farm stand – This Old House 2

Vermont Agriculture

My favorite thing to do when we visit Vermont is to hunt down the old barns with my camera. Back in the day, the houses were small and sturdy and the barns were built BIG, to accommodate the livelihood of the farmers, their livestock and crops. Many are tumbling down now, sad to see.

PS – Blogger is giving me real issues with fixing fonts on this post.. I apologize for the unruly appearance and size of fonts.

Some Agricultural History: (or, skip to the pictures) Farming has always played a major part in the lives of Vermonters. In the late 1700’s, most Vermonters lived on self sufficient farms, which meant they consumed most of the food they produced. Sheep were introduced to Vermont in 1811 and soon they became a major source of income for farmers. The rough hillsides and climate of the state were especially suited for sheep raising. By the 1840’s competition from other areas and economic conditions led to a decrease in sheep farming.

In the years before the Civil War, Vermont began to move towards dairy farming. Just after the late 1840’s, before there was refrigeration, the milk was made into cheese and butter and shipped by railroad to out of state markets. After the refrigerated railroad car was invented in 1910, fluid milk was shipped in large quantities to cities like Boston and New York.

In 1983 79% of the money made on farms was from dairy products and in 1995 it was 69.9%, but as it has in the past, farming in Vermont is changing. There are fewer farms and less of the land in the state is used for agriculture. Only the prime farmland remains in agriculture. 21.5% of Vermont land was used for the purpose of farming in 1997. One reason for this is an increase in population and the resulting demand for good land. Land is expensive and may sometimes bring large amounts of money when it is sold for housing instead of being used for farming. Large farms may sometimes have a tax burden that is too difficult for the farmer to pay. Much of our food is now shipped in from the west and south where it can be produced more cheaply. Also there is an increase in the percentage of farmers who work at jobs off the farm to help supply themselves. This means an increase in the number of part-time farms.

We visited Sugarbush Farm first, owned by the Luce Family …had a nice visit with their Belgian draft horses and bought some syrup and cheddar cheese. Many of the remaining farms work very hard just to stay afloat, some of the families go back for three or four generations and are trying to hold on to their heritage… no easy feat. When I say “work very hard” – their physical labor is intense all year through and the money is sporatic and the pay not what it should be given the value of the fresh food and produce they provide. Another problem is the young generation that would normally take over the responsibilities as their elders “age”… are turning away from the rural way of life and moving elsewhere, choosing a different path. Then there are the economics of the beast… the land becomes more valuable than the sparse income these families can eek out with all that hard work. That brings on a whole slew of other issues, sometimes dividing families in the process.

You’ve probably heard of the slogan… No Farms, No Food… ?…. well, when we buy fresh from these farms, the quality is outstanding and it’s easy to see how our factory produced foods have taken us down a rocky road. What many of us consume now can’t compare to what these farms have to offer. What happens when they’re all gone? It’s happening, slowly, but surely… you just have to take a ride out into the country and talk to them.

The Luces are the second, third and fourth generations to live on Sugarbush Farm. Jack and Marion Ayres bought the farm in 1945 with a dream to make a go of country living. They were the first folks in Vermont to start packaging cheese in waxed bars so they would travel well without refrigeration. By 1975 the Boston Globe wrote about Sugarbush Farm “At the end of a scenic Vermont road lies a Cheese Lovers paradise.” In 1995 the American Cheese Society awarded Sugarbush Farm a Blue ribbon for the best smoked cheese in the country. Today the farm is operated by Betsy, the Ayres’s daughter, her husband Larry and their sons Ralph and Jeff. Its the Luce family’s goal to keep the farm a working, active operation. The future looks bright for the fourth generation with 7 grandchildren learning good working habits on the farm.

Cheese, freshly waxed….

More Barn Charm….

Because it wasn’t far off our path, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to photograph Jenne Farm – the most photographed farm in New England. Jenne farm, located on Jenne Road in Reading, Vermont, has been owned by the same family for generations. The current residents are struggling to keep the farm going, and because of the prime real estate, it is feared they will eventually have to let go of it for development, yet another gem lost to us forever. I hope a way is found to preserve it.

A photo taken by a photographer in fall….

My version on a mid winter day ….

