Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden! This CSA box has greens, onions, garlic, potatoes, carrots, beets, squash, and parsley. Field Notes.  Ken did get into the green house and started cleaning, clearing and getting ready to plant  The weather has been unseasonably warm. Rather than celebrating we are wary.  for the past two years Ken has lost his grape crop.    Warm nights above freezing often sets plants in gear and if they are flowering or setting …

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Too Warm Too Early

As many cavort and celebrate this unseasonably warm weather, I am grumbling.  Why?  I see why it is NOT good.  And the list is long!       Maple syrup – best if days in March are 40 degrees in daylight and 20 at night, sunny, no wind.  Too warm and the sap stays in the tree top and forms buds and leaves Fruit.  Apples, cherries, elderberries, grapes, plums and other tree or perennial fruit …

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Local Food in Winter

Most years in August someone starts a “local food challenge.”  My challenge is more like Barbara Kingsolver’s in her book Animal, Vegetable Miracle or Joan Dye Gussow in This Organic Life.  How much of our diet year round can be local?  Ken and I store many crops available for sale this time of year.  Onions, squash, garlic, potatoes, beets, carrots, black or daikon radishes, giant kohlrabi.  Until last week we had winter tomatoes, cabbage, rutabagas. …

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Egg Season is Here!

Eggs have a season.  It starts as the days lengthen – usually early February.  Think lent and Easter; there is a reason that Easter bunny has a basket of eggs!       Eggs are a versatile, great source of protein.  Our hens have a nutritious diet of sprouted grains, organic ground feed, kitchen culls and pasture.  Everyone tells us they can taste the difference.     Here is their portable coop in spring, summer, …

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Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  This box has pie pumpkins, onions, garlic, carrots, potatoes, beets, celery root, parsley, and salad mix Field Notes.  Happy Ground Hog’s Day, Imbolc, St Brigid’s Day, St. Blaze, Candlemas – or whatever you may call it.  This midway point between solstice and equinox is when the days lengthen dramatically, the cold doesn’t last, and Ken starts monitoring temperatures in greenhouses.  We are in transition and can feel spring’s approach.   The …

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Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  The box this week has salad mix, potatoes, tomatoes, squash, onions, garlic, carrots, and cabbage         Field Notes.  Ken continues planting for the salad mixes, and has been making pottery.  Soon he will start full season crops like onions and celery and parsley.  Then it will be one planting after the next.  Soon after that Ken will be seeding and transplanting in green houses.  This time of year …

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Judith is Weaving

Winter includes many necessary tasks.  Now the following are done: seeds ordered, taxes prepped, sales tax filed and paid, etc.  Now I clean and weave between harvest dates.  I am finishing off a test warp.  I thought it would make two rugs, but I have enough warp for a smaller third rug with the remaining balls from three worn out wool blankets   I am trying out something new – I had read about this …

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Ken is Making Pottery

Ken is in the studio making pots.  I like to sneak down with a camera and snap some photos.         He centers the clay           He pulls up the pot’s sides           He cleans the top with a chamois           He trims excess off the bottom           With a wire Ken cuts the pot from the …

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Harvest Newsletter

Greetings from the Garden!  This CSA box has salad mix, cabbage, potatoes, winter tomatoes, onions, garlic, winter squash, carrots, and beets Field Notes.   Ken’s winter routine is to ski out to the greenhouses and check for deer and rodent damage.  Soon he will be checking the inside temperatures in  for planting! Ken continues planting in winter – he is planting greens for salad mix.  People ask why we don’t do shoots and micro greens year …

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Local Food in Winter

Tonight’s supper was comfort food to my New England roots.  Saute side pork or bacon and onion, add thyme and either clams or corn.  I also had some boiled cubed potatoes to add.  Add chicken or light soup stock,  milk and cream, salt and pepper to taste.      For the muffins I had masa from our dry corn, our lard, our eggs, and kefir from a friend’s milk.  The flour is locally milled.  It …

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