My sister Sue is out in Kalcutta, India working/ doing service at Mother Teresa's homes and Brother Xaviers. This is what she posted on her update today and wanted to share it with all of you - because love is hard - whether it be with people, animals, farm, land, weather..
Love you Susie - you are amazing for doing what you are doing!
"True love is love that causes us pain, that hurts, and yet brings us joy. That is why we must pray and ask for the courage to love." -MT
Welcome to our Farm! Little stories about our life as organic farmers raising a family on an island in the middle of Lake Champlain
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Looking for two apprentices for this growing season
Hey everybody - we are looking for 2 apprentices (we just had to positions open up unexpectedly) to start ASAP for this growing season - room (wonderful yurt like tent in the middle of a pasture),board and small stipend - we have a dairy cow, sheep, lambs, chickens, meat birds, and tons of vegetables - come learn about small family farming in the middle of beautiful lake
champlain - you can check out our full description of a farm apprentice below.
Apprentice Period: May 21, 2011 - October 15, 2011(maybe later)
Work Period Detailed Explanation:
We would like to have three apprentices come sometime in May and finish in October. The work will include all parts of vegetable production for a small csa and both wholesale and direct markets. Work will include planting, cultivating, harvesting, and marketing vegetables. Work will also include helping with farm/CSA events, working on community growing of vegetable donations to the local food bank, caring for our small herd of sheep (not for meat), caring for pastured broilers and hens, caring for and milking our family cow, and putting up hay.
Farm Type:
Diversified (integrating crop/livestock)
This farm is Certified Organic
This farm has a CSA
This farm runs a farm stand
Stipend Available: Small stipend, room and board
Work Schedule:
The work week would basically be Sunday through Friday, 5 1/2 days a week. Friday evening through Sunday morning would always be free. We are extremely flexible and would hope apprentices would be too. We expect to provide a weekly stipend, probably about $50/week. Its negotiable. We feel that remuneration in the form of room, board, and education should be considered by any applicant.
Room and Board: Room and Board
The apprentices will live in Sibley tents (like a yurt) we will be placing on the edge of a hayfield. Our hope is that apprentices will have their own tent. The meals, bathroom, and shower arrangements will be in our small home. We have a 3 year old daughter (and a 5 month old daughter) who love to share meals! We would provide three meals a day, vegetarian if requested. We are not vegetarians. Meals on off times would not be provided, but food and amenities would always be available. Any potential apprentice would need to be willing to share the yurt with the other intern.
Trial Period Information:
We do require a visit with potential interns. It seems only fair to all involved that we meet and get a feel for the "fit".
All Organic:
All crops are raised organically. The sheep are not certified organic, but they may as well be because they eat only hay/grass and are managed to reduce parasite loads, and thus reliance on wormers. The sheep gave birth to 11 lambs in the month of May 2011.
Farm Background:
We (Christine and Adam) have been married since 2003. We started our farm in 2004. We started our family in 2007 when our daughter Sadie was born. On December 10th, 2010, Delia Mae was born. Our farm grew out of our desire to grow good food for our wedding, and we caught the farm bug. So, we are in our 7th year of organic farming and our 5th year with a csa program. It was the dream of landowners Roy Newton and Ev Grimes to bring the land back into active farming use. They supported us in starting Blue Heron Farm on their land. We are working on our dream of creating a diversified, sustainable, family farm with produce, grazing animals for fiber, poultry, apprenticeships, and eventually, as an educational/therapeutic youth farm worker program.Why educational and therapeutic? We both have a background in education, counseling, and social work (3 Masters degrees between us!). We both love to see people grow and learn. We both believe deeply that it is important for our world to have an organic, local food system, and we know working with your hands and seeing the fruits of your labor is profoundly good for the spirit.Another aspect of our farm is the attempt to make organic affordable, and to give back. We participate in NOFA's supported csa share program, and the senior-share programs, both of which help low income community members afford fresh, organic food. We also sell food at a reduced cost to the"Food for Thought" program which helps families in Grand Isle County with food during the months kids are out of school.Currently, Adam works full time off the farm. Eventually, we want our farm to be our sole income source, but that takes time. Our farm will always be organic.
