On Thursday I visited Blenheim Farm in Washington’s Birthplace. Blenheim is certified organic and splits their CSA and Farmer’s Market time between Williamsburg and Washington DC. The farm is run by Lawrence and Becky.
Lawrence and Becky in the green house
In the green house, Becky was transplanting parsley to larger trays and preparing cabbage and lettuce to plant in the field.
Transplanting parsley to larger growing trays
Planting cabbage and lettuce
The planting is completed by two planters riding on a planting machine that creates a hole in the ground and saturates that particular spot with a mixture of water and fertilizer. The image on the right shows how water is only placed exactly where it is needed to reduce waste.
Also note Blenheim Farm’s unofficial mascot that rides on the tractor.
Lawrence tilled a field of Elephant Garlic to remove all of the weeds. For this task he uses a tractor from the 1950s that he purchased on the side of the road.
The tractor is still in use because it is perfectly designed for tilling (for example look at how the tractor engine is offset so that Lawrence can easily see the row he is tilling).
Becky had recently started raising honey bees. She has not yet acquired the proper machines for seperating the honey from the hives, so it is currently a messy business:
And lastly, some asparagus, since it is that time of year:
To learn more about Blenheim farm, visit:
