Blue Mountain Farm has benefited from the support of its many customers, mentors and benefactors over the past 30 years. We are deeply grateful for the opportunities they have given us to improve our farming and to help us produce good, nutritious food.
Our customers have ranged from folks who come to the farm markets nearly every week, to those who visit occasionally but always bring their curiosity and good appetites, to those who are just passing by but decide to take something fresh and tasty home with them. Our CSA shareholders have been faithful, patient friends who have stuck by us through thick and thin.
Our mentors have included Extension representatives, experts in academia and fellow farmers who help us solve pest and disease problems, provide information about new techniques and technologies and offer their experience and knowledge.
Our benefactors have given us continuing, invaluable support in too many ways for us to list here. Without them, simply put, there would be no Blue Mountain Farm. From financial support to website development, they have kept us afloat and on course.
We would like to recognize them here. Thank you all so very, very much.
Friends of the Farm
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Lena Rotenberg
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Glenn Bronstrom & Carla Toolan
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Roger Lyle & Joan Erdesky
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Roger Tingley and Jim Walch
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Diana Walch
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Susan Simonson
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Robert Cook
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Rick Watson
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Mike Elder
These critters are our friends, too…
…Some friends fly, some crawl, some slither and some hop… they’re the allies high in the sky and deep in the weeds, ferreting out and feasting on the varmints that would turn our vegetables into their lunch. Hawks seek out young groundhogs, rabbits and the like, while the other critters patrol the terrain looking for bugs, slugs and other creep-crawlies. The bees and butterflies, of course, are our pollinator friends.
Among the most unusual friendly predators are those white pods clinging to the tomato hornworm, lower right. The cocoons hold parasitic wasp larvae that are feeding on the worm. When they’re done eating they’ll emerge, mate and lay their own batches of eggs on the next generation of hornworms.
Red-tailed hawk
Garter snake
Toad
Praying mantis
Bees
Butterflies
Spider
Ladybug
Tomato hornworm
And last, but
certainly not least…
…Is our most unusual friend, Little Bigfoot. Not many farms are blessed with such an ally, so we treat this guy with special care. He lives in the woods bordering our fields and helps us keep track of the comings and goings of neighborhood deer, racoons and other moochers. He says he has family Out West and Up North, but he likes West Virginia and will stick around as long as we respect his privacy and don’t ask too many questions. No problem, small guy… but just this one picture, OK?
