A Little Bit Distracted

I admit I have been neglecting the blog for the past few weeks. I do have what I consider to be two good excuses, however: 1) The end of August was insanely busy and 2) I now live in a house with no internet (or consistent cell phone service).

The end of August is a tough time on the Island: the summer crowds are at their max, and there is a desperate feeling in the air as tourists try to cram in the last of their summer vacation, and many Island business owners try to make their money, knowing that the demand for their product or service is about to drop dramatically. These last few weeks of summer, we increased the produce we brought to Farmer's Market significantly, finishing plantings of vegetables at a remarkable rate.

While trying to meet the summertime Market demand, we also worked to prepare our field for fall crops, planting the broccoli, cauliflower, kale, lettuce, carrots, beets, spinach, radishes, arugula, etc. that will see us through to the first heavy frost. Our successful summer CSA encouraged us to try a five-week fall CSA, so we scrambled to get the cool weather crops in on-time.

In addition to working full-force in our Katama field, we prepared to move ourselves and the farm (bit by bit) over to our new property on Chappaquiddick. We spent one Sunday brush mowing until it was so dark that we could no longer see where we were running our mowers, excited to clear out some of the poison ivy and brambles in areas that will eventually become our vegetable fields.

We borrowed a dump truck from Beetlebung Tree Care and moved furniture, boats, and a chicken coop (more on that later) over to Chappy, three roundtrip rides on the Chappy ferry. We unpacked all of our boxes and settled in to our new farm and our new farmhouse, which I still have a hard time believing is ours. I keep reminding myself that this is our land, our house (at least for the next five years, anyway), finding it difficult to grasp the enormity of it all. We are just so lucky.

Last night, a double rainbow filled the sky over the farmhouse, and Jason and I walked our fields in awe of the beauty of the place. It almost felt as if the sky was welcoming in fall, saying goodbye to summertime in a spectacular array of colors.

Mid August

A quick update from Slip Away Farm: 

This is the week of the Agricultural Fair in West Tisbury and we got a little carried away and entered 14 different vegetables into the commercial grower's categories. We won some ribbons, and Christian and I are already planning for next years competition: anyone have any good ideas for the "Vegetable Sculpture" category? Never to early to plan ahead...

Some of my favorite entries at the fair were a coffin brimming with vegetables submitted by Ghost Island Farm and the best in show prize winner by our friend Ellie who made a chicken entirely out of flowers. I love the fair. 

Market has been busy, busy, busy. August is really a bustling month on the Island and we have been attempting to fill some of the demand for local veggies. We are so fortunate to be starting the farm at a time when local produce is such a hot commodity; it seems like most of the vegetable farmers are doing good business at the West Tis Market and pretty much selling out of produce every week. 

The really big news this week is that we are officially moving the farm to Chappaquiddick in two weeks, a plan that has been in the works for awhile and is now finally happening. We have been granted an affordable lease for a three bedroom farmhouse from the 1700's and seven acres of land. It is a five year lease, and an incredible opportunity for a farmer on Martha's Vineyard where land is expensive and limited and year-round housing difficult to find. Christian, Collins, Jason, and myself will all be living in the house and working the land together. Very, very exciting. 

And for my friend Annie, lots of photos in this week's post: 

Green Apple Eggplant

Blue ribbon carrots, waiting to go to the Fair

Okra

Newly planted baby lettuce

Sunrise on Market Morning

Purple Kolrabi

Tomatoes

Heirlooms

Our tomatoes are in! Nothing beats the flavor of a summertime field tomato, and I have been eating tomato sandwiches non-stop, picking up a loaf of bread and some cheese or mayonnaise for lunchtime.

Unfortunately the birds like them too: just as the fruits begin to turn red, the birds, thirsty from all the dry weather this season, peck at them to get to the juices inside, ruining the tomato. In order to prevent this at Slip Away, we strung colorful, reflective string throughout the field to spook them away from the plants. We also pick the tomatoes a day or two early and allow them to fully ripen off the vine, safely away from the thirsty birds. 

We will have plenty of 'maters at the West Tisbury Market tomorrow, so come stop by and pick up a few for lunch. 

Bike Deliveries

In addition to selling our produce at the West Tisbury Farmer's Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays, we have sixteen CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) members who receive vegetables from us on a weekly basis for ten weeks during the summer.

