Hearty Roots Community Farm Log

Leek (and potato!) planting party details

2009-05-13T22:29:00.002-04:00

Join the Hearty Roots farmers and CSA members for our Annual Leek (and Potato!) Planting Party

We need many, many hands to help us plant 10,000 baby leeks, and 14,000 seed potatoes!
Enjoy working side by side with the farm crew and members from all the sites. Get your hands dirty. Be a part of planting food you will eat in the fall.

Additional good times include

Games for children | Raffle to win local goodies basket | Snacks and drinks | Visit to the Awesome Farm lambs

Details:
Saturday, May 16th from 11-5
Hearty Roots fields on Pitcher Lane in Upper Red Hook. We are located at 227 Pitcher Lane. Look for parking signs across from Gigi's Market. Check the website for directions.
All ages, friends, and family welcome

Heavy Rain Date: Sunday, May 17th. Call the farm phone or check the website if you are in doubt.

Hearty Roots Farm events 2009!

2009-03-27T10:45:00.001-04:00

Please join us for our farm events this season! All are welcome.

- Saturday, May 16th will be our Leek Planting Party. This year we'll be focusing on leeks instead of onions, transplanting thousands of little seedlings from their greenhouse trays into the soil.

- Saturday, July 18th will be our Garlic Harvest Party. We will be pulling the bulbs of garlic out of the ground and hanging them to cure in the barn. This year we've acquired a tractor-mounted under-cutter that may make the whole process a lot easier-- if it works as planned, we won't have to hand-dig each bulb!

- Saturday, October 3rd will be our Fall Harvest Party. A time to just come visit the farm, meet fellow members, play games, eat good food and enjoy the beauty of autumn!

Red Hook's harvest goes Four Seasons with new Winter Market

2009-01-02T14:25:00.002-05:00

Miss the farmers' markets after Thanksgiving? No need to wait until spring, farmers and producers in the town of Red Hook are joining forces. A truly local winter farmers' market will be hosted by the Elmendorph Inn, right next door to the Red Hook Tiberio IGA. The Red Hook Winter Market, the first of its kind, will feature items such as fruit, cider and produce from Migliorelli Farm and Hearty Roots Farm, meat and dairy products from Northwind Farm, Hudson Valley Fresh and Awesome Farm, woolen fiber from Hudson Valley Sheep & Wool Co., hot soup and prepared foods from Gigi Market, jams and jellies from Montgomery Place Orchard, fresh bread from Tivoli Bakery and more! Admission is free and we need your support to make this local market a success. Join us at the Elmendorph for Red Hook Winter Market on the second Saturday of every month in winter: December 13, January 10 and February 14. Doors will be open from 10am-2:00pm.

Fall Harvest Party-- Saturday October 18th

2008-10-18T00:06:00.002-04:00

Come one come all to the annual Hearty Roots Farm Fall Harvest Party!

Saturday October 18th, from 2pm - 6pm, at 433 West Kerley Corners Road in Tivoli, NY.

Bring a dish to share for the pot-luck, also please bring your own plate/utensils.

Activities include: Tours of the Farm Fields! Pumpkin Carving! Volleyball! Rotten Tomato Tossing! Horseshoes! and prepare to be flabbergasted at the flexible farmer feats of . . . The Agrobats!

Schedule:

2pm - 6pm: Games, potluck, drinks, merriment at Hearty Roots Farm HQ, 433 West Kerley Corners Road.

3pm Tour of the farm's main production fields at main production 227 Pitcher Lane, Red Hook.

4:30pm Performance by the Agrobats!

6pm Sunset, then time to head home, or out to the Black Swan for a drink.

Farm Notes by Miriam

2008-09-19T14:33:00.002-04:00

Hello Folks,

Feels like fall and we are busy planting our cover crops. Every year I look forward to feeding the soil after harvesting from it all season. This year we have experimented with buckwheat as a quick summer smother crop. And, good ol' favorites such as Rye/Vetch and Oats/Peas. The grasses provide biomass and the legumes fix nitrogen when worked into the soil. Hopefully, by seeding now will help produce healthy produce next year and in the years to come.

Speaking of long term stewardship -- Benjamin and Lindsey will be joined in matrimony at the farm next weekend!!!

I'm sure I am joined by all of you and our entire crew in offering heartfelt congratulations and best wishes. For those of you in Brooklyn, no worries about pick-up -- one of the trusty crew will be making the trip down with produce even on the day of the wedding. And, a message for Tivoli members, please refrain from picking the wedding flowers - located on the hill to the north of pick-your-own and those near the white tractor shed.

Finally, I hope you are all continuing to enjoy the fruits of our labor!

Take care,
Miriam

Farm Notes, by Dana Gentile, Greenwood Heights CSA Member

2008-09-07T12:18:00.001-04:00

Living in the city I am removed from seeing how my food is grown and raised. With restaurants on every block I found myself not even making my own meals on a daily basis. I helped organize the Greenwood Heights CSA to be able to eat locally and support small farms with my community. Being part of a CSA has given me an understanding of where the food I eat is produced and how to eat with the seasons.

