What do you do on a farm when it rains for weeks?????

What do you do on a farm when it rains for weeks?? build a teepee of course! This spring has been VERY rainy! Constant rain turns everything into giant mud pits. The fields are so inundated with wetness, that when I try to walk in the field to plant or weed, I sink up to my knees and cannot get my boots unstuck. It is like the fields have turned into gigantic quick sand pits. Not easy to put all what needs to be planted in the ground- puts us very behind!

All over the country we are dismayed at the levels of rainfall and flooding that is occurring. Farmers are having a terrible time getting their crops in the ground and we will be faced with sky rocketing food prices yet again! It is frightening.

So to help ourselves stay positive and to keep our WWOOFERS busy, www.wwoofusa.org, we built a teepee out of old barn beams from a barn we pulled down last month and recycled as many materials as we could. (We built the teepee around $100.) Now the WWOOFERS have a better camp area with room to hang out and able to cook out of the rain! The teepee boosted morale and we feel like we accomplished something within the boundaries of dreary skies. Below you will find the pictures of the new teepee, our WWOOFERS and work that went into creating the campsite! The campsite has a rustling brook and is also near a small pond with loads of crayfish! At dusk, the frogs all sing a lovely chorus that can also be heard at the house. What a lovely spot!

These are some of my favorite farm books so check them out! If you have not seen the movie or read the book "Alone in the Wilderness with Dick Proenneke," I invite you to check out one man's survival for 30 years in the Alaska wilderness. The movie is really inspiring on what the human soul can endure and how creative we can be without a television!

Music, Fun and Dancing Mixer

Need a break from farming or gardening? The Greenhorns are fabulous! Have some fun at the young farmers mixer this Friday night and swap seeds and tools! What is better than that!? 

CSA options

We are very excited about this growing season! Our farm is growing! We will be adding two farmer's markets this summer and a farm stand out front of the farm! We will be selling produce and flowers at Schroon Lake on Mondays from 9-1 and on Wednesday you can find us at the Lake Placid farmer's market from 9-1. Our farm stand will be open daily from 10am-6pm.

We are also offering new CSA options and will be updating our website very soon. You can find the CSA application for download on the website. Our newest CSA option offers more flexible purchasing options for those who do not wish to commit to a full season CSA. We are offering smaller options of $100 value that allow purchases on the farm, at the farm stand, online at our Etsy store or at any of our farmer's market. You can purchase any amount you wish and use the amount you purchase for any of our products at any time.

We are also offering a 10% discount until May 15th for those wanting to join our seasonal CSA. Sign up now because full-season CSA memberships are limited! Download your applications from our website or simply send us an email and we will email you an application! (You can also pay directly on the blog using the paypal options to the right.)

GMO patents lawsuit and what you can do to help!

[http://www.cedarcirclefarm.org/]

• NOFA Vermont and Rural Vermont Join Lawsuit Challenging GMO patents

  On Tuesday, March 29, NOFA Vermont joined dozens of farmers, seed producers, agricultural businesses, and nonprofit organizations across the U.S. and Canada as plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against Monsanto Corporation in federal court in Manhattan.
  The suit challenges the validity of the chemical giant’s patents on a number of its genetically engineered (GE) crops. It also asks the court to prevent Monsanto from continuing its unwarranted and damaging patent infringement lawsuits against farmers and others for alleged patent infringements when their organic and non-GE fields and crops become contaminated by Monsanto’s GE crops. On Wednesday,RuralVermont joined in as a plaintiff as well.
  Read NOFA Vermont’s press release
  Read the Public Patent Foundation’s (PUBPAT) press release
  Read the entire filed Complaint (lawsuit)

• Local and Organic Food and Farming: The Gold Standard

     By Will Allen, Ronnie Cummins, and Kate Duesterberg
     Organic Consumers Association, Feb. 23, 2011
  Recent USDA decisions to lift restrictions on GMO alfalfa, sugar beets, and ethanol corn along with consumer confusion about the terms local and organic has left many trying to understand how one can choose to do the right thing for their family.

  The locavore phenomenon brings up several important concerns including: food miles, chemically grown food, greenhouse gas emissions, factory farming, genetically engineered animal feed, and the value of organic labeling. All of these crucial issues relate to the central question: what should be in your market basket?

  Those who espouse local food are now called “locavores.” But, beyond the greenwashing and co-opting of the term by Wal-Mart, the supermarket chains, and factory farms and feedlots, what does “local” food and farming really mean? What is the impact of non-organic local food and farming on public health, nutrition, soil, water, marine life, biodiversity, and climate?

  This breaking article addresses the issues and confusing foodie definitions and informs us that organic standards are more important now than ever before. Click this heading to read the entire article written byWill Allen and Kate Duesterberg, Cedar Circle Farm’s co-managers, along with Ronnie Cummins who is the head of the advocacy organization the Organic Consumers Association. Local and Organic Food and Farming: The Gold Standard

• The latest on GMOs: Washington deregulates genetically modified crops

  by Cat Buxton, Cedar Circle Farm Education Coordinator

  GMOs: “Novel enough to be patented, yet not so novel as to warrant a label telling us what it is we are eating.” —Michael Pollan

  GMOs in the form of bovine growth hormone (BGH) in milk products and conventionally grown corn, canola, soy, and cotton have been found in processed foods on grocery store shelves since 1996. We have seen crop contamination from genetic pollution, super weeds that are resistant to herbicides, and an increase in the use of glyphosate herbicides designed to accompany Monsanto’s line of patented Roundup-Ready crops.
  As a consumer, I rely heavily on the organic label because GMOs are not allowed under USDA regulations. In the last three weeks, the Obama administration and the USDA have made some really bad agricultural desicions concerning the use of genetically engineered crops and they are certain to have an effect on organic agriculture. Here is a summary excerpted from a Food Democracy Now email I received:

  • Monsanto‚ Roundup-Ready GMO alfalfa, Jan. 27, 2011. Over the objections of hundreds of thousands of American citizens, the White House approved this unnecessary crop — despite the fact that 93% of alfalfa hay grown in the U.S. does not use herbicides and that genetic contamination with conventional, non-GMO and organic alfalfa threatens the livelihoods of tens of thousands of family farmers and the food choices of more than 50 million organic consumers.
  • Monsanto‚ Roundup-Ready GMO sugar beets, Feb. 4, 2011. Defying a court order to complete a proper Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) the USDA announced that it is granting a ‘partial’ approval of Monsanto GMO sugar beets, giving farmers and seed dealers the clear signal that final approval is right around the corner. By the time the EIS is expected to be complete, sometime in May, farmers will have already started planting their crop for the next year since the USDA says it gave the green light to avert a shortage in the U.S. Sugar beets comprise some 54% of U.S. sugar found in everything from soda, other beverages, candy bars.
  • Corn for Ethanol, Feb. 11, 2011. This new GMO amylase corn product contains an enzyme that allegedly allows an increase in ethanol production with a reduction of natural gas and water usage, thus saving ethanol plants money. While caving to the biotech and ethanol industries, the Obama administration basically ignored the concerns of leading food manufacturers who fear that if this new industrial corn cross-pollinates with or is accidentally mixed with corn used to make food products, it could lead to crumbly corn chips, soggy cereal, and a host of other food processing disasters.

  What you can do about it

  Take political action . . .
  . . . write a note to Washington
  . . . thank and encourage our Vermont delegates to Washington not to give up:

  Congressman Peter Welch
  Senator Patrick Leahy
  Senator Bernie Sanders

  . . . encourage your New Hampshire delegates to protect organic agriculture and your right know what you are eating
  Take direct action . . . Learn more . . .

  Learn more — websites:

  OrganicConsumers.org: Millions Against Monsanto Campaign
  FoodandWaterWatch.org
  FoodDemocracyNow.org

  Learn more—articles:

  Organic Consumers
  NY Times columnist
  Here is a recent article that has sparked a debate about big organic vs. small organic (aka: deep vs. shallow organic), and a counterpoint article.

• Another reason to eat, buy and grow organic

  Our Will Allen, author of The War On Bugs, confirms: Clothiaidin and several other fluorinated nicotinoids (synthetic nicotines) are definitely the final straw in colony collapse. Bees are moved a lot, which is hugely stressful. They ingest these pesticides from multiple crops as they pollinate, starting with cherries and almonds south, all the way north to apples.
  

  Stop the pesticide that’s killing bees.
  Honey bees have been dying at alarming rates in the last few years. Recently leaked evidence shows that the E.P.A. ignored critical information when approving a chemical linked to the bee die-off. Sign the petition telling the E.P.A. to ban clothianidin today. 

What is your range?

Open publication - Free publishing - More csa

Lots of new Lambs

End of January

Winter is a time for getting things done, behind the scenes, on the farm. Winter gives us time to plan all our crop, make seed orders, fix or make things, attend educational courses and conferences. Anything that we don't have time to do during the growing season!

I can't help but ponder how fast January seems to be flying by and all the "projects" on our TO-DO list that we have not finished yet. Hopefully, this is not a bad omen to our year, that we will be struggling to keep up each month! I will continue to think positive. My new year's motto.

This year we are excited on the changes are making here on the farm. First, we will be selling at two farmer's markets! More details will be coming later! We have been restructuring our CSA model with different time's for pick up, dates of selling season, and products. New products we will be offering are garlic, flowers, raw milk and soft cheese! We will be adding Icelandic sheep to our mix and maybe another herding or guardian dog. We will also be adding ducks and a variety of turkeys! We are very excited for this year.

We are also planning on planting raspberries, blueberries, nut and fruit trees that will provide our CSA members with more variety in the coming years!

Spring planting BRING IT ON!