Circle M Farm

The winter’s most important, time-consuming and thrilling project here on the farm has been the construction of our greenhouse.

Last spring, we began discussions about erecting a plastic film hoophouse or some other sort of greenhouse structure to give a head start to the thousands of plants we grow up in flats before transferring to the garden. For several years we’ve housed all of these plants on shelves under growlights in our guest bedroom and mudroom. Last year, neighbor friends gave us a small pop-up greenhouse that bought us a little more space for things that were big enough to move out of the warmth of the house. And we also had a row of cold-frames that held those plants that were just about strong enough to go in the ground unprotected. But by March it was quite clear that we couldn’t grow the CSA program beyond 35 families unless we took the leap to a permanent, heated greenhouse for this year.

As the season progressed, we studied catalogs, books and hundreds of designs on the web and evaluated them for cost, functionality, energy efficiency and good looks. Just when we’d resigned ourselves to putting up a rather sterile-looking plastic-and-metal-tubing hoophouse, we came across 20 old mullioned windows, painted red, at a garage sale for $1 each. Working with the dimensions of the windows, we decided we could design a pretty wood and glass greenhouse for cheaper than a hoophouse kit of the same size.

Of course, we were very wrong. The beautiful greenhouse we ended up building cost way more than a little hoop, but we couldn’t be more pleased with the distinction it lends to the front entrance of the farm!

Not quite finished yet, but ready to grow… This summer Shan will side it with the same grey-stained cedar with which we are siding the house. Inside, we are currently working on getting up wood tongue-and-groove paneling which will be painted white to reflect even more light back onto the plants. I’m lobbying for a hot tub in there!

We are confident that it will be a joy to work in, as well. In fact, it already is! This weekend Shan finished up filling the spaces between studs with insulation, while I set up a temporary potting table and seeded 900 leeks and onions. The cute little propane heater kept us cozy even after the sun went down – and yeah, we’ve got lights in there, so we kept on working. With a Dylan-loaded mp3 player hooked up to old computer speakers and a tin picnic basket loaded with hot chocolate, coffee cake and cashews, we felt like we were on a rock-n-roll vacation at an English estate. We are very very very lucky.

The greenhouse, in addition to looking great and being a fabulous place to get some sun in the winter, will enable us to more than double the amount of crops we grow here on the farm. More than half of the vegetables we provide to our customers require a jump on the growing season – everything from head lettuce to onions to pumpkins yields better when given the opportunity to germinate and grow several inches in the greenhouse a few weeks before the weather warms enough for the seeds to sprout outside. With the construction of the greenhouse this winter and the walk-in cooler last spring, we’ve dramatically increased our ability to produce and store vegetables. We plan to grow the CSA membership to 50 families this year, and to continue growing for several years without having to add any more infrastructure.

We will have to add more garden plots, however. And thanks to the pasture animals which have been living in, pooping on and generally improving our fields for several years, we’ve got lots of healthy land available and ready to put into production. (see Eliot Coleman’s excellent article in a recent Time magazine on how animals can improve depleted land.) We are endlessly grateful for the almost entirely flat 10 acres that are the working portion of the homestead near to the house. We are grateful for so many things about this place! And we are ready to grow.