The ups and downs of the holidays are being matched by the up and down of the thermometer these days! It is bitter cold today in the wind and up here on the side of our hill. The horse and donkey are hanging out in their shed to have a windbreak and the pigs are resting inside the barn in the hay in the sunshine to soak up all the warmth they can. Yesterday Alan and Colin let the cows into the south shed to be out of the wind last night as they were wet from the snow and when the temperature started dropping and the wind picked up you just know it was going to be cold, cold, cold. After the warmth of the last week and the rain (which ruined all the snow that we had), our feeling of being acclimated was spoiled. Now we are wearing long johns and lined pants and about three shirts but chores are also abbreviated in the winter when you don't have to worry so much about the fencing, where to move the herd next, herd check for new calves and many other grazing season tasks. These last few days of the year you don't really want to work hard but there is always lots to do and catch up on. As a matter of fact, thanks to Colin for offering to attend both farmer's' markets this first January weekend, Alan and I had a whole day of chores only and then sleeping, reading, resting, brushing the dogs and doing nothing! We even were able to warm the turkey soup and not even cook! Nice change for the new year start.
Now a day later, we have 6 more inches of snow on top of the first 6 from Friday/Saturday. It is a lovely light, fluffy and fun to run through kicking up a wake snow. I had my new Christmas sled out for a run down the pasture and the dogs were joyfully running along beside me. My eyes got really big once when I really got going and I wasn't sure what lumps were under the surface to whack me good! Luckily the sled is a pretty hefty thickness. The skiers, snowshoers, sledders should all be thrilled with this lovely bonanza. The softness of the snow absorbs the sounds too and so it can be sooo quiet except for chickadees and an occasional snowplow far off on the main road. It is stilling snowing lightly. It seems like all outside is black, white and brown shades.
New free time in the next few months should offer us a time of planning and organization. Both Alan and I struggle with how to manage so many different topics. It seems hard to keep them up to date and not end up with multiple piles of paperwork all over your desk. We'll be working on trying different methods to stay ahead of the clutter and stay on top of the tasks at hand. I guess many of you also know the small business/organization blues of too much to do, and you do have to do it all and there are too few hands to make it all happen as you'd like it to be done. We are even ready to create a written strategic plan that is not just floating around in Alan's head and my head in different perspective versions. It is a little unbelievable when we realize how much we have accomplished in these last years of "making the farm self-sustainable" with few written procedures about anything - we would rather just do it. So a new decade and a new aspect to the business of farming.
Like ours, we hope your New Year is looking positive with opportunities for change, improvement, organization, and in January usually more exercise too. We resolve to better show our gratitude to our families, our friends, and our beautiful inspiring surroundings. Let the new decade begin! With many thanks for being part of our lives, Nancy and Alan
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
December news from the farm,
We all finally feel a bit rested from the whirlwind of the 3 Thanksgiving deliveries one after the other. Our backs were pretty tired and we just wanted to do anything but work in the walk in freezer! So the holiday was a welcome respite from the hustle and our family dinner at Uncle Walt’s was a delicious and warm success. We all bring our “usual” dishes with the flair of different recipes each year. This year I made 2 cranberry delights; Mom’s fresh relish with oranges, lime, lemon, cranberries and maple syrup all finely chopped and mixed in the blender and my new blueberry, currant, cranberry and maple syrup compote cooked for about 10 minutes and deliciously juicy. It was a wonderfully warm day and a baseball game and a football game perked up the kids’ appetites.
The warm weather as been very welcome but it seems odd that the ground is still very soft and the big rain this week made for some pretty muddy tractor tracks up into the pastures. We are taking advantage of the lack of the warmth and began feeding the cows hay up in the hilly pastures by the house. Until a bit of snow and ice deter Colin from wanting to drive up the steep slope with a big round bale on the front and back of the tractor, we’ll be able to have the cows fertilize these fields and also introduce more varieties of forage from any leftover hay. When the snow arrives, the herd will move to the flatter fields at the Waite’s part of the farm.
The slow down of our pace has allowed me to get back to the local yoga class periodically to stretch out those back muscles and spend some time with my sister and niece over the holiday weekend. Alan has been keeping up a robust pace. He has been creating an acceptable Town of Jackson annual budget and trying to pare down the Washington County annual budget. In November he had to run for re-election for town supervisor against his first opponent in 15 years. He won! Only half of the 1000 voters turned out for the vote. Now the next month is filling up with holiday events and getting ready for the snow.
Over the weekend to our amazement, we had our first snow and it was a beauty. It was one of those light, fluffy, big flake afternoons with our dark colored dogs looking like reverse dalmations. The snow stuck to every surface, twig and windshield. It was just enough to cover everything and turn our little valley into a white snow bowl looking suitable for skiing. The cows were a bit surprised to find all their hay and grass had disappeared but were eating it and finding the grass underneath! It was a bit harder than usual for the tractor to make it up the steep hill but Alan, the expert driver that he is (on the tractor and in the delivery van!) made it to the top. Today it is all still here; not much melting happening and there will likely be more by Wednesday! I just wish the ground would freeze! Hope you are all staying warm on those windy streets!
We hope you all have a wonderful December season and stay warm and be healthy!
Best wishes, Nancy & Alan
We all finally feel a bit rested from the whirlwind of the 3 Thanksgiving deliveries one after the other. Our backs were pretty tired and we just wanted to do anything but work in the walk in freezer! So the holiday was a welcome respite from the hustle and our family dinner at Uncle Walt’s was a delicious and warm success. We all bring our “usual” dishes with the flair of different recipes each year. This year I made 2 cranberry delights; Mom’s fresh relish with oranges, lime, lemon, cranberries and maple syrup all finely chopped and mixed in the blender and my new blueberry, currant, cranberry and maple syrup compote cooked for about 10 minutes and deliciously juicy. It was a wonderfully warm day and a baseball game and a football game perked up the kids’ appetites.
The warm weather as been very welcome but it seems odd that the ground is still very soft and the big rain this week made for some pretty muddy tractor tracks up into the pastures. We are taking advantage of the lack of the warmth and began feeding the cows hay up in the hilly pastures by the house. Until a bit of snow and ice deter Colin from wanting to drive up the steep slope with a big round bale on the front and back of the tractor, we’ll be able to have the cows fertilize these fields and also introduce more varieties of forage from any leftover hay. When the snow arrives, the herd will move to the flatter fields at the Waite’s part of the farm.
The slow down of our pace has allowed me to get back to the local yoga class periodically to stretch out those back muscles and spend some time with my sister and niece over the holiday weekend. Alan has been keeping up a robust pace. He has been creating an acceptable Town of Jackson annual budget and trying to pare down the Washington County annual budget. In November he had to run for re-election for town supervisor against his first opponent in 15 years. He won! Only half of the 1000 voters turned out for the vote. Now the next month is filling up with holiday events and getting ready for the snow.
Over the weekend to our amazement, we had our first snow and it was a beauty. It was one of those light, fluffy, big flake afternoons with our dark colored dogs looking like reverse dalmations. The snow stuck to every surface, twig and windshield. It was just enough to cover everything and turn our little valley into a white snow bowl looking suitable for skiing. The cows were a bit surprised to find all their hay and grass had disappeared but were eating it and finding the grass underneath! It was a bit harder than usual for the tractor to make it up the steep hill but Alan, the expert driver that he is (on the tractor and in the delivery van!) made it to the top. Today it is all still here; not much melting happening and there will likely be more by Wednesday! I just wish the ground would freeze! Hope you are all staying warm on those windy streets!
We hope you all have a wonderful December season and stay warm and be healthy!
Best wishes, Nancy & Alan
We are always amazed at the beauty of the blend of colors in the foliage at this our favorite time of year. It is time to ready ourselves for the “resting period” of the winter. There are so many things to do before the ground freezes and the snow flies to prepare. As we prepare we can appreciate the fall colors, sleep longer in the morning, harvest the fall crops from our garden, and smell the first wisps of wood smoke from our beautiful old parlor stove in the kitchen. There are new smells under the sugar maple trees on the front lawn. The woods smell different too. I love the blend of hardwoods, hop hornbeam, witch hazel, maples, cherry, various oaks, poplars, shagbark hickory and their nuts with their own distinctive smell. We cut our own firewood from any dead trees along the edge of the woods where we can drive a truck so it can be harvested late and still be quite dry by the time we start having fires in the stove each day.
The less glamorous tasks also need to be done. We winterize all of the tractors and haying equipment and put them in the sheds. We make sure the 2 tractors that can feed hay all winter long are ready to go. We put up the storm windows on our old story and a half Greek revival home. We are STILL fixing fences – this work is never done! We clean up all the veggie and perennial gardens and the pigs rummage through all the remaining vines to look for delectable treats. We clean up the pig and cow barnyards and make our big compost piles to spread on the pastures early in the spring. We don’t like to rake leaves on the lawn so the mower chops them all up to provide nutrients for the grass.
Our priority project is the new barn. We are outgrowing our space for collecting all the farm products and splaying them around us in the old milk house to pack all of your orders. I went on the 2 trips to the city this month and Alan and I spent the travel time planning the layout of the new space, the furnishing possibilities, and the deadline of getting the “new” used freezer hooked up before the turkeys arrive. We saved this freezer from demolition of an old diner that was in town for years and was being smashed for a new building. It is bigger than our existing walk-in freezer and will be a great thing to have ready soon. We are hoping for the time to make Adirondack style tables from our black walnut branch inventory to use for workspace. The closets are tucked under stairs. The closed foyer serves as a drop off point for the farms if we are not there. The doors all need to be wide enough to use carts for moving the coolers and boxes to save Sandy’s and my back from all that carrying. Alan and Colin and Herbie have done all the work so far beginning with the footings and slab foundation, framing, roofing and interior work of wiring, sheathing, installing windows, insulating and sheet rocking the pacing room. We will finally have lots of room, storage, and easy access freezers in a new barn without the cobwebs and combination hay storage area of the Waites Lane barn where everything is now.
enjoy, the Brown's
The less glamorous tasks also need to be done. We winterize all of the tractors and haying equipment and put them in the sheds. We make sure the 2 tractors that can feed hay all winter long are ready to go. We put up the storm windows on our old story and a half Greek revival home. We are STILL fixing fences – this work is never done! We clean up all the veggie and perennial gardens and the pigs rummage through all the remaining vines to look for delectable treats. We clean up the pig and cow barnyards and make our big compost piles to spread on the pastures early in the spring. We don’t like to rake leaves on the lawn so the mower chops them all up to provide nutrients for the grass.
Our priority project is the new barn. We are outgrowing our space for collecting all the farm products and splaying them around us in the old milk house to pack all of your orders. I went on the 2 trips to the city this month and Alan and I spent the travel time planning the layout of the new space, the furnishing possibilities, and the deadline of getting the “new” used freezer hooked up before the turkeys arrive. We saved this freezer from demolition of an old diner that was in town for years and was being smashed for a new building. It is bigger than our existing walk-in freezer and will be a great thing to have ready soon. We are hoping for the time to make Adirondack style tables from our black walnut branch inventory to use for workspace. The closets are tucked under stairs. The closed foyer serves as a drop off point for the farms if we are not there. The doors all need to be wide enough to use carts for moving the coolers and boxes to save Sandy’s and my back from all that carrying. Alan and Colin and Herbie have done all the work so far beginning with the footings and slab foundation, framing, roofing and interior work of wiring, sheathing, installing windows, insulating and sheet rocking the pacing room. We will finally have lots of room, storage, and easy access freezers in a new barn without the cobwebs and combination hay storage area of the Waites Lane barn where everything is now.
enjoy, the Brown's
fall raspberries
News from Lewis Waite Farm
We never seem to time it right to pick the last bowl of the late fall red raspberries. After a couple of frosts, they all are still hanging from the drooping canes looking way darker than they should be and some look a little grey. You would hope that the vibrancy of the berries that are left would be sucked back by the cane to the roots where the energy could be stored through the long cold winter. We love this raspberry that has two picking seasons! But by now all the annuals and some of the tender annuals have been frozen and are standing, browned, and waiting to be cut and piled and carried to the pigs to scavenge any goodness from their stalks. The garden and the perennial gardens cleanup is a big fall job done mostly on the warmer days so your hands don’t freeze trying to work the pruners all day. We still have golden leaves here on our hillside; many other places are bare of leaves except the golden tamarack tress that provide some of the last color of the season. Our maple trees were stunning this year, although way more yellow than their usual red, orange, yellow combination. It’s raining again today and the animals that have shelter, the pigs, horse, donkey, cats and dogs, are all inside curled up sleeping. Our newest batch of five small weanling piglets arrived this week. They are pros at sleeping in a heap, the proverbial pig pile. There are three pink pigs and two brown and black spotted ones. They are still learning the daily routine and getting used to us who visit them multiple times a day which so far scares them into a corner of their big farrowing pen. In a few days we’ll let them have a bigger area with another older pig that has an injured leg. Then they’ll have an older buddy to teach them the ropes. Right now all the fences in the pasture are set up for much bigger pigs so they’ll have to grow a bit before they can go outside ranging with the big ones or they will be trotting all over the place.
