Birch Moon at Open Studios in Deerfield

Wednesday, NOV 30th  9 am-1 pm

  I will be at Heavenly Hues Wool Studio with my bodycare
(creams, salves, lip balm kits, stocking stuffers!)  in Deerfield

Where: 147 Mill Village Rd, Deerfield –North of Yankee Candle/South of Historic Deerfield

Please come see offerings from: Heavenly Hues Wool Studio (plant-dyed felt, yarn, roving & silk)

Birch Moon Herbals (natural body care ($3 lip balms, $10 creams, $6 spritzers + more) & lip balm kits $18 everything included!)

Call or email Sarah 259-1183 to pre-order for large orders or to make sure your favorite items will be available!

Also for more than 3 lip balm kits a pre-order would be helpful!  Thanks, Sarah

Free Ramblin’ Kids (upcycled wool slip-pers for babies & toddlers, pins, stuffed toys & other upcycled treasures)

Heavenly Hues will also be at Greenfield’s Mkt 12/3 or contact for an appt. See Birch Moon Farm and Herbals @ http://birchmoonherbals.wordpress.com
and Free Ramblin’ Kids on Facebook.

Want more info? Call Julie 768-8180 or Sarah 259-1183

Please excuse the dis-jointedness of this post – I am battling a new computer and am cut and pasting a lot here… 

Official OPEN hours are ending….

SO, if you need anything, like Olive Oil, olives, tomatoes, greens,
carrots, celery, cucumbers… call and set up a time that works for you!

To be clear, we are no longer open Wednesdays and Saturdays.
It’s time to close for the season.

We have lots left to eat/ sell, but it’s getting harder and harder to be available those particular hours.

Time to focus back on the family and preparing for Winter!

Hope to still see you around…  Happy Autumn, Sarah

Open tomorrow, Saturday 12-4

Hope to see you tomorrow, Saturday, from 12-4 pm!

We have carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, parsley, kale, collards, cooking greens, baby red romaine lettuce, olive oil, olives, fresh ground whole wheat flour (grown here!), as well as salves, lip balms, creams, tea blends and all the herbal stuff.

Bulk dried herbs we always have, and love to make custom tea blends. Most herbs are from Mountain Rose Herbs in Oregon, all organic, and some are grown here. It used to be the other way around, mostly grown here, but I just got in my stainless steel screening to dry the herbs on and need to make a new drying rack. I wasn’t satisfied before with the aluminum (yuck) or vinyl (contains lead) window screening that most people (including me before I thought about it) use. We really have to question everything, it seems, these days. But one thing at a time, then make a simple change. Live with it until it becomes habit, part of your world, then tackle another. It’s no help to anyone, the Earth, or yourself, to get overwhelmed!

By the way, did you see the Climate Reality Project yesterday? 24 hours of climate REALITY, from people all over the world, speaking live about what’s really happening weather and climate-wise, everywhere. Uncensored and live. I was glad a friend reminded us so we could watch for the last 2 hours, but you can view it here any time. Each hour seems to be similar, except the panel discussions about half-way through each. Al Gore’s speech was a great one, in English, easy. #24, the last one. Some (all?) others were translations of this, with additions here and there.

It’s time for us to take care of our Mother Earth, for without her, what will we have?

Shouldn’t this be a priority, above all else?

Priority above using electricity without thinking of what it means to be burning all that coal, or supporting those nuclear plants? Above driving around and shopping? Above all our ideas of what we “need” to keep our comfortable lives?

IDEAS: Consolidate trips, carpool. Hang your clothes to dry in the fresh air. Spring for one LED light bulb for your reading light or a commonly used light in your home.  Walk or ride a bike to visit a friend close-by. Buy food in bulk and don’t buy food in plastic packaging. If using your oven, also throw in some squash, or tomatoes and garlic, or shiitakes in butter, to roast for another meal – make more use out of the energy used. Make or buy a thermal cooker (uses 1/10 or less of the energy). Use less: less lights at night, no lights during the day if you can, …   I’m running out of ideas but I know there are more! Post a comment if you want with your ideas.

We can do this. We have to do this. Really, now. Beautiful things will happen.

Enjoy this lovely Autumn weather. Thanks for listening.

Learning to make handmade shoes

One would think there is enough to do on a farm, without adding other projects,
but adding projects just happens to be my specialty, so….

I LOVE making shoes!! I’m just getting started, don’t really know anything yet, but I’m very proud of them, and excited to make more, very simple, simple shoes. I was never even a big shoe person, more of a functional shoe person – as long as they were comfortable, and inexpensive… then I sprung for some handmade shoes at the Shutesbury Farmers & Artisans Market (every Saturday morning from 8:30-noon) from Sharon Raymond and my whole outlook changed.  They fact that I could BUY shoes, made by someONE, a person, HERE, in Shutesbury, was just amazing, and I was very proud of my shoes.

So now I’m learning from Sharon, and just finished my first pair of adult shoes (mine! both pics above),
after making a pair for my friend’s sweetie son, with moon and stars (below)

My kids jumped right on board and are playing around with shoes made from natural materials like these birchbark shoes.

It’s such an interesting thing, making shoes. When I was little my mother taught me to sew, and I sewed clothes for my mice, and my dolls, and then later for me, and I’ve just started up again making skirts and pants. It’s really pretty easy once you know the basics, and easier if you own a sewing machine. But shoes was always something you HAD to BUY, right? I mean, who could make a pair of leather shoes, as well as the factory in China? ha ha.

I can even buy professional soles to glue on with toxic glue, but I’m not a pro and really am just beginning to learn, and I prefer the natural rubber, sewed on. My daughter is trying a pair mostly on her own, and they are coming out beautifully! She preferred to turn the leather suede-side out, and they look like delicious melted chocolate shoes (below). She’ll have them for her “inside shoes” at school. I told her to wait until I got home to glue them together (before sewing) but came home to find them done, ready to punch holes. Self-motivated creature.

