The King’s Garden at Fort Ticonderoga will hold the sixth annual Garden & Landscape Symposium on Saturday, April 8th in the Mars Education Center. Designed for both beginning and experienced gardeners, this day-long symposium includes insights from garden experts who live and garden in upstate New York and northern New England. This event is open by pre-registration only. » Continue Reading.
Fort Ticonderoga Garden, Landscape Symposium Set
View’s 11th Annual Chili Bowl Luncheon
View’s 11th Annual Chili Bowl Luncheon will take place on Saturday, February 18 from 11:30 am to 2 pm. Homemade meat and vegetarian chili, and stews and soups prepared by local restaurants will be served in handmade bowls from the Pottery Workshop at View and other artists, that deliver their handmade bowls to View. This year’s potters have made many styles of bowls, featuring a variety of surface decorations. » Continue Reading.
Agriculture, Forest Funding for Hamilton County Residents
The Hamilton County Soil and Water Conservation District has partnered with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to provide financial assistance for agriculture and forest management to Hamilton County landowners though the United States Department of Agriculture Resource Conservation Partnership Program.
Funding is available for residents who would like to enhance their agricultural practices through the installation of high tunnels over an existing garden. Funding is also available for implementing forest management plans and wildlife habitat enhancement practices. » Continue Reading.
January Farm Talks Planned For Warrensburg
Warren County Soil & Water is beginning year four of its “Farm Talks” on Friday, January 13th from 6 to 8 pm at DEC’s Warrensburg Office, 232 Golf Course Road.
The first presentation of the night will be “Soil Blocks: A Better Start” with Rand Fosdick, Farm Manager of Landon Hill Estate Farm. In the northeast, starting your vegetable seeds early and correctly will lead to healthier plants with a head start to transplanting in spring. The soil block methodology is growing in popularity due to the success vegetable producers are having with this pot-less technique. The general concept behind it is using a soil recipe with structure and nutrients and a tool called a “soil blocker” to form the soil mixture into blocks to directly plant your seeds into. Soil blocks reduce transplant shock and add nutrients to your garden beds. » Continue Reading.
Support For Shiitake Mushroom Growing Offered
The Cornell Small Farms Program, with support from the USDA Specialty Crop Grant Program and New York Farm Viability Institute, is engaged in a two year project to elevate development of a new niche crop in the New York; log-grown shiitake mushrooms.
Research and development at Cornell over the past decade, along with several partnerships and research projects has enabled greater understanding of the technical and business aspects of a small farm log-grown shiitake enterprise. Woodland log-grown mushrooms are a relatively new, niche crop and are low-input, high output enterprise that can also offset land taxes. » Continue Reading.
On The Color of Cranberries
As a kid fidgeting at my grandmother’s Thanksgiving table, I often wondered, what’s the point of cranberries? She had a live-in Irish cook who insisted on serving whole cranberries suspended in a kind of gelatinous inverted bog. If I ventured to eat a berry I experienced the power of my gag reflex.
How times change! The humble American cranberry, Vaccinium macrocarpon, in my opinion, is worthy of a downright homage. I am a fan. Yes, cranberries are tart, sour, and even bitter, but that makes them both good food and strong medicine. The Wampanoag called them ibimi, meaning sour or bitter berries. They crushed them into animal fats and dried deer meat to make pemmican, a food full of energy and vitamin C for long winter trips. Mariners brought them on sea voyages to fend off scurvy. According to passed down knowledge, the Algonquin used the leaves of cranberry to treat bladder infections, arthritis, and diabetes-related circulation problems. » Continue Reading.
Nutting Season: An Old-Time Ritual
Thanksgiving, with food a major holiday component, calls to mind a time of year that was once the subject of great anticipation: nutting season. I’m not old enough to have experienced it first-hand, although back in the 1980s I did explore many natural edibles. Among my favorites was beechnuts, which we harvested and used in chocolate-chip cookies. Outstanding!
But in days long ago, when many folks earned a subsistence living that utilized home-grown vegetables and wild foods, nutting season was an important time. » Continue Reading.
Growing and Buying Heirloom Apples
As Eve so famously discovered, apples are alluring. These brightly colored orbs tempt us with crisp flesh and juicy sweetness. It’s no wonder that apples have spread throughout the temperate regions of the world.
