Support your local farmers, and taste how milk should taste, at these Five Acre Farms in-store sampling demonstrations this week:

Tues., Mar. 27:

Fairway, 74th & Broadway: 10am-2pm

Thurs., Mar. 29:

C-Town, Graham Ave. (corner of Metropolitan), Brooklyn: 5-8pm

Fri., Mar. 30:

Murray’s Bagels, 22nd St. & 8th Ave.: 8-10am

Key Food, 102 Montague St., Brooklyn: 11am-3pm

Union Market, 7th Ave. (between 12th and 13th Sts.), Brooklyn: 4-7pm

Sat., Mar. 31:

Union Market, 288 Court Street, Brooklyn: 12-3pm

Brooklyn Fare, 200 Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn: 4-7pm

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

Thanks to this year’s warm, dry conditions, our dairy farmers seeded orchard grass and red clover this week — their earliest-ever planting of these crops, typically on the schedule for April. (Unlike corn, these seeds are frost-resistent, so there’s no fear of damage were temperatures to dip.)

While orchard grass has a small window for harvesting, our farmers like it for its nutritional value for the cows. Requiring patience and a sharp eye, orchard grass must be harvested in its “boot stage,” when the head is peeking up through the stem but hasn’t yet popped out. A head popped out of the stem is opportunity lost — the grass has already begun to lose nutrients.

Red clover, easy for cows to digest, is a higher-moisture grass that works well when mixed with hay, which helps the clover to dry. Red clover likes “wet feet” to grow, so it will be particularly happy in the farm’s “water fields” in the valley near the Batten Kill and in spring showers.

Both orchard grass and red clover will be harvested — and then on the menu for our cows — in mid-June.

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

See for yourself why local milk is how milk should taste, at these Five Acre Farms in-store sampling demonstrations this week:

Tues., Mar. 20:

Fairway, 74th & Broadway: 10am-2pm

Zeytuna, 59 Maiden Lane: 5:30-8:30pm

Thurs., Mar. 22:

Fairway 86th St.: 10am-2pm

Union Market, 7th Ave. (between 12th and 13th Sts.), Brooklyn: 4-7pm

Fri., Mar. 23:

Zucker’s Bagels, 146 Chambers St. (between Hudson & Greenwich): 8-10am

Fairway, Harlem, 12th Ave. & 130th St.: 11am -3pm

Price Chopper, Glenmont, New York: 11am-5pm

Sat., Mar. 24:

Fairway Douglaston, 242-02 61st Ave., Queens,  11am-3pm

Fairway Paramus, New Jersey: 11am-3pm

Price Chopper, Shaker Rd., Albany, New York: 11am-5pm

Westside Market, 2840 Broadway (110th St.): 5-8pm

Sun., Mar. 25:

Fairway Red Hook, Brooklyn: 11am-3pm

Westside Market, 77 Seventh Ave. (15th St.): 5-8pm

Fairway Plainview, Long Island: 12-3pm

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

In the Northeast, greenhouses have been humming since late February, when farmers began planting seedlings in trays. It’s time to propagate for spring crops —  lettuces, asian greens, spinach, swiss chards (Italian, Bright Lights, Ruby Red), kales (Winterbor, Red Russian) and (King Richard) leeks. The seedlings will be transplanted into the ground in early April and covered with row covering (a porous synthetic blanket) to insulate them from cold air while letting in moisture.

Later this week farmers will put in their first directly planted crop — sugar snap peas, traditionally the Northeast’s first outdoor planting. Sugar snaps can be sown directly into cool soil and happily, just in case of a cold snap, are frost resistant.

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

Taste Five Acre Farms Local Milk and learn about where your milk comes from at these in-store sampling demonstrations this weekend:

Thurs., Mar. 15:

C-Town, Graham Ave. (corner of Metropolitan), Brooklyn: 5-8pm

Fri., Mar. 16:

Murray’s Bagels, 22nd St. & 8th Ave.: 8-11am

Price Chopper, Western Ave., Guilderland, New York: 11am-5pm

C-Town, 130 Havemeyer St., Brooklyn: 4-7pm

Sat., Mar. 17:

Fairway Plainview, Long Island: 11am-3pm

Price Chopper, Slingerlands, New York: 11am-5pm

Fairway Red Hook, Brooklyn: 5-8pm

Sun., Mar. 18:

Fairway Paramus, NJ: 12-4pm

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

Meet Five Acre Farms and learn about where your milk comes from at these in-store sampling demonstrations through Monday:

Thurs., Mar. 8:

Brooklyn Fare, 200 Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn: 5-8pm

Fri., Mar. 9:

Zucker’s Bagels, 146 Chambers St.: 8-10am

Fine Fare, 175 Clinton St.: 12-3pm

Met Food, 251 Mulberry St.: 4-7pm

Sat., Mar. 10:

Fairway Douglaston, 242-02 61st Ave., Queens: 10am-2pm

Mon., Mar. 12:

Westside Market, 77 Seventh Ave. (15th St.): 5-8pm

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

Growing spectacular apples takes years of careful planning. This week our growers at Champlain Orchards are ordering trees that they’ll plant two years from now, and that will bear fruit for the first time five years after that.

The trees are custom-grown at Adams County Nursery in Adams County, Pennsylvania, an important fruit-growing region for more than 100 years. When the two-year-old trees arrive at Champlain, they’re just six feet tall including the rootstock. (Each tree has been bred by grafting a cutting onto a particular rootstock selected by our growers, which dictates the size of the tree and proper growing conditions.) Once the trees are in the ground, it’s a five-year wait for fruit. All of this adds up to a seven-year planning cycle. For such great-tasting apples, well worth the wait.

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM