Holiday Season

 Are you still pondering what to get those special people in your life that you know don't use half the stuff you normally get them.

Are the people you are getting gifts for the type of people that love food and love to try new things?

Most importantly, is it important to you to make sure you buy from local producers?

If you answered yes to any of those questions we have the perfect items for you!

We have numerous items that you can give. We have 12 varieties available right now. Make a mix and match basket. Purchase just one special one. Pair them with some teas. Either way they all make great gifts.

We had someone purchase a bunch this weekend for their office christmas gifts. Do you do Secret Santa?

Perfect teacher gift or just something a little perfect for yourself to enjoy while you are fixing Thanksgiving dinner?

We will take special orders for the butters right up until the Christmas. We even will wrap the jars in cellophane with a nice ribbon around them.

 Fruit butters available now:
 
 Apple Butter
Sugar Free Apple Butter
Blueberry Apple Butter
Sugar Free Blueberry Apple Butter
Cranberry Apple Butter----*NEW*
Jalapeno Apple Butter---- *NEW*
Pear Butter
Sugar Free Pear Butter
Plum Butter
Peach Butter
Pumpkin Butter
Sugar Free Pumpkin Butter






Herbal Teas available now:

Apple Mint Tea---- *NEW*

Chamomile Lavender Tea
Lavender Tea
Spearmint Tea
Peppermint Tea
Sage Tea-----*NEW*
Lemongrass Tea
Lemon Balm Tea


Dried Herb Shakers available now:

Basil
Oregano
Sage
Lemongrass
Lime Basil
Lemon Basil
Marjoram
Dill
Poultry Seasoning
Lemon Balm
Lemon Lime Fish Seasoning


We will be at the Chenango Valley High School Craft Fair this weekend from 10am-3pm. Make sure you come and see us!

Thanksgiving Cranberry Sauce Change Up!

Believe it or not the Holiday season is upon us. The massive amounts of people at all hours in the stores tells us so. The amounts of christmas trees and Santas in every store tell us that Christmas is coming!

Well we can't wait for Christmas, but more than anything I can't wait for a nice Turkey on Thanksgiving. More now than every Christmas overshadows Thanksgiving. But not for us!

As most of you know we raised our own turkeys this year and I cannot wait to taste the freshness of our own turkeys.

Going into Thanksgiving some people were asking for a cranberry flavored fruit butter. Being that we were using only local fruit I was having a tough time trying to figure this one out. We finally decided that we would buy some cranberries and pair them with the local apples we get and make a Cranberry Apple butter, sticking to our local fruit but also pleasing our loyal customers.

The cranberries are still from the USA. Obviously there are no cranberries in NY.

I personally don't care for Cranberry Sauce at thanksgiving. So when I was making this I was a little skeptical. But I will have to say if you are looking for something different for Thanksgiving rather than your normal cranberry sauce you need to absolutely without a doubt try our Cranberry Apple Butter.

Oh my God it is amazing!

My mother in-law loves it!
(They are our guinea pigs sometimes so they have had the good and the bad recipes. )

But to hear from her that she raves over it and ate it within a few days I knew we had a good one. She then called and asked for me to make a big jar of it for thanksgiving.

Yup that must mean it is really good!

We then had our Fiber Festival this weekend at the Oakdale Mall and this proved more than anything that it was excellent. Our biggest seller over the weekend was the Cranberry Apple. People were consistently saying how they were going to use it instead of cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving.

What is the difference between cranberry sauce and Cranberry Apple Butter?

Cranberry sauce is full of high fructose corn syrup and tons of sugar! And obviously lots of preservatives.

Cranberry Apple butter made by us is made of Cranberries, Apples, sugar, cinnamon and cloves. There really is not a lot of sugar in it. Just enough to give it a sweetness but that is what the apples are for as well to give it that right amount of cranberry tartness and sweetness of the apple. No preservatives, No high fructose corn syrup!


Come on give it a try, change it up for Thanksgiving and have our Cranberry Apple Butter with your Turkey this year!

Craft Shows and Winter markets!

Now that the outdoor market season is over we once again have found a bunch of craft shows and indoor markets that we will be attending. As a farmer and living only on what you make from the farm you still have to find things in the winter when things slow down outside.

Otsiningo Farmers Market once again has created an indoor market and will be located once again at the Metrocenter in Downtown Binghamton.  It will be the 1st and 3rd Saturday of every month from 9am-Noon. The same as last year.

