We’re having a joint sale Friday Dec 16th with Walrus and Carpenter oysters!

Sam is heading down to Tribeca to sell syrup alongside his oldest and best friend, Jules Opton-Himmel, who happens to be an oyster farmer in Rhode Island. Jules will be offering oysters CSA pick-up-style (he’s still taking pre-orders). Also, check out this article about Jules’ oyster cage building forays in The New Yorker from last fall…

The sale will be at an art studio downtown; we’re having a keg, as well as a maple syrup tasting and oyster shucking lessons. So… bring your friends.

WHEN: 4 to 8 pm on Friday December 16th.

WHERE: 61 Warren St, Bell #2 New York, NY 10007

We will have plenty of syrup for sale, but if you want oysters, you have to pre-order by emailing Jules at walrusandcarpenteroysters@gmail.com

See you there!

Sam is bringing a load of Balsam-fir trees that are cut from underneath the power lines that cross our land. They can only get so big before the power company cuts them, so we thought why not bring some down to Brooklyn?

Sam we’ll be selling syrup and xmas trees in front of Brooklyn Commune on Saturday December 17th, from about 9am until the trees are gone. Hope to see you there.

We’re working Minnie with a tire that she’s been dragging around the pasture. Training for log pulling, and the sap sled.

Fall has arrived, and with it, time for reflection on things that went well, and what we want to do differently next year. One thing’s for sure, though–the livestock have done their share to increase soil fertility. We couldn’t do it without them. No words could say it better than this beautiful belt of green, following the path of the mobile broiler (meat chicken) shelter.

Our new flock of layers (golden comets, barred rocks, and Michael Jackson, the rooster) do their fair share as well. They feast and forage at free will, and the soil thanks them for their poop dollops.

Who says chickens aren’t magestic?

These buggers are a bit more like their wild counterparts than our old Rhode Island Reds. They prefer to roost in the tree to their house, and the roof has the best view… (also, they’re pretty tough. A family dog came to visit and hunted a hen down, biting into its back. The chicken got away, but had big teeth marks in it for a couple of weeks. Makenna took it inside and made a salve out of yarrow and raw honey (and tried to force feed it raw garlic, which didn’t really work), and cleaned the wound, over the course of 2 days. The flock welcomed her back in, no problem. Sometimes, the answer isn’t always cull, and it’s nice to know we’ve got some tough old biddies in the bunch.

Here some are, roosting on the tractor in the new sawmill barn.

You can see them, far beyond their fence line (oh well) mowing the lawn, with the cows and horse grazing, and swirls of just-spread manure. We moved the herd right after, but couldn’t resist this view of integration at work. Who could ask for better fertilizer?

Minnie’s winter coat has come in, too…

Up here in VT, winter has not arrived. It’s been one of the warmest falls on record. We had one snow storm over Thanksgiving (and took a ski!), but in general, mild temperatures have allowed Sam to build yet another outbuilding. This one is to house the tractor, sawmill and horse equipment. All the lumber was logged from and milled on the farm from trees that were growing just a few hundred feet away. He had some help from Jules the oystahman, Sam’s cousin Tej, our friend Tom and of course Makenna. Hoping to finish it before the snow really comes….which it will.

Milling up the lumber…

The roof is up, and the siding begins. The chickens wouldn’t leave us alone.

One of the first really cold days, but good to be outside hammering.

Sam’s ode to Bolinas, our other favorite place.

Fall is in the air, and we are preparing for our annual fall trip down to Brooklyn; hope to see all you regulars! We will be at a slightly different location this year; our friends at Brooklyn Commune are kind enough to offer us their front, where we will be selling syrup, pumpkins, garlic, and pesto! Stock up on fall items and early holiday gifts. For those with kids, there will be pumpkin carving, as well. (We recommend the brunch at Brooklyn Commune first, then a stop to the stand afterwards. They’ve got great food.)

When:

We’ll be there from 9am-dark. Pumpkin carving starts at 2pm. Hope to see you, and bring the kids!

Where:

Brooklyn Commune

http://www.brooklyncommune.com/

601 Greenwood Avenue, Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn NY 11218 (Right off the Fort Hamilton Parkway F train stop–get off at the back of the train) Here’s a map.