Farm Setting:
Blue Heron Farm is located in Grand Isle, which is one of the islands of Lake Champlain. Its is a beautiful place. Quaker road is named for the original farmers (after the First Americans, that is) who settled here. Several original barns and farm houses still stand. To the west, the sun sets over the Adirondacks, with Lake Champlain in between. We are surrounded by mostly hay and corn fields, average amounts of rural development (such as houses), wildlife, and great neighbors. Up the street, a family grows pick your own blueberries, and next door, our friends are growing 300 raspberry bushes!Our farm consists of 15 acres on one side of Quaker road, and 15 on the other side, just a bit down the street from each other. All are in the organic certification. All of our land is either pasture or in veggie cultivation. The veggie side of the farm is on the land of our friend Roy Newton. On this property, we have a "amish style" shed for a farmstand, a 21x48 greenhouse, a 24x60 hoophouse, a new 30 X 72 hoophouse for season extension crops, a small 14 X 48 pepper hoophouse, and all of our cultivated fields. Roy's house is also on this land.Just down the way, we have our more modern barn that houses our tractor, tools, equipment, etc., as well as hay and sheep at certain times of year. Behind this, to the north, is the remaining pasture land that the sheep graze and where we cut hay. This where the yurt like tents will be going. We also have a small patch of woods on this land.
Farm Operation:
Adam works full time, but during the summer is able to take considerable amounts of time off. Christine works full time on the farm and always has Sadie and Delia tagging along. We grow a fairly wide variety of mixed veggies as you would expect for a csa. We love to grow garlic, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, lettuce, spinach, pac choi, kale, basil...well...we love growing it all. Each year we try something new or to improve how we grow things. We have about 3.5 acres under cultivation. This is increasing as we try to incorporate longer cover crop rotations for soil health. We do everything either by hand or with the help of our 30 hp tractor and borrowed equipment here and there. We use a lot of tractor- formed raised beds. We will be trying to do more weeding with the tractor this year.We have a 50 family CSA and sell at two local farmer's markets, as well as a local natural foods market. We also have an honor system farmstand on site.We have about 170 pastured certified organic laying hens, and we usually do at least one round of pastured broilers per summer. We hope to increase our numbers of both eggs and pastured poultry as we improve our systems.In addition, we have 9 sheep: one icelandic ewe, one shetland ewe, and 7 border-leceister romneys. We raise them for their fiber and their positive effect on the land. We will grow this herd to about 20 in the coming years. We are hoping to build some grant funded fencing and water infrastructure this year to help facilitate rotational grazing and hay land management.We are also hoping to build a new hoophouse designed to extend our seasons at both ends. The fencing and hoophouse would both be through a large NRCS grant.
Work Expectations:
We are looking for apprentices who are able to lift at least 50 lbs on a daily basis. We need people who are able to put their heart in to their work and do their work with integrity and at at a pretty good pace. Farm work is strenuous, hot, and at times very tedious. Interns need to be able to pace themselves, take care of their bodies, and communicate when they need a break. Our work pace/day is sane, and we want the experience to be sustainable for everyone. Most of all, we want to have fun and have a team/community approach to our work.
5 Topic Areas of Expertise:
1. Starting and growing a community supported agriculture program.2. Soil fertility management. (crop rotation, cover crops, testing, planning).3. Growing crops from seed to harvest, including seed selection, greenhouse culture, bed preparation, transplanting/direct seeding, fertility, cultivation, harvesting, and post-harvest handling.4. Direct and wholesale marketing of organic produce and the "business side" of farming.5. Raising chickens for meat and eggs using organic methods.6. We are not "experts", but we will be caring for our sheep, having them bred, and putting up hay for them. Apprentices will learn about basic animal care.7. Canning for home use 8. Learning how to put up (and actually can, freeze and dehydrate) all your own food for the winter.
Instruction and Training:
Much of the work and learning of apprentices will be side by side with us, through conversation, shared ideas around planning a day or a crop, and through a whole lot of demonstration of what we do and how we do it. This will be hands-on learning most of the time. We will supply apprentices with reading materials that have been useful to us, provide opportunities for "Q&A" sessions, conduct impromptu field meetings, and arrange for apprentices to learn about any special area of farming they are interested in. We want apprentices to have the freedom to take initiative once they feel they "get it" so that they are able to take on a few responsibilities on the farm. Overall, they will find us to be supportive, available, and concerned about the quality of their learning on our farm. Two likely additional projects: installing fence/water system for the sheep and building a new gothic style hoophouse.
