Tag Archives: farms

Crops Update: Garlic Scapes & More Rain

Posted on June 26, 2019 by Kelly R.

A big thank you to the team and all Drumlin staff involved in making this weekend’s strawberry pick-your-own event a huge success. People picked berries all the way until closing time thanks to spring rains, timely weeding, and our fabulous soil. A special thanks to volunteer Anna who helped Erica assist the hundreds of customers. A sudden thunderstorm struck towards the end of the day, and Erica gave up her spot under the tent’s shelter to take an amazing picture (below). On the same day, at market, Veronica, Maddie, and Jill did an outstanding job selling almost all we had harvested, including over 300 more pints of strawberries.

We’re trying to finish planting the pumpkin patch and the second round of tomatoes. We also need to mulch the first round of tomatoes and start trellising them. At least we found time to drive the tomato stakes during last Thursday’s steady rain. There are many other crops that need planting and weeding, but the frequent rains are causing volunteer groups to cancel, adding line after line to our to-do list. We’re bearing down and to do more and the team was out yesterday the rain trying to catch up on weeding.

The two volunteer groups that were able to come to the farm last week got rained on, but worked through it. On Tuesday, volunteers from Google’s YouTube division planted broccoli and leeks into wet ground (pictured above). They then picked peas for Wednesday’s CSA distribution. On Saturday, a group from Appalachian Mountain Club helped us weed leeks and carrots, and also plant pumpkins. Volunteers from the AMC come year after year, often twice per season, and we always look forward to working with them. Thanks all for doing great work in challenging conditions.

It’s garlic scape season! There are some at the stand right now along with this morning’s strawberry harvest. The scape is the flowering part of the garlic plant. We remove them to get larger bulbs during July’s harvest, but to my mind, the June scapes make for the best eating. They are milder and have the consistency of firm pasta when briefly cooked. When picking, we make bunches and hook them over our forearms like snap bracelets (pictured above).

See you in the field,

Your Farmers

Crops Update: Week 22

Posted on October 9, 2018 by Kelly R.

Still no frost, not even a night in the high thirties. This is unusual, as our low lying fields usually get zapped in the last week of September or first week of October. We expected a frost last Friday night, and so worked that afternoon with 20 volunteers from Shire biotech to scour the eggplant and tomato patches in a last call harvest. Shire volunteers then helped us bring in the last of the popcorn crop, and they even had time to dip their toes into the quicksand of the sweet potato harvest—don’t worry; they made it out alive!

Shire Volunteers

We continued mucking around in the sweet potatoes the following afternoon with 22 students from Brandeis. While it may look like we’re having a fist fight with the soil, we mean it no harm; though I can’t say the same for it, we end each session dazed and badly in need of a nap! And even with all that good help, we’re still only a third of the way through the patch, having brought in over half a ton of sweet potatoes.

Volunteers harvesting sweet potatoes

By way of comparison, 12 volunteers from Global Atlantic helped us harvest 1,100 pounds of potatoes in only an hour this past Thursday. The soil in the potato patch is lighter, and the plants have the good sense to develop their roots in a neat bundle in the space directly below them. Thank you, kind potato plants, and thanks to the volunteers from Global Atlantic, who also helped us harvest peppers in anticipation of that frost that never came.

But looking ahead, a frost seems likely for our fields this coming Saturday night. We’ll continue harvesting as if that were the case, and you may see row covers going up to protect late season greens. In the meantime, we’re taking advantage of the warm weather and so will have a mix of summer and fall crops available at the stand, in the CSA shares and at market this week.

See you in the field,

Your Farmers