The Weblog

This page contains news, event information, and other items added by the market managers.



 
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Asparagus in four weeks


Hello everyone, spring is coming! The asparagus should be ready or almost ready in four weeks. There is less variation than one would think in the time that asparagus harvest starts. Since I am growing it, it has never been ready in april and we have always started cutting by the end of the first full week in May. The stand will open once asparagus is ready. The tomatoes and cukes are growing nicely and I am excited to be able to see the ground again in my gardens.
In February- early March we went out to the midwest and down to Mississippi to visit my wifes family. From there we took the long way home and took back roads all the way down to the ocean on the Gulf of Mexico and then across Northern Florida and up the east coast to Deleware and Pa. We went with no fixed schedule, picinicing along the way and at night we either found a place to camp or a motel. I had never been down south that far and the coastal plain along the east coast was also new country to me. We especially searched out produce farms and farm markets etc as we traveled along with anything else that caught our attention. It was a rich experience.
After we got back home almost the whole family came down with some kind of strange version of the flu. I was mostly in bed for two weeks. It left us really weak but now each day we feel much stronger. It was amazingly hard to get a good diet when traveling. Non of the farms that we chanced upon were organic. We don’t have much experiance shopping for food at resturants and stores. We ended eating quite a bit of food that was good- but by a different standards than we use at home. It is hard for parents to get the sleep they should have when traveling with 8 little children. I have to wonder if this along with a diet that had too much chemical farmed and GMO food in it left our immune sytems weak. Anyway we are back and home looks beautiful.
Not every community is blessed to have places like our farm and stand to get good food. I am excited to be part of what we are and I hope that you all can enjoy some of our good food this summer Daniel

Winter Work


Hello,
We have printed another edition of the Bugle which is a little magazine that my family puts out. Besides the print edition, it is also online at
www.thebugle.martins4u.com
We hope you enjoy it.

On the farm each season has its natural work and harvests. Traditionally farmers gave attention to their woodlots in the winter. I have been working at thinning my sugarbush so the trees get more light and grow nice and healthy. This has resulted in a huge pile of firewood and logs. If anybody needs hardwood lumber contact Luray 268-0309 we have a lot for sale at reasonable prices. Have you ever wondered if it makes much differance if you thin carrots in the garden or trees in your woodlot. The answer is that it does. The garden vegetables such as carrots and lettuce get much bigger. Look at the differance if a bed only gets half done and then not finished for a few weeks. Weed control is also important for this reason. Over at my Dads farm we thinned part a hill we call “Stone Hill” 25 years ago. It had a dense stand of young pole sized maple. It was 15 years before we returned to finish the rest. The trees that were thinned on time are twice a big as the trees on the other section.

So much of life is like this. Sometimes God removes things that we love and it appears like trouble to us but God is preparing us. We do well to love God and relax in such events. God is good. Daniel

Winter on the farm


It is cold but there is still lots of cabbage, potatoes, garlic and more in our storage. Remember us if your supply needs replenishing.
It is almost time to plant the tomatoes for the greenhouse. We are mostly finished with planning what should be grown next year and the seed and plants are purchased. A major change in the fields is the move to semi-permanent raised beds for a good portion of the farm. There are many reasons for this change including an increased ability to plant on time even if the weather is adverse. I can also have deeper topsoil in the root zone that is not compacted by the tractor tires.
I have cut some logs out of our woods and milled the lumber I need to build more strawberry carriers. I am also working at closing in the stand building. The goal is to have better and fresher produce because of less sun and wind on the display. We are are also working to set things up better so that our energy can be used to grow good food and love and serve people rather than spending so much work carrying tubs of produce back and forth and in and out.
Andrew is working at some changes to our web presence. We want to develop a website that is as close as possible to giving you a virtual look into our stand so you can see what we have along with prices etc. You should see this toward spring time if we are satisfied with it. Daniel

