Plastic, Seeds, bunnies and chicks

Yesterday we got our delievery of plastic for both the greenhouse (it will take two layers) and our hoophouse (1 layer). Not sure when we will replace it all since it is pretty windy up here right now. The seeds are starting to sprout in the hot room in the barn - thanks to adam for buling it for us. The bunnies came out to play today in the sheep paddock. We got two angora bunnie (we will use their wool for spinning) on Sunday - Pippin (boy) and Marie (you post say Marie with a french accent - that is how sadie says it and it is so delightful. ) Sadie enjoyed playing with the bunnines and the paddock and the sheepo enjoyed checking them out - don't worry we let them out one at a time - no baby bunnies for a while. The chicks are getting big - sadie can now hold them without the flying out of her hand. We have potential interns coming to check out the farm and be interviewed this weekend - very excited. CSA memberships are coming in and we are about to make our big final seed order. We'll be planting in the ground in just a few short weeks... We got a new computer and we are hoping to change the layout of this blog asa I figure out how to do it. I would like to add picture to the header and a little photo book - it is amazing what a new computer can do to updating the farm...More soon

Potatoes, soil mix...

We ordered 700 lbs of organic seed potatoes yesterday. Soil Mix from Vt Compost company should be coming via a truck any day now....starting seeds this Friday. Ordering seeds and green house plastic at the end of this week. Thanks to all CSA members who have started to contribute to their shares. We also ave baby chickies coming next week. And we have started looking at intern/apprentice applications...we are going to builing a yurt too - any one know of anyone who has one for sale ?

2010 CSA Season

Hello to all returning and potential CSA members, neighbors, friends and family!

As I type this, Sadie is sitting on my lap, with her belly sticking out of her shirt so she can write “farm notes” too – on her belly. She is quite patient while momma finishes this letter and gets the mailing ready to go out. I think she will help draw on some of the envelopes with me. Sadie is now 2 and fully walking and talking and her own little person. She loves playing, painting, doing yoga, taking care of the sheep and chickens and riding on the hay wagon. This winter has been a great time for all of our planning, playing with Sadie, spending time with family and friends, some knitting and spinning, resting and more planning for the farm.

We feel very blessed for all the support we received from our CSA members and community from last growing season. Last year was like nothing that has ever occurred to us and to many other farmers, with the blight, wet cool summer, wet soils, poor yields – but from it we learned a lot. That we depend on earth to feed us and that we are all connected. That we were not alone. I will not go into last year’s growing season in depth but we are glad it is over and truly appreciate all the support mentally, physically, spiritually and financially that you all provided – we believe we have grown as farmers, as community members, since last summer. And because of this, we are continuing, because food still needs to be grown, because people still need to eat.

We have big plans for growing this year.
· We applied for a big grant through NRCS for fencing, water and grazing plans for our sheep and chickens. Also we applied for a 30’ x 72’ hoophouse. This program through the USDA has a 90/10 cost share with us putting in the 10% share.
· Christine took a very intensive soils course through NOFA-VT and will be putting a lot of that information she learned into practice, including applying for a soil mentor and enterprise analysis with the changes we will be putting on our farm. It was amazing to learn so much about our soil structure, everything that goes into our good growing soil and what we need to keep that soil structure healthy. Many more fields will be opened up and cover cropped so we have more room to add more green manures into the soil for all that great microbial activity that the soil loves.
· We will be putting up a yurt to house two apprentices/interns this growing season. We will be advertising for them in the next few weeks. Adam and Christine figure they have learned a lot over the last few years and could offer a lot of information to anyone who wants to be a farmer.
· We will be recovering the greenhouse with new plastic this spring. The plastic we put on is a 4 year plastic – happy birthday greenhouse – you get two new shiny, see through, expensive new pieces of clothing – plastic. We put two sheets on because with the added later and a blower inbetween the plastics it helps retain 25% more heat in our greenhouse.
· We will hopefully be adding an edition to the farmstand for CSA pickups, an earthen oven, and two shorter longer hoophouses to grow peppers and eggplants in.
· We have secured wholesale ordering with Healthy Living and will be selling at their Farmers Market every other Sunday starting in June. We will continue to sell at the Wednesday market in South Hero, not sure about the Saturday market yet. (there is only so much a little two year old can handleJ)
· We will be growing heirloom sweet corn again – exclusively for our CSAJ
· We will be growing Okra again and we will have the best heirloom tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers ever…. J J( we have praying to the veggie gods this winter and putting up some temporary hoophouses as our insurance policies)
· Sadie to be potty trained….oops not a farm goal but…could beJ

