Author: starlightgardens54

February and early March, can be and often are tough times of year for grower and consumer alike. We have been harvesting off of plantings since November and December. Growth is negligible at best and combined with a cold snap like we had a week or so ago, can leave one feeling a bit helpless. Yes it is true that many of the plantings were only damaged by the cold and will regrow. However, the damage must be cut away, and those cuttings now lost, did have a place in our harvest plan. Needless to say harvesting last Thursday was tough on both spirits and egos alike. Humbling and painful as it might be, still a good lesson to remember many things are out of our control. The future as far as weather is concerned is more than likely going to be even more unpredictable. We would do best to take any and all lessons we can from this.

As tough as Thursday was, Friday was a beautiful day that lifted spirits and reminded us of the coming months. As hopeless as this time of year can feel it is juxtaposed by the return of growth and longer days. The hope and joy that comes with the Spring, is strong and rejuvenating. More than likely it has a lot to do with why many of us grow.

On the subject of growth(or lack there of) and regrowth. Unfortunately, one thing that will not be growing is the amount of products available this week. You will find claytonia, and salad greens out of stock this week. We do apologize for this and hope you understand. In general the next few weeks will be slower than we want them to be. We appreciate your understanding on this and before you know, we’ll have too much.

This week as many of you can guess we will be transplanting, seeding and prepping, to ensure as much early bounty as possible for the coming season. The next few days of temps look favorable for direct seeding and transplanting alike. Direct seeding in the cold can be a challenge. We look for longer periods of warmer temps, not only to water, but to speed up germination.

We will also be setting up a second germination chamber this week. Some things like peppers, tomatoes, and cukes like to germinate at really high temps. While many other things need temps much cooler and will not germinate well if temps are too high. With two germination chambers we can we can have the best of both of these temperature ranges. Enabling us to start more plants at the perfect time this spring for both your at home gardening needs and our own plantings. After all that exciting time of year is just around the corner and we hope you are looking forward to it as much as we are.

Have a great week!

The resiliency of vegetables(plants in general for that matter) never ceases to amaze us. Year after year through long stretches of cold and dreary weather, plants survive, thrive and often produce much more than in warmer seasons. Still the drop in temps from near spring like conditions to arctic(or shall we say polar) cold in such a short period of time seems unprecedented. For the most part things on the farm has fared well. There are definitely sad looking plants, some goners and still others that look as if nothing happened. The coming days will be a true test, seeing what recovers and is harvestable. It is for this reason we are suspending Wednesday pick up this week, just to give the plants a little more time.

In a way we have been lucky. Had the last seeding of November been a week or two earlier as planned, we would probably have a high tunnel of greens that got hit with the cold. Leaving us no choice but to cut the damage and allow for regrowth. Instead in their still smaller stage they mostly shrug off the cold. Also furnace repairs delayed the ignition of our nursery. Had it fired up as planned we may have had a fuller nursery and burned quite a bit of fuel heating it this weekend. Instead seeing the low temps ahead in the forecast, we made room in the basement, a temporary return to subterranean life, and certainly a savings in propane and emissions.

With February’s first days behind us and  with them the groundhog, the time is now and things will be kicking into high gear.  The first tomatoes and herbs of the season are germinating in the basement along side this year’s first flowers.  More tomatoes, peppers, onions, herbs and all the regular are also slated to be started this week.  With six more weeks of winter predicted it may seem early and I’m sure in some respects it is.  But remember what we were saying about the resiliency of vegetables, they will often surprise you, we just have to give them the chance. Many thanks are due to all of you the good food people.  As always for just supporting us.  But especially this week for all of you that braved the cold for the market or on farm pick up(or shall we say school house pick up).  Lastly for the donations received by CT NOFA, helping us in raising funds to provide 4 market cards to people in need.  We are already a third of the way to our goal of raising six hundred dollars, which will be generously matched by CT NOFA.  By clicking here you can make a tax deductible donation to CT NOFA that will go directly to this fundraising effort. Have a great week!

Good morning good food people!

As we creep closer and closer to Spring there’s lots of excitement going on here at the farm; the first of the flower seeds are germinating, new wash station area in the works, a cleaned out nursery, interviews with eager and qualified farm crew applicants, tomato seeding and crop planning just to name a few. But rather than diving into any of those things we want to tell you about some other exciting projects that have been brewing behind the scene.

