Category: Uncategorized

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Potato Beetles

This year we have planted Red Maria, Yukon Gold, and Kennebec potatoes. They are up and growing. The predator we need to watch for this time of year are Colorado potato beetles.

Potato beetles have four stages, three that we watch for: eggs, larva, and mature adults. First we will see the adults. They are a hard-shelled insect. They mate, then the female lays yellow eggs on the underside of the leaves. These hatch into red larva, which eat the potato leaves. As they mature they get larger, but are still red. Eventually they drop and burrow into the ground and form a chrysalis? which then hatches into a mature adult.

We fight these insects several ways. First we change the field where we have our potatoes (rotating our crops). Beetles that have wintered over from last year will still hatch and will find at least some of our potato plants. Moving the potato location means that less plants get found.

Then we look for potato beetles, eggs and larva at least twice a week. We mash the eggs and drop the larva and adults into soapy water. If we start soon enough, we will see adults and eggs the first week, then eggs and larva the next week, and finally by the third or fourth week larva and adults. The more adults and eggs you can find at the beginning the lower the larva infestation.

I think that I counted 8 beetles on this plant. You can see parts of leaves that have been eaten away. But this isn’t bad. However, if they aren’t contained, they can eat all the foliage of the potato plants. This mean that you don’t have a good potato harvest. And we have had that happen in the past. Right now we have a very small infestation. Hopefully it will stay that way!

Here is an extension sheet that talks about potato beetles in more detail.

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Animal Pens

We raise our animals outdoors, letting them have the fresh air and sunshine and eat fresh grass (cows, sheep, goats) or scratch the grass and dirt (chickens) or root in area that they are (pigs). Cows, sheep, and goats especially need to be moved regularly as grass is their food. Sheep and goats also need to be protected from predators. So how do we try to keep this in balance – being outdoors, being moved regularly, being protected from predators?

This year we are using small moveable pens. For the goats we have wooden frame with metal sheep fencing around the outside and wheels in the corners. The kids can and do get underneath, but that is happening less as they get older.

Model 2 is for the sheep. It is a bit bigger, has rough cut wood, and has no wire except at the door. Sheep are more content to stay in a fence and less likely to crawl through the fence, so they do well in this set up.

  • Sheep pen
  • View of the door

We can move these pens, giving the animals fresh grass, protecting them from predators, and keeping them in the space where we want them to be.

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Hard-boiled Eggs

We have used several methods to hard-boil eggs over the years. Ron likes to steam boil them. Joe likes to put them in a pan of water and boil them for 15 minutes.

I have my own method, based on Ruffage: a practical guide to vegetables by Abra Berens. I tap the eggs, giving them a slight crack on the bottom, bring them to a boil for 1 minute, let them sit in hot water for 11 minutes, and cool them in 1 change of cold water.

  • Pre-boiled eggs
  • Hard-boiled, but not cooled

After they have cooled, I crack them on all sides. Then I pull the shell off, rinsing the egg in water as needed. The pic on the left shows the cracked shells with one egg on the right still to have the shell pulled off. The pic on the left shows shelled eggs.

  • Egg shells with one of right still to get shelled
  • Shelled eggs

Hard-boiled eggs can be used a lot of ways:

  • Eaten straight up with/without salt
  • Chopped up and added to salad
  • Chopped up, mixed with mayo, mustard, cottage cheese, other seasonings and served on bread for egg salad sandwiches or mixed with cooked potatoes or elbow noodles for potato or pasta salad
  • Used for deviled eggs
  • Sliced and used for an edible garnish

Hard-boiled Eggs

Based on Ruffage: a practical guide to vegetables by Abra Berens. 
Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

  • 12 eggs, or how ever many you want to hard-boil
  • Water to just cover

Instructions
 

  • Gently tap and crack the rounded end of the egg on the counter. You just want a small hairline crack. Do this for all the eggs.
  • Lay the eggs in a sauce pan. Just barely cover with water that is a similar temperature to the eggs.
  • Cover, put on the stove top, bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute.
  • Turn off the heat and let the eggs sit covered for 11 minutes.
  • Drain the water and cover with cold water. Let sit for 5-6 minutes. Drain water and repeat.
  • Drain the water and use the eggs as needed. They can be kept on the counter for several days, but will store best if refrigerated.
  • To peel the eggs, I like to crack them all around, then peel the shells off. There is a inner soft shell. Sometimes you need to get a fingernail under that layer to get all of the shell to come off. And sometimes I need to rinse them off in water to get little shell bits off of the egg.
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A Farm History – The Farmer’s Backstory part 2

(Continued from here) In the fall of 2000 we moved to our current 75 acre property. We want to give our six kids space to run and we wanted to learn how to be more self-sufficient. (20 years later we would say we want to be more resilient…we all need community.) Our resources were my childhood experiences (and therefore my family’s knowledge) and a love of learning. It also helped that I worked as a 10 month employee in a K-12 school environment. This gave me plenty of time in the summer to play farmer.

