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Alan
and Nancy Brown About the farm |
November News from
the Farm
We had our
first snow shower today. Don’t worry, nothing accumulated, no snowballs, no
sledding. There were just a few pretty white flakes falling amid the orange and
yellow trees. It was cold too; in the 30’s and damp and chilly to the fingers
and toes. We had to inventory all the beef cuts that came back from the
processor today. Between handling the cold, frozen pieces and no heat yet ready
in the north barn – we were pretty cold by the time we were done. But we did it all and then quit after we sent
Colin off to the Saratoga Farmer Market for the afternoon where he’ll be
outside all afternoon.
Thank goodness
the fire in the kitchen wood stove is finally going for the winter. The flue
has been cleaned, the new grate piece on the inside is installed and we had our
first fire on Sunday night. Wood stove heat is so warm and cozy and makes it so
easy to fall asleep. Today we filled the porch with wood and we’re all set now.
Unfortunately, the library where Chris and I work is way down the other end of
the house and we need to heat on a bit too.
Most all of
the garden has been frosted except for the very hardy things. The greenhouse is
full of green tomatoes ripening in the protected sunshine. The pears are all
harvested and have been squeezed into 13 gallons of juice. Twelve are bubbling
away into wine and we saved some for fresh juice. The Seyval and Cayuga grapes
are all picked; we are de-stemming them all and will be pressing the grapes by
Friday. Our good old cider press has been in great demand this year and it’s a
lot of fun. Jayme and Robin helped with the pears and some of the adrenaline
they used to power the press was the result of the yellow jacket wasps flying
all around the mash and juice and buckets of pears. They really love the pears.
Below the pear tree there are hundreds flying around looking for bruised fruit
to chew on. They actually eat the pears! The last things left to do in the
garden are dig the potatoes, harvest the beets, brussel sprouts and cabbage,
freeze some kale and collards and clean up all the rest of the foliage. This gets
rid of the fungus spores, the bug eggs, and hopefully the giant tomato hornworm
caterpillars or moth cocoons. They are too big!! The pigs get all of this
refuse to eat and any seeds that survive can plant themselves in the pasture
for next year.
The cows are
still grazing through the pastures and the grass continues to grow ever so
slowly. They are still eating apples too! They broke through the fence to eat
the lovely yellow apples up here by the house, so I’m heading out to see what
happened and open another gate to stop all the bellowing of the separated herd.
See you later.
Don’t forget
the Turkey Order deadline on November 6th! There will definitely be
12-14 lb turkeys this year!!! Take care,
Nancy and Alan