Houseplants in the Winter--by Heather

When the colorful lights of the holidays are in the rearview mirror, and spring seems so far away, even the most diehard of snow enthusiasts will find that their eyes need the balm of living color inside the house, as a respite from the exterior world which is covered in white.  Houseplants are a wonderful way to appease this need, and I’ve been able to expand my interior garden scape in the past couple of years.

Right now, I’m enjoying a full herb garden in my south facing windows with herbs that I brought indoors before it frosted.  It’s so delightful to have fresh Rosemary, Mint, Fennel, Parsley, Basil, Lemon Balm and Cilantro, not only for the delight of seeing green in the house but also for the delicious flavor they lend to the hearty winter meals we are eating.  We are still enjoying so many of the fruits of our garden, but fresh herbs elevate the squashes, cabbages, onions, beets, beans and tomatoes that we preserved during the fall. 

In addition to the herbs, we also are loving the sights of Geraniums, Cypress grass, Oxalis, Begonia, Stromanthe, Agapanthus, Tradescantia, Ficus, Amaryllis, Poinsettia and many succulents.  This spring, we will be expanding our houseplant selection at the garden center, and I’m looking forward to experimenting with more plants next winter.  

If you don’t yet have a houseplant collection, another way to bring color inside is to prune a selection of woody shrubs that you probably already have outside in your yard.  Some of the easiest and quickest cuttings for producing green leaves are Red twig Dogwood (Cornus Sericea), Willow (Salix),and Ninebark (Physocarpus).  The Red twig dogwood are particularly lovely with the green leaves contrasting the red bark of the branches.  You can also prune Forsythia, Quince, Cherry and Apples for blossoms inside. And, of course, Winterberry (Ilex Verticillata) provides those beautiful red berries that can come inside, although I usually like to leave mine outside for the birds to eat. 

Let us know what plants and cuttings bring you inspiration during these dark, cold winter months.  Here’s a poem about one of my houseplants:

Geranium

Growing tall, stretching far. When it hits

The ceiling, it doesn’t stop.

How can it support this need for spreading?

Chartreuse and scented

Overlord of Oxalis and Parsley

The green speaks spring

In decidedly white January

No mosquitos to ward away now

Just growing for the sake of growing.

It does not know of my plans for it.

But accepts my care with indifference

Like a child who expects there to be food on the table

But has not yet learned to be

Grateful for its source,

Geranium accepts the water and food and light that is provided,

Sheds its unwanted leaves and lets me take them away,

And grows against reason

Next to the cold panes of thin glass

That separate it from

The compost pile

Where the ones who were not chosen

To be tended to inside

Turn into food for the Spring’s new arrivals.

"Sourdough" by Heather

It all starts with just 3 tablespoons. A tiny amount of a non-descript, beige, bubbling, gooey,

semi-solid substance is all it takes to make two loaves of bread. Every time I make bread, I

love watching those 3 tablespoons of starter bloom and grow into a week’s worth of food.

Sourdough isn’t a new concept. Certainly it was a craze during the pandemic. I even tried it

then, but didn’t take the time to really understand the art of slowing down and baking bread.

During that time, we were so busy at work. As an essential business, we converted our entire

inventory onto online to serve our customers safely. We offered curbside pick up and delivery.

I used to end my day with deliveries of wine, compost, beer, plants, delivering goods to people

who were staying home out of caution and safety. And so whenever people were hunkering

down at home, learning about the hidden contours of their kitchens and gardens, I didn’t take

the time to hone the practice of baking bread. It would be nearly 5 years later that I discovered

the joy of creating sourdough bread and pizza dough, during a time that I was carving out a

space of healing inside of my own home after the years of hustling during the pandemic. After

we slimmed down our work endeavors to just one business instead of two, I realized that I

needed more time to reflect and consider the domestic joys that I had always taken part in but

rarely gave enough patient consideration to.

Working with sourdough can be tricky and confusing. There are so many different ways that

people on the internet are telling you how to go about it that you can really second guess your

choices. I’ve found that I stick with the same basic recipe that I started with almost all the

time. It’s just flour, water, starter and salt. So simple. Once you feed those 3 tablespoons of

starter with a little bit of water and flour, it’s simply a matter of waiting for it to double. Then

you add more flour, water and salt, stretch it and fold it a few times over a couple of hours, let it

sit and double again, cold ferment over night and the next morning, the baking of the bread.

Creating sourdough loaves means that a simple soup becomes a meal. Over the summer, we

make different recipes with the sourdough bread, such as s panzanella, pizza dough, crackers

and pancakes, but it always starts with just those 3 tablespoons.

