Archive for ‘Fresh from Our Farm’
News from our 225-acre Glynwood Farm, where we test, innovate, and teach techniques that demonstrate the economic viability of environmentally sustainable farming.
May 21, 2010 by Ken Kleinpeter
Pastured chickens at Glynwood Farm. Photo by Frankie Kimm.
As we begin the summer, the pace of activities on the farm is ever quickening.
Winter life on the farm is more contained, more focused around a couple places: the new barn where the cattle, sheep and goats wintered, the chicken houses and the pig houses. When the pastures are covered in snow, we carefully feed out the hay we fretted over making last summer – and then fret whether there will be enough to get us through the winter. Soon we will be fretting over getting in this year’s hay, and spreading the composted manure the animals made from last from last year’s hay, which adds fertility to the fields for next year’s hay. The cycle continues…
Tags: agriculture, communities, CSA, environment, food, Glynwood Farm, Hudson Valley, livestock, local food, meat, natural resources, nature, pasture, rotational grazing, soil, sustainable food
May 20, 2010 by Sara Grady
Last year, we created a video about our mission to save farming. We were honored to have the participation of so many leaders in our local system (see the full list of interviewees after the jump).
Since its completion, the video has been touring with the Wild & Scenic Film Festival, and has played in venues across the country, including California, West Virginia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Utah, Wisconsin – and of course, here at Glynwood.
Please watch and share it widely:
Tags: agriculture, communities, farmland, food system, Glynwood Farm, Hudson Valley, infrastructure, Keep Farming, local food, natural resources, processing, programs, reports, sustainable agriculture, video
May 18, 2010 by Sara Grady
Ken Kleinpeter shearing sheep at Glynwood Farm. Photo by Caroline Kaye.
Mary Hawkins was a Goat Grant Intern at Glynwood in 2009. We recruited her to shear some sheep for our 15th Annual Sheep Shearing Day, and she wrote this “guide” for us:
Sheep Shearing on a Saturday in May was a welcome return to tending animals for me, and a reminder of how farm tasks are learned – oftentimes, in a hurry. Last spring Ken had given me good step-by-step instruction and an afternoon of practice. Now, with plenty of work ahead for the day, the expectation was that I’d figure it out while getting it done. So I divided my attention between confining the sheep at hand, imitating Ken’s method, keeping a grip on the vibrating, hot electric shears, and enjoying the amazed expressions on the faces of little kids as they absorbed this farm experience.
Tags: events, Glynwood Farm, Hudson Valley, livestock, pasture
May 17, 2010 by Krystal Ford
It was a warm and breezy day, with blue skies and clouds as fluffy as the sheep themselves for Glynwood’s annual sheepshearing day.
Our annual sheep shearing day is a community-wide celebration at Glynwood Farm. Photo by Caroline Kaye.
Sheep are very skittish, so part of the entertainment of the shearing includes trying to corral ten sheep into the holding area in the barn. We learned this the hard way as we ran up and down the field trying to coax them in the right direction – leave one tiny gap and the sheep will run right through it! Ken, the Glynwood farm director, changed the game plan and organized ten of us into a circle, slowly closing in until the sheep were herded into the pen. Ken and Mary, a former intern, took care of the hard part, shearing the sheep. After one sheep was sheared a little girl watching exclaimed, “the sheep is naked!”
Tags: CSA, events, Glynwood Farm, Hudson Valley, livestock, local food, sustainable agriculture
May 9, 2010 by Sara Grady
Glynwood Farm
Welcome to The Glynwood View, where we’ll post news and views about sustainable agriculture and regional food systems. If you’re new to Glynwood, we are a not-for-profit organization located in the lower Hudson Valley — and our mission is to save farming.
It has been a most exciting year so far for our organization! We recently launched the Glynwood Institute for Sustainable Food & Farming – a “creative action tank” that develops and implements realistic solutions to critical issues within the food system. And just this month, we made historic strides by launching a next-generation modular, mobile slaughterhouse that will begin to solve the challenges faced by small and mid-size livestock farmers who often cannot getting their animals processed and to market. Called the Modular Harvest System™, it is the first of its kind in the country!
Tags: communities, farmland, Glynwood Farm, Glynwood Institute, Hudson Valley, Keep Farming, local food, news, programs, sustainable agriculture
