A market garden of my very own!

[dominiquer60]

The vegetable starts are growing like weeds in the greenhouse, the ground is almost dry enough to work up for early crops and I finally started a Facebook group for my new mostly animal-power business, Abington Grown.

https://www.facebook.com/AbingtonGrown

I purchased the website as well and hope to have it linked to the We-Li-Kit Farm home page.  So much to do still, fix up a second greenhouse, put up the walk-in cooler that I stole at a restaurant auction, squeeze my AC-G down to 38″ on center to match my horse drawn cultivator.  It is overwhelming and exciting at the same time, especially with all the Maple happenings as well. Sam has been a great help and I am very grateful for his support.

Thanks to all that contributed to this site in so many ways, you have been a great help as well.

Erika Marczak

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[Eli]

Congratulations I wish I was closer I would pitch in I’ve been fixing my whole life and I do refrigeration work. Good luck       Eli.

[Kevin Cunningham]

Looks awesome good luck this season.  The vegetable race is already on here with our first plantings and weeds going like crazy, of course so is the grass so I am thankful.  I love market gardening, I tried for years to get away from it but now I am back in the thick of it.  It is good.

[dominiquer60]

Eli, Our Electrician is a guy from Rhode Island that ran his own dairy farm in Wisconsin for 5 years, until his wife got tired of it, he loved that place and misses his cows.  Anyway, I think if a magic wand could be waved it would be awesome to have you over to hook up my cooler and treat you to a proper dairy farm dinner and invite the electrician over too, Ted has endless stories and songs.  Day dreams….

Thanks for the fun thoughts,

Kevin,This is my 12th season on a market garden, but this is my first in operation on my own without an active gardening partner.  Sam is a great partner, helping to fix tons of stuff, getting equipment up and ready, building things, field work, etc. I am used to having to debate seed varieties, compromise on when to start tomatoes, and discussion on when to harvest crops for winter storage, it is all me on these now.  But it is fun to teach him about growing vegetables and learning all he has to teach me, and together we are tackling cultivating with the drafts, this is certainly a job that we both enjoy.  Good thing we have plans for a fleet of 2 horse cultivators and enough animals so that we can both have our hands on lines at the same time.

I have been hooked ever since my apprenticeship 11 years ago. I registered my business name at the town hall today, no going back now!

 

[Kevin Cunningham]

 

Thats funny, when I thought about it 2013 is also my 12 season growing market vegetables.  That includes the time I worked for other farmers plus my own gardens.  It is crazy how fast the time flies, this is already the fourth season for us here on our own place.  Good luck out there!

[dominiquer60]

Today was a big plowing day.   I thought is might be good to split the black mares up and match them with the greys of like ambition.  Sam broke sod behind the house with the big geldings and the overachieving mare.  I used the less ambitious 3 to plow rye in my large field.  It was good matching the slow mare with the old team, once the lines were adjusted, they quietly plodded along light in my hand.  No getting frustrated with the speed demon and getting the others upset too, none were in a hurry, yet in no time we had our 1/4 acre done  and back to the barn before dark.  It is nice to have a team that never runs out of power, but it is nice to have a team that doesn’t try to rip my arms out of their sockets, I found a good balance for plowing today 🙂

[Plowboy]

Good for you Erika! It is way more fun when you’re not being tugged on. Some people drive heavy handed and when they ask me to drive their horses it’s no fun. Sounds like you just have one with more “go” but that can be frustrating too. Luckily all of our horses are light mouthed. PLowing this weekend when the going was smooth lines in one hand with no pressure watching the plow work was very enjoyable. The horses fell into the familiar job and both my kids got to ride on the plow some but no big rocks here to worry about. Shamefully this winter our horses didn’t see as much work as they should have. The days off from work when Dad and I usually would have worked them were spent working on the new house which is important too. Worse yet we ended up buying some hay towards spring to feed the 7  loafers! Glad you’re having fun. Our area is dying out of the draft business it’s good to know others my age are still holding on. Our plow weekend was last weekend and we had 7 teams of horses and 1 team of oxen. With mostly “soft horses” we managed to plow 10 acres in 2 days with long lunch breaks. 6or 7 years ago we had 24 teams show up but the older guys are in their 90’s now and can’t plow anymore and the young people fade in and out. I can see why it’s an expensive hobby if you’re not actively farming. If my Dad retires from dairy farming we will have to cut back to 2 teams some how. I guess by not replacing the old horses because it would be difficult to sell off our old horses so they will probably stay around as long as they are healthy. Sorry to get off on a whim. Glad you’re doing well.

[ngcmcn]

Hi there–

I think you are the Decker that responded to our add for a Percheron Filly a while back?? We are trying to find your phone contact to get in touch. IF I have the right person, could you give a call–802-888-9064, or e-mail us at harrismcnaughten@gmail.com. Sorry not to private message this, but haven’t found my way around the new website yet!

Thanks,

Neal McNaughten
Wolcott, VT

[Author]

Posts