In the movie Holes, the boys have to dig a 5 ft by 5 ft hole everyday. They’re told this exercise is “building character,” when in reality it’s to look for an impressive amount of wealth stored in a trunk, buried in the ground. Anyways, in the beginning of the summer, Eric, Ellyn and I did a lot of digging. Not 5 foot holes, thank God, but thousands of little holes for transplants, and we’d always joke that we were “building character.” As I write, on my last night here at Maplewood, I think of all that I’ve gained this summer, all the life long skills I acquired over the past three months surprise me beyond belief, and it’s been more of an experience than I could have ever imagined. I have to say though, aside from building your mind, building your appreciation for the earth, healthy soil, the farmers that work harder than probably any other occupation, building muscles; life on an organic farmer truly does in fact, build character.
After 5 hours on the road, 3 bathroom breaks, one car swap, our crew of Hannah, Susie, Ellyn, Eric and I finally made it down to Amherst Massachusetts for the NOFA (Northeastern Organic Farming Association) conference at U MASS. The three day event featured two phenomenal key note speakers, a series of many diverse workshops, a fair, farmers market, and even a night of contra dancing! Friday’s keynote speaker….can’t remember his name…. spoke all about the wonderful world of mushrooms and fungi and their growing role and importance in rebuilding nutrient rich soils and even helping cure illnesses. Last nights speaker, Will Allen, is a farmer from Milwaukee. His strong build and impressively tall height gives him a powerful presence, his dark skin color stands out at a Northeastern Organic farming convention, and his work inspired us all. In the heart of Milwaukee, he started, Growing Power, a working farm and educational outreach program, which seems to have blossomed into an empire since it began about 20 years ago. He grows pretty much anywhere he can, has a staff of 35, all nationalities and all ages, works with inner city kids, teaching them where their food comes from, has brought his work to Kenya, teaching them to build up their soil, produces all his own soil through compost and red worms, and so much more! Clearly Will inspired at least one of his audience members.
I attended workshops on starting a campus garden at your college, water bath canning, sheep raising, baking no knead bread, engaging inner city youth with community gardens, becoming more self reliant during economic times…. Some more interesting than others, but all good! The fair, which took place on the campus green, yesterday afternoon, had all sorts of country fun! Cow’s pooped on grids, kids raced to eat corn on the cob off dangling string, adults raced to shove down expensive, organic pies, People spit watermelon seeds, cattle dogs rounded up ducks, and people made butter! Clearly, a wild and crazy time was had by all. ;)
So…it’s my last night. After living with the Noel’s, sharing one bathroom with 6 other people, weeding for hours in the field with a blazing sun beating down, weeding in the field with rain drops beating down, selling at successful markets, selling at not so successful markets, collecting and washing dozens upon dozens of chicken eggs, trying to keep Eric from killing Stewy, laughing hysterically with Ellyn over absolutely nothing, answering many questions asked by Maddy and Calvin, jarring sauerkraut (which is the only food here I won’t eat!), watching cows shipped away to the butcher, then eating the heart of “Pretty” unknowingly in a stew….it’s been one hell of a summer!
I can’t even begin to articulate back all that I’ve learned and gained from this experience…. I hope that I’ve inspired some of you readers to look into the food system more, learn where you receive their own food from… and all that jazz. But maybe more importantly, perhaps inspire you to simply, start a garden of your own; even if it’s just some pole beans and peas (which I would suggest, because they’re real easy), is a great way to start. Can with your family in the fall. For all you Central New Yorkers like myself, canning our wonderful apples in October would be a great way to taste the fall during those long cold winters! Cook meals with your family, housemates, or friends from scratch, visit a farm and see how the whole process works. Food connects us. All of us eat. It’s as simple as that, and in my opinion, it’s the best way to change direction our environmentally destructive world is heading in. We all need to eat, so if they way we obtain our food is done in a sustainable way for the planet and our bodies, I like to believe we’ll see how everything else connects and relates to all life on earth, and fix that whole mess too. But don’t just join a CSA or buy organic blueberries because it’s trendy or you want to “go green”, do it to become a part of natural cycle of food, and understand its value and importance.