CSA: nitty gritty, work shares, drop offs, and Supported Shares
This year we are staying at 50 shares and making sure we have enough variety and quantity for all of you. After a very successful fourth year with the implementation of the sliding scale fee structure for the CSA, we will continue that this year. We want to continue to make organic produce affordable to all and be able to pay our costs. With members buying upfront their vegetables for the season, it helps our costs immensely and we can budget for the rest of the season. We would like to get payment by April 15th. If any of you can pay sooner than that, that would be great since most of our buying is right now through March (I know, I know I should have mailed this in January).

**We have a little incentive for those who pay by March 1st – will be entered to win 5 dozen egg and 6 jars total with a selection of apple jelly, bread and butter pickles, brown sugar pickles, and sweet relish.

**For those who pay by March 15th – you will be entered to win 5 dozen of eggs.

Also, we will be having a working option along with your share which can help with cost of the your share – more info in the brochure. We will also have CSA member work days scheduled once a month where you can come out to the farm and help us with big labor projects that are family friendly. Also, this year we will continue to work on and post on our farm blog www.blueheronfarm-vt.blogspot.com.

Also, we will be delivering to Fort Ethan Allen again and we have moved the Bebop Baby Shop drop off to Beth’s house (thanks so much Beth) in Essex right past 5 corners in Essex off of Rte 15 across from IBM. If you know anyone in that area that maybe interested please feel free to pass a brochure to them or give us their name and number and we will send them a brochure. There will be a small one time delivery drop off charge of $35 for the Colchester/Essex drop off sites (to cover out fuel and time costs).

We value your support and friendship. If these costs are a hardship, please call us and we can come up with a payment plan. We are also hoping to provide 3-4 supported shares for families who are in need of this. We have enclosed information on how to apply for a supported share and how to donate for the Farm Share program that supports our farms supported shares. Last year we were able to give financial support to 3 families from our community. Our goal is to raise $400 for supported shares so NOFA-VT will match it and make a share more affordable to families in our community. If you would like more info, please give us a call. You can send the donation in with your registration form or send it directly to NOFA-VT with “Blue Heron Farm supported share” in the memo.

Our Community Service:
Because of you, our CSA members, we are able to outreach to our community here in Grand Isle County with food and goodwill.

Last year, we had our second year with the Senior Shares at the Round Barn here in Grand Isle. We delivered fresh veggies to 20 residents at the barn and have had community dinners with them once a month since October. We are looking to expand this for this upcoming year and look forward to having them out at the farm with us. If you would like to join us for our monthly lunches, just let us know and we will let you know when they are.

Also, we donated and sold a bunch of food for the Food for Thought program last year, which fed 91 children in Grand Isle County for 12 weeks. This was started by Kaight Althoff (one of our CSA family members) and Melissa Hood and they are doing it again this year with the goal of feeding even more children countywide during the 10 – 12 weeks of summer vacation. Last year, they started a pickup spot in Alburgh at the Alburgh Fire Station as well as the pickup at the South Hero Congregational Church and a few deliveries directly to some children’s homes due to transportation issues. These are children who normally receive free/reduced breakfast or lunch at school. Last year, Sadie and Christine would go and help pack boxes on Sundays and bring leftover produce from market or extra veggies that CSA members donated while they were away on vacation. Each week, Blue Heron Farm was able to donate or sell (at a reduced rate) fresh veggies. Our farm plans to help out again with this year by donating veggies and if any of you would like to help with volunteering on those Sundays, delivering food to families, growing veggies here at our farm or your own place, buy a CSA share for this program or with financial support please call Kaight at 372-5843 or give us a call.

