Bard College Farm

02/06/2024

10/19/2023

Public Service Announcements:
PLEASE BRING A BAG TO MARKET AND ANY EXTRAS YOU MIGHT HAVE FOR THOSE WHO FORGET.

Mark your calendars for our annual happy hour next Friday at Bard Farm. Costume and scarecrow making contest, apple cider pressing, pumpkin painting, games, baby animals, live music, food, drink and more.

And what to say when we have shared so many words over weeks ( tick tick tock....garbage day), fortnights ( ticka ticka tock tock...... garbage and recycling day), months (ticka tick toc toc (I lost track of time....is it recycling day again?) and seasons? This love song is nearing its end. Do you want to hear it all again? Will each season's stories ground us into time and place? Do these weekly yarns feel like part of the rhythm of the year? The pheasants are back. It is dump and hunt season in Tivoli Bays again. They are all seeking refuge in the shadow of our tomato patch wondering what we did this year to produce black sticks instead of fruit laden plants.When the pheasants come the end of our season is near.

Some days feel like groundhog day, especially in October. Days melt into weeks melt into where did the season go, how is my daughter in ninth grade and why does my back hurt so much? Boy am I tired! Thanks Polina for the weekly market caffeine infusions! Let me remind you all though as I remind myself that every day is groundhog day at Bard Farm. Our early summer efforts of groundhog relocation only left more lettuce and delicacies for the swarms of land beaver relations left behind. We will see where they go as soil begins to move and dens are unearthed for the north campus residential dorm project. We can only pray they move south away from our fields instead of north, into our fields.

As we wrap up the season with just two more markets left, bouquets for days, an abundance of certain field greens and an exuberant amount of hot peppers serving the fall fire color explosions our beloved deciduous trees are lacking this year, I am left with one question. I wonder what variety of peppers Peter Piper was growing because allegedly Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers but the only pickled peppers in our fields are actually rotten, fermented and going back to the earth. While we have pecks of peppers today, they are not pickled and it is up to you to take on that project.

10/05/2023

Bard Farm Stand Today 12-5pm

We spent a few minutes yesterday looking for four leaf clovers at the farm by the kale patch but instead found overgrown clovers reminding us that it is time to mow and trim the edges of our fields. Bard Farm is four leaf clover heaven however yesterday no wishes were made or granted on account of our good luck. We did however, by good fortune find a slice of heaven in the form of one of nature's most exquisitely designed incubators. While making bouquets in the afternoon we found not one but two monarch chrysalis on.....wait for it.....our holy basil branches used in our fall arrangements.

Two days ago children from Bard's nursery school came down to the farm to explore the wonderful world of bugs (turns out we have them in droves over here) and I sent them home with a few swallowtail caterpillars who have moved into the dill patch and a fat monarch caterpillar who has been feasting on our hairy balls milkweed (gomphocarpus physocarpa) by the holy basil. I was surprised I could only find one caterpillar as they are poisonous for birds to eat and I had been watching a multitude of them competing with swarms of orange aphids for the milkweed leaves over the last few weeks. I looked the hairy balls over from top to bottom (get your head out of the gutter people) for chrysalis pods but nothing. I was perplexed as to where they had gone until they started showing up in our flower bouquets. While the two monarch chrysalis we unearthed yesterday on cut branches have gone to the nursery and a students home respectively to be protected during its journey of transformation we may have missed others while arranging your flowers so anyone with basil sprigs in their bouquets should be on the lookout!

And that is it for today's puppy porching, coffee slurping, fading starlight, balmy sunrise, October morning report.

WE WILL NOT BE HOSTING VOLUNTEER FRIDAY TOMORROW MORNING, but please come another day during the week. Next Friday we will be back on track!

Highlights this week: Salad mix, Paw Paw seedlings, leeks, kale and shiitakes. (Not sure what meat we will have today but I am assuming we will have meat!)

09/28/2023

Bard Farm Stand Today 12-5pm
Blank sheet. Blank stare. What even happened this week? It is all a sleepy, morning fog, end of the growing season, each day bleeds into the next, haze. I just realized I forgot to put my garbage out. I measure the passing of time by garbage day. How did we get back to Thursday so quickly and why has garbage day become the metronome of my life?

