News from the Bunny
Posted 1/8/2012 12:37pm by Tracy Hayhurst.
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
Posted 11/8/2011 5:54am by Tracy Hayhurst.
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Posted 11/3/2011 3:35pm by Tracy Hayhurst.
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
Posted 10/24/2011 10:15am by Tracy Hayhurst.
Hurray! Twenty weeks of vegetables!
Our work at the farm continues: spreading compost, seeding cover crops, prepping ground for the garlic planting, harvesting for CSA distributions. The farm is beautiful right now with the fall colors all around, the rye sprouts turning the fields green, the slowed pace of the work. Tracy and I are happy and relieved that three of our crew will be coming back for the 2012 season (Kasey, Tonya, and Dakota.) What a blessing to know we have such an excellent crew lined up for another season!
Despite a relative abundance, we're now feeling the pinch from the brutal rainy weather of the summer's end. Cabbages, carrots, daikon, spinach, rutabegas, all small and slow to grow in wet ground. Thankfully, we ought to have plenty of food to get us to the middle of November, just not the overabundance we had last year. Such is the reality of the real growing season in New England!
Now that our farmer's market in Norfolk is finished for the season, our family celebrated by taking a hike up the mountain overlooking the farm. With no trail to follow, we bushwacked our way up the ridgeline, Baxter on my shoulders, Bea, Tracy, and Sedge leading the way. Forty minutes into the hike and we were at the top, with a beautiful view of the farm and surrounding mountains. (Pictured). We are so blessed to live amongst such beauty, and thankful for the time, finally, to "recreate."
Now that our farmer's market in Norfolk is finished for the season, our family celebrated by taking a hike up the mountain overlooking the farm. With no trail to follow, we bushwacked our way up the ridgeline, Baxter on my shoulders, Bea, Tracy, and Sedge leading the way. Forty minutes into the hike and we were at the top, with a beautiful view of the farm and surrounding mountains. (Pictured). We are so blessed to live amongst such beauty, and thankful for the time, finally, to "recreate."
Here's approximate harvest #20:
"new" radishes
baby chard/spinach mix
onions
beets
carrots
potatoes
leeks
winter squash
parsnips
Kale/ Collards
turnip greens
parsley
Enjoy!
Your farmer,
Dan
Posted 10/21/2011 7:08am by Tracy Hayhurst.
Hi Folks,
This week was fun; harvesting, spreading rye seed for cover crops, chisel plowing. And what great news that Dakota, Kasey and Tonya will all be coming back for 2012! And Dakota's friend, Mira, has signed on too. So we have four experienced apprentices coming to work with us, and Tracy, Beatrice, Baxter and I are so happy to have them all back! (+ Mira). So, based on our equipment and labor, we've decided to increase the Chubby Bunny CSA to 300 full shares from 270. We're confident that even given the extremes in weather, we should be able to produce enough for everyone...Also the increase should help our family pay down our farm equipment debt and start realizing a year to year savings for our retirement. Retirement for a farmer? Yes, this is the potential for a CSA farm. There is no 401K. There are no savings. We are living year to year, season by season. We are hoping to turn this corner soon when we can stop investing so much and start realizing financial security. According to our friends the Denisons of Denison Farm CSA (farmers of 30 years) say we are just about on track since we've been in business 11 years. Some members might be shocked at our financial realities but we actually feel pretty lucky to be solvent considering the economic climate for many farmers right now. And we have CSA to that for that. So onward we go planning for the next season, as the old joke goes, "What's the farmer's biggest asset? Next Year!"
Here's the harvest:
carrots, potatoes, beets, cabbage, onions, garlic, kale, fennel, radishes. winter squash
The last harvest week will be #22 - that is the week of November 8.Posted 10/10/2011 5:09am by Tracy Hayhurst.
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Posted 10/3/2011 3:34pm by Tracy Hayhurst.
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Posted 9/27/2011 11:00am by Tracy Hayhurst.
Hi Folks,
This was another wet week, so mostly it was harvesting for distributions and a day of hand weeding greens for fall. Soon it'll be time to spread compost and seed cover crops for winter, with 2012 in mind... Thank goodness for such a great crew, harvesting in pounding rains, cheerfully learning the "ins and outs" of farming in the extremes of a new New England climate. Will the rains only come harder next year? Will it be a drought? We wonder and will plant accordingly. Some on the low, some on the high. Wouldn't it be great to have an easy year, 1 inch of rain per week, with a dry spell in August?
Direct seeded fall turnips coming up next to the leeks.
Here's the approximate share for week 16:
onions
carrots
beets
chard/ salad mix
collards/ broccoli greens
peppers
hot peppers
potatoes
winter squash
garlic
fennel
cabbage (small, thanks to excessive rains)
lemon balm
leeks
Enjoy!
D+T+B+Bax
Posted 9/20/2011 11:42am by Tracy Hayhurst.
Hi Folks,
Well, we're at week 15 and the final planting of fall greens like spinach, baby kale, broccoli raab, arugula, salad mix, mustard greens, and baby turnips are all in the ground. The land was finally dry enough to drive on with the tractor to mow down old crops, chisel plow and rototill to prep ground for planting. We also found time between the weekly harvests, to bulk harvest the winter squash (looks like a terrific crop!) and finish the onion harvest.
We'll attempt this week to start spreading compost and prepping ground for our garlic and winter cover crops. If the weather turns wet we'll sit in the greenhouse and chop the stems of garlic and divide it into seed for planting and bulbs to give out in the shares.
This week's pictures: Baxter and Dan direct seeding kale.
Your approximate share this week:
onions
potatoes
peppers
leeks
salad mix
chard
kale
winter squash
carrots
beets
lemon balm
Enjoy!
Dan and Tracy
Posted 9/12/2011 9:19am by Tracy Hayhurst.
Hi folks,It rained and rained last week, soaking already soaked crops and soils, sending our season headlong out of summer and into fall. We really couldn't do anything but just eek out our harvests for distributions until Friday afternoon, when we finally had dry enough conditions to handweed fall greens. Where would we be without a really great crew of apprentices, smiling in the pounding rain, hauling in potatoes out of the mud? And really good raingear too.The crops can't be appreciating all the moisture, hopefully we'll pull through with minimal damage. I know many other farmers in this area have been hard hit by it all. Several CSA farms I know of have lost half or more of what was left for the fall. Even farms on high dry ground are starting to feel the stresses inherent with excessive moisture. So I'm thankful for the relative bounty that continues to pour in, and hope you've been enjoying it as well!This week's probable share:Sweet PeppersOnionsLeeksChardKaleSalad MixBeetsCarrotsParsleyWinter SquashHot Peppers
Enjoy!Dan and Tracy
Pictured is early morning salad harvest
