Farm Notes is online! This week, we are celebrating Pride Month! If you missed the last edition (which we know you did because we forgot to post it), you can continue to meet the farmers of PVF and also read all about tractor season!
For almost 50 years we have traveled between the farm in Vienna and the farm in Purcellville, up and down Route 7, hauling vegetables and equipment and people back and forth. It doesn't make total sense, but that's how things have evolved. Back in the beginning, there were only open fields out in Loudoun—we didn't have any buildings or irrigation or electricity. We grew acres and acres of sweet corn and pumpkins. But little by little that farm has turned into a fully equipped farm with everything it needs—a big deer fence, lots of tractors, greenhouses, plumbing, so many buildings, coolers, our compost pad where we make all the compost for both farms. In a way, we could ask ourselves why we still farm in Vienna, in the middle of dense suburbia and so much traffic. But the Vienna farm has been home for the same 50 years, and it is much closer to the farmers markets and most of the people who eat our vegetables. Our CSA in Vienna is our flagship now (even with all the messy road construction—our customers are so patient and dedicated...).
We mix and mingle our crews these days, with some folks working on both farms in the same week. Some stay in Loudoun, others only work in Vienna, but we all know each other. We meet at the farmers markets and we socialize at the weekly potlucks.
Today we did something we haven't done before, just because it hasn't seemed necessary. We needed to get started on digging garlic, and there was a big amount of rain coming. Jon and I went out to Loudoun in the morning and hooked up the just-repaired root digger. I dug one field of garlic so that it would stop growing, but it could stay in the ground until we pulled it after the rains stopped. Then we loaded that heavy implement onto the back of a pickup truck and hustled back the 27 miles to Vienna, watching over our shoulders to see if the skies were turning dark. Jon unloaded the digger and hooked it up to another tractor and I raced out to the garlic field. The first bed went well, the soil was great. By the third bed I was digging in a downpour. But with some amount of wrangling, I got to the end of the row and the garlic is now ready to pull, whenever the weather clears.
The logistical challenges of farming two farms are always interesting. There are advantages (different weather, different soil) and disadvantages (the list is long). But this is how we have done it for five decades, and both farms have strong identities and so much beauty, we probably will never give up the business of traveling back and forth. It is a joy to be on either farm these days.
For more recipe ideas you can find us on Pinterest!
