Hello to Fall –
We were up and out in the dark this morning. It must be Jupiter that is so bright in the sky. These fall-ish days (Sept 21 is very soon!) are just lovely and the sky is so brilliant at night. The Milky Way is very clear and all the stars are just popping bright in the dark sky. Each morning seems to bring foggy clouds in the valleys along the rivers and Saratoga Lake. Being up on the hillside, we have a great view across the Hudson Valley. My friend Teri who spent some time in China says, these sometimes wispy and sometimes thick tight clouds are called dragon’s breath and that is so fitting. It makes it very worthwhile to get up so early. We had a busy packing day yesterday and stowed all the boxes in the van from the walk-in freezer and walk-in cooler and still had enough room for Alan and Colin to drive to the city.
Recently we had some interesting visits from a local painter. Ned Reade, from Arlington VT, met us at the Dorset VT farmers market and asked if he could come by and paint landscapes some day. One day a few weeks ago we were packing all the orders and Ned walks in. He had his paints and brushes and wanted to find a nice spot on the hill to watercolor. We said, sure, sounds great, as long as you show us what you’ve done before you leave. In a matter of only a couple hours, he was back with a beautiful painting of our house and gardens. What a treat to see someone else’s impression. Last week he was back for another stint and walked way up on the hill overlooking the house and barns out in to the Hudson Valley. Very different from the first, and really amazing how fast he is. In the summer we also had a group of children from an art day camp in town come and paint twice on the hillside too. It is always fun to have them come too.
The preparation for fall and winter has just about begun so it is really great that we finally have gotten our hay all done! We have about half our acreage baled in the white wrapped baleage, fermented like sauerkraut. The other half is dry round bales a good 4 feet tall and wide. We also have 5 other farms where we hay and with our old 1950’s tractors going at the full speed of 12 miles per hour, one of the farms takes about and hour to drive to and a bit more with a fully loaded hay wagon to come back. So right now we have bales all over and we’ll be driving back and forth between fields bringing hay home this week. Thankfully the last week of weather fully cooperated with the haying program (it can’t rain on the loose hay) and we got it all done nicely.
We are cleaning out the root cellar to begin stacking in potatoes, our braided onions and lots of bunches of great garlic! It is hard to believe the season has rolled around already and is starting to be dark very early and getting cooler every night. The wild apples are ripening everywhere, the pears in our yard and our neighbor’s yard too are falling from the trees and the fall raspberries are just luscious! Harvest time – it seems the only time it is not really busy around here is winter but you can make yourself busy then too!!
Hope all is well with all of you and hope you are all keeping up with yourselves too!
We’ve just received a new batch of beef and pork and the All Beef Frankfurters are Back!!!
Best wishes,
Nancy & Alan
New Product - West River Creamery is now offering Full Circle Tomme, an aged goat cheese with a brushed rind which is aged for 2 – 3 months. It is a firm, mild goat tomme that is offered in whole (2 – 2.5 lbs), half (1 – 1.25 lbs) and quarter (.5 - .6 lbs) wheels.
We are proud of the farm network we have created to provide you some of our region’s fresh and family grown products. We hope you enjoy them all and we also hope to expand our offering as time goes by and we get better at our coordination with everyone.
Don’t forget, the next order deadline is September 24th at midnight, and delivery is on September 29th.
Please remember to place your orders on time as late orders can be a disruption to all of the farms involved.
Alan & Nancy Brown
Lewis Waite Farm
Grass-Fed Grass-Finished Beef
Natural Pork