We are beginning to get ready for the onslaught of the turkeys. Consolidating all of the inventory into the tightest spaces possible to make room for the many boxes which will be arriving around mid November. Please check at your site in the next couple of weeks for the last vegetable delivery date, as some of the CSAs are ending before our Thanksgiving deliveries and you may be having a new distribution site for the week before Thanksgiving.
All of the turkeys and any regular orders for other foods for your holiday eating will be delivered on November 19 or November 21 or November 24.
In our website for you at www.csalewiswaitefarm.com there is a menu option for you to see all the delivery dates. We are making our best effort to keep this up to date and accurate so use this to double check when and where your distribution will be.
Beginning in December we start our once per month deliveries again. Most of your CSAs are participating and have found locations for the winter distributions either at your same summer location or at the home of many of the coordinators. We will enter these schedules soon so you can see the dates on the website as well.
Just a few more weeks left to CSA season – boy did it fly by this year. Hope you all are getting acclimated to the chillier weather – my sister in Boston and my nephew in Maine have seen snow already! So take care, be well, have fun and come and see us when you have a weekend up north! Best wishes, Nancy & Alan
We never seem to time it right to pick the last bowl of the late fall red raspberries. After a couple of frosts, they all are still hanging from the drooping canes looking way darker than they should be and some look a little grey. You would hope that the vibrancy of the berries that are left would be sucked back by the cane to the roots where the energy could be stored through the long cold winter. We love this raspberry that has two picking seasons! But by now all the annuals and some of the tender annuals have been frozen and are standing, browned, and waiting to be cut and piled and carried to the pigs to scavenge any goodness from their stalks. The garden and the perennial gardens cleanup is a big fall job done mostly on the warmer days so your hands don’t freeze trying to work the pruners all day. We still have golden leaves here on our hillside; many other places are bare of leaves except the golden tamarack tress that provide some of the last color of the season. Our maple trees were stunning this year, although way more yellow than their usual red, orange, yellow combination. It’s raining again today and the animals that have shelter, the pigs, horse, donkey, cats and dogs, are all inside curled up sleeping. Our newest batch of five small weanling piglets arrived this week. They are pros at sleeping in a heap, the proverbial pig pile. There are three pink pigs and two brown and black spotted ones. They are still learning the daily routine and getting used to us who visit them multiple times a day which so far scares them into a corner of their big farrowing pen. In a few days we’ll let them have a bigger area with another older pig that has an injured leg. Then they’ll have an older buddy to teach them the ropes. Right now all the fences in the pasture are set up for much bigger pigs so they’ll have to grow a bit before they can go outside ranging with the big ones or they will be trotting all over the place.
We are beginning to get ready for the onslaught of the turkeys. Consolidating all of the inventory into the tightest spaces possible to make room for the many boxes which will be arriving around mid November. Please check at your site in the next couple of weeks for the last vegetable delivery date, as some of the CSAs are ending before our Thanksgiving deliveries and you may be having a new distribution site for the week before Thanksgiving.
All of the turkeys and any regular orders for other foods for your holiday eating will be delivered on November 19 or November 21 or November 24.
In our website for you at www.csalewiswaitefarm.com there is a menu option for you to see all the delivery dates. We are making our best effort to keep this up to date and accurate so use this to double check when and where your distribution will be.
Beginning in December we start our once per month deliveries again. Most of your CSAs are participating and have found locations for the winter distributions either at your same summer location or at the home of many of the coordinators. We will enter these schedules soon so you can see the dates on the website as well.
Just a few more weeks left to CSA season – boy did it fly by this year. Hope you all are getting acclimated to the chillier weather – my sister in Boston and my nephew in Maine have seen snow already! So take care, be well, have fun and come and see us when you have a weekend up north! Best wishes, Nancy & Alan
The crunch is on for the fall and winter preparations to begin. So far we have missed the couple of light frosts that the lower valleys have had already. Our basil however is being all picked today! We have been enjoying the late raspberries too – they are the best! Lots of tomatoes are still waiting to be made into sauce this week too. Luckily between our Tuesday and Thursday delivery weeks, we have a little extra time to focus on farm and garden tasks. So since we’ve had all kinds of time, we decided it was time to finally get that rescue dog we have been talking about so we spend time in training! Lucy, Lucille, Lacy, we are still trying out names for her; she’s a sweet “follow you everywhere” German Shepard with a little something else that makes her tail really long and her legs very prettily shaded. She has black stripes on the top of each toe!
There has been a little growling with Shadow and Maggie, mostly about food, but we think she is adapting quickly and will be a great pal on herd checks through the pastures.
I’ll make it short this month since there are other announcements to follow.
Please take care, enjoy this lovely weather and fall colors and as always, come and visit!
Nancy and Alan
There has been a little growling with Shadow and Maggie, mostly about food, but we think she is adapting quickly and will be a great pal on herd checks through the pastures.
I’ll make it short this month since there are other announcements to follow.
Please take care, enjoy this lovely weather and fall colors and as always, come and visit!
Nancy and Alan
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Chilly October
The season change has gone from a late warmish trend with our first frost up here on the hill just 2 days ago. Now all of a sudden, it's in the 30's each night and downright chilly and damp each day! Working in the walk-in freezer has been a real thrill with the heat not yet turned on in our north barn where all the packing activity happens. I was able to harvest the last of the basil before the frost and had a giant pesto project the other morning with me furiously picking leaves off the stalks and the blender whirring and a wonderful aroma enveloping the house. The garden clean up is looming soon. The kale, Swiss chard, leeks, broccoli and parsley are very happy to be chilled but now that the root cellar is chilled, they'll soon be sleeping in the dark waiting for the comfort food meals of cold weather.
The wine crop is growing too. The last of the red tomatoes went into a small batch of tomato wine. My nephew still is commenting on the weird appeal the flavor of the wine had for him. It came out tasting like a smooth wine with a tomato finish that seemed odd to your senses! He'll get the whole batch of five bottles next year, not just the sampler one! My best tasting one yet just went into the bottle wine yet was a blackberry-blueberry that was very rich tasting. As I was reading Eating Right for Your Blood Type this morning, I learn that I should be avoiding blackberries! Oh, NO!
This book is written by Dr. Peter J D'Adamo. He and his father have researched the history of the development of blood types and the diets of the peoples who have them. They have discovered that blood types have a big effect on what foods you feel better eating and what diseases you may be predisposed toward because of eating the "wrong" foods for your blood type which is very important to your overall metabolism. Even your style of exercise plays a part in your blood's inner workings. I was surprised that foods that I love, like freshly shredded coleslaw. are not so good for my digestive system!!!Boo! Lucky for me (and my hunter ancestors), grass-fed beef is my best nourishment! Check it out. This book is a good follow up to Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food.
We hope that all of you are feeling well, staying relaxed, focused and calm. Take advantage of this lull before the holidays to rest and gear yourselves up! Best Wishes, Nancy & Alan
The wine crop is growing too. The last of the red tomatoes went into a small batch of tomato wine. My nephew still is commenting on the weird appeal the flavor of the wine had for him. It came out tasting like a smooth wine with a tomato finish that seemed odd to your senses! He'll get the whole batch of five bottles next year, not just the sampler one! My best tasting one yet just went into the bottle wine yet was a blackberry-blueberry that was very rich tasting. As I was reading Eating Right for Your Blood Type this morning, I learn that I should be avoiding blackberries! Oh, NO!
This book is written by Dr. Peter J D'Adamo. He and his father have researched the history of the development of blood types and the diets of the peoples who have them. They have discovered that blood types have a big effect on what foods you feel better eating and what diseases you may be predisposed toward because of eating the "wrong" foods for your blood type which is very important to your overall metabolism. Even your style of exercise plays a part in your blood's inner workings. I was surprised that foods that I love, like freshly shredded coleslaw. are not so good for my digestive system!!!Boo! Lucky for me (and my hunter ancestors), grass-fed beef is my best nourishment! Check it out. This book is a good follow up to Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food.
We hope that all of you are feeling well, staying relaxed, focused and calm. Take advantage of this lull before the holidays to rest and gear yourselves up! Best Wishes, Nancy & Alan
Friday, August 21, 2009
A story from a summer visitor
Mooooo! I am Laurence the calf. I live at Lewis Waite Farm. I am all black and I am part dairy cow. I love romping around the pastures, getting fed out of bottles, taking naps in the shade, and untying people’s shoelaces. I have some friends in the herd even though a mostly live in the barnyard with my adopted mother. Oh, look its Nancy coming with a bottle of milk! This milk is really good I am going to butt my head to see if I can get any more. This milk has given me much more energy. I am going to do my little dance. Jump, skip, wiggle. Rats, Nancy is leaving. I know what would stop her, I will go run into her! READY, AIM, FIRE! Crash. Ha ha she is laughing and petting me but, she is still going. I think I will go lay down in the shade over there it is getting awfully hot. Maybe I will go for a walk tomorrow with Nancy, but now I am going to go to sleep. Goodnight.
- Laurence the calf
- Laurence the calf
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Sweet Corn Season
August 4th - Today was a challenge right from 6 am. This is the first time we have ever had to perform mechanics, swap the whole load from one van to another and still take off by 8 am to make the delivery to 12 stops throughout the city. Yesterday we had a dilemma, do we fix the big brown van's alternator and fan belt or fix the white van's wheel bearing and be confident enough to drive to NYC without much of a test drive? We chose the big brown van even though the load was smaller than usual and gave it a test drive around the farm roads but I guess the drive was not far enough. This morning by 6:15 Alan and Colin were in the van all packed up and ready to go! After a few miles they decided to turn around and not risk the journey. They got here, made a phone call to the NAPA parts store (who opened early for them) and Colin dashed off to get the wheel bearing repair kit. In the meantime Alan and I took off all the boxes, bags, eggs, route sheets, lunches and beverages for the day and packed them back in the white van, hoping that the repair would go smoothly. Miraculously, Colin pulled it off without any bashed knuckles in a very short time. They were off by 8:30 when they intended to leave by 6:30.
Once they were off, then I finally could focus on the day's activities here. The herd check went smoothly with Lawrence the calf finally drinking a bottle this morning. For the last 3 feedings he was not hungry and I was thrilled to think that a sympathetic cow had taken him on besides her own calf and was letting him drink. This morning seeing him be thirsty makes me wonder but we'll just keep checking on him with bottles to spare twice daily and see what happens next.
Without our farm help this week, I am here holding down the fort. This letter will be short today so I can head out to feed the pigs, check the herd in their new pasture and find Lawrence again. Hope you are enjoying the nice weather between the storms and hoping for a real windup to the summer.
Take care, Nancy
Once they were off, then I finally could focus on the day's activities here. The herd check went smoothly with Lawrence the calf finally drinking a bottle this morning. For the last 3 feedings he was not hungry and I was thrilled to think that a sympathetic cow had taken him on besides her own calf and was letting him drink. This morning seeing him be thirsty makes me wonder but we'll just keep checking on him with bottles to spare twice daily and see what happens next.
