Looking ahead

The end of the year and this growing season is on the horizon now. We’ve seen frost on the ground. Fresh flowers are over for the season. Dried flowers made their debut at the market. We’re leaning more into the harvest of storage kohlrabi, rutabaga, and celery root as the growth of our greens slows.

Although the harvest list shortens each week, November brings a flurry of activity in preparation for next season. In the past few weeks, we:

• Planted and mulched 500 bed feet of garlic for 2025 (200 more feet than last year!)

•  Constructed a raised bed for the spring tulips and planted 7,000 bulbs in 11 varieties

• Started digging endive roots to store and re-grow in March (see the April 2022 blog post)

• Dug, divided, and stored 1,000+ dahlia tubers for sale and replanting next year

We’re already looking ahead to 2025, teeing up infrastructure improvements on the farm and organizing our notes on each crop as we head into seed catalog season. In what feels like a moment of instability in the world, we find ourselves more committed than ever to the work of building a resilient, regional and deeply-rooted food system here in our community. 

And yet, even this locally focused work is deeply entwined with the larger world, so we wanted to take a moment to highlight a few ways in which potential changes to federal policy could affect the farm.  We don't have as many touch points with the federal government as large, industrial farms do; however, there are a few particularly impactful federal services and programs that we are keeping tabs on.

The National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), a part of the USDA, provides some of the most meaningful federal funds to our farm and others like us. NRCS funded several of the high tunnels at Four Root Farm and has done so for many farmers in the region. High tunnels make farmers more resilient in the face of climate change and allow for season extension into colder months. (See the July 2024 blog post for more).

The underground drainage pipes and new gravel road will help prevent erosion on the farm.

Over the summer, we also received a NRCS grant to improve the drainage around our high tunnels.  We dug trenches on either side of our tunnels and added perforated pipes to drain excess water away from the fields to a new pond. We added a gravel road in front of the tunnel doors – an area of high traffic for our farm vehicles. These improvements will prevent erosion and reduce the need for outside materials to be brought onto the farm.

We also receive incentive payments from the USDA to assist with some of the work we do to improve the ecosystem of the farm and to support our Organic growing practices. This helps keep our business viable in the face of constant price pressure from agri-businesses that depend on externalized costs to keep their prices low. NRCS provides incentives for cover crop seed and mulching, which preserve the health of the soil, and the Farm Service Agency helps offset the cost of maintaining our Organic Certification every year. 

On the retail side of the business, the federal government also provides funds for the Farmer’s Market Nutrition Program (FMNP). The program provides money to seniors and folks using food assistance specifically for buying fruits, vegetables, and other agricultural products at farmers’ markets. We applaud this program for making our vegetables more accessible to people who may otherwise opt for cheaper food from a big-box grocery store. We would love to see FMNP continue and even grow.

Moonrise over one of the final Madison markets of 2024.

Fortunately, no matter what happens at the national level, we have a strong local community of farmers, producers, educators, businesses, and non-profit organizations in this state dedicated to improving the regional food system. As we look ahead to 2025, our broad plan remains the same. Keep growing the highest quality food and flowers, and continue working with our community to make these products accessible to as many people as possible.

To frost or not to frost?

Rachel’s cat, Max, loves this time of year.

It’s that time of year on the farm. The days are growing shorter, and the shadows are growing longer. The nighttime temperatures are getting cooler and cooler, which means we’re on the watch for our first frost. 

The first frost will end the season for peppers, okra, and fresh flowers. However, many other crops can survive, and some even improve afterwards! Fall greens, like kale, collards, and bok choy can survive through frosts. The cooler temperatures also encourage the radicchios to form tight heads. Storage kohlrabi, cabbages, carrots, and rutabagas convert some of their starch content to sugar to withstand a frost and actually become sweeter afterwards. So, don’t despair! Frost or no frost, our growing season continues on.

We do a lot of planning around the first frost though. If we see temperatures forecasted to drop into the 30s, we hustle to harvest any remaining peppers, tomatoes, and flowers, and we cover sensitive crops with row covers to keep them warmer. We balance the risk of a frost with the benefits allowing more produce to ripen and flowers to bloom. 

In this region, the average first frost date is October 20th. This is just an average though. In recent years, we’ve seen frosts as early as mid-September and as late as November. The specific microclimate of the farm also affects whether we experience a frost. Four Root Farm  is situated on top of a hill in East Haddam. Sometimes, although valleys in town have frost, the farm does not. 

Just a couple weeks ago, the weather forecast showed nighttime temperatures forecasted in the mid-30s. We sprang into action with a couple busy days of harvesting and covering. Rachel harvested crates of green peppers. We covered the young bok choy and lettuce with row covers to give them some protection from the cold. Elise devised a way to cover the 5-foot tall marigold plants to hopefully keep them alive through Halloween. And then….

No frost. Many other farmers in our region experienced frost, but our position up on the hill kept the farm just warm enough to avoid damage to our crops. 

That’s great, right!? Yes and no. The pepper plants and fresh flowers are still alive, which is exciting! The crates of green peppers, though, could have been left on the plants to become ripe red and yellow peppers. It’s also hard not to feel like we wasted our time covering the crops when we needed to uncover them all again for the 75-80 degree days that followed. Temperature swings like this are not only logistically difficult but can also stress the plants and contribute to their decline.

Liz harvesting all the tomatoes before the “frost.”

Planning around a frost is part of farming in this region. It’s a balancing act to decide which crops to protect and which to let go for the season. Heat-loving crops like tomatoes and peppers produce slowly this time of year. Do we spend time harvesting tomatoes to generate a little additional revenue? Or do we prioritize preparing those beds for winter while the days are warmer and longer? We’re constantly running and re-running the calculations!

As we grapple with these decisions and the weather continues to cool, our food and flower offerings will begin to shift. With storage crops and dried flowers still taking up space on the farm, we’re looking forward to a bountiful fall whatever the weather! 

-Kiersten

Celosia Showcase

It’s not just the fall foliage bringing bold, vibrant colors this season. Late summer flowers are in full bloom. And celosia may be the most vibrant (and wacky) of them all! 

When you think of a flower, most people conjure an image of an aster species - petals circling a center floret. Celosia (pronounced see-low-shuh) is actually a member of the chenopod family, so its cousins are spinach, beets, and chard. It produces velvety flowers in three varieties:

1) Plumosa - Plume varieties look feathery or fluffy. They create shoots of growth covered in tiny flowers.

2) Cristata - Also known as coxcomb, or, as we call them at the market, brains! These varieties create a bright crests which, when blooming in tight clusters, look like coral or… brains!

3) Spicata - These species have short, irregular spikes of flowers resembling heads of wheat. 

We grow 20+ varieties of celosia, and Elise is even cultivating her own varieties. When plants mutate and produce unexpected but delightful color variations, she saves their seeds. She sows those seeds the following year then saves more seed from the best, most productive plants. As you can see below, she has a whole collection of orange and pink varieties that are bespoke to Four Root Farm! 