Arches to come…

Her newest trick! Gettin’ ready for the sleigh…

Winter is quickly approaching, so with help from a few friends, we were able to mill out lumber from our own woods and frame a new shed to house our growing herd and Minnie (who has grown attached to Georgie our June calf.) This week I hope to put a roof on it.

At the end of May, we adopted a 4 yr old Belgian/Painted draft named Minnie. She had never been handled, but we have been slowly and steadily training her with help from our family and a friend. We hope to be able to pull out logs (firewood for sugaring) with her this winter. We’ll see…..

This is a pic of Minnie in her old pasture with her winter coat on:

And here she is trying on her new harness for the first time.

Spinach, shell peas, snap peas in foreground, cherry and pear trees, and rosa rugosa (wild rose) in background.

Salad cirlces with broccoli and caulifower, and mustards, tatsoi, arugula…..the cat got in and scratched the seeds around.

…lettuce, celery, mustards, and cabbage interplanted.

…a personal favorite, I must admit.

A productive start to the season. We’re making buttery amber syrup, the weather is perfect (except for the snowstorm on the first day of spring…), and let the boiling begin!

Sugaring has officially begun. Up go the buckets. Tap tap tap goes the sap.

It’s raining on the farm; the snow is beginning to settle, and the weather is warming up. Driving home last night we saw some buckets hanging on a few old maples, and pulled the car over in the dark, clambering on the bank, to see if there was sap tapping on metal–but there wasn’t. Some people have already tapped their trees (there are sugarmakers who say tapping earlier is better than missing the first run of sap), but some say wait until the end of March (if you tap too early, the tap holes might close up before the season’s last run). We’re planning to tap this week, but we’ll see if the weather cooperates…

We are very excited to announce that Poorfarm Farm Maple Syrup is now available in stores (and a few restaurants) in both Brooklyn and Boston. We want to thank our friends and family who have made deliveries, and saved us on fuel costs and some long treks from Vermont. We invite you to visit these stores as they have great products for sale from other farms, too. We are honored to be on their shelves and menus….

BROOKLYN

Williamsburg:

Urban Rustic: http://www.urbanrusticnyc.com/

Brooklyn Kitchen: http://www.thebrooklynkitchen.com/

Marlow and Daughters: http://marlowanddaughters.com/

Park Slope

Applewood (Restaurant) http://www.applewoodny.com/

Perch Cafe (Restaurant) http://www.theperchcafe.com/

Juventino’s (Restaurant) http://www.juventinonyc.com/

Valley Shepard Creamery: http://www.njcheese.com/shops-markets/valley-shepherd-park-slope

Other neighborhoods:
Brooklyn Commune: http://www.brooklyncommune.com/

GRDN:  http://www.grdnbklyn.com/shop/

General Greene: http://www.thegeneralgreene.com/

Ted and Honey: http://tedandhoney.com/home/

Manhattan

Lucy’s Whey: http://www.chelseamarket.com/lucyswhey/

Boston:
Sofra: http://www.sofrabakery.com/

Newburyport Mass,

Joppa Fine Foods: http://www.joppafinefoods.com/

The Poorfarm Farm was busy this winter thinning out the sugarbush and surrounding woods for forest health. Sam pulled out a bunch of logs to sell, as well as some for sugarwood next year (to fuel the wood-fired evaporator), but most were in preparation for this spring’s big project–the big barn. Stately and hulking, the piles wait patiently for the arrival of the saw mill, or the log truck, or the next big dumping of snow.

Despite the 3 ft of snow that is sitting out there in the woods and on the sugarhouse roof, the days are getting longer and Spring is around the corner. Which means it’s time to get ready for sugaring! Stretch your back for bucket hauling and find some comfortable boots for hustling around the evaporator. Last year we made 90 gallons of syrup with 600 tapped trees, but this year we are expanding and have a goal of 200 gallons! We’ll see….

It took most of the day, but we got all of the firewood in that we’ll need for the season (we hope…)

Now that the grass is gone, their diet has turned to hay. We’re throwing them rowan right now–the second cut from the summer hayfields. It’s like throwing them pints of ice cream.

