Welcome to Our Chickens!

Our baby chickens have arrived! We are so excited! I picked them up this afternoon and am so happy to have our very own Kindred Ground Farm chickens!

We have nine chicks: three Americauna, three Guinea Hens, and three Silkies. They are all babies so we have to monitor them carefully. They will have plenty of play time and fresh air, but will sleep inside our house in totes for a few weeks! Once they are a little bigger they will be sleeping outside of course!

They start to lay eggs around 6 months of age, so it will be awhile before we have egg producing chickens but in the meantime we will play with them, hold them a lot, and let them discover the farm. They need to be held and touched frequently so they are accustomed to human hands for when we collect eggs. Our eggs will include colorful shades of blue and green!

I will be learning a lot as we raise our chickens. My homepage might have to change to Backyard Chickens! If you have knowledge to share, please do!

A big thank you to our shareholder and chicken expert, Markette, for all her assistance and knowledge today! You are an invaluable resource and are much appreciated! And thank you for weeding too!

New Vegetables

Expect green beans in this coming weeks or next weeks share! They started budding this week! The rain should help them along!

Where To Find Us

The Avon Farmers Market begins today from 3pm-6pm in the Tops Plaza on Main Street. We will start selling our fresh produce at the Market next Wednesday June 27^th.  If you find you need more delicious vegetables and fruits than you expected, please stop by to visit us. If you make an outstanding dish or meal using produce from your weekly share and are in town on Wednesdays, please stop by to tell us all about it! If you just want to visit with us, we would love to see you!

We will also be selling produce at the Geneseo Farmers Market this year! We are excited to be expanding into Geneseo and hope you can stop by if you are in the area! The Geneseo Farmers Market is located at Center Street at Main Street. The Market is open from 3pm-6pm on Thursdays. We will be there beginning next week, June 28^th.

Weekly shares will be available for pickup beginning June 25^th as follows:

--Kindred Ground Farm on Mondays and Thursdays from 4pm – 7pm

--Penfield (location TBA) on Tuesdays from 3pm – 6pm

--Avon Farmers Market on Wednesdays from 3pm – 6pm

We will also be opening our Kindred Ground Farm Stand soon. The Farm Stand will be open 10am – 7pm everyday of the week. We are excited about the Farm Stand offering all of our harvest items to supplement shares and to sell to our community at large.

See you soon!

Update from the Field

We have been busy planting, growing, and even harvesting this week.  We added two new herbs to the herb garden. How does orange thyme and Spanish lavender sound?  We also harvested all the garlic scapes.

With quite a bit of rain this week (almost an inch of a good soaking rain yesterday) there is the potential of a slow down in the field work. We can't take Kevin* out because driving on the wet field could cause compaction.

Despite the extra rain, we expect to harvest our first crop of peas tomorrow! As the days of June march forward we will be harvesting more and more. We are still on target for the first day of this year’s CSA to be June 25^th. Remember it is not too late to join if you have not already done so. Visit our page on Local Harvest to ensure you have a variety of fresh food on your pantry shelves and in your kitchen door this summer and autumn.

*New to Kindred Ground Farm? Kevin is our wonderful tractor. He is named after Kevin, the giant bird in the 2009 film Up. If you haven’t seen Kevin, you will know him when you arrive to the farm because he is large, beautiful, and bright orange!

Let the Season Begin

 

Growing Cities!

We are in a growing mood! And we had lots of sunshine today! Life is busy, but good!

We have done a lot of weeding this week! The following plots are weed free (for the moment!): Little Peaville, Spinach, Swiss Chard, Leeks, Cutting Garden, Onionville, and the Lettuces! Whew, those were a lot of weeds to pull!

We did more mulching! Little Peaville, Spinach, and the Beets plots now have straw mulch! We mulch with straw because we find it is healthy and as it decomposes over time it helps to feed the soil.

We also have been busy planting! Today we planted three varieties of carrots, two more rows of zucchini, and another two rows of green beans! Who loves to eat green beans while picking them? We are already looking forward to those crisp, tasty beans!

We like to recycle at Kindred Ground Farm! Two of Alex’s old teepees are now standing among the crops for what else, but the pole beans!

If you come to the farm for a visit you will notice we have three large fields or plots that we refer to as East 40, North 40, and West 40. However, our other big (but not quite as big) plots have names too: Onionville, Beatville, Peaville, and even Little Peaville! Imagine we have little cities and villages filled with growing veggies for you and your family this summer! We are excited! Are you?

Dirt is Good for All!

Our weather is very unpredictable this year! A farmer is always watching the weather! Our CSA Members are true investors in Kindred Ground Farm, so you may be monitoring the weather closely too. We have had plenty of rain to help with growth and so we were thankful for the spots of sunshine today! It looks like we have one more day of rain and then four days of sunshine! Our fruits, vegetables, and flowers need both to thrive, but we are excited for more sun!

Kindred Ground Farms loves to share and teach! We always welcome our youngest CSA Members to explore, help harvest, and run in the fields! This year we have a new addition for all our children farmers! We have made a special space to dig in the dirt! We have a dirt hill (about two and a half feet high by three feet wide!) with a backhoe loader, excavator, and, the always essential, dump truck! These toys and the clean dirt will allow children to explore in a multisensory way. Feeling the dirt running through their fingers, scooping and pouring dirt with toys, smelling the fresh air, seeing a working farm surround them are all learning moments. We are excited for lots of fun play on the Kindred Ground Farm Dirt Hill!