We visited the Billings Farm and Museum, right on the outskirts of Woodstock, walking distance from the Inn… click here for more info.. History of the farm HERE. In brief, it was donated to the state of Vermont as a national historical park by the Rockefellers and serves as a working dairy farm and educational facility/museum on the history of rural Vermont farm life. For $14. you get the full tour, including a walk through the homesteads, the immaculate dairy barns, nursery and a sleigh or wagon ride, depending on the footing.

If he had his druthers… Mike’s dream cabin, where he can get away from it all.. just down the hill from Sugarbush Farm..

Thanks for tagging along 🙂 And whenever you get the chance… buy fresh, buy local.. .support local farmers, producers, farm markets. It matters, and you benefit. Win win.

Opening Day – Coventry Regional Farmers Market

If you’re local and you’ve never been,

Yankee Magazine voted it the best Farmers Market in New England.

What a great way to spend a beautiful summer Sunday –

June through October, 11 – 2, Nathan Hale Homestead, Coventry, CT

K and I went this morning,

and I will admit to you right here that I consumed two cider sugar donuts,

an iced mulled berry cider,

a crepe, and on the way out? a slice of the coconut cake you will see in the photos below.

Disgusting, I know I know I know.

Sometimes, ya just gotta do what ya gotta do.

I did buy kale and strawberries to balance it out 🙂

You could hold these two adorables, one in each hand.

That’s how small they were. I was tempted to tuck them in my market bag, yes I was.

An adorable Alpaca face…

Dogs everywhere, but well controlled and polite.

When I see other Danes I realize just how very big Ben is compared to most.

We really did let a horse in the house when we brought him home.

This one is about 60 lbs. lighter.

Kettle corn, enough to feed a nation.

Lots of beautiful produce…

Some very colorful people…

Fiber artists…

Chickens!!!….

This is one beautiful rooster.. I think they said it was a phoenix.

Very friendly.

Plenty of vendors, lots of room for walking.

The Nathan Hale Homestead…

where this all takes place..

I got some of these…

..and ate a slice of this….

K had one of these…

molasses crinkles

Iced berry cider in a travel mason jar. YUM…

There was some crepe consuming…

..and some bread buying.

Finally, some old barn admiring on the ride home.

It’s all good.

Buck

The Mr. has a thing for old wagons. We have one on the front lawn, you’ve seen it in my blogposts before I ‘m sure.

We used Emmaline as a vegetable cart and now she is a lawn ornament. She’s also a darker shade, as we have fortified her with linseed oil several times over since this photo was taken in 2011.

M wanted something a little heavier to display vegetables out at the road… and had a friend of his keep an eye out for a buckboard wagon down in Amish Country. Emmaline hails from the same area.

Why am I naming these wagons? I have no idea, it just seems appropriate. They’ve worked hard for many years and deserve the respect, don’t ya think?

Meet Buck… currently out in the mini orchard, but soon to call our roadside vegetable stand “home”.

Note the metal rimmed wooden wheels, how well crafted they are.

The Amish know how to build a wagon…

they still use them for farming and transportation!

Maple Syrup

But first, I have to talk about the weather. WEIRD. It’s so warm I had a T-shirt on standing outside with the dogs this morning. AND… the wind howled all night long…gusts up to 60 miles per hour. We’ve had a foggy mist hanging over everything. The temps changed in three days time from 7 degrees in the early morning hours to 60. It’s about to get very cold again, so we’re told.

This is the bottom of the hill where I normally show you sunsets. You can’t even see the trees up on the hill or the firepit and adirondacks.

Anyway… the post title is Maple Syrup, because the sap from our Sugar Maples is being harvested for the first time. A friend has decided to attempt the Maple Sugaring that is so popular in New England, and asked to tap the many maples we have around This Old House. He also has buckets at four other residences up the road.

The sap runs for approximately six to ten weeks, starting around late January. The consistency when you touch the sap is basically water, which surprised me. I thought it would be thicker and sticky.

Some interesting facts about the making of Maple Syrup:

It takes 30-50 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup

The sap is boiled in a large stainless steel pot or pan, preferably outdoors

so that the steam will not cause problems in the house.

The faster the sap is boiled, the higher the quality of the syrup.