But I’ll get off my soap box, and wrap up this final blog! It’s strange, knowing this life is coming to an end tomorrow morning. I’ll miss smelling tomatoes as I walk down their rows, looking for ripe ones to pick. I’ll miss watching the mist rise off the pasture on early mornings when I feed the chickens, miss getting hugs goodnight from Maddy and Calvin every night while I’m typing this blog, miss not having my cell phone on me all the time, and not having to wait for someone to finish texting before I can talk to them. I’ll miss Stewy, and calfy, those crazy harvesting morning, crusin’ in Ellyn’s Legacy listening to her old blues tapes, eating beans and peas right after I pick them, because those couple serve better in my stomach than a CSA member’s. I’ll miss jumping in the pond after a sweaty afternoon of weeding, racing Ellyn to the camper at night, and sleeping in it, we’ve made it quite homey believe it or not! But, guess it’s time to get back to my “other life”, and plus, I really miss my dog ha ha. So that’s it. That’s my organic summer. Hope you’ve enjoyed following the experience as much as I’ve enjoyed living it and writing about it. :)
Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty and see what you can grow! There’s a whole bunch of un-used land out there, just waiting to grow delicious life from it, so why not bust out those action hoes and old ripped jeans, and go to town with your green thumb? Because what’s the worst that could happen? Even if a bug eats your kale before you get a chance, or your lettuce goes to seed because you waited too long to harvest it, at least you’ll build some character, right? ;)
My Suggestions on what to grow your in your first garden:
1. Sugar Snap Peas! They’re so delicious right off the plant and you don’t need to weed, because weeds support the plant!
2. Rattlesnake Pole Beans. So scrumptious, again, right off the plant. You’ll have a cool looking tee-pee in your yard, with beans growing on them, all your neighbors will be jealous.
3. Squash. Winter or summer, winter just takes a lot longer. The leaves get big, so it’s usually less weeding.
4. Heads of lettuce. Who does like a fresh salad with a summer dinner?
5. Kale and Swiss chard! You can cut their leaves pretty early into the growing season, or wait until the get really big! Just cut leaves off the stem and more will keep growing back throughout the summer!
6. Beets, carrots and radishes. Because they’re colorful and fun to find when you dig them up!
P.S. I have some more pictures to post, but the chord that connects my camera to my laptop seems to have run off on me, so hopefully they'll show up soon!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Life on an organic farm is...for me, soon and strangely coming to an end
As my days living and working at Maplewood come to an end, I surprisingly spent the afternoon of my last full day at Maplewood, not at Maplewood. Ellyn and I traveled down the road in her trusty old Subaru Legacy, to Guy’s Dairy farm, for four hours of working with some lovely Holsteins. Guy and one of his hired hands, twelve year, Caleb, showed us the ropes, where to shovel old hay, where to shovel lots and lots of cow poop, how to lead the cows into the barn from the pasture, clean their tits with diluted iodine, hook up the milking machines to the pipes running up through the barn and hook the suckers on to their tits. Extremely educational to say the least, we jumped right in and learned the only way we’ve been learning all summer, hands on.
The odor of the shit, as they all kept referring to it as, fills most of the barn, as expected. Pre-milking chores include racking the poop from under the cows in their stalls, onto the indented track behind where they stand, which pushes all the cow waste, for a better term, into a 12 foot deep storing well, that Guy has admitted to climbing down to save a kitten! Farm cats and kittens walk everywhere around the barn, weaving in and out through the cows, and Guy’s trusty black lab, Scout, trailed right behind us almost everywhere we went. The farm had a strong family feeling to it, as his son and daughter help with chores, and neighbors know to come in during the milking hour to catch up with Guy.
It’s defiantly a different type of farming, from the vegetable tending we’ve become accustomed to these past three months, but enjoyable known the less! Guy, who’s so connected to his cows, recognizes their needs, would tell me their names, if they had them, and which ones where stubborn, which ones would need a push out, or which one would be easiest on my first try at milking. We reeked of the barn and cows at dinner, and heard it from the Noel’s as we sat down to eat our stew, which was made with cow heart! :0 Talk about being resourceful!
In the morning, Ellyn and I planted some more beets, to fill in where other beets failed to grow, started catching up on some much needed weeding in the onion row, and prepared for the CSA farm pick up. One of my favorites, green peppers, finally have started to grow large enough that we can begin to harvest them! They smell as lovely as they look, but a large portion of them will be left on the plant until they turn red. I’m loving beans more than I ever would have imagined! If I could suggest a list of vegetables to grow in a home garden, beans would be top of the list. Provider bush beans, Rattlesnake pole beans (which produce an amazing tie-dyed like coloring) and Gold Rush bush beans all have grown amazingly and taste delicious. Pole beans have the advantage of not having to weed either. :)
Tomorrow morning, Eric the intern, Hannah, Ellyn, Susie and I all hit the road for our NOFA conference in Massachusetts for a weekend of expanding our organic farming minds. :) Then I hit the road on Monday, leaving the farm, and returning to my other life; meaning, among other things, no more blog. :( I’ll have one last post after the conference, but would love to ask something of, hopefully, all you readers out there! I’ve been hearing from different people, that so and so has been reading the blog, and would love for some feed back from you! I don’t care if I know you, if we’re best friends or just acquaintances, if you know me through Hannah, even if I have no idea who you are! I’d love to hear if you’ve enjoyed following this experience, if you’ve learned anything, used any of the information I’ve given, changed the way you’ve looked at your food, maybe even if I convinced you to buy more organic food. :) I’d really appreciate it, and the more elaborate you are the better! Even include what I could have done differently, or what else you would have liked too see. You can email me at hmgibbon@syr.edu with your “evaluation” so to speak. Thanks in advance, and again, I would really, really like to hear what you have to say about it! Don’t be shy now!
