Future Farmers of America

Talk about dedication: Through wind, soaking rain and mud, nearly 20 people were involved Friday in harvesting crops for donation to Vermonters in need.

The VT Youth Conservation Corps collected more than 400 pounds of potatoes to distribute to in-home recipients across northern VT and then helped to pick an additional ton and a half that will be processed by Salvation Farms and passed out to food banks up and down the Lamoille Valley.

More than 6000 pounds of butternut squash sits in bins here in Jericho, awaiting pickup through the coming weeks.

The happiest of the volunteers were kindergarteners from Richmond, for whom potato collection was more of an Easter egg hunt, and the walk to and from the field an opportunity to splash through every puddle.Grinning, muddied faces and a pie pumpkin apiece were the rewards. If there were video, these would be the lead actors.

Thanks to all who gave their time through nasty weather to collect enough organic vegetables to provide 30,000 servings !

Hawkeyes

Five plus acres of buckwheat were harrowed in as green manure this week.  The plants were thickly sown and smothered million of weed seedlings.  Working inward from the perimeter of the field, the last narrowing strips contained the frightened rabbits.

When one of these made a break from cover into the open, harrowed ground, it was not five seconds before a marsh hawk lifted up its evening meal.  It had to have been hovering in wait; harriers are among the most adept and acrobatic fliers.

Nature is relentless.

One harvest in

The first bean planting has been harrowed in.  Five pounds of seed generated over 1000 pounds of yield and a great deal was left behind.  Three more plantings are yet to come.

It will be yellow beans next year.  This year’s variety, Provider, while very productive, was also sufficiently camouflaged to elude inexperienced pickers. 

We never entertained the idea that everything will be picked, but it still is bothersome to see good food go under.

Books and their covers

When visually impaired volunteers show up to cut cabbage the list of potential pitfalls piles up fast; sharp knives, uneven footing and total lack of experience.  What could go wrong?

As it turned out, nothing.  The young men and women, aged 12 to 20 are participants in the LEAP program, a life skills and employment training program here in northern VT.  They arrived at 9 am.

The tasks were divided according to visual acuity.  Which of the heads to cut was determined by sight and then by touch.  The immature cabbage, when squeezed, felt puffy and yielding.  The ready heads were hard and crisp.

The selection made, the next step was to push down the loose wrapper leaves to expose the butt of the cabbage, the spot to make the harvesting slice.  As heads were severed they were piled for collection by wheelbarrow and then transported to the end of the field where the trimming and bagging crews took over.

The spirit was infectious.  One participant had a smile that could light a room.  Two others who felt they had nothing to contribute soon were.   The 30 bags made quite a pile and there was pride that their efforts would help feed hungry Vermonters that very evening.   1200 pounds they harvested and packed in three hours, eight rookie farm workers.

Experiences, like people, are not to be prejudged.

AWAY WE GO !!

The harvest of vegetables for donation to Vermont's food insecure started here yesterday. Volunteers from the VT Youth Conservation Corps and Salvation Farms spent a couple of hours picking 292 pounds of green beans. Those will be distributed to senior citizens and food shelves in northern VT.

Thousands of cabbages, three more plantings of beans, an acre of potatoes and two of winter squash are growing nicely.

We have planted several acres of cover crops in preparation for next year's plantings. The not-for-profit account is dwindling, and any help you could provide toward its replenishment will help our work go forward. Donate if you can at Barberfarm.org Thanks

Springing!

We are now in our tenth year of giving away produce to Vermonters and in our first as a not-for-profit corporation. Any and all donations we receive go 100% to the purpose -- no salaries, no benefits.

Jean and I set out 2000 cabbages and 900 pepper plants on Saturday, those all being blessed by gentle rain today. Potatoes have been hilled for the first time and are emerging well. Winter squash rows, over a mile and a half in length, look strong and are showing true leaves. Here's hoping for a clement growing season and bountiful yields.

See the whole story at Barberfarm.org and help us if you're able. Thanks!

Getting busy!

First of the winter squash has emerged, buckwheat is starting to dot the fields where vegetables will grow next year. The first 4000 cabbages are thriving after two sessions of gentle rain bracketing five sunny days. Green beans -- first of eight plantings -- went in last week. Hoe, hoe hoe!

