Jane's Snow Angels

Here's Jane, making a snow angel.

Last Views of Maggie's Farm

Oops, carrot seedling.  No flame weeding here

well, not the absolute last...  Here are some photos and videos from my last week at Maggie's.  We visited North Waslaske fields to see if a bed of carrots had sprouted. Before the carrot cotyledons emerge from the soil, one can pass by with a "flame weeder." If the weeds are sprouting up and the carrots are still protected in the soil, this is the perfect time to "flame weed"--using a propane tank and small torch, the heat of the flame expands the water in the cell of each weed plant making them burst.  Then the seedlings pop up with no competition.

Tyson shows us the equipment.

Unfortunately, we had one row in the carrot beds that had sprout.  Fortunately, the other two rows were not yet sprouted, so Brian and I each took a turn with the flame weeder.  It sounds like one is walking with a jet engine attached to one's hip.

Trip to Vermont: Strafford Creamery

Here are the photos---info to come!

Trip to Vermont: The Intervale Center

Our second stop on the trip to Vermont was the Intervale Center in Burlington, VT.  This 300+ acres of land hosts many individual farming enterprises as well as "incubator farms" and community projects, not to mention educational programs.  The farmers on this land--mentor farmers as well as beginning farmers--share the greenhouse space, tractors and implements and wash up areas.  We saw a well-established CSA, some smaller market farms, a community plot for immigrants as well as the facilities held in common.

Beautiful Greens (and reds)

Playground at CSA pick up

Watch for tractors!

Flowering buckwheat between blueberry plots

CSA information board

Trip to Vermont: Flack Family Farm

How to sum up our visit to Flack Family Farm? I could talk about Doug Flack's delicious sauerkraut.  Or his beautiful Red Devon cattle.  Or the enormous cabbage.  Or his sweet American Farm dog, Buster. Or his passion for counteracting the decline of food quality.  Ok, I cannot sum it up.  Here are some photos:

Ella in the field with cabbage

Buster listening in while Doug speaks

Betsy, Kim and Doug disucss the farm

Red Milking Devons

You can take a look at the website.  I would recommend a visit to the place--I have never seen such vibrant vegetables!

http://www.flackfamilyfarm.com/index.html

Doug's passion for growing delicious vegetables and nutritious animal products is based on the Weston A Price Foundation as well as biodynamic and organic practices.

He gave us a mini-lecture and showed us a timeline of cheap food in the United States.

Doug Flack and his time line of cheap food

References for further reading

Trip to Vermont: High Mowing Seed Company

Tom of High Mowing

It was interesting to visit a seed company--rarely would one imagine where the seeds come from.  Just open the packet and follow the instructions.  We learned from Tom, the founder of the company, that he collects organic seeds from over 300 acres across the United States.  New England is a good place to gather seeds that come inside a fruit--squash, pepper, cucumber--and not lettuce as lettuce seeds can gather up viruses or bacteria that will be passed on to the new plant

Seed packing

 In the building, we saw where seeds were sorted, packed and then organized for shipping.  We also visited the demonstration fields as well as the growing fields.

A germination rate test in progress

Finding our favorite seeds!

Sacks of seed

High Mowing is front and center in the "conversation" with Monsanto regarding genetically modified seeds.

http://www.highmowingseeds.com/HMS-Wins-Lawsuit-Against-Genetically-Engineered-Crops.html

Pristine demo fields High

Graduation planned!

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Chicks and pickling

 Our layer chicks have been venturing out of their brooder coop.  We found several of them perching in a rhododendron nearby.

We went over to Maggie's home (Maggie of "Maggie's Farm") across the road to learn how to pickle.  She shared with us her recipe for bread and butter pickles and then her techniques for making them come out just right.  And they were delicious!





After the pickling was complete, we learned about Maggie's family here on the Ridge-top and she shared with us some photos, scrapbooks and stories of the people who have made this place their home.

Harvests continue!

Hardneck garlic

 Harvests continue in our fields and in our home garden

Rebekah with her radical hakuri turnips

Emily, laden with garlic

We brought in all our garlic and it is now hanging in the barn, curing.  The soft-neck (smaller) garlic came in last week and the hard-neck this week.  The curing gives the stalks a chance to dry off, thereby increasing the storage time of the garlic.




















In our home garden, many delicious things are ready to harvest.  Our community dinner this week featured corn, raised by Justin, potatoes and beans brought along by many, and a beautiful salad with nasturtium flowers.

Sophia, snacking on a flower

Carlen and Betsy pondering the artichokes

Justin and his fine, fine sweet corn

Salad, topped with nasturtiums!

Tiny frog in the home garden

Pearl-colored pest eggs on chard

Flower inspection, by Brian

Perennial flowers in the home garden

Plant pests

Two lacewings in their cocoons

Imported Cabbage worm

Dainty weed:   Galinsogz

ladybug larva, eating thrips

Ruth Hazard, teaching about the pests in our fields

Fluffy white caterpilar

Cabbage looper

Random fun things from this week.

Blueberry Bouquet

The blueberries are coming in strong down the road at Blue Ox Farm.  This is the place where we fertilized with steer manure and learned how to prune in  March.  I loved the colors of this cluster of berries at a variety of stages--I had already picked the ripe ones!

New Potatoes

 The new potatoes are ripening up.  Very delicious








The tomatoes needed our help so we set up trellises.  The end of the row has a "t-post" for strength.  There are wooden stakes every three plants.  Then we spider-web wove the twine between the  stakes.

Trellising on the hottest afternoon.

Tyson talks trellis.

Tiny green spider approves of the trellis

Olivier in bandana

 Olivier models the tie-dye bandana while reaching for a blueberry scone.

Sheep, enjoying the shade

My sheep shelter keeps getting knocked over .  We tried Sophia's plan and it stayed up.  The sheep, seeing us setting up the shelter, came over and skootched under the tarp, even before we had all four corners set up.

Sophia, setting up sheep shelter