Rutkowski Farm

It was an odd garlic planting season this year.  I started with intentions of planting early in the month when the rains decided to make a strong showing and screw up my ability to get on the field.  Since then it’s been piecemeal work.  Two to three hours at a time and I’m almost completely done.  I still have many bales of straw to put down, but I’m hoping to be done with that before the snow.

It was also odd in that my raw counts were off for planting stock. It seems that some years produce more cloves/head than others and this year I was on the low end of that equation.  In the end, I still wound up with just over 10,000 heads.  I dropped a variety (Music) due to the fact that I’ve had trouble getting the timing right with regards to harvest and just don’t want to go down that road again.  I’m also adding German Red and Russian Red.  I’ll probably have sale-able quantities of German Red in 2 years and Russian Red in 3-4 years.

-Music Awards 2010-

As for music (not the garlic), I held my annual “Songs to plant by” contest in my head.  I was debating whether I should bother with this because last year Yo La Tengo won, and to date I haven’t followed through on my obligations to deliver garlic.  That will change when I go to one of their Hanukkah shows in December.

So the winner(s) for this year are the Vehicle Flips, a defunct 90′s band that made some amazing indie pop records.  The track that stuck with me of the several that popped up on shuffle was Song for Pahaquarry, NJ (1824-1997) from the album For You I Pine. Perhaps it was just the timing, but a song that starts with the line “What is it like to vote yourself right out of existence?” resonated with me during this excruciating election season. Hyperbole seems to rule the political day right now, and this is the opposite of hyperbole.

Frank Boscoe is incredibly adept at telling a great story within the course of a 4 minute song and that’s something I’m always drawn to.  In this case, he takes a vote surrounding a township that had dwindled to a population of 12 and makes it into something personal rather than political.  The song conveys isolation which is something I can relate to after a few hours of crawling around on the cold dirt.

It also may have influenced my decision, but I know both Frank and John Lancia (the drummer).  I also worked with both of them on the most recent Gazetteers record (which you should check out as well).  Whatever…it’s my fake contest and I can do what I want!

So..Frank, John, Tim.  I owe you garlic.  Since I’m effectively sold out at this point, you’ll get it next year in the Aug/Sep timeframe. Congratulations on your dubious honor.

Our friends at Wing Road Farm had a great blog post about the impending end of the growing season this coming Saturday night.

I don’t think I could sum it up any better than that….so I won’t.

Thank you to everyone who patronized us this year.  We’ve still got pumpkins and  squash out at the stand, but beyond that we’re about done.  We’ll be able to make at least one more farmer’s market as well.

Hey everybody!  It’s that time again!  We’ve had a great year with our garlic and are rounding out the sales portion with a trip to Saugerties.

Come down and visit us this weekend. We’re in booth B95!

For directions and info: http://hvgf.org

And on another note, we’ve shut down the store for the year…What’s left will be sold at Saugerties.   Thanks again!

Hopefully if I can find some time, I’ll post pics from both festivals in a week or so. And then it’s time to plant next year’s crop.  That and I still owe Yo La Tengo garlic, though I doubt they know or care.  For all I know Ira is a vampire.

Hi all…we had a great time this weekend in Bennington!  Except for some fierce wind, the weather was beautiful this weekend.  We got to see some old friends, meet some new people and sell a bunch of garlic.

The blurry picture to the left is an indicator that I need a new phone camera, but it’s what I have.  This was taken Saturday before the gates opened, so you don’t see any people, but I can assure you, they were there in droves later.  I had heard that Day 1 saw 8,000 through the gates.  Incredible!

Thanks to everyone who made it out.  We hope to see you next year, or if you’re so inclined, Saugerties.

A side note,  our quantities of Ukrainian Red have dipped to a point where we can no longer offer stock online.  Spanish Roja is up for debate, but we will make a decision in the next few days.

Our online store is open for 2010.  Just a couple of notes.  If you’re buying locally, you can use the cart as a rule of thumb, but because I can’t combine discounts (ie free shipping and a local discount) I have to ask you to contact us.  This will make it easier to arrange pickup/etc anyhow.

The other note for you out of towners is regarding shipping.  Basically the price of shipping is built into the cost of the garlic over 10 pounds.  Before that each pound of garlic brings down your shipping cost. It’s complicated, but it works.

Any questions…ask.