Most of our members live on Chappaquiddick, the little island separated from Martha's Vineyard by a two-minute ferry ride, where we will be moving the farm in September. There are currently no vegetable production farms on Chappy, so residents in search of local veggies (who do not already have their own gardens) must take the ferry over to the Vineyard.


All except for our shareholders. For the eleven members we have on Chappy, we deliver vegetables weekly right to their doorsteps. Our delivery systems is pretty unique: Collins, a bike enthusiast, built us insulated bike trailers made out of plywood, old bed frames and insulation foam. We load all of our vegetables into re-usable bags, place the bags inside the cooler, and then pedal from Katama to the Chappy ferry, and over to our shareholders' homes. 


Although we use only one trailer for each delivery, two people are required for every trip. Most of the roads on Chappy are dirt. And in all this dry weather, dirt means sand. So at some points, it is as if the road has turned into the beach. With his hefty, fat tires and mad biking skills, Collins pulls the trailer the entire ride, which takes a couple hours. Then at the sandiest sections, the second person (usually Christian) is needed: he hops off his bike and pushes the trailer from behind. 


The road gets tough and the deliverers work hard, but the veggies stay cool and crisp inside their insulated cooler. 

July 17

Missing Rain

I took this photo at the farm several weeks ago and we have not had rain since. The farm is so dusty that every day I come home covered in an even layer of Katama dirt.

Our irrigation system is sadly inadequate, and we are constantly having to decide which area of the bone-dry field is most desperate for water. We shuffle our sprinklers and hoses around multiple times a day, running them all day and all night long. We water one area for eight hours and by the next day, all the water has already leached out of the sandy soil or evaporated into the air. 

Luckily all of our mulched beds containing tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, melons, onions, and leeks are retaining moisture a little bit longer than our un-mulched beds; All that hard work mulching our field with cardboard, seaweed and grass clipping this spring is now paying off.

We have a small chance of thunderstorms this weekend. Fingers are crossed.

The 4th of July

Our Fourth started early. Christian, Collins, and I met at 5:30 to begin harvesting for Farmer's Market. The field is particularly gorgeous at that hour. The light highlights perfectly the wide range of colors in the field, and the plants have not yet taken on their wilted appearance that happens later in the heat of the day. At that early hour, all our vegetables and flowers seem particularly robust, vibrant and healthy. 


This day, it was tricky to determine the amounts to bring with us to West Tisbury: we had all agreed that because of the holiday, the market was either going to be slammed or completely dead, no telling which. We erred on the optimistic side and decided to harvest fairly heavily in hopeful anticipation of a crowded market. 


We picked: two brimming boxes of huge broccoli crowns; 27 bunches of our sweet sugar beets (we sell out of them every market); 3 dozen heads of lettuce; many bunches of chard, kale, mizuna, and arugula; 15 bunches of scallions and spring onions; a bushel of new potatoes and one of shelling peas; and just a few bunches of our new baby carrots. 


Around 6:30 it started to rain. Rain on market day causes a farmer's heart to sink. It creates a nervous, nauseous feeling for all growers who are dependent on a market for their week's income. Rain means customers stay home, choosing to hole up with take-out pizza or leftovers rather then adventure out into bad weather to buy local produce. For us (and many farmer's) rain means we end up composting a majority of our early morning harvest.

As we drove to West Tisbury, I just kept thinking "Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no," my hopes of a busy market being pushed down by a continuous drizzle. We could see the same disappointment on the faces of other vendors as some chose to set up inside the Grange Hall, protected from the rain. On a friend's iphone, we watched the radar as a swirl of green and yellow patches representing rain moved rapidly across the image of Martha's Vineyard. Oh no oh no oh no oh no.


We set up the stand on the porch of the Grange, hopeful that we would have a good spot for the few customers who showed up that day. Our table looked the best it has ever looked, with all our veggies piled up high.

The bell rang, signifying the beginning of market....

... fifteen minutes went by and, despite the rain letting up, hardly a customer wondered over to our table....

... and then.....

we were suddenly SLAMMED! The Market was packed with people picking up produce, flowers, jams, meats, and shellfish for the holiday. We watched as our piles of produce quickly diminished and then entirely disappeared. We sold out of everything. All those beets. All those potatoes. All that broccoli. All those peas. Gone! Just a very few heads of lettuce left at the end of the day.

So this post serves as a big thank you to all those customers who, despite a little drizzle, made it to market and made our day.