Ramping Up

Hmmm. I just noticed how very long it's been since I last wrote. Sometimes as a farmer/cheesemaker I feel that there are not enough hours in the day to put something on paper, being so busy, as well as thoughts of, 'does the world need yet another farm/food blog?'  That said, our facebook page has largely taken the place for notifications of upcoming events, products, ideas etc. Willow Hill Farm Facebook link.

Let's see. What can I slash off the to-do list that got happening today? Woke up early, went to do animal feeding chores, then with head nets in hand a la African safari off to a secret location on the farm to harvest the elusive wild ramps for farmers market tomorrow. Afterwards, I managed to continue painting cheese plant siding and trim, while husband rented a tiller for the tractor to prep this year's garden spot. Don't ask me why we need to rent a tiller when we own two broken ones from when we were veggie farmers in the 90's. Next up, is prepping cheeses for market while husband moves on to pouring concrete for columns at the cheese plant viewing room entry way. This is the third attempt. It's been so wet and with the flooding each time he did it, it collapsed back in on itself before he could pour concrete down the hole! Back to the ramps to wash, prep and package...













more animal feeding chores...laundry and dishes.....
One side of cheese plant painted? Check.
Garden plot prepped? Check.
Columns concrete poured? Check.
Ramps harvested and ready to go? Check.
Cheese ready for market? Check.
Laundry and dishes? Who cares.
Whew! I'm pooped.
What's for dinner? Hmmm. Smoked salmon antipasto salad with grilled ramps,  puff pastry with shaved Butternut cheese. Add a pomegranate cosmo.

World Cheese Awards 2010

Just a quick post here, not much to tell except very busy on the farm tying things up for the winter-too many building projects!
We got lucky again and were garnered an award for our Butternut cheese, an Alpine style which is aged at least 5 months on our own ash planks harvested on the farm. This competition, which seems to be getting bigger each year had over 2600 entries and 201 judges. Yikes!

Hail Storm

This year MUST be the wettest on record during the summertime. I have lived in Vermont for 21 years, farming most of those years and have never seen slugs the size one finds in the Northwest! Literally they are happily growing to 5 inches or more. Then again, not to sound too whiny, but it's sacrilege to me, that as a farmer I cannot even have a garden-there is a new litter here to add to the grandpas, grandmas and cousins of said woodchuck lineage at Willow Hill Farm. And someone in his family devoured my entire garden to the ground! Arugula, lettuces, heirloom tomatoes, beans, fennel..........all that I started from seed. Then again, perhaps a blessing in disguise-as most are getting hit by severe blight in tomatoes and the excess water is causing blossom drop and rotting sorts of diseases in most crops. So I really shouldn't fret as we are very lucky to even have a blueberry crop. As I watched a late spring frost affect neighboring farms with strawberries and raspberries, we were dealt some slight frost to the tips of the shoots-apparently nipping only new growth of leaves. Not the flowers, which would have been their death knell. The blueberry flowers in the crop are set the preceding fall and then a confluence of universal factors must be in place to effect a cluster of berries-the next year. It's a wonder there can even be crops?! First, the bud set must happen the fall before, then a winter not too cold or icy, then just enough snow cover, then in spring, a bloom at the proper time without frost-and good weather for our wild bumblebees to pollinate. Which means not too much rain during their peak flying hours of 10-3.....Honeybees are not good blueberry pollinators. The flowers are bell-shaped, hence the honeys are unable to reach inside like a plump bumble can.

So here I am driving to the Intervale a few weeks ago for a Slow Food cheese tasting (hosted by Mara at Half Pint) and all of a sudden I thought we were going to meet up with the Ark! The sky thrusted a downpour and then radio weather warnings screeched on babbling to seek cover and not drive across wet roadways or drown. Back on the farm in Milton, hail was a-flyin' and luckily for us-just our house window screens were shredded but no damage to the solar barn. It's a greenhouse type structure and could have been decimated by Mother Nature's little marbles. Doesn't it seem as though Mother Nature is playing with us this year? Game on, Mother Nature. Us farmers are too stupid to quit.