Sharon’s coming out with a new book, or new books soon, and videos to follow, and I really encourage everyone with creative juice to spare to even just think about trying, about what you would make if you made 1 pair of very simple, functional, beautiful shoes or sandals. There are tools to invest in, not many, but some, like punches and a stitching awl. I was lucky to find leather at the flea market. But there’s shoes made of fabric. Wool. Felt. So many options. People could group together and buy tools to share, and come together once a week  for potluck and shoemaking – what a great Winter project.

Maybe I’m getting a little ahead of myself. But the point is, I’m inspired. And excited. This feeds a part of me that I wasn’t taking care of before. A fun night-time project (that sometimes sneaks into my days in between canning tomatoes and freezing peaches).

Did I mention I turned our bedroom into a workshop?

PS. We are still farming as well and will be open this and every Saturday 12-4. And Wednesdays 4-6. Call or email if you need anything off-hours or off-days, we’re usually around, somewhere, doing some project….

Impt – our friend and the Tar sands pipeline protest

Hi again,

One thing I forgot (because I hadn’t read Wheatberry’s post yet) is that there is a demonstration in Washington DC protesting the Tar Sands Pipeline and our friend Ben Lester is going, if anyone wants to go with him (to get arrested) and stand up for this, it’s very important. I feel ashamed and rediculous for not saying an automatic YES! We’ll be there! but I have to figure it out with my family, as do you. Read their blog post for more info, and send him any words of support you can or better yet, join him!!!

http://www.localgrain.org/fieldsandfire/

THANKS!!!   Sarah

OPEN today, last corn, salad dressing

Hi everyone, corn season is winding down for us, the last of the Silver Queen is ready to be picked! It’s actually not especially sweet, but very flavorful and delicious – we prefer it to any other corn (but we’re also a little biased!)

We’ve been canning and freezing like mad – like squirrels getting ready for winter. I feel so lucky to have all this amazing food for our family. We’ve made tomato sauce, and frozen peaches, corn and blueberries. Lots that I haven’t gotten to – like ratatouille, pickles, pickled beets, green beans, but there’s always next year if they don’t happen this fall. I love that there’s always next year for all the dreams we don’t get to…

So today (Wed) we’ll be open from 4-6, with corn, tomatoes, arugula, mixed cooking greens, kale, collards (I have some good recipes for these that even people who don’t like kale love!), parsley, cucumbers, pick-your-own flowers, olive oil and kalamata olives (delicious!). 

By the way, for those of you who have already bought olives, they are brined in my family’s own organic wine vinegar (which unfortunately they do not sell, I asked…) so save that brine, mix it in the blender with shallots or red onion, garlic, mustard, fresh herbs, a little honey, maybe some regular vinegar (the brine’s a little salty) and slowly drizzle in some olive oil. Adjust amounts until you love the flavor! Once you figure out some good dressings you’ll never go back to store dressings. Our other favorite dressing  is (goat) yogurt, some soft goat cheese, garlic, shallots or small onion, a little brine or rice vinegar and parsley or basil (or sometimes mint and cucumbers). Very simple, easy – blend in a cuisinart or blender!

Hope to see you later today, and if we dont, hope you enjoy these beautiful summer days!  Blessings, Sarah

OPEN! and easy Elderberry Syrup recipe

We’ll be OPEN tomorrow, Wed Aug 17th

but CLOSED this Saturday Aug 20th while Edie and I attend the New England Women’s Herbal Conference in NH.

We have Kale, collards, rainbow chard, tomatoes, basil,
carrots, zucchini, olive oil, olives, flowers…

NEW: We have mesclun mix, plain arugula and baby broccoli raab for salads, cut to order. We will have some Silver Queen CORN for sale as well.

We ate our first cooked corn for dinner, and it was so good I ran out and took photos in the near-dark. I’ve never seen baby ears sprouting out of the bottom of the big ears! They must like chicken manure compost…

And I want to share our rice paddy for those of you who haven’t seen it

Did you know we can grow rice in the Northeast?
This is Hayayuki, and below is Duborskian (upclose)

Much more feathery. Very beautiful rice seed from
Christian Elwell of South River Miso in Conway, MA.

This paddy has been one of our favorite projects this year. More on this later, maybe a slideshow of seed to harvest, we’ll see…

So, on to Elderberry Syrup.

The birds LOVE Elderberries. So do we. The berries have antiviral properties and if a syrup is taken at the first sign of a cold, you can usually send it off…Unless you choose to load up on sugar and wheat and other “sugary” foods, which will weaken your body making it harder to fight off infections… but that’s too heavy a topic. Today I made Elderberry syrup with Lucy, a super-sweet, hardworking volunteer on our farm. This is what we did. But first, identifying them:

They hang in clusters, these reddish-purplish-black berries, with wine-colored stems. They are just beginning to ripen in our area. They love to grow on the sides of streams, or where they can keep their feet wet, but where there is a little sunlight poking through. Get a good book to identify them if you are going out to pick, or better yet, bring a friend who knows Elderberry.

The Elderberries that grow in the Northeast are ripe when they are black, not maroon or red. I have heard the raw and unripe berries are toxic, as are the seeds, leaves and stems. But not the plump black berries. Our family has eaten plenty of raw berries with no problems, just FYI.

Pick Elderberries by cutting off at the stem above the cluster of berries. I like to ask permission first and thank the plant for her medicine. Put them into a basket and bring them home. We also picked the last few blueberries and the first blackberries to add to our brew. We then pulled the berries gently off the stems into a pot with a little water in it (so they don’t burn on the stove). We added our other berries and simmered them all for about 10 minutes. I’m sure there are other ways and this can be flexible, there are zillions of recipes and techniques, this is just what I do.

