Honey, Eggs & Other Farm Products
Wishing Stone Farm has a number of small agricultural businesses that benefit our shareholders and farmers market attendees as well.
Honey
The farm has over 21 hives that produce over 1000lbs of Honey annually. The bees also help pollinate our crops from Zucchini to our Peach and Plum trees. It is quite an experience working in the orchard at peak flowering stage. The sound of 100,000 bees from our 15 hives is almost deafening.
When we process our honey, we are particularly careful not to over heat the stock tank. In this way we can best assure our customers that the tiny flecks of pollen we intentionally leave in our honey gives our patrons the full benefit of a locally sourced honey. It is unsubstantiated, but many new health advisors believe eating local unpasturized honey with pollen crystals aids in eliminating certain effects of pollen based allergens. In 2008, we will open up over 600 pounds of honey held over from last fall to our CSA shareholders and our farmer’s market patrons. We do this so you can have a supply of honey from day one until the new crop comes in July 20th or so.
Eggs
The farm has over 300 layers that we get in as pullets every April. We raise these birds on pasture and a daily diet of non-medicated layer pellets. As the birds mature, they become increasingly more interested in our surplus produce such as lettuce, melons, cabbage and more. This increasing consumption of greens produces what many consider some of the finest eggs in Rhode Island. Due to the increase level of Chlorophyll in their diet their yokes are often more of a reddish/orange than the dull yellow of the average caged chicken egg. Our eggs are first available to our CSA members and the rest are sold in our open farmers markets. The overwhelming demand keeps our stock never more than and day or two in the box before they are brought to market. Compare this to the average brown egg at the super markets being an average of two weeks old when they are put on the shelf.
Babbette’s Feast
Our state certified kitchen is always buzzing with activity. A number of years ago we started a line of dips and spreads to sell to the small chain store called ‘Bread and Circus’. Our signature items are now carried in 18 of their 28 regional stores. The most popular item is our “Pesto Pinwheel Torte”. It is a spiral of BST free cream cheese, traditional pesto and secret slurry of sundried tomatoes and ‘herds du Provence’; all covered with a light dusting of fine chopped fresh parsley. A second pinwheel has the same orientation but is flavored with a rosemary/sage pesto alternating with a tapenade/kalamata olive slurry all again dusted with the fine chopped fresh parsley.
Other dips are our 100% vegan Mushroom Caviar, Kalamata Feta Dip, Sundried Tomato Pesto Dip and our famous Spinach Dip.
For our CSA and farmers market patrons we actually have an additional line of dips we sell exclusively to them. They are sold under the Babbette’s Feast line but because of their ultra fresh ingredience their shelf life is too limited for sale in the typical food market. This seemingly negative aspect of our ultra fresh products is an actual boon to our dedicated customers. They all universally agree that real freshness beats out canned salsa and pickles any day of the week. Our homemade fresh Salsa “Cilantro Lovers Salsa” is so popular that is sells out within hours of it first appearance in the early summer. It shelf life is only days but few make it through the first night they are brought home.
Our famous frozen “Pesto” is a traditional pesto recipe with a substitution of walnuts for the traditional pine nuts. A recipe alteration many feel is an improvement on the norm.
Pickles
This year we added to our fresh dill pickle line an old New England recipe for ‘Bread and Butter Pickles’ it was an instant success look for more pickles to come in 2008. This summer we will be introducing our CSA members to some Japanese variations on the art of pickle making, along with recipes on how to make kimchi and sauerkraut.