The seed catalogues make farming look so orderly and easy: neat rows of weed- and bug-free onions and carrots. Eggplants ripe and dark with luscious foliage. Uniform-sized, unblemished green peppers. The photos never show groundhogs munching away on the cabbages,...
If you have passed by the farm recently, you may have observed the white wooden plank held tight along the bottom of the gate with rocks. If you’ve come up close to it, you may have even noticed the odd musky smell. It’s organic groundhog repellent, and it doesn’t...
Yesterday I was out on the farm with a young helper, and we tried to identify the visitors who had snacked on our crops. Groundhogs had chomped on the freshly weeded beans and kale; birds had pecked at the juicy ripe strawberries, and I have no idea what got into the...
My son hates worms: he thinks they are like disembodied intestines in shallow graves. As we plant cabbage seedlings on the farm, the quiet evening air is punctuated with his exclamations of “Ew, gross!” and “Sooooo disgusting!” In some areas, particularly in northern...
The farm brings me joy—usually. But sometimes it is just plain depressing. I stopped by the other week to check on things after one of the many recent thunderstorms. I wandered over to the squash plants, which were covered with vivid yellow flowers. But when I parted...
