelion greens? One of each, please!

Brass Union | Somerville
People-watch your way through a meal at Somerville’s new Brass Union. Their brunch menu features roasted veggies, and chorizo with scallions. Pair that with coffee and orange juice and you’ll be set for the weekend.

Can’t get enough Drumlin Farm produce in your life? Feast at Moon Over Drumlin, where some of Boston’s top chefs will prepare our produce and meat to perfection. Tickets are going fast!

Summer Crops Update: July 13

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Staff

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Greetings from Mexico!
The winter squash and pumpkin crop are growing vigorously in the newly opened field we are calling “Mexico” (because it’s south of the field we call “Texas”). One advantage of growing crops in newly worked ground is that there is almost no weed pressure in the first year. Not having to manage weeds in Mexico allows us to devote more time to the harvest and to weed-control in the flower patch, perennial garden, and strawberries.

A Rough Year for Garlic
It looks like our entire garlic crop has failed. We’re not sure what the problem was, though many of the plants burned over two cold nights in April. It’s a big loss for us and for those of you who love garlic.

The Tomato Countdown
On a brighter note, the onion and shallot crops look bountiful, and the tomato patch continues to look excellent! We expect to begin harvesting cherry tomatoes next week. The cucumbers and eggplant harvests are about to reach a size when we can include them at the farm stand, our CSA, and restaurant deliveries.

We hope for rain in the coming days to keep our crops growing strong.

See you in the field,
Your farmers

Summer Crops Update: July 6

Posted on July 6, 2016 by Staff

Cauliflower from the greenhouse ready for transplant!

Weed-Out #1: In the Books
Camp Weed-Out #1 was in full swing on Tuesday! Campers are whisking weeds out of beds of broccoli, leeks, and fennel. Food and Farm Educator, Emma Scudder, and crops team members Cara and Katie are working with the counselors to direct the hundreds of kids. Fantastic job, all! Now that we’ve had about an inch of rain over the past ten days, weeds and crops will be growing faster, and the Weed-Out comes at just the right time.

The Importance of Hand-Weeding
We’re engaged in a long-term effort to reduce the size of the weed seed-bank in the soil. The bigger the seed-bank, the more difficult it is to establish direct-seeded crops like beets, carrots, and mesclun mix: You prepare a bed and seed it, only to find that weeds are germinating in a carpet ahead of your crop! This sometimes happens at Drumlin Farm, but the problem would be much worse if we didn’t devote lots of time to hand-weeding, hoeing, and tractor cultivation.

Straw: It Does a Tomato Good
Last week, volunteer groups helped us spread straw in the tomato patch, which will suppress weeds, help keep moisture in the soil, and prevent mud from splashing onto the lower leaves during heavy rain. The mud can spread plant pathogens into the tomato canopy. Straw is also an important part of our soil management practices. We’re always looking for ways to build soil organic matter, and plowing in straw at the end of the season is one way to do that. It’s the organic matter in the soil that traps moisture and helps our crops survive droughts.

Until Next Year, Peas and Strawberries (and Hello, Potatoes!)
Peas and strawberries are finished for the season. The spinosad spray for Colorado potato beetle, which we applied last week, was only minimally effective, so we’ll see reduction in the harvest as a result of foliar damage to the plants. On Monday, the crops team mowed a few beds of potatoes to prepare them for harvest. “New” potatoes come early in the season, often from plants that haven’t reached full maturity. The skin on these potatoes is very delicate, and sometimes flaky, because it hasn’t had time to toughen in the period between when the plant dies back and harvest occurs. We’ll have potatoes at the stand by the weekend!

See you in the field,

Your Farmers