Community-Supported Agriculture for the Upper Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont
2012 Signups Underway!
(NOTE: We’ll be opening up the CSA to new members on March 3rd. Right now we’re only re-subscribing members from last year. If you’d like to be on our email waiting list, send me an .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Thanks.)
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February 14, 2012
Dear Sunrise CSA Shareholders from 2011:
A few years ago, I was out on the tractor on March 31st starting the spring plowing. That seemed impossibly early. At the current rate of snow melt, though, I might be out there by the end of February this year. Of course, if I did that, it would immediately bring on a 3-foot blizzard.
Maybe I should do it just to see what happens.
My big project this winter has been building a new woods road up to the beautiful, high hill above the farm. I have just about finished cutting the wood off, and the excavator will start this week if the weather stays unchanged. This route will provide a neat hike – maybe 45 minutes round trip – for those of you next summer with time to spare on a pickup day. The view of Ascutney and Sumner’s Falls is magnificent. Besides that, maple tapping starts this week, sheep shearing the week after that, and lambing right after that. Spring is going to come regardless of what winter decides.
Which means it’s time to start thinking CSA. This is the official email to start signups for you returning shareholders. Like last year, I’ll make sure you have a few weeks to sign up before I go to the waiting list in March.
My main focus this year is going to be on… vegetables. But wait, haven’t we always been focused on vegetables? Yes, but we’ve also used our time the past few years to build the barn addition and increase the animal holdings. This year the focus is on fine-tuning the vegetable side of things, like optimizing the use of our new walk-in cooler and washing facilities, improving the free-choice system, experimenting with some new varieties, etc. I’m excited to see what new ideas and techniques we come up with. I’ve hired two strapping young lads to help with the effort, both of whom have farm experience and both of whom want to run their own farms some day. We’ll see if two people is enough to replace Norah.
We’ll still have meat offerings, along with eggs, raw milk, cheese, and a variety of other items. We’re going to partner with the Benson family in Norwich – longtime members of the farm before their own gardens and coops became sufficient – to provide us with fresh eggs every week. I’ll send more details on this and more once the CSA is filled up next month.
CSA share details: the share price this year will be $550, up $15 from last year. We’re going to boldly attempt to go 23 weeks this year, starting the week of May 14th and running through October 18th. This will end up being two weeks longer than last year. Given the copious asparagus we now have in early May, and the mild weather we’ve been having in the autumn, I think we can pull it off. Pickup days and times will be the same: Mondays or Thursdays, 11 AM to 6 PM.
Email back when you have a chance to confirm your spot for 2012 (or to let me know you won’t be joining us again.) We have a long waiting list at the moment, and I’ll open it up for new folks on March 3rd. Let me know if you prefer Mondays or Thursdays as your regular day. And then send a check (either a $300 deposit or the full $550) to Sunrise Farm, 270 Orizzonto Road, WRJ, VT 05001.
Thanks, and see you soon!
—Chuck
Deer, Tracks and Ticks
February 9, 2012
One of my favorite parts of winter is leaving the farm fields behind and striking out into the woods. The open part of the farm, where I spend most of my time, is the ecological exception while the oak/pine woods that fully surround the pasture are the rule. I’ve been out where the deer are.
Just west of the pasture, there is a very steep hillside that rises about 800 feet from the Ottauquechee to the top of the ridge. It is very difficult to traverse this hillside because it has lots of loose talus and steep ledges. The deer do it, however, because it links their main deer yard (to the west) with the farm pasture to the east. Last spring, on the first day that the snow began to melt from the fields, we counted 54 deer in our field, most of whom had traversed this hillside to reach the first seasonal shoots.
There are places where the deer have worn trails across this slope - catwalks, basically, as much as 12” wide. Deer hooves are soft, but they’ve presumably been traversing this cliff for more than 3,000 years, so they’ve had some time to work the trails in. The trails are like braided streams that come and go as the deer converge and diverge from various directions, often diverted from their paths by fallen logs.
Last summer, in an effort to make it easier for humans (and one loyal, 12-year-old, arthritic dog) to make this same traverse, I cleared away some of this debris and trimmed back some branches. My idea was to link the best of these deer catwalks into an informal trail that I could use to access the main ridge to the west. No sooner had I done this, of course, then the deer began to prefer this route, too. I walked the trail this past week and was amazed to see it looking like a regular hiking trail, with the leaves either worn away or pressed down flat. The deer have become the regular maintenance crew.
Not that they have needed access the farm pasture this winter. With so little snow, there’s good browse everywhere.
Final note: when I returned home, Sue found the first deer tick of the year on Maizey. As if missing ski season weren’t enough of a downer…
—Chuck
Paperwork
January 31, 2012
January, the month of paperwork here on the farm, is coming to an end. The payroll tax forms have been mailed, the budget for the coming season is nearly done, and the main seed order is in the mail. Johnny’s Seeds in Maine is my primary supplier, though I also buy from High Mowing Seeds in Vermont (to support the home team) and from Fedco in Maine (because you can’t help but love the quirky approach of the folks at Fedco.) I do wish, though, that Fedco would get with the program more, at least as it’s been defined by the other seed companies. Most companies sell seeds by the ounce while Fedco does it by the gram. Most companies list the crops in alphabetical order while Fedco lists by family. It’s all fun and funky if you’re only using the Fedco catalog, but if you’ve got a half dozen catalogs open on your desk and you’re trying to compare prices and quantities, it’s a major pain in the top round roast.
(I try to be more anatomically accurate now that I’m learning more about butchering.)
The tab for seeds this year, not counting cover crops, was $1,790. For comparison:
2012: $1,790
2011: $1,271
2010: $1,095
2009: $1,354
There’s some variation from year to year, since I save varying amounts of leftover seed, but sheesh! This is almost 50% inflation, and I haven’t done anything fundamentally different. All four years are for 120 shares.
All is well on the lamb front. We’re holding at a half dozen early birds, with the main group not expected until mid-March. We’re out of the woods, at least for the moment.
I’ll be posting more details about our CSA and meat offerings for 2012 in the next few weeks. Meantime, send me an .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) if you’d like to be on my email list for later in February.
—Chuck
Whoops - Lambs!
Año, born on New year's Day, with his Mom, Ketchum
January 10, 2012
I heard from a friend a few weeks ago that her flock had unexpectedly started lambing over Christmas. “Ah, rookie mistake,” I thought to myself, feeling no small measure of pride that I’d survived my rookie years without any such mishap.
So it was only fitting that, when I went out to feed the ewes on New Year’s morning, I saw a pair of small, black ears sticking up from a pile of shavings in the corner, ears that were attached to a dry and well-fed lamb that hustled away from me as I approached. It’s never too late for a rookie mistake.
By now, we have a half dozen lambs cavorting in the barn, all having survived their births quite nicely despite the sometimes sub-zero weather. I’ve been giving an ample ration of grain to the mothers to make sure that there’s plenty of milk available to keep the little guys and gals well fed and warm. The lambs are a hoot – no less fun and energetic for having been born in the cold depths of winter.
We left the un-castrated ram lambs in for too long last summer, it seems, and are now reaping this unexpectedly early harvest. This helps explain why the magnificent Dorset ram we bought last fall seemed less busy than I had hoped. Fortunately, the bulk of the flock was not affected, and we still seem to be on track for normal lambing in March for everyone else.
Beyond that, all is quiet on the farm. Most of the action is in front of the computer, where the budget for 2012 and the seed order are taking shape. That and in front of the wood boiler, where even more heat is being generated. Details about the CSA and meat offerings for the coming year will be up shortly.
Chuck