Last week I took a vacation from my eight-hour desk job and left the city for fresh air. I didn't take a typical vacation that includes a beach or highly tourist community. Instead I took a vacation to volunteer on Hearty Roots Farm and Awesome Farm. I spent my days collecting eggs, herding sheep, weeding, harvesting, weighing, counting, and sorting the vegetables that arrive at distributions sites in Williamsburg, Greenwood Heights, Bay Ridge, Woodstock, and Tivoli. I worked all week next to the farmers that make our local source of vegetables and protein possible. This time spent out of the city and on a farm put me in touch with nature and helped me understand how farms work especially when they are serving local CSA's. The people who grow our food are kind to the earth by using organic practices. They are constantly learning and improving their methods to be as productive as possible to provide us with the quality we desire yet they are completely aware of not abusing the land.

The farm workdays are long but there is group lunch that splits the day in half. One person from the farm leaves a little early to cook a delicious home cooked meal that the entire group shares in that person's home. As we sit around a long dining table together, we talked about the challenges of the day, what the afternoon would bring and current politics. When we return to the afternoon duties, we are refreshed from the homemade lunch and eager to get back to work. As I began to weed tiny carrot plants in the afternoon sun, I looked closely at the small green carrot tops trying to separate them from the other green plants that grow around them. The fields are quiet and peaceful as we partake in conversations as we weed together. Hearty Roots Farm has an electric tractor that is even quieter than our conversations in the fields. This piece of farm machinery was not disruptive at all, which was most surprising.

As I spent the week getting to know the farmers during my volunteer vacation I began to think how important it is to see the farm in action. I've attended the last garlic harvest day as a way to be active in the CSA and to contribute to the production of our harvest while giving back to the land and farmers. Working in the fields gives a new appreciation to the food we eat. I saw first hand how our food is grown and the amount of physical work that is involved each day. Hearty Roots Farm and Awesome Farm greatly inspire me and I feel appreciative to have learned from them. These are young hardworking farmers that spend their days making food that feed our communities.

Farm Notes by KayCee

2008-08-29T11:16:00.000-04:00

At this point of the year, it is hard to imagine the season without tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and the other bounties of the season. But alas, fall will come, frost will kill the plants, and winter will be upon us. And then what will you eat? Start preserving now to continue having local veggies throughout the winter. While nothing compares to a freshly sliced tomato, a big jar of tomatoes to put into your winter chili or to make a creamy tomato soup is a great pleasure. So get canning!

Basic preserving doesn't require too much equipment: jars and clean lids, a big pot for boiling water and the jars, some good knives, and a chunk of time. I love making preserving dates because the work of peeling a bushel of peaches is a lot less daunting and a lot more fun when you are doing it with a friend. There are plenty of good books and even more websites dedicated to taking you step by step through the preservation process. A variety of methods can be used: freezing, canning, lactofermentation, root cellaring, and drying just to name a few. If it feels like you just can't eat all that kale, blanch it and then freeze it. Look for tomato and fruit specials during this bountiful end of summer season.

Not only does preserving allow you to eat locally longer, it also reduces packaging, and reduces the amount of trips you have to take to the store.

Things I have preserved so far this season:
Rhubarb Sauce
Blueberry Jam and Sauce
Peach Jam
Tomatillo Salsa
Frozen Zuchinni
Frozen Blueberries
Frozen Strawberries
Whole Tomatoes
Sauerkraut

Things I have plans for:
Frozen Roasted Red peppers
Salsa
Pickled Jalapenos
Frozen Kale
Canned Peaches
Lots more Tomatoes

Farm Notes by Miriam

2008-08-01T09:48:00.000-04:00

Hello Folks,

Talk this time of year tends towards the tomato. From expressing adoration for those lovely red orbs to cursing the blights that befall the plants, this solanaceous super star gets a lot of attention in August. For all the glory there is a price to pay in the form of endless trellising and ubiquitous copper spray. While methods for trellising are more varied than one might think (cages, weaving, high-tensile wire, etc.), nearly every "Organic" grower I know relies on the legal use of copper to suppress blight.

Most blights that effect tomatoes are soil-born. Every time it rains and dirt splashes the lower leaves of the plant the disease spreads. You can only remove so many leaves without causing "sun-scalding" (pale, hard patches on fruit). Even the use of mulch cannot completely stop the occurrence of blight.

With copper spray, copper ions are actually absorbed by the fungus or bacteria and link to the chemical combinations in their proteins, which disables them.

So, we don latex gloves and throw on a backpack sprayer and walk up and down the beds leaving a fine, blue mist in our wake. With a broken gasket on the lid of our sprayer and the requisite jostle to re-mix, there is always an unpleasant trickle of this concoction that drips down one's back. But, don't worry about us, safety regulations assert "Zero days to Harvest", which means it's even o.k. to eat the fruit on the same day of application.

I still wanted to prove to myself that our efforts are not in vain. Although human health issues are not in jeopardy, continued use of copper can have a deleterious effect on the soil over time.

Is it really worth it?

This season I set up a test to find out. Every two weeks we apply the correct amount of copper to nearly 40% of our total tomato crop. The remaining 60% is left untouched. Of that 60%, 20% are determinate varieties of tomatoes bred primarily for resistance to disease, rather than supreme taste. In other words, half of our yummy heirlooms have been treated and half of them have not.
So far, the results show that the blight has overtaken more of the lower leaves on the untreated plants to the point where they are unable to produce fruit on these lower sections. And, the blight continues to climb ever higher. This is no good. But, I will see the experiment out just to make sure.