Friday flew by as we feverishly prepped and planted our last ditch effort to get a crop in beds with salad turnips, head lettuce, asian greens and salad mix before our 3 days of rain. The weekend washed away with the rain and seasonal fatigue. I can barely remember that far back. Monday brought a mirror image of the Monday before. Bone soaking, wet, cold, trench foot, deep chill rain. We cleaned the rest of our garlic and onions, soaked mushroom logs and harvested for the breaking of the Yom Kippur fast breakfast for the JSO. I am running out of indoor cold rainy day tasks for students. I guess it is time to call in the sun! Tuesday brought clouds, flower and veggie harvests, order deliveries, mushroom log pulling, 2 classes and 3 volunteers. Wednesday brought a 45 degree dewy and cloudy morning, more harvests, another tour and talk, bouquet making, 3 more volunteers and eventual SUNSHINE.

And what will today bring? Crisp morning air, cool dewy fields, the eve of September's harvest moon, more clouds with collective prayers for sun, a fevered pitch market prep which today includes an untimely morning harvest of shiitake mushrooms whose days to maturity have rapidly increased thanks to cooler, shorter days that have written themselves into this season's story earlier than anticipated. I think today will bring smiling faces, avant garde flower bouquets, fall greens and mute toned crops juxtaposed by a rainbow of hot pepper fire. Today we are serving some of the WORLDS HOTTEST PEPPERS. Apocalypse scorpion, Carolina reaper, and the tamer Jamaican scotch bonnet will be making their debut appearance today. I hope today does not bring any trips to the ER on account of the off the charts pepper fire we are bringing to market. We hope to see your smiling faces today!

Highlights this week: Salad mix, leeks, hot pepper fire, butternut squash.

09/14/2023

Bard Farm Stand today 12-5pm
How does a Bard Farm newsletter write after a long day and a long week and it is only Wednesday and a long season from my favorite porch in the evening dark. not morning dark and with no puppy snuggles? Where is my black, sleek, furry, legs for days, easily confused for a gazelle, puppy Sparrow anyway? The newsletter tonight slips into focus on the rain, not the double rainbow that arched over the Hudson on my drive home. Words ebb toward fox tail grasses in the fields, not the fox trotting fox, swaggering towards Lilly in the zinnia patch in broad daylight. Run Lilly run!!!! She meanders towards "how are we going to get it all done before market tomorrow, you better sit down and spin a few yarns tonight because your favorite 5am puppy porch and coffee musings don't have space to nestle into the trajectory of the day? But in this fatigued evening blurry delirium I mustn't forget to mention the tapestry of colors, textures and aromatic smells that wove themselves into 40 exquisite market bouquets while another storm followed its cousins, sisters, aunts, uncles and all their relations through the pages of this season's mud slugging, bullfrog belching, trenchfoot summer story!

Mornings are wiser than evenings. Sometimes the unknown of the days unfolding as we wipe the sand from our eyes after restful journeys in dreamland spaces lends itself to a brighter promise of today. So with that I will compile some photos, put our market offering list together, poke Joe about what meat will be available tomorrow and write part two with the freshness of a new day.

Good morning! I love morning darkness and watching the sun splash the sky with its wakeup song. This morning feels like fall without the smells of fallen leaves that really leave a signature mark on the whole Hudson Valley seasonal aesthetic. Wrapping up the pre-market computer ramble with a flannel shirt, wool blanket, puppy pillow and a hot cup of coffee. We got this. The Thursday morning scramble includes harvesting and washing head lettuce, bok choi, herbs, maybe some more hot peppers because they really want to meet you, weighing and packing the millions of quarts and pints of all the things, cleaning onions, updating the market price list board, office spreadsheet printing, maple and elderflower syrup labeling, market setup and open by 12pm. Fall students start at 9am and we just have a few that work today. Why you may ask? Because everyone has class on Thursday mornings. Eeeek!. We had student volunteers who came and saved the day last Thursday morning. They were amazing. Students and anyone for that matter are welcome to join us during any shift and save each day!

Today's highlights include: Oyster mushrooms!!!! Head lettuce, cilantro, kale, green beans and acorn squash.

08/17/2023

Bard Farm Stand today 1-5pm
"Slay the day" has been this week's farm motto and really just "slay" has worked for many tasks and desires for certain meteorological conditions that have been hard fought to find as of late. Slay away those clouds you say....what?.....more rain?....let's slay, slay, slay.
Playing in the rain today. This is fun. We slayed dismay.
Let's welcome first years to the farm, with brandished knives we slay away the day. (Actually, thank you first years for slaying monster weeds in our old kale patch with us on Tuesday).

Wednesday morning was almost comical as we harvested gorgeous flowers, napa cabbage, tender bok choi and scallions, praying the rain would hold off long enough to get our shiitakes in, praying the inches of rain we this week didn't get them too wet before harvest, slipping around on algae covered clay soil with another day of soggy attire and muddy feet on the books. After harvesting the beautiful mushrooms yesterday we do have to tell you that their gills are dry but their caps are wet so.......
You must slay the shrooms in a quick saute today (or tomorrow but eat them quickly). They are not as resilient as the farm farm crew to wet heads and feet.

We have two more weeks with our wonderful summer team before the transition to our fall work study crew start sailing this ship. It is pretty wild that we have made it to mid August already. The last crew mates are taking their respective vacations and getting some much needed R and R in before school starts. I will be gone too next week for an extended family vacation in Cape Cod so Grace Derkson who has been the farm's second in command this summer and serving slay each day, will bring voice to the newsletter. They have been with the farm since their first year and were introduced to us through an L and T farm Power Hour. They graduated this spring and have taken on a leadership role this summer. We are so grateful for everything they have brought to the farm and can't wait for their yarns!

This week we invite you all to come slay our bountiful array of farm fresh, rain washed, locally harvested selections so the afternoon crew doesn't have to bring anything back.

Highlights: We made almost 40 bouquets and they are amaze-sauce. Who needs sun when you can bring in the light with a Bard Farm bouquet? Loose leaf napa cabbage, tender new kale, succulent, crisp bok choi, green beans, new succession scallions, garlic and salad mix.

08/10/2023

And so we meet again for this week's farm musings and a little grounding into our local food shed environment and farmer Rebecca's current state of mind.

It has been a four day week for me because last week and the week before were eight day weeks. I missed Monday's rain but caught it in RI. My family needed a little beach and play-in- the-waves-time break bad. I was here for Thursday's rain though and Tuesday's rain. Fingers crossed we will be able to say it didn't rain on the farm stand today like it has the last two weeks. I dumped 1.5" of rain out of our gauge on Friday and 1" of rain on Wednesday. I am not interested in pouring out any rain for at least a week. The weather has been so hard to predict even with live radar feeds and multiple weather apps open I often can't tell if the storm is going to hit us even when we can see dark cumulonimbus clouds above the treeline on the horizon. The meteorologists don't seem to know these days either. It is always a safe bet these days if someone asks to say that yes, in fact it will rain today.

My 9 year old asks me every day, the second I get home "what is for dinner?" and "is it going to rain today?" He finds it cozy and comforting. Water is life and many places on this planet critically need what we have in excess. But water can also be death and this summer has brought a slow demise to some of our favorite crops that has been really hard to watch. We serve beauty and abundance at the farm stand but the fields and many of our crops are over it. I remember when I took this job four years ago John Paul who ran Bard Farm in its early years warned me how hard our site was during a wet season. 2018 was a soggy season for the dogs that broke many veteran growers' spirits followed by 2021 where we had rain every day for over a month and now 2023 for the record books. Our farm with heavy clay soils thrives in drought. This week feels hard. This season has been hard. Yesterday was hard. I will update this thread by 11am today if we need to move the farm stand inside today because of ........ you guessed it......rain.

But we have a great crew and are resilient and can celebrate our victories too. Our mushrooms this week delivered epic harvests and our lisianthus flowers are rife with emotion and beauty. In fact, as we made our bouquets yesterday we felt like we were arranging for a wedding or something. It was too much emotion for one visitor. Yesterday was a very emotional kind of day. You should come see how the stars shine brightest in the darkest skies at the farm stand today.

Today we are very excited about our flowers, shiitakes, peppers, cherry tomatoes and ground cherries, cucumbers, salad mix for a surprise visit, maple syrup and possibly a few slicers for the early birds.

07/27/2023

Bard Farm Stand Today 1-5pm

It is Leo season at Bard Farm. Our feisty, passionate, fun, creative, children of the sun crew are primarily Leo's cusped by a cancer and a virgo so we are all summer babies and we have fully arrived in our season. It's Bard Farm birthday season! If you see a Bard Farmer over the next few weeks you should wish them a happy birthday. More likely than not it is. These summer babies are bringing fire to the fields and to your table with hard work, dedication, tenacity and spirit. Many guttural laughs, philosophical conversations and 20 questions, pass the time games have gone into producing this Bard Farm summer fare.

