Come see for yourself

A break in the clouds!
Join us for a week of weeding. After a month of rain and clouds we have had precious few days to take care of crops. Under ideal conditions the garden should be weeded once a week. But when farming is concerned, any statement that starts with, "Under ideal conditions..." should immediately be disregarded.

We try very hard to work with nature, to be flexible, and to be diversified enough to avoid losses. We plant with a wide margin of error-- 240 seedlings go out with an expectation of harvesting just 100 of those plants. We are more than willing to put in 11 hour days, some of us logging all of the daylight and a few night-time hours to the business of keeping the farm from sinking. And finally we drag others into the struggle with us: (that's you-- our CSA members). And still, a struggle it is... Sacked out with Mac and Cheese dinner. Harvest:
Lettuce
Cilantro
New Potatoes
Chives
Fresh Garlic
Peas
and the Pick Your Own Strawberry field is open for GLEANING! There are still some good berries in there. CSA members only!


This week is not a grand harvest. Usually our third week of harvesting starts to yield some quantity of produce: more substantial greens, still berries, beets, the first of the summer squash, and more. One other thing we try very hard to do: stay positive. So I am not going to get into the details -- you can read about it in the news in case you missed it. (For early crops, a wet blanket, Will it be rain-sodden fields forever?, Agencies urge gardeners to check for blight, and most recently, Crops in crisis) (yes, that is chronological order, getting more and more dire.)
All plants need sun and heat to grow, so it follows directly that this season is way off the usual mark. That is one thing that we can not do anything about. The many other problems that follow leave us with perhaps (if everyone is willing and able) some more options. Like pulling weeds! That is where you come in. We propose TWO weeding work parties. One on Wednesday afternoon, lasting from 1:30 until 5:30. And the second, Sunday morning, from 8 AM until lunchtime. Come for just a few minutes of either, or for hours of both. Whatever time you can spare. We need the hands that much! Bring tools if you have a favorite, but there is plenty of hand-pulling as well and finger pinching, to do without tools. Oh and need it be said? Rain OR Shine!With some help weeding, we can hopefully stay on target getting transplants into the field as we did during another break in the rain two weeks ago.
There is one more thing that as a community you can do to help out the farm: If it is sunny and beautiful for the rest of the summer and into the fall, just don't forget this month of weather. With a short growing season some crops require every day of growing the summer offers, and so far there have not been too many. Cross your fingers and knock on wood that the late blight stays away, the cut worms are finished eating, and the last frost is a late one.

Blessings on the meal
--John and Stacy

Goodbye wet June

The question of the week has been: How have we been dealing with this wet weather?

Answer #1: Covering warm-loving seedlings with as much protective row-cover as we can. This is our sad melon patch with black plastic to heat up the ground should the sun choose to come out, and covered with white row cover to shelter it from pelting rain.

Answer #2: We work indoors... in our two hoop houses. This is really just just an elaborate row cover in itself. We reserve tomatoes and a few peppers for this decadent treatment. In addition to being tomato heaven, each hoophouse is equally a device to more effectively give us something productive to do on pouring rain days.

Answer #3 Things are growing! Some things... like weeds, but also PEAS! They seem to love the fog-bank we are stuck in, so the trellises are overflowing with pea vines.

Answer #4 We must trudge through it... One of our cardinal rules is to not work the soil when it is wet. It turns into a compacted mess if you do. But we have been forced to bend these rules, because the soil has been wet for the past month. Last week, we tilled and got as many plants into the ground as possible (there was a 2 day clearing-- a truce with the sky when it did not rain...)

Answer #5 Our hair gets curly...

