Challenging weather and hail storms have made the apple market looking only fair this year. The fresh crop should command good prices, but the seconds market might run in the 10-15 cent per pound range in New York State. Hope Irene isn’t too damaging.
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Why do we love eggs? For one thing, their nutritional chops:
Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM
Doing good things with dairy in Vermont.
Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM
To mark the launch of our new website back in June, we’ve posted here each day for the past 56 days. Did you know? An average cow produces about 56 pounds of milk a day. But our cows are anything but average: They produce more like 75 pounds a day, thanks to their grass diet and outstanding care.
Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM
Another reason why grass is what cows should eat:
Too much grain, which has little to no fiber, in a cow’s diet can be hazardous to her health. It can lead to acidocis, a disorder of the digestive system caused by too much acid, which can in turn lead to laminitis. Laminitis, a burst blood vessel in the foot, can cause hemorrhaging and end up being fatal for the cow.
Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM
All the little things add up to happy, productive cows:
Plenty of breathing room. A comfortable bed. No traffic jams getting into the milking parlor. Smooth barn floors that are easy on the feet. Periodic pedicures. Just a few of the simple things that can make cows happier and help them produce more milk. Our farmers make sure, for example, that every cow has her own stall with plenty of room to lie down, and they don’t ask the cows to wait long in a holding area outside the milking parlor. Cows make more milk while they’re sitting down eating (which encourages blood flow) than when they’re standing around waiting to be milked.
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When Jackie first met George almost 30 years ago, George’s egg business — Maple Meadow Farm — was one of seventeen egg producers in Vermont. Today, George and Jackie’s farm is the last one left. In the next few weeks, Five Acre Farms will be helping to bring Maple Meadow Farm to a wider local audience.
http://maplemeadowfarmeggs.com/
Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM
On Sunday afternoon, Aug. 21, sample Vermont-made foods at the Local Foods Showcase, presented by the New England Culinary Institute (NECI) on the grounds of High Mowing Organic Seeds. Just one of the highlights of Kingdom Farm & Food Days, co-sponsored by High Mowing, Pete’s Greens, the Center for an Agricultural Economy, NECI and the Craftsbury Outdoor Center.
http://www.kingdomfarmandfood.org/
Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM
Visit organic vegetable farm Pete’s Greens this Saturday, Aug. 20, for special events as part of the 2011 Kingdom Farm & Food Days.
Don’t miss the Saturday lineup at Pete’s:
1:00 and 2:30: Farm and greenhouse tours.
3:30: Live music by local bluegrass band the Mud City Ramblers.
4:00: Pig roast and potluck picnic featuring Pete’s organic vegetables and much more.
Great way to work up your appetite: Take a 15-mile or 30-mile un-timed dirt-road bike tour sponsored by Craftsbury Outdoor Center. Starting early afternoon, these rides will tour local farms and wind up at Pete’s Greens.
To learn more about Pete’s: http://www.petesgreens.com.
For more information about the weekend: http://www.kingdomfarmandfood.org.
Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM
Why are some egg shells stronger then others? Well, it’s all about the calcium. The eggshell wall is surrounded in calcium. A chicken produces the same amount of calcium around each egg, no matter what size the oval is. As the egg gets bigger, there’s less calcium to go around so the shell becomes weaker. Hens with poor diets produce weak eggshells.
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Good sweet corn is around these days in the Northeast. It should be sweet and bring the smell of the field into your kitchen. If the corn is starchy rather than sugary, it means it’s old. If you can’t eat it raw, it ain’t any good.
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Brown eggs: brown chickens.
White eggs: white chickens.
Not more complicated than that.
Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM
In 1970, there were nearly 650,000 dairy farms in the United States. Today there are fewer than 70,000. Do you know where your milk comes from? Know your farmer. Keep farmers farming.
Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM
Young hens are called pullets. They start as chicks, become pullets — basically teenagers — and then around 18 weeks old, they become hens when they start laying. As the hens mature, their eggs get bigger. Hens between 40 weeks and 72 weeks old are considered in their prime laying period.
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Farmers have completed a second cutting of hay, and many have done a third. So the question remains: Do you do one more cutting in the Fall and leave the grass short, or do you leave it long over winter and let the first cutting next year come in stronger? Don McEachron is leaning t0wards the latter — a better first cut next year.
Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM
Lots of apples on the trees these days getting ready to ripen at Champlain Orchards, a 100-year-old family-owned orchard and vegetable farm. Thanks to the orchard’s sheltered spot, recent hailstorms in the region didn’t do much damage, and high heat like we saw last week might bring this middle Vermont farm apples with more intense flavor. Check out the website for more information about the 40 varieties of apples, and cider too.
http://www.champlainorchards.com/
Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM
Most of the broccoli grown in the U.S. comes from the West Coast and, in many cases, has a long way to travel to the supermarket. As NPR reported this week, a group of farmers, the USDA and a consortium of universities have joined together to launch “The East Coast Broccoli Project,” an effort to make broccoli a fresh, local crop on the East Coast.
http://www.npr.org/2011/08/08/139220009/eastern-u-s-farmers-hope-to-break-into-broccoli-business
Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM
Corn prices in the U.S. have soared over the past few years: They averaged about $2.00/bushel in 2006, had risen to $4.25/bushel by 2008, and are around $6.75/bushel today. All the more reason for Northeast farmers of all stripes to grow their own feed if they can. Agriculture too dependent on off-farm inputs continues to suffer at the whim of arbitrary commodity markets.
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We’ve known Gordon and Jane Ridgway and their organic vegetable farm since 1990. The wide range of vegetables they grow is available at their farm stand on Town Street in Cornwall, or visit them at the farmers markets in Cornwall and Kent.
There just aren’t many people who have been farming organically longer then Gordon. He doesn’t talk a lot about doing it; he just does it.
Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM
Five Acre Farms served milk (and doughnuts:) ) to day campers in Larchmont, NY this week.
Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM
Find our milk at Fairway’s brand new E. 86th Street store, beginning today. Check out store location and hours here:
http://www.fairwaymarket.com/pages.php?pageid=118
Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM
Excellent list of Good Things in Milk, courtesy of Nina Planck:
Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM
In the Northeast:
Now being picked: assorted salad greens, cucumbers, zucchini, string beans and Cherokee trail of tears pole beans. Melons, too: musk, cantaloupe, watermelon. Lots of flowers appearing on winter squash plants sown in late spring: on track for the October harvest.
Seeing early fruit on tomato plants and getting a sense for how the crop will turn out this year. On the lookout for early and middle stage insects and early blight that wilts leaves. Eyes still peeled for horn worms that can be a threat to tomatoes, and for flea beetles that chew tiny holes in lettuce.
Out at the farm stand, more and more visitors are stopping by as the height of the summer vacation season nears.
Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM
There are, of course, many reasons. Here’s just one to start:
The taste, quality and nutritional value of milk and eggs depends in large part on the diet of the cows and chickens that produced them. Food from chickens and cows that eat their greens (what they’re supposed to eat) are significantly higher in healthy Omega-3 fats and also have more vitamins and antioxidants. In fact, research has shown that eggs from pastured hens can contain as much as 10 times more Omega-3’s than eggs from factory hens.
Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM
In A Reporter at Large, “TOMATOES” (The New Yorker, Jan. 24, 1977), Tom Whiteside, wondering why he can’t buy a truly fresh tomato, sets out to learn why supermarket tomatoes are pale pink, tough and tasteless. What he discovers is a compelling reminder, nearly 35 years old, about the impact of farming practices on the taste and health benefits of what we eat.
You can find the article in The New Yorker’s digital archive. Read an abstract here:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1977/01/24/1977_01_24_036_TNY_CARDS_000318692
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