High Tunnel Means High Production For Local Farms

 By Nancy K. Crevier

In 2009, with the purchase of a farm on Cherry Street, Sue and Jim Shortt of Shortt’s Garden Center at 52-A Riverside Road in Sandy Hook were able to increase their production of organic produce by four acres, providing customers with a greater selection and quantities that let them sell at the Garden Center and at the local Organic Farmers Market at Fairfield Hills. This year, the Shortts have added a 30-foot by 73-foot high tunnel to the Cherry Street farmland, once more growing their business.

The gable-roofed polyethylene building is essentially “a greenhouse you plant in the ground,” said Mr Shortt, and with an interior height of more than 12 feet, it is big enough for a tractor to drive through it. The central section of each side of the tunnel can be rolled up for ventilation in warmer weather, and a sprinkler system provides the right amount of water. Hard rains, high winds, and hail are not a problem for crops growing in a high tunnel.

But while greenhouses are intended for year around growing, the high tunnels, relying on the sun for a source of heat, are meant to merely extend the growing season. The high tunnel will allow the Shortts to grow crops for about two months longer in the fall, and allow for an earlier start to the season, again by approximately two months. The use of high tunnels has become de rigueur for most farms in the area that are growing for retail sale, Mr Shortt said.

Although the Shortts erected the building in February, it was only in September that they were able to finish running water to the greenhouse and prepare it for planting. Kale, Swiss chard, beets, and radishes were sprouting through the soil under the protective cover of the high tunnel at the end of September, and will be ready for harvest and distribution to Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) members by late October and into November, said Ms Shortt. Carrots are also underway at this time, but will grow over the winter for a spring harvest, shielded additionally by an agricultural fabric that gives plants an extra five degrees of frost protection.

The high tunnel is an extension of the smaller “mini-tunnels” that protect crops on their property on Riverside Road, said Mr Shortt, allowing them to continue growing cool weather crops there, as well. Those crops are available to customers at their Riverside Road Garden Center.

To offset the several-thousand-dollar cost of the structure, the Shortts applied for and received a National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) grant that covered half of the cost. High tunnels are a financial boon to farmers by extending the seasons, and also because they protect crops from pests and fungi, Ms Shortt said. “I would like to grow tomatoes, starting in the spring, so we can have them earlier in the season. The great thing is, grown under protection, tomatoes are not subject to the fungi that ruin crops,” she said.

Although technically a “hot house” tomato when grown in a high tunnel, she said the organic tomatoes will taste better than those in supermarkets “because they are grown in the ground.” It will also provide customers with tomatoes from spring into fall. “Tomatoes will love the tropical conditions [in the high tunnel] during the summer,” she said.

The Shortts plan to start spring crops in February under the high tunnel. “We’ll have lettuces, leeks, bok choy, all of those cool weather greens, beets, and radishes,” Mr Shortt said.

CSA Plans

Shortt’s Farm and Garden Center has offered a CSA plan for summer, but the high tunnel now allows the farm to offer a fall CSA plan as well. CSA members can expect to receive a mix of eggs, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, kale, Swiss chard, beets, and radishes once a week, for seven weeks, this fall. The cost for a fall CSA membership is $100.

“It won’t cover your whole grocery list,” Ms Shortt said, “but you will get enough certified organic produce, ideal for one or two people.”

To take part in the summer 2013 CSA program, Ms Shortt said people should visit shorttsfarmandgarden.com, and sign up for the mailing list. “In February, we will send out the information for next summer’s CSA program to people on that list,” she said.

Off of Sugar Lane in Newtown, on the other side of town, a high tunnel has risen at the far side of the Castle Hill Farm pumpkin patch.

“We just put it up two months ago,” said owner Steve Paproski, who is hoping that being able to offer farm visitors fresh produce this fall will be another way to “expand the horizons of this farm.” A pumpkin patch, corn maze, and weekend pony rides have been big autumn attractions at the farm in past years, and he believes those customers and more will appreciate access to local, fresh produce as cooler weather sets in.

With the 30- by 73-foot building, like the Shortts’, Mr Paproski said he is looking forward to extending the growing season. It will not be his popular pumpkin crop growing under cover, though.

“We have cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, and peppers growing in there now,” he said, and plans to offer the items for sale through at least the end of October.

The Castle Hill Farm high tunnel is set up with a trickle irrigation system, Mr Paproski said, and ventilation is provided by rolling the sides of the building up or down as needed. “The nice thing is, it keeps our varmints, like the deer, and keeps in the heat at the end of the day, when we close it up,” he said.

Both Mr Shortt and Mr Paproski agreed that this year would be a learning experience, so far as gardening in the high tunnel is concerned. “It’s all new to us,” said Mr Paproski, “and we’re hoping it works out.”

“This is our first year, so we’ll see how successful we will be,” Mr Shortt said, adding that with care, he saw no reason for crops grown under the cover of the high tunnel to fail.