Church View Farm Journal

From Blogger to Facebook

2009-07-23T18:20:00.002-04:00

Our last farm blog post was in early June, so obviously we're doing a very poor job updating the blog this season. The reason is that most of the communication action has quickly moved to Facebook. Its faster and easier. Feedback is much quicker. I'm using the chat box to answer inquiries. And many many other useful features. We may get back to more blogging this fall and winter, for longer articles. But for now, please join our group page at Facebook to get our latest news and updates. Messages are very short. At Facebook, just search for "Church View Farm" and you'll find us. Just join our farm page there. To find our personal Facebook pages just go to www.facebook.com/stevenmartinwv or www.facebook.com/ruthmartinwv If any questions, just email or call. Thanks.

Update

2009-06-02T07:51:00.003-04:00

This blog post is overdue as the 2009 farmers market season is well underway. Tomorrow will be the 3rd Wednesday market at the Bottling Works in Romney. The growing season has started out slow as its been very cool. It was only 40 degrees the other night! Our high tunnel will save the early season as we have green tomatoes on plants in the high tunnel. Still have lots of spinach and salad mix. The spring moisture has our fields full of clover and the bees are doing the job. There is also a ton of blackberry blossom this year. A lot of communication is also now on our Facebook Page. Become a fan, just search "Church View Farm" on Facebook or click Here. You can set your permissions to be as public or private as you like. Periods of economic turmoil lead to new opportunities and many new companies are started in these difficult periods. People must retrain to do other work. We've learned (or relearned) that bigger is not necessarily better, ie GM, Citigroup, AIG, etc. Better quality and service is more highly valued. The barriers are falling. If you remember the Japanese car import craze, that was a hint of what's coming. You may someday have an Indian vehicle (Mahindra farm tractors are from India and are already very popular) and you may use a bank in Switzerland or Singapore. The world is moving past search engines to "decision engines" and "knowledge engines" See Bing at www.bing.com or Wolfram/Alpha at www.wolframalpha.com. This is a real opportunity for smaller producers and companies. The homestead farms of the past are not the same as the web enabled sustainable farms like ours that are now evolving. Lastly, please note the Revolution Money button in the right margin. For those that prefer an instant payment solution instead of carrying cash, you might give that a try. Its just like PayPal but there is no cost to use the system. See www.revolutionmoneyexchange.com or www.revolutionmoney.com for details. I'm all for making things as convenient as possible. Especially for something like a CSA box, all the payment details can be done in advance with no time wasted making change or handling paper money. Then its just a matter of handing you your box or order.

Useful Travel Guide

2009-04-15T06:42:00.006-04:00

The folks at Sustainable Table that manage the Eat Well Guide have developed a really useful tool. Its at http://www.eatwellguide.org/travel_map Its another of the very useful tools that utilize Google Maps and integrate links to useful information right from the map itself. Basically you put in your travel plan, that is your departure point and your destination. Then you'll get a guide to all the markets, restaurants, farms, etc that are on your route that you may want to visit. You can create a printable document to take with you if you wish. A very handy tool. We like to visit farms and markets when we are on the road also. Even just plotting a short trip to Virginia, I discovered many places that I wasn't aware of. Check out the tool, very useful and nicely done.

WVU Journalism Project

2009-04-14T17:04:00.002-04:00

West Virginia University Journalism School students Leann Arthur and Andy Smith did a senior capstone multimedia project about our farm. They visited the farm twice last month. The link is http://wvuncovered.wvu.edu/stories/hampshire_county/sustainable_farming

The journalism department has an an entire series called WV Uncovered on their web site which is excellent. Really nice how they integrated the Google Map on their web site to point out all the locations where they did stories. The slides and video look very nice and included all of the animals. Since it was March everything was brown, I just wish the fields and woods had been green and growing. So check out the article and video and tell us what you think.

Church View Farm on Facebook

2009-04-01T19:48:00.004-04:00

Church View Farm is now on Facebook. The motivation for it came from web consultant Small Farm Central and Three Springs Farms in Aspers, PA where a dynamic 22 year old farm manager has brought their farm into the future. I also figured that if Facebook is good enough for Bill Gates, then there must certainly be something to it. On Facebook, (www.facebook.com) just search for "Church View Farm" and you'll find our page. Its another way for us to keep in touch with everyone throughout the season. Its a good way to publish a message, photo or video, and get it out to everyone very quickly. And as the chart shows, all of these tools now coexist online. If you become a "fan" of Church View Farm, you'll get notified about events and updates. Our "fans" will likely get offered some discounts. No one is really sure where on line social media may be going. Just like no one is really sure about where something like alternative energy or biofuels may be going. Social media certainly exists now, for example if you are in a book club, a garden club, a study group, an alumni group, or a church class, you are doing social media, whether you realized it or not. If you have ever given someone an article to read or told then about a good book or movie, you are doing social media. When farmers/growers and customers do social media, its a real opportunity to collaborate and learn from each other. Custom growing is perfectly suited to this. For ex, we are growing sorrel, tuscan kale, purslane, specialty greens and other items based upon customer request. Doing this interaction on line say via Facebook will lead to more inquiries on line and more custom growing. We'll be planting and growing things next year that we are not even the least bit aware of today. On line, it all just happens a lot faster. Instead of growing things, and taking them to market hoping they will get sold, we can instead grow things that are in effect already sold, because we have already connected via a messaging system like Facebook. Solving supply/demand mismatch is the key to success. You see this in commerce all the time, and organizations that don't master it can not succeed. (Think Circuit City) These social media tools can solve this by helping communicate in advance. 5 years ago, no one really knew where Google was going either. Its all being created on the move. Now your Senator is doing Twitter updates and your President is taking your questions on line. Who ever would have thought?

Are Farms the Suburban Future?

2009-03-23T09:02:00.003-04:00

http://www.newgeography.com/content/00685-are-farms-suburban-future

I've been finding some very interesting reading at a great blog called New Geography. The suburbs that we used to know are pretty much over with. Too car dependent. People want something better and more sustainable. Very interesting article here about nice homes situated close to working farms. Which is quite hopeful as in the past farms were often lost to make way for more housing. With this new approach, both are better off. I thought the quote "Agriculture ... is the new golf" was quite interesting. The only thing I would have added is that there are plenty of appealing small towns already located close to farms and orchards. Not really necessary to build new. McMansions no longer work, in the same way that industrial agriculture no longer works. What is happening is that we are going back in time, to small towns and homestead farms, but applying new knowledge to it to make it not only sustainable but even better than before.

2009 Lambs Debut

2009-03-03T10:21:00.007-05:00

Lambing season is finally behind us - we had an action packed 4 day event! Our flock is small, five ewes, but the Katahdin breed often has multiple births. Although we stayed up late and woke up early to check on progress, and were available to assist, we didn't have any birthing problems or malpresentations. This year's lamb total is nine. No triplets this year. All but one ewe had twins. The single baby was almost 13 pounds. Birth weights ranged from 7lb 8oz to 12lb 14oz - and the largest and smallest were from the same momma! The average weight was 9lb 7oz. All babies and mommas are doing great. Milk production is good and all lambs are getting as much as they want. It's comical because the babies go around and "sample" from other mommas when the opportunity presents itself. It's very clear at nap time what babies and mommas belong together. We've updated our records so we know which ones go together! Hope you enjoy the video and pictures. If you'd like to come out to the farm and see these little ones just give us a call. Guaranteed to put a smile on your face!

Long Hiatus - New Season Approaches

2009-02-16T08:43:00.005-05:00

Hi everyone, This is a long overdue blog post and our new season is about to begin. Lots of good information to read this winter with the proliferation of blogs and web journals. One blog I have really enjoyed this winter is Jon Katz's Bedlam Farm Journal. We've read many of his books this winter. Since we also own an energetic border collie with a mind of her own, our Zoey, his stories about his farm and dogs are always interesting to us. Still catching up on many other good books also. Lots going on in the background to prepare for the new season. For example, we've just picked up a glass front fridge, also called a merchandiser, which will hold farm products for sale. We also picked up a commercial ice machine so anyone traveling a long distance can have ice for their coolers in hot weather. Folks can just come by and get what they need, even if we are not around and there will be a drop box for invoices and payments. Looking forward to trying lots of new varieties in 2009, especially for things like herbs, kale and salad greens. We had a -5 degree night a few weeks back and some very high winds last weekend. We'll be planting more red raspberries and another batch of fruit trees. Many of our current fruit trees are 3-4 years old and we're expecting our first market sized yields in 2009. With the help of WVU, we now have an organic management plan ready for our fruit tree management. We'll be putting in our first polyculture plot which is an approach now "pioneered" by Ohio State University. This "new idea" actually dates to the 1860's if you can believe it, and is documented in a book entitled "Ten Acres Enough". It combines high, mid, and low plantings to reduce pest pressure. Its looks to be a busy year all around in Hampshire County in 2009 including construction of a new river bridge for Rt 50, a new CVS store, a new hospital and many other activities. Romney was chosen as an On Trac community for the WV Main Street program which should eventually lead to some upgrades around town. We'll begin posting every few weeks again, then get back to our weekly postings as the market season begins in May. As you of course already know, both the country and economy are going through spasms of change. Efforts to prop up a consumer and oil based economy will likely fail. It will have to be replaced with something new, and it will happen in fits and starts over time. Some people are embracing it, and some are not; some are fighting it. The best at accommodating this change are those that adapt, produce and create new solutions, because the change is what creates opportunity. With much less credit available, families will have to go back to a cash economy, living withing their means. Which is pretty much the same as it has always been in mostly rural areas. The "backward" rural folks with no mortgage, no consumer debt, no car payment, and a beautiful fully stocked food pantry are looking pretty progressive right about now. If credit does expand again, say in 10-15 years, the rural folks can then go back to being "backward" once again. Thanks for all your emails and inquiries over the past few months. Its very very humbling to know our little farm blog is read around the world. Looking forward to 2009 and we'll keep you posted as best we can. Our lambing season probably begins next week.

Final Market Day

2008-10-10T02:37:00.003-04:00

Well we've made it into October and this Saturday is our final market day. Last May, when the market opened, now seems so long ago. We have fresh habanero peppers, some new honey, as well as lamb. We also have the late season products we've had the past few weeks, eggs, chicken, jarred products, and a few other gift items. Weather is supposed to be good so it should be a great day for our final market day of 2008.

Appalachian Festival - Saturday Sep 20th

2008-09-18T07:00:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone,

Just a reminder that we will not be at the Romney Farmers Market this coming Saturday. We will be at the Appalachian Festiva l in Frostburg MD. Its held right in the center of the Frostburg University campus. The link to the event is here http://www.frostburg.edu/events/afestival/

There is live music all day long and lots of interesting displays and demonstrations. We are still picking blackberries and red raspberries at the farm. We also have sweet red peppers and hot peppers. Just a few more weeks to go in the market season. Evening lows about 50 degrees this week. See you soon.

Hampshire Heritage Days - Final Details

2008-09-05T21:20:00.002-04:00

We were in Romney today and things were shaping up for Heritage Days. Just a reminder that we will be in our normal Romney Farmers Market location on Main Street tomorrow. The hours will be extended tomorrow until 3 PM. The rain plan is now to move inside the Bank of Romney Community Center Building. We were just told that today. The prior rain plan to move to Romney Elementary School has now been changed. At 4 PM, the Hampshire Farm Tour will begin. We'll be back at the farm to meet and greet visitors to the farm. See www.hampshirefarmtour.blogspot.com for details. Search Google Maps for Church View Farm to find us. We'll also have directions note cards at the farmers market for you. See you there.

Aug 30th, Local Foods Guide, Heritage days

2008-08-29T09:51:00.003-04:00

Lots to cover here. For the market tomorrow we'll have a lot of blackberries and raspberries. Some light rain yesterday really helped. Tomatoes are done. The cool nights and recent dry weather did them in. We'll still have lots of sweet peppers and some hot peppers. Also we'll have all the new jarred products I've mentioned in prior posts. I've written an Ebook called the Hampshire County WV Local Foods Guide which you can find Here. The link is http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgxxhb9d_2367grxwnd4 Its a work in progress but it will get refined as time goes on and I get more info from all of the producers. Lastly, Hampshire Heritage Days is next Saturday Sep 6th. The Romney Farmers Market will be in its normal location with extended hours until 3 PM. Then we'll return to the farm for the Hampshire Farm Tour. So we'll see you somewhere!