Last week, I attended the monthly meeting of small scale growers in our area who are "Organic", "Certified Naturally Grown", or folks like us who never use chemicals but haven't felt the need to bother with the paperwork ;) I informed some farming friends of my experiment. They laughed and told me there was no need to test it out. Copper works. But, I was glad I mentioned it because I learned that "Champion", the copper brand we use, has recently been removed from the national organic list. (See OMRI, Organic Materials Review Institute for more details.) According to the certification board, as is usually the case, farmers are allowed to use up their remaining stores of a banned product as long as their next purchase conforms to the new standard.

In fact, I remember in 2003 when "Champion" brand copper spray replaced "Kocide" as the organic standard. The certified "Organic" farmer who I was working for eventually used up his bag of Kocide and diligently bought the new stuff -- "Champion". When I asked him the difference between the two brands he shook his head. No idea.

Therefore, I put out the call to all of you!

Anyone want to research more about the "new" brand of organic copper (I haven't even found the name of it yet!)- and how it compares to "Champion"? Please consider this a sincere invitation! And don't worry, our bag is going to last the rest of the season, so the due date for these findings is not until '09! The reward? Our own delicious dehydrated tomatoes mailed out in wintertime to the first one who responds!

--Miriam

Farm Notes by Benjamin

2008-07-30T09:46:00.000-04:00

Small sustainable farmers are all over the media lately. A few years back, Hearty Roots might have been in an occasional story in our local paper or a food related magazine. These days, we have literally been inundated with requests from filmmakers, TV and radio producers, and editors of books, newspapers and magazines. In fact, this week in Brooklyn we will have a crew from Japanese Public Television (NHK) filming distribution of the vegetables; this past weekend Stoneledge Farm, which is in a neighboring county to ours, had a film crew from ABC News documenting their Garlic Harvest for a national TV feature; and last week, I was invited to speak on the radio about the economics of small farming, on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show.

In the past few months alone, the New York Times has featured stories on young urbanites becoming farmers; corporate executives switching to the farm lifestyle; CSA in general; and people hiring gardeners to create their own organic CSA's in their back yards.

Is this just a fad, or Is there something going on to merit all this attention? Judging by our experience at Hearty Roots, this is more than just media hype-- we're in the midst of a local food and farming movement whose growth is momentous. Hearty Roots has seen unprecedented demand for our CSA shares this season, selling out far earlier than we ever have before. We are seeing new farms pop up and hearing from many people who are excited about learning to farm. We've been forced to turn down many neighborhoods, restaurants and specialty stores interested in getting our produce, since even though we have grown our farm by nearly 100% each season, we are still unable to keep up with demand.

So what's next? In order for this local food movement to keep up with the media attention, and demand from a locavore-savvy public, we need more farmers! Even in our area, which faces development pressure due to its proximity to NYC, there is lots of land that is currently growing low value crops like hay-- land that could be used to grow higher value crops to meet NYC's demand for fresh, local produce. It will be no easy task to achieve this: we need changes in local, state and federal policy; we need young people who are working for farmers now to have the tools they need to launch their own farms; we need to protect our existing farmland from development; and we need existing commodity farmers to diversify into direct-marketing. It won't happen overnight, but now is the time to build our capacity for a strong, local, sustainable agricultural sector in the future.

Farm Notes by Tracy

2008-07-18T17:43:00.003-04:00

We work hard here at Hearty Roots. Seven days a week, at least one of us is at the farm. Some days just watering, other days planting, weeding, tilling, keeping away the groundhogs, and harvesting. Perhaps the produce itself tells that story: of long days in the field. But our bright, sweet carrots and heavy, round beets also tell another story: Hearty Roots isn't just about hard work. After hours you'll find three of us coming home to the same house, and often most of us find ourselves in the same place. On Tuesdays there's wing night (always better if shared), on Thursdays we show movies, and on the right weekend, some of us dance until wee hours, enjoying our late nights of the week.

I can't speak for the rest of the crew, but farming for me is about the people I work with as much as it is about growing produce. Days aren't filled with laughs, but they keep me going. I think our produce shows the satisfaction we feel at the end of our days, as well as the work we put into them. I love my job because I believe in good food, but also because summer season means many hours of hard work, and spending those hours with the right people makes or breaks the harvest.

Garlic Harvest Party!

2008-07-16T21:30:00.001-04:00

The annual Garlic Harvest Party is this weekend at Hearty Roots Community Farm!

Saturday, July 19th, 11am - 5pm

Find us at our Pitcher Lane field, 227 Pitcher Lane, Red Hook, NY 12583

We'll provide water and some snacks, feel free to bring a picnic and stay for as much or as little time as you'd like.

We'll be digging the garlic out of the ground, tying it in bunches, and bringing it to our barn to hang up to cure.

Kids and friends welcome! Rain or shine! We look forward to seeing you there!

Farm Notes

2008-07-15T09:29:00.000-04:00

by Danny

This last week on the farm has been a busy one. We have been doing a lot of cultivating. Recently we bought a one row and a two row cultivator for our electric cultivating tractor, an ACG (Allis Chalmers G series tractor). The winter squash has and our backs have been the happiest with the purchase of these oldy ,but goody implements. A few passes per bed and all that is left to weed are the weeds in the row. And in these times of high gas prices it sure is nice plugging the tractor in at the end of the day.

The potatoes and corn both received good attention from us with the water and the weeding. They both are looking healthy with very little insect and weed pressure. It's never too early to start daydreaming about future barbeques.

