Airlie in the Snow

A couple weeks ago we were excited to harvest Arugula from beneath a light canopy of snow...well now we have two feet of snow in the garden! so not much harvesting happening. We're relieved that the hoophouse shed the snow, and look forward to uncovering the arugula in the garden if this snow ever melts! Looks like it will be around for a long time, so we'll just hang out in the hoophouse until then...

Arugula, Class, Snow & Winter

Four inches of snow sits atop beds of arugula in the Local Food Project garden- meanwhile, winter sowing of arugula and greens carries on in the LFP Passive Solar Hoophouse. As we wrap up a year full of workshops and seminars at Airlie Center, we look forward to our January 2010 Conference- Nordell & Martens: Culture in Cultivation, featuring a small vegetable farm powered by draft horses, and a 1,300 acre organic grain operation with custom milling of animal feeds.

Winter, where the harvest is soooo sweet, literally! That's because the cool temps concentrate sugars in cool weather crops, from carrots to kale to yes, arugula. If you have ever wondered why your garden carrots are not that sweet, is may be partially due to the temps of the soil during harvest. So many crops that are bland or even bitter during the summer and early fall take on an entirely new flavor in the fall and early winter.

The key becomes how you keep these crops alive in the garden for that sweet harvest.

At the LFP garden, we believe in simplicity. Metal hoops (you can cut your own using any decently thick steel wire) straddle our three ft. wide garden beds. Over these hoops, we drape floating row cover, a poly-fabric that provides a mild amount of frost protection (a few degrees), but creates a temperate, wind-free environment in which cold-tolerant greens and roots (like radishes, carrots & beets) can hang around and sweeten up until harvest. The row cover comes in varying thicknesses and price, but we like to use the stuff that is in the middle- not too light, not too heavy.

So when it snows, the cover will at least provide a little buffer between the plants and the snow, provided the snow is not too heavy. It is truly amazing to dust off the snow, and uncover a dazzling green bed of crispy greens amidst a winter wonderland!

For heading deep into winter, a hoophouse is the way to go. It's the same concept of providing a little protection for the crops with hoops and a covering, but the hoops are much larger and the covering is a high-grade plastic. In the LFP garden, we have a 30x72 ft. gothic frame hoophouse. The frame came from Ledgewood Farms. The plastic, vents, and end-wall paneling came from Griffins Greenhouse Supply. We harvested and milled all the white oak baseboards and door framing ourselves, with the guidance of experienced timber framer Eric Westergart.

And that brings us back to winter. I encourage all gardeners to go for a winter harvest, which is essentially an extension of your fall crops via a little protection from the elements.

Winter’s Hanging On

The Local Food Project garden got a blanketing of fresh powder last week, reminding us that despite all of our plans for spring, it’s still winter. The hoophouse withstood the storm well, staying warm and dry inside while snow piled up around its edges. The peace and quiet of our little section of Airlie encouraged a moment to reflect on the success of the season behind us and look forward to a bountiful 2009.

Prepping for Spring Greens

The Local Food Project hoophouse is really heating up! Cold temperatures and whipping winds remind us it’s still winter out in the field, but it certainly feels like spring inside the hoophouse. To get ready for our first planting of greens, we’re clearing out weeds, raking beds smooth, and giving the soil a nice deep soaking. In a few days, we’ll pull out any newly germinated weeds seeds, then begin sowing rows and rows of fresh spring greens.

Staking out the Fence Line

It’s time for the Local Food Project garden to get a new fence. Along with two local farming friends, we spent a day clipping snap ties from posts, rolling up electric fence line, and clearing vines from the black mesh deer fencing. We’ve staked out the boundaries for the new fence, which will include the hoophouse and compost piles, along with more space for future garden expansion. We’re also excited about putting up a new main entrance, which will draw visitors in with an inviting shaded arbor.

A Tale of Two Farms: Conference Highlights, Part 4

Attendees at the Local Food Project’s 2009 conference—“Half Pint and Essex: A Tale of Two Farms”—had the chance to see a local draft horse team in action. Justin Lamountain, owner of Piedmont Virginia-based Greenman Forest Management, and his hardworking Suffolks gave conference attendees a sense of the horse power in use at Essex Farm. Justin and his team are also responsible for sustainably harvesting the wood used in the frame of our passive solar hoophouse. Conference participants had the chance to see these beautiful animals up close and ask questions about their work.

View more conference photos in our online album. Thank you to everyone who attended “A Tale of Two Farms”! We look forward to seeing you at the next Local Food Project at Airlie event. Our 2009 calendar will be available soon.

A Tale of Two Farms: Conference Highlights, Part 3

A memorable part of the Local Food Project’s 2009 conference—“Half Pint and Essex: A Tale of Two Farms”—was the delicious buffet lunch prepared by Airlie’s talented team of chefs.

Conference participants enjoyed a feast of seasonal, locally grown foods—roasted carrots and braised cabbage, braised pork with rosemary and shitake mushrooms, roasted red and purple potatoes with herbs, and other sumptuous dishes. Aside from the yummy feast of local foods, attendees had the chance to share new ideas sparked by the presentations and hear one another’s farming and gardening stories.

View more conference photos in our online album. Stay tuned for more highlights from “A Tale of Two Farms”!

A Tale of Two Farms: Conference Highlights, Part 2

The Local Food Project’s 2009 conference—“Half Pint and Essex: A Tale of Two Farms”—shared a peek into the innovative systems of two very different farms. Mara and Spencer Welton of Half Pint Farm (Burlington, VT) inspired us with their passion for farming and eagerness to have fun while doing it. They wowed our audience with their dedication to record-keeping, showing samples of spreadsheets with data on every aspect of running the farm—from weather and soil conditions, to market sales and production yields and beyond! Participants also got a kick out of Half Pint’s “annual meeting”—the demanding agenda for last year’s strategy session showed how comfortably Mara and Spencer take on various roles—CEO, farm manager, field worker, marketer.

Mark and Kristin Kimball of Essex Farm (Essex, NY) led an interactive presentation that mirrored how they describe their farm—high-energy and physical. A series of hand-drawn posters gave conference attendees a visual sense of the systems that make Essex go. Essex employees Sam Ehrenfeld and Matt Volz helped Mark and Kristin take questions from the audience and they all spoke about the farm’s main components: providing a full diet—veggies, fruits, dairy, meat, and baked goods; allowing its 75 members free choice in what they select each week (no pre-measured boxes or bags); feeding members on a year-round basis (summer and winter shares); working the farm with draft horse power; and operating as a membership organization where folks pay for the food at the beginning of each season.

Conference attendee Ellen Polishuk, owner of Potomac Vegetable Farms, appreciated getting such an up-close look into the farms’ systems: “The intensive study of these farms is exactly what made it so valuable, and of course the fact that they were so funny and amazing.”

View more conference photos in our online album. Stay tuned for more highlights from “A Tale of Two Farms”!

A Tale of Two Farms: Conference Highlights, Part 1

The Local Food Project’s 2009 conference—“Half Pint and Essex: A Tale of Two Farms”—was a great success! On January 9, we welcomed more than 100 participants to Airlie for a dynamic day of learning, networking, food and fun. We want to share some of the highlights from this fantastic event and welcome feedback from anyone who attended. If you weren’t able to make it, explore the blog for content summaries, photos, and other valuable info from the conference.

This photo shows folks gathered in our passive solar hoophouse for the networking social that wrapped up the day. After a morning of in-depth presentations on designing successful farm systems, conference participants had the chance to get to know one another and share their impressions. One attendee, Nancy Gravely, appreciated the opportunity to talk with other small farm enthusiasts: “It really makes a difference to spend time with other people who are doing it, seems as though something gets passed along just by being in their company.”

View more conference photos in our online album. Stay tuned for more highlights from “A Tale of Two Farms”!

A Tale of Two Farms: Last Chance to Register

The Local Food Project’s annual conference is only two days away and the excitement is building! With nearly 100 registered participants, we’re thrilled to bring together two successful farms from the Northeast with so many interesting folks from Virginia’s Piedmont and beyond. We still have space available and are accepting registrations until 3 p.m. on Thursday, January 8. Register online now using conference code 105682.

If you haven’t signed up yet, don’t miss out on this chance to hear from these two amazing farm projects (Half Pint and Essex) and connect with a diverse group of food growers and local food advocates. For more information, send an email to pelliott@airlie.org or call 540-347-1300, ext. 1363. Read more about the speakers in previous blog posts. Download a copy of our conference brochure (above) to see photos of the farms.

A Tale of Two Farms: A Note from Essex Farm

Our 2009 conference on January 9 will feature an up close look at the innovative systems of two successful farm operations. Learn more about the event.

Essex Farm will be one of the enterprises featured at the conference. The news below is excerpted from the weekly notes Essex sends to its members. Join us on January 9 to hear directly from Kristin and Mark Kimball, owners of Essex Farm.

We’re nearing the cold, dark center of the year now. The ground is close to freezing. Last chance to get fence posts in. Last chance for greens. Last year’s tilled ground is put to bed in cover crops. The horses are working today, their fur grown long, plowing new ground for next year.

There is a lot of purposeful mating going on at Essex Farm this week. The boar has arrived. He is monumental. He is a Gloucester Old Spots, with an upper lip that is lifted a little on both sides by his tusks, which makes him look like he’s half smiling. I am a little in love with him. The sows are more than a little in love with him.

At lunch today we pushed in the side table and added extra chairs to make fifteen places, and Ronnie made sirloin steaks and roasted root vegetables and carrot salad and Yorkshire pudding and an angel food cake topped with strawberry sauce.

The whole team worked to spiff up the farmyard, and put all the equipment back into the renovated pole barn. Jay is not lame and went back to work with Jack, hauling firewood from the low woods.

And that’s the news from Essex Farm.

-Kristin & Mark Kimball

Open Hoophouse Celebration

On December 18, we put the finishing touches on the Local Food Project’s passive solar hoophouse. Airlie’s talented maintenance crew attached durable sheets polycarbonate to the end walls, sealing the structure against icy winter winds. Local craftsman Eric Westergart designed and built a set of wooden double doors for each end. Inside, the hoophouse felt like another world—quiet, sheltered, and alive with crisp lettuces and kales thriving in the cool temperatures. To celebrate the completion of the hoophouse, employees from the Airlie Center joined us for warm drinks and the chance to check out our new protected growing space. The hoophouse has already become a wonderful place to gather, as well as garden!