Step behind the scenes at the first run of Five Acre Farms Local Apple Sauce, try our sauce and tell us what you think. We think it tastes better than homemade!

The spectacular apples for our first run came from Samascott Orchards in Kinderhook, New York. Cousins Bryan and Jake Samascott, along with their siblings and cousins, grow 60 varieties of apples on 100 fertile acres in the Hudson River Valley.

We believe in local processing as well as local sourcing. This run of sauce was made in small batches, following our own recipe, at Farm to Table, a food packaging facility in Kingston, New York. (In its past life, this kitchen fed hungry employees at a large IBM facility that used to operate on the site.)

After arriving at Farm to Table, the apples are transferred from large bins to shallow plastic trays and are washed (in what used to be the kitchen’s dishwasher) and weighed. The apples are placed in a large steam kettle. They’re cooked whole, with a small amount of water to prevent scorching, and stirred for nearly an hour. We never add sugar as a sweetener — because we don’t need to — and we never add water to increase yield. The result is a full-flavored sauce that balances sweet and tart and has just the right consistency.

Once cooked and soft, the apples go through the pulper to remove seeds and pulp. The remaining mixture is then transferred to a new steam kettle and cooked to 190 degrees for sterilization.

A small amount of the apple mixture is cooled and tested to ensure the proper pH level. Happily, our pH is just right, so we don’t need to add ascorbic acid (vitamin C) to this batch to adjust the level.

The consist-o-meter, which tests the sauce for consistency and viscosity, tells us that our sauce has just the right consistency.

Glass jars are filled with sauce using a filling machine, and the lids are screwed on tightly by hand. The jars are allowed to cool before labels are applied.

Try it and tell us what you think! Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

6:28am: Gemma and Sara arrive at the bottling facility just as our 40-ton tanker is pulling in from Samascott Orchards in Kinderhook, New York.

Arriving from Samascott

8:00am: Our empty bottles are stacked and ready to go.

Bottles awaiting juice

8:30am: After being heated to 185 degrees to ensure a safe two-year shelf life, pasteurized juice is put into bottles on the filling machine.

The filling machine

9:00am: The bottles, after coming off the filler and getting caps, are cooled and make their way to the tagging area.

On the way to tagging

9:30am: With tags on board, the bottles move down the conveyer belt to the labeling machine.

Flip the tag, learn about our growers

Awaiting labels

11:00: Tagged and labeled bottles move down the conveyer belt to be packed in boxes.

Flip the tag, learn about our growers

11:30: The finished product. What do you think?

Local apple juice, not from concentrate

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

What’s in our sauce? Just spectacular local apples from Samascott Orchards in Kinderhook, New York, grown in the fertile soil of the Hudson River Valley. Farmers since the 1900’s, the Samascott family has been perfecting the apple since the 1940’s.

Cousins Bryan and Jake, the farm’s 4th generation proprietors (pictured here), are the guys behind the apples in our sauce. Along with their siblings and cousins, Bryan and Jake tend to 100 acres of apple trees, growing more than 60 varieties. Continually improving their selection, they plant new and heirloom varieties to produce the most flavorful apples.

Each year the Samascotts replace about five percent of their trees, selecting new varieties based on taste. They monitor their orchards closely and use a number of IPM (integrated pest management) practices, including growing disease-resistant varieties to reduce the need for spraying and pruning frequently to ensure that their trees get plenty of sunlight to thwart pests and disease.

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

Coming soon to the supermarket, Five Acre Farms Local Apple Sauce!

Our sauce starts with great-tasting, 100% local apples, grown in the Northeast’s best orchards. Our fruit is spectacular because our growers select each variety for its flavor, and Northern growing conditions intensify its special traits.

We blend the best local varieties and cook the apples whole to create a full-flavored sauce that balances sweet and tart and has just the right consistency. We never add sugar as a sweetener — because we don’t need to — and we never add water to increase yield. The fruit stands on its own, and we leave it alone.

The happy result? A local apple sauce that tastes better than homemade.

