Welcome to Baby Greens al Fresco

This holiday season, please consider giving a Baby Greens Home Delivery gift certificate to a friend or family member. You can choose the entire Al Fresco package, which includes an 8 oz bag of our winter salad mix, Olga's artisan bread and Westfield Farm's goat cheese, delivered once a week for 10 weeks, or you can customize your gift (see below)*. Either way, you will be helping to support our farm while providing a light, healthy meal to the recipients of your gift.

We are currently delivering to the following areas in RI: Providence's East Side, Edgewood/Pawtuxet, West Barrington, Wakefield, Narragansett and Wickford.

*To customize your gift, choose any of the following:
full share of salad (8 oz) $75.00
half share of salad (4 oz) $40.00
organic goat cheese (5oz) $70.00 or $35.00 every other week
Olga's bread (12 oz.) $30.00

Holiday Special! weekly half share of salad plus Olga's bread, and goat cheese every other week for ten weeks - $100.00

You may be thinking, "This sounds great, but how do I get started?" It's easy. Simply email babygreensri@cox.net and list the items you would like to include in each gift certificate, along with the name, address and email address of the recipients. We will deliver your gift certificates to you on or around December 15.

If you are already a subscriber, thanks for all of your encouragement and support throughout this interesting year. If you would like to become a subscriber, simply to follow the gift certificate instructions, but list your own name, address and email. We will be in touch right away to start your subscription.

Wk 34 The Backside of Summer

The Backside of summer brings the onrush of shorter daylight hours as we approach the Autumn equinox on Sept. 22nd/wk 38. Mid Aug. deceives the salad grower in believing these endless dog days are only for frantically keeping up with the summer restaurant sales in Newport. Not so. Much planning and preparation must begin now if salad production is to continue through the next three seasons. Little if any seeding is possible after Mid Oct./ wk 42 when soil temperatures dip into the 50s and daylight hours begin to diminish to the 10 hr/day mark. All seeding done between mid Aug and early Oct. will provide continuous harvests through mid. Mar. and on to Mother's Day when all cold season salad is finished. Now is the time to seed cold tolerant greens such as spinach, mustard, cutting celery, chervil, beet greens, upland cress, claytonia, wild arugula, and endive. Most of the lettuces that dominate the warm season blend will fall away as the season of ice advances. By Thanksgiving/wk 48 all salad is growing slowly in unheated greenhouses under row covers to keep the soil from freezing. Phew, lets not thing too much of that now, we finally have our tomatoe avalanche.

Wk 31 High Summer

The sonorous whine of the cicada through droopy, sun drenched days and the steady chirp of crickets in the evening mark mid-summer's astronomical arrival on Aug 2nd, nearly two weeks ago since I dropped out for our annual vacation in Maine. Now back and well rested after much sleeping, eating and reading. It rained most of the time. By now, local vegetable harvest of corn, beans, and tomatoes are at full throttle through September except salad greens which almost always go void of course in the heat. An opportune time to take a break. All the rain brought cooler weather at my return, and fortunately the greens like this weather and are producing well for the time being. The fourth ten week delivery cycle began week of July 27th running through October 7th and some of you have been receiving our first delivery of local artisan bread, goat cheese, and mixed cherry/ grape tomatoes with the salad. Baby Greens Al fresco is a complete, light summer meal you can take anywhere. Please comment on how this new service is working for you so I can improve it. Nice to be at the farm again on the back side of summer.

Baby Greens
fast food that's good for you
week of 7/29 - week of 10/7

We are proud to add these great new items for home delivery:

fresh bread from Olga's Cup & Saucer

the best goat cheese from Westfield Farm

our own mixed grape & cherry tomatoes
---------------------------------------------------------------

week 1: 2 pane francese pillows (6oz ea) & 1 garlic goat cheese (5oz)

week 2: 1 seeded wheat ficelle (12 oz) & 1 plain goat cheese (5oz)

week 3: 2 wheat rolls (6oz ea) & 1 herb goat cheese (5oz)

weeks 4 - 9: repeat the above cycle twice

week 10: 2 pane francese pillows & 1 garlic goat cheese

Prices per 10-week cycle:
full share of salad 75.00
full share salad & bread & cheese : 175.00*
full share of salad & bread : 105.00
full share of salad & cheese : 145.00*

half share of salad : 40.00
half share salad & bread & cheese : 140.00*
half share of salad & bread : 70.00
half share of salad & cheese : 110.00*

