Spring in my condo

Massachusetts, along with most of the rest of the country, has been suffering a harsh winter. Weekly or twice weekly snows, followed by cold and ice, and melting snow that freezes to ice. Two-lane roads are now one, and drivers are playing vicious games of chicken on the road. "Why should I yield?" seems a common theme. I'm itching for spring, so I decided to start it in my condo.

My boyfriend bought me a grow light for my birthday, a fairly basic one with a fluorescent bulb from Johnny's Selected Seeds. Even though most of what I'm planting shouldn't be started until March, I decided to start up my leeks, which take forever, and lettuce for winter greens.

Last year I grew everything on the windowsill, to mixed results. I bought the apartment with no appreciation for a south-facing window, and my only windows face North. But even then, my organic farming teacher once said that there's such a thing as "South Window Syndrome." The plants tend to be very spindly in any window, and he suggested a greenhouse or a grow light. It's nice because the plants are, at the very least, growing straight up. They are still very tender, and I'm beginning to understand the need for hardening. I'll have to put in some sort of cold frame this summer.

But ain't it grand to see a bit of green?

Leeks:



Lettuce:


I note that we haven't had a significant snowfall up here since the groundhog failed to see its shadow. Happy melting.

Nourse Farms

There's a nice article in the Boston Globe that's mainly about Nourse Farms in Westborough, MA.

The article discusses how Nourse is one of the oldest farms in the US, but that they've managed to continue by adapting with the times. As a kid, my parents would occasionally bring us to Nourse to pick strawberries (and yes, I was the guilty, curly-haired redhead with suspicious sticky red all over my face).

Now that I've moved out of that area, I don't get over to the farm too often. I heard from friends and directories that they have a CSA now, and my parents decided to sign up.

There's more to choosing a CSA than meets the eye. The CSA that I used to belong to was largely a veggie CSA. We'd get a couple containers of strawberries or raspberries in the season, but never enough. Nourse specializes in berries. My parents gets fresh berries for months and months, in quantity. As few foods seem to make my mom happier than berries, this is a great fit and a way to break up her share with fruit that requires no preparation. In addition, the farm has a nice store full of their jams and jellies and other food for sale. One year they offered three berry pies if you renewed your CSA subscription early. So good!

If you are choosing a CSA, try to find out what sorts of crops they grow, and about how much they had of things the last couple years. 2009 and 2010 were vastly different growing seasons in Massachusetts. I love the surprises in each season, but it's also nice to know what I'll be eating all summer.

(Note: it appears that there's another Nourse Farms in South Deerfield, MA that produces berry plants, but I know little about them.)

Farmshare Fair

There is a Farmshare Fair sponsored by theMove on Thursday, February 3 at Democracy Center in Harvard Sq. Pick out who is going to grow your summer veggies, dream of summer, dream of melting...melting...melting.