Below is the most recent news from the Lewis Waite Farm! A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to stop by the farm (you can see a few of the pictures on the flickr bar above and this one left). The haying was in full swing at this time, David and I witnessed a pig feeding frenzy, and got a spectacular tour of the grounds (not to mention some dinosaur-sized cucumbers and green peppers from Nancy’s garden!). It’s a beautiful farm and Nancy and Alan say they are always open to visitors (with beds or camping space to spare!). I highly recommend going out to the farm if you get the chance one weekend and taking a look around. Just give a call ahead! News from the farm follows…

The haying is finally done! The last bale put in the barn. It is ironic that
the season began quite late when the early summer rains would not quit, and
now we wind up the last of the haying in a drought. The ground is very dry.
The grass on the hills where the soil is rocky and thin is burnt and brown.
Certain patches of the pastures seem green but re-growth after the last
trimming by the cows is very slow to come back. All the seasonal streams are
dry and the streams that generally run all year seem a trickle of their
former selves. Luckily we have 2 ponds to use for emergency watering.
Today’s forecast included rain but we have yet to see a rain cloud looming.
Garden seeds planted for fall crops of carrots, beets, lettuce, kale and
kohlrabi are barely germinating. Let’s hope for a couple of days of steady
light rains to jump-start our transition to fall. The leaves of some of the
trees in dry locations are starting to turn their fall colors and falling.
This is the end of the dog days of summer. The good thing is that the
tomatoes love it, our swimming in our pond and tubing on the Battenkill are
extended, and there is plenty of warm weather to come before the chilly winds
begin.

The Washington County Fair was a lot of fun and brought a series of visitors
to the farm. My sister Beverly and my niece Laura came for the week and we
went to the fair 3 times! I’m the only one who will go on any rides with
Laura and luckily there are some she will ride herself. We also had a visit
from Jayme our coordinator from Hellgate CSA and the D’Antonio family from
Roxbury Farm 86th St CSA..There are lots of farm animals; cows, steers,
goats, sheep, horses, draft horses, oxen, chickens, ducks, pheasants,
rabbits, reindeer, pigs and piglets lounging in their stalls. We missed the
rooster crowing contest but saw some of the cows and sheep judging and
Laura’s favorite - the baby chicks and ducks you can hold in your hand.
There is a display that has the baby ducks swim to climb a ladder to the top
where the food cup is just a little reach for them. If they reach too far,
they slide down the slide back into the water. Very cute to watch. There are
tractor pulls of all kinds (garden, pedal toy, working farm, souped up
tractors, trucks and monster trucks), sideshows and games, demonstrations of
draft horse pulling, shearing, maple syrup making, spinning, quilting, rug
hooking, ventriloquists, comedy acts, firemen shows and the judging of the
vegetable, jams, crafts, photos and artwork of both adults and the kids and
4 H groups.

The summer has flown by, and we’re beginning to plan for turkeys already. We
found a turkey farm in Orwell VT that is called Stonewood Farm
www.stonewoodfarm.com . We are working with Paul Stone to coordinate the
delivery in November and working with the webmaster to get the turkey
ordering pages ready sometime in September.

There is a Wine and Cheese Tour in our area on the weekend of Sept 15-16 and
3 Corner Field Farm and Consider Bardwell Farm are 2 of the featured farms.
See www.cheesetour.blogspot.com for more information.

Hope you all are looking forward to getting back to the routine of fall.
Take care and eat well, Nancy and Alan Brown

Argyllshire Lamb August News Letter

I have been running so fast that if I trip I will run over myself! The
grandchildren have disappeared doing their own individual things so it has
been a marathon race. Apparently time is faster than my pace as the last
time a newsletter was sent out was two months ago.

Two mountains of sheep compost were moved (and spread on the hay fields
which will improve hay yields) a triple benefit event because last winter
the piles kept the water from draining away and the sheep hydrant froze.
This meant water for the animals had to be carried from the house. Exercise
is good but this was no fun dragging 5 gallon pails of water thru the snow
drifts. It is good not to see the piles of compost. The number is four!

A forest of trees was mowed down with our newly purchased John Deere brush
hog and the 100 horse power tractor. Like an ever ready bunny on a 100 horse
power lawn tractor with a double blade 8 foot mower deck we just kept going
around the fields. It had been a few years since the fallow fields had been
mowed and the scrub trees and weeds were a real threat of permanently taking
the land out of production.

About 10 acres of that fallow ground was seeded to hay which will be cut in
a few weeks.

Haying this year was finished in time that we expect to have a second crop.
This is especially exciting because earlier cut hay has the most nutritional
value and second is usually even better. This makes it much easier to get
more and bigger lambs

An easier way to isolate the meat animal and ram from the flock has been
built to avoid those unwanted troublesome cold weather births. This also
allowed access to the automatic stock water and should eliminate the need to
carry any water during the winter.

The sheep barn is in the process of being improved for better sheep control
and comfort.

It appears that there will have some fall lambs. This and the above
mentioned improvements are part of Argyllshire Lambs dedication to provide a
steady supply of lamb to our loyal customers. We expect to have lamb for
sale starting in early September

Time was taken last month from the marathon of farm chores to make the
successful first commercial offering of our trademark protected Argyll Kid’s
Bobbi Dolls. Renovations are now under way to provide a display and
processing area for the dolls and wool. Information is now being collected
to get updates and the entire assortment of Bobbi Dolls and wood craft items
on the Argyllshire web site.

The end of the race is not yet here. Summers usually are this hectic but
this has been the most satisfying.. This year the focus has been on
Argyllshire projects rather than work for others. There is no place I’d
rather be! More lambs will help me achieve that goal

Live well. Laugh often. Love much. Barbara

Lewis Waite Farm
Grass-Fed Grass-Finished Beef
Natural Pork

Alan & Nancy Brown
135 Lewis Hill Lane
Town of Jackson
Greenwich, NY 12834

www.lewiswaitefarm.com
www.csapasturedmeatandpoultry.com
518-692-3120 or 518-692-9208

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 1st, 2007 at 6:10 pm and is filed under Events, Our Farms (Info and News). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.