Sweet Corn Fields
Posts Tagged ‘Buy Local’
Wordless Wednesday, Got ARK?
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011Wordless Wednesday: Doin’ it “Winery Style” @ Maize Valley
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
Better than Sex
Wine, Food and more, what we R busy with at Maize Valley
Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011
Making rasied beds in the new greenhouse
Getting ready to put some of the early tomatoes in the soil.
Equipment usually only found out in the field in the greenhouse
I won’t write too much here as the video at the end of this post really shows how this machine works. So if you catch this blog on face book the face book notes feature usually cuts off the You Tube video, be sure and follow up and go to www.ohiowineandmore to see the entire blog post.
Long view of the raised bed
The crops grown in this greenhouse and our others get sold at area farmers’ markets, thru a local modified CSA group up in Cleveland, at our farm market and in some of the meals we serve in our winery cafe’ and market.
J.D. 2630 with plastic mulch bedder
At Maize Valley we are many things. My wife family have made a living with the land here in Marlboro township since the 1800′s. We grow about 52 different crops on about 700 acres we are a small farm anymore. But we think it is our diversity that keeps us in the game and keeps us strong. From Corn Mazes to Cabernet, from Garlic to Greenbeans, 1/2 marathons to Merlot, come and see why Maize Valley IS the Place To BE! 
Winter growing update, what’s coming up, down on the farm!
Tuesday, February 15th, 2011
The green mile?
New this year at the local CVCC winter farmers market will be a crop of fresh radishes.
Countryside Winter Farmers’ Market at Old Trail School
January 22; February 5 & 19; March 12 & 26; and April 9 & 23
9am until Noon
2315 Ira Road
Akron, OH 44333
If you have never had the chance to go into a greenhouse on a cold winter day, I’m sorry. It is hard to describe. It is not so much just the heat, the getting in out of the cold is the obvious part.
Indoor Radishes
I guess it is the smell of “concentrated life” about to explode, almost a tropical buzz is around you. It’s something like sauna with rich humidity filling your senses and touching your skin but with the rich aroma of potting soil and the stark green colors you find as you enter this plastic oasis, briefly escaping the cold “Negative Photograph” world of winter on the outside.
It’s what living on a farm is all about I guess, as we try new things to adapt to what the market gives us.
Winter Work, Wordless Wednesday!
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
Got Wood?! The Ohio LEAD program, pioneers and the economy; thanks Dave Longaberger
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
My Dad's 30+ year old Stihl Farm Boss
A few year back I was in a Leadership program called the Ohio LEAD program. The letters stood for “Leadership, Education and Development”. About 30 of us from around the state were put on a whirlwind program to expose us to a variety of situmulus, situations and experiences.
One of the stops was at the Longaberger basket facility in Dresden Ohio. We got to sit down with Dave Longaberger the patriarch. We sat in the school room he failed in, I think it was 3rd grade maybe more than once? We were sitting there because he now owned the entire school as he did with many other significant places around the town. Dave failed and succeded at many things in his life in spectacular fashion was the message I took away from our meeting.
Dave with his work boots and “greenies” (green cover-alls) was a hands on “doer” of a person, owner, manager. LEAD gave me many experiences however this one sticks in my mind in the top three. Dave taught me not to fear life as a business person, to “just do it” before it was popular. But this was not something so trivial as sports, what he was talking about it was life, business and family.
Today we just need more people trying to be “Dave’s”. You see failure is a necessary part of success, you can’t soar with Eagles until you push your way threw some slimey egg shells. Untill you understand the cost of failure can you appreciate the rewards of success.
After Dave the company has not been so well able to adapt to the times. Dave was unique, Dave was “Hungry”.
The logs I am cutting in the videos came are the last to come from the local Longaberger facility that produced the slats for the famous baskets. These were the rejects from the lathe they spun down in search of the perfect piece to make those one time collectable baskets. But even as rejects they serve a purpose to me. I will use them to remember Dave, and remember to take chances.
Wineries in the winter what’s going on?