*if you'd rather get cheese every other week, subtract 35.00

add tomatoes to any of the above: +40.00

to add new items: simply go to www.babygreensri.com.
Send Jeffery an email and tell us which option you want,or call 401.440.9088.
We take checks, Visa & Mastercard

Wk 29 Garlic Harvest

We love garlic and fortunately, garlic loves us. I've grown nice garlic for a number of years now and in this profession so prone to disappointments, it has always lifted my spirits because of its small effort to grow. This week I expect to pull a 4x96 bed of a German stiff neck variety for harvest. In late June we harvested the garlic curls which are the flowers that turn into a zillion little bulb let seeds if not cut off the tip of the flower stalk. The curls are like garlicky green onions that are best used sauteed. By mid to end July the foliage begins to turn brown indicating the bulbs are ready to harvest. After pulling I lay the stalks spread out with bulbs attached in the tomato greenhouse to dry and cure for a day or so. The soil on the bulbs drys out for easy cleaning and the foliage withers. Next I move the stalks to a cool dry location where they are stored until sold at the Pawtuxet Farmers Market next Sat. Aug 2nd. through the fall. Rub a clean clove over Olgas toasted bread, dribble with Colavita extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of salt, spread with our goat cheese, and halved cherry tomatoes and you have the perfect summer compliment with our mixed baby greens. Our Baby Greens Al Fresco package begins delivery week of July 29th which means we need to place bread and cheese orders 4 days prior to your delivery day. Our tomatoes are a bit slow and will be limited to subscription only so please order now.

Wk 28 Training Tomatos

I don't know what went wrong this year with the tomato seedlings but something happened at the very beginning. Typically I start 100 mixed variety cherry and grape tomato seedlings in peat pellets in domed trays on heat mats in the beginning of April but some how the pellets got moldy. They could have been over watered or probably the dose of fish emulsion fertilizer I use when the seedlings produce their first true leaves caused the mold outbreak. At any rate I put a fan on the seedlings increasing air flow getting ride of the mold but the damage was done. I next placed the sickly plants in peat pots filled with Earth Care Farm Compost and they recovered somewhat. The seedlings are a foot tall by Memorial Day just when the salad greens in Greenhouse #1 that have produced all winter are done. The leaves on the lower half of the plant are pinched and at each of these nodule scares if in soil contact will produce roots. I select the two middle beds below the eleven foot greenhouse peak and lay out the seedlings flat two feet apart creating 2 - 100 ft rows and then cover the roots and stem nodules with compost up to the leaves. The trick to this technique is to produce a quick strong root system for a plant that is trained like a grape vine. There is no digging, plopping the plants in a hole and back filling. I next lay a 100 ft sweat hose down the middle of each row over the covered vine roots. In a matter of days the plants will begin producing rootlets and each vine will begin to right itself to the first guide wire and twine support suspended about a foot above the bed. Twisting the twine around heavy gauge wire I push the leader portion of the vine carefully through and attach a clothes pin to a leaf and wire holding the vine in place just below the leader. I continue training the vine to the next guide wire progressively up and pinch off the many sucker vines except one or two which I train up adjacent the main leader. On indeterminate tomato varieties, the plant will produce flower clusters from the bottom of the plant up towards the leader with fruit ripening first at the bottom to new flower clusters being produced higher up as the vine grows to the greenhouse peak. This flowering begins about mid-June and would continue until frost in October if the setup where out doors. I could push the harvest well into November if I didn't need the bed space for winter salad. Harvest begins in the heat of late July and progressively gets heavier through august. The fruits are marketed by the pint at the Pawtuxet Farmers market and for a ten week home delivery subscription period along with the baby greens to mid October and beyond if need be.

