There is still snow on the ground, but here at the Circus, we’ve declared it Spring!  And with spring we want to welcome our team of draft horses, Sandy and Sunshine.  They are haflingers, a breed from Austria and northern Italy.  They are right on the horse-pony line, so not the huge horses you first think of when someone says “draft horse.”  Sandy and Sunshine and 8 and 9 years old, and have probably been doing farm work for longer than we have!  We hope and expect they will teach us as much–if not more–than we teach them.

They are both very sweet and while they are still adjusting to their new home, they are getting more comfortable by the day.  The other day I saw them lying down for a brief doze in the sun–a good sign that they are feeling relaxed!

In a lot of ways, the one having to do the most adjusting is June, our lovable dairy cow.  She, as well as Mini and Peaches, had never seen a horse before.  They were VERY curious.  But also kind of scared of these big, fast, strange, new four legged critters:

But Mini Little Cow was a very brave little cow!  And Sunshine was very patient as Mini sniffed out the newcomers.

June is still feeling a little insecure (which is so out of character for our opinionated self-confident cow) and keeps coming to me and Mark for assurance and extra love.  She doesn’t like sharing us with Sandy and Sunshine!  But she, too, is getting more relaxed about having the horses around.

Harness is on the way, and we look forward to driving Sandy and Sunshine in the weeks ahead so we all get to know each other better before we need to start doing “real” work–plowing our vegetable field this spring.

Hi everybody! Welcome to Full Circus Farm! Miriam is the one who has created this lovely website. I’m Mark, the other half of the farming operation. For those of you who didn’t make it out to our garlic planting event or haven’t seen the farm, come on out! We’re always happy to give a tour, or sit down to a meal together.

We got to Pine Plains a little over two months ago, but it feels like we’ve been here much longer! Things have moved pretty fast since we hit the ground. We’re keeping pace on a lot of projects—our soil is finally prepped and ready for whatever winter brings us. We seeded rye and vetch as our covercrop—the rye will hold the soil in place when the winter winds blow, add organic matter, and help reduce weed pressure. The vetch is a legume, which means it will fix nitrogen in the soil and add fertility to our fields. Planting a covercrop isn’t strictly necessary, but it’s a practice that most sustainable farms employ to prevent the soil from becoming depleted, even after years of crops that take a lot of nutrients and nitrogen out of the soil.

The search for our team of draft horses continues. If you know anyone with a team of drafts for sale, we are quite ready to rest our tractor and get the lines back in our hands. We’ve learned a lot from each team we’ve looked at, but we haven’t found the right match yet.

This fall we’ll continue our building frenzy, erecting 2 greenhouses, and getting at least a start on our walk-in cooler (a small refrigerated room powered by an air-conditioner that will keep our vegetables cold and fresh on hot summer days). We are learning a lot of the trades a jack has to know on the fly this year. Our 3 years of farming experience in Maine and on Long Island was great preparation, but we’ve always learned the most by jumping right in.   Well, we’re definitely in!

Miriam and I are so excited to be here! Looking forward to meeting all the great people who live in the area. Feel free to send us an email (fullcircusfarm@gmail.com) with any questions you might have about the farm, our CSA, or anything else.

Cheers,

Mark

At long last, we have moved to our new home and are starting our farm!  We are trying to get our feet on the ground while we learn to plow the the tractor, put up greenhouses, meet our neighbors, look for horses, find equipment, spread manure.  So much to do!  So much to learn!

Welcome, June, the newest member of our circus.  Our family milk cow.  She is quite a jumper, but we hope she doesn’t try to share her “Over the Moon” act ever again.

Let the circus begin!