The odor of the shit, as they all kept referring to it as, fills most of the barn, as expected. Pre-milking chores include racking the poop from under the cows in their stalls, onto the indented track behind where they stand, which pushes all the cow waste, for a better term, into a 12 foot deep storing well, that Guy has admitted to climbing down to save a kitten! Farm cats and kittens walk everywhere around the barn, weaving in and out through the cows, and Guy’s trusty black lab, Scout, trailed right behind us almost everywhere we went. The farm had a strong family feeling to it, as his son and daughter help with chores, and neighbors know to come in during the milking hour to catch up with Guy.
It’s defiantly a different type of farming, from the vegetable tending we’ve become accustomed to these past three months, but enjoyable known the less! Guy, who’s so connected to his cows, recognizes their needs, would tell me their names, if they had them, and which ones where stubborn, which ones would need a push out, or which one would be easiest on my first try at milking. We reeked of the barn and cows at dinner, and heard it from the Noel’s as we sat down to eat our stew, which was made with cow heart! :0 Talk about being resourceful!
In the morning, Ellyn and I planted some more beets, to fill in where other beets failed to grow, started catching up on some much needed weeding in the onion row, and prepared for the CSA farm pick up. One of my favorites, green peppers, finally have started to grow large enough that we can begin to harvest them! They smell as lovely as they look, but a large portion of them will be left on the plant until they turn red. I’m loving beans more than I ever would have imagined! If I could suggest a list of vegetables to grow in a home garden, beans would be top of the list. Provider bush beans, Rattlesnake pole beans (which produce an amazing tie-dyed like coloring) and Gold Rush bush beans all have grown amazingly and taste delicious. Pole beans have the advantage of not having to weed either. :)
Tomorrow morning, Eric the intern, Hannah, Ellyn, Susie and I all hit the road for our NOFA conference in Massachusetts for a weekend of expanding our organic farming minds. :) Then I hit the road on Monday, leaving the farm, and returning to my other life; meaning, among other things, no more blog. :( I’ll have one last post after the conference, but would love to ask something of, hopefully, all you readers out there! I’ve been hearing from different people, that so and so has been reading the blog, and would love for some feed back from you! I don’t care if I know you, if we’re best friends or just acquaintances, if you know me through Hannah, even if I have no idea who you are! I’d love to hear if you’ve enjoyed following this experience, if you’ve learned anything, used any of the information I’ve given, changed the way you’ve looked at your food, maybe even if I convinced you to buy more organic food. :) I’d really appreciate it, and the more elaborate you are the better! Even include what I could have done differently, or what else you would have liked too see. You can email me at hmgibbon@syr.edu with your “evaluation” so to speak. Thanks in advance, and again, I would really, really like to hear what you have to say about it! Don’t be shy now!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Life on an organic farm is...so educational!
Yesterday evening, after we finished up picking beans, which are coming in leaps and bounds, and very tempting to just keep muchin’ on while walking hunched over down the row... :) Ellyn, Eric and I headed down the road to an organic dairy farm. Since we don’t get to experience that aspect of farming, we thought we’d visit Highgate’s very own, and winner of Sustainable Farmer of the Year for the state of Vermont, Guy Choiniere. An enthusiast about his farming to say the least, Guy greeted us with a smile, as he whipped off his hands on his already dirty clothes, and cleaned off his old school, Ben Folds glasses on his shirt. We followed him into the barn, where he and his father were just about to finish up with the evening milking. He said to take no offense, but our beef cows at Maplewood have nothing on his dairy cows. They work harder he said, dairy cows are like Olympic athletes, and need to be treated like them. Taking a mile a minute, about everything from his cows to the soil, he walked with us all around the farm and property. “Sorry, us organic farmers have a lot to say!” He said, as he could probably see it in our faces that our minds were trying to absorb each and every fact he told us.
