Farm-Fresh Greens all Winter Long

With all these greens coming in, preserving will ensure a steady supply throughout the winter.

There's nothing like walking outside at Better Farm to pick beautiful, leafy greens for salads, smoothies, main dishes, and delicious sides. We're big consumers of kale, Swiss chard, lettuce, arugula, mustard greens, and spinach—and we're awfully spoiled by all the fresh, organic produce we've got from April through November. So, we're hesitant to give that up during winter months. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to ensure a steady supply of super greens throughout November, December, and beyond. Below are some simple methods for keeping a cache of greens suitable for stir fries, smoothies, soups, casseroles, and much much more.



FREEZING: Kale, Spinach, Collard Greens, and Swiss Chard
If you like using any of these super greens in soups, smoothies, casseroles, or stir fries, the good news is that they're extremely easy to blanch and store in the freezer. This is by far the best method for preserving your dark, leafy greens. Here's all you have to do:

1. Thoroughly clean the greens.
2. Chop into small pieces. Remove stems and stalks.
3. Toss into boiling water, leave for three minutes.
4. Immediately drain the greens and toss into a bowl of ice water. Leave for three minutes.
5. Drain again and pat dry or use salad spinner.
6. Put greens into freezer bags. Remove air by using a drinking straw with most of the bag sealed.

DEHYDRATING GREENS
If you're a fan of, say, sprinkling seaweed flakes over rice, you might enjoy dehydrated greens. We find they lose some flavor this way, but it can't hurt to add a nutritional boost to any dish you're preparing. All you have to do (information found at Doris and Jilly Cook): Steam your greens just until they’re wilted. Transfer them to dehydrator trays and dry at a low temperature (say, 110ºF) just until they’re crispy (approximately two hours). Cut them up and add to a spice jar. This is a particularly great technique if you have family members who are loathe to eat greens and you're looking for a way to sneak health food into their meals. The flakes can even be ground into powder to make them completely imperceptible.

A Few Lines About Lettuce
Lettuce is basically impossible to freeze, but is extremely easy to grow all winter long indoors with a fish tank and grow light. Click here for more information on aquaponics. If you've got a good stream of lettuce growing, follow these tips from Pinch My Salt to keep your harvested lettuce crispy for up to two weeks:

1. Fill a sink with cold water, separate all the leaves of lettuce, place them in the water and swirl them around. If the lettuce is a bit limp, let it soak in the water for 30 minutes and it will miraculously come back to life.
2. Drain the water, turn on the faucet, and briefly rinse each piece of lettuce as you remove it from sink and place in the basket of your salad spinner. If you use organic lettuce, just give each piece a quick once-over to check for clinging bugs and dirt. As you put the lettuce in the spinner, you can tear the leaves in half if they are large (such as full-size romaine).
3. When the spinner is full but not tightly packed, spin the lettuce until dry.
4. Spread two paper towels (still connected) on the counter and pile the dry lettuce in the middle. Wrap the paper towels around the lettuce and slide into a gallon-size zippered plastic bag. Squeeze the air out and close the bag.
5. The lettuce can now be stored in the fridge and should stay fresh for at least a couple of weeks. You can take out what you need whenever you want to make a salad or sandwich and then just reseal the bag. The plastic bags can also be reused!

Better Farm's Bats Make a Comeback

In spite of continued reports that bat populations throughout the Northeast continue to dwindle, it appears the bats at

Better Farm

are making a comeback.

The sharp decline in bat population is due largely to a bat fungus, called "White-Nose Syndrome". The fungus was first detected in New York State in 2006 and is thought to have originated in Europe, where bats seem to have immunity to it,

according to many articles on the topic

. The fungus appears as powdery white on a bat’s face, wings and skin, typically appearing as a white ring around the nose. It causes the bat to wake up in the middle of winter hibernation and therefore use up its reserve energy and die.

Since 2006, the fungus has

spread to 20 states

, mostly in the eastern United States. An estimated 6 million bats have been lost in North America so far due to the fungus, with some agencies asking that bat species once considered common now be considered endangered.

