Summer CSA Week #14

Summer CSA Week #14

THANK YOU!

Thank you all for joining us this summer as a CSA member, for helping to build our local economy, supporting local food, and bringing our high quality, nutrient dense, produce into your kitchens each week!

Your support allows us to grow in all the ways possible.

For those joining us for the FALL CSA, the first pickup is next week! We no longer have any space in the Fall CSA however we recommend checking out our Farm Bucks program. Purchase $100 in farm stand credit and we will give you an extra $10.

Learn more about Farm Bucks

Don’t be a stranger, we are open

7 days a week from 8:00 - 5:30

year round.

We practice no till as much as possible, utilizing compost and other organic material such as leaves, wood-chips, composted manure and grass clippings to build up soil, act as mulch and a weed barrier. We broad fork the beds before planting to loosen the soil while maintaining soil structure.

Due to the rain and wet this season and the resulting flooded compacted soil, we made the decision to reset beds using a bed shaper pulled off the back of our Ford 8N tractor. Implementation of a drainage plan in Garden 6 and Garden 5 are in the works, while also planting a cover crop in these newly formed beds. As you know, cover crops will restore soil nutrients lost in the flooding and very wet soils, provide more structure in the soil to stop erosion, and create organic matter that can be incorporated into the soil next spring.

Flooded beets and carrots in garden 6. Picture taken July 7th 2024

Matt dusted off the bed shaper to form beds in Garden 6. Early season beets and carrots were flooded out in this section of garden.

Many of the permanent beds in our gardens were first created by the bed shaper years and years ago. We have worked to maintain them over the years occasionally going through with shovels to re-establish bed shape, this time though we decided the tractor was the best approach.

Also this week we rallied and pulled carrots from the Oxbow. The sweetness mentioned in the week 12 newsletter was discovered by the deer last week. Not only were they enjoying the greens, they were pulling carrots of the ground to feast on. We put other priorities aside and pulled carrots on Sunday and then again on Monday, washing and then storing in our walkin fridge. We have younger carrots to grab in mid October, hopefully before the deer find them.

FINAL SUMMER CSA PICKUP
Come anytime between 3 pm and 6 pm to choose your share on the day you chose when you signed up, so either Monday or Thursday.

Please bring your own bags or box to gather your choices.

If you signed up for an add-on, don’t forget to pickup your

Coffee, Eggs, Pork sausage and Flowers!

 Remember to contact us in advance if you will be unable to pick up on Thursday, so that we can store your share in our walk-in refrigerator to keep it fresh. You can email or call us to let us know. Thank you to all of those who have already arranged another time to pickup!

Here's what you will find in this weeks share:

You get to take Something of our choosing home with you and…

Full shares receive an additional 11 choices.

Small shares receive an additional 7 choices.

WANT SOME RECIPE IDEAS?

CHECK OUT THE CSA RECIPE PAGE!

Enjoy! Thank you for supporting local agriculture. See you Thursday if not before.

Your Farmer,

Sam (For Tim, Matt, Mikaela, Jeannie, Jim, Jaime, Evrald, Shawn, Colin, Jessie, Ani, Wyatt, Gal, and Claira)

Summer CSA Week #13

Summer CSA Week #13

Fall Greens

After a wet and rainy summer, we are incredibly thankful for the “August Weather” in September. Activities range from resetting fields by removing summer crops, tearing out no longer producing crops from greenhouses, while also planting greens and scallions for fall and winter harvest, and erecting Caterpillar tunnels at the Oxbow and finishing up Greenhouse 10 here at the farm. Tim has been busy flipping compost piles and we have begun accepting orders for fall compost deliveries.

Farmers use many different methods to direct seed fields, from tractor seeders, cover crop seeders that drill the seed into the ground or spread the seed in a field. For greens there are tractor seeders that will drop 20-30 or even more rows at one time and then there are manual seeders that drop anywhere from 1 - 10 rows. We have landed on the earthway seeder to plant all of our greens, scallions, cilantro, carrots, and beets. Sometimes we use it for cover crops, beans, and peas as well. We pack greens into a bed requiring many back and forths and steps taken, however it has proved tried and true for us. Sam got his steps this past week planting spinach and lettuce.

Sam planting lettuce and spinach this past week with the earthway seeder. Obviously the video was sped up a bit!

GH9 greens earlier in the summer

Garden 5 Greens!

Garden 1 cilantro

Evrald in the GH6N Scallions

These two CAT tunnels are used for crops. We tarped and uncovered the one on the left after a spring/summer crop of scallions. The one on the right is home to our swiss chard. The CAT tunnels are great for crops, animal shelters, or equipment protection.

Asoka (not in the picture) welcomed a baby boy this past week. She has been an incredibly attentive momma, Archie and Asoka are doing great!

Woodland Community School is back in session for the 2024-2025 school year. CHILDREN AND PARENTS MAY BE STILL IN AND AROUND THE DRIVEWAY WHEN PICKUP BEGINS, PLEASE BE CAREFUL NAVIGATING THE PARKING LOT.

Pickup
Come anytime between 3 pm and 6 pm to choose your share on the day you chose when you signed up, so either Monday or Thursday.

Please bring your own bags or box to gather your choices.

If you signed up for an add-on, don’t forget to pickup your

Coffee, Eggs, Pork sausage and Flowers!

 Remember to contact us in advance if you will be unable to pick up on Thursday, so that we can store your share in our walk-in refrigerator to keep it fresh. You can email or call us to let us know. Thank you to all of those who have already arranged another time to pickup!

Here's what you will find in this weeks share:

You get to take Cilantro home with you and…

Full shares receive an additional 11 choices.

Small shares receive an additional 7 choices.

WANT SOME RECIPE IDEAS?

CHECK OUT THE CSA RECIPE PAGE!

Enjoy! Thank you for supporting local agriculture. See you Thursday if not before.

