Native Offerings

We have heritage pigs (Hereford x Tamworth) available.  The price per pound is $2.85 hanging weight per whole or half hog.  With processing the price comes to about $3.60 a pound.  The pigs are hormone and antibiotic free.  They are grain fed and also eat vegetables and hay.  The pork should be ready in February.  Please contact us if you are interested.

STEW

Welcome to the new year!  Here is the share distribution schedule:

January 6, 7, 8th is a double share.

January 20, 21, 22nd is a double share.

February 3, 4, 5th is a single share.

February 10, 11, 12th is a double share.

February 24, 25, 26th is a double share and the last share until the greens share in March or early April.

STEW

Happy New Year everyone.  There is no distribution on January 1st.  Shares start on 6th, 7th and 8th of January, depending on where you pick-up.  We will be sending out the registration forms to existing shareholders in January.  If you are interested in joining our CSA please send us an email so we can send you the forms in March.  Thank you very much for your support this year and we hope to see you again as shareholders for the 2009/10 season.STEW 

We have laid the pipe in the ground.  Many thanks to our hardworking intern Travis.  All we need now is a heat source.  We thought about growing Sunflowers and pressing the seeds for fuel oil.  The stalks then could be shredded and plowed into the soil as a biomass.  I am sure there are many options to make our farm more intergrated.

In the greenhouse we are going to use passive solar design.  We are going to line the north wall with 30 gallon barrels of water filled with water.  What would be great is if you could design a system where when the greenhouse temperature is warmer than the water in the barrels that we pump using solar the water from the barrels through pipe to heat it and then dump it back into the barrels.  At night when it is cold they release the heat so we can use less sunflower oil.

Let us know if you can set this up for us.  The trade is a four season share.

STEW

We have been planting seedless table grapes and grapes for wine for the last two years.  This year we will continue with wine trials but we will add something new.  There is always something new to discover!  This years theme is table grapes for the winter share.  We will plant four of the most promising varieties of grapes in the hope that at least one of them will grow and store beautifully for us.  We would like to provide organic grapes as part of share from mid-Summer until the cold dark days of February.

Before refrigeration there were many grapes available that could keep on ice all winter long.  Grapes were locally grown.  We will grow them again.  Who needs California?

This season 2009, we hope that our first trial of seedless grapes will be ready.

STEW

Today we dug a bed of carrots from under 18 inches of snow.  All the other roots are safe in the cellar and the cooler but the early snowfall left the carrots stranded.  We were over a week ahead of schedule with the harvest this fall.  It seemed this year that winter would arrive early.  Holiday Valley opened today for skiing!  There is a snow blower in the back of our truck.  On Monday through Wednesday we will dig the remaining six beds of carrots.  Six thousand row-feet of treasure awaits to be uncovered.STEW 

There is over six inches of snow outside.  The greens are hidden, except for the older kale plants.  They look like palm trees on a white sand beach.  We are not fooled.  Winter is here.When it is freezing we give out the crops in storage, like roots, apples, and onions.  When the sun shines we rush out to the fields to harvest the greens.  There is still thousands of pounds of beets, carrots and parsnips to harvest.  Thanksgiving is always our harvest deadline for the roots.  This year we will try to harvest all of the crops earlier.STEW 

The first planting of carrots has now been harvested on will be all gone this week.  Next week we start digging the second planting.  After that we have the final jumbo planting to harvest.  Most of the final planting is Bolero, our storage carrot.  The carrots look great this year.  Enjoy. STEW

Every year has its highlight, an event that marks that year.  This year it is all the frogs in the fields.  With every step it seems like frogs are jumping out of the way.  They are also very difficult to catch.  Why the frogs?  We have had a lot of rain this year.  We have not used our irrigation for two or more months.  There were also too many slugs in the vegetables this spring.  Slugs are scarce now.  Is there a frog slug connection.  I do not know.STEW 

We are excited to announce that our annual CSA potluck/ open house will be on Sunday, August 10th from 1pm-about 5pm.  Come and see how our crops are grown and our new crop of grapes (we’re testing wine varieties and some storage table grapes!).  This is always a fun event for us to meet CSA members and for you to see the farm!  Bring a dish to pass, we’ll potluck after the farm tours.  Hope to see you then.DebOther news from the farm.  Our shares were to include peas.  We had so much trouble with getting a crop in years past that we asked Abers Acres to grow these for us this year.  They attempted it and had a terrible crop failure.  The long cold wet spring caused poor germination and what did germinate didn’t have a good fruit set. That’s why you didn’t see peas in your share.   We take what we the season offers us and in farming you don’t get a second chance till next year.  Cherries are another crop that was in short supply this year.  We saw an increase in the cost of cherries by almost a dollar a pound.  Some fruit farmers lost a majority of their crop from hail storms.  Farming is unpredictable enough as it is; responding to extreme weather events (as the NOAA calls it) make things even more challenging.