Then we strained it all out thru a jelly bag, making a delicious, red mess in my beautiful Joy bowl…

For Lucy’s I felt like I should add a few tablespoons of honey (per 8oz jar) to preserve it, and for taste, so we did. Hers will keep in the fridge for a few weeks. Technically and officially you would add equal amounts of sweetener to syrup (then it would last 2-3 months in the fridge). Personally I find this offensive (I am a recovering MAJOR sugar addict) so for ours I didn’t add anything and just left 1/2″ spacing at the top of each half-pint and stuck them in the freezer, labeled, once they cooled. I love the taste of the fruit, and it’s hard sometimes to get that flavor with so much “sweet”.

Some years I have added organic apple cider vinegar or brandy to help it keep longer, first cooking it down on low heat to thicken and concentrate, getting sweeter naturally. I remember this lasting a few weeks in the fridge. But the last few days I have had cooked up blueberries to pour generously on my pancakes and I love just the plain fruit, so am hoping this will be as good out of the freezer as it is fresh! It’s easy in the middle of winter if you are coming down with something to defrost a jar.

There are many other variations, including fresh ginger in with the simmering fruit, or more blueberries, or a little echinacea root ~ have fun!

We’re back! Open again!

Birch Moon Farm & Herbals, Shutesbury Center

42 Cooleyville Rd (2 houses down from the library on the 202-side)

Hi everyone, just wanted you to know we did not fall off the face of the Earth,
we’ve been working hard here keeping up with weeds and watering,
nourishing ourselves, and growing LOTS of good food.

We’ll be OPEN Wednesdays 4-6pm (starting today) and Saturdays 12-4pm.

 We have (all organic, not certified):

PYO Flower garden (and pre-made bouquets $5 each)

tomatoes (heirloom, beauties and plums) $4/lb

basil $3/bunch

cukes $1.50/lb

zucchini ~ yellow & green $1.50/lb

small bunches of herbs $1-2/ bunch

rainbow chard $3/ bunch

kale (curly and tuscan) $3/bunch

Olive oil (XV organic, from Kalamata olives!) $36/tin

Kalamata Olives (also from my extended family in Greece, organic of course!) $15/ quart, $8/pint

(bring your own jar for olives or $1 deposit)

SOON we’ll have SWEET CORN (grown here!!!)

Hope to see you, remember we are CASH ONLY and love it when you bring your own bags (but we do have some as well).

THANKS, Sarah and Keith Shields

http://birchmoonherbals.wordpress.com

Closed for rejuvination

Hi everyone, just a quick note to say We’re Taking a Break but will be back again someday….like next Saturday. I think after a long year of school and being open since February we just need some time, and thank you all for understanding We are planting and weeding like mad during the week so we’ll have lots of good stuff later in the summer – tomatoes, sweet corn, cucumbers, winter squash, summer squash, onions & garlic, lettuce, peas and SO much more… even our RICE paddy is in!  Come see us on the Farm & Garden Tour Sunday, June 26th (tickets are available at the Library and Town Hall)

So we’ll be closed today, Sat June 18th. Thanks, Sarah

Farmstand OPEN 12-2 today – different hours!

From Birch Moon Farm & Herbals, Shutesbury Center, 42 Cooleyville Rd

We will be in and out for “bulky waste day”, so wont open until 12 today (and wont be at the Shutesbury Farmers & Artisans Market this morning).

Please come visit us for cooking greens, lettuce, olive oil ($36/ tin), scallions, herbs and rhubarb, as well as plant starts $3 / 6-pack and tomatoes are $1 / 4″ pot.

CASH ONLY, thank you. No checks, ever Thanks for planning ahead. And although we have produce bags handy, we’d prefer you to to reuse yours!

Thanks, have a great day!

PLANTS and FOOD

PLANTS

broccoli, kale, lettuce, tomatoes, basil, peppers, eggplant, herbs, flowers, zucchini & more!

~     6-packs $3     ~     3″ pots  $1 each (except lavender, pineapple sage & lemon verbena $3 each)     ~

~    4″ tomato pots are $2 each    ~

FOOD

rhubarb, kale, lettuce heads, mesclun mix, green onions, carrots (fresh but not that sweet), olive oil & eggs

CASH ONLY, thank you

a Sign

Definitely a sign.

This was the brightest, most vibrant & glowing  rainbow I have EVER seen.

Things can look dark and gloomy, lonely and empty, rainy and sad,
but you have to make an opening (and yes, it can be scary!)
for the magic and goodness to come in.  And they will.

Trust. Breathe.

So… about this weekend…. we are OPEN of course, with LOTS of goodies

and if it rains, we’ll set up inside the house, so come on in! We have:

* a really nice broccoli raab/mustard mesclun mix (above)  (we are eating twice a day!)*

* lettuce mix and some heads of lettuce *

* rhubarb – yum, tis the season! Hope you have strawberries left in your freezer! *

* green onion tops ~ vibrant, add to salads, dressings, stir-fries… *

* carrots ~ freshly dug, going fast! *

* eggs ~ easter-egg colors, super fresh from happy, free chickens *

* freshly-ground whole wheat flour grown right here in Shutesbury (on our land!!) *

* golden-green olive oil made from Greek Kalamata olives, extra-virgin AND organic *

and

* plant starts! *

lettuce, safe to plant outside

Rouge d’Hiver, my favorite color lettuce…

kale and broccoli plants, also OK to go out…

tomatoes and basil, not at all safe yet! it may be 34 degrees F tonight…

And just for fun I wanted to share some photos:

my beautiful rice, sprouting in water (above),

then planted, 1,500 grains, all by hand, VERY carefully,

and they grew! Soon I think I’m supposed to flood them…

We’ll get 650-ish grains per grain of rice planted. So if we’re lucky,

maybe we’ll end up with about 30 lbs of rice. THAT’s magic…

I think we’ll do less pre-ordering because sometimes things happen and I hate for us or you to get let down, so just come by the farm if you can between 10 and 2, or send a friend!  You can call ahead for eggs and we’ll hold them, they go fast sometimes.

Hope to see you!  Look for rainbows!  Sarah

Happy Easter! Spring Veggies!

