2018 CSA Prices

A lot of thought goes into balancing the many aspects of our CSA. For example, our planting schedule (how many times we plan to grow each vegetable this season) is in the top three for trickiest balancing acts; for every fruit and vegetable we grow, someone hates it and someone loves it. Our CSA survey results always have "More kale!" followed closely by "Less kale!".

Taking up the number one "most challenging" spot is balancing the cost, value, and price of our CSA. We are all very aware of the rising costs of utilities, goods and services. It's just a fact of life. For the last several years we ignored this pesky fact, and kept our CSA shares at the same price, $15 per week for the Half Share, and $30 per week for the Full Share. This year, we had to face reality and increase our prices. After a detailed cost analysis, we are confident that we can maintain our CSA quality standards, and even add a little more produce to the boxes each week.

If you are a past CSA member, and you think that the price increase will be an obstacle for you, please contact us about work exchange opportunities. 

2018 CSA Share Prices

Full Share: $32 per week
    23 Week Season: $736

Half Share: $16 per week
    Regular 23 Week Season: $368

Quarter Share: $8 per week
    23 Week Season:  $184  

Chomper (Half Share, 4 weeks): $64
Nibbler (Half Share, 1 week): $16

Winter Fruit at Kirby's

By now, you've probably heard about our monthly Apple CSA Pickup Day in January, February, March and April.  (If you haven't, head on over here to learn the details!)  

This year we're also making our IQF Sour Cherries and Blueberries available. Stop by on the third Tuesday of each month, January 16th , February 20th, March 20th, April 17th .

If you're interested in Apples, be sure to place your order by the previous Friday! Email your name, order, and phone number to info@kirbysfm.com

Kirby's at Foodlink's Festival of Food

We had a lot of fun at our first ever food festival last night. There was so much amazing food to try, and so many people to meet. We're already looking forward to next year. Did you stop by our table? Let us know what you thought!

Our partnership with Grind's 122 Cafe was a great match. We brought bushels of fresh tomatoes, red peppers, peaches, and beets to the cafe and transformed them into Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup; Grind's Fresh Peach Scones; and Arugula Salad with Grapefruit Pickled Beets. What a great trio of flavors! And it's alway more fun to spend a few hours working in great company, so there was that, too. We're looking forward to future projects with our Brockport neighbors!

The tomato soup is my own creation, and I will happily share the recipe! It's super simple to make in my kitchen, but I have a few key ingredients in the pantry. Normally I take one quart jar of our own canned tomatoes, and a whole roasted red pepper from my freezer. Simmer, blend, and finish with a tablespoon of butter. So easy! To make the soup for the festival, we started from scratch, so here's the breakdown for you. If you stop in at Grind's Cafe today, I think you can have a cup already made for you!

Kirby's Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Soup

3-4 pounds Kirbygrown, Regular Tomatoes
1 Roasted Red Pepper
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp  Lemon Juice

1. Place the tomatoes in boiling water for a few minutes, until the skin cracks. Remove from boiling water and allow to cool until you can handle them. Then core and cut into chunks. 
2. Simmer tomatoes with the rest of the ingredients for at least 20 minutes.
3. Add 1 tablespoon of butter.
4. Puree with immersion blender or carefully in a regular blender. 
5. Garnish with a touch of sour cream, basil oil, or a Lemon Gem Marigold.

Friday Field Update No. 18

Happy Friday night!! Unfortunately, I was extra busy again this week, and only have enough time for about a paragraph (actually one turned into three...woops). The Orleans County Fair is in session this week, and I usually spend quite a bit of time there volunteering, and enjoying all the different delights to be had. Our Farm Market is in Brockport, which is in Monroe county, but I grew up on our farm in Albion, so I have many wonderful childhood memories of the Fair. And last night I attended an Apple Growers Conference where I learned an immense amount of information about the apple industry. On our farm, I focus most of my efforts on vegetables and small fruits, but I do enjoy working with apples, and it is a huge part of our farm. I am always learning, and I am sure I will be for the rest of my life.

That bodacious dill!! 