Chickens, Beef, Milk, Oh My…
We will have eggs for sale at pickup time or for presale. They are $5.00 dozen and they are still fed 100% certified organic feed and pasture. Our chickens get to go out everyday – and they have been enjoying the hoophouse this winter – its like Florida in there on really sunny days. We will be ordering new baby chicks soon – Araucana – the colored egg chickens – blues, greens, pink – and we will be getting organic pullets from Pennsylvania again.

There is a possibility of having chicken shares this year again this year and how many we would raise. It is always tricky because you don’t now how the market will be with grain prices – there is no crystal ball (After the year we had last year, I wish there wasJ). It looks like the prices of organic grain may go down. At this point we are still trying to pin down grain prices and when we would raise the chickens. We need to see if they would be economical or too much of a financial burden (due to the cost of organic grain). At last years organic grain prices, each bird ate about $10 worth of feed. We have also changed the kind of bird we are growing. It is a French heritage bird – it looks like a short, squat New Hampshire Red chicken – they graze much better and move a lot . We think they are much tastier then the Cornish cross that most farmers grow. Cornish Cross chickens were created for the chicken industry because they put on a lot of weight in their breasts and are ready in 6-8 weeks – or 50 days from egg to finished bird. After doing a bit of research last year, Christine found a hatchery in Pennsylvania that specializes in heritage breed bird, not the freaks of nature that the Cornish crosses are. We grew about 100 of them last year and they were amazing – it took about 10-11 weeks to get them to finished weight – but well worth it.

Also, in the fall there will be beef shares with a North Hero farmer who sells pastured, grass fed and finished beef. He will be selling them per half or whole cow. There may also be the opportunity to purchase raw goat milk from another farm. Also, we are gathering info on seeing what kind of interest there would be for a winter share. Please check that off if you want more information on these items. We will also be selling fresh bread, baked goods and canned food at the farmstand again this year.

Thank YOU!
We couldn’t do this without all of you. It is because of you, we made it through last year with the hope for this growing season. Adam, Sadie and I look forward to walking out to the chickens with you and your children, meeting our sheep in the pasture, picking sungold cherry tomatoes, uncovering treasures of potatoes and carrots from the earth, and enjoying that you know where your food comes from. When we sit and plan this year and reflect over the last 6 years – we are truly blessed to have this as our work. We our honored that we are your farmers and you are our community.

Whew – that’s a lot of writing – well, there was a lot to fill you in on tooJ Hope you are all well.

We have enclosed this year’s CSA brochure. We have also enclosed an extra one to pass to a friend. Thank you and we look forward to seeing you walking in the fields - smelling the basil, having tomato juice run down your cheeks and eating fresh lettuce again .

Peace,



Christine Bourque, Adam Farris, & Sadie Farris

Adam is okay :)

Hi there. Many farm friends know that I (Adam) took a hard whack on the nose breaking Sadie's fall off of a swingset at the Farmer's Market the other day. It was a little scary almost passing out and going to the ER in an ambulance. Well, I am fine- no broken nose, no head injury, just a little soreness!

Thanks to all helped us out.

