Crazy spring continues with a Frost advisory for tonight!!! Damn it, well at least it's paying off to be a bit behind schedule with planting. Still allot of remay to put out tonight, just hope the damn wind dies down. The wind this year is starting to drive me a bit crazy. Kind of like the mistral in the south of France. Shoveled out the winter chicken coop yesterday. Damn I hate that job. Going to have to invent some other type of housing so I do not have to do it anymore. I really hate that job. But.....the tomatoes in grown in there are just incredible! Planted my winter kiwi's out back, curious to see how that is going to work out. Blueberries got moved to a new location and appear to be really happy. Not even transplant shock. If they continue to look happy there is room for 500 more next spring. Ditch digging will resume in earnest this week. Just need to get it off my plate. Firewood is lurking in the background. Beginning to wonder why I ordered 10 cord of log length. Better than going to the gym though. Well gotta go, rototilling and planting today....again.

Cold and soggy, dark and stormy.....ah the weather continues it's frenetic pace into summer. Second CSA pickup went well. Nice to see all of you again. I was a bit cold and damp after being outside in 2 days of this stuff. Barre Farmer's market went well also. Glad I brought my cheezy little canopy and set it up. Lost quite a bit of an asparagus cutting to the darned frost. Oh well, saved the cilantro and dill and the asparagus will bounce back. Need to start planting the fields the next few days. Outdoor cukes, tomatoes, winter squash, zuchinni. Beans are in and so is the corn. Let's hope it gets some heat now. I was actually wearing my fleece line pants last night and sitting in front of my fire. I will not turn the oil furnace on though. Well take care and here are some ideas I sent to all my CSA members for some of the early season crops that are out there. Joe

Baby Turnips- slice and eat them raw with rice wine vinegar. Another tasty dish is to sauté them with olive oil very quickly add some curry powder and some chopped up scallions. Finish with a bit of coconut milk and serve on steamed rice. You can also sauté up the greens with the turnips.

Sage—In a heavy pan put some oil or butter and brown the chicken breasts on one side then turn them over, let them brown a bit more. Next add some Dijon mustard and let it cook for about 2 minutes. Pour in some white wine and scrape the bottom of the pan so it’s clean, leave the breasts in the pan while you are doing this. Next add enough heavy cream so that there is about an inch of liquid in the pan. Sprinkle the chopped sage leaves in and cover the pan. Let the breasts simmer for about 15 minutes covered then another 5 minutes uncovered. This is great served on rice or pasta. Don’t forget a bit of salt and pepper to taste.

Sorrel- this is a tart/sour herb that is used in classic French cuisine for Salmon. So go get some salmon ( I suggest trying the seafood at the Uncommon Market in Montpelier, it’s good quality seafood, something rare in Vermont) and you can either grill it or pan sauté it similar to the chicken above.  After you have either grilled or sautéed the salmon, melt a bit of butter and add the sorrel to it. Pour it over the fish and serve.

Oregano and Chives---put in a blender with some salt and pepper add about a ½ cup of olive oil. If it is still too thick add a bit of water to thin it out. Puree it until you have a smooth consistency. This stuff is great on chicken and beef, use it like a steak sauce or ketchup. If you want to get creative add toasted walnuts and a bit of lemon juice with some parmesan cheese and you have very different version of pesto.

Chives----Pan sautéed scallops. Chop the chives up and have them ready use all of them, scallions will work for this too. In a heavy bottomed pan (cast iron skillet is great) put some olive oil and butter. Let it get really hot and sear the scallops until nice and brown on one side. Turn them over and add the chives a bit of white wine and some salt and pepper. Be careful adding the white wine the oil may pop a bit. Let the scallops finish cooking, about 4 minutes and you now have the sauce also.  These are great with a salad for a lighter meal or serve with some linguini or egg noodles.

Happy cooking

Good Morning, Sorry for the delay in posting. It's that time of year when I hide the computer up in the office becuase there is too much to do around here for the next 2-3 weeks. Need to go out this morning and see what the frost killed last night. This growing season continues to be a great one but with extremely frenentic weather. Sunny weekend with high winds and temperatures 10-20 degrees below normal....ouch.  The meat chickens and ducks are growing really quick, portable coops seem to be working out real well. Black plastic will have to be layed once again (this will make 3 times this spring) since the wind continues to be a real challenge up here. Sweet potatoes are in the ground but not much hope there since they were left in the mailbox overnight with the frost last week. Stuff in the greenhouses is ready to go outside so hopefully we will get to that this week. Have to see what the weather brings. I have the first Barre Farmer's Market tomorrow and they are forecasting up to an inch of rain.....now why did I give up sitting in an office to make a living? Things around here are in transisition but the farm has never looked this good. Hated to pull things out of the greenhouses but the cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, and melons needed to go in. Outside fields are ready to be planted but frost keeps being an issue. Going to have to try the remay row covers and figure out how to make them wind proof.  Three Penny Taproom is a new place here in town, stop in and try one of the beers and they should have my eggs on the menu soon. They are pickling them to go with all the beers they serve. Well gotta go. 

