The Produce
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For the 2006 season, Featherstone will be planting over 50 different vegetable crops for farmer’s market and CSA shares, with an emphasis on a few that will be marketed to co-ops and wholesalers as well. These crops include leaf lettuce and sugar snap peas in the springtime, new potatoes, sweet corn and tomatoes (heirlooms and cherries) in the summer, and broccoli, cabbage and winter squash in the fall.

Over the years, Featherstone farmers have grown every type of annual vegetable from arugula to zucchini. And in the early years we made substantial plantings of asparagus, raspberries and strawberries that are just now coming into full productivity. Our primary objective has been to fill CSA baskets with a wide variety of produce while identifying specific crops that do particularly well on this farm.

Rhys’ experience in apple production came in handy in 1999 when he took over management of a small orchard near Wabasha. The several varieties of apples and pears planted there (some antique cultivars as well as modern disease resistant strains) have been managed organically ever since, with the wonderful harvests all going to CSA members.

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Spring Crops

Spring crops at Featherstone are either seeded in the greenhouse in March (lettuce, broccoli and bunched greens, for example) and then transplanted into the field in April, or planted directly in the cool ground as soon as it can be worked (peas, radishes, spinach among others).

Generally speaking, spring crops love the rich, organic loam soil that we have in the Wiscoy valley, and they thrive in the cool evenings and dew drenched mornings that we experience here in June. These conditions produce the wonderful sweetness of the peas, the freshest crunch of lettuce, the rich, full flavor of the kales and chards. When the heat of high summer arrives, however, these crops can turn bitter, so we’ve learned to wind up their harvest by early July.

In an effort to get crops to market and into CSA baskets as early as possible, we use a number of spring season extension strategies at Featherstone. Floating row covers, raised beds and plastic mulch can have a dramatic impact on crop growth in a cool spring; we use them wherever possible. And we often plant salad mix in the greenhouse in late winter, occasionally resulting in fabulous April salads for CSA early renewers.

Summer Crops

As a rule, summer crops like tomatoes, melons, peppers, cucumbers and sweet corn all demand warm, dry soil to put on full growth. These crops tend to be susceptible to diseases that thrive in wet, dew soaked places like our valley farm. For this reason, we rent two different pieces of land for summer crop production, one a 5 acre patch high on a hill north of us, and the other a 14 acre field of pure sand near the town of Rushford.

Most of our tomatoes (all of the heirlooms and cherries) are started in the greenhouse in March, then transplanted into the hilltop field with lots of compost in early May. They are covered with floating row cover until the danger of frost is past, then tied up off the ground in a trellis support system (very labor intensive). All the work pays off, however with cleaner, trouble free fruit that can be left on the plant until genuinely vine ripened.

In 2003 we will be planting approximately 8,000 tomatoes.
Sandy soil makes all the difference for other summer favorites like new potatoes watermelons, and cantaloupes. Warm, dry ground (sand) simply produces healthier melon plants, and healthier plants produce tastier fruit! The Rushford ground is managed organically like all of our cropland, but until a 3 year waiting period has passed (in the spring of 2004), all produce harvested there will be considered transitional organic.

Fall Crops

In the autumn our harvest work returns to the home farm in the Wiscoy valley, where the touch of frost in September (often weeks ahead of the hilltop ground not 5 miles away!) produces the tastiest broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower we eat all year. These crops do well enough in the spring, but their genetic programming is really set up for shortening days and cold (even 26 degree) nights. In 2001 we harvested broccoli right up through the end of November, and the last heads picked were definitely the sweetest.

The crops of the brassica family (broccoli etc.) are remarkably heavy feeders, and the rich, fertile loam of the Wiscoy Valley farm is the perfect home for them. In 2003 these crops will take up as many as 10 acres of this farm, and preparation of that ground began last fall with the application of compost, amendments such as calcium and sulfur, and the seeding of nitrogen and carbon producing cover crops (vetch and rye). These cover crops will be in full growth next June when we mow them off, plow down the residue, and transplant in the broccoli and cabbage seedlings.

Other fall crops at Featherstone include garlic, winter squash and autumn raspberries. In the past we have planted fall crops of onions, carrots and leeks, but found them too difficult to produce dependably with our existing tools and experience. We still grow radishes, salad mix and turnips in September and October for CSA members.