Saltarelli Farms

Saltarelli Farms Small family farm in the Catskills, Upstate, NY. Growing food and building systems.

Homestead life, farm projects, greenhouse builds, and figuring things out as we go.

06/11/2026

270 pieces of pine tongue and groove. John cut every single one, then we hand stained every single one with Sherwin-Williams Natural Transparent Stain and Sealer before anything went up.

When the roofing and siding crew finished, they left channels on the sides of the entry bump-ins for wood panels. Originally we were going to use a manufactured PVC decking material in those sections. Longevity was the reason. No rot, no maintenance, nothing to worry about. It did not end up working out, and we went with real pine tongue and groove instead.

It actually worked out perfectly. Pine tongue and groove is exactly what we are using on the ceiling of the great room inside. The entries and the great room ceiling are going to match. The panels set right into the channels the crew had left. The last detail was cutting holes and running wiring for recessed lighting under the overhang.

Black standing seam, warm pine, black recessed lights for a clean modern look.

05/21/2026

This tool saved us a lot of time on our off-grid solar wireway install.

We knew going in that we needed a lot of holes in the wireway for conduit. A hole saw works, but it leaves rough edges, scratches the paint, and the slug gets stuck every time. A lot of commercial electricians use a knockout punch instead.

Here is how it works: drill a pilot hole first with a carbide hole saw, then the knockout punch goes in. It is a bolt that threads through two pieces of metal. As you tighten it, the two pieces pull together and the bottom piece shears a perfect circle through the sheet metal. No chips. No burrs. No deburring when you are done.

We needed sizes for 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch, 1 inch, 1-1/4 inch, and 2 inch conduit fittings, so we needed a set t hat had all of those. We went with the Klein Tools Knockout Punch Set. We liked the sizes included and the wrench that comes with it. The thing that sets it apart: when it punches through, it splits the slug into two pieces so it releases from the tool on its own. A lot of knockout punches do not do that. The Klein does. It also fits into tighter spaces than a drill. Highly recommend.

05/20/2026

Part of our DIY off-grid solar home build: installing the Square D 12x12 wireway.

We chose to use a wireway to keep all the connections between our batteries, our inverters, and our AC combiner panel clean and organized. A wireway is basically an enclosed metal channel that keeps all your electrical connections protected and out of the way.

We had to make three modifications for it to work for our setup. First, we cut it down from 10 feet to 8 and a half feet. Second, we made openings so the connections on the batteries could pass through. Each battery needs a
power cable, a communication cable, and a ground wire inside. We drilled the corners first before cutting so the edge trim wraps cleanly, used the Milwaukee cut-off saw for the straight sides, then filed everything
smooth and lined the edges with protective trim.

Third, we drilled holes to mount it to the wall and made sure to hit the studs because it weighs a couple hundred pounds. We positioned it a few inches above the batteries to give us enough clearance to lift them off the wall-mount brackets if we ever need to.

After months of waiting, our Square D 12x12 wireway is finally installed. It really does look great in the utility room, which matters to us because this is our home.

04/30/2026

Seeds started March 6th. This is 52 days later, up-pot day.

All micro container varieties from Renee's Garden. Tomatoes: Litt'l Bites Cherry, Tasmanian Chocolate, Super Bush, and Sungold Cherry. Bush Slicer Cucumber.

The tomatoes look small, they are. A standard tomato plant at this stage would be 6 to 12 inches tall. These are bred to stay compact.

Finally found ProMix at Tractor Supply for the up-pot. 6-inch black pots for most, solo cups for the overflow.

Cucumbers are already flowering. Baby cucumbers are close. Tomatoes are right behind them.

04/29/2026

Last you saw the house it was wrapped in ZIP System. Here's where it is now.

Black standing seam metal, roof and siding, nearly complete. Most of the panels were fabricated right on site, sheet metal rolls, cut and bent to fit. The more intricate pieces like the roof cap were fabricated ahead of
time.

The seams run from the roofline straight down the sides. The bending and shaping work the crew did, the fine detail in every corner, every cap, every transition, it was genuinely artistic. True craftsmen.