Support for Learning:
Attend NOFA Vermont workshops as part of paid work
Time off to attend NOFA Vermont workshops
Attend other organizations’ workshops
Provide transportation
Support and create local networking opportunities for apprentice
Host an apprentice workshop
Interested applicants should send us an email at harmonyvt@yahoo.com and fill out the apprentice application at www.nofavt.org. We can provide academic credit if needed. We are currently looking for 2 interns that can stay through the end of the season
champlain - you can check out our full description of a farm apprentice below.
Apprentice Period: May 21, 2011 - October 15, 2011(maybe later)
Work Period Detailed Explanation:
We would like to have three apprentices come sometime in May and finish in October. The work will include all parts of vegetable production for a small csa and both wholesale and direct markets. Work will include planting, cultivating, harvesting, and marketing vegetables. Work will also include helping with farm/CSA events, working on community growing of vegetable donations to the local food bank, caring for our small herd of sheep (not for meat), caring for pastured broilers and hens, caring for and milking our family cow, and putting up hay.
Farm Type:
Diversified (integrating crop/livestock)
This farm is Certified Organic
This farm has a CSA
This farm runs a farm stand
Stipend Available: Small stipend, room and board
Work Schedule:
The work week would basically be Sunday through Friday, 5 1/2 days a week. Friday evening through Sunday morning would always be free. We are extremely flexible and would hope apprentices would be too. We expect to provide a weekly stipend, probably about $50/week. Its negotiable. We feel that remuneration in the form of room, board, and education should be considered by any applicant.
Room and Board: Room and Board
The apprentices will live in Sibley tents (like a yurt) we will be placing on the edge of a hayfield. Our hope is that apprentices will have their own tent. The meals, bathroom, and shower arrangements will be in our small home. We have a 3 year old daughter (and a 5 month old daughter) who love to share meals! We would provide three meals a day, vegetarian if requested. We are not vegetarians. Meals on off times would not be provided, but food and amenities would always be available. Any potential apprentice would need to be willing to share the yurt with the other intern.
Trial Period Information:
We do require a visit with potential interns. It seems only fair to all involved that we meet and get a feel for the "fit".
All Organic:
All crops are raised organically. The sheep are not certified organic, but they may as well be because they eat only hay/grass and are managed to reduce parasite loads, and thus reliance on wormers. The sheep gave birth to 11 lambs in the month of May 2011.
Farm Background:
We (Christine and Adam) have been married since 2003. We started our farm in 2004. We started our family in 2007 when our daughter Sadie was born. On December 10th, 2010, Delia Mae was born. Our farm grew out of our desire to grow good food for our wedding, and we caught the farm bug. So, we are in our 7th year of organic farming and our 5th year with a csa program. It was the dream of landowners Roy Newton and Ev Grimes to bring the land back into active farming use. They supported us in starting Blue Heron Farm on their land. We are working on our dream of creating a diversified, sustainable, family farm with produce, grazing animals for fiber, poultry, apprenticeships, and eventually, as an educational/therapeutic youth farm worker program.Why educational and therapeutic? We both have a background in education, counseling, and social work (3 Masters degrees between us!). We both love to see people grow and learn. We both believe deeply that it is important for our world to have an organic, local food system, and we know working with your hands and seeing the fruits of your labor is profoundly good for the spirit.Another aspect of our farm is the attempt to make organic affordable, and to give back. We participate in NOFA's supported csa share program, and the senior-share programs, both of which help low income community members afford fresh, organic food. We also sell food at a reduced cost to the"Food for Thought" program which helps families in Grand Isle County with food during the months kids are out of school.Currently, Adam works full time off the farm. Eventually, we want our farm to be our sole income source, but that takes time. Our farm will always be organic.