Your Farmer,

Sam (For Tim, Matt, Mikaela, Jeannie, Jim, Jaime, Evrald, Shawn, Colin, Jessie, Ani, Wyatt, Gal, and Claira)

Summer CSA Week #12

Summer CSA Week #12

End of Summer Happenings

Crops have been coming in from the fields in waves. As you are well aware, onions and garlic are drying/curing on tables for fall storage, Cilantro, Kale, and Cabbage have also been harvested in greater amounts. Most recently Acorn and Delicata Squash and soon the remainder of the squash and pumpkins: Sugar Baby pie pumpkin, racer pumpkin, kabocha squash and butternut squash. On the list too are our carrots. Due to the wet flooding this summer we lost almost mature carrots at the main farm and oxbow carrots had to be replanted, however the first wave of mature carrots have been coming in from the field. We harvest and then (when we can) immediately wash the carrots for storage.

You will find carrots of all shapes and sizes in Meadowstone Farm carrot bags: long, short, fat, thin, small, large, crooked….all shapes and sizes. Our sweet carrots taste excellent raw or cooked, we hope you have been able to enjoy them.

As a farm, we aim to grow produce that tastes great and our carrots are one item coming out of the field that we are excited about. The Brix scale measures the percentage of Sugar in an aqueous solution. A higher Brix value typically indicates a sweeter taste. Typically a carrot Brix value can range from around 4 to 12 degrees, by the sweet flavor of many of our carrots we can guess the level is somewhere in the 10-12 range if not higher. Higher Brix levels in carrots not only indicate sweetness but also can suggest better flavor and overall quality. They are influenced by various factors, including soil health, proper watering, and the maturity of the carrots at harvest.

Using our root washer Colin washed hundreds of pounds of carrots coming in from the Oxbow. Once washed we store the carrots in walk-in fridge to be bagged as needed. The root washer sprays and spins to adequately wash, carrots, beets, potatoes, turnips, and more.

GH4 Basil ready to come out after a productive season.

GH4 newly planted spinach. This bed also once was home to summer Basil. 

Summer Basil was pulled out of GH4 to make room for fall/winter spinach. We hope to harvest the growing spinach a few times this fall before covering and protecting for the cold winter months. In the spring when the sun light hours increase and the weather warms up some, we will begin harvesting again.

Shishito Pepper

The Shishito pepper, a mild chili with deep roots in Japanese cuisine, has been cherished for centuries. Its name, derived from the Japanese words "shishi" (lion) and "togarashi" (chili pepper), reflects its distinctive shape, which some say resembles a lion’s head. Although native to Japan, the Shishito pepper shares its ancestry with all chili peppers, which originated in the Americas. It's likely that this pepper made its way to Japan through early trade routes, possibly during the Portuguese influence in the 16th century.

In Japanese culinary tradition, Shishito peppers are celebrated for their mild heat and subtle sweetness. They are typically prepared by blistering in oil and served with sea salt, making them a popular snack or appetizer. These peppers are also a staple in dishes like tempura and yakitori. A unique characteristic of the Shishito is that while most are mild, about one in ten can surprise you with a spicy kick, adding a playful element to the dining experience.

The Shishito pepper began gaining international recognition in the early 2000s. Its ease of preparation and the thrill of its occasional spiciness contributed to its widespread popularity. Today, Shishito peppers are grown and enjoyed worldwide, from the U.S. to Spain, and are featured in a variety of dishes beyond Japanese cuisine.

Shishito peppers rank relatively low on the Scoville scale, which measures the heat of chili peppers. They typically range from 100 to 1,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU). This places them in the mild category, similar to bell peppers, which have a SHU of 0, and significantly lower than jalapeños, which range from 2,500 to 8,000 SHU.

For perspective, as of now, the spiciest chili pepper in the world is the Carolina Reaper. It holds the Guinness World Record for the hottest pepper, with an average of 1.6 million Scoville Heat Units (SHU), and individual peppers have been recorded at over 2.2 million SHU.

Pickup
Come anytime between 3 pm and 6 pm to choose your share on the day you chose when you signed up, so either Monday or Thursday.

Please bring your own bags or box to gather your choices.

If you signed up for an add-on, don’t forget to pickup your

Eggs, Pork sausage and Flowers!

 Remember to contact us in advance if you will be unable to pick up on Thursday, so that we can store your share in our walk-in refrigerator to keep it fresh. You can email or call us to let us know. Thank you to all of those who have already arranged another time to pickup!

Here's what you will find in this weeks share:

You get to take Shishitos home with you and…

Full shares receive an additional 11 choices.

Small shares receive an additional 7 choices.

WANT SOME RECIPE IDEAS?

CHECK OUT THE CSA RECIPE PAGE!

Enjoy! Thank you for supporting local agriculture. See you Thursday if not before.

Your Farmer,

Sam (For Tim, Matt, Mikaela, Jeannie, Jim, Jaime, Evrald, Shawn, Colin, and Gal)

Summer CSA Week #11

Summer CSA Week #11

August

The thick cover crop at the oxbow of Oats and Peas popped up over the weekend, oats first and peas just a day or so behind. Oats germinate at an extraordinarily fast rate, outpacing and suppressing any weed seeds in the soil attempting to germinate. Oats also can improve soil health by scavenging nutrients and recycling them, setting up the next crop for success. Cover crops help with erosion control and can penetrate heavy hard soils, making the growing medium softer for the next crop. Peas recycle nutrients and fix nitrogen. They too are quick growing, outpacing many weeds.

Oats and peas at the Oxbow. Check out the germinated peas.

Oxbow cover crop zoomed out.

Cover Crops will next be planted out in Garden 7 where the zucchini was. Matt, Evrald and Sam folded up all the fabric used exposing the soil to receive the next planting.

