Cherry Ridge Farm: Archive

5 tags

Columbus Day is for Garlic Planting

Everyone in the Northeast remembers Columbus Day Weekend as the first weekend for the last half of the summer where we had three beautiful days in a row. Perfect for getting the garden together for the 2012 planting season. A big thanks to Team Feikens, Tony and Tim, Naaz, and Francesca and Caroline, who all spent time down in the garden doing a tremendous amount of work. In Dave’s...

Oct 17th

3 tags

Installing a package of bees

For my first farm post since last fall, a video of me installing a package of bees into a new hive.

May 25th

1 note

History of a Farm Dog

RIP Spotty. November 1997-August 21, 2010. From a friend who knows Spotty’s history from the shelter: “Dear Sally, Everyone who knew and loved Spotty dearly joins me in expressing our most profound sympathy at his passing. My heart aches for you and your family, as I can say honestly that I know the depth of your sorrow & pain that the loss of this truly special fellow...

Aug 26th

4 tags

Processing honey, Cherry Ridge Farm-style

June 20. Hot - 85 degrees and humid. Today is one of my favorite farm activities - collecting honey and processing honey. I have to hand it to Sal for coming up with this idea four years ago. We’ve got a successful hive that made it through the winter (one of two, the other is brand new), and the older hive has been churning out honey for several weeks now. Today I went into the hive...

Jun 22nd

3 tags

Picking cherries

One of our favorite yearly activities is picking cherries. This year, the cherries came *way* early. Any trees that were hit by frost (such as our lower cherry trees) aren’t really putting out any fruit. The early heatwave we experienced in April really messes with the trees schedules. Today C & C are in the bucket of the tractor, about to be hoisted up to pick some cherries up on...

Jun 11th

2 tags

Planting weekend - May 29

Today’s the day we put plants that we started in March in our basement in the garden. Last year we made the mistake of putting out 120 tomato plants on the Saturday before Memorial Day…two days later was a full moon, and a killing frost (see my post further down the page). Not repeating that mistake this year - it looks clear from here on out temperature-wise. Lots of helpers...

May 30th

4 tags

Early planting weekend - May 23-24

May 23 - partly cloudy, no wind, 73 degrees The last two weekends in May are big ones for gardeners. Things that overwintered (garlic, berries, grapes, etc.) are well up by this point, and annuals like greens and peas are ready to pick. The swallows are back, and nesting in the barn…everything is bright green. I really love Spring. In the flower garden, the peonies are out this year...

May 23rd

4 tags

Garden weekend - June 19

Saturday, June 19. Hot - 85 degrees, but a stiff south wind blowing. Sweat bees around. Yesterday turned out to be a great garden day. On hand - Tim, Naaz, Scott and his brother Jeff (thanks!), Carolyn, Sal, and me. We spent the day weeding and mowing. Above, Scott’s in the onion and greens section. The onions look amazing. The garden itself looked rough when we went down to get...

May 21st

1 note

4 tags

Salad daze

Sunday, May 16 - 68 degrees, light breeze Greens do best when the nights are cool/cold, and the days are warm. Warm nights make greens bolt, and the alternating hot/cold moves the sugar around in the plant. Plants send their sugars down into the roots during the day, and up into the leaves during the night…that’s why it’s always best to pick vegetables first thing in the...

May 16th

4 tags

Planting potatoes

Saturday, May 15 - 65 degrees, light west wind I’ve been a little slack on keeping the blog up to date…so I’m taking Father’s Day and catching up a bit. We’ve really had a fantastic crew of people this year for our CSA - nearly ten families, and several dedicated individuals, have really made it a good year for us. Going back about a month, this is what the...

May 14th

4 tags

Releasing the queen bee

Temp - 54 degrees, partly sunny (rain later). On Saturday May 8 we installed our second beehive. Today, I’m working with the “queen cage”. When you get a new hive of bees, they come in a box, pictured below. In the midst of that box is the queen bee, in the “queen cage”. She’s in there with several groomers. If you just dumped her in the box, the other...