Farm Setting:
Blue Heron Farm is located in Grand Isle, which is one of the islands of Lake Champlain. Its is a beautiful place. Quaker road is named for the original farmers (after the First Americans, that is) who settled here. Several original barns and farm houses still stand. To the west, the sun sets over the Adirondacks, with Lake Champlain in between. We are surrounded by mostly hay and corn fields, average amounts of rural development (such as houses), wildlife, and great neighbors. Up the street, a family grows pick your own blueberries, and next door, our friends are growing 300 raspberry bushes!Our farm consists of 15 acres on one side of Quaker road, and 15 on the other side, just a bit down the street from each other. All are in the organic certification. All of our land is either pasture or in veggie cultivation. The veggie side of the farm is on the land of our friend Roy Newton. On this property, we have a "amish style" shed for a farmstand, a 21x48 greenhouse, a 24x60 hoophouse, a new 30 X 72 hoophouse for season extension crops, a small 14 X 48 pepper hoophouse, and all of our cultivated fields. Roy's house is also on this land.Just down the way, we have our more modern barn that houses our tractor, tools, equipment, etc., as well as hay and sheep at certain times of year. Behind this, to the north, is the remaining pasture land that the sheep graze and where we cut hay. This where the yurt like tents will be going. We also have a small patch of woods on this land.
Farm Operation:
Adam works full time, but during the summer is able to take considerable amounts of time off. Christine works full time on the farm and always has Sadie and Delia tagging along. We grow a fairly wide variety of mixed veggies as you would expect for a csa. We love to grow garlic, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, lettuce, spinach, pac choi, kale, basil...well...we love growing it all. Each year we try something new or to improve how we grow things. We have about 3.5 acres under cultivation. This is increasing as we try to incorporate longer cover crop rotations for soil health. We do everything either by hand or with the help of our 30 hp tractor and borrowed equipment here and there. We use a lot of tractor- formed raised beds. We will be trying to do more weeding with the tractor this year.We have a 50 family CSA and sell at two local farmer's markets, as well as a local natural foods market. We also have an honor system farmstand on site.We have about 170 pastured certified organic laying hens, and we usually do at least one round of pastured broilers per summer. We hope to increase our numbers of both eggs and pastured poultry as we improve our systems.In addition, we have 9 sheep: one icelandic ewe, one shetland ewe, and 7 border-leceister romneys. We raise them for their fiber and their positive effect on the land. We will grow this herd to about 20 in the coming years. We are hoping to build some grant funded fencing and water infrastructure this year to help facilitate rotational grazing and hay land management.We are also hoping to build a new hoophouse designed to extend our seasons at both ends. The fencing and hoophouse would both be through a large NRCS grant.
Work Expectations:
We are looking for apprentices who are able to lift at least 50 lbs on a daily basis. We need people who are able to put their heart in to their work and do their work with integrity and at at a pretty good pace. Farm work is strenuous, hot, and at times very tedious. Interns need to be able to pace themselves, take care of their bodies, and communicate when they need a break. Our work pace/day is sane, and we want the experience to be sustainable for everyone. Most of all, we want to have fun and have a team/community approach to our work.
5 Topic Areas of Expertise:
1. Starting and growing a community supported agriculture program.2. Soil fertility management. (crop rotation, cover crops, testing, planning).3. Growing crops from seed to harvest, including seed selection, greenhouse culture, bed preparation, transplanting/direct seeding, fertility, cultivation, harvesting, and post-harvest handling.4. Direct and wholesale marketing of organic produce and the "business side" of farming.5. Raising chickens for meat and eggs using organic methods.6. We are not "experts", but we will be caring for our sheep, having them bred, and putting up hay for them. Apprentices will learn about basic animal care.7. Canning for home use 8. Learning how to put up (and actually can, freeze and dehydrate) all your own food for the winter.
Instruction and Training:
Much of the work and learning of apprentices will be side by side with us, through conversation, shared ideas around planning a day or a crop, and through a whole lot of demonstration of what we do and how we do it. This will be hands-on learning most of the time. We will supply apprentices with reading materials that have been useful to us, provide opportunities for "Q&A" sessions, conduct impromptu field meetings, and arrange for apprentices to learn about any special area of farming they are interested in. We want apprentices to have the freedom to take initiative once they feel they "get it" so that they are able to take on a few responsibilities on the farm. Overall, they will find us to be supportive, available, and concerned about the quality of their learning on our farm. Two likely additional projects: installing fence/water system for the sheep and building a new gothic style hoophouse.
