homegrown-news - Welcome!

Tags

Published on

July 13, 2019
Future Farmers

General homegrown-news
We were honored to host Field Day for the kiddos of the Summer Hatfield Rec Program! They toured our farm, asked questions, and we showed them how to plant sunflower seeds :)

We made a furrow for the kids to plan their seeds into

We demonstrated how we plant seeds in the soil and the kids got hands-on

A little one-on-one teaching with one of the kids who was late after getting sunscreen in her eye, but she's a trooper and stuck with it!

This little guy is planting sunflower seeds!

All hands on deck, class begins!

A little one on one teaching with one of the kids who was late after getting sunscreen in her eye, but she's a trooper and stuck with it!
Published on

June 20, 2019

Valley Bounty: Swiss Chard

General homegrown-news

By Noah Baustin - Daily Hampshire Gazette - June 14, 2019

The Swiss Chard harvest recently began on Bardwell Farm in Hatfield. It was nearly three weeks later than usual. “Last year, we had a nice warm start to the season where crops were on-time or early. This season, we’re coming in with conditions that have been colder and wetter,” said Harrison Bardwell, who owns the farm.

“Being a beginning farmer, I’m still learning a lot of the aspects of how to deal with different weather conditions year to year,” Bardwell explained... read more
Published on

May 14, 2019
Week In Pictures: High Tunnel 2

homegrown-news Week In Pictures
Bows are assembled and up, things are starting to come together

Next we added the purlins to tie the bows into each other and give regidity

The master carpenter hard at work, building end walls

After purlins are installed the cross bracing and cross ties are assembled, these are the final steps for metal farming portion of the structure

Base boards and hip boards have been installed and fastened down

We simplified our end walls this year, making the process much faster, we are so close to adding the polycarbonate

We subsoiled the high tunnel after all the grading and leveling the ground, time to get a cover crop in

Were we are marking and drilling the channel for the wiggle wire going in for the plastic cover

The Bardwell team hard at work

The Bardwell team hard at work

Digging holes for the posts for end walls

Thank you for everything dad
Published on

April 30, 2019
Week In Pictures: Planting

homegrown-news Week In Pictures
Greentower Romaine lettuce ready for the ground

Prepped beds for our first succession of transplants

Red Ace and Kesteral Beets

Looking out over the field on our first day of planting

Calvin stretching row line, it helps keep everything uniform

Marking our beds for planting

Calvin and I planting Swiss Chard

Radish just popping through the soil

Turnip popping out of the ground

Felt good to be out in the field

Planting away, one tray at a time

Touchstone Gold Beet transplants

Planting Swiss Chard in rows, 12” between plants

Cabbage transplants

Back in the soil after a long winter

Working as quickly as we can to try and beat the rain

Prepping the bed to plant another row

Calvin planting away

Swiss Chard

2 more flats going in

Laying and spacing the transplants

Pushing up soil and compressing the plants into the ground so they can take root

Kale is going in

First setting planted successfully, now to give them little food and let Mother Nature do her part
Published on

April 9, 2019
Featured Partner: Mountainside Maple

homegrown-news Partnerships
We are thrilled to partner with Luke Longstreeth of Mountainside Maple, Hatfield's first sugaring operation. Luke is a dedicated farmer and really is making a name for himself here in Western, Massachusetts!

Check out Harry's Farm Vlog on YouTube to see how we used his handcrafted syrup... ice cream for breakfast anyone?

All products above are available at our online farm store!

Luke shared the "sugaring" process with us...
He starts in the woods and finds nice "sugar bushes" or stands of maple trees to tap
He runs sap lines to collect the sap from the trees and put into holding tanks to be trucked to the sugarhouse for boiling. Sap runs best on cloudy days with temperatures in the low 40's and at night below freezing
Once sap is collected and brought the sugarhouse it is run through Luke's RO (reverse osmosis) which concentrates the sap by reducing the amount of water so it takes less time to boil and evaporate
The sap is run into boiler pans where it channels through different sections until it's the right temperature and consistency of maple syrup
It is then screened to make it super pure and bottled-up for consumption

Sap lines running through the woods collecting the sweet maple goodness!

The new sugar house!

Getting ready to boil sap!

Sweet sugary steam coming out of the boiler!

Order up!

Almost to the proper proper consistency!

Open for business!

Featured Maple Syrup products available in our online farm store!

We are proud to work with a local farmer in right here in Hatfield to supply our customers with a super delicious locally made product.

Luke's Mountainside Maple products are available at our online farm store. You can arrange for pickup, delivery or ship anywhere in the United States!

Please call (413) 800-5583 or message us at bardwellfarm@gmail.com if you have any questions.
Published on

April 3, 2019

Soil Health

Education homegrown-news

As many of you may know cover cropping is a major part of soil health. It builds organic matter and creates food for the microbes, earthworms, and other living organisms in the soil.

Season 2018 sure took a tole on both farmers and the farmland on which they grow on. We shared how difficult last season was with you but never really talked much about the late season monsoons and what it did to the farmland here in the Pioneer Valley.

The picture below might be hard to see, but I was driving the other day and saw a brown wind storm in the distance and wanted to stop and grab a quick photo to illustrate.

Wind storm blowing away top soil

Excessive rain and poor soil quality eroding soil

Due to the excessive rain and the over saturated fields late in the season many farmers had to abandon the use of cover cropping because it was just too wet to get into the fields without creating more damage. Fields were either left bare, or if lucky, the remnants of the crop remained.

Soil is most happy when it has something living on it. It keeps the soil fed and healthy throughout the winter months, but it was too difficult to seed down fields or even germinate seed before it just rotted away from too much moisture.

This led to bare fields over the winter months. When we didn't have any snow cover, on windy days you could see top soil blowing away because there was nothing to hold it in place. Or the opposite, where there was too much snow melt or excessive rain made erosion a big issue. It basically washed away the top soil.

Farms have to start getting creative in years such as these. It's a tough battle. In some cases there's not much that can be done. We have to take care of our land just as much as we take care of ourselves. If the soil we grow our food on isn't healthy it will not perform well. Farmers constantly have to find the balance between profit and environmental sustainability.

The take home message here is that we are at the mercy of mother nature, but we have to try our hardest to make sure we are implementing the best agricultural practices as we can.

Tags

Future Farmers

Valley Bounty: Swiss Chard

Week In Pictures: High Tunnel 2

Week In Pictures: Planting

Featured Partner: Mountainside Maple

Soil Health