Welcome to Mary Margaret's Blog

I did not grow up farming. Not even close! (Suburb outside of Austin, Texas)

I had no idea what “harden off” meant as a kid until I started working on a vegetable farm in my early 20's.

Now that I've run my own organic vegetable farm with my husband for over 15 years, I do know a thing or two about …

Have you ever been stuck inside cooking for your family when you'd rather be outside enjoying the weather, gardening, or playing with your kids or grandkids?

That's happened to me and here's an important part of how I tackle and overcome it without sacrificing serving good food.

I serve home cooked food exclusively at our house, heavy on the veggies, of course!

Yet, I spend very little time in the kitchen, relatively.

I don't run to the …

Do you have plans to do a garden this year?

I imagine that your memories of last year's gardening season are still in your mind as you plan for another year.

With record rainfall in 2023, I have heard from so many home gardeners (and farmers) that it was a hard garden year with big disappointments.

And as you well know, gardening is hard work. It's one of the most satisfying things you do, and …

One of the most used veggies at our house is a humble one.  

It is borne out of the earth with dirt clumped on it's roots and smeared on it's skin. It's pungent, even smelly at times, and not really one you eat straight out of the garden.

But none the less, it's just about the most used vegetable at our house!

Clue: I think it even competes with carrots!

Can you guess?

Yes!

Onions …

As the colder weather and darker days set on, you're already dreaming of spring, right?  Of course!

And of all things greeeeeen!!! 

Well...

If you love garden fresh taste, and can't wait for green things to start growing before your garden gets going or your Summer CSA starts, we can help!

Join our Spring CSA, and we’ll set aside part of our early spring greens harvests combined with the sweetest …

That's right. Lay your fears and disappointment aside. It's not too late to plant garlic.

In fact we feel good if we're getting ours in by the end of October.

To be honest, the fall harvest season on our farm is so busy that some years it's well into November before we get our garlic planted!

So, yes, you can still plant garlic now!

Because garlic is so …

Despite this warm summery weather, with October upon us we are decidedly headed towards winter here in Central Maine.

Booooo, I hear from the crowds...

And that means bye, bye to most of our favorite garden stuff like tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, basil, lettuces, and more.

It also means hello to the hearty fruits of our labors that will carry us on through the fall and winter.

You know what I'm talking about:

The stuff with …

It’s warm August and you’re spending time in the lake, in the kayak, and outside picking berries… Winter is the furthest thing from your mind.

Everywhere you go, people are talking about the humidity--and this year, the rain. You join in, but you have a nagging feeling in the back of your mind reminding you that soon things will change. Soon enough we’ll all be complaining about the cold and snow.

Late August and early …

Tomatoes are one of our favorite veggies to grow AND one of our most popular seedling and veggie order items.

There is nothing quite like harvesting a tomato fresh off the vine and taking a bite.

Warm, sweet, and savory, and nothing beats it. Mmmm...I just can't wait until the fruits are here again! I bet you can't either.

But how to take care of your plants for best success?

Enough waxing on …

The fact about gardening and farming is that the weather is everything. Right?

The fact about the weather is that it is fickle. Always changing.

And the fact about this season is that we've had some not so favorable conditions for gardening the past couple of weeks.

Thursday we assessed the “damage” on our winter squash crop that we seeded right before the downturn in the warm weather.

It wasn't as depressing as we thought …