Welcome, friends!

Over the past couple of months Brenda (my mama) and I have been working on this new project and we’re so excited to finally share it with you!

My own home garden is expanding this year, and I went a little crazy ordering all kinds of fun seeds for it. Brenda’s farm at Rocky Corner Cohousing is a bit up in the air this year as she works on land purchase and developments. She’s an exceptional seedling grower, though, so I suggested she just start all the plants that she would have at her farm and we could sell any extras.

then

boom

the idea came to her… Let’s do a seedling CSA!

The CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) model is something we are both very comfortable with, having run a vegetable CSA in Cheshire for several years. As farmers, we love to have a set idea of how much we will sell before we start all our seeds. As community members, we love that we can be connected to our customers more than a quick market stall allows.

As it turns out, seedling CSAs are the new hottest trend in direct farm to customer sales. Each one is a little different. Some of the larger greenhouses offer their patrons a set price and free reign on hundreds of seedlings. We want to offer something else.

Our style: accessible for all gardeners

We want something quite a bit smaller and more personal. We also want to offer a number of smaller options for those with smaller gardens and limited budgets. We are also very excited to focus on an educational mentorship style where we can really help new gardeners be successful.

So, here we go! We have very thoughtfully designed numerous gardens that you all can mix and match to make your garden super awesome this year. Each garden has a lot of options with in it too, so not only can you pick whether you want lettuce or bok choy, but you can pick whether you want giant yellow tomatoes or little green striped ones or the most delicious and saucy paste tomatoes. Our varieties have enough kick that even the most experienced home gardeners will definitely find something new and inspiring.

Our passion: local and naturally grown food

Most of our seeds come from small companies here in the Northeast USA, and many of our varieties are open-pollinated and heirlooms, varieties that have been passed down for generations of loving gardeners.

Our seedling mixes all come from home-made compost and local suppliers. No added chemicals or Miracle Gro. Just healthy natural minerals and organic matter. We aren’t certified organic but everything is naturally grown.

Our seedling containers are reusable plastic that we’ve been washing and reusing for years and years, or they are plastic-free soil blocks. Most of the containers you’ll be receiving your plants in are from a super cool Connecticut company called CowPots. These pots are plantable and are much more sustainable than peat products. Other pots are salvaged and reused from a local nursery.

Our seedlings all start out in our personal basements with grow lights and are moved as soon as possible to our outdoor unheated greenhouses. This means we aren’t using much electric heat or light to get your plants going. Not only does that mean we have a low carbon footprint, it’s actually better for your plants to get used to natural cycles of light and temperature fluctuation.

And last but certainly not least, I am working towards becoming a biodynamic grower. That means we are very conscious of the living landscape that we are a part of. Seeds are sown and transplanted according to moon phases (when possible), and biodynamic preparations (all natural herbs and manure ingredients) will be used starting after this year and into the next for our next year’s compost and seedling mixes.