We’re OPEN this Saturday 10-2 (as always) with:

EGGS

Mesclun/ lettuce mix

Kale (new!)

Spinach

Scallions/ green onions

Olive Oil

Freshly milled Whole Wheat or Oat Flour

Lip balms, creams, salves & herbal teas

Hope you have a Happy Easter (if you celebrate it) and a wonderful Spring day!

Sarah & Keith, Birch Moon Farm & Herbals

bird sightings and OPEN!

We’ve had some good sightings lately…

Pileated Woodpecker

and a young eagle (twice this week!) just starting to get his/her whites…

We had a great walk to the Quabbin,

stream near the big water

and in general we are trying to take time to spend with each other as much as possible, with all the sap rising and crazy things that come up in Spring, emotionally and physically. A walk to the Quabbin is good for the soul.

Getting back to the farm, blueberry buds are bursting, and peas have been planted!

It doesn’t look like much yet, but in 45 days or so we’ll be really happy! We presoaked and sprouted them for better germination.

The big news for today is that we will have SCALLIONS on the farmstand! Also carrots, spinach, lettucy mesclun and onions (lots of red onions I recently “discovered” ). We are very happy with the compost and Potting soil from McEnroe Organics and have been using the compost in all our tree plantings around the farm. It costs $11/big bag.

Come by if you can, 10-2 today (Saturday)! I’m off to harvest…

4 Season Food production TONIGHT!

Just a reminder, Dan Botkin of Laughing Dog Farm
is doing a class at the Shutesbury Town Hall.
Here is the ad from the library’s site:

Four-Season Food Production: An Introduction to Permaculture-influenced, backyard farming with Daniel Botkin

Farmer & teacher Daniel Botkin will share a colorful slideshow, talk and offer nuts and bolts advice on turning marginal plots into highly enriched, food oases for local consumption and security. More information at www.laughingdogfarm.com

Sponsored by The Friends of the M. N. Spear Memorial Library.

Sounds great for both gardeners and farmers!

Hope to see you there (around back, downstairs).

wheat, olive oil, potting soil, veggies…

Happy  SPRING!

We’ll be OPEN this Saturday, 10-2,
at our farm here in Shutesbury Center!

if it’s warm enough we’ll set up outside, otherwise come on in the house!

The MOST exciting NEW item we have is our wheat, freshly milled to order, grown here, delicious! We got a new, beautiful wooden electric grain mill from Germany, so we can grind your flour nice and fine (or coarse if you like it that way!) Fresh, true-whole-wheat flour is $3/1 lb bag.

Olea Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil is still available, $36 for a 3-liter tin. Not just because it’s my family’s, but I think it’s really delicious. Made from Kalamata olives, such a treat! Visit their website for more info ~ and see the retail price at $58, we are selling it at wholesale I got this photo off their website, of their olive orchards…

Olea Estates, Sparta, Greece

Our Potting Soil, by McEnroe Organics is great. It’s all we use for our millions of plant starts (that will be available for sale later in Spring…veggies, flowers, herbs…). We have the Potting Soil Lite (our preference, made for organic growers) and the Organic Compost, both $11/ 22-quart (big) bag. I will ideally be making a new tab (page) on the blog, listing the plant starts we are growing so people can plan ahead…

We still have delicious spinach ($8/lb), sometimes picked with chickweed mixed in (because it’s really good for you and tastes SO good!), as well as cooking/salad greens. Lettuce is taking it’s time, but someday will be bursting and ready. We have some onions left, looking pretty good still. If the weather is good we’ll be digging carrots, as long as the ground doesn’t re-freeze before the weekend! Herbal teas, creams, salves and lip balms are always available. And Edie has a few beautifully crocheted thick hot pads left (as seen in the photo at the top)!

I think that sums it up! Hope you can come by this (or any) Saturday.  And always email/call if another time works better for you, we may be around!

Call   259-1183 or email     ediereina@aol.com by Friday night if you want us to save you something or pack up an order. Prices are on the site if you need to plan your CASH, because we do NOT take CHECKS, thank you so much.

And we love it that most of you bring your own bags (sometimes reused from the Saturday before!) Thank you!

Hard to see, but his glowing eyes! A big Great Horned Owl last night!

 

Carrots, eggs and guinneas

OPEN TODAY 10-2

~

We have freshly dug carrots…

and eggs

and spinach

and olive oil

and goodies!

~ all ready to nourish your family ~

Open today 10-2

42 Cooleyville Rd, Shutesbury Center

Bring your own bags if you have them, please!

And cash, no checks, thank you.

Also, organic potting soil with worm castings (great stuff)

and (new!) bagged compost for plant starts!

ps. free guinneas to anyone who wants them!

"Aren't I beautiful? Take me home!"

Yes! Open this weekend…

It looks like we’re open every week from now on…

spinach, greens, onions, eggs, our own wheat (freshly milled!), organic kalamata olive oil (and soon kalamata olives also from my extended family in Greece!).  Before you know it plant starts will be ready.

So come on by,  10 am-2 pm,   Saturdays…
bring friends, bags and cash  (no checks!)

See you soon!

SPINACH and more, this Saturday!

OPEN this SATURDAY  10-2

BRING CASH (no checks) AND YOUR OWN BAGS (if possible!)

Spinach   $8/lb

Cooking Greens   $8/lb

Olea Organic Olive oil, extra virgin   $36

Yellow onions (+ a few reds left)   $1.50/lb

garlic   $12/lb

herbal tea  $8/3 oz. bag (special deal! usually $10)

Lip balms $3, MANY flavors

Lavender hand, face & body cream  $10/ 2 oz jar

x~ema cream  $10/ 2 oz jar

42 Cooleyville Rd, Shutesbury Center (2 houses east of the library)

http://birchmoonherbals.wordpress.com

two more things…

I forgot to mention (remind) that we are CASH ONLY. No checks, cards whatever. thanks.

