Archive: March, 2010

Pruning and the Ithaca Market

The tree fruits have all finally been pruned.  We have pruned the currants and taken care of removing the top portion of the trees in the nursery to the single bud that we budded on the rootstocks in August.  This bud will form the new tree.  We now have a New York State Nursery License, so we will be able to sell trees and small fruit plants that we will propagate here at the farm.  The dreaded gooseberries are the last to prune and tie up to their  trellis.  The gooseberries are delicious but, the thorns are wicked (ask Shannon in late July after a couple weeks of picking them).

We went Saturday to the annual stall auction at the Ithaca Farmer’s Market.  The auction allows permanent members to bid (based on total years at market and markets attended the previous year) on any booths available, due to other members leaving the market.  This year five booths were available and Daring Drake was lucky enough to secure booth #51.  This stall is at the end of the side hall that leads to the dock on the Cayuga inlet.  We are next to the water!  No more bouncing around on Saturday wondering if they might just place us in the old hollow tree the kids play in.

Stay tuned for some pictures of the bonfire from the prunings.

Duck eggs – better than ever

egg-bowlThe girls, and drakes, are now consuming their organic grain from our local Amish grain mill, Hayts Corners Mill.

Greenstar and Shursave in T-Burg are now well stocked with fresh duck eggs.

We did have to raise our egg prices this year due to increased maintenance costs.  Don’t you think those huge orange yolks are worth it?