Herbiculture

Oregano, sage, garlic chives, and asparagus.

The herb beds at Better Farm provide us with everything we need for spicing our food, flavoring our refreshments, and scenting our homemade products such as soap and candles.


The herb beds are a combination of reclaimed wood, Hugelkultur, and mulch gardening methods. In the last few years we've grown everything from amaranth to asparagus out of these beds. Here's the short list of what you can find out there this year (dried and fresh herbs will be available at the Better Farm Stand throughout the spring, summer, and fall):

Basil
Celery Flakes
Chia Sprouts
Chickory
Cilantro
Dill
Garlic
Garlic Chives
Marjoram
Mint
Oregano
Parsley
Sage
Salad Greens
Scallions
Lavender
Tarragon

Movin' to the Country, Gonna Eat a lot of Peaches

Our shipment from Miller Nurseries arrived this week, which means our (very small) peach orchard was planted yesterday next to Better Farm's main garden.

We went with two Reliance Dwarf Peach Trees,which were developed by plant breeders at the University of New Hampshire and can survive and produce delicious fruit even after temperatures hit -25 degrees below zero. The first actual text of this tree's moxy was in the winter of 1961-62, when the "test tree" was subjected to -25 degrees and then managed to produce a bushel of fruit. The peaches from Reliance Dwarf Peach Trees are medium to large, with round, red cheeks splashed over a yellow skin. The stone will not cling, even in the coldest, driest seasons. And the reliance pit is smaller than any other peach. Fruit ripens in mid-August.

Sounds too good to be true, no?

I soaked the saplings in water for an hour while I dug out the holes (10-12 feet apart) and got the peat moss, hay, and topsoil mixture ready; then planted the trees between the garden and Cottage Hill Road. The mature peach trees will be between 8 and 10 feet.

We also ordered a weeping willow, which I planted at the far end of the pond out back. Now to just keep an eye on the babies, make sure they've got plenty of water, and start researching delicious peach cobbler recipes.

Miller Nurseries is a family-owned and operated company in Canandaigua, N.Y., that's been in business since 1936. For more information, click here.

Introducing Artist-in-Residence Maria Wallace

"Love Max", 2011, oil on canvas. By Maria Wallace.

Maria Wallace is an oil painter and drawer who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., visiting us through the betterArts residency program until May 27.

"Basically I am an artist to be who I am," she told us in her application, "Art to me is a way to access the most incomprehensibly able parts of myself. Drawing represents the ability to use parts of the brain and the self one can’t know through thought. It is easy to feel powerless without creativity since so little of what we do can be fully understood. But I feel like all transcendent human potential really can’t be conceived by the limited mind, yet it is totally necessary. To me, the ability to do things one can’t understand is not only a hallmark of making art but is the approach to apply to all areas in which we seem stuck."



The source of Maria's creativity has always been the natural world, which in the past has been represented by Prospect Park and her own back yard. She grew up next to an apple orchard, and ever since has been especially drawn to apple trees.  She's done a lot of work drawing outside around New York City, and painting inside. "Being out of the city and on a farm, which in addition to being a more natural and harmonizing place, explicitly represents the present and presence, is exactly the cultivation my art and I need."

Here are some samples of her work (more at http://mswallace.net!):

"Like Bunnies", 2011, Oil on Canvas,  31" x 30”. By Maria Wallace.

"Party Girl"

"Stormy Peaches", 2011, Oil on Canvas, 12" x 19”

Be sure to see Maria's works-in-progress and more finished pieces at our open house this Saturday, where she will be our featured artist for the first annual Thousand Islands region Artists' Studio Tour!

For more information about betterArts residencies and to apply, click here.

Masked Ball to Benefit Children's Charities

Watertown Evening Rotary Club

, an organization sponsoring three of

betterArts' summer workshops

this season, has partnered with

Renu'e Spa and Skincare Center

and

Northern New York Community Foundation

to present a

Midsummer's Eve Masked Ball

fundraiser from 6-10 p.m. Saturday, June 16 at the Dulles State Office Building to benefit local and international children's charities.