For the first time in a good while we had to irrigate. We watered in a new planting of carrots, a bed of herbs that included basil and parsley, kale, salad mix and some of the older established plants. The moving of pipe is a dance, from the physical moving of the pipe to the planning of the next placement and one after that. The physical moving of pipe usually involves one or two people. It's always a balancing act, from leaping across the beds with pipe in hand to twisting and turning and setting down of pipe when a couple of us try to synchronize and move them together. Usually every thing goes smoothly, but every so often, like today, you have spend some time running around trying to stop a geyser or unplugging a clogged sprinkler. It's a nice way to cool down and laugh a bit. Hope all of you are doing the same.

Onion Planting Party 2008

2008-04-14T21:57:00.001-04:00

Every year to kick off the season, we invite you all to join us transplanting onion seedlings. This year's Onion Planting Party will be held Saturday, May 10th from 11am - 5pm at Hearty Roots Farm in Tivoli, NY (or in case of heavy rain, Sunday, May 11th). Join us for as few or as many hours as you wish. Onion planting is a great opportunity to get to know the members and the crew of Hearty Roots Farm and have fun in the dirt!

We will have water and snacks but please feel free to bring a picnic. No need to RSVP - and you are welcome to bring as many friends and family members as you wish, but we cannot allow dogs on the farm, so please leave your pets at home.

To find directions, look up 227 Pitcher Lane, Red Hook, NY. It's a two hour drive from NYC up the Taconic Parkway.

Looking forward to seeing you in the fields!

Fashionable farmers?

2008-04-02T22:35:00.003-04:00

The New York Times printed a story about Hearty Roots a few weeks ago, complete with audio slideshow.

Awesome Farm!

2008-03-15T13:12:00.002-04:00

We are very excited that KayCee Wimbish and Owen O'Connor, who have worked with Hearty Roots for that past couple of seasons, are launching their own livestock farm this season!

Awesome Farm is renting land adjacent to Hearty Roots and raising chickens (for eggs and meat), lambs and turkeys this season-- and maybe more in the future. This season, Hearty Roots hopes to offer our Farm Share members in Tivoli and Woodstock some of Awesome Farm's bounty-- however, there will probably not be enough to offer to Brooklyn members until 2009.

We're extremely excited to have animals more integrated into the operations at Hearty Roots; chickens to peck at insects, sheep to fertilize fallow fields, not to mention the satisfying feeling of having other friendly creatures sharing the fields with us.

Shares available for 2008, including a new site!

2008-03-06T20:48:00.002-05:00

We are now accepting memberships for this year's Farm Shares at all of our distribution sites. We're especially excited to be working with a new neighborhood group to offer shares in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn!

Please remember to sign up soon, as we have a limited number of shares available, and we expect to sell out (as we have in all past seasons).

Photos from the 2007 Harvest Party

2007-10-09T17:14:00.000-04:00

Farm notes by KayCee

2007-10-09T17:13:00.000-04:00

I love my job at Hearty Roots. It is amazing to me that I get to spend my days outside, working with my body and my hands making food grow, surrounded by mountains, weather, color, beauty and wonderful people. Farming is tangible and satisfying in a way other jobs I have had just aren't. I can stand behind this job politically as well, as I am a small part in creating a more just and responsible food system. And if these weren't reasons enough for me to love working at Hearty Roots, there is lunch program, one of my absolute favorite things about the job.

If you have read this newsletter closely (you are breaking my heart if you haven't been), then you have witnessed lunch program being referenced. I am sure you have been asking yourself, "Just what is this lunch program KayCee so frequently mentions?" Wonder no more.

There are four of us working full time on the farm. Each one of us has a day of the week when we prepare lunch for everyone else. Miriam cooks on Mondays, I cook on Tuesdays, Owen has Wednesdays, and Benjamin is chef ju jour on Thursdays. The chef of the day stops working a bit early to prepare lunch and then at 1:00 we all gather to eat. On many days we have already been working for 7 hours by the time lunch comes around, so it is naturally a well-deserved break. But there is something so much more to sharing the literal fruit of our labors together, to having a meal lovingly prepared, and to just sitting down and really relaxing for about an hour together. The four of us spend an inordinate amount of time together, but it is at lunch when we catch up on farm gossip and news, share the latest joke, recount tales of past weekends or evenings, and just generally enjoy each other's company. We eat amazingly healthfully as our vegetables are showcased and often supported with some grains or beans. It is always exciting when we get to have the first fennel or sweet potato or tomato of the season.

It is a rare occurrence to take the time to eat in a home, on real plates, enjoying the mid day break. In my former job as a teacher I had about 20 minutes to eat my lunch out of tupperware while cleaning up kids' spills, slicing their oranges, and diffusing social disruptions. Eating was not about the food or the company. How wonderful would it be if every office, school, or workshop created some sort of lunch program? It greatly improves one's quality of life and reminds us how important and valuable good food and good people truly are.

And what about Fridays you ask? We used to eat burritoes next to Montgomery Place Orchard Farm Stand after delivering vegetables to them. We dined al fresco, getting to meet up with friends and CSA members at this local gathering place. Now the burrito stand is closed and we are forced to find other places to dine on Fridays. Eating out still is fun, but I always look forward to Monday's lunch program.

