This year’s spring burlap removal project is almost complete.
Every autumn, I cover all my boxwood shrubs and outdoor urns to protect them from the heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures. We use strong steel frames and custom fit burlap casings sewn by hand. And just before Easter, everything is removed to expose all the lush green foliage - it's a complete transformation around my farm. This week, my outdoor grounds crew removed the protective coverings and frames around my herbaceous peony bed and behind my Summer House. And timing is just perfect - Easter is just four days away.
Enjoy these photos.
One of our annual outdoor spring chores includes removing all the burlap that surrounds my precious boxwood shrubs during winter. Here at my farm, we had a mild winter season this year – not much snow, and no damaging cold or wind. We were lucky. All my boxwood was well encased all season long.
Here is the burlap covering the boxwood behind my Summer House. We remove the burlap once the temperatures are consistently above freezing and before Easter. The crew spends several days removing all the burlap.
All of the coverings are custom wrapped and sewn to fit each individual shrub, hedge, or bush. The burlap and all the supplies are removed gently, so as to preserve as much burlap as possible.
The tall American boxwood that surrounds my sunken garden is protected with plastic netting to keep the branches from splaying. It’s not as sensitive to the cold as English boxwood, so no need to wrap it in burlap.
Here is a closer look at the protective netting, which is wrapped around the tall hedge and held tight with metal pipe framing. When removed, the netting is rolled and put away until fall.
All these rolls of fabric will be placed in our stable storage barn where it can be kept dry. One of the few downsides to this fabric is that it will start to fray and disintegrate after time, especially if exposed to moisture.
Fortunately, the weather here in the Northeast has been pleasant this week and the crew is getting a lot done outside in the fresh air. Here, the burlap is pulled off the boxwood hedge surrounding my herbaceous peony bed.
These pipes are made from rolled galvanized 16 gauge industrial tubing. The ground piping is pounded into the ground – each one about four to five feet from the next. The top pieces are 10-foot wide bow sections – these frames will last quite a while, I hope. Chhiring uses a socket bit on the drill to remove the metal fasteners.
These fasteners are called tension purlin brackets. They connect the center piping to the bow sections of the frame.
Chhiring and Phurba also remove the wooden stakes and strips that connect the pipes to the burlap. Everything is separated, so it can be stored properly. We make our own wooden strips out of unused pieces of wood.
Team work is necessary to complete this task quickly and efficiently. Here, the burlap and frames are gone, showing just the beautiful green boxwood underneath. Some question whether covering plantings each winter really helps, but look how lush and intact the plantings are when uncovered – I definitely feel it is worth the time and effort.
This is a view inside the herbaceous peony bed and the exposed green boxwood hedge – a great sight to see.
Burlap is also removed from the boxwood hedges and shrubs in my Summer House garden.
The burlap removal reveals what we hope for every year – green, healthy boxwood.
My large urns behind the Summer House are also unwrapped – they’re now ready for spring planting.
Buxus is a genus of about 70 species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. The leaves on boxwood branches are arranged opposite from each other, making pairs.
My sunken Summer House Garden is a more formal garden with both English and American boxwood. In just a few more weeks, this garden will once again look different. All the ginkgo trees will be filled with gorgeous green leaves.
Here are the dismantled metal frames removed from around the peony bed and behind the Summer house. It is all organized and stacked and ready to be stored.
This year, outside my Winter House Green Parlor, we used these round hoop house frames to hold up the burlap. It was a perfect solution for accommodating the growing shrubs. We will use the same metal piping next year.
The rounded pipes are removed and lifted by our trusted Hi-Lo. Chhiring slowly drives them to a back field where everything is stored.
Here, the pieces are organized and kept off the ground. I always impress upon the crew that staying organized saves lots of time later.
Straight pieces are also stored by size on top of wooden pallets. I am glad we are able to protect the boxwood efficiently and successfully every winter. Next task – removing all the burlap and framing from my long Boxwood Allée.
There's nothing quite like Sunday supper - the tradition of gathering around the dinner table with family and friends at the end of a long, busy week.
This past weekend, I attended "Sunday Supper" at Makers Central in nearby Tarrytown, New York. Makers Central is a group of talented artists and entrepreneurs who create handmade goods for some of the best restaurants in the country - items such as ceramic plates, wooden bowls, knives, and much more. Several times a year, Makers Central transforms its bustling workshop into a beautiful and thoughtful pop-up restaurant, and invites a well-known chef to prepare signature dishes for a long table of guests. This dinner was made by celebrity chef and restaurateur, Christian Petroni. He prepared a delicious menu including escarole and iceberg salad, fried meatballs and vinegar peppers, pasta e patate with mussels, beef braciola braised in arrabbiata sauce, creamy polenta with farro, and for dessert - olive oil cake with zabaglione.