Also, we’ll have our wheat berries for sale (and if our grinder comes in we’ll have fresh flour as well), grown here, organic of course. I’m not sure on bag sizes yet…

Thanks!

Don't forget your olive oil!

Birch Moon Farm has fresh GREENS this Saturday!

Birch Moon Farm & Herbals

42 Cooleyville Rd,  Shutesbury Center

2 houses down (east) from the library!

 

Greenhouse Feb 22, 2011 (after the big snow piles melted WAY down...)

I don’t know… there’s a lot of snow around… do you think anything’s growing in this UNHEATED greenhouse?

 

inside in December

YES! This was taken in December, and although “they” say plants don’t really grow during the winter, they just stand still, we found that ours grew a LOT, and re-grew after we picked and ate tastey greens all winter long! (Yes those orange tubes are heating tubes, but used only later in the spring when early tomatoes are planted in between things, because they tolerate NO cold… It would be a complete waste of energy to try to heat an uninsulated space in this weather!)

 

January dinner

Pretty lucky, I know.

But YOU are lucky too, because we are

OPENING this SATURDAY 10-2

with delicious freshly harvested spinach and cooking/salad greens!!

Of course we’ll also have Organic Olive Oil for sale in the 3 L tins for $36… and onions, red and gold for $1.50/lb, as well as lavender cream, x~ema cream, healing comfrey salve, lip balms and herbal teas!  Bring your own shopping bags if you have em’… but we’ll have some too!  ALSO, potting soil, if I dig it out of the snow in time (haha) will be available for $11/bag – a good worm-casting, safe-for-organic-growers mix from NY.

spinach photo taken today, Feb 22, 2011

Last week Jacqueline, Keith and I planted new baby lettuce, broccoli raab and kale plants in one of the beds that didn’t make it thru the winter (a red-flowered mini fava bean, not hardy enough). These greens will be ready in Mar or April for harvest.

notice the snow outside?

Spinach, lettuce, mizuna, pac choi, kale and mesclun mix all did amazingly well over the winter with no heat. Row covers were put on every afternoon around 2-3 pm (when the sun started to go off the greenhouse) and removed every sunny morning, around 10 am, after the sun had warmed up the air a little. We were especially lucky on the -15 degree F night, that it was sunny the day before, so the soil had a chance to warm up before being covered for the night. Kale seemed to have the hardest time, yellowing a little, but with these super warm and longer days it is sprouting all up and down every stem, and we pulled off all the bad leaves. Spinach has the easiest time, growing measurably on the warm days and perfectly content on the cold nights. Amazing what these plants can do. I love them.

cooking greens ready this weekend!

So that’s all for now! We’d love to see you this   SATURDAY  10-2 for FRESH spinach and cooking greens (also really good for mesclun mix salads) as well as all the other goodies we still have! Email us by Friday night if you want to pre-order so it’s sure to be ready when you get here, especially if you’re in a rush. We tend to move at winter pace right now. 413-259-1183 or email ediereina@aol.com

Hope you are enjoying this beautiful old-fashioned winter.  Sunset is later each night and sunrise a little earlier… Spring is really coming!

Sunrise with icy trees

See you Saturday!  Sarah & Keith, Birch Moon Farm & Herbals

 

November craziness

Last Shutesbury Market of the season

So, here’s the deal. We are OPEN this Saturday, 12-4, and every Wed 4-6,
but it appears we need a few more Saturdays off. We have some family commitments on the 13th, and the Hartsbrook Holiday Fair on the 20th, but it appears we’re around on the 27th.   Wednesdays don’t seem to be a problem, and most Wednesdays you can come before 4 if you need to, as I am here working anyway with Jacqueline. This may be too much information. I hope to get back to a regular schedule sometime, but I think Winter will be a little tricky. The Wednesday (day) before Thanksgiving we’ll probably extend our hours, I’ll give more info about that later.

We still have onions, potatoes, leeks, some kale, and garlic, as well as olive oil and goat cheese (gouda)… hopefully soon they will have the mini 1 lb wheels again that everyone loved so much. And there’s also the bodycare and tea blends, salve-making kits (make great holiday gifts), first-aid kits and cold & flu kits. Also I have 2-oz bags of dried elderberries, including a recipe, for making your own Elderberry Syrup – it’s not too late!

If you like Holiday Fairs, the Hartsbrook School Holiday Fair in Hadley is really great. Very warm & cozy, nurturing, good clean fun. Lots of crafts, artwork, wool hats, yarn, good food, great gifts for purchase from a HUGE variety of vendors… I really love it.  You wont find any plastic toys, though… mostly handmade stuff. Did I mention the bake sale? Butternut squash soup, veggie or beef Chili? Hope to see you there!

Squash harvest curing on the porch

 

farm CLOSED (last) Saturday

read this on the web at http://birchmoonherbals.wordpress.com

 

Birch Moon Farm signs have fallen down, but we're still here!

 

Who are we and what do we have? For those of you who don’t know us, we grow (organically, not certified, with lotsa minerals) veggies, pick-your-own-flowers, herbs and wheat in Shutesbury Center, 42 Cooleyville Rd (2 houses down from the library on the 202-side of the hill). We accept cash only. We currently have:

organic Extra Virgin Olea Olive Oil (from my VERY extended family in Greece, but it’s really good….ask around… $36/ 3-liter tin)
onions – red and yellow, beautiful, $1.50/lb
potatoes  – also red (hot pink) and yellow, no russets, $1.50/lb
leeks $2/bunch
garlic $12/lb (while it lasts – we’re getting low)
kale $3/ bunch
swiss chard $3/bunch
tea blends $10/ bag
bunches of fresh herbs $1-3 each
handmade bodycare – creams, salves, lip balms
dried medicinal and culinary herbs (over 80, not all grown here, all organic) sold by the ounce or pound

At some point in the Winter we’ll close for awhile and re-open in Feb or March with greenhouse greens for sale (like last year), then set up tables with veggie, flower and herb plants in the Spring.
Thanks, hope to see you here! (why is this type so small?)

