We’re in the last few weeks of the year, and although winter isn’t official yet, we’ve already experienced our first bitterly cold snap. Heated water buckets and stock tank heaters were hooked up. Hoses for cleaning chicken coops have frozen solid. And countless discussions have been held about the impossible dream of finding warm waterproof gloves you don’t have to throw off in frustration at the first fight with a frozen gate latch. (Hint: They don’t exist.)
And last night the Ranch 61 boarders shared a meal and a drink (or three or four …) in the barn alongside their half-ton pets. All enjoyed the warmth of good food, good spirits, good company and–at least for a while–the scarily powerful overhead propane heaters burning off a whole summer season of hay dust. (Remind us to sweep them off next time!)
The evening was enough to make the season seem (almost kind of) warm. While the humans enjoyed their horses while safely sipping adult beverages from the ground, the horses—some reluctantly donning dollar-store Santa hats—used the spirit of giving as a shameless ploy to wangle more treats.
Yes, it is starting to look a lot like Christmas! Happy holidays, everyone!
Fall’s first hard frost hit pretty much on schedule last week. Our garden manager Lisa described her view of our lovely little plot the day after nighttime temps had dipped into the 20s as “post-apocalyptic.” We knew that day of death was coming, and had prepared for it—somewhat. But we still can’t help feeling sad.
The end of the growing season, in climates like Ohio’s, inevitably brings a bit of grief. All those tender greens and herbs we’d lovingly hand-watered daily through weeks of wilting temperatures and drought, the forests of hidden squash that doubled in size overnight, the millions of ungainly late-season heirloom and tiny cherry tomatoes—some of them still green—all wiped out, broken, savaged. Something about it seemed personal.
It was our first season gardening at this scale. Spring plans had been ambitious—in many ways overly so. Now was the time of reckoning, of taking stock, of reflecting on—and trying to learn from—our mistakes.
By the time of the season’s first snowfall—likely within the next few weeks—the garden will be a bleak, largely featureless reminder of a bounty now the stuff of dreams. White carpets of frozen greens. Bean trellises webbed with snow-covered death.
But as sad as we are for the season’s passing, we are buoyed by the promise of next year. Season’s end, after all, does bring some good things—like the end of the battle with weeds and bugs.
By December, we won’t remember much. Several cycles of new and melting snow and ice will render most of last season’s coddled crops unrecognizable, bringing a new grace to the garden that allows us to set our sights on spring.
At last it’s (almost) June, the first full month of Ohio’s growing season and the unofficial start of farmers market season in Ohio! The season is already well underway here in Sunbury, where the Sunbury Farmers Market runs in Sunbury Town Square, 51 E Cherry Street, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays through September 28.
Among the regular weekly vendors (Ranch 61 Mercantile included), here are a few market highlights for Saturday, June 1:
Ciao Bella Bread Co.
Fresh sourdough bread, bagels, rolls and more. Ciao Bella also wins the prize for the most beautiful vendor stand. Come check it out!
New Standard Coffee Roastery
Fresh, flavorful coffee beans roasted right here in Central Ohio. Buy whole beans or ground coffee. Or let them brew a cup for you. No better way to start your Saturday than with a warm cup of joe!
Also look out for:
Bryant’s Honey
From beekeeper and honey maker Mark: “We have approximately 30 hives and harvest our own honey.” Mark is vice president of the East Central Ohio Beekeepers Association and also teaches beekeeping through ECOBA.
Nibble and Neigh
Ranch 61 Mercantile’s own resident cookie company. Hefty New York-style cookies handmade by Ranch 61 barn manager Ellen. Enjoy a Blondie, Scout or William. Or sink your teeth into a classic chocolate chip. Look out for new varieties soon, including tasty gluten-free.
It’s tough entering a grocery store produce section when you know too much. In some ways I miss the days when I could buy apples from New Zealand and grapes from Chile without a second thought—and inevitably, despite my best intentions, watch at least a few of them rot away weeks later in my refrigerator.
Of course I would’ve seen the problem with this if I’d been paying attention. But ignorance, as they say, is bliss. If I didn’t think about all the fossil fuel burned to transport those apples halfway across the planet just to ultimately rot in my refrigerator, I could carry on if not blissfully, at least ignorantly.