Get Magazine article July 08 issue

We consumers are getting stung and it’s finally making us look to our own backyard for relief. And that’s the wonderful thing about Rhode Island; it is one big backyard of vegetable, fruit, meat and dairy farms. If that plate of mesclun greens you are eating is hauled in from Exeter, Rhode Island rather than New Jersey, think of the resources saved.
I traveled to Exeter to meet with Jeffrey Kamminga, owner of Baby Greens farm. Alice Waters of Chez Panisse can take most of the credit for starting the mesclun salad craze in California twenty years ago with seeds from France, but Jeffrey has also been at it since 1993, growing and selling baby lettuces, micro greens, edible flowers and herbs to local restaurants. Mesclun means “mixture” in French and delivers a trio of flavor, texture and color to the plate, which is why their popularity hasn’t waned and Iceberg is still trying to stage a comeback. Baby Greens’ mesclun mix includes baby lettuces, arugula, mustard greens, chard, sorrel, sweet alyssum and more.
Jeffrey is a one-man show at Baby Greens, maintaining four green houses that produce year-round. He enlists the help of chickens to eat insects and perennial weeds and to maintain soil fertility. The nutrient-rich soil comes from Earth Care Farm in Charlestown and is U.S.D.A. certified organic. He also enlists the help of students from The Ocean State Montessori School in East Providence. They get the educational experience of helping out at the farm and leave with bags of greens for their families or the school store where they are sold to raise school funds.
Besides selling to restaurants, Jeffrey provides weekly home subscriptions. Yes, he will deliver washed greens right to your door and he says, “Everything goes out fresh.” He also believes “personalized service is the wave of the future” which is why he is test-piloting including bread from Olga’s Cup & Saucer and cheese from Narragansett Creamery in his delivery. What a combination! Pop open a chilled Sauvignon Blanc and you have a summer meal. Subscriptions occur in ten-week cycles and the cost is $75.00 for a full share of greens or $40.00 for a half share. Jeffrey is flexible and can alter amounts if you are entertaining or suspend delivery if you are on vacation.
If you want to be a virtual farmer or know where your greens come from without gassing up the car, you can go to http://get-ri.com/www.babygreensri.com and read Jeffrey’s blog, which lists the day-to-day details at the farm. “The story about the place is important as well as the process,” he says, regarding the disconnect consumers have with the food they consume. His motto for Baby Greens is “it’s fast food that’s good for you” and that rings true on many levels.
To start a home subscription, send an email to babygreensri@cox.net or call 401-440-9088. You can also get Jeffrey’s greens at the Pawtuxet Farmer’s Market, Saturdays from 9:00 to noon. For more on Earth Care Farm’s organic compost: http://get-ri.com/www.earthcarefarm.com. For more on Rhode Island farms, farmers market locations and local foods: www.farmfreshri.org

Wk 27 Summer Lettuce

Started two new lettuce beds in Garden #2 to succeed early spring hoop house lettuce which was seeded mid Apr. with first successive harvest beginning in Jun. Expect to get 4- 5 weeks of harvest from current planting if the weeds don't overtake us. Summer lettuce is very tricky as it tends to" bolt to seed " Once soil temperatures reaches the 80s and the summer sun lingers in the sky for 13- 15 hours, leafy greens are stimulated by heat and light to send up flower stalks to produce seed for the the fall generation of seedlings ; hence the euphemism bolting to seed. Bolting greens go through hormonal changes and tend to taste hot and bitter. Continuous harvesting from the same plants helps slow bolting down but eventually the plants call to reproduce overcomes our attempts to frustrate its nature. Consistent moisture from sweat hoses and shading with shade fabric also helps keep lettuce productive.
Thwarting the native weed population is a greater challenge. Nature abhors a vacuum when fertile soil is left bare and zillions of weed seeds waiting in the soil race to germinate filling an ecological niche with greenery. There are several strategies to deal with weed seedlings and the best ones are timely prevention. I put chickens out on old salad beds to clear them of plant residue,weeds and soil dwelling bugs. Chickens do a good job churning up the soil if they are confined to a movable space adding their droppings for fertility. I may then cover the area they leave bare with black landscape fabric to kill and rot what remains. Next I pull back the fabric, till with a small mantis tiller, grade beds flat and thickly broadcast annual rye grass to over whelm and out compete the native weed seeds. Chickens will graze on the rye to keep it low and will continue to grow through the fall and winter. Landscape fabric is placed on the beds in late fall or winter killing and rotting the rye, and when soil temperatures are above 50 degrees, I roll out 4 ft. wide brown craft paper on the bed and cover to about half an inch sifted Earth Care Farm USDA certified organic compost. Compost is graded level and I seed the bed with a four row pin-point seeder. Will then water with three 100 ft. length sweat hoses left in place side by each and reduce watering as seeds germinate. First harvest cutting is timed for 4-5 weeks if all goes well.