Garden 7 fabric (where the zucchini was) coming up. Measured, marked and folded. Thankfully the tags Matt made and affixed to them last year have mostly stayed on!

 

The number of Red Devons at the farm have fluctuated over the years, however currently we have 10. Two cows are on the main farm property: Kona in Bobby’s World and Emmett by the farm stand. The other 8 just moved from one pasture on Blaney Road to another. We walked/ran them down the road and thankfully all went smoothly.

As you can see in the video there was a brief moment when it looked like the simple walk was going to take a detour, however everyone behaved and they made it directly to fresh pasture.

You may recall two out of these GH2 pictures from last weeks newsletter, however check out what has happened in the last week.

GH2 prep in full swing.

Shawn and Evrald set up GH2 for Fall salanova head lettuce: weeded, amended, irrigation, fabric and plastic mulch. Small now, these salanova are set up to thrive and flourish after the cover crop earlier in the season.

GH2 Salanova

The wheels on the Littleton Coop bus rolled right into Meadowstone Farm on Wednesday! We enjoyed touring about 40 folks celbrating NH Eat Local Month by visiting us, Gingue Farm and Tellman Hill Farm. Our certifying agency continues to be our customers and visitors to the farm.

With our Littleton Coop Visitors, we talked about farm and food resiliency in the North Country, the effects of mother nature, how we works to control water, temperature, nutrients, and pest pressure when we can, and how we pivot and handle factors we can not.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to walk around the farm in a while, we encourage you to do so.

Woodland Community School is back in session for the 2024-2025 school year. CHILDREN AND PARENTS MAY BE STILL IN AND AROUND THE DRIVEWAY WHEN PICKUP BEGINS, PLEASE BE CAREFUL NAVIGATING THE PARKING LOT.

Pickup
Come anytime between 3 pm and 6 pm to choose your share on the day you chose when you signed up, so either Monday or Thursday.

Please bring your own bags or box to gather your choices.

If you signed up for an add-on, don’t forget to pickup your

Coffee, Eggs, Pork sausage and Flowers!

 Remember to contact us in advance if you will be unable to pick up on Thursday, so that we can store your share in our walk-in refrigerator to keep it fresh. You can email or call us to let us know. Thank you to all of those who have already arranged another time to pickup!

Here's what you will find in this weeks share:

You get to take Kale home with you and…

Full shares receive an additional 11 choices.

Small shares receive an additional 7 choices.

WANT SOME RECIPE IDEAS?

CHECK OUT THE CSA RECIPE PAGE!

Enjoy! Thank you for supporting local agriculture. See you Thursday if not before.

Your Farmer,

Sam (For Tim, Matt, Mikaela, Jeannie, Jim, Jaime, Evrald, Shawn, Colin, Jessie, Ani, Wyatt, Gal, and Claira)

Summer CSA Week #10

Summer CSA Week #10

Fall Plantings

The challenging weather continues to have an effect on our growing this season, so we continue to pivot and adjust accordingly. Over the last week, snacking cucumbers have come out of GH8 and have been replaced by fall Salanova Head Lettuce. Zucchinni deteriorated quickly from peak production and has also been removed making room for a cover crop, fallow field, or quicker growing crop. A thick cover crop of Oats, Peas, Beans have been planted in various locations around the farm including the Oxbow which will smother any competing weeds, while also fixing nitrogen, loosening up hardpacked soil, and providing organic matter.

Zucchini is out

GH8 snacking Cucumbers replaced by Salanova Head Lettuce

As you are well aware the rain and wet weather of the summer has been a damper on our greens production. We have managed, however the challenges around the weather have become a constant conversation as we plan out the fall plantings of head lettuces, direct seeded greens, and more quick growing fall crops.

With gardens and greenhouses moving on from summer fruiting crops, we are planting tons of greens. A number of years ago, we were able to deliver lettuce mix to the Littleton Food Coop in December, it would be wonderful to be able to provide local, high quality lettuce and other greens to our customers in December, over the next 6 weeks we will be planting with the intention of doing just that.

Garden 5 onions are drying and greens are planted and already coming up. Got to love the rogue sunflowers!

Drying onions

As mentioned in a previous newsletter, we have laid out onions and garlic on tables underneath a shed roof behind the pole barn. This new space has freed up GH1 and GH2 for fall growing. Evrald spent some time cleaning up the sides of GH2 so we can put down some fabric and eventually plant about 1200 salanova head lettuce for a fall harvest. Since housing seedlings in the spring time this space was cover cropped and then tarped.

 

Check out GH2 now (above), set up for fall salanova. The cover crop Colin planted earlier in the summer can be seen for comparison.

In celebration of Eat Local Month, the Littleton Coop, for the second year in a row, has coordinated a bus tour visiting a number of local farms including Meadowstone. There is still time to sign up if you are interested!

Pickup
Come anytime between 3 pm and 6 pm to choose your share on the day you chose when you signed up, so either Monday or Thursday.

Please bring your own bags or box to gather your choices.

If you signed up for an add-on, don’t forget to pickup your

Eggs, Pork sausage and Flowers!

 Remember to contact us in advance if you will be unable to pick up on Thursday, so that we can store your share in our walk-in refrigerator to keep it fresh. You can email or call us to let us know. Thank you to all of those who have already arranged another time to pickup!

Here's what you will find in this weeks share:

Full shares receive 12 choices

Small shares receive 8 choices.

WANT SOME RECIPE IDEAS?

CHECK OUT THE CSA RECIPE PAGE!

Enjoy! Thank you for supporting local agriculture. See you Thursday if not before.

Your Farmer,

Sam (For Tim, Matt, Mikaela, Jeannie, Jim, Jaime, Evrald, Shawn, Colin, Jessie, Ani, Wyatt, Gal, and Claira)

Summer CSA Week #9

Summer CSA Week #9

Bobby World

and Greens

What a week it has been between all the harvesting, cultivating, and ensuring our fall crops are coming along nicely. The winter squash is sizing up, cabbage coming along, onions are beginning to fall over (which means they are ready to harvest), and fall greens and herbs are going into the ground.

