What's New at Beans and Greens!

"The Beans & Greens Pavilion" can be rented.....

for night time happenings or for day time events

An amazing venue for parties, anniversaries or other family events.  Create whatever kind of atmosphere you would like to have - add white table cloths for a formal look, or go rustic country with fresh cut bouquets.

  Plan your event with us and enjoy a casual and relaxing atmosphere! 

Don't be chased away by the "next" event.....don't feel

pressure or ridiculous fees. 

Come have FUN!

Email to us for info:  beansandgreensfarm@msn.com

Our 2012 Junior Farmers Camp has concluded for the 2012 summer!

We are proud of the newest Junior Farmer camp graduates!

Below are some of the details from the 2012 season:

Camp hours: 9 am till noon

June 26 & 28 ~ The children learned about & fed all the animals we have at the petting barnyard

at the farm.  Then they planting a garden of their own in the fields on raised beds with drip irrigation and plastic mulch.  They also worked alongside the field crew harvesting and washing vegetables for the stand. 

Each child contributed clothing to help create scarecrows for their own garden prior to enjoying healthy snack in the pavilion.

July 17 & 19 ~ included garden maintenance & harvesting

"Field trip" to the home farm to visit the livestock which included pigs, chickens, laying hens and cattle.  The children collected eggs and helped feed all the livestock before boarding the "people mover" to go back to the farm in the valley. 

August 14 & 16 ~ included harvesting and preparing both a healthy snack from the deli and a sweet treat from the bakery for the last camp day.  Children split up the veggies they harvested from their own garden and toured the various types of irrigation we do on the farm. 

Our goal is to let the children experience as many different aspects of things that happen on the farm throughout the sessions.  Each day is different in content and as unpredictable as life on the farm can be!  This year we sent out an email a few days prior to the start of each session once we saw what the weather was going tol be like and occasionally asked the kids to bring certain things along.    Limited numbers were accepted for the camp. 

If you missed this year....make sure to sign up early next summer!

2010 Farm Happenings

Our Junior Farmers have been busy their first week of camp. From planting and caring for their own vegetable garden, to lessons about annuals and perennials, it has been a busy first week!We took care of our favorite barnyard animals and visited the fish pond! We got our hands dirty planting our own veggies including radishes, tomatoes, peppers and carrots, and got to have some fun building our own scarecrow! We planted some pots and made our own nature collages, too! This coming week, we will be learning about our beehive and harvesting some veggies from our garden! Check back next week for an update on all the fun we had at the farm!

NH Made Craft Fair!

If you didn't stop by the farm this weekend, you missed the NH Made Craft Fair, featuring a variety of tasty treats and crafts by local artists, as well as live music featuring Andrew Merzi both Saturday and Sunday! Here are some pictures from the fair! Be sure to check out our upcoming events so you don't miss the fun at the farm!

Kids Day on the Farm!

Kids Day on The Farm included several special animal guests joining the Beans & Greens Farm animals on Saturday, June 4th. Ramblin Vewe Farm of Gilford brought a black sheep and two lambs, while Fraggle Rock Farm provided alpacas and goats. Connie Moses and two horses from her farm on Schoolhouse Hill in Gilford were a hit with all the children. NH Kettle Korn cooked and sampled their delicious sweet and salty popcorn while Peaked Hill Apiary set up the Observation Bee Hive in the Farmstand. This hive will remain at the farm throughout the summer and early fall.

Click Here for Pavilion Construction Pictures!  Watch Us Grow!

Last summer Andy & Martina were honored as the Grand Marshalls for Gilford's Old Home Day Parade.....here are a few photos of that day!

Photos: The swarm of bees that has collected in the tee-pee at Beans & Greens Farmstand in Gilford is collected for relocation to a new hive by apiarist John Larsen.
 
It's a great growing season for just about anything, and the Observation Beehive at Beans & Greens Farmstand in Gilford has been no exception!  Just a few days ago, owner Martina Howe noticed that the hive was literally packed with busy bees and expressed her concern that they would "swarm".  This is nature's way of splitting a colony and providing enough bees of different classes to set up a new hive that will survive and proliferate, but it usually occurs earlier in the summer - not in August!  Several factors can contribute to a hive swarming in a season like this.  If there is not enough room the brood colony will become overcrowded and the queen will feel uncomfortable. This results in an unbalanced population that can instigate the swarming process. An overcrowded hive can also become rather hard to ventilate when it is as hot as this summer has been.  When there is enough space in the hive the bees will fan the hive to control the temperature and ventilate it.  Once the swarming process starts,  the bees will gorge themselves on honey as it could take up to a week to find a suitable location for the new hive.
At Beans & Greens the bees started to swarm midday Tuesday.  They swirled around the exit to the observation hive in ever increasing numbers until queen joined the swarm. Then, midafternoon, the swarm flew away in a dark, deeply buzzing cloud just a short distance away to the tee-pee in the front yard where they were expected to settle for just a short time before moving on.  On Wednesday morning the swarm was still hanging onto the tee-pee.  Apparently the scouts were unable to locate a suitable location to move to.   A new home can be a hollow tree or the eaves or roof of a nearby house.  Since the bees seemed quite content, Howe called in John Larsen,  a local apiarist so he could gather the swarm and re-hive them.
In the photo you can see Larsen using a vacuum system to "suck" the bees into a box that he will use to transport them to their new home at his apiary in Bristol.  The swarming bees are full of honey and relatively lethargic, so not of much danger to the apiarist as he gathers them.  Beans & Greens has had their observation hive swarm only a handful of times in the many years they have had it.  Each time has been exciting for the customers and an educational moment for anyone around!  For the bees left in the Observation Hive life will be cooler and roomier with plenty of brood still hatching and a new queen to keep them on the job.