Guy's farm houses 65 dairy cows, which each eat 70 to 80 pounds of feed a day, and drink at least 50 gallons of water a day, if I’m remembering correctly. The more grass they eat the better; it’s better for the cow, and saves him on grain, which used to cost him $100,000 a year before he switched to organic. “It all starts with the soil.” Guy relayed to us many times. All life comes from the soil, so it’s crucial that it holds the right balance of nutrients and minerals, “Calcium is the King!” he’d say. If you have good soil, all else will come into its place. Visiting Guy’s farm just reiterated to me that the way we live, with the food we eat, how we treat our land, is really just a continuing cycle; where every action has a consequence, and everything relates to everything else. Pumping your land with fertilizer isn’t allowing all the cycles and systems that occur underground to properly carry out, which is going to show in what grows from that soil, and the food it eventually creates.
An Olympic trainer, a nutritionist, day-care specialist, (all relating to his cows of course), Guy does it all and knows it all. He can tell how well a cow’s body is digesting her food by looking at her manure, and told us this as a big sloppy cow pie exited the back end of a lovely lady, splashing on the barn floor and partially landing on my left leg and hand. It’s been a learning experience for him, as he learned to combined farming practices of his grandfather, whose cows lived a long life, but didn’t produce a lot of milk, and his father, who could produce a lot of milk, but couldn’t keep a cow long. From what I could tell, he’s now got the best of both worlds. The average dairy cow in America milks for 3 and a half years, Guy’s cows milking averages 8 years.
We walked the farm road through the pastures that his cows travel, in through an overflowing creek, under a slippery manure soaked tunnel, and I was super smart and wore my flip flops…. We even got the pleasure of going into the covered barn yard, were his girls go in the winter, in which we stood on 6 feet of manure! The manure in there is brought out to the fields in October; he said he’s noticed a huge difference in the yield of his grass when he switched from conventional. He taught us so much, all extremely interesting, that I wish I could relay it all back! It’s so critical for farmers to understand the science behind their fields, and under their soil, and the needs of their animals. The greater knowledge shows through with results of more efficient production and healthier animals. I asked him when his last day off was, and he just laughed. “Ya never get a day off! You’ve got to love it, and I do!”
I meant to go back this evening to take pictures of the dairy farmer in action, but after putting up more hay, taking a “family” outing to Lake Carmi for a swim, then creemees :)... I didn’t get around to it! But look for pictures soon, as I’ll return to Choiniere’s Dairy, and this time know to wear my boots. :)
Check out an NYT article about Guy and his work with eliminating the methane release from his cows!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/us/05cows.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
Guy's farm houses 65 dairy cows, which each eat 70 to 80 pounds of feed a day, and drink at least 50 gallons of water a day, if I’m remembering correctly. The more grass they eat the better; it’s better for the cow, and saves him on grain, which used to cost him $100,000 a year before he switched to organic. “It all starts with the soil.” Guy relayed to us many times. All life comes from the soil, so it’s crucial that it holds the right balance of nutrients and minerals, “Calcium is the King!” he’d say. If you have good soil, all else will come into its place. Visiting Guy’s farm just reiterated to me that the way we live, with the food we eat, how we treat our land, is really just a continuing cycle; where every action has a consequence, and everything relates to everything else. Pumping your land with fertilizer isn’t allowing all the cycles and systems that occur underground to properly carry out, which is going to show in what grows from that soil, and the food it eventually creates.
An Olympic trainer, a nutritionist, day-care specialist, (all relating to his cows of course), Guy does it all and knows it all. He can tell how well a cow’s body is digesting her food by looking at her manure, and told us this as a big sloppy cow pie exited the back end of a lovely lady, splashing on the barn floor and partially landing on my left leg and hand. It’s been a learning experience for him, as he learned to combined farming practices of his grandfather, whose cows lived a long life, but didn’t produce a lot of milk, and his father, who could produce a lot of milk, but couldn’t keep a cow long. From what I could tell, he’s now got the best of both worlds. The average dairy cow in America milks for 3 and a half years, Guy’s cows milking averages 8 years.
We walked the farm road through the pastures that his cows travel, in through an overflowing creek, under a slippery manure soaked tunnel, and I was super smart and wore my flip flops…. We even got the pleasure of going into the covered barn yard, were his girls go in the winter, in which we stood on 6 feet of manure! The manure in there is brought out to the fields in October; he said he’s noticed a huge difference in the yield of his grass when he switched from conventional. He taught us so much, all extremely interesting, that I wish I could relay it all back! It’s so critical for farmers to understand the science behind their fields, and under their soil, and the needs of their animals. The greater knowledge shows through with results of more efficient production and healthier animals. I asked him when his last day off was, and he just laughed. “Ya never get a day off! You’ve got to love it, and I do!”
I meant to go back this evening to take pictures of the dairy farmer in action, but after putting up more hay, taking a “family” outing to Lake Carmi for a swim, then creemees :)... I didn’t get around to it! But look for pictures soon, as I’ll return to Choiniere’s Dairy, and this time know to wear my boots. :)
Check out an NYT article about Guy and his work with eliminating the methane release from his cows!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/us/05cows.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Life on an organic farm is... being dug up!