-Adam

Week 17 and 18 - CSA Journal Entry

What’s happening on the farm this week?
Week 17 and 18: Hi everyone – So today (this week) is the last of the shares for this growing season. This time of year is always bittersweet for us. We are bummed that we won’t see you all every week, that vegetables and flowers start growing at a snails pace, but then we are getting into a slower time where we can spend more time together as a family. We enjoy watching the change of the season – the fall crisp air, the heritage apple trees producing sweet and tart apples, Sadie realizing what leaves are and how much they are to play in, seeing the cover crops we planted germinate – and the hustle and bustle of a growing season go more dormant to rest for another growing season next year – to start working on ideas and plans for next growing season. This was a hard summer for us – it really tried all of our farming patience. We have learned a lot and take with this knowledge into planning for next year. We know one thing for sure, next year will be easier and more things will grow. It is tricky business having a, organic vegetable farm on clay soil – we were going to harvest potatoes today – the blue ones (those who are on Thursday may get them in your share) but we couldn’t because the soil was way to wet and would have spread blight on those lovely tubers. It is all a great big balancing act. This year was our biggest learning year – our 5 year birthday present from the universe – and we are okay with that because we did not face it alone we had all of you to journey with us this season.


Thank you ….
For picking sugar snap peas with us
For enjoying the lush spinach and greens well into July
For not jumping ship when we told you about the “blight” and “destruction”
For dancing on the hay wagon in heat of summer
For enjoying the sweetness of raw organic heritage corn
For trying new vegetables like tomatillos, Italian heirloom eggplants, and bok choy
For coming out and helping pull weeds, mow, plant, seed, pick, play with Sadie
For eating Kale
For trusting in us
For your thoughtfulness and generosity
For believing in us
For the privilege of being one of the farmers that nourish you and your family

Thanks for being part of our farm, see you next Spring – Adam, Christine and Sadie J

P.S. If and when the brussel sprouts and cabbage decide to fatten up – we will send out an email to let you know – think of it as a bonus in latter October/November. It is also not too late to sign up for Beef Shares – just let us know. You will hear from us later this fall early winter about CSA for the summer of 2010.
What’s in the share this week: Okra, Yellow or Blue Potatoes, Beets, Carrots, Tomatillos, Red Russian Kale, Beet Greens, Chard, pie pumpkins, Winter Squash, and maybe some others.
www.blueheronfarm-vt.blogspot.com CHECK US OUT ON THE WEB and LEAVE COMMENTS TOO

Wool Roving for Sale:
From our sheep – we have Border Leicster Romney Crosses, Icelandic and Shetland Sheep. It is $15 for 6 ounces (special price for CSA members).

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED:
To help put the veggie part of the farm to bed – please call us 372-3420 or email harmonyvt@yahoo.com. Thanks


How to cook winter squash
In case you've never tried to cook winter squash, it couldn't be simpler: Cut in half with a big sharp knife. Remove seeds. (If you've ever carved a pumpkin, these two steps should be very familiar.) Put in a baking pan (I use glass, metal or ceramic would also work) cut side down, with a little water in the pan. Or rub the cut side with a little oil first. Bake in a medium oven (325, or 350, or 400, etc.) until it's easily pierced with a fork. Remove, and eat. Possible toppings: many like maple syrup, butter, salt and pepper, etc. I've also added my cut, seeded halves of winter squash to the crockpot with some water, and let it cook that way for a few hours. This method works especially well when all you want is the cooked flesh to puree for a soup or other dish.
Pumpkin or Winter Squash Puree
Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone Deborah Madison
Easy, versatile and useful, leftovers can fill ravioli, turn into a soup, or be added to muffins, breads, biscuits, and waffles. Preheat oven to 375 F. Halve, seed, and bake 3 pounds pumpkin or winter squash until tender, approx. 30 - 40 mins. Scrape the flesh away from the skin, then beat until smooth with a large wooden spoon This should be easy unless the squash is stringy, in which case, use a food processor or food mill. Stir in butter to taste and season with salt and pepper. Makes about 2 cups. To enrich the puree, grate Gruyére , Fountain, or Emmenthaler into it. Flavor with extra virgin olive oil, or dark sesame oil, or mix in sautéed onions.