Farm Notes by Benjamin

2007-09-11T18:16:00.000-04:00

Our Growing Practices

There has been much in the news about breaches of trust between producers and consumers of food, medicine, and other products; imported fish tainted with chemicals, lead-paint toys, killer pet food, etc. In nearly all of these stories, there has been a common thread of a long, opaque supply chain-- not only is it impossible for consumers to know exactly what's in an item, but in many case producers along the supply chain don't know what's in the materials that they're handling and then passing along.

One of the benefits of having a relationship directly with Hearty Roots Farm is that you are one short step away from the source of your food. If you are at all uncertain of how your veggies are being grown, you have the opportunity to ask the people who grew it; you even have the opportunity to come to the farm and see it being grown!

You probably already know that we grow our food using organic methods; we use no chemical pesticides or fertilizers, and we aim to improve our soil and ecosystem through our practices. Here are some more details about how we manage our soil's fertility on the farm, so you know exactly what's going into your food:

Our most important tool for maintaining fertile soils is our use of cover crops. By planting oats, rye, clover, vetch, and peas in our fields when they are not in crop production, we are able to use the sun's energy to harvest carbon ( i.e. organic matter) and nitrogen from the air. We then till those cover crops into the soil, where the organic matter and nitrogen become available to our crops. This is by far the cheapest way for us to build our soils; rather than trucking in organic matter (such as compost made somewhere else) or nitrogen (such as manure), we let our fields produce their own.

However, vegetables have high fertility requirements, so cover cropping doesn't always provide everything we need. We add nutrients to our soil through a few outside inputs. At the beginning of the season, we spread soybean meal and some mineral powders on our fields. Soybean meal is high in nitrogen, and is relatively cheap (it's what is left over when processors press soybean oil out of the beans). Because it is an organic product, it releases nitrogen slowly to our crops over the course of a few seasons, unlike chemical fertilizers which would be more likely to leach out into our water table. Mineral powder (namely sulfate of potash) provides Potassium to our crops; some farms might also add Phosphorus, but our soils are sufficiently high in Phosphorus naturally, so we don't need to add any.

During the season, we also give our vegetables a "boost" by adding small amounts of blended organic fertilizer (consisting of mineral powders, composted chicken manure, bone meal, peanut meal and feather meal); and we spray our seedlings in the greenhouse with some liquefied fish to give them a jolt of nutrients. In the long run, we hope to build our soils up through cover cropping to the point where we don't need to add extra nutrients; however, our fields were cut for hay for years before we began growing on them. This process repeatedly draws organic matter and nutrients out of the soil without replacing them. It will take years of careful organic management to restore our soils' natural fertility. We're off to a good start, but until then we must rely on some outside inputs to keep our veggies growing.

So no more mysteries on your plate! You now know every single item that we're using to feed the plants that are feeding you.

Farm Notes by Miriam

2007-08-07T21:52:00.000-04:00

The Popillia Japonica (aka Japanese Beetle) has shown up in droves here at Hearty Roots Farm, and elsewhere throughout the Hudson Valley. This lover of tender eggplant leaves is also quite fond of basil, but the most shocking damage is the complete destruction of our entire soy bean crop. Sadly, we will not be able to offer you edamame this year.
Click the link below to see an image of soybean destruction.
http://www.ent.iastate.edu/imagegal/coleoptera/scarabaeidae/japanese_beetle_soybean.html

Scouting the rows we have found as many as 12 climbing on top of each other at the same time. Many plants supported upwards of 50 beetles before succumbing to their voracious appetites. We tried (in vain) to trap these flying foes using a unique hour glass shaped bag that allows the bugs to fly in but prevents them from flying out. The beetles are attracted to the bags by an adhesive strip doused in pheromones, which we attach to the bag as bait.

The bag is then suspended from a fence post near the host plants. In the case of our soy bean crop we could have swapped out filled bags every day. Eventually, it was clear we could not win, and that to continue to try and save the soy beans was futile.

By keeping the plants -- rather than tilling them into the soil we hope that we are turning our failed crop into a trap crop, keeping the beetles away from other plants. So far, we have seen only limited damage to other plants on the farm.

Given the natural cycles of most insects you might wonder why we don't plant soybeans again. However, our window for replanting has come to a close. If we were to replant, the beans would not mature in time for harvest this season.

Perhaps next season the beetles will not be as prolific -- we'll see!

--Miriam

Farm Notes from Williamsburg members Sarah and Steve

2007-07-27T22:37:00.000-04:00

Farm Notes by Steven and Sarah, members of the Williamsburg, Brooklyn CSA. They have been members for three seasons. Their daughter, Willamina, has been a member for all of her almost two years.

Our farm share

The first spring after we moved into what is called EWIP—The East
Williamsburg Industrial Park—we made a determined effort to take our
little backyard & grow veggies in it. The soil may have been
contaminated, and the streets certainly plagued by renegade trash
haulers, but nonetheless we seeded and watered our backyard.

Nearly every plant came up. And nearly every plant eventually
succumbed to an invasion of plant-loving feral cats. We ended up with
a handful of strange cucumbers, loads of mealy tomatoes, and luckily
a farm share that has lasted now for 3 seasons of beautiful,
consistently wonderful produce.

We find great pleasure in this coop arrangement. It simplifies our
lives that are otherwise consumed by work & our baby. The share is
also a way to express our affection for this world by affirming a
sustainable way of farming. We appreciate being a part of the
process, and love seeing our toddler, nourished in the womb on the
farmshare veggies, now learning to eat them by the spoonful.