When the sap begins to thicken, It is taken indoors to finish boiling on a stove

where it is easier to control the heat.

The sugar content of maple syrup is so high

that it can be stored at room temperature without spoiling.

A Gallon of maple syrup weighs 11 pounds

Tapping does no permanent damage and only 10 percent of the sap is collected each year.

Many maple trees have been tapped for 150 or more years

Usually a maple tree is at least 30 years old and 12 inches in diameter before it is tapped

*My husband loves pure maple syrup.
Me?…I’ll take Aunt Jemima over the real stuff any day.
Go figure.

Respect for Farmers…

“Abraham Lincoln created the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1862. At that time about 90 out of every 100 Americans were farmers. Today, that number has shrunk to just 2 out of every 100 Americans. Still the motto of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is the same today as it was nearly 150 years ago. Across the bottom of the official USDA seal, are the words “Agriculture is the foundation of manufacture and commerce.”

When we finally moved in to the completed Homestead here, Mike was eager to get a large garden going and have a stand out front to sell some of the produce. His grandfather had a fruit and vegetable store in West Haven years ago and something in the growing of produce has always held his interest. We’ve had a small horse farm ever since we were married 24 years ago, but didn’t devote any large piece of the land to vegetable gardening until recently. We also have several hay fields at This Old House that need tending.

What we’ve learned in the past few years is …. Farming is HARD WORK!.. and it’s truly a science. It’s not hard to lose an entire crop to weather or over/under-fertilization or pest infestation. I’ve gained tremendous respect for those who tend the soil and produce food for the masses. I’m not talking about corporate “factory” farms, but those who are down in the trenches, the fields, the barns, the soil… from sun up to sun down. While we’re just a hobby farm with that small stand out front, there is enough toil here for us to appreciate those who are feeding their families off the land and making a living at it too. I urge you to support their efforts by buying local produce whenever possible. Your body will thank you too! Not only is their produce healtheir for you… without them present in this country’s system we’re headed down a road we don’t want to go.

A very interesting article about Family farms and their plight… http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/familyfarms/.

We don’t have hay equipment, so a farmer in the area brings his equipment for atleast two cuttings each summer to cut and bale the hay. He takes most of it to feed his own animals, and leaves some of the hay for us. The hay must be cut in dry weather conditions… there needs to be enough time to mow it, thresh it into rows, and then bale it with a haybaler. Then the bales need to be picked up out of the field and stored in a dry loft where there is plenty of air circulation, so as to prevent mold, which makes them useless for feed. Moldy hay can make a horse very sick. If there is a rainy season, it’s hard to get this accomplished. Yesterday the hay was cut in most of the fields here, some of it baled, and today, before the predicted rain, they’ll try to finish what they started. Last year we had to throw our stored hay out because it had gotten wet and was stored too tightly. When I opened a bail to feed the horses weeks later, the mold cloud forwarned me that the hay had been ruined. Lesson learned.

Lesson No. 2

Weeding is a bitch.

The larger the garden plots you plant,

the more weeding you’ll have to do.

These are onions – competing with weeds

Lesson #3

If you’re gonna grow berries… you’ll have to protect them from the birds

if you plan to eat any yourself.

A very fine mesh works best. These raspberry and blueberry bushes will have a covering

very shortly, as they are already being scoped out by the birds.

Lesson #4…

Peas are happiest when you give them ample room on both sides of

a mesh net fence to grow..free and clear of other clutter.

These are now as tall as me.

And let me tell ya… I’ve never been a pea eater until we grew them ourselves.

There is no comparison in taste to what you buy at the grocery store.

It’s that good.

I’ll never get tired of silver dew drops on broccoli leaves.

Lesson #5 – No matter how badly you want to say your produce is

ALL ORGANIC.. that’s really really hard to do. Organic farming is a very difficult

time consuming thing, and it’s not a precise science.

That’s why your organic produce in the store is more expensive than the factory farm standard.

Worthy practice Absolutely…

but it’s oooh, sooo easy to want to grab that insecticide or fertilizer and sprinkle it all over

to get the easier results. We’re doing as much of this as organically as we can,

but the temptation is there.

Lesson #6. About those chickens…

Yes, they’re really easy.. and I love them dearly!

