Cheshire Garden: Inside a New Hampshire Fruit Farm

Connor Wall - February 24, 2019

Introduction

Like many New England fruit and vegetable farms, there lives a family: Patti and Ralph. Patti from Cheshire Garden in New Hampshire has always been gardening and growing food. She studied plant and soil science at UMass, partnered with a Fruit and Vegetables major, and began farming in Leyden, MA in 1978. As a somewhat remote farm in the middle of NH, Cheshire works privately to grow food, but mainly to “turn food into something else” —preserves to sell at farmers markets.

Patti from Cheshire Garden boiling preserves

Some of Patti’s favorite pleasures on a daily basis include the earthy aromas of the mulch combined with the scents of the flora and aroma of ripening berries.

Despite these enjoyable aspects of yearly work on a farm, it can be stressful every day. “Sometimes we never [feel] rested. There is always too much on the to-do list” The work takes the shape of planting berries and vegetables in the spring, harvesting in the summer and fall and of course maintaining the health of soil year round. This intense manual labor, getting your hands and knees dirty is largely rewarding, however the increasing inconsistency of the weather makes each day feel like a surprise and maybe just a little unreliable.

Climate Change and Daily Work

Since its founding Cheshire Garden has noticed a significant difference in weather patterns. “We’ve been here for 30 years. In 1990, the last frost would normally finish in early June (June 5) and would begin in late August early September.” Lately, the local weather have has been “consistently warmer year round” with some greater inconsistency in the spring months. This has allowed Patti and Ralph to extend the planting and harvesting seasons of some produce. ”We planted hollies because it used to be dicey growing peppers because of the frost, but now we plant peppers with more success. And most planting can be done earlier now” she explains.

While this increase in temperature may extend the planting season, it also creates a harder work environment. In the summer months, the temperature can reach into the 100s and result in a brutally tiring work day. This extra layer of stress makes work take longer than it used to because it is simply more difficult. “Sometimes it is too hot to work and we have to go inside to cool down.” As a week’s work schedule becomes interrupted by a searing hot day, it becomes "harder to complete work on time.” and the summertime becomes a more physically and mentally demanding time of year.

Climate Change and the Harvest

The changing climate has detrimental effects on the harvest in addition to working conditions. Even some of the plants “can’t handle the heat.” Peaches for example, get too warm in the spring: and do not develop correctly.

The increase in temperature makes it increasingly difficult to manage pests. There are more old and new pests like the Brown Stink Bug and the Chinese Spotted Wing Drosophila that eat berries and fruits.

Up close of a brown stink bug

In the winter months, inconsistent warm-cool temperatures disrupt natural tree growth cycles. As flower buds grow, are ready to bloom, then freeze again in a February snow storm, this back and forth warm temperature causes flowers to die in the cold and not produce the fruit they could have produced. As a result, many New England farmers have stopped producing raspberries in the fall.

Additionally, in the colder months, the soil becomes lighter, and like most farmers, if frost is predicted she mulches some of her produce such as garlic and strawberries to prepare the soil for the cold. But “it can be difficult to predict the cold with increasingly inconsistent winter weather patterns.”

The Economics of Farming

Surprisingly, many of these pests and spreading diseases are from corporate farms.“We don’t have a big greenhouse for year-round production. As a farm with a very diverse crop within plant species and types of plants, Cheshire Garden is lucky not to have been significantly hit by these pests. A tomato blight —actually from Walmart— wiped out most tomatoes in farms in New England, especially the monoculture crops.

A small local system with fertilizer like the one on Cheshire Garden is ideal because the system can sustain itself. This intimate farm allows for careful farming which is essential for quality. “We would rather see small farms run carefully than large farms controlling the food industry.” Corporate farms don’t care enough about the community interns of employees, quality of food, and especially natural surroundings.

This effect of corporate farms on local farmers brings into question the role of large farms on the greater farming community. Large farms often are made of large monoculture, so need to work much harder to keep the crops alive, using to more pesticides, which is very hard on environment. For example, they provide less expensive food, for chicken raised in horrible environments with pollution.

“The economic system of food is broken”

“We don’t pay enough for our food. People spend too much on things, but not enough for food.” People want to pay less but don’t think about its quality or the effect the food has on their health or the environment.

Corporate farms provide inexpensive food and promote a cheap food economy which breaks the economy of food, so the farmers and migrant workers who work are paid horrifically and afraid to exercise any rights they have. “The whole economic system of food is so wrong,” says Patti. Other things should be cheaper so people can spend more money for food, better food and be healthier. This lack of knowledge of where our food comes from results in an unaware population “who does not understand how to eat healthy or simply can’t because they can’t afford it.”

“We are what we eat.”

Migrant workers are often employed at larger and more streamlined farms. While Patti doesn’t see migrant workers on a day-to day basis, she has peer farms that rely on migrant work and employ farmers from Jamaica and Mexico. These farms are often larger and employ migrant workers because they can get away with paying them less for the same work than local farmers. They are paid badly, so food can be cheap. “It’s hard to compete with their prices at farmers markets when their food becomes so cheap. A lot of migrant workers are paid really poorly, so the food is so cheap, and then people like us try to pay our workers fairly but then it’s hard to compete in the market.”

“We can [compete with prices] throughout the year because we are so small and harvest every day.”

Cheshire Garden and Produce

Greater Community

Regardless, working at Cheshire is a year round commitment. Patti says, “We pick the fruit in the summer, make preserves in the winter, do bookkeeping in winter and plant again in the spring.”

Cheshire Garden

Patti and her husband Ralph go to town once a week to see people, sell produce and enjoy the farmers market scene with “tasty food and folk singers. We used to do [farmers markets] 3 times a week. 20 years ago we went to farmers markets in the Boston area.”“Farmers markets are great places to share our work with the community” and maintain a stream of income. Supporting farmers markets and farm stands is critical. Even “buying local from supermarkets is helpful, because direct sales make it or break it for small farms.”