Shelter Island Farm

2009-07-21T08:46:00.001-07:00

Hello to friends, family and visitors! Our blog has moved! We have so many projects going on over here at the manor, we decided to house all the blogs under one roof. Please visit us at our new site, and tell your friends!

http://sylvestermanor.wordpress.com

Thank you for checking in!

2009-07-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

A view of the field from the windmill!

This evening we're trying to create some order by using 3x5 notecards- a rudimentary but flexible project management system for our entire group. The idea is we'll put projects and actions on these cards and then keep them in the office for people to check out and work on. We're going to build a whopping cork board tomorrow to organize and display them.

Our garlic harvest!

Pretty, Pretty, Produce!

2009-07-01T11:08:00.000-07:00

Greetings from the Ranchero! I'd love to share some pictures of last week's CSA Harvest with you all.

Thursday night, when the lighting was hitting Shelter Island just right, I went out to snap a few pictures to capture the peace and natural beauty here. We washed & stacked some wine boxes to load our beloved harvest in:

The Guinea Fowls are looking fine as well. They've grown about another 3 inches in wing span since we've let them out of their coop and to munch on the grass. I think they are starting to adjust to being out in the open and pretty soon, they won't even need a protecting net! They sure are loud birds that love to stick together, but they are so adorable, we love to show love.

We've had such a productive few weeks here Shelter Island Farm. Two new members, Alex and Lee, have joined us and are adjusting to the life here quite well. My name is Lee, and I'm the volunteer field apprentice here at Shelter Island Farm. It's a beautiful place and I don't wish to be spending my time this summer any other way. The people, the places, and, did I mention, the produce?!!!!? Take a look for yourself.

Above: volunteer Conner, Bennett, and Lee admire the bountiful harvest.

Our turnips are so good, we can't help but grin ear-to-ear. They are so sweet & juicy, we eat them like apples and suggest you do, too.

A truck-load of food!

Kale!

Sugar Snap-peas, a personal favorite. How could you resist the crunchy and sweet dynamic of these nature's candy?

Bok choi, rhubarb, broccoli raab, 5 types of kale, lettuce, sugar snap-peas, turnips and baby beets are just some of the wonderful veggies we harvested this week!

Overall, things are looking great for farm as you can see. With all this rain and hopefully some more sun as well, our food will continue to flourish. We can't wait to share it with the community. We are having so much fun working, singing, eating and harvesting, the days are going by so quick. Until next time, enjoy your day!

First CSA PICKUP!

2009-06-15T09:05:00.000-07:00

A bunch of proud farmers with our first harvest.

2009-05-14T13:20:00.000-07:00

Here we are feeling pretty good after getting those straw bales onto our trailer. Mulching of lots and lots of garlic was in our future.

Back in our field unloading.

Preparing our field.

2009-05-05T10:11:00.000-07:00

On this rainy tuesday I will share some pictures of a glorious day last week. The order of the day was to spread the 30,000 pounds of compost over our field using our new spreader. Here is Emma loading up the "Pequea".

The "Pequea" in action bombing down the rows.

After spreading all of the compost, we needed to rake it in to the beds as demonstrated by Bennett. Take note of how beautiful the garlic is coming in.

2009-05-02T06:25:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have been very busy. We have been preparing our fields, starting seedlings, and also transplanting our seedlings from the greenhouses at Quail Hill Farm. Here is Emma with some of our onions coming back to our garden for planting.

Field

2009-04-28T16:22:00.001-07:00

DSC_0559
Originally uploaded by Sylvester Manor

A fine field.

Garlic is up!

2009-04-02T06:58:00.001-07:00

DSC_0558, originally uploaded by Sylvester Manor.

For those of you who were here at Plant&Sing08, here is your hard work, paying off!

New Fence!

2009-04-02T06:57:00.001-07:00

DSC_0557
Originally uploaded by Sylvester Manor

Our new deer fence is here! The way we got it is by agreeing to play for one of Quail Hill Farm's events this summer... so we swapped music for a fence. Another example of music as a value added farm product! Scott also loaned us his solar panel and battery, which Owen is setting up today.

2009-03-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

2009-03-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

We burned the big back field on Sunday- a crew of 11 helped contain the fire and keep it moving in the right direction. There was a light breeze that shifted around from the northwest to the southeast, which was alternately helpful and useful. We started around twelve and were finished at 3pm.

Emma wields a mighty shovel.

Just after we started the southeast corner.

Jeff Lewis, Fire King.

Noble Owen

2009-03-14T12:44:00.001-07:00

This old fire extinguisher rolls easily and is in good condition.

