Update: October 2012

Things are winding down on the farm. James the oldest grandson in the family got his first lesson in tilling the fields today! He did a great job!!! It was such a beautiful fall day too, sunny, blue sky, fall colors, and a view of the mountains! Under the row cover we have some broccoli and cauliflower still growing.

We even got a smile out of him in this one! Who doesn't love riding on the tractor right???

In house one we pulled all the cucumbers except a few experimental ones that we started way too late but decided to leave them in and see what happens. The peppers are still hanging in there and actually have blossoms forming and peppers still growing! 

These may be the only cucumbers we get from these plants, the growth has slowed way down and although they have new blossoms they are growing VERY slow!

We also have some greens growing in this house. They are loving the cool temps!!! It seems like every time you walk in here they have gotten bigger! 

House two is another story... these tomatoes have finally succcumbed to the late blight that is so rampant this year. The greenhouse protected them for quite a while but in this photo you will notice towards the top the browning and dead leaves. On closer inspection it's a mess in here!!!

We still have some good reds here and there and lots of greens too. Maybe some green tomato mincemeat is in order???

Growing Update

The growing has begun in the high tunnels! We have cukes and tomatoes already planted and will be adding peppers and eggplant soon. You can see our soon to be farm stand off in the background, it needs quite a makeover but will be so cute when finished!

 We had some very frosty nights as you can see from this photo of Mt. Washington bright white and covered with snow. It was such a contrast from the greenery and blooming flowers down here in the valley.

Some End of Season Photo's

 Gardens are all cleaned up and tilled, we will be adding manure and other soil amendments to help with the mineral deficiencies in our soil as we have the time. We are thankful to have this first growing season under our belts so that we can learn from it and improve next year!

This photo is looking at the outside garden and house #1.

  Inside house #1 we have our parsnip bed still intact. Hoping the ground will freeze enough on the outside edge to give us sweet and delicious parsnips in the spring!

 Standing in front of house #2 and looking towards the pond you can see a freshly tilled addition to our rhubarb patch. Beyond that is a large patch that was tilled to help out with a crop being tested by another farm. Along the edge of that same bed we added about 50 strawberry plants and lots of garlic.

 A beautiful fall evening! This is a view from the back of house #1 looking towards the bee hives and Mt. Washington in the background.

Why Grand View?

Guessing our ancestors had a much better "Grand View" when they named this farm than we do now. There are so many trees that have grown up since then, but it's still pretty beautiful! Especially with a nice sunset for a backdrop!

Here is our view of Mt. Washington:

Moat Mt.

Mt. Kearsarge

Carter Notch

UPDATE:
Here is another of Mt. Washington all covered in snow behind the bee hives.