High heat today, First CSA pickup this evening from 4:30-6. Hope everyone is happy, things are looking good. Farm really looks like I have been putting some time into it. Liva is a huge help and a nice person to have around. Trying to get the rest of the plastic down today, hopefully the wind will cooperate for a change. Have figured out that you really need to apply biotelo when the sun is going to be out and it's hot.  This holds true in my situation where we are hand applying it. The sun and heat causes it to "shrink wrap" the bed real quick. Wind is not an issue then. The high winds tore it all up last week, we applied it on a calm cloudy day. That we were being smart........ Finally got my far wet field covered in plastic. Have been trying to plant this field for 3 years now. The current and blueberry tranplants that I have put in look real happy. Could mean 500 pick your own blueberries next year. Going to expand the chicken enclosure today and build a few more chicken tractors. Ditch digging is not progressing very much. Perhaps this weekend. Well gotta go.

Good Morning Vegetable fans! The weather continues to be absolutely.....nuts! What a rain storm last night! Freeze warning for tonight.  Grass is growing out of control. Trying to get lot's of stuff in the ground today. Need to get after the asparagus also.  Really need to get after the drainage project in the greenhouses. If the rain continues it will have a huge effect on the outcome of my season. Already seeing downy mildew in my lettuces which I am sure is left from last year as well as the high humidity the last few weeks.  Need to harvest lettuce and radish today. 

Ouch! What a week!!! Orders are strong, CSA starts next week, asparagus is trying really hard to come up. Lost a bunch to the frost as well as most of my ground cherries. Debating whether to pull the mulch off the asparagus. Ground Cherries will have to be replanted. Wind has been unrelenting up here this year. Thursday was the first time I did not feel it was safe to be in the greenhouses. All my black plastic got torn up and blown all over the place and I had just planted 800 cabbage and broccoli plugs into it. Two chicken coops blew over and one of them had 2 dozen eggs in it that all broke. A huge thank you to Nat and Christa for helping out on Friday. Baby Ducks were not baby ducks but actually 25 Guinnea Fowl. What in the world am I supposed to do with them now? On top of that they are really noisy as adults. Ducks coming (again) next wend.  Tomato plants have turned a nice shade of purple so now I need to track down some bone char and work that into the soil as best I can. Also running back and forth from St. Albans trying to get the camp open with my brother who is up for a few days. I wish school would hurry up and let out so my kids can start working regularly for me. Well gotto go pack out some orders and "walk the estate" to see how things are doing. Finally solved the electric fence problem and just in time. 4 Deer every morning at the back wire, could be a problem as fields get planted. Hardy Kiwi arrived, just need to figure out where it is going to get planted. One last note check out the Capitol City Farmer's Market on twitter. Here's the link--https://twitter.com/Montpmarket

Gotta go Joe......

Ah the sun is still up in the sky. Haven't seen it for 2 weeks. Get to dry out a little bit. My farmer's tan was beginning to fade a bit. Well CSA starts next week and the farmer's market get's going in Barre the week after that. Still have a few large projects to get finished up before then. Asparagus is starting to pop up and the tomatoes are looking pretty good. Frost forecast for tonight so have to get ready for that as well. Need to get my fields covered and prepped this week for planting.  Still can't get my electric fence figured out, the deer have been polite so far but then again there is nothing good to eat planted yet. No woodchuck sightings as of yet either. Paperwork is piling up once again, ugh!  Ditch digging crew coming up this morning, hope to at least get one ditch finished today, perhaps a bit of forward progress on the next one. Here's to a sunny week........joe

Perfect light rain....mother nature has the misting system on. Great day for putting stuff in the ground. Next few days are wet and overcast. Very nice for the plants. Some of my best friends coming for dinner on Saturday. We are all chef's with discriminating spouses. So here's the menu so far.

Apero

Pastis with fresh radishes,butter, salt

Duck egg torta with wild leeks and grated parm served cold

Home made Ciabatta

Duck Breast with Cassis sauce

Duck confit

Baby turnips with spring parsley 

Endive salad with Chervil and Blue Cheese

Simple Vinaigrette

Friends are bringing Potatos, Dessert, and a Magnum of Pinot Noir

Almost all the ingredients including the duck and the cassis or from the farm here.

 

Well here comes another soggy month of May. Rain in the forecast for the next 7 days. We need it, it has been really dry the last month. Figures just as I get all the drip irrigation in place........ Things are going pretty well so far. Some seasonal pests starting to show up but nothing on a grand scale just yet. Tomatoes need to be pruned and trellised. Hope to get that done today and get the rest planted.  Lawn is need of it's first haircut of the season, that going to have to wait. Ditch digging volunteers coming on Friday. Should be interesting with all the water coming down. Glad I put in drainage tile and back filled yesterday. Need to get alot of planting done and but am waiting to get my biodegradable mulch down first. Wind is a big issue trying to lay that stuff. Try it again today when I have some help.  CSA starts in a few weeks. Need to add up my numbers but I think I am sold out or have one share left.  New real local accounts as well. Nice article in the Bridge about the farm and myself. Thanks Sylvia for the kind words.  Barre farmer's market starts at the end of the month. Still have a few things to track down so that I am ready for that as well. Bye.

Here is an article just published about what I do or try to do up here at the farm. Follow the link....http://www.montpelierbridge.com/profile.htm