The Great Crescendo
Week 10, 2023
This morning, I woke up to a substantial glow on the eastern horizon instead of the black of winter. Get up, it said, and get at it! The great crescendo of spring is coming. Our whole job as farmers is to take the energy the sun freely gives us, rearrange it as best we can, and live – all of us creatures on earth – on the dividends. As the light increases the real fun begins. The curve of the year’s light precedes the curve of its heat, like lightning precedes thunder. Don’t be lulled by the frozen ponds and the snow on the ground. It’s the light that tells us it's go time. Seeds are hitting soil in the greenhouse next week, and we’re looking forward to getting equipment ready for the first days in the field. The sun is drawing the sap quickly up the trees right now, and we’re taking our little share of it from the sugar maples. The evaporator and RO are working beautifully. We will have more syrup in the share today, and are hoping to get some jarred for the farm store before too long.
In the spirit of welcoming spring, and making the mud season just a little less ugly, we’ll have a station set up at distribution today with bulbs, pots, and potting soil. Members can pot some tulips and daffodils to take home and put on the windowsill. They should start growing right away and will give your house a little early spring cheer when they bloom. Once they are spent, we’d love to have the pots back. We’ll need them to pot up our peppers later this spring! And the potting soil is very rich so after the bulbs are finished you can use it to fortify your garden or any houseplants that need a little boost. Here are the directions for forcing bulbs:
Fill the pot ⅓ full with potting soil
Place 1-3 bulbs in the pot, tips up
Cover the bulb with more potting soil, so the pot is nearly full
When you get home, water your bulbs so the soil is uniformly moist
Keep the pot watered and watch for the little green sprouts
Enjoy the blooms while they last, then return your pots to Essex Farm
I’m happy to say we’ve come up with a plan for local memberships for the rest of 2023, and are eager to tell you more about it next week. It feels good to have direction and I can’t wait to dig in with all of you.
We still have a few spots available in the New Paltz/NYC curated box delivery that is going out on Monday. Here’s a link to all the details and the order form. Please let us know if you have any questions. Hudson Valley friends, we’d love to collect any of the returnable boxes and jars at the New Paltz Park and Ride stop on Monday afternoon! If you would like to return items, but aren’t placing an order, please let us know via email at essexfarm@gmail.com, and include your text number so I can give you the ETA of the van. It would be helpful if you put RETURNS in the subject line. We are still critically short on jars so any returns will earn our eternal gratitude. I’ll make sure Mark packs a little extra maple syrup to sweeten the deal.
That’s the news from Essex Farm for this sun-is-coming 10th week of 2023. Find us at 518-570-6399, essexfarm@gmail.com, or on the farm, any day but Sunday.
-Kristin & Mark Kimball