Here are some brief field updates to let you know what's going on around our farm. We picked our first planting of pickles for the last time this week. Towards the end of a planting, after a couple weeks of picking, the plants are very stressed. This results in the fruit being more crooked than normal. The second planting is coming up right behind the first, and hopefully we will be picking more pickles for next weekend! We are also right in the middle of our Strawberry renovation. I can’t wait to post before and after pictures of that next week, when I will talk a little more in depth about the process. We are still picking our first block/planting of sweet corn. Thanks to planting two different varieties as well as using the row cover, this one planting will stretch across the span of about two weeks. Normally a sweet corn planting only lasts about one week. Now, with a little extra effort, we picked some earlier than normal, and with nearly the same planting costs, are picking over a much longer period of time. My dad picked the first bushel or two of Italian eggplant today! We have some interesting varieties this year if you are an eggplant fan. A long Asian variety, normal Italian eggplant, and a round Sicilian variety. I have discovered that I am a big eggplant fan myself. I found some early long eggplants that are an Asian variety, sliced them thin and sauteed them with sliced zucchini, onions and a thick flavorful tomato sauce and they added a great texture to the dish. The beefsteak tomatoes coming out of the high tunnel have been tasting awesome. All of our 7-8 varieties of peppers will be arriving shortly as well. We are really coming into the heart of the summer harvest and I couldn’t be more excited!

Mmmm... Slushies . 

Friday Field Update No. 13

Happy Friday and happy Summer! The longest days of the year are upon us. Which is great for us, we now have plenty of time to get everything done that needs to be done, especially if we fall behind on some planting(which never, ever happens).

Yes, the summer is upon us, and there are about 15 hours of daylight now. All this sun certainly makes the flowers go crazy! Especially the perennials. I was watering in the greenhouse yesterday and I looked out the front and noticed how many beautiful flowers were blooming. So many colors. And that’s when I noticed this gorgeous monarch butterfly swooping through, having a late breakfast on our echinacea. I have been seeing a lot of different butterflies recently. That’s always a good sign. I also couldn’t resist including this picture of a snail this week. I’m sorry it’s not really farm related, but I thought it was fun. I think he/she really enjoys the cool, wet environment that our drip-tape creates.

These are aphids. I’ve noticed a lot of them enjoying this specific weed, which is lambsquarter. That’s fine with me, as long as they stay off my crops! If you look closely at this picture, you can see tiny drops of silvery liquid below the aphids. Those tiny drops of sugar-rich liquid are actually called honeydew. They are secreted by the aphid when their mouthparts penetrate the plant. This causes some sap to flow out of the plant, and some of it is actually pushed right out of the aphid. Sometimes you can see hundreds of ants pouring over these aphids, and at first you might think that they are chowing down on them. But if you take some time and observe, the ants are actually “farming” the aphids and collecting the sugary honeydew as a foodsource. They will even protect the aphids, and fend off predators like ladybug larvae.

Zucchini plants so thick and green you can't even see the plastic. Some rolling storm clouds above from this past week

Our high density orchard with powerful clouds looming in the background.  

Rain certainly has made a presence this year. Honestly, at this point for me on our farm with my vegetables, I am not complaining in the least. We may be seeing some fungal problems in the peas from prolonged cold and wet soil, but everything else is doing really well, and we haven’t needed to irrigate very much at all. There is one problem with the fact that the irrigation isn’t running: we aren’t fertigating (adding fertilizer to the irrigation system). So even though the plants are staying nice and wet, the rain water doesn’t have all the nutrients that our crops need, which we were planning on spoon feeding them through the irrigation. This means that even though it may be wet enough under the plastic, I will be running the irrigation anyway. This allows us to add fertilizer, but I will add it at a higher rate so I don’t need to use as much water, because the plants don’t need it. The frequency of these rain showers has been nicely spread out that it gives the fields enough time to dry out so I can go in with the planter and seed a few different crops. Then, usually within one or two days, there will be a nice rain that will help water the seeds in, ensuring that they are making proper seed-to-soil contact, and also have plenty of moisture to germinate. This next picture is a beautiful shot of one of our pickle seeds resting graciously in the perfectly prepared furrow, like a little nest. 

A freshly laid pickle seed, waiting to be tucked in so it can begin it's life.  

That’s all for this Summer Solstice week. Thanks for reading and see you back here next Friday!

A load of white salad turnips for the CSA this week. These are so juicy and delicious, very different than a normal turnip. Make sure you try some if you haven't already!

Friday Field Update No. 11

Happy Friday! The end to another week and the beginning to a beautiful, SUNNY weekend! 

I would like to start off by apologizing for skipping last week. It was a very difficult and busy Thursday/Friday. And those happen to be the days that I write this blog post. I prefer to write it at the end of the week, so the information I share with you is as up to date as possible.