Just like Ireland in the 1840’s, a potato blight has struck on the field of Maplewood. Fortunately though, unlike the Guinness drinkers, we caught the blight before it ruined the crop. For a greater part of the afternoon, all six rows of the potatoes had their dying above ground plant chopped off with the help of some machinery run by Eric; then Ellyn, Susie and I cut the outside rows by hand. All the leaves and stems were then raked up. Reminding me of an old gold mining town after the rush, I racked up the remaining potato beetles, trying to survive off of the dying leaves, through the dirt. The mounds of blight infected potato plants will be burned, in order to completely get rid of the blight. The potatoes in the ground will be fine, the longer we waited before cutting off the plants however, would have increased the chances of the blight traveling down the stem into the ground, infecting the potatoes. Eric the intern has already proven that the potatoes aren’t infected, as he ate one raw off his pitchfork today; yeah... needless to say he’s defiantly embracing the farming life and we’re a bit nervous about his release back to his “normal life.” We’ll wait awhile before digging up the rest of the potatoes, so that the skin grows thicker!
As the potato duties called us to the field, Ellyn and I left Eric to pulling out the rest of the garlic bulbs this afternoon. All hundreds of them it seems (though I may be exaggerating a bit...) are out now, beginning their process of curing in the greenhouse. The garlic grown in the garden this season is hard neck garlic, which means, unlike soft neck garlic, it won’t be braided, so we began cutting the necks off, since they aren’t needed. The aroma of garlic overwhelmingly takes over the senses when you walk through that section of the greenhouse!
As the potato duties called us to the field, Ellyn and I left Eric to pulling out the rest of the garlic bulbs this afternoon. All hundreds of them it seems (though I may be exaggerating a bit...) are out now, beginning their process of curing in the greenhouse. The garlic grown in the garden this season is hard neck garlic, which means, unlike soft neck garlic, it won’t be braided, so we began cutting the necks off, since they aren’t needed. The aroma of garlic overwhelmingly takes over the senses when you walk through that section of the greenhouse!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Life on an organic farm is...tough, but worth it, especially after watching Food Inc :)
Flocks of cars traveled down the gravel driveway to Maplewood this evening for “NOFA-vore.” NOFA (North Eastern Organic Farming Association) of VT hosts these get-togethers every so often in the summer, at different organic farms throughout the state. So this evening, Maplewood got its chance to shine. NOFA sent its portable pizza oven ahead of time, as we finished up washing vegetables that we harvested this morning for pizza toppings. A mix of our CSA members, Hannah’s relatives, and NOFA members attended the event to eat the mouthwatering pizza (with toppings including beets, yellow squash, ground beef, broccoli and green onions, all from the farm) and receive a tour of Maplewood conducted by Hannah and Eric, all before the rain came! Susie made scrumptious cupcakes, and fun time was had by all. :)
The hot, muggy days of summer we’ve been longing for, have hit us fast these past couple of days. Weeding out in the field, with the sun beating down on our backs leaves us all just lookin’ and smellin’ somethin’ wonderful, not that any of us are taking more showers, ha ha…..We worked hard at finishing up weeding the cabbage rows in the field, so that they looked presentable for tonight’s big event; hopefully it didn't go unnoticed! We dreaded going out to pull out all those awful ragweeds...
Our potatoes unfortunately have been struck with some type of blight. Over night it seems, dozens of plants dwindled, leaves have shriveled up and their green colors have quickly turned to a distasteful brown. Hannah’s sister, Heather, who owns H&B, a nursery in Highgate, said that her potato’s experienced the same blow at the same time. Something’s in the air...
Yesterday, after a quick wash off in the pond, Ellyn, Eric and I headed down to the “Big City” of Burlington to watch Food Inc. at the theater. Not surprising, I highly recommend going to see this movie! The documentary didn’t touch base on all effects of the industrialized food system, but it defiantly informed viewers on the corrupt ways of factory farms and corporate control over our meals. Factory raised meat chickens, for example, grown in CAFO’s (contained animal feeding operations), never see the light of day. They live jammed packed in these facilities and the growth hormones they’re given cause their breasts, for instance, to rapidly expand, for more meat, while their bone growth can’t keep up. This leaves chickens falling down after a couple steps because they can’t walk. The health impacts to consumers, and factory workers, as well as the damaging environmental impacts of these factory farms are so dense it would take too long to go into on this blog! So I would suggest seeing the movie, as the documentary makers can explain it better than me!
