And then there were two!

Elm Tree Organics - Spaghetti Squash

Last week I roasted one of three spaghetti squash that have been hanging about my kitchen since November 2008.  I didn’t do anything difficult or fancy, just drizzled some olive oil on it and added salt and pepper, before puting it in the overn.  It was delicious! 

The eight week fall extension of Lancaster Farm Fresh CSA in 2008 brought many, many winter squash varieties to CSA members.  I joked about a Squash-of-the-week club, but I must admit that I was squashed-out by the time Thanksgiving rolled around. 

Squash-of-the-Week Club

The harvest was amazingly bountiful last fall and LFFC farmers planted a wonderful variety of hard-skinned squashes.  Some varieties last longer than others and the spaghetti squash is a blue-ribbon storage squash! When I roasted this long-in-the-tooth spaghetti squash, mentally I was still in November, not excited in the least bit about the nutty roasted willingness of the squash to assume and enhance the flavor of whatever spices I chose to use.  When the sweet smell of roasting squash wafted into the living room, my enthusiasm for this delectable fruit returned.

I didn’t dress this autumnal delight in anything fancy.  I simply scraped one half of it with a fork into a sizzling pan of cremini mushrooms, garlic and chard.  The other half I left to cool and use for another meal. 

Another Great Reason to Eat Local, Organic Food

snow peas, White Swan Organics

Eating Your Veggies:  Not As

Good For You?

Wed Feb 18, 7:20 pm ET

Declining Fruit and Vegetable Nutrient Composition: What Is the Evidence?
By Donald R. Davis
Journal of HortScience; February 2009, 5 pp.

The Gist:

If the economy isn’t grim enough for you, just check out the February issue of the Journal of HortScience, which contains a report on the sorry state of American fruits and veggies. Apparently produce in the U.S. not only tastes worse than it did in your grandparents’ days, it also contains fewer nutrients – at least according to Donald R. Davis, a former research associate with the Biochemical Institute at the University of Texas, Austin. Davis claims the average vegetable found in today’s supermarket is anywhere from 5% to 40% lower in minerals (including magnesium, iron, calcium and zinc) than those harvested just 50 years ago. (Read about Americans’ Incredible, Edible Front Lawns.)

Highlight Reel:

1. On the Difficulty of Comparing “Then” and “Now:” Davis is quick to note that historical data can sometimes be misleading, if not altogether inaccurate. Take early measurements of iron in foods: because scientists failed to sufficiently remove clinging soil, iron levels appeared unusually high in certain vegetables like spinach, (which gave rise to the myth that it contained exorbitant amounts of the mineral – a myth further propagated by the popular cartoon character, Popeye). Then again, good historical data provides the only real-world evidence of changes in foods over time, and such data does exist – one farm in Hertfordshire, England, for example, has archived its wheat samples since 1843.

2. On the So-Called “Dilution Effect:” Today’s vegetables might be larger, but if you think that means they contain more nutrients, you’d be wrong. Davis writes that jumbo-sized produce contains more “dry matter” than anything else, which dilutes mineral concentrations. In other words, when it comes to growing food, less is more. Scientific papers have cited one of the first reports of this effect, a 1981 study by W.M. Jarrell and R.B. Beverly in Advances in Agronomy, more than 180 times since its publication, “suggesting that the effect is widely regarded as common knowledge.” (See pictures of fruit.)

Less studied, though, is the “genetic dillution effect,” in which selective breeding to increase crop yield has led to declines in protein, amino acids, and as many as six minerals in one study of commercial broccoli grown in 1996 and ‘97 in South Carolina. Because nearly 90% of dry matter is carbohydrates, “when breeders select for high yield, they are, in effect, selecting mostly for high carbohydrate with no assurance that dozens of other nutrients and thousands of phytochemicals will all increase in proportion to yield.”

2. On the “Industrialization” of Agriculture: Thanks to the growing rise of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, modern crops are being harvested faster than ever before. But quick and early harvests mean the produce has less time to absorb nutrients either from synthesis or the soil, and minerals like potassium (the “K” in N-P-K fertilizers) often interfere with a plant’s ability to take up nutrients. Monoculture farming practices – another hallmark of the Big Ag industry – have also led to soil-mineral depletion, which, in turn, affects the nutrient content of crops.

The Lowdown:

If you’re still not buying the whole “organic-is-better” argument, this study might convince you otherwise. As Davis points out, more than three billion people around the world suffer from malnourishment and yet, ironically, efforts to increase food production have actually produced food that is less nourishing. Fruits seem to be less affected by genetic and environmental dilution, but one can’t help but wonder how nutritionally bankrupt veggies can be avoided. Supplementing them is problematic, too: don’t look to vitamin pills, as recent research indicates that those aren’t very helpful either.

