What is Lazure? Lazure is layers of paint prepared nearly as thin and transparent as watercolor, consisting of water, binder, and pigment. It is applied with a rhythmical movement using large brushes. The final color is achieved using varied colors applied in several layers, over a white surface. Light passes through these thin layers of [...]
Farm vs. Storm
May 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment
“The thing that makes farming so interesting – and sometimes so heartbreaking – is the unpredictability that is built into natural systems. You really can’t count your chickens before they hatch. As farmers, our impulse is to control as many variables as we can (which is how we end up with CAFOs and GMOs) but [...]
Lookout
May 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment
“Lookout” by Lucinda Kirk is another entry in the Champlain Area Trails Travel Writing Contest. In her essay she describes some of her favorite places in the Champlain Valley including Live Well, the Westport Library, Everybody’s Supermarket, and the Champlain Area Trails. She conveys facts that make each place unique and a must visit! The largest portion [...]
A Local’s Look at Kristin Kimball’s The Dirty Life
May 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Dirty Life is a memoir about Kristin Kimball’s transition from an urban life and career in New York City to launching a bootstrap CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm in rural Essex, New York with her then soon-to-be husband, Mark Gunther. At one point in my childhood Essex Farm was briefly a Christmas tree farm. [...]
Just Some of the Reasons Why I Love the North Country
May 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The first story of this round of the Champlain Area Trails Travel Writing Contest that I am presenting is an essay entitled, “Just Some of the Reasons Why I Love the North Country“ by Marian J. Atkinson. Rural vs. City Living Atkinson writes about a trip to New York City while comparing urban life to her home in [...]
Tastes of Spring at Essex Farm
May 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
“All the ag rags are leading with news of the weather. “Unusual Weather Patterns Leave Farmers Scratching Their Heads”, reads front page of the Farm Bureau organ, Grassroots. This was New York’s second warmest winter on record, and the warmest March in North America since 1895. The fruit trees [at Essex Farm] blossomed early, and [...]
Farm Hack | Kristin Kimball
May 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment
“Thanks to everyone who came to the Farm Hack event [at Essex Farm] on Sunday, and to the organizers, Young Farmers Coalition, and to Severine and the Whallonsburg Grange and all the volunteers who put it together. The purpose of Farm Hack is to bring brainy brains together to help strengthen sustainable agriculture. Mark fell madly in [...]
State of the Farm | Kristin Kimball
April 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment
“An end-of-April chill is upon us, and for the next few nights, the tender young things on the farm will have to withstand a dip into the 20s. I shiver for the asparagus, the chicks out on pasture, and the nine piglets that were born on Wednesday. This kind of weather is entirely expected (our [...]
Super Joy Field | Kristin Kimball
April 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment
“This mild, dry weather is the stuff farmers dream of in the spring. The new field, Super Joy, is 95% plowed, and the soil there is so deliciously friable, now that it’s drained, that we can skip the usual steps of secondary tillage – disk, harrow, shape up beds – and fit it out for [...]
The Farm Has Eyes | Kristin Kimball
April 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment
“We’ve known for years that the farm [Essex Farm] has eyes. When Mark and I leave, it knows, and things go haywire. We were at St. Lawrence University this week, giving a talk and a reading. We left Wednesday, planning to return today. The farm waited until last night to spring. We got a message [...]