But why all the fuss? Simple: Bats are important predators of agricultural pests. One estimate suggests that North American bats help avoid more than $3.7 billion in lost crops and pesticide costs every year — and the number may be as high as

$53 billion a year

.

Bats also are predators of night flying insects such as moths and mosquitoes which I'm sure we can all appreciate—especially if you live in the North Country!

One of the residents chased a bat out of the Art Barn several weeks ago, which we all took as a great sign some bats had come back to the farm. Then a few days ago, one of the dogs here took interest in something on the wraparound deck. When I walked over to the spot, I saw a bunch of what appeared to be mouse droppings:

Seemed strange for there to be mouse droppings collected in one outdoors spot. Then I looked up and saw our two bathouses, which have been unoccupied since 2008:

Some basic searches online showed that what I mistook as mouse droppings were actually bat droppings—proof-positive the bats have returned to take up lodging at Better Farm.

First Annual Farm to Table Dinner Party Sept. 26

Better Farm's First Annual Farm-to-Table Dinner Party is slated for 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26.

The four-course meal (salad, soup, main course, and dessert) will utilize 100-percent locally sourced ingredients. All produce will be from Better Farm's garden, with locally caught game. Guests may choose vegan, vegetarian, or omnivorous plates. Seating will be outdoors, weather permitting.

As this is our first farm-to-table event, attendance is limited to the first 20 RSVPs we receive. Menu choices will be sent out to guests, who can then choose their plates. Cost for this dinner is $22, payable via Paypal.

To RSVP, please email info@betterfarm.org. Better Farm is located at 31060 Cottage Hill Road, Redwood, N.Y. 13679.

Better Radio: Update

Better Radio is a step closer to becoming a reality.

We

reported back in 2010

that the Senate approved the

Local Community Radio Act

,

a bill that expanded radio stations for Low Power FM and which mandated the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to license virtually thousands of new stations.

Since then,

betterArts

achieved its 501(c)3 status as an non-profit educational organization. This characterization allows the Redwood-based, arts outreach group to apply for grants and conduct fundraising efforts that fuel free and low-cost arts education, outreach, events, and much much more. The group's latest effort is "Better Radio"; a radio station and educational program based out of

Better Farm

that

works in multiple ways

to increase access to the arts for all while simultaneously providing the community's youth with New Media education.

The proposed station will work in two ways

:

ONE:

Better Radio will help advance betterArts' mission of increasing access to the arts and culture in the North Country and beyond by offering the following broadcasts:

• An eclectic mix of musical broadcasts (vintage vinyl, new music, pop, jazz, funk, rock, and classical tracs, and the promotion of local bands through interviews, live performances, and tracks off new albums)

• Storytelling segments with different members of the community

• "Art of Gardening" podcasts with tips on how to have a green thumb

• Art and events calendar items punctuated by interviews with musicians, bands, painters, and gallery curators

• Feature segments on sustainability issues, DIY projects, instructables, and green living

• Interviews with prominent members of the community

• Live music and spoken-word performances

TWO:

Better Ra

dio will provide educational outreach to high school students in and around the

North Country region with an interest in New Media, Journalism, Production, Editing Software, Music Mi

xing, and Broadcast.

Better Radio will function as a lab for high school students to learn how to do the following:

• Create podcasts

• Mix and record music digitally

• Record interviews digitally, use editing software to polish the interviews, and play on-air

• Create radio programming

• Create setlists of music

• Conduct on-air interviews, performances, and other programming

• Report local news and weather

In conjunction with betterArts' application to create a radio station, the group has

also

applied for a

Best Buy Community Grant

that would afford much of the necessary equipment to be utilized in this project. Better Radio will work with teachers, parents, community members, and high school faculty to find students interested in new media, journalism, music, and performance work; and will create an after-school and summer program in which students help to run Better Radio. Better Radio would allow for the creative expression of people within the community of Redwood and surrounding areas (storytellers, farmers, others who would be the focus of business and feature pieces); as well as allowing for young students in the community to learn technological skills that will help them be more competitive as college applicants and new members of the job force.

