Welcome all, to this month’s connections! We are happy to be writing to you from the beautiful grounds of McDonald Farm, where the bluebells are abundant this time of year! It has been great finding our first toads of the season, hearing the frogs at night (as Carya stares out the window wondering where oh where that sound could be coming from), and the birds! Oh, the bird! Who needs an alarm clock with the presence of our still-arriving feathered friends! Spring is really a magical time, not just at the farm and in the woods, but everywhere, and it’s free for all to enjoy as long as we take the time to recognize it. Nature truly is the universal gift.
Now, I could get lost talking about the miracles happening all around us, and trust me, I would LOVE to spend a whole article on the pheasant back mushrooms, bluebirds, blackbirds, woodland phlox, dragonflies, butterflies, and… I’m doing it again, I digress! We all know how amazing our world is, that’s why you, I, and everyone involved with The Conservation Foundation are here with us, a fact that was very evident at our Earth Day Benefit Dinner last week, again–the biggest ever! Best of all, the room was packed with well over 600 people from our community coming together to help ensure that everyone has clean air, clean water, healthy food, and safe access to nature. Standing in a room of folks from water departments, restoration outfits, native plant nurseries, gardeners, wildlife monitors, wildlife rescuers, tree care folks, and those from all walks of life who share our mission, really brings home the importance of what we do. And without getting into all of the wonders of nature that distract me so easily, this gathering is a wonder all its own, bringing hope and comfort to those of us who realize the importance of our environment that we live in.
In more local news, the farm itself is thriving, too, with a new crop of farmers in to help us care for the grounds and the food it gives us. Everyone is geared up for another exciting season, that’s for sure! Our greenhouses are abundant with plants for our plant sale, and future field crops that will be planted after the threat of frost is long gone. The plant sale is a great way to kick off our season, the energy of plant-people at spring plant sales is radioactive, talk about an annual recharge! Which, is perfect timing, because as farmers, after Mother’s Day, we keep running until Thanksgiving!
We have been very grateful for the few small windows of dry, warm weather that have snuck in during this overall cool and wet season. The universe provided opportunities at just the right time to get over an acre of potatoes, 16,000 onions, almost an acre of mixed brassicas (broccoli, kale, cauliflower, etc.), 8,000 leeks, a bed of lettuce, beets, carrots, and spinach into the fields! This week,
thanks to Endeavor Health, we used our new Kubota tractor and King Kutter rotavator to get our primary tillage done for summer crops, too, like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, summer squash, and winter squash. Even we farmers think it feels early to be preparing for the warm season crops, but the sun, our experience, and our calendar give us the confidence we need to keep moving forward! Our new cultivation tractor by Tilmor also got its feet dirty this week, as we used it to effortlessly cultivate those 16,000 onions I mentioned earlier, in a record 35 minutes!
There is so much more going on than can possibly be said here, but I know that you see it too! We hope to see you all at our plant sale extravaganza on May 10, here at the farm, so we can all kick off our plant-tastic 2025 together with all our friends! Forget what you may have heard on TV, this is going to be a great year! People are not too different than foods, in such that when you put lots of good ones together, the result is better than any of those individually! Thanks for being with us, have a great year!
~Farmer Russ