We have made it to the farm twice as a family. The first time
Willamina was only a month old. It was our first road trip, and we
decided to pick up our share in Tivoli en route to Vermont. A brief
tour and a look at the chickens turned our 4-hour trip into a 10-hour
adventure, that in the end still felt worthwhile.

This past weekend we finally made it upstate again for the garlic
harvest. The task loomed large in the early afternoon as we forked
the earth, pulled the garlic stems, and revealed the garlic root.
Each time we lifted a plant we were amazed by its size & perfection.
And while the rows seemed endless the community pulled through and
finished the task.

Seeing the farm operate in person, and just meeting people at the
garden, has made us realize that we are part of something that has
grown tremendously. When we wrote our first check to the coop we
didn’t know that were planting a seed of sorts that would continue to
grow and flourish for one, two, and now three seasons. We had a great
time harvesting garlic & running through your fields, sharing an
apple from your trees and the wonders of dirt and wild flowers with
our daughter. Thank you, Hearty Roots, for being there for us.

--Sarah Lippin & Steven Garrelts

Farm News from Owen Part 2

2007-07-19T22:51:00.001-04:00

of Red Hook takes action on land issues

The Town of Red Hook has taken a number of steps to negotiate the rights of private landowners with the goals of the community. Like most towns, Red Hook has zoning laws. The zoning laws dictate that only a certain number of houses can be built per acre and that different kinds of development are allowed only in specific areas. In 2002, the zoning laws were revised to require that houses built on important farmland are clustered to reduce their impact. Beyond the zoning laws, the town has attempted to mitigate the development of farmland through the Purchase of Development Rights and the Community Preservation Fund programs.

In 2003, the Town of Red Hook issued a $3.5 million bond to buy farmland development rights. In a Purchase of Development Rights program, the community pays individual landowners to put a conservation easement into the deed of their property. The farm can no longer be developed, and the tax-payers of the town share the price of this common good. It has been shown repeatedly that these programs pay for themselves by preventing an increased tax burden on the town in the future (from the costs of serving and educating new residents).

Recently, voters passed a referendum calling for a Community Preservation Fund. This fund can be used to purchase farmland development rights and achieve other community land goals. The funding for the program comes from a tax on real estate transactions. If a property sells for more than the Dutchess County median (about $350,000), there is a 2% tax on the difference between the county median price and the selling price of the property. People purchasing more expensive properties contribute more to the fund. Those who buy properties under the median, or who do not purchase property, pay nothing.

While both programs help to preserve what is left of the town's productive land, they are just a start. The money from the Purchase of Development Rights program has protected 376 acres, and the rest is already allocated to specific properties awaiting approval. The Community Preservation Fund will continuously generate money to protect farms, but at a somewhat slow rate. Much farmland is left vulnerable to development pressure.

After a year a half of research and discussion, a task force with representatives from the Town of Red Hook and the Villages of Tivoli and Red Hook reported back to the Town Board on their recommendations for a more comprehensive plan to address Red Hook's land issues. The plan calls for the creation of a new zoning area called the Agricultural Business District, conservation subdivision within that district, a concentration of development around the town's village centers, and a Transfer of Development Rights program that would build up the village centers while preserving the town's farmland. For more information, go to Redhook.org and scroll down to find "Inter-Municipal Task Force Update." The Task Force's recommendations could make real comprehensive improvements in Red Hook's future. They provide ways to balance development with conservation and the needs of farmers with the goals of the community. The decision on whether these recommendations are implemented is ultimately up the Town Board. Citizens concerned with Red Hook's future would be wise to pressure the Town Board to support the Task Force's recommendations.

Hearty Roots Newsletter

2007-07-15T21:41:00.000-04:00

Farm Notes by KayCee
Locavores!

Locavore was a term coined by a group of people in the San Francisco area who decided they wanted to only eat foods grown, harvested, and produced within 100 miles of where they live (www.locavore.com). The locavore idea is gaining momentum across North America as a political, environmental, and healthful act. Most food items that we Americans consume travel 1500 miles to get to us. In this time of rising oil prices, climate change, and general political instability, using all that energy to get food to us is a troubling act. You have made a decision to get your vegetables locally and seasonally, but what about the other things you eat and drink? The locavores started eat local challenges that usually last a week or a month. When you sign up for one you commit to only consuming food items that come from within 100 miles of where you are. The next eat local challenge is for the month of September. That is one delicious month; the end of summer and the beginning of fall! Being situated in New York might not be quite as advantageous as being in California, but you are within 100 miles of Long Island, Hudson Valley, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. You can easily get dairy, eggs, meat, wine, and vegetables from within this radius. I have recently discovered some local grain growers and millers at the Union Square Farmer's Market which is a huge bonus. Try using local maple syrup instead of sugar (abolitionists tried to get the United States to only sweeten with maple syrup due to cane sugar's deep dependency on slavery).
The folks at the 100 mile diet have put together 13 reasons to eat locally, you can check it out here:

http://100milediet.org/why-eat-local/

The same people have created a program that enables you to see a map of the 100 mile radius of where you live. This can help you plan and figure out where you can look for locally grown goods. Click here to see the map:

http://www.100milediet.org/map/

Obviously, there are many things that are impossible to get from within 100 miles (olive oil, chocolate, coffee, black teas, etc), and no one is suggesting that you give it all up. But by being increasingly aware of where your food is coming from you can reduce your ecological footprint, help keep local farmers in business, and create a strong regional economy all the while supporting local growers and producers and connecting to the seasons.