... and finally, we buy rubber pants and make the best of it!
The harvest:
Lettuce
Peas
Pac Choi
Garlic Scapes
Dill
Radishes
Strawberries
Greens (spinach and beet greens)

Peas: A great follow-up to the strawberries. Try to make it home before they get eaten!
Pac Choi is one of those great Asian vegetables that do so well in Maine. It has crunch greens, juicy stems and a great tangy flavor great in many stir-fry or sauteed recipes. Don't cook it too much! (But wash it enough to get the aphids off.-- little pale bugs who feed on juices from many plants. Don't panic... Lady Bugs are on the job, multiplying to meet the opportunity of eating so many aphids.)
Garlic Scapes: You can put them in a vase, wear them on your wrist, or chop them up just like garlic. In our kitchen we have taken the quick and easy route of putting four or five of them in a food processor along with some other herbs and oil. Buzz it for a few seconds and add it to... anything. Morning eggs, pulled pork or chicken, stirred in with rice, etc etc. But they really do look great as bracelets too; don't pass it up before you make them into dinner. (By the way, they are the un-opened flower bud of garlic-- a by-product of a bigger bulb.)
Greens: The Spinach and Beet Greens are not overflowing in quantity; really just an addition to salad.
Strawberries: This weather may close the curtains on our berry patch. Come and pick 'em before they go bye!
Blessings on the meal
John and Stacy

Baby Crazy

What we are loving right now are the 4 new kittens who were born on 6/24/09. The story of our journey to having them is long and torrid. You wonder how that could be when cats get pregnant so easily. Well, it's not the conception that challenged us, but the worry that we had passively contributed to the overpopulation of cats in the world and our sheepish calls to our vet, Dr. Kate, who we admire greatly, to confess that Baby Kitten had been knocked-up. There were countless hours of heavy processing on my part. You may remember Baby Kitten (aka Sylvia Dragon) who joined our family back in

October.....

When we went to our favorite farmer getaway, the MOFGA Farmer to Farmer conference, a dairy farm family brought three kittens into the childcare room the last day. Like the baby crazy suckers we are, Flora, Emma and I scooped up a kitten and covertly tucked her into the car before John could say much. He was light on conversation on the drive home, wondering what happened to the "communication" in our relationship. But, we were baby crazy. The girls loved up on the new kitten all the way home and she slept the better part of the three hour drive on Flora's lap, in the car seat. John was quickly wooed by the newest addition and Flora dubbed her Baby Kitten, which has stuck as the most used name. It is presenting some confusion for us now that there are 4 more baby kittens in the mix. Needless to say, we are so proud of our new momma and her babies. She is a delight to watch.

We'll write again about the harvest for next week by Monday night, including recipes, but we are unable to resist sending a note to announce the newest addition.

The pick your own strawberries are plentiful, juicy and ready to go. Please feel free to come by 7 days a week between 7A and 7P. We look forward to seeing you all!

Blessings on the meal-
Stacy and John

Building a better future

With a few glitches, we made it through the first week. We thank you all for your support, enthusiasm, patience and most of all, for your appetite.

Emma, Flora and I spent the week in Washington, DC. Emma presented her National History Day documentary on Margaret Sanger. We enjoyed the sites and during a photo opportunity with Senator Snowe, I peppered her with a few questions on her work with the Senate Finance Committee. For some reason I don't have photos to show. But back at the farm John took some shots of another kind of work:Back to Politics. I try to keep the writing on the blog to issues pertaining to food and agriculture, but I want to mention health care because as my friend Russel Libby pointed out, eating well is health care, going to the hospital is sick care.
2nd picture from the farm...In the 2.5 minutes that we were given with our senator, I managed to garner a few tidbits of information. The Senate Finance Committee will be responsible for determining a funding plan for whatever health care reform proposal that emerges. According to the Senator, the cost will be somewhere between 1 and 2 trillion dollars over the course of 10 years. (The difference between 1 and 2 trillion dollars seems... substantial to me...) I asked her about the response she is receiving from Mainers regarding health care reform. She replied that her office has received only 1400 letters regarding this matter and all speak to the need for some type of reform but fail to offer any consistent message as to the means of achieving it.
Here's where I get up on my soap box for a few minutes...