Without our farm help this week, I am here holding down the fort. This letter will be short today so I can head out to feed the pigs, check the herd in their new pasture and find Lawrence again. Hope you are enjoying the nice weather between the storms and hoping for a real windup to the summer.
Take care, Nancy
Summer Visitors
The pace is really picking up at the farm this month. We have lots of visitors from the City and our family members coming and going this month. Our visitors from the city include:
Astoria Hellgate members Jim, Laura and their new son Luca. It's been a long time since such a small baby was at the farm and he is very cute. Our farm was a mid-trip rest stop on their way to Mont Tremblant in Canada for a wedding.
Astoria Arrow members Stacey and David who come north each summer to visit and work at the Fort Salem Theatre. The play Corn, The Musical was performed last weekend; written and performed by a variety of local folks. David also teaches music to children while he is here for the summer. Luckily Stacey's work is flexible enough to allow her multiple visits here and when she is here she helps at our farm. We had her packing orders last week and picking blueberries as a treat.
Chelsea member Frances is here to volunteer for the Salem Historic Courthouse fundraiser, the Al Fresco dinner. This annual event feeds about 500 people under tents on the lawn with all locally grown foods. This is a lovely summer evening community event. Frances loves the hustle of the activity in the certified kitchen of the courthouse where the food is prepared. The average distance the majority of the food travels is 12 miles (except for the olive oil - which makes the average 125 miles!). It is definitely fresh and delicious.
Our sister-in-law MaryNell brought her niece and grandniece from Americus, Georgia to see the animals. Kelly, age six is interested and wary of the animals at the same time. The cows, horse and donkey are pretty large from here perspective.
Our cousin Joan and her son Zachary are arriving today for the weekend from Minnesota, They are on a week long friends and family trip through New England.
My sister Beverly and Laura came again last week to see and help care for the new calf we are bottle feeding. "Lawrence" is so cute and well trained. We brought him out into the pasture with the herd and other new calves after a week of feeding in his stall nearby. The first two time I had a halter on him and a leash and we walked around and got used to being out and able to run. The next time I brought him to the field and when he was distracted from sticking by me and trying to suck the empty bottle, I headed for the fence and let him stay with the cows. Ever since then, about two weeks ago, he comes running from the pasture when we arrive and call him. We feed him two or three times a day with the half gallon giant baby calf bottle full of milk. He is growing quickly and has graduated to three-quarters of a gallon already. When hungry the calves are very gaunt just past their ribs, in front of their hips, yet whether he is gaunt or not, Lawrence devours the entire bottle and will keep sucking for quite a while before giving up. It is great to see that he naps and runs and butts heads with the other calves since his mother is at the dairy farm and cannot teach him herd etiquette.
We have been eating well with all this company between our lush vegetable gardens, giant blueberries and picnics and dinners at our house and my sister Judy's along the Battenkill River and even dinner out on occasion. We hope you too are enjoying the bounty of the season - we are eating all the fresh corn that we can! hope each week brings you rgeat foods and great ideas for delicious recipes. Take care, Nancy and Alan
Astoria Hellgate members Jim, Laura and their new son Luca. It's been a long time since such a small baby was at the farm and he is very cute. Our farm was a mid-trip rest stop on their way to Mont Tremblant in Canada for a wedding.
Astoria Arrow members Stacey and David who come north each summer to visit and work at the Fort Salem Theatre. The play Corn, The Musical was performed last weekend; written and performed by a variety of local folks. David also teaches music to children while he is here for the summer. Luckily Stacey's work is flexible enough to allow her multiple visits here and when she is here she helps at our farm. We had her packing orders last week and picking blueberries as a treat.
Chelsea member Frances is here to volunteer for the Salem Historic Courthouse fundraiser, the Al Fresco dinner. This annual event feeds about 500 people under tents on the lawn with all locally grown foods. This is a lovely summer evening community event. Frances loves the hustle of the activity in the certified kitchen of the courthouse where the food is prepared. The average distance the majority of the food travels is 12 miles (except for the olive oil - which makes the average 125 miles!). It is definitely fresh and delicious.
Our sister-in-law MaryNell brought her niece and grandniece from Americus, Georgia to see the animals. Kelly, age six is interested and wary of the animals at the same time. The cows, horse and donkey are pretty large from here perspective.
Our cousin Joan and her son Zachary are arriving today for the weekend from Minnesota, They are on a week long friends and family trip through New England.
My sister Beverly and Laura came again last week to see and help care for the new calf we are bottle feeding. "Lawrence" is so cute and well trained. We brought him out into the pasture with the herd and other new calves after a week of feeding in his stall nearby. The first two time I had a halter on him and a leash and we walked around and got used to being out and able to run. The next time I brought him to the field and when he was distracted from sticking by me and trying to suck the empty bottle, I headed for the fence and let him stay with the cows. Ever since then, about two weeks ago, he comes running from the pasture when we arrive and call him. We feed him two or three times a day with the half gallon giant baby calf bottle full of milk. He is growing quickly and has graduated to three-quarters of a gallon already. When hungry the calves are very gaunt just past their ribs, in front of their hips, yet whether he is gaunt or not, Lawrence devours the entire bottle and will keep sucking for quite a while before giving up. It is great to see that he naps and runs and butts heads with the other calves since his mother is at the dairy farm and cannot teach him herd etiquette.
We have been eating well with all this company between our lush vegetable gardens, giant blueberries and picnics and dinners at our house and my sister Judy's along the Battenkill River and even dinner out on occasion. We hope you too are enjoying the bounty of the season - we are eating all the fresh corn that we can! hope each week brings you rgeat foods and great ideas for delicious recipes. Take care, Nancy and Alan
Friday, July 24, 2009
Mid Summer days are not always Dog Days!
The pace is really picking up at the farm this month. We have lots of visitors from the City and our family members coming and going this month. Our visitors from the city include:
Astoria Hellgate members Jim, Laura and their new son Luca. It's been a long time since such a small baby was at the farm and he is very cute. Our farm was a mid-trip rest stop on their way to Mont Tremblant in Canada for a wedding.
Astoria Arrow members Stacey and David who come north each summer to visit and work at the Fort Salem Theatre. The play Corn, The Musical was performed last weekend; written and performed by a variety of local folks. David also teaches music to children while he is here for the summer. Luckily Stacey's work is flexible enough to allow her multiple visits here and when she is here she helps at our farm. We had her packing orders last week and picking blueberries as a treat.
Chelsea member Frances is here to volunteer for the Salem Historic Courthouse fundraiser, the Al Fresco dinner. This annual event feeds about 500 people under tents on the lawn with all locally grown foods. This is a lovely summer evening community event. Frances loves the hustle of the activity in the certified kitchen of the courthouse where the food is prepared. The average distance the majority of the food travels is 12 miles (except for the olive oil - which makes the average 125 miles!). It is definitely fresh and delicious.
Our sister-in-law MaryNell brought her niece and grandniece from Americus, Georgia to see the animals. Kelly, age six is interested and wary of the animals at the same time. The cows, horse and donkey are pretty large from here perspective.
Our cousin Joan and her son Zachary are arriving today for the weekend from Minnesota, They are on a week long friends and family trip through New England.
My sister Beverly and Laura came again last week to see and help care for the new calf we are bottle feeding. "Lawrence" is so cute and well trained. We brought him out into the pasture with the herd and other new calves after a week of feeding in his stall nearby. The first two time I had a halter on him and a leash and we walked around and got used to being out and able to run. The next time I brought him to the field and when he was distracted from sticking by me and trying to suck the empty bottle, I headed for the fence and let him stay with the cows. Ever since then, about two weeks ago, he comes running from the pasture when we arrive and call him. We feed him two or three times a day with the half gallon giant baby calf bottle full of milk. He is growing quickly and has graduated to three-quarters of a gallon already. When hungry the calves are very gaunt just past their ribs, in front of their hips, yet whether he is gaunt or not, Lawrence devours the entire bottle and will keep sucking for quite a while before giving up. It is great to see that he naps and runs and butts heads with the other calves since his mother is at the dairy farm and cannot teach him herd etiquette.
We have been eating well with all this company between our lush vegetable gardens, giant blueberries and picnics and dinners at our house and my sister Judy's along the Battenkill River and even dinner out on occasion. We hope you too are enjoying the bounty of the season - we are eating all the fresh corn that we can! hope each week brings you rgeat foods and great ideas for delicious recipes. Take care, Nancy and Alan
Astoria Hellgate members Jim, Laura and their new son Luca. It's been a long time since such a small baby was at the farm and he is very cute. Our farm was a mid-trip rest stop on their way to Mont Tremblant in Canada for a wedding.
Astoria Arrow members Stacey and David who come north each summer to visit and work at the Fort Salem Theatre. The play Corn, The Musical was performed last weekend; written and performed by a variety of local folks. David also teaches music to children while he is here for the summer. Luckily Stacey's work is flexible enough to allow her multiple visits here and when she is here she helps at our farm. We had her packing orders last week and picking blueberries as a treat.
Chelsea member Frances is here to volunteer for the Salem Historic Courthouse fundraiser, the Al Fresco dinner. This annual event feeds about 500 people under tents on the lawn with all locally grown foods. This is a lovely summer evening community event. Frances loves the hustle of the activity in the certified kitchen of the courthouse where the food is prepared. The average distance the majority of the food travels is 12 miles (except for the olive oil - which makes the average 125 miles!). It is definitely fresh and delicious.
Our sister-in-law MaryNell brought her niece and grandniece from Americus, Georgia to see the animals. Kelly, age six is interested and wary of the animals at the same time. The cows, horse and donkey are pretty large from here perspective.
Our cousin Joan and her son Zachary are arriving today for the weekend from Minnesota, They are on a week long friends and family trip through New England.
My sister Beverly and Laura came again last week to see and help care for the new calf we are bottle feeding. "Lawrence" is so cute and well trained. We brought him out into the pasture with the herd and other new calves after a week of feeding in his stall nearby. The first two time I had a halter on him and a leash and we walked around and got used to being out and able to run. The next time I brought him to the field and when he was distracted from sticking by me and trying to suck the empty bottle, I headed for the fence and let him stay with the cows. Ever since then, about two weeks ago, he comes running from the pasture when we arrive and call him. We feed him two or three times a day with the half gallon giant baby calf bottle full of milk. He is growing quickly and has graduated to three-quarters of a gallon already. When hungry the calves are very gaunt just past their ribs, in front of their hips, yet whether he is gaunt or not, Lawrence devours the entire bottle and will keep sucking for quite a while before giving up. It is great to see that he naps and runs and butts heads with the other calves since his mother is at the dairy farm and cannot teach him herd etiquette.
We have been eating well with all this company between our lush vegetable gardens, giant blueberries and picnics and dinners at our house and my sister Judy's along the Battenkill River and even dinner out on occasion. We hope you too are enjoying the bounty of the season - we are eating all the fresh corn that we can! hope each week brings you rgeat foods and great ideas for delicious recipes. Take care, Nancy and Alan
Monday, June 1, 2009
June and Our NOFA Inspection
This is the chilliest first day of June in my recent recollection. The sun has been in and out all day and luckily it has not rained a drop. We started our hay baleage on Saturday. John and Michelle Reid, whose maple syrup we help to distribute, come to the farm with their 3 tractors, a mowing machine called a diskbine, a round baler that makes bigger bales than ours and a bale wrapper that seals the hay inside a white plastic wrap that ferments the hay like sauerkraut and keeps more nutrients in it than dry hay. We end up making half our hay in baleage, which look like great big marshmallows along the edge of the fields and half in dry big round bales we store in the barn shed at the Waite Farm. That way the cows have a mix of the two kinds to eat all winter and seem generally healthier and happier looking than all dry hay years. The baleage just seems more luscious and they come running when you open up a bale to carry it out to the fields in the winter. So with their snazzy new tractors and fancy equipment, they make half our hay in 4 days!! Thee is no waiting and drying for this type of hay and you can mow it down, rake in into windrows and bale it and wrap it all in one day. They are doing 7 fields in the time it takes us to do 2!! Weather permitting! There are also 3 people operating all at once in circles around the fields, they just need a small head start on each other and it's amazing how fast it all goes. The quickness is a real boon to the cows too who get to eat in these fields the rest of the year. When our haying would take a month between rainstorms and other activities, these fields had to be limits until all finished. Only then could the cows go in and eat all around the edges where the tractors do not reach. Once the field was finished it could go back into the rotational path they follow all summer. More paddocks of eating means each one has a longer recovery and regrowth period to be lush again.