December 1


Have you ever wondered what happens during this time of the year on a produce farm? We are not planting, weeding and picking things all the time but rather this season is dominated by mostly maintainance and planning. By the end of the month the seed orders need to be in. In about six weeks it is time to seed tomatoes. We also sleep later in the morning and pay more attention to the childrens school and in general just living. This is a good time of the year for us. I like the long winter evenings. We get to relax a bit and eat the food we have stored away. I will not be writing this webblog every week during the winter however the online market remains open for orders through the winter. Daniel

Thanksgiving


What a lovely day! There is still arugula, kale, spinach and parsley that is good out in the field. The snow saved things from the cold. And of course there is lots of root crops etc in the coolers.
As long as you are ordering product that is listed as Daniel and Mendy Martin it is OK if you pick it up early. Just leave us know which day and about what time you wish to come. Daniel

Winter Hours


Winter hours are starting now. We are open on an informal basis throughout the winter. If we are home we give service. Ring the doorbell or call ahead if you want to be sure not to waste a trip. I just came in from getting a load of Kale. Kale is pretty nice tasting this time of the year. I also still have a nice amount of spinach and lettuce that was cut friday along with lots of root vegetables. Summer hours will resume next May when the asparagus gets ready. Daniel

Weblog Entry


Summer hours (10 am-6 pm Mon-Sat) will be ending on Saturday November 15th. In the meantime you will still find a wonderful spread of late fall vegetables including lots of nice lettuce at the stand and on the website. There are still a lot of nice greens and lettuce in the field. We do not usually get to harvest nice lettuce this late into November.
In the past few weeks we have been filling the coolers and cellers with all the bounty that is still in the fields. This will be available throughout the winter, on our website, at the Potsdam Coop, and at our house on a call ahead or ring the doorbell basis. It is our delight serve you during the winter. Daniel

November 3


We still have lots of beautiful greens this week. I harvested 20 tubs of lettuce, spinach, parsley, chard, cilantro and more Saturday afternoon ahead of the freeze so I have product that is perfect for your dinner. I hope you come and stock up as I can’t eat it all myself. I think it is kind of fun ( if I am not too cold or tired) to be out in the field harvesting things such as carrots, beets, lettuce, etc. It is wonderful to be placing piece after piece of this beautiful produce into buckets or crates. It is also wonderful to anticipate all the good meals that this makes possible. The other aspect that is wonderful is how these beautiful carrots, or turnips have appeared out of nothing in a sense. Nobody else has less because we have this crop. The rule that for one to gain another has had to lose is not true. I think this is delightful. God is still creating things. Let us enter into relationship with him. Daniel

Oct 27


Summer hours (10 am-6 pm Mon-Sat) will be ending on Saturday November 15th. In the meantime you will still find a wonderful spread of late fall vegetables at the stand and on the website.
In the next few weeks we will fill the coolers and cellers with all the bounty that is still in the fields. This will be available throughout the winter, on our website, at the Potsdam Coop, and at our house on a call ahead or ring the doorbell basis. We will start a more relaxed lifestyle. There are some things that I like about winter. Daniel

Celeriac and parsnips


We still have a large selection of good food at our stand. Eat up on things like lettuce, celery, peppers etc. There lots of them now, soon they will be gone.
This is the season to be thinking about packing a stash of the storage vegetables away. Potatoes like cool and dark (45-55 degrees), Squash likes warm and dry (45-70 degrees), Onions and garlic like dry and some air circulation (32- 75 degrees) These are all harvested and ready for you now. Next week we will be harvesting red beets, carrots, turnips, rutabaga, parsnips, celeriac etc for storage. This group gets stored moist and as cold as you can with out freezing. You can pack them into wet sand or sawust to keep the humidity in them or if if you can keep them cold (30s)just plain plastic bags work ok. Should we save some for you?
Does your diet change as the selection of local food changes? Eat lots of what is in season; by the time you are tired of it something else will be coming into season. Daniel