Two More New Products

2008-08-29T09:48:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we picked up two more new products that Gourmet Central has made for us. They are Apple Honey Walnut Chutney and Jalapeno Honey Mustard Dressing. We'll have them along this weekend.

What's a CSA Box?

2008-08-29T09:37:00.003-04:00

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Its generally a weekly subscription to a farm's products. We do a Non Subscription CSA which means that we offer the boxes when we have surplus at peak season. The photo is a typical CSA box. Many have asked what it is and what it looks like. Its a half bushel box of what is in season. Cost is $25 and provides a savings over buying the items individually.

One Chicken - 4 Meals

2008-08-26T09:49:00.002-04:00

Culinate.com has a good article out today about all the things you can do with a good chicken entitled - "One Bird, 4 meals- Buy a good bird and reap the rewards". You can read the article Here or at this link - http://www.culinate.com/articles/features/one_chicken_four_meals
This article is a good resource for those that are buying our pasture raised broilers.

Hampshire Farm Tour

2008-08-26T05:32:00.003-04:00

There will be a Hampshire Farm Tour held in conjunction with Heritage Days on Saturday September 6th. You can find details at http://hampshirefarmtour.blogspot.com More details will be added over the next week or so. The Hampshire Visitors Bureau and Hampshire Review will be publicizing the Farm Tour. Our plans are to have our farm stand set up at the farm and people can come and visit the farm, see the farm animals, etc. Just like farmers markets, what is know as agritourism is growing as people want to see where things are produced. It should be a lot of fun.

Mountain Music at the Market

2008-08-26T05:21:00.002-04:00

The Short Mountain String Band played at the market last Saturday and it was enjoyed by all. This is known as Appalachian String Band music and they play a lot of traditional songs. The harmony of two fiddles is really something. But its not just a music group, these are our colleagues and friends. Steve and Christy work for the Dept of Agriculture. Paul is the horticulture teacher at Hampshire High School. Pete is a craftsman in Capon Bridge and his daughter Dakota is in high school. We've seen Dakota play locally since she was about 8 or so. In the near future, they will play at Canal Place in Cumberland, MD as well as at the Appalachian Festival in Frostburg, MD. We're very glad they were able to come to the Romney Farmers Market. The weather was perfect and it really made for a nice day.

New Products

2008-08-23T06:04:00.002-04:00

We have 3 new products that Gourmet Central has just processed for us. Honey Apple Barbeque Sauce, Raspberry Salsa, and Seedless Blackberry Jam. Was not sure that they'd be done this week. But I was able to pick them up on Friday and we'll have them at the farmers market.

Market Update - For August 23, 2008

2008-08-22T08:05:00.003-04:00

The market season is still in full swing but you can tell that Fall is approaching. A few leaves are even changing color as its been very dry lately. Very cool and pleasant for August with the night time temps in the lower 50's. A daily temperature swing of 30-35 degrees has been the norm. These cool temps essentially tell the tomatoes to finish up for the year. The slant of the sunlight is changing also. We'll have lots of everything including red raspberries. We also have a new batch of chickens that were processed this past week. Those with advance orders should let us know if you want us to bring them to the market for you. The Short Mountain String Band will be playing at the farmers market. Dakota Hobbie, a phenomenal local fiddler, is in the group. She has been playing publicly for about 10 years, since she was about 6 years old. Local peaches and summer apples are in and can be easily found locally. A fresh peach pie with ice cream is a must for mid August. People call from 4-5 hours distant looking for fresh fruit from Hampshire County. Our new sidewalk sign for the market was a big hit last Sat. This is County Fair week in Hampshire County as it is in lots of towns across the country. The Review has a good video summary Here. They call it their weekend update. Its a bit of small town Americana and shows you some of the fair activities that people are enjoying this week. We had a display in the horticulture building at the fair along with an observation bee hive. We also helped out preparing for the Ruritan dinner in the dining hall. Saturday night is the big night for the 4-H livestock sales. Kids that have been raising and caring for their animals all year have to walk them though the show ring. Then their families and local businesses bid on the animals which becomes the child's pay so to speak for raising and training the animal. Its a traditional 4-H activity. (4-H means head, heart, health, hands, and provides great practical life skills training for kids) Hope to see you at the farmers market or maybe somewhere else this weekend!

USDA Canning Guide

2008-08-18T07:20:00.002-04:00

We've been selling lots of tomatoes for canning, and folks have recently asked numerous questions about canning. Thought I'd post the link to the USDA Canning Guide which is
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html
Just like most topics, there is a ton of available info on the web, most of it good info. But the USDA Guide has been a key reference guide for a long time. With peaches, apples, and just about all fresh produce available, now is definitely the time to preserve the harvest.

Update 08-08-08

2008-08-08T05:59:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone, No blog post last week, and here it is Friday already this week. Last night it was in the mid 50's so autumn is not far off. I attended the "Value Added Fair at Fairmont State University this past Tuesday. Fairmont is right in the middle of what WV calls the I-79 Technology Corridor. This meeting was all about farms connecting with resources to make products from their farm. I actually gave a short talk about what we do on our farm. What was most interesting was that the culinary staff at Pierpont Community College, which is located at Fairmont, prepared the lunch which was served in their new cafeteria with local products and products from the farms of the attendees. We provided pasture chicken, heirloom tomatoes, green peppers, and blackberries. The chicken was the main course and they also made a blackberry topped cheesecake. So besides the main course we had products on the salad bar and the desert bar. College sure has changed. The student center is like a self contained resort. There are gyms, media rooms, swimming pool, cafeterias, lounges. It was exciting to see the entire group enjoying these products. Pierpont hopes to start a student run bistro in town similar to the Culinaire Cafe in Cumberland, MD. As far as the Romney market, the banner has gotten a lot of exposure this week and was even featured in the newspaper. there are more banners and signs in the works. We expect a big market tomorrow and we'll have the usual peak season products such as tomatoes, peppers, berries and honey. Hope to see you there.

Tons of Blackberries

2008-07-27T20:06:00.005-04:00

I've mentioned our blackberries in prior posts. But folks that just speak to us at the farmers market have been curious about them. So I snapped a few photos of our blackberry plants. The early rain this year has been remarkable for them and now in the drier hotter weather they are ripening quickly. We have one variety, Illini, that is well adapted to this area but it is thorny. They have been ripening for a week or so. Our main variety is Chester which is shown in the photo, a few berries are ripening now, but as you can see the real avalanche is yet to come. All the red berries will ripen over the next week or two. Chester has a reputation for being more tart or not as sweet as other varieties, but the secret is that it needs to stay on the plant a day or two after it darkens, and looks ripe, to enhance the flavor and sweetness. If you come out for PYO, or to visit the farm, this is what you'll see. If you're at the market, this is where they come from. Lastly, they are not sprayed with anything toxic. We'll lose a few berries to Japanese beetles but that's OK. Fortunately for me blackberry jam is my favorite.

Peak Season and Market

2008-07-25T06:55:00.003-04:00

We'll have a great selection at tomorrow's farmers market. Its truly peak season, its all we can do to pick just a portion of what's ready in the field. I mentioned PYO blackberries before as its peak season. We'll also do PYO tomatoes and peppers at this time, $15/half bushel or $25/bushel. We have some Roma tomatoes which are available PYO if you are into making your own sauces, $20/half bushel. Cherokee Purple and Brandywine heirloom tomatoes are available. Heirlooms are 2 for $1 at the market, other varieties are 3 for $1. In fact we'll be doing mix and match 3 of anything for $1. Let us know if you'd like a CSA vegetable box, $20 per half bushel box for a nice variety. The prior boxes we did were well received. Even though they are vegetable boxes, we've been able to add berries and some fruit to the boxes also. One of the most enjoyable varieties has been the Sun Gold tomatoes. This is an very sweet heirloom salad tomato, just $3/pint As always, you wish you'd planted more of what grows well and sells well. We'll be doing Sun Gold every year from now on. Contrast this with Early Goliath tomato which was neither early or large. No more of those for our farm. We'll have 30-40 pints of Sun Gold available tomorrow. To answer a few other inquiries, salad mix is done until Fall and chicken is indeed still available. See you soon.

Blackberries - The Time is Now

2008-07-24T10:21:00.004-04:00

Hello everyone. Blackberry peak season is right now and for the next 2 weeks. I know we've had dozens of calls about them. Sorry but there's just not time for us to sit and return the calls. That's what this blog is for. To push out this info to your email address when you are a blog subscriber. Or to make this info available, if you choose to instead go and read the blog on your own. Also, please forward this blog post to anyone else with a possible interest. Long story short is that Ruth and I could pick blackberries all day every day for the next 2 weeks and probably still not get them all picked. We were away for a few days, plus we had almost 2 inches of rain total so they are just going crazy. Some varieties such as Illini are at peak now, and others, such as Chester, will be peaking next week. So if you want advance orders of blackberry pints to be brought to the market, just let us know. We pack them in clear plastic pints priced at $4/pint. If you want to come and do a PYO, you'll save 50%. Bring your own containers although we do have gallon pails you can use for picking. For ex, a gallon bought as packed pints would cost $32, PYO the cost is half, $16 per gallon, however you pack them. If you order a CSA vegetable box this week, you'll get a pint also. So if you're still dreaming of blackberry pie, jam, or cobbler, this next 2 weeks is your window of opportunity for this summer's harvest.

Gonna Be Hot - Ripe Tomatoes and Blackberries

2008-07-18T08:36:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone,
Looks like high summer has settled in the past few days. Its supposed to be 97 today! And picking in the sun I can assure you is much hotter. But the good news is that ripe red tomatoes are finally here. The farmers market will be swarmed. Great photo in the Hampshire Review this week of the nice crowd at the market. Please come early for the best selection. They are at least two weeks behind last year, but they are indeed finally here. The new Sun Gold salad tomatoes are even better than we expected. They go very fast. Its been interesting and fun.
I think every person that sampled a Sun Gold at the market immediately bought a pint. Fun to see the smiles, comments and head shakes they bring. Even one fist pumping in the air if you can imagine that. We've been picking blackberries daily. So from now and for the next few weeks it will be high season for the blackberries. So if blackberry cobbler, pie, jam or blackberry anything is on your wish list, now is definitely the time. Red raspberries will follow the blackberries. Plan accordingly. Sweet peppers are nice size now. We'll have at least a full crate of those. For those making chutney and salsa and the like, we have green heirlooms which work well for that. Last weekend was a new phenomenon for the Romney market. There were actually people waiting in the parking lot when we pulled in at 8:30 AM. The market doesn't even open until 9 AM. Pretty amazing. Its encouraging and motivational to meet these folks that "get it". For ex, we sell our summer squash for 3 for $1, any size. They are $1.29 per pound at the grocery store. So there is the value, you get fresher and at least 1/2 price at the farmers market versus older, dried out and more expensive at the grocery store. By cutting out the shipping, handling fuel, delays, storage, etc. we can pass on the savings to everyone at the farmers market. I field lots of emails and inquiries all week from folks. Please feel free to introduce yourselves to us so we can put names with faces. Hope to see you there.

Simple Dollar Blog Post

2008-07-17T07:04:00.002-04:00

Very informative blog post from The Simple Dollar. See www.thesimpledollar.com You can subscribe to their RSS feed or with your email address.

The Simple Dollar

Ten Ways to Find Bargains on Fresh Food

Posted: 16 Jul 2008 03:00 PM CDT

I’m always on the hunt for fresh food, grown locally and preferably grown organically and with sustainable practices. Not only are such items healthier, they’re also almost always much more flavorful, too. You haven’t lived until you’ve tried a salad made up of greens that were cut less than an hour before.

The only problem with this approach to eating is that it’s often perceived as very expensive. If you browse through the food options at your local mega grocery, you’ll usually find that healthy options, like organic fruits and vegetables, free range chickens and eggs, grass-fed beef, organic milk, and so on are usually substantially more expensive than the regular versions of the products. For a family on a budget, that’s a hard one to justify - is someone trying really hard to get by going to spend an extra two dollars a pound for organic carrots versus regular carrots? How about an extra two dollars a gallon for organic milk? It’s not something that fits well into the average budget.