One part I found interesting though, which I’ll share to you all, is people not wanting to spend a lot of money on food. Organic food, inevitably is going to be more expensive at the grocery store; as the labor put into growing organic food exceeds that of conventional food, not too mention it takes more time to grow. We’ve all been raised in a culture that wants food cheap and fast, but why? It doesn’t make sense that we don’t want to spend a lot of money on the one thing, besides water and shelter, that our bodies needs to survive! We buy the nicest cars our budgets allow, the best running shoes, granite countertops; so why be frugal with the food you’re putting into your body to sustain your life? I’m not saying that all conventionally grown food is horrible and going to kill you, we’re all going to still want to order a greasy pizza every so often and get an ice cream. But I can testify, and Ellyn as well, that after eating an entirely organic diet here on the farm, when we eat non organic food off the farm, we defiantly feel the difference in our stomachs afterwards! Well that’s my rant for the day….just think about it if expensive organic food is turning you away.
The hot, muggy days of summer we’ve been longing for, have hit us fast these past couple of days. Weeding out in the field, with the sun beating down on our backs leaves us all just lookin’ and smellin’ somethin’ wonderful, not that any of us are taking more showers, ha ha…..We worked hard at finishing up weeding the cabbage rows in the field, so that they looked presentable for tonight’s big event; hopefully it didn't go unnoticed! We dreaded going out to pull out all those awful ragweeds...
Our potatoes unfortunately have been struck with some type of blight. Over night it seems, dozens of plants dwindled, leaves have shriveled up and their green colors have quickly turned to a distasteful brown. Hannah’s sister, Heather, who owns H&B, a nursery in Highgate, said that her potato’s experienced the same blow at the same time. Something’s in the air...
Yesterday, after a quick wash off in the pond, Ellyn, Eric and I headed down to the “Big City” of Burlington to watch Food Inc. at the theater. Not surprising, I highly recommend going to see this movie! The documentary didn’t touch base on all effects of the industrialized food system, but it defiantly informed viewers on the corrupt ways of factory farms and corporate control over our meals. Factory raised meat chickens, for example, grown in CAFO’s (contained animal feeding operations), never see the light of day. They live jammed packed in these facilities and the growth hormones they’re given cause their breasts, for instance, to rapidly expand, for more meat, while their bone growth can’t keep up. This leaves chickens falling down after a couple steps because they can’t walk. The health impacts to consumers, and factory workers, as well as the damaging environmental impacts of these factory farms are so dense it would take too long to go into on this blog! So I would suggest seeing the movie, as the documentary makers can explain it better than me!
One part I found interesting though, which I’ll share to you all, is people not wanting to spend a lot of money on food. Organic food, inevitably is going to be more expensive at the grocery store; as the labor put into growing organic food exceeds that of conventional food, not too mention it takes more time to grow. We’ve all been raised in a culture that wants food cheap and fast, but why? It doesn’t make sense that we don’t want to spend a lot of money on the one thing, besides water and shelter, that our bodies needs to survive! We buy the nicest cars our budgets allow, the best running shoes, granite countertops; so why be frugal with the food you’re putting into your body to sustain your life? I’m not saying that all conventionally grown food is horrible and going to kill you, we’re all going to still want to order a greasy pizza every so often and get an ice cream. But I can testify, and Ellyn as well, that after eating an entirely organic diet here on the farm, when we eat non organic food off the farm, we defiantly feel the difference in our stomachs afterwards! Well that’s my rant for the day….just think about it if expensive organic food is turning you away.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Life on an organic farm is... up to the interns when the family's away!
Nothing beats the smells and sounds of sizzling sausage in the morning, and as the Noel’s were away this weekend for a family camping trip, us interns were able to take our time in the morning and prepare ourselves a true country breakfast. :) Taking a stab at other cooking endeavors we’ve been talking up for quite some time, Ellyn fried up some green tomatoes and as I whipped up some Swiss chard wraps. Swiss chard, a leafy vegetable I was unfamiliar with upon my arrival at Maplewood, has quickly become a favorite of mine. Some plants out in the field have yielded such enormous leaves, so I headed out to pick the big ones yesterday afternoon for my lunch, and pulled up an onion on my way out. The Swiss chard leaf is used as the wrap, add some shreaded cheese and onions, fold it up, and fry it up in some olive oil on the stove, and wha-la, you’ve got yourself a tasty little melted wonderland of a snack.
Yesterday, as I plucked plump and ready green beans off their stems out in the field, I stupidly let my eye wander across to the potato plants. To my displeasure, I spotted a group of potato beetle larva having a fiesta on a potato plant. Not being able to see them and not destroy them, Ellyn and I began our mission of what we called a massive genocide. The next hour or so, we weaved throughout all six rows of potatoes, picking the fat red larva off the plants they were eating as well as demolishing. The fat ones are easy to get off the leaf; they roll up and fake dead when you pick them off. The smaller ones however, prove to be more difficult, so it’s best to just squash them right on the plant, leaving a string of orange guts to project out of their bodies. We filled a bucket full of them, dropping in handfuls of the bugs in ever so often, before they started crawling too much up our hands! I’m not a girlie girl afraid of bugs by any means, but that feeling of all their little legs swarming around in your palm really isn’t the best feeling...