Our goat logo is a profile of a picture taken of the original Buck, Bobby. If you check out our farmbucks page you will be able to see that photo. Bobby had some serious personality and made an impact on the farm. We have named the area where he hung out after him: Bobby World.

We moved our Donkeys: Milton, Summer, and Buckwheat (Dad, Mom, and son), our cow Kona, and 4 goats out there to have a little more space to roam and enjoy. They miss all their farmstand visitors, however are excited to see all the blueberry harvesters.

It took some talking into and encouragement, however they all eventually made it out there!

Greens are sort of coming back into it after the wet weather and horrible germination. We have a few successions at the oxbow as well as here at the main farm. At times we use a knife to harvest, handful by handful, however we also utilize a greens cutter. Sam can be seen below using it (in the rain) to harvest some High Mowing Ironman Baby Kale. It uses a battery powered drill which moves a very sharp blade back and forth while spinning some green cord to catch the cut greens and put them into a basket. One person can harvest up to 100 pounds of greens in about an hour using this tool. To ensure only kale, we weeded these greens before harvest. Once at the farm, we triple wash, spin dry and bag!

The brassicas are thriving at the oxbow, Evrald enjoyed an early morning Broccolini harvest.

Pickup
Come anytime between 3 pm and 6 pm to choose your share on the day you chose when you signed up, so either Monday or Thursday.

Please bring your own bags or box to gather your choices.

If you signed up for an add-on, don’t forget to pickup your

Coffee, Eggs, Pork sausage and Flowers!

 Remember to contact us in advance if you will be unable to pick up on Thursday, so that we can store your share in our walk-in refrigerator to keep it fresh. You can email or call us to let us know. Thank you to all of those who have already arranged another time to pickup!

Here's what you will find in this weeks share:

We will have an item for you to take and then:

Full shares receive an additional 11 choices

Small shares receive an additional 7 choices.

WANT SOME RECIPE IDEAS?

CHECK OUT THE CSA RECIPE PAGE!

Enjoy! Thank you for supporting local agriculture. See you Thursday if not before.

Your Farmer,

Sam (For Tim, Matt, Mikaela, Jeannie, Jim, Jaime, Evrald, Shawn, Colin, Jessie, Ani, Wyatt, and Claira)

Summer CSA Week #8

Summer CSA Week #8

Garlic Time

Tim organizing the garlic harvest back in the Summer of 2023.

The Garlic harvest took place this past week and we are excited to have Garlic available for folks to bring home, hopefully next week. After being pulled from the field, we lay it on tables to cure and dry which will extend the storage life substantially. Once completely dry the steps and roots are trimmed, bulbs cleaned and then ready to enjoy hopefully for months and months.

Garlic requires bursts of energy and effort, however once planted, can be maintained with not too much effort until harvest.

That is one large clove of garlic!

A percentage of this harvest will be kept as seed for our next crop. After looking at the bulbs of garlic we sort through it, saving the bulbs with the largest cloves. Once planted, each clove will form into a bulb of garlic.

Tunes, company, some warmth in our seed room, and good conversation accompany the breaking of garlic bulbs, separating them into cloves. Last year we planted in the ballpark of 300 lbs of garlic.

Planting this years garlic back in November using our water wheel transplanter.

After planting, we covered each bed with a layer of MSF compost and then mulched with straw. Straw insulates the garlic from cold winter weather, while also acting as a weed barrier in the spring.

Garlic is one of the first crops to pop up in the spring. You can see the layer of compost and some of the straw mulching thew plants. Remember the rain event in December? Enough water flowed through here, almost all of the straw (110 bales) got swept away. A little more effort was needed this season cultivating the garlic.

Harvest complete! Shawn and Evrald rallied and did it all by themselves over an entire day. Thank you to both of them!

Pickup
Come anytime between 3 pm and 6 pm to choose your share on the day you chose when you signed up, so either Monday or Thursday.

Please bring your own bags or box to gather your choices.

If you signed up for an add-on, don’t forget to pickup your

Eggs, Pork sausage and Flowers!

 Remember to contact us in advance if you will be unable to pick up on Thursday, so that we can store your share in our walk-in refrigerator to keep it fresh. You can email or call us to let us know. Thank you to all of those who have already arranged another time to pickup!

Here's what you will find in this weeks share:

We will have an item for you to take and then:

Full shares receive an additional 11 choices

Small shares receive an additional 7 choices.

WANT SOME RECIPE IDEAS?

CHECK OUT THE CSA RECIPE PAGE!

Enjoy! Thank you for supporting local agriculture. See you Thursday if not before.

Your Farmer,

Sam (For Tim, Matt, Mikaela, Jeannie, Jim, Jaime, Evrald, Shawn, Colin, Jessie, Ani, Wyatt, and Claira)

Summer CSA Week #7

Summer CSA Week #7

Your Farmers

Many hands over the years have fed and worked our soils, nurtured and cared for our animals, planted, cultivated, watered, and harvested pounds and pounds of produce, fixed fences, moved compost, covered frost sensitive plants, uncovered frost sensitive plants, planted seeds, washed bins, bagged greens, picked weeds, picked rocks, picked flowers, and participated in the many other tasks that move your local farm forward.

We are thrilled to have 14 phenomenal individuals making sure that everything runs smoothly, the chaos is organized, and the produce makes it into your kitchens.

The vision of Pick Your Own Blueberries and Compost morphed into a full fledged diverse beyond-organic farm very quickly after Tim started Meadowstone Farm in 2004. His leadership, vision, passion, and hard work permeate the community and north country food system. He has made it possible for the dedicated team to do what we do.

