Four years ago J and J took an afternoon ride to meet a pup to potentially join the family and Star Light Gardens. This muscle bound pup was a bit intimating at first, so excited and pulling on his leash. They threw his bed into the back of the car and he eagerly jumped in, starting the journey home for what we so naively considered a trial night. Needless to say from that day forward Sid the best farm pup around joined our lives and Star Light Gardens forever. Better at catching rodents than the 5 cats he lives with this hard working dog eagerly patrols the fields in both Durham and Middlefield gaining him the nickname of “two farm dog”. Lover of rides, tug and cuddling its hard to say where we would be without Sid. But its so easy to say that he has made and continues to make our lives and SLG better everyday.
With the dog days of summer well behind us the farm mindset is shifting much like the cooling weather. A weekly ritual of staring more transplants than we probably have room for, prepping wherever we can and the at times difficult process of deciding which high tunnel to convert first, is here. The battle to get spinach started is on and comes in all forms, soil blocks, paper pot transplants and of course direct seeding too. The peace and rest that will come with longer nights also means slower growth and a ticking time clock. The push is really on now with only about a month and a half left to get everything we want for fall and winter planted.
The first installment of the 2023 spud harvest went off in spectacular fashion. According to our estimates and looking back at last years records we are fairly certain we have already well surpassed last years total harvest weight with more than half of the areas planted still to be harvested. Our potato digging farm crew made short work of this first harvest even leaving enough time for some desperately needed weeding. Its has been a long haul this summer and things like SLG best potato and pepper harvest ever happening in the same week is more than amazing. Literally seeing the fruits(or tubers) of all of our cumulative efforts, in addition to the joy and nutrition we are bringing to the Good Food People is well, a big part of why we do what we do.
September means more than just shorter days, spinach and back to school. It also signals the beginning of the end of our intensive 4 market a week schedule. There are just 3 more weeks of farmer’s markets in our home town of Durham before they break for a week because of the fair. This break signals the end of the market season for us as we must meet the ever increasing demand of work in preparation for winter plantings. After that we are down to 3 markets until October when Chester ends, late November for Madison and of course you can find us all year round in New Haven. As always preorder pick up for on farm also goes year round.
Have a Great Week