Lots and lots of blueberries!

It's a pretty common occurrence around the farm to get some dirt under our fingernails, but we know it's late July when our fingers start looking a little blue.  And yep, you guessed it, the blueberry harvest is coming in fast and heavy, and there are a lot of blue fingers around Miller's Orchards these days!

Thanks to the hot humid weather the Northeast PA region endured the past several weeks, the blueberry bushes have producing an extraordinary harvest.  Momma and Amber (and, of course, lil Lena Mae) have been picking as fast as their little fingers can go, and there're still more berries ripening every afternoon in the hot sunshine!  The bakery has been churning out the area's tastiest blueberry pies, and there are STILL lots of blueberries left over!

So what do a bunch of farmers do when they've got a fabulous blueberry harvest?  Why, host a Blueberry Festival, of course!  That's right--on Saturday August 6th from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., stop by the Farm for a celebration of Blueberries!  There will be Blueberry picking (if you want to take some home, you can pay by the pound in the Farm Market), Blueberry-themed goodies for sale to eat-in or take home, and even two Farm Tours (at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.)  Admission to the Farm is free--so take advantage of a chance to meet the family, pick some blueberries, eat some yumminess, and visit with the pigs, chickens, pumpkins, and orchards. 

We can't wait to celebrate one of the world's few naturally blue foods with you!  Don't miss out on the fun!

From the bottom of my blueberry-stained heart, I remain,
Delana (for Your Farmers @ Miller's Orchards)

They just keep comin'!

It's been a busy start to Summer on the Farm.  Not only have we been dodging rain drops as we try to keep up with field maintenance and orchard upkeep, but we've been running like mad to keep up with our momma pigs.  Last week, yet another litter of adorable piglets was born at Miller's.  Your faithful blogger failed to bring her camera with her during morning chores this past week, but pictures of the latest cuteness will be forthcoming soon.

In other news:

• Our Layers have been enjoying the milder weather and have been laying some fabulous rich-yellow-yolked eggs. Our farm market customers have been enjoying Summer's bounty, as have we!  Stop by the farm market for a dozen or two. 
• Our pastured pork by the cut has become quite a popular item in the farm market.  Stop by for some of our own Miller's pasture-raised pork chops, sausage, bacon and spare ribs!
• Our summer farm market hours are Thurs & Fri 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sat 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  We've got Apple, Pumpkin, Blueberry, and Strawberry Rhubarb pies available.  If you know you'll be stopping by--give us a call at 570-587-3399 to order ahead.  This ensures that you get the pie you want!
• The 3rd Annual Buy Fresh Buy Local dinner will be held at our Farm on Saturday July 23rd at 5 p.m.  The dinner will showcase locally-grown produce and meats (including pasture-raised meat from Miller's and our own Apple pie!) and family entertainment.  The evening kicks off with a tour of our Farm at 5 p.m. followed by dinner at 6:30.  Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for children. Tickets can be purchased by calling 570-941-7588.  Don't miss the fun!

Very soon, Your Farmers blog will be visited by a guest blogger or two with information on apple-wood (available for purchase at the Farm for your summer smoking needs), pasture-raised meat recipes, and more!

Excited for a weather forecast with five straight dry days, I remain,
Delana (for Your Farmers @ Miller's)

Tractors have parties too!

Amber, Lew & Lena Mae with the Ford 4600.
Five years of wedded bliss (Amber & Lew) and 5,000 hours of
service (the Ford 4600) celebrated all in the same day!

At Miller's Orchards we work hard, sometimes really hard, but we take fun almost as seriously as we do our work!  And yesterday we took a moment to honor one of the Farm's tractors (our Ford 4600) as she turned over her 5,000th hour.

(Note: Tractors and other heavy equipment generally measure their usage in hours, not in miles.)

So amidst the pounding rain showers that drenched Northeast PA yesterday, Your Farmers @ Miller's celebrated the Ford's many hours of faithful service with some pizza and cake (and a rousing round of Happy Birthday!)  We actually had more than just the Ford to celebrate, as yesterday was the 5th anniversary of Amber and Lew's marriage.  As Farm days go, yesterday was a very good day.

Check out some more pictures below:

Lew takes the Ford seriously!

Lena Mae loves her cake!

Grandpa makes sure Baby Grif doesn't miss out on the fun!

In celebration of marital love and faithful machinery, I remain,
Delana (for Your Farmers @ Miller's)

Pastured Eggs, Pastured Pork

It's been a busy few weeks at the Farm as we hurried to plant corn and pumpkins and veggies and things in the few dry days of May and the first nice days of June.   It was all hands on deck for the Spring push, and amazingly, the planting's all done!  Dad pressure-washed our mechanical planter today, preparing it for its 51-week nap in the pavillion.  And with that, we've more or less put another hectic "planting season" to bed.

As we wait for the seeds to poke their little green shoots above the ground, we are excited to announce that we have EGGS and PASTURED PORK by the cut available in our Farm Market.  Our Layers are still ramping up (and dealing with the recent extreme temperature fluctuations in Northeast PA), but we are able to get a few dozen eggs from the girls each day.  Eggs are now available (on a first-come-first-served basis) in the Farm Market.