So, back to my excuse. Here is a little peak into an apple growers life in the spring. There is a fungus called scab. It creates a horrible “scab” on the leaves and fruit of apple trees. It is made up of pure evil. If you have apples, you will have scab, if you don’t protect them. It is everywhere. You cannot escape. Luckily, resistance is not futile! As long as you give up on having a social life, you are good to go. Scab works like many other fungi: spores. In the spring it exists as a structure called an ascocarp. These ascocarp grow ascospores and when they are wetted(mostly rain), release the spores to infect green apple tissue(leaves or fruit). In order for us to avoid an infection, we need to have a spray on the trees that creates a protective barrier so when the spores land, they are killed and have no chance to cause an infection. However, when it rains it also washes off the protective barrier. So when the next rain event happens, we need to have our trees covered again. So goes the almost endless cycle of scab spraying. Right up until around this time of year. Last Thursday and Friday we needed to cover the apples for the rain event Saturday night, but it was windy both days. That means we put in a normal work day, and then when the wind finally died down in the late evening, after dinnertime, sprayed the apples. There. That’s my excuse. I’m sorry I chose apples over this.

On to less depressing and stressful topics! We picked the first strawberries of the year Wednesday! When it finally stopped drizzling… These are some of the most beautiful berries you will see during the season because they are mostly what I call the “king berry.” In the field, the berries grow in a cluster, starting as blossoms. The king blossom is always first, and when it matures is always the biggest berry out of the cluster. Therefore, I call it a king berry! They are big, beautiful and so refreshing after a winter without homegrown fruit. Harvesting may be a difficult and sweaty job, but at the same time it eases the mind, and makes all that hard work of growing the crop feel like it was worth something.

Other good news, the raspberries are sprouting lots of beautiful leaves, they seem very happy. Just like I promised, what appeared to be lifeless twigs are now bursting with fresh, green leaf tissue! Yesterday we added mulch at the base of each plant to prevent the weeds from going crazy.

The string beans we seeded on the plastic have popped up and spread their wings to take flight. What I love about watching seedlings germinate is what happens to the seed itself. If you look closely you can see that the lowest pair of bright green leaves are actually what used to be the seed. I don’t understand exactly what has happened, but maybe it has actually turned into leaves; growing chloroplasts and digesting that beautiful sunshine.

Can anyone guess what this beautiful, green, leafy veggie is in the picture above? The first one to comment and get it right on Facebook or the blog gets a gold star!

Well, thanks for reading! I hope your week is as sweet as these strawberries! See you back here next Friday!

Bonus picture below: Pickle transplants making a pickle forest!

Friday Field Update No. 10

Happy Friday, and welcome back to my little corner of the internet. Today’s topic is my mortal enemy: WEEDS. But first, an adorable family picture!

If you look at the top of our website, you will find it says we are a farming family and this is the start of my own little family. I thought it would be nice to share so you could get to know me a little more. This is my lovely wife Mandy, and our ferocious canine Obi-Wan Kenobi (we call him Obi for short). Last night we were picking out some flowers to plant in our containers. We kinda just pick out whatever we like and then try to find some way to make it all look good. It’s really quite fun. Having Obi around always makes things more stressful- fun! I mean more fun. He’s a pure angel most of the time, but can turn into quite the devil...

A rather large weed erupting from our pea field. 

Tiny tomato plant that grew from the seed of a tomato from last year left on the ground. It is now a weed. 

Ok, back to the real devil at hand. Do you know what a weed really is? Have you ever taken time to think about it? I learned the true definition only a couple of years ago. A weed is any plant that is undesirable. That means that weeds are dandelions or quack grass growing in a strawberry field. It also means it is a tomato plant growing between the rows of tomatoes that we are actually cultivating, like in this picture. This tiny tomato plant will just be in the way, not getting enough water, getting stepped on, and possibly causing disease. Even if it did grow well, it is increasing our population(number of plants in a certain area) which is not what we want. It’s hard to believe that a tomato plant in a tomato field is a weed, but in this case that’s all it is.

High tunnel update! The plants are doing marvelous. As you can see, they are really filling out the space. Fortunately for us, we have been working with Cornell Cooperative Extension employees for the past couple years with their High Tunnel research. They have been sending samples of our leaves into a lab to get them analyzed in order to evaluate the nutrition of the plants. This has been extremely beneficial for us. With these foliar samples taken every other week, we can really fine tune the fertilizer we are feeding the tomatoes in order to give them exactly what they need to make ripe, juicy tomatoes. Our first foliar results are in and they look great! We are right on track to producing a great crop of early tomatoes in our high tunnel.

Over in the Strawberry field, things are happening. We have awesome looking green berries, plants still blooming, and a friendly bird nest. I haven’t identified the bird that laid this beauty yet. It is similar to a killdeer, but much smaller. Maybe a plover? But yes, green berries! Look how big that one is. They will be ready soon I hope, I can’t wait!