Support for Learning:
Attend NOFA Vermont workshops as part of paid work
Time off to attend NOFA Vermont workshops
Attend other organizations’ workshops
Provide transportation
Support and create local networking opportunities for apprentice
Host an apprentice workshop
Interested applicants should send us an email at harmonyvt@yahoo.com and fill out the apprentice application at www.nofavt.org. We can provide academic credit if needed. We are currently looking for 2 interns that can stay through the end of the season
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Why We Raise Pastured Certified Organic Chicken and Eggs
Blue Heron Farm is a small diversified certified organic family farm in Grand Isle, Vermont surrounded by Lake Champlain. Our farm has always been certified organic since its conception in 2004- vegetables and animals- including our eggs. We are a mama and a daddy raising our children and farming. Our family, including our young daughters, eat all of our food and other local farmers' food - and they know where all their food comes from. We want to grow clean food for their little, growing bodies - food that is free of synthetic fertilizers, harmful pesticides, genetically modified organisms (gmos). The animals on our farm are treated with respect and dignity. They get to be the animals they are to their fullest potential.
Our chickens get to graze - get to be a true chickens - out running around the tall pasture grasses, dust bathing, eating bugs, worms, occasionally a field mouse-being the true omnivores that they are and eating clean certified organic grain. These chickens are a vital part of our farm, working as mini tillers in our pastures, waking up pasture grasses and tilling in nutrients. When the chickens, are done with an area we move them to the next pasture in their refurbished travel trailer where they lay their eggs.
We believe we are what we eat: We don't want our children to be the guinea pigs for GMOs.
We eat these chickens and these eggs - so why wouldn't we want them to have clean feed - free of pesticide residues, synthetic fertilizers, and genetically modified corn and soybeans (which is in all conventional feed)? Studies are still out on what exactly GMO's will do to our bodies and our children's developing bodies .
We make choices each and every day on how we feed our family and what we spend our limited resources on. When we buy organic feed, we know exactly what is in there and we are supporting other organic family farms. People ask if we make a lot of money off our egg sales. Currently, we have about 170 layers, 2 roosters, Rocket and Ramone. We certainly make a much slighter profit on our eggs as a trade off for sticking with certified organic feed, but the tradeoff is worth it. Many local organic farms have split operations - they have organic vegetables but not organic chickens. Organic Chicken feed is expensive - it is more expensive than conventional feed - that is one of the big reasons why local organic vegetable growers will produce eggs with pastured hens that eat non-organic (conventional) feed.
We have partnered with City Market to make local, pastured, certified organic eggs available here for you. We hope you enjoy our chickens' eggs and know that we are grateful that our family is one of the many local farmers on your table feeding you and your family. Feel free to get in touch with us and give us your feedback. We do farm tours, have a farmstand, have a CSA with pickup on the farm and with dropoffs in Essex, Colchester, and Winooski (including chicken and egg shares), at the Champlain Islands Farmers Market in Grand Isle and South Hero.
Peace,
Christine Bourque, Adam, Sadie and Delia Farris
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Winter Journal Post and CSA Letter
February 28, 2011
Hello to all returning and potential CSA members, neighbors, friends and family!
As I type this, Sadie is napping and her little sweet sister, Delia Mae is laying by my side watching me type. Sadie can spell her name now and is very excited to be a big sister and she is a huge helped in all the winter shores with the sheep, bunny and all the chickens.
This winter has been quite eventful- Sadie turned 3, Delia Mae was born December 10, the 30 x 72 hoophouse is built, and we have started the process to buy the land that we farm - on both sides of the road - 31 acres of land. At the end of the growing season, we were notified that the land that we live on and graze the sheep on was going to be put up for sale. This was the catalyst to get things in motion with the Vermont Land Trust and their partners to try to buy this land and some of Roy's land - where we grow all of your/our vegetables. To make this more affordable, we will be conserving the land - so it will always be in agriculture - open land - a small diversified, organic family farm - in Grand Isle, right here on Quaker Road. This is very exciting and we will share with all of you as we go through this process in conserving and buying this land - so Blue Heron Farm will have a stable land base into the future.
We feel very blessed for all the support we received from our CSA members and community from last growing season. We were very blessed with a beautiful summer, the energy and excitement of 4 interns (who rocked and learned so much about organic farming (and potty training a then 2.5 year old), luscious heirloom tomatoes that had juice that dripped down your cheeks, more watermelon and melons than we knew what to do with, harvesting pumpkins and watermelons in September together- all the glory and abundance of a prolific growing season. We are looking forward to another great growing year with the hopes of extending this growing year into December with our new hoophouse - which many hands helped us build.