This week has hosted more frenetic weather patterns where well laid plans are changed, then changed again then back again with thunder echoing off mountain peaks, storm clouds looming then breaking up before reconfiguring into powerful storm cells that drive our babies of the sun to shelter. You should see how clean the barn is right now! We can handle rain, it is the lightning and thunder that halts any field tasks. Nonetheless we have managed to get some planting in and a few timely rains have actually helped with watering. The extreme heat this week with tomorrow's anticipated highs taking the cake, are not easy on little, stressed out, "why didn't you plant me a month ago when you were planning?" seedlings who have been waiting patiently for fields to dry out enough to get the planting party on. It is Bard Farm party season afterall, remember? We continue our practice of "plant and pray" with conditions of mud chunked soil seedling beds transitioning to "who ate hot crumb cake in bed?" It's our birthday month. We will eat cake wherever we want! Please send a collective prayer to all the babies of Bard Farm who just want to thrive on!

Highlights: While not everything is "thriving" at Bard Farm it sure looks like it is when you come to the farm stand eh? Today we are serving explosions of color in pre-wrapped bouquets and a flower bar so let's get this party on. Bring your creativity and a vase or pick up one of our own. Other highlights include shish*tos, bell peppers, shiitakes, salad mix for days (we won't run out todayI promise), green beans and so much more!

Don't forget to bring your market bags!
We accept cash and credit card payment methods!
Find us on Library Rd on the east side of New Annandale Rd (north end of Kline parking lot) between Gilson Place and Kappa House.

07/25/2023

Join us this Friday, July 28th, from 2-4:00pm at the Bard Farm for “Reconnecting Our Tyes to Dyes: Indigenous Reclamation.” We will work with the plants grown parallel at both Ancient Roots Homestead and the Bard Farm in the creation of community dye baths using plants freshly harvested from the Farm and Community Garden’s dye plants. Lucy Grignon of Ancient Roots Homestead will share observations and insights of living as an artist, maker, and farmer at the intersection of institution and museum and archive. Grignon will engage her research at the Field Museum Chicago, along with lived and ancestral experiences on her homestead, to share research insights and dye techniques. We will join together in a collective color-ing! Lucille Grignon () is a homesteader at Ancient Roots Homestead, which is located on the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation. She has transitioned from teaching in a modern colonial classroom into working as an educator of Ancient Indigenous skills, ideas, and traditions guided by the ways of her ancestors. Workshop hosted by Beka Goedde, Studio Arts, and Rebecca Yoshino, Bard Farm, with support of Rethinking Place. Free, all supplies will be provided. Prior to the workshop, 100% cotton bandanas will be prepared (scoured and mordanted) for botanical dyeing. Participants are welcome to take home a dyed bandana from the workshop. Image ID: Poster with the above information on a yellow background with flowers (dyer’s chamomile and yarrow) grown at the Bard Farm. Poster by Leila Stallone. Posted from unceded Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican homelands.

07/20/2023

Bard Farm Stand and Flower Bar today 1-5pm.
It has been a long week. We are in the mid July farm slog. It has been really hot, smokey and still muddy up until yesterday when we were finally able to till beds for planting. Yes, remember we are a month behind on our short season crop successions? These babies have been waiting patiently for their day to root in fresh farm soil. We have hit the point where some have given up the fight and where will we find the time to do a month's worth of planting in short windows during the week when we are not harvesting? I am not sure yet but you all are welcome to join. Volunteer Fridays still continue from 9-12pm and quite frankly, you all are welcome to come help plant any time during the week!

But enough complaining. We actually are busy harvesting every day which means that despite it all there is abundance here at Bard Farm and the flowers are breathing new life and energy into us! Our gardens are teaming with color, texture, form and pollinators of every shape and size. Yesterday the morning crew spent the end of their shift picking flowers and the afternoon crew spent the end of their shift arranging flower bouquets. And the vegetables this week let me tell you. We did our first big pepper picking and I have never seen shish*tos like this before. They are monsters in the best sense of the word. And how can I forget the eggplant that LOVE all this rain. They are incredible. And the birds. Don't let me forget to tell you about the birds. Hundreds of birds of various sizes and dietary proclivities that have been eating our bugs (and a few tomatoes-gulp). I came down to the fields late Friday afternoon and it looked like the farm was flying away. And the snake and the frog helpers and the cool mornings before the sun lashes our backs and the shade in the forest when we go harvest mushrooms and the waterfall to take the edge off of a hot work day. Even during the hardest of weeks there is so much to be grateful for, so much beauty if you just adjust your focus and support found in unexpected places.

New this week:
FLOWER BAR. Build your own bouquet, bell and shish*to peppers, and many more treats!