Wk 26 Summer Solstice

Weed,cut grass,weed,cut grass,the unrelenting cycle starts in earnest as the summer sun passes it's zenith in the heavens this week about 73 degrees above the southern horizon at solar noon for our location of 41 degrees north latitude. I bought a very expensive aluminum coated shade cloth last week for green house # 2 where summer salad is grown in benches. The shade cloth blocks out 50% of incoming light which is still plenty of light to grow salad and tremendously reduces the heat load and evaporation in the greenhouse. We still need fans to move out excess heat and the sides of the greenhouse are rolled up to increase air flow. Summer heat- bring it on.
As the Fourth of July approaches,many Providence restaurants close for a summer break and many subscribers flee to their summer retreats. Newport restaurants just go crazy with business and the Pawtuxet Farmers Market swings to life so a delicate marketing balance unfolds. Micki and I unveiled at the market last week Baby Greens Al fresco, freshly baked breads from Olga's Cup and Saucer and a variety of goat cheeses from local dairies through Farmstead to compliment our salad greens. We sold out. Looks good so far. Where can you enjoy Baby Greens away from home? Newport: The Inn at Castle Hill, Clarke Cooke House, and The Mooring. Narragansett: Trio. Providence: Nick's on Broadway, Citron, Bacaro, XO, Mill's Tavern, Haruki, The Hope Club, Waterman Grille, and Chez Pascal.

Wk 25 Happy Fathers Day

All eyes are on the grand opening for the year of the Pawtuxet Farmers Market located behind the Masonic Lodge off Broad St. @ Rhodes on the Pawtuxet in Cranston this Sat. Jun.21st from 9-12pm. My wife Micki and I are excited to bring to the market local cheeses, breads, and salad dressing to complement our salad greens. Micki also makes soaps and lotions she markets as "Good, Clean, Fun" and they are. We have free trade coffee from New Harvest Roasters, a variety of breads from Olgas Cup and Saucer, and locally produced cheeses from Narragansett Creamery and Farmstead. I am cutting garlic curls which are only available at this time of year- sauteed or baked in olive oil, with our fresh rosemary can make some wonderful dishes. Sage is also available and it is flowering heavily.

This coming Sunday, Jun. 22nd is our Open House hosted by Innisfree Body Works 18 Post Rd. Pawtuxet Village from 11- 1:00pm. Please come socialize, network, and have fun over complimentary light lunch of baby greens, cheeses, bread, and refreshments. Meet the farmer and his wife and speak to David and Saundra about their wonderful services at Innisfree. I barter salad greens and eggs for body work which has done wonders for my broken back. I often tease David about hanging my once used crutches out front as testimony of his skill.

Wk 24

Our first heat wave of the season settled in after a few cool, rainy days beginning this week with temps. in the greenhouses in the low 90s. Fans, shade cloth, and roll up sides to greenhouse keep it relatively cooler than the possible 120-130 degrees. Often salad just goes dormant when soil temps get above 85 degrees. Luckily, lettuce in the outdoor beds is picking up after a slow start. After nearly 20 yrs. of growing experience, I'm beginning to figure out what types of greens do best in particular circumstances in the summer green house. Chard, beet greens, sorrel, edible chrysanthemum, anise hyssop, wild arugula, cutting celery, and now pea shoots with outdoor lettuces makeup the backbone of the warm season blend. Our tomatoes of semi-tropical origins of coarse love this heat and are growing rapidly to the first support wire.

Wk 23 Jun 2nd

High farmer anxiety withstanding, two hoop house lettuce rows will produce their first cutting this week, seven weeks since seeding and two weeks late. With so many variables contending in the nature of market growing, I only recommend it to those prepared to have their hearts broken on daily basis. So much can go wrong. Nimble wits and keeping faith steady the venture. A great addition to the salad mix will make it's debut this week in response to the torpid lettuce- pea tendrills. Began pre-soaking the seeds overnight and sowed them thickly in the green house benches. They will be ready for cutting in twelve days and it seems from my observations that they will take another cutting from the same planting which will save a lot of prep-work and seed.


Transplanted mixed cherry and grape tomatoes in greenhouse #1 which I started from seed Apr. 7th- right on schedule. Two rows trained straight up to eight feet will start yielding the beginning of Aug. through Oct. Tomato subscription and home delivery will start week of Aug 11th if all goes well for ten weeks.


