Blue House Work Party

The Blue House resturant In Madrid had a fire in the prep kitchen a few weeks ago. The fire investigation is finished and the huge job of cleanup and repair has begun. The structure is still intact with the fire mostly contained to one room however everything throughout the whole place is covered with a nasty sooty smoke residue along with water damage.
Yesterday we had a workday (with a small group) to start the process of removing contents.
The next step is a larger work party that is scheduled for this Thursday evening (June 8, 2023) We plan to start at 5 pm and work till 8-9 o’ clock. Come anytime in the evening as your schedule allows. The goal for the evening is to clean walls, ceilings, windows, tables chairs and everything else. Melted eletrical boxes and lights need pulled out, trim removed, some areas more sheetrock needs to come down etc.

Bring your favorite cleaning tools such as buckets, sponges etc. Power is off in the building so we need lots of work lights. Also we will need a few step ladders pry bars, screwguns etc. We are planning to serve a picnic style supper at some point during the evening. If you plan to eat, bring finger foods to share with the group. If you have questions you can call me (Daniel) @315 265 1246. This is an event that is ideal for older children and adults but it is not a good setting for small children in the building. Josh Taillon and his wife started the Blue House in Madrid just a few years ago. He is a very good cook and uses the best food he can find. He is also outstanding in trustworthyness and treats the local farmers with care and respect. They will emerge from this strong. Join us as we give a hand in helping clean up from this fire. Daniel

Cucumbers and spinach

We have the first Spring seeded spinach at the stand starting today along with the first field lettuce. The lettuce heads are still teenagers so are fairly small and taste delicious. We have generous amount of cucumbers from today’s picking (about 4 bushels) We also have the normal asparagus, herbs, rhubarb scallions etc.

I hope that we get a good rain as the fields are really dry and the air seems hazy and smoky like it needs a good washing. I wonder if the smokiness could be from the wildfires in Canada.
The strawberries are not close to ready yet. They normally start around June 14-18th time window. We had a freeze a few weeks ago that damaged most of the earliest flowers so it looks like what would have been the first 1 or 2 pickings will be nothing. There are lots of small green berries on the rest of the flowers. These huge temperature swings and no rain are not ideal either so I expect a mediocre strawberry season- not disaster, not awesome. Daniel

Weblog Entry

It feels like summertime on the farm with warm nights and the sound of the irrigation pumps running. Yes it is that dry already. The strawberries are in peak bloom and need about 2 inches of water per week for the next three weeks. The young transplants also are not rooted deeply yet so need a bit of water. We are picking cucumbers from the greenhouse now ( still limited amounts) and there are lots of regular onion scallions ready to harvest. If anyone needs frozen peeled garlic keep us in mind as there is still quite a lot of that left. We just cut the last of the greenhouse lettuce heads and the field lettuce is still one to two weeks out yet before harvest begins. I expect the first spring seeded spinach to be ready by sometime next week. Daniel

Strawberry update

The farmstand has an assortment of early spring goodies such as scallions (onion and garlic) rhubarb, asparagus, lettuce and kale. Also there are still beets carrots and potatoes. Mendy has baked a nice selection of honey wheat and sourdough bread and the bulk food room has flour, oatmeal, spices etc. This summer the stand is open every day from Tuesday through Saturday. We are closed on Sunday and Monday. We had a freeze here this week. At 11 pm it was already down to 30 degrees however it warmed up a bit towards morning. The relive humidity was around 60 percent during the cold night hours ( very dry) and there was some wind. One can irrigate the strawberries to help keep the frost off as water releases some heat as it transitions from water to ice . This only works though if the relitive humidity is high (near 100% with dew forming) with low or no wind speed. Water can not evaporate if the humidity is at 100% so evaporative cooling is not an issue in a normal frost. In a dry freeze such as we had this week the evaporative cooling effect will drop the leaf and flower temps to a few degrees below ambiant if some zealous farmer goes out and makes them wet. Do not put water on in those conditions as it is harmful not helpful. Covers do very little in wind. I judged that the best thing to do was to go to bed and sleep and hope for the best as there was nothing I could do that would be meaningful The later kinds of strawberries were not blooming yet so there was no damage. The earlier kinds lost anywhere from 20-50% of there flowers so this will effect the crop but is not a disaster as the remaining flowers will take up some of the slack. What would have been the first picking is gone. This was harsh winter for small fruit as the temps were up and down a lot with the snow melting from time to time. We also had a lot of wind which blew the leaf mulch off of them in areas. This has resulted in some damage but is again not disaster. There is enough damage though to some of the new plantings that I am thinking to plant a extra acre of berries this spring ( in addition to the 1 1/2 acre that is normally planted to replace old beds.)and not to renovate all of what was planted last year. Late May is the peak of asparagus season. During moments of abundance we will sell unbunched field run asparagus at $2.75 per lb if you take at least 1/2 lug. Daniel