The

application will b

e filed with the FCC on

our around Oct. 15, and the Be

st Buy Grant will be announced later this mon

th. Better

Arts hopes to have the station up and running by Summer 2014. Oh, and did we mention we'll be including

all the podcasts and interviews online as well through the

blog

and

website

for all

to enjoy?

More updates to come!

To get involved with this project, please cont

act betterArts at info@betterarts.org. For more informatio

n about the work betterArts does, please visit

www.betterarts.org

.

Enjoy the Multiple Benefits of Using Green Printing for Commercial Purposes

The present commercial world is highly dependent on different kinds of useful online printing, which includes absolutely attractive and eco-friendly images or graphics. 

Use the latest technology of online printing to create outstanding colorful pictures within a few seconds. Some of the most essential printing products—manufactured with the help of this kind of printing—include posters, greeting cards, brochures, business cards, poster cards, rack cards, booklets, letterheads, labels, stickers, vinyl banners and lots more. These printed products are made in the most efficient manner providing the maximum satisfaction to the clients. Online Printing Services at 4over4.com can give you the better view of the most useful effects of this kind of advanced printing and will provide you with the necessary details about the significance of online printing in the modern commercial world. 

This kind of printing is majorly conducted by some expert professionals like creative photographers and graphic designers. Outdoor banners are considered as one of the most encouraging and influencing means of modern advertisements. These colorful and printed banners are mostly required for dragging the attention of maximum people from the targeted community. These banners are normally created by means of digital printing which is created by the use of animation oriented graphics and designs. The ink cartridges which are used in online printing can be easily recycled and contain petroleum bases, fluorescent and metallic inks, vegetable and soy based inks and others. 

Check out the Outdoor Banners and that will give you a proper view on how printed commercial banners can be made with the help of effective online printing. You can create different patterns and sizes of printed banners for using them in different commercial purposes like product promotion, event management and many more. The banner materials must be selected properly in order to increase the longevity and durability of these banners.

Save the Honey Bees!

A world without bees?! Bees have been around for years pollinating all the plants and vegetables we eat; but now the bees are dying off because farmers are using chemicals on the plants bees take pollen from. There have been reports about hives just disappearing, a travesty called colony-collapse disorder (CCD). CCD can be caused by pesticides or increased losses due to the invasive varroa mite (a pest of honeybees).
For the last 16 years, thousands of scientists have struggled to figure out why more than a third of commercial beehives have disappeared at a rate of more than 1 million colonies annually. Seemingly healthy communities fly off never to return. The queen bee and mother of the hive is abandoned to starve and die. “This is the biggest general threat to our food supply,” said Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s bee and pollination program, in a 2012 interview with Reuters.

From Reuters:

But three new studies point an accusing finger at a culprit that many have suspected all along, a class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids. In the U.S. alone, these pesticides, produced primarily by the German chemical giant Bayer and known as “neonics” for short, coat a massive 142 million acres of corn, wheat, soy and cotton seeds. They are also a common ingredient in home gardening products. Research published last year in  Science shows that neonics are absorbed by plants’ vascular system and contaminate the pollen and nectar that bees encounter on their rounds. They are a nerve poison that disorient their insect victims and appear to damage the homing ability of bees, which may help to account for their mysterious failure to make it back to the hive.

Another study, published in the American Chemical Society’s Environmental Science and Technology journal, implicated neonic-containing dust released into the air at planting time with “lethal effects compatible with colony losses phenomena observed by beekeepers.”

Purdue University entomologists observed bees at infected hives exhibiting tremors, uncoordinated movement and convulsions, all signs of acute insecticide poisoning. And yet another study conducted by scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health actually re-created colony collapse disorder in several honeybee hives simply by administering small doses of a popular neonic, imidacloprid.

