Help wanted at martins Farmstand for this summer

The farm stand is open today (Saturday, March 26) from noon till 5 pm.
Canning jars and glass loop jugs like we use for vinegar and syrup are still somewhat scarce and expensive. One of the better ways to recycle is to reuse. Glass is very easy to sterilize. We here at Martins Farmstand appreciate donations of your used canning jars and loop jugs if you have more than you need. Do not just throw them away.
We are looking to hire more help (part time or full time) for the stand this spring, summer and fall. The job consists of customer service and checkout along with all the other jobs that keep a stand stocked and orderly. This includes helping to wash and trim incoming produce, pack orders as needed, refill displays, sweep floors, etc. If you or someone you know is interested tell us about who you are why you would like this job. On farm housing is a possibility. Daniel

Free Cabbage/ sweet potatoes today!

The farm stand is open today (Saturday, March 19) from noon till 5 pm.
We have a bin of cabbage that needs a good home. It is still in fairly good condition however not every head is perfect inside. I am giving this away today for free. Take as much as you can use. ( no purchase needed) Pick up some for a friend also if you wish. My desire is to see this good food used rather than wasted. Also there is several hundred pounds of slightly blemished sweet potatoes that will go on the free cart. Likewise I desire for them to be on somebodies table if possible. Come and get it!
Last of all I just wish to remind us to be thankful even if it is a dreary rainy day. This mud will go away and then it is springtime with little bits of green poking up. Daniel

The nut cracker project story

The farm stand is open today (Saturday, March 5) from noon till 5 pm. Yes there is still some local food available even in March. One of these food items that is abundant is black walnuts. They are an extremely nutrient dense food that stores well. They have a unique fairly strong rich flavor that I really like. My daughter says they have an good earthy flavor. If you would like to taste black walnuts come out to the stand. Today I have cracked nuts samples available for tasting. I plan to have these samples available throughout the early spring as supplies allow. (We have cracked Black walnuts available for purchase also.) Walnuts grow in very sustainable permaculture way that should be developed wherever we can. These walnuts however are a tough nut to crack with one of the hardest shells that can be found in the nut world. In addition to being very hard and strong the nut meats are locked into the shell cavity in a way that makes them hard to separate. There are various traditional ways to crack them using hammers, vises or manual lever nut crackers. All these ways are very slow and it is hard to crack the shells with out smashing the nut meats more than needed which makes them hard to pick out from the shells. This winter my son Phillip and I built a tractor powered mechanical nut cracker. The machine we came up with ( we had no plans to follow) works reasonably well as I had in my vision. We ran 200 lbs. of nuts Thursday evening after supper. We learned that we can partially separate shells and fines by various sifting screens. The separation process is then completed by hand sorting. If any of you have any experience with nut cracking I would love to talk with you and learn what you know.

The Farm stand is open today,

The farm stand is open today (Saturday, Feb 19) from noon till 5 pm. Come to us for a selection of the normal winter veggies and bulk foods. Right now Joshua is setting the display cooler up with cabbage, beets, apples, potatoes garlic, onions and so much more. The list below is only part of what is available. During the winter we are open every Saturday afternoon from noon till 5 pm. Summer hours resume in early May when asparagus is ready. It is cold and stormy outside however May and asparagus is only a little over 2 months away. This week the boys got thousands of taps out into maple sugar bush. There was a small sap run on Thursday. Daniel

Setting up the plant table, heat mats and lights

The farm stand is open today (Saturday January 29) from noon till 5 pm. Come to us for a selection of the normal winter veggies and bulk foods. We have lots of freshly dried apples made from our homegrown organic heirloom apples. Take a look a the list below.
It is so cold now, however spring is expected in about 10-12 weeks from now. Today we are planning to set up the plant table, heat mats and lights in the living room to start tomatoes, kale, and early lettuce for setting out in the solar greenhouse in March. In about 4 weeks it is time to seed 70,000 onion seeds and start heating a greenhouse. We do not heat the greenhouse early on when the plants are few enough to fit in the house under lights. February still has the potential to be very cold. Enjoy the wonders of winter now as the seasons move on quickly and surely. Daniel