In the midst of all this activity, the NOFA-NY inspector for our organic certification came today to visit, look around, and check up on our activities and record keeping compliance. Dave was from Brattleboro VT and is actually a full time inspector for 3 different certification groups in NY, VT and MA. He says the number of organic farms is growing and so inpsectors are in demand to keep up with the once per year visits to each farm to check on their methods of operation. our farm is quite easy to be organic since we are really just certifying our pastures, hayfields and forests. Once we filled out all the forms for each of our fields we realized just how "safe" we are from close proximity to any conventional farming. We are more surrounded by forest than any other ecology which provides a perfect buffer zone from fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides used conventionally. Being at the top of the hill as we are, even all our water from the mountain does not run through any other area but forest. So after an hour of question and answer describing what we do and filling out the inspection forms we took Dave for a driving tour of the farm and the off farm fields that we hay in our neighborhood. Luckily we have the 4 wheel drive Subaru to go cruising around some of the farm lanes and it was a lot less muddy since the 2.5 inches of rain we had last week. But with the size of the farm it takes about 45 minutes to do a decent job of a tour. Then he was off to the Slack Hollow Farm nearby where they grow vegetables and who'll probably have a lot more questions to answer.
In the midst of all this activity, the NOFA-NY inspector for our organic certification came today to visit, look around, and check up on our activities and record keeping compliance. Dave was from Brattleboro VT and is actually a full time inspector for 3 different certification groups in NY, VT and MA. He says the number of organic farms is growing and so inpsectors are in demand to keep up with the once per year visits to each farm to check on their methods of operation. our farm is quite easy to be organic since we are really just certifying our pastures, hayfields and forests. Once we filled out all the forms for each of our fields we realized just how "safe" we are from close proximity to any conventional farming. We are more surrounded by forest than any other ecology which provides a perfect buffer zone from fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides used conventionally. Being at the top of the hill as we are, even all our water from the mountain does not run through any other area but forest. So after an hour of question and answer describing what we do and filling out the inspection forms we took Dave for a driving tour of the farm and the off farm fields that we hay in our neighborhood. Luckily we have the 4 wheel drive Subaru to go cruising around some of the farm lanes and it was a lot less muddy since the 2.5 inches of rain we had last week. But with the size of the farm it takes about 45 minutes to do a decent job of a tour. Then he was off to the Slack Hollow Farm nearby where they grow vegetables and who'll probably have a lot more questions to answer.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
We are jumping right in to summer - from a frost just last night to a possible high of 87 degrees this afternoon. I hope we can take the heat! We have been working steadily on the landscaping around the house this spring and are spreading mulch and moving perennials and shrubs as fast as we can to get done by Memorial Day weekend. We are working toward reducing maintenance around the house as the fruits and garden need time and the farm chores and packing and farmers markets consume us in the summer months. The plants that seem to weed themselves are the most welcome to stay or be grouped together in a larger patch. The blueberrries are blooming, the raspberries are all leafed out and the grapevines are just starting to leaf and have small flower buds.
Tonight is a special occasion: Aaron Gabriel of Cornell Cooperative Extension is giving a Pasture Walk to talk about forages, growing grasses and feed crops. He is the grazing specialist of the extension agents and has a few beef cattle himself at home. We were proud he asked us to be the hosts of the event. So we'll be walking around identifying plants and seeing which ones the cows are eating and which ones they leave behind. The Soil and Water group brought the no-till seeder equipment that they rent to farmers around the area to show at the event. The seeds are tucked in the soil in many crevices made by a set of spinning discs that do not tear up the sod but just make a series of cuts through it to sow. The seeds for grasses that are spread in a field generally must touch the soil to germinate and grow so this seeder is a low impact way to incorporate other grasses into your pastures. Our tractors are so old that they are not powerful enough to pull the new newer equipment! Oh well, maybe we'll rent someone to seed for us someday. We never did do the frost seeding of the clover this spring!
Happy Memorial Day, Nan
Tonight is a special occasion: Aaron Gabriel of Cornell Cooperative Extension is giving a Pasture Walk to talk about forages, growing grasses and feed crops. He is the grazing specialist of the extension agents and has a few beef cattle himself at home. We were proud he asked us to be the hosts of the event. So we'll be walking around identifying plants and seeing which ones the cows are eating and which ones they leave behind. The Soil and Water group brought the no-till seeder equipment that they rent to farmers around the area to show at the event. The seeds are tucked in the soil in many crevices made by a set of spinning discs that do not tear up the sod but just make a series of cuts through it to sow. The seeds for grasses that are spread in a field generally must touch the soil to germinate and grow so this seeder is a low impact way to incorporate other grasses into your pastures. Our tractors are so old that they are not powerful enough to pull the new newer equipment! Oh well, maybe we'll rent someone to seed for us someday. We never did do the frost seeding of the clover this spring!
Happy Memorial Day, Nan
Monday, April 13, 2009
Cool and Breezy spring
April has been a tease of beautiful days and chilly temperatures. I guess it keep the bugs away and the early spring transplanting season extended. One of the hardest things we did recently was to rip up an established but way overgrown raspberry patch. With nowhere to put a hundred old bushes, it was tough to pull them (they are very shallow rooted) and pile them in the truck to take down the road to the brush pile. The lucky part of the day was when a customer came for some beef on Saturday, and we were in the midst of pulling plants I asked them if they wanted some and they did!! Luckily again, they had a pickup truck and we filled the back with plants and off they went, all excited about their new berry patch! Last year we offered everyone we saw some plants and no one wanted to come and get them. This year, after agonizing all year long about having to throw the plants away, they are gone. We thanked them for the delicious summer and fall berries and said good-bye! Next to go - the blackberry sprouts! The original 6 foot square plot is expanding around the edges and since the canes on the bush grow to be 6 to 12 feet long, they end up in your face when you are mowing the lawn around them. The sprouts will surely find homes too since the berries are as big as your thumb. Now the empty space can be begin to be the herb and perma-culture garden. Bring on the rhubarb and we hope to find a white or black currant too.
We are making a big mess in the front of the house too; digging up the stone walk which is half buried in sod and moving the stones to the pathway being worn in the grass. The shrub garden beside the walk had been growing and forcing you to walk farther out from the stone path. These stones were a real find for Alan years ago. When the road crews were tearing up the old stone sidewalks in the village and preparing to replace them with concrete, Alan was on hand with a truck to happily take them right on home for his walkways. He made steps, walks, and used them to top the stone walls in front of the house. Then again last year, we heard that the village of Ft Edward was ripping up their stones too and giving them to the homeowners along the route. A couple of friends did not want theirs, so off Alan went with a trailer and the crew to load them. The projects with these stones are still on the drawing board. They are large, 48" x 36" and are only an inch or so thick but they are very heavy. We will be landscaping a whole lot this spring!
In the midst of all this, we co mingled the pigs yesterday accidentally. There are three generations now; 8 big ones, 10 teenagers, and 6 little ones. The smaller ones were in the barn stalls getting used to us and the routine here, so they were mixed with the teens in the barnyard area so they could all learn about the electric fences. When I opened the door in the upstairs of the barn to feed them some treats, the black pig got spooked and bolted through the gate into the pasture and let all the other pigs out too. So for the second day now they are running around chasing each other, sniffing each other and otherwise getting to know each other. They have 3 separate places to sleep until they begin mixing and with their different sizes, it is actually easier for them as the pecking order is fairly obvious. They are still pretty tired at night!
The best news of the week is that Alan's favorite tractor's engine block returned home today from the machinist. It was supposed to be there for a couple of days and come back, put back together and run again. but a couple days turned into a couple of weeks. So now Colin and Joe and Alan will have dirty greasy hands for a few days until it is running smoothly. The beauty of the older John Deere tractors is their simplicity. They are easy to work on and repair and hence there are many old 1940 and 1950 tractors still doing farm work around here. We have nine of them; most working and some in various states of repair or used for parts. The old ones have a distinctive put-put from their 2 cycle engines and have a top speed of 12 miles an hour. Haying takes a long time around here!
Well, back to work while the rain has quit temporarily - to the shovels and stones.
We are making a big mess in the front of the house too; digging up the stone walk which is half buried in sod and moving the stones to the pathway being worn in the grass. The shrub garden beside the walk had been growing and forcing you to walk farther out from the stone path. These stones were a real find for Alan years ago. When the road crews were tearing up the old stone sidewalks in the village and preparing to replace them with concrete, Alan was on hand with a truck to happily take them right on home for his walkways. He made steps, walks, and used them to top the stone walls in front of the house. Then again last year, we heard that the village of Ft Edward was ripping up their stones too and giving them to the homeowners along the route. A couple of friends did not want theirs, so off Alan went with a trailer and the crew to load them. The projects with these stones are still on the drawing board. They are large, 48" x 36" and are only an inch or so thick but they are very heavy. We will be landscaping a whole lot this spring!
In the midst of all this, we co mingled the pigs yesterday accidentally. There are three generations now; 8 big ones, 10 teenagers, and 6 little ones. The smaller ones were in the barn stalls getting used to us and the routine here, so they were mixed with the teens in the barnyard area so they could all learn about the electric fences. When I opened the door in the upstairs of the barn to feed them some treats, the black pig got spooked and bolted through the gate into the pasture and let all the other pigs out too. So for the second day now they are running around chasing each other, sniffing each other and otherwise getting to know each other. They have 3 separate places to sleep until they begin mixing and with their different sizes, it is actually easier for them as the pecking order is fairly obvious. They are still pretty tired at night!
The best news of the week is that Alan's favorite tractor's engine block returned home today from the machinist. It was supposed to be there for a couple of days and come back, put back together and run again. but a couple days turned into a couple of weeks. So now Colin and Joe and Alan will have dirty greasy hands for a few days until it is running smoothly. The beauty of the older John Deere tractors is their simplicity. They are easy to work on and repair and hence there are many old 1940 and 1950 tractors still doing farm work around here. We have nine of them; most working and some in various states of repair or used for parts. The old ones have a distinctive put-put from their 2 cycle engines and have a top speed of 12 miles an hour. Haying takes a long time around here!
Well, back to work while the rain has quit temporarily - to the shovels and stones.
Monday, April 6, 2009
the mid April when will winter end blues
It is flurrying snowflakes again today. On Sunday I took pictures of the daffodils in the snow because no one would believe me if I didn't. Looking into the valley, no one else had snow and our fields on the top of the hill were totally white again. luckily Sunday afternoon, after we both finished our books, the sun came out and it was a glorious day. The garden is starting to look planted and neat again. The kale, arugula and lettuce are sown. The weeds are slowly being removed from the bottom of the garden to the top section. The weeds all go into the whellbarrow and head down to the pigpen for the new weanlings and the piglet recovering from her bout with some kind of bronchitis. I swear it was the chicken soup that finally cured her and now the greens are doing their part. The flats in the greenhouse are planted weekly with a few things to help spread out the harvest as last year I was a bit amibitous in anticipating the volume we could eat. I am sworn to small successive planmtings this year.
Our perennial gardens are in need of a big facelift this year. That is always a daunting task when you begin with a mature patch of plants and stand beside it with your shovel. Which ones to keep and which are too wild, weedy or invasive? Where to move them? But the earlier you get this accomplished the better off you are. I'd like to incorporate some permaculture features too but don't have a plan yet.
Our perennial gardens are in need of a big facelift this year. That is always a daunting task when you begin with a mature patch of plants and stand beside it with your shovel. Which ones to keep and which are too wild, weedy or invasive? Where to move them? But the earlier you get this accomplished the better off you are. I'd like to incorporate some permaculture features too but don't have a plan yet.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Is the Vacation over already?