Something to Quack About

2009-03-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

We visited Riverhead to go to the NOFA-NY workshop on Wheat and Potatoes on Saturday. We learned all about small-scale wheat production and some cool rare potato varieties.

Afterwards we visited the Big Duck in Flanders, NY.

2009-03-13T11:09:00.001-07:00

New chicks!

2009-03-11T20:01:00.000-07:00

Well, we're finally getting started on cleaning out the barns! We did a ton of work, sorting everything out into three categories: Keep, Trash, sell/give. We attacked the top and bottom of the big barn, and got 80% complete on both floors. We've got an enormous pile of stuff out on the lawn! Hopefully we'll get a dump truck to take away the trashiest of the trash, then we'll have the mother of all yard sales to take care of all of the dressers, chairs, and coffee tables that seem to have accumulated over the years and that we'll never use. And of course, we'll be sure that we don't throw or give away anything that somebody might want!

We also spent the whole morning Seeding! Onions, Leeks, Parsley, Snapdragons, Sweet Annie and Egglplant! We got done right at the honk of noon, ordered some Potatoes, and headed back to the Manor in time to chow down a huge soup that Owen had made the night before.

Now the day is over and I'm filled with energy from all of the progress we're making. It's really quite extraordinary. 1+1+1+1=5 or more! Yeah buddy!

2009-03-09T19:55:00.001-07:00

It's a big day!

The full crew has arrived! We've got Owen Marshall, field hand from Washington Vermont, who arrived this afternoon with some sort of stomach bug. And we've got Emma Hoyt, field manager from Teaneck, New Jersey. We cherry-picked her from Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, where she worked for the past 3 years.

Also we've got Edith Gawler, singer, fiddler, banjologist, and legendary beaut! Tonight after dinner we all sat around and played some great music around the dinner table by candle light. It was a fitting, most exciting beginning to the first season of farming at Sylvester Manor in many, many years.

It will be a great week as we clean out the barns and get our tools oiled up & sharpened. We'll also do some ground work stuff like re-visiting our goals for the year and getting all oriented to our spaces.

Two other things- The chicks arrived today! Or at least the first batch. More come in two weeks. I'll be sure to put up some picks sometime soon.

Also, my grandmother Leila sent Edith and I over to the island with my grandfather's old sprayer. It will be great for making compost teas to spray onto the plants! Pics coming soon!

2008-11-18T16:44:00.000-08:00

Big day today! The windmill field was ploughed for the first time in decades. We're not sure how long it's been but guesses ranged from the 30 to 60 years. That's Gene Shepherd on the tractor.

This tractor is a beast- it weighs 10,000 lbs. And it runs on used vegetable oil. Pretty neat. Gene is the Suffolk County tractor pull champ, and he was the guy with the proper plough that busted up all of that sod. It uses the tractor's weight for momentum to pull through the heavy sod, and to break the roots that have worked their way out towards the middle of the field from the edges.

Also today we got a delivery of rye seed to plant in this field over thanksgiving. Rye germinates in soils as cold as 34 degrees, so it will definitely sprout in this season. So unfortunately, it won't cover the open soil during the dead of winter, it'll be more of a stubble. But it will be ready to launch skyward at the first breath of spring, something that rye planted in october doesn't do so much. This according to Scott Chaskey at Quail Hill Farm in Amansett. We're using the rye to help keep the weeds down next summer, to add organic matter to the soil, and to build the nice crumbly tilth that we're looking for.

2008-11-08T04:10:00.000-08:00

"So, what's going on with the farm?"

That's the most common question I get from folks near and far. What better way to answer than to show!

This blog is part of a constellation of blogs I'll maintain as the farm at Sylvester Manor gets up and running. I've started it so that I can show everyone with words, pictures, maybe even videos, just what is happening here. I hope to post once or twice a week.

So what IS going on here?

Well, just yesterday we took two big steps forward:

1) Figured out how best to plough the windmill field in anticipation of putting in rye as a cover crop for the winter. Gene Shephard is going to use his prize-winning pulling tractor to bust the sod, and Alfred Kilb is going to let us borrow his ploughs/harrows to get the soil into good shape for the upcoming planting.

We also might be able to use the old rusty discs we have in the back field. Alfred says the steel in these things puts the new steel to shame.

2) Secured a 50' used greenhouse at a reasonable price. Gunnar and Dave went over to have a look in the morning, and by noon they had the whole thing down. I didn't even get over to lay my hands on it. Thos guys are something else. The house is amazingly rust free and the bolts easily came apart.

This week I'll be ordering seed and thinking about just what else we'll need when we plant the garlic and rye during thanksgiving here.

That's what's up at the farm!