Isn't the snow wonderfull? All of the background on the blog is snow. That is how hard it was snowing on March 7th 2018!

The Time is Near!!!

Our corn will be here by late June at the stand!

BICOLOR and WHITE!!!!

CSA example Week #6 2018

Field to Fork Dinners are starting to fill up.

Come to the Stand After we open, mail a check purchase tix Online at siwvegetables@blogspot.com and sav-or your spot now!

($75.00pp due at the time of reservation- check or cash, Credit card purchases are available on line but there is a 4% convenience fee)

Huge Success!

We had a great time this weekend with wonderful people!

Huge thank you to everyone who came out!!

Teamwork makes the dreamwork! 

Gotta love farming!

Successful Crop Mob!!

We had an excellent group of people come out and help us prepare for the fast approaching season

We prepared the high tunnel by laying down compost to get ready to plant tomatoes!

Once the work was done, we sat down for lunch outside of the barn and had wonderful conversations under the blue skies.

Exciting Progressions in the Greenhouse!

14 varieties of bell and hot peppers. Will become 55 flats many for the Wilmington flower market

As of today: The additions to the greenhouse are 2800 tomatoes for second planting. Sunflowers. First basil. Profusion zinnias for the stand. About 130 flats at this point

Crop Mob Saturday, March 25th!

Don't forget to join us from 9:00am to 12:00pm 

Lunch included! 😁 

Come learn about farming, meet new people, and have a good time!

The garlics are coming up and getting excited for another wonderful season!!

CSA Week #10 & half way through the season!

CSA Week #10 is full of great items!!

CSA Week #10 Share Contents

 We're also half way through the season here at SIW! We've had a blast so far! We can't wait to see what the rest of the season brings!

Half way through the season!

 Stop and see us at the farmstand and grab some goodies!

CSA Week #6 & what's new!

CSA Week #6 is here! The share contents are exciting and growing with each week!

CSA Week #6

The farmstand is bustling with new items each day! We have Mexican Sour Gherkins, HG's tomatoes and corn are rolling in as well as bell peppers!! They're just coming out of the fields today!

Bell Peppers being picked in the fields!

Stay tuned on Facebook and Instagram for more updates about what's available at the farmstands!

CSA Week #5

The fields are really starting to "produce"!

CSA Week #5

We'll have HG's sweet corn until the end of summer! The tomatoes are coming along nicely as are the figs. 

The onions and garlic are in the barn curing and fresh are available at the stand. Keep an eye out on Instagram and Facebook for specials and what's hitting the stand as it's coming out of the fields. We had our first Field to Fork dinner on Wednesday night with Cocina Lolo and it was amazing! We'll have a recap of on the blog soon.

Paste tomatoes soon!

Stop by the stand and see all the beautiful produce!

Things are rolling in!

The weather has been lovely and this means the crops are bursting and coming along nicely. HG and the crew are busy tending the fields and checking on the progress of each and every crop. It looks like this week we'll have more great things on the farm stand so keep your eyes peeled for cucumbers, squash and green beans.

These beautiful snow peas are part of the CSA share this week

The share this week is pretty well rounded. You'll get some delicious fresh veggies and beautiful sunflowers to get you through the week!

CSA Week 1 Contents

We also have Styer's Peonies at the stand. You don't want to miss these beauties so stop by and grab some while we still have them!

Styer's Peonies

We're crossing our fingers for green beans to come in sooner, they're about a week from being ready to harvest. The blackberries are close, so close we can already taste them! Blackberries have a short season around here, usually lasting 5-6 weeks. Since it's a short burst, one of our favorite things to do (aside from eating blackberries fresh) is make blackberry jam! One of the easiest recipes to follow is Marissa at Food in Jars recipe for Blackberry Jam.

Blackberry Jam | Food in Jars

Don't forget to check the events calendar for upcoming events on the farm. We have the Farm Tour on June 16th, our Wild Edibles Walk on June 23rd and the Field to Fork Dinners are fast approaching. We hope to see you at the farm stand!

We're officially open for the season!

The crops on the farm are coming along slowly but surely. A few things are a little behind from the late cold, 2 week stretch of rain and then the crazy burst of heat. The weather seems to be balancing out now so we are well on our way.

Tomatoes have some good size, just waiting on them to ripen!

View of the tomatoes staked in the field

We have a lot of growth and green in the fields. We're patiently awaiting everything to ripen to be harvested. HG and the crew haven't harvested much just yet. CSA members please be patient, the good stuff is coming! This week we have garlic scapes.

Squash in the fields! A few more DAYS and it'll be the perfect size for picking!

A peek at the corn!

June begins a lot of happenings on the farm! We have the Farm Tour, Wild Edibles Walk, and then the Field to Fork Dinners begin in July! We're extremely excited to see everyone this summer!!

A scare with the cold...

An unexpected cold snap in May!

Last night called for frost and that put everyone on edge at the farm. So many varieties of vegetables have been planted in the fields already this season. HG and the team have planted tomatoes, eggplant, peas, squash, green beans and corn in the fields thus far this season.

Young pea plants in the field

A frost could mean significant lose due to frost damage. It doesn't take much cold to kill a plant depending on it's hardiness. Most of the early vegetables that we've planted aren't hardy plants. They're also still young so don't have much strength to fight against the cold. It isn't so much the cold temperatures but frost that causes the most irreversible damage. Frost is actually what can damage the plants. A light frost, like we had last night, doesn't cause as much detrimental damage as a hard frost. HG and the team took to protecting the precious vegetables in the fields. Last night they were out covering the crops with row cover to help insulate and keep the plants warmer then the outside air temp. A few degrees could make or break the harvest potential of the crops. The row cover helps keep the temperature up a few degrees to protect the plants.

