Two Dog Farm

The first seedlings of the year are huddled around the woodstove to gather heat to germinate–hoophouse tomatoes, onions and leeks should all be poking their heads up within the week. We have lots of great tomato varieties this year, including many heirlooms: Yellow Perfection, Moskvich, Amish Paste, Black Prince, Ukrainian Purple, Principe Borghese, Wapsipinicon Peach, Striped German, Brandywine, and Rose de Berne. In addition we will have some fun new varieties, Indigo Rose, Cosmonaut Volkov, Speckled Roman and Green Zebra, and some old stand by’s: Sungold Cherry, Big Beef, and New Girl. For descriptions of these varieties, take a look at our organic seedling page.

We are also gearing up for the sugaring season. The sugarhouse is cleaned up and organized, the evaporator is put back together, the lines are repaired and Steve has completed an expansion in the sugarbush to increase our number of taps. And the really exciting news is that we just finished tapping the trees! Our thanks go out to Pat, Ben and Anna, and Jeannie who came and helped tap over the weekend. With the funny winter we’ve been having, it’s hard to say what kind of a sugaring season it will be, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that the weather settles in to some more typical winter/spring patterns. It looks like we could get our first good runs this week and start boiling.

We’ve expanded our herd of cows to 10 and a new batch of piglets will be arriving shortly. Steve will give you a more complete update on the critters when next he writes.

Soon we will be boiling sap, planting spinach in the hoophouse, starting lots more seedlings, and sending out our brochures for the upcoming season. We’ll keep you posted! — Sue

Well it’s been a long while since I’ve posted on here and it seemed about time. Two Dog has felt the wrath of Irene and has made it through mostly unscathed. We were spared the wind, but we got all the water one could imagine the sky could hold. I’m always amazed during significant rain events that it’s so hard to carry a five gallon bucket filled with water, yet the sky can carry tons of water for hundreds of miles effortlessly.
Just another strange way of the world I suppose.

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All the water Irene carried poured down and made the storm’s epicenter, in relation to the farm, my front yard. What is normally a steady flowing brook became a thundering brown river that put two feet of water in one of our barns, poured over the road, and came within inches of our basement. We certainly didn’t keep the water out of the basement, but we did keep the water from hitting the four foot mark, at which point it would have hit our electric panel. The furnace was really the only thing that sustained any damage. Beyond the house a few fences took a beating, all of which have since been repaired, the greenhouses were flooded, but not damaged, and the barn you see pictured was flooded. In spite of the pictures all the animals were safe on higher ground. The cows were in a high pasture far from the water, and the pigs were close to the raging river, but they too had higher ground to go to. Outside of the farm the real story was the roads, or rather the lack thereof. Following the storm there was only one road you could leave the farm on, and that was closed a few miles away at the town of Pawlet. For a time we were an island, but it was short lived as the road crew made, and continues to, steady progress rebuilding.

The barn which flooded is still filled with mud, but the hay inside was the real story. All the hay didn’t get soaked, but the bottom two rows of bales were completely submerged.  Initially, I hoped the hay on top of the wet bales would be alright, it was the best hay I’d made all summer and that’s why I put it close to the house. Unfortunately, none of the hay was alright as I learned last Wednesday. I knew I should check the hay sooner, but for the two days after Irene I was too busy tending to the obvious and glaring problem Irene had created. So on Wednesday I went to check on the hay, which invovles sticking a hand into and between the bales to check for heat. My fingertips were greeted with the warmth of a hot ember buried in an unsufficiently doused pile of embers.

We have a beautiful crop of garlic and will be setting aside the best of the best to sell as seed garlic. Our garlic is a porcelain type, saved by a succession of farm managers at Smokey House for 10 or more years. It’s a hardneck variety with large heads and big, easy to peel cloves. It’s well adapted to our northern climate, and tasty, too! If you live in the neighborhood give a call for us to set aside an order for you, stop by our farm stand, or look for us at the Rutland or Dorset Farmer’s Market. Those of you who live further away, we are happy to ship it out. $10 per pound (plus shipping if applicable).

The blueberry season has pretty much wrapped up. There are a few isolated bushes that still are ripening berries, so if you missed it or just haven’t had enough, you are welcome to come poke around and see what you can find.

In other news around the farm, the gardens are sliding into early fall, with tomatoes ripening in abundance, winter squashes starting to display color, and onions and potatoes getting ready to be cured and stored for the coming season. The pigs are happily rooting and wallowing in their pasture. The cows are doing their usual cow things. And the haying season should be wrapping up shortly. Steve has started focusing more on firewood, and the rest of us will start making putting up firewood part of our weekly routine as well, now that the blueberries are done. We continue to can syrup for market, and will have new bottles with our logo on them soon!

Things are good on the farm. We’ve had a lot of visitors during the blueberry u-pick season, and it has made us realize how much we enjoy sharing the farm with folks who come by. We are thinking about planting more u-pick crops for next year for folks to enjoy harvesting — it doesn’t get any fresher than that!

Thought you might enjoy a few more pictures from around the farm. Happy tail end of summer!  — Sue

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U-pick is open daily from 10 am – 7 pm, watch the sidebar for picking updates

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Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. We are open daily for u-pick, 10 am – 7 pm, $3.50 per pound. We also have pre-picked for sale in our farm stand and at the Ludlow, Rutland and Dorset Farmers Markets.

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The blueberries are almost ready! They seem to be on track to begin ripening the week of the 4th of July. We will be picking for sale at Farmers Markets, at the farm stand here on the farm, and will be opening up for u-pick as well. Watch the sidebar on the website for the latest on the blueberry front, or call our ‘blueberry hotline’ at 802.293.5121 — we’ll keep our messages updated daily to let you know if the blueberries are ripe, if we are open for u-pick, and how the picking is. Our blueberries, like our vegetables, are certified organic.

Lots has been happening all around the farm since our last post. There are many new vegetables about to enter the CSA boxes and grace the farmers market stands — tomatoes and cucumbers in the hoophouses are starting to ripen, snap peas are days away from harvest, carrots and beets are starting to size up, and zucchini and summer squash have just entered into the fray. The abundance of summer has begun!

Elsewhere on the farm, it has been a challenging season for bringing in hay. For square bales you need at least three sunny breezy days in a row to dry the hay before you can bale it. That’s been a rare occurrence this month. We’ve had lots of unsettled weather and storms rolling through. This weekend we got the last of first cut in. Second cut is right around the corner.

We continue to have folks stop by to visit and help out. Laura, Jesse and Addis came by from Maine and spent some time with us in the gardens. Steve’s brother-in-law Tim came by on woodchuck patrol. And some of Steve’s friends came on Saturday and made it possible to get the final fields of hay in by stacking the hay wagons. Thanks, Mike, Brett and Jeremy, we wouldn’t have gotten the hay in before Sunday’s rain without you! We are so lucky to have folks help out, and really love to have the visitors to the farm.

Thought you might enjoy some recent photos around the farm taken by Jess, Garrett and I. Stay tuned, and come on by and say hello if you are in the neighborhood.   — Sue

When this was composed yesterday, the thermometer was pushing into the 80′s. Today, it seems as though we’ve gone back three weeks in time with cool temperatures and gray skies! Sue and Steve are out late in the chilly winds getting some of that first cut of hay in. Come back summer!

Summer is upon us as the temperatures rise, thunder clouds threaten and tomatoes put their roots in the fields outside. The rainy weather and thunder storms that have plagued the state seem to part over our piece of Vermont and we are torn between wanting rain for our transplants and hoping for clear days and sunshine to make hay. Steve made the first cut of hay on Monday, but a brief rainstorm delayed the baling today. We’re crossing our fingers for a little more dry skies. Tomatoes, as well as corn, cantaloupe, summer and winter squash have all put their roots down in the fields outside with a massive transplanting push. The “instant garden” is an impressive sight and mouths drool with the thought of our hot weather fruits. Elsewhere, war wages on with woodchucks of the south hedge. Their favorite vegetable so far appears to brussels sprouts, with an entire bed systemically taken out plant by plant. Sydney bagged her first chuck of the season, but Steve maintains a lead on her, spending evenings in the field with his rifle. Sue is sweating it out in the greenhouse, sorting all of our seedlings out and seeding flats that will be our fall harvest.  A market marathon was held this past weekend with Sue choreographing each stand, assisted by Steve and Michael, as our seedlings, greens and maple syrup graced the Ludlow, Rutland and Dorset farmer’s market.