All types of celosia dry easily and retain their bright colors, which makes them perfect for our everlasting dried bouquets and wreaths. Check out our blog post from November 2022 for more about the flower drying process. Even after the first frost ends the fresh celosia season, dried celosia bunches can continue to brighten all our homes through the winter. 

-Kiersten

Farming in a Changing Climate: Aaron’s work with CT Greenhouse

As Caitlin alluded to earlier this year, the FRFarmers have their hands in many aspects of our regional food system outside of just the Four Root Farm fields. For the last 10 years, Aaron has been building and renovating greenhouses and high tunnels. It started as a winter side-hustle but has now grown into an industry-changing business, CT Greenhouse.  He and his business partner Toby spent the past week constructing two new high tunnels on the farm, and it felt like an excellent time to spotlight their important work. 

The construction process begins.

What are greenhouses and high tunnels? Structurally, greenhouses and high tunnels are the same. They are metal frames covered in a clear plastic, which allows sunlight to pass through. We typically refer to the structure as a greenhouse when plants are grown in containers within it. We refer to the structure as a high tunnel when crops are planted directly into the ground within it.  At Four Root Farm, we start most of our crops in seedling trays in a greenhouse. Then, we transplant the seedlings into the ground out in the field or in a high tunnel.

So, why are these structures important in a changing climate? First, let’s take a local view. We have been experiencing increasingly intense storms and winds. Heavy rainfall, hail, and strong gusts can all damage sensitive crops like tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers. By growing these crops in a high tunnel we can protect them from acute damage. 

Next, let’s take a broader, systemic view.  Much of the produce in grocery stores here in Connecticut has been shipped from California and Central or South America. As heat waves and droughts become more prolonged in these areas, we don’t know how crop yields will be impacted. Greenhouses and high tunnels help growers to practice season extension, growing more food in the shoulder seasons and even through the winter.  Even without heating a high tunnel, the soil conditions inside are warmer earlier in the spring and stay warmer later into the winter. This allows growers to plant crops sooner and continue to produce food well after the first frosts. By increasing food production in areas that experience cold winters, the use of high tunnels can reduce dependency on shipping food from elsewhere. 

Ok, back to CT Greenhouse. What’s so special about their business? Aaron and Toby both started their work in our food system as farmers in Connecticut. After another greenhouse company closed its operations, they began helping farmers in the area build and renovate their greenhouses and tunnels. They used this experience to design a better structure. Their products use high-quality, durable materials that can stand up to the worsening storms and weather. They’ve designed their kits for easy construction so that farmers spend less time building and more time growing food. They’ve also innovated new ways to deliver kits directly to the building site, eliminating hours of work unloading a delivery truck for farmers. 

By making greenhouses and tunnels easier for growers to access and install, Aaron and Toby are providing farmers the tools to continue growing and to be adaptable in the face of climatic challenges. This, in turn, should create a more stable and resilient food system for all of us. 

-Kiersten

One down, one to go!

Comin' in hot!

Cherry tomatoes soaking up that summer sun!

Last week ushered in the first day of summer a.k.a the Summer Solstice a.k.a. the longest day of the year. The plants have been soaking up 15+ hours of sunlight a day. The people of Four Root Farm have been out in the fields not quite that many hours a day, but sometimes it feels like it. Greens have been appearing on our farmers’ market tables and online ordering platform. Kale, chard, chinese broccoli, and lettuce mix are all available now and should remain available into the fall. There may be a quick break between our spring and fall successions, but the break will hopefully be brief and filled with other delicious produce!

And speaking of other delicious produce, the summer favorites - tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and more - are well on their way! Want to know when to expect them? Here’s a quick look into our fields for a vegetable status update:

Peas: We’re now in peak pea season, folks! They’re here en masse this week, and we expect them to stick around for about another 1-2 weeks. This year, we have sugar snap, shelling, and snow peas to share with you. Once the summer heat really sets in, these plants start to die back. Pea season isn’t long, but it is delicious. We hope you’re enjoying it!

Summer Squash: The season of squash has begun. We brought the first of the squash to market last weekend. If you missed out, don’t worry. There’s plenty more where that came from! We have yellow squash, green zucchini, a green and yellow hybrid, pattypan squash, and more! And we should have it through mid-August. Get your spiralizers ready.

Cucumbers: The first cucumbers are here! We split the first one 7 ways amongst the whole team last Friday. There should be some on the market table this weekend and (hopefully!) many more to follow through July. Check them out winding up their trellis!

Eggplants: The Fairy Tale eggplants are in the ground. They’re tucked safely under insect netting to give some protection from pests. Once they’ve grown bigger and start making little purple flowers, we’ll uncover them to let pollinators do their thing. The other eggplant varieties were recently planted in one of the high tunnels. August is likely when all these purple pretties will be available to eat.

Baby pepper plants are the cutest of all the baby plants.

Peppers: We were a little behind on pepper planting this year. There are rows and rows of young pepper plants out in the field now though. Our usual purple peppers and sweet red and yellow peppers should become available in mid-August. For our fans of spice, we plan to harvest the first of the hot peppers this week or next! Also, we planted an entire additional bed of hot peppers this year. If you were waiting for a sign to start making your own hot sauce, this is it!

Tomatoes: Okay, I’ve kept you on the edge of your seats long enough. Tomatoes are looking great! They receive weekly pruning and trellising to keep them healthy, happy, and directing as much energy as possible toward fruit production. You can expect cherry tomatoes in early July and then more tomato varieties in the one to two weeks that follow. It’s tough to say how long tomato season will last. These plants are quite particular and prone to disease if the weather doesn’t go exactly their way. With a bit of luck, we’ll be eating tomato sandwiches well into September. Keep your fingers crossed!

-Kiersten

Behind the scenes of flower farming

It’s May, and we’re fresh off the heels of a successful Mother’s Day flower weekend! As you may imagine, it’s the biggest weekend of the year for flowers. Elise and her flower farming crew worked tirelessly all week to harvest and process thousands of stems which turned into hundreds of bunches and bouquets. It was a hectic, jam-packed, and rewarding week. However, as with any difficult but worthwhile endeavor, months and months of preparation preceded it. So, this month, I thought I’d give you an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at growing some of the show-stopping spring flowers: tulips, anemones, and ranunculus. Follow me!

The process began over a year ago - even before last year’s tulips were harvested! The demand for tulips has grown so rapidly in the past few years that Elise needed to place her order for this year’s bulbs in February of 2023 to secure her favorite varieties. She has already ordered the bulbs for 2025! We plant new bulbs each year because the second year of growth is not as high quality and more prone to disease. Old bulbs go straight to the compost; new bulbs arrive in the fall. In November, we plant them into a raised bed lined underneath with hardware cloth to keep out burrowing rodents. Check out last November’s blog to see more photos.

From bulb…

… to bud!

