We’ve had a run of perfectly warm days and cool nights—setting us up for great sugaring weather this past week. The evaporator has been burning late, night after night. Day after day we’ve had great runs and we need the bulk tank empty first thing in the morning for the trip up to the sugarbush to collect, and to get started boiling once again. We were planning for a collection this morning, and to boil during the share pick up tonight, but nature threw a big, sloppy, snowy, wet hurdle in. So, we are taking the day off, and will collect when the snow has melted once again. There’s no cold weather in the forecast, and no sign of new runs to come, so it seems we have a reprieve.

Photos from the Farm

Two photos this week: Sparks flying from the stove pipe on a late-night, steamy boil (right). And James’s eight-year old cousin Sophie passed out on the sap wagon after another tough day carrying buckets in the woods (below). She took well to sugaring season, announcing that behind milk and farm-ade (our own water, lemon juice, maple syrup concoction), maple syrup was her favorite beverage.

Getting Ready for Field Work

It is the time of year where we start getting ready for field work—turning the winter cover crops in and making ridges in the fields to plant our spring crops of spinach, carrots, beets and radishes into. We are just a couple of weeks from our normal spring planting dates, and the soil is still too frozen to push a fence post into, and of course newly covered with several inches of snow. We will see if this week’s warm weather can make a quick turn-around of the scene out there and get us up to speed.

Soap

We have soap this week for meat share members. James and Cara teamed up with Racey up at Reber Rock a few weeks back, pooling resources to make a nice batch of orange-scented soap. Our lard and tallow went into the mix with their soap molds and expertise—creating some beautiful and sweet-smelling bath bars.

In the Farm Shares

In the veggie share: maple syrup, carrots, beets, white and fingerling potatoes, turnips, celeriac, shallots, red and white onions, green and red cabbage, dried red chilies, wheat berries, whole wheat regular and pastry flour, corn meal, dry beans and kim chee.

In the meat share: Pork, beef, broilers and stew birds in the freezer. Stock and organ meats from beef and chickens, lard and leaf lard. Soap!

PS If you are holding on to farm jars please bring them back, we’re running low. And for those of you still promising summer membership forms, we will take those too!!

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• Full and By Farm: Work Party Friday (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
• Full and By Farm: Lists of Work (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
• Full and By Farm: Baking Sweet Wheat Bread (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)