• As a state, I believe we stand the most chance of sustaining our economy with the development of small, entrepreneurial business opportunities. With an employer-based health care system, this will never happen. The fear associated with leaving the workforce to experiment with a new business idea is a challenging paradigm to overcome. Determining the path to affording the experiment can be paralyzing. We need to urge our Congress to support a non-employer based model in an attempt to increase the development of our state's independent, small businesses.
• Our for-profit health insurance companies are in the business of insuring the healthy. Denying claims, increasing premiums, increasing deductibles and slashing benefits. There are very few reasons why they would support any other model for covering the expense of providing health care that what we currently have. Their lobby is rich and powerful. In addition to the insurance industry lobby, the hospital association lobby and the pharmaceutical industry lobby also prove to be a force to reckon with, all standing to lose a substantial profit if we reform our health care system to include a government option.
• Finally, I want to share a true, sad, little vignette with you to illustrate that even if you have insurance, work hard to do the right thing, if you get sick, you probably won't be covered. A family in our community is struggling. The mom has a medical condition that has landed her 56 days of time in the hospital this past year. She worked hard as a nurse before getting sick. Her husband is self-employed and she provides the coverage for the family. When her illness sent her to the hospital, she had to leave her job. They activated their COBRA insurance and are now close to the deadline of the insurance running out. Her long term disability claim was denied, despite her surgeries, hospitalizations and need for skilled home nursing care. What does this mean for the family? When their insurance ends, if her disability appeal is not honored, they will surely go bankrupt if she is to continue to seek the care she needs. This is a middle class family, hard working folks doing the right thing and following the scripted plan many Americans choose in an attempt to insure they receive care when they truly need it.

Here's the pitch.....please write to our Maine Senators and Representatives and urge them to support a health care reform package that does not force us to go bankrupt to access health care when we need it and helps to decrease the profit model associated with our current system. Rising health care costs make someone, somewhere wealthier. Encourage Snow, Collins, Michaud and Pingree not to cave to the industry lobbyists. Urge support for a non-employer based health care reform.
Point being: with all hands working together, we can build a health care system that shelters all of us....
If you've made it this far, thank you for your patience with my soap box moment. I PROMISE next week: recipes instead!
But... like I said, real health care starts with healthy food.

This week's harvest:
Lettuce
Green Onions
Radishes
Garlic Scapes
Rhubarb
Napa Cabbage
Strawberries
Oregano
Basil Seedlings

The struggle of farming is 90% dealing with the weather, and 9% raising crops (the other 1% is armed conflict with predators just because any struggle has to have some guns right?) Today the Portland Press Herald placed their annual call in to Broadturn Farm to ask "How the weather is affecting our farm." Honestly, the more times you read about Broadturn Farm in the paper is only an indication of journalistic habit than any real news-worthiness, but we oblige regardless... Anyway, in case you don't get tomorrow's paper, the weather is... rain, rain, and more rain. The effect is slow growth, or no growth, and sometimes death. I won't depress anyone with the details unless you ask. The weather is hardly ever perfect (except in California and in our hoop houses).

Blessings on the meal,
Stacy and John

Pick-Your-Own Strawberries

The PYO strawberry field is open Thursday

• We are open for picking 7 till 7, but we are not always at the PYO booth. Just come to the house if you don't see someone in the fields.
• Prices this year are $3/lb. A quart is anywhere from a pound to a pound and three quarters.
• We grow three varieties to make for an extended picking season.
• In general the spring has been tough on berries-- late frosts, a dry spell followed recently by copious rain.
  
• Check back on this site for more information. Call 329-3840 for information.
  

First Distribution of 2009

There are sentinel moments from your childhood. Spring rains and the taste of the first strawberries of the season are two that never age.

This coming week proves to be a busy one. We will welcome our Produce CSA customers for the first distribution of the season. The strawberry fields are almost ready to be opened for pick-your-own customers....we think maybe Wednesday, but we'll update the website and the answering machine with updates. And, our new timber frame building, a kitchen and break space for the interns, is ready to be raised on the slab. Watching the timber-framers cut the joints has been fascinating, but seeing the whole building raised will warm our hearts as we marvel at their skill and craftsmanship.

