Down on the Farm

Squash!

Here is an update of what is for sale on the porch.

We have lots of winter squash for sale right now -- Buttercup, Acorn, Butternut, Delicata, and Red Kuri squash!

All of it is $ .75/lbs., but if you buy more than 20 lbs., it is all $ .50/lbs.

Mmmmmm . . . squash!

We also have the last of our tomatoes, although I suspect the frost predicted for this week will do them in.

For those of you who do not know, our porch, and the rest of our farm, is located at 168 Peacham Groton Rd. in South Peacham. We are about 8 miles south of the Danville Green on the Peacham Road, or 3/4 of a mile west of West Barnet village. From the intersection with the old Bayley Hazen store in South Peacham (the store that is presently closed), head south. We are about 300-400 yards on the right. Or give us a call at 592-3349.

Web surfing baby

Soon she will be taking over this blog.

Another big day at Old Shaw Farm

Maryellen and Waverly decided to sit out on the porch and catch some rays on this beautiful fall day.

And the excitement culminated after I finished harvesting the winter squash when we put a new bumper sticker on our pick-up.

Fight the power

Farming the future

Well. What a week. The arrival of Waverly has obviously been a big event for us here on the farm. We have done zero farm work, and skipped two markets. And that is fine.

Although I feel like we could do a whole separate blog on parenthood, ostensibly this blog is more or less about our farm work. And slowly but surely we will be getting back to work. I have a feeling, however, that popular demand and outcry will require frequent quest appearances from Ms. Waverly in the coming weeks (and years for that matter!)

But the farm cannot rest forever. Our friends Mark and Lori are coming up today, and Mark and I will harvest the last of the winter squash, and then clear that part of the field. We had the roof replaced on the shed last week, and we will be able to start converting that into a more official looking farmstand. We have relatives and friends coming up to help out over the next few weeks, so hopefully we can get back to market for the fall foliage crowds.

But even as I write this, I find myself wondering what Maryellen and Wavo are up to right now. (By the way, other nicknames so far seem to be Wavy and Wawi (short for WAverly WInifred)). Thinking about all the work and farm related stuff seems to pale in comparison to the little kid so far. I know we will have to get back to farm and work stuff eventually, but right now we are just enjoying our family expansion project.

She really is a blast. Thanks again for all the love and support vibes!

Waverly

Thank you so much for all the good wishes for Waverly! She is hiccuping in my lap as I type. We love her!

Welcome!

Waverly Winifred Griffin.

Born: Sunday, September 14, 2003 at 2:05 p.m. at Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital, Hanover, New Hampshire.

We love her!!!

Good morning

Harvesting before market.

The fog settles in the river valley in the morning. As it did this morning, usually the fog settles below our farm field, which is an advantage because that way the veggies get a full morning's sun.

Heatwave

Well, not exactly. But at least we are doing better than these folks.

Peter in the news

Peter got his picture in the paper today.

Peter Griffin, owner of the Old Shaw Farm in Peacham, bags canteloupe for his neighbor Anne Brown, Aug. 27, at the farmer's market in Danville.

That's what the caption to the photo says. And the article has a bunch to say about the farmer's market, including this:

Peter Griffin of Peacham is a first-time vendor at the Danville market. He and his wife Maryellen own the Old Shaw Farm which produces organic vegetables.

Griffin has found being friendly and offering customers samples often brings additional sales.

"I try to grow unique things that they wouldn't find at the supermarket," he said, adding that most people are adventurous about trying new foods.

The boredom factor

Just got a new toy (ostensibly for when the baby gets here). I suspect this will be fun for us, but possibly boring for you. Any suggestions for our first feature length project?

UPDATE: Does this work better?

Going quackers

I heard them before I saw them the other day when I was working up in the field -- Canadian geese heading south. And the weather report calls for a chance of frost tonight. Time to cover those tomatoes!

Moon over the neighbor's barn

Second cut

The dairy farmer up the street (his farm staff, really) came by this week to make a second cut of hay.

