Contact

Bob Comis

Stony Brook Farm
603 Stony Brook Road
Schoharie, NY 12157

tel: 518-295-6065

e-mail: stonybrookfarm518 at g m a i l dot com

24 Responses to “Contact”

  1. Anna Dawson Says:

    January 28, 2009 at 2:37 pm

    I applaud your interest in canning. However, freezing and vacuum packaging year round is also a viable possibility. Visit my website http://www.ourhometownfoods.com to see how farmers and small scale food processors collaborate together to create convenience meal kits.
    By the way, dry beans, soaked in spiced water,and the frozen and vacuum packaged fits into many kinds of products. I use them in frozen soup kits, crock pot chili kits and stew kits.

    Reply
  2. John M Mullins Says:

    March 9, 2009 at 10:42 pm

    Bob;
    Just thought I’d drop you a line and say the hens I got from you last summer are doing fine. Still laying about an egg/day.

    Thanks;
    John

    Reply
  3. di Says:

    March 12, 2009 at 11:30 am

    What an awesome website Bob!

    Reply
  4. stonybrookfarm Says:

    March 13, 2009 at 5:49 am

    Hi John,

    Thank you for saying hi and updating me on the hens. I am glad to hear that they are still laying well. They are definitely a productive breed. I’ve got seventeen more that I am getting rid of, if you’re interested.

    Bob

    Reply
  5. stonybrookfarm Says:

    March 13, 2009 at 5:50 am

    Thanks, Di!

    Reply
  6. Mike Says:

    December 3, 2009 at 10:42 pm

    Hey, I’m reading through your blog and I have to say that it is just a wealth of valuable information. If it’s okay I would love to steal all of the information on your blog and use it for personal use. You have such a hollistic view of our food systems, and what I’m hoping to do is have groupthink sessions for a club based around much of the information and topics that you provide.

    Reply
    1. stonybrookfarm Says:

      December 4, 2009 at 5:01 am

      Hi Mike,

      Feel free to use it however you’d like; that is what it is there for. I am flattered that you think the content is worthwhile.

      Best regards,
      Bob

  7. louis c Says:

    December 26, 2009 at 11:01 pm

    Hello, Great blog, I am really enjoying your posts. Can I make a small suggestion? Get rid of the light diagonal lines in the background. I find it makes reading your posts more difficult. If you need help how to do that I can tell you. It would literally only involve changing one line of the files in your WordPress folder. Thanks again, Louis

    Reply
  8. Wayne Says:

    January 10, 2010 at 10:58 am

    Wow! I just read your article on why small farmers are extortionists and had to check out your site. A farmer that does not make a living from his farming publishing an article telling the consumers to wake up and stop paying the prices that farmers that are struggling to make a living from are asking. Since you are not able to make a living maybe the problem is YOUR business plan. I guess you got the idea that publishing this article would help build this cheap pasture based food system that you are imagining but I suspect that the only thing it did was encourage foodies to walk past the local meat producers stand at the farmers market and probably pay more at whole foods. I am a pasture based meat farmer who has it all on the line and I really can’t believe your bone-headed move of running down small artisan producers in that way. Keep YOUR prices ridiculously low, go for it, and go out of business or keep subsidizing your hobby project with whatever money from outside you have but if you think that an attack on the small farmer like that is helping your cause than we do not have the same cause. Douchebag.

    http://www.ethicurean.com/2009/03/31/unfair-fare/

    Reply
  9. Tyleia H Says:

    February 1, 2010 at 1:42 pm

    Just got off the phone with you and found you to be very helpful and personable. I will coordinate with my family to see what we want to do next but we are definitly interested.

    Reply
    1. stonybrookfarm Says:

      February 2, 2010 at 4:43 am

      Hi Tyleia,

      I enjoyed speaking with you on the phone. If you have any more questions or just want to talk about the pork some more, please feel free to give me another call.

      Bob

  10. Evan Says:

    February 11, 2010 at 1:24 am

    Bob,

    Just read your blog on feeding whey to pigs. Very valuable information. I will be raising my first-ever pigs this season, and have access to skim milk from my own cows. I have been warned against this however, with several people claiming it will make soft meat. Is this true? I was planning on making a mash with milk and some organic high lysine corn I managed to come across.

    I imagine feeding milk to pigs would not do anything different to the meat than whey. And the worlds best pork, from Parma in Italy, is fed on whey from Parmesean cheese!

    Reply
    1. stonybrookfarm Says:

      February 11, 2010 at 5:29 am

      Hello Evan,

      The only better supplement to grain than skim milk is tankage (dehydrated slaughterhouse waste) which we can’t really get anymore. Your pigs will grow like crazy on the skim milk.

      Nothing I have read in the old books and papers mentions anything about milk making soft pork (though they make plenty of statements about other things doing so). Nevertheless, if you are concerned about it, all you have to do is cut the milk out for the last month or so.

      By the way, with the skim milk, high lysine corn is unnecessary. The milk has high enough levels of all of the limiting amino acids, including lysine and methionine, so you could just feed them regular shell corn.