First is the CT NOFA Farm Share Program. This program was established to help CT residents who are interested in joining a CSA but find that the upfront cost unaffordable. The idea is for farmers to reach out to their community and raise funds so farmers can offer free or reduced cost CSAs to interested individuals or families. CT NOFA will match donations up to $600.  Our goal is to raise $600 so we are able to offer 4 $330 Market Cards to members of our community. If you find that Star Light Gardens produce has had a positive impact on your life and well-being and believe that the opportunity for eating fresh, organic produce should be accessible to all we hope you consider making a donation towards this goal. By clicking here you can make a tax deductible donation to CT NOFA that will go directly to this fundraising effort.

On that same note, if you are interested in a reduced cost Market Card/CSA please send us an email. We hope to accommodate everyone as best we can. 

Next on exciting happenings here at Star Light Gardens is official merchandise! We found a great company that will print items on-demand, which allows us to offer more styles, colors, designs and sizes than we could otherwise afford to buy in bulk. That’s right, Star Light Gardens hoodies, tank tops, tee-shirts, even in kids sizes! We ordered a few samples for ourselves and couldn’t be more pleased! The artwork is from the one of a kind market sign created by Ty. This sign has been a staple of our market set up for years and the best part about it is the two unique sides. Beautiful in their own ways there’s no need to pick just one side, you can get a shirt in either or both designs! To continue to layer on the excitement 100% of the profits from the merchandise will go toward the Ty Zemelsky Rising Artist Scholarship Fund which was created in Ty’s memory to support young local artists. Click here to check out our merch! It should be noted that you are not purchasing through us (though we will receive the profits). We purchased some ourselves as though we were customers, we found it very straight forward and received our shirts about a week later. 

Some last little things; Friday and Saturday are going to be cold, very cold! That means orders will be waiting for you in the warmth of the “School House” attached to David’s house. Also, seeing as our chickens are not producing much and we don’t have much storage we do not want egg carton donations. The thought is appreciated but is not helpful at the moment.

We hope everyone has a great week!

Here in Durham we grow in just about every spare inch of field space.  Where as in Middlefield we have barely begun to scratch the surface, when it comes to growing outside.  There are two main reasons for this.  In Durham we are coming up on 24 years of growing.  That’s nearly a quarter of a century of broadforking, rock picking, applying compost and all the other love and care that goes into the ground.  Sure we may have a larger bank of weed seeds than we want, but it’s pretty great soil none the less.  Middlefield is not so much the same case.  Enough rocks to repair every stone wall in the neighborhood and soil that lacks benefit of years of love, make rushing this growing space into production a bad option. Secondly, to put this amount of land into use so quickly would force us to rely heavily on mechanical intervention.  Any issues created from the previous over use of a tractor would be exacerbated.  We would bring more weed seeds to the surface where they can germinate.  Creating potentially hours and hours of labor dealing with weeds, at a time of year when our efforts would be best spent harvesting and planting.  Most certainly any tractor we used would require repair to it’s implements considering the rocks at our hill top locale.  Yes, we could hire someone with the right equipment and skill to plow and reshape the fields.  We could tarp in an attempt get ahead of the weeds and heavily amend to ensure the success of that years crops.  But for us the negatives of this outweigh any short term benefit. The facts in hand and a mindset towards ecology has led us to a slow regenerative approach to rehabbing the land.  Our first phase of growing in Middlefield was the 6 high tunnels which were already in semi use.  Over a year of compost, broadforking, animals and love have us feeling really good about this approach.  Next up are two more high tunnels, a 200 footer named the Jungle and the sheep’s first home, which will become a large portion of this years flower crop.  In addition to this we are beginning to open up the outside space with a regenerative low till approach

Animals( sheep and chickens) are a key component to this approach.  Star Light has always had sheep and if you spend any time with these lovable creatures it’s easy to understand why.  Last year we acquired 4 Jacobs sheep for Star Light Gardens North West, one of which was pregnant.  As you may or may not know Sunny our 5th arrived in March.  If you saw the size of her now you probably wouldn’t believe she wasn’t even a year old yet.  In addition to these our neighbors bordering that field space also have some sheep.  In a win win neighborly exchange we happily offered them to graze their sheep, and they did the majority of last year. The next step, one we just completed this past week, is to tarp a section of this field space for a few months.  Starting the tarps where the animals have grazed, around April we will move the tarps over to another section of the field,hopefully unveiling mostly broken down vegetation and soil.  Raking and hoeing the remaining debris into the paths, broadforking and a generous application of compost(not to mention a lot of rock picking) will complete the bed prep. That will essentially be the process over the next few years to bring this outdoor space into use.  Animals, followed by tarps,followed by a planting, followed by a cover crop and repeat(sounds easy right). We are in year 2 of 2 for our Middlefield cucumber and squash rotation.  The idea here is to give each location a 2 year break from cucumbers and summer squash.  Thus helping to alleviate some of the pest pressure associated with these crops.  This newly tarped field space will be summer squash and pollinator friendly flowers into landscape fabric.  A beautiful combo, once the squash die back the flowers flourish creating a late season bounty for our insect friends.  Landscape fabric can be a good choice, it suppress the weeds enough to let the crops flourish, can be reused and when removed leaves more or less a blank slate, making for a quick turn around to a cover crop or other planting.  Not too mention SLGNW had plenty already here when we arrived, so we’d be amiss to not make good use of it. Have a great week!