As for our Pastured Pork, we are currently selling ribs, bacon (no nitrates), breakfast sausage, and pork chops in the Farm Market.  Bacon and sausage come in approximately 1-lb packages and the pork chops and ribs vary in weight.  All cuts are sold by the pound.

We're hoping to begin making our own sausage from our own Pastured Pork later in June.  Stay tuned for opportunities to sample this new product soon!

If you haven't gotten your 2011 Meat Order form in (for Pastured Poultry and Pork), it's not too late!  If you need an Order Form, just email us at yourfarmers@millersorchard.com.

With gratitude for laying Layers and tasty sausage, I remain,
Delana (for Your Farmers @ Miller's)

Warning: Cuteness Ahead!

Lena Mae gets up close with momma and the new piglets.

Yesterday around dawn the latest cuties arrived on the Farm.  One of our "new mommas," a beautiful tan-red sow in our pig herd, gave birth to 9 adorable piglets!  They are red like their momma, and most have black freckles.  They were up and taking their first steps within hours after birth, and momma was attentive and active shortly after delivery.  These are all good signs!

Check out the pics below. 

Momma and piglets resting in the sun.

Those piglets are active! 
(Look at that healthy curly tail on the little guy in the front!)

The piglets are already learning to follow momma wherever she goes.

For the love of all things cute and adorable, I remain,
Delana (for Your Farmers @ Miller's)

Introducing the In-Pasture Brooder

Amber, Baby Grif and Lena Mae testing out the In-Pasture Brooder.
(Peeps are still in their transport boxes in the foreground.)

Lew, our resident tinkerer/inventor, is always dreaming up new contraptions for use on the farm.  In the past few weeks, he has been working diligently to tweak the design of our poultry shelters for use in the pastures.  (The main goal: to protect our "girls" from predators while still giving them the pasture-roaming freedom they so enjoy.)  His latest invention is an in-pasture brooder, a floored pasture-based shelter complete with heat lamps which will be the "first-stop" home for all the new poultry on the Farm.  During the approximately 2-week brooding period, young peeps (several days old) must be kept in a warm, well-ventilated shelter as their fluffy down is slowly converted into more insulating feathers.  After the chicks are sporting a full complement of feathers, they are moved officially onto pasture.

Yesterday, Lew, Amber (and, of course, Lena Mae and Baby Grif) transported our first In-Pasture Brooder to its new home and set up the latest batch of peeps in their new digs.  Check out the photos below.



Baby Grif rides in apple-crate style!

Amber makes sure each of the 130 peeps is given an initial "drink" to quench any thirst
they may have built up during transport.  Each peep gets special care.

Baby Grif supervising Brooder operations.

Lena Mae supervises from her perch on "Papa's tractor."

We'll be updating you soon about opportunities you will have to come visit the Farm and check out our poultry and pigs and trees and things.  

Grateful for new inventions and lively peeps, I remain,
Delana (for Your Farmers @ Miller's)

Orchards in Bloom

The last week has left many of us in Northeast PA wondering if the sun still knows how to shine for more than 2 hours at a time!  In case the continuation of April showers has left you despairing over May flowers, check out the pictures below of our orchards in bloom.  We took these pictures last week when our region got three or four blessedly sunny days in a row.  Those few days were all our apple trees needed to burst forth in Springtime blossom-laden splendor!

Now we are praying that the evening temperatures stay above frost-territory until Fall! 

With a happy heart and eyes on our blooming orchards, I remain,
Delana (for Your Farmers @ Miller's)

To fill a pond...

Yesterday the Northeast PA region absorbed between 1 and 2.5" of rain.  You might've bemoaned the soggy day, but Brother Lew rejoiced!  This morning Lew took a walk over to the new pond that was just dug on Thursday, and Hallelujah! it was filled!  That's right folks, thanks to Lew and family-friend Wes, we have ourselves an (apparently) functional irrigation pond.

Check out the pics below!

The BEFORE picture--on Thursday

AFTER picture #1--filled to the brim by Sunday a.m.

AFTER picture #2--and good to the last drop!

With gratefulness for a pond that holds water, I remain,
Delana (for Your Farmers @ Miller's)




To dig a pond...

Around the farm, we like to think of Brother Lew as the "visionary." He's the guy always thinking about the big picture, plotting strategy, basically the man with the plan!  Well, this morning, Lew woke up and decided to dig a pond.  With the help of a family friend, Lew got started today on his latest farm infrastructure project. (Your faithful blogger does wonder, in the back of her mind, whether perhaps Lew was just itching for a chance to operate some heavy machinery after a long winter...)

Yes, that's right--there is now a big pond-sized hole alongside one of our pastures that did not exist yesterday!  The hope is that this pond will catch the rainwater that runs off our upper fields and pastures and be a source for extra irrigation.  (Not to mention, Lena and Baby Grif have to learn to swim somewhere, right?)

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

In eager anticipation of hot summer days and cool pond swims, I remain,

Delana (for Your Farmers @ Miller's)

Lew says the pond will be 8 - 10 feet deep.  Perfect!