There are several new arrivals settling in at the farm. Michael, our second intern, and Garrett, a WOOFER, arrived last week and came just in time! Their enthusiasm, excitement and energy have been greatly appreciated as the work load widens and the days get longer. The various levels of experience keep new interesting questions coming and new conversation topics gracing the rows, hoop houses and fields. Also new to the farm are six new shoats (shoats are piglets that have been weaned). They don’t bring too many new topics to the table but dang they are entertaining and adorable! There are four Tamworth shoats, with shiny red coats, and two black mixes, with cute tan faces, all 6 t0 8 weeks old. Steve, Ben and Jess picked them up last Sunday in Wallingford and moved them to the farm. They’ve been adjusting well to their new environment, showing great enthusiasm for the new soil to root in and grass to eat, water dishes to flip over and shoes, knees, fingers and hair to nip at. Pigs are so fun to watch, providing great evening entertainment with their antics and personalities. They are very intelligent and have some canine tendencies that are hilarious to watch. We’re enamored. Check out their glamor shots! (Some of Michael and Garret as well ).

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Cows are cows, and they’re doing the best they can to keep up with the grass, moving from paddock to paddock following Steve and the white bucket. In the fridge at the produce stand is spinach, mixed greens, great big beautiful lettuce heads, and radishes!

Stop on by!

-Jess

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With the seedling sale last week we have officially opened our farm stand! It’s set up self-serve and features organic vegetable seedlings, maple syrup, beef, pork, and in-season vegetables. The stand is open seven days a week from 7 am to 8 pm. Come check it out! We are usually around, so if you are looking for something and can’t find it, please come let us know. We’d love to see you around the farm.

The vegetable CSA deliveries will be starting this week, the boxes will contain some combination of spinach, mesclun mix, radishes, and/or rhubarb and a cherry tomato plant. Not every box will contain everything every week, but we keep track and even it out. We still have shares available, so if you know anyone who might be interested, please have them get in touch.

We have three new faces around the farm, Garrett, Jon, and Mike. They’ve all come to help out and learn this summer, so you’ll be hearing more about them, I’m sure. We also just had the field studies program here, run by Andrew and Nate, through the Manchester Tutorial Center. A group of students from Dorset spent two weeks here using the farm and surrounding woods as their classroom. It was great to have them here.

The garden is rapidly filling up: peas, spinach, lettuce, radishes, kale, broccoli, chard, kohlrabi, cabbage, carrots, beets, brussel sprouts, onions, leeks, potatoes and meslun mix are all in. This week we hope to get beans, corn and tomatoes in. It looks like we may have seen the last of the frosts, so we’re going to take a gamble and see how that pans out. We will also be continuing with the succession plantings and putting in the rest of the potatoes.

This morning we were all a bit somber as we persuaded the pigs to get onto the stock trailer. We try to keep in mind that they were happy pigs, with pasture to root around in and mud to wallow in, and that we gave them everything they needed to have good healthy lives.

Now that the grass is growing quickly the cows are being intensively rotationally grazed, with Steve and Jess or Jeannie helping to move them every 2 days. They are always happy to get to the brand new grass.

We still have beef, pork and vegetable shares available. We will also be attending 3 markets for at least the beginning of the summer: Ludlow on Friday night, Rutland on Saturday, and Dorset on Sunday. Stop by the farm or the farmers market stand and say hello sometime.  — Sue

Join us Thursday May 19 from 3 – 6 pm for our seedling sale and farm stand grand opening. We will have a wide variety of organic vegetable seedlings for sale, as well as maple syrup, beef, pork and the first vegetables of the season from our hoophouses and gardens. If you can’t make the sale, we will be selling seedlings and our other products at our produce stand daily from 7 am – 8 pm. Come on by and check it out!

We will have peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, lettuce, squash, cucumbers and many others.  Our tomato varieties are listed below:

Our Heirloom tomatoes include these varieties:

Brandywine — One of the BEST tasting tomatoes,  with a luscious flavor that is “very rich, loud and distinctively spicy”. Produces large fruits that weigh in over one pound, with deep pink skin and smooth red flesh. Indeterminate. Days to maturity: 78

Moskvich — “Extra early tomato”, cold tolerant fruits that are deep red with rich taste. Produce fruits that are 4 to 6 oz.s and are smooth and globe shaped. Indeterminate. Days to maturity: 60

Black Prince –Mahogany brown with a orange red blossom end. Distinctively rich, fruity tomato flavor. Produces fruits of 3”, weighing 3 to 5 oz. Black Princes are less prone to cracking then most heirloom tomatoes. Indeterminate. Days to maturity: 74

Green Zebra — Green striped salad variety. Plant produces 3 to 4 oz fruits that are green with a yellow blush when ripe.  Productive over a long season. Indeterminate. Days to maturity: 72.