Here we find find ourselves quite literally in the midst of January. Certainly a mild one as January is concerned. None the less here we are, in a semi hibernation, yet chomping at the bit. Day by day we get closer to more than 10 hours of light, the magic number that allows plants to really grow. With the nurseries not yet fired up and trying to mitigate the amount of subterranean(basement) growing we are doing this year what we have started so far is limited. Escarole, radicchio, lettuces, and some scallions should come out of the germination chamber today or tomorrow. Though these varieties are cold hardy, they have also not experienced cold temps. Going from the germination chamber to the unheated nursery may be too much acclimation for tonight lows. But with favorable temps on the horizon and just one overnight basement stay the starts should be just fine. This will make room for our next round in the germ chamber. More scallions, beets, bok choys and Chinese cabbage are all next on the list. Of course we don’t want any of you to worry. No; we haven’t forgotten anything. The first tomato plantings of 2023 won’t be far off. After all we can only hold out another week or two before having to get the nurseries going, making room for all those lovely plant starts destined for bellies and gardens alike.

Not starting too much too soon can really be a challenge.  As a rule of thumb we always plant more than is needed, to account for the unknown which lies ahead.  But it is all too easy, with the excitement of the new season to over do it.  Yes, we are fairly certain that this will be the case this year,  hopefully to a lesser extent.  Taking the time to really consider what space we have and what will be going there, then planting off this notion, things should be dialed in a bit more.  This will serve us well at least until the pace of the full season sets in and we can embrace a little more reckless abandonment(or the farmer version there of). Have a great week!

The winter farm is somewhat magical. The growth is subtle and the pace is slow. And then when it feels that there is nothing but the color gray, we can take a peek into the high tunnels and swim in the shades of green. A Rumi poem about a winter garden resonated this week:

“Don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in the winter. It’s quiet but the roots are down there riotous.”

Rumi

After a couple weeks off the slow growth of kales and spinach and lettuce crept up on us. Imagine our surprise when checking under the plastic low tunnels outside to see that bok choy survived those frigid days and nights we had over the holidays. The turnips are huge, yet still tender. And the carrots, sweeter than candy! Even the tips of the earliest planted garlic have begun poking out from under their bed of leaves. Riotous to say the least.

It felt really good to get back into the swing of things, and even better to see familiar names pick up at our stand and familiar faces at the farmers’ market. There is this magnetic energy between the good food people of the world and the soil that keep us all fed. It is our deepest pleasure to live in that energy. It felt stronger than ever after those weeks off. We so appreciate your pull towards fresh goodness. Between this pull and knowing what the farm is capable of we can’t help but feel we are at the beginning of what is going to be a great year for Star Light Gardens. 

Thank you and have a great week!

It is our sincere hope that all of you have had an excellent Holiday Season filled with all those wonderful things that mean so much to you and yours. We are truly excited to be welcoming a new year with all the good food people. Though the heart of the season is months away our brains are already filling up with delicious ideas for the year to come. Surely you all must be asking yourselves, besides the obvious farmers sleeping and eating, how is the farm doing?

Considering the strange weather and time of year things are doing surprisingly well. We weathered the winds and rain the week before Christmas decently. The winds were fierce but besides a day and a half of covering and recovering low tunnels in the field little damage occurred. We don’t need to describe to anyone the wind and cold that followed. That much cold so long is a bit uncommon for that time of year but for the most part the veg weathered the storm well. It is of course the protection from the high tunnels and row cover that allow for this. But also the daily ritual of uncovering to allow the sun and heat of the day to warm the soil. Then before it gets too late covering back up to trap some of that heat. A fine balance between capturing heat but not too much moisture. Something we are sure you’ve either heard or will hear about again.

