Moving a farm...
Who moves an entire farm? Apparently, we do!
Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to think that we could move our entire farm operation ourselves, but that's just what we did last season. As you know, we suspended our CSA for the 2023 season while we physically moved every tractor, every piece of machinery, every pump, irrigation pipe and 30 years of accumulated farm "stuff" to our new farmland. We simultaneously built a brand new packing barn, a greenhouse, and grew all the winter share vegetables for this past year's winter CSA. It was a trial to see what growing would be like in this new soil and climate and we were blown away by the amazing yields we were able to get from the land. Growing on Long Island soils is basically growing in sand. The soil here in Vermont is the consistency of brownie batter - deep, rich, and full of nutrients.
Here are some photos of our new land and the infrastructure projects we took on. We are 95% finished, awaiting some final electrical hook-ups, and ready to take on the season ahead! We're also very excited to be bringing back our wonderful employees through the H2-A Visa program, some of whom have been working for us since our first years farming. Having our farm "family" working with us on this new land is a blessing.
Thank you to all of you who have supported our farm over the years and who waited patiently for our CSA to return this season...we are so excited to be back!
Moving our farm sign from our old farmland to our new farmland was a bittersweet day...but so very exciting!
Here's the greenhouse going up! This greenhouse was designed and built in Canada and can handle high winds and snow loads...it should be here for 50+ years or more!
Our packing barn was put up in less than a week by an experienced barn building crew from Pennsylvania. This will house our post-harvest, washing and packing facilities. The historic barn on the property will continue to be used for machinery storage but we needed this space to facilitate our stringent food safety standards for washing and packing CSA boxes. We were able to use locally harvested timber for the structure. Keeping it local...always!
Every proper barn in New England is painted in a traditional "barn red" and ours is no exception. It was a family affair and Galen and I painted the whole barn in just about a week!
Here is Matt and Mario harvesting potatoes for our winter CSA on a sunny day in October. The soil is so fertile and our yields were between 2 and 3 times what we've been accustomed to on Long Island.
Our farm family enjoying some nordic skiing in the "off-season"!
Our historic barn sits at the center of this private farm valley and is a popular subject for landscape painters. This is a lovely piece by local artist J. Ahearn.