The event features live music by

The Critics

, catering by

Dominick's Restaurant

of Syracuse (featuring passed and stationary hors d'ouvres, carving stations, Tuscan tureen, a harvest table, desserts, cannolis, Italian cookies, and more), beer, wine, soda, and other refreshments. Don't forget to dress to impress and bring your best mask!

This is a great evening of dinner and dancing, for a very worthy cause—100% of profits from the event go directly to funding children's charities and causes.

Tickets are $70 each and available at Renu'e Spa and Skincare Center (720 Washington St., Watertown) or by calling (315) 221-4089. You can also e-mail us at

info@betterfarm.org

for tickets.

The Dulles State Office Building is located at 317 Washington St. in Watertown, N.Y.

This Saturday: betterArts Open House at Better Farm

betterArts will host its annual open house and fundraiser from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday, May 26. This event is in conjunction with the First Annual Artists' Studio Tour, which includes more than 27 artists and 21 studios in the Thousand Islands region.


The betterArts open house will raise funds to allow the organization to offer free music and art workshops throughout the summer to the public. Check out our full workshop listings and dates by clicking here.

At the event, we'll be raffling off wares donated by Dragonfly Pottery, Winnie and Belle (free shipping on all orders through July 1!), and Wrecords by Monkey. Local artists' works will be showcased and available for sale in the gallery space, and the following musicians will be performing (in addition to other cameos and impromptu improv sessions throughout the day): 

GALLERY STAGE
11 a.m.-12 p.m. Nick Bellman
1:30-2:30 p.m. Aaron Horeth
4-5 p.m. Airhead Jordan

MAIN STAGE
12-1:30 Brian Purwin and Friends
2:30-4:00 p.m. The Pistol Whippers
5-6:30 p.m. Ben Plante and Friends
6:30-8:30 p.m. Jounce

And there's more! We'll also have arts 'n' crafts stations for kids, hula hoops for all, fire jugglers, a beer and wine tent, and an outdoor barbecue featuring homemade foods, pizza and wings from the John Hoover Inn, and locally sourced chicken and hot dogs. And, of course, veggie burgers! Click here to RSVP! Hope to see you there!

Better Farm Partners with DEC, Plants 50 Trees

Better Farm this year is participating in the School Seedling Program, an initiative by New York's Department of Environmental Conservation to educate students about the care and conservation of trees.


Most of us recognize the beauty of trees and their many other values. Trees provide food and shelter for wildlife and prevent erosion. They help protect streams and lakes by stabilizing soil and using nutrients that would otherwise wash into waterways. Trees help moderate temperature and muffle noise. They even help improve air quality by absorbing some airborne compounds that could be harmful to us, and by giving off oxygen.

When students plant tree seedlings, they can see for themselves the structure of trees, learn what trees need, and how they grow. Teachers can use the planting process to discuss the benefits trees provide, while incorporating other subjects that their classes are studying. As seedlings mature the young trees
can be a continuing, personalized way of relating to what they’ve learned from books to visible, living examples of what is being taught.

Students become aware that they can play a role in protecting the environment through personal involvement in establishing a grove of trees. Ultimately, it is hoped that the experience will help them make intelligent decisions about conservation and use of natural resources.

All schools are eligible to participate in the DEC's program, as are any school-sponsored organizations. Though Better Farm isn't officially a school, per say, it does qualify as an educational center and so 50 white spruces were shipped our way this week.

DEC’s Saratoga Tree Nursery provides the trees, which require 1,800 square feet of open space for the 50 seedlings. Each needs a growing space of about 6 feet in diameter. For schools where planting space is limited, an Urban Wildlife Packet is available. This contains 30 seedlings of shrubs that attract different songbirds, as well as a variety of other wildlife.


White Spruces are native, short-needled evergreens. They grows in clay and/or loamy soils and
reach 70 feet at maturity.

The seedlings we received are 2 or 3 years old and approximately 8”-16” tall. Though our interns won't arrive until next week, we had to get the young trees into the ground. The interns will tend to the trees and keep track of their progress.

For more information about this program, click here.

Getting a Garden Education: Planters obtain free seeds, advice about growing

Nicole M. Caldwell of Better Farm, Redwood, cleans up after a worm compost exhibit Saturday at Garden Day in Alexandria Bay. Photo/Justin Sorensen

By REENA SINGH

WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES STAFF WRITER

ALEXANDRIA  BAY  — Garden  aficionados  walked away with the beginnings of lettuce, peas, squash and other produce for free at the MacSherry Library this weekend.