We are finally able to plant some of our more sensitive transplants now that the threat for frost is ninety nine percent gone. With mother nature, there is never a 100% guarantee. We planted our first planting of zucchini, and lettuce. This wagon is full of pickling cucumbers. They are on the wagon not to be transported quite yet, but to harden off, as we call it. When the plants are growing in the greenhouse, they are happy as a clam. No brutal wind to knock them around and a nice, consistent water to feed them and quench their thirst. If we were to put these plants out into the field right away, their survival rate would not be very good at all. By leaving them in their trays, and limiting the amount of stress we expose them to, we can help smooth their transition into the field, in order to keep our plants happy and healthy. Just the way we like them.

Ok, that is all for this week. Thank you so much for reading and hope to see you back here next Friday!

Friday Field Update No. 9

Happy Friday! I’m so glad it’s finally here, but probably not for the same reason most of you are. To some, Friday night may mean the end of the work week and the beginning of a relaxing weekend off. However, for others including us here at Kirby’s, Friday means you better have everything prepped for the beautiful weekend ahead. It means the truck should be loaded to the brim, ready to head off to Rochester Public Market at 4:30 in the morning Saturday and Sunday during May. The weekends are absolute craziness and I love it!

Anyway, on a lighter note… Apple trees are still blooming! Hopefully you’re not sick of seeing so many fruit blossoms, because I know I’m not. These baby apple trees are the SnapDragons, which may hold the title of Chad’s Favorite Apple. It’s a tough decision though, there are so many great varieties. Along with the apples, Strawberries have joined in with the fun! The stripes of green plants in between the golden straw have acquired thousands of white beautiful little flowers. Similar to other fruits, the earliest plants to bloom will be the first ready to eat! That’s how I like to look at it anyway. We prefer to plant three different varieties, that ripen at different times, so that we can be harvesting and selling strawberries for an extended period of time.

The sweet corn is looking just gorgeous! Can you tell which row was under the row cover and which was all on it’s lonesome out in the cold? (The more luscious, taller green stalks were under the cover in case you were wondering) Both of these rows were planted at the same time, however one was nice and warm under the row cover, while the other was left out. This is a great example of how row cover is supposed to work. Sometimes if you’re not careful, it can actually cook plants while they are “protected” under it, or so they thought. Fresh transplants can get severely damaged if it is placed on at the wrong time. The row cover we had on this sweet corn was one of the thickest you can buy. We also have very thin row covers that are designed for keeping bugs out as opposed to warming the soil. This is what we put on our radishes this Monday. I had just seeded the radishes Saturday, and before they popped out of the grown, we got them covered. There are two pests we are primarily keeping out: flea beetles, and a type of root maggot. Flea beetles come in droves and literally chew holes right through the leaves of lots of different brassicas. They really love radish leaves and asian greens/vegetables. Root maggots are nasty little boogers that drill holes in the roots of radishes, turnips, and beets. These are a few of my least favorite things! Luckily doing a good job of covering the radishes will completely take care of them, so we don’t have to use any insecticides!

These lush, vegetative, and flourishing raspberry plants are among the crops we planted this week. Don’t worry, they actually are about to be lush and green. If you saw the powerhouse of roots that are on the bottom of these stark naked stems, you would not be concerned. They come as bare root, dormant plants ready to be put in the ground and take off. I’ll be posting more pictures as they grow. One way raspberry plants reproduce is by their roots. Once they spread through the ground underneath, they send fresh shoots up into the world. The plastic we have them planted on is going to give those roots a really well watered, warm, and weed-free space to grow.

Nasturtium seedlings! Aren't they the most adorable dicotyledonous seedlings you've ever seen? They definitely are mine. These are one of the seven edible flowers I seeded last week. They have all come up wonderfully. I can't wait to get them planted out in the cut flower garden and get a taste of them all! 

That's all for this week, thank you for reading! See you back here next Friday. 

Friday Field Update No. 8

It’s been a crazy week! We planted Raspberries today which I am super excited about. We started going to public market with hanging baskets and other annuals on Thursday and Saturday mornings, and for a few Sundays also. We have also been ramping up our market and greenhouse for mother’s day. Lot’s going on, like usual. Here are a few pictures I took this week with some interesting info.

A gorgeous full moon over our farm a couple nights ago. I learned this is called the flower moon due to the abundant blooms this time of year. You can just make out the apple blossoms past the sweet corn under the row cover. The closest trees are peaches and plums.  

Look at these crazy worms I found! Just kidding! They’re seeds. Calendula seeds to be specific! Calendula are beautiful, large daisy shaped flowers that have edible petals. They are one of the seven edible flower varieties I am trying out this year. I seeded all of them earlier this week and very eagerly await their germination! The lemon gem marigolds popped up after only two days. This didn’t surprise me because they were seeded very shallow, with only a light dusting of soil over the seeds. The red runner bean however, was seeded one to one and a half inches deep.

