Land of the Long White Cloud
Text and photos Keith Stewart
I GREW UP IN NEW ZEALAND, which is about as far from New York as you can get, unless you’re a penguin coming up from Antarctica. When done with college,
Locally Grown
Keeping Things Running Down on the Farm
Keith Stewart
IN 1986, MY GIRLFRIEND and I bought an 88-acre dairy farm in Greenville, in western Orange County. We packed our few belongings into an old Dodge Dart and left the canyon
Locally Grown: Why Organic?
Keith Stewart
FIFTY YEARS AGO, organic farming was, at best, laughed off as a joke by the agricultural establishment (the land-grant colleges and federal and state departments of agriculture). At worst, it
Locally Grown: Deer Defense
Keith Stewart
IN ANY SOCIAL GATHERING WITH PEOPLE I know who don’t make a living growing vegetables, I’m invariably hit with a few gardening questions: What’s causing the dark spots on the
A Dark Road to Take: Climate Change From a Farmer’s Eyes
Keith Stewart
HAVE YOU NOTICED? It’s getting warmer: 2016 was the hottest year on record for planet Earth—2015 was the next hottest, and 2014 the next. Three in a row! Where I
Murder in the Coop
Keith Stewart
ON AVERAGE, WE HAVE about 20 chickens living on the farm at any one time. Most are hens, though we always keep one or two roosters to maintain the natural
Community Supported Agriculture
Valley Table Staff
COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE (CSA) projects are an increasingly popular way for consumers to gain direct access to fresh, seasonal produce. A new Hudson Valley CSA Coalition facilitated by the Cold
The Legacy of Mohonk
Keith Stewart
A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, I was invited by the head gardener at Mohonk Mountain House, just outside of New Paltz (Ulster County), to talk to the hotel’s guests about heirloom
For Want of Sheep
Keith Stewart
AFTER AN ABSENCE OF FOUR months, spent mostly in Ohio, George has come back to the farm for another season. We are glad to have him. His sprightly manner, boundless enthusiasm
When It All Goes Wrong
Keith Stewart
A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO, I paid a neighbor with an excavator to dig a hole six feet deep in some fallow land behind the pond. Then, with grim resolve,
Buying a Farm
Keith Stewart
WHEN MY GIRLFRIEND AND I set out to buy a farm 23 years ago, we had only a vague notion of what we were looking for—having lived in New York
Farming Under Cover: High Tunnels, Low Tunnels and Greenhouses
Keith Stewart
IN DECEMBER, JUST BEFORE THE GROUND froze, we started building our second high tunnel. It will be an imposing structure: 96 feet long, 30 feet wide and over 13 feet
Trees On The Farm
Keith Stewart
ONE OF THE NICE THINGS about owning a piece of land is that you can plant trees on it. When the work is done, you can stand back and conjure
Cover crops and green manure
Keith Stewart
THE MORE I FARM, the more I appreciate cover crops and green manures. Though they don’t go to market with us and are therefore never seen by our customers, these
City Farmers, Urban Agriculture
Keith Stewart
IN MARCH OF THIS YEAR, I was invited to be a speaker and panelist at an Urban Agriculture Conference hosted by the Horticultural Society of New York. At first, I
When It Rains
Keith Stewart
AFTER A CHALLENGING SUMMER with surprising fluctuations in weather and too many hungry deer, we were banking on a congenial fall with plenty to harvest and bring to market. We
High Times For Garlic
Keith Stewart
GARLIC IS OUR SIGNATURE CROP and it has been for 20 years. It is, to a large extent, the crop on which our farm’s identity and reputation rest. Because we
Winter Harvest
Keith Stewart
FOR MOST VEGETABLE GROWERS, early fall is the season of choice. If we’ve planned and planted well and mother nature has not thrown any serious curve balls our way, we
