Off to Syracuse CSA Fair

We haven't been getting as many pictures up here on the web as we had hoped... because we've been ironing out the kinks in our website (switching platforms and basically learning how to use the internet ;)

But... tomorrow (Saturday March 11th) we will be at NOFA-NY's Syracuse CSA Fair!  We can't wait to meet some of our new farming neighbors, as well as talk CSA with any and all!  Please join us (or catch future fairs) if you can... more info at NOFA's site HERE.

Also... we are recruiting CSA site hosts!  If you are interested in learning more, please check out our site host page and contact us.  In particular, we are looking for hosts in the Syracuse area (Syracuse, DeWitt, Fayetteville, Manlius), as well as in/around Oneida, Chittenango, and Canastota.

Cornell Resources

After catching the flu over this weekend (hopefully this means I *won't* get sick during the busy spring planting season, I'm finally catching up on blogging about last week's Small Farms Summit.  Hosted by the Cornell Small Farms Program, it was a great chance for us to meet other local farmers and start thinking about how Hartwood Farm fits into the matrix of farms in CNY.  It also was good to hear about the ideas and hopes from other farmers.

Some related resources include:

Check out Cornell's Beginning Farmer Resource Center and video library...

Check out the latest issue of the Small Farm Quarterly...

Or contact your own extension agent (find them here)...

A Walk in the Woods

Besides pretending that this is a normal winter (and snow shoveling is a thing of the past), we've been working hard to get our farm prep work done for the season.  This includes ordering seeds (orders finally sent in to Johnny's and High Mowing), shopping for tractors and implements, and getting our online presence together (probably the biggest challenge since we are distinctly non-techies).  This weekend's 8" of snow was a reality check that we do live in the northeast, and reminded us that usually our winter days are full of things like shoveling off our cars and digging through drifts to get around the farm!

But we finally got out to finish taking the walk last week that ended prematurely with Arlo running full bore into barbed wire (not that some-dog is on a leash in this pic).  Lots of nice young maples, with some in the back of the woods large enough to tap.  This year, however... between the move, not having any sugaring equipment, and really not knowing (given the odd weather) WHEN to tap, I think it looks like we are just going to be enjoying the woods, rather than working them...

Rule One: Everything takes way more time than anticipated!

Well, we *are* on the ground, but...

... we forgot rule one!  We rapidly remembered it as our first weeks post-closing were filled with cleaning and painting and unpacking (and then yet more cleaning, painting, and unpacking).

Some of the highlights for this past week:

...We learned that there is a sweet up and coming sugar-bush in the back of the woods on the farm.  Hooray!!!

...We met some great people at yesterday's Shades of Green event in Madison County. ...Arlo helped us find a large amount of barbed wire in the woods (using his face), which led us to find a very nice vet in town!