Up date on chicks. After two weeks they have their tail feathers and are fledglings. Some even have feathery feet. They are staying with my niece Katarina, who just turned nine, with mother hen Lucy to be thoroughly domesticated by all the other girls in the neighborhood.
News on the Rocky Hill School Center for Sustainability. The schools program director e-mailed me that he had really tried advocating Baby Greens move to the schools campus but had run into a wall over funding. I continue to look for farmland to purchase near our home in Pawtuxet maybe in Western Cranston. Our predicament at our current site is precarious as we continue to be a tenant at will.

Week of May 25th - Memorial Day Wkend

Restaurant sales have competed strongly for limited farm production of mesclun because of the 3 day weekend and Brown University commencement. Baby Greens sold 56# to subscriptions (140 families) and 41# to restaurants for a total of 97#, just below our sales goal of 100#/wk. More mesclun sales than this would place stress on quality control and labor demands. In past years, the farm produced over 150# at this time of year at a frantic pace. Something had to be done to ease the strain and that something was the sale of more micro greens to restaurants. Micro greens are those sprout-like garnishes on hauteur cuisine plates. they are less labor intensive than mesclun and command a far higher price of $30/#. We sold 32# of micros this week working smarter and not harder.

Two beds hoop lettuce seeded Apr. 14th will probably start producing next week after 6-7 weeks from seeding- a bit slow. Lettuce seeding May 17th in Garden#2 is coming up well and will most likely catch up with hoop lettuce in 2-3 weeks. Just goes to show how important soil temp. is to germination and growth even though the hoop lettuce had plastic over until last week.

Lucy's chicks are doing well. Ended up with six. Brought them and Lucy to the house garden to forage and scratch in the soil and sun for the first time.

Week of May 20th

Lucy's brooding trance has brought forth to the farm five new chicks with more eggs waiting to hatch over the next day or so. Paternity is loose with our little flock of two roosters and five hens, each hen making a contribution to a clutch of a dozen eggs which Lucy commandeered twenty one days ago. It's likely big, magnificent ,handsome Tipsy a Buff Brahma -Black Cochin cross is the insoucient father. Greyjack, his feisty bantam lesser rival who seems to know his place in the pecking order was probably rebuffed and sidelined by the ladies. His spirit though remains strong as he continues to crow his second string rooster head off perched atop the greenhouse. Other possible genetic mothers in the flock include Pearl the white Leghorn, Minute past Midnight the black Araucana, Sunset the R.I. Red, and Freckles the Buff Rock. Any kids out there with a knack for naming, please send in your offerings as the chicks develop in the next few months and we take more pictures of each of them.

Welcome babygreens friends and patrons. I hope this blog will serve you as a means to better communications with you important information and seasonal events going on at Baby Greens and between you and the subscriber community. Please think of it as a virtual farm journal I will update weekly. Feel free to share your insights and comments as your participation is crucial to our mission statement of "Locally Grown, Locally Delicious".



Week of May 12-18. Happy Mothers Day. After a wet 1st half of the weekend, weather continues to be seasonally cool with salad greens transitioning to a warm weather mix. More lettuce varieties,beet/chard greens,mixed mustards, sorrel, arugula,and chrysanthemum greens begin to dominate. Production becomes tricky as we shift to outdoor gardens from out of the winter green house. Intend to take plastic off early spring lettuce hoop house late this wk. and turn the chickens out onto Garden#1 rye grass. Lucy our buff orphington hen is in her 3rd wk. of brooding and we might have 6-10 chicks by next wk. Need to work on soaker hose irrigation for Garden #2 early summer lettuce.



Important Events this and following week. 1) Send out subscription renewal notice for 2nd 10 wk billing cycle starting Wk of May 20- July 22nd. 2) Invite subscribers to Jun.15th open house @ Innisfree Body Works, Broad St. ,Pawtuxet Village 11- 1:00. New locally produced goodies including cheese from Narragansett Creamery, and breads by Olgas Cup and Saucer will accompany light alfresco Baby Greens and refreshments. 3) Copntimue looking for 5 acre farm site with or without house in West Bay area. All leads appreciated. 4) Continue dialog with Rocky Hill School for possible Center for Sustainability. 5) Start micro greens delivery to Trio Restaurant, Narragansett.



Stay tuned, Jeffery

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