07/13/2023

Bard Farm Stand today 1-5pm Frogs have moved into our clay pit pond at Bard Farm and my feet are still wet. Not tree frogs or toads mind you but the green, spotted, slippery, slimy, croak sweet melodies type found in large bodies of water and no, I surprisingly do not have trench foot. We did not get an ID when we spotted the frogs today. I will examine the frogs more closely tomorrow now that my shock has subsided and I am thinking straight again. It could be worse. Frogs eat bugs (fingers crossed they eat cucumber beetles and squash vine borer) and they generally have good temperaments. We have alot of bugs to eat at Bard Farm. Perhaps they will invite their relatives to the locally "groan", pesticide free, organic smorgasbord of Hudson Valley's finest six and eight legged fare. The price is right and we even have cabbage looper tartar on special. I hear it is to die for but I haven't tried it myself. I don't see tadpoles yet but I suspect I will in a few days. Our clay pit frog pond is closed for harvesting until the amphibians vacate. What is open for harvesting through hard cash and credit card transactions today is the amazing abundance that has shown up regardless of wet feet (roots), smoke, drought (a distant fading memory) muggy, MY EYES ARE SWEATING heat and wet feet. Excuse me if I sound like a broken record. I am but a reflection of our weather patterns this last month.

Some of our short season crops like bok choi, head lettuce and salad turnips might be taking a market vacation, some have already left as we have not been able to till and plant new successions for weeks, so come get them before they disappear.

New this week to market and also in abundance so more than just the early birds will have a chance to buy them are cucumbers, green beans, Asian eggplant, okra (less abundant this week) and......maple syrup! We accept cash and credit card payment methods!

Find us on Library Rd on the east side of New Annandale Rd (north end of Kline parking lot) between Gilson Place and Kappa House.

07/06/2023

Bard Farm Stand Today 1-5pm
My feet are still wet. They have not dried out since last we spoke. Shoes are a hindrance as we slip and slide down narrow, muddy clay paths trying to get to the harvest, the weeds and the wash station without dislocating anything. Our puddles have turned into hot mess road ruts and a clay pit pond that feels more like a whirlpool bath. It turns out a whirlpool bath is the last thing on our minds as rising temperatures and humidity turn our brains into mush with end of work waterfall swims serving as the only reasonable antidote to this full body, mind and soul heat kinda experience. The birds are thrilled to have a hot bath and the pools are full of passers by coming for some hot, fermented, excessive moisture tea. We have it on tap at Bard Farm. The mosquitoes too are taking advantage of all our pools of standing water. Gulp.

Amazingly, this incessant moisture has not produced as much rot and disease thus far as I would have anticipated and we harvested the most beautiful crop of garlic from our no-till beds on Monday which is currently curing and will not be at market for a little while. No rot, no disease, just amazing bulbs of music. This variety did the best for us last year and this year has produced the nicest garlic harvest I have ever had. Sadly, the tomatoes are not excited about weeks of wet feet but the fungal spores are. On Wednesday we spent a very sweaty afternoon removing diseased leaves and bagging them up to help prevent an excess of fungal spores from swimming around from plant to plant in the rain and air that is humid enough to drink.

Today we are swimming in summer squash, bok choi, salad mix for days, greens, beets and herbs. I see green beans, cucumbers and eggplant just around the corner and tomatoes and peppers are tagging along right behind them. Yes folks, we have made it to sweet, hot, sweaty, swimmy, potlcuky, full of farm bounty summer and the colors, textures, smells and flavors of the season are nourishing our souls. The Bard Farm crew is working hard and laughing hard as they move through each day. Come see what we have helped laugh into fruition today!

06/22/2023

Bard Farm Stand Today 1-5pm
Chilly morning summer musings on the heels of a wonderful solstice evening and beautiful week of hard work, friends, reunions, shared meals, community place making, foraging, elderflower syrup infusing, cultivation, inspiration, sharing laughter and good field beats (Sorry folks, our edible field beets should be coming to a campus farm stand near you next week).

Last night's solstice vibe was lit (hat tip to Arisleida Herrera for expanding my vernacular and trying to keep me current. I know it's a heavy lift Aris).

Gold dipped mountains, bullfrog jug bands, lightning bug strobe lights, calling in what we want to grow, be nourished and in abundance this year. Last night was a reminder to take time to immerse yourself in the beauty that surrounds us here in the Hudson Valley and feed your soul with some good old fashioned nature and element (el) s.