Spring planting, act of faith

Miracles. Everywhere, miracles and we anticipate thousands more.

A week ago, 1500 pounds of seed potatoes, five bushels of buckwheat, three pounds of winter squash seed and 2000 of cabbage were safe within their paper packaging. All are now entrusted to the earth and the light rain falling, calling them to life.

As a farmer I consider this a high point of the year. 
The crops exist in visions of freshly hilled potatoes in bright green rows; winter squash racing and running to cover all the ground with a full solar collector, inky green; buckwheat sprouts, silvery carpet for hundreds of thousands of square feet, then reaching waist high, clouded with white blooms, alive with bees.

It's all a dream that every year is realized. With so much help.

We have volunteers who plan to harvest all these crops so they might be donated to hungry Vermonters. We have financial supporters who help us buy the seed and fertilizer and fuel for the tractors. We are blessed beyond all reason.

And any help you could lend, in any form, will be appreciated deeply.

A fifth birthday present, a packet of Swiss Giant pansy seeds with growing mix and a clear dome, shaped me.  The sowing and sprouting, the growth and the planting out, the saturated primary colors complemented by black blotches and, oh my Lord, the fragrance, turned out to be intoxicating for a lifetime.

The plot thickened.  My father, fishing for matches to light the barrel full of paper trash, lost a Lincoln from his pocket; that drifted into the nearby vegetables, cash crop for a sharp-eyed kid and my first deposit at the Randolph National Bank.

After tutelage at home, I hired out at 25 cents an hour to weed and edge the neighbors’ beds of vegetables and flowers. The quarters in a Chock Full of Nuts accumulated to the cost of a three speed English bike, mail ordered and delivered on my tenth birthday, early in mud season.

The dream machine was assembled in the garage, waxed, greased, oiled and idle until the dirt road stiffened.  A week could be so long back then.

One aspect of an event decades past-- a fragrance or a snatch of song – can call up its entirety, the whole scene with vivid clarity

This year’s early mud season found me in a shed, again assembling machinery.  Bright paint, precisely fitting parts, lubricants and wrenches, and the anticipation of the day the rig will see first service.  Spring sun, the strongest in six months, raises smells of thawing earth where the new vegetable transplanting machine will be employed.

It’s good to be ten again, however briefly. 

For the vegetable starts this unit will install, I’m sowing seed today, blessed with same anticipation and wonder I had a fat half-century ago, living a dream. 

The need for a transplanting machine arises from another dream, reducing childhood hunger in Vermont.  We’ll be setting out several plantings of cabbage, 2000 at a whack, hundreds of winter squash, peppers and tomatoes.  A separate machine will install hundreds of pounds of potatoes, both early and late varieties.

It is our tenth year of growing food for donation and our first since incorporation as a non-profit, Barber Farm Inc.  We donate the use of our land, machinery and labor in hopes that good hearts will help to purchase seed, fertilizer and fuel.

Read the whole story at Barberfarm.org., and thanks for your support.

Barber Farm in Jericho has deepened its commitment to grow and donate vegetables to Vermonters who need them. A new transplanting machine will allow significant expansion of cabbage and winter squash plantings. Saving lots of stoop labor was also a significant consideration.

We‘re getting mechanized with a vacuum seeding apparatus that will cut the time sowing greenhouse flats to a fraction.
We have secured commitments for a regular schedule of harvest volunteers who will be picking succession plantings of 2000 cabbage made every other week from mid-May to mid-August. We’ll also be planting green beans with the same frequency, 500 row feet at a sowing.

Last year we planted 1500 pounds of seed potatoes and lost half to rot from May’s incessant rains. We intend to plant a ton this year and have a spot of high, dry ground to work.

The squash plantings will expand to an acre and a half, combined, of Butternut and Buttercup while the number of bell peppers and tomatoes will stay at 1000 and 500 respectively.
Fencing supplies to keep animals out of the field will be ordered this coming week, an electric system with enough zap to make it educational. It is going to be a busy spring! 

We are a non-profit and furnish our machinery, land and labor at no charge. We donate thousands of servings of organically grown vegetables each year to Salvation Farms, the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf and local food pantries as well. Any assistance you can provide for the project will be devoted 100% to crop-related expenses with our sincere gratitude. Thanks!