WellsTavernFarm’s Weblog

The (Capsicum annuum) Purple Belle Pepper seed tray that I planted more than a month ago were about three steps from being dumped into the compost, and replanted with something that would actually grow, I was angrily thinking two days ago.  I had half the tray full of Tigerella tomatoes and they are growing like weeds, then there was the other half which was just moist soil.  How disappointing, I thought. 

But the peppers came through… at least some of them decided to anyways.  Maybe it was the telepathy, maybe it was the 90 degree window sill for three days (our little New England mini-April heat wave) … well whatever it was, some of them decided to become productive. 

So much for “extremely easy to grow in practically any climate” on the seed packet.  We’ll see about that. 

But really, have you actually read the seed packets… all of them?  Aren’t most of the little envelopes just waiting to produce reliable, abundant and high yielding crops? They are all also frighteningly easy to raise and covered with more examples of overwhelmingly positive language… I am right, aren’t I?  How about some realism on the seed packets: “Most gardeners will have a mediocre outcome  after much fussing and time invested, so…good luck” or some such nonsense?

• If anyone would like to purchase Fresh Chicken Eggs — we are delivering for $3 dozen. Just call 413.625.2797 or send us an email and we’ll get you on our local route.
• It is grilling season, and Heritage Pastured Belted Galloway Beef in bulk (not patties) is only $5.25 a pound.  get yours before it is gone! We have patties available, as well as yummy grassfed steaks (great for grilling for MOM!)

April 25th. The roosters were crowing at 5 a.m. It was a warm 50 plus degrees for morning chores. The temperature is expected to rise into the mid 80′ s today.

Last night I planted the main garden with some cool weather crops — better late than never? Perhaps we’ll return to more springlike weather and everything will be alright.

But today seems like summer.
And the best part? My four year old is in his first fishing derby today at Look Park in Northampton. This is very funny — fishing seems *so* summery to me — and this is a four year old – he received his first fishing pole (a plastic Spiderman rod) for his fourth birthday in February, and he has asked to go fishing every day ever since.  Not that the kid has ever fished before… but he desperately wants to, he thinks.  It seems like a quiet and still sort of sport, so I think that the fit might not be quite right with our four year old.   Mind you, I would love it if he developed the ability to sit still and be silent…the realist in me is screaming: naaahhhh.

We may have been successful with becoming the “grandparents” of future piglets yesterday. The red neighborhood boar was trying his darnedest to successfully “make” Gloucestershire Old Spots cross babies, as it were, with the second GOS lady pig.  We think that the other one is already pregnant — but only by a few weeks.
Swine flu is in the news.   Swine flu is scary stuff — not just because it has a 7% mortality rate (more than twice the 1918 flu mortality rate), but  because it has very little to do with pigs other than sharing a name.

Let it be know that our pigs: the Tamworths, and the GOS’s, have been on the premises long-term, and the neighborhood boar is extremely healthy and lives just down the road. Essentially our little farm is a closed operation. As you can probably guess, our family is extremely local in all ways: we shop locally, we vacation locally (except when we escape to Freyburg or York Maine) we are really homebodies…er… farmbodies — we have far too many critters who depend on us being there for them to travel very far.

Yesterday for Earth Day, my four-year old and I planted sunflowers and peas in a section of the turkey pasture that will not only (hopefully) provide us with peas and sunflowers, but also in a few months when this years’ crop of turkey poults goes out on that pasture — they will have some extra tasty greens to peck at.

As everything we do on the farm — it is satisfying to do, and if it works– great! If something bad happens — well, we’ll do something else.

Tomato, basil and lettuce seeds are slowly turning into little plants both inside the house and out in the cold frame. I haven’t figured out what we will do to keep everything cool enough on Saturday, which is predicted to be ninety degrees here in Western MA. Unbelievable. That should be telling us something about the state of our climate!

The goslings have feathered out and are now on pasture with the ducks and Mrs. Goose. Our small flock of Finn-Romanov (mutt) sheep who share a pasture with the Nubian and Boer goats, has managed to separate and someone JUMPED the fence. Now I remember how much of a pain in the neck it is to have sheep. Years ago when I was a kid, we had a flock of Dorset ewes and one Cheviot ram. He was nasty-nasty — ramming and bunting and pretty dangerous. The ewes were docile and sheep-like… but, they too liked getting out. It is slowly coming back to me.