But scientists believe that exposure to toxic pesticides is only one factor that has led to the decline of honey bees in recent years. The destruction and fragmentation of bee habitats, as a result of land development and the spread of monoculture agriculture, deprives pollinators of their diverse natural food supply. This has already led to the extinction of a number of wild bee species. The planting of genetically modified organism (GMO) crops – some of which now contain toxic insecticides within their genetic structure – may also be responsible for poisoning bees and weakening their immune systems.

Farmers put chemicals all over their plants without giving a thought to the fact local honey bees are going to pollinate them and take on the sprayed chemicals. 

Honey bees pollinate a lot of the food we grow at Better Farm, like apples, asparagus, and onions. We're going to take the bee issue on head-first by constructing some honey bee boxes to attract these beneficial insects and encourage them to make a comeback. By keeping a healthy community of bees in our own backyard, we can help to repopulate the insects in this neck of the woods—and ensure them a healthy food supply with organic plants that won't hurt them. We'll start constructing bee houses this fall in the hopes that by spring there will be some additional buzzing around the garden.

If this sort of thing interests you, there are plenty of very simple designs for buliding honey bee boxes that will attract these critters to your gardens and yards.

Here's the design we're considering, courtesy of Wikihow:

Click here for more ideas.

Delicious, Nutritious, Homemade (and Homegrown) PIerogies

After harvesting a mountain of potatoes last week, we set about making a Last Supper for the final summer crop of artists-in-residence and intern that included homemade pierogies stuffed with homegrown food like potatoes, leeks, and fresh herbs.

Pierogies are a traditional central and eastern European dish of dumplings stuffed with any combination of foods (often potato-based, but variations on the recipe can include just about anything you can dream up). Here's the basic recipe we followed, but you should feel adventurous enough to add your own twist anywhere you see fit.

Homemade Pierogie Recipe
 
Ingredients
Makes 12-15 pierogies

• 2 cups flour, plus extra for kneading and rolling dough
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 c. sour cream, plus extra to serve with the pierogie (we used vegan sour cream)
• 1/4 c. butter or butter replacer, softened and cut into small pieces
• butter and onions for sauteing (we used leeks instead of onions)
• ingredients for filling of your choice (we used potato, leeks, fresh herbs, and finely diced crimini mushrooms)

Preparation:

Pierogie Dough
To prepare the pierogie dough, mix together the flour and salt. Beat the egg, then add all at once to the flour mixture. Add the 1/2 cup sour cream and the softened butter pieces and work until the dough loses most of its stickiness (about 5-7 minutes). Cover the dough and allow it to sit at least 20 minutes (overnight is fine too—the dough can be kept in your fridge for up to two days).
Filling
Peel and boil 5 large potatoes until soft. While the potatoes boil, prepare the other ingredients. We finely chopped our leeks, mushrooms, fresh herbs, and garlic, and sauteed in olive oil until the garlic and leeks were translucent. Smash the potatoes and mix them with your otehr filling ingredients (you can also add cheese here if you so desire). Add salt and pepper to taste. Let the potato mixture cool and then form into 1" balls.

Prepping Your Pierogies
Roll out the dough with a rolling pin on a floured surface until the dough is only 1/8" thick. Use a drinking glass to cut circles of dough (2" for small pierogies and 3 1/2" for large pierogies). Place a small ball of filling (about a tablespoon) on each dough round and fold the dough over, forming a semi-circle. Press the edges together with the tines of a fork or your fingers.

 
Boil the perogies a few at a time in a large pot of water. They are done when they float to the top (about 8-10 minutes). Rinse in cool water and let dry.

Saute chopped onions (or leeks) in butter or butter replacer in a large pan until soft. Add pierogies and pan fry until lightly crispy. Serve with a side of sour cream, jam, or any other toppings you like.

Stunning Sculptural Work of betterArts Resident Natalie Collette Wood

Natalie Collette Wood is an artist living in New York City who  joined us at Better Farm for two weeks as a betterArts artist-in-residence. During her time at Better Farm, Natalie experimented with sculpture and collage, using found objects, spray paint, foam, and metal to create abstract pieces that hang from the ceiling or wall and beg the viewer to engage with the work.
While at Better Farm, Natalie also participated in community outreach activities like the recent EFMP Wellness Expo, where she held mini-workshops with children and taught them how to make huge, 3-dimensional butterflies out of cardboard, masking tape, and paint. She also constructed large, pink flowers for our amazing parade float at Redwood Field Days.