If I didn’t think about the well-being of the farmers and hired hands who grew the produce that ultimately rotted away in my fridge, I could also carry on in ignorance. But when I started actually thinking about the absurd economic and political decisions that made perishables from South America or New Zealand cheaper at my local Kroger than produce from right here in Ohio, I could no longer in good conscience look away.
I knew I’d have to change the way I shopped. If I couldn’t afford to buy local, I’d at least have to start growing local. … And so began the Ranch 61 CSA.
Although the Ranch 61 CSA is just starting out, we know already that we’ll never be able to produce produce in the volume required to take advantage of whatever nefarious combination of politics and economies of scale make it cheaper to buy apples from New Zealand than their locally grown competitors.
Only Ohio-grown produce earns the seal.
Happily, Ranch 61 won’t need to fly fruits and vegetables halfway around the world. Nor will we drop heaps of cash on pesticides to keep the bugs away or on preservatives to blunt the effects of thousands of miles of hard travel.
Sure, growing fruits and vegetables on a small scale and without chemicals means much less profit and much more work. It’s not for everyone, that’s for sure. And it’s definitely hard to do when juggling jobs, family and other commitments.
If you can’t grow local produce, you can at least buy it. Small steps like these alone may not save the world. But they can definitely help assuage your produce-section guilt.
Buy Curious?
During warm months, your local farmers markets sell seasonal local produce grown by your neighbors. You’ll often get higher-quality produce for lower prices than you’d pay at the grocery store. And here in Central Ohio there are programs like SourcePoint and WIC, which issue farmers market vouchers to qualified households, allowing them up to $75 in free produce during the growing season.
If the farmers market isn’t convenient, the next time you visit your local chain supermarket, let the produce manager know you’d like them to stock more locally grown fruits and vegetables. If enough people ask for local produce, even big chains like Kroger or Meijer will make changes. The marketplace follows demand.
If you want to buy local produce, know that your selections may be limited to what’s in season in your area at the time. Buying local might also mean making tough decisions about exotic produce like pineapples or bananas. But it doesn’t necessarily mean spending more.
April is here at last. No more excuses to put off outdoor chores. That is if you don’t mind getting your muck boots sucked off in mud.
Most serious gardeners in the northern hemisphere sowed the season’s first seeds indoors weeks ago. Now temporary indoor growing spaces such as kitchens, crawlspaces, bonus rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms and even walk-in closets have exploded into racks of seedling pots and trays, along with tangles of wires and timers for grow lights and heat mats, all of it threatening to overtake the ever-shrinking human living spaces.
Would you like to be part of Ranch 61’s CSA this year? Click here to sign up for more information and updates.
While some seedlings seem content to wait for warmer outdoor air, others—like our purple kohlrabi this year—outgrow their nursery pots by the week. These tough little cole crops won’t wait for their outdoor homes. We wonder how big they might grow when transplanted outside in a few weeks. Will they overtake the garden? We can’t wait to find out.
While the night frosts are far from over in Ohio, the countdown to garden starting has begun—as has spring’s delicate dance with low nighttime temperatures and late-season frost warnings. While some seeds and seedlings can tolerate a light freeze, all it takes is one poor prediction or incorrect calculation to kill an entire crop.
Those who don’t garden might not get it, but growing your own produce is an investment well worth the time, labor and—at least this time of year—mild weather-related stress. Growing your own fruits and veggies isn’t just personally satisfying, but it also ensures you and your family will enjoy fresher, tastier produce for less money than you’d otherwise pay in a restaurant or even a grocery store.
Naturally, eating organically grown local produce is good for both you and the environment. Not only do you get to enjoy pesticide-free fruits and veggies, and tomatoes that actually taste like something, but the planet enjoys a break from the copious amounts of fossil fuel needed to bring you mostly flavorless out-of-season grocery store produce from thousands of miles away.
Apologies in advance if we ruin the grocery store stuff for you. Once you eat a farm-fresh tomato, pepper, melon or herb, the store-bought stuff just doesn’t cut it. For some of us, this may come to mean skipping fresh things that aren’t in season for several months of the year. But if we Ohioans can make it through six months of frigid temps, ripping winds and epic mud, we can wait till June to enjoy a ripe red Ohio-grown heirloom tomato.
Trust us. You can make it to June—though your muck boots may not. Happy April!
Calling all farmers and crafters in the Sunbury, Ohio, area: It’s time to start planning for the 2024 Sunbury Farmer’s Market!
