This is thrird stanza from "To Autumn" by John Keats.

: "Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue; Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn Among the river sallows, borne aloft Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the skies. "

Just finished a weekend trade show in Covington, KY. We made first contact with some geat local chefs as well as some new grocery accounts. Surely do hope that the hot sauce continues to spread.

Next week we travel to Louisville to the Liquor Barn for a demo day. As we near the end of the month, we head for Morehead, KY for the Appalachian fest. I love these festivals.

Anna and Andy finally caved and announced their baby will be female. I'm thinking my next product will have "Bluegrass Beth" on the label! Whaddya think?

From Birthday to Halloween. Sure haven't been keeping up with the posts. Summer in KY was a disaster, damn near killed us. Pepper yield in one field went from 1400 lbs. in 2006 to 40 lbs in 2007. Fortunately, we've been able to buy additional peppers locally. And equally fortunate, we've filled 40 barrels with mash. So there will be Bluegrass Red in 2008. Now, if only the web site was up....

Today marks the passage of another of life's milestones; I'm 60. As CSNY once intoned, "What a long strange trip it's been." One part of making it this far is the inclination to look back instead of ahead and it's a custom one must break else sink into a wallow of who knows what. I think that's one reason the farm is so good for me; I concentrate on growing, not remembering.

Stop by Willow; see the new pepper crop and if lucky, catch a glimpse of our two new "BeuLingo" heifers.

Good fortune to you on this auspicious occasion!!

A few pieces of farm news:

Bluegrass Red is now available in Lexington at "The Mousetrap" on Tates Creek Rd and "Artique" downtown.

We're setting up at the Maysville Antique and Craft Festival on Saturday, 4/28. Stop by for a sample.

The seedlings are off and running in the "Greenhouse of Gertrude". So far we're on schedule for a late May planting date.

Yesterday was earth day. A day that somewhat shamed me. Here's the story: I was surveyed by a CBS News/ New York Times surveyor - you know, the sample of 1361 random Americans, blah, bla, blah. Anyway, I must of answered close to 100 questions, but the one that brought me up cold was: "What specifically do you do to conserve energy or actually help the environment?" - Well, let's see; we recycle glass, paper and plastic. We try to use florescent bulbs, we've cut way back on plastic bags from Krogers and we have an energy miser device on the air-conditioner. But is that all, is that the best we can do? Where are the choices we should have? Shouldn't I figure out how to power the farm with wind? How much unnecessary driving are we guilty of? Shouldn't our house be equipped with awnings to keep the sun off windows and walls? I really don't do much to make any difference and I self identify as someone who cares about the planet. Seems to me we've got a long, long way to go.

2007 has started off as a real bummer. We've been hospitalized, rehabbed, flu-ed, deelayed, missed our Puerto Rico trip, you name it. Anyway, February is looking up, slowly. The 2006 sauce will be bottled this week and we should have 300 to 350 cases ready to go. We have some interest from a New York State distributor that would certainly expand our selling horizon.

Here's a strory about standing up for peace that I recently took note of:

The Army maintained that the duty to refuse an illegal order, established at the Nuremberg Trials and enshrined in the Universal Code of Military Justice, applies only to orders to commit particular criminal acts like executing a prisoner. But in Watada, Resister, a January 27 video by New America Media's Curtis Choy, Watada says that responsibility "doesn't just include individual war crimes. It includes the greatest crime against the peace, which is, as they determined after Nuremberg, wars of aggression, wars that are not out of necessity but out of choice for profit or power or whatever it may be."
"To stop an illegal and unjust war, the soldiers can choose to stop fighting it.... If soldiers realized this war is contrary to what the Constitution extols--if they stood up and threw their weapons down--no President could ever initiate a war of choice again," he said.

Reminds me of some union guys I used to hang with who understood that sometimes, when all else failed, you put down your tools and took a walk.

I feel a margarita on the mind!

I want to refer you to a speech given by Bill Moyers back in December. It's just about the first piece establishing a moral course I've seen and I like the way Moyer's articulates his vision. It's worth the read.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010507J.shtml