Ranunculus and anemones are grown from corms. Unlike the tulip bulbs, we use the corms for multiple years before the yield and quality of the flowers seems to decline. Last June, we dug up each variety from 2023’s harvest. The crop plan is adjusted each year depending on the color preferences of our customers, floral designers, and Elise (being the head flower farmer has some perks!). It’s important to keep the varieties separate, so the following year’s crop plan can be executed correctly. We hibernated the corms until it was time to wake them up in January 2024. We soak corms in buckets of water with an aerator, which simulates spring snowmelt soaking the soil and tells the corms it’s time to grow. Then, they’re planted in seedling trays in the greenhouse or directly into the ground in the high tunnels and fields.

To quickly recap, we’ve secured our bulbs and corms, stored them correctly, put them in the ground at (mostly) the right time, kept them alive for a few months, and now our first flowers start to appear. It’s time to harvest! Flower harvest has loads of nuance to it. Elise targets the harvest of each variety at a very specific stage to ensure the flowers continue to open and reach peak gorgeousness when they are with our customers. Almost all flower varieties achieve a longer vase life by spending time in the cooler after harvest. This allows the stems some time to rest and rehydrate before the bouquet-making process.

Finally, on the day of or before the market, all the stems of different flower varieties are transformed into stunning bunches and bouquets with combinations of greenery, focal flowers, and delicate filler flowers. Buckets on buckets are then loaded into the truck and brought to market.

The mission driving the Four Root Farm flower team is to grow and sell flowers that not only look nice, but last a long time. The variety selection, harvest stage, post-harvest handling, and careful way in which we transport and display our flowers all supports this mission. From bulb to bouquet, there’s intention in every step of the process. Hopefully, this behind-the-scenes look adds to your already abundant appreciation of our flowers. But, if you appreciate our flowers just because they’re just beautiful – that’s 100% valid as well.

Happy spring!

- Kiersten

Happy 10th Anniversary to our Market Share members!

Daffodils brightening our rainy return to Wooster Square!

As Caitlin mentioned last month, 2024 is the 10th growing season for Four Root Farm! While our more superstitious farmers are hesitant to count our metaphorical chickens before they hatch, we are excited to commemorate this milestone. 

Last Saturday, we returned to Wooster Square for our first farmers’ market of the 2024 season. This means the 2024 Market Share program has officially kicked off! And thus, we DO feel ready to whole-heartedly, unabashedly, and exuberantly celebrate the 10th year of Market Share membership for our most loyal members who have been with us since the very beginning: Susan Klaus, Karen Wang, Andie and Jeremy Asnes,  Mary Zihal, Greg Campora, Lisa and Paul Cusano, and Robin Golden and David Berg. Thank you all for being part of the Four Root Farm Market Share for the past decade! Happy 10th anniversary!

Karen’s kids, Petra and Alex, helping us with new product development.

Thank you, Susan! Susan is a fan of the lettuce mix, okra - particularly the green okra, escarole, swiss chard, cucumbers, onions, and of course, tomatoes! Susan can be found at both the Madison and Wooster Square markets, depending on where her week takes her.

Thank you, Karen! Karen’s farm favorite is shishito peppers with runner-up status for kohlrabi. You may also recognize Karen and her family from last September’s blog post on experiments with sweet potato leaves!

Thank you, Andie and Jeremy! Andie and Jeremy are regulars of the Wooster Square market. Andie and her parents are also longtime flower share members and some of our most vocal flower appreciators.  We love seeing them each week, and I love slowly making friends with their wonderful dog. 

Mary and her amazing family! A huge thank you to you!

Thank you, Mary! While it’s difficult to pick favorites, Mary and Dena love escarole. (And we love them for that! It’s such an under-appreciated vegetable.) Their girls prefer shishito peppers and gai lan (Chinese broccoli). Mary also appreciates how the dried bouquets get her through the winter. Mary beautifully shared that the farm’s care of the land and the environment makes her and her family hopeful for the future. We couldn’t do it without you, Mary!

Thank you, Greg! Greg and his partner Dante (also known as DanteandGreg or GregandDante depending on who you ask) supported us in Wooster Square for years, and now, Greg comes out to East Haddam for our on-farm pickup day! He gets his favorite - sweet potatoes - direct from the source. 

DanteandGreg (or is it GregandDante?!) Thank you!

Can you see the resemblance? Elise and her lovely mom!

Thank you, Lisa and Paul! These two amazing humans also happen to be Elise’s parents! They adore all of Elise’s flowers, of course. The ranunculus may have an extra special place in their hearts though. They’re also huge fans of the carrots, beets, ginger, escarole, and the list goes on and on!

Thank you, Robin and David! Thank you for your support as Market Share members, as parents to Rachel, and as farm workers yourselves! Robin is the farm’s lead carrot weeder, and you may recognize David from the farmers’ market checkout table.

Rachel and her mom/lead carrot weeder.

The Berg Golden family working the market together!

Elise and Rachel making big plans for the future!

One of the joys of eating locally grown food is the sense of community that can grow as well. We see each others’ faces each week. You know the people who are growing your food and flowers, and we know all of you who are eating our vegetables and enjoying our bouquets. 

We hope you see friends and neighbors when you pick up your produce. We hope you see acquaintances and that our food and flowers can be a source of common ground and connection. In last month’s blog post, Caitlin highlighted Four Root Farm’s growing network of farms, businesses, and other food system organizations. There is also a growing network of local eaters and flower-aficionados, which includes you! Whether you’ve been shopping with us for 10 years, one week, or anywhere in between, it’s a joy and a privilege to grow for you. Thank you for being part of this community! 

 - Kiersten

The Many Tendrils of this Root System

Surprise! This is a guest newsletter from Caitlin, the fourth root and delinquent OG blog post writer who hasn't written a blog post in ... 5 years? 7 years? ... and who, very characteristically, is late writing this February post in March! Very few things never change in the world, but apparently my inability to write a blog post on time is one of them.

Somewhat unbelievably, 2024 is our tenth growing season here in East Haddam. Next winter will usher in our second decade on this land, and we have taken this season’s hibernation as an opportunity to reflect on where we started, where we are today, and all the many ways we hope this wild experiment will continue to evolve in the next decade. As you’ve followed along through our first ten years, you’ve seen how we’ve built and designed and tweaked and overhauled, bit by bit making a farm business that can sustain our family on this land. We’re very proud to be where we are today. 

As we map out our next ten years, we are always working to find a balance between planning what we can plan and staying agile and resilient in the face of what we can’t control – so we develop longer-term ecological management practices, weigh the hard math of building a new barn, and work on improved stormwater infrastructure, all while being, frankly, dumbstruck by the amount of rain we’ve gotten this winter and wary of what strange weather this summer will bring. As ever, we live every day with both a sense of immediacy and a long view of time.

Poised at this inflection point between our first ten years and our next ten, lots of things snap into focus. A reality that binds together many of our thoughts is the exciting, scary, hilarious realization that we are not the new, young farmers anymore. Like something that inches so slowly you don’t notice season to season, and then boom you can’t believe how far you’ve moved from where you started, we have arrived at a point where we are now the seasoned ones; we are well-connected in our community, and have developed tendrils outward from our beloved farmstead into many other vibrant and vital parts of our regional food system. 

