Summer 2014

  By Administrator | July 22, 2014 - 1:46 pm | , , , , ,
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For July and August You-pick is open Thursdays through Mondays from 7:30am to 3:00pm.  We hope to have blueberries through the second week of August and a little beyond.  Expect lavender Spring through Fall along with many of the flowers and herbs.  Pumpkins and gourds will be ready in the pumpkin patch some time in September and through October.  It is always best to call ahead to make sure the crop you want is currently abundant.  (518)285-9039

Flowers, flowers, flowers … both fresh and dried.

Calendula blossoms – our you-pick flowers are now easy to reach near the shop.

2014 U-Pick Opening

  By Administrator | July 10, 2014 - 8:09 pm | , , , ,
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Oh, we are so glad to get beyond the winter protections (snow fencing and rolling up the bird netting), the pruning (which started early this year with a long cold winter), the spring weeding and worry about late frosts, the hope that hail won’t find us with all these thunder storms, the relief that finally we got the bird net up and the holes patched, the irrigating and fertigating and chipping and matting, and figuring out how to redirect a little ground hog back across the street, the mowing and mowing and, wait don’t get in the way of that little Killdeer and her nest!!!   … Anyway that’s enough worry, because the killdeer have hatched and the blueberries are beautiful and ripening and we are opening on Friday, July 11 at 7:30 am for pickers.  It’s supposed to be a beautiful day – and this is the fun part for us. 

Thank you to all the pickers in the past who are so appreciative of the summer berries.  It makes a year’s worth of blood, sweat and tears worth the trouble.
Here is a photo taken today (Thursday, July 10) of a cluster of Reka berries, showing all stages of ripening.  Come and enjoy the harvest.Reka5141

And for those who love lavender, all eight varieties of lavender that we planted last year have done very well for a difficult winter and are ready for those who would like to pick their own lavender.  We can show you how to do it so that you help the plant thrive and also harvest the best stems for whatever use you plan for the lavender.  Some people use the flowers in tea, some use the buds for fragrant sachets, some dry the stems for flower arrangements, some may use the buds for making soap or other crafts.  
5074Lavender
As long as we’re talking about new things, we also are amazed at the Shiitake harvest.  Here are some growing on logs in the woods.  If you are interested in these mushrooms, we do need a few days notice.  They seem to be quite content growing under the moist but airy hemlock trees.
5086Shiitake

For July and August we are open Thursday through Monday from 7:30am to 3:00 pm (and until 5 on Fridays).  Come and enjoy the fun part.

October 26, 2013 Hoosick Falls High School Fall Festival

  By Administrator | October 24, 2013 - 8:35 am | ,
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Some of our field flowers

Field flowers drying


Join us at Hoosick Falls High School this Saturday from 9am – 3pm for the annual Fall Festival. 

Fall Festival has fun activities and games for kids including an old-fashioned cake walk, the popular Animaland, Haunted Hall, many vendors selling their wares including crafts and homemade products, and fabulous door prizes and raffle items. 

Hay Berry Farm will feature our dried flowers, dried flower arrangements, wool products from our sheep, farmer-made baskets and more. 

Hope to see you there.

Holiday Wreath

Holiday Wreath

Pumpkin picking in the field

  By Administrator | September 15, 2013 - 9:57 pm | ,
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Pumpkins in August

Pumpkins in August

The pumpkins are ready and we have opened the field for You-pick.

Since the weather looks like sun this week, can’t wait to start picking pumpkins and gourds for the Hay Berry hut.

We are open Thursdays through Mondays from 9 to 3 (Fridays until 6) from now through at least the first weekend of October.

We like to stay open, however if it’s raining steadily, we will wait for the rain to abate.

Our small pumpkins are weighing in at about 6 pounds, and the largest are over 20 pounds.

The gourds turned out to be cute or warty with many different shapes and colors.  Each gourd seems to have a unique personality.  There are a few that look like tiny pumpkins, so perhaps we should report that the smallest pumpkins are less than half a pound!

Pumpkin in September

Pumpkin in September

You-snip (or we snip) flowers, herbs, and vegetables

  By Administrator | August 9, 2013 - 9:25 pm | , , , , ,
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The dill is ready at all stages to use for pickling.

The dill is ready at all stages to use for pickling.

You can snip your own herbs, and we also have them available at the farm stand.  Through August we will be open Tuesday through Sunday from 7:30 to 3:00 (until 6:00) on Fridays.

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Basil is bountiful, and we are maxing out on pesto from the basil.

Basil is bountiful, and we are maxing out on pesto from the basil.

It’s a good thing we planted too much basil, because it is very popular, and we are keeping up with demand.

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Rosemary thinks it’s a weed in our fields. The well-drained soil seems to be perfect for herbs, especially rosemary. We use it fresh on vegetables, including potatoes, and in salads. So fragrant, so good.

