According to the calendar, Spring is here. Those of you living in warmer microclimates (like just 15 min. away in downtown Ithaca) may even be seeing all kinds of signs to corroborate the calendar’s claims. But here at Shelterbelt, we’re in that seasonal purgatory where there’s still little to show for the transition to Spring … More Mud Season
We have decided not to raise meat chickens this year, and here we attempt to explain to our supporters and customers why we’ve made this choice. There’s a lot for a farmer to love about broiler chickens: they are ravenous insect-eaters who can decrease pest pressure in orchards and pastures, their back-end output fertilizes soil, … More Why No More Chicken?
This year’s turkeys have been fattening up and scratching studiously, and will soon be ready for your holiday feast. Our broad-breasted bronze birds free range within the protection of a portable electric net, and we supplement their greens-and-bugs diet with a non-GMO ration made from squash seed meal and organic corn. They will be ready … More The Turkeys Will Graduate Soon!
We’re raising two batches of chickens this year. Both are now fattening nicely on a diet rich in bugs, greens, organic corn and squash seed meal. They’ll be processed in mid-June and late July, and available for pick-up fresh from the farm on Sat. June 16th or Sat. July 28th, or frozen any other time. … More Get Your Fresh (or Frozen) Chicken Here!
Night temperatures have been dropping into the 20’s, and we got 5 inches of snow last Sunday, April 22nd. So it feels like February. But the sun is setting around 8pm and there are leaves on most of the trees. April? Talk about confusing! We’re not sure what to make of it all, but despite … More Spring Pushes Ahead Despite Weather Chaos
Have you ever considered how you would move a stack of boxes containing 60,000 bees in them? I only have two hives, but I felt daunted by this task. You might ask, why move the bees? Well, it happens that the perfect place I picked for my small apiary is right in the middle of … More Moving the Hives to Make Way for… Our Home!
150 baby chicks are happily peeping away in our new light-filled brooder house. In short order they’ll be joined on pasture by guard geese, more chicks, pigs, turkeys, and bees! We’re grateful for the return to cooler temperatures, as it’s slowed the season down a bit. We weren’t ready for summer in March! We’ll have … More Kicking Off Our Farm Season
We bought our abandoned, thin-soiled, poorly-drained acreage not for its value as farmland, but for its proximity to a community of people we love. Now we are faced with the daunting task of getting it to be productive enough to support a farm business. I confess I occasionally feel pangs of envy for farmer friends … More Growing Soil as Our Primary Crop
Farming and raising children–especially when both parents are still working off-farm–is like trying to run a marathon uphill the whole way, barefoot, with a sack of rocks on your back. At least, that’s what this summer has felt like. Maybe I only feel that way because I’m 6 months pregnant. Or maybe that’s just how … More Farming with the Whole Family
We Invite Your Opinions on Key Issues for Shelterbelt! Our farm vision has three major pieces: producing the purest organic food, growing products that are affordable to the widest range of people, and having a profitable business that pays us for our hard work. Easy, right? Not so much. When we analyzed our numbers from … More You Can Shape our Farm
Shelterbelt Farm 