The blitz all started on March 11, a few days after our March 7 delivery. We got up early to drive to the Albany airport and get on an airplane heading south (after removing our shoes, belts, hats, and putting them all on again). The weather was great, the flights wonderfully uneventful and the landings smooth into West Palm Beach. It feels great to be 75 degrees! This was our first flight in a long time. This was also our first week long vacation away from the farm in two years. Yippee!
The southern east coast of Florida is very built up with many high rises right on the beach. I got an email the other day showing pictures of earth and that highlighted North America at night from the space shuttle and I was amazed at how “ablaze” the whole coast of Florida is. The town we were headed for had an ordinance about lights at night to help the nesting turtles and their hatchlings from walking the wrong way toward the lights and not heading for the ocean where the moon would be shining. But to see these pictures makes you wonder how daunting task it must be to uphold the law!
Some friends had recommended a very small (8 rooms 2 stories) Courtyard Villas which was right on the beach in Lauderdale by the Sea. The small courtyard had a big hot tub and a fountain that made us think we were in Italy! The beach was 300 yards away and the Gulf Stream sweeps by this area to help warm up the water. The Goodyear blimp flew up and down the beach daily along with a few helicopters, corporate jets, and the beach patrol guys in their buggies. One patroller was riding a Segway on the beach! That section of the coast is certainly built up and crowded but the high rises all stopped at the town line of Lauderdale by the Sea and the heights of all the buildings in town were much reduced in height. We read books and lolled around the beach and splashed and body surfed in the waves. That was the best part! The river taxi in the inland waterway took us on a tour of the many canals and waterfront homes with docks and boat houses and tie ups right outside. Ft Lauderdale is a maze of canals – although not quite like Venice.
We had a few days to visit my sister Judy and Taylor, her husband, in Jacksonville where it was a bit colder so our swimming excursions were over. They were on vacation from Oldfields School in Maryland where Taylor is the headmaster. Jacksonville is a very large city in population and activity as well as area. The city seems to surrounded by water and marshes everywhere. There are great marshes for kayaking as well as all sized waterways for fishing, ferries, cargo and cruise ships. The large national seashore there is quite lovely with natural dunes and sea and low grassy, shrubby salt tolerant plant life.
The morning we flew home was an order deadline day and we were right back in action, although much refreshed and renewed with new sites, topics and our short family reunion. One detail we never did find out was whether or not the palm trees (and I thought maybe it was just the coconut palms) were native to the area or not. Now they seem like clover; so integrated into the landscape that they look right but you don’t see them in the more remote, natural areas. Even the state is planting palms with the fan fronds along the highways and overpasses. Oh well, a google topic for another day.
When we came back to reviewing all my email I had a shock to see this headline:
FEDS TO BAN BACKYARD GARDENS?New Regulations to Shut Down Small Organic Farms$1 Million Fines: Lose Your Property for Growing Food
Small farms and backyard gardeners could be placed under direct supervision of the federal government under new legislation making its way through Congress.
The Feds are working on a plan that could ban organic farms and backyard gardens! The sponsors of House Resolution 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, are lurking in the shadows of Congress to quietly pass a diabolical scheme that levies up to $1 Million in fines to those food ‘rebels’ who dare to use organic fertilizer and now bow to big brother’s nasty chemicals and pesticides from the likes of Monsanto, etc. (See article below.)
So I wrote to Martha Goodsell and Bob Comis who both participate and are very knowledgeable on AG related topics to see if the hype was really true! I thought – oh, no, not another National Animal Identification System (NAIS) idea!!!
This reply was sent to me by Martha Goodsell who I believe was involved in the creation of NYFARMS! And she always seems to be on top of news topics.
NY Farms! publishes News to Share to provide information about food and farming to a wide range of interested individuals, organizations and businesses. It is a compilation from a variety of sources. Articles do not necessarily represent official positions of NY Farms! For more about NY Farms!
Visit www.nyfarms.info
Quote from Martha:
“Yes I've researched HR 845, but no, not all of what you're reading is true. Here's some research I've done on the food bills. I'm most concerned with Senate bill 510 and House bill 1332. Watch themvery closely. The bills are very similar though not conferenced at this point. They are broad sweeping reform bills, just as vague as HR 875 and could be just as, if not more, detrimental to small scale farmers and processors. Unlike HR 875 which exempts some activities which fall under the Federal Meat Inspection Act or the Poultry Products Inspection Acts and specifically excludes in section 3.14 any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation, there are no such express exceptions in these other two bills. The record keeping, product testing and HACCP requirements (all electronically of course) would be, in my opinion, overwhelming for most small scale operations. Look what HACCP did to our slaughterhouses-- gone! Any bill that will require one-size rules must be watched intently. These two bills( S510 and HR 1332) have bi-partisan support so don't let them off your radar by any means.
In the meantime, here's my submission to the Broader View Weekly, a small hometown paper, I write for.
Food Safety Bills of 2009
By Martha Goodsell
Internet users are up in arms regarding House Bill 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act, but much of what is circulating over the network is hype and inflated fears. However, that’s not to say that HR 875 is not a threat to both small scale and organic farmers and those consumers who support such farms. In its present form, it is a very real- though not a highly probable- threat. HR 875 is not the only food safety bill recently proposed following the peanut butter contamination. There are six other bills that must be monitored.
There are two federal agencies charged with food safety. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for wholesome meat and poultry under the guidelines of the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) and the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA). The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the other hand, has the responsibility for oversight of manufactured food products, and all those products not under USDA jurisdiction. Unlike the USDA who inspects products and ensures Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) compliance in slaughterhouses and in meat and poultry product processing facilities, the FDA is charged with the annual inspection of manufacturing facilities. Only a few products monitored by the FDA are required to have and follow HACCP plans.
Thanks to Upton Sinclair, and his book The Jungle, the USDA oversight on meat and poultry is much stricter than for other food products currently. Many of these bills are looking to change that, by requiring food manufacturers to have and follow HACCP plans, which includes strict record keeping requirements. Unfortunately HACCP implementation poses a greater obstacle to small plants compared to larger facilities. Thus, the single greatest problem with all of these newly proposed food safety bills are that they are not designed with small and large operations in mind. Rather, they are written with a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Knowing that many small operations will chose to close their doors, rather than comply with testing, record keeping, and all sorts of other requirements, these bills indirectly interfere with the rights of individuals to choose their foods. This threat of losing small farms – and thus one’s food choice- is feeding the current hysteria.
To read more about the bills visit http://www.govtrack.us/congress/legislation.xpd. Please contact your Washington representatives to express your support or opposition to the bills.
Read them here:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s111-510http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-1332
Here is a summary of what’s pending:
HR 875 - The Food Safety Modernization Act, sponsored by Rosa Delauro (D- CT) (whose husband works for Monsanto) has 30 co-sponsors at this time. This bill splits the FDA into two units: one which would monitor food and the other to monitor medicinal drugs and medical devices. (The FDA is charged with monitoring both food and drugs so this is only a new approach, not a new duty.) The bill would increase the number - or frequency - of inspections. HR 875 would require HACCP plans. It would also require imports to meet US standards. (Currently as long as a foreign country has an “equivalent” inspection system, product is accepted with little or no further questions or testing.) HR 875 would establish a national traceability system that would require tracking “the history, use, and location of an item of food”. Section 3.13A specifically exempts those operations currently under USDA inspection under the FMIA or PPIA acts and section 3.14 exempts any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation.
S425 - Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act, sponsored by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has no co-sponsors. This senate bill would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to provide for the establishment of a traceability system so that each article of food shipped in interstate commerce would require a full record keeping system. An audit system would provide for compliance. Premise registration would be mandatory. S425 amends the FMIA so that any person that has reason to believe that any carcass, part of a carcass, meat, or meat food product is inappropriately transported, stored, distributed, or otherwise mis-handled resulting in adulteration or misbranding shall serve notice to the secretary who shall then call on industry to withdraw the product. The PPIA and the Egg Product Inspection Act (EPIA) would be amended in the same fashion.
HR 814 - Tracing and Recalling Agricultural Contamination Everywhere Act, sponsored by Diana DeGette (D-CO) has five co-sponsors. HR 814 would direct the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a traceability system for all stages of manufacturing, processing, packaging, and distribution of food. HR 814 would amend the FMIA by requiring identification and traceability for all cattle, sheep, swine, goats, and horses, mules, and other equines presented for slaughter. Without an identification number, farm records, and the ability to trace an animal’s movement, such an animal can not be presented for slaughter. The PPIA and the EPIA would be amended to establish similar provisions for poultry and poultry products and for eggs and egg products. It is interesting to note that nothing contained in HR 814 supports Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirements.
HR 759- The Food And Drug Administration Globalization Act, sponsored by John Dingell (D- MI) with eight co-sponsors, would require every food facility that manufactures, processes, packs, transports, or holds food for consumption in the United States to develop and implement a HACCP and food safety plan. HR 759 would require that all food facilities use standard lot numbers and that all facilities including food processors, farms and restaurants, keep electronic records. Food facilities must earn an accreditation status. This bill instructs the FDA to establish production standards for fruits and vegetables and to establish Good Agricultural Practices for produce and requiring those that grow and sell fresh fruits and vegetables to have a HACCP plan. COOL would be required. Only certified laboratories could conduct sampling and testing of food to ensure compliance.
S 429 - Ending Agricultural Threats: Safeguarding America's Food for Everyone (EAT SAFE) Act of 2009, sponsored by Senator Robert Casey (D- PA) with only one co-sponsor, focuses on imported and smuggled foods. This bill directs the Secretary of Agriculture to establish food safety and agroterrorism training programs. Notification of recalled food products would be provided to the public while notice of smuggled food products would be reported to the public and to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This bill amends the FMIA and the PPIA to establish civil penalties for failure to present imported meat and poultry products for inspection and requires the use of federally certified food safety labs for product testing. A food-borne illness education and outreach grant program would be established.
S 510 - A bill to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to the safety of the food supply sponsored by Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) has 8 co-sponsors currently. This bill addresses the concerns of government to the use of or exposure to certain foods. If the Secretary of Agriculture believes that there is a reasonable probability that the use of or exposure to an article of food will cause serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals, each person who manufactures, processes, packs, distributes, receives, holds, or imports such article shall provide access to that food article and to all records relating to such article. HACCP and preventive controls would be required for all manufacturers, processors, packers, distributors, receivers, holders, or importers. Safety standards would be established for production and harvesting of fruits and vegetables. All premises would be required to be registered and pay annual inspection fees. The Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Agriculture, would facilitate public-private partnerships to help unify and enhance the protection of the agriculture and food system of the United States; including the sharing of information and intelligence relating to agriculture and the food system. The three agencies would identify best practices and methods for improving the coordination among Federal, State, local, and private sector preparedness and response plans for agriculture and food defense and would recommend methods to protect the economy and the public health of the United States from the effects of animal or plant disease outbreaks, food contamination and natural disasters affecting agriculture and food.
HR 1332 - Safe FEAST Act of 2009, sponsored by Jim Costa (D-CA) with 19 cosponsors. This is very similar to the senate bill S 510. All food manufacturers, processes, packers, or those who hold food for sale would be required to be registered. If the Secretary determines that food manufactured, processed, packed, or held by a facility has a reasonable probability of causing serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals, the Secretary may suspend the registration of the facility. In addition to having access to records and the product, the Secretary may direct the facility to order a recall. In addition to HACCP plans and record keeping requirements facilities would be required to: follow sanitation procedures, establish hygiene training, establish monitoring programs for environmental pathogen controls, implement an allergen control program, develop a recall contingency plan; follow Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs); and verify source suppliers. HR 1332 would encourage the building of domestic capacity through coordinated councils which would in part identify potential threats to the food supply and would establish surveillance systems through integrated networks. “
End quote of Martha Goodsell
If you have made it this far in your reading or skimming, congratulations!