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 fifth 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). Shares will start the first or second week in June. **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.blueheronfarmvt.com.
Also, we will be delivering to Fort Ethan Allen, Pinewood Manor (thanks so much Beth) in Essex Junction right past 5 corners in Essex off of Rte 15 across from IBM, and CCV in Winooski on Thursdays. 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 our 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. If you are in need of financial aid this year please let us know and we will get you the financial aid info for a supported share. Also we are accepting donations for the Farm Share program that supports our farms supported shares. Last year we were able to give financial support to 4 families from our community and provide extra food to the Round Barn through generous donations from our members. Our goal is to raise $500 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 (Yours and Ours):
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. We will continue this program again this year with the hopes of expanding it.
Also, we donated and sold a bunch of food for the Food for Thought program last year, which fed over 125 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, Sadie and Christine, along with some of the interns, 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.
This summer we will be working with area churches and community groups to put in community gardens in our community. We will also be working on growing certain crops for the food shelf here in the county. If you would like to help with any of this, let us know.
Chickens, Eggs, Bread, Pasta, Pork and Turkeys (Oh My…)
So we are going to try out having add-ons this year of our chickens, eggs, and food from fellow CSA members Gloria, Daniel, Matt, Aimee and Eric. We are excited about this and we think it will help lighten your grocery shopping having these items available. Later in the season, we will let you know about organic pork and turkey shares from Aimee and Eric. Their pigs get a ton of veggie scraps from our farm, and their pork is quite yummy.
Blue Heron Farm Certified Organic Pastured Chickens & Egg SHARES These chickens are a heritage breed from France (not the Cornish crosses that many producers use). There is more meat all around the bird and the birds are great foragers on pasture. There is a deposit of $50 and then the chickens will be $6.00lb when they are finished. Shares are 5 or 10 birds - fresh or frozen. Egg shares are: $90 for 18 weeks for 1 dozen a week or 1/2 dozen for $45 for 18 weeks. This year we have partnered with Wally's Place(Matt) and Grand Isle Pasta (Gloria and Daniel) to offer weekly deliveries of fresh bread and fresh pasta with your share.
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, Delia and I look forward to walking out to the chickens with you and your children, meeting our sheep and their lambs in the pasture, picking sungold cherry tomatoes and ground cherries, 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 7 years – we are truly blessed to have this as our work. We are honored that we are one of your farmers and you are our community. Whew – that’s a lot of writing – well, there was a lot to fill you in on too 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 and Delia Farris.
Hello to all returning and potential CSA members, neighbors, friends and family!
As I type this, Sadie is napping and her little sweet sister, Delia Mae is laying by my side watching me type. Sadie can spell her name now and is very excited to be a big sister and she is a huge helped in all the winter shores with the sheep, bunny and all the chickens.
This winter has been quite eventful- Sadie turned 3, Delia Mae was born December 10, the 30 x 72 hoophouse is built, and we have started the process to buy the land that we farm - on both sides of the road - 31 acres of land. At the end of the growing season, we were notified that the land that we live on and graze the sheep on was going to be put up for sale. This was the catalyst to get things in motion with the Vermont Land Trust and their partners to try to buy this land and some of Roy's land - where we grow all of your/our vegetables. To make this more affordable, we will be conserving the land - so it will always be in agriculture - open land - a small diversified, organic family farm - in Grand Isle, right here on Quaker Road. This is very exciting and we will share with all of you as we go through this process in conserving and buying this land - so Blue Heron Farm will have a stable land base into the future.
We feel very blessed for all the support we received from our CSA members and community from last growing season. We were very blessed with a beautiful summer, the energy and excitement of 4 interns (who rocked and learned so much about organic farming (and potty training a then 2.5 year old), luscious heirloom tomatoes that had juice that dripped down your cheeks, more watermelon and melons than we knew what to do with, harvesting pumpkins and watermelons in September together- all the glory and abundance of a prolific growing season. We are looking forward to another great growing year with the hopes of extending this growing year into December with our new hoophouse - which many hands helped us build.
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 fifth 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). Shares will start the first or second week in June. **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.blueheronfarmvt.com.