The Wennrich and Griffiths Family! Tim, Cole, Jeb, Jessie, and Ani recreating a classic MSF family farm picture.

Wyatt moves with purpose as he navigates the tasks of the farm. In addition to harvesting, weeding, and running the weed-wacker, Wyatt has been picking up food waste from area businesses.

Vegetable Manager and Flower Guru extraordinaire, Mikaela has been with the farm for 10 years now. She is the “Organized” in the “Organized Chaos” of the farm. She also brings good humor, good tunes, hard work, and passion.

When not writing CSA newsletters, Sam can be seen moving quickly around the farm attempting to keep the chaos organized. He enjoys moving tarps around and planting greens.

We are psyched to have Jessie with us again this season helping harvest, weed, with the farm stand, and the CSA. Off campus you may find her caring for her horse Bruce, running the trails, or roller skiing.

Weeds quiver when Claira walks into the garden. Her hardwork weeding gives space for our crops to grow. She also has been integral in the farm-stand, connecting visitors with the farm.

Eggs are the results of Jim’s thoughtful care when it comes to our chickens. He puts his heart into all that he does on the farm: asparagus, mowing, chicken care, egg packing and more.

At the farm Colin is an integral part of the team working in the farm stand, wash center, and with the animals. “Off Campus” Colin can be found scaling various climbing routes on cliffs in the north country, and prepping for more school at Plymouth State.

Ani has been here since before she can remember and we are psyched to have her as an integral part of the day to day. She helps in the stand, packing room, and in the fields.

Shawn comes with insight, hard work, and versatile skills. We appreciate his tractor skills, harvesting, egg collecting, and detailed perspective on how the crops are doing.

A Fennel and Swiss Chard harvester (she also harvests just about everything too), Jaime also welcomes our CSA members each and every pickup. She brings hard work, laughter, and organization to our farm team.

 

Jeannie is the glue that keeps us all together. She embodies the MSF vision and spirit as she welcomes farm visitors, bags and labels at the packing table, and connects with other employees.

We are psyched to have Evrald back for his second season. He comes with a wealth of experience. Evrald’s work permeates all aspects of the farm. He has a detailed eye when it comes to all tasks, especially pruning, harvesting, and cultivating.

Matt’s watchful eye keeps all the machinery, tractors, and vehicles on the farm running, and the animals fed and cared for. He is always problem solving and masterfully fixing the things we break on the farm.

Pickup
Come anytime between 3 pm and 6 pm to choose your share on the day you chose when you signed up, so either Monday or Thursday.

Please bring your own bags or box to gather your choices.

If you signed up for an add-on, don’t forget to pickup your

Coffee, Eggs, Pork sausage and Flowers!

 Remember to contact us in advance if you will be unable to pick up on Thursday, so that we can store your share in our walk-in refrigerator to keep it fresh. You can email or call us to let us know. Thank you to all of those who have already arranged another time to pickup!

Here's what you will find in this weeks share:

Full shares receives 12 choices

Small shares receives 8 choices.

WANT SOME RECIPE IDEAS?

CHECK OUT THE CSA RECIPE PAGE!

Enjoy! Thank you for supporting local agriculture. See you Thursday if not before.

Your Farmer,

Sam (For Tim, Matt, Mikaela, Jeannie, Jim, Jaime, Evrald, Shawn, Colin, Jessie, Ani, Wyatt, and Claira)

Summer CSA Week #6

Summer CSA Week #6

Tarps got moved and cover crops have been going in the ground. We successfully covered a cover cropped section of Garden 7. The heat generated from the tarps along with the lack of sunlight will kill off the cover crop underneath and create a nice garden section for future planting. Shawn, Wyatt, Jessie and Claira all helped in this endeavor.

Trellises for cucumbers, and paste tomatoes can be seen in the background. We also have lettuce, parsley, and zucchinni planted in other sections of this large garden.

Speaking of tarps, we did the same thing in GH2 to prepare for a fall planting of greens.

GH2 received a double layer of plastic in the Fall along with a furnace so spring seedlings are protected from cold temperatures. Farm and seedling sale transplants were housed here.

On June 24th, we completed the task of moving out tables, pulling up fabric and silage tarp, and removing the weeds. The beds are ready for planting.

Colin planted a cover crop of Oats, Peas, and Beans which promptly germinated and popped up. They outpaced weeds fixing nitrogen, breaking up any hard pan, and will provide organic matter for the soil.

Oats, Peas, and Beans grow quickly! Less than a month after planting Colin crimped the cover crop (Check out the video below) and then Tim tarped the beds. In a few weeks we will remove the silage tarps and either cover with pre-holed fabric and plant or plant directly in the cover crop debris.

The farm continues to flourish and we are thrilled to have plenty of slicing tomatoes this week.

Some Tomato Recipes:

Curried Tomato Sandwich, an option for the non-bacon eater.

Tomato Ceaser Salad

Salsa

Southern Tomato Pie

Tomato Sauce

GH3 Tomatoes

Pickup
Come anytime between 3 pm and 6 pm to choose your share on the day you chose when you signed up, so either Monday or Thursday.

Please bring your own bags or box to gather your choices.

If you signed up for an add-on, don’t forget to pickup your Eggs, Pork sausage and Flowers!

 Remember to contact us in advance if you will be unable to pick up on Thursday, so that we can store your share in our walk-in refrigerator to keep it fresh. You can email or call us to let us know. Thank you to all of those who have already arranged another time to pickup!

Here's what you will find in this weeks share:

Everyone gets to take slicing tomatoes (1 choice)

Full shares receive an additional 11 choices

Small shares receive an additional 7 choices.

WANT SOME RECIPE IDEAS?

CHECK OUT THE CSA RECIPE PAGE!

Enjoy! Thank you for supporting local agriculture. See you Thursday if not before.

