Laughing Stock Farm, Freeport, Maine

June 2003

June is when summer and harvesting starts in earnest.  We start to harvest all the short term crops like lettuce and continue planting replacements for them as well as the warm weather crops that really can't take a frost.  We typically get a good killing frost in our spot as late as the end of the first week of June, so we have to be very careful.  We continue preparing large sections of the fields, planting, and transplanting while harvesting for our CSA and wholesale accounts.  Most of these photos were taken on July 2nd and show the progress during June. 

Indoors

The indoor activities wind down to tomatoes, melons, peppers and eggplant during June.  These are the warm weather crops that don't thrive outdoors in our cool climate.

Tomatoes - We grow most of our tomatoes in the greenhouses during the summer.  The seedlings we started to set during April are up to seven feet tall by the end of June.  As you can see below, some of the cherry tomatoes are ready by the end of June, but the majority of the tomatoes will begin to come in during the first half of July.

Tomato Jungle; Almost Ready; Cherry Tomatoes Ready

Chickens - Our second batch of 100 meat birds arrived the last week of June this year.  Although I don't have a photo of them, they look just like the ones we got last month shown below.  We will be offering chicken as an extra to the CSA starting around the end of next month.

Reddish Egg Layers and White Meat Birds

Outdoors

During June the weather starts to dry up and turn warm so we don't have to be as careful about watching for rain as we do earlier in the season.  We still try to take advantage of the rain by planting seedlings the day before it will rain if possible.  We didn't have to irrigate during June this year, but we will have to during early July.

Harvesting and Washing - Farming on this scale is very labor intensive.  We have a covered area dedicated to washing, sorting, and packing.  The crew spend lots of time here during the summer.

Gail Packing; Maggie, Raina, and Kara Washing and Sorting

Seedlings - The seedlings have completed their transition from an indoor activity to a completely outdoor activity by mid June.  Although the photo's below are from May, the seedling benches look just like this during all of June.  At any given time during June and July we have from 15,000 to 25,000 seedlings in queue to replace the short season crops.

Herbs, Two Week Lettuce, Four Week Lettuce 

Field Crops - June is when the harvesting really begins.  As you'll see below the lettuce that was planted in May is ready by the end of June.  Some of the young plants like squash, mesclun, and kale are susceptible to insect damage and frost are uncovered by the end of June.  

Seedlings -

Brassicas, Lettuce Old & New

Flowers

Broccoli and Cauliflower

Bok Choi, Broccoli Raab, and Squash

Seed - Many vegetables are grown in the field from seed.  Below are photos of the status of our seeded crops.  Everything but the mesclun is planted with the Plant Jr. planters.  The mesclun is planted with a hand held precision seeder that plants the tiny lettuce and mustard seed in 6 rows 1-1/2 inches apart.  Four passes plants a 3 foot wide row as shown below. 

Beets Assortment and Chioggia

Beans Up and Coming

Greens - The greens are well established outside June.  

Mizuna, Dandelion, Mesclun Lettuce, and Mustard

Peonies - During June the peonies are cultivated, lateral buds are removed and the harvesting begins when the flowers are in "marshmallow" stage.  There is now a page dedicated to our Peonies with photos of many of the different flower shapes and colors. 

Lower Field, Flowers Cut and In The Cooler, Double Blush Flower in Bloom

Send mail to lisa@laughingstockfarm.com with questions or comments about our farm

Send to ralph@rturner.com with questions or comments about our energy project. 

Copyright 2008, Laughing Stock Farm
Last modified: February 01, 2008