If you haven’t already joined for the 2012 Season please visit Local Harvest soon! You won’t want to miss a single share! The price for full share is $475, a half share is $350, and a mini share is $250. Imagine having your fruits and veggies farm fresh every week, imagine having your fruits and veggies be so local they were picked the same morning you get them, imagine having your fruits and veggies waiting for you! All that and more is yours with a CSA Membership at Kindred Ground Farm! 

The Season is Beginning!

The flowers are blooming, the sun is shining, and the seeds are being planted at Kindred Ground Farm! Spring is in the air, in the dirt, and in our new greenhouse!

We have lots of exciting news and developments as our farm continues to grow each year! This year will mark the beginning of our use of a beautiful (gently used) greenhouse to start seedlings earlier in the spring. We will also have more flowers and fruits in this year’s basket. Did someone hear a chicken? We will have farm fresh eggs too!

We have already planted the peas. Raspberry and blueberry bushes arrive in the next few weeks. The strawberry plants will be here soon also! This is going to be a great year with lots of new produce and our traditional crops as well. Can you already taste the slow bolt lettuce, swiss chard, beets, cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, yellow beans, summer squash, bell peppers, hot peppers, basil, parsley, lemon balm, cherry tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, edible flowers, spearmint, mixed greens, and more?

Please join us on our mission to enjoy fresh, organic, delicious vegetables and fruits grown with love for all people. Enrollment for the 2012 Season is now open. A full share (generally feeds a family of 4) is $475 and a half share (generally feeds a family of 2) is $350. To join please contact Tammy at 585.703.3800 or via email at kindredgroundfarm@gmail.com.

We are looking forward to a great season with delicious foods shared by new and old friends!

Weekly Share - Week Two

Welcome to Week Two!

It was such a pleasure to meet our shareholders this past week during the first week of pickups! Parents - your children are welcome at the farm and to be in the field with you.

Here's what we're having for this week - it's similar to last week: Lettuce, peas, spinach, swiss chard, beet thinnings, parsley, oregano, chives, basil, lemon balm...

The beans are coming along - thought they might be ready soon, but nope. Drat. Some of the bean plants were taken out by a rototiller(!) a few weeks back and so more were replanted. The plants are looking healthy. Hope the deer don't think they look good, too! I'm sure there's lots of us looking forward to snacking on beans!

Reminders:

Wednesday pick-up shareholders: The Avon Farm Market starts this Wednesday so come on down to the Tops Plaza anytime from 3pm-6pm to pick up your share.

Monday pick-up shareholders: Next Monday is a holiday for many people and many probably have vacation plans. So...let me know if you will still be picking up next Monday, or if Wednesday at the Avon Farm Market or Thursday at the farm works better for you. If you're unable to pick up your share, you are welcome to have a family member or friend come in your place, too!

Feedback: Please know that I value your feedback and input. Did you like a particular variety of a vegetable or herb? Did it store well? How was the taste?, etc. Together we can enjoy this adventure :)

Happy Day and see you all this week :)
Tammy

Recipes and Photos Needed

Kindred Ground Farm is all about the land and the people. The land provides the ingredients, but the people make the food. In that spirit we want to post shareholder recipes highlighting ingredients from our weekly shares. Do you make a simple delicious dish using your CSA ingredients? Do your friends rave about the complicated gourmet meals you make with the farm fresh ingredients? Are you not allowed to show up to a party without your famous CSA side? Do you stand in your kitchen appraising the weekly selection and then whip dinner up? Then we want you to share with us please!

Each week we want to feature one or more recipes on the Kindred Ground Farm blog! Please email your favorite recipes and pictures if you have them to kgf.blog@gmail.com so we can post them here.

We can’t wait to taste your food!

The Farm is Starting to Bloom

This season has been eventful here on the farm so far, to say the least! Unseasonably hot weather in April. Little rain in May. Lots of rain in June. Hot and cold temperatures changing almost by the hour. So it has been an odd Spring. All this leads to 'never a dull moment' in farming/gardening!

Our cool season crops are very confused about what they should be doing - wondering "why is it SO HOT???" when it's supposed to be cool. The peas plants are tall and leggy. The spinach is wanting to bolt and some has already. (Bolting is when it flowers/goes to seed.) Broccoli is slowly growing. (Did I mention slowly?) The good news is beets have taken off (and then some!), the lettuces are growing well, radishes are abundant, and herbs are happy. Lots of our summer veggies are doing their best to deal with all this rain, well over an inch of rain just yesterday again!

Here's some of what is planted so far: eggplants (standard and black beauty), carrots, white onions, yellow onions, red onions, leeks (several hundred!), tomatoes - several varieties over 60 plants, sweet banana peppers, bell peppers, yellow beans, green bush beans, green pole beans, horseradish, celery, radishes, beets, basil, summer savory, oregano, spearmint, rue, chives, watermelon, zucchini squash, summer squash, sun flowers, popcorn, Indian corn, a tad of sweet corn and a few raspberry bushes... that's off the top of my head. Whew! Oh, and potatoes. Lettuces. And peas. And red cabbage. And collard greens. Sheesh, and cucumbers!

More has to go in the ground - gotta get pumpkins and winter squashes planted. More herbs. Gourds. Peppers - want to try some of the hotter varieties, too. Saw some transplants the other day and think I will go back to pick them up! Does anyone like them?

I had planned to put cut flowers in and just haven't gotten to it yet as I have been focusing on the edibles. I am going to research and see what we can still get in the ground to be able to enjoy them this summer and fall. If anyone is a flower aficionado, please feel free to lend your advice!

Always feel free to share your ideas, knowledge, and recipes! Growing is a fairly new venture for me and though I am passionate about what you and I are doing here, there is certainly a learning curve!