Saturday was the library’s fourth annual Garden Day, and it drew dozens looking for free seeds,  gardening advice and children’s activities.at Garden Day in Alexandria Bay.

“It’s about  educating the community,” said herbalist and library trustee Sue-Ryn Burns.

Several trustees have gardens of their own and dug up sprouting tomatoes to raise money for the  library. As a testament to the gardener’s fever possessed by some of the trustees, an herb garden sat
in the building’s back.

“We’re trying to encourage people to grow things,” said Steven L. Burns. “We were all getting asked a lot about gardening.”

Representatives from Better Farm LLC, a sustainability education center and artists' retreat facility  in Redwood, demonstrated composting to show how produce that normally lands in the trash could be reused. The business uses produce that would normally be tossed away at local grocery stores such as Big M and The Mustard Seed.

“The end result will be organic compost and organic worm casings, which make an excellent fertilizer,” said Matthew K.  Smith, Better Farm agriculturalist.

After a village tree walk led by Cornell Cooperative Extension horticulture educator Susan J.  Gwise, children hunted in the grass for clothespin fairies dressed in silk flower petals.

Several packets of donated pumpkin seeds were placed on a table to encourage locals to plant the
squash for the library’s annual Harvest Festival in the fall. Every year, there is a contest for the village’s biggest pumpkin.

“We wanted to see what seeds they have so we can start our garden,” said Alexandria Bay resident Cathy A. Dickhaut. She held seeds for squash, beets and white watermelon. “I’ve never had good luck with lettuce,” she said.

[Originally published Monday, May 14, 2012, for the Watertown Daily Times]

Potato Planting, Part II

 It was finally time last week to get our potatoes planted.

We'd been waiting since February, when we bought our russet, yukon gold, and red potatoes from a local seed-and-feed shop. And though we certainly have the space to grow them the old-fashioned way in a long, viney strand, we opted to grow our potatoes vertically, in tires.

Growing vertically is a great space-saving option for those of us living with little or no yards. Simply cut the potato into chunks that have their eyes (photo above shows a potato covered in eyes; each can be planted separately), eyes facing up.

As the root system grows, mound dirt up around your potato plant and, eventually, add another tire. Keep adding tires until you have three tires stacked. Early potatoes are ready to harvest when the flowers have opened or the buds fallen off. Dig a few tubers up and check—they should be about the size of a hen's egg. With maincrop potatoes, wait until the foliage has turned brown, cut off at the stems and wait a few days before lifting. When you carefully unstack your tires and remove the dirt, you'll be left with pounds and pounds of potato (one potato grows six to twelve new potatoes).

For more information about tire-planted potatoes, see our previous post:
Growing Potatoes in Tires: Feb. 21, 2012

betterArts Featured on MyABC50!

By Holly Boname for MyABC50.com 

A local arts organization is working to create free and low cost art and music workshops thanks to a newly obtained not-for-profit status. 

betterArts, located on Cottage Hill Road in Redwood at Better Farm, only received their 501 (c)3 status a month ago, but already have workshops and events scheduled to benefit North Country residents.

Nicole Caldwell, executive director of betterArts and Better Farm, began accepting artist residency applications from across the country nearly three years ago. Strong positive feedback inspired Caldwell to create betterArts and spread music and art across the tri-county region.

betterArts relies strongly on fundraising and donations from local residents and other arts organizations. Currently Caldwell is working with the St. Lawrence Arts Council on two separate grants that will allow for area art and music teachers, who have partnered with betterArts, and artist residents staying at the farm to offer free workshops.

betterArts will on May 26 hold its annual fundraiser and open house event from 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

The event will feature live music and performances, interactive art projects for the public to participate in, information on upcoming workshops and private instruction, arts and crafts stations, a gallery exhibit of work by local and visiting artists, a tour of their studios, an afternoon barbecue at 3 p.m. and more. Admission is free and open to the public.

The event is in conjunction with the First Annual Artists' Studio Tour scheduled for the Thousand Islands Region from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 26^th and 27^th. 