If you grow produce or produce-producing plants (that’s a mouthful!), or are a local artisan or crafter who makes things by hand (except weapons and other illegal or non-family-friendly stuff), the Sunbury Farmer’s Market is a great place to get out into the community and sell your wares!
Be a fresh (fruit and vegetable) face at the Sunbury Farmers Market! Vertumnus årstidernas gud målad av Giuseppe Arcimboldo 1591, via Wikimedia Commons
We’re also looking for food truck and coffee cart vendors (with quiet generators!) to sell on picturesque Sunbury Square Saturday mornings from May 25 through September 28.
For more information and to meet the 2024 Sunbury Farmers Market dream team, please join us for one (or both!) of our vendor meet-and-greets at the Sunbury Community Library at 44 Burrer Drive on Saturday March 23 and Saturday May 11 from 10 a.m. to noon. Light refreshments will be served.
Feel free to direct immediate questions to me at sara@ranch61.com.
We look forward to seeing you on the Square this summer!
It’s the second week of January, and finally the hens have started laying again after months of channeling all their egg-laying energies into growing some of the loveliest feathers we’ve ever seen. Seriously, these hens (and rooster Speck, who, happily, seems to have gotten the hens’ message about nonconsensual sex, and has stopped mounting them) are looking better than an Easter bonnet with all the frills upon it!
But we are really happy to have eggs again.
For the last few months as we’ve been eggless, we just couldn’t bring ourselves to buy grocery store eggs. We hate that store-bought eggs are washed and clean, removing the natural protective coating that helps them stay fresh, even without refrigeration! Plus, once you’ve had an hours-old egg—even if the shell is smeared with mud—you just can’t go back to store-bought.
Though this lovely lone tan egg (above) laid by our Buff Orpington bruiser Poppy (or “Buffy,” depending on who you ask) is one small reminder of longer days and spring’s ultimate return, it’s tough to get too excited when we see two- and three-degree lows in the forecast for early next week.
Oh well. It’s that kind of January weather that makes us grateful for spring—even as today we enjoy nearly 50 degrees, high winds, rain and the boot-high mud that comes with it. Surely next week’s single-digit temps will freeze today’s muddy mess. Then we’ll have different things to complain about.
Much of farm life is about challenges and extremes. In a few months, we’ll be back to giving away dozens of eggs at a time. But for now, this single, slightly muddied tan egg makes it feel like Thanksgiving. And that the flock is now fully feathered is just gravy.
CSA, or community supported agriculture, is a way to get fresh local produce delivered to you throughout the growing season. If you’re lucky enough to have a CSA in your community, you can reap all the benefits of growing your own fruits and vegetables without all the time, effort and expense of large-scale gardening, and without a weekly trip to Kroger.
Because CSA plots are bigger than home gardens, you’re also guaranteed more variety than you could reasonably produce in one season yourself. Meaning that instead of winding up with 300 tomatillos and three tomatoes but no cucumbers or lettuce at the end of the growing season, throughout the season you receive a mix of produce that you can actually use to make healthy and delicious meals and snacks.
Some of Ranch 61’s more colorful 2023 harvest.
A full-season CSA share brings 10-to-20 pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables to your doorstep once a week for 20 weeks, usually from around May or June through September or October. Half shares are often available for 10 weeks or half the season.
If you like fresh produce and enjoy supporting local family farms, a CSA share may be right for you. And if you live within a 30-minute drive of Sunbury, Ohio, maybe you’ll join us here at Ranch 61 as a shareholder for the 2024 season. Keep an eye on this space for more information, including opportunities to get involved.
With last week’s winter solstice came the long-awaited (but still painfully slow) return of longer days. Specifically, here in Sunbury, Ohio, the sun is now setting a full seven minutes later than it was for most of the first half of December, when, according to TimeAndDate.com, the Sunbury sun set at a dismal 5:05 p.m. By the end of the month and year this Sunday, the sun will officially set at 5:15, a full 10 minutes later than on December 2.
So … yay? Kind of. Sadly, we still have several months to go till annual plants will grow and the western sky may still be aglow at close to 10 p.m.
When I first moved to Ohio two years ago, I was dismayed by how late the sun rose here in fall and winter. A little research explained that Ohio’s late wintertime sunrise was mostly due to the state’s being on the western end of the Eastern Time Zone. Studies have shown a higher incidence of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) among those living in places where the winter sun rises late.
