High Tunnel Tour
Three Farms in Eastern New York
June 8, 2006, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm

Innovative Farmers Educate Agency Personnel and Other Farmers About the Design and Management of High Tunnels

High tunnels are greenhouse-like structures that offer farmers an inexpensive means to extend the growing and marketing seasons, intensify production, and reduce weather-related risk.  Learn how a handful of experienced farmers use these cost-effective structures to grow early tomatoes, cucumbers, salad greens, cut flowers and a wide range of fall and winter salad crops.  For the past year and a half, a Northeast SARE project, sponsored by the Regional Farm & Food Project, has been documenting how innovative farmers in four states are using high tunnels to enhance their enterprises.

On Thursday, June 8, 2006, from 10 AM until 3 PM, a free tour is offered to educate extension educators, researchers, agricultural marketers, farmers’ market managers, and other agricultural service providers as well as farmers about the real world uses and designs of high tunnels.  The tour will visit three farms in southern Washington County.  The first stop, Windflower Farm, in Easton, is 30 miles northeast of Albany, NY.  The final stop, Slack Hollow Farm, in Argyle, is 25 miles farther north, and the second farm, New Minglewood Farm, in Greenwich, is located in between.

This free tour, sponsored by the Regional Farm & Food Project and Cornell Cooperative Extension, is made possible by a grant from the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program.  A video featuring case studies of high tunnels on six farms and a high tunnel decision-making manual will be released in early summer.

A delicious catered three-course lunch will be available for $12 if you RSVP by June 5 or $15 at the tour, quantities permitting.  To make reservations, please call Carol McDonald at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rensselaer County at 518-272-4210. Or email Ted Blomgren at tab17@cornell.edu. 

Tour Itinerary:

• 10:00 - Windflower Farm
  Jan and Ted Blomgren have been growing cut flowers and vegetables in high tunnels in Easton, NY, since 2001. They operate a New York City-based CSA with about 450 member households, and they utilize their tunnels both to extend the season and to reduce weather-related risks.  In the spring they use their tunnels for cut flowers, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and early greens.  In the fall and winter they use their tunnels exclusively for salad greens.  They use a combination of structures, including 30 X 144’ tunnels made by Ledgewood Greenhouses and several home made “walk-in” tunnels measuring 15’ X 200’.  The Blomgrens learned about walk-in tunnels from a book by Eliot Coleman in which he described some of the tunnels he saw on a trip through Europe.  After years of trial and error, they have learned how to get the most from these simple tunnels. 
• 11:30 - New Minglewood Farm
  In Greenwich, NY, Chris Lincoln and his wife Tammara Van Ryn run New Minglewood Farm, an organic market garden selling at the Saratoga Farmers Market and to restaurants.  In 2005, his seventh year farming, he grossed $80,000 on his two acres of intensive vegetable production and several greenhouses and high tunnels. This will be his third year raising heirloom tomatoes in four 10 x 100 ft. high tunnels; these are temporary, low tech, low cost structures which produced yields and quality far superior to his previous outdoor crops.  He has added another one of these simple tunnels for growing early lettuce.  He uses a 14 x 92 ft. Quonset style field house he to grow baby spinach and a variety of baby greens in ground from early spring through late fall.  Come summer, with shade cloth on top, vented sides, and open ends, this high tunnel ensures better germination and weed control, slightly cooler temperatures, and easy watering.
• 12:30 - Lunch
• 1:45 - Slack Hollow Farm
  Seth Jacobs and Martha Johnson started Slack Hollow Farm in Argyle, NY twenty-five years ago.  Their markets include a local food coop and two farmers’ markets that remain open throughout the winter.  They use two high tunnels to grow salad greens for winter markets.  One of their tunnels is a 27 X 144’ Ledgewood Greenhouse.  In this structure they utilize a two-crop rotation in which they grow tomatoes from early May through early October, and spinach from mid-October through the end of April.  This structure is unheated, and ventilated by means of roll-up sides.  Seth and Martha have been growing spinach during the winter for four years, and have developed a system that works well for them.  They constructed a 30 X 144’ Rimol Greenhouse in 2004.  Unlike their first high tunnel, which they built themselves from a kit, they had this one built by professional contractors.  For ventilation, they outfitted the structure with thermostatically controlled automatic roll-up curtains and gable-end vents.  They used a heavy, 25-year fabric on the end-walls and roll-ups, and a double layer of plastic for a cover.  They also installed a heating system in which in-ground heat tubes circulate hot water to warm the soil and root zone.  They use this structure to grow an impressive variety of cold-hardy greens, along with radishes, turnips, and beets.
• 3:00 - Adjourn

Directions to Windflower Farm:

From the south (Albany).  Take 787 north to Route 7.  Take Route 7 east toward Troy.  Take Route 40 north (this is a left at second light after crossing Hudson River) for about 17 miles.  Turn right onto Meeting House Road (intersects with Route 40 about 6 miles north of the Schaghticoke Fairgrounds).  The road forks in approximately 1.5 miles.  Take the left fork onto the gravel road.  Continue to stop sign in about 1 mile.  Continue straight for another 1/4 mile to first house (blue house, #585) on left.

From the north and west (Saratoga Springs).  Take Route 29 east from Saratoga Springs to Route 40 south in Middle Falls (Greenwich).  Take 40 south for about 5 miles.  Turn left onto Meeting House Road.  The road forks in approximately 1.5 miles.  Take the left fork onto the gravel road.  Continue to stop sign in about 1 mile.  Continue straight for another 1/4 mile to first house (blue house, #585) on left.

From the east (Massachusetts Turnpike).  Take the Turnpike to Route 90 west.  Take 90 west to Albany.  In Albany, take 787 north to Route 7.  Take Route 7 east toward Troy.  Take Route 40 north (this is a left at second light after crossing Hudson River) for about 17 miles.  Turn right onto Meeting House Road (intersects with Route 40 about 6 miles north of the Schaghticoke Fairgrounds).  The road forks in approximately 1.5 miles.  Take the left fork onto the gravel road.  Continue to stop sign in about 1 mile.  Continue straight for another 1/4 mile to first house (blue house, #585) on left.