On Saturday morning, March 1 2014, I decided that it was
time to get out of my winter funk and get to work. And I really had no choice. The greenhouse was waiting, shivering in the
cold temperatures of February, with no roof on it!
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| old roof coming down! |
After seven years, we were finally replacing the plastic
roof of our greenhouse. The week before
March 1st, Tessa and I grabbed shovels and tractors and went to work
clearing the sides of the 26ft by 75ft structure—breaking through layers of
ice, making our way to the gravel and earth that hasn’t seen daylight for
months. We bent and lifted and used
muscles that had we had neglected to use since our last CSA pick up. We finally freed the sides from the snow and
in the gray of the slightly snowy and rainy afternoon we took blades to the
layers of plastic that had, for so many years, sheltered us from the rain and
wind and provided light for our plants to grow and thrive. On ladders at opposite ends of the
greenhouse, we started from the peaks and sliced along the ridges and down
along the sides. Game on. This roof was coming off. We freed the massive piece of poly and pulled
it until it cascaded down the south side like a waterfall, onto the icy ground
before rolling it up, burrito-style, and dragging it away from its former home.
The next day we replaced base boards and cleaned wiggle wire
channels (ask me about wiggle wire. I
love it) and duck taped all the little edges that would be in danger of
snagging our beautiful new plastic. Yes.
Duck tape is a major part of replacing a greenhouse roof! We covered our fans and greenhouse supplies
with plastic bags and installed new blower fans. Once the skeleton of our structure seemed
secure, we were ready. And then the wind
started to blow. And for that last week
of February, the wind blew, the temperature dropped and the greenhouse
waited. And we waited, knowing that even
with the slightest breeze, putting on an 80ft by 60ft piece of ploy would prove
impossible.
That brings us back to March 1. March first, the morning the wind stopped
long enough to put the roof on the Powisset farm greenhouse. At 7am on March 1, 2014, I pulled myself out
of bed, I shook of the winter haze—the many hours behind a computer screen, the
cold, ice-covered everything making it near crazy to work on tractors, the
planning and ordering and counting seeds—I put away the inside work for the day
and pulled on some coveralls and work gloves and headed outside. With a crew of
talented community members and farmers, we worked like a baseball team making a
double play—seamlessly pulling on layer one and two of plastic, securing each
edge and cheering each other on as we did so.
On March 1, Powisset Farm got its new greenhouse roof, and began its new
season. The lion roared and the farmers
cheered and the greenhouse filled with warmth and promise and my winter funk
was gone.
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| soon the seedlings will be here! |
Shake off the winter anytime with us and come visit the
greenhouse! I’ll be seeing onions,
leeks, broccoli and shallots this week and dreaming of June when our first
harvests begin!
Welcome to the start of the 2014 season!
See you in the greenhouse,
Meryl LaTronica
(Powisset Farm Manager)
CSA Sign-ups have begun!
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| powisset farm carrots |
Hooray and welcome to a new season at Powisset Farm! For returning members, our registrations were
dropped in the mail today and you should be receiving them by the end of the
week! If for some reason, you don’t see
it in your mailbox, please let me know!
We will be accepting CSA renewals for the next month! So now is your
chance to secure a spot in our 2014 season!
In early April, we will begin offering shares to the folks on our
waiting list, so make sure you register as soon as you can! If you know of people who want to join the
Powisset Farm CSA, please send them to this link:
http://www.thetrustees.org/places-to-visit/csa/powisset-farm-csa/our-csa/buy-a-share.html where they can join our waiting list.
There is one major change this season, which is that we are
offering two different size shares. A
full share or a small share. A full size
share is for those of you that are content with the current CSA share! It is enough to feed a family of four (or
more) or two to three adults who cook at home quite a bit! A small size share is for those of you who
have been feeling overwhelmed by the amount of produce and are looking for a
smaller amount of food each week. Both
shares will run for about 20 weeks (no less than 19 weeks, no more than
21). Both shares will have a variety of
items each week, but the small share will have fewer items and smaller
quantities. The full share will remain
essentially the same as it has been, with maybe a slight increase in the quantity
of an item.
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| spinach! soon! |
You will also see on your sign up form an opportunity to
renew your TTOR membership and make a donation to our food for all program.
Last season Powisset distributed over $15,000 worth of
produce to our food access partners; The Holliston Food Pantry, Medfield Food
Cupboard, The Dedham Food Panty, The BNAN Produce to Pantries program and the Bowdoin Street Health
Center. Through CSA member contributions in 2013, we
were able to raise $4100 to help support the cost of growing that food for
donation. Thank you to all who
participated! We hope to continue our
donations this season and are grateful for whatever way you are able to help
support our work!
We are excited to start signing up members and putting
together this year’s CSA community! As
always, let me know If you have any questions!
mlatronica@ttor.org
Housing for Farmers!
It’s that time of year where our amazing new crew of farmers
are arriving in Dover
to begin their season of learning and growing at Powisset! We are short of some farm housing again this
season and are looking for a good home for some great people starting in
April. Do you have any available
housing? Are you willing to rent a
room/in-law apartment or yurt? Let me
know! Any leads are helpful!