We are so lucky to be a close-knit team of four partners with four distinct and diverse sets of skills, four different areas of expertise, and four unique callings that get us out of bed in the morning; we don’t take this partnership for granted, and are grateful every day that we’re able to do the work we do together. We are also immensely grateful for our amazing team, the incredible people that have cycled through our farm over the years, taken on leadership roles, started their own farms, and, person by person and season by season, strengthened our regional food system. We see our work as farmers as a piece of a larger project to rebuild that system, and over the last nine years, our work has expanded beyond the borders of the farm to include advocacy, policy work, design and building projects, and community- and collective-building.

We’re excited to give you a fuller picture of this web of enterprises, so over the course of the season we will be doing deeper dives into some of this work. Stay tuned for further information about Aaron’s work founding and growing CT Greenhouse, my work developing design and real estate projects to build regional food infrastructure in our home region, Kiersten’s work providing badly needed bookkeeping and accounting services tailored to farmers, our participation in local commissions and agencies, and more! Along these lines, in case you missed it – check out the feature Kiersten wrote about the Connecticut Flower Collective, which Elise is a co-founding member of, in last August’s blog post.

- Caitlin

What do farmers do in the winter?

It’s a question we frequently hear! What do you do in the winter? It’s reasonable to ask given that we typically don’t attend markets between the end of December and mid-April. The short answer is… we farm! The longer answer is… 

Spreadsheets, spreadsheets, and more spreadsheets

That’s right! Even farmers work behind a desk sometimes. There are actually a lot of analytics that go into running a sustainable farm business. By sustainable, I mean, good for the earth, soil, and local ecosystem. But, I also mean long-lasting. In order for Four Root Farm to continue nourishing the community and the land, it needs to support its owners and employees financially. The farm also needs to grow the types of food the community wants to eat. 

For this task, we turn to Rachel, goddess of math and spreadsheets. As the market season wraps up, her number-crunching season begins. Which crops generated the most income? Which crops had the best yields? Rachel knows! Combine this information with feedback from customers, data on market sellthrough, annnnnnd some personal preferences of the farmers - et voilà!  You get the crop plan for the upcoming year. 

I made the process sound very magical and easy. It actually involves a series of meetings (yes, farmers have meetings, too!), scrutiny of seed company websites for the best available crop varieties, multiple returns to the drawing board, and then, finally, the crop plan for the upcoming year. Maybe not easy, but still a little bit magical.

Seeding and planting 

Seeding and planting flowers, specifically! Believe it or not, we start ranunculus, anemones, lisianthus, and eucalyptus in January. Ranunculus and anemones like the chilly temperature in the greenhouse. The lisianthus and eucalyptus, on the other hand, begin their season in seedling trays in a small, heated room. The room is one of the farm’s walk-in coolers, which is re-purposed to keep flower seedlings warm instead of cold. The “flooler,” as this space is affectionately called in the winter months (flower + cooler… get it??), allows for greater control over the temperature and conditions compared to the greenhouse. It also keeps energy usage and costs to a minimum by limiting the amount of space we’re heating.

500 teeny tiny lisianthus seeds in the palm of my hand!

The flooler!

The ranunculus and anemones will go into the ground in a matter of weeks. So, we also used the past month to prepare their future beds in the high tunnel. Bed preparation includes broadforking to combat soil compaction, amending with compost and minerals to support soil health, and passing the walk-behind tractor over the bed to create an even bedtop. We’ll wait a few more weeks before seeding the spring vegetables. Broccoli raab, hakurei, and baby lettuce will be some of the first up when the time comes!

Those tasks from the bottom of the summer to-do list

You know those tasks you’re just too busy to get to right now? The ones that you keep pushing off until the next day, and then the next day, and then the next? Vegetable farmers get those done in the winter. Cleaning out the greenhouse - check. Organizing that pile of irrigation drip tape and hoses - check. Re-stringing the tomato trellising hooks - up next. It’s gratifying to cross these items off the to-do list and get organized before entropy inevitably sets in again around July. 

The seasonality of farm work offers a change of pace that I find valuable. If you’re a tax accountant or school teacher, maybe you experience similar seasonal rhythms. We’re still working in the slower months, but the type of work and the level of urgency shifts. I enjoy that tasks and priorities shift along with the weather. It keeps me interested, engaged, and excited for the cycle to begin again. While we miss seeing your faces at the markets each weekend, know that we’re still hard at work to bring you an awesome 2024 season of food and flowers!

-Kiersten

Kiwis, and paw paws, and pears, oh my!

The cool, frosty weather may have you believe that your farmers are kicking back, relaxing, and waiting around for spring, and while it does become much easier to stop working and rest when the sun sets at 4:30pm, there’s still plenty to accomplish within the limited daylight hours of November! Now that we no longer need to harvest fresh flowers, tomatoes, and peppers, time abounds for the less urgent but equally important tasks. Recently, the orchard has been the lucky recipient of this extra time and attention.

The former owners (and parents of our lovely and supportive neighbor, Peggy) had grown a variety of fruit trees on the property before Aaron, Caitlin, Rachel, and Elise (or, for convenience, ACRE) purchased the land back in 2014. Check out the orchard map drawn by Peggy’s parents! Many of the trees suffered damage due to severe weather and pest pressure over the years, and ACRE have always been excited about reviving the orchard.

Jaime, Shannon, and Kathleen have done a fabulous job of laying down compost and mulching the orchard. It’s no easy feat on a farm with minimal mechanization!

Two seasons ago, under Elise’s expert management, we planted two rows of hardy kiwis and a row of paw paws. The hardy kiwi vines have been steadily growing around their trellis, which Aaron constructed for them. Both the kiwis and paw paws should begin bearing fruit in about three years. This year, we added even more trees, including seckel pears, Asian pears, quince, and medlar (shout out to Cricket Hill Garden, who started these trees, for their skill and expertise). It will likely take five to seven years until the pears, quince, and medlar provide fruit enough to bring to the farmers’ market table.  It’s exciting to make investments in these perennial crops, and hopefully, they provide something to look forward to for our community of steadfast customers.

The kiwis make themselves at home on their trellis!

November brings other more routine projects as well. 

For one, garlic planting! Rachel, Kathleen, Isa, and I planted 2,400 cloves of seed garlic earlier this month. The cloves must be planted at least 6 inches deep to prevent the freeze-thaw cycle from pushing them up to the soil surface, where they would succumb to damage from the cold. The beds are then heavily mulched with leaves to keep them warm and safe from erosion through the winter and from weeds in the spring. We’ll keep an eye on the beds to see if they need any irrigation in the springtime. Other than that, we’ll work with the garlic next when we harvest scapes in June 2024. See you next summer, garlic!

For two, tulip planting! Our tulips are planted in a 100 ft-long raised bed, which is deconstructed and reconstructed in a new location each season as part of the farm’s crop rotation plan (dutifully managed by Rachel). We lay out the bulbs from earliest to latest blooming variety in an “egg carton” fashion and then cover them in a deep layer of compost. Is it a tedious process? Yes. Is it also very rewarding? Yes, at least for those of us who enjoy order, straight lines, and the look of a smooth bed top at the end.