Hi all – the Farmers Market in Shutesbury is officially over for the year, so we’re taking a Saturday off! We’ll be OPEN this Wed 4-6, then CLOSED Saturday, then open Wednesdays 4-6 and Saturdays12-4 as long as we have stuff to sell and people show up!Who are we and what do we have? For those of you who don’t know us, we grow (organically, not certified, with lotsa minerals) veggies, pick-your-own-flowers, herbs and wheat in Shutesbury Center, 42 Cooleyville Rd (2 houses down from the library on the 202-side of the hill). We accept cash only. We currently have: 

organic Extra Virgin Olea Olive Oil (from my VERY extended family in Greece, but it’s really good….ask around… $36/ 3-liter tin)
onions – red and yellow, beautiful, $1.50/lb
potatoes  – also red (hot pink) and yellow, no russets, $1.50/lb
leeks $2/bunch
garlic $12/lb (while it lasts – we’re getting low)
kale $3/ bunch
swiss chard $3/bunch
tea blends $10/ bag
bunches of fresh herbs $1-3 each
handmade bodycare – creams, salves, lip balms
dried herbs (over 50, not all grown here) sold by the ounce or pound

At some point in the Winter we’ll close for awhile and re-open in Feb or March with greenhouse greens for sale (like last year), then set up tables with veggie, flower and herb plants in the Spring.

 

Thanks, hope to see you here!

Nettles and the future of Shutesbury Market

 

Canned grape juice, the easy way

 

FARMSTAND is STILL OPEN : Wed 4-6 pm and Sat 12-4

if you are getting this by email you can see the web version by clicking here

 

The Future of our Farmers Market

At our Farm & Forestry Commission meeting last night we were discussing having mini-workshops at the Farmers Market next year, as a way to get people more involved in growing/canning and thinking about their food and health, and also to entice more people to come to market! We really want the Shutesbury Farmers Market to be a weekly community gathering, where people WANT to come not only for their produce, beef, mushrooms, baskets, jewelry, photos, soap, aprons, flowers, candles and syrup (and lets not forget trash bags!) but for fun! We’d love to get more music there, maybe every week! Who knows, maybe someday someone will have coffee, tea and muffins for sale (made in a certified kitchen of course)! Or how ’bout an art show? What would you like to see at OUR market? What is it about other markets or the Amherst market that draws you there, and not to ours? Is it just habit? variety? friends? community?

 

 

canned tomatoes and salsa

 

One idea we had was to hold workshops (free?), maybe weekly, about different life skills – things like starting a garden, canning & food preservation, jam-making, making a compost tea “digester”, weed-walks, starting your own mushroom logs, bread-baking, making salves and healing balms, needle felting or natural toy-making… What are your ideas? We’d love to hear them! You can either reply to this post (on my blog) or reply to me personally at ediereina@aol.com and I’ll pass it along at our next meeting.

This overlaps with Transition Towns a little maybe, but I feel like we have such a diverse community with so many things we could teach other, why not share our knowledge? It can only make us stronger. And it’s much cheaper and healthier to make your own bread, or can your own tomatoes and jam, or make your tree ornaments and presents for Christmas…

 

 

sharing the last of the elderberries

 

Stinging Nettles

On another note, I’d like to share a recipe that is one of my favorites. If you have Nettles growing somewhere in your yard (hopefully out of the way) you may have cut them back in the Spring, to dry them or make fresh tea. Drying and cooking gets rid of the formic acid, so that you do not get stung. I cut mine back again in the summer because they had snuck into my garden and the kids and I would occasionally get a stinging rash if we brushed against them. No problem, though, because plantain is always nearby in the grass – just pick a leaf, chew it up, and plop the whole goop from your mouth on the sting, it takes it right out. It sounds lovely, I know, but it works. So now that it’s Fall, the Nettles have regrown, and are ready for cutting again!

When harvesting Nettles, use gloves and scissors, but most importantly, be present. Thank the Nettles and look around at the plants, “seeing” them. I think they like to be seen. Harvest them before they flower, when they are under 12″ tall. Do you know they are FULL of protein (more than any other native plant), chlorophyll, lots of iron, trace minerals and vitamins? Matthew Wood in The Book of Herbal Wisdom has a great 10-page write-up on Nettles if you are interested, and it’s a great book besides.  Nettles also helps with pollen allergies. Drinking tea (or eating nettles steamed, or taking freeze-dried capsules) 4 weeks before allergy season starts is supposed to (and does in my experience) really help with symptoms. It also just makes you super strong! Nettles help get rid of stuck phlegm, gently cleaning and strengthening the kidneys so they can work better at getting rid of wastes in the body. And there’s all that GREEN-ness! My new favorite way to have them is cooked in a Nettle Loaf.

 

 

Nettle loaf with pesto sauce and cherry tomatoes

 

Nettle Loaf Recipe

(Preheat oven to 400 degrees)

3 cups steamed Nettles, pureed in a cuisinart

1 medium-sized onion, chopped

1/2 cup chopped celery (if it’s in season, if not I don’t use it!)

3 eggs, beaten

2 Tbls melted butter

2-1/2  cups cooked rice (or millet would be good, too)

Combine and pour into well-greased loaf or pie pan. Place in oven and turn down temp to 375. Loaf pan takes about 35 min, but a pie pan only takes 20-25 (my new favorite method). Last time I made it the kids requested that I puree the chopped onion because they don’t like the chunks, and it worked really well. Serve hot with either a pesto sauce (see below) or a Tahini sauce (wisk together equal parts tahini and water, with a little lemon and tamari/soy sauce to taste). The tomatoes on the side added a nice flavor, so did grated cheese. I imagine you could use other greens and grains as well, or add sundry tomatoes or grated carrot for color… the possibilities are endless, as with any recipe I believe.