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011
LaCrescent vines sleeping
What goes on in the vineyard in January, well not too much. These vines are very winter hardy and can handle temps. down to 30 degrees below zero farenheit. They had a good growing season last year with lot of heat and sunshine and not too much or too little rain.
July vs. January
We had a early harvest due to the good growing season. This allowed for the leaves to hang on a long time since we had a late “killing frost” also. The vines were able to load lots of energy via the fall sunshine and hopefully store some good energy in the root systems before they went dormant. This helps on these long cold days.
We prune these grapes later than most to see what and if any late frosts take away buds we may be counting on.
These reisling vines pictured above are not as winter hardy as the LaCrescent and we will see, this might be their last year on the farm. We may replace these with another French American Hybrid called Traminette.
So while the grapes are outside enduring the winter, our guests are inside enjoying the fruits of their labor from seasons past!
At Maize Valley We Make Great Wine…FUN! Last weekend we had the Island Dr. aka Scott Alan in. We have live entertainment every Friday and Saturday night and this past weekend the Dr. brought the house down! Great guests desended to form a massive conga line, limbo and just a whole bunch of other Island style fun.
How low can you GO?
Takin’ what life throws at me part 3, Let’s get this party started
Thursday, January 27th, 2011
Pre-opening ceremonies
Maize Valley Farm Market and Winery will be sending a team to the Susan G. Komen 3 Day walk for the cure in Cleveland Ohio in 2011. This is part 3 of the story of how this family farm business came to “adopt” this as “official cause”. Both from a personal standpoint but also from an event and business perspetive how we try and raise awereness and funds. That’s why it is part of the Ohio wine and more blog, this part of the “more”.
Now that is a real bad cliche’! We often say when we lose someone to breast cancer something like, she “lost her battle” with breast cancer. What the f**k does that mean? A battle is a subset of a war are those men and women who get breast cancer warriors? Well you’re not till it punches you in the gut as it did us.
At least for us, even when it came very close to us we had sympathy for those affected but sort of covered our ears and went “Laaa, Laaa, Laaa, Laaa” when the discussion really tried to get “focused”. You don’t really take up arms and Lock n Load till it takes a shot at you, then baby, “it’s on”.
Who's da bad ass?
Gonna “Rewind” now a bit from dropping Chelle off day of the walk to one of “My Darkest Days”, and I ain’t talkin’ about the band from Canada either! You see in order for you to understand why I began to understand why the SGK walk was important enough to tell others, I need to tell you how breast cancer has reached into our lives beyond my wife Chelle.
When I heard “those words” on the dock I was dropped to my knees, a blackness shadowed over me, I felt powerless to help “my girl”. Maybe I overreacted? I am a data guy I needed data what did this mean? All of a sudden I was in a fog, my reference points unknowable, my objectives and options unclear.
Mary Ellen Cole Bakan
Overreacted? I did not know, THAT was the problem! The fog, the blackness of my heart and soul was maybe a result of the “war” I was sucked into. My sight was obstructed. I feared this battle, you see this was not the first time I saw a one. Pictured above is not just a tractor and a wagon but my Brother Tim returning from the pumpkin patch with a load of guests, pumpkins and memories.
Sitting on the wagon was his wife Mary Ellen Cole Bakan with their daughter Anne. A daughter they were not even supposed to even be able to have, today the biggest living memory we have of Mary Ellen.
Orange, my favorite color!
Mary Ellen was our un-official “pumpkin lady”, nobody out of ignorance nor mallace ever left our pumpkin patch without paying for the time, labor and toil it took to raise the crop. With a smile and comforting tone as big and beautiful as the blazing color of the fall folliage around you, that only a 4th grade teacher could deliver, she could walk up to anybody and be sure she did her part to help keep this farm “sustainable”.
The change of season brings certain well “certainties” if you will. Just as those colorful fall leaves decay to give us aromas we only ascribe to fall, or that the models on the L.L. Bean cataloge are having a great time! I was certain EVERYONE leaving the pumpkin patch had PAID for their pumpkin!