Black walnuts and dried apples

The farm stand is open today (Saturday January 8) from noon till 5 pm. Besides the normal winter veggies and bulk foods we have lots of freshly dried apples made from our homegrown organic heirloom apples. The other new item is local black walnuts. They are a really rich flavored nut. They have very tough shells that one has to crack first though to get to the riches inside. I like to crack a few and just eat them as I pick them out. They also make a really good sticky bun when combined with lots of maple syrup and butter along with the normal cinnamon etc. We are offering them on the stand in shell, fully cured and ready to crack. I hope to see you soon. The stand is planned to be open every Saturday afternoon through out the rest of the winter. Daniel

Late Brussel sprouts are milder and sweeter

The farm stand is open tomorrow (Thurs Dec 9th) from noon till 5 pm.

Look at the list below. Not everything we have is listed but you can get an idea of what we have. The bulk food room is stocked with its normal flour, beans, spices, sugar etc. The late Brussel sprouts are milder and sweeter this time of the year. Yes Brussel sprout plants are tough enough that we are still harvesting them from the field. To harvest them we go out with the loppers and cut the whole plant and bring them in to thaw out. The same for kale.
From now till December 23rd we will be open Thursday, Friday and Saturdays from noon till 5 pm. After the new year we plan to be open Saturday afternoons from noon till 5 pm through out the rest of the winter.

The farmstand is open today!

The farm stand is open today (Thursday December 2nd) from noon till 5 pm. From now till December 23rd we will be open Thursday, Friday and Saturdays from noon till 5 pm. After the new year we plan to be open Saturday afternoons from noon till 5 pm through out the rest of the winter.
There are still leeks, brussel sprouts, onions, garlic, carrots, beets, kale and lots more. A new item is peeled garlic. It is available both freshly peeled (intermittent) and also in the freezer. We also have lots of our homegrown frozen blueberries, strawberries and black raspberries.
A number of years ago I bought a little garlic peeler from China. It is very slow and does a poor job most of the time with only about half of the cloves actually peeled. The other day I was looking at that somewhat frustrating machine and a brainstorm came for a way to make another peeler that would much simpler and hopefully work better. My son Phillip has some metal working skills and he built what I had in mind and we tried it out. The result is a very simple machine that is much faster with close to a 100% peel rate. The product is clean and nice. Yesterday afternoon I peeled a blue crate full (about 50 lbs. of garlic) in one hour. If you buy the frozen peeled garlic it keeps for long time. The unfrozen peeled garlic has a fairly short storage time of perhaps a few days or a week. To use just reach in the bag and get out as many cloves as desired and place of a plate on the countertop for a few minutes to soften (do not finish defrosting) and then it can be crushed or cut as you wish and used. Daniel

Thank you Lord for a good harvest

We are open today (Saturday Nov 20 ) and next week we are open Monday-Wednesday from 10 am-6 pm (Nov 22-24). We are closed Thanksgiving day and Friday -Saturday of next week Between Dec 2 and ending Dec 23 we will be open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 12 noon till 5 pm. After the new year we plan to be open Saturday afternoons from noon till 5 pm through out the rest of the winter. Thanksgiving time is a time to slow down and to assess our lives and to especially focus on our blessings. For farmers and homesteaders it is a time look at the harvest and just say Thank you. On the farm we are working at putting the winter mulch of leaves on the berries and putting various equipment in order and into dry winter storage. Now is also the beginning of what I call planning season. Before we can order seed and supplies one needs to think about so many details both big and small. Daniel

Fall/ winter hours

With this nice weather there is still a good selection of fall greens such as spinach, lettuce, cilantro, parsley, cabbage arugula and kale here at the stand. Also as is normal there is all sorts root crops etc. The truck was just here with a load of various goodies such as flour, sugar and spices to restock the bulk food room. Prices on flour and grains have gone up a lot. Sugar is unusually cheap. It is a chaotic world on some of these supply chains.

We are open 6 days a week with the normal summer schedule till the day before Thanksgiving (Nov 24). Between Thanksgiving and Christmas we will be open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 12 noon till 5 pm. (Starting Dec 2 ending Dec 23) After the new year we plan to be open Saturday afternoons from noon till 5 pm through out the rest of the winter. Daniel