The mother of all apples, malus sieversii, which originated in the rugged mountains of Central Asia, has given rise to thousands of varieties over time, bearing names ranging from regal to whimsical, including Maiden’s Blush, Blue Pearmain, Bellefleur, Duchess of Oldenburg, and Seek No Further. Apples first arrived in the Americas in the 1600s, and by the early nineteenth century were being grown to make everything from cider, sauce and pies to apple butter. » Continue Reading.
Gingerbread Contest Theme Is “Camps and Cottages”
The 2016 Sugar & Spice gingerbread display will open at The TAUNY Center at the organization’s annual Holiday Open House, on Saturday, December 3. Bakers are encouraged to get creative and imagine the camp or cottage of their dreams, build a model of their own camp or cottage, recreate a landmark, or find their own way to interpret this year’s theme to craft their own unique gingerbread house.
Since 2002, contestants from throughout the region have competed annually in various age categories as well as for the People’s Choice award, which is announced at the end of December. Past themes have included local landmarks, fairy tales, children’s literature, and gingerbread around the world. » Continue Reading.
Old Forge BrewFest Set For Saturday
View, the multi-arts center in Old Forge, has announced the 2016 BrewFest will be held on Saturday, October 15, 2016 from noon to 5 pm. The Blind Owl Band will be at BrewFest from 1 pm to 5 pm, a bluegrass-rock-country-folk band, hailing from Saranac Lake.
BrewFest Craft Beer Festival will take place at the North Street Pavilion in Old Forge. Old Forge on Tap will showcase over 60 releases from some of America’s best craft breweries. Attendees will receive three hours of sampling along with a souvenir sampling glass. » Continue Reading.
Precision Apple Orchard Management Project Results
The Northern New York Agricultural Development Program has posted the results of recent precision apple orchard management research evaluating the impact of applying precise orchard management practices to improve the yield, fruit size and quality of the regional apple crop for a more consistent higher economic return per acre.
Three specific strategies are under evaluation by a research team of Northern New York apple growers, Cornell University faculty, and Cornell Cooperative Extension personnel. The orchard management practices, designed to enhance the efficiency of apple production, include precision orchard thinning, irrigation, and harvest timing. » Continue Reading.
Adirondack Rural Skills and Homesteading Festival Saturday
The 2016 Adirondack Rural Skills and Homesteading Festival will be held Saturday, October 1st at the Paul Smith’s College’s Adirondack Visitor’s Center.
The festival features exhibitions on logging and farming with draft horses, and a demonstration of competitive lumberjack sports by the Paul Smith’s College Woodsmen’s Team, along with workshops on canning, cider making, woodworking, renewable energy, cord wood construction, small-scale farming, and primitive skills. » Continue Reading.
An Abundance of Caution: Wild Food and Risk
“I’ve got a botanical question for you,” my friend said as he came into my classroom the other day. “Is black nightshade edible?” He’d found some growing near his chicken coop. “I took the tiniest bite,” he said. “I’m not sure if I felt funny because of what I ate, or because I was nervous.”
I told him that black nightshade is edible, if what he had was actually black nightshade (note: there is also an unrelated plant called deadly nightshade, which is toxic). I asked him to describe the plant, and after some discussion, he asked if I had ever eaten it. I never had. “Why not?” he asked, and I had to pause. At least partly, I haven’t eaten it because of fear. » Continue Reading.
Willsboro Hardy Grapes Nursery Being Remodeled
The cold Hardy Grape Variety Research nursery in Northern New York is getting a make-over.
With new funding from the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program that helped establish the nursery at the Cornell Willsboro Research Farm in Willsboro in 2005, old vines have been removed, the soil is being refreshed, and new varieties of grapes have been selected for planting in 2017.
The evaluation of new varieties has been named a priority by growers associated by the wine grape industry across New York state. » Continue Reading.
Champlain Area Harvest Fest, Hamlet Hikes Sept 16-17
The Adirondack Harvest Festival will be held at the Essex County Fairgrounds in Westport on Friday and Saturday, September 16th and 17th. The event, which celebrates local farms and farmers with food, drink, music, and hikes, is supported by supported by the Hub on the Hill, Adirondack Farmers Coalition, Champlain Area Trails Society, Cornell University Cooperative Extension, The Adirondack Cuisine Trail, and adirondacks, usa.
The fairgrounds will feature a farmers’ market, over forty vendors, farming demonstrations (learn how to make sausage, cheese, and more), Ben Stechschulte’s film “Small Farm Rising,” and “Eat, Meet, & Be Merry,” a get-together hosted by Essex Farm’s Mark Kimball and the Adirondack Farmers Coalition, to sample local foods and exchange stories about our area’s new farming culture.
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