Planning to Grow!

empty trays at Riverview Organics waiting for seeds

The growing season is off to an exciting start.  Lancaster Farm Fresh hosted the second growers’ meeting for the 2009 season yesterday.  It seemed like half of the farmers who attended the first growers’ meeting in December were present, but that’s not exactly true.  The women and children were absent this time and that cut down on a lot of chit-chat and background noise and shuffling about the crowded room.  Not to say that the women and children only add shuffling and chit-chat to the meeting:  they add a community aspect, a softer, less-business-like element that makes the meeting more of a social gathering than “farmer-only” meetings.

 

The meeting lasted the morning and we reviewed the long list of vegetables, fruit and herbs, farmers agreed to grow in 2009.  There are always some changes made between the two meetings.  Farmers drop out, and their produce needs to be grown by someone else; or shave their list, realizing they were too ambitious; or change their minds, because they are unable to get seed or some other reason; and another grower offers to produce that variety of fruit or veggie. 

 

Now it is up to the farmers and their families to build their greenhouses, start their seeds, care for their young plants and transplant them when the weather cooperates.  Some farmers begin by building a small greenhouse on their property that can be heated easily and will allow sunshine in to help speed plant growth.  Other farmers buy small plants started by another farmer. 

Local Produce at Auction

This morning I visited the Leola Produce Auction in Leola, PA, for the first time.  The auction is close to the office and warehouse of Lancaster Farm Fresh, so I pass signs for it everyday that I travel to the office.  I arrived late in the morning, around 10 am, there was a small crowd of English and Mennonite folks crowded around the auctioneer.  I looked around at the carts covered in produce and asked an older man recording the bids if there was anyway to tell if the produce was grown organically.  He told me, “It is usually marked on the yellow tag. There’s not much here, but sometimes we get some organic [produce].” 

I began to look around at a few of the bright yellow tags attached to the cart handles of the produce on auction.  The carts were arranged in rows, back to back so the auctioneer and buyers could walk between them. The crowd of people, surrounding the auctioneer, swarmed slowly up each aisle stopping at each cart to sell the produce on it. 

I moved away from the crowd so I could get a good look at the produce available.  I saw some items typical in the Lancaster County autumn harvest:  brussel sprouts (on the stalk), butternut squash, spaghetti squash, broccoli, apples and cauliflower.  There were also some not-so-typical Lancaster County-grown produce like persimmons (fuyu and another variety) and musque de Provence squash.

I spotted a few familiar faces from the sustainable-agriculture community, I’d come to know and appreciate.  The most familiar being Tom Culton, a local farmer, and I ask him a lot of questions about the auction.  He told me, “My grandfather said, “You need to go to the auction Leola and meet some of those farmers.  They know what they are doing.”  He comes to the auction to keep an eye on the buyers from Philadelphia and purchase produce for his added value items, like chow-chow and sauerkraut.  He purchased a lot of persimmons to sell at his stand in Central Market, Lancaster City.

The rain was pouring out of the sky as I stood in the open air shed of the auction house.  The produce was plentiful (for November 13) and beautiful.  I was struck by the abundance coming from the fields of Lancaster County, and this late in the growing season!  I soaked in the scene, and tried to stay out of the way, of buyers carting their purchases to vehicles waiting at the elevated cement edge of the auction-house floor.  

The experience left an impression on me and filled my head with questions and ideas.  When I told Tom I’d never been to the produce auction he found it hard to believe.  “Really?”  He exclaimed, “When tourists ask me what to do, I tell them to come here!”  I think I might do the same.

Working With What You Have

State College, PA, PASA conference 2010 – www.pasafarming.org

Pre-conference track – Putting Food By

The day-long session I attended yesterday included four speakers each covering a different method of food preservation in 1.25 hours.  The presentations ranged from well-organized to slightly rambling.  All of the speakers possess a wealth of experience, presentation styles varied as well as my current interest level in the topics.

Topics Covered in order of presentation…

Canning – Chris Wise, Friends Farm

Freezing and Drying, Lacto-Fermentation – Maureen Diaz, Weston A. Price Foundation

Meat Curing – Brooks Miller, ?

Root Cellaring - Dan Kretchmann, Kretchmann Farm

In her introduction to Chris Wise commented, “…Home canning is a natural extension of the local food movement.”  I canned a number of vegetables and fruit this summer, peaches, pears; blackberry and strawberry jam; tomato sauce, dill pickles and okra.  Canning allows me to eat local fruit and vegetables year-round, instead of buying produce from far away places grown by people I don’t know.  Chris Wise said preserving food changed the way she thinks about menu planning.  When choosing a recipe to make for her family she no longer thinks, “What do I want [to eat]?”  She  now thinks, “What do I have [in my canning cupboard]?” 