For more information visit www.betterArts.org.

To hear from Nicole Caldwell on the mission of betterArts and to learn more about the annual open house and fundraiser, watch the complete video story.

Work Day: Operation Coop Construction

We've been gearing up for a few months now for an influx of animals at Better Farm: clearing out a shed on the property so we can welcome a couple cashmere goats next month, making plans with the Clayton Co-op to provide them with organic eggs from here on out, and doing research into new coop designs to house a flurry of rescued hens and baby bard rocks.

So yesterday, a whole slew of Better Farm volunteers showed up to construct two chicken coops, each of which can house up to 25 hens. We bought plywood to protect roosting boxes from predators, but the entire rest of the operation drew from discarded scrap wood, metal roofing, an upcycled egg-laying box, and anything else we could find on-site.

Here's the set-up:

And our inspiration: a classic, mobile, rectangular box at left, and a larger coop design, at right, utilizing discarded screens and windows:

Here are some shots of the first design being impletmented:

The second coop was started, and will be finished next week—stay tuned! You can see the complete album here.


Thanks to: Erin Fulton, Brian Purwin, Holly Boname, Jon-Michael Passerino, Bob Laisdell, Susan Kerbel, Matt Smith, Nick Bellman, Carl Frizzelle, and Joel Zimmer for their help on these projects!

Want design plans or coop-construction advice? E-mail us at info@betterfarm.org.

Hydroponics Store Opens in Watertown

North Country Hydroponics, a one-stop shop for learning about and purchasing items for hydroponics, will host its grand opening next Saturday, May 19, at its Arsenal Street location.

Kelly and Thomas Mason are opening the store at 1283 Arsenal St. (in the Price Chopper plaza) in order to provide all of the necessary hydroponics needs for the North Country.

Be sure to stop in next Saturday to learn about how you can grow hydroponically in any sized home (this is a particularly great method for those of us living in small, dimly lit apartments!). The website, www.northcountryhydroponics.com, will feature products available for sale and general information about hydroponics. You can also "like" the business on Facebook by clicking here.

Want to learn more? E-mail Kelly Mason at  kelly@northcountryhydroponics.com.

Grow, Baby, Grow

The weather in the last week has caused a bit of a growth spurt among our baby plants. Peas poking their heads up outside in the garden, young spinach plants climbing several inches in the last week—spring has finally sprung at Better Farm.

Here's a short list of what we've got growing so far, followed by a photo tour of what's happening in our greenhouse and garden beds:

Note: All produce comes from non-GMO, 100% organic seeds. We use no chemical-based pesticides or fertilizers, and utilize our own organic compost as planting and top soil.

Short list: Vegetables (More being planted next week!)

• Asparagus
• Beets 
• Broccoli
• Brussels Sprouts
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Eggplant
• Garlic
• Kale  
• Leeks
• Lettuce (five varieties)
• Lima Beans
• Okra
• Onion
• Peas (three varieties)
• Peppers (three varieties)
• Radishes
• Spinach
• Tomatoes

 Outdoor veggies:
Peas

 Asparagus

 Garlic

 Celery re-growing out of an already-used heel:

Southwestern Inspiration

While traveling to Austin, Texas, this week for work, I was lucky enough to spend some time in a small cabin at an organic farm just outside the city's limits. Utilizing a basic and lovely open layout, the entire structure was adorned with small, Southwestern details that gave it this cowgirl a whole bunch of great ideas for Better Farm. Here are some key elements I loved:

Tin backsplash in kitchen

Barn door-style room divider

Southwestern tiles used as main design instead of accents

Post-and-beam-style ceilings along with a very nice fan

A southwestern-style frame on the mirror and decorative bowl sink make this bathroom stand out.

Another view of the kitchen. Note the poured and dyed concrete flooring throughout the first level.

Trees, flowers, and birds as the curtains

Wooden walls painted dark with horizontal stripes

The farm itself lent some other great ideas, as well:

Outdoor seating area, campfire circle, and metal fire pit (and a none-too-shabby view!)

Animal fencing utilizing cut wood standing on end against a single metal pole and barbed wire.

Got an inspiring decor you'd like to share? E-mail us at info@betterfarm.org.