Striped German — Beautiful slicer with a complex fruity flavor. 12 oz fruits that are shaded yellow and red. Indeterminate, 78 days to maturity.

Amish Paste — Flavorful, juicy, meaty. Indeterminate, 80 days.

Yellow Perfection — Bright yellow, early fruits with rich flavor, heavy yields. Indeterminate, 70 days.

Wapsinpinicon Peach — Fuzzy pale yellow skin, sweet fruity flavor, high producer of 2 inch fruits. Indeterminate, 80 days.

Cherry Tomatoes–

Sungold Cherry — Exceptionally sweet, bright sunny orange cherry, a favorite! Vigorous plants yield early and throughout the season.

Black Cherry — very productive, dark purple fruits, sweet, rich and full of flavor. 64 days, indeterminate.

Peacevine Cherry — very flavorful heirloom. 78 days, indeterminate.

We also have a couple classic hybrids:

New Girl — A classic, standard red slicing tomato. Great for canning or sauces. Indeterminate. Days to maturity: 62

Big Beef — Full flavored, ripen early for their size. Indeterminate, 70 days to maturity.

Give a call with questions 293.5121. Hope to see you here!

We have a woodchuck “problem.” It’s a problem for us when they tunnel into the greenhouse and help themselves to our entire first planting of brassicas (broccoli, kale, kohlrabi…). It’s a problem for us when they wipe out a whole bed of brussels sprouts in one eating spree. (I realize that some people may not feel that this is such a big problem.) It’s a problem for us when they dig such massive burrows in our hay fields that when you are mowing hay, if you hit one the wrong way you can do some serious damage to your tractor or yourself. It’s a problem when they dig holes in pastures that can break a cow’s leg. So, recently we’ve had to take some measures to protect our crops. To keep them out of the greenhouse, we plugged up their holes and turned a radio on real loud. To protect our seedlings as they are outside hardening off, Jess built a wire cage to put over them. But how to protect our seedlings once they are out in the garden, and how to keep them from tunneling in the pastures and hay fields? So, Steve and his brother-in-law started sitting watch with their .22s.

Now, Steve’s brother-in-law came up with his .22 in the first place to get after another problem. A weasel. We had a flock of 12 chickens for one week before a weasel got in the hen house and killed 10 of the 12 in one night. We moved the remaining 2 to another coop, and two nights later Steve heard an animal screaming and went out to find a weasel in the coop with a chicken in it’s mouth. The remaining chicken was mercifully reunited with the rest of it’s flock down the road. These were coops that were pretty solid, no glaring holes — trouble is, weasels can squeeze into some pretty tight spaces.

What’s a farmer to do when the neighborhood critters are putting such a dent in the crop? I don’t particularly like the idea of shooting animals whose families were here long before I was. But they don’t just eat a little and move on. I was pondering this the other day while transplanting onions in the garden. I guess for me the answer is that living means competing for food, and that means killing things, be it to eat them or to keep them from eating what we want to eat. The way we farm we try to kill as few things as possible. Not using toxic chemicals means that we aren’t negatively impacting countless  birds and insects and mammals near and far. In fact, we encourage birds and insects by having flowering plants. At least that’s how I’m looking at it … feel free to comment!

Elsewhere on the farm the signs of spring abound. Steve has started pulling out the haying equipment to make sure we are ready for first cut, and teaching Jess about grease points in the process. The blueberry bushes are all pruned, just in time as they are starting to break bud, and are ready to be mulched. The garlic is growing fast, the seedlings are filling up the greenhouse, the sugaring lines are all washed, the birds are singing, the pigs are rooting around in the pasture, the cows are enjoying some fresh new grass, and every day new colors show up on the hillsides and in the hedgerows as buds on different trees start to swell and open. It’s glorious. — Sue

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