Winter Bounty

The farm stand will be open tomorrow and Saturday afternoon (December 22-23) from Noon till 5 pm. This will be the last open times for December. We are closed between Christmas and New Year. The stand will open again on Saturday January 6. Come and stock up- we have lots of hardy, healthy, delicious winter storage vegetables such as beets, carrots, cabbage, onions, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, apples and much more. We are working at preparing for the next growing season and ordering seeds etc. It is time to plant onion seeds in about 8-9 weeks from now. There is a sense that winter is short on a produce farm. Enjoy this good food that God has blessed us with. Daniel

Weblog Entry

The farmstand is open today from noon till 5 pm. There are still lots of onions, carrots, beets, potatoes, apples and more. The bulk food room has flour,oatmeal spices, etc. December hours till Christmas, open Friday and Saturday afternoons. After New year till spring open Saturdays only. We have local eggs available again. In the winter if it is cold the front doors will be closed even when we are open and the produce will be displayed in the display cooler, bulk food room and in the basement. Come in even if the outer stand looks desolate as there is lots of good eating hiding inside. Daniel

Future Plans

The farmstand is open today from noon till 5 pm. December hours till Christmas, open Friday and Saturday afternoons. After New year till spring open Saturdays only. We have local eggs available again. In the winter if it is cold the front doors will be closed even when we are open and the produce will be displayed in the display cooler, bulk food room and in the basement. Come in even if the outer stand looks desolate as there is lots of good eating hiding inside. As many of you know my wife and I are hoping to retire from the market sometime in the near future. We have the farmstand up for sale. In the meantime I am ordering seed, supplies etc and getting the farm ready to grow during the 2024 season as I normally do. Unless someone takes over soon I intend to plant our normal mix of crops, each in there season, for the 2024 year. Daniel

Farmstand Open Today

The farmstand is open today and tomorrow (Dec 1-2) from noon- 5 pm. We still have 2 tubs of spinach, this weekend is the last spinach till spring. Kale is still abundant in the field. Kale is hardy to temps down near 0-10 degrees so we are usually harvesting kale till Christmas fresh from the field. We just lop the whole plant off and bring it into the cooler to thaw slowly. This afternoon I plan to be packaging freshly dried apples and making garlic powder. I also have whole cloves of fresh peeled garlic on the stand. This is available at the same prices as unpeeled bulbs of garlic. Price for 10+ lbs of garlic is $6 lb. Now is a good time to put up pickled garlic or just freeze it whole for convenient cooking use. Dry garlic slices or powder is $25 lb. We are overstocked on garlic with over 1,000 lbs still left. I am working at peeling/dehydrating garlic as time allows so the kitchen and stand area smell like garlic. Most things that I have run through the freeze dryer yield in the 8-16% range. Garlic actually does not have much water in it and we are getting about 1 lb dried garlic from 3 lbs of fresh. Apples dry down to 1 lb from 7-10 lbs of fresh apples. From December 1-23 we will be open every Friday and Saturday afternoon. After New year till Spring we will be open Saturday afternoons weather permitting. Keep on eating local food. The seasons move on quickly so eat what is available often. By the time one is tired of this set of food the next season is coming along. Daniel

Farmstand is Open Today

The farmstand is open today and tommorow, (Tuesday and Wednesday Nov 21,22, 2023). While the selection is smaller than it was there is still all sorts of farm fresh food to nourish you and your families. In addition to all the root crops such as onions, beets and carrots there are still spinach, kale, napa and regular cabbage, leeks, brussel sprouts, apples etc. I plan to set up a free table to move some excess items that need to be used. On this table will be various kinds of hot peppers along with spagetti and festival squash and cull onions. There may be other things as well. There will be no limits as to how much you can take- the goal is to get this stuff used rather than composted.