Pesto Sauce

(more nutty than basil-y, and thinner, more oil like a “sauce”)

1 small bunch of fresh basil

2 cups walnuts

grated goat gouda (you could use romano or parmesean, this is just what we use)

2 cloves crushed garlic (or more -or less- to taste)

Blend all those together in the cuisinart, then slowly drizzle in the olive oil, to the texture you like, with the blade still mixing. I like it runny, just to make it a different texture than traditional pesto. You could also use some fresh parsley as well as basil, they are delicious together.

 

 

Interplanting winter crops around the remaining tomatoes in the greenhouse

 

We have another week of Farmers Market, maybe more if attendance is good, so come on by! It’s geting quiet back there! Becky will post it in the weekly Town Administrator report (online, sign up at www.Shutesbury.org ) if we stop before Oct 30, and I’ll try to mention it as well. Remember to email me or post a reply with any thoughts on market workshops (or other ideas!) All will be heard!

Thanks for reading. And visit Ben and Adri’s Fields and Fire if you want to REALLY be inspired to make nourishing home-cooked meals, from scratch. They always have good ideas.

Sarah, Birch Moon Farm & Herbals

42 Cooleyville Rd, Shutesbury center

FARMSTAND is STILL OPEN : Wed 4-6 pm and Sat 12-4

More on garlic and elderberry…

So to clarify, we will be at the Garlic Festival BOTH days, Sat and Sun, at booth #38, next to the Spinning area.

And I am going to bring dried elderberries, maybe even with jars and printed recipes/instructions, so you can buy your elderberries from us and your honey from Warm Colors Apiary right there at the festival! Then all you need is alcohol or cider vinegar! A little water added helps so it’s easier to move the thick honey, but is not necessary… (forgot this on the recipe)

see you then!

ps. If you were there in ’07 you may have seen our dog Val riding/hanging out in the bucket on back of the scooter! And I believe there was a hen with baby chicks in the bucket under the table… in front of Edie…of course

Garlic Festival and Elderberry syrup

From Birch Moon Farm & Herbals, 42 Cooleyville Rd, Shutesbury, MA  http://birchmoonherbals.wordpress.com

Hooray for rain…!!!

I hope it rains all week, then is sunny for the North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival this weekend! Hope you all can make it.

(By the way, we will be closed at the farm Saturday, since we will be at the Garlic Fest!)

Our booth - Garlic & Arts Festival 2007

There is a great variety of locally grown food, products, music and much more. This will be our 5th or 6th year with a booth there, come visit us! We are the ones (only ones I think) with a stand made of wood, milled and built at the festival site (friday). You can smell the delicious fresh pine scent just walking by (but please come in!) We’ll have all my bodycare products, as well as tea blends, first-aid kits, salve-making kits and hopefully lip balm-making kits (if I can get them done in time…)

We may bring garlic and onions again, or we may just save them for our Shutesbury Market. We will bring a few cases of Olea Extra Virgin Organic Olive Oil for customers who need to pick some up, but may keep it under the table since we do not “grow” it ourselves. Just ask if you need some.

So on another note – it’s time to start your elderberry elixer for the coming season of viruses (I write while blowing my nose, already caught one!) so the following is the absolute easiest method of making elderberry elixer yourself. Fresh elderberries made into a syrup is just as wonderful and healing, but much more time-consuming, and they have mostly been eaten by birds, so try this:

Elderberry Elixer

you need:

one quart jar

1  cup dried organic elderberries (I sell them if you need ‘em)

about 3 cups of honey (we use Warm Colors Apiary Honey)

brandy, vodka or organic apple cider vinegar ~ 1 cup or less

(I have never made it with cider vinegar but it is very healing and preserving and great if you are avoiding alcohol – but have no idea as to the overall taste outcome… and The Wine Rack in Greenfield sells organic Vodka, FYI)

optional: fresh(Old Friends Farm in Amherst!) or dried ginger – not much, maybe 2-3 tsp grated fresh, 1 tsp dried

or a pinch of cayenne, a little cinnamon, some dried echinacea root…endless possibilities (best to start simple)

So put the elderberries and any optional herbs in the jar (typically dry herbs should be 1/5 of the total mixture, but I am simplifying by saying 1 cup (1/4 of the total, so add a little less if you want, it wont hurt either way). Then pour in half the honey and mix well with a wooden spoon (so as not to break the glass!). When thoroughly mixed, add more honey, leaving about 1-1/2 inches open at the top. Add alcohol to 1/2-inch below the top, leaving room to shake it up (once covered). Put a lid on it, preferably BPA-free (Quattro Stagioni by Bormioli Rocco are sold in 2-packs at Greenfield Farmers Coop Exchange or throught the NOFA-MA bulk order next Spring) or use on of those hard-plastic (white) Ball lids. Shake daily. Ideally a dark place is great, but I find the only way I shake them daily (or a few times daily) is to leave them on my counter! That is fine, too. This will need to infuse for about 6 weeks. Take a spoonful when you feel a cold or flu coming on, 6 times a day or more if you are really fighting off something strong!  Sleep also helps, and avoid all other sugar/honey/syrup/wheat/flour  products (besides this elixer) until you are in the clear. Voila!

Elderberry is antiviral, and if you add ginger, the warming effects of the ginger help the Elderberry get where it needs to go, speedily.

Fresh Elderberries this Summer

You can make this more of an “extract” or “tincture” by using mostly alcohol with a little honey (switch the amounts, or any combo in between) but this is delicious and seems to keep well out of the fridge. In June I put last-year’s batch in the fridge, strained, just in case it was thinking of molding, and it is still fine (delicious!). The elixer can also be used in tea in place of plain honey. I have tried it with ONLY honey and dried berries and it was too thick. I added a bit of steeped elderberry tea to thin it out, but it never really got the strong berry-flavor that I got with the alcohol (and I’m guessing with cider vinegar).