If you have any activism trends in your bones, here are some food related items to comment on and pass your comments on to your representatives in NY, NY AG & Markets and your representatives in Washington, the USDA, and the FDA and the individual bills sponsors. The big issue is the rules will apply to all – the Campbells soup factory and Charles making Jam in his certified kitchen or our farm and the big feedlots of the west!! They all, at the very least, need clarification and adjustment of the rules for farms and processors of different sizes.
So as far as vacations go, these issues and topics brought us right back home!
We haven't been home long but we already seem far away from the ocean! Nancy
The southern east coast of Florida is very built up with many high rises right on the beach. I got an email the other day showing pictures of earth and that highlighted North America at night from the space shuttle and I was amazed at how “ablaze” the whole coast of Florida is. The town we were headed for had an ordinance about lights at night to help the nesting turtles and their hatchlings from walking the wrong way toward the lights and not heading for the ocean where the moon would be shining. But to see these pictures makes you wonder how daunting task it must be to uphold the law!
Some friends had recommended a very small (8 rooms 2 stories) Courtyard Villas which was right on the beach in Lauderdale by the Sea. The small courtyard had a big hot tub and a fountain that made us think we were in Italy! The beach was 300 yards away and the Gulf Stream sweeps by this area to help warm up the water. The Goodyear blimp flew up and down the beach daily along with a few helicopters, corporate jets, and the beach patrol guys in their buggies. One patroller was riding a Segway on the beach! That section of the coast is certainly built up and crowded but the high rises all stopped at the town line of Lauderdale by the Sea and the heights of all the buildings in town were much reduced in height. We read books and lolled around the beach and splashed and body surfed in the waves. That was the best part! The river taxi in the inland waterway took us on a tour of the many canals and waterfront homes with docks and boat houses and tie ups right outside. Ft Lauderdale is a maze of canals – although not quite like Venice.
We had a few days to visit my sister Judy and Taylor, her husband, in Jacksonville where it was a bit colder so our swimming excursions were over. They were on vacation from Oldfields School in Maryland where Taylor is the headmaster. Jacksonville is a very large city in population and activity as well as area. The city seems to surrounded by water and marshes everywhere. There are great marshes for kayaking as well as all sized waterways for fishing, ferries, cargo and cruise ships. The large national seashore there is quite lovely with natural dunes and sea and low grassy, shrubby salt tolerant plant life.
The morning we flew home was an order deadline day and we were right back in action, although much refreshed and renewed with new sites, topics and our short family reunion. One detail we never did find out was whether or not the palm trees (and I thought maybe it was just the coconut palms) were native to the area or not. Now they seem like clover; so integrated into the landscape that they look right but you don’t see them in the more remote, natural areas. Even the state is planting palms with the fan fronds along the highways and overpasses. Oh well, a google topic for another day.
When we came back to reviewing all my email I had a shock to see this headline:
FEDS TO BAN BACKYARD GARDENS?New Regulations to Shut Down Small Organic Farms$1 Million Fines: Lose Your Property for Growing Food
Small farms and backyard gardeners could be placed under direct supervision of the federal government under new legislation making its way through Congress.
The Feds are working on a plan that could ban organic farms and backyard gardens! The sponsors of House Resolution 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, are lurking in the shadows of Congress to quietly pass a diabolical scheme that levies up to $1 Million in fines to those food ‘rebels’ who dare to use organic fertilizer and now bow to big brother’s nasty chemicals and pesticides from the likes of Monsanto, etc. (See article below.)
So I wrote to Martha Goodsell and Bob Comis who both participate and are very knowledgeable on AG related topics to see if the hype was really true! I thought – oh, no, not another National Animal Identification System (NAIS) idea!!!
This reply was sent to me by Martha Goodsell who I believe was involved in the creation of NYFARMS! And she always seems to be on top of news topics.
NY Farms! publishes News to Share to provide information about food and farming to a wide range of interested individuals, organizations and businesses. It is a compilation from a variety of sources. Articles do not necessarily represent official positions of NY Farms! For more about NY Farms!
Visit www.nyfarms.info
Quote from Martha:
“Yes I've researched HR 845, but no, not all of what you're reading is true. Here's some research I've done on the food bills. I'm most concerned with Senate bill 510 and House bill 1332. Watch themvery closely. The bills are very similar though not conferenced at this point. They are broad sweeping reform bills, just as vague as HR 875 and could be just as, if not more, detrimental to small scale farmers and processors. Unlike HR 875 which exempts some activities which fall under the Federal Meat Inspection Act or the Poultry Products Inspection Acts and specifically excludes in section 3.14 any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation, there are no such express exceptions in these other two bills. The record keeping, product testing and HACCP requirements (all electronically of course) would be, in my opinion, overwhelming for most small scale operations. Look what HACCP did to our slaughterhouses-- gone! Any bill that will require one-size rules must be watched intently. These two bills( S510 and HR 1332) have bi-partisan support so don't let them off your radar by any means.
In the meantime, here's my submission to the Broader View Weekly, a small hometown paper, I write for.
Food Safety Bills of 2009
By Martha Goodsell
Internet users are up in arms regarding House Bill 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act, but much of what is circulating over the network is hype and inflated fears. However, that’s not to say that HR 875 is not a threat to both small scale and organic farmers and those consumers who support such farms. In its present form, it is a very real- though not a highly probable- threat. HR 875 is not the only food safety bill recently proposed following the peanut butter contamination. There are six other bills that must be monitored.
There are two federal agencies charged with food safety. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for wholesome meat and poultry under the guidelines of the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) and the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA). The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the other hand, has the responsibility for oversight of manufactured food products, and all those products not under USDA jurisdiction. Unlike the USDA who inspects products and ensures Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) compliance in slaughterhouses and in meat and poultry product processing facilities, the FDA is charged with the annual inspection of manufacturing facilities. Only a few products monitored by the FDA are required to have and follow HACCP plans.
Thanks to Upton Sinclair, and his book The Jungle, the USDA oversight on meat and poultry is much stricter than for other food products currently. Many of these bills are looking to change that, by requiring food manufacturers to have and follow HACCP plans, which includes strict record keeping requirements. Unfortunately HACCP implementation poses a greater obstacle to small plants compared to larger facilities. Thus, the single greatest problem with all of these newly proposed food safety bills are that they are not designed with small and large operations in mind. Rather, they are written with a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Knowing that many small operations will chose to close their doors, rather than comply with testing, record keeping, and all sorts of other requirements, these bills indirectly interfere with the rights of individuals to choose their foods. This threat of losing small farms – and thus one’s food choice- is feeding the current hysteria.
To read more about the bills visit http://www.govtrack.us/congress/legislation.xpd. Please contact your Washington representatives to express your support or opposition to the bills.
Read them here:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s111-510http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-1332
Here is a summary of what’s pending:
HR 875 - The Food Safety Modernization Act, sponsored by Rosa Delauro (D- CT) (whose husband works for Monsanto) has 30 co-sponsors at this time. This bill splits the FDA into two units: one which would monitor food and the other to monitor medicinal drugs and medical devices. (The FDA is charged with monitoring both food and drugs so this is only a new approach, not a new duty.) The bill would increase the number - or frequency - of inspections. HR 875 would require HACCP plans. It would also require imports to meet US standards. (Currently as long as a foreign country has an “equivalent” inspection system, product is accepted with little or no further questions or testing.) HR 875 would establish a national traceability system that would require tracking “the history, use, and location of an item of food”. Section 3.13A specifically exempts those operations currently under USDA inspection under the FMIA or PPIA acts and section 3.14 exempts any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation.
S425 - Food Safety and Tracking Improvement Act, sponsored by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has no co-sponsors. This senate bill would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to provide for the establishment of a traceability system so that each article of food shipped in interstate commerce would require a full record keeping system. An audit system would provide for compliance. Premise registration would be mandatory. S425 amends the FMIA so that any person that has reason to believe that any carcass, part of a carcass, meat, or meat food product is inappropriately transported, stored, distributed, or otherwise mis-handled resulting in adulteration or misbranding shall serve notice to the secretary who shall then call on industry to withdraw the product. The PPIA and the Egg Product Inspection Act (EPIA) would be amended in the same fashion.
HR 814 - Tracing and Recalling Agricultural Contamination Everywhere Act, sponsored by Diana DeGette (D-CO) has five co-sponsors. HR 814 would direct the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a traceability system for all stages of manufacturing, processing, packaging, and distribution of food. HR 814 would amend the FMIA by requiring identification and traceability for all cattle, sheep, swine, goats, and horses, mules, and other equines presented for slaughter. Without an identification number, farm records, and the ability to trace an animal’s movement, such an animal can not be presented for slaughter. The PPIA and the EPIA would be amended to establish similar provisions for poultry and poultry products and for eggs and egg products. It is interesting to note that nothing contained in HR 814 supports Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirements.
HR 759- The Food And Drug Administration Globalization Act, sponsored by John Dingell (D- MI) with eight co-sponsors, would require every food facility that manufactures, processes, packs, transports, or holds food for consumption in the United States to develop and implement a HACCP and food safety plan. HR 759 would require that all food facilities use standard lot numbers and that all facilities including food processors, farms and restaurants, keep electronic records. Food facilities must earn an accreditation status. This bill instructs the FDA to establish production standards for fruits and vegetables and to establish Good Agricultural Practices for produce and requiring those that grow and sell fresh fruits and vegetables to have a HACCP plan. COOL would be required. Only certified laboratories could conduct sampling and testing of food to ensure compliance.
S 429 - Ending Agricultural Threats: Safeguarding America's Food for Everyone (EAT SAFE) Act of 2009, sponsored by Senator Robert Casey (D- PA) with only one co-sponsor, focuses on imported and smuggled foods. This bill directs the Secretary of Agriculture to establish food safety and agroterrorism training programs. Notification of recalled food products would be provided to the public while notice of smuggled food products would be reported to the public and to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This bill amends the FMIA and the PPIA to establish civil penalties for failure to present imported meat and poultry products for inspection and requires the use of federally certified food safety labs for product testing. A food-borne illness education and outreach grant program would be established.
S 510 - A bill to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to the safety of the food supply sponsored by Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) has 8 co-sponsors currently. This bill addresses the concerns of government to the use of or exposure to certain foods. If the Secretary of Agriculture believes that there is a reasonable probability that the use of or exposure to an article of food will cause serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals, each person who manufactures, processes, packs, distributes, receives, holds, or imports such article shall provide access to that food article and to all records relating to such article. HACCP and preventive controls would be required for all manufacturers, processors, packers, distributors, receivers, holders, or importers. Safety standards would be established for production and harvesting of fruits and vegetables. All premises would be required to be registered and pay annual inspection fees. The Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Agriculture, would facilitate public-private partnerships to help unify and enhance the protection of the agriculture and food system of the United States; including the sharing of information and intelligence relating to agriculture and the food system. The three agencies would identify best practices and methods for improving the coordination among Federal, State, local, and private sector preparedness and response plans for agriculture and food defense and would recommend methods to protect the economy and the public health of the United States from the effects of animal or plant disease outbreaks, food contamination and natural disasters affecting agriculture and food.
HR 1332 - Safe FEAST Act of 2009, sponsored by Jim Costa (D-CA) with 19 cosponsors. This is very similar to the senate bill S 510. All food manufacturers, processes, packers, or those who hold food for sale would be required to be registered. If the Secretary determines that food manufactured, processed, packed, or held by a facility has a reasonable probability of causing serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals, the Secretary may suspend the registration of the facility. In addition to having access to records and the product, the Secretary may direct the facility to order a recall. In addition to HACCP plans and record keeping requirements facilities would be required to: follow sanitation procedures, establish hygiene training, establish monitoring programs for environmental pathogen controls, implement an allergen control program, develop a recall contingency plan; follow Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs); and verify source suppliers. HR 1332 would encourage the building of domestic capacity through coordinated councils which would in part identify potential threats to the food supply and would establish surveillance systems through integrated networks. “
End quote of Martha Goodsell
If you have made it this far in your reading or skimming, congratulations!
If you have any activism trends in your bones, here are some food related items to comment on and pass your comments on to your representatives in NY, NY AG & Markets and your representatives in Washington, the USDA, and the FDA and the individual bills sponsors. The big issue is the rules will apply to all – the Campbells soup factory and Charles making Jam in his certified kitchen or our farm and the big feedlots of the west!! They all, at the very least, need clarification and adjustment of the rules for farms and processors of different sizes.
So as far as vacations go, these issues and topics brought us right back home!
We haven't been home long but we already seem far away from the ocean! Nancy
Monday, February 23, 2009
The End of Winter?
This week was just another shift in the weather and our mindsets that this winter has had in store for us. We all were beginning to feel as if the trend had begun from coldest, to colder to sunny to warmer. The snow on the southern pastures had melted. We were taking walks to the top of the hill without getting our feet wet and then it snowed all over again (twice) and is quite cold and windy. Last week, once we got the delivery out the door, was a great time here. My sister Bev and niece Laura came to the farm for the whole school vacation week. They got me out each day to take a walk and the sunshine felt very good and full of vitamin D. The snow was still crusty in the woods and the northern exposures. We found an area of pine trees where there were about 5 woodcocks sitting in the boughs above our heads. As we got close to each one (without our seeing them), they exploded from the branches with beating wings and flew off. We found mostly deer tracks and in places they really have some highways through the woods to the streams and springs. Each day Laura would help to tame the barn cats and by the end of the week she was almost able to touch the Mystery Girl cat. The photo above shows Circles and Goldy. We took the pigs for a walk in the woods; they are very happy to follow along to see where you are going. The little stream in the uppermost point of their pastures was running freely and the snow was up to their bellies. When they first saw us walking, they were digging in the dirt around the hedgerow where the snow had melted and their noses were all muddy. By the time they investigated the stream and the snow around the bases of all trees nearby, the noses were a shiny bright pink.
Midweek we went skiing at Bromley Mtn and had a great time. The snow was groomed and not icy and the crowds in the liftlines were quite small. We were pretty tired out by the time it started snowing. We were almost glad to quit a bit early as we had some trouble seeing where we were going. This snow covered all the bare ground over again and took us back to feeling like mid-winter. It snowed again most of the day Sunday while we were at the farmers market and today is cold and quite windy. We even let the cows use the barn shed to try to stay dry and be out of the wind. The shed also warms up a bit when there are 80 animals in there. I'll bet they are ready for spring.
Bev and Laura even helped me get started in the greenhouse without seedlings. The first things planted were 2 varieties of kale and two varieties of arugula. I hope this cold snap does not stop them from sprouting! The greenhouse seemed a warm and cozy space last week - at least when the sun is out. By early April or maybe even late March, I could set these in the garden with row cover or a cold frame and hope for the best of the early greens. In the next few weeks I'll start spinach, cabbage and leeks too. We are looking forward to eating out of the garden again even though the root cellar still has potatoes, beets, leeks, garlic and the freezer still has tomatoes, blueberries and currants.
By the weekend, the girls had gone back to Wellesley and my nephew Chris from Philadelphia had arrived. He came for a winter get away drive as the poor guy spent as much time in the car as he got to spend visiting. We did however have a great farm meal and even opened the first bottle of the rhubarb wine. It was pretty good! We'll have to try that recipe again. It was great to catch up on the family news all week long and now it's back to business and the routine of the season. Hope you all are staying warm.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Warming up in the Pig Pile
The cold days seem to be much brighter and warmer as long as the sun is out. The animals are all feeling the difference as they are eating less, soaking up the sun and seem to be getting sick of eating hay and dreaming of green grass. Jack and Pedro, the horse and donkey, seek the highest point in the pasture in the morning to catch the first rays of the sun coming up over the hill on our eastern side. During this cold weather, the farm is protected by the worst cold simply by being up on the hill. There was not alot of biting wind and the temperatures seem to rise as you get higher because the colder air sinks into the valleys by the rivers and streams. So when the river valley was below zero, we were in the single digits. The Vermont weather man said this morning that was the longest stretch of cold air in several decades. The lovely day Saturday was the warmest since late December. That one day has gotten us all thinking of spring, planting and growing things again. Today is another beauty with glorious sunshine with temperatures in the 30's.
The greatest thing for the pigs in cold weather is climbing into the pig piles! The base level is a row of cuddly piggies all lined up like sardines in the hay nest. The next pig to climb in thries to get in the middle by starting to climb on the hips of the resting pigs. There is a bit of groaning to fit and growling when it hurts until the new addition is cozily nestled in the bunch. The next few new bodies make a bigger disturbance and sometimes the whole pile is moving, groaning, and adjusting to make room for each other. If you have two bodies beside you and one partially on top of you, you are in the warmest position. Every so often, an outside pig moves and tries to get back in the middle to warm up his cold back. It makes for entertaining animal behavior watching while fussing around the pigs bedroom during chores.
Hopefully the winds will warm up consistently, and we'll all be shedding our layers.
The greatest thing for the pigs in cold weather is climbing into the pig piles! The base level is a row of cuddly piggies all lined up like sardines in the hay nest. The next pig to climb in thries to get in the middle by starting to climb on the hips of the resting pigs. There is a bit of groaning to fit and growling when it hurts until the new addition is cozily nestled in the bunch. The next few new bodies make a bigger disturbance and sometimes the whole pile is moving, groaning, and adjusting to make room for each other. If you have two bodies beside you and one partially on top of you, you are in the warmest position. Every so often, an outside pig moves and tries to get back in the middle to warm up his cold back. It makes for entertaining animal behavior watching while fussing around the pigs bedroom during chores.
Hopefully the winds will warm up consistently, and we'll all be shedding our layers.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Recovery
Alan and I finally made it to the surgeon’s follow-up visit after our first appointment was due in the middle of the holidays and then a too snowy day stopped us from making the big drive to Albany early in January. When the surgeon looked at Alan's incision scars and said, "beautiful", Alan and I just looked at each other in astonishment. We should have been ready for him to be only concerned in his handiwork and its outcome. We were hoping for more concern about patient comfort! Luckily Alan's surgery was called a heartport, and not a full opening of his chest so the visible physical scars are small. It's the emotional and internal healing that has taken quite a while in showing visible progress.
He is recovering slowly and in bursts of feeling good and then feeling like not doing anything. I can understand why they don’t want to tell you about the myriad of weird things they inject, IV and do during surgery beforehand, but afterward I wish they would suggest a detoxifying diet to help get rid of all that stuff more quickly. The heart healthy diet routine in the hospital is a total joke compared to the great kinds of foods we all eat from our gardens and the CSA. One day they served sweet sugared beets and wondered why all the patients had high blood sugar levels the next morning!! It was too funny until you realized how serious it is. These people directing the food service are "nutritionists". Anyway, at least you only stay there five days. Now with the holidays and eating extravaganza done, we are back to normal and slowly emptying the root cellar of leeks, beets, potatoes, garlic, squash, cabbage and brussel sprouts.
Alan has been determined to make each of the 4 trips to NYC since Dec 13 with Joe, who helps drive along the Thruway and is the mover of all the boxes and bags to each drop off site. The drive through the city invigorates Alan somehow. He has also made it to most all of the County Supervisors meetings and all of the Town of Jackson meetings where he is the Supervisor. The budget discussion and decisions at this time of year are a big impetus to get him there and be involved. He is the curmudgeon of the board and the fiscal conservative. He is happy this year to be the chairman of the county department of public works, one of the largest spending departments and where he feels he can make a difference. His good friend Don Wilbur, supervisor of the Town of Greenwich, is the chairman of the county board this year and together they are working on lots of ideas to reduce spending within the gigantic budget of our rural county. It is activity like this that stimulates his analytical energies and gets him going.
So all in all we are doing well. The snow has been wonderfully fluffy and soft in the last 2 storms since the big ice mess. I got to go skiing at Bromley Mountain with my nephews for a great day. The snow is deep enough for snowshoes but I haven't gotten them out yet - but I intend to soon. I love walking on the logging roads around the farm in the quiet with the dogs running all over and seeing all the animal tracks and bird wingtip impressions in the snow. The temperatures are rising a bit over 10 degrees these days so maybe in this break between deliveries I'll get out there. So any of you hardy CSA folks who have some time off this winter, come on up and take a walk with us!! Stay warm and be healthy!
He is recovering slowly and in bursts of feeling good and then feeling like not doing anything. I can understand why they don’t want to tell you about the myriad of weird things they inject, IV and do during surgery beforehand, but afterward I wish they would suggest a detoxifying diet to help get rid of all that stuff more quickly. The heart healthy diet routine in the hospital is a total joke compared to the great kinds of foods we all eat from our gardens and the CSA. One day they served sweet sugared beets and wondered why all the patients had high blood sugar levels the next morning!! It was too funny until you realized how serious it is. These people directing the food service are "nutritionists". Anyway, at least you only stay there five days. Now with the holidays and eating extravaganza done, we are back to normal and slowly emptying the root cellar of leeks, beets, potatoes, garlic, squash, cabbage and brussel sprouts.
Alan has been determined to make each of the 4 trips to NYC since Dec 13 with Joe, who helps drive along the Thruway and is the mover of all the boxes and bags to each drop off site. The drive through the city invigorates Alan somehow. He has also made it to most all of the County Supervisors meetings and all of the Town of Jackson meetings where he is the Supervisor. The budget discussion and decisions at this time of year are a big impetus to get him there and be involved. He is the curmudgeon of the board and the fiscal conservative. He is happy this year to be the chairman of the county department of public works, one of the largest spending departments and where he feels he can make a difference. His good friend Don Wilbur, supervisor of the Town of Greenwich, is the chairman of the county board this year and together they are working on lots of ideas to reduce spending within the gigantic budget of our rural county. It is activity like this that stimulates his analytical energies and gets him going.
So all in all we are doing well. The snow has been wonderfully fluffy and soft in the last 2 storms since the big ice mess. I got to go skiing at Bromley Mountain with my nephews for a great day. The snow is deep enough for snowshoes but I haven't gotten them out yet - but I intend to soon. I love walking on the logging roads around the farm in the quiet with the dogs running all over and seeing all the animal tracks and bird wingtip impressions in the snow. The temperatures are rising a bit over 10 degrees these days so maybe in this break between deliveries I'll get out there. So any of you hardy CSA folks who have some time off this winter, come on up and take a walk with us!! Stay warm and be healthy!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
yipeekiokiaa for the Obama's
Today was a momentous day in our lives! I even watched with rapt attention our TV (which I had to drag out of the closet) while Alan listened to the radio during his drive through the city for our Tuesday deliveries. I just feel so great that George is no longer our Pres. The things he did to our environment for his money-hungry campaign contributors makes me reel. You'll all know the song they were singing on the mall - NA NA NA NA, NA NA NA NA, hey hey hey GOODBYE, which they sang every time good old boy George's face showed on the monitors down the mall. I was glad to hear how fast he got out of town!!!!! His plane even had the nerve to streak over the mall.
Are any of us surprised how the market fell after the speech today??????????
Well he did say hard word ahead of us today right? It just makes us a bit mad that we already work very hard!
Well, no matter what.........I am exuberant about the new President and his new administration. Wouldn't it be wonderful if he knew exactly which cabinet members would be helpful to the "cause" and which ones would be knowledgeable as well as watchdogs on their operations since they could have been insiders who have been given a new direction. These are the appointees we don't agree with - such as Agriculture cabinet member.
Can you believe he is a proponent of GMO crops. We have to keep writing him on that topic!!!!
Other wise, we love the idea of his change and hope to be able to agree on his agenda or help direct his ideals!!!!!1
Yahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and not the corporate one!!!
Nancy
Are any of us surprised how the market fell after the speech today??????????
Well he did say hard word ahead of us today right? It just makes us a bit mad that we already work very hard!
Well, no matter what.........I am exuberant about the new President and his new administration. Wouldn't it be wonderful if he knew exactly which cabinet members would be helpful to the "cause" and which ones would be knowledgeable as well as watchdogs on their operations since they could have been insiders who have been given a new direction. These are the appointees we don't agree with - such as Agriculture cabinet member.
Can you believe he is a proponent of GMO crops. We have to keep writing him on that topic!!!!