Stay tuned here for more, including a behind-the-scenes look at the path from orchard to jar…

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

Stop in to meet Five Acre Farms and learn about where your milk comes from at these in-store sampling demonstrations this week:

Thurs., Apr. 12:

Union Market, Union St. at 6th Ave., Brooklyn: 5-8pm

Fri., Apr. 13:

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

Fairway, 74th & Broadway: 11-2pm

Price Chopper, Amsterdam: 11am-5pm

Price Chopper, Guilderland (Western Ave.): 11am-5pm

Met Food, 251 Mulberry St.: 5-8pm

Sat., Apr. 14:

Fairway Douglaston: 10am-1pm

Fairway Redhook: 11am-3pm

Price Chopper, Guilderland (Twenty Mall): 11am-5pm

Fairway Pelham: 12-3pm

Union Market, 288 Court Street, Brooklyn: 4-7pm

Westside Market, 2840 Broadway (110th St.): 4-7pm

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

How milk should taste. Try Five Acre Farms Local Milk at these in-store sampling demonstrations this week:

Tues., Apr. 3:

Zeytuna, 59 Maiden Lane: 5-8pm

Thurs., Apr. 5:

Fine Fare, 175 Clinton St.: 5-8pm

Fri., Apr. 6:

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

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

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

Apple trees don’t like to be waterlogged. Tree roots try to grow in spring — their one shot each year to put on new growth — but this is tough if you’re stuck in standing water for the month of May. So with spring on its way, our apple growers at Champlain Orchards need to ensure that their clay soils (which, unlike sandy ones, retain a lot of water in spring) drain efficiently.

What to do? Gear up to install thousands of feet — all told, three miles worth — of drainage tile, coiled black pipe that will run underground along the length of the orchard block to help water drain from the soil. This requires using an excavator to dig a long ditch, then backfilling it with stone before installing the tile.

If things go well, this job will take about two weeks of continuous work in March. Our tree roots will be happy all spring long — moist, but not saturated.

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

Start March with milk. Stop in to meet Five Acre Farms and learn about where your milk comes from at these in-store sampling demonstrations this week:

Thurs., Mar. 1:

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

Fri., Mar. 2:

Murray’s Bagels, 500 Avenue of the Americas, Chelsea: 8-10am

Key Food, 169 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn: 12-3pm

Key Food, 102 Montague St., Brooklyn: 4-7pm

Sat., Mar. 3:

Union Market, Union St. at 6th Ave., Brooklyn: 12-3

Westside Market, 2840 Broadway (110th St.): 4-7pm

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

Which varieties, you ask, is Champlain Orchards pressing now to make Five Acre Farms Local Apple Cider? Crisp, refreshing Macintosh. Sweet, wine-flavored Empire. Famous and familiar Red Delicious. Small, crunchy Spartan (a children’s favorite). Winter-hardy heirloom Northern Spy. Having been carefully stored since being picked at peak flavor last fall, these apples let us enjoy sweet, crisp cider today. Drink up!

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

With stingy snowfall in Vermont this winter, there’s good news and bad news for our apple growers at Champlain Orchards.

First the bad news. A blanket of snow on the ground insulates fragile young tree roots from frost and freezing. Snow cover maintains a constant cold temperature underground that keeps roots dormant for the winter, preventing them from growing prematurely. Trees that get underway too early in the season can lead to “burning the bloom,” when frost touches the blossom and ruins the fruitlet. Then the year-long wait to grow another crop.

Now for the good news. Lack of snow makes (relatively) quick work of hand-pruning 70,000 trees. An already big job becomes both slow and exhausting when growers, navigating orchards in snowshoes, struggle to prune branches buried in several feet of snow. Hard, open ground is also a luxury when it comes to clearing brush, giving tractors a clear path in and out of the orchards. Otherwise, this entire job would have to hold for spring, when melting conditions make it tough to do when you want to — and very messy.

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

From Paramus to Pelham, Brooklyn and Manhattan, stop by and try our milk at the following in-store sampling demonstrations through next Monday:

Wed., Feb. 22:

Fairway 86th St.: 10am-1pm

Union Market, 288 Court Street, Brooklyn: 4-7pm

Thurs., Feb. 23:

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

Fri., Feb. 24:

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

Fairway Pelham: 12-4pm

Fine Fare, 175 Clinton St.: 4-7pm

Sat., Feb. 25:

Fairway Paramus: 12-3pm

Sun., Feb. 26:

Fairway, Harlem, 12th Ave. & 130th St.: 11am-2pm

Westside Market, 77 Seventh Ave. (15th St.): 3-6pm

Mon., Feb. 27:

C-Town, Graham Ave. (corner of Metropolitan), Brooklyn: 3-6pm

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

Delivered fresh from the farm this morning: Five Acre Farms Local Apple Cider and Cage Free Eggs now available at Brooklyn Fare (200 Schermerhorn), Key Food (169 Atlantic) and C-Town (Graham Ave. at Metropolitan).