Do you notice anything unusual with this picture? There is more than just flowers and pottin soil. A gray tree frog! There have been a lot of them so far this year. I think they have been really enjoying all the rain. You can find these little guys in the craziest places. I saw a little green one hopping around the floor of one of our other greenhouses. They certainly are beautiful creatures.

Water is essential for plants to grow, however it also can cause many different diseases if there is too much of it in the air or ground. I found these dew drops in the tomatoes first thing in the morning immediately after we removed the row cover. Plants are constantly giving off water vapor, called transpiring. And if you leave them in the confined space under the row cover too long, all that humidity may cause some nasty things to happen. That is why we have to remove the row cover, and open the peak vents on the end walls of the high tunnel even if it is cold outside. Our large greenhouse is monitored by a computer that will turn on the fans in order to reduce humidity or temperature. Even if it is bringing in cold air, we have to do it in order to get rid of all that problematic moisture.

Thanks for reading and see you back here next Friday!

Friday Field Update no. 7

Apple blossoms strutting their stuff to no avail. 

Yes, all this rain is affecting the farm in a not so good way for many different reasons. Firstly, the fields are like mud puddles. Fortunately for us, none of them are flooded. However, there is still no way you ca​n drive a tractor in them if you plan on getting it back out. This is delaying lots of different work that needs to be done (preparing ground for a new apple orchard, preparing a field for the raspberry plants coming in next week, etc.). Secondly, the cool temperatures and wet weather is really interfering with apple pollination. The apples trees are really loaded with blossoms this year. A lot of apple varieties have a heavy crop on them one year, and then not such a big crop the next year. All these blossoms means future apples! Unfortunately blossoms can only become apples if they are pollinated by arthropods like honeybees. Bees are fair weather creatures, and aren’t coming out to work if it’s too chilly, and definitely not if it’s chilly as well as rainy all day. The high humidity also causes the pollen to clump together, and therefore not properly spread to other apple blossoms. We really are helpless to Mother Nature sometimes.

Pollinator plants on the left, planting number one on the right. 

Greenhouses have so many benefits, and one of them we all have been taking advantage of recently is the fact that they give you somewhere to keep busy if it’s raining. There are lots of vegetable and fruit transplants coming along splendidly. I am very pleased to announce some of these transplants are seedless watermelon! I am very excited about these. I seeded them Tuesday, placed them in our germination box, and they were already popping out of the soil this morning! Along with melons, we have Bok choy, lettuce, tons of tomatoes and peppers, and herbs. Zucchini and summer squash are some of the largest plants we have at the moment. They grow so fast! In this picture, you can see two different sized squash plants. The larger ones are the pollinator plants that we seed first. Like apples, all cucurbits (melon, cucumbers, zucchini) need pollinator insects to help them reproduce. Some grow male and female flowers separately. You need the male flowers present at the same time as the female flowers so the females can be fertilized and produce fruit (the squash). For some ridiculous reason the squash plant produces the female flower first, and then a week or two later decide to grow the male flower. This means the first female flowers are pointless and will just fall off because they weren’t pollinated. So, in order to counteract this, we put a little extra effort into growing a small number of plants ahead of the main planting, and in bigger pots. This ensures that when the main planting puts out it’s female flowers, the pollinator plants will be there with male flowers ready to go. While male summer squash flowers seem to serve no other purpose than reproduction, they are actually used as a food ingredient in several Italian and Hispanic dishes.

Dianthus, pansies, and marigolds, all delicious, edible and going in with my asparagus for dinner!

I recently discovered that many flowers we see every day are edible! I haven’t tried very many varieties yet myself, but I did order a sample pack of edible flowers to add to our cut flower garden this year. I’m extremely excited about this. Flowers can add such a bright, beautiful and flavorful new addition to food. I was surprised to learn how different varieties of flowers have such different flavors.

With the cold temperatures coming up this weekend, I tucked my babies (high tunnel tomatoes) in really well today. Yes, sometimes I call my plants my babies. We seriously put a blanket over them, literally tucking them in. I think that right there is justification for my case. I even buttoned up the high tunnel nice and tight, to keep out the cold air as much as possible. The “blanket” we used is called a row cover, like I mentioned we put on the corn. Here in the high tunnel, we don’t really need it to capture heat from the sun, the plastic roof does that pretty well on its own. We are using it to insulate the tomato plants from these cold nights coming up. Possibly three nights in a row getting down into the thirties. No fun. No fun at all.

My tomato babies all safe and sound.

Well, that’s all for this week folks. A little lengthy, but all this rain really gets me in the mood to type. Thanks for reading, and see you right back here next week!

