farming – Star Field Farm

The growing season in Central Massachusetts is absurdly short. The night temperatures were dropping into the 30’s (farenheit) until a week ago. The past few days have been perfect blue-sky days full of sunshine and warmth.

Which means we’ve been busy in the dirt.

Last year we devoted a few rows in our main garden area to straw bale gardening – in which you prepare the bales for planting with applications of fertilizer and water for about 10 days.

Last year’s results were a bit disappointing. Partly because we hadn’t done the best job in preparing the bales, partly because the drought stressed everything we planted. We’re trying it again this year, armed with more knowledge and experience.

The advantages of the straw bale method include having the plants higher up – easier for the farmer’s back, weed control, and better control of the growing environment, especially if the soil is less than optimal.

We also started planting our potatoes, corn, and winter squash. It always feels like a race against the coming winter, given how long these take to maturity.

It’s definitely a frenzy of planting right now, but once everything is in the ground and the watering is set up with their timers, the day to day work of weeding isn’t too onerous.

We’ve already been enjoying the fresh asparagus. I need to harvest the rhubarb (I’m planning on doing a country wine with rhubarb and some fruit I have left over from last year in the chest freezer). Soon we will have fresh peas and leafy greens.

Inch by inch, row by row.

Last week, it was in the upper 80s F.

We are back to running the woodstove in the kitchen. Spring weather in New England is fickle at best and now that we live in a rural farming community, the extreme shifts are more than inconvenient. They can spell the difference between fresh food later in the year and poor harvests or no harvest of certain fruit or vegetables.

Central and Western Massachusetts is an absolute haven for growing, finding, and eating local food. In a few square miles from StarField Farm, we can source meat, chicken, pork, milk, cheese, flour, stone fruit, apples, pears, pawpaws, berries, and every vegetable you can think of.

If the past few years have taught us anything, it taught us that our food supply chains are fragile. Local food is more than just a “bougie” fad: it is a matter of security and health.

It’s easy for people living in places where food is simply a commodity to get in a grocery store to take for granted that what they wish to eat will always be available.

The two major pressures local farmers face are climate change and development. Both together could spell disaster for local food availability.

Just on our little homestead farm, we already know we won’t have any peaches this year. It’s sad, but it won’t affect our livelihood as we only grow for our own larder. For farmers who rely on markets and CSAs it could mean a huge financial hit in a business that already struggles with the thinnest of margins.

And farmland is disappearing at an alarming rate.

I wish I had easy solutions. All I know is if we don’t value local food and local farmers, if we don’t protect land from irresponsible development, if we ignore climate change, we will feel the impact on our food bills and on our plates, and ultimately in our health and wellbeing.