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

Five Acre Farms Local Apple Cider is made by pressing the best varieties available in the Northeast each week. The happy result? Savoring the evolving flavors of the seasons created by pressing different varieties, all sweet and flavorful, each with its own distinctive qualities. We celebrate all of the natural variation — from the tart ciders of early autumn to the very rich, sweet flavors of winter. A far cry from those engineered, by adding preservatives like potassium sorbate, to taste the same time after time…

Stay tuned for more on the local cider difference.

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

Celebrate the U.S. Presidents by stopping by to meet Five Acre Farms and learn about where your milk comes from at these in-store sampling demonstrations over the next week:

Sat., Feb. 18:

Union Market, 7th Ave. (between 12th and 13th Sts.), Brooklyn: 12-3pm

Sun., Feb. 19:

Fairway Red Hook: 12-3pm

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

Mon., Feb. 20:

Union Market, Union St. at 6th Ave., Brooklyn: 4-7pm

Wed., Feb. 22:

Fairway 86th St.: 10am-1pm

Union Market, 288 Court Street, Brooklyn: 4-7pm

Thurs., Feb. 23:

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

Fri., Feb. 24:

Fairway Pelham: 12-4pm

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

We’re delighted that a Fairway shopper in Pelham had this to say this week about our milk and our packaging:

“There is still room in this fast-paced world for “Firsts.” This is the first time I have bothered to send a message to a “company,” and this is the first time I have gotten excited over purchasing “milk!”

I was in the Pelham, New York Fairway Supermarket, and as the last step in my shopping, I headed to the milk aisle. Dozens of products to choose from, and yours stood out. [Your packaging] was straight to the point that reasonates with most savvy shoppers…Local. Having that tag in dark red and swinging from the bottle’s neck is eye-catching. Congratulations to the creator of that concept.

I could not end my enthusiasm without saying that the contents were perfect, too!”

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

Stop in to meet Five Acre Farms and learn about where your milk comes from at these in-store sampling demonstrations today through next week:

Thurs., Feb 9:

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

Price Chopper, Altamont Ave., Schenectady, New York: 11am-5pm

Fairway, 86th St.: 12-3pm

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

Fri., Feb. 10:

Zucker’s Bagels & Smoked Fish, 146 Chambers St.: 8-11am

Fairway, Harlem, 12th Ave. & 130th St.: 4-7pm

Sat., Feb. 11:

Union Market, 7th Ave. (between 12th and 13th Sts.), Brooklyn: 12-3pm

Fine Fare, 175 Clinton St.: 4-7pm

Sun., Feb. 12:

Westside Market, 77 Seventh Ave. (15th St.): 3-6pm

Mon., Feb. 13:

C-Town, Graham Ave. (corner of Metropolitan), Brooklyn: 3-6pm

Thurs., Feb. 16:

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

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

Westside Market, 2840 Broadway (110th St.): 4-7pm

Fri., Feb. 17:

Murray’s Bagels, 500 Avenue of the Americas, Chelsea: 8-10am

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

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

Fairway, 86th St.: 11am-2pm

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

Five Acre Farms. Positively Local.TM

Stop in to meet Five Acre Farms and learn about where your milk comes from at these in-store sampling demonstrations today through next Wednesday:

Fri., Feb 3:

Murray’s Bagels, 500 Avenue of the Americas, Chelsea: 8- 11am

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

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

Fairway, Red Hook: 12- 3pm

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

Sat., Feb 4:

Fairway, Plainview: 12-3pm

Mon., Feb. 6:

Union Market, 7th Avenue (between 12th and 13th Streets), Brooklyn: 3-6pm

Wed., Feb. 8:

Fairway, 74th & Broadway: 10am -1pm

Union Market, 288 Court Street, Brooklyn: 4-7pm