Leonard also voiced optimism about the coming autumn. “If we can, and we need to, we’re buying from great local farms nearby and selling their greens to supplement our vegetables.” “It’s just the yields aren’t quite what they usually are,” she said. And she emphasized that her farmstand still has summer vegetables like peppers, eggplants and cucumbers for sale. On the bright side, Leonard mentioned that 2023 has been “a great year for alliums” like garlic and onion. “This is my 10th growing season, so I have not been farming for that long, but of my 10 years, this is the hardest one.” “There were 6 inches of water in some of our fields,” she said. After losing some cucumbers to the May frost, she struggled in the wetness of August to produce kale, arugula, cabbage, cilantro and dill. “We’re going to need to rent an excavator and buy several truckloads of stone, so that’s certainly hard to swallow,” Leonard said.Īround the same time, Leonard’s crops - the ones outside her two high tunnels - began to show signs of distress.

The same rainstorm did, however, wash out a portion of the farm road at Head Over Fields. “We’re very happy that we did that because it allowed our farmstand not to get flooded this year.” “It was the first capital investment that we made in our new land,” she said.

Rain in late July had left its parking lot underwater. And we’re doing a lot in terms of field layout for drainage and airflow to help with drying out on these super wet and humid years.”Īt Head Over Fields on Route 7, Katie Rose Leonard expressed gratitude for recent drainage improvements at the farmstand building that she’d bought in 2020. And then we’re making sure that, in dry years, we have enough watering capacity, so increasing our pond sizes, making sure that our irrigation systems are efficient. “We’re really paying attention to soil health. “So, we’re adding high tunnels,” she went on.

Horses don t stop they keep going