Caley and Shannon lay the groundwork.

Tulip bulbs, egg-carton-style.

Almost there…

Planting complete!

From all of us at Four Root Farm, we hope that everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday! We hope that we provided delicious produce for your meal and maybe even an everlasting bouquet for your table. We are grateful for you, our community and customers. We are honored and excited to continue growing food and flowers for you; from the garlic and tulips of next season to the kiwis, paws paws, and pears of the years to come.

The most wonderful time of the year

Here’s my hot take: October is the best time to be a farmer.

Exhibit A: The food is the best.

Not only are the sweet peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants still hanging in there, but fall brassicas are back in action. Bok choy, mustard greens, and hakurei turnips have returned. As if that wasn’t good enough, the long season crops like onions and ginger are also available! And, as icing on the cake, fall-only crops like radicchio and collards have joined the party. Literally, what else could you ask for? And don’t say sugar snap peas, smarty pants.

Exhibit B: The weather is perfect.

I have been basking in the sun these past few weeks. In comparison to the August rays from which I make desperate attempts to hide my Scandinavian skin, the October sunshine feels like a warm bath. It makes me believe that I’m the one photosynthesizing. And the cooler temperatures are absolutely delightful. Pulling on a cozy hat and sweater and enjoying the crisp, fall breeze while harvesting is definitely the best way to start the day.

Exhibit C: Cleaning up is fun.

I feel like I’m losing you, but stick with me. Sure, cleaning up isn’t the most glamorous, Instagram-worthy farming activity. Oh boy, is it satisfying though. Landscape fabrics and row covers abandoned in the field during the busy summer months are neatly rolled up and tucked in the barn. Stakes are pulled out of the ground and stacked in tidy bunches until trellising time next year. Cleaning up also includes preparing the fields for winter, which on Four Root Farm means cover cropping with oats and rye. These crops aren’t for market. They’re for the soil. Their living roots will help prevent erosion over the winter and will feed the soil microbiology in a way that bare soil would not. It feels very rewarding to sow these seeds knowing that they’re giving back to the soil, which also worked all season to provide us food.

Of course, not everything’s perfect this October. Those fall brassicas I mentioned earlier? We’d have a lot more available if caterpillars weren’t having a smorgasbord on them right now. Also, a couple fall crops purposely didn’t get mentioned above. Rutabagas and storage kohlrabi have been all but completely destroyed by aphids this year. The tomatoes and eggplants were also healthier and produced much more fruit this time last year. Overall, between the wet weather and pest pressure, it’s been a tougher year than last.

Diversified farming helps to mitigate losses from weather, bugs, and other things out of farmers’ control. Some crops do poorly but others do ok! (Have you seen the escarole recently?! Just wait until you see the radicchio.) For now, we’ll keep harvesting what we have, enjoying the cool October weather, and getting the property buttoned up for winter. Up next: Dreaming up improvements for 2024.

-Kiersten

P.S. If all this talk of fall and winter has you bummed out, don’t fret! There’s still a good chunk of the 2023 season to be had. Dried flowers, sweet potatoes, and turmeric are all on their merry way!

Summer potluck and sweet potato experiments

After being thwarted by wind and rain in July, we were finally able to celebrate our second annual Shareholder Party! Hurricane Lee remained respectfully offshore and allowed us a beautiful, sunshine-y, end of summer day. 

If you’re unfamiliar with our Market Share program, members purchase a share at the beginning of the season. Share purchases provide cash for the farm at a crucial period when we need to purchase seeds and other inputs. Market Share members then use their credit (+ 10% extra) to buy vegetables throughout the growing season. 

Of course, we completely forgot to take any photos of people but DID take pictures of dogs! Here’s my dog, Olive, the Taylor’s new dog, Fig, and Peat of Beets & Blooms Farm fame!

Over the past 10 years, the shareholders have played an important role in supporting and growing the farm, and we were excited to show them where the magic happens. Rachel, Elise, and Aaron gave a tour of the fields, and we all enjoyed a delicious potluck - including dishes like Heather’s famous kale chips, Gerry’s farm-fresh veggie lasagna, and Adrian’s fried rice with shishitos.  

I thoroughly enjoyed romping around the fields and spending time with everyone outside of busy market days. One of the true joys of farming is feeding people that you know and care about. The relationships that I’ve built over the past four seasons are so meaningful to me and keep me motivated through the hot, humid summer days. It was fun to spend dedicated time on those relationships away from the market checkout table. So much fun, in fact, that I neglected to take any photos…

Alyssa’s son, Ezra, was kind enough to share his seat with a lovely bunch of collards!

As we officially enter the autumn season, some familiar vegetables are returning. Bok choy, mustards, and hakurei are back! And collards are here at last. The first beds of sweet potatoes have been harvested as well. They’re curing another week before they make their market debut.

Speaking of sweet potatoes, Market Share member Karen took home an armful of sweet potato leaves from the shareholder party for a culinary experiment. Stir-fried sweet potato leaves is a classic dish in a number of Asian countries. How would the leaves from the sweet potato variety that we grow, Mahon Yam*, work in the dish?

Petra and Alex say GREAT! Karen reported that blanching the leaves first created the best results. The leaves are then stir-fried with garlic, oyster sauce, and sesame oil. There’s a similar recipe that Aaron found in The Vegan Chinese Kitchen by Hannah Che. 

According to Karen, the Mahon Yam leaves tasted just right in the dish. For those of you (myself included) who have not yet tried stir-fried sweet potato leaves, the leaves have a mild, sweet flavor similar to spinach. Should we start bringing this crop to the markets? I think we owe Karen, Petra, and Alex royalties if so! 

-Kiersten

*This is a sweet potato not a yam. Yams are totally different plants, but basically not available in the US. Yam is used colloquially for sweet potato in the US.

Flower Power: A Spotlight on the CT Flower Collective

If you’re a flower fan (and who isn’t, really?), you're probably familiar with our flowers through the farmers’ markets. There’s another location our flowers go - the Connecticut Flower Collective. 

The Connecticut Flower Collective is a collaborative grower’s market, offering locally-grown specialty cut flowers to the floral industry. Four years ago, Elise and five other Connecticut flower growers created this organization in an effort to make local flowers more accessible to florists and designers. Individual flower farms often do not have the quantity and variety of flowers needed by florists. The options for these buyers were:

 1) spend hours coordinating with multiple local farms to source their stems or 

 2) use a larger wholesale provider with whom the origins of the flowers may not be clear. 

Enter the Connecticut Flower Collective! 

Today, the organization has grown to 25+ flower farms and hundreds of buyer members, including florists, photographers, and event planners. The Collective provides a single location where members can access local flowers at a scale previously unavailable in the region. The Collective simplifies the schedules of farmers as well. Rather than coordinating with individual florists and wedding planners, Elise can focus her time and energy on growing, harvesting, and preparing the flowers themselves and then deliver everything to one place. 