Today as we harvested, a warm summer breeze brushed across our faces, foreshadowing a storm ahead, which we’re in the middle of now. :)
Yesterday, as I plucked plump and ready green beans off their stems out in the field, I stupidly let my eye wander across to the potato plants. To my displeasure, I spotted a group of potato beetle larva having a fiesta on a potato plant. Not being able to see them and not destroy them, Ellyn and I began our mission of what we called a massive genocide. The next hour or so, we weaved throughout all six rows of potatoes, picking the fat red larva off the plants they were eating as well as demolishing. The fat ones are easy to get off the leaf; they roll up and fake dead when you pick them off. The smaller ones however, prove to be more difficult, so it’s best to just squash them right on the plant, leaving a string of orange guts to project out of their bodies. We filled a bucket full of them, dropping in handfuls of the bugs in ever so often, before they started crawling too much up our hands! I’m not a girlie girl afraid of bugs by any means, but that feeling of all their little legs swarming around in your palm really isn’t the best feeling...
Today as we harvested, a warm summer breeze brushed across our faces, foreshadowing a storm ahead, which we’re in the middle of now. :)
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Meet Maplewood!
This is probably about two months too late, but I’ve decided to introduce you to the people I spend practically all hours of the day with! You have briefly been introduced to throughout this blog, so why not go a little deeper.
We’ll start with the one and only, Hannah Noel, who runs Maplewood with her husband, Eric. I don’t know how she always has energy and a smile on her face after all the work she does, but it never fails. An expert in gardening, she teaches us the ways of the land, and the delicious food it helps produce. Her dinners from scratch that she whips up after hours of farm and child duties, continue to amaze us. She’s been such a wonderful mentor to us all this summer, loves her sauerkraut, feeds her family a completely organic diet, and makes the most amazing chicken and biscuit meal any of us interns have ever had, sorry mom…. Eric Noel, or Eric the farmer, grew up on the farm, and tends to the cows of Maplewood, rotating them to different pastures on a daily basis. Along with being a cowboy, he operates his own auto shop right here on the farm. Eric knows cows, but he probably knows cars even better. When he’s not doing the odd and end jobs that farming inevitably entails, he enjoys watching Indie car racing.
Richard and Maggie Noel, Eric’s parents, live next door and own the property, which they ran it as a dairy farm until 1999. Richard owns an impressive amount of farm equipment and trucks, loves mowing the lawn, and is never short on words, giving us interesting historical facts about the farm, his life, Vermont, French culture and so much more! Maggie quietly weeds away during her spare hours of the day, when she’s not working in St. Albans. After dreading the weeding ahead of us as we enter the field, we always appreciate finding rows completed by her!
Maddy and Calvin Noel. Oh so much to say. Most of the time these cuties are a delight to have around, others… ha ha well, they’re little and love to scream. One of the friendliest five year olds I’ve ever met, Maddy loves asking questions, ballet and identifying weeds. Calvin, Maplewood’s youngest member, is two and a half. I don’t know any other two year old farm boys, but I’d be surprised if they knew more about tractors and farm equipment than this one! He loves taking rides with Richard, his “Pepe”, on the 4wheeler, and always reminds his parents that he wants his own. :)
The other Eric Noel, or Eric the Intern, comes from Connecticut. A recent graduate of Colgate University, he plans on going into the Peace Corps when he leaves Maplewood in December. Eric amuses us with his country slang, “Shoot, dang, nab!”, whatever that means…. And is hell bent on killing Stewy and eating her before he leaves. Probably the hardest working intern, no offence Ellyn ;) … Eric helps Eric move the cattle every day along with the vegetable gardening. Ellyn Gaydos, my trailormate and banjo pickin’ buddy, is a Vermonter from Essex Junction. Although she’s not always thrilled about it, she’ll be heading off to her first year at Hampshire College next fall. Ellyn loves traditional folk life, and reading more than five obscure books at a time. She’s the one intern most likely to remember to feed the calf, and like a true Vermonter, rides a Subaru. Brian Herbst, Maplewood’s newest addition, started today! A fellow New Yorker, he graduated from Cornell in ’08 and like Eric, plans to attend the Peace Corps after his life here on the farm. Since were tight for space at the moment, he’s ruffin’ it out in a tent next to the greenhouse, until Ellyn and I have left our warm and welcoming home of a trailor to him, when we head to school in August.