These make great gifts, reusing jelly jars, with the herbs in them so people see the process…

It is very easy and satisfying to make your own medicine. Especially when you fight off your cold or flu by drinking ginger tea and taking your Elderberry Elixer…     that being said I guess I should put in a disclaimer that I am not responsible or making any claims to cure or heal any disease, all that. Go to a doctor if in question. We have great Naturopaths and Herbalists around here if you want someone less conventional.

That was more than I was originally going to say about that! But I hope it is helpful. Call or come by Wed 4-6 or Sat 12-6 (but not this Sat, we’ll be closed for the Garlic Festival) or come to the last few weeks of the Shutesbury Farmers Market! I’m always happy to give demonstrations or private classes, or just answer questions! Enjoy the rain!!

NEW Fall hours on Wednesdays

Hi everyone.

Since things are slowing down a bit and school is in session,
I’m changing our WED hours to 4-6 pm.

SAT will still be 12-4, as long as we have stuff to sell!

We’ll be here today, WED 4-6, with:
onions (red & yellow),
tomatoes (plum and sandwich),
garlic,
potatoes (small – red, yellow, and red-gold),
pick-your-own flowers,
kale,
olive oil
and Birch Moon Herbals lip balms, salves, x-ema cream, spritzers, tea blends and salve-making kits.

I do have bulk herbs (dried) as well, at $3/oz. I have many tea herbs, and some harder-to-find as well, all organic, some grown here, some from Mountain Rose Herbs. Call ahead if you want more than a few herbs weighed out, and I’ll have ‘em ready.

The cheese will be available ONLY in whole-8-lb wheels until I can get smaller ones, so maybe people can pitch in together and split one…you cut it up… they last awhile in the fridge if wrapped in wax paper. It’s also sold at River Valley Market, it just costs more 

We’re CLOSED today, Wed

Sorry for the short notice, but we will be CLOSED today, because it is our first day of school and have too much going on!! Thanks for understanding. See you Saturday at the farmers market, or afterwards, 12-4! Thanks!

Rice growing in Shutesbury!

Birch Moon Farm Aug 30

We’re OPEN every Wed 12-6 and Sat 12-4!

Farm Updates (mostly photos):

We had a nice visit the other day from the Hummingbird Moth.
He loved all the Zinnia colors and hung around with us there for a good 1/2 hour!

I love the feathery-fur on their backs

And I’ve noticed an over-abundance of Bumble-bees this year, maybe now that we don’t have Honeybees.

And not many Monarchs, which worries me, but a few of these:

Did you see that (front) side of the wing, partially hidden? That’s some serious detail.

SO, this week we’ve been roasting 1/2 cut cherry tomatoes in olive oil (250-degree oven) and I guess will store them in the freezer just in case. They are sweet as candy and hard to stop eating! Careful not to burn them, but a little browning really makes them YUMMY.

We’ve also been making elderberry syrup. A recipe will soon follow…

Elderberries, ripe now!

We have:

lots of tomatoes, still $2.50/lb

basil, $3/ large bunch

small new potatoes $1.50/ lb

onions – red & gold $1.50/ lb

carrots $2.50/ bunch

scallions & leeks $2/ bunch

garlic $10/ lb

Organic Olive oil (extra virgin) $36/tin

Swiss chard, kale $3/bunch

Cucumbers (large, when available) $1/each

Stay cool during the heat wave! Drink lots of water and eat cucumbers,
watermelons and other cooling fruits and vegetables.

Birch Moon Farm & Herbals

42 Cooleyville Rd, Shutesbury, MA 01072

http://birchmoonherbals.wordpress.com

OLIVE OIL and CUCUMBERS!!

To view this on the website click here or just read on!

Olive Oil is in!

Olea Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil

For those of you who don’t know, it’s from my very extended family in Greece, my step-aunt’s husband’s uncle, 3rd generation Olive Oil farmer, all very strict about being chemical-free forever, even before it was COOL! But seriously, I think they used paper dipped in sugar-water or something when the worst pest ever came through town…It’s smooth and delicious, and we’re still selling it for wholesale just to help them get it out there. $36/ 3-liter tin. Click on “Olea” to be transferred magically to their website…

2 other important things:

1) Cucumbers are in, and these are the ones going to market first thing tomorrow (Saturday) morning

2) The Wilson basket (shown in picture, sold at the market by Kiran with the yummy sprouts) is TOTALLY awesome and passed the test with flying colors. This was a seriously heavy basket of cukes, and I did not worry at all about it’s ability to carry them without breaking…

Not that these are less important:

These big sandwich tomatoes are on their way into the pot for canning, but I just wanted to show you we have a LOT and they are super delicious. Most are Buffalo or Jet Stars, but there are a few Rosa de Berne (pink ones closer to front) and at least three Heirloom Cherokee Purples. It’s amazing that even your basic tomatoes like Jet Star can taste amazing when grown with lots of minerals, like what’s in our compost tea. And of course, they get the best intention and love!

We’ll have onions at the Market tomorrow. Reds (Mars Red/Red Bull) and Yellow (Alisa Craig/Safrane).

Dinner picked and about to be cooked by Edie

The huge onion above Edie put in our dinner tonight (benefits of having kids that grow up on a farm!) sauteed and caramelized with Sundry tomatoes (not yet dried) and some slivers of beets… WOW. I could have eaten the whole pan-full. She cooked it on low and kept adding water “because it kept drying out” and then drizzled our new Olive oil on top at the end… We had it over Emmer (a whole grain distantly related to wheat, cooked like rice) from Wheatberry’s Grain CSA (local, organic!) and Edie asked to never eat pasta again and only have Emmer! (I think she said that last time, too…)

Sun-dries... before...

We’ll either have these Principe Borghese (Sundry tomatoes) or Juliet (plums) tomorrow at Market…

AND GARLIC!

fresh, uncured, delicious!

Have a nice weekend! Hope to see you at the
Farmers Market in Shutesbury 8:30-12, or at
our farm 12-4 Saturdays and 12-6 Wednesdays!

www.birchmoonherbals.wordpress.com