Quail Hill Farm: Field Report Week 1
May 28, 2026
By Madison Aldrich
In the Field:
As you walk the fields, seek out these three initiatives:
You can now bring your vegetable scraps to the Community Compost Bin in the Valley. Years ago, the farm stand was located here, the first stop for members before heading into the fields. Here, new life will now cycle in, our tribute to the farm’s early days.
The Deep Lane Herb Circle – the heart and soul of the farm – is being restored. Overgrown with perennial weeds for the last few seasons, it’s now under landscape fabric cover to suppress weeds before it returns next season filled with flowers and herbs. Stay tuned, and pardon our appearance!
As an educational non-profit farm, Quail Hill is always experimenting with new and emerging techniques. A current hot topic is “living pathways” – basically the use of cover crops in the paths between growing beds to suppress weeds while holding and building soil. By planting cover crops between beds – this land basically takes up half the fields – we can passively build soil while cultivating vegetables. A blend of oats and clover is now growing between the rows of peas, kale, collards, chard and parsley (which you’re picking on Saturday!). As you roam the fields, think about all the soil building right under your feet!
We are grateful to Amanda Merrow of Amber Waves Farm – she and Katie Baldwin were QHF apprentices in 2005! – who advised us in creating our “living pathways.” She also assisted us with covering beds with plastic mulch – another weed suppression technique used on our long season crops such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and squash.
See you in the fields!
Madison Aldrich
Senior Farm Manager, Quail Hill Farm
MAldrich@PeconicLandTrust.org