It's always greener on the other side...

Last week your faithful blogger videoed Lew moving the "adolescent" pig herd to fresh pasture.  Right now, while Northeast PA stalls in a slow-moving Spring start, the pigs are moved approximately every 2 days to a new paddock.  Notice how the little (big) guys trot happily towards those fresh spikes of new Spring grass. 

Happy as a pig on fresh grass I remain,
Delana (for Your Farmers @ Miller's)

Pigs in the Snow

If you live in Northeast PA, then you were greeted with 5 or 6 or maybe even 10 inches of snow today, the third day of Spring. Though many of us greeted the snow with a grumble, the pastured pigs at Miller's were playful and excited about today's unexpected whiteness! 
Check out our pics below:


The "teenage" pigs were playing a version of "King of the Mountain"
minus the mountain, of course!  More like knock your brother
over into the snow!



 In patient anticipation of REAL spring, I remain
Delana (for Your Farmers @ Miller's)

Just a trim, please!

Trimming the apple trees may not spend time on your Winter To-Do list (right next to snowboarding, book-reading and curling of course), but it's a top priority for the happy orchardist.  Ladies, you know all about getting regular haircuts to remove those sheen-destroying split ends.  Well, a healthy fruit-producing apple tree operates under the same philosophy. 

During the annual pruning, we shear the "suckers" or "powerhouse branches" that crowd an apple tree's frame. "Suckers" are the vertically-growing, spindly branches that spend the tree's life-giving flow of water and nutrients on growing longer, but not on producing fruit.  Trim off the suckers and we free up the tree's resources to focus on growing large, nutrient-dense apples!  Barring a freakish late frost/freeze this Spring, Dad and Grandpa's faithful pruning should result in an abundant harvest in 2011. 

Here're some pictures I got yesterday when I went to check in on Dad (Wally) and Grandpa (Walter Sr.):

The BEFORE picture of a Red Delicious tree, pre-pruning.
Notice how it's crowded with the vertical "powerhouses"/"suckers.

 Dad strategizes before his next wave of pruning.  At Miller's we use
compressed-air pruners.  Don't try this at home, kids,
there's 120 lbs of compressed air powering them!

The AFTER picture.  Only the strong, bud-rich branches remain

Speaking of buds, check out the rich red-tinged bud at the tip of this branch
(in the fuzzy foreground.)  That's a sure sign of Spring!

21st-century farming: Dad talks on his oh-so-modern cell phone while
gloriously perched on his 1950s era Massey-Ferguson tractor!

Meatless Fridays? Get some pierogi!

Last week we peeled pounds and pounds and pounds of potatoes.  We grated cheese--A LOT of cheese.  And then we rolled dough until Mama's shoulders were sore.  But we're happy to report that we have dozens and dozens of frozen homemade, lovingly stuffed pierogi available at the Farm Market for your gastronomic pleasure!

It's the Lenten season and many of us are observing the age-old tradition of foregoing meat on Fridays.  If you're looking to update your usual Friday pizza dinner, stop by the Farm Market on Fairview road for a dozen (or two or three!) pierogi!  At $7.99, they are a farm-fresh, yummy-goodness steal!  And while you're at it why not pick up some homemade Miller's applesauce or a homemade apple pie to go with dinner?

Our winter hours are:
Thurs  10 am to 5 pm
Fri       10 am to 5 pm
Sat      10 am to 4 pm

We hope to see you soon!

Reflectively yours, 
Delana (for Your Farmers @ Miller's)
Farm Market:  1421 Fairview Road  Scott Township, PA 18477
See Website for directions: www.millersorchard.com

Rejuvenation and Inspiration

Sometime between the 1,100 pies we baked during Thanksgiving week and the rush of the Christmas holidays, Your Farmers @ Miller's got a little tuckered out. So beginning Christmas Day we took 10 days off from our beloved customers and spent some much-needed time relaxing with family, eating some yummy Miller's homemade goodies and reading good books. (Now you may be thinking, we are a family business after all, so do we really spend time with each other during the holidays?!?!? Oh yes, indeed! In fact, we get to enjoy each other simply as family for a few days, and not as business partners. Imagine that!)


By the second week of January things were back in full swing. Your faithful blogger set out on a few adventures of her own and was somewhat less than faithful in keeping you in the loop! But I'm back in the blogging saddle and will be posting family, farm and global updates for you frequently for the rest of the year.

To begin with, we've added to the farm family since last I wrote--we've got a handful of piglets who were born during the winter interlude. They're adorable as always! Our teenage and adult hogs were moved out to new pasture today from their winter shelter, and they looked ecstatic!

As for global updates, here's an interesting article from last week's edition of the New York Times about the next generation of farming. Your Farmers @ Miller's proudly count ourselves among those farmers committed to producing nutrient-dense, ecologically-sound, locally-focused food. If you're like the average Northeast PA resident, you've got "your" coffee shop, "your" dry cleaner, "your" accountant, "your" hairstylist, or maybe even "your" day care. Why not get to know us @ Miller's Orchards as Your Farmers for 2011? Hope to see you back here soon!

Delana for Your Farmers @ Miller's