Tim and Mary Ellen “worked” for FREE for us on the weekends, I’d pay a King’s ransom if I could to bring her back for my brother. They had our back, I’ve done the best I could the almost past three years to have Tim’s. I feared that someone would have to have mine. That’s how this party got started for us. More to come.
Maize Valley Farm Market and Winery will be fielding a team for the 2011 Susan G. Komen 3 Day walk. If you would like to join us please get in touch. Because everyone deserves a lifetime!
There are three kinds of lies…‘Sexy Forever – How to Fight Fat After Forty,’
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011Ohio wine and more talking beef and pigs? Yes we are a winery, and farm market but we still raise a few animals yet now and then to see previous blog post. Along with growing grapes and making wine we grow lots of food too. Today people are more concerned where their food comes from and how it is raised. That is good, it can only lead to more healthy choices being made! But they also need good and balanced info. Good accurate science balanced with passion to take greater responsiblity is a great combination.
The first six words above are a quotation which is often attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, the 19th century British Prime Minister. The source for this view is the autobiography of Mark Twain, where he makes that attribution. Nevertheless, no version of this quotation has been found in any of Disraeli’s published works or letters. The earliest reference yet found anywhere is to a speech made by Leonard H. Courtney, (1832-1918), later Lord Courtney, in New York in 1895:
Mark Twain
‘After all, facts are facts, and although we may quote one to another with a chuckle the words of the Wise Statesman, “Lies – damn lies – and statistics,” still there are some easy figures the simplest must understand, and the astutest cannot wriggle out of.’
There’s no indication that by ‘Wise Statesman’ Courtney was referring to any specific person, although it may be that Twain thought that he meant Disraeli.
The next eight words are from the famous health expert, Suzanne Somers….‘Sexy Forever – How to Fight Fat After Forty,’
I don’t often “recycle blogs” but after the whole “vacine scare” which rerouted and misdirected tons of resources as well as indirectly gave whopping cough a new foothold to work off of. Having a son with many Autistic behaviors we have looked at this you might say “from both sides now”.
I caught this blog via some of my agricutural blog buddies and thought it was worth reposting.
http://purplepoke.blogspot.com/2011/01/today-shows-ag-love.html
I am not saying either side is 100% right but we in agriculture get smacked everyday square in the face of what I call the “physics of life” where common sense along with a good education and information are the necessary tools of survival.
When nut case celebrities confuse passion and book sales with communicating a accurate and useful message it just drives me nuts! Thank you to NBC and Natalie Morales of the Today Show for having the integrity to not just nod their heads like a bobble head doll which happens all too often when some “public figure” comes along with “all the answers”. And oh yea, it’s in my book!
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Trying to “close the loop”
Tuesday, January 25th, 2011
As the saying goes "like one hog waits on another"!
We are working at ya might say “closing the loop” as much as possible when it comes to food. Saying that is one thing doing it is another. Not only do you have to be a savy marketer, you need to be a low cost producer to win it in the long haul.
This particular group of pigs entertained thousands of folks during the fall corn maze and pumpkin picking season running for Oreo’s, but now they are back on the home farm being the “Biggers Gainers”!
NASHOG race pigs at Maize Valley
We are trying to raise a great tasting product in an efficient and responsible way. We give these pigs lots of space, good food, and fresh air and sunshine. I hope to bale the crop in the picture about and the video below that we would normally just waste. I plan on using the sorghum/corn mix that was once a haunted corn maze for winter bedding and feed for hogs too.
Haunted Maze, Waiting on the "killing freeze"
In the summer time we raise 52 different crops on about 700 acres. Everyday during the growing season we have crops both harvested and left in the field that we cannot make use of that make great pig feed.
Concord grapes for jam and Red Neck Red!
From Grapes to Garlic, from Swiss Chard to Sweet Corn, ya never know what is coming up down on the farm.
Garlic Festival at Shaker Sq.
That is the efficient part, that is where you make your profit. Because “profit” is what makes a farmer, “sustainable”! Well this batch of “little piggies” has “gone to market” but we will be having more on the way fed right here on our farm where you can buy direct from this grower so give us a look! Take care.