Friday Field Update No. 6

Biggest news this week: our grafted tomatoes are planted in the high tunnel! It feels great to have that task behind us. They are a little late this year, but they will still give us delicious, juicy tomatoes earlier than the field tomatoes. They will even have the same great flavor because we grow them right in the soil behind our market! The plants are tied up already too. Usually, when we plant them in the field, the plants don’t need the support for at least two weeks. However, it was a little breezy today, and these plants are extremely sensitive because of the surgery they went through so we didn’t take any risks.

Back on our Albion farm, we are preparing ground to plant some new apple trees. We have a beautiful young orchard that we have been working on over the past decade or so, slowly adding more trees every year. This orchard is planted in a style called high density, which means a lot of trees per acre. They are only planted about three feet away from each other in rows twelve feet apart, as opposed to 15 to 20 feet like they did many years ago. They are also trellised with large wooden fence posts and wire which takes a lot of work. This is how all of our Snapdragon and Rubyfrost trees are planted. I will have pictures of this next week, and more later when we get our new trees planted.

In other news: The peas have broken ground! You can see the beautiful little cotyledons stretching their smooth blades and soaking in all this amazing sun. This means we will be putting in planting two very soon. All of the greenhouses now have plants in them! We moved hanging baskets into the last one today, and even the high tunnel got filled up. There is so much life and oxygen flowing from our plants, it really gives you an amazing feeling.

That’s all for this week, thanks for reading and see you next week!

Row cover Justin and I put on half of the sweet corn planting last week. Beautiful sight. The row cover I mean...

Friday Field Update No. 5

PEACH FUN FACT. These are strong independent blossoms, and don't need a pollinator like honeybees, or other native nectar lovers. Similar to tomatoes, all these flowers need is a little breeze and they are good to go, unlike apples and many other fruit. 

We don't like to count our eggs before they hatch, but I will share this bit of news with you. For the first time in three years, the majority of our peach blossoms are still alive at the end of April! Again, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but we are very excited to see some of the early peach varieties in full bloom at this moment. It is interesting to watch different rows bloom at different times, based on when that variety will mature. These flowers are a good sign that the ovary of the flower is still viable(not frozen), and will produce a fruit. We are not out of the woods yet, however. There are still many hurdles to overcome until harvest, but at least now we are mostly in control of the situation. The blossoms are still in danger if nature decides to send a heavy frost our way.  

Early yellow Shiro plums!

Along with peaches, the earliest sweet cherry and plum varieties are in full bloom. Right outside the window of my house, actually. It's only a matter of weeks now until the bird squawker is blasting it's cacophonous distress calls(scaring the birds as well as ensuring I wake up with the first rays of sun). These calls imitate a bird in pain, or imminent danger. It tells the other birds to "Run while you can! Save yourself!" This is a very useful tool when the cherries are ripe and juicy. It helps us fend off the Robins, Starlings, blackbirds, and many other pesky birds while we harvest what we have worked so hard for!

Beautiful morning sun gracing our first pea planting. 

As the fruit trees blossom, we are hard at work getting the vegetables in the ground. Planting season is finally upon us, and I couldn't be happier! Sowing seeds in the ground and helping bring so much life and nutrition into this world are some of my favorite parts of being a farmer. The first planting of beets, peas and sweet corn are in the ground. I just checked on the peas yesterday, about a week after I planted the seed and they are already halfway to the surface! Peas, along with the beets, are great at germinating in cooler soil temperatures like we have in the spring. Sweet corn has a little more difficult time with colder soil. However, we can use row cover to help warm it up a little bit. The row cover we use is a very large, white cloth-like material that holds in the heat while keeping out the cold by slightly insulating the ground. This is extremely effective on a cold day when the sun comes out, warming the ground and the row cover even more. More sweet corn, beet and pea plantings soon to come along with lots more veggies and fruits. 

I want to apologize for the lack of a Friday Field Update last Friday. I decided to take a holiday blog break, thank you for understanding. Also thank you for reading this week and see you back here next week!

Donut peach blossoms! 

Friday Field Update No. 4

Oh Spring... I thought only March was supposed to enter like a lion. Then today happened. Nature sure does the darndest things.  

Every year I am extremely grateful for many things about the land we grow our crops on. In the spring especially, I enjoy being able to work our ground behind the market extremely early. This is because the land is very porous due to the large amount of gravel it contains. Having well drained soil is why I am not worrying too much about our fields getting too wet from the alarming amount of snow that fell today. Our fields are experts at dealing with all this spring precipitation. 

Beautiful Spring view of the new Strawberry patch planted last year. 