The fields are planted and things are starting to explode out there. I see so much promise and potential. This is the time when the light begins to draw back each day, yet the heat keeps building and the foundation we set for the growing season begins to reveal itself. We laid a strong foundation. I hope you are listening cucumber beetles and aphids. While arriving at summer solstice involved many cold and frosty spring mornings and unseasonably hot but mostly unseasonably cold spring days, the plants are beginning to flourish and pick up growth speed. I was hoping we would have summer squash by this week but alas, it is taking its sweet time. I was also hoping we would have our elderflower syrup ready this week but processing all of the flowers and fitting it into a 4 day week with all the other farm need clammerings just didn't happen. So guess what? Next week we should have both of those things.
New this week is cilantro and handmade crocheted market bags made by our very own Cindy Mautner from student accounts for $20 cash only. We have more shiitakes and scallions today so they shouldn't run out in the first 30 minutes and the last of our garlic scapes are coming to market. Get them before they are gone!

06/15/2023

Bard Farm Stand Today 1-5pm
Clean air, sunny skies, gentle quenching rains, seasonal temperatures, students showing up fully each day, crops settling in for the long haul and .......wait for it..........7 woodchucks and 5 hungry voles relocated away from our produce that we prefer not to be on the rodent menu. Does it get any better than this as a farmer?

Currently the fields look like a sea of floating row cover; our attempt at excluding the woodchucks and flea beetles from our delicate greens and the cucumber beetles from our cucurbits. In between the beds of row cover you will find green beans, beets, herbs, flowers, swiss chard, onions, garlic, dye plants , peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, okra and other tasty treats that have been spared by the ravages of insatiable pests that have taken a liking to the quality and variety the Bard Farm offers. We are in the season where the fields begin to fill out and look abundant and beautiful without many signs of disease and weeds. The fields are full of promise; emerging gifts of nourishment for our community that help feed the hunger of our times. Grown with love, in relation and in community for you all that help make up our beautiful community.

Today's highlights include: Salad mix which is spectacular today, enough garlic scapes for you and your mother, basil, parsley, swiss chard, oyster mushrooms and gorgeous romaine heads. We have a nice selection of meat this week and are now offering fresh eggs from Shipping and Receiving's Lisa Benincasa. We accept cash and credit card payment methods!

Find us on Library Rd on the east side of New Annandale Rd (north end of Kline parking lot) between Gilson Place and Kappa House.

06/08/2023

Bard Farm Stand TODAY 1-5pm
In the month of the strawberry moon I wake to a strawberry sun and sepia toned skies; day three of Canada's eastern wildfires being seen, felt, tasted and smelled by the team as we move through each day now dawning N95 masks and moving at a sluggish pace. Nobody is excited to work in these masks again however everyone is less excited to breathe this air every day. The crew left a little early yesterday and everyone was instructed to listen to their bodies, not to come in if they were uncomfortable working under these conditions and to leave at any point if they were exhibiting any health symptoms. Our hearts and prayers are with all our human and non-human relatives being impacted by these devastating fires. We breathe your pain and loss.

But I would like to bring it back to the funny farm because laughter is the best prophylactic for a heavy heart and direct your attention to a certain relative we have been struggling with who rarely gets our empathy but does get a lot of other emotional responses from the team. This is the relative you don't invite over yet they come unannounced, never bring anything to share, eat you out of house and home and are still there when the party's over and you just want to go to bed. That's right,! I am talking about the whistlepig, AKA the land beaver. Some might know the largest member of the squirrel family as a marmot, whistler, land-pig or thickwood badger. Yes, I am talking about Punxsutawney Phil who allegedly is an omnivore with a diet that includes insects, small birds and eggs however we believe that our local population is foregoing animal protein and solely fattening up on YOUR salad mix, head lettuce, swiss chard, green beans, dye plants, cut flowers, kale, napa caba, okra (YES OKRA *% #@%!!@%&*) and bedding transplants. Yup, while a groundhog eats a pound of food a day, we think the insatiable appetites of these rodents suggests that their numbers have exploded and operation whistler relocation is now in full swing. Bard Farm for 3 points and whistlepig scored 100 lbs of salad mix. Updated score forthcoming.

And that is how we make lemonade with lemons at Bard Farm. Lots of laughter and sillies while we breathe masked air watching herds of land beavers devour the fields from all sides.

REMINDER: We are looking for your onion skins for a workshop next week and will accept any dried skins of any QTY through Monday.

We accept cash and credit card payment methods!
Find us on Library Rd on the east side of New Annandale Rd (north end of Kline parking lot) between Gilson Place and Kappa House.