The pigs have moved out of the barn and into the woods, near the entrance to the farm on Hanson Rd. They are happy with their new surroundings and love to race through the brush after each other.

Finally, after 3 years, we have a sign for the farm! John painted the sign this winter and Ben- our intern, and Josh- one of our work-share members for the season, took on the task of erecting the sign on Friday. (that's the camera that's crooked-- not the sign.)

This week's share will include:

• A tomato seedling

• arugula

• lettuce

• rhubarb

• strawberries

• sorrel

• radishes

We always feel stressed that the season's first few distributions are so slim. We talk to our CSA farmer friends about when they will start distributions, what will be in the share and what they have coming on in the garden. Here's what we've been learning....

1. Cutworms are an emerging pest for the Maine region that causes early spring planting to be effected. The cutworms munch the stems of the newly planted seedling transplants. The only effective management is to dig around each seedling to find and destroy the worm or plant later in the season when the lifecycle of the cutworm reaches the pupae phase, ending their incessant munching.
   
2. Flea beetles love brassicas (arugula, broccoli raab, cabbage, etc...) in the spring and make the leaves look like Swiss cheese. The best method to manage the flea beetle is to cover the crops with floating row cover or plant later in the season when the detrimental effects of the flea beetle are lessened.
3. We are slaves to the weather. Hot days encourage bolting of cool, spring crops. Sometimes, crops we thought we would have for the first distribution will bolt if the temperature is too high. For example, when we have a few days in the 90's in May, the plants are stressed into bolting. Bolting is the process of sending up flowers to set seed. When plants are stressed they respond by trying to reproduce. This is the natural cycle attempting to continue to proliferate a species by making sure seed is set before the plant dies, ensuring another generation. As beautiful as this cycle is in it's simplicity, it can forever confound the farmer. Farmer's are essentially attempting to manipulate nature to grow food.

With all this said, let me add that the shares continue to increase in size and amount throughout the season. We strive to include lettuce in each share and coax the garden to grow a variety of crops.

So, for the next few weeks, enjoy the taste of spring greens and strawberries as the peas and summer squash mature.

We look forward to seeing you all for the first distribution this week and we thank you for your implicit support for local, organic farming.

Blessings on the meal,
Stacy and John

Up with the sunrise

Our days have been full from the rise of the sun

until we settle in to enjoy the early season bounty of greens around the dinner table.

On occasion, we have escaped the frenzy of spring planting to enjoy a row along the coast.

And always we stop to smell the flowers....

We keep thinking the last frost date has passed and twice we've blanketed parts of the garden to prevent damage and awoke to find crystals on the grass in the morning. Knock on wood, we think we are in the clear and are now embarking on a mass planting of the seedlings in the greenhouse. The greenhouse is so controlled, the water, the temperature and the attention. Once we take the leap to plant everything out into the garden, we really let go of control. Our little babies have to find their way in the world and we have to reconcile our trepidation and hope for the best. Flora blesses them all by saying...."Oh little babies, find your peace with it....." What kind of hippie midwife mother is she quoting?

A few updates about the CSA.... We are watching and waiting to determine what week the distributions will begin. We anticipate either the 2nd or 3rd week of June, but it is all weather dependent.

We have created GoogleMaps for the pick up groups and are planning to send out email announcements this week regarding the organization of these groups. If you are interested in being a part of a pick up group but have not yet indicated to us this interest, this would be a great time to do so.

On Saturday June 13th at 9:30, we'll be hosting our Junior Counselor orientation. We are excited about our camp season and have room left in some of our weeks for campers but we are all full for junior counselors. If you are interested in more information, please check out the Camp section of our website.

We are planning a CSA open house for Sunday, June 14th from 9:30 to 12:30. Please feel free to stop in for a tour and an opportunity to get aquainted with your farm and your farmers and the routine of CSA pick up.

Please stay tuned for information about the start of the Pick Your Own strawberry season. The plants are fruiting and looking bountiful!

Blessings on the meal,
Stacy and John