Gong Garden

The most difficult part of the CSA for us is telling you the shareholders when some sowed seeds failed to germinate or we had a crop failure due to insects, rodents, deer or weather.
The labor we don't mind. The anxiety we thrive on. The preparation we enjoy.
We never claim to be master gardeners. We do claiim to have a little experience and to try our best.

Out of the three gardens we grow your veggies on, one has taken a big hit from moisture stress. The six inches and more of rain we received in the first two weeks of August have stressed out the garden north of the grapes on Webster Rd. The lower two gardens are on a sl;ight slope which was enough to let water flow and the plants stayed healthy, well somewhat, some of them.  read more »

A storm went through the gardens last night. We had a strong wind and hail as large as marbles and then the size of peas.
This morning we saw the damage .... a half dozen green pepper plants blown over, some tomato plants also. The leaves on most plants look like old shredded prayer plags. The new crop of Swiss Chard is destroyed, the squash leaves shredded and sad looking.

More rain also. So wet this season. Yesterday, Saturday, we spent the day pulling up most of the onions because they were getting soggy in the fields. Hope this saved them. We have stored them in our neighbors barn on an old flat bed. We also pulled all of the garlic, bundled them and hung them on the beams of the distribution stand to dry and cure.  read more »

The 8th distribution day included the first yellow squash of the season, blue scotch and lacinato kale, edible pod peas, beet greens, kohlrabi and scallions.

We're very busy right now and getting to the internet has not been a priority.

Our 6th distribution included a pound of lettuces, more than a pound of Kale, a pound of Mizuna greens, a bunch of dill and red amaranth.
Greens greens greeens! We grow them and hope you like them!

With the wet weather comes tons of weeds.
We need some hot sun for the eggplants, peppers and toms. Everything esle is enjoying this weather.

Keep coming up to the farm on Thursdays for your shares and thank you all!

June 5th was our third distribution day.
Included were various lettuce, spinach, mustard greens, tat soi, radishes, arugula and some red amaranth leaves. Each share received over three pounds of green veggies. Good eating.

The second distribution day included lettuce, radishes, arugula, mustard, bok choi & tat soi.

We will probably stop growing the white icicle radish as they are a bit too spicy.

Garden Update
We finally have a temporary fence up on the new garden site and started transplanting cabbage, brussels sproouts, broccoli raab. The potaoes and leeks are up there also.

On the other garden we transplanted 350 sweet pepper plants into black plastic. We also planted pole beans along the fence line.
Other transplants were onons, lettuces.

We weeded the beet row and also the swiss chard row.  read more »

We had our first distribution day on Thursday May 22nd.
There were radishes: French Breakfast, White Icicle and Cherry Belles. Spinach, and different greens: Arugula, Southern Curly Mustard, Chinese Mustard, & Mizuna.

Over the weekend we planted potatoes: Yukon Golds, Red Pontiac, Kennebuck, Purple and yellow fingerlings.
Transplanted broccoli, cabbage & broccoli raab. They will get covered with the agribond white cloth this afternoon.
We made seedballs of sunflowers and nasturtiums and put those out.
We transplanted the cilantro and we'll keep it covered at night.
We thought about putting the green peppers and eggplants out in the black plastic but decided against it. Good thing, it will be in the thirties tonight.  read more »

Ah .... rain. finally. Flowers seem to pop out of the ground overnight and grow six inches.

Now we hope it doesn't snow again. Because this is western New York!

We have put in the soil more than 4000 onions plants and 1200 leek plants.
Also a hundred onion bulbs and four pounds of shallots.

Transplanted 10 flats of Kale. We have three types of Kale, Blue Scotch curly leaf, Winterbor, Redbor which is a red curly leaf, and Dinosaur which is a dark green bumpy leaf. That's more than 400 kale plants.

Also transplanted are flats of lettuce: buttercrunch, oak leaf, and red sails.

Growing from seed under row covers are spinach and radish, mizuna, mustard, aragula, & bok choi.

Also, beds have been seeded with Swiss Chard and Beets.  read more »

Some weather, eh? 87 degrees mid April.

The greenhouse is full with flats of Broccoli, Cabbage, Kohlrabi, Brussels Sprouts, Kale, all growing vigorously.

The starting room is jam packed full with Tomatoes and Peppers under lights.

We are having a slow start this year with Eggplant. Can not figure out why. Started more flats today again to germinate.

Peas have been in the field for over a week. Spinach and radish are also coming up, radish already thinned once.

Stop by. Take a look anytime. Feel Free to look into the Greenhouse and at the fields. It's your food.

Art has been plowing the fields. We've been busy putting up new and old fencing. Art is making more compost piles with the loads of leaves and wood chips we get from the village.

Trees are budding. We are a couple of weeks behind downtown Fredonia. Daffodils are up. Yellow.

HI Everyone,
We've tried to get everyone registered on the site. Please let us know of any difficulties.

We hope this site is more interactive. It certainly looks better!

As of March 28, 2008, Gong Garden Farm CSA has filled all the shareholders openings. Thank you for your interest. Please visit our website at www.gonggarden.com in January 2009 for next year's registration form.

Please send us your questions using our online contact form!