I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that the Connecticut Flower Collective is transforming the flower market in the state. By simplifying access for buyers, the Collective makes it easier for local, higher-quality flowers to be used in Connecticut weddings and events. By allowing flower farmers to focus on growing rather than selling, the availability of local flowers should grow as well.

On Wednesday, the Collective acts as a private farmers’ market for members to shop, but on Thursday-Saturday, the market opens to the public! The Collective also hosts events, including two upcoming workshops on lavender and fall flower arranging. If you’re interested in learning more and/or adding more flowers to your life, I would highly recommend a visit! 

Flowers all the way to the ceiling.

Dried flowers too!

If you’re shopping our farmers’ markets this week, you’ll see some of our most anticipated flowers of the year. Lisianthus have arrived! And finally! Elise seeded these plants all the way back in January. Yes, close to 8 months ago. The lisianthus flower looks like a faux rose and comes in gorgeous pastel colors. They’re well worth the wait. Dahlia harvest has begun too! The white varieties are grown in the protection of a high tunnel so that they remain pristine. The added warmth of the tunnel also means that this variety is the first ready to harvest. More and more colors and varieties will continue to make their appearance at the markets in the coming weeks.   

Also, HATS are here!!! All of us on the farm are rocking them, and you can, too! They’re for sale online and at the markets.

- Kiersten

Let’s get ready to tomatooo!

We’ve all been waiting for it. It’s tomato time! Time for tomato salads, tomato sandwiches, fresh tomato sauces, and even biting into sweet, delicious tomatoes like an apple if you’re feeling spunky. Tomato season should last for the next 2 -3 months, but it always feels so fleeting. I know everyone wants to make the most of it. So, let me run you through the roster for this year and answer some frequently asked tomato questions. 

First up is a longtime member of the team, the Goldie. Goldie has a bright orange-yellow color that lives up to its name and an incomparable, sweet flavor. Yellow tomatoes, in general, are usually less acidic and sweeter than red tomatoes. Goldie is also an heirloom tomato - which means it’s been cultivated for 50+ years! You’re clearly doing something right if you stick around that long.

More into pink than gold? Check out the German Johnson. If you’re familiar with a Brandywine tomato, German Johnson looks like its cousin. It has a deep pink, dare I say ruby, color. It’s a hybrid tomato, so it’s newer to the scene than an heirloom. It was also the first tomato to ripen this season and therefore the first tomato we taste tested. It was two thumbs up all around because everyone was too busy eating a second slice to exclaim outloud how delicious it tasted.  

They’re new; they’re flashy; it’s Hot Streak! Your eyes can’t miss this tomato on the market table. The red and orange stripes create a psychedelic kaleidoscope. The first ripe Hot Streak that I saw literally hypnotized me into harvesting it. It will add some glitz and glam to your tomato salad for sure - especially when paired with their fellow striped tomato, Green Zebra. Green Zebras have green and yellow stripes when ripe. Despite the green color, this is indeed a ripe tomato! Great for eating raw, not great for fried green tomatoes. 

Looking for a good ol’ slicing tomato for your sandwiches? Geronimo and the futuristically-named BHN589 have your back. These two red tomatoes are also stalwarts that have been members of the team for years. We like these fruits for their great shelf-life and quality flavor. Want to dabble with a yellow slicing tomato for your sandwich? Try BHN871 (also from the future). 

Let’s not forget the little siblings of these tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes are fun, sweet snacks and great additions to many salads and other dishes. Red and yellow cherry tomatoes are currently being harvested including The Sungolds, a.k.a. candy from a vine. Sauce tomatoes are also available this year. These plum-shaped tomatoes have a lower-water content, which makes them ideal for sauce-making.

How do I know if my tomato is ripe? The first clue is color. The deeper the color, the riper the tomato. The second clue is feel. In order to prevent bruising, we don’t recommend pressing on the tomatoes. However, if a tomato feels firm when you pick it up, it’s likely a couple days away from peak ripeness. If a tomato feels slightly soft or supple when you pick it up, eat it today or tomorrow. 

How should I store my tomato? Tomatoes like to be stored around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. We know that’s not practical for most home kitchens though. If you’ve selected a firmer tomato that’s a few days from ripe, leave it on the counter. Keep an eye on its color and firmness to determine when it’s best to eat. If you’ve selected a very ripe tomato, eat it right now! Or pop it in the fridge for a day or two to keep it from going around the bend before you can eat it. 

How do you grow such amazing tomatoes? Aww shucks! That’s so kind of you to say! We grow our tomatoes in the ground covered by a high tunnel. The high tunnel provides extra warmth to the plants as well as protection from pests. The plants get so much tender loving care throughout their lives. The team spends hours pruning, trellising, and fertigating (see July 2022 blog post). The tomato plants work hard for us, so we work hard for them!

Ready? Set? Tomatoooo! 

-Kiersten

Peas and news

Oh hello! And happy summer! The longest day of the year is just behind us, and the harvests are beginning to show it. I’ve been delighted to see many of you at the farmers’ markets so far this season. I’m excited to be back in written communication too.

The Madison and New Haven farmers’ markets are in full swing! Plant sale seedlings are on their way out for the year. Our food and flower offerings will continue to grow as the plants soak up the summer sun. You can also find Four Root Farm at a new market this year in East Haddam on Wednesdays from 3:30 - 6:30pm at Grange Hall. A variety of Four Root Farmers and other local residents will be representing the farm at this market. I know that the farm founders are looking forward to this opportunity to connect with people face-to-face in the town that they’ve called home for the past 9 years. Come say hi!

If you’re shopping at any of the markets (or on the online store) in the next couple weeks, you’ll be greeted with a variety of food. Salad mix, kale, chinese broccoli, and radishes will all hang around for a while. However, the real treats of June are the ever-ephemeral peas! We harvest them for just a few weeks in June and July, and I happen to think that it’s the most wonderful time of the year. I’ve eaten approximately 84,392 sugar snaps so far and am about to turn into one. If you see a walking, talking pea at the checkout table this weekend, that’s me.

Snow peas and shelling peas are back as well for the first time in years! Try out some of the new varieties and weigh in on whether we should grow them again next year. And speaking of new, there’s been an adorable addition to the farm this year…

Kimi, the mini truck! She hails from Kimitsu, Japan, and she is my favorite thing to ever happen on Four Root Farm (until we get a fluffy cow). Don’t let her size fool you! This girl can do anything a normal truck can, and she can do it with a tighter turning radius. I believe 23 seedling trays in the bed is the record so far? You can count for yourself below, and I’ll let you know when the record gets broken.

And in a final bit of fun personal news, a FRF contingent gathered at Beets & Blooms Farm last weekend to celebrate the wedding of Brittany and Caley! The blog post from September 2022 highlights these two long-time Four Root Farm employees and their new farm in East Hampton, CT. We were so honored to celebrate with them on a beautiful day on their beautiful property. In true farmer-fashion, Rachel secured special permission to take an unguided tour around their fields, Elise saved earthworms who tried to join the dance floor, and Caley lamented afterwards that she didn’t take the opportunity to show everyone their new dibbler (a farm tool used for spacing seedlings while planting). It was such a joy to be part of their celebration, and we stayed up dancing until waaaaay past my bedtime.

