Busy Spring!

The farm animals are generating offspring...

and the Farm Crew is laboring in the fields!

We couldn't farm very well without them.

Eating out of the backyard

Our patch of wild leeks out in a wooded section of our backyard.  The gastronomical possibilities are mind boggling!

Washed and cleaned ready for eating...

The result... sauteed wild leeks in red wine and balsamic vinegar, mesclun from the hoophouse, our farm's 100% grassfed beef, Does Leap Farm Caprella.  

Beverage: raw milk, local wine or homebrew.

Ironman

Giroux Body Shop - a farmer's friend!  These guys are great, if i have a thorny issue with some farm machinery or equipment I take it to them.  Countless times I have taken a photo of another farmers piece of equipment and had them build it for me.  Or I come up with an idea on a piece of scrap paper and Steve fine tunes the drawing and specs before building.

Here they are at some of the machines they use to fabricate metal parts and pieces.  I bought a 6 ft section of square steel tubing as a tool bar for one of the farm implements.  A tool bar is just that, a bar that you add various farming tools to such as:  cultivator shovels, disc hillers, etc.

My imagination and pocketbook are the only limiting factors with these great folks in the next town over (Hinesburg, Vermont).

Other Farmers Iron

I have a fondness for Farmers Iron.  There I've said it and I am not ashamed!

My favorite iron pile is at my neighbor Ed's dairy farm down the road.  I have bought my share of iron from him over the years, and have never been disappointed.  

The coolest piece of iron he has is a rock picker, made in Montana!  I could use it on the home farm which consists of Peru Stony Loam (emphasis on stony).  The other land we lease has few if any rocks on it and most of the veggies are grown there.

I took a friend up today to see Ed's rock picker in the pouring rain. It was decided that it was too much iron for his small rocky plot.

Later in the day after making deliveries to Burlington stores, I stopped off at the Intervale to chat with Thomas of Arethusa Collective Farm about tractors (of course).  He showed me the beautiful Allis Chalmers Gleaner Combine he purchased last year from a farmer down in Addison County.  Thomas uses it for beans and harvesting seed from cover crops grown on their organic farm.