Daffodil Hill Growers - The Vegetable Field

The Vegetable Field

Daffodil Hill Growers is a family operation with Sara, her husband Dan, her parents Dave and Kathy, sister Laura and the most recent addition her daughter Maggie. We strive to grow the tastiest, and freshest veggies around. We also carry fruit from an 8th generation orchard that has perfected the art of growing stone fruit ( apples, peaches, pears, nectarines, plums, and apricots). We also have some high school kids from Pomperaug and Nonnewaug that help out at the farm picking, washing, packing and selling at farmers' markets. Let our family feed yours and if you ever have questions please ask, we are not certified organic but use IPM methods as a means for pest control. IPM is integrated pest management, Sara and Dan scout the fields daily for pest or disease issues and if one is found we do not automatically spray. The situation is assesed and then we decide if the disease or pest threshhold is at a point where it will start to threaten the sucess of the crop and at that point we make a decision to spray. Our first choice of sprays 95% of the time is an organic one. There are times where we believe the organic choice isn't the best one, such as in our tomatoes. The organic option is copper sulfate that only has a control for 3-5 days so we need to spray 3 times the amount of an organic but still heavy metal based fungicide vs our non organic option that controls for 3 times as long. We use cover crops to attract beneficial insects to the area, we never use roundup instead we plant our rows with a cover crop of oats and clover that add nutrients to the soil and attract beneficial insects and we mow them using a field mower. Choosing organic vs. non organic is a big decision for your family, but we feel it's just as if not more important to know who is growing your food and how they do it. So please ask questions if you have them. Sara, Dan and Maggie live right next to the fields while Dave, Kathy and Laura live at the far end of the farm. We would never use anything that wasn't safe for our family or yours !

Vegetable Harvest List for 2016

Cucumbers: Slicing, pickling, and mexican sour gerkin

Summer Squash : Yellow, zucchini, zephyr, 8 ball zucchini, patty pan

Cut Flowers: Zinnia, cleome, celosia, snapdragon, gomphrena, amaranth, ageratum, blue salvia, sunflowers

Cabbage: Parel and Saratoga Storage

Fennel

Kale: curly winterbor, red russian, lacinto, red curly, and biera

Swiss Chard : food hook giant

Kohlrabi : Gran duke, winner, kossak

Broccoli: Blue wind, imperial and acadia

Tomatoes: cherokee purple, lemon boy, martha washington, bolsenelo, big beef, valencia, prudence purple, big white, cherokee green, mountain fresh

Cherry Tomatoes : tumbling tom yellow, tumbling tom red, tumbling tom stripe

Eggplant: orient charm, orient express, epic, santana

Leeks

Onions : Alisa craig, copra, sterling, red storage, walla walla

Garlic

Sugar snap peas

Peppers:aristotle, lipstick, aura and glow

Beets: Red Ace, Detriot Golden, Boro

Radishes: French Breakfast, Cheriette, easter egg, Daikon, Nero Tondo(black), watermelon

Carrots : Atlas Parisan, Royal Chantanay, Bolero, Scarlett Nantes

Turnip : American purple top, hakurei salad turnip

Lettuce: Red leaf, green leaf, salanova and romaine