Other wise, we love the idea of his change and hope to be able to agree on his agenda or help direct his ideals!!!!!1
Yahoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and not the corporate one!!!
Nancy
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Snowing Again
It's still snowing lightly and thankfully it is covering all the ice and crust and crud. Alan is off to a county finance meeting, hopefully to begin the long process for this year of putting the brakes on spending at the county. Looking at the federal government, spending money is not a problem - just print more! What I never realized before seeing Zeitgeist is that the federal reserve is a private organization that charges the country interest on the money it prints as soon as it prints it!! No wonder the deficit never goes away!! We are in a credit crisis and the answer is to take on more credit at the national level?? I guess I don't get it (and have also run away topic-wise and rambling about my concerns)! They say - think globally, act locally, so Alan has been in town and county politics now for 17 years and is constantly working to keep a handle on the growth of the local governments. Luckily the Town of Jackson is tiny, with no center, no church, very few businesses besides farms and lots of rural families. The biggest part of the budget is the town highway department with our 50 miles of roads.
Our juggling acts between farm business, gardens and fruits, town and county political business, Alan's real estate business, our rental houses, friends, family, and fun has been a part of our life for many years. Alan has been doing this for 40 years! At one time he also had a bustling home building and restoration business. I have been here at the farm since 1998 and was taken up in the swirl of priorities then, coming from a quiet single life of work, friends and family and travel. One of our CSA members, Helen, suggested that I add to the mix of topics about the farm with how to work all these projects and remain fairly sane and still have fun!
It definitely took me a while to get used to the jumble of projects, activities, and priorities to all the various aspects of things going on here. The beauty of not having to start each day leaving and "going" to work allows you to start each day with some planning. Certainly there are overall daily responsibilities for the week such as feeding the animals or the farmers markets on Saturday and Sunday, but the preparation for them can be done anytime beforehand and mixed in with any absolute priority activities. Each day can be vastly different, from packing for the CSA delivery to a cattle herd roundup! We do have helpers thankfully, so we do have others to rely on for some tasks. The four seasons certainly have an impact on the activity and also dictate certain projects during certain seasons. This topic is a whole chapter - not just a single post! Since a few years have given me some experience now, I am more adaptable to the process - although there are certainly some months when I feel quite overwhelmed! Mid Spring and Fall are the busiest times of year for me as the number of things to do is incredible. I have determined that the more things you are trying to do and think about, the faster time goes because as you get older and have way more "things of interest" that you would like to explore or try to fit in, that the time feels like it is going by faster since you are trying to fit so much in. On the other hand, I am beginning to learn that once in a while you just need to sit down and do nothing for a few minutes to make sure you are on the "right" track of your goals. More about this another day - as i have things to do now besides writing!
Take Care and Enjoy
Our juggling acts between farm business, gardens and fruits, town and county political business, Alan's real estate business, our rental houses, friends, family, and fun has been a part of our life for many years. Alan has been doing this for 40 years! At one time he also had a bustling home building and restoration business. I have been here at the farm since 1998 and was taken up in the swirl of priorities then, coming from a quiet single life of work, friends and family and travel. One of our CSA members, Helen, suggested that I add to the mix of topics about the farm with how to work all these projects and remain fairly sane and still have fun!
It definitely took me a while to get used to the jumble of projects, activities, and priorities to all the various aspects of things going on here. The beauty of not having to start each day leaving and "going" to work allows you to start each day with some planning. Certainly there are overall daily responsibilities for the week such as feeding the animals or the farmers markets on Saturday and Sunday, but the preparation for them can be done anytime beforehand and mixed in with any absolute priority activities. Each day can be vastly different, from packing for the CSA delivery to a cattle herd roundup! We do have helpers thankfully, so we do have others to rely on for some tasks. The four seasons certainly have an impact on the activity and also dictate certain projects during certain seasons. This topic is a whole chapter - not just a single post! Since a few years have given me some experience now, I am more adaptable to the process - although there are certainly some months when I feel quite overwhelmed! Mid Spring and Fall are the busiest times of year for me as the number of things to do is incredible. I have determined that the more things you are trying to do and think about, the faster time goes because as you get older and have way more "things of interest" that you would like to explore or try to fit in, that the time feels like it is going by faster since you are trying to fit so much in. On the other hand, I am beginning to learn that once in a while you just need to sit down and do nothing for a few minutes to make sure you are on the "right" track of your goals. More about this another day - as i have things to do now besides writing!
Take Care and Enjoy
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
the end of the holiday time off
We hope that all of you are ringing in the New Year with hopeful anticipation. Can’t wait to have a new government in a few weeks – but it likely really won’t be all that different! We can only hope for a new beginning!
We were really happy to have taken some time off during the holiday season and hope we did not inconvenience you too much with our lack of response to your emails when Chris was not here to reply as fast as she usually does. I went skiing at Bromley VT. We saw my brother Jim and Kim, and his twins Jared and David. Brian and Allie and Sadie were here for 5 days visiting from Maine. We tried to keep in touch with everyone else and likely hit the majority! We were nursing Alan after his heart valve replacement and he feels pretty good so far. He has lost some weight, is less mobile with the cold temperatures and luckily between the farm and the real estate business, can relax this time of year and work on getting well and resting.
We usually get to watch more movies in the winter when the sun sets so much earlier and the chores are fewer, so we’ve started running through our one movie at a time Netflix list much faster. Joe gave us our latest movie to watch – Zeitgeist. This is and seems to me to be a very well researched documentary covering a long range of history building up to present times in America and the world. Far reaching range of facts, amazing “coincidences”, and to me a sneak peek into the “people pulling the strings” behind the governments of the world. I always had this image of an invisible force of decision making in the background. Very Interesting. I have since sent for the ‘addendum’ at www.zeitgeistmovie.com So our next movie was a warm and funny story about an orangutan who needed to be freed from the lab and from the zoo environment called ‘Born to be Wild’– so we are pretty easy going in our choices of themes!
Allie helped me to set up a new blog that I have just started to write in often. My resolution would be to start journaling in this venue and keep everyone who is interested a bit more often with tidbits from the farm.
Hope you all are enjoying the winter with all of its sound advice for - bundle up for the cold and wear sensible shoes! Take care and Happy New Year, Nancy & Alan
We were really happy to have taken some time off during the holiday season and hope we did not inconvenience you too much with our lack of response to your emails when Chris was not here to reply as fast as she usually does. I went skiing at Bromley VT. We saw my brother Jim and Kim, and his twins Jared and David. Brian and Allie and Sadie were here for 5 days visiting from Maine. We tried to keep in touch with everyone else and likely hit the majority! We were nursing Alan after his heart valve replacement and he feels pretty good so far. He has lost some weight, is less mobile with the cold temperatures and luckily between the farm and the real estate business, can relax this time of year and work on getting well and resting.
We usually get to watch more movies in the winter when the sun sets so much earlier and the chores are fewer, so we’ve started running through our one movie at a time Netflix list much faster. Joe gave us our latest movie to watch – Zeitgeist. This is and seems to me to be a very well researched documentary covering a long range of history building up to present times in America and the world. Far reaching range of facts, amazing “coincidences”, and to me a sneak peek into the “people pulling the strings” behind the governments of the world. I always had this image of an invisible force of decision making in the background. Very Interesting. I have since sent for the ‘addendum’ at www.zeitgeistmovie.com So our next movie was a warm and funny story about an orangutan who needed to be freed from the lab and from the zoo environment called ‘Born to be Wild’– so we are pretty easy going in our choices of themes!
Allie helped me to set up a new blog that I have just started to write in often. My resolution would be to start journaling in this venue and keep everyone who is interested a bit more often with tidbits from the farm.
Hope you all are enjoying the winter with all of its sound advice for - bundle up for the cold and wear sensible shoes! Take care and Happy New Year, Nancy & Alan
Monday, January 5, 2009
Freezing Rain
We woke this morning to a coating of ice over everything. Early this morning the horse, Jack and the donkey, Pedro were walking ever so gingerly down the slope from their shed to find any leftover hay from yesterday's feeding. On days like these, you bring the feed to the animals so they don't have to slip around to get anywhere unless they want to do that. One of the pigs is limping today which was likely to have been a slip down the slope in their pasture. They have been venturing out in the snow to dig even in the frozen ground looking for who knows what? Sleeping grubs? Springs below the surface? Minerals in the soil? Their poor little cold noses let them know when to stop I guess.
Yesterday we gave the pigs the last of the tomatoes that were ripening in the greenhouse and they ate up most of the red ones. In late September or early October when the first chances of frost seem near, we harvest all the green tomatoes from the garden and put them in trays in the greenhouse windows. We have fairly tasty tomato sandwiches until Thanksgiving and then they begin to lose their flavor. Some were still green and would likely never ripen, but many were nice and red or yellow.
Alan's news has been good concerning his recovery from the heart valve replacement. He was very chipper the first week of his release from the hospital and even went on the two December deliveries. But the medications to slow him down and rest and heal have caught up with him. The lowering of his blood pressure has made him feel very apathetic. I guess it is a building in his bloodstream of the medications and thus keeps you from doing too much soon. Hopefully this week when he visits the doctors involved, changes may be made to rid us of the daily medicine ritual. Luckily, we are a very healthy bunch up here and rarely are sick, so we are really hoping that we do not have to think about medicine daily! We would much rather eat well, eat our own foods and take our nourishment from normal meals. I know we are very fortunate in this regard. So Alan and his brother Bill will be making the next delivery to NYC - and hopefully be on the road to a full and energetic recovery.
Yesterday we gave the pigs the last of the tomatoes that were ripening in the greenhouse and they ate up most of the red ones. In late September or early October when the first chances of frost seem near, we harvest all the green tomatoes from the garden and put them in trays in the greenhouse windows. We have fairly tasty tomato sandwiches until Thanksgiving and then they begin to lose their flavor. Some were still green and would likely never ripen, but many were nice and red or yellow.
Alan's news has been good concerning his recovery from the heart valve replacement. He was very chipper the first week of his release from the hospital and even went on the two December deliveries. But the medications to slow him down and rest and heal have caught up with him. The lowering of his blood pressure has made him feel very apathetic. I guess it is a building in his bloodstream of the medications and thus keeps you from doing too much soon. Hopefully this week when he visits the doctors involved, changes may be made to rid us of the daily medicine ritual. Luckily, we are a very healthy bunch up here and rarely are sick, so we are really hoping that we do not have to think about medicine daily! We would much rather eat well, eat our own foods and take our nourishment from normal meals. I know we are very fortunate in this regard. So Alan and his brother Bill will be making the next delivery to NYC - and hopefully be on the road to a full and energetic recovery.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Happy New Year
Today at the farm we have special guests all the way from Maine ...our dear nephew Brian and his lovely wife Allie and cute as cute can be toddler Sadie and their husky Sasha! They are spending a week with us to celebrate the new year. Brian and Allie run a small winery in Warren Maine called Oyster River Winegrowers that they started over a year ago. Their farm is near the coast and warmer than it's normal northern location so they thought it may great for grapes. They planted Seyval and Cayuga vines last spring and are now making wine from Long Island and Finger Lakes grapes since their vines are not yet producing. Their next project is growing vegetables and fruits for themselves and a farm stand by the road. Brian consults with another winery nearby called Cellar Door Winery. We even talked about finding a way to have a wine share! The rules for alcohol are sticky so we are working through the laws and our logistics to see how it can be done.
The farm is covered with snow. The animals are doing their best to stay warm so the pigs are building a big nest - a literal pig pile! The thermometer says "0" today. With guests here we are taking some time off this week so we are not paying as close attention to our email as we do from Monday to Friday!
We hope you all have a wonderful new year - healthy, happy, properous and full of love, Nancy and Alan
The farm is covered with snow. The animals are doing their best to stay warm so the pigs are building a big nest - a literal pig pile! The thermometer says "0" today. With guests here we are taking some time off this week so we are not paying as close attention to our email as we do from Monday to Friday!
We hope you all have a wonderful new year - healthy, happy, properous and full of love, Nancy and Alan
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