Heirloom Harvest

Looking at Labels for "Frankenfood"

Are you eating genetically engineered food? Do you think you deserve to know? Some consumers think they do, and a bill in Congress would require informative labeling. Find out more about the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act of 2005, and what you can do to affect its progress, by visiting TheCampaign. Remember: 3rd District Congressman Jim McGovern sits on the Rules Committee, which gives him significant influence. If you want him to use that influence on behalf of your position on this act, let him know.

Help received and given

We have three community groups that will be returning to work at the farm again this summer. Two are from a program called Project Bridge. One program is for teenage girls who are not living with their families and are learning life skills, the other is for adults who are re-entering society after struggling with personal issues.

Another program that will be returning this season is Chauncy Hall, a group home with a closely supervised environment for male children and teenagers who are addressing socialization issues and developing other personal skills.

Two of these group homes are located in Westborough, one is in Northborough. They will all begin work around the farm a little later this spring.

Old King Cole Crop

CSA member Beth Lewis carefully places broccoli seeds in a seeding tray on the first day of Spring, March 20th, 2005. In front of her are trays that have recently been seeded with peppers, collards, cabbage, celeriac, and other produce. In the foreground are celery seedlings.

Collards are in and more to come

We’re starting the collards, three varieties: flash, champion, and McCormack's green glaze. Two are modern varieties with different growth characteristics – I’m covering my bases. If it’s warm there will be collards, and if it’s cool, there will be collards. And the glaze is heirloom from the early 19th century. On the left you see farm volunteers working with collards in the greenhouse.

I’ve actually planned in extra collards, more than we would need for just the members, because I grow extra for Big Fresh Cafe in Framingham. I also started the cole crops, including cauliflower. This variety is the white variety. We’ll be doing purple and orange toward the fall.

I've started two broccoli plantings so far, with six planned for the entire season.

This last week I also started the peppers--sweet ethnic peppers, and bells. We’ll be planting orange bells, yellow bells, and red and green bells. Hhot peppers will be seeded this week. One of the changes from last year to this is no Thai dragon peppers— discontinued by the seed company. We’re replacing them with Joe’s Long Cayenne pepper.

HEY, PROSPECT MEMBERS! We still have limited shares for sale on all pickup days; however, some days will need to be closed sooner than others so it behooves people to get in sooner rather than later, if they want their preference of pickup day.

CSA members celebrate the equinox at Crystal Spring

Heirloom Harvest CSA members joined the community at Crystal Spring Ecological Education Center in Plainville on Saturday, March 19th, to celebrate the Spring Equinox, which occurs March 20. (In the definition of the spring, or vernal, equinox from the wikipedia, linked to above, it is described as "the moment when the sun appears to cross the celestial equator, heading northward." More at the link.) Children and community members participated in a play that highlighted the wonders of soil and all the organisms that live in the soil.

The play facetiously featured three planets that visit Earth to appreciate the diversity of life on this planet. (Planets on the right.) Other characters in the play included the farmhand (Josh Fecteau), the farmer (Heirloom Harvest farmer John Mitchell), and Crystal Spring, represented by Carole Rossi. The roots were played by the young children that were present, who wore stickers with drawing of worms and soil grubs and microbes to represent the life in the soil around the roots (at left).

The play, written and directed by Barbara Harrington, included the following passage:

ROOTS#1: Life down here (in the soil) is a community. We’ve got lots of creatures to feed, as you’ve heard. Each of these billions of creatures has a community job that draws their gifts from deep within themselves and their relationship with everything else. These days it takes millions of critters to heal and protect us from disease. Many more creatures give themselves to strengthen our great, diverse soil community so that we don’t get washed away.

CRYSTAL SPRING: Amazing, isn’t it! Soil is a cosmic event. It took 3 billion years for Earth to develop 6” of topsoil. Topsoil is an extremely advanced form of Earth life. It now takes a thousand years for Earth to create just one inch of topsoil. Imagine that! The next time you put your hands into the soil, cherish it. Earth is the only planet in our solar system with topsoil. There may have been water on Mars, but there’s never been topsoil there. In fact, there’s no topsoil within a trillion miles of our home planet. We humans know this because we’ve gone looking for it.

FARMER JOHN: When you use chemicals and inorganic fertilizers, you go to war against this precious soil, killing off all the diversity that Earth thrives on.

CRYSTAL SPRING: Worse and worse land and water and atmospheric conditions spread globally, infecting the way we take in the world: what we eat, what we love, how we think, how we act; all life is one.

Crystal Spring also presented a demonstration on how to make compost tea.

***

Afterward, all present went outside for cake, juice and tea. As pictured below, these snacks were thematically appropriate, bringing in worm candy to perpetuate the theme of earth-friendly gardening and farming.