I always find it fascinating when someone says they don't know why strawberries are called strawberries. I suppose not everyone grows them, so not everyone knows that you are supposed to cover them with straw for the winter to help insulate the plant and it's roots from the harsh cold. But low and behold, this is where you get the straw in strawberry! In the late fall after a few hard frosts, we go out and spread straw over all the plants. Then, in the spring, you know its time to rake the straw between the rows (that nice comfy cushion to kneel on when you're picking) when the forsythia is in full bloom. We let nature tell us when it's safe. This will probably be happening within a couple weeks!

Garlic coming up!

Right next to the strawberries you can see our beautiful rows of garlic. Garlic is planted in the fall, and over winters in the ground, similar to tulips and daffodils. The tips of the plants appear to be burned, and we think this is from the cold, cold temperatures. However this happens every year and it doesn't seem to cause any problems. If you look closely, you can notice lots of holes in the black plastic we use to cover the rows. Sometimes severe wind can damage to the plastic, but these appear to be caused by our friends the deer. We have an abundance of them, and last year they ate our corn plants, cucumbers, zucchini, and apple trees. Pretty much anything we planted down there they helped themselves to. Such fun. 

Thanks for reading!

Friday Field Update No.3

The tomato plants have been grafted! So far it has been going very smoothly. The grafting process itself took some time, but with teamwork, patience, and perseverance we have prevailed! Currently, they are tucked away in a corner, protected from the evil world in the cozy, warm germination chamber with 100% humidity and no sunlight. Completely stress free. The plants are handling the aggressive surgery incredibly well. Initially, they were wilting a little too much for my comfort right after the graft, but have since bounced back once they had time to settle down. 

Even the Mrs. got in on the grafting action last weekend.

Our lovely, homemade germination chamber. This really does the trick.

Hanging baskets are moving on up! Almost half of them are already hanging in the greenhouse. If you have driven by, I'm sure you have noticed how green everything is getting. Along with the hanging baskets, our vegetable transplants for the field are coming along nicely. They have been germinating alongside our marigolds and petunias in the germination chamber. We seed these in row trays to get them started, then transplant them over to larger trays to prep them for the field. These crops include eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes. Eggplants sometimes suffer from similar soil-borne diseases as tomatoes, so this year we are actually going to graft those as well! 

That's all for this week! Thanks for reading and Happy Spring!

Friday Field Update No.2

Spring is finally here! And with it some more typical spring temperatures. With the deluge of snow Stella dumped on us, the fields are soaking up all that meltwater. I'm hoping that extra moisture is not going to delay the pea planting too much, which we prefer to get in the ground in the first week of April. It is only about a week away after all! We also put the beets in at that time. Both of these seeds germinate well in the cold soil, and are hardy plants that can do well in cooler Spring months.

Sweet Cherry buds getting ready to bloom.

Unfortunately the tomatoes have not been grafted yet. That is scheduled in for the next couple days. I will have lots of photos and details about that in next week's update, don't you worry.

Inside our germination chamber, a baby pepper plant emerges.

Grafting was delayed partially due to the large amount of annual and perennial shipments we received this week. Managing this and actually getting the job done right demanded most of our time. We filled hundreds of flats worth of plants, which means we had to have all those flats prepared and ready to go. These come in many different shapes and sizes as many of you know, and we fill them all ourselves. We are very meticulous on how we go about this process. Each pot and cell needs to be filled right to the top with loose soil. This is important so the roots can easily grow and breathe. Airflow to the roots is just as important as water. Also, consistent soil level is crucial for all the plants to grow evenly which makes the enormous and endless task of watering more manageable. The machine we use is actually homemade, constructed back when we first built and opened the greenhouse in the early nineties. This is actually one of my favorite jobs on the farm. 

Thanks for reading, and catch you back here next week!

Where to Find Us This Spring

We will be out in the world, sharing information about our CSA this Spring. If you would like to meet us face to face and ask questions about Kirby's CSA, here is where you can find us! We would love to see you!

• Saturday, April 1st, "Find Your Farmer" Rochester CSA Fair and Happy Hour, (Open to the Public)

• Tuesday April 4th, 12pm, Gleason Works (Employees Only, including  Conifer, CCCSR and Triline)

• Tuesday April 4th, 6:30pm, Ogden Farmer's Library (Open to the Public)

• Sunday April 9th, 11am, Community Christian Church (Open to the Public)

• Thursday April 13th, 12pm, General Code in the Great Room (Employees Only, any businesses in Building 1)

Friday Field Update

Our baby rootstock plants, taking the transplant very well. 

It’s the Friday Field Update, with Farmer Chad!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone! Our greenhouse sure is repping it's green, I hope you are! In this brand new weekly post, I will keep all of you updated with a brief overview of the happenings during the past week on our Farm, along with some pictures, maybe a video or two, and some fun facts.

Another winter is coming to a close (maybe…) which means our greenhouses are filling with green again! From Superbells to Tomatoes to almost every vegetable we grow, the heat is pumping and the oxygen is flowing.

