Hi everyone and welcome to the farm’s seventh season. The schedule for this year will be the same as it has been for the last two:

Friday 10 – 6
Saturday 10 – 6
Sunday 10 – 4
(Note: The stand will be open on Monday, July 4th from 10 – 4)

As those of you who live in the area know, the weather this spring has been kind of interesting, and it hasn’t behaved itself very well, given that the low temp on Monday morning was 36F. So, yeah, it’s been fun times dealing with things like that, as well as the unforecast hard freeze we had earlier in the spring that wound up killing off virtually the entire first plantings of Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Cabbage, plus about 500 flowers that I was going to be using to decorate around the stand. That said, more plants were started and planted, so things are rolling along, though some things may be a little late.

On the happier side of things, the Sweet Corn I planted seems to be doing well (knock on wood), though mine won’t be ready until at least near the end of July, if not some time in August. Additionally, I have planted a whole bunch of flowers to make bunches of cut flowers this season, but I’m not going to promise them given the strange weather we’ve already seen.

While at the wholesale market recently, I inquired about availability and pricing going into the summer. The not unexpected news is that the prices will be higher and some items will have generally lower availability than in the past. So to keep up to date please be sure to check the What’s Available page to see what I am harvesting, as well as what I got from other farms. As usual I will have my Preserves, plus Maple Syrup and Honey.

The laying hens have all settled in and are doing their usual chicken things (basically getting into whatever mischief they can). The first round of broiler chickens are now just over 3 weeks old, so they’ll be ready some time around the middle of July. There will be a gap in availability with the fresh whole chickens this year, as I won’t be getting the second round of birds until August 1st, which means they won’t be ready until mid to late September. This is as much a function of timing, as it is the short supply of hatched birds. As of right now, I will only be getting the two batches of broiler chickens.

As usually happens, within 48 hours of the chickens arriving on the farm I was visited by a red fox, and a small group of coyotes. They were encouraged via high-speed projectile to leave and not return. So far, so good. I also had a juvenile bear come by and try to break into one of the outbuildings, presumably to find a place to stay. It was also shooed away and has yet to return, though I am keeping an eye out for it, because it had no problem coming right up close to the house.

I guess that’s about it for this update. Looking forward to seeing all of you at the farm stand. Have a great week.