The farm
Market vegetables, and what we plan to grow
Market beds are part of the plan here, and what goes in them follows what people around here ask for.
We plan to grow vegetables here. Salad greens, roots, brassicas and tomatoes, in beds close enough to the house that somebody walks them every single day.
A market garden is the piece that turns a farm from somewhere you buy one thing a few times a year into somewhere you see most weeks, and that is very much the direction we are headed.
The beds are not in production yet, and what goes into them is still an open question. That is on purpose. We would rather hear what people around here actually want before we spend a season growing something else.
What we plan to grow
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The things a market garden lives on
Salad greens, roots, brassicas and tomatoes. Nothing exotic and nothing chosen to be interesting. These are the crops that carry a table because people cook with them every week, and that is what we want to be useful for.
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Beds close enough to walk daily
A market garden thrives on somebody looking at it every day. Keeping the beds near the house is not about charm, it is the difference between catching something on Tuesday and finding it on Saturday. Small and close before large and far.
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Grown for flavor, not for a truck
Varieties chosen for how they taste and how they do in this ground rather than for how well they survive a week in transit. That is the real advantage of buying from someone an hour away, and we intend to lean on it.
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Enough of one thing to be worth the trip
A little of everything looks generous and leaves everyone short. We would rather grow a real quantity of fewer crops so you can plan meals around what we have, which is what makes a farm useful rather than just pleasant.
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Straight talk about the season
There are weeks in this climate when a market garden has plenty and weeks when it has greens and little else. You will always get an honest answer from us about what is actually ready, and what is worth waiting another week for.
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The piece everything else attaches to
Chicken comes a few times a year and flowers come for occasions. Vegetables are the reason somebody would see us most weeks, which is why they matter to the whole shape of this farm more than their share of the revenue suggests.
How we plan to build it, in order
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1
Ask before we plant
Knowing what people around here actually want changes what goes in the ground, and asking is a far cheaper way to find out than growing a season of something nobody was waiting for. That part starts now.
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2
Start with beds we can genuinely keep up with
Market gardening is labor long before it is revenue, and Alex is direct about that. Starting with fewer beds than we think we can handle is what gets a garden through a July when everything needs doing at once.
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3
Sell it two ways from the start
Some through farmers markets, where you stand in front of people and learn quickly, and some direct off the farm to households already coming out for chicken. Two channels from the beginning means one slow Saturday does not waste a harvest.
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4
Grow the beds to match the demand
More ground only once the ground we have is fully sold. It is the least exciting rule we hold to and it is the one that decides whether a market garden is still here in five years.
Where vegetables sit in the plan
Broiler chickens came first because a batch of birds teaches you a great deal inside a single season and then it is finished. Vegetables are a standing commitment from the first seeding in spring to the last harvest in fall, so they are what a farm adds once it has its footing rather than what it opens with.
That order is not a lack of ambition. The long term shape of this place looks much more like a diversified market farm than a poultry operation, and the vegetables are how it gets there. They are simply the part that works best when it comes second.
Water and storage move together with the vegetables, and both of those are part of what we are building at the back place. A garden that can only produce when the weather cooperates is not something a household can plan around, so the infrastructure and the crops advance side by side.
The most useful thing anyone can tell us right now is what they would actually buy. Not what sounds good in theory, but what you would want in the bag most weeks. That is the input that decides what goes in the ground first.
Questions people ask
When would you have vegetables to sell?
Once the market beds are in production, which follows the broiler side settling into a rhythm. We are planning the crop list now and will tell the list as soon as there is a first season worth showing up for.
What would you grow first?
Salad greens, roots, brassicas and tomatoes, because they are what people cook with week to week. The exact list is genuinely still open, and what people tell us will move it around before anything goes in the ground.
Would you be certified organic?
We are not making any certification claim, now or later, unless and until one is real and on paper. What we can tell you is the intent, which is growing in a way that leaves the ground better rather than mining it.
Where would you sell them?
Some at farmers markets and some direct off the farm to households already coming out for chicken. Which markets is still an open question, and we will name them once they are chosen, because naming a market is a promise to be standing there.
Could I get a weekly box?
That is very much the direction we are working toward, and it is a large part of why the storage crops matter. A box that only runs in high summer is far less useful to a household than one that carries into the colder months.
How can I influence what you grow?
Join the list and tell us what you would buy. It is not a courtesy question. A small farm that grows what its customers asked for sells out, and one that grows what it found interesting composts the difference in September.
Elsewhere on the farm
Tell us what you would actually buy
What goes in the ground follows what people around here keep asking for. The list is where that gets decided, and it is open now.
Join the list