Here is our schedule:

November 3, 2012- Cortland High School Craft Fair 10am-3pm.
                             - Otsiningo Winter Market 9am-noon. We will not be there this time but Cheryl from
                                                                                    Boer Bakery has offered to sell our products for us.
November 10- Oakdale Mall Fiber Festival 10am-9 pm
November 11- Oakdale Mall Fiber Festival 11am-7pm
November 17- Chenango Valley Craft Fair 10am

December 1- Otsiningo Winter Market 9am-noon
December 2- Vestal Craft Fair 10am-3 pm
December 7- Parlor City Indie Market and Craft Fair 6pm-9pm
December 8- Parlor City Indie Market and Craft Fair 9am-6pm
                   - Holiday Magic Newark Valley in front of Cardinal Cafe
December 9- Parlor City Indie Market and Craft Fair 11am-6pm
December 15- Otsiningo Winter Market 9am-noon

January 5- Otsiningo Winter Market 9am-noon
January 19- Otsiningo Winter Market 9 am-noon

February 2- Otsiningo Winter Market 9am-noon
February 16- Otsiningo Winter Market 9 am-noon

March 2- Otsiningo Winter Market 9 am-noon
March 9-10- Field, Hearth and Home event- Treadway Inn Owego
March 16- Otsiningo Winter Market 9am-noon

April 6- Otsiningo Winter Market 9am-noon
April 20- Otsiningo Winter Market 9am-noon

No More Rabbits

We have officially made the decision that we will no longer be selling rabbit meat. We are selling all the rabbits and our equipment. We will keep a few just for us for personal use, but other than that we will no longer continue selling them at market.

As all of you may heard feed prices are going up. And not just a little. Feed prices are rising very quickly and are making it very difficult for all farmers to continue raising animals.

This is the reason we decided to get rid of our rabbits. We have a bunch of loyal customers that buy rabbit every so often. But not as much as we need. The rabbits are not making us enough money to pay their feed bills let alone pay for the equipment we bought for them.

That being said we are keeping a few for ourselves and will continue to breed a few. That means we will not always have rabbit available, but we may occasionally have a few up for sale. If you would like to continue to get rabbit from us on an occasional basis, you may give us your contact information and when we have them available we will contact you.

We are sorry for the inconvenience and we are sorry that we cannot continue. We hope you still come back for the chicken and our fruit butters and herbs.

Thank you for being so loyal and for understanding.

The kitchen is finished!

After the long wait and anticipation. The kitchen is finished!

We had our inspection on Friday October 5th and all went well. I have been cooking out of the kitchen now this past week and it has been a HUGE relief!

Trying to make as many butters as I have been trying to make in our small home kitchen was not too easy. Consistently pumping out and canning and trying to have dinner was not working out so well.

Now working out of the new kitchen I go down there work and come home and make and eat dinner. In the new kitchen I have plenty of room to move around. The kids have their own little corner where there is a TV, DVD player and toys for them to play with. Trying to keep a 1 1/2 year old and a 3 year old busy while you are trying to get work done is almost impossible. But it does a decent job.

Here are some pictures. I have not taken pictures since these were taken and this was before the stove, other counter and trim was finished.

Eric Jr helping clean the sinks or just playing in the water.

Julianna checking out the new potty!

Where the space is on the left is where the stove and other countertop are.

Checking to make sure his juice boxes were still cold!

I am going to try to take some more pictures this week to post the finished product. We are so glad to be able to expand now and will enjoy getting more varieties of products out to you including some specialty herbal stuff!

Newark Valley Apple Festival Oct. 6th and 7th.

Every year there is an apple festival held in Newark Valley. We have always talked about vending there but never really had much to vend. Produce isn't something that people would buy at an apple festival.

Now that we have the fruit butters, dried herbs and teas, we have decided we will join them this year.

Newark Valley Apple Festival
October 6th & 7th from 10am-5pm

"Admission is $6.00 for adults (members $5.00) and $4.00 for students and senior citizens. Children under 5 are free. Family rate $18. For more information call 642-9516. See you there!

Always fun for the whole family, this event includes "apple everything," kids' activities, great food, crafts, horse & wagon rides, and a well-stocked gift shop. Come see how people lived 150 years ago! You’ll find demonstrations of blacksmithing, open hearth cooking, spinning and weaving, black powder shooting, soap making, tours of the farmhouse, and more.

