My very old culimulcher is sporting new plow shears and a new handle to raise and lower the bar. Looking pretty snazzy, eh? Thanks to my husband for taking the old pieces off and putting these on. There was only one cut finger and a few cus words along the way, haha!
A rainy day spent in the greenhouse planting your food! A day of pleasure for me.
We’re growing!!! Our newly covered greenhouse with its new heater is working well!
It is important to us that you, the consumer of our produce, know about our growing practices - transparency is the goal. Read on for a review!
Sustainability of our soil, water and economic viability of our farm is our focus. All vegetables except corn are grown with no synthetic pesticides. We are able to do things like plant multiple successions, use row cover, beneficial insects and biologicals to stay ahead of pests and diseases on these crops.
Sweet corn is a tough crop to grow. Just like you and me, worms love a good ear of sweet corn and we find that consumers are not tolerant of finding some extra protein (worm) in their ear of corn, plus consumers aren’t fans of genetically modified corn which could mitigate this worm problem. Thus, we need to stay ahead of the pest problems by using sprays. Please be assured that we use integrated pest management (IPM), which means that we scout for and identify the pest and treat only when a threshold is overcome. In addition to that, we are judicious in choosing what and when to apply - we want the least impact on bees, beneficial insects, our soil and waters.
Our investment in our small fruits is substantial. We can’t afford to lose these plantings and at this point in time total organic methods are not amenable to this. We do use organic sprays on our berries, but will not limit ourselves to organic-only sprays if a pest threatens to cause crop loss.
Overall, we are just trying to do the right thing -bring a fresh, high quality, nutrient dense product to our customer that was grown using methods that cause the least impact to our environment and economic viability to our farm.
In the 2021 season, you can find Blue Barn Farm's fresh produce and berries here:
Our on-farm market, open daily 9-6 beginning in May.
Hollidaysburg Farmer's Market, Tuesdays 11-2.
Altoona Curve Farmers Market, Wednesdays 11-2.
Altoona Farmers Market, Thursdays 9-2 beginning in July.
Our Pick-Your-Own berries will be available at the end of June. Follow us for updates!