The secret, though, is that fresh and healthy food is often just as cheap as the regular stuff - if you bother to do a little bit of looking around. Over the years, I’ve tried all sorts of methods for getting fresher and more healthy food on our table without exploding our food budget. Here are ten tactics that work.

1. Know what’s actually available to you.
One of the first challenges to overcome is knowing what’s available to you in your area. It’s easy to find a supermarket, but supermarkets are rarely where you’ll find the good deals on fresh, local produce. Here are a couple of tools to use.

The 100 Mile Diet Map identifies original sources for fruit, vegetable, dairy, and meat in your area that originate from within 100 miles of your zip code. In other words, it’s a great way to find truly fresh locally grown stuff.

LocalHarvest.org finds all sorts of retail sources for locally grown foods all around you.

2. Be adventurous in your food choices.
While it’s easy to stick with the foods you know, doing that quite often results in paying more because you’re avoiding options that are both cheap and quite interesting. Instead of just getting the usual thing, take a look at some of the more unusual foods available to you, ones that are outside your normal diet. One great way to kickstart this is by finding out what items are actually in season at the moment and basing some of your fresh food shopping on that.

If you have an opportunity to try a new fruit or vegetable or other fresh food at a very inexpensive price, don’t skip it because you’re unfamiliar with it. Instead, pick some up, go home, flip open a cookbook, and try something new - you’ll almost always be glad you did, plus you will have saved some money. I used to avoid okra, for example, but once I tried it in a dish with red beans, rice, and andouille sausage, I was a convert.

3. Shop for produce regularly at farmers markets.
Your first place to shop for fresh produce shouldn’t be the produce section at your local grocery store - instead, you should start at the farmers market. The items on sale here are fresh - often just pulled from the ground in the last twenty four hours and thus still quite nutrient rich. Even better, the prices are usually a bit lower than what you’ll find for the preserved and chilled stuff you’ll find in the produce section at your local grocery store.

The challenging part of a farmers market, though, is that you’ll never be quite sure what you’ll come home with. The selection is completely dependent on what’s in season, and thus you’ll not find preserved and shipped out of season items there. Thus, it’s much more difficult to make a shopping list for a farmer’s market. Instead, when you’re in need of produce, find out when your local farmers market is open and hit that before stopping at the grocery store. Then, use what you buy there as the backbone for your meal planning.

Here are some useful tactics for tackling a farmers market for the first time.

4. Use farmer’s markets for information, too.
While you can score a lot of tasty, fresh produce at reasonable prices from farmers markets, perhaps the best value at a farmers market is free - the information. Ask lots of questions, from how you might prepare a particular item to recipe suggestions to tips on where you might find a specific item locally.

Almost everyone I’ve interacted with at a farmers market is glad to help with all of these questions. Why? First of all, they love this stuff. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be at a farmers market. Second, they know that providing you with good information will likely make you a happy customer and keep you coming back.

So ask. Ask lots of questions. Learn more about the food you’re eating and where to get more of it.

5. Join a CSA.
A CSA (short for community supported agriculture) is a system in which people in a community become shareholders in a farm, and that share earns dividends in the form of produce. Where I live, I’ve been on a waiting list for the local CSA for almost a year, and I can’t wait to sign up.

I stopped by to check out how their system works. Basically, you buy a “share” early in the year that costs around $300. This “share” earns you a giant box of produce every week throughout the late spring, summer, and early fall - twenty weeks in all (making the cost effectively $15 a box). The content of the box is basically an equal share of whatever happens to be in season at the moment - early on, it’s heavy on the lettuce, asparagus, and other greens; by mid-summer, there’s lots of tomatoes and corn; later on, you might see squashes and the like. For the volume of food you get, it’s a tremendous deal, especially considering it’s fresh and local.

You can use the tools in tip #1 to find your own local CSA. You might also find that some of the people at farmers markets also run CSAs, so they may be able to give you a lead, too.

6. Start your own garden.
A garden is a tremendous hobby to undertake. It requires a significant time investment and some initial cost as well (basic equipment and seeds). However, few things beat the ability to walk out in your yard and pull a handful of tomatoes straight from the vine to use with that night’s dinner. Not only is it impossible to eat anything fresher, the cost involved is quite low.

It’s even lower when you add in the concept of gardening as a hobby when compared to other hobbies. An hour spent in the garden, if you enjoy it, is an hour well spent, never mind the fact that it provides some financial and nutritional benefit over the long haul.

7. Share a garden with someone else.
If you don’t have adequate space for your own garden, consider an arrangement where someone else has space for a garden and you share resources and effort. For example, you might place a garden in a friend’s yard, then spend some time each Saturday or Sunday afternoon over there getting it in shape with your friend, then splitting the fresh produce.

Not only does this provide you fresh food, it also transforms gardening into a social activity that you can share with a friend. Even a medium sized garden can provide a good amount of fresh produce for two families, and with a partner you can spread out the costs of the materials and the effort, too. A win-win all around, and it gets tasty fresh produce on your table.

8. Establish a bartering relationship with someone who gardens extensively.
Another option, particularly if you have marketable skills, is to swap those skills with a friend that is an avid gardener or produces some other sort of fresh food. For example, if your friend needs help with some electrical work, offer to give him an afternoon’s worth of help in exchange for a few pounds of tomatoes in August.

Again, this turns fresh produce into a win-win. Not only is it free for you now, you’ve also got an afternoon at a friend’s house, helping him or her out. Good conversation, an afternoon well spent, and some fresh food later on? You can’t beat it.

9. Use your grocery flyer to identify healthy sales, then plan around them.
If you don’t have many options available to you for getting such fresh produce, you can still rely on your local grocery store for options. Know what items are actually in season at the moment and use that knowledge in tandem with the local grocery store flyers. When you see in-season items on sale, jump on board - such sales are usually based on highly local purchases, plus they’re cheap.

Since you have the advantage of knowing the fresh produce you’ll have, use it as the backbone for your meal and shopping planning. Find recipes that use these fresh items, then construct a shopping list out of what you need for these recipes.

10. Join your local Slow Food convivum.
A final tip: be social in your dedication to fresh, local food. Find others that share your interests, so you can share your ideas about where to find inexpensive, fresh, local foods. The most effective way to do this is to get involved with Slow Food.

Slow Food is an organization dedicated to “slow food” - the opposite of fast food. They organize into local chapters (called conviva), where people meet and share ideas about eating locally and often share information online, too. These groups are treasure troves of information on inexpensive, local, fresh produce and well worth looking into if you’re interested in the topic.

Update - For July 12 Farmers Market

2008-07-08T13:26:00.003-04:00

Hello everyone, last week was sort of a blur, and we had the July 4th holiday, so I didn't get to a blog post. It just got past me. That didn't seem to matter as we had a very busy market on July 5th. Lots of visitors to Romney, as well as travelers passing through town. I'm posting early this week as I'll be away for a few days. I'll be attending a beekeeping meeting at Marshall University in Huntington, WV. I've never been there but the MU web site shows its a very nice campus. I really liked the film "We Are Marshall" and they are even showing it on campus for all the folks that are traveling to the meeting. For this Saturday, we should have our first ripe tomatoes. Our normal "Early Girl" tomatoes were not early, the weather was just too cool I guess. We'll have some Sun Gold tomatoes also. These are gold salad tomatoes. No one who has these would go back to a red cherry tomato. We may have blueberries from our friend Richard Cutter, from Frostburg, MD. They were a big hit last year. Our raspberries and blackberries are still a few days away ; although we're picking just small quantities now. Sweet peppers and summer squash will be available also. Long story short is things are really starting to peak. The month of July is peak market season. This is a good time to order a CSA box if you're interested in a mixed 20-25 pound box of produce. We'll have eggs and we can bring your advance chicken orders to market also. We harvested more honey so we'll have plenty. Many folks have found us via localharvest.com Also check out www.culinate.com which helps you with what to do with all your farmers market purchases. So we're looking forward to another very busy market day on Saturday. Hope to see you there.

Culinate.com

2008-07-04T05:48:00.002-04:00

I found some good info at culinate.com about farmers markets. See Below. Deborah Madison's monthly column is well worth subscribing to. I'm in the process of updating some info at their site about the Romney Market.

Other content on Culinate related to farmers markets includes:

A monthly column by Deborah Madison, the award-winning chef and author of Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers Markets http://www.culinate.com/columns/deborah
Recipes from our kitchens, our contributors, and featured cookbooks � using ingredients readily available at most farmers markets http://www.culinate.com/recipes/collections/farmers_markets
Articles on shopping at farmers markets on a budget, by Matthew Card; what questions to ask farmers at the market, by Culinate Managing Editor Caroline Cummins; and an interview with CSA (community-supported agriculture) pioneer Elizabeth Henderson

From the WV First Lady - Nice Article

2008-07-04T05:17:00.000-04:00

From: firstlady@wvgov.org [mailto:firstlady@wvgov.org]
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2008 11:38 AM
To: lkesecker@oeo.state.wv.us
Subject: From the First Lady's Desk: July is West Virginia green month

July 3, 2008

JULY IS WEST VIRGINIA GREEN MONTH
From the First Lady’s Desk:
A monthly message by First Lady Gayle C. Manchin

Contact: Lara Ramsburg , 304-558-2000

West Virginia has definitely gone green. There is not a nook or cranny anywhere in this state that is not lush and green from trees, foliage, ferns and other beautiful plants that call West Virginia home. Joe and I came across the scenic highway from Marlinton to Richwood recently, and the vista of vibrant green against the blue sky was absolutely breathtaking.
With all the green around us at every turn, it is a great time to think of ways individually, as a community and as a state that we can be better stewards of our beautiful landscape and environment. One of the biggest win-wins for everyone is buying fresh, locally grown produce in our own neighborhoods. The vegetables and fruits grown in West Virginia taste better and are better for us than those shipped in from other states and countries. I was amazed at the variety of vegetables and fruits grown regularly and organically across our state. In addition, many chefs and restaurants are promoting buying West Virginia products, and they have found poultry, beef, fresh fish like mountain trout and artic char, eggs and dairy products that can accommodate all their needs and recipes.

Within our own homes and yards, we can do many little things everyday that begin to add up when you calculate over weeks and months from one house to an entire community. Adding insulation and sealing cracks around doors and windows can reduce both heating and cooling bills, and is also a great start in practicing energy conservation.

In that same vein, just remembering to turn off lights, televisions and unused electrical appliances are among little efforts that pay off. The newest energy-efficient light bulbs cost more initially, but will pay for themselves in savings in a big way over their lifetime. Also, using solar or LED (light-emitting diode) lighting around your lawn is a big energy saver. The LED lights are very bright and use very little power and will last five to 10 times as long as standard outdoor lights!

It is also interesting to note that it is not only professional chefs, but everyday “mom-and-pop chefs” that are taking a little corner of the yard for an herb garden and a few favorite items like tomatoes and peppers. Again, a few steps to the garden, a fresh salad and a little pruning on the side are other win-wins for a healthier lifestyle and greener environment.

It is worth noting that when doing seasonal planting, plants, flowers and grasses that are native to our region are the most attuned to our soil, climate and water particularities. Therefore, they will thrive with less care than tropical and other imported varieties and, let’s face it, they are gorgeous! While water is not necessarily scarce in West Virginia, a barrel sitting in an area of the yard to collect rain water is another way to conserve and cut down on our water bills and is handy for watering our new gardens.

Enjoy the green of West Virginia, whether it is in your own backyard or in one of our beautiful state parks or national forests. If we each do our part in a small way, it will make a big difference in the conservation of our land and energy.

First Summer Squash

2008-06-27T21:20:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone. We'll have our first yellow and green summer squash at the Romney Farmers Market tomorrow. And as usual we'll have a ton of them again this year. Any size, from baby to large, we have it. Just let us know your requirements. New honey also, and some bush cherries. Tomatoes are coming along so it won't be long, there is an unbelievable amount of tomato blossom this year. One exciting development this week is that we picked several handfuls of blueberries this week. We should have our first marketable blueberry yield next year. Picked a few raspberries too, so perhaps at next week's market we'll have some. Its gotten dry so we could use some rain showers. Lots of eggs, and other items also. See you at the market.