Read more here:

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2006/11/72148

2007-07-09T22:41:00.001-04:00

Farm Notes from Farmer Benjamin Shute

We're just past the summer solstice-- the longest day of the year--
and you can really see the effects on the farm. With more sunlight,
plants grow noticeably faster. Funny things happen when the day
length changes so dramatically; for example, we transplant a new
planting of head lettuce into the field every two weeks or so, so that
we have a steady supply to harvest all summer long. But two of our
plantings, which were put in the ground two weeks apart, are now both
the same size-- the younger lettuces caught up to the older ones
because they have been growing so fast with all the extra sunlight.

The bigger crops are growing even faster than the lettuces, since they
have more leaves to photosynthesize the available sunlight. The
tomato plants are keeping us busy with their quick growth, because we
have to continually tie them up to the stakes that we have in the
ground for them (we stake the tomatoes to keep their leaves off of the
ground; this prevents disease and makes picking easier. By the way,
there are already green tomatoes on the plants and we hope to have
ripe tomatoes in a few weeks!)

And what's growing even faster than the tomatoes? The weeds! Many
weeds have evolved to out-compete other plants by growing as quickly
as possible. So we are spending a lot of time battling the weeds so
that they don't rob our veggies of nutrients, light and water. We hoe
them, yank them, mow them, whack them, and sometimes even "flame" weed
them with a big propane torch-- but there is never an end!

Actually, there is an end; the first heavy frost, still months away,
will knock back many weeds, and the first heavy snow will leave us
with a clean slate. It seems a long way off, but the passing of the
solstice reminds us that from here on out the days are getting
shorter, already counting down to winter.

Newsletter Week 4: The Farm Bill

2007-06-25T21:48:00.000-04:00

Farm Notes by KayCee
A new farm bill is currently being debated in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. The Farm Bill is an omnibus legislation that is debated every five years. The 2007 bill is due to be approved in September. It is a huge piece of legislation that affects how people in this country and around the world grow, receive and eat their food. As we are all part of the food system, it affects us all, either as producers, consumers, recipients of food stamps or people who care about the environment. The information below will give you an introduction to the Farm Bill. Historically, the farm bill supports large, conventional producers. We want to see a farm bill that supports and encourages local and organic producers and protects the environment. Educate yourself and reach out to your elected officials if you feel compelled to do so.

Farm Bill 101

Whether you buy food at a grocery store, a farmers market or a cafeteria, the next Farm Bill will affect what you eat. Throughout 2007, Congress will debate policies that determine what food is grown in the United States, how it is grown, who grows it, and who can afford to eat it.

What is the Farm Bill?

Click here to get the PDF

The Farm Bill sets up the funding structure for agriculture, food stamps, rural development and agricultural research in the United States. It's divided into ten chapters, called titles.

The first chapter of the farm bill deals with the "commodity crops" – corn, wheat, sorghum, barley, oats, rice, cotton, soybeans and most other oilseeds (canola, sunflower, etc.). A variety of loans and government payments (called subsidies) are available to farmers who grow these crops. Farmers who grow "specialty crops," a category that includes fruits, vegetables and ornamental plants, are not eligible for these loans and payments.

Commodity crop subsidies are the subject of much controversy. According to some critics, these payments create hardships for farmers in the United States and around the world by encouraging overproduction of staple crops. However, subsidies are only one component of the problems with our farm and food policy, the side effect of decades of agricultural policies designed to drive crop prices as low as possible.

How Did We Get Here?

The structure of our food system is no accident – it has been shaped by years of policies designed to bring down the price of U.S. farm products, with the hope that lower prices will mean that U.S. exporters will be able to increase sales to other countries.

The 1930's – The New Deal established programs to stabilize farm prices by managing the supply of major agricultural products like corn and wheat. The government required farmers to take a certain portion of their lands out of production each year. This helped to counteract farmers' tendencies to plant as much as they possibly could, which created a surplus and droves down prices. The government also maintained reserves of staple grains, and purchased farmers' surplus in high-yield years. Then, if U.S. farmers had a rough year caused by drought or pest infestation, the government released the surplus.

The 1970's – Policymakers saw trade as the way of the future and encouraged farmers to produce as much as possible and to export their entire surplus. This worked for several years, in large part because the Soviet Union experienced a run of low crop yields, so U.S. farmers did export large quantities of grains at a good price.

The 1980's – The global price of commodities collapsed. U.S. farmers, who had become dependant on exporting their crops, were hit hard. But policymakers kept their faith in trade and said that if U.S. crop prices dropped low enough, U.S. exports could undercut foreign competition. They believed that they could make up for low prices with high volume, ignoring the fact that high volume drives prices down even more.

As U.S. crop prices decreased, so did the global price of crops, because other countries' exporters all set their prices based on U.S. numbers. A vicious cycle began – U.S. commodity traders would reduce the price of their grains to try to sell them in other countries, and the other countries would lower the price of their own crops to compete with the United States, and so on …. Prices continued to fall.

1996 - The "Freedom to Farm" Act marked the end of policies intended to control supply and stabilize farm prices. This bill eliminated the requirements that farmers keep some of their land idle. The government stopped keeping reserves of grain; instead all of the grain produced was put on the market. Even the system of loans to farmers was reworked in a way that failed to stabilize prices and encouraged overproduction.