On the subject of again(or perhaps returning makes more sense), we are back at it with on farm pickup three days a week as well as the Cityseed New Haven Market returning, same place, same day, slightly different time, Saturdays 10-1. We are definitely looking forward to being back at the market this week as well as back in the dirt harvesting for you all.

There are a lot of things we will be looking forward to this year.  But in case you missed it check out our 2022 Year in Review Post

There is something to each individual moment unique and special. It easy to find ourselves wondering where has the time and in this case the year gone. Full of wonder, growth, struggle and a lot of good food, we would be liars if caught saying anything short of the year being tremendous. 2022 was a year, much like all the others; winter, spring, summer and fall. We know what to expect from the seasons and what our plates will look like based on the earths relationship to the sun. But how boring it would be to not zoom in and look at the things that make each year special!

This year, any free moment not spent tending to crops was spent moving fencing around to keep the sheep fed. There were trials and tribulations to this but it’s safe to say the Middlefield sheep had a good year, full of green pastures. Those of you who read Here Comes the Sun Angel knows that March 23rd was a special day here at Star Light, we were visited by a Sunangel, and thank goodness she is here to stay.

Our little Sunny was born with a star on her nose and a yin yang on her head. Her star felt like a sign that she belonged here. Her mark of duality reminds us that nothing is forever. Just as excited as we were to welcome this new being into our lives, we had the sorrow of saying goodbye to the OG sheep of Star Light, Alice and Angelina. David wrote beautiful testimonials to them: Thinking of Alice and The End of an Era. The Durham farm is not the same without “the girls”, and they’ve left their mark. Even now under a certain tree that Alice and Angelina spent most of their summers, our eyes play tricks on us making us think maybe they are still here.

Speaking of farm animals; our series Cats in the Nursery + Dogs in the Field came to mind when thinking of our favorite blog posts from the year. That bubbly feeling we have in our bellies during the early spring is hard to put into words but these letters do so nicely. It has become a trend that we get a little over excited early spring, planting seedlings too early then having to back track by double (or triple) covering things when the temps drop again.

Thankfully, aside from a few marigold casualties all our early spring transplants survived and made it to their full potential. That’s not to say everything went according to plan this year. Our ginger and turmeric, or lack there of, sadly did not live up to our expectations from the previous year. The seed which is shipped from Hawaii in February froze during transit. The seed company replaced it for us but this set back was just the beginning of a long list of reasons the ginger was behind schedule. The result was small, lack luster pieces rather than the crown jewels we are accustom to. As a result, the determination to get it right in 2023!

This summer we fell in love with a new (to us)crop, Callaloo. After years of encouragement from a Cityseed customer we purchased a packet from True Love Seeds and got to work. Actually, it was quite easy to grow, commonly known as amaranth, Callaloo didn’t need much from us and our little plot produced well. Tender enough to eat the whole plant, this Caribbean delicacy thrives in the summer heat when other hearty cooking greens like spinach won’t grow. Once our Callaloo stopped producing we found another new love, Komatsuna. Aka Mustard Spinach, this crop cooks like boy choy but has the same favorable harvestability of collard greens. Meaning we can plant it once and harvest from it several times. We inter-planted one small row of Komatsuna with some bok choy and were able to harvest it for a few months. There’s no doubt that both of these crops will be making a bigger appearance next year.

We feel so grateful to be part of this community; the good food people who understand the importance and seek out local produce, the fellow farmers, and farmers’ market staff that keep things running smoothly. From year to year it is difficult to say what exactly it is that has changed, but most things usually do. There is one thing however, which is unwavering and consistent. That is all of you, without all of the people out there who support the good food movement, what we do would not be possible. We are forever grateful, hoping for wonderful Holidays and a great New Year to you and all of yours. We would be certainly out of step if we did not take another opportunity to thank the crew that helped us get through the year; Sam, Lydia, Lindsay, Isa- thank you so much! We also had some volunteers this year we need to thank ; Eleanor, Sue, Alex and James- thank you for lending your hands to help with weeding and garlic planting! Our resolution for 2023 is to tidy up the farm, keep things organized, and take more time for rest and recreation. We look forward to another great year growing with and for you all. Is there a particular variety of something that we grow, have grown, or you’re interested in seeing us grow or want to tell us about? We’d love to hear it. Thank you to everyone for making 2022 the amazing year it was.