Natalie grew up in Las Vegas, earned her BFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and went on to earn her MFA from Herbert H. Leman College in the City University of New York. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions across the world, including the Takt Gallery in Berlin, Germany, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture Gallery in Umbria, Italy. 


-->Here's her artist's statement: 
My current body of work, titled Something Told Me It Was Over, investigates the relationship between abstraction, identity, and the virtual age. In an age of rapidly growing technology, war, and natural disasters our environment and identity have begun to change before our eyes. I am interested in the sublime moment when things start to fall apart and structure and chaos dance. My collages use abstraction, the landscape, and personal experience to create a visual diary.

I work with synthetic materials as a symbol of American culture and my childhood growing up in Las Vegas. As a child I became fascinated with the fabrication and facades casinos create. I use a combination of materials such as fashion magazines, acrylic paint, spray-paint, enamel, glass beads, shredded tires, sand, mica, pumice, and glitter to create vividly colored worlds that are falling apart through their own facade. The collages have become a visual record that combines my personal experiences, abstraction, and the landscape together. The materials I choose have their own weight and collage becomes a way for me to manipulate them and deconstruct their properties.

The sculptures are made from found plastic objects, wire, sequins, and wood. They hang from the ceiling and reference floating biomorphic creatures created from their surroundings.

Inspired by systems, networks, and hybrid forms the paintings and sculptures have been a continuation of my exploration into the relationship between abstraction and the virtual age.

Here are some photos of Natalie and her finished pieces:

 

 

To learn more about Natalie and see additional pieces, click here. To find out more about betterArts' residency program, click here.

Four-Year Reflection: What a Difference Mulching Makes

Better Farm's vegetable garden, August 2009.

Better Farm's vegetable garden, August 2013.

Mulch gardening is a great way to turn hard-to-love soil into rich black gold—and to prove the worthiness of this organic method, I'm going to walk you through my experiences with the clay-rich soil of the North Country—and how mulch gardening turned a hayed, nutritionally depleted field into a lush vegetable and fruit garden.


I moved to Better Farm in June of 2009; a period of time during which there were a few raised flower beds on the property, two acres of mowed lawn, dense forest all around, and roughly 8 acres of fields that were hayed twice yearly for consumption by a neighboring farm's cows.

In August of that year, I wandered out into the side yard of the farm and began staking out a 20' x 24' rectangle that would, I hoped, turn into a garden. Of course, I instantly broke a trowel and then a shovel trying to get into that clay-rich soil:

I'd spent that summer up here researching various organic gardening methods that utilized principles of permaculture and composting, and found that the style I was most intrigued by was Ruth Stout's mulch gardening technique. In her book, How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back, Stout exhalts a direct-compost and haying method that minimizes weeding, removes the need for artificial fertilizers and pesticides, promotes abundant growth, makes use of items many others would consider trash, and takes away the sometimes laborious task of keeping a compost pile or bin that needs to be turned, shoveled, and cared for.

I know, sounds too good to be true. But the thing is, that lady was right-on.

Once you've staked out your plot, it's time to start treating the soil. This can start instantly, and will continue even long after crops are planted. The idea here is to avoid the cost of buying fresh mulch, and the maintenance of a compost bin that needs regular attention, turning, and so on. What Stout recommends is essentially turning your plot of land into an ongoing compost/mulch pit. That means raked leaves, grass clippings, a little wood ash from a fire, and food scraps can all get dumped directly on the soil and left alone. So long as you don't throw stuff like meat scraps into this ongoing mulch situation, you can rest fairly assured that you won't have too many critters contending for these scraps. Starting with a barrier of cardboard will ensure you kill the weeds below.