Sourdough is a metaphor for abundance. It reminds me of how fortunate I feel each spring

when I have so many seeds at my fingertips. Just a few packets of seeds become a garden

that feeds us through an entire year, and similarly, just a small of amount of starter can feed us

over and over again. When I’m feeling low, or a sense of lack, when the days are short and the

sun is stingy with its warmth and length during the day, I remember that we have more than

enough. I look at the bare bones of my winter garden, I admire the beautiful squashes in my

pantry, I plan meals around the jars of fruits that have filled my freezer and I bake some more

bread as I remind myself of how much we truly have.

The earth gives us so much and we give back to it in our feeble human ways. We create

compost from our food scraps and then turn that compost into the soil that will feed and

nourish it. We give the earth our most precious people after they have passed and sometimes

we plant trees with their bodies or remains. If we all could give back to the earth in just a small

way or at least acknowledge the bounty that it gives to us, perhaps we could solve a lot of the

“unsolvable” problems in this society. I know that it’s not as simple as that. I know that people

will continue to struggle to find food to eat, or an oven to bake in, or a warm place to sleep. I

know that I’m not solving world hunger or homelessness with sourdough. But it does bring me

great joy and more than a little bit of introspection as I share the starter or the bread with

anyone who is interested in learning the act of baking, of slowing down, of patiently waiting for

a little bit of flour and water to become something delicious.

Start of Our 15th Season by Heather

The simple joys of gardening have defined my life since I was a child, although I wasn’t always on board with the gardening tasks that were delegated to me and expected of me as a contributing member of my family. When I was in college and navigating a very different career path, gardening found me again during a tumultuous time in my personal life in the form of a summer job that I took in Nantucket. It was only a short time later that I decided to devote my life and career to this passion, and it has continued to be a thread that weaves its way through my life. Wherever we go, on vacation or even just driving through different towns, it’s usually the flora that draws most of my attention as I see which plants are blooming, thriving and growing in different climates, zones and cultures.

It is gardening that has been my saving grace for these past particularly hard years and it is the primary focus of the business that we built that has evolved to encompass so many of the fascinating aspects of the retail and service business that we are fortunate enough to serve in. As we find ourselves in this time of uncertainty and confusion, I will continue to rely on gardening as my North Star. As we begin our fifteenth season at the garden center, at a time during which we see people we know and leaders we have trusted changing their values at such a rapid clip, whether motivated by personal gain or trying to fit in with new norms, our values have not shifted. We are more committed than ever to providing our community and our customers with the healthiest plants, the best advice, sourcing the finest wines and beverages, creating outdoor living spaces and providing materials for enhancing those spaces in the most environmentally friendly ways to ensure that future generations will continue to enjoy this beautiful place that we are fortunate enough to call home.

I know that gardening has its limits. I know that it can’t fix world wars and international unease. I know that it cannot soothe our economic fears and worries. I know that it can’t reinstate jobs that have been unexpectedly terminated. I know that it can’t fix climate change. I know that it can’t bring our loved ones back to life. But I do know that it can soothe our worried minds. I do know that it can provide us with local food security. I do know that it can connect us with our local environment and local community as we collectively share advice and tips with each other to help us avoid known pitfalls and have the most success.

Today, I’m writing this on the day of the vernal equinox, a day in which gardeners can rejoice as the equal daylight and nighttime will begin to give way to the longer days that our plants will need to nudge them out of dormancy and produce the flowers, fruits and vegetables that will sustain us for the next winter that lies ahead. We look forward to seeing you at the garden center for another season.

Seeding Season by Heather

When winter begins at the garden center, we have the slightest window in which to catch our collective breaths after the flurry of fall cleanups, inventory counts, storing tools and plants for the winter and completing our last tasks for our clients before the flurry of holiday activities begins.  During the holidays, we are busy with making wreaths, caring for poinsettias and the winter bulbs and houseplants while selling Christmas trees and gifts to our customers to get their homes ready for the holiday season. 

After the beginning of the year, our pace begins to slow.  Our hours diminish and our staff has a chance to take a few days off a week if they choose.  The steady stream of shoppers becomes a trickle and our shop becomes host to planning and strategizing for the upcoming season.

The beginning of the year usually marks an increase in my sleep patterns as I allow myself extra rest in those darkest days.  My stress levels are usually lower as I look forward to a few months of this slow time of year, perhaps a vacation and hopefully some good snow for skiing. Especially right now, as I’m encouraged to take time for myself for self-care, I indulge myself in a sleep like I haven’t known in a very long time.  Sometimes I wonder if I should be allowing myself such a luxury, but I know how necessary this rest is for me right now and I dismiss this self-doubt quickly. 

The quieter months at the shop also mean a slower pace of deposits into our bank accounts, and as the winter months progress, those numbers begin to create stress and worry.  I worry about how we will pay the mortgage, the payroll, the electric bill and restocking the inventory.  I worry about new hires and vehicles that that need attention.  I worry about marketing and plant survival.  I worry about deer eating our plants, rodents invading our high tunnels, ice in the parking lots and snow removal from the greenhouses.  My sleep patterns begin to be affected by these worries, a more familiar place to be for me than my anomalous January deep sleeps.