      You are really lucky to be able to feed them skim milk.

  11. willow Says:

    May 20, 2010 at 11:52 am

    hi there,
    we are interested in raising pastured poultry, meat birds and layers. But cant seem to find out at what age the meat birds can safely go out on pasture full time?
    your information would be very much appreciated.
    thanks
    willow

    Reply
    1. Evan Says:

      May 20, 2010 at 12:12 pm

      Birds can go out on pasture the first day as long as weather permits. A mobile brooder with heat source would be ideal.

    2. stonybrookfarm Says:

      May 22, 2010 at 6:20 am

      Without a mobile brooder, however, I have found it best to wait until the chicks are well feathered out and the weather is warm enough. When the nights are consistently warm enough (mid-60s) I have put chicks out on pasture with no supplemental heat as early as two weeks old. However, if there is a cold snap (night temps drop into the low 50s, high 40s), you’ll need to find a way to provide supplemental heat or they will pile up. If you can’t get electricity to your pasture shelters, you could put gallon jugs, painted black, out in the sun during the day and then put a few of them spaced here and there in the shelter at dusk. If the shelter is not too drafty the bottles will slowly give off their heat over the course of the night, and the chicks will sleep in circles around them. The trick is to get the bottles spaced about so that they are far enough away from each other to prevent piling, but close enough that the warmth radiates between them a bit. Small fifteen gallon barrels would be even better as their larger thermal mass would cause them to release their heat more slowly.

      It is piling up that kills feathered out chicks, not the lower temps, so the key is to keep them from piling. Without some source of warmth, however, the chicks pile on top of each other because they are the warmest things in the shelters.

  12. Sarah Key Says:

    September 30, 2010 at 11:06 pm

    Hi Bobby,

    Over the past year, I have been buying your meat (lamb mostly)at Dickson’s whenever I can. Ben plays hockey at Chelsea Piers, so it is convenient enough to pop over there and well worth the extra effort.

    I am blown away not only by your incredible farming capabilities but also by your writing on this site. I especially loved “Soft Hearts and Bloody Tongues.” You should submit that to be published and write a book of your collected farm memoirs. I wish I had known about the event at Dickson’s, though I think I was out of town then. Keep me posted if you come back and know that you and Jen are welcome to stay with us anytime.

    Keep in touch,
    Sarah

    Reply
    1. stonybrookfarm Says:

      October 10, 2010 at 9:57 am

      Hi Sarah,

      I don’t know if you are subscribed to comments, so I am not sure if you will see this, but I plan to follow up with an e-mail.

      Thank you so much for your wonderful comment, especially your thoughts on my writing. Coming from you they mean a lot.

      I have unfortunately been in the midst of a many months long writer’s block, but I am hoping my down time this winter will free me up to get back to blogging.

      I am so happy that you found my lamb at Dickson’s! I heard it was random and not because you had heard that it was for sale there, which makes it even “neater.” I hope you have been enjoying it.

      Thank you for getting in touch with me. It was great to see Lizzie and Ben at my father’s birthday party. They both looked and seemed great.

      I hope all is well with you.

      Love,
      Bob

  13. Lance Says:

    December 13, 2010 at 12:35 pm

    Hi Bob,
    For the last two years I have been raising Tamworth/Large Black pigs on perennial pasture, but the damage they do is disturbing. Those pigs can really dig! I want to plant something for them to eat on cultivated land and wondered if you could let me know how your forage planting worked out. Thanks,
    LL

    Reply
    1. stonybrookfarm Says:

      December 13, 2010 at 6:23 pm

      Hi LL,

      The planting worked out great, especially the field peas. The rape did really well and the pigs found it very palatable. One thing they didn’t like was the triticale. In the future, I will plant beardless (awnless) barley as a companion crop.

      Bob

  14. cosmo Says:

    January 8, 2011 at 2:17 pm

    Hi Greetings
    5 acre Holding
    I had tried raising pigs (commercial types) on open grazing ,using Electric fencing for control, and commercial feed for nourishment. Economic disaster , lost my shirt mostly due to feed cost .
    It appears (a) wrong type of pig (b) do not use imported commercial feed
    Any recommendations?

    Best Regards
    Cosmo (the Jamaican)

    Reply
  15. Tim of Angle Says:

    March 23, 2011 at 8:04 am

    I’m surprised that this site doesn’t support an RSS feed.

    Reply
  16. mark kulik Says:

    April 27, 2011 at 12:05 pm

    I wanted to know if you are selling any bred.eding pairs of heritage pigs. I have raised pigs before and I am now interested in changing what I was doing. I would like to start raising and breeding heritage (preferably Large Blacks). Problems is, like your blog states, you cannot find breeding pairs. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

    Reply
  17. Bill Hart Says:

    December 28, 2011 at 7:54 pm

    I just purchased some Stony Brook leaf lard (for making pie crust).

    Do I need to render this first?

    Reply

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