Thanks for following along on our big adventure!

We’re so excited to share what’s happening on the farm with you.

We moved to our new farm in February of this year and there’s been a lot to do and a lot going on!

Barn building is underway. There were no outbuildings here so we’re having a building built to serve as our post-harvest wash and pack area along with some storage. EarthBound Builders have been hard at work preparing the absolutely massive beams that will support our barn. It's a process called timber framing. I couldn't get a picture that fit the whole thing in one frame! We have a sill and stem wall now, soon to be followed by an insulated concrete floor. After that the structure should come together quickly so we can start washing vegetables in it!

We're also getting a well drilled on the farm just in the nick of time for summer planting. Well drilling is a very strange process - the drilling company required us to pick the spot. We couldn't find any professional engineers or anything who specialize in well placement (why the well company wouldn't employ such a person is beyond me!) The spot that Bryan picked through dousing was too close to the waterway, so we had to pick a spot close and...no water. It's been really stressful and expensive and frustrating. Our neighbor is an experience douser and found exactly one spot where he thinks we'll find water at 200 feet. We'll tried again and…no water.

It was a very scary and expensive few days for us. We plan to try one more spot once it's dried out a bit so that the huge truck can get back to that spot on the farm. For now we're pumping water out of a river on our neighbor's property which is working very well. We only use this water for irrigating - never for washing produce! We are so relieved that we can water our crops effectively now.

We also now have honey bees on the farm! Well, almost. Chesapeake Queen Company brought up a few hives this past weekend and we were so excited! But, the spot that our neighbor picked as THE well spot is right next to where the bees were placed. After some frantic phone calls and closing up of hives, the beekeepers thought it would be best to take these hives back and bring some different hives in a couple of weeks. So it was a quick hello and goodbye, but got us so excited to have bee friends on the farm! I got a little too friendly after they arrived and got a wee little sting - a good lesson in patience and listening. A new crop of honey bees is back now that the drilling rig is out of the way.

We've also been planting up a storm! Radishes, turnips, spinach, lettuce, kale, collards, cabbage, peas, scallions and potatoes are all in the ground! Luckily none of our plants were impacted by the frosts we had a couple of weeks ago - we were super nervous after last year's Mother's Day frost so we planned on planting many things later. We planted our first summer squash and eggplant (pictured below) last week, and this week we're planting our first tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. It's still been pretty chilly at night - seemingly past the risk of frost but we still have wanted to keep our more tender summer crops protected from cooler temperatures.

Space is running out in our CSA for 2021! And there are two ways to come see us this week and pick up some plants - now is the prime time to plant summer crops!