It is easy to get lost in the swirl of lack at this point.  It is easy to fret and to feel an overwhelming sense of push and pull:  I want to enjoy my time of rest and recovery but it just doesn’t pay the bills. But there is one act that always brings me back to that place of abundance and keeps my mind out of the gutter of not enough, and that is the starting of seeds. When I look at the multitude of seeds that we have at our fingertips each spring, I feel like we’ve won the lottery.  When I get into that greenhouse with snow piled outside so high and the temperatures such a stark contrast to the negative temperatures just a few feet away, when I get my hands into that soil and sprinkle the first seeds into those trays, it makes me feel like we might just make it.  Each packet of seeds holds a new promise.  Each seed within that packet means an individual plant that will grow and be transformed into a fruit or a flower to provide beauty or food, foliage or flavor, providing for our gardens and our customers’ gardens for the season ahead.

Then comes the anticipation of the event of germination and the caring for those tender new shoots of vegetation.  They are so young and vulnerable that caring for these seedlings becomes an act of nurturing both for them as well as for myself.  I care for those seedlings and they care for me as I turn my gaze less inward and more toward their needs of water, sunlight, nutrients and more space.

I love watching the greenhouses transform from empty benches and winter storage into vast swaths of green and color as we fill every inch with seedlings, hanging baskets and planters. I love seeing the looks on our customers’ faces as they walk through the greenhouses and breathe in the smell of the soil, feeling the warmth that they crave after the months of cold. But it’s those first few trays of seeds that bring me the most joy.  And joy is a commodity that is the most precious and precarious possession that I could have.

Winter Makes No Promises in the Adirondack Mountains

Winter makes no promises in the Adirondack mountains. One day snowy and glistening, the next day a melting torrent of river ice, it comes and goes as it pleases. Just as a 16” snowfall in the middle of February does not signal perfect ski conditions for the rest of the season, neither does a 60 degree day in March signal the end of its wintry grip. Most of us who live here year round accept this reality and some of us do so with less complaining than others. But while even the most die hard winter enthusiasts amongst us begin to anticipate these first signs of spring with eagerness, we know that we might still have to wait a bit for the buds to swell, the white to diminish and the green to take its place.

One thing we can count on at the end of March is that the greenhouses at East Branch Organics will be warm and quickly filling with colorful plants for your spring gardens. It happens so quickly. One day we are repairing benches and taking inventory of supplies and within weeks, we are nursing along baby plants in their most tender stage of life in our comfortable greenhouses, while winter may or may not continue to rage on outside. So take heart and know that whenever winter does decide to release her grip on our landscape, we will have an abundant supply of healthy plants to accompany spring’s return.

Ten Years of East Branch Organics

Ten years ago, on Mother’s Day weekend 2011, we opened the doors of East Branch Organics to the public for the first time. The previous month was a complete blur of activity as we cleaned the buildings, recovered greenhouses, put down flooring, fixed heaters, repaired irrigation lines, ordered inventory and started growing plants. We had moved to Keene Valley the previous year from Nantucket, MA with no real plans of working in Keene Valley. We had planned to continue managing our robust landscaping company in Nantucket and we wanted to move to the Adirondack mountains to give our children the fresh air and the quality education that Keene Valley offered as we commuted back to the island for work. Little did we know that we would stumble upon an abandoned garden center in the middle of town that would capture our imaginations, our hearts and, eventually, most of our time as well. 

Owning a garden center had been a dream of mine for quite some time. My sister and I had been growing plants in greenhouses for years for our clients. After helping to start the farmer’s market in Nantucket, I fell in love with the interaction with the market customers and I wanted to create a farmer’s market that ran more than just one day a week. I had written a business plan to purchase a farm in Nantucket, and although that particular property was not meant to be, the plan remained lodged in the back of my head, just waiting for the right opportunity to present itself. They say that timing is everything, and for us, even during an economic recession when independent garden centers were closing everywhere due to competition from big box stores, the timing was somehow just right. The garden center in Keene had been vacant for almost ten years when we found it. It was in rough shape, but we could see its potential hiding behind years of neglect and disuse. The pretty little building had beautiful woodworking, a funky layout and greenhouses that we just could not resist. The grounds were overgrown, but underneath we discovered the bones of a great perennial display yard. There was an adorable little wine shop all set up with built in shelving. All we needed was a lot of hard work, patience, persistence and a ton of help from our friends and family to begin to turn it into our dream job.

