THE WINDFLOWER FARM STORY

Windflower Farm is a small organic farm nestled on 38 rolling acres in the Taconic Hills of southern Washington County, between Saratoga Springs, New York and Manchester, Vermont.   We are about three hours drive north of NYC.   It's an area we find beautiful because of its lovely small farms and mix of open fields and wooded landscapes.   We've been growing flowers and vegetables for more than ten years, and we've been on our own farm and distributing in New York City for nine years.  It is a craft we truly enjoy.  

Jan brings to the farm her experience as an illustrator, her training in botany and her creativity as a flower designer; and Ted brings his training in horticulture and his experience as an educator and vegetable farmer. He is now a full-time farmer, and no longer working part-time for Cornell University, where he had been engaged in on-farm research and extension activities with Hudson Valley vegetable farmers. It's been a wonderful experience, but he's very pleased to be able to focus more of his energies on his farm and his family.  

WHAT'S NEW AT THE FARM?

February 2009

We have purchased several pieces of equipment during the winter.   One is a stone-burying bed shaper that will, we hope, enable us to better control our weeds with cultivating tractors.   This should help us grow better carrots and other direct-seeded vegetables.   Another is a larger, newer truck.   And another is a small tractor for seeding and weeding.   We found a tractor with a non-functioning engine, and my boys and I are restoring it by installing a new electric motor.   This is local economics at work - taking some of the dollars you give us for our vegetables and spending them at local equipment dealers and suppliers (and reducing our carbon footprint a little bit in the process).  

We are adding another greenhouse more field tunnel space in order to grow more tomatoes and other warm-loving crops.   Our hope is to extend the tomato and cucumber season, and to add melons to the mix.   We have been certified by Certified Naturally Grown, a farmer-to-farmer certification organization for growers who agree to farm in accordance with the National Organic Program.   And, finally, we have been approved to accept food stamps, making our produce more accessible to low-income New Yorkers at all of our CSA pick-up sites.

February 2008

We are making some changes in what we’re growing and how we’ll distribute it this year. You’ll be happy to hear that we are expanding our selections of salad crops and heirloom tomatoes. And our greens, herbs, and root crops will often come in a free-choice format. We’ll try to send more than one root crop, for example, and allow you to choose the one you prefer. We won’t bunch your vegetables as much this year. Instead, we’ll send them loose, provide scales, and give you guidelines as to how many pounds you may take. We might send three greens in a given week, and let you take a pound or two in whatever combination suits you.

During those weeks when spring weather gives way to summer, and the last cold blasts from Canada collide with the first warm weather from the Gulf, the risk of hail is at its greatest here. Returning members will recall that a hailstorm found our farm last year and caused considerable loss. To reduce future risk, we have made significant investments this winter in protective crop covers and we’ve built more field tunnels. This winter, we have also made a large investment in our irrigation system, purchasing a second irrigation reel to help with greens production during the heat of mid-summer. We have rented a new refrigerated delivery truck and installed a new cooler. These acquisitions should help us deliver crops from our farm to your neighborhood in the very best condition.

Finally, we are making headway on organic certification - which turns out to be very expensive and to involve a great deal of paperwork - and expect to be certified by mid-summer.

February 2007

The boys are no longer tending the chickens and bringing in eggs because this project took too much time and energy away from our gardens.

Last fall we planted a quarter acre of garlic for fans of the ‘stinking rose,’ and by late June the first garlic scapes will be part of shares. We have also expanded greenhouse production in order to produce more reliable tomato, cucumber and other warm loving crops. And we want to increase the organic offerings in our fruit share [by] expanding our own ecological fruit production, beginning with quarter of an acre of strawberries planted last fall, and blueberry and raspberry plantings slated for this spring. We also plan to add apple and pear plantings soon.

A larger packing and storage barn and more greenhouses for early and late vegetables are also in the works for this year, with completion scheduled for mid-spring.  And perhaps our biggest news is that we’ve decided to become certified as organic growers. Yes, you can have local and organic!

THANK YOU

Thanks for taking the time to learn more about Windflower Farm.  Feel free to contact us if you'd like to know more.   We hope to hear from you soon!

Sincerely,
Ted & Jan Blomgren
Windflower Farm
585 Meeting House Road, Valley Falls, NY 12185
windflowerfarm (at) earthlink (dot) net