Why standing seam: the panels interlock with hidden fasteners, no visible pe*******ons. They clip in so the metal expands and contracts freely through any temperature swing. Handles extreme freeze-thaw cycles,
heavy snow load, decades of weather. Same material roof and siding, one continuous system, no rot, no paint, no maintenance. 40 to 70 year lifespan. Made sense long term.

Next, wood panel accents on the bump-outs. Scandinavian mountain cabin look.

04/28/2026

52 days ago we started the same seeds two ways; traditional cells and the seed snail method. Pizza My Heart Container Peppers and Little Prince Container Eggplant. Here's what we have.

Peppers: 100% germination in the seed snails. About 50% in the traditional cells. But the cell plants are larger. Snail wins on germination, cell wins on plant size.

Eggplant: nearly 100% germination in both. Plants are almost identical in size across both methods.

What's true for both: every plant is healthy. And the seed snails take up about a third of the space.

Where we land so far: if space is the constraint, the snail is worth trying. The results aren't clean enough to call it one way or the other yet.

Peppers went back as they were, not ready to up-pot. Eggplant cells got up-potted, soil added to the snail eggplants. More results to come.



04/25/2026

Here's how we got 1,500 pounds of batteries into the utility room ourselves.

Each Discover Helios ESS came on its own pallet, skid steer through the bedroom slider one at a time, the only entry point that could handle it. Unboxed each one, stood them up, got them on the dolly, moved them one at a time. Removed the side covers to expose the terminals before anything went on the wall.

Wall was prepped ahead of time, blocking behind the fire rated Sheetrock, then painted. Laser line across all five bracket positions, brackets screwed in. Each battery rolls into position, we used a jack to lift them up and hook onto the brackets. Weight rests on the feet on the concrete floor, brackets just keep them from tipping forward.

Then the leveling. Four independent feet per battery. All five needed to be level to each other so the wireway across the top sits correctly. That part took hours. All five in. In position. Level. Next up, wiring.

04/24/2026

The first thing we looked at when choosing batteries for our off-grid home: what happens if something goes wrong inside our house.

We went with the Discover Helios ESS, five of them. 16 kWh each. 80 kWh total. 48V lithium, wired in parallel.

Why these specifically: built-in dual fire suppression on every battery — this is going in our utility room, inside our home. Outdoor rated. Closed-loop communication with our SolarK inverters. Independent monitoring through the Lynk 2 hub. All metal, no assembly, raised off the floor.

And they look good. We wanted five batteries on the wall of our home to actually look like they belong there. There are cheaper options, everything has a trade-off. We looked at the cost vs. what we were getting and
the answer was clear for us. The decision took a while. We're confident in where we landed.

04/06/2026

The roofing and siding crew is coming this week. Before they could show up, the entire building envelope had to be sealed.

Every screw hole, every nail hole, every pe*******on through the ZIP System sheathing, liquid flashing. Every board joint, every edge, every window and door opening, ZIP tape, rolled with a specific tool that leaves Z impressions in the surface so you can verify every inch is properly bonded. No Z's means you missed a spot. The bottom of the boards got liquid flashed and taped too, the most vulnerable point on the whole wall. When it's done the entire envelope is one continuous sealed surface.

On the roof we laid down Grip-Rite ShingleLayment HT, high temperature synthetic roofing underlayment, before the standing seam metal
goes on. Another layer of protection between the structure and everything outside it. Walls sealed. Roof prepped.

It's done. The crew is coming. The house is about to look completely different.



04/03/2026

We get a lot of questions about what's inside the solar cargo trailer so here's a look.

We don't have any permanent storage structures on the property yet, which means this trailer has to work as our workshop, our garage, and our off-grid power system all at the same time.

Everything in there has a place because it has to, the Victron equipment and battery system runs the property, the tools are organized so nothing gets lost in the chaos of a build, and the chargers are hung so they're always accessible and always ready to go.

One trailer doing the job of three buildings until we get there.

Address

Davenport, NY
13750

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