Harvesting Food And Knowledge - washingtonpost.com

2008-06-26T07:12:00.002-04:00

Real good article in today's Washington Post about successful community gardens.
You can go to it Here

Update - June 21, 2008 Market

2008-06-20T10:03:00.003-04:00

We had out first honey harvest of 2008. The honey as exceptional, very light in color, almost clear. Every bit as nice as tupelo honey. We provided small honey bears to the Farm Credit organization which they used for a Capital Hill presentation on Wednesday. We were told they were a big hit at the meeting. We had chicken processed this week. If you had an existing order, we can bring them to the farmers market for you if you are going there. Otherwise, we'll make other arrangements. We have green tomatoes on the vines and all of the tomatoes are in blossom so they will be at the market in short order. Lots of articles on the web about the current tomato scare. Looks like they are mostly from Mexico. The water is contaminated there, so its no real surprise. All of these stories verify what we have been saying for a decade. You must know the source of everything you consume, and how it was produced. These stories will come up in the media over and over again. Hope to see you at the farmers market. I've recently been reading some books by Jon Katz. See his web site at www.bedlamfarm.com His border collie Rose looks just like our Zoey.

Romney Farmers Market - June 14th

2008-06-13T06:23:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone, I was remiss in not getting a blog post out last week. Sorry. We had a great market day last week as the weather was good. Tomorrow looking good as well. Very very busy times on the farm. We have strawberries in, and perhaps a few sweet cherries. Tomatoes and squash are in blossom. Blackberry blossom this year is the best ever. Our bees are doing a great job also. Salad greens and swiss chard are plentiful. Spinach is done for the spring, just too hot now, perhaps more in the fall. We'll have our other normal products for this time of the season, ex eggs, honey, etc. A batch of chickens will be processed on Tuesday. If you have an advanced order in place, we'll make plans for pickup or drop off, anytime after mid week. Hope to see you at the market. Just point to www.romneyfarmersmarket.com the Hampshire review has been providing good ongoing coverage also.

Romney Farmers Market Opening

2008-05-27T06:53:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone,
The farmers market opens this weekend in Romney. This Spring has been cool and wet so the start is a bit slow. However, everything is planted so we're just waiting for warm days. We'll have plenty of things at the farmers market including eggs, chicken, greens, jarred products, etc. We have more new jarred products that were processed by Gourmet Central including hot pepper jelly in a sugar free format and raspberry jam. If you are ordering in advance, we'll have your order for you at the market. We'll be using our trailer this year so cargo space will never be an issue. There was a nice feature article in last week's Hampshire Review about the market. As a reminder the new web site is www.romneyfarmersmarket.com Also www.buylocalwv has good info. Our county agent Dr Jerry Leather is working with the Review to publish an announcement each week in the newspaper. Hope to see you there.

I See Miles and Miles of ........ Mulch Film

2008-05-07T05:06:00.005-04:00

Well our spring planting is finally progressing, just about on schedule. From the photo, you see that our new mulch film layer has been put in service. This is a photo degradable mulch film for weed control. The film will degrade and decompose from sunlight as the season progresses so there is no issue with disposal. Using this method of weed control, we don't have to use any herbicides around the plants. We also do not use any fungicides to extend shelf life. We just don't want these toxic chemicals in your (and our) food. This is the first year we've used our plastic layer that we purchased last winter and it works very well. So we should get higher yields since the plants won't have to compete with the weeds for moisture. Its been a cool wet spring so far which delayed things a bit but hopefully we'll catch up in the next few days.

Maple Season

2008-04-05T05:03:00.004-04:00

New England gets most of the media coverage for maple syrup and that is indeed a marketing triumph on their part. Needless to say, WV, MD and PA are also loaded with maple trees. To me this really is what really begins the actual farming season. The link to the article is a good summary. There are plenty of maple festivals around our area but that is mostly a sales outlet for the finished product or for churches and other fund raisers to serve pancake breakfasts and the like. What I prefer, and would recommend that you go see, is the actual production, from the tree to the maple shack and then to the bottle. There is something about the process that is quite peaceful and appealing. Mostly the fact that the process can not be rushed so I guess it primarily teaches patience. It might also be the tradition of it, or the quiet nature of the work, or maybe its just the sweet smelling steam. The season typically starts with snow still on the ground and when its still quite cloudy and dark. It takes a special dedication to be out in the woods in this cold damp climate. But for those that do it, it is part of their nature and they simple go about doing what needs to be done. Planting anything is still a month or two away. So go visit a maple camp, and see this process first hand for yourself if you can. Its a very special tradition.

2008 Katahdin Lambs

2008-03-17T09:30:00.005-04:00

The lambs are keeping us entertained! They are so comical - lambs hop and spin around when they play. Five new babies so far... three Ewes still haven't lambed yet but should any day now.

To date we have three Ram lambs and two Ewe lambs. These little ones would be real good for a new starter flock for someone interested in a small farm sheep operation. The Katahdin breed is easy to maintain as they do not require sheering or tail docking, are parasite resistant, are very maternal/easy lambing, and have a very calm disposition.

The meat of a Katahdin sheep is mild in taste and lower in cholesterol than some other lamb meat due to fewer glands that produce lanolin. Being a hair sheep breed, the Katahdin grows only a small amount of wool fiber, mostly for warmth in the winter time. This results in a milder less oily meat product.

First Lambs

2008-03-08T20:39:00.003-05:00

Our ewe named Molly was the first one to have her lambs. She had triplet lambs, two ewe lambs and one ram lamb. Ruth is holding the ram lamb in this picture. Pretty exciting that the first ewe to lamb had triplets. Temperature is in the low 20's and windy but we have a heat lamp installed in the lambing pen. All the lambs seem vigorous.

New Products, New Outlet

2008-03-08T06:39:00.013-05:00

Gourmet Central has made up some new products for us. They are Blackberry Syrup, Strawberry Syrup, Apple Cinnamon Syrup and Hot Pepper Jelly. We stocked inventory in a new outlet this week, Dillon's Country Treasures. They are located in a remodeled house on Route 50 just East of Romney. They have a lot of craft and home decor items also. In the old kitchen area of the house they have prepared a display of food items for sale. A lot of travelers through town stop there. They will be having a Spring Open House so a lot of folks will get to see our products on display. If you're passing through town, have a look!

Aroma's Coffeehouse Display

2008-02-25T05:48:00.005-05:00

This is the very nice display that Aroma's Coffeehouse in Moorefield, WV (www.aromascoffeehouse.biz) set up for our jarred products. As you go in the front door, these shelves are on the left.

Ice and Wind

2008-02-15T04:03:00.003-05:00

Last weekend, I think we had everything that mother nature could possibly throw at us packed into one single day; rain, sleet, snow, freezing rain and high winds. Before it all really started we had some high winds and coming back from Romney, Ruth captured this photo of the tree on the power line in Three Churches. Our power was out for 4-5 hours while the tree branch was removed. Amazing that it didn't pull the line completely down in which case our power probably would have been out for several days. The photo was used in this week's Hampshire Review.

Romney Farmers Market Web Site

2008-01-28T08:02:00.000-05:00

For 2008, the Romney Farmers Market itself will have a new web site. Ruth and I are doing the web site on a volunteer basis and the first version is now live. Check it out at www.romneyfarmersmarket.com to see our results so far. This will give other local web sites such as the Hampshire Visitors Bureau and cometohampshire.com a link that they can use to support the market. The biggest challenge will be to compile the overall list of local farms and growers. The Farm Service Agency and the WVU Extension office will be helping collect that data and we'll continue to refine and add to the web site over time. It will give consumers a good resource to find Hampshire County's local farms and growers. This will help local farms connect with consumers that are interested in the growing local foods movement.

WV Places Video

2008-01-09T16:24:00.000-05:00

I found a You Tube video today that has a lot of nice WV scenery in it. I found it on a web site called American Towns. In the video, they start out in Hampshire County and then travel SW into WV. Since we have a lot of global blog readers now, I thought it would give folks a sense of our local WV scenery with some really nice photos.

A Couple of Local Finds

2008-01-01T06:30:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone, If you are traveling locally and want a nice lunch stop, I have two places to tell you about. The first is called Trout Provisions in Wardensville, WV (www.troutprovisions.com). We took them some samples of our jarred products recently. There are a lot of facets to Trout Provisions. Its is a combination coffee shop-bakery-general store-art gallery. It is located in what was historically a dry goods store on main street in Wardensville. There you will meet pastry chef extraordinaire Monica Cassell. She makes a lot of what is called a crostata. I had to look it up on Wikipedia. This is a pastry with different fillings. Monica is able to be very creative with these. For example one is ginger-sweet potato-apple filled. Ruth had a cheese-potato-bacon crostata as a breakfast pastry. Then we moved on to the homemade croissants such as spinach-feta cheese and I eventually succumbed to a dark chocolate one. If they are interested, we'll get Monica some fresh and local materials to work her pastry magic with in 2008. Her eyebrows raised at the possibility of getting our fresh local red raspberries this season. The art is comparable to what you find at the Mountain Made store in Thomas, WV (www.mountainmade.com) You are free to browse and enjoy the entire place. When we were there, a nice combination of locals and travelers came in. One of the owners, Carolyn, greeted most of the locals by name. Very friendly. They have been sourcing fruits and vegetables from PA as they got up and running. Hopefully as they learn the area, they will see that much of what they want and need is available locally in WV.
If you are in Davis, WV be sure to stop at Hellbender Burritos. Its right in the middle of town. A Hellbender is a large salamander that is native to Appalachia. Its about 2 feet long and also called the Allegheny Alligator. There are big plans to build a waterfront park in Davis, see www.daviswva.com for details. Traveling to Davis, you'll see dozens of windmills now. Davis is over 3000' feet in elevation and close to the ski resort at Canaan Valley as well as Blackwater Falls. Much of Davis is still rustic but that is changing. Proprietor, Rob has built a nice cozy place; you'll likely be sitting by the wood stove while you eat your lunch. Rob is the type of person that values high quality and fresh ingredients. What I admire in both places is the vision and work required to take an existing building and create an inviting space to warmly welcome visitors. In speaking with them, I sense that would much rather serve fresh and local ingredients as opposed to relying on the standard food service deliveries. For example, any place that would serve a tasteless food service tomato when fresh and local ones are available in season just doesn't get it. These are places that the locals know, and a bit under the radar. When we are traveling this is exactly what we look for. They are unique and special, truly a cut above the standard fare travelers would find at a chain restaurant. At a chain, say Olive Garden, its just mass production of a standard product using the cheapest possible ingredients. At a small town place, the person that prepared your lunch will personally ask you how you liked it and truly want to know if they have met your expectations. When we sell at the farmers market or at the farm, we feel the same way, and try to ask to make sure that we are meeting expectations.

Jersey Boy

2007-12-12T02:41:00.001-05:00

The latest farm resident is a small Jersey steer calf that we've been calling Jersey Boy. He came from a grass based Jersey cow dairy near Berlin, PA. He's still being fed milk replacer at this point. This is the youngest calf we've ever gotten. But he seems to be settling in just fine. As you can see in the photo, the donkeys seem to have simply added him to their list of things that they check on and watch over.

The Meatrix

2007-12-05T06:20:00.000-05:00

There are two good web sites you need to know about. The first is www.eatwellguide.org and the second is www.sustainabletable.org If you do a search for our area code, 26757, we are the only farm listed. You can get to either site from the other one. There are short animated films called "The Meatrix" which of course is a title variant of "The Matrix" films. The films have won all sorts of awards and discuss how to avoid the industrial meat production system. Another nice feature is the harvest cooking videos where a chef teaches you how to make and use seasonal foods. Check them out. Lastly, sustainabletable.org has a good blog you can subscribe to via email or your news reader.