Enjoy these photos of "Sunday Supper" at Makers Central. And please go to the web site to learn more about its Makers.
Above the table is a giant handmade wreath full of foraged spring flowers.
Each place setting includes a menu card and message from its hosts. The table centerpieces are floral arrangements by Michelle Edgemont Design. All the Makers contributed their beautiful creations to the event. (Photo by @sagehundgen)
Each menu was also handmade on recycled paper by Natalia Woodward from Bat Flower Press. Natalia has a work space at Makers Central. I got to see her printing press as well as some of the other types of handmade paper that she makes.
This is Connor McGinn, co-founder of Makers Central. He is opening his ceramic kiln so it can be used to make Chef Christian Petroni’s signature meatballs. Just hours before the meal, the kiln was filled with plates made right in the studio. Connor and Christian fired it back up to cook much of the meal. (Photo from @connormcginnstudios)
Here are some of Connor’s handmade ceramic plates displayed prominently on the shelves and used for “Sunday Supper” meals.
Two Makers helping with dinner – concrete maker, David Puchalski and woodworker,
Carlos Chimborazo. Both are former bartenders from Blue Hill Stone Barns. They are teaming up once again behind the bar to create craft cocktails for Makers Central’s Sunday Supper. (Photo by @lexymonaco)
Here I am with knife maker, Matt Yazel. Matt made this group of knives for the event. (Photo: @connormcginnstudios;
Maker: @yazelknives)
Matt and I talked about the beauty of hand crafted kitchen knives.
I also took a small tour of the workshop – here are shelves filled with Connor’s plate ware – cups, bowls, plates in a variety of light hues.
Here are more of Connor’s creations stacked nearby.
Before dinner began, I took this snapshot from one end of the table. It was fun to meet so many interesting and energetic people.
And here was the first course – plated escarole and iceberg salad with red onion and creamy labneh yogurt and pecorino vinaigrette dressing. Chef Christian also topped each salad with parmigiano cheese. (Photo by Clarence Morey III)
Next, Chef Christian’s meatballs – fried and served with vinegar peppers. These meatballs were set family style, so everyone could get seconds and thirds.
Here’s Chef Christian putting the finishing touches on the main course – pasta e patate con provolla e cozze, or mussels. Chef Christian shared stories of visiting his grandmother in Italy as a child. Pasta e patate was an old peasant dish she used to make. At the end of every week she would empty out the bottom of the jar of pasta on the counter. All of the little broken pieces of spaghetti, the stray bowtie or zitti, the crumbs of pasta flour, it all ended up in the pot with a handful of potatoes and some garlic. She would cook it down until it all melded together into a porridge.
Here is a closer look at the giant bowl of pasta – it smelled so delicious.
The pasta was plated on lathe turned wooden bowls made at Makers Central by Carlos and Elena of C-Los Carpentry. Carlos gets all of his wood from local trees downed by storms. I told them they’d have to come by my farm to pick up some of the ash trees I had to take down and turn them into more bowls.
Here, Chef Christian prepares his toasted farro polenta. To add a bit of extra nutty earthiness he toasts it until it is nice and deep golden brown. “Right on the edge of being burnt so it brings out all of those beautiful nutty flavors”. Then he put into a spice grinder and pulverized it before adding it to the stone ground polenta served with the third course – beef braciole braised in arrabbiata sauce. He said it was an experiment, and it worked like a charm. (Photo by Clarence Morey III)
Chef Christian and Connor spoke to all the guests. They’ve known each other for years and enjoyed sharing stories fro their early restaurant days. (Photo by Clarence Morey III)
They both agreed there was no better purpose is in life than to make people happy with food. (Photo by Clarence Morey III)
Here’s the creamy polenta and kiln roasted braciole served on Connor’s ‘Trash’ plates. Each of these plates was made out of recycled clay. (Photo by Clarence Morey III)
We all watched as dessert was prepared.
Chef Christian brought in the most delicious crumb cake from his friends at Galloways bakery. He soaked it with brown butter simple syrup and fresh bright green olive oil. (Photo by Clarence Morey III)
After it was baked in the kiln, he topped it with zabaglione, a a rich Italian dessert custard made with eggs, sugar, and sweet wine.
