Tag: Suffolk Punch

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Orchard Hill workforce Fall 2010

Ken has been wanting to take a picture with “all our workers” for sometime and last Friday when Michelle was here he got her to take the picture. Chester didn’t make it in because he isn’t working in the field yet… This fall when his testosterone levels drop (and hopefully we have all our mares bred) we can introduce him into the herd and he can start working along side the other heavy horses.

Here’s the line up from left to right: Sassy (our new mare traded for Whinnie); Ken; Gwen (sweet Gwen who gets along with everyone); Martha; Buttons (young Mare / granddaughter of “Goldie” one of our all time favorite horses); Verena (agriculture student from France); Gena and Jasmin (our two- 13 year old – hard working well trained mares); Nora (full season apprentice from Maryland); Sam (young gelding in training); Andy (aspiring future farmer from New Zealand); Ziggy (young gelding in training); Jesse (full season apprentice from Sarnia).

On the general farm front things are in good shape. Our second cut hay is all baled without rain! Ken has almost finished his green manure fertility transfer onto future garden plots and fields that need a boost. Nora and Jesse have prepared their fields to be planted to fall grain in a couple of weeks.

The harvest for the CSA continues to roll in with what appears to be a bumper crop of tomatoes. Ken is trying to get our new used potato digger up and running before we dig the majority of our potato crop. The sweet potatoes are still small, but Andy dug a few to test and they were yummy. We hope that they size up in the next month! Raspberries are coming along well.

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Nora and Ethan harvesting herbs
Tomatoes have finally begun to roll in! The hoop house tomatoes have done really well and now the heirloom and paste tomatoes that we planted outside are ripening as well. It’s a great change from last year! We have also begun the fall raspberry harvest. Summer squash and melons have come to an end, but the winter squash and pumpkin crop looks very promising.

Gradually the garden is coming out of production and we are seeding it down to an oat cover crop to keep the weeds down and cover the ground to protect it from erosion.

We managed to get two small fields of good second cut hay into the barn this week before the rain today. Ken has also been working with Siggy and Sam and they are doing well discing in a three horse hitch. Chester has managed to breed all five our our mares and we are hoping that they catch and we have a lot of Suffolk foals in another year. Mable is growing and continues to be a big hit with our CSA members.

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August Draft Horse Workshop
Our August three day Draft Horse Workshop has just been successfully completed. We had another great group of individuals come to the farm for three days to learn about driving draft horses. Nora assisted Ken with teaching the workshop while the rest of us cooked meals and got the Saturday pick-up ready. We were very grateful to the working shares who came out and pitched in to help us get the pick-up ready. We also managed to get our oat straw into the barn. We have never had a year when it has been so difficult to get straw dry!

The garden is exploding with produce and our hoop house tomatoes are coming into full swing just as our out door tomatoes are beginning. It is a big improvement over the near corp failure in our tomatoes last season. It just reminds us how every year is different. Fall raspberries are about to begin. We hope to be able to start picking next week.

Tomato and Fresh Basil Soup from Vegetarian Cooking, by Linda Farser

Serves 4-6

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 pounds ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
about 3 cups vegetable stock
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons sun-dried tomato paste
2 tablespoons shredded fresh basil
2/3 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper
whole basil leaves, to garnish

Heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan until foaming. Add the onion and cook gently for about 5 minutes, stirring, until the onion is softened but not brown.

Stir in the chopped tomatoes and garlic, then add the stock, white wine and sun-dried tomato paste, with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat, half-cover the pan and simmer gently for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep the tomatoes from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Add the cream and heat through, stirring. Do not allow the soup to approach the boiling point. Check the consistency and add more stock if necessary, then season with salt and pepper. Pour into heated bowls and garnish with basil. Serve at once.

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Elaiza on left and Jessica on right
We had a fair-well party for Elaiza the night before she flew back to Germany. Elaiza came as part of her Walforf school grade nine curriculum to work on our farm for three months. She was a great help in growing the produce for the CSA and worked well with the horses. An exceptional young women who fit in well. She and Jessica are good friends and shared a room in the bunkhouse. Jessica is an organic agriculture student from Quebec who has been here since the end of May and will be leaving the end of this month. She brought with her a keen interest in organic agriculture and a desire to learn as much as she can while she is here to apply to her future farming career. We have certainly been blessed with a group of wonderful young people again this season to help us run the farm for yet another year.

Our CSA working shares helped us harvest a beautiful crop of garlic last Tuesday and Thursday. It is now hanging to dry. Everything continues to grow well in the garden. Heat and moisture are welcome and we are expecting a bumper corp of potatoes and tomatoes. The melons, cucumber and squash are growing well too. We hope the Downy Mildew won’t kill the plants before they can produce a good crop. Ken was able to combine our early Harvard wheat last week between the rains. We now need some dry weather so we can bale up the straw.