USDA Meat Inspection - Recent Events

2007-11-15T05:31:00.000-05:00

Recently, an article in the Washington Post described the plight of a small farm near Charlottesville that was selling uninspected pork products. They also were using Certified Organic labels without authorization. The real irony here is that most of the food borne contaminants such as ecoli are coming from the industrial food system, certainly not from small farms. The Beans at Double H Farm in Charlottesville were butchering their pork on the farm. Even though small farms have been butchering their own pork safely for generations for their own use, this is clearly not permitted when the meat is to be resold. As far as the organic certification, most producers have simply dropped it due to the cost of the regulation and because of the fact that its nearly impossible to verify that any purchased feed is truly "organic". There was another story last June in Britain where 89% of "organic" chickens were contaminated. So just because organic feed was used, there is no assurance that the processing was done cleanly. For grass based operations, feed is less of a consideration anyway. Joel Salatin has been processing poultry on the farm for 2 decades without incident while there have been countless incidents of problems with commercial chicken. While meat products are not our leading farm products, I wanted to do this post to clear the air in light of recent news items and any future news stories you might hear related to meat processing and small farms. Our beef is currently processed, and our first lamb will be processed next year, at a USDA inspected facility, Emrick's Meat & Packing Co south of Hyndman, PA. Their address is 1966 Hyndman Road, Hyndman, PA 15545. Phone 814-842-6779. They also have a small grocery store at the same location. A USDA Inspector is on site at their facility on the days that animals are processed. You should visit them if you have an interest. For chicken, its not as strict. There are exemptions for small producers, 3000 birds in VA and 1000 birds in WV and on farm processing is permitted. However, we have not gone that route. Our poultry is processed at Berry Blossom Farm in Waynesboro, PA. This is a smaller scale Amish run commercial poultry processing facility and we transport the birds there. Their address is 14116 Hollowell Church Road, Waynesboro, PA 17268. Phone: 717.597.4945 Again, if you have an interest you should visit them. The you can visit a large poultry factory, and contrast the difference. So, I hope this fully documents any processing that our farm has done for meat products. Most people, except for enlightened consumers that seek local producers, don't even want to be confronted with food processing facts. They just want to see the meat products in their cellophane containers. But if you do have an interest, you should have access to all the facts related to the processing. As far as our farm, I've outlined all of the pertinent facts here but if you ever have any questions, just ask.

Persimmons

2007-10-22T07:51:00.001-04:00

Foraging for wild foods and game are longstanding Appalachian traditions. Foraging examples would include ramps, morrel mushrooms, black walnuts, hickory nuts, native plums and dozens, if not hundreds, of other items. I took the photos near the gravel lane leading to our house. This persimmon tree is absolutely loaded with fruit. If you taste one before it is ripe it will parch your lips and mouth. The fruit softens after a freeze or two at which point the fruit becomes very sweet. Pretty amazing that with no cultivation, watering, fertilizing or anything, a bountiful natural fruit crop occurs. If you do a web search for persimmons you'll get a wealth of information. We hope to try a few recipes this year. The new Nov/Dec issue of Hobby Farms magazine had some info also. "Wild On The Farm": Sweet and sumptuous wild persimmon pudding is a Thanksgiving tradition throughout the South. Persimmons are also delicious right off of the tree but only in late autumn when they're at their mouthwatering sugary best. The word persimmon is derived from the Algonquin word"pessamin" , meaning "dry fruit". Dried persimmons were a staple in Native American villages; the Indians taught white settlers to eat persimmons too. Of persimmons, Captain John Smith wrote, "If it be not ripe it will drawe a man's mouth awrie with much torment; but when it is ripe, it is as delicious as an Apricot". Persimmon trees flourish from Massachusetts to Florida and as far west as Nebraska and Texas. A member of the Ebony family, the persimmon tree's wood is highly prized for fashioning textile shuttles', pool cues, and golf clubs. Only female trees bear fruit.

Joseph "The Man"

2007-10-15T11:02:00.001-04:00

Well the big day finally arrived! Joseph has been anxiously waiting to meet his girlfriends.

The Ewes gave Joseph a warm welcome. He especially liked Mary, but she wasn't sure if she wanted him so close... so she gave him a run for his money. He got tired of chasing her and turned to Molly. Molly was friendly and apparently ready to get together. So was Missy. Sweetheart, Little One, and Mary went out to graze. Later on, everyone was in the barn snuggling up together like old pals.

So, if everything happens like it's supposed to, we should have little lambs hopping around the farm mid March 2008. Way to go Joseph!

Sylvester Junior

2007-10-11T07:45:00.000-04:00

We just got a new barn cat and we've named him after a cat we used to have, Sylvester. There must be millions of black and white cats named Sylvester, nothing very original there. The first Sylvester died at age 18 after moving the the farm. So the new one is Sylvester Junior. The black and white coloring is reminiscent of the original Sylvester. Ruth took this photo of one of the sheep getting acquainted with Sylvester Junior.

Autumn Glory Festival, Oakland, MD

2007-10-11T05:28:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone,
Just a reminder that we'll be at the Mountain Fresh Pavilion in Oakland, MD on Saturday from
10 AM until 5 PM. See www.mountainfresh.org for info. We'll probably get there about 9 AM if you are running nearly. This is in conjunction with the annual Autumn Glory festival held in Oakland, MD. See www.visitdeepcreek.com for more details. This is actually a 5 day event,
Oct 10-14th, although we'll just be there on Saturday, Oct 13th. This will be the final day of our market season for 2007. Hope to see you there!

Bit of Fall Color

2007-10-11T04:22:00.000-04:00

We're starting to get just a bit of fall color now and Jonathan Jessup has posted some new photos which are outstanding. You can see them by clicking Here.

Donkey Slide Show

2007-10-08T11:11:00.001-04:00

Hello everyone, Ruth created a slide show with some photos of our mini donkeys using a new tool called Slide.com. Some good pics.

Farmer's Market - October 6th

2007-10-05T05:33:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone,
We are starting to get a bit of Fall color this week but there is no real chill in the air yet. Temperatures are still in the upper 80's. We haven't had any rain in nearly a month. This weekend is the annual Apple Harvest Festival in Burlington, WV. This is the big event of the year in Burlington and proceeds support the Methodist charities and the shelter and orphanage in Burlington. They do a lot of unheralded work which you can see at their web site, www.bumfs.org. At the festival, Apple Butter and Brunswick Stew are made over open fires and fresh apple cider is pressed. Anything you can imagine being made with apples, i.e. pie, cobbler, sauce, cookies, dumplings, etc, well its all there. The woodsmoke, creek side setting, and fall color make for a nice setting. A nice brochure about the festival can be found by clicking Here. Also this weekend is the Folk Festival in Springs, PA. This is real Amish Country, for example, the children all go barefoot and their tractors have solid steel wheels. Springs PA is just North of Grantsville, MD. More details are at www.springspa.org. We'll be at the Romney Farmers Market on Saturday AM from 9 AM -12 Noon and then we'll be over at the Potomac Eagle Station from 1PM to 2 PM. Our honey harvest is done for the year and Ruth packaged lots of different bottle sizes this week. We'll also have plenty of red raspberries. We hope to see you somewhere!

Romney Farmer's Market - Sep 29th

2007-09-29T06:14:00.001-04:00

Hello everyone, Just a short note to say that we WILL be at the Romney Market on Saturday. The weather looks to be beautiful, sunny and 77. We'll have raspberries, honey, and many jarred products. We will probably be there until 11:30 AM as after that we have been invited to set up over at the Potomac Eagle train station at Noon. This is when the 10 AM train returns and before the 1 PM train departs. This weekend is the start of the Potomac Eagle fall season and they will run daily. See www.potomaceagle.info for full details. Looks like they have big crowds already lined up for this fall as more people discover the train and Romney. We were told yesterday that the 1st class tickets for all of October are already sold out. This is also Heritage Weekend in Moorefield, VA and many folks will be going there also. The fall festivals season is in full swing with something scheduled nearby most every weekend. For ex, the Burlington Apple Harvest festival is next weekend. So come on out and enjoy the fall color over the next 3-4 weeks!

Mary Poppins and Choco Bell

2007-09-27T04:18:00.000-04:00

Next March will be our first lambing season on the farm. There are numerous predators around our area including coyotes, foxes, and bobcats. All of which would happily prey on baby lambs. So we had been casting about for a solution to protect our sheep flock. The normal solutions include a Great Pyrrennes dog, llamas, or donkeys. We heard of someone, Mr Bob Odle, that was downsizing their farm operation and had 4 mini donkeys available. So we purchased two of them, already named, Mary Poppins and Choco Bell. We can see by their reaction to our dogs just how they work to protect a flock. They face the dog directly, stare them down, and then walk straight at them to get them to back off. If necessary they will stomp an intruder with their front feet or turn and kick with their back feet. They are fearless when faced with a growling, barking dog. Ruth is holding Mary Poppins here. They have a stripe and cross on their back which is their biblical tie to "the way of the cross". These animals have been around a long time. So they are now part of our farm family and have their own job to do, to protect the sheep flock.

Appalachian Festival

2007-09-21T06:09:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone, just a reminder that we will not be in Romney on Saturday. We'll be in Frostburg, MD at the 2007 Appalachian Festival. You can get complete details by going to http://www.frostburg.edu/events/afestival/
We attended the event last year at it was quite informative. Its held right in the middle of the campus. This year we'll be vendors and we'll also be giving a talk related to beekeeping at 12:30 PM. The festival highlights Appalachian culture, crafts, history, music, food, etc. There is live music all day long. Perhaps we'll see you there.

Romney Farmers Market - Sep 15, 2007

2007-09-14T04:27:00.000-04:00

Just a short note here to tell you that tomorrow will be our final day at the Romney market for the season. Looks like summer's gone. We'll still have lots of red raspberries and still a few blackberries. We put in green beans as a second planting and we should have some available. We harvested honey so we'll have some brand new honey. Its an interesting time as everyone is canning and preserving and preparing for winter. A chill is definitely coming, we had a 48 degree low the other night. On September 22nd we'll be in Frostburg, MD for the Appalachian Festival. Hope to see you tomorrow.

Heritage Days Wrap Up

2007-09-11T08:40:00.000-04:00

This was our first year with a farm stand at Heritage Days. All in all it was a good experience. We met a lot of visitors to town and our jarred products and honey products were quite popular. Just a few photos here to document the event. I got my picture taken with Abraham Lincoln. He IS quite tall. Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, was born just west of Romney in Antioch, WV. She left WV and moved to Indiana when she got married. The observation bee hive was very popular especially with kids. It was featured on the front page of the Cumberland Times on Sunday. Lots of people get into the Heritage Days spirit by wearing colonial costumes as they walk around town. Often they are involved in some sort of reenactment. The photo is of the Fletcher family's triplets in their colonial dresses. We were set up across from the gazebo near Taggert Hall on High Street in Romney so a nice fringe benefit was that we got to hear the live music all day while we were there.

Strawberries in September

2007-09-11T06:47:00.000-04:00

I love strawberries and this is a certainly new farm experience, getting fresh local strawberries in the Fall. I did a trial planting of the new strawberry variety, Seascape, which is one of the new "daylight neutral" varieties. And they worked well. Out of the 100 foot trial row, we picked several quarts of berries yesterday. Quite a real treat to have strawberries in September. The birds love them too however, the berry on the right was clearly enjoyed by a bird. These plants do not seem to put out runners like other strawberry plants. They seem to stay put, and save their energy for the second crop of the year. Shorter daylight hours tell them to put out more berries instead of runnering. Berry size is smaller than the spring crop, likely because there is little moisture in August except for a passing thunderstorm. Flavor was very good and they were very sweet. So this is a successful trial. We'll plant more and also when we get our high tunnel greenhouse built we'll have to plant some in there. In the green house we can begin to water them perhaps in mid August and get a larger berry size. It will be quite a novelty to have some to sell at September farmers markets, perhaps next year.

Hampshire Heritage Days Reminder

2007-09-06T05:12:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone, just a short reminder that the Romney Farmers Market will not be in its normal location this coming Saturday, September 8th due the the annual Hampshire Heritage Days event held in downtown Romney. Instead of the Farmers Market there is a car and motorcycle show in the Bank of Romney Community Center parking lot. We will be set up on High Street in downtown Romney, near Mario's restaurant and the Taggert Hall Chamber of Commerce Building from about 8 AM until 4 PM or so. There is a parade that assembles at 5 PM so most of the artisans and vendors will probably close down just before the parade assembles. We will not have much fresh produce this Saturday. Instead we will mostly have jarred products, honey, and smaller snack packs of raspberries. We will also have an observation bee hive at our area. Based upon our experience at the summer fairs, people really like to see the bee hive and learn about how honey is produced. We packaged lots of honey this week and we'll have a good selection. You can get much more info at www.hampshireheritagedays.info or at www.cometohampshire.com Heritage Days draws lots of visitors to Romney for the weekend. Romney is the oldest town in WV and history is very prominent for events like this weekend's. There was a fair amount of civil war skirmishing in the area and local militias were active in the area. Civil war enthusiasts track down some of this historical info. Romney itself changed hands numerous times as the town would be occupied, then reoccupied by the other side, when the previous occupiers were called away elsewhere. There is a very large civil war encampment and reenactment held on the field by the river just west of Romney. Its very popular and its quite a display of living history. Hope to see you in town on Saturday.