As the summer of 2009 turned to autumn, I composted all I could and began saving cardboard for my new mulch garden. And when spring came in 2010, I worked with some friends to get wooden posts (donated by a neighbor in Plessis) into the ground for fencing.

 

With the garden (a much larger than originally planned, 85' x 100') staked out, I worked with the people at Better Farm to make some rows in accordance with Ruth Stout's directives. And lo and behold, it worked!

Now, in the first year of mulch gardening, chances are you're not going to have all that much compost, cardboard, and decomposing hay to work with. The truth is, it isn't until your third or fourth year that you'll really see how you're transforming the dirt you're working on top of. So let's fast-forward to see the transformation:

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

All of these images were taken at roughly the same time of the season, and you can really see the improvement as far as weed control, lushness, size of the produce, and the organization of our crops. Of course, a huge amount of this is due to the diligence of our Sustainability Education Students, our volunteers, and staff; in addition, having a solid, healthy template of fertile soil makes everybody's life a whole lot easier.

But really, about that dirt. Look at what hard, clay soil turns into with a little mulching:

To learn more about mulch gardening, click here. To schedule a one-on-one or group workshop on the subject, call (315) 482-2536 or email info@betterfarm.org.

The Voice of betterArts Resident Kareema Bee

Kareema Bee is a New York City-based poet and filmmaker who stayed at Better Farm for the last two weeks through the betterArts Residency Program to work on her poetry and learn about farming and gardening.

The culmination of Kareema's work was a series of poems, several of which she read last Friday at a combined art show, poetry reading, and graduation ceremony in Better Farm's Art Barn. She put one piece to music (performed by our own Mike Brown) and created a video montage of images and film from her stay here, which is posted at the top of this blog.

Here are some photos Kareema took during her stay:

Here's a bit more about Kareema, gleaned from her website:

A native of the Bronx and Mt. Vernon, Kareema Bee has been writing since the age of 6 when she wrote her first short story. She wrote her first song at 7, her first play at 9, and her first poem at 10 years old. She has reached her peers and community by performing in many shows, choreographing step routines, and emceeing others.

At 12, she won a radio show poetry contest beating out 12,000 other participants. At 15, her first poem was published and her first demo was recorded. She was also chosen to host her first poetry slam. At 16, Kareema became a member of American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) for writing and publishing her own music. She has written and acted in two New York City Housing Authority musicals and was also a semi-finalist in McDonald's Annual Gospelfest. 

At 17, she was the winner of the "Bronx Idol" talent competition.

At 18, Kareema won SUNY Albany's poetry slam contest with guest performer, Def Jam Poet Mayda DelValle. While attending, she was also very active by creating programs to raise awarness in the local community and on her campus such as her television show called 'What's the 411?' , which she executive produced, wrote, and directed.

As a member of local performance troupe Too Deep Entertainment, she has performed at Albany's Palace Theatre, along with a list of other venues, and has lent her writing talents to many of their productions.

Upon finishing her masters at Syracuse University, Kareema directed, acted in, and wrote her first film called, "In This Mind of Mine", which chronicles a day through her mind, only expressed in poetry.

She hopes to one day have her own private company that will allow her to create content to inspire people.

To learn more about Kareema, click here. For more information about the betterArts Residency Program, click here.

Spuds Speak

Fresh, organic potatoes from the garden!

If you're short on space but love spuds, growing potatoes vertically is a great option. We've blogged in the past about a simple vertical setup utilizing tires (click here for that information); so today we'll go over the harvesting process.

As the potatoes grew, we stacked tires and added dead leaves, sawdust, woodchips, and hay around the plants until just the tops of the plants poked out. Potatoes love loose, loamy soil; so a mix of leaves, sawdust, hay, and woodchips give the tubers plenty of space and nourishment. Now four and five tires high, we've been waiting until the leaves began to die off—a sign that the potatoes are ripe for picking.

