Central Brooklyn CSA

The News from Windflower Farm

Every October for the last 23 years the “Landscapes for Landsake” fine art sale has been held to benefit the Agricultural Stewardship Association, the organizationbehind local farmland and forest conservation efforts. Check it out at landscapesforlandsake.com.

Forever chemicals (PFAS) are again in the news. Sludge has never, ever been applied here at Windflower Farm! Before forever chemicals became an issue, we wereaware that the material contained a variety of heavy metals, and that it would not be something we’d ever want to use. Sludge is not permissible under National Organic Program rules, which we abide by as a certified organic farm.

What’s in the share?

• Summer squash or zucchini
• Lettuce
• Mixed greens
• Red onions
• Spinach
• Tomatoes
• Beans
• Carrots and herbs (parsley, dill or basil) – all from Denison Farm

Your fruit share will be apples from Yonder Farm

What’s new on the farm?

We’ve reached that point in the season when things have begun to fall apart. It’s not me that I’m talking about – it’s our equipment. In preparing beds for cover cropping yesterday, a new bolt on the disc would shear every half acre or so. Every one of its bearings will have to be replaced this winter. The tiller, which we use as a final step in seedbed preparation, is awaiting the parts for a complete rebuild. Someone allowed the gearbox to run out of gear oil. I won’t say who that could be, but I’m having trouble maintaining eye contact with Kage, our mechanic, when he reminds me of my responsibilities as the owner of this fine piece of Italian machinery. Three of our four golf carts are on blocks in the repair bay, needing rest from the everyday work of ferrying the team back and forth on our hilly farm. The John Deere 6400 continues to smoke and needs an engine overhaul. That project alone will keep Kage busy much of the winter.

The four-row Mechanical 5000, our ancient transplanter, probably needs to be decommissioned. I’ve been scouring the used equipment sites for a replacement. I’ve found a good looking six-row Ferrari for sale in Quebec, which would be the only Ferrari I’d ever own in this life. Just today, the starter on the irrigation pump went. The pallet jack doesn’t work as it should. Our water wheel transplanter, our sprayer, our Allis Chalmers G tractor, and our old Farmall 140 also need work. Thank goodness Kage serviced every one of our tractors last spring or we’d be in real trouble. He has just come to me with the thought that we might need him to be on repairs two days a week rather than one. No kidding! The tomato barn, which is fast becoming the sweet potato barn, will by Thanksgiving become the repair barn. If you’ve wondered what we do all winter, now you know.    

Best wishes, Ted

The News from Windflower Farm

What’s in the share?

• Swiss chard
• Arugula
• Spinach
• Sweet peppers
• Assorted tomatoes
• Basil (likely our last)
• Onions
• Yellow potatoes
• Acorn squash
• Summer squash

Your fruit share will be prunes (plums) from Yonder Farm

Crop readiness is not always predictable a week out. Plums can fail to ripen in time if nights are too cold; lettuce can bolt in a matter of days with enough heat. Bugs and pathogens take their toll. So, we often find ourselves having to modify our harvest plans. The tentative list for next week: cabbage, carrots, beets, and red onions (Borscht? A salad?), along with spinach, kale, pumpkins, tomatoes, and peppers.

What’s new on the farm?

We’ve been bringing in our storage crops – 40 bushes here, 80 bushels there. The potato and winter squash crops are 80 to 90-percent harvested. We are now focused on sweet potatoes, which appear to be running a little small this year. Thankfully, we’ve never seen a connection between size and flavor in sweet potatoes. Leeks, carrots and beets will be next. These beautiful late summer days have been wonderful to work in.

Although it has been one 80-degree day after another this week, it’s fall planting season. We’ll plant the last of this season’s greens this week. Soon, we’ll plant the Alliums for our 2025 harvest. And we’ll be sowing the greens (spinach, kale, chard, tatsoi) for the coming winter harvest in the week ahead. We are in the final winter CSA planning stages. 

The cold season to-do list: Put up wood for the winter stove, set the concrete piers for a barn bump-out to be built in early winter, plant the garlic, take the tunnels down, etc. Red maples are showing some color. Peak colors are only ten or so days away in the North Country, but probably three weeks off here.

Have a great week, Ted

The News from Windflower Farm

What’s in the share?

• Lettuce
• Arugula
• Sweet peppers
• Assorted tomatoes
• Basil
• Yellow onions
• Yellow potatoes
• Winter squash (sweet dumpling)
• Summer squash

Your fruit share will consist of our own organically-grown cantaloupe

The pumpkins I thought we’d send this week are holding up well, so we are instead sending Sweet Dumplings this week. Next week, we’ll send tomatoes and peppers,the stalwarts of summer, along with greens, winter squashes, shallots, and carrots. Very soon, the fruit share will transition to apples and pears, but I’m hoping to send peaches or plums a little longer.

What’s new on the farm?

When we purchased our farm 25 years ago, the land had been let to rent to a large neighboring dairy farm and was used to grow field corn. Dairy farming remains the largest agricultural activity (or economic activity of any kind) in the county. But dairy farming was not in our plans. Does a farm require livestock, we wondered? Apart from a good-sized egg laying flock in our first years, which has been reduced to a small family flock, we’ve not had livestock on the farm. We’re plant growers, starting off as cut flower producers, then transitioning to vegetable farming, and we don’t expect that to change any time soon. 

But Jan and Nate have new hobbies: Jan’s is felting (with wool, of course) and Nate’s is raising Icelandic sheep, a breed known for its good felting wool. Because of Jan’s felting, Nate, who is a vegetarian, has at last found a way to raise sheep without anyone having to eat them. Yesterday, a flock of three tiny Icelandic sheep moved into a sheep shed that Nate built for them in the middle of a grassy field next to our barn, and today, we have all been getting to know each other. And now, while I wrap up evening chores, I glance in the direction of the pen to find a sliver of moon overhead, the glow from string lights in the shed, and the silhouettes of three small horned sheep and their new shepherd.   

I have been remiss: I have not shared Daniel’s news. Daniel is the young man who makes deliveries to NYC on Thursdays with Don. In the winter, Daniel became a UScitizen, and in July, he got married. His new wife, Lizet, began working with us in May under an H-2A Visa. Our hope is that by this time next year she’ll be a permanent resident, and holder of a green card. Daniel’s grandfather, Ezequiel, who is retired and living in his hometown in Guanajuato, Mexico, was one of our very first hires. Daniel’s parents have worked with us for 16 or 17 years. We’re very happy for them.

Warm wishes, Ted

The News from Windflower Farm

Wishing you a Happy Labor Day from all of us at Windflower Farm! We hope you managed to get away from the grind for a little while.

What’s in the share?

• Assorted tomatoes
• Basil
• Sweet peppers
• Yellow onions
• Garlic
• Lettuce
• Salad mix (mixed mustard greens)
• Swiss chard
• Flat beans

Your fruit share will consist of the last of our own cantaloupes.

Next week, we’ll send potatoes, shallots, pumpkins and carrots, along with more typical summer fare, including tomatoes, basil, peppers, lettuce, and arugula.

What’s new on the farm?

The kids are gone! For the past ten weeks we’ve had five youngsters from the neighborhood working with us in the packing shed. Three of them were new to any kind of work, and two had some farming experience under their belts. I’ll miss all five of them. But school starts this week, and we’ll be on our own for the remaining nine weeks of the CSA season. The music will be a little less Taylor Swift and a little more John Prine. Victoria can be less of a motivational speaker (“if we get the onions trimmed and sorted we can take a cookie break!”) and more, “let’s get this done so I can get home to the kids.” Talk will be less the games of trivia we play while washing and packing lettuce (“name all the states that border Pennsylvania”) and more, well, I’m not sure what, but there’s an important election coming up, and there are winterprojects and travel to plan.

I spent a couple of hours today on a little electric cultivator. I love how quiet it is, how almost meditative driving it can be. No engine growl, just the gentle clanking of steel sweeps passing through a rocky soil. Looking back, it is gratifying to find weed-free spinach, arugula, chard and beet beds.

We’re turning a corner in the season. Tomatoes, summer squash and corn are giving way to potatoes, winter squashes, sweet potatoes, and other root crops. I imagine that it will be cool enough to light the oven soon, and when it is, there will be vegetables to roast and stew. We harvested another five 20-bushel totes of pumpkins yesterday and have begun the Delicata, Sweet Dumpling and Kabocha squash harvests. Potato, sweet potato and carrot harvesting is also underway, and all these fall vegetables will begin to appear in your shares soon.  

Best wishes, Ted