Your Farmer,

Sam (For Tim, Matt, Mikaela, Jeannie, Jim, Jaime, Evrald, Shawn, Colin, Jessie, Ani, Wyatt, and Claira)

Summer CSA Week #5

Summer CSA Week #5

Water

In February and March as we start up greenhouses, soil temperature, water temperature, and water amounts becomes a constant topic of conversation. Our green house tropical fruits (Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Peppers) best grow when soil temps are above 60 degrees and water amounts are adequate to encourage intake of soil nutrients. As the tomatoes mature and increase in size we monitor water amounts, increasing or decreasing as necessary. We can control more in our greenhouses!

Transitioning from greenhouse growing to our gardens can be challenging, especially considering the water table at the farm lurks awfully close to ground surface. As snow melts or spring rains come through, we are constantly adjusting the plan to ensure our crops are grown in the best location, taking time-in-the-ground, irrigation capabilities, soil nutrients, and interplanting into consideration. Sometimes we are unable to plant specific gardens or even specific beds to due the ground being too saturated.

In the summer of 2022, we faced a draught, and our crops required watering constantly. Sprinklers moved from garden to garden and timers reminded us to move and then turn the sprinklers on again. 2023 and now 2024 seem to be the opposite.

Water is a critical component of photosynthesis, ensuring plants get the energy and glucose they need to grow.

Water acts as a solvent that dissolves essential nutrients and minerals in the soil, making them available for uptake by plant roots. Including nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and other micronutrients.

Water helps regulate the temperature of plants through the process of transpiration. As water evaporates from the surface of leaves, it cools the plant, preventing overheating and allowing the plant to continue to grow and mature even in increased heat.

Water also helps maintain healthy soil structure.

Too much water though can be a problem. The storm on July 11th dropped significant amounts of water, causing partial flooding in one field where we lost carrots and beets. In a few locations soil continues to be more saturated than desired, and the effects of the rain have yet to be seen, at least it isn’t immediate. We did lose the bridge going over to the PYO flower garden and hope to replace it this coming week.

We need water, can’t function without water, however too much water has been tough. Two of our neighboring farms are some of the many that were tragically impacted by the storm.

The recent flooding had a tragic and season ending impact on two local farms based in Barnet Vermont. You can read about specifics in this recent article by VT Digger.

Before purchasing and starting Cross Farm in Barnet VT, Zach worked at Meadowstone for quite a few years. His Organic Lamb, Poultry, and Pork operation was tragically impacted by the recent flooding. You can donate to help his farm here.

Joe’s Brook Farm has been an integral part of the food system in the north country over the last 10 years. Their organic strawberries and produce are enjoyed by many, they to sustained extensive damage and crop loss. You can donate to them here.

Torrential rain causing flooding is not new to the area, however having two flooding events on July 11th 2023 and then July 11th 2024 seems unusual.

It was the fall when many of our crops were already in storage and our growing capacity was much less than what it is now, however this article posted in our office stands to remind us of the power of nature. Zach, of Cross Farm, who was an employee of MSF at the time, is pictured with Sam and Anthony Petriccione (past employee) during a flooding event at the farm back in October of 2010.

Flowers

The bountiful, beautiful, bright, fragrant colors of the flower gardens are beginning to emerge bringing bouquets and specifically the PYO Flower Add-on of the CSA.

For more information on our flowers, check out the tour sign out by the PYO flower garden! You can also check out the video on our flowers below.

Pickup
Come anytime between 3 pm and 6 pm to choose your share on the day you chose when you signed up, so either Monday or Thursday.

Please bring your own bags or box to gather your choices.

If you signed up for an add-on, don’t forget to pickup your Coffee, Eggs, and Pork sausage.

The PYO and Bouquet flower CSA also starts up this week, so blooms are in your future!

 Remember to contact us in advance if you will be unable to pick up on Thursday, so that we can store your share in our walk-in refrigerator to keep it fresh. You can email or call us to let us know. Thank you to all of those who have already arranged another time to pickup!

Here's what you will find in this weeks share:

Full shares receives 12 choices

Small shares receives 8 choices.

WANT SOME RECIPE IDEAS?

CHECK OUT THE CSA RECIPE PAGE!

Enjoy! Thank you for supporting local agriculture. See you Thursday if not before.

Your Farmer,

Sam (For Tim, Matt, Mikaela, Jeannie, Jim, Jaime, Evrald, Shawn, Colin, Jessie, Ani, Wyatt, and Claira)

Summer CSA Week #4

Summer CSA Week #4

A week after a school group came to the farm for a visit, we received this rock from an attentive 6 year old who drew this picture of mycelium in the soil with plants above.

This rock lives in and around the farm desk and reminds us of the soil we nurture, our most important asset after your Meadowstone Farm farmers.

Tim's Soapbox: Dirt vs. Soil

When school groups visit the farm some of the first words I have them define are soil and dirt. Dirt is a lifeless entity composed of only physical and chemical characteristics that gets under you fingernails and on your pants, and is the basis for most of commercial agriculture. Soil, in addition to the physical and chemical aspects, also harbors an infinite amount of biological activity. For us at Meadowstone soil is alive and thriving and all decisions are made through a lens of improving soil health. 

We accomplish this in numerous ways, but essentially we minimize tilling and disturbance and add significant amounts of organic material (carbon). Tilling is one place where philosophy collides with reality in that as much as try to minimize it, we use it as a last resort to decrease weed pressure. Before tilling we use our flame weeder and silage tarps to kill weeds but occasionally we lose the window for those methods. If we till, we try to keep the disturbance to the top couple inches but occasionally have to use more aggressive measures to reset a bed. Every time we till we recognize that we are releasing nutrients and carbon from the soil, which ultimately means we need to replenish those. 