1997 - One year into the Freedom to Farm Act, farm prices were collapsing. To quell criticism, Congress authorized emergency payments to farmers, which reached $20 billion in 1999. However, these payments could not make up for the decline in prices – even with the payments, U.S. net farm income declined by 16.5 percent from 1996 to 2001.

2002 – In the 2002 Farm Bill, instead of addressing the cause of the price drop, Congress voted to make these "emergency" payments permanent.

Who Wins? Subsidizing Agribusiness

Farm policies that permit the price of crops to fall below their cost of production actually give indirect subsidies to industrial animal production and food processing companies. Government payments make up the difference between the low price paid by agribusiness and the farmers cost of producing the crop – preventing a widespread failure of farms during low-price years.

As a result of farm policies that encourage overproduction and push crop prices down, it costs more to grow grains than to purchase them. Traditionally, farmers raised livestock and also grew the grains used to feed the livestock on their farm. Factory farms, however, must purchase grains to feed the thousands of animals they raise on one site. Therefore, the subsidy payments that are given to commodity farmers to help make up for low prices are also an indirect subsidy to factory farm operators, who do not have to pay the full price for their animal feed.

Just Getting Rid of Subsidies Won't Fix It

One popular theory is that U.S. subsidies are the cause of low commodity prices around the world. If the U.S. would only get rid of its subsidies, it is argued, then farmers in the developing world would have a better chance at making a living.

While it is true that the United States exports crops below the cost of production, which hurts farmers in developing world, the anti-subsidy argument ignores the fact that U.S. subsidies were implemented in 1997 in response to falling crop prices. In other words, subsidies were the result, not the cause, of the low prices farmers receive for their goods.

Subsidies don't fix everything. The payments go mostly to the largest players – the top one percent of subsidy recipients get about $83,000 per year, while the average program crop farmer only gets about $1,200 per year. And the top 10 percent of farm program recipients received 71 percent of farm subsidies between 1995 and 2002.

But without addressing the underlying causes of low crop prices, removing subsidies will do little to raise global farm income. Several studies have modeled the impact of eliminating U.S. and European Union agricultural subsidies, and found that over the next 15 years, global crop prices would be anywhere from 3.7 percent higher to 3 percent lower than their current value. On the other hand, U.S. net farm income would decrease about 25 to 30 percent, a total of about $15 billion.

The National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) has developed the Food from Family Farms Act as a model for a return to supply management and price stabilization. Under the NFFC proposal, farmers would own and store reserves of grains that they could sell when prices are high, and keep off the market when prices are low. And if crop prices got too low, farmers could give up a portion of their crops to the government as payment for their loans. This return to a system of grain reserves would keep some crops off the market and keep prices from sliding even lower.

Additionally, the government could require farmers to set aside a certain portion of their land as a supply management tool in order to prevent over-production of staple crops. Additional acres would be included under an expanded version of the existing Conservation Reserve Program, which takes fragile land out of production.

Restoring Competition

Because just a few agribusiness and grocery companies hold most of the power in the food system, they are able to pay farmers a low price for their farm products at one end of the food chain and charge consumers a high price for their groceries at the other. If the next Farm Bill is going to get to the heart of the problem, it must include measures to restore competition and reduce concentration in agricultural markets – in a Competition Title. By preventing the ownership of livestock by meat companies, requiring better contracts for livestock growers, and providing consumers with country of origin labeling of food, a Competition Title could start to even the playing field.

"But is it WTO compliant?"

Rather than worry about finding ways to make U.S. farm policy compliant with future expansions in global agricultural trade rules, policymakers would do better to take a serious look at the track record of the existing World Trade Organization Agreement on Agriculture. Since the Agreement went into effect in 1995, member countries have been required to reduce import taxes, called tariffs, on agricultural goods. As a result, developing countries have been flooded with crops like corn and soybeans from the United States that can be produced on mega-farms with heavy machinery, and the United States has experienced a sharp increase in imports of produce from corporate-owned plantations in developing countries with lower labor standards. In both cases, small-scale farmers who don't have access to the export market have lost out, and agricultural diversity in each country has diminished.

The next Farm Bill should embrace the principles of "Food Sovereignty." In contrast to the WTO's emphasis on increasing global trade, the concept of food sovereignty is based on local agricultural production. Under food sovereignty, farmers produce first for the local, then national markets, with export markets at the bottom of the list. In contrast to the push towards uniformity of laws under the WTO, food sovereignty promotes local autonomy and the rights of countries to develop their own food and agricultural policies based on the needs and cultural traditions of their populations.

The Next Farm Bill should:

Establish Policies to manage the supply of agricultural commodities.
Include a Competition Title to restore fairness and transparency to the livestock sector.
Provide funding for farm to cafeteria programs, organic transition and public research on plant and animal breeding.
Maintain the Conservation Reserve Program and expand the Conservation Security Program so farmers across the country can participate.
Restore the implementation date for Mandatory Country of Origin labeling for meat and produce.
Establish a permanent system for disaster payments to farmers in the event of crop losses from a natural disaster

taken from http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/us-farmbill/farm-bill-faq/farm-bill-101

For More Information

Take action at www.foodandwaterwatch.org and join our email lists to get regular updates on the Farm Bill and other food issues.
Read the Food from Family Farms Act at www.nffc.net