Maybe I’ll find Caley still out there in the pea forest!

I would share a photo of the farmers all cleaned up and dressed fancy, but we can’t have that sort of evidence out on the Internet. (Just kidding! We actually just had such an amazing time that I don’t think anyone stopped dancing long enough to take a photo.)

I think that’s all for now! If you need me, I’ll be in the peas.

-Kiersten

Celebrations and dried flower creations

Thank you to our amazing Market Share members for coming out to the farm to celebrate with us in October! We invited our shareholders to the property in celebration of a successful 2022 season. It turned out to be a very rainy Sunday; nevertheless, we carried on with a delicious potluck in the greenhouse and an extra adventurous farm tour through the wet fields.

Our shareholders are such an important part of the business, and we were excited to offer them an opportunity to see where the magic happens. We plan to host the event again in the fall of 2023 - hopefully with better weather!  If you’re not already a shareholder and would like to participate in our Market Share or Flower Share program next year, you can learn more here. Then, send us an email (fourrootfarm@gmail.com) to get on the list for notification when our 2023 programs are open for sign-up!

Even though we chose to pause for celebration, our 2022 season continues! We have sweet potatoes curing, radicchio to harvest, and still more onions to be cleaned and brought to market. The tulip bed is being prepared and planted for the spring 2023 harvest, and the flower team is busy making dried flower creations.

The dried flower process began back in June when Elise started harvesting the first flowers for drying. These flowers are bunched and hung from their stems in Rachel’s attic. (Rachel’s attic happens to be a great place to dry flowers. It’s dry, dark, and protected from the elements.) In the peak of summer, the flowers can dry in as quick as 2 days. In the shoulder seasons, the process may take closer to 2-3 weeks. 

Many of the flowers used in fresh bouquets throughout the summer also work well for drying. Ammobium, sunflowers, amaranth, gomphrena, celosia, broom corn, rudbeckia, – the list goes on and on. Elise is always experimenting with drying different flowers as well. Last year, she even tried drying dahlias. They shrunk to about the size of a quarter. It was crazy. The best varieties retain their color and do not become too brittle after the drying process.

Now, with fall upon us, the office has turned into a dried flower studio. Elise, Caley, and Isa are spending their time bunching and wrapping single varieties for sale at the CT Flower Collective and markets, and they’re making stunning, everlasting dried bouquets and mini bouquets. They’re also getting their creative juices flowing for the dried flower wreath-making that is yet to come this year! Each year, I’m continually amazed by the creations that they design. My apartment keeps collecting more and more of them. I can’t resist. 

If displayed out of direct sunlight (and out of reach of curious pets and/or small children), dried flowers can retain their color and appearance for a year or more! 

You’ll see dried flower bouquets and wreaths at the Madison and New Haven farmers’ markets. Elise will also be attending the Westport market (Thursdays, 10am-2pm) every other week starting on 11/17 until the dried flowers are sold out for the season. 

-Kiersten

Welcoming Beets & Blooms Farm to the community of CT Farms!

Entering September always feels like a cause for celebration - we’ve reached the peak of our season! Rachel recently seeded the last of the 2022 vegetable crops; Elise is beginning to think about where to plant the overwintered flowers; Aaron is harvesting from the final succession of Chinese broccoli for this year. Despite the fact that there is still a good chunk of the season to come and an unrealistic amount to accomplish each day, the second half of the season feels easier each day rather than more demanding. Plus, it’s just much more pleasant to walk out into the field now that the morning temperature is 58 degrees rather than 85. 

And, we’re reaping the rewards from the first half of the season now! This is when the harvests are the largest and most diverse. September is a special time of year when summer crops like tomatoes and peppers are still thriving while the longer season crops like ginger and onions finally arrive. While cooler mornings, long afternoon shadows, and earlier sunsets offer us a sneak peak of more restful days ahead, the truth is that there is still plenty this season has to offer! 

BUT WAIT! THAT IS NOT THE REAL REASON FOR THIS BLOG POST!

Just as it’s starting to feel like life might begin to slow down on Four Root Farm, things are ramping up for longtime members of the FRF team, Brittany and Caley…

THEY BOUGHT A FARM!!!!

These two are now the proud owners of Beets & Blooms Farm, a queer-owned farm located in East Hampton, CT.  They purchased their property earlier this year after a 3-year long search to find affordable, farmable land amidst an absolutely insane real estate market.  They’ve been making strides all summer long to get their business off the ground (or rather, in the ground). Back in June, they planted a variety of winter squashes as well as sunflowers, zinnias, and amaranth.  And now, they’re starting to realize their first harvests.

Brittany and Caley are badass, intelligent, joyful, hard-working farmers and overall amazing people. They’ve played an important part in the success of Four Root Farm over the past 5 and 4 seasons, respectively, that they’ve worked here, and I think I can speak for the whole team when I say we’re incredibly excited for them. 

Beets & Blooms Farm will be at the New Haven Pride Festival on September 17th with flowers (fresh and dried), winter squash, and some of the most punny merchandise you’ve ever seen. They plan to start a small CSA in 2022 and potentially become a vendor at farmers’ markets in the Middletown and New Haven area. You can find updates about where to buy their products on their website: https://www.beetsandbloomsfarm.com/. And you can follow them on social media: @beetsandbloomsfarm.

Here’s to September, to Beets & Blooms, and to Brittany and Caley! <3

-Kiersten

In the thick of it

And just like that, we’re in the thick of it! Harvesting 1000+ pounds of tomatoes each week and 110 pounds of fairy tale eggplants in a single day. Meanwhile, the rows and rows of sweet peppers appear increasingly colorful, and the okra plants grow taller right before your eyes. I’m cherishing any day the temperature stays below 90 degrees.

The lisianthus are on the scene in a big way. (You’ll be seeing the “lizzies” at the market for the next few weeks. These stems have a long vase life, up to 14 days!) Buckets and buckets of gomphrena and celosia stems continue appearing in the cooler as well. Between wedding floral arrangements, a stint at the Westport market selling bouquets, and a summer flower conference in Massachusetts, the flower team has been, to put it lightly, busy.

Needless to say, it’s a hectic time of year. During a recent team lunch, Elise posed the question, “What are you most looking forward to in August?” At least half of us responded, “September.” 

I’m not typically one to wish the time away. Admittedly, the idea of a crisp, fall breeze sounds delightful during these hot and humid days. There’s plenty to appreciate right now though.

Including, but not limited to…

Hot peppers! We’ve had jalapenos and cayennes for the last few weeks, and now some of the more niche varieties are ready to harvest. There are new varieties this year, some lower on the Scoville scale. The Aji Sugar Rush Peach and Aji Rojo are Peruvian hot peppers that are just slightly hotter than a jalapeno. The Numex Suave Orange has the the flavor of a habanero but little-to-none of the heat.* I’ve been thoroughly enjoying taste-testing hot peppers and trying new recipes with them this year. If you have a go-to salsa recipe, please share. Oh, and for those who like heat, don’t worry. The Death Spirals and Ghost Peppers are on their way, too.

