Chubby Bunny Farm

Almost May Farm News

I know it is not actually May yet but we wanted to share the latest news from the farm with you. Foremost we want to remind you about our Open Farm Day on Sunday May 6 from 11-2. Do you want to see the farm first hand, walk throught the fields and see where your food is growing and what things look like at this time of year? Dan will be walking and talking so this is a great time to ask all those piercing questions... what are your top questions about the farm? We're curious to find out. Bring a picnic if you'd like..... We'll also have our own eggs for sale as well as meat, dairy and other products from neighboring farms.

You can also check out our new greenhouse and our new delivery truck! It is turning out to be a big year at the bunny. Our has bee crew is hard at work this month, planting potatoes, onions, direct seeding greens and carrots... even the tomatoes are growing already in the greenhouse! 

We'll be in touch through out this month as we get closer to our first harvest.... We'll notify you as soon as we know. It has been a funny spring - dry, hot, cold, windy a little mixed up. But things are off to a great start. We still have memberships at the farm, in Fairfield County and In White Plains, so it is not too late if there are folks who still haven't sign up yet. 

We hope to see you on the 6th!

Tracy and Dan

April Farm News

This week marked the first official week of the season as our crew of 4 apprentices started on Monday morning. We've got a great reaturning crew of 3 - Tonya, Kasey and Dakota who are joined by Mira who worked last year at Isabella Friedman's Adamah program. The crew has been busy filling up the greenhouse with seedlings, setting onions out to harden off, plowing, fertilizing, milking and feeding animals. Unfortunately there were mice munching on a few of our tomato and pepper seedlings, but we quickly reseeded and revamped our hotbox for germinating the heat loving seeds. Our cats must be getting lazy!

The big excitement this week was that on Tuesday a crew from Growell down in Chesire showed up and built our new greenhouse in a day! They came back Thursday and finished it off by putting the plastic on. They did a beautiful job. Thank you to the many members who helped us fund this project. So far we have made it almost halfway to our goal of $6000 to match the NRCS grant we received. We are hoping that our members can come out and see it next month during our Open Farm Day on May 6th!

Please come by and visit us and other CSA members on Sunday May 6th from 11 to 2. You are welcome to bring a picnic lunch, tour the farm, meet the animals and basically check things out. Kids especially love to check out the tractors and collect the eggs. We really feel our farm is in a special little valley and hope those in Fairfield and White Plains can come up and see how beautiful it is and walk through the fields where your veggies grow. 

Hoping you have a great holiday weekend!

Tracy & Dan

Upcoming Events

Please join us for the following upcoming events:

For local farm members, we will be attending this year's Tri-State Chamber of Commerce Buy Local Festival. Sunday, March 25th 10 - 3 at Housatonic Valley Regional High School, Warren Turnpike, Falls Village. This event features many local businesses, food, entertainment and free massages! Stop by and learn more about the farm and our Community Supported Agriculture program.

In Fairfield: We will be attending the Food For Thought Expo at the Fairfield Ward High School on March 31, 10-4PM. This event strives to raise awareness and support for healthy school lunches as well as connecting with local providers of healthy food. There will be food vendors, cooking demonstrations, information on nutrition and more. We will be there promoting our new Community Supported Agriculture program and drop sites in several locations in Fairfield and Fairfield County. Please stop in and see us. We would love to meet our new Fairfield County CSA members. 

Chubby Bunny March Newletter

Dear  Friends and Members,

 Spring is here and the growing season is off with a running start.  We are busy taking the first steps to bring you all those bountiful baskets of fresh produce.

 We’ve been receiving orders of seeds, soil mix for starts and soil amendments. Each one of these events are exciting first steps of the season with the whole family taking part. When the dump truck from McEnroe farm came by with 6 yards of soil mix the kids were enthralled. (Baxter’s (age 3) current favorite book is about a dump truck that gets stuck). Later that week naptime was put on hold during a delivery of soil amendments. The delivery truck was supposed to arrive with a lift gate for easily unloading the pallets. Instead Dan and Tracy unloaded the 6 tons of Sea-Cal, Dynamin and blended soil amendments by hand into the barn. The kids played on the sacks as we filled up the barn.  And of course the kids eagerly await the “package man’s” (aka UPS) delivery of seeds. 