Row covers on the plants in the field to protect them

Since we're talking about all these delicious vegetables, we might as well mention the CSA as well. We are still accepting enrollments in the CSA until June 1st! The CSA is a great way to plan your meals around the surprises in your share of the week. Email us at siwveggies@gmail.com for more information!

Tomato plants with blossoms

That's a wrap!

We wrapped up our second Crop Mob of the 2016 season on Saturday, April 30. We weren't sure of the weather at the the start of the morning but the sun came out and warmed us up. It turned out to be a wonderful day!

Volunteers arrive for a morning of helping at SIW!

A few tasks were added to the to do list of the day. The volunteers were split into groups and sent on their way into the fields. The first task on the list was to clean up the raspberries! The raspberry canes were trimmed and all the leftover debris needed to be removed from the rows of canes. Did you know that a raspberry plant is called a cane? 

Removing trimmings and debris from the raspberries

Another group of volunteers were sent over to the corn that had previously been planted in the field. The corn has been in the ground for a bit now. You can see the corn under it's big blanket on our Instagram feed when it was first planted. Good news, the blanket did it's job! The corn sprouted and began touching the "blanket". This means the hoops needed to be added to the rows to lift the row cover off the crops. The corn is still young yet so still needs the protection of the row cover. The volunteers did a great job of adding the hoops and recovering the corn!

The hoops are in and the cover goes back on the corn!

The last task on the list of the morning was to plant more sweet onions! The sweet onions have been in the ground for a few weeks now. Sometimes the seedlings don't take and need to be replanted. The volunteers went down the rows of onions looking for any empty holes to place a new seedling. 

Planting more Candy Onions

The tasks of the morning definitely give us an appreciation for the hard work that goes into providing the food for our tables! The tasks were completed just in time for lunch! We gathered for a group photo and then dived into a delicious lunch made by Talula's Table! A HUGE thank you to the Delaware Center for Horticulture and the volunteers that helped us!

Tomatoes, tomatoes & more tomatoes!

We have heirlooms, cherries, plums and more varieties well on their way!

(Planting heirloom tomato varieties under low tunnels in the fields)

The tomatoes are well on their way, some varieties even have flowers already! We're keeping our fingers crossed that Spring is truly here and we don't have any more cold snaps. The garlic and onions are coming along nicely as well. This all means one thing for us...

(Garlic coming along nicely in the field)

We're so close to opening day of the stand! June 1st is opening day at the stand! We're working hard to get all the veggies and flowers ready.

(Heirloom tomatoes at the stand)

We're also really excited for our Field to Fork dinners this coming summer as well. If you haven't checked out the dates yet head on over to our Events page and check them out. The next Crop Mob is on April 30th, if you're interested in volunteering for the morning at the farm, email us at siwveggies@gmail.com. We can't wait to see everyone!

Snow in April?!

The "onion snow" came and went...

The whacky weather over the past week has been interesting. A late snow like we got on this past Saturday can be known as an "onion snow". This is a term specific to Pennsylvania originating from the Pennsylvania Dutch. It refers to snowfall that occurs after the spring onions have been planted, and comes right as they are sprouting. 

(Snow covered Barn)

The forecast for this week is looking much better with lots of sunshine, warmer temps and some rain. We're going to keep trucking along with production in the greenhouse and hope the warm weather sticks around. 

(Seedlings in greenhouse)

We have a few exciting things coming up for SIW. Our next Crop Mob with the Delaware Center for Horticulture is on April 30th. If you're interested in joining the fun please email siwveggies@gmail.com. Once the work is done, we'll have lunch from Talula's Table! The dates for our Field to Fork dinners have been posted. You can find the dates, chefs, chefs and pricing here. We're also extremely excited that we're inching closer to opening day on June 1st as well as our annual Farm Tour on June 16th! If you would like to attend any of the upcoming SIW event's please email us at siwveggies@gmail.com. 

(Fields of SIW at Spring)

One last note, we still are taking sign ups for our CSA. If you are interested please email us at siwveggies@gmail.com. Enrollment will be open for a short time longer so don't miss out!

Greenhouse is "growing" strong...

The greenhouse is GREEN!

There is so much growth to report on! The first rounds of tomato plants are getting stronger, and taller by the day. Soon they'll be moved outside to get acclimated to the weather.

Jamie the resident greenhouse guru is also busy growing a plethora of starts for the Wilmington Flower Market! SIW grows starts for the Flower Market every year. Since 1921 the Wilmington Flower Market has been raising funds for a wide range of charities throughout the state of Delaware that support children. If you'd like to support a good cause and get your hands on some of the SIW starts head to their website for information on the big sale!

The fig trees are growing nicely as well as the zinnias. The stand will have shorter zinnias this year (12-18inch length stems) which will be perfect for any bouquet to decorate your home with! The sunflowers have been planted also.

The lettuces are poking their heads up as well. Making for some gorgeous color in the greenhouse. The sweet candy onions are coming along nicely, they look like chives right now!

The praying mantis have hatched and are growing. The praying mantis is used as a natural pest control method on the farm. Waiting for the nests to hatch has proven to be an event on the farm!

We're excited that Spring has arrived and can't wait to share more updates on the greenhouse and growing season's progress!