Your friendly neighborhood spider!

Aphid-chomping lacewing eggs!

Helpful bugs! This time of year typically includes the task of hunting for the destructive hornworm caterpillars in the cherry tomato plants. This year, we’ve had a lot of help from a friendly, little wasp. The braconid wasp is teeny-tiny with clear wings, and it lays its eggs on the hornworm caterpillars. When the eggs hatch, it doesn’t go great for the caterpillar. We’ve found lots of hornworms that the wasps have gotten to first. Elsewhere on the farm, Caley discovered the eggs of aphid-eating lacewings by the scallion plants, and I stumbled onto a contingent of (I’m told) friendly spiders in the eggplant high tunnel. It’s nice to have some extra friends on your side.

Market days! It’s exciting to have so much food (and more tomatoes than ever before) and flowers to share at the markets. It truly is a highlight of my week to see the excitement of our customers as their favorite summer crops arrive to the market. It definitely makes this time of year special. 

-Kiersten

*Results may vary. Every once in a while, a pepper plant does something crazy and produces fruit waaaaay hotter than it’s supposed to produce. Just a friendly note to proceed with caution if spice isn’t your thing!

July, July!

The cutest of eggplants

Well, following spring’s halting beginnings, the farm suddenly feels like it’s on the cusp of a food and flower avalanche! Tiny eggplants are appearing on the fairy tale plants, Rachel harvested the first okra last week, zinnias are popping up, and the rudbeckia are blooming in full force. The harvest lists get longer every week, and I’m actually looking forward to harvesting tomatoes. When we’re harvesting hundreds of pounds of them in August I’ll probably be eating those words - but only between bites of delicious tomato sandwiches.

In other exciting news, the farm has a new well! The well that was put in at the very start of the farm’s first season sadly never lived up to its promise, and ended up hindering operations for years. Lack of water slowed crop growth and created inefficiencies day-to-day. When the old well pump kicked the (increasingly empty) bucket early this spring, it jump-started the process of getting an already planned new well in place quickly!

Pictured below: a six-year-old’s method for digging a trench from the well into the greenhouse (involving adorable child sized carhartts, an old tupperware for scooping dirt, and a Rachel to dangle one by one’s belt).

We use the well and irrigation systems to supply water to plants covered in high tunnels, to supplement water to field crops during periods of drought, and to fertigate, a process that combines fertilization and irrigation. The four farm founders have spent years building soil health on the land with methods like cover cropping, compost application, and crop rotation. However, because our crops are harvested, consumed, and, um, disposed of off the farm, much of the organic matter created by the plants does not decompose back into the soil and return nutrients. In order to re-introduce important nutrients, we regularly add nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium into the irrigation water for crops that require a lot of nutrition, such as tomatoes, peppers, and dahlias. Fertigation allows for precise application of nutrients to the plants’ roots through lines of drip tape. We waste less water and less fertilizer, and the plants are happier and more fruitful - literally! The tomato plants especially have been measurably more productive with fertigation. Rachel, our lead vegetable grower, hopes that through continued refinement of this technique we can reduce the amount of bed-feet used for tomatoes while continuing to harvest the same amount of fruit. 

Even though we’re about to enter the thick of summer, preparations for the fall are happening now. Fall successions of vegetables will continue to be seeded for the next few weeks. Elise has even begun the process of drying flowers for everlasting bouquets and wreaths. 

The farm produced more dried flowers than ever last year, and we loved sharing their brightness with our customers throughout the winter. Each year, Elise forecasts the number of stems she will need for fresh bouquets versus dried bouquets and wreaths, and she balances a mix of focal flowers, filler flowers, and greenery. Most of the flower varieties that she uses for drying are harvested in the summer and early fall.  Bunches of delphinium and ammobium are already drying in the attic, and many more varieties will follow!

Bunches of flowers hanging to dry

Despite all the autumn preparations, I’ve been enjoying what July has to offer. Not so much the hotter and hotter weather. But the kale, escarole, and summer squash have been delightful. I’m eating different varieties of kale salad basically every day and devouring escarole and white bean pastas for dinner. Last week, Brittany whipped up amazing, vegan, bibimbap-style bowls full of sautéed squash and carrots for our team lunch. So. good. 

Come and visit us at the Madison and Wooster Square markets to grab some of these July goodies for yourself!

-Kiersten

A Slow Start to Spring

Summer is just around the corner, but you may not have realized it by looking at our vegetable offerings these past couple of months. In truth, it’s been somewhat frustrating and disappointing to have so little food available for our customers recently. The dearth of harvestable crops originated from April and early May, which - if you remember - was cold.  We direct-seeded and transplanted crops into the fields according to our usual schedule diligently planned each winter, and we waited for the weather to warm. However, instead of gradual warming, there was persistent cold and wind, punctuated by short bursts of unseasonable heat. This dramatic weather pattern stunted germination and growth. For instance, the direct seeded broccoli raab, which can germinate in as quickly as 5 days, took almost two weeks before their first leaves began to appear out of the ground. And we continued to peek at the kale under its protective insect netting, checking if this would finally be the week to harvest it.

Most of the vegetables brought to market during April and May were grown in our high tunnels (also known as hoop houses). In a typical spring at Four Root Farm, as we finish harvesting the tunnel plantings of bok choi, hakurei turnips, and radishes, the outside field successions of those crops are ready for their first harvest. We can transition seamlessly from harvesting in the tunnels to harvesting in the field without any disruption to the products brought to market. This year, we finished harvesting in the tunnels and have been anxiously waiting as the field crops continue their stubbornly slow pace of growth. 

The farm has seven high tunnels on the property of varying sizes and one tunnel even has the ability to roll between two different plots. Crops grown in the tunnels are planted into the ground just like the field crops, but they enjoy the benefit of warmer, more protected conditions and thus, can be planted earlier in the year.

We believe that high tunnels are an indispensable tool for farming in New England and for improving regional food sovereignty. Season extension - growing earlier in the spring and later into the fall - allows our community to access locally-produced vegetables for a greater portion of the year rather than relying on products shipped here from California. High tunnels will also help farmers to be more resilient in the face of climate change. As severe weather events become more frequent, tunnels help to protect crops from damaging rains, wind, and hail.  

Thank you to all of you, our lovely customers, for diligently stopping by our market stand and checking the website each week. Conditions the last few weeks have been much better, and I promise the food is coming, albeit slowly! We will continue to have lettuce, chinese broccoli, bok choi and turnips - with kale, sugar snap peas, cucumbers, squash, scallions, carrots and garlic scapes just starting. And fan-favorites like fairy tale eggplants, shishito peppers, and tomatoes growing happily in their beds. 

I’ll have more to share on tomatoes and all of the TLC they require in next month’s blog post. Until then, I will see you at the markets - hopefully with more and more food to offer throughout June!

-Kiersten