Rosemary thinks it’s a weed in our fields. The well-drained soil seems to be perfect for herbs, especially rosemary. We use it fresh on vegetables, including potatoes, and in salads. So fragrant, so good.

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My family loves using fresh rosemary on gently sauted sliced potatoes.  It adds a wonderful flavor.

The sweet, sweet yellow cherry tomatoes seem to sell as fast as we pick them. We are blessed with elegant eggplant and healthy red and white onions. Cucumbers are now a wonderful size, not too big and and not seedy.

The sweet, sweet yellow cherry tomatoes seem to sell as fast as we pick them. We are blessed with elegant eggplant and healthy red and white onions. Cucumbers are now a wonderful size, not too big and and not seedy.

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We were lucky to find this variety of gold cherry tomato that does not crack easily.  On the other hand, the farmers feel free to eat the ones that crack and save the whole ones for the farm stand.  As a result of this quality, we farmers have not been eating too many of these little sweet tomatoes this year.  Oh, well.

Flowers, flowers, flowers … both fresh and dried.

Flowers, flowers, flowers … both fresh and dried.

What will you find?

What will you find?

Sunflowers, zinnias, asters, statice, calendula, globe amaranth, sweet annie, love in a mist, strawflowers, celosia...

Sunflowers, zinnias, asters, statice, calendula, globe amaranth, sweet annie, love in a mist, strawflowers, celosia…

What did I miss?

What did I miss?

We are thinking of offering demonstrations and/or workshops on crafting your own dry flower arrangements. We have the flowers, the materials, and a wonderful new shed space. Please let us know if you are interested. (info@hayberryfarm.org)

We are thinking of offering demonstrations and/or workshops on crafting your own dry flower arrangements. We have the flowers, the materials, and a wonderful new shed space. Please let us know if you are interested. ([email protected])

If people are interested we will schedule workshops on crafting your own dried flower arrangements.  Please email and tell us if you are interested.

[email protected]

Fresh Farm Food Year-round

  By Administrator | March 12, 2013 - 5:16 pm | ,
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Good news for those who like fresh, organic, local and sustainably-grown food.

Blue Ray berries

Blue Ray blueberries from Hay Berry Farm

 

I’m excited that we can now provide year-round access to farm food via our new internet buyers club.

The selection is large, and will increase in the spring when your neighboring farmers can add their products to the choices.  There are currently over 3000 choices of fruit, vegetables, meat, drinks, flour, herbs, bread, cheese, etc.

The price is reasonable and there is no fee to join.  Buyers order on an internet website and pick up their order on Babcock Lake Road in Hoosick.

Check out the link:

http://www.wholeshare.com/join/1987

Questions?   [email protected]

 

We are pruning blueberries

  By Administrator | March 7, 2013 - 8:49 pm |
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If we didn’t love pruning, it would be hard to go down to the field and wallow on the snow and the wet ground.  But pruning is interesting, not something to do by rote.  There are visual choices for the artist in you.  There are structural choices for the farmer who wants plenty of good-size berries.  There are practical choices for easy access for the people who mow, and who weed, and who pick.  I like the challenges of shaping something that does not stay exactly the way you arrange it.  It grows with or against your touch.  In summer, you see it respond.

RekaBefore4358

Reka Blueberry bush before pruning this week.

Today I want to work on the Reka bushes.  They grow fast and can throw out throngs of berries on one branch that force it to flop, undignified, to the ground.

I was glad to put on bulky winter clothes topped with rain pants, because the temperature hovered just above freezing, and a steady breeze kept the snow from melting.

How to start?  Look from the top to see what’s crowding the center.  Look from several sides to see what is crossing and bent.  Look to see what has too many short old branches.  Look for the fat flower buds that are waiting for spring to transform them to berries.  Each bud represents a cluster of berries.  Then look into the future.  Which stems are strong and straight enough to support the berries they will hold?

Reka after pruning.

Reka blueberry after pruning on March 5, 2013.

Once you have seen all this, then start removing stems you know will not grow well: the small, crowded and dead stems; the lower branches that will get little light and those that grow horizontally.  Take as much as one-third of the growth.

Here is the same Reka after Tuesday’s pruning.

I will look for it this summer, to see what it does.

Really, the chickens were this color before eating carrots

  By Administrator | March 4, 2013 - 2:14 pm |
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CarrotBeakThese chickens love the carrot pulp left over from juicing.  They don’t always manage to get all the carrots off their beaks.  Today, outside their safely-fenced night space by the barn, they wandered around looking for any bit of wild green or stray insect or new seed they could find.  They haven’t learned how to share very well.  One grabs a piece of squash and runs away with it, while another chases her in hot pursuit of the prized food.

 

The sun broke through the clouds today.  We are looking forward to a break in the clouds and some better weather for pruning blueberries.  Perhaps this week it will happen.