What I am most excited about this past week is our high tunnel tomatoes. High tunnels provide several great benefits to growing tomatoes. They protect the fruit and plants from the damaging elements, especially water. High tunnels also hold in a little heat to help extend the homegrown tomato season, which for us is mainly the spring so we can get those awesome tomatoes as soon as possible! Lastly, they are still grown in the earth so they maintain that excellent field flavor.

This will be the third year we have grown tomatoes in the ground under cover, but this is the first year we will be grafting all of our plants. Growing any crop in the same soil repeatedly is not a good idea. This leads to a buildup of soil-borne diseases which can be really nasty. However, it is no small feat to move a high tunnel. So in lieu of moving the tunnel, we graft the plants. We select a variety of tomato that will provide the fruit we desire as the top half of the plant (scion), and the variety that will give the plant a vigorous and disease resistant bottom half (rootstock). So even though we only need 400 plants for our tunnel, we grow 800 for the grafting process. 400 scion plants and 400 rootstocks, with a little extra of course, in case we have any casualties. We cut the tomato plants in half and attach the top half of the scion variety to the bottom half of the rootstock variety, and let them heal together. Last week we bare-root transplanted the seedlings, and this coming week we think the plants will be ready for grafting! Stay tuned next week for pictures.

That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading and I look forward to sharing more of our farm activities next week!

Brockport CSA Fair, 2/24/17

We're excited to announce the Brockport CSA Fair, featuring the farms of Brockport and surrounding towns! We hope you stop by to learn more about CSA's, or just say hi! We're going to be in a really neat setting too: the Clarkson Academy was recently restored by the Clarkson Historical Society and it's beautiful inside.

NEW! Smaller CSA Share Option

In response to requests for a smaller CSA share, Kirby's is offering a new option this season! 

Our brand new Quarter Share is designed for anyone that doesn't need as much produce, but still wants to be a part of our CSA. Quarter Share boxes will basically have the same contents as our Half Share, but with half the amount. As far as what's in the box, we might not be able to fit everything in every week (examples below). However, we know that variety is important, it's one of our main focuses, so we'll do our best to make sure you get a little bit of everything.  Read on for pack list comparisons!

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The following comparisons were created using 2016 packlists.

Quarter Share

June
2 Heads Lettuce
1/4 lb Rhubarb
Pint of Strawberries
5 Garlic Scapes

July
1/2 Pint Blueberries
1 Pint Sweet Cherries
1 Pickles
1 Kohlrabi
1 lbTomatoes

August
1 Cantaloupe
1 lbs Carrots
1 Pickles
1lb Tomatoes
2 Peppers

September
1 Quart Apples
1 Cabbage
5 Assorted Sweet Peppers
1 Eggplant

October
1 Quart Apples
1 Cauliflower
1.5 lbs Onions
1 Delicata Squash
1 Garlic

November
1/2 lb Brussel Sprouts
1/2 Gallon Cider
1/2 oz Mulling Spices
1 Acorn Squash
1 Sweet Dumpling Squash

Half Share

June
2 Heads Lettuce
1/2 lb Rhubarb
Quart of Strawberries
5 Garlic Scapes
1 Cilantro Plant
1 Bunch Radishes

July
1 Pint Blueberries
1 Quart Sweet Cherries
3 Pickles
2 Kohlrabi
1 lbTomatoes

August
1 Cantaloupe
2lbs Carrots
2 Pickles
1lb Tomatoes
4 Peppers
1 Watermelon

September
2 Quarts Apples
1 Cabbage
5 Assorted Sweet Peppers
1 Eggplant
1/2 Gallon Cider
4-5 Beets with Greens

October
2 Quarts Apples
1 Cauliflower
3lbs Onions
3 Delicata Squash
3 Garlic

November
2 Quarts Apples
1 lb Brussel Sprouts
1/2 Gallon Cider
1/2 oz Mulling Spices
1 Acorn Squash
1 Sweet Dumpling Squash



 

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End of the Year Sales!

On December 24th we close our doors for the 2016 season. (We'll see you again in the Spring - our doors will be open on May 1st and our greenhouse will be overflowing with flowers!)  

For the last week of the season, stop in to take advantage of our awesome end of the year sales! Stock up on homegrown and locally grown produce for the winter, and finish up your Christmas shopping.

25% off  Apples

25% off  Poinsettias

20% off  All Gift Shop

20% off  Jams

Produce Available

Homegrown: Apples, Winter Squash, Garlic

Locally Grown: Potatoes (5lb, 20lb, or 50lb bags, while supplies last), Onions (3lb, or 10lb bags, while supplies last)