 By the end of the week we’ll be seeding onions in the greenhouse.  We’ve got a bit of a swap going with our friends at Moon in the Pond Farm in Sheffield, MA. Dominic Palumbo is going to bring his crew down and seed onions – theirs and ours, in exchange for a little heat and space in our early season greenhouse.  When it is still in the 20s at night those early propane bills to keep that greenhouse at 65 degrees F can make you wince a little, but with a little creative synergy amongst farmers we can all benefit. Our crew won’t start this year until April 2, so we will really crank out a lot with help from the Moon in the Pond crew and Dom won’t have to start heating his greenhouse so early.

 March is prime farm membership drive time. This is the time of year when we are trying to make all our orders for the bulk of the season –seeds, soil mix and amendments (but biodegradable black plastic, irrigation supplies, landscape fabric, row cover…Costing a total of around  $3,000!)  We also have a crew arriving April 2^nd to the tune of $5,000/month through October. Farm memberships are about 90% of our business so we truly rely on early this early season income to keep the farm going. 

 It is so great to hear from our members who tell us the CSA has changed the way their family eats, how much they enjoy coming to the farm every week or opening their weekly box, they love the freshness of the produce and how well it stores.  We’ve also heard from members that they love having a connection to their farm and farm family.

Committing to the farm now with your farm membership will ensure that we have the funding we need to get the plants into the ground and the food into the harvest bins come June.   We couldn’t be here without the support of those members who have already joined and paid for their CSA shares.  Our crop plan is set up for 250- 300 shares this season. We have plenty of shares still available. If you are a returning member from last year or have been considering joining the CSA for the first time, please don’t hesitate to sign up and send in your full payment. Thanks.  We are looking forward to a great growing season and can't wait to get into the greenhouse!

 Tracy and Dan 

Happy New Year

We hope you have all enjoyed a nice holiday season and are ready for a fresh new year! We are doing our best to renew ourselves and family with lots of quiet family time, outside time and some solo adventures for both Dan and Tracy. Lots of hiking, biking, snowboarding, gymnastics - using our down time to get in shape for the season to come!

There is still plenty of farm work to do - our daily milking of Patches, the family cow, and feeding the chickens, also crop plans, seed orders, taxes and all that.

Welcome to our new Fairfield County members! We are now offering boxed shares at 4 locations: Darien, New Canaan and 2 drop sites in Fairfield.   We've gotten lots of questions from new members regarding our farming practices.  In a nutshell, we use practices which are compliant with "Organic" and strive for nutrient density in our crops.  (This means choosing non-GMO seed, plenty of compost and appropriate soil ammendments, avoiding herbicides and synthetic pesticides.  If we choose to spray, we only use Organically Certified products and strive to avoid it in the first place by having balanced soils which produce healthy crops. ) Our one imported crop, Sweet Corn, is locally grown, non-gmo, but not organic.   For us, sustainability is not only about choosing sustainable inputs; it is a constant striving for a better and healthier "farm organism," including our employees, our neighbors,  our customers, our family, our animals, and the earthworms! 

We've got the super crew of apprentice ready to go for the season - Tonya, Kasey and Dakota from last season along with Mira, who has already spent a bunch of time with us. Once our planning is done we'll have lots of touch up projects at the farm and believe it or not the greenhouse will be starting by the end of February for onion seedlings! So here we go - off to fully enjoy the rest of the winter and "off" season!

Tracy and Dan

Week 22 Field Notes

Week 21 Snowy Harvest

Greetings!

The farm is still snowy and we are still without power but there is food for local csa members! We know that this might not reach all of our locals, for many are probably still without power as well.  Quantities may not be the same as usual, so please take note in the cold room. We are still looking forward to the snow melting so we can finish up our final harvests and plant our garlic. Please note that next week is the last week of distributions! 

Hope everyone is staying warm and cozy.

Tracy & Dan

Week 20 Fieldnotes