 

Raising A Greenhouse

In early March, Heirloom Harvest farmer John Mitchell and Stow farmer Michael Kirkpatrick (left) helped Lunenburg farmer Steve Parker (right) cover his greenhouse with plastic. Here, Kirkpatrick and Parker are readying the plastic to pull over the frame with ropes.

Good Root Vegetable Recipes (?)

Your Editor here. Haven't tried these recipes for soup and roasted veggies at the Globe Magazine yet but Julian and Riven are typically better than average.

Greenhouse Volunteer Opportunity

We welcome people who are interested in doing greenhouse work and who would like to come and get their work commitment hours put in now, early in the season. Pictured is John's daughter, Josephina Mitchell, pitching in.

Looking ahead to first crops

First Crops Besides onions, we have now seeded red and green cabbage, collards, red and green kale and broccoli. We actually plant four rounds of cabbage in two successions. This planting will be harvested in spring. We’ll transplant it out in April and then it will be ready for harvest, probably, in the second or third week of June, so that will be among the very first vegetables in the very first pickups.

We’re also planting leeks now. We’ll have three secessions of leeks this year, the first being a variety called King Richard, an heirloom that almost disappeared about 20 years ago, when only about three seed companies were still carrying it. There is a broader base of companies carrying this variety now (ten), which is great. I value this variety because it's a fast-growing leek, and under good conditions you can get a full foot-long white stem (Don’t expect that here – as any farmer will tell you, there is no such thing as "perfect conditions" except sometimes at the other guy’s farm, or in a well-pampered backyard garden. Synthetic fertilizers can simulate perfect conditions too).

It’s got mild flavor, light green upright leaves, and a good straight stem. It’s easier to harvest than some of the other old varieties, because it doesn’t have a bulb at the bottom. Some of the older varieties, you have to go through and pitchfork each one out, because of the bulb. We might get the first round of King Richards in late June, or early July, maybe. You never know for sure, of course.

Dirty Work

We received 12 yards of organic potting soil delivered this week. We also got in a big shipment of cover crop seed; that will actually be stored in the basement at my apartment (no rodents), until we need it later in the season to spread over fields after crops have been harvested. We use a mix of seed for that, including rye and vetch, which are intended to hold the soil after the crop is out and enrich it. Without the cover crop, soil can be lost to wind and water erosion. Also, vetch adds nitrogen to the soil because it’s a legume. The rye will remain dormant through the winter, and then reappear next spring.

Don't Cry For Me

The onions are in and up, and they’re doing fine. This year we will have three kinds of onions – a red, a yellow storage and a sweet onion. The red onion is Mars, the yellow is Olympic, and the sweet is a variety called Walla Walla.

When I select an onion variety, I want one that will grow well in this climate; that’s my first standard. There are some great onions that grow in the south that we just can’t grow here. Generally we have the onions out by mid to late July here.

If you plant later or wait longer, that can give some of the pest insects time to build up a good population and start to cause damage. By the pest identification handbooks, pests can strike at any time of the season depending on the insect, the crop, the weather, its lifecycle, and how many generations will appear over the course of the season, but my information is local and specific to the farms I have managed.

The only time I have ever actually observed onion maggots on an allium family crop (onions, leeks, garlic) is in late summer. In general, late summer is the worst time of the season for pest damage because pests have had the entire spring and summer to build up their populations. By starting in the greenhouse and planting as early as possible, we greatly reduce the likelihood that this pest (and many others) will cause problems. What you observe on your farm or in your garden is always better information than that contained in the pest guides. Pests never seem to have read the same books, or talked to an extension agent, before doing what they do.

A pest guide is analogous to a color picture; it is an approximation of reality, but never as accurate or as interesting as the real thing. A pest guide can't account for all the variability in the environment. Living things, flora and fauna alike, will always surprise you. Hence, the joy of farming.

Some wise person once said it takes five years to learn how to farm a piece of land well: each farm is unique.

Meet the farmer!

John Mitchell of Heirloom Harvest CSA in Westboro will meet current and prospective members for the 2005 season at Crystal Spring on Wednesday, March 9, at 7 PM.  He will explain the program, what's involved in membership, and present new and exciting information on the upcoming season.
Let us know you're coming by calling 508 699 7167 or email us at cryspr@comcast.net.  Directions to Crystal Spring are on the website. All are welcome. If you are already a member, bring a friend who cares about local, organic produce from June to November.

Spring Equinox: Let's have tea!

On Saturday, March 19, 2-4 p.m., the equinox will be celebrated at Crystal Spring in Plainville. Barb will be directing her annual playlet and there are lots of roles to be filled: How about acting the part of a worm, a vegetable, a microbe? (Sorry, the role of Farmer is already spoken for by our very own farmer, John Mitchell.)

This year we will demonstrate the making of compost tea, a most nutritious and refreshing drink for all your seedlings. Come and share snacks, music and lots of fun. Let us know you're coming by calling 508 699 7167 or email us at cryspr@comcast.net.  Directions to Crystal Spring are on its website.

All are welcome!