The stand will reopen again on Friday December 1st. December hours are Friday and Saturday afternoons noon- 5 pm. Closed Christmas week. After New Year till spring open times are Saturday afternoons. Daniel

Farmstand is open Late fall bounty

The farmstand is open and still full of late fall bounty. Carrots, beets, cabbage, potatoes, onions, garlic, kale, spinach, apples, brussel sprouts, leeks, winter squash and much more. The bulk food room is stocked with spices and baking supplies etc. Come and get it! Fall hours (till Thanksgiving) Tuesday-saturday noon till 5 pm. December 1-23 open Friday and Saturday afternoons noon-5 pm. After new year till spring we plan to be open Saturday afternoons (weather permitting.) The fall storage crops yielded well as a whole so we are going into winter with a nicely balanced selection of winter veggies so I anticipate good selection well into the winter. Spinach and kale will last till it gets real cold. Daniel

Leeks and Brussels Sprouts

The stand is still open and is still packed with all sorts good food. The fall harvest has been good. The storage spaces are getting full of a well balanced selection of crops such as potatoes, cabbage, carrots, beets, onions, garlic, horseradish and lots more. When it warms up again this afternoon we will resume the root crop harvest. Leafy greens such as spinach, kale, etc. are still ok in the fields for a few more weeks. I do not know if the lettuce is damaged or not. I have lots of leeks, brussel sprouts and napa cabbage still out there. Come and get it! The last day for summer hours is this Saturday November 4th (when time changes). After that till Thanksgiving we will be open Tuesday through Saturday from noon till 5 PM. December we will be open Fridays and Saturdays from noon till 5 PM. We are closed between Christmas and New Year. The rest of the winter will be open Saturdays (noon- 5 PM). During the winter call ahead if the weather is very severe. Daniel

Potato Harvest is Complete

The potato rooms are full of potatoes again! Bulk potato price is 60 cents per lb ($30 for 50 lbs) for field run potatoes. ( we sort out cut potatoes and serious blemishes before they go into storage when we wash them) Have you ever wondered if it is best to store potatoes with the dirt on or to wash them first? My experiance says it makes little differance as long as they are well dried before putting them away. We wash at harvest time because we do not have good facilities to wash in the winter and most of us prefer less dirt in the kitchen sink. Next we move on to harvest of the late fall crops. We have an abundance of leeks, brussel sprouts, spinach, carrots beets and much more. There are still hot peppers out on the plants which I intend to pick today. We have still not had a frost. The latest first frost date I personally remember was back in the 90s sometime when we made it to October 31st with out frost. This year is close to that record. No, this does not suggest that we should be slow in harvesting the root crops. The year that we had no frost till the end of October had snow that stayed for the winter in early November. Daniel

Garlic planting and winter hours schedule

Welcome again to the busy swirl of activity that is called Martin Farmstand. This time of the year we are harvesting and washing produce for what seems like most of the time. As a whole the fall harvest is the normal abundance. It is awesome how much food is in the gardens and orchards.
The sweet potatoes are cured and ready for storage now. Sweet potatoes like to be stored warm and dry- above 55 degrees is best. Light does not hurt them like it does other potatoes.
We dug about 25% of the late Irish potato crop so far this week (mostly red). The rest will have to wait longer in the field as they are not dead enough yet to have as thick of a skin as is desirable for good storage. It looks like there is a good chance of frost on Monday. Frost will kill the rest of the potato vines (which is good at this point).
The last day for summer hours is Saturday November 4th (when time changes). After that till Thanksgiving we will be open Tuesday through Saturday from noon till 5 PM. December we will be open Fridays and Saturdays from noon till 5 PM. We are closed between Christmas and New Year. The rest of the winter will be open Saturdays (noon- 5 PM). During the winter call ahead if the weather is very severe. Daniel

Beans, Cauliflower and Peppers

The stand is packed full of good food today. We have over 200 lbs of really nice cauliflower and lots of every sort of peppers both sweet and hot. The last planting of beans got ready this week with the warm weather. They gave abundantly; we have over 100 lbs of beans to sell today. Get them now as this is the last batch of beans for this year. All the winter squash is harvested. Come and get them. Onions and garlic are finished curing and ready for storage. We plan to dig the rest of the sweet potatoes next week. They need to cure for about a week in a heated space and then they will be ready for storage. The big winter harvest of regular potatoes will be later in October when the vines are dead and the skins on the potatoes are thick enough for good storage. Daniel