Here's a potato plant just begging to be dug out:

To start, I removed the top tire and put the compost materials in a wagon to be carted over to our three-tiered compost bin. I was careful to shake out the compostables to ensure I wasn't overlooking any young potatoes (usually you don't start running into spuds until you've taken at least three tires off your stack). Here's a slideshow of me removing layer by layer, making sure not to waste any of the primo compost matter I'm taking out of the tires—by spring, this will be lush potting soil! Thanks Katie Mollica for being the photographer for this instructable:

Once at the bottom tire, I took the full stem of the potato plant and tossed that into the compost pile as well:

Now we get to the good stuff. The bottom layer is nothing but thick, rich earth that is like Miracle Gro on (all-organic) steroids:

 

It's in this black gold that you find your treasures: gorgeous potatoes that are perfect for home fries, smashed potatoes, potato-leek soup, or... homemade pierogies (stay tuned!):

We offer one-on-one and group workshops year-round in sustainability, alternative growing practices, and gardening tips. To set up an appointment, please call (315) 482-2536 or email info@betterfarm.org.

Gardens Go Gangbusters!

Better Farm's organic vegetable patch.

After a very cold May, unbelievably wet June, and up-and-down July, the plants at Better Farm enjoyed a lovely August that encouraged abundant growth in the gardens. All the fuss the sustainability students went through to keep the squash bugs at bay, replant pole and bush beans that drowned in record-setting rainfalls, and nurture, mulch, and steward the herb, aquaponic, vegetable, and fruit crops finally paid off with a garden more plentiful, productive, and healthy than ever before.

Now the bounty's in full swing—and if you'd like to get in on all the organic deliciousness of the season, all you have to do is stop in at our farm stand or call ahead to make a custom order for pick-up or delivery. Here's a photo tour of just some of what's growing:


Rainbow Swiss Chard:

Imperial Artichokes:

Beets, Zucchini, String Beans, Cherry Tomatoes, Broccoli:

From left Kale, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Buttercrunch Lettuce, Tomatoes, Zucchinis:

Leeks in foreground, Peppers in background, and at right Asparagus and Arugula:

From left are Pole Beans, Beets, Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage, Broccoli, Kale:

 

String Beans:

 

Onions, Heirloom Tomatoes, String Beans, Cherry Tomatoes, Jalapenos, and more:

Broccoli:

Rainbow Swiss Chard:

Cherry Tomatoes:

Pumpkins:

Sugar Baby Watermelons:

Okra:

Zucchini:

Carrots:

Kale:

Tomatoes, Zucchinis, Kale, String Beans, Sugar Baby Watermelon, and Buttercrunch Lettuce at the Farm Stand:

 

To schedule a farm tour or make a custom or bulk order, please call (315) 482-2536 or email info@betterfarm.org.

Movin' on Up!

Baby Barred Rock/Ameraucana hatchlings hang outside under a heatlamp Tuesday night.

It was almost two months ago when our first hatchling appeared out of an egg inside the incubator we set up at Better Farm. 

On Tuesday, that Barred Rock/Ameraucana bird—along with his or her seven brothers and sisters—moved on up from a metal trough indoors to outdoor surroundings in a chicken tractor that utilizes a heat lamp at night to help the babies acclimate to their cooler surroundings.

Here are the babies around a week old:

And here they are yesterday, running around in their new chicken tractor:

All eight baby birds appear perfectly healthy, and are enjoying their piece of the pie! The chicks are exploring the very new experience of grazing on their grassy underfootings, catching moths, flies, and other bugs out of the air, and seeing the whole world for the first time. By day, they're learning to use perches and scratch for grubs; by night, they lay under the heat lamp in a huddle and make low chirping sounds.

For those of you raising your own chicks, you don't want to put them outside until their "adult" feathers have come in—and you don't want to introduce them to the rest of the flock until their voices lose the chirpiness of chicks and adjust to the warble of adult hens and roosters (usually around three or four months). It's best to time your egg hatching accordingly so the birds can acclimate to outdoor temperatures in a healthy way.

Want to learn more about backyard birdkeeping, or visit with these wonderful creatures? Give us a call at (315) 482-2536.