Fall is the time of year where we are faced, again, with the reality of the slaughter. This fall was just lambs and pigs. They had a good death, and a good life. The end was quick, and at home, with familiar smells and views.

Now our freezer is packed; we sold out in less than a day, selling by the quarter and half. And as the sheepskins cure in the sugarhouse, and Frida the dog eats the hearts, the air turns colder, and the wind picks up. The cows begin their hunker-down, fuzzing up with winter hair.

We thank our animals for the nourishment they bring.

Camper Andy came up for a week to do some damage on the old calf barn. He remembered long hours mucking it out over the course of several summers. What an inconvenient building for so much manure, he thought to himself, after countless hours sweating among his fellow flies. And so, on a fall weekend, Andy and Sam took the barn to task. The new calf barn has removable siding, so in warmer months, there is a large window. It’s all boarded up now, since the wind is nippy, but it’s warm inside…

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Good news! We had a great pumpkin season, with hard rains and hot days, and still have a little syrup left from last season to sell. Perfect timing for Halloween, fall pancakes or early Christmas gifts. On Saturday October 2nd, 2010, we’ll have a booth at the Brooklyn Flea (information and directions here) from 10am to 5pm. We hope to see you there–look for the Poorfarm Farm signs.

Below are the pumpkins, curing in the sugarhouse. The green ones will be orange by the time you see ‘em. With flat bottoms, they’re good for stoops! Let us know if you’re interested in buying organic eggs, too, and we can arrange to bring some down. We’ve just started feeding our layers grain from our friends at Butterworks Farm who grow all of their own organic grains and make all of the feed in their granary. We’re so excited to be feeding our birds this wonderful grain and supporting a truly organic operation in the most basic sense of the word. If you don’t already eat their yogurt, we highly recommend it. Eggs are $5/dozen. Email us at poorfarmfarm@gmail.com for pre-orders, if you’d like to purchase some at the Brooklyn Flea.

As a side operation, The PFF sells firewood to neighbors by the cord. This serves as both forest maintenance and part of the farming operation. In Vermont, many people still heat their homes with wood. Ask anyone up here what they’re doing on a fall weekend and they’ll say, “getting the wood in”.

The pumpkin patch was rearin’ to go for spring planting at the end of May. The soil looked really great, because we parked the chickens on the patch all winter and for the first part of spring (we also mucked out the house in April and spread the manure as fertilizer).

Once the patch has died back, you begin to see the pumpkins.

Where ya want these??

Ehem.

We have had some new arrivals to the herd, including one rent-a-bull who will hopefully be performing his duties (breeding the 2 heifers Heya and Ruby) within the next six weeks, before we return him. Besides his nasty demeanor, he’s a beautiful Belted Galloway (in the middle, with the white belly). Another new addition is Bonus, a Belted Galloway mix, with the speckled face. Poor Bonus was very homesick when he first arrived, and mooed for a week straight. But he’s a big boy–1 year old–and has since adapted really well to the herd of mostly ladies.

Below is a more recent photo of Gogo-G, our calf who was born in June, and who is now a teenager. Frightening!

And here is a nice shot of Heya, the lovely mother of Gogo-G. She’s mellowed out a lot since having a calf, which is interesting. You can tell she’s healthy by her bright, shiny coat.

We also recently added a couple Jersey bull calves to the mix, named Baby and Bozo, who are so young they need to be bottle-fed. Baby, in particular (the lighter one Sam is trying to coax out of the barn), is a world-class cutie-pie. Both are just learning how to leave their little calf-barn and mingle.

We plan on raising the Jerseys as an experiment in taste and efficiency in various breeds. For those who don’t know, Jerseys are traditionally bred for milking, so they have a bony frame and don’t keep much meat on. Dairy farms routinely sell their bull calves a week or two after birth, as they’re superfluous in a dairy operation (except to encourage milk production). But Jersey meat is exceptionally good, so we figured why not adopt some males and raise them for two years, for meat.

So far, they have pretty distinct personalities. Baby is a baby, which is why we named him Baby. Bozo is more of a ruffian. But they love each other. Makenna, in particular, is a big fan of these two. They follow her around. They follow everyone around, actually.