News and blog
Dear CSA members and farm friends,
Thursday January 31st is the last chance for early bird CSA sign-up. Sign up now and get a chance to be involved in what new vegetable crops we grow, what varieties we have and what vegetables you hope to have more or less of. Signing up now helps the farm plan and prepare for the growing season which starts in early March. More details coming soon about the Farmers Body care products and the Artisan Eats Vermont meal options. We will have an open farm day to sample both in the Spring. We will also be on site at DHMC to sample all our products. Stay tuned for more details.
Kerry,
for the farm crew
Dear CSA members and farm friends,
We are excited to offer a few new items for the CSA and Farmers Market pick-ups. First we will be carrying bath and body products by The Farmers Body. These all natural soaps, lotions, bath products and lip balms are made here by Meggan Wehmeyer. The ingredients include fresh milk, beef tallow, fresh herbs, flowers all from our farm. There will be a choice of a body care CSA share or single item purchase. The 2nd fabulous offering will be prepared food from Artisan Eats Vermont. Jenny Williams will have various meal plans available using local foods including our beef, cheese, milk and vegetables. For CSA sign-ups please consider signing up by the end of January. It helps us plan our garden. Also if you sign-up by the end of January you will get to weigh in on the choices of crops in the shares this year. We will have a 2019 member survey in early February.
For the farm crew,
Kerry
In the deep of winter we are planning our CSA and market garden for the 2019 growing season. We have beef shares available for weekly or monthly pick-up at the farm this winter. Our market garden lays under a blanket of snow with garlic planted last fall for this year. Our greenhouse will be waking up in March once the longer and warmer days return. We are making a few changes to our CSA locations for 2019. We are not longer going to offer a White River Junction pick-up. We will continue to have DHMC and Lebanon pickup sites. We are streamlining our operation. We are adding the "Free Range" option for DHMC and Lebanon. You pay a higher price but get to choose what items you put in your bag each week.
Stay tuned for more farm news-
Kerry
Dear CSA members and farm friends,
The month of July was one of the hottest and driest for our farm in the last 20 years. Much of our time was spent moving irrigation, keeping the farm crew and the cows cool. During the very hot weather we limited garden work to the AM only for our employees and kept the cows in the shady barn. Never the less when it is humid, the cows who give off a lot of body heat, make the milking parlor a very sweaty place. Milk production falls when it is very hot, the pastures struggle with hot and dry and the cows must be fed stored feed. We welcomed the break in the heat a few weeks ago but the drought continued until last weekend. Four inches fell on the farm and gardens, the plants and weeds grew overnight, the pond refilled and the frogs are happy. The pastures have new growth from the rain and cooler temperatures.
The summer vegetables are coming in-cucumbers, zucchini, eggplant, summer squash, basil, tomatoes, carrots, new potatoes and parsley. Our corn is very close to harvest and melons and onions are growing bigger everyday. While harvesting the summer vegetables we are planting the fall vegetables and seeding the crops to be harvested in September and October. All our cover crops which add to soil health and structure growing in next years beds. We plant oats, buckwheat, field peas, crimson clover, and hairy vetch.
We had a burst of new calves over the last 7 weeks. Royal and Lord Dellamere are the only bull calves and are now steers. The heifers include Debbie, Wrangler Jean, Pixie and Oasis. Lauren, the heifer has moved into a bigger pen before she gets weaned. The calves from March-Willow, Olive, Zakia and Button are ready to graduate to the pack barn. Olive, Button and Zakia are 4-H animals and will be going to the Cornish Fair August 16th to 19th. They are part of our show string of 23 jerseys and 1 Holstein.
We went to the central and south Vermont dairy show where the cows did very well. Highlights include senior and grand champion Holstein and senior champion jersey who was crowned supreme cow. The 4-H kids worked very hard and took care and showed all 17 animals by themselves from milking to feeding to show. Them were awarded the first place herdsmanship award for their attend to their barn, animals, the public and fellow club members.
Maeve the heifer was sold in the National Heifer sale and was purchased by ST Genetics. She will have a career moving the jersey genetic base forward.
It is always hard to sell heifers but we are grateful to the staff of the jersey association to find buyers from across the US for our animals. As fall approaches we will be looking at which cows stay in the barn for the winter, who will get retired to the freezer, who will be sold in the fancy fall jersey sales and who will be the next generation on the farm. A cow has to pay her way on the farm. As the dairy farm economic crisis continues with cost of production to produce a gallon of milk versus revenue leaves very little money for anything, and cow prices fall. This means the average commercial will sell for less than it cost to raise her. More cows are sent to slaughter and the beef prices tumble. It is hard to see this at the grocery store. There is still money in the fancy, fancy stuff like the top selling National Heifer at 71K. More and more dairy farms are going out of business or selling off the cows and farming something else. Farmer suicides are very high. We know farmers in the Upper Valley who have loaded their life's work onto a trailer.
As a consumer and friend of agriculture consider buying American grown crops, stop by a farm stand or get involved at the county or state level in changing farm policy. Farms of all sizes are suffering. The government safety nets are very small and those farmers that signed up for programs like MPP dairy are losing less money than those who did not. If you wonder how a farm is doing, stop by and ask the farmers.
Kerry
Dear CSA members and farm friends,
We are participating in Vermont's Open Farm week. We invite you to visit the farm on Wednesday August 15th from 4-7PM. Taco's Taco truck will be selling tacos made with our beef, Cobb Hill Frozen Yogurt will be selling sampling frozen yogurt and the 4H kids will be sampling our cheeses. We have draft horse demonstrations, farm animals to visit, cows to pet, watch the cows being milked or try you hand at milking "Elsie" our life size model cow. There will be guided tours of the many Cobb Hill home gardens and mushroom grotto. RSVP to help the Taco truck bring enough food. Bring a blanket to sit on to enjoy a picnic dinner.
Kerry,
for the farm crew
Dear CSA members,
If the weather is wild tomorrow we will have the pick-up Wednesday.
Kerry
Dear CSA members,
With the high temperatures predicted for tomorrow can you let me know what time you will be coming for your CSA share? Or you can choose to get a double share next week if you are going away for the the 4th of July holiday. We are excited to announce that Alexandra, our marketer from last year will be returning. She has a newborn so will not be on site tomorrow.
This will help reduce the amount of time in the hot sun tomorrow afternoon.
Thanks,
Kerry
Good morning,
It looks like it will be very wet at the market today. Do you know when you are coming by the market? Or you can stop by the farm.
Thanks,
Kerry
Dear CSA members,
The DHMC pick up starts this Tuesday. Virginia, our marketer will be on site outside the Norris Cotton entrance. She will be there from 3-5:30PM. If you cannot make it just let us know before Tuesday and you can get you share at the farm. For those who signed up for the ominvore share, there will be lots of beef to choose from each week. If you want to take a double meat share one week you can skip the following week. We stock a bunch of cuts but let us know if you want to request certain cuts.
Kerry