Also, we will be delivering to Fort Ethan Allen, Pinewood Manor (thanks so much Beth) in Essex Junction right past 5 corners in Essex off of Rte 15 across from IBM, and CCV in Winooski on Thursdays. 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 our 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. If you are in need of financial aid this year please let us know and we will get you the financial aid info for a supported share. Also we are accepting donations for the Farm Share program that supports our farms supported shares. Last year we were able to give financial support to 4 families from our community and provide extra food to the Round Barn through generous donations from our members. Our goal is to raise $500 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 (Yours and Ours):
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. We will continue this program again this year with the hopes of expanding it.
Also, we donated and sold a bunch of food for the Food for Thought program last year, which fed over 125 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, Sadie and Christine, along with some of the interns, 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.
This summer we will be working with area churches and community groups to put in community gardens in our community. We will also be working on growing certain crops for the food shelf here in the county. If you would like to help with any of this, let us know.
Chickens, Eggs, Bread, Pasta, Pork and Turkeys (Oh My…)
So we are going to try out having add-ons this year of our chickens, eggs, and food from fellow CSA members Gloria, Daniel, Matt, Aimee and Eric. We are excited about this and we think it will help lighten your grocery shopping having these items available. Later in the season, we will let you know about organic pork and turkey shares from Aimee and Eric. Their pigs get a ton of veggie scraps from our farm, and their pork is quite yummy.
Blue Heron Farm Certified Organic Pastured Chickens & Egg SHARES These chickens are a heritage breed from France (not the Cornish crosses that many producers use). There is more meat all around the bird and the birds are great foragers on pasture. There is a deposit of $50 and then the chickens will be $6.00lb when they are finished. Shares are 5 or 10 birds - fresh or frozen. Egg shares are: $90 for 18 weeks for 1 dozen a week or 1/2 dozen for $45 for 18 weeks. This year we have partnered with Wally's Place(Matt) and Grand Isle Pasta (Gloria and Daniel) to offer weekly deliveries of fresh bread and fresh pasta with your share.
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, Delia and I look forward to walking out to the chickens with you and your children, meeting our sheep and their lambs in the pasture, picking sungold cherry tomatoes and ground cherries, 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 7 years – we are truly blessed to have this as our work. We are honored that we are one of your farmers and you are our community. Whew – that’s a lot of writing – well, there was a lot to fill you in on too 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 and Delia Farris.
Monday, February 28, 2011
2011 Blue Heron Farm CSA now taking members
Hi Everyone-
We have our CSA brochure done and are now selling shares. We are selling 50 shares this year and we have on the farm pickup here in Grand Isle, and drop offs at CCV in Winooski, Pinewood Manor in Essex Junction and Fort Ethan Allen in Colchester, VT. We will gladly drop off anywhere else as long as there are 5 share holders there and within the greater Burlington or Grand Isle area.
You can email us at harmonyvt@yahoo.com for the application and I am also going to try to figure out how to put it up here for you to download. I think i figured it out here it is - just copy and paste in the address bar: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0By3U03bbE9hiODA0ZDFmMDYtZTFjMi00MGYzLTlmYzgtN2ZiNThiNTZiMmNl&hl=en
Sorry for the hiatus from this blog this winter - we have been busy with our new little one Delia Mae who is now 11 weeks old...we will try to catch you up on all the farm happenings over the next week or so and try to be more regular in this space. Peace and warm thoughts, Christine, Adam, Sadie and Delia
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Welcome little sister!
Cubes Plum Baby Announcements
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Thursday, November 4, 2010
Winter Farmers Markets start this weekend!
Farmers Market this Saturday at the South Hero Congregational Church on South St from 10-2 - inside - come see us - we'll have lots of organic salad greens, sweet kale, brussel sprouts, winter squash, pie pumpkins, red and white potatoes, pickles, jellies, and of course our eggs and a few other things - and Sadie dancing around the hall. Also, there will be lots of baked goods, breads, crafts, soap, meat, more produce, yarn, and much more - Come stay for a while and visit - there will be a kids table for activities and places to sit and chat. Next one will be November 20th - Just in time for Thanksgiving.
Christine Bourque, Adam Farris and Sadie Farris
Blue Heron Farm
372-3420
www.blueheronfarmvt.com
Christine Bourque, Adam Farris and Sadie Farris
Blue Heron Farm
372-3420
www.blueheronfarmvt.com
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