SEEDLINGS 2024
IT'S ON! BUT WITH SOME CHANGES--STAY TUNED
THINGS HAVE BEEN AWFULLY QUIET...IS IT ON FOR 2024?
In a word: yes, there wlll be seedlings in 2024. Please stay tuned for details and some exciting changes!
FALL INTO YOUR FALL GARDEN NOW
Crisp kales, lettuces, collards, glorious Swiss chard, all manner of fall-hardy starts + patio pots available at my spot at the North Plain Farm store and at the Berkshire Coop.
MOTHER'S DAY WEEKEND UPDATE + PLANTS FOR SALE
SIX MORE WEEKS OF WINTER, BUT...
2/9/23
Whether or not Punxatawney Phil sees his shadow on Groundhog Day, every year around this time, my internal clock starts gearing up for the gear-up to planting, as I said to a friend yesterday. Gearing up for the gear-up means making my way through the long pre-season "to do" list: right now I'm working on updating the list of plants for 2023. It's always fun to try a few new varieties while keeping our core list of reliable producers. Make new friends, but keep the old...stay tuned!
AUGUST SHOWERS BRING FALL 🥦🥦🥦
PLAN FOR YOUR FALL HARVEST DURING THESE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER...
Is there a hole in your garden where your garlic once was? Stop by my seedling spot at North Plain Farm or The Berkshire Coop to replenish and restock your garden for fall. Read here about how much I love summer, how much I dread fall, but how glad I am that we can keep eating from our gardens until the snow flies. :)
STOP BY THE FARM AND SEE WHAT'S NEW FOR YOUR MID-SUMMER GARDEN!
Edible flowers are beautiful, bring beneficial insects to our gardens, and dress up all our summer food and drinks with style. Come get yours--plants ready to go in the ground where your spring lettuces once were, or pots for your front steps or patios. We've also got mid-summer lettuces, cukes (pickling and slicing), beans, and herbs.
And in addition to the North Plain Farm store and the Berkshire Coop, you can now find selected Farm Girl plants at the Mill River General Store and Marjoram & Roux!
Read here about how marigolds protect tomatoes and an update from the farm.
May 19 UPDATE FOR SEEDLING PRE-ORDER CUSTOMERS
Read update on seedling pick up here.
May 13, 2022 WHAT'S UP WITH THE EGGPLANT AND PEPPERS??
There's no greater cliche than "patience is a gardener's best friend." I feel that I have explored the outer limits of that truism this spring, when it comes to a prolonged multi-episode battle with rodents we've been waging in the greenhouse. Long (really long) story short, those [expletive]s took out all of my eggplant, pepper, and sunflower flats, along with selected tomato flats (no accounting for taste!) in one ill-fated weekend. It's one thing for them to knock out a bunch of fast germinating plants like cucumbers or squash, but it is a setback of a different magnitude when they snack on those sleepyhead nightshades. I took a deep breath, exhaled expletives, and began to resow. As those new flats began to sprout, boom, boom, boom, and boom, chewed down, chewed down, chewed down, chewed down. We intensified and diversified our, shall we say, disincentivizing strategies, until (dare I think it? dare I say it?) these plant predators finally moved on. I re-resowed everything and sprinkled the Farm Girl Fairy Dust™️ to speed things along, but, as I often tell my four year old, I can't turn back time, and as the time to distribute pre-orders nears, we're short on most items in the pepper group and the whole eggplant class is way behind. I'll be in touch with folks individually about how this affects your orders. The good news is that we seem to be free and clear now, and everything else is moving along apace.
April 21, 2022
Greetings from the bustling greenhouse! Read more here.
March 21, 2022
Happy First Day of Spring! We're all ready to take orders for late spring pickup. Read more here.
Happy Spring from Farm Girl Farm: Ready for Orders! 🌱
February 3, 2022
Click here for my latest update...
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January 18, 2022
Dear readers--IT'S ON!
I've been doing the winter hibernation-behind-the-scenes-work thing, and suddenly it's just a Groundhog Day away from GO TIME! I'm updating the website and getting ready for you. Have no fear--2022 seedlings are DEFINITELY a thing. :)
Stay tuned--
Laura
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August 9, 2021
Or, as my dear friend Ian's mother likes to say, "Get a fresh one." Don't shoot the messenger, I'm just telling it like it is--we are heading for fall. It is inevitable, despite our most valiant efforts to hang on to summer. If you are like me, you DO try to hang on to summer--Addie and I continue to go to the lake and swim well into September and a little of October, we keep staying up too late, and we keep those sundresses and bare feet at the ready.
But my FAVORITE and surefire way to hang on to summer is to plant stuff in August that we can eat in September, October, November and sometimes even December. In our back yard, we just pulled our garlic and are throwing in some fall peas, fall beans, lots of spinach, lettuce, and arugula, another round of kale, swiss and collards, and some carrots, turnips, and radishes.
This season, the rain robbed many of us of the satisfaction of great first-part-of-the-summer harvest. But now we have a second chance--we're into drier weather and there is still plenty of long sun. If you want to join me in hanging on to summer and keeping the most nutritious food coming your way this fall, stop by and pick up some fresh starts at our display at North Plain Farm or at the Berkshire Coop.
I've also got lots of fun stuff on the half priced tables--marigolds, zinnias, sunflowers, cosmos, and various weather-worn vegetable starts that still have lots of life in them.
Happy planting!
--Laura
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June 30, 2021
This week, through the July 4th holiday weekend, all tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, hot peppers, summer squash & zucchini, and winter squash & pumpkins are HALF PRICE. Great news for the garden procrastinators out there. :) We're clearing the tables so we can stock up on stuff you can plant in several successions through the season-- like lettuces, beets, herbs, carrots, spinaches, cukes, summer squash & zucchini, and more.
ALSO through the holiday weekend, 15% of sales will go to support the Farm & Garden program at Berkshire Waldorf School. Let's help raise some more fans of Mother Earth!
Last week, to commemorate Juneteenth, we collected 15% of sales to send to Soul Fire Farm in support of their excellent anti-racism work focusing on the food system. Their work is so inspiring to me. Check out their website if you have a moment.
I can still take online orders but be advised that many season-specific items are not currently available and I haven't had a moment to do the deep dive update. Feel free to give it a shot--I'll let you know if we don't have just what you're looking for.
Thanks to you all for shopping local and supporting local agricultural (ad)ventures. :)
--Laura
May 30, 2021
Quick update: We're all set up for you in the Farm Girl Farm seedling sale area @ North Plain Farm (adjacent to the Farm Store). Stop by dawn til dusk 7 days a week to shop seedlings. I'm still bringing a few new things up front--feel free to get in touch if you're looking for something you don't see there.
Pre-order customers are picking up now (you will be contacted individually for your date). Online ordering is still open.
Selected plants also available at The Berkshire Co-op in Great Barrington.
May 16, 2021
Click here for a recent update I sent to current seedling customers about where, when, and how to get your seedlings! Read this if you've purchased seedlings and want to know when you can get them, or if you're decided whether to order online.
March, 2021
As winter and spring fight it out for center stage (spoiler alert: spring wins), I'm getting the first seeds into soil, wrapping up all my winter projects so I can give the greenhouse my undivided attention, and busily updating the list of available seedlings so you can dream your garden into reality.
Returning customers know that 2020 was a seedling season of unprecedented challenges and unprecedented joy--the fruits of our labor were munched and crunched not only in your gardens but in healthy food priority gardens as far away as Boston. We could not have dreamed of more community support and I daresay the seedlings felt the love and duly did their best for all of us.
Here's to another season of shining beauty and abundance started here and grown by you. This is something we can do!
--Laura
PS Ah yes, "Where's Sophie?" She is now in school full time, not officially involved in the seedlings this season--but you may yet see her face at NPF pitching in around the farm.
DIDN'T YOU GUYS USED TO DO A CSA? YES, THAT WAS US, THAT WAS BEFORE.
April, 2020
Laura has been scratching around in the soil here in the Berkshires since 2003, when she founded Farm Girl Farm, growing vegetables for a CSA, local shops, and for the incredibly talented and passionate chefs in Berkshire County.
She developed a robust seedling program at Farm Girl Farm, delighting in tales of her customer’s amazing yields all season long!
But then! All that was put on hold when she turned her attention full-time to growing another little sprout—her baby, Adeline!
Loyal customers of FGF anticipated the return of their favorite Farm Girls in 2021. But in light of the current extraordinary circumstances, Laura realized there was a big big need in the community that FGF could fill. So her first call was to Sophie.
Sophie discovered she had the gift of growing as she found herself bringing millions of plants to life in the propagation greenhouse at FGF during a one-year break from college. Entirely smitten by tiny plant life, she put off school for another season and another. Now slated to return to her studies in fall 2020, she couldn’t resist putting her Carhartts back on and working one more greenhouse miracle to make a universe of plants for this community.
And here’s where our friends came in. Sean and Tess of North Plain Farm said a quick yes to hosting FGF again. Eric Brenner woke up the website, pronto. A lifelong friend chipped in for some potting soil. Jeremy and Kyle built a beautiful new seeding bench in no time flat. And so, Farm Girl Seedlings 2020 was born with a speedy delivery!
We just could not NOT do it. To be sure, it has been a challenge to jump into the greenhouse so close to growing season. With seed scarcity, shipping delays, and a cold slow spring, (not to mention social distancing logistics and a toddler in tow) we are dancing the crazy dance. But we’re doing it. Because now more than ever, the bottom line is as it has always been: putting seeds in soil means putting food on tables. And if we were not putting seeds in soil, neither of us would be able to sleep at night.
From reducing food insecurity, to providing a path to personal and environmental renewal—it is our honor to be part of your efforts in this uncertain time.
Sincerely, Laura and Sophie