Pennant Fever

Maryellen and I have a mixed marriage of sorts. She is from Boston and her whole family are avid Red Sox fans. I am from New York and my whole family are avid Yankees fans. We both seriously have to be a little careful around this subject when we are with the other's family.

Some background on the story to follow: the baby is due September 29th, which means we are entering the zone when the kid could come anytime. And we are going to Connecticut on Saturday for a baby shower for Maryellen.

Now, my father has tickets for the Yankees-Red Sox game at Yankee Stadium on Sunday afternoon, the day after the shower. When I was talking to him on the phone the other day, he suggested that we zip down the turnpike on Sunday (only about an hour and a half drive from CT) and catch the game with him. When I relayed this idea to Maryellen, the following conversation took place:

ME: Well, that is a nice offer, but we couldn't possibly do that.

P: Why not?

ME: If the kid ended up being born at Yankee Stadium, my family would never forgive me.

P: Oh, come on. That's silly.

ME: Well, what if the tables were turned, and the kid was born at Fenway Park? How would you feel about that?

Silence.

She had a point there.

So we decided to skip the game.

Fall

I know it may still seem a little early to discuss this topic, but you can feel fall coming in the air up here. The wind blowing from the northwest has dried out, the days are getting shorter, the temperatures have dropped, the angle of the sun is different. . .

I have never been big on autumn. It has always seemed a somewhat melancholy time to me, mixed with some vague, primal urge to get everything done before winter. Plus, it seems every September I have at least one or two dreams where bells are ringing, my locker won't open, I am two days late for the test, and I didn't do my homework. Sigh.

But if fall is ever going to grow on me, it will be up here in Vermont. I know it sounds trite, but the hills really do explode once the maples turn. All the tourists come up for leaf peeping, the restaurants are full, lots of towns have some sort of foliage festival, apples and fresh cider are in season, and there is a bit of a general party atmosphere.

Actually, the party kind of stretches from the last week in September, when the leaves turn, through the first of year. After folilage is done, deer/moose/bear hunting season starts. That is when lots of people, both natives and out-of-staters, go up to their camps for about a month and "hunt". A camp can range from a busted up trailer out in the woods with no heat or running water, to a wicked nice cabin with all the bells and whistles. I am told that folks basically get all liquored up and run around in the woods in their underwear trying not to pass out, get shot, or die of exposure. And occasionally someone bags a deer.

Hunting season kind of blurs into Thanksgiving, and then into Christmas and New Years. By that time, people are just a little pooped, so everyone takes it easy, focuses on work for a month or two, while maybe mixing in a little skiing or snowshoeing or sledding.

And before you know it, it is time to start making out your seed order for the next season again.

So if I have to say goodbye to the plants soon for a little bit, I guess it won't be all that bad.

Mink

I saw a beautiful, sleek, brown mammal this evening on the farm road, by the Northwest corner of the barn. I am pretty sure it was a mink. When I was looking for a photo on the web, I read that young minks leave their mothers in the fall, so maybe I saw a young one trying to find his or her own new home.

Bitter pill

Life may not have given me lemons, but my friend Mark has. Go click on pull at the top.

The bees are okay

The bees are okay. In case you were wondering how they survived the recent bee fiasco, it looks like they are doing fine.

My friend Libby came over this morning. Libby has kept bees for fifteen years or so, so she knows a lot more than me. We looked at the hive, and it looked good. Not great, but good. The bees have mites, which are like body lice for adult bees, but are deadly to bee babies. Mites are fairly normal, and the infestation doesn't seem bad enough to be worth treating yet. I'll keep an eye on them.

Also, they do not have as much food for winter as I would like, but they've done really well considering. The middle super is very heavy and full of capped honey, which is great. They really haven't put anything in the top super yet, but it's only been on about a week and a half.

We didn't take the hive all the way apart to look at the brood (bee babies), in part because the middle super was so heavy with honey, but what we could see looked fine.

Just for orientation purposes, here is a top down view of a super. The horizontal wooden bars are the top of the frames, the sheets of wax comb hang down from those wooden bars.

Here is a side view of the hive.