Well its time to get out there and garden!!  The world has really greened up lately and everything is blooming.  To me spring is such a celebration of life.  Its so nice to see the trees blooming and the bees out, and the baby ducks crossing the road!  I’m so glad that spring always comes around.  What a light at the end of winters tunnel.

At Griggs Farm we are really prepared for this years vegetable gardening season.  We have many varieties of tomatoes, peppers and eggplant.   I wanted to publish the list of our most popular veggies.  We do however have a lot more plants such as lettuce, broccoli and and so much more. I haven’t even started with the flowers.  In any case here is a sampling of our veggie varieties!

Eggplant

 

Galine –New last year! Very glossy black fruit with green calyx.
Classic Italian bell shape, 6″ x 3″. Early, firm fruit on strong plants.

 

Beatrice –classic shape violet color-

 

Epic –classic purple-tapered elegant shape. Sets well and early under various conditions for reliably good yields. Strong upright plant, usually around 36″.

 

Ghostbuster –white-Novel, shiny white skin. Tender skin and sweeter flesh than most.

 

Irene –classic purple-This traditional egg-shaped, purple black eggplant sets heavily,

Producing medium-sized firm fruit.

 

Mangan New last year! Tender, excellent quality Japanese type.
Glossy and very dark purple fruit, avg. 4″ x 1 1/2″. High yielding and early. Great for cooking and pickling. Purple calyx

 

Slim Purple Productive, early and beautiful long slender Asian eggplant with a light purple (not purple black) color. The stem/ calyx is purple with green shading.

 

Ichiban II

 

Dairyu (Japanese slender) Not only is it early, but it will produce over a long season. 7″ - 10″ long fruit is nearly black with matching sepals. Fruit shape is long and thin with a slight pot-belly.

 

Megal -Green calyx, long slender Italian type, 7 - 9″ long, 3″ diameter fruits.

 

Orient ExpressAttractive, slender, 8-10″, glossy black fruits in the long Oriental style. Ready up to 2 weeks before other early varieties, it features an ability to set fruit in cool weather as well as under heat stress.

Fairytale –Mini eggplant-

 

Hansel New! Solid purple mini eggplant.
2008 AAS winner! Start harvesting the abundant fruits when they are only 3-4″ long. The compact, 25-36″, plants produce the tender, dark purple fruit in clusters for easy harvesting. Hansel is non-bitter and perfect for grilling or slicing thin onto pizza

 

Gretel New! Solid white mini eggplant.
2009 AAS winner! Loads of mini, white-skinned eggplant drip from the branches of this compact plant. The tender, bitter-free fruits should be harvested beginning when they are 3-4″ long.

 

Raveena- New! Light green, cylindrical fruits.
Raveena is a heavy yielder on very vigorous plants. The fruit can be harvested anywhere from 3″ to 9″ and, as an added bonus, can be harvested in clusters.

 

Turkish Orange -A unique, brilliant orange fruit, sweet and fragrant when freshly cut. Best eaten once fruits are tennis ball-sized or when slightly orange with green striping. Also great when stuffed. Vigorous bush bears 15-25 fruits per plant.

Sweet Peppers 17

 

Bianca –white bell –

King Arthur –heat tolerant green bell-

Red night X3R

Early sensation –yellow bell-

Yellow Bell II

Yankee Bell

Mr. Bell

Lantern –Green Bell ripe to red-

Italia

Carmen

Round of Hungary -cheese pepper-

Super red pimento

Pimento Perfection

Topeporossa –Small red cherry cheese pepper-

Aruba –cubanelle type-

Cubanelle

Zavory –sweet chinenis-

 

Hot Peppers 20

 

Devil Serano

Portugal Hot

Jalapeno Tam Mild

Jalapeno el rey

Jalapano Santiago

Super Chili

Kung Pow (Thai Hot)

Cherry Bomb

KukuKlan Habanero

Habanero Red (Caribbean Red)