Hoedown POSTPONED

HI Everyone the Hoedown scheduled for Tomorrow - Sunday - is rescheduled to the end of October due to 100% chance of rain. We will post soon to let you know when it will be. Thanks for understanding. Adam, Christine and Sadie

CSA Journal Week 16

****BLUE HERON FARM HOE-DOWN***
THIS WEEKEND – SUNDAY, September 28 starting at 3:00pm
Please bring a dish to share, your own plate (we have glasses), an instrument
Hay wagon rides starting at 3:30 (the route of hay ride will be down where the sheep are)
Potluck Music Starting at 4:30 – Potluck Dinner starting at 5:00pm
Please park down at the red and green barn – walk to the back field – the path through the cedars– see the sheep and wigwam and lots of fields for the kids to run in. See you Sunday!

What’s happening on the farm this week?
Week 16: Hi everyone – A big thank you to Gene, Kaight’s (CSA member) father who has done an amazing job brush hogging around the farm. There are fields that we do not use during the year and in the fall they need to mowed down and cleared. Gene has spent over 16 hours mowing for us and we are so very lucky and thankful for all of his hard work. Adam is back at his off the farm job full time, and Sadie and I can not use the tractor together so to have someone here that knows how to use a tractor and do some of the long hour jobs – is such a great help! We are thankful also to Kaight and her family for sharing their grandpa with us. We are learning so much from him. Gene comes from a long line of farmers from the Chester, VT area and we learn more every time we are working along side him.

Next week will be the last pick up for the season for on farm, Bebop, Fort and Round Barn. We will try to load you up with as much stuff as we can. The farmstand will remain open until it snows – and you can buy eggs, jars of goodies, wool, garlic, potatoes, etc.

We have winter squash for everyone for the last two weeks of this share. We hope you enjoy them. We brought them in from Rockville Market Farm in Starksboro. Thanks to Keenan and her son for bring them to S. Burlington for us yesterday. We also have corn stalks for anyone who would like to decorate their porches with them. I will try to bring them into Bebop and the Fort drop offs on Thursday. Check out this week/last week’s Seven Days – Sadie and Christine are on the back page of Section A for advertising the Healthy Living Farmers Market. Sadie and Christine went and sold at two markets back to back this weekend, Grand Isle and Healthy Living – with a lot of prep help from Adam. We sold potatoes, garlic, eggs, cookies and cornstalks.

Sadie is pretty pooped today – lots of on time – she is napping right now (11:20am on Monday) I figured her and I would stick close to home today since the last few days have been hectic. This is made possible by the hard work of Adam, and our great volunteers, Gale, Fiona, Ben, Ronnie, Becky and Dude on this Monday morning and work down over the weekend. We made 18 pints of pear sauce on Saturday, working on some tomato sauce this afternoon and it looks like our apple trees are asking us to pick them to make some apple sauce, butter, crisp and pies. We have been enjoying picking raspberries with our neighbors Jim and Meg – Sadie is quite a scout for raspberries – she knows exactly when the berries are ready and picks them so gingerly and then gobbles them up. She also likes to run down the beds shouting “where are you mama” in a sing song voice- “where are you Jim” “Where are you Meg” “Where are you chickens” “Where are you daddy” Sadie and I start out with baskets – one Sadie size and one mama size – she starts filling hers and then realizes – yum – and eats them up and then she goes for mama’s – I have to ration them out so we have some to eat later and freeze. Sadie must eat at least 2 quarts worth of raspberries when she is out there (good thing Jim and Meg don’t weigh herJ).

I love going out my front door, walking across the “yard” and be able to pick berries – actually I am very grateful for where I live because we can get all of our food (well almost all of it) right here on Quaker Rd and if not here we know other farmers who can grow it for us. What an amazing place to be for us and especially our daughter – all the wonderful grandmotherly and grandfatherly friends we have for her, the food that can be raised by us and our neighbors that she can eat, the fields that she can run through to get a banana out of someone’s cookie jarJ, to swing in the big tree in circles, to sit with the sheep, to race the chickens and to sleep looking out at the stars – and to count each and every one. We are blessed.