The dessert plates are some of Connor’s “misfit samples.” Connor makes custom plate ware for some of the top restaurants in the country. He told us about the piles of beautiful designs that didn’t quite make the cut for one reason or another. Making art for a functional purpose like a restaurant has to be done within certain guidelines. They have to stack nicely, fit in a dishwasher, be ergonomic and easy to lift from the table with one hand. Most of these pieces didn’t make the final cut, but are perfect for “Sunday Supper.” And each guest picked out their favorite dessert plate to use.
(Photo by Clarence Morey III)
It was a lovely event and a delicious meal. I hope it helps bring back “Sunday suppers” in everyone’s home. Thank you Makers Central. And please visit the web site for more information. (Photo by @sagehundgen;
Maker: @connormcginnstudios, @capelilyflowers)
Not long ago, I shared images of my cute, fluffy, and very curious gosling, which was bred, incubated and hatched right here at my Bedford, New York farm. For the first two weeks, it was housed with other chicks in my stable feed room where we set up safe, warm brooders. But, geese grow very quickly. In fact, they catch up to full body size within the first few months of life. As their feathers come in, they also nearly double in weight and stature every week. It was time to move our gosling to another coop, with some bigger, older peeps, and more room to roam.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Our gosling is now three weeks old, but it is growing fast – much faster than the other peeps in the stable feed room brooder.
Here’s a closer look at our youngster. Geese have a flattened beak covered with a thin skin and a horny plate at its end. The bill is tapered toward the tip to help in grasping grass. This gosling is very curious and loves everyone who comes to visit. It always comes to the front of the brooder to say hello.
A few days ago, my stable manager, Helen Peparo, who oversees the care of all my equines and the outdoor birds, decided it was time to move our gosling to a larger coop, where it could be with other birds its size.
Hard to tell from this photo, but these chicks are a little older and larger than the ones indoors – better company for our growing gosling. The red hue is from the heat lamp.
Waterfowl babies don’t need as much warmth as other birds, but they do need a little extra warmth, especially at night. The heat lamps are turned on when needed. This day was cloudy and a bit cold outside.
At this stage, goslings need a safe place to sleep that is dry, but not droughty until they have sufficient feathers to help maintain and regulate their body temperatures.
At first, the gosling doesn’t quite know what to make of its new surroundings, but it is alert and curious. Geese spend most of their time on the ground. Their legs are adapted to walk longer than other birds. They are also equipped with webbed legs which are positioned farther forward than on swans and ducks, allowing them to walk readily, and to swim efficiently.
Among the chicks in this coop – a group of Cochins, a large domestic breed of chicken.
Cochins have round bodies, a single comb, and feathered feet. When full grown, these birds have long, soft plumage that makes them seem even larger than they actually are. The American Poultry Association Standard of Perfection recognizes several Cochin colors: buff, partridge, white, black, silver laced, golden laced, blue, brown, and barred.
In this “nursery” coop, I also keep three Silkie chickens – one white, one gray, and one black. There are eight Silkie color varieties accepted by the American Poultry Association. They include black, blue, buff, gray, partridge, splash, and white. This trio is always together.
All the chicks will eat, drink, and run around for four to six months before they start laying any eggs.
All my chicks get a balanced diet of medicated chick crumb with some treats and fresh greens from my gardens.
Fresh, clean water is also always provided. In fact, every chick is personally shown where their food and water sources are, so they know where to find them. This waterer allows the chicks to drink safely without getting it dirty.
Within a few minutes, our gosling is curious enough to start mingling with its new friends.
This Cochin chick is also curious about the newest bird to join its flock.
These birds will remain inside this coop for several more weeks until it is safe for them to roam outdoors.
Here, our little gosling starts to flutter its wings. This youngsters cannot fly, but goslings usually start to flutter around this age and can go short distances at about three months old.
Geese are flock birds. They like company and will always stay together in their group – this group will soon be great friends.
Do you know… a goose is actually the term for female geese, male geese are called ganders. A group of geese on land or in water is a gaggle, while in the air they are called a skein, a team, or a wedge.
Our gosling will do just fine with the Cochins and Silkies. And by summer, this bird will be out in the goose enclosure socializing with the other adults.
For now, I think it is content just observing its new environment. This gosling has a lot of friends – human and avian. I am sure it will continue to thrive and be happy here at the farm.
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