A Year on the Farm

Many of you have asked us what life is like here on the farm at different times of the year, especially those of you we only get to see the farm in the summertime! We thought we’d show you what happens on the farm month-by-month.

January / February

• Visioning and logistics planning
• Create the Winter Newsletter
• Create the crop plan
• Order and buy seeds and supplies
• Work on outdoor projects
• Staff and volunteer collaboration for program review and planning

March

• Greenhouse opens the first week
• Seeding
• Keep close observation of livestock body condition scores and adjust nutrition as necessary

April

• April 1 is the target plow date
• Complete greenhouse and field planting schedule
• Conduct crew orientation: safety and activities training
• Transplant seedlings from greenhouse into the ground through July
• Shear all sheep
• Review equipment and procedures in anticipation of calving and lambing
• Prepare lambing jugs

May

• Transplant, transplant, transplant from mid-May through mid-June!
• Start weeding, which runs through mid-August
• Keep a watchful eye for early signs of labor in ewes, cows and doe
• Move all livestock to open pasture
• First cut haying

June

• Transplant peppers, tomatoes, zucchinis, watermelons
• First harvest: lettuce, spinach, radishes, turnips, Asian greens, arugula, bock choy, Chinese napa cabbage, daikon
• Third/fourth week of June: harvest strawberries
• Keep close observation of grass conditions during grazing rotation

July

• Weeding, weeding, weeding
• Harvest zucchini and eggplants
• Harvest onions
• More weeding
• Keep close observation for Colorado potato beetle, slugs, and tomato hornworm (collect these and feed to chickens)

August

• Harvest tomatoes and melons
• Manage harvest records (we learn something new every year!)
• Monitor soil moisture closely and irrigate as necessary
• Prepare equipment and cows for field breeding and artificial insemination
• Annual fundraising event: date To Be Determined
• Prepare and freeze zucchini for winter baking of zucchini bread
• Prepare livestock and vegetables for Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society Fair

September

• Bring crops in and clean up fields (squash and melon clean up)
• Plant winter rye as a cover crop as garden areas are harvested
• Second cut haying
• Put up (preserve and store) beans and pickles
• Dry herbs
• Ready onions, potatoes, pumpkins and gourds in the haymow for winter storage
• The season is nearly done

October

• The eggplant gamble: Do we leave the eggplants out and have them for the few remaining weeks of distribution? If we do, we risk losing them to the frost.
• Host our pot luck Harvest Dinner
• Take down tomato trellises, put tools away, clean greenhouse (this is our after-frost cleanup)
• Staff planning for year / goodbyes
• Harvest activities with other farms: lunch / job shares

November

• Harvesting carrots, parsley, kale, brussel sprouts, leeks
• Last Harvest newsletter
• Cover next year’s garlic and strawberries with mulch
• Finish up fieldwork, plant cover crops
• Put barn and greenhouse to bed for the winter
• Thanksgiving Katama Classic Horse Race
• Prepare for large winter projects: tractor repair, changing of greenhouse plastic, and more!

December

• Find time to restore, rejuvinate and anticipate another year
• Rams in with ewes for breeding
• Livestock off pasture rotation and moved close to barn until next spring

The FARM Institute - Post Office Box 1868 - Edgartown, MA 02539 - (508) 627-7007