Hampshire County Fair Round Up

2007-08-27T06:40:00.000-04:00

We got involved in setting up a display at the fairgrounds for the Hampshire Beekeepers and so while we were doing that we decided to enter many of our farm products. The Beekeepers display took the blue ribbon in competition with the other farms and business displays. The observation bee hive we set up was a huge hit at the fair. We ourselves won 10 blue ribbons for our farm products, and Ruth won another 3 blue ribbons in the CEOS (Community Education and Outreach) displays. The CEOS competitions involve baked goods, preserves, lots of other jarred products and lots of other things in the "homemaker" category. The horticulture competitions focus on crops, fruits and other agricultural products. So we won a total of 13 blue ribbons for Church View Farm, a very pleasant surprise in that we hadn't even considering entering anything until just a few days before the fair. Admittedly, Hampshire County is a very small fair, but it seems to be rapidly growing. There were many more displays than there were last year. People were still streaming through the Horticulture building when we went to pick up our displays late on Saturday. So while it involved numerous trips to the fairgrounds, I think it turned out to be well worth the effort and a real nice experience.

Farmer's Market - August 25th

2007-08-24T06:48:00.000-04:00

Wow summer is rapidly drawing to a close. We'll have lots of berries at the market on Saturday. Still its best to come early for them. After the recent rains they have really come on strong. Especially the golden raspberries. We'll have plenty of these. Up to this point we've just had a few and we sometimes packaged a mix of golden and red. We'll have the gold raspberries packaged separately on Saturday. Also, we'll have plenty of sweet peppers. The yellows and reds are particularly sweet. Plenty of hot peppers too. Weather has been kind of strange for August. Cool and damp this past week. With the daylight shortening significantly you can tell that summer is rapidly dwindling. Its unusual to have as much mowing and grass cutting to do in late August. Still its better that hot and dry. We'll also have many of our new jarred products made by Gourmet Central. One last thing, please get your chicken preorders pinned down and notify us so we can have them available for you. The next batch gets processed on Sep 4th. Hope to see you Saturday morning.

Raspberry Benefits

2007-08-22T05:31:00.000-04:00

Our red raspberries were running a bit late this year due to the lack of rainfall in June and July. But with adequate rain in the last few weeks, they are now doing very well. Raspberries can't really be shipped very well and the ones that are imported or shipped have to be treated with fungicides to prevent mold. This info below was gleaned from the web site www.pickyourown.org. Besides compiling PYO farms, they provide lots of reference info, canning tips, etc. Thought I would pass on the info they provided about raspberries. We should have plenty at the market this weekend. However, if we pick them too quickly after a rain, they will mold quickly so they must be consumed or used right away, within a day or two. Its just not worth the potential health risks of getting involved with fungicide use just to get a few days of extra shelf life.

Raspberry Facts and Tips

Raspberries come in many colors besides red: there are also black, purple and gold raspberries.
Raspberries are a very healthy food; they are high Vitamin C and naturally have no fat, cholesterol or sodium. They are also a good source of iron and folate (which is used especially in treatment of low red blood cells or anemia). Raspberries contain a natural substance called ellagic acid, which is an anti-carcinogenic (cancer-preventing) compound. Raspberries have been shown to lower high blood cholesterol levels and slow release of carbohydrates into the blood stream of diabetics.
Raspberries are high in fiber. Half to one pound of raspberry fruit per day can provide twenty to thirty grams of fiber which is adequate for an adult daily nutrition requirement.
Select plump, firm, fully black berries. Unripe berries will not ripen once picked.
Raspberries 1 pint = 2 cups = 500 ml and about 3/4 lb (about 1/3 kg) and is good for about 2 to 4 servings.
1 cup of raspberries is about 123 grams,
The USDA says 1 cup is about 64 calories!
Raspberries are a type of bramble, like blackberries and are also known as "Cane berries"
Raspberries are different from blackberries in that the fruit has a hollow core that remains on the plant when you pick the raspberry.
Raspberries are so expensive in the grocery store because, since they are so soft, they bruise easily, spoil quickly and do not ship well. It's much better to pick your own!
2 pints (4 cups) of raspberries are needed for a 9" pie
1 - 1¼ cups = 10 oz. package frozen berries
1 cup of raspberries is only 61 calories and high in dietary fiber
Raspberries are high in potassium, vitamin A and calcium
Raspberries contain about 50% of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin C.
U-pick Raspberry farms typically sell berries by the pound or pint. A pint equals 3/4 pounds of fresh berries.
Do the math and be careful not to over-purchase as Raspberries quickly mold when left at room temperature, and only last a couple of days in the refrigerator.
You can easily freeze berries that you can not use right away - just wash, cut the hulls off and pop them into a ziplock bag, removing as much air as possible. Those vacuum food sealers REALLY do a good job of this! The berries will keep for many months frozen without air.

Farmers Market - Saturday August 18th

2007-08-17T13:02:00.000-04:00

Wow, this week has been a total blur. Just a quick update here to get you prepped for tomorrow's market day. Cherokee Purple tomatoes are back this week. We'll have at least one full crate.
I know a few folks were very disappointed last week, dismayed even, maybe even depressed, when we ran out early. Recent rain has helped immensely. We have a lot of very nice red sweet peppers. Sweet as candy, the smaller size concentrates the flavor. We'll have habanero, jalapeno, thai, and carribbean red hot peppers in half pint and pint containers. I now understand that hot pepper loving people are called chiliheads. Who knew? We also have new smaller honey jars this week for those not needing the larger jars, ex quarts. The newest item will be the Bloody Mary mix that Gourmet Central made for us this week. Its very spicy and very thick. It can also be used as a cocktail sauce for shrimp or something similar. It could also be a soup base. Lots of possibilities. We did a taste test of a another product not made with fresh tomatoes and there was no comparison. We did our county sponsored Food Service training course this week so we are now officially authorized to serve samples. Hope to see you at the market. One last thing, we have a Ton of Roma tomatoes. Ton with a capital T. We'll never get them all picked. We probably won't be bringing these to the market unless we have an advance order for them. They just don't seem to sell and don't present well when sitting side by side with the big slicing tomatoes. Good for fresh spaghetti sauce or on pizza.

Gourmet Cental Delivery

2007-08-16T08:42:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we delivered some of our produce to Gourmet Central in Romney, WV for processing. This included sweet peppers, green and red tomatoes, as well as several types of hot peppers. We managed to pick a whole pallet of produce on Wednesday. Our backs are still tired. Ruth is holding a box of the hot peppers in the photo. This will be turned into bloody mary mix, hot sauce, and a green tomato relish (chow chow). This processing is being done by Gourmet Central as part of a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. The goal of this program is to connect growers to the capabilities of a commercial kitchen such as Gourmet Central and ultimately to customers through the wvfarm2u.org web site which goes live in the next few days after its presented and demonstrated to Governor Manchin at the WV state fair this week. We'll be picking up some products by the end of the week and we'll have them at the Romney Farmer's Market on Saturday. This really helps growers extend the season by having the jarred products available year round.

Farmers Market - Saturday August 11th

2007-08-09T20:56:00.000-04:00

Wow the summer has really been racing by. We'll have lots of very nice red sweet peppers at the market this Saturday as well as numerous kinds of hot peppers. We have lots of different kinds: Jalapeno, Thai, Caribbean, Cayenne, red chili, etc. , quite a variety. We'll have these packed in pints. Sadly, the blueberries are all gone for the year. I know many of you really enjoyed them too. But they've now been replaced by an abundance of blackberries. So dig out that blackberry cobbler recipe or get one on line or at www.raspberryblackberry.com We'll have red raspberries too. That along with the usual tomatoes, green peppers, squash, honey, eggs, etc. We're getting some storms tonight (Thursday eve) but only about 1/3" of much needed rain so far. Hopefully it will continue overnight. Hope to see you Saturday morning in Romney!

WV Fresh Logo

2007-08-09T06:56:00.000-04:00

We attended a meeting at Fairmont State University yesterday where the new WV Fresh Logo was unveiled. The WV Collaborative web site wvfarm2u.org will be going live next week after it is presented at the WV State Fair. Farms that have been involved with the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program like us were participants in the meeting at Fairmont yesterday. Its a nice logo and its getting some good publicity nationwide. The web site will help connect stores, restaurants, and the public with local producers. We'll be listed there as a producer when it goes live next week. On our way home we visited the WVU Organic Research Farm in Morgantown where they were having an open house and field day. Quite an informative day yesterday.

Excellent WV Photo

2007-08-09T06:42:00.000-04:00

As you know by now, any good photos we have are a result of Ruth's skill and eye for detail. Here's another WV landscape that I think just about captures it all. Taken near our house. You've got the the fields, woods, pond, mountains in the distance, an apple tree, big open sky, nice clouds. All the best of WV. But note the drought stress in the sunflower leaves and grass. Sure there is human interference, the road, the rowboat, the distant building rooftop, but it does not overtake the natural setting. Like a park. Which may actually be the point. Living in WV is like living in a pastoral park. Great photos like this capture the foreground detail, a middle subject, and the far distance.

Color Guide to Staying Healthy and Eating Right

2007-08-05T08:47:00.000-04:00

I found this article at the Lifehacker blog. Its a good description of nutrition and food colors. Click the link above or Here for the article.

Hot Peppers

2007-08-03T19:03:00.000-04:00

Some folks have been asking for weeks now and finally the hot peppers are ready. Mostly jalapeno. We'll have them at the Romney Farmer's Market tomorrow. We have them packed in pints this year. Some Thai hot peppers will also be available shortly. We'll also have plenty of sweet peppers again. Some were allowed to turn red. Very sweet. Still lots and lots of tomatoes. A slight bit of misfortune with the heirloom tomatoes. From the big storm last Saturday evening we got about 2 " of rain. This was just too much for the thin skinned heirlooms as many of them cracked and split with the rapid moisture uptake. So the heirlooms may get picked out in the next week or so. We have lots of nice large blackberries in pints and red raspberry pints also. No matter how many we bring they sell out in the first hour. Been meaning to mention eggs also. We have them in a cooler and often forget to display them. We'll have 10 dozen or so for tomorrow. Lastly, tomorrow will be the last day for Richard Cutter's blueberries which we have been selling for him. Looks like we are into a long stretch of 90 degree muggy days. Great for homemade ice cream and with fresh fruit. Hope to see you at the market on Saturday.

Aroma's Coffeehouse

2007-08-01T13:53:00.000-04:00

Catching up on blog posts today that I've neglected for a while so on this very hot afternoon its desk clearing time. If you are in Moorefield, WV looking for a nice place to eat or have a good cup of coffee, do yourself a favor and stop at Aroma's Coffee House. See www.aromascoffeehouse.biz Its on the main street running through town. Its quiet and comfortable with nice tables, sofas and free WiFi. Basically its like your den at home. Proprietor JD and his wife treat every customer like a part of their family. They also roast their own coffee on site. They became our customers this year and they have a keen interest in serving local and seasonal produce at Aroma's. A few of their lunches are shown on their web site. Check it out. JD takes a special pride in checking that each and every customer is very satisfied with their visit. Each and every town in this country needs a place like this.

WV Gazette Article and On Line Guide

2007-08-01T13:46:00.000-04:00

WV Gazette staff writer Tara Tuckwiller has been writing about WV local foods and had a good article in the paper on July 22nd. The WV Gazette is the Charleston, WV daily newspaper.
Click here for the article. The WV Gazette also now has an on line local foods guide. Some information about Hampshire County should be included in the on line Guide in the next few days. You can access the WV Gazette on line guide here.

First Apples

2007-08-01T11:21:00.000-04:00

This morning we picked our first marketable quantities of apples from the farm. These apples have never been sprayed with anything and they are surprisingly free of marks and insect damage. We'll have some containers at the Romney Farmers Market next Saturday. They are small buy very very sweet. We've harvested only small quantities of apples before this. Raising apple trees turned into a continual battle with deer, rabbits, groundhogs, etc not to mention simply hoping for favorable weather conditions. We did lose several large branches laden with apples in a severe storm last Saturday evening. After losing peaches and cherries locally to the spring freeze, some nice fresh sweet apples are very welcome in mid summer.