The thing about December (especially with an inch or so of snow on the ground), is that one can easily forget it is still fall and winter hasn’t even started. December’s shorter days are good to us, yes the daily tasks that come with animals and two locations still exist, but there is a healthy amount of down time. Time for friends, family, pets and the season. The thing about time is that in many ways it depends on perspective. Age, time of year, urgency, all these things effect the idea of how much time we have. The down time and leisure are great, but we must not get complacent because the time to start, plant, prep transplant, repeat is never too far away. Time is funny in that way. This week will be the last full pick up week of 2022. We have one more cityseed New Haven Market this Saturday the 17th. Next week there will be only one pick up day Wednesday the 21st. This will be the last pick up of 2022. It has truly been a wonderful year, Thank you all so much.

Speaking of a great year we will be putting together a little year in review for next week. We want to share with you what we really loved this year. Highlighting some of the good and not so good outcomes of the season. If there is something in particular you have enjoyed this year and want to share it with others. Write us and we will do our best to include it next week.

December is both beautiful, tough. As a grower there can be a strange helpless feeling in that Mother Nature is truly running the show. The cold, the lack of light, these are facts of life for now. The chickens are also sensitive to time and light. I’m sure many of you are missing their eggs . Purchased last year from another farm they are reaching year two of production. For chickens especially the breed we have this is usually their useful life. In addition to that they molt this time of year a process which further effects egg production. We do plan to get 50 new birds this winter and will keep the older chickens around as long as possible as part of more closed loop fertility system. In the mean time we no longer need extra egg cartons, until we begin selling again.

Have a great week

With all the garlic in the ground(nearly 200 hundred pounds) and Jen planting all of the tulips yesterday(about 800).  It is safe to say that we have all the bulbs in the ground and for the most part all the major plantings of 2022 are done.  Saying that it was easy may be a bit of a misstatement, seeing as farm work is always physical labor.  We would be hard pressed however, to say that it didn’t go smooth and with barely a hiccup.  Yes, there was the tractor stalling while moving leaves, an easy fix when you realize you just have to really tighten the negative cable on the battery(yet again).  There was also the not so bright idea of planting corn into landscape fabric and the epic afternoon of undoing that mess.  But the actual prep, planting and mulching of the garlic went off without a hitch.

Speaking of smooth the first “official” Star Light Gardens volunteer day was just that. The plan was to plant the remainder of the garlic in one of the high tunnels. We assumed it to be enough work for the day and that being covered(for now) we could wait to mulch them another time. We had hoped to start casually around 10 however, with the early arrival of our longest running and most enthusiastic volunteer, the pace of the day had been set. By the time Joel returned from uncovering and playing with the sheep at SLGNW (aka Middlefield). James and Jen were already diligently breaking apart the bulbs. With the triple J now in effect we began digging holes as some continued breaking up the bulbs. Before long David arrived to pick up the slack that coffee and snack breaks have a habit of creating. Nearly back on schedule, we were pleased by the sight of our second volunteer of the day arriving. Conversation and stories filled the air, as we moved quickly, filled with the joy of company. Many hands make light work, while working with good colleagues makes for an excellent atmosphere. An atmosphere made all the more pleasant when planting in a high tunnel on a sunny December day. Before we knew it nearly all the garlic was in the ground. Far ahead of schedule and still with the pending arrival of our last volunteer. Although the planting had been completed, there was still the need to mulch with leaves. Yes, we planned to save that for another day, but with the time and the bodies it was an easy decision to finish the job. So the stage was set, the tractor was started and as if planned that way our final volunteer arrived on scene. Jen finished up packing the Friday orders just as Joel began scooping leaves with the tractor bucket. She quickly joined the others and between the six of us the high tunnel was mulched with leaves in no time at all. With everyone in high spirits and still more light to the day we expanded our efforts to the wood pile which David and Joel had so diligently split(some 6 months ago) yet, neglected to stack in the shed. It’s amazing the power that community and food can have. We were reminded of it on this day and are so grateful to all those who help to make up this good food movement we are all a part of. Especially to our great volunteers on the 1st annual Star Light Gardens garlic planting and wood stacking volunteer day.

So that was our Friday, very pleasant as they go. Still a stormy Saturday loomed on the horizon. Sure Joel did have to awake around 5am to pack the coolers and load the truck. It was David and Jen who had to bear the brunt of the storm. Of course they would get to experience yet another example of the community that is this good food thing. Despite the weather customers showed up to the market in full force helping to remind all those wet and tired farmers and vendors just why they do what they do. And for that we have to extend our gratitude. You make what we do possible, providing hope and light in the dark and dreary days.

Have a great week