It is not easy to find extra time with two children under age five, multiple jobs between us and a small farm.  Once in a while, though, it is absolutely essential to clear your head by reading a book, whether you have the time, or not!  Recently I  have fallen in love with these two:

ON THE FARM by Jimmy Doherty.
It is a fabulous book with stunning photography — it is full of real insights by a real (really good looking) guy who has all of the same real experiences that we do in rural Western Massachusetts.
It chronicles Jimmy Doherty’s efforts to set up a farm in the Suffolk countryside, where he rears top-quality traditional breed pigs.

Another book that I have made time to read is decidedly different: THE HARD WAY by Carol Lea Benjamin.  Confession: It is a mystery, but – the author is a noted dog trainer.  Readers will absolutedly fall in love with the investigators trusty partner, Dashiell.

• It is going to be a great green weekend in Greenfield this weekend!

Join us at the 6th annual Greenfield Green Fair! Vsitors will tour lots of environmental displays, presentations, demonstrations, kids activities, and learn about environmentally friendly products and services. Attendees will have the opportunity to purchase Wells Tavern Farm free range chicken eggs, Grassfed Belted Galloway Beef and Gloucestershire Old Spots Pork products.  While you learn about reducing your impact on the Earth, reducing your food miles, reusing and recycling, think ahead to your Thanksgiving and green it up by eating alocally raised, heritage Turkey from Wells Tavern Farm.  We will be accepting reservations for Thanksgiving Turkeys at the Green Fair this weekend. 

Attend Saturday or Sunday, from 10 to 5 each day.  Attend informational workshops and browse local vendors’ wares.  You can see details here.

• Farm News: The heirloom tomato seeds are beginning to sprout.  The Light Brahma Chicks are hatching.  The Goslings are growing faster than the New England weeds this spring!  Our new farm banner will be traveling with us to the Green Fair this weekend.
• If anyone is interested in local DUCK meat, (whole) please express your interest soon.  We will have a limited amount of duck available in a few weeks.  Call or email for duck.
• Compost is in limited quanitites. Delivery up to 25 miles, at $35 a cubic yard.

Say hi this weekend.  See you!

• “Among Easter foods the most significant is the Easter lamb, which is in many places the main dish of the Easter Sunday meal. Corresponding to the Passover lamb and to Christ, the Lamb of God, this dish has become a central symbol of Easter. Also popular among European and Americans on Easter is ham, because the pig was considered a symbol of luck in pre-Christian Europe.”

You can see more Easter traditions explained, here.

Yes, we have heritage Gloucestershire Old Spots Hams available for Easter.  They are smoked and ultra-yummy.

If you are looking for a main course that is raised locally in a pasture-setting, and is an extremely high quality, flavorful ham, than you need to get one before they are all gone.  Limited supply.  We will deliver up to 25 miles of Shelburne, and welcome visitors to the farm. Please call ahead.

We are taking reservations for Thanksgiving Heritage Lilac Turkeys already; have you reserved your turkey yet?

We are anticipating that today will be the day that our neighbor will bring his male Red Hog up to visit with our Gloucestershire Old Spots female pigs.  If all goes as planned, we should be looking at two litters of piglets of Old Spots crosses in about four months.

Meantime, our little Tamworth piglets that we are raising are growing out very nicely. The Tamworth breed is among the oldest of breeds but as with many older breeds of livestock it is not well suited to modern production methods and is listed as “Threatened” — it is not as rare as the Old Spots breed, but still a heritage breed.  The ginger-colored piglets are significantly more standoffish compared to our GOS (Old Spots) pigs.

The Tamworth is one of the great ‘dual purpose’ pigs producing stunningly good pork as well as equally tremendous bacon. In the mid 1990’s the Tamworth came top in a taste test carried out by Bristol University (England) using both commercial and rare breed pigs in a scientifically controlled experiment.

Slow Food Canada has inducted the Tamworth into the Ark of Taste.

The good news for connoisseurs of great pork, is that Wells Tavern Farm will have pork products from four Tamworth pigs later in the summer, or early fall 2009.  As with all of our products, we are a small multi-generational family farm, and when the products are gone, they’re gone.  Reservations, anyone?