NY Times Editorial - Factory Farm Map

2007-08-01T10:37:00.000-04:00

July 31, 2007

Editorial

A Factory Farm Near You

Once upon a time, only a decade or so, it wasn’t hard to know where
factory hog farms were because they were nearly all in North Carolina.
But since those days, the practice of crowding together huge
concentrations of animals — hogs, poultry, dairy cows, beef cattle — in
the interests of supposed efficiency has spread around the country.

Wherever it appears, factory farming has two notable effects. It
threatens the environment, because of huge concentrations of animal
manure and lax regulation. And it threatens local political control.
Residents who want a say over whether and where factory farms, whose
stench can be overwhelming, can be built find their voices drowned out
by the industry’s cash and lobbying clout.

These farms are spreading so rapidly that it’s been hard to get an
accurate, up-to-date picture of where they all are. A research and
advocacy group called Food and Water Watch has released an interactive
map — www.factoryfarmmap.org — that
allows users to track the proliferation of factory farms by state and
county, number of farms, type of operation and even number of animals.
The only thing that would make this map more useful — and we hope it
will be an ongoing project — is the ability to track changes over time,
showing how rapid and pervasive the growth of factory farming has been.

It’s important to read this map not as a static record of farm sites or
a mere inventory of animals. It is really a map of overwhelming change
and conflict. It raises two of the fundamental questions facing American
agriculture. Do we pursue the logic of industrialism to its limits in a
biological landscape? And how badly will doing so harm the landscape,
the people who live in it and the democracy with which they govern
themselves?

Local Harvest Video

2007-07-31T20:39:00.000-04:00

Pretty interesting short video Here from the Local Harvest newsletter.

Supermarkets Tout Fresh, Local Offerings

2007-07-30T09:19:00.000-04:00

Great National Public Radio story Here about supermarkets picking up on local produce and the expanded interest in farmers markets. Well worth a listen. Thanks to Kim Sykes, WV Dept of Agriculture for recommending it. Typical high quality and timely reporting from NPR.

Washington Post Local Foods Article

2007-07-29T08:26:00.001-04:00

Yet another good article in today's Washington Post about the local foods movement. Front Page coverage. This time focusing on the suburbs, in Loudoun County. The local foods movement has really taken hold in 2007. Its likely a combination of a lot of factors lining up. The high fuel cost, some good books coming out on the topic, as well as the scandals involving imported food, all seem to have really brought a focus to local foods. And we are right in the middle of this. At the farmer's market yesterday, we had a conversation with one of the other vendors about the increased interest and traffic at our local Romney Farmers Market. It has been interesting seeing this grow in 2007.

A Shorter Link Between the Farm And Dinner Plate
Some Restaurants, Grocers Prefer Food Grown Locally

By Alejandro Lazo

Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 29, 2007; Page A01

Nutrition Action Article

2007-07-27T07:44:00.001-04:00

You may not be able to see the numbers on the article below unless you enlarge the page. Its from the latest Nutrition Action Health Letter which we get in the mail. You can go to www.cspinet.org to read it on line, or to get on their mailing list. Also, a link to the data is Here. As we head into peach, apple and pear season its important to remember that they have the highest pesticide levels of any fruit and vegetables. This is because they have to be sprayed so many times. Basically you should avoid the top block, the "Dirty Dozen" unless you can verify that they have been grown organically without pesticides. You can be sure that anything imported is loaded with these toxic substances. It will be interesting to see if there is any follow-up at all to the latest China import problems beyond a few reporters going over to have a look around. The small fruits are not quite as bad, they mostly require fungicides after harvest to preserve them during shipment. Needless to say, none of our fruits and vegetables have any pesticides or fungicides on them. Thus they are not as "ornamental" as you might see in the grocery store. For ex, a few spots on sweet peppers. But for the informed consumer, a couple of marks on a tomato or pepper is far better than ingesting pesticides, the full effect of which can not even be pinned down. Its just better to avoid them altogether. Hope to see you at the market Sat AM. All varieties of tomatoes are in now. If you are interested in larger quantities for canning or preserving, now is the time. Advance orders can be packaged up and waiting for you at the market. We've gotten a little rain, about 1/2 inch the other day so tomato and pepper sizes are near normal. Some nice slicing tomatoes will be available.

Romney Farmers Market Photos - July 21, 2007

2007-07-21T17:42:00.001-04:00

We had our busiest day ever at the Romney Farmers Market today. During a lull in the action Ruth snapped a few photos of our area as well as a few other vendors and the view down the sidewalk. The weather was great, mid 70's during most of the morning after a chilly 57 degree start. Great to see all of those that came out today. The beautiful weather had everyone in good spirits. Just like the past few weeks, blackberries and raspberries sold out in the first hour. Our busiest time seems to be from 9 AM until 10:30 AM. Tomatoes were very popular as again we were the only vendor that had any tomatoes. That was because we planted most of our tomatoes in mid May on some cold rainy days. And we were lucky enough to not have a late May frost this year. Many people were very interested in trying the Cherokee Purple tomatoes. Since the tomato sizes were small we were doing 4 of anything for $1 today. We joked that were were like the Dollar Store for vegetables which got a few laughs. July is definitely the peak month for the farmers market. The Romney market seems to be gaining some popularity for the listing I posted at localharvest.com and some other local advertising such as the Community Calendar in the Hampshire Review. Hope to see you next Saturday.

Update for 7/21/07 Farmers Market

2007-07-19T13:24:00.000-04:00

Wow, its been a busy week. We still haven't had any significant rainfall but tomatoes and peppers are still bearing very nicely. Salad greens are gone until the fall planting. They actually lasted longer than I thought. Targeting September for more salad mix. We'll have lots of tomatoes and peppers for the market. Cherokee Purple tomatoes are in. This is a much sought after heirloom. Mild tasting, often requested by chefs. We'll have may other varieties also. Sweet peppers are decent size and very crisp and sweet. We'll have blackberries and red raspberries again. They will likely sell out early again. They were gone in the first hour last week. We will also have more of Richard Cutter's blueberries. They sold like gangbusters last week. These blueberries won the blue ribbon and best of show at the Allegheny County MD fair this week. We were at Richard's berry yard on Tuesday picking and eating right from the bush. Just like the birds do. Awesome and heavenly blueberry flavor. As with almost everything this year, fruit size is smaller due to the lack of rainfall but the flavor and sweetness is enhanced. I was also lucky enough to have blueberry pancakes several times this week courtesy of Ruth. Speaking of the Allegheny fair, Ruth and I helped man the Allegheny beekeepers booth. It was quite a joy to show people the observation bee hive. Children delighted in finding the queen and in seeing honey in the comb. It also gave us numerous opportunities to explain the difference between wasps, that sting aggressively, and honey bees which do not. It also allowed us a chance to clear the air about the more aggressive Africanized bees. They can't survive our cold winters so they are pretty much confined to the dry southern states such as Texas and Arizona. Seems like we spent most of our time trying to clear up the misconceptions spread by the popular media. Tree fruits are a total bust this year. This week's Hampshire Review had an article about the local tree fruits. Gary Shanholtz was quoted as saying that the peach crop is 10% of normal and the apple crop is about 30% of normal yields. And of that, the fruit quality is not up to par because of the spring fronts, the cold month of May and the recent drought conditions. Looks like is a berry year, not a year for tree fruits. One last thing, if you are interested in the pastured poultry please be sure to get your order in, the first batch is gone. Batch 2 will be available the last week of July but only 25 birds. Batch 3 will be about Sep 1st. That will be about 100 birds. We don't want to disappoint anyone, but its first come first served, so get your reservations/orders in ASAP. Long post, but lots to cover! Hope to see you at the market on Saturday.

Taylor's Excellent Church View Farm Photos

2007-07-16T07:41:00.000-04:00

We recently met Taylor Kuykendall at the Romney Farmer's Market. Somehow we got to talking about photography and his web site, I guess because he had his camera along with him. Later that week he came out to the farm for a visit to shoot some photos which you can see at his blog site and the link is Here. He obviously has a very keen eye for detail and snapped these photos during a very short visit and walk around the farm. We see these things every day, but his photos somehow manage to bring out detail which we can overlook simply because of their familiarity.
Its all a reminder to simply slow down and see the detail. Not many people have ever noticed the perfect whorls of a sunflower. The photos are very well done. Inspiring in fact. When Taylor emailed and said he be out around sunrise for the best light, I felt I was not dealing with a typical college age young person but instead a very motivated and focused young person continuing to learn by pursuing their interests and passions on summer break. Its enough to restore your faith in Generation Next.

Berries Galore - July 14th Romney Farmer's Market

2007-07-12T08:23:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone,
Well this is Thursday AM which is a bit more notice than last week when I didn't get a pot done until Friday. We'll have blackberries and red raspberries at the Romney Farmer's Market tomorrow. Prices are $2.50/half pint and $4 per pint. Our friend, Richard Cutter, has some blueberries that will be available at our market stand. Richard is from Midland, MD which is near Frostburg, MD. Pricing is the same as raspberries. Our blueberry plants are still small and will hopefully bear next year. Richard's blueberries are chemical free. He gave us some to try last year and they were really good. These berries will sell quick and will probably be gone by 10 AM. The early birds have been getting all the berries. We'll also have plenty of tomatoes. We were the only vendor to have tomatoes last week and we clearly didn't bring enough. We'll bring two or three crates this week to meet the demand. We have some real nice green peppers, very tender, sweet and flavorful. These are not the boxy green peppers you see at the grocery store. They mature with more of a point at the bottom. Much better tasting. And we'll have green beans also. We'll be doing the mix and match quarts again which was very popular last week. Your choice of beans, squash, tomatoes, etc for $3/quart. Hope to see you there. Just direct anyone else you know that might have an interest to our blog, http://churchviewfarm.blogspot.com They can then subscribe via the blog to get notified by email.

Farmer's Market - July 7th - Tomatoes In

2007-07-06T19:58:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the late notice post. Its about 8 PM but we just got finished doing the picking for tomorrow's farmer's market. Produce is in! We'll have ripe tomatoes, sweet peppers, summer squash, green beans, some berries, etc, etc. at the market tomorrow morning in Romney. The market is supposed to start at 9AM but folks have been asking about the raspberries so we'll likely have some early birds. We got some rain yesterday which really helped. Starting Sunday, we are supposed to have 5-6 days in the mid 90's which will really ripen the tomatoes. We'll have an avalanche of them starting this week. So if you are contemplating a large order, now is the time to get your order in. Hope to see you at the market.

True Blue Coffee Roasters

2007-07-04T21:06:00.001-04:00

We like a nice high quality cup of coffee. We found out last week that there is a world class coffee roaster right in Moorefield, WV, True Blue Coffee Roasters. See www.trueblueroasters.com Their speciality is organic, fair trade coffees and they have a wide selection available. We were able to stop by their location for a quick view of the process. The upshot of this is that we will offer their products at the Romney Farmers Market, via our web site, or by special order. They have a nice sampler pack available which has 8 different selections. This also makes a very nice gift. Individual 2 oz. sampler packets are just $2 each. The complete sampler pack is $12. 12 oz. and 16 oz packages are also available at $9 and $12 respectively. The packages are a nice royal blue with the True Blue label and it identifies the company location in Old Fields, WV. A very nice WV discovery and something which will make a nice addition for the farmer's markets.

Early Girl Tomatoes

2007-07-01T16:26:00.000-04:00

The early girl variety tomatoes are in! This is the earliest bearing variety that we planted this year. We've been picking small quantities for a few days now and will likely be picking daily from now on. We could still use more rainfall, but they seem to be doing OK with as little as we've had. Next variety to come in will probably be Celebrity and Glamour. All varieties have green tomatoes on the plants at this point. The Romas are looking particularly bushy and vigorous. So with fresh tomatoes the height of summer is definitely here! With as cold as May was, the tomatoes have done well but conditions are still not optimal, for example last night it was only 52 degrees. What that means is that with a week or so of warm weather in the next few weeks, and a few warm nights, we'll likely have a deluge of fresh tomatoes. Beat the rush and let us know your requirements early. We'll have half bushel boxes available. Or we can transfer them to your own containers, whatever works for you.