The canning session presented by Chris Wise covered the basics, Canning 101.  It reinforced what I learned in classes with Betsey Sterenfeld of Essen , www.breathelivegrow.com, and in my kitchen.  I learned a few great canning tips such as:  to keep peaches and pears below the level of the syrup put a few in the jar with enough syrup to cover them and swirl the jar to remove trapped air from below the first few pieces of fruit.  This may sound less than remarkable to some, but when I’m working in the kitchen jars hot, water boiling, peaches pealed a few problems go unsolved.  In 2010 you won’t see my canned peaches peaking above the simple syrup.

Snow-Covered Fields

Last week I visited Scarecrow Hill Farm in Ephrata.  David, the farmer, met me in the driveway when I arrived.  His children hopped out of their van, fresh from the school bus stop, the youngest began playing/rolling/tumbling in the snow pile left from the plow.

 

The day was grey:  a typical PA wintry, cold, cloud-covered afternoon, that makes me want to curl up on the couch with a blanket and warm cup of tea.  Instead Jamie, CSA Assistant Extraordinaire, and I tromped up the hill through the few inches of snow and mud to examine the dormant fields and tepid greenhouse.  David warned us that not much is happening in the greenhouse with short days and very cold temperatures.

The Scarecrow Hill greenhouse uses passive solar heat, meaning there is no extraneous heating system to warm the interior, only the sun.  It is situated on an east-west axis to capture as much of the sun’s rays as possible in one day.  During the shortest days of the year, in December and January, heat is minimal and young plants grow in minute increments.  The minimum amount of light necessary for plants to grow in is 10 hours, between November 15 and February 15, farms at this latitude receive less than 10 hours of sunlight per day.

 

 

 

We entered the greenhouse to find the row covers pulled back allowing the few rays of the sun reach the lettuce and radish plants.  The weeds are as plentiful as the lettuce in some places, but David warned us about that, too.  The radishes are mere sprouts not more than an inch tall. 

 

The plants in the passive solar greenhouse, during the winter, must have the ability to freeze and thaw without damage.  David grows baby lettuce in his greenhouse during the cold weather. This year he’s growing radishes, too. To learn more about passive solar greenhouses visit this website: http://www.growbiointensive.org/present_passive.html.

 

Our Office has a Hitchin’ Post

The Hitchin' Post at LFFC

Happy New Year from everyone at Lancaster Farm Fresh.

Don’t Buy Your Food From Strangers in 2009! 

Register for our Community Supported Agriculture program now.

Last Packing Day: 2008 CSA Season

Lancaster Thanksgiving Bounty

The 2008 CSA season ends this week.  The last calls to farmers have been made, the last CSA Shopping List sent and the last special order deadline passed.  The vegetables are loaded on to the truck and on their way to the warehouse for the packing team to assemble. 

Thanksgiving is two days away and this year Lancaster Farm Fresh has the opportunity to put food directly on the Thanksgiving dinner table of our CSA members.  That is a special priviledge to share a traditional harvest celebration with the large community that the Cooperative serves directly. 

The orders I placed with farmers were carefully selected for Thanksgiving with special attention placed on quantities, larger than a normal weekly share, to accommodate guests around the table.  The shares this week consist of the following items:

1 stalk brussel sprouts

1 butternut squash or Long Island Cheese pumpkin

1.75 lbs prisma shallots

2 lbs rainbow carrots

1 bunch (5 cobs) lady finger popcorn

3 lbs yellow finn potatoes

Nina packing brussels

The first hard freeze of the growing season came last Tuesday night.  Lancaster Farm Fresh farmers lost most of the non-hearty greens not under row covers or protected by high tunnels.  The celery froze at Organic Willow Acres, which we were counting on for stuffing our turkeys.  Staff, farmers and CSA members were all disappointed, for different reasons. 

John at Organic Willow Acres was dissappointed because he lost a crop to weather that could have brought him $500.  I’m dissapointed because I can’t send celery, a staple in stuffing to the CSA members.  The CSA members are disappointed because they won’t have locallly-grown celery from their CSA farmes for their holiday meal.

