Author: Bryan Housel

Circle Brook Farm

Farm News – October 23, 2014

Hi Everyone, so we finally got a substantial rain last week- 2 inches worth. The fall crops should now begin to grow a little better. We also had our third light frost last night; this one a little harder than the previous two. We continue to try to glean what we can of the warm weather crops before each of these frost events. (more…)

Joey Russo, Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refinery

Fall Maple Syrup and Honey available

Hi everyone, if you missed the spring order of maple syrup, or would like to purchase more maple products now is your chance!  Please fill out the attached form and mail it back to the address listed.  Please note that orders must be received in the mail by Oct 31!!  That’s pretty soon!

Also, please write WESTFIELD across the top of the order form.

The maple products will be available for pick up on Nov 20.

Circle Brook Farm

Farm News – October 16, 2014

Hi Folks, Mother Nature continues to dole out the precipitation with an eye dropper. On Saturday we received about .3 inches of the wet stuff. Once again the rain event coincided perfectly with the hours of my Saturday market, dampening sales as well as my workers and I. We are predicted to get a more substantial drenching on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. (more…)

Pumpkin Patch

Circle Brook Farm – Fall Event Schedule

We will host several more events at the farm this fall. These will all be opportunities to see the farm, help out a bit and to receive a pumpkin. I hope many of you will be able to attend. If you are not able to make it out to the farm and would still like to get a pumpkin, you can visit us at one of our markets over the next few weeks: (more…)

Circle Brook Farm

Farm News – October 9, 2014

Hello Everyone, We received .6 inches of rain this past weekend. Although not as much as I would have liked, it will greatly benefit the fall crops. The timing was also less than desirable — raining all through my Saturday morning market and costing me thousands of dollars in lost income. C’est la vie! (more…)

Carrot Cake

Great Grandma’s Sheep-Wagon Carrot Cake

If you find yourself with extra carrot culls, try Great Grandma’s Sheep-Wagon Carrot Cake (found at Cooks.com).  My recipe is more than 30 years old and was given me by my sister-in-law. I googled the name on an off chance and there it was, almost identical.  I always used a bit less sugar, and maybe a touch more butter but it makes great muffins too (just shorten baking time).  The cake doesn’t need a frosting, but if you like frosting you can add this one from Allrecipes.com. (more…)

Circle Brook Farm

Farm News – October 2, 2014

Hi Folks, We have once again been teased with the promise of rain only to be disappointed. The forecast for last Thursday was for 24 hours of rain, heavy at times, 1 to 2 inches. We got 5 hours of drizzle and a total of .14 inches! Total rainfall for September was 1.3 inches. We are doing the best we can with our irrigation system, but we just don’t have the capacity to keep everything well watered. The semi–drought has hurt our bean production and has greatly slowed down the greens and the fall root crops. (more…)

Circle Brook Farm

Farm News – September 25, 2014

Hi Folks, Still no rain here on the farm, and none in the forecast for at least another week! It looks like we’ll be spending a lot of time moving the sprinklers around. It’s fortunate that we have a lot of crops planted on plastic mulched beds with drip irrigation. With drip irrigation we can keep a lot more crops growing with less water.  Lettuce is a good example — crops for early fall are planted on white plastic to keep the soil cool and later plantings are put on black plastic to maintain soil warmth as we head into late fall. We are back into lettuce production this week and will have it in the shares now for the rest of the season. (more…)

Circle Brook Farm

Farm News – September 18, 2014

Hello Everyone, We continue on the dry side here at the farm, having received a paltry 0.3 inches from Saturdays drizzle and light rain. At least it came slowly, allowing the soil to soak it up. We have another slight chance of precipitation on Monday night into Tuesday morning. We are making the best of it, using overhead irrigation to germinate seeds and keep the fall brassica crop growing. (more…)