There will be lots of music including folk, bluegrass, Celtic, traditional fiddle music, string band, and Gospel. New this year - we will feature Morris Dancers, English and Irish folk dancing groups, and Contra Dancing. You can either watch, or join in and learn!"

http://www.nvhistory.org/Apple%20Festival.shtml


We are very excited. It is a great event and there is so much to see and do.
Check out the website. Great bands, great products, great people and a great time!

Every year they do an apple butter demonstration, but never have anyone that sells apple butter. So we fit right in. We contacted them and they were excited that we were interested.

I can't wait to see how it goes. I love the old thyme theme and the old farmstead attire.

Make sure you come out and check it out. And while you are out this way, you can also join us at the Newark Valley Farmers Market on Sunday the 7th from 10am-2pm right down the road from the Bement Billings.

Hope to see you there!

List of all the stores that carry our products.

I sat down the other day trying to figure out just how many stores our products are in. It is extremely humbling considering we started making the fruit butters in October of last year simply to have a little extra at our Harvest Festival that we held last year. To think that not even a year from then our butters would be in so many different stores.

Distributed by Cascun Farm CSA:
                   Gourmet Guild- Brooklyn, NY
                    Knickerbockers Meat- Ny, NY

Distributed by Regional Access:
                   Bellwether Hard Cider- Trumansburg, NY
                   Catskill Harvest- Liberty, NY
                   Chair 6- Lake Placid, NY
                   Clayton Food Co-op- Clayton, NY
                   Down to Earth Whole Foods- Endicott, NY
                   Greenstar Natural Foods Market- Ithaca, NY
                   Lost and Fondue- Skaeneatlas, NY
                   Masonville General Store and Cresent Wrench Cafe- Masonville, NY
                   Mildred's Meadows- Duanesburg, NY
                   Natur-Thyme- Dewitt, NY
                   Pittsford Farm Dairy- Pittsford, NY
                   The Foodshed- Brooklyn, NY

Distributed by us:
                   Cardinal Cafe- Newark Valley, NY
                   Cornell Orchards- Ithaca, NY
                   Eddydale's Farm Market- Ithaca, NY
                   Engelbert Farms- Nichols, NY
                   Lakewood Vineyards- Watkins Glen, NY
                   Shurfine- Newark Valley, NY
                   Six Mile Creek Vineyard- Ithaca, NY

Wow- 21 stores. And we are currently working on a few more accounts including a couple large accounts.

Sometimes in life there are those points when you wonder how did I get to this point? We were at that point last year and were trying to find something to get us over the hump we had been working so hard to get over. Then this came along. We are not over the hump yet, mainly because we are investing so much to be able to expand but we are hoping and praying to god that this is the break we needed.

My days now are filled with peeling fruit, cooking fruit, freezing fruit, prepping fruit, and canning. The kitchen smells of fruit and fruit pies. It reminds me of when I was a kid and I used to walk into grandma's kitchen and she had just taken a fresh baked apple pie out of the oven and the house was filled with that fresh cinnamon apple smell.

There are many times when we have wanted to give up, we have struggled, but have pushed through knowing that someday things would work out. We are still struggling, but we actually see a light at the end of the tunnel. The light is miles away, but at least it is visible.

I have talked to numerous people who think that farming is an easy job. It is far from easy. It  is all about passion, love and dedication. As with any small business or starter business. There are times when you just have to push through even though you don't know when the money is going to be coming in.

One person asked me a few weeks ago how we handle the stress, let downs and disappointments. To be honest, I don't handle it well. I get very stressed and anxious. I get intense. I keep pushing through and telling myself that things always work out. Eric is more laid back. He handles things better than I do. Although I do believe that deep inside he struggles with it because how could you not. But he doesn't let it show on the outside. He stays strong and figures things out. One of us has to be level headed about things I guess.

I guess my point to this little spat is that no matter what life throws at you....you always make it through. And the fruit butters have helped us and I hope they continue to.

“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.” - Maya Angelou

And of course if it wasn't for all of our loyal customers who continue to come back and love to try the new varieties of fruit butters and our new products that we continuously add we adore you. If it weren't for you we would not be here. We would not be the family we are today. You have truly inspired us to be better people and to give you the best products possible.