Essex, New York Guide and Community Blog
Enjoy this Essex Farm update from Kristin Kimball at Essex Farm, in Essex, NY! A quick note today, as the girls and I are off to central New York to pick up a load of seed potatoes – a job that offers a nice excuse to spend the weekend with my parents. Here, asparagus harvest is in [...]
Sara Kurak and James Graves operate the Full and By Farm CSA in Essex, NY, sometimes with assistance from temporary farmhands and interns. Why “Full and By”? What does whimsical term actually mean? Here is the definition: full and by (adv.) [nautical]: Steering as close to the wind as possible while keeping the sails full. Nestled between [...]
“Mark and I have been doing some deep thinking about draft horse power here. We do not yet have answers, but I’ll share our conclusions to this point, and invite your input. As many readers know, we crafted this farm around the idea of using horses as our primary source of power. This year, we [...]
“It is a farewell day – to Courtney, who is off to Keeseville, and to Chad, who has been here full time with us for the busy season, but will now focus on his own projects. We send them both with lots of thanks, best wishes, and a few tears. One of the hardest parts [...]
Draft horses are stoic beasts. They can work through heat, dust, discomfort and fatigue. But, like Gulliver, they are tormented beyond their limits by hordes of little things. The face flies that mass around their eyes and nose, the green-headed flies that bite the belly, neck and chest, and the dreaded big black ones that [...]
A largely sleepless week has left all of us dragging in our boots. Haymaking and construction projects have had everyone staying up late. The long days of June force the sleep from our eyes extra early. There are plenty more of both projects in the coming week—sunny days in the eighties and not a drop of rain in sight [...]
“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 [...]
Author, Kristin Kimball and husband Mark, owners of the Essex Farm provide a glimpse into their lives and how they came to their unique calling. During The Wild Center’s first-ever remote “barncast”, Kristin read excerpts from her book, The Dirty Life. At the end of the video Mark and Kristin answer some questions from the [...]
This quick mashup dates from August 2010. I was driving past and saw Chad (Essex Farm) plowing with four draft horses. I was mesmerized. I sat for about half an hour and watched, snapping these few fuzzy photographs with my mobile phone. And then the heavens split wide open and it poured! Essex Farm Information [...]
We took advantage of the beautifully sunny weather spell to make hay. We cut about 22 acres starting last week, and successfully baled 19 of it. The rain caught us in the middle of raking the last small field and we had to abandon the project. Once the grass and clover is cut rain begins [...]