For an honorable mention, Susie. Susie’s a CSA member who works for her share, from St. Albans. She’s hardworking and a pleasure to have around on our crazy harvesting days. :) I enjoy talking to her about why we both love Under the Tuscan Sun, while cleaning her favorite vegetable, Kale together. :) She’ll be joining us when we head to Massachusetts for the NOFA (Northeastern Organic Farming Association) conference in two weeks!
Some of you might not know me, but hopefully through this blog you’ve gotten a sense of who I am! But for technical information, I’ll be a senior at SUNY ESF (college of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse University) next year, and am interested in environmental protection, advocacy and sustainable agriculture. Hopefully I’ll be able to tie them into an awesome job next year, so if you have any ideas, let me know! ;)
Hopefully this helps give you a little inside scoop to the people that make this place what it is! :)
We’ll start with the one and only, Hannah Noel, who runs Maplewood with her husband, Eric. I don’t know how she always has energy and a smile on her face after all the work she does, but it never fails. An expert in gardening, she teaches us the ways of the land, and the delicious food it helps produce. Her dinners from scratch that she whips up after hours of farm and child duties, continue to amaze us. She’s been such a wonderful mentor to us all this summer, loves her sauerkraut, feeds her family a completely organic diet, and makes the most amazing chicken and biscuit meal any of us interns have ever had, sorry mom…. Eric Noel, or Eric the farmer, grew up on the farm, and tends to the cows of Maplewood, rotating them to different pastures on a daily basis. Along with being a cowboy, he operates his own auto shop right here on the farm. Eric knows cows, but he probably knows cars even better. When he’s not doing the odd and end jobs that farming inevitably entails, he enjoys watching Indie car racing.
Richard and Maggie Noel, Eric’s parents, live next door and own the property, which they ran it as a dairy farm until 1999. Richard owns an impressive amount of farm equipment and trucks, loves mowing the lawn, and is never short on words, giving us interesting historical facts about the farm, his life, Vermont, French culture and so much more! Maggie quietly weeds away during her spare hours of the day, when she’s not working in St. Albans. After dreading the weeding ahead of us as we enter the field, we always appreciate finding rows completed by her!
Maddy and Calvin Noel. Oh so much to say. Most of the time these cuties are a delight to have around, others… ha ha well, they’re little and love to scream. One of the friendliest five year olds I’ve ever met, Maddy loves asking questions, ballet and identifying weeds. Calvin, Maplewood’s youngest member, is two and a half. I don’t know any other two year old farm boys, but I’d be surprised if they knew more about tractors and farm equipment than this one! He loves taking rides with Richard, his “Pepe”, on the 4wheeler, and always reminds his parents that he wants his own. :)
The other Eric Noel, or Eric the Intern, comes from Connecticut. A recent graduate of Colgate University, he plans on going into the Peace Corps when he leaves Maplewood in December. Eric amuses us with his country slang, “Shoot, dang, nab!”, whatever that means…. And is hell bent on killing Stewy and eating her before he leaves. Probably the hardest working intern, no offence Ellyn ;) … Eric helps Eric move the cattle every day along with the vegetable gardening. Ellyn Gaydos, my trailormate and banjo pickin’ buddy, is a Vermonter from Essex Junction. Although she’s not always thrilled about it, she’ll be heading off to her first year at Hampshire College next fall. Ellyn loves traditional folk life, and reading more than five obscure books at a time. She’s the one intern most likely to remember to feed the calf, and like a true Vermonter, rides a Subaru. Brian Herbst, Maplewood’s newest addition, started today! A fellow New Yorker, he graduated from Cornell in ’08 and like Eric, plans to attend the Peace Corps after his life here on the farm. Since were tight for space at the moment, he’s ruffin’ it out in a tent next to the greenhouse, until Ellyn and I have left our warm and welcoming home of a trailor to him, when we head to school in August.
For an honorable mention, Susie. Susie’s a CSA member who works for her share, from St. Albans. She’s hardworking and a pleasure to have around on our crazy harvesting days. :) I enjoy talking to her about why we both love Under the Tuscan Sun, while cleaning her favorite vegetable, Kale together. :) She’ll be joining us when we head to Massachusetts for the NOFA (Northeastern Organic Farming Association) conference in two weeks!
Some of you might not know me, but hopefully through this blog you’ve gotten a sense of who I am! But for technical information, I’ll be a senior at SUNY ESF (college of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse University) next year, and am interested in environmental protection, advocacy and sustainable agriculture. Hopefully I’ll be able to tie them into an awesome job next year, so if you have any ideas, let me know! ;)
Hopefully this helps give you a little inside scoop to the people that make this place what it is! :)
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