Regarding organic matter, the forests of the northeast are our inspiration in that billions of tons of biomass are generated each year and nothing is added except organic matter(carbon) in the form of leaves and dead trees. No fertilizers, no chemicals, only leaves and woody matter. These leaves are the fuel that stokes the biological activity in the soil. The biological activity and inter-relationships of bacterial, insects, fungi and plants is infinitely complex and only beginning to be fully recognized, let alone understood. These interdependent relationships release and provide the nutrients to the plants.

We add organic matter to our soil in numerous ways. We make our own compost from the animal manures, food waste and spent brewers grain, which gets spread on a rotating basis throughout our gardens. We use cover crops(oats, peas, beans, rye, clover, vetch, sudan grass, buck wheat) extensively in all our gardens and greenhouses. We also collect grass clippings (a great source of nitrogen) from our lawns to mulch around plants and in paths. The town of Bethlehem and local contractors bring us wood chips and leaves which we also use around plants, but especially in paths to not only add organic matter but also reduce weed pressure. 

Soil is complex and very different from "dirt" and is the basis for our philosophy at the farm: Feed the soil and the soil will feed the plants.

The picture is taken in one of our gardens and shows the root system of a 4 week old bell bean plant. The beans are legumes and work hard fixing nitrogen from the air and making it available to the next crop. The little white balls on the roots are nitrogen nodules. Nitrogen is essential for plant growth and legumes like beans, peas, and vetch are crucial for us to maintain healthy plants. Interplanted bell beans in GH4 nurtures the soil while our cherry tomatoes thrive.

Moments from the week

The direct seeded Oats, Peas, Beans coming up in GH2 will be turned back into the soil in August adding nitrogen and organic matter into the soil for some fall greens.

The Oxbow has required some serious hand weeding. We have settled in this past week pulling all weeds from the beets and carrots. The space between the rows can be cultivated using the basket weeder: check out the video below!

Evrald Basket weeding at the Oxbow

Pickup
Come anytime between 3 pm and 6 pm to choose your share on the day you chose when you signed up, so either Monday or Thursday.

Please bring your own bags or box to gather your choices.

If you signed up for an add-on, there will be a shelf with eggs, and pork sausage for you to take. The PYO and Bouquet flower CSA starts in late July, when the patch starts blooming in earnest!

 Remember to contact us in advance if you will be unable to pick up on Thursday, so that we can store your share in our walk-in refrigerator to keep it fresh. You can email or call us to let us know. Thank you to all of those who have already arranged another time to pickup!

Here's what you will find in this weeks share:

Full shares receives 12 choices

Small shares receives 8 choices.

WANT SOME RECIPE IDEAS?

CHECK OUT THE CSA RECIPE PAGE!

Enjoy! Thank you for supporting local agriculture. See you Thursday if not before.

Your Farmer,

Sam (For Tim, Matt, Mikaela, Jeannie, Jim, Jaime, Evrald, Shawn, Colin, Jessie, Ani, Wyatt, and Claira)

Summer CSA Week #3

Summer CSA Week #3

How is it going?

We hope you have enjoyed welcoming Meadowstone Farm into your kitchen during the first 2 weeks of the CSA. Thank you for all the feedback, questions and thoughts provided to us so far, keep it coming!

Are there things you would like to change about your 2024 Summer CSA share? If so, let us know by email or phone before your next pickup!

Options include switching share size from Small to Full or Full to Small or changing add-ons. Eggs, Coffee, Flowers, and Pork Sausage are all available options.

If your CSA changes require a partial refund, the amount will be added to your Farm Bucks account in our farmstand to be used at your convenience on any item we sell in the stand. Don't have an account? We will set one up for you!

If you owe us, bring a check on your pickup day, Monday or Thursday.

To change something about your CSA just shoot us an email with the subject "CSA Changes" and then touch base with Jaime or Jesse on Monday or Thursday.

No need to reach out to us unless you are interested in changing a part of your CSA.

Tomatoes

The summer abundance has begun to arrive. Providing CSA members a broader and greater selection at each pickup was part of the reason we added an additional pickup day. Tomatoes are certainly part of that equation. We were thrilled to increase the cherry tomato choice size from 1/2 pint to 1 pint this week, while also beginning to add in Slicing Tomatoes.

Greenhouse 3 Slicing Tomatoes and Greenhouse 4 Cherry Tomatoes were started at the end of December and beginning of January. We embarked on grafting our tomatoes, attaching a stronger, disease resistant, higher yield rootstock to our desired fruiting crop. Patience, trials, and managing many tomato seedlings in the winter months have paid off resulting in an earlier and more abundant crop.

Scenes above are from January into March. Tim grafting and Matt and Mikaela planting, trellising, and pruning tomatoes in both GH3 and GH4. To grow tropical plants in northern NH, we utilize radiant heat in both of these greenhouses, raising soil temps to a minimum of 60 degrees. Lots of time, energy, and resources went into the tomatoes, and this year everything has paid off so far. We hope you are enjoying these sweet treats!

Some other scenes from the last week!

Pickup
Come anytime between 3 pm and 6 pm to choose your share on the day you chose when you signed up, so either Monday or Thursday.

Please bring your own bags or box to gather your choices.

If you signed up for an add-on, there will be a shelf with coffee, eggs, and pork sausage for you to take. The PYO and Bouquet flower CSA starts in late July, when the patch starts blooming in earnest!

 Remember to contact us in advance if you will be unable to pick up on Thursday, so that we can store your share in our walk-in refrigerator to keep it fresh. You can email or call us to let us know. Thank you to all of those who have already arranged another time to pickup!

Here's what you will find in this weeks share:

Full shares receives 12 choices

Small shares receives 8 choices.

WANT SOME RECIPE IDEAS?

CHECK OUT THE CSA RECIPE PAGE!

Enjoy! Thank you for supporting local agriculture. See you Thursday if not before.