Thanks for being part of our farm, see you next week – Adam, Christine and Sadie J

What’s in the share this week:Okra, Yellow, Red and Blue Potatoes, Tomatillos, Red Russian Kale, Beet Greens, Winter Squash, Sunflowers, Cornstalks and maybe some others.

BLUE HERON FARM HOE-DOWN –September 27, 2009
The next Blue Heron Farm Hoe-Down will be Sunday, September 27th at 3:00pm – potluck, music, games and hay rides on a now fixed hay wagon. The last hoe down brought fiddles, harmonicas, guitars, bag pipes, accordion, and many silly dances on the hay wagon by all these little farm kiddos. The weather should be a lot cooler and we will have a bon fire this time. We are planning on having it back behind our property near the sheepJ Bring family and friends, food and drink to share, an instrument – all are welcome.

http://www.blueheronfarm-vt.blogspot.com/ CHECK US OUT ON THE WEB and LEAVE COMMENTS TOO

Wool Roving for Sale:
From our sheep – we have Border Leicster Romney Crosses, Icelandic and Shetland Sheep. It is $15 for 6 ounces (special price for CSA members).

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED:
To help put the veggie part of the farm to bed – please call us 372-3420 or email harmonyvt@yahoo.com. Thanks

Grass fed Beef Shares Now Available:

Blue Heron Farm and Rob Rousseau, farmer in North Hero, have partnered again this year to offer grass fed beef shares this year. Rob has been farming all of his life and his grass fed beef are delicious. We have been getting a share from him the last 3 years and have not bought beef from the store in over 3 years. The cows are able to range on over 150 acres of pasture at his family farm. They are on pasture their whole life. He does not use antibiotics or growth hormones. He does not feed them grain to “fatten” them up. The beef has a sweet taste to it – you can tell they have been on pasture. These cows have had great lives. They are Hereford crossed with Angus and maybe some Highland (I have to double check with RobJ). The beef will be ready over the next couple of months. He had 6 cows to sell – which means 12 halves. He sells it by hanging weight. The price will include processing and putting the cuts of beef in frozen, freezer paper wrapped,1-2 lb packages. You will receive hamburg, stew beef, tenderloin, sirloin, top round, ribs, cube steak, soup bones, london broil, roasts, etc. The price is 2.75 per lb hanging weight. This price may go down – it is dependant an the cost of processing. This is the best deal around for grass fed beef. I have learned a lot about beef processing over the last few years and have asked lots of questions – so here is some info you should know. Hanging weight is the weight that is taken when the beef is hanging after it has been gutted, skin, hooves and head are removed – sorry for the graphic but it important for you to know. The beef needs to hang in the meat cooler for a few weeks and when this happens, there is shrinkage. There is typically about 15- 20% shrinkage from the hanging weight depending on the fat of the cow. So the hanging weight is different from the weight you bring home. For example: last year, we processed a full cow that was 615lbs hanging weight. What we brought home was around 430-440lbs of beef (that was a whole cow). The processing house treats the animals humanely and is USDA inspected and it even has an organic processor license. You can see the cows grazing on Rte 2 in North Hero, South of Shore Acres.

If you are interested in a beef share, please fill out the bottom and send with a $50 deposit by October 15th. The deposit will be deducted from the final price. IF you have any questions, please feel free to call Christine at 372-3420.

Please cut the bottom off and return with payment
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- Name:________________________________________________
- Phone:____________________________________email:_________________________-
- Address:___________________________________________

I would like the following (please circle):

½ Cow – which is around 150 – 200 lbs of beef ( est. 200 -300lbs hanging weight)

Whole cow – which is around 300 – 400lbs of beef( est 500-600 lbs hanging weight)

¼ Cow – which is around 75 – 100lbs of beef (est 100 – 150lbs hanging weight)

Please enclose a deposit of $50. Please make the check out to Rob Rousseau. Mail to Blue Heron Farm, 34 Quaker Rd, Grand Isle, VT 05458
Rest of Payment due at pick up of cut, wrapped and frozen beef sometime in October/November. Limited Payment plans available.