[Market-farming] Introduction
Leigh Mae Friedline
DarlingHillCommunityFarm at verizon.net
Sun Dec 7 21:42:09 EST 2008
Hi Folks,
We joined a while back and have been reading. Thank you all for your
postings.
By way of introduction-
We grow 50 or so crops for a 20 member CSA, and 1 farmers market in
southern NH on clay soils, zone 6. We have about an acre in
Certified Organic production in a small valley pocket. What we lack
in light we make up for in shelter from the winds. It was land
passed to me through my family (it is broken into many small
irregular shaped pieces and has a town road, a neighbors driveway
right of way, and two power line over and through it). But until we
are able to afford better land we are making the best of it. We
would love to be able to grow on more land but we haven't figure out
how to afford it from farming income. We are concerned about the
appropriate or natural scale for our CSA vegetable farm. Rented,
lease or borrowed land seems to be at a premium in our area. We have
been growing for three years and have put most of our profit back
in. Leigh Mae worked for two seasons prior on a couple of local
farms. To give some idea of our cultural techniques her is a list of
most of our important tools: a BCS 850 (with attachments: a cart, a
manure spreader, a flail mower, a snow thrower, a single bottom plow,
a tool bar with chisels, a york rake, a tiller box, a disc harrow),
an Earthway seeder, a variety of hand hoes, remay, an on dirt 21x48
heated (propane 100K BTU) vented twin wall envelope Ledgewood
Greenhouse, bought in organic starting mix, various plug trays, a big
'ol 3 bay sink, a hand crank honey capping extractor (for greens), a
1920's Palmer hydraulic cider press, a s.s. bulk tank and bottler, 4
residential reach in refrigerators, plastic totes and bags, 20 or so
4 by 8 hardware cloth covered tables, a bunch of hardwood grade
stakes, and even more sisal twine. We get some cont. ed during the
winter from NOFA and Extension. The production work pretty much
consume us during the growing season. Our CSA season is from early
june through Thanksgiving, we offer free choice, free quantity pick-
ups twice a week for family shares ($585) and once a week for single
shares ($395). I haven't totaled our crop quantity production
records from last year but I have the weigh ins in the little book
(LOL). Really our record keeping is pretty much down and tax time is
a breeze. Our pest problems have been minimal, and our fertility
seems to be well managed with minimal soil amendments and
covercroping. Our challenges are labor (there are only two of us and
we would rather not bring in sharecroppers (interns/apprentices)),
land, and profitability (scale). We are looking forward to being
able to fill out our equipment needs in the next year or so. We keep
a hive of bees and a 50 flock of layer chickens. We have done hogs
(feeders and breeders) and various poultry but we just don't have
enough land for the animals no matter how much of a complete on farm
input circle cycle (biodynamic) they make. We started out thinking
diverse was good and then we realized we couldn't do everything, we
are still learning.
We have probably missed some finer points but that can give you all
a bit of an idea. Mostly we are winter dreaming now a days and
plugging away at that bit of off farm employment that carries us
through financially.
All of our best
Zebadiah Kellogg-Roe & Leigh Mae Friedline
Darling Hill Community Farm
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