Your Farmer,

Sam (For Tim, Matt, Mikaela, Jeannie, Jim, Jaime, Evrald, Shawn, Colin, Jessie, Ani, Wyatt, and Claira)

Summer CSA Week #2

Summer CSA Week #2

We got off the farm for a “field” trip to celebrate all the accomplishments of the winter and spring, recognize the hard work, relish the beginning of the summer harvest, and enjoy the fact all farmers on the MSF 2024 season team have arrived. Tim provided an incredible picnic enjoyed by all after a hike up to the top of Bethlehem’s Mount Agassiz, which we learned can be completed even while wearing slip-on sandals. What a view from the top, Cannon and the Franconia Notch are front and center. There are opportunities to connect with each other in the fields, greenhouses, and packing room, however getting to spend some quality time together, where accomplishing the to-do list isn’t the priority was pretty awesome.

Projects vary. Sometimes hours are spent doing a solo job where a podcast, tunes, or sounds of the farm keep you company. Sometimes hours are spent together doing a larger project or harvest where many hands make light work. We recognize though the crops we pull out of the ground have taken many many hours of work over many years, involving many Meadowstone Farm farmers. The crops we provide our customers are grown by all of us.

Some action shots of to-do’s getting checked off the list!

Pickup
Come anytime between 3 pm and 6 pm to choose your share on the day you chose when you signed up, so either Monday or Thursday.

Please bring your own bags or box to gather your choices.

If you signed up for an add-on, there will be a shelf with coffee, eggs, and pork sausage for you to take. The PYO and Bouquet flower CSA starts in late July, when the patch starts blooming in earnest!

 Remember to contact us in advance if you will be unable to pick up on Thursday, so that we can store your share in our walk-in refrigerator to keep it fresh. You can email or call us to let us know. Thank you to all of those who have already arranged another time to pickup!

Here's what you will find in this weeks share:

 Everyone gets to take:

Something green (we aren’t exactly sure which green yet)

Full shares receive an additional 11 choices

Small shares receive an additional 7 choices.

WANT SOME RECIPE IDEAS?

CHECK OUT THE CSA RECIPE PAGE!

Enjoy! Thank you for supporting local agriculture. See you Thursday if not before.

Your Farmer,

Sam (For Tim, Matt, Mikaela, Jeannie, Jim, Jaime, Evrald, Shawn, Colin, Jessie, Ani, Wyatt, and Claira)

Summer CSA Pickup #1

Summer CSA Pickup #1

welcome to the Summer CSA! Whether you're continuing with us from previous CSA seasons, been a loyal customer for many years, or just joined us, we thank you for being a part of the CSA and supporting local agriculture. 

Happy Summer Solstice!

Next Thursday, June 20, 2024 at 5:02 am the sun will rise.

Sunset will take place at 8:33 pm giving us

15 hours 31 minutes and 10 seconds of daylight.

 Hard to believe on December 21, 2024, the shortest day of the year will only provide us with 

8 hours 51 minutes and 27 seconds of daylight. 

What a huge difference! 

By now most all plants are in, tomatoes are ripening, zucchini is just starting to fruit and the weeds are popping. We are in some ways, at the hurry-up-and-wait stage of the game. After a spring of planting we are maintaining, prepping beds for fall crops, mulching, and getting ready for the harvest.

Garlic Scapes are starting to come in. If left on the plant to mature, they would ultimately form a flower and then seed pod at the top of the plant. We break these off (and enjoy them in pesto, soups, etc) which provides more of the plants energy to the future bulb of garlic, the root.

The cherry tomato plants are so tall, we now break out ladders when we prune and trellis. Incredible to be able to have these available so early in the season.

Evrald prepares to plant roma tomatoes in the garden 7, out past our PYO blueberries. After spreading soil amendments we laid out some fabric mulch with the correct tomato spacing. These tomatoes will provide a yummy fall harvest.

We came together on Tuesday and planted the remaining dahlia tubers over at the Oxbow. Like we did last year, we have some in the ground out front by our PYO flower garden, however with an abundance of stored tubers (we dig them up and store them over the winter in our root cellar) we decided to plant some at the fields we lease for a fall harvest.

Pickup
Come anytime between 3 pm and 6 pm to choose your share on the day you chose when you signed up, so either Monday or Thursday.

Please bring your own bags or box to gather your choices. To find the pickup location look for the CSA sign and tent left and straight ahead after driving into the farm!

Similar to last year we will have a table set up with limited products. Due to the limited quantities of these items we ask members to only choose 1 item from the entire "limited" table. However we are going to work hard to avoid the limited table altogether.

If you signed up for an add-on, there will be a shelf with coffee, eggs, and pork sausage for you to take. The PYO and Bouquet flower CSA starts in late July, when the patch starts blooming in earnest!

 Remember to contact us in advance if you will be unable to pick up on Thursday, so that we can store your share in our walk-in refrigerator to keep it fresh. You can email or call us to let us know. Thank you to all of those who have already arranged another time to pickup!

To keep track of choices taken we will provide you with a Tally Sheet upon arrival to pickup your share. The example below is from last year. You will notice a few things:

Must take items will already be checked off. If you would like to take a second of the must take items, add a second tick mark.

  • On the bottom you can circle your share size as a reminder of how many choices you get to take. The number includes the must take items if there are any.

  • There will be less weeks/items with must take items.

The tally sheet allow us to keep track of what was taken to improve our selection from week to week and year to year for our CSA.

Here's what you will find in this weeks share:

 Everyone gets to take:

Something green (we aren’t exactly sure which green yet)

Full shares receive an additional 11 choices

Small shares receive an additional 7 choices.

Want some recipe ideas?

CHECK OUT THE CSA RECIPE PAGE!

Enjoy! Thank you for supporting local agriculture. See you Thursday if not before.

Your Farmer,

Sam (For Tim, Matt, Mikaela, Jeannie, Jim, Jaime, Evrald, Shawn, Colin, Jessie, Ani, Wyatt, and Claira)