According to this U.S. map (right) of sunrise times on the winter solstice by George Musa of Columbia University, Ohio is among the states whose residents are most affected by SAD, and definitely the farthest west in any time zone I’ve ever lived. But Ohio’s time zone troubles are nothing compared to those experienced by residents of western Montana, North Dakota and upper peninsula Michigan, where the winter sun rises close to 9 a.m., pretty much guaranteeing any office worker will hardly see the light of day all week for half the year.
Like my SAD-suffering brethren, I’m somewhat sad about the short (approximately nine-hour) days this time of year. But like agrarian types for thousands of years, I take some small joy in gaining even a few extra seconds of light each day, as Central Ohio inches ever closer to the sowing times on all the seed packets I hopefully bought through fall.
For most of us, gardening doesn’t quite hit the radar till the first signs of spring in March. Maybe our mild winter so far has some of you hoping for an early spring. I’m clearly already there, and have already started planning Ranch 61’s ambitious spring garden.
The plan right now is for a huge plot next year, with enough room to produce a weekly crop for the Sunbury Farmer’s Market all summer, while keeping those of us who tend the field in plenty of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, squash and about 30 other strange and wonderful crops from May through November.
We’re only in the early planning stages right now, but we here at Ranch 61 do hope that others in and around Sunbury share some of our passion for farm fresh flowers and vegetables. With some hard work, great partners and a whole lot more daylight, maybe next year you’ll share our harvest.
Watch this space in the coming weeks for Ranch 61’s seasonal garden plans and opportunities to get involved. Till then, enjoy the extra few minutes of daylight!
Hard to believe 2023 is almost over. Happily, our mild early winter weeks have helped buoy spirits here at Ranch 61, as everyone has had to take on more work than they should while the barn owner recovers from two joint replacements in three months. (Kind of inconsiderate, wouldn’t you say?)
An owner away from the barn for weeks at a time has meant more hours and many double shifts for endlessly patient barn manager Ellen. It has also meant weeks of very early mornings for Michael, who has had to feed, turnout and clean before dawn and after work, despite not having exactly signed up for all this two years ago, when he and his pre-joint-replacement partner first looked out across the then-verdant fields of Ranch 61 before there were any horses on them, and said, “Sure, I could live here—just as long as the Internet’s fast.” (Oops again—Maybe fiber, or even just Spectrum, will make it out here next year?)
Fast-forward two years. Those verdant pastures are now almost entirely mud, and they’re dotted with half-ton animals that require hours of care morning and night, 365 days a year. Happily, Michael has become a master horse handler (And also manure shoveler, arena dragger, fence fixer, horse wormer, etc., etc.). He’s also weirdly skilled at getting difficult horses onto trailers. (“I don’t know enough to know to be worried about it,” he said the last time he easily loaded a problem horse before his owner even had a chance to escalate tensions with preemptive nervousness.)
Thanks also to our five wonderful horse moms who have all pitched in by cleaning stalls, moving horses, checking for barn cats and closing things down for the night without even being asked. These committed horse moms have also done an awesome job of keeping the barn owner up on barn events and horse antics—some even involving non-off-track thoroughbreds!
Like a few of the girls here at Ranch 61, Blondie, who can come and go from her stall while on turnout, likes to save her business for inside the stall. Why not, when it means more bonding time with the barn manager?!
Which is not to say we don’t adore Ranch 61’s two resident thoroughbreds, Scout and William, who, despite their tendency to keep the excitement levels high here at Ranch 61, are also among the biggest sweethearts in the barn.
Despite his OTTB status, sweet William, Ranch 61’s most eligible bachelor, can be a real gentleman. (Video by his mom Ellen.)
Regardless of breed, there’s never a dull moment when you’re working with horses. But horse people know that whatever crap they leave you to clean up, horses more than make up for it in pure personality and, in some cases, sheer terror.
Although we horse folks may curse the excitement in the moment, we all know it’s the exciting times that build our skills and confidence, making us better riders and people. (And also prematurely wearing out the hip and knee joints of those of us who’ve taken a few too many falls!) Whether horse-related or not, keep safety your top priority this festive season.
Happy holidays from the Ranch 61 family! Here’s to a healthy 2024 with less down time, more good weather—and (for Michael) maybe even fiber Internet.
Ranch 61 