Looking back, it is hard to believe that it has already been ten years here. In ten years, we have added two more greenhouses, a grocery store, craft beer shop and a huge variety of bulk and bagged goods. We have expanded our services to include service to hundreds of properties for hardscaping and gardening installations, as well as floral design for events and weddings. Our staff that started out with one part time person during our first season has grown to 15 people in the summer. We feel so fortunate to be able to provide these services to this wonderful community and to be able to have a creative and professional team to support these services. We are humbled and grateful to be able to continue to grow this business and we look forward to the next phase of this business. Somehow, it feels like we are just getting started!

The Joy of Spring

Spring always brings with it a burst of energy and hope for gardeners.  It is a season of excitement and energy, as the days grow longer and warmer, the snow loosens its grip on the landscape and the color begins to return to our worlds.  This year, that excitement is further heightened by the hopeful anticipation that is accompanying our collective global psyche as we emerge from the tough year that we’ve all experienced.  As our greenhouses fill with new plants, and the sun warms the soil and ourselves as we work with the plants, we cannot help but feel gratitude for the renewal that spring promises.  With a heightened focus on home gardening projects, we at East Branch Organics find so much joy in sharing our knowledge, plants and products with veteran and rookie gardeners alike. 

One of my favorite things about the garden center is chatting with people about their gardens.  I love hearing what is working in your garden, what you dream about introducing to your plots or what you saw in a garden that you visited.  For this past year, we have been dreaming, mainly on Pinterest and by leafing through catalogs — and spring is the time to put our imaginations into action.  I love creating vision boards for my gardens in the winter and then seeing those dreams turn into reality as I start the yearly tasks that spring introduces.  Sometimes the spring tasks can seem daunting or mundane, but by imagining the future blossoms, fruit or vegetables that our work will translate to, it takes the toil out of it and makes it a lot more fun. 

As we kick off Spring 2021, let us know what you have been dreaming about for your garden.  Is there a particular plant that you have always wanted to try or one that you have just learned about that you are eager to experience?  Let us know and we will do our best to find what you are looking for.  We are looking forward to seeing you around the garden center!

Recognizing Our Essential Workers

As we enter March 2021, we are reminded that it’s been a year since the pandemic really started to shift our society and change the way we do business at East Branch Organics. Out of concern for our wellbeing, many of our customers and visitors have asked how we’ve been doing. We want to take a moment to express our gratitude to them and also to our staff who have been instrumental in getting us through these challenging times. Although there were many tough times, and we had to reconfigure how to do business on so many levels, we continued to grow and thrive during this past uncertain year. We want to highlight some of the amazing people on our team who have helped us this year, without whom we would not have been able to serve our wonderful clients and customers. These are the people who tend to and grow the plants that go into your gardens, who educate you on the best products to use to enhance your growing experience, who put together your online orders for contactless shopping, and who package orders for shipping. These are the people who enhance your outdoor living spaces so that you can enjoy your home while staying there safely. They create outdoor patios and walkways, they maintain your gardens and lawns, they plant fall bulbs for you to look forward to in the spring -- because we all need something beautiful to look forward to. These are the people behind the masks that greet you with a smile and make you feel comfortable with your decision to stop at our store. These are the people who have worked tirelessly, continuously, and joyfully all year to serve you. They are a talented bunch of people who bring so much to our team. Stay tuned to our story to get to know them a little bit better. Feel free to share any experiences that you may have had with them. We are so grateful for all that they do.

Planting Hope

In the fall of 2020, we planted perennials alongside our newly installed garden center driveway. This new driveway has been in the works for eight years, and after so many years of planning, designing and applying for permits for the new entrance, it was finally time to implement our plan! We worked with Ned Whitney and his amazing crew and now our customers, crews and delivery trucks are finally able to access the garden center from our new, more visible south entrance. Customers can still access the store from the original driveway as well. The new, double lane driveway will eliminate congestion in our single lane original entrance, and it will finally eliminate the need for delivery trucks to back down the driveway, creating traffic build up on Route 73.

While we were planting alongside the new driveway, a member of the community emailed regarding another matter and thanked us for “planting hope.” It struck me that gardening is for all intents and purposes an act of planting hope. Every time we purchase a new perennial, shrub, tree or annual, we are engaging in an act of hope for our future. Hope for the fruit it will bear. Hope for the shade it will bring. Hope for the color and the cheer that the colors will deliver. Hope for the deer to leave it alone. Hope for it to fill a bare spot. Gardening is a hopeful endeavor and one that we aspire to encourage in anyone who comes to our garden center. We all could use a little bit of hope in our lives, whether it is in the winter and we are looking at a limited color palette, in the spring when the early spring green leaves emerge, in the summer when friends and family visit or in the autumn when we are enjoying the harvests of our hard work. Our hope for you is that our plants, products and services continue to serve the hopes of all of our friends, patrons and clients.