Our first Farm-To-Table Dinner was Saturday night. The people, food, and farm made it absolutely wonderful!

 

 

Our next Farm-To-Table dinner will be July 25th. Go to our website for all the information. I will have the menu up hopefully tomorrow (Wednesday).

 

It has been really hot in the fields. All the rain that we were getting, has come to a screeching halt. We are short on help, so getting to all the irrigating is going to be difficult. The good news is that Pete says that the apple crop looks to be a good one this year. Say a prayer.

 



 

Farm-To-Table-Dinner on the farm

It is June 31st and we have had enough rain. Hopefully we get a stretch of warm dry days.

Over the years, Pete has worked to come up with something new to help bring in more revenue so that the farm can continue. We have added markets, we have tried new configurations of shares, farm pick-ups and days. We have added new products, we have added new vegetables. This year we are going to do some Farm-To-Table Dinners, right here on the farm.

Our goal is to do 2 dinners in July and 2 dinners in August. If they go well, we will try some more in September and October. We want to host the first dinner ourselves. So to that end our first Farm-To-Table dinner will be on Saturday July 11th from 6:30-10:00.  The evening will start with a glass of sparkling wine and a tour of the farm with Pete, and then a 4 course dinner will follow located on our back porch.

Go to the Taliaferro Farm web-site for all the particulars. The information will be posted on the web in the next couple of days

Dakota planting seeds one-at-a-time in the green house on a rainy day.

Members Picnic

Today was the special day -- the day when I know summer is just around the corner -- the day of the Taliaferro Farms member's picnic. It's the day when CSA members flock to the farm to meet each other, see the farm, and eat a great spring bounty provided by Robin, Pete and their big family.

The weather was a bit damp, but it didn't stop anyone from enjoying their farm time. Pete tried to rally a crowd to ride the Kubota tractor for a hay ride, but I think it was still a bit chilly for most.

That didn't stop anyone from riding their bike

or from having hot hamburgers or steak slices from Full Moon Farms.

Full Moon farms has been providing these wonderful meats for all the meat eaters out there for many years now.

First Pickup Coming Soon

Opening day is Thursday June 11th at 9am. The opening times are on the right hand side of this blog so you can refer to it any time you want.

I saw these beautiful strawberry plants today. I hope we can get some strawberries on June 11th...

Not a member yet? 
As far as I know, you can still join the CSA. You can also come to the Farm stand on the open times and purchase directly, but becoming a member has extra benefits such as free flower picking, extra produce items each week, this spring picnic, and the Thanksgiving share (when you sign up for the following season). So come and join us today and enjoy the fruits of Community Supported Agriculture.

Don't forget the Chickens

See you on June 11th!

The Last Week!

It's the last regular pick up week for the Farm. Be sure to come this week on Friday 9a-6p or Saturday 9a-3p. Laura may be there, or Stephanie, or Robin. Laura was out today, but Stephanie was working hard.

I didn't make a list of all the items available. You will surely find something you like which is fresh from the field! Don't forget to stock up on vendor items as well.

Robin asked me to pass along a sincere thanks from the Taliaferros for all the support from you wonderful members. She reminds me that they cannot do it without you!

When you come to the farm stand this week you might notice that the tarp awning is missing. Apparently it blew away last week with the high winds. It looks a like the stand is closed without the awning, but it isn't closed just yet.

Not closed. Just missing the tarp.

Two more announcements:

• Turkey Signups: If you wish to purchase a turkey in time for Thanksgiving, the deadline is Friday November 8th.
• Next Season: It is time to sign up for next season. If you sign up by Nov 15th and pay the deposit, you can come back on Tuesday Nov 25th and pick up a bonus Thanksgiving share. I have always been so happy to get that extra fresh organic produce in time to cook for the big meal.

Now I will leave you with some fun photos I took today. The first set is of Ian lubricating a John Deere 7410 tractor. He borrowed it from Paul Colucci of Full Moon Farms.

You can see the cutting blades better now.

I commented to Ian about the size of this tractor. He laughed and told me that it's actually not that big as far as tractors go. It's hard for me to to believe because it seems so much larger than other tractors around the farm.

John Deere 7410

 You can see the size of the tractor in more perspective now as Ian stands next to the front tire!

Pete told me that Ian is using the tractor to prepare the land down by the river for new apple trees. If you've been a member for a while you may recall that the farm used to have it's own apple orchard, but the trees outlived their useful lives and Pete removed them. For the last few seasons Pete has been able to rent orchard space in local small orchards. However, this is not very practical because organic apples require a lot of maintenance to keep the pests at bay. 

Since pesticides and systemic chemicals are not used, it is difficult to keep the apple trees at their peak. Normally, non-toxic surface coatings such a kaolin clay are applied to discourage pests. The disadvantage of this is that these surface coatings have to be re-applied often. When the orchards are far away, Pete has to use a lot of fuel and time to transport people and equipment to the orchards to apply the coatings. Let's not mention how difficult and dangerous it is for everyone when slow-moving farm equipment is on the same road as speedy cars. This season the crop was so small that it was not cost-effective to keep up the treatments and the decision was made to let the crop go. Consequently there is no apple harvest this year at the Taliaferros. 

Pete is a motivated farmer and is thinking of re-planting an orchard on his own local property. So we hope that there will be an apple crop if the new trees are planted and mature. It could be a while since apple trees take some nurturing before they give apples. I do not know if Pete plans to rent more orchard space while his trees are maturing. I guess this is a question to ask Pete next season.

Puppies

The farm has acquired two new puppies. Monty and Huxley are brothers.

Huxley (left) and Monty (right)

Monty (left) and Huxley (right)

Monty is the blonde/brown one and Huxley has the blacker fur markings. They both have the interesting blue eyes. They are already being trained to chase deer...and play with people. I'm sure we'll have fun with them next season too.

It's been a great season! 

Every member has been appreciated by the Taliaferros -- the family that farms. Come back next season! And don't forget to sign up in time to get this year's Thanksgiving share. 

Bock Bock! Eat more Turkey.