Our featured vendor this week at the Blairstown Farmers’ Market is Kimball’s Farm! Below, Kent Kimball describes his evolution from dedicated gardener to professional farmer. You can find Kimball’s Farm stand at the Blairstown Market every Saturday 10-2, through October.
“I began growing fruits and vegetables about 40 years ago following organic practices. I wanted to be able to give my children (as well as myself) the pleasure of eating directly from the garden without having to be concerned with what had been sprayed on the plants or in the soil. I began with a intensive square foot garden in Long Island NY. With each move in my life the garden that moved with me has expanded. In 1993 I moved to our farmhouse in NJ from Virginia. Three years later, I bought 6 acres of the original dairy farm and began growing vegetables and fruits for u-picking and a farm stand on a one acre garden.
Unfortunately the deer in the neighborhood decided the u-pick was meant for them. In 2003 my wife Mary convinced me to invest in deer fencing and more reliable equipment. Gradually we have transitioned to primarily growing for farmers markets and our farm stand.
We started by growing a wide mix of vegetables and varieties, with the goal of being a u-pick garden where a customer could stop and pick a week’s worth of vegetables. We grow multiple, unusual and heirloom varieties – peppers ranging from sweet to the hottest, asian greens and lettuce mixes, purple potatoes, eggplants, tomatillos, okra, peanuts and ground cherries just to name a few.
We grow using traditional methods – the way food was grown by our grandparents and before – raising vegetables and fruits as closely to nature as possible. Everything we sell at the Blairstown Market is intensively grown in our now 3 acre garden. We are not certified organic, however we feel that our practices meet and in some ways exceed the organic standards. We welcome our customers to come and visit our farm and see how we grow.
We start with organic certified seeds and add compost to our soil for fertility. Any inputs into the garden are with materials that are approved by the Organic Materials Research Institute. We do not use, spray or spread any chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides and plant our crops either directly in soil or biodegradable paper instead of plastic mulch. We rely on planting a diverse mixture of vegetables and flowers to attract beneficial insects to help contain pests.”
– Kent Kimball
Know your farmer, know your food!