Summer Hours Begin

Summer Hours begin today. From now through November the stand is open Tuesday thru Saturday from 10 am – 6 pm The selection of product is always changing as the season moves from spring to summer and then autumn. Now we have asparagus and garlic scallions along with various spring greens and herbs. We also have the bulk food room and carrots, beet, potatoes etc that have been stored from last years crop. Note that we are closed on Sundays and Mondays. Enjoy spring! Daniel

Asparagus and Spinach

The farm stand will be open this afternoon (May 6,2023) from 12:30 – 5 PM. Spring is here and the overwintered spinach is ready for harvest starting today. We just cut the first bit of asparagus (about a quarter tubful) which will be at the stand starting at 12:30 till it is gone. I also have lots of different herbs such as thyme, mint, oregano, lemon balm, chives and parsley that Deborah is bunching now. She is also harvesting the first rhubarb. From the greenhouse we have lots of tender curly kale and the first heads of lettuce.
Today is the last Saturday using winter hours. Starting Tuesday May 9 summer hours begin. (Tuesday – Saturday 10 AM- 6 PM) WE ARE NOT OPEN ON MONDAY THIS SUMMER (u-pick strawberries will still have the Monday- Wednesday- Saturday schedule as in the past) WE JUDGED WE WISH TO HAVE A TWO DAY WEEKEND FOR BETTER BALANCE IN OUR LIVES. Daniel

Weblog Entry

The farmstand will be open this afternoon from 12:30- 5 pm. There is fresh bread baking. Garlic scallions and chives are new products.
Between yesterday and this morning we finished planting all the onions out to the field. Yes it is done by hand- just poke the little plants into the marks on the bed. We had about 125 flats of onions with 550 seeds planted in each flat. It gave 29 beds of onions in the field. The wet weather forcast is perfect for the plants to grow roots.
The asparagus is coming up however it is not ready for harvest yet. With the cool weather forcast I judge that it will be another week before harvest begins. The spinach that we overwintered in the field looks like it will have fairly large yield. It is about a week out yet before harvest. When asparagus harvest starts summer hours will begin at the farmstand. Daniel

Farmstand open today

The Farmstand will be open today (April 15, 2023) from 12:30 pm till 5 pm. New products: Kale, Dandelions and Scallions. The Kale and Scallions are both grown in a greenhouse. Kale that is grown in a greenhouse is more tender and sweeter. The Dandelions are wildcrafted from our farm. We have fresh baked Sourdough and Honey Wheat bread. Our Summer hours will be starting when the asparagus is ready sometime in May. We will have new hours. We will be closed on Monday and Sunday. We are planning to plant about 500 new raspberry plants today. I have been enjoying the Spring Peepers. This sound reminds me of my summers growing up in Mississippi. The night sounds were always the most beautiful music. The sun is shining and it looks like it will be a beautiful day. Have a great day today. Mendy

Farm Life

The farmstand and bulk food room is open this afternoon (April 1, 2023) from 12:30- 5 PM. We have our normal selection of late winter vegetables and bulk food. My wife is baking bread this morning. The garlic that we planted last fall is up and growing (outdoors) and the greenhouse is filling with new life.
One aspect of farm life and management has to do with having a thoughtful mix of enterprises that give enough employment through out the whole year without too serious overload at any time. During the slack times of the year everything that can be done now should be done right away so that during moments of peak load one is not slowed by maintenance etc. that could have been anticipated. Our land base includes a fair amount of woodland that we manage for various uses including firewood and timber production. Parts are managed as sugar bushes and of course there are the environmental and recreational aspects. There is a sense that in the woods we are still farmers nurturing specific young trees for visions that are long into the future. The cold part of the winter is when most of the actual wood cutting is done and then during mud season attention is focused on the actual sawmilling of the logs. This last week I cut a pile of hardwood logs. Some of this lumber is planned for building a nice honey house and place to overwinter bees. We ended up with quite a bit more wood than we have use for so we have a few thousand BF hardwood lumber for sale @ $.75- $1 BF along with assorted wide life edge planks($40 each) Chose from hard maple, basswood, ash, cherry, hickory and butternut. Daniel

Freshly peeled garlic and homemade bread

The farmstand and bulk food room is open this afternoon (March 18, 2023) from 12:30- 5 PM. We have our normal selection of late winter vegetables and bulk food. My wife is baking bread this morning and I peeled a batch of garlic that is available fresh on the stand today. Roasted or fried garlic with a bit of butter or oil goes really good with fresh bread. Daniel