a learning day

caterpillar ariel view

celeriac by the cartful

This has been a season of learning. During the last week of the CSA we learned that we did not have a secure enough email password and you all got a wonky email from our email address directing you to the website of some chinese company. Turns out password security is super important. If yours is still your pets name and a few numbers, time to secure it up (that's not what ours was, but i hear it is very common.)

Today we learned that fire extinguishers work really well. and also how strange it is to hear the words, "your tractor is on fire". our friends dropped off some mulch hay to us today to mulch our garlic, and while they were here the tractor caught on fire. Turns out its important to have a secure email password and a couple of working fire extinguishers, just in case. tomorrow i'm going to buy a fire extinguisher to put on our tractor, just in case. It aslo seems like a good idea to keep one in the car.

we also are learning how advance planning can pay off. we've just filled up our last little spot with inside the fence. We had hoped for a while to plant some native fruits. during the last year we grew persimmon and paw paw trees from seed. The pink flags are marking the little trees stretching out to almost the fence (visible in the background). Hopefully some day we will be bringing some native fruits to market.

the last thing we learned is that some of you are still looking for us and you can still find us at the ithaca market on saturday's from 10-3, it goes all the way to the 19th of Dec. we will be missing the week after thanksgiving, but otherwise, we'll see you there!

liz and matthew

Caterpillar!

Here's a new concept (for us anyway) that we are trialing on our farm this winter and next spring: a temporary, moveable hoophouse. The kind folks at Cooperative Extension provided funds and materials for this cool "caterpillar tunnel" at our farm. The tunnel is covering fall-planted turnips, radishes and spinach. We'll monitor their progress, hopefully harvest them early spring (?) and see how the moving of the hoophouse goes next spring! And we'll also keep track on how it holdss up to the winter weather!

We got together Thursday to construct the hoophouse. Things went quite smoothly despite a little rain and cold and the structure was completed in the afternoon. In the first picture you can see we bent the pipes for the ribs of the hoophouse.

Thanks so much to Molly, Eric and Matt. We had a lot of fun putting it up.

Please stop by sometime to check it out!