Jamaican Yellow (Scotch Bonnet)

Poblano Sanardo

Tiburon

Golden Heat –long thin cayenne-

Inferno -Hungarian wax, hot banana

Garden Salsa (Anaheim)

Mesilla (long fat Cayenne)

Black Pearl –ornamental hot-

Calico –ornamental hot-

Paprika Supreme

 

Total Peppers 37

Red Tomatoes 12

 

Mountain Fresh Plus

Mountain Spring

Sunbrite

JTO99197 Early Blight Resistant

SunCheif

Fabulous

Jetstar

Early Girl

New Girl

Big Beef

Beef Master

First Lady

 

Grape Tomatoes 7

Tami G

Sweet Olive

Juliet

Moby Grape

Golden Rave –yellow grape large-

Golden Sweet –yellow grape-

Golden Sunshine –yellow grape-

 

Cherry Tomatoes 5

Super Sweet 100

Sweet Baby Girl

Sun Cherry

Sun Gold

Amarillo –yellow cherry-

 

Plum Tomatoes 4

Mariana

San Marizano

Health kick

Speckled Roman

Heirloom Tomatoes 13

 

Big Rainbow

Black Prince

Piriform

Striped German

Green Zebra

Wonder light

Cherokee Purple

Rose

Brandywine

Pineapple

Persimmon

Grandmas Pick

Grandmas Garden

 

Yellow Tomato 1

 

Carolina Gold

 

 

Total Varieties 42

 

 

I am so excited to tell you that we will be opening on April 1st at 8am!  We have been working in the greenhouses since February 1st planting to get ready. We will be having lots of pansies and bulbs.  We also have this really nice new flower called wall flower, and boy does it have a nice scent!  I hope you will come by and check us out.  Our greenhouses are bursting with spring and I cant wait till you see it!!

Our fall festival was going to be held on September 27th from 10-3, but due to the rain it is going to be held on October 4th from 10-3.  We will be having tractor rides, apple picking, pumpkin picking and painting.  Also Judy from Alpine Angels will be bringing her goats and her goat soap.  Hopefully mother nature will cooperate with us this time!  Sure is a great way to experience New England’s fall season!

Comming up this Saturday August 16th from 11-2 is the annual Griggs Farm Corn Boil. We will be cooking up our corn for you to sample. We will have tractor rides going on which will give you a nice tour of the farm. We will also be having kids activies.

Bring the whole family down to Griggs and enjoy this harvest season on your local farm and see whats growing!

Coming up on June 21st is our second annual Farm Day! It will be from 10am-4pm. We will be having tractor rides, as well as kids activities such as face painting and plant a plant. We are also going to have our local beekeeper in to show us his bees. Last year is was a ton of fun! Its free and open to everyone! Hope you can make it!

Thought I would just let you know about some of the features of our website, now that you have found it! First is the news section, I will be creating periodic updates about the crops that are ready now, or events that are happening. We also have a newsletter sign up on the main page of the site. Be sure to sign up to receive emails from Griggs Farm every so often when we have something exciting going on, like the corn is ready! Also check out the calendar which we will be posting events here on the farm and also in the community. If you have an event that you want to list, send a message through the site and I can post it. Keep checking the site to see what is happening here on the farm!

As far as gardening goes at the moment, its almost time to plant your tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers outside. May 30th is of course not only traditional planting date, but the safe time too. After that we will hopefully not get cold enough weather to damage those plants! However you can plant lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, onions now. They like the cold weather.

On the flowering side of things there are plenty of plants that it is safe to put out now, and just a few to be careful on. It can still get to cold at night for impatiens, begonias, dahlias and a few others. However, there are plenty of flowering plants that can go out now with no fear of the weather. It won’t be too much longer when you can plant it all and then sit back and enjoy it!

Thanks for checking and be sure to come back! Happy gardening!

Thought I would leave you with picture I took on May 8th. Its our apple trees in flower. What a sight! Enjoy!