Farmer's Market Shopping Tips

2007-06-27T20:16:00.000-04:00

I found this article while doing some web browsing at www.wannaveg.com Good points on how to shop at farmers markets.

What better way to spend part of your Saturday or Sunday (or Mon-Fri) than paying a visit to your local farmer’s market? Going to the market is a mix of culture, community and of course, free tastings. One of the huge advantages to shopping at the farmer’s market is being able to ask the farmer questions about the food that he or she is selling. Another major benefit is knowing that the food you are about to buy is fresh, humane, and locally grown (as opposed to being shipped 1,800 miles). These are important things for our environment, and they are important for our farmers and our local economy.

Listed below are some tips to help you make the most out of the food you buy and the experience you enjoy, (they are not in any particular order). If you have any more to add, please let us know.

When was this picked?- Usually farmers pick their produce the day before or the morning of the farmer’s market. Knowing when it was picked will give you an idea of how ripe it is. Generally speaking, farmers want to harvest produce when it’s perfectly ripe, so you shouldn’t have to wait very long before you can eat it. It’s not a bad idea to ask. Also here is a guide on how to choose perfectly ripe fruits and veggies.

Where’s the farm?- This is another important question to ask. Our assumption is that all the food at the farmers market was grown locally. This is not always the case. If the food was trucked in from hundreds of miles away, then shopping at the farmers market will be no better than shopping at the supermarket.

Organic- Not all the foods at the farmers market are organic. The best practice is to ask. Many times, local farm representatives will tell you that their food is "organic," despite the fact that they do not carry a "certified organic" label. The reason behind this is that for some small farms these certifications cost a lot of money that can prove financially prohibitive. In general I trust the farmers at the market, and in most cases, I think their hearts and practices are in the right place. If they say their produce is organic, I believe them. However, even if the food is not organic and was grown conventionally (using pesticides and fertilizers) and locally, this is still a good thing and definitely the next best choice in environmentally friendly agriculture. You may just want to subtly ask your farmer if they have plans to go organic in the future.

Sustainable- If you’re interested, you can ask your farmer if they perform crop rotations and employ bio-diversity on their farm. These practices usually help the farm become a closed loop where the plants, animals and soil all benefit from each other.

Are those free range eggs- There is a stand at our farmers market that sells eggs. If yours has one also, it may not be a bad idea to ask all of the above plus whether the chickens are allowed to roam about freely. I noticed the last time we were at the market the egg stand put up a sign that listed all of these answers, so they must get these questions frequently.

Is it in season- Because most food at the farmers market is grown locally, generally it’s in season. Just in case you are curious, here is a link to check what’s in season in your area.

Recipes and Storage- Who better to ask how to prepare and store the food than the person that grew it? Farmers usually enjoy the produce they grow and have some good tips and tricks on cooking it and making it keep for awhile. Who knows, you may even walk away with an old family recipe.

Create a list, and get those items first- Sometimes the excitement of the farmers market can send us into a buying frenzy…I think cheap, fresh food has that effect. However, stick to the list. If you’ve got your meals planned out for the week, get those necessary ingredients first. After that, you can check out some other treats. The key is not to buy so much food that it spoils before you can eat it. Since most of the produce is ripe when you buy it, it’s shelf life is probably only a few days.

Give the kids a couple bucks- Let them choose and purchase some fruits and veggies on their own. You never know, they may be more inclined to actually eat the healthy items that they picked it out and paid for.

Bring your own bags- Globally, we use 1 million plastic bags per minute. They fill up our landfills, open spaces and oceans. If you take one thing away from this post, let it be this, please use reusable bags to help reduce this number.

Overall, these tips should help you make an educated decision on the food you are about to buy. You’ll probably only need to ask them once, as you’ll purchase from the same farmers from week-to-week. After awhile, you will get to know them and they will usually take special care of you in pointing out the best produce and give you more tips and suggestions.

Happy shopping!

Romney Farmer's Market and Sidewalk Sale, June 23rd

2007-06-20T09:19:00.000-04:00

Sorry it has been so long since the last post. We were extremely busy getting everything planted in May. Which out us behind on mowing, which put us behind on ........... everything else! Many thousands of tomatoes and peppers were planted this year. We are chronically short of rainfall in June but everything seems to be growing acceptably, including the weeds of course. A late frost pretty much destroyed the cherry, peach, and early apple crops in our area. Mid season and late season apples seem to have survived. There was just no way the blossoms could withstand temperatures in the low 20's.
We were notified this week by the Hampshire County Chamber of Commerce that there would be a sidewalk sale in downtown Romney this weekend. So this seems to be a good weekend for our first set up at the Romney Farmer's Market on Saturday morning. We'll have young tender green and yellow summer squash and with any luck a few Early Girl tomatoes. We may have a few sweet peppers and some spinach also. We're a few weeks away from beginning the blackberry and raspberry harvest however. We'll also have honey and beeswax products for sale. We won't be cutting salad mix this year for the market. We found that with a hot summer market day there was just too much wilt and waste. We refuse to spray tender crops such as lettuce/salad greens with chemicals or fungicides to retard the wilting as the grocery store does. That's just not wise or healthy. So we'll just continue selling salad mix and other greens from the farm or with deliveries. Hope to see you at the market. Feel free to place an advance order and we'll have it ready for you to pickup at the market. Hope to see you there!

Tomatoes!!

2007-05-17T15:59:00.000-04:00

Its been a strange cool dry spring so far, but things are now starting to happen fast. The spring greens are coming along nicely. We've been busy planting, especially tomatoes, for about a week now. The photo shows you one of our tomato rows. There are 600 plants in this row. At a conservative estimate of 10 pounds of tomatoes per plant, this row should produce 6000 pounds or 3 tons of tomatoes. We have some really great varieties for this year including, Celebrity, Early Girl, Supersonic, Roma, Glamour and some nice heirloom varieties including Cherokee Purple, Brandywine and Old German. Many of the tomatoes have blossoms on them already so with any luck the Early Girls will be available in about a month. Stay tuned.

Preserving Fossil Fuels and Nearby Farmland by Eating Locally

2007-04-25T19:26:00.000-04:00

Preserving Fossil Fuels and Nearby Farmland by Eating Locally -- NY Times

This article was in the NY Times today and discuss those devoted to eating local products, called "locavores" . The article also mentions several new books coming out including Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle".

FDA Was Aware of Dangers to Food

2007-04-23T08:39:00.000-04:00

Today's Washington Post has a fairly worrisome article which states that the FDA knew of numerous food related problems including the latest ecoli outbreaks for years, and simply did nothing about it.
They don't have the staff or resources to really enforce anything related to food safety. Read it and worry. Make your best efforts to source your food locally to avoid this contamination which is now pretty much unavoidable in the industrialized food processing system.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/22/AR2007042201551.html?hpid=topnews

Daisy's New Little Sister, Zoey

2007-04-18T10:12:00.000-04:00

Zoey is a new addition to the farm as of yesterday. We got her from the shelter in Morgantown, WV. I think we drove though every climatic condition on our trip there yesterday: snow,sleet, rain, fog, sun... you name it. She was apparently just too much energy for her senior woman owner and she was surrendered to the shelter. The owner was a widow and her son thought a pet might be good company for her. But it was likely a case of just too much energy in too little space. Daisy took to her right away and will look after her. We believe Zoey is a pure bred border collie, a great country dog. Although she came with no papers. Not that it matters to us. She seems to really like the farm, she'll have the room to roam that she needs, and she'll have plenty or work to do. She just 11 months old but her genetics is apparent as she was very anxious to round up the lambs.

View of the Farm

2007-04-02T18:11:00.001-04:00

I was thinking this morning that many of the blog readers and some of our customers have not actually ever seen the farm, or perhaps may have not even been to West Virginia. The other day Ruth snapped this photo of the farm from the front road. You can see the house, garage, shop and barns. You can see that the area is a very nice pastoral view of basically woods and fields. At this time things have just started to get green again. Just behind the small grove of locust trees you can just make out our bee hives. In a few weeks when the trees all have leaves on them, it will be difficult to see the house from the main road. Our pasture begins at the fence line in the lower middle of the picture. Just off the frame to the left are the three churches of Three Churches, WV, and thus our farm name, Church View Farm. We'll try to get a photo of that view for the blog also. But for now, we'll say welcome to West Virginia by way of this photo of the farmstead.

Easter Eggs

2007-04-02T07:35:00.000-04:00

Just a reminder that we have green eggs from our Easter Egg chickens, the Aracaunas. These are green but can also be light tan or even pick. So you don't even have to color the eggs for your Easter egg decoration. Just let us know if you need some. Happy Easter prep!

Bush Cherries

2007-04-02T07:24:00.000-04:00

Its the start of cherry blossom season! Here are a few photos of our bush cherries. These are small bush type cherry trees originating from Asia. For example, one of the varieties is called Nanking. The famous cherry trees in Washington DC are of course Japanese. The ornamental cherries bloom first. Our sweet cherry full sized trees have not yet blossomed nor have the local wild cherry trees. The bush cherries seem to bloom just slightly later than the pure ornamental cherries, about the same time as forsythia. So they a good early spring sight. The bush cherries are a slightly tart cherry but they are loaded with Vitamin C. The honey bees are of course enjoying these blossoms.

Maple Syrup

2007-03-13T06:32:00.000-04:00

We recently visited Indian Water Maple Camp in New Creek, WV. They were getting ready for the annual Potomac Highlands Maple festival held every year in mid March. We bought some of their fresh maple syrup to try. We bought several taps and pails then came home and began tapping our maple trees. This is something I've always wanted to do.

Orange Tomatoes Pack Bigger Antioxidant Punch

2007-03-07T17:11:00.000-05:00

We grew orange tomatoes last year. But no one seemed very interested in them. Perhaps that will change this year as more info is now coming out on orange tomatoes. An interesting article follows:

Food scientists at Ohio State University in Columbus have grown a special variety of orange tomatoes that may be healthier than garden-variety red tomatoes. The orange tomatoes contain a type of lycopene that is more readily used by the body than the type found in red tomatoes, they report.

Lycopene -- an antioxidant thought to have a number of health benefits such as reducing the risk of cancer, heart disease and age-related eye problems -- is what gives red tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables their rich color.

Dr. Steven Schwartz and colleagues had 12 adult volunteers eat two spaghetti test meals on separate occasions. One meal was made with sauce from the orange tomatoes and the other with sauce from red tomatoes. For 13 days before the test meals, the volunteers avoided eating tomatoes or food made with them.

Blood samples taken from each subject right before the spaghetti meals and every hour or two up to 10 hours after the meals were analyzed for lycopene content.

Results showed that lycopene absorption from the orange tomato sauce was 2.5 times higher than that absorbed from the red tomato sauce. Blood lycopene levels spiked about 5 hours after the orange tomato sauce meal and at this time the levels were some 200 times higher than those seen after the red tomato sauce meal.

"While red tomatoes contain far more lycopene than orange tomatoes, most of it is in a form that the body doesn't absorb well," Schwartz, a professor of food science and technology at Ohio State, explained in a university-issued statement.

"The people in the study actually consumed less lycopene when they ate sauce made from the orange tomatoes, but they absorbed far more lycopene than they would have if it had come from red tomatoes," he noted.

The orange tomatoes are not readily available at grocery stores; they were grown at an Ohio State-affiliated agricultural research center. Schwartz and colleagues suggest that interested consumers could seek out orange or gold-colored heirloom tomatoes as an alternative -- although they haven't tested how much or what kind of lycopene these varieties contain.

SOURCE: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 2007.

Eating Better Than Organic

2007-03-05T13:18:00.000-05:00

Local food has made the cover of Time Magazine. A real nice article. A link to the article follows.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1595245,00.html

2007 Vegetable Plants

2007-03-05T08:48:00.000-05:00

The students at Hampshire School are starting our plants in the Vocational Education greenhouse. There are several farms that do this locally. We stopped by the greenhouse for a look at how things are progressing. The plants are coming along very nicely.

A Traditional Harbinger of Spring

2007-03-05T08:46:00.000-05:00

We saw the first robin of 2007 on February 28th. More seem to be arriving daily. Spring is just around the corner.