May 11th

Garden weekend - update April 17-18

Weather: partly cloudy/showers both days, highs 59 degrees. A quick update on garden progress. Thanks first off to Julia and Steve, and Scott and Carolyn (and their friend’s) visits up here. And Victoria, thanks for helping chop the raspberries. In short - things are moving forward nicely garden-wise. What was almost a swamp - the southeast edge of our garden - has now dried up....

Apr 16th

Winter

It’s hard to imagine that a month from now we’ll be planting peas. In the meantime, spend a minute with this interesting article in today’s Times magazine, talking about Crop Mobs. We’ve got nine families in our CSA this year, I like that terminology better than Crop Mob, but in any case together we’re maintaining the Cherry Ridge Farm garden, and making it...

Feb 28th

Superbowl...thinking about gardening

Most of the rest of America is probably thinking about the Superbowl right now. I, on the other hand, am firmly ensconced in front of the fire (ok - Superbowl on in the background), on a very cold, snowy February evening, thinking about the box of seeds in the other room. This week I’ll put together some pictures and post a seed list. It’s time to start thinking about planting.

Feb 8th

Humans win the game

No photo on this one…but I’m pleased to say the groundhog is no longer going to be a problem in our garden!

Aug 19th

Groundhog 1, Humans 0

Well this could end up being funny. No groundhog, but one rabbit. This may take some rethinking…

Aug 17th

5 tags

Zucchini, anyone?

Hot. 91 degrees. Sunny. Scott and Carolyn were up on Saturday, helping us bring up the tomatoes from the garden. It looks like the crazy rains of last week are finally done by awhile, and also looks like the dog days of summer have finally arrived. This next week should be a pretty hot one - low 90’s - although it could be worse. As you can see, we’ve got a lot of tomatoes,...

Aug 17th

Late Blight

June 26. 85 degrees. Sun/rain/storms. Very humid. In my last post, I mentioned that going away at any time during the summer is a challenge. While away for the last two weeks, both Steve/Julia and Kris/Tom told me that the tomatoes looked dry and spotted - odd, since it’s been raining nonstop in what’s turned out to be one of the wettest summers on record (June was the wettest and...

Jul 27th

5 tags

Knee High - Fourth of July

4th of July. 76 degrees. Corn knee-high. Check. The garden looks pretty perfect today, thanks to all the help over the last couple weeks. We’ve been getting everything ready for our trip out of town for a couple weeks. Kris and Tom are going to be up here, and keep things up while we’re gone. A tough time to leave…but it’s always a tough time to leave during the...

Jul 4th

3 tags

Maintain

June 27-28. 75 degrees and sunny Saturday, 68 and rainy Sunday. I’m pretty sure it’s rained every day this month so far, at least a bit. Rain makes the garden green…and sets the stage for some nasty fungus-related diseases down the road. But forget about all that… Saturday was spent with the Phalens, Scott & Carolyn, and Lynwa, rolling out straw from the farmer...

Jun 27th

The point of all this

When it comes right down to it, gardening is all about eating amazing food…food that you grew yourself, food that makes you feel better after the meal than before it, and food that has a pedigree. Nameless supermarket vegetables, in the shape of cucumbers, tomatoes, and even mesclun, is fine in a pinch, but to really get serious you need to grow your own. Our CSA members get to eat some...

Jun 11th

3 tags

Rust never sleeps

So far this year we’ve dealt with bears and frost. Now comes the fun stuff - plant disease. Organic gardening is a challenge, because there’s the ever-present temptation to just “spray it” with whatever the latest insecticide or fungicide is at your local hardware. In Coleman’s The New Organic Grower, he imparts a bit of wisdom that I’ve attempted to carry...

Jun 1st

Frost.

3a Temp: 31 degrees 6a Temp: 35 degrees This weekend at the farmer’s market, Sally and I spoke to Cheryl Rogowski of Rogowski Farms at her organic vegetable stand. We sometimes sell our excess vegetables to her for members of her CSA. Cheryl has about 120 acres of organic vegetables under production, and knows farming. She told us that Monday would possibly be frost, which was the...

May 20th

Putting the garden in

Three days: May 10 (62 degrees, partly cloudy), May 15 (58 degrees, light rain), and May 16 (64 degrees, sun) Scott and Carolyn, Susan and Tom, Liz, Naaz, and Lynwa, and Lee and David all helped. The first day we spent prepping the garden for corn planting (Johnnyseeds Delectable grows best here, but this year we’re also trying Montauk and Old Style Corn), putting in a new strawberry...

May 16th

3 tags

Give me oil, give me vinegar

Two days of garden work: Day 1 - May 3 - light rain, 59 degrees, Tom & Susan Phalen, Liz Neary, Camille, Caroline, Sal & Me Day 2 - May 6 - mostly cloudy, 62 degrees, Shannon, Lisa, Karen, two interns, Sal & Me We’re about a week away from a fine spring salad, featuring some of our greens - arugula, purple mizuna, and spicy mesclun (shown here). Add a few chives, possibly...

May 3rd

5 tags

More early season prep + garden work schedule

April 18 - Sunny, 65 degrees, windy April 19 - breezy, 48 degrees, partly cloudy Peas are up! I’m posting a bit late on this one… We had a great weekend - lots of things happened, including plant thinning, mulching, and composting… We started the day Saturday with thinning…Scott and Carolyn brought up a friend, and we all sat down and started work on the new...

Apr 19th

4 tags

On your mark, get set, compost.

April 12 - Temp: 44 degrees, bluebird sky, blustery northwest wind to 25 mph…it was cold. Cherry Ridge CSA members: Read all the way through, next weekend (April 19-20) there will be lots for our members to do. Today was manure day. We get our manure from an alpaca farm in Bellvale, NY, just around the corner from here. Why alpaca manure? In a word, because it pretty much...

Apr 13th

Early spring planting

Date: April 6, Temperature: 60 degrees, blue sky, perfect garden weather. I’m a bit late on posting for last weekend. It was a perfect day, just before a week of rain, so getting down to the garden was a priority. The willows are blooming on the farm, and just about everything looks poised to explode with new growth. First Sal and I moved the rhubarb crowns away from the raspberries to...

Apr 6th

Seeds become plants - April 5

Temperature: 43 degrees, cloudy with occasional sprinkles, 20 mph windy gusts - a good day for inside work It never ceases to amaze me how seeds that have been sitting dormant for a couple years in our basement can, with a bit of dirt and water and light, turn into plants within the space of a week. Last weekend we planted our seeds, with the help of Scott Cairns, Caroline, and Sally. Within...

Apr 5th

4 tags

March 28-29 - new tiller, planting peas, finishing...

DON’T FORGET TO MARK YOUR CALENDARS - THIS YEAR’S PLANTING DATES WILL BE MAY 16-17, AND MAY 23-24. ALL CHERRY RIDGE FARM CSA MEMBERS - WE’LL NEED YOU :) Also note: we’ll be forwarding around a plan shortly, detailing the various plantings along with a signup sheet for individual jobs. Introducing…our newest garden friend. The Honda FG110. When I first looked...

Mar 30th

Fox in the Henhouse

This morning, driving back from dropping off Cam at school, I drove up on a most unwelcome visitor - a red fox, in a mexican standoff in our driveway (after I drove up) with our cat Natasha… I did a quick google search, and found out that cats and foxes meet each other on a regular basis (both being active at night) and that generally foxes are nervous about cats (even though they’re...

Mar 13th

Winter loses its grip

This is the time of year when I wander around the farm, wondering if the garden will actually grow again. When I walk down to the garden, it looks completely lifeless. Dead kale plants stand in a line, the solar mulch is ripped in places, and the remains of tomato plants hang on their support wires. This year we’re trying something different with our garden. In previous years, we’ve...

Feb 22nd

Feb 11th

Jan 24th

Dec 28th

Putting away the garden '08 →

Hey everyone! Do you remember how beautiful this day was? Click on the link above to be reminded… We’re getting things revved up for planting season…stay tuned and watch our new blog! xo - Dick and Sally

Oct 15th

Oct 8th