Those eggs are just incredible tasting, and better for you

if you feed your chickens properly.

Chickens love to free range, and if you can do so, although there are hazards…

(fox, coyote, hawks, dogs)…

it’s well worth letting them roam for a while each day.

Also, sometimes chickens just die.

I lost two a few weeks ago for no apparent reason

and after doing much research that’s what I came up with.

Two chicken experts told me the same.

My coop is clean,

They showed no signs of being sick, no parasites,

no evidence of having been attacked. No signs of being egg bound,

They were fine in the morning,

then when I went back to check on them, on two separate days,

I found one just lying there, dead.

That kind of freaks me out.

The only good thing is…

The first chicken to die..

happened to be the one who was plucking everyone elses

tail feathers out.

Karma, indeed, is a bitch.

If you’re still with me, thanks for tagging along 🙂

I recommend highly planting a little plot for yourself.

It can be a few pots on the deck or patio,

a small plot on the side of the house,

or a patch of dirt out in the back yard.

The rewards you reap are worth the effort

and getting back to the land just feels good.

Spreading the Love

The folks at Peanut Butter and Co. liked my comment on their facebook page and the fact that I blogged about it. They rewarded me with two coupons for a FREE JAR of their delicious stuff, no purchase necessary, and a handful of dollar off coupons. I’m gonna spread that love even further. Tell me in the comments section below how you like YOUR peanut butter, and I will use the random generator on Friday to pick the winner of the coupons.

Have you sent me your photograph entry in the “show me the love” post scheduled for

Valenintes day? Don’t forget… I’d love to see your depiction of love.

Send entry to Karenthisoldhouse@hotmail.com

It can be something as simple as a cup of coffee made by your significant other for you

use your creative imagination.

Come sit on the porch….

One of my favorite pleasures in life is the simple act of porch sitting, especially on a rainy day like today. It’s as if the porch beckons you to just sit for a while, stop the whirlwind that is life, and just observe, breathe, be still. How often do we give ourselves permission to do so.

We had a little porch with a slate floor at the front of my childhood home. I fondly remember sitting on the porch with a coloring book and crayons or cookies and milk, watching the rain come down. In the early years, the smell of my dad’s tobacco pipe, my mother’s music…usually Kris Krisofferson and Rita Coolidge, or Peter, Paul & Mary… Simon & Garfunkel.. playing inside on the record player. Those songs stay with me today… Who’s to Bless and Who’s to blame…. Silver Tongued Devil and I… Homeward bound… Bridge over troubled water..

Sometimes we’d have no choice but to watch the neighbors across the way as they sat on their porch… arguing… Joe and Virginia… an old Italian couple who kept a very tidy little house and garden. They couldn’t stand each other but oh, could they grow a mean tomato.

So while we’re sitting on my porch, let’s talk. Thank you all for your very conscientious and insightful comments left on my blog regarding goods made in the USA. We’re in a real predicament, we Americans. I truly believe this is one way we can answer our own problems. The government and big corporations arent’ going to do it for us, we need to take our own stand, send the message ourselves. Buy American whenever possible, buy local produce, frequent mom & pop shops and restaurants and forgo the chains… let’s just do it. I went to Bob’s yesterday to look for sneakers for my son. I saw lots of tops I’d like to buy for myself, all MADE IN CHINA. *sigh* It’s not going to be easy, but we can do it more often than not. It starts with just one simple act.

Plans for the next Dog Days Adoption Event at Parmelee Farm are under way. Three weeks to go, lots of funds to raise, plans to make, and things to bake for our Bid, Barter and Bake sale. The last one held in Essex was a big success.. $2,000 raised in one day, all paid for the Mystic Valley event last weekend, where ALL dogs were adopted. Amen. Thank you to my blog friends who donated to the cause. You rock! … For those of you who are local and reading my blog, if you’re a baker, or if you have a household item we can add to our Bid Barter Bake sale on August 20th, contact me at karenthisoldhouse@hotmail.com and I’ll be more than happy to pick up the baked item or household item the day before the sale. (August 19th).

I hope you’re all getting some respite from the heat and dry spells across the country… we’re seeing steady rain since last night around midnight and it is so refreshing, even for the horses.

This is what my kitchen looks like since the farm stand can’t open due to the weather.