Over time we added chickens, a garden, goats, and pigs. But it only used a small portion of our land. Getting cows helped change that. Larger animals need much more pasture.

We tried lots of things and failed at many of them. U-Pick. Farming full time. Berries. Organic certification (well, we succeeded with certification but voluntarily dropped out of the program for a number of reasons). Farm memberships with pre-order discounts.

Of course, some ideas worked out. The asparagus still comes up. Grants for fencing and a pasture water system were a huge help. We’ve made good friends through our NOFA contacts. Farmers Markets. And of course, our children had lots of access to fresh air and sunshine while learning to work and be responsible.

Then in 2019 a change came in employment. As the planting season started, I began working in a traditional 12-month full-time position. This combined with normal aging significantly affected how much I could assist on the farm.

As things have unfolded, some of our children have decided to go into a joint venture with us. Until now, the farm has been mine, operating under the DBA of Treasures of Joy. Soon it will be an LLC and newly branded as Southwick Family Farm.

This is fitting. Seeing my children join us with with their age-associated energy and ideas is itself a treasure of joy. – The Farmer (RAS)

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Hair Sheep

This winter we added two bred ewes to our farm. Last month they gave birth to 3 lambs between them. They are Dorper and Katahdin-Dorper cross, varieties of hair sheep. Like most outdoor mammals, hair sheep grow the extra coat that they will need to be warm in the winter. But instead of it being wool that needs to be sheared, it is self-shedding. We can brush it to help it come off, but it will also come off on its own.

The white sheep looks scruffier than the black and white one. She is still shedding. On the black and white one you can still see a tuft on the tail and shoulder, which should soon come off. The lambs have their full coats for this season and won’t be shedding.

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Local, fresh food for CNY

Southwick Family Farm produces beef, pork, chicken, goat, eggs, and vegetables on 75 acres in Nedrow.

  • We provide on-farm sales year round; appointments preferred
  • Or find us weekly June-October at:
    • Westcott Farmers Market – Wednesday 2-6 p.m.
    • Skaneateles Farmers Market – Thursday 3-6 p.m.
  • And monthly 2nd Wednesday of the month November-May
    • Delivery to your home – $5
    • Meat-up at Barry Park 3-3:30 p.m. to pick up your preorders
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More New Babies

I forgot to include these babies in an earlier post – baby plants that we started indoors! Here you can see some brassicas. These will grow to be broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, or Brussel sprouts.

Here you see tomato plants in the back. The luffa plants in the front have their big initial leaves that are oval shape. Coming out of that you can see a leaf that resembles a maple leaf. Those are the true leaves of the luffa plant.

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Eggs, Eggs, and More Eggs

We have EGGS, EGGS, and MORE EGGS! We purchased layers in hopes of having a good supply of eggs at the markets this summer. Well, they have started laying and the refrigerator is full! So we are selling eggs – $4.00/dozen or 2 dozen for $7.00. You can pick up from the farm. Email us or call or text – 315.492.8560 – to let us know how many you want and when you are coming.

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A Farm History – The Farmer’s Backstory Part 1

by RAS aka The Farmer

I grew up on 120 acres in the country. My father rented most of the land as hay fields but we cut our own firewood, raised some livestock, and had a garden. It was a decent (and good) childhood experience.

Work brought Wife and me to Syracuse after we were married. When we bought our first house, I did eventually put in a small vegetable garden. When our growing family necessitated a size upgrade, the new house had a beautiful woodlot but hardly any yard. There was one spot with enough sun that one year I was able to grow some cucumber plants vertically (like the pic only cucumber plants, not beans.)

I am tech-oriented (my current off-farm job is providing help desk support). So in the late 1990s I was drawn into the Y2K debate. I learned about just-in-time delivery, about where our food comes from, and about cities’ reliance upon interdependent systems. This caused me to re-envision society as a thin veneer of civility that could easily be cracked or chipped.

Although it was becoming clearer that companies were working hard enough to prevent major catastrophes at the millennial change, we began making lifestyle changes, like storing some food and water, using less-processed ingredients (e.g. grinding our own flour), and generally thinking about being more resilient. I really wanted to garden, and we talked about finding a small plot to rent for this. But it didn’t make sense for what we wanted to do.

The combination of our Y2K changes, my romantic view of my childhood, and the fact that our kids had hardly any space to play outside all combined to spur us into moving yet again. The place we landed (our current farm) was great, but bigger than what was needed for a homestead. So we got busy with chickens, goats, and a garden and paid a local farmer to mow the edge of the unused fields to keep the scrub trees from invading them.

Thus with no real plan in place except to be more self-sufficient and to give our kids space to run and play (and work), we began our country life. (To be continued)

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New Babies

Over the past month we added piglets, lambs, kids, and more piglets to our farm. Sows, ewes, and the doe are all doing well, tending their young.