Jamie, our favorite turkey packer

Beginning the 2009 Growing Season

The first Growers’ Meeting for Lancaster Farm Fresh ended a few minutes ago, around 2:45 pm.  The meeting room is still filled with Amish farmers talking to one another about crops they grew last year or what they intend to grow in 2009.  Much of the talk is in German dialect or “Dutch,” if you were raised in Lancaster County, so I can’t profess to know exactly what the farm families are discussing.  Mrs. Fisher, from Organic Willow Acres, is up stairs sweeping and cleaning the tables, while she waits for her husband and son to finish their conversations.  A few farmers are waiting outside the front door of the warehouse for their drivers and others are using the telephones to call for a ride.  I walked into the office at one time, during the course of the meeting, and two Amish farmers were on the telephone, calling drivers to come later than arranged. The scene caught me off-guard and I chuckled out loud.

 

The meeting started around 9:30 am this morning.  Farmers began by paying their membership dues for 2009: a requirement to join the conversation and be present in the room.  New members pay $200 and continuing members pay a percentage of the previous year’s sales.  After collecting the checks, I counted 40 members signed up to grow for the Coop in 2009!

 

We began with an introduction and a brief description of the CSA and Wholesale business model.  Then Casey began calling fruit varieties and farmer names in addition to the amount to be grown.  This continued by season, Spring, Summer and Fall, until all vegetable, greens and root crops were covered.  Andrew scrawled furiously as several farmers spoke the variety and acreage or foot rows they would plant.   

 

The crowd of black-clad farmers and wives, listened intently at the beginning of the meeting.  By noon, more chatter could be heard from small cliques around the long tables and the farmers most interested crowded around the head table, where the Board of Directors, Casey and Andrew sat.  In the afternoon the board members left their positions at the head of the room to converse with new and experienced farmers.

 

I mingled through the crowd, trying to talk to as many farmers as possible, trying to learn the names of the young men and women who were planning to grow for the Coop for the first time.  The more conversation I can have the better I will remember each individual; because they dress a like it is difficult to distinguish one from another if you haven’t had much interaction.  Not to mention, their names are very similar, and often exactly the same first and surname with only a differentiating middle initial.

 

There were some calls to move things along at a faster pace from a few board members, but if most of the attendees were like me, they were enjoying the synergy of the group and being a part of it.  This is our second year of Growers’ meetings and now we have some experience behind us in understanding the reality of planning. These meeting serve to build excitement as much as create a plan for the coming year.  The plan will evolve in the months to come, before planting begins.  The excitement will continue to build, as we pour through brightly colored seed catalogues and research growing techniques for various crops.  Then the real excitement will come: that of digging in the dirt, planting seeds and seedlings, watching the plants grow everyday, then harvesting the fruits and vegetables and finally sharing and eating the bounty.

Baby Broccoli and Tiny Tomatoes

The Beginning of Some Things Green

Lancaster Farm Fresh families have planted, watered and cared for seeds in trays of organic soil.  A few cold nights have brought farmers out of their warm beds to stoke the fire in the greenhouse stove.  On the coldest late winter days smoke lingered above the stove pipe extending past the greenhouse roof.  The days have been mild lately and anticipation of the crop to come is billowing in the chests of the farmers (husbands and wives) and their children, who spend so many days working, laughing, sweating and whistling among the rows and rows of plants thick with vegetables.

The photographs you see above and below were taken March 7 at Farmdale Organics.  Last year was the first time I had the privilege to watch, first hand, the life cycle of my food.  And now I have the honor of sharing it with you!  The broccoli plants above look dainty and vulnerable, and they are.  One small being, a mouse for instance could wipe out the entire crop in one cool March night.  Henry at Farmdale Organics had such a visitor to his greenhouse.  He told me with disbelief on his face, “He ate all the hot pepper plants!”  We both giggled looking over the decimated trays of hot pepper plants.

Some starts are growing faster than others and by today date these plants are at least 6 inches tall.  A few days after taking these photographs I took a ride with Henry and Sam (of Green Valley Organics).  When I parked the car near Sam’s greenhouse, Henry exclaimed, “Look at those tomatoes!”  Sam’s were significantly taller than Henry’s and there was a bit of ribbing as the two farmers compared their infant crops.

The cabbage plants above were placed outside of the greenhouse, because they were growing too fast inside.  They are covered at night to protect them from the cold. From the small trays where each seed was carefully placed in one cup with soil, the family will transplant the tiny vegetables into 4” pots and nurture them as they continue to grow to the appropriate size for planting in the field.  At the same time the temperatures will rise and the chance of freeze will wane.  The long mild days spur plant growth and bring us closer and closer to planting time. 

 

Our excitement grows everyday of mild, early spring weather.  I look at my calendar realizing that we could be packing and shipping vegetables to you in as little as 5 or 6 weeks.  There is plenty of planning, teaching and organizing to do between now and then. 

The anticipation is sometimes overwhelming!

 

Welcome to the life cycle of your food,

Amy Crystle

Lancaster Farm Fresh CSA