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Locally Grown

Murder in the Coop

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trees On The Farm

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

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

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

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

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

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

What is in a seed

YOU HEAR THE WORD HEIRLOOM tossed around a lot these days, not referring to handed-down relics (like your great grandmother’s pearl necklace or Victorian footstool), but referring to food, especially

The Farm As Art

WHEN I MOVED FROM NEW YORK CITY to Orange County in 1986, I was excited about painting the local landscape, so refreshingly different from the tall buildings and crowded streets

Generation Next

A COUPLE OF MONTHS AGO, I ATTENDED A SCREENING of Growing Farmers, a short film about the new generation of farmers on Long Island and the challenges they face. After the

Drinking it Raw at Freedom Hill

PROPONENTS OF RAW MILK GENERALLY ACKNOWLEDGE that pasteurization may eliminate bad bacteria and make milk a little safer to drink. But they also argue that the heat applied during pasteurization kills

The Busyness of Bees

LAST FALL , A PART-TIME BEEKEEPER AND long-time customer at our Manhattan Greenmarket stand asked me if he could bring a couple of active hives from his rooftop aviary in

Hudson Valley Restaurant Week is back this April 8-21!