Beautiful Things

Hello there!
It has been some time since a Village Farm blog entry, hasn't it? Sorry 'bout that!
I am going to keep it simple today with these few words that reminded me of the beauty all around us lucky farmers.

When we come upon beautiful things . . . they act like small tears in the surface of the world that pull us through to some vaster space.

Elaine Scarry
On Beauty and Being Just

 

We have three hoophouses here at the farm. Two are full of tomatoes and peppers and one is full of flowers and basil. We might as well call Hoophouse One (or HH1, as we abbreviate it) a butterfly hatchery. This evening I saw a chrysalis attached to the outside of the rollup plastic sides. Uh oh. 

I collect nearly a dozen newly hatched monarchs out of there each day and release them to the wide world. They need releasing because they flutter and flutter at the plastic wall and arch, not knowing (apparently?) that the roll up sides, just a few inches below, are wide open. Anyways, the caterpillar stage critters are feasting on the butterflyweed, an ornamental asclepias, aka milkweed, as you see here. They pupate by hanging from a leaf or wooden endwall piece or what have you and then hatch a few weeks later. 

I thought this flower crop was going to be donated to the monarchs but the buds and blooms actually seem to be outgrowing the hungry caterpillars.

HH1 is a special place to me this summer.

I do love butterflies.

One of our best and oldest wholesale customers, Stacey Glassman of Swan's Way Catering sent me this picture several years ago from a butterfly house in Amsterdam. I never, ever would have guessed that we would have our own bustling hatchery right here in Freedom.

Ours is not quite so populated or diverse but I do so love to watch the molten wings and polka dot bodies emerge and then. . .FLY!

The vegetables are doing great here. We hope you are all enjoying this glorious summer. 

We look forward to harvesting the bounty ahead in the remaining 7 weeks and then for those who sign on for the Fall Shares right on into December.

All the best, 

Polly

Hail! Cheese! And Northside Sheds!

The driveway that looks like a river.

Hello friends of Village Farm!

Rain, hail, thunder, lightning, wind, hail, rain, downpour.
We have had more than enough, to a point of being 'fed up,' with the above weather displays.
Our vegetables seem to be faring well enough though we have had some serious Remay (that white, floaty row cover) casualties.
I did see Willie head for the fields with a seeder and some seeds yesterday. There is some good news for you! We have been so wetted by downpours and days of rain that we have not sown a seed or tucked in a transplant in over a week.The continuous flow of critical CSA and wholesale crops like cilantro, dill, salad mix and lettuce depends on successional plantings all summer long. So in two weeks, you can bet we will be out of a few of these crops.

But with more seeds now in the ground, we will again, be rolling in them in three weeks.

We have just delivered our third week of CSA vegetables to our members. Our offerings were:
Choice of sugar snap or shelling peas
Choice of broccoli or cauliflower (have you tried roasting these?)
Radish bunch
Kohlrabi (for farm members)
Garlic scapes, those ephemeral treats of early summer
Dill bunch
Lettuce heads

Appleton Creamery's Cheese Share Week 3

Also on our plates and picnic blankets this week. . .Appleton Creamery Cheeses!
Wow. Last week we enjoyed every morsel of goat feta, chipotle chevre and aged manchego that arrived in our Cheese Share.  This week I can't even bring myself to eat the cheeses (yet!) Above you see Dill Chevre, Chevre wrapped in brandy infused grape leaves (!!) and aged Jack which was "invented in California during the Gold Rush. Caitlin, Appleton Creamery's cheese maven, writes, "Traditionally, the rind is rubbed with a mixture of chili powder, cocoa and olive oil. The curds are twisted in cheesecloth and pressed with simple weights, resulting in a rustic looking artisan cheese. We make it with cow's milk from Hope's Edge Farm."

Thank you, Appleton Creamery!
(It is not too late to add a cheese share to your weekly Village Farm haul. . .we will prorate the price for the fourteen weeks remaining. Give us a call.)


With all the rain, we have had to stay out of many of the gardens and so Ryan, Willie, Emma, John and Prentice have been keeping busy with plenty of other projects.

The ever-present To Do list. (Note: The broilers' feed was withheld because they were going to slaughter the next day--important step in a clean digestive tract/ crop at the butcher's.)

This is the 'oven structure' coming into being. We are readying the space for our very own earthen oven to be built in a few weeks with many, many helping hands. Stay tuned. YOU are invited.

And this lovely is yet another northside shed. . .this one for packing vegetables rather than baking pizza pies. With five or six of us buzzing about on harvest mornings, we have been tripping over each other. Not anymore!

A bit of news and newness about the place.
Best wishes from all of us at Village Farm,
Polly

Vegetable Gumdrops

Bok choi, a lovely vegetable for stir fries and slaws and brothy soups.

Last weekend, Abe and I attended a showcase, of sorts, for local businesses in the greater Unity area. I packed up the brochures and photo album, and added a flashy yellow flowered tablecloth for that homey touch. I also brought some farm products in season at that moment (and ones I could easily get my hands on). Micro greens, a couple sweet bok choi (as seen above), a dozen eggs, a bouquet of flowers. Our little set up looked pretty.

We were sharing a long fold up table with another woman who at first glance was selling vitamins. On the other side was the Historical Society. So there we were, Abe on my back, chatting up the passers by.

Abe kept asking me for a "gummy" and that is when I tuned into the woman selling vitamins. She was selling vegetable gumdrops. Gumdrops packed with a whole serving (or four? or ten? ) of vegetables.

The irony of our pairing there was not lost on me.
I pretty quickly lost any ability to make a joke about this situation. If I were a 'good' salesperson or comic, I surely would have bounced off her sales pitch to call in folks to our offerings. "Want the real deal? Check out these nutrient rich micro greens!" or "How do you chop those things for a stir fry?"

I was selling the work of a farm, its workers, soils, microbes, bugs, animals and plants, I was not able to call in just the right tone to pull off anything clever. (I take this way too seriously.) So I just stood there and answered gardening questions and talked about what we grow and sell.
We sell vegetables.
And I can say now, we sell Real Vegetables. . . Not gumdrop vegetables.

(I did finally let Abe try two of the three colors/flavors. He would definitely have bought some if I had only forked over my wallet to him.)

 200 ft bed of kale, uncovered for a morning harvest. To the left is garlic.

Just yesterday, a friend of the farm sent along a link to a New York Times Op Ed by Jeff D. Leach that sings the praises of fresh, locally grown (and washed) vegetables. Unlike most "eat more vegetables" pieces, this one is about dirt and the dusting of natural microbes that coat the leaves and fruits that arrive in your CSA shares. Apparently these Village Farm vegetables carry millions of crucial microorganisms to our immune systems. More good news for the Real Deal Vegetables!!!
I loved this article. It marries my interests in digestion, evolutionary biology and agriculture in a most pleasing way. Click here for a link to it.

Thank you for enjoying our soil mineral mining, photosynthesizing, microbe carrying, and vitamin packed real live vegetables.
We like our business and our life a whole lot.
Best wishes from Village Farm,
Polly

For Immediate Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JUNE 7, 2012

Village Farm of Freedom is seeking vegetable loving people who would like to receive weekly organic produce through its CSA program but could use a discount on price. Now in its fifth season, the Village Farm is committed to making its highest quality produce available to people of all economic circumstances. Village Farm is partnering with Maine Farmland Trust to offer SNAP recipients 50% off CSA shares in 2012. Yes, half-priced, fresh organic products!

Community Supported Agