I think having land without ruining it is the most beautiful art anybody could ever want to own.
- Andy Warhol
January 11, 2010 - Water Buffalo, 2010 Garden, Where's the Beef?
We should have filmed last night's farm meeting. Aside from the discussion about what to plant in the vegetable garden, we discussed (partly seriously) the idea of purchasing a few American Water Buffalo. You can read more about this enormous spectacle of nature HERE.
The American Water Buffalo
Lindsay, apparently the American water buffalo specialist of our little group (thank you Glenna Richards!), knew more about these creatures than any of us could ever imagine. The hilarious thing (and this really should have been video-taped) is that we were all very interested in the possibility of acquiring some of these beasts. Can you say "niche market"? Truthfully, no one else in VA has a herd of water buffalo so we would certainly own the market. I'm sure the trendy upscale restaurants in C'ville and Northern VA would be interested in putting the novelty meat on their menu. We added "Water Buffalo" research to our homework for the week and moved on to more pressing matters (although, truth be told, I still like the idea... and I dreamed about these very huggable, very large bovines all night)...
2010 Garden - There's vegetables in them thar' gardens.
After much discussion about the pros/cons of heirlooms, non-hybrids and specialty varieties we finally nailed down a list of what veggies we will be planting (and hopefully harvesting) in 2010. We decided to keep some of our heirloom varieties from last year (the one's the worked!) and stay organic with turnips, tomatoes, and peppers. We also added Sweet Potatoes to the list (thank you Tina Boy) as we're tinkering with the idea of starting a line of organic, non-processed baby food. Here's our planting list:
Bush Bean
Sweet Cucumbers
Onions - TX super Sweets
Early Garden Peas
Green Peppers
Red Peppers
Sweet Potatoes (Cenntenial)
Organic Purple Top White Globe Turnips
Zucchini (Burpee)
Jersey Giant Asparagus
Medium Top Detroit Dark Red Beets
Summer Squash early golden crookneck
Butter Boy Winter Butternut Squash
German Red Tomatoes
We're all especially excited about the Tomatoes. Our close friend, Robert Turner, worked with these last year and they are seriously some of the best tomatoes we've ever encountered. Can't wait to try our hand and growing them.
Where's The Beef?
We currently have two cows at the butcher shop. The meat should be ready for pick up next week. So far we have more than one cow sold! We'll be distributing a price list as soon as we finalize our pricing and cut sheet. We're going to do a little taste-testing as soon possible - can't wait to share our results with everyone. In the meantime, please consider putting some of this high-quality, non-antibiotic, non-steroid, grass fed, grain finished beef in your freezer (oh yeah, steaks make a nice gift, especially for valentines day!)
Thanks!
PS - Come grow with us on Facebook. Click HERE to become a fan. And, if you like reading about our antics on the farm, make sure to invite your friends too! Thanks again.
The American Water Buffalo
Lindsay, apparently the American water buffalo specialist of our little group (thank you Glenna Richards!), knew more about these creatures than any of us could ever imagine. The hilarious thing (and this really should have been video-taped) is that we were all very interested in the possibility of acquiring some of these beasts. Can you say "niche market"? Truthfully, no one else in VA has a herd of water buffalo so we would certainly own the market. I'm sure the trendy upscale restaurants in C'ville and Northern VA would be interested in putting the novelty meat on their menu. We added "Water Buffalo" research to our homework for the week and moved on to more pressing matters (although, truth be told, I still like the idea... and I dreamed about these very huggable, very large bovines all night)...
2010 Garden - There's vegetables in them thar' gardens.
After much discussion about the pros/cons of heirlooms, non-hybrids and specialty varieties we finally nailed down a list of what veggies we will be planting (and hopefully harvesting) in 2010. We decided to keep some of our heirloom varieties from last year (the one's the worked!) and stay organic with turnips, tomatoes, and peppers. We also added Sweet Potatoes to the list (thank you Tina Boy) as we're tinkering with the idea of starting a line of organic, non-processed baby food. Here's our planting list:
Bush Bean
Sweet Cucumbers
Onions - TX super Sweets
Early Garden Peas
Green Peppers
Red Peppers
Sweet Potatoes (Cenntenial)
Organic Purple Top White Globe Turnips
Zucchini (Burpee)
Jersey Giant Asparagus
Medium Top Detroit Dark Red Beets
Summer Squash early golden crookneck
Butter Boy Winter Butternut Squash
German Red Tomatoes
We're all especially excited about the Tomatoes. Our close friend, Robert Turner, worked with these last year and they are seriously some of the best tomatoes we've ever encountered. Can't wait to try our hand and growing them.
Where's The Beef?
We currently have two cows at the butcher shop. The meat should be ready for pick up next week. So far we have more than one cow sold! We'll be distributing a price list as soon as we finalize our pricing and cut sheet. We're going to do a little taste-testing as soon possible - can't wait to share our results with everyone. In the meantime, please consider putting some of this high-quality, non-antibiotic, non-steroid, grass fed, grain finished beef in your freezer (oh yeah, steaks make a nice gift, especially for valentines day!)
Thanks!
PS - Come grow with us on Facebook. Click HERE to become a fan. And, if you like reading about our antics on the farm, make sure to invite your friends too! Thanks again.
January 4, 2010
Last night we had our first farm meeting of the year. Talked about where to sell & promote our products, how to best distribute our fresh pesto, which Farmer's Market we'd like to participate in, planning our Spring garden, starting an herb garden, growing flowers, whether we should move forward with buying bees, how to treat our soil and how to get the most out of the greenhouse.
Our first two cows were successfully delivered to the butcher this morning at 5:45am. We'll have a better idea of pricing once we work out butcher fees, hanging times, etc with the butcher. We're happy to have at 1/2 a cow sold before even going to the butcher! Hope to have final pricing sometime later this week after butcher fees, hang times, etc are all settled.
By the way, anybody out there growing sweet potatoes? We're considering them for 2010.
Our first two cows were successfully delivered to the butcher this morning at 5:45am. We'll have a better idea of pricing once we work out butcher fees, hanging times, etc with the butcher. We're happy to have at 1/2 a cow sold before even going to the butcher! Hope to have final pricing sometime later this week after butcher fees, hang times, etc are all settled.
By the way, anybody out there growing sweet potatoes? We're considering them for 2010.
January 1, 2010
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Harvest Farms blog. For those of you who don't know, Harvest Farms is a family run farm that grows pesticide free, organically friendly herbs / produce and sells grass fed, grain finished beef. One of our main goals is to provide healthy food locally, here in central VA.
On this blog you will find our ideas on farming, butchering, selling locally, etc. You will also find a weekly (or so) update on what what's growing in the garden, new ideas that we're working on, and general facts and figures of the farm (challenges, successes, rainfall, etc).
This is the beginning of our second year on the farm - so much work to be done, so many ideas to consider, so much planning to plan :) We hope it excites you as much as it excites us.
Time to grow!
ps - become a fan on Facebook here.
On this blog you will find our ideas on farming, butchering, selling locally, etc. You will also find a weekly (or so) update on what what's growing in the garden, new ideas that we're working on, and general facts and figures of the farm (challenges, successes, rainfall, etc).
This is the beginning of our second year on the farm - so much work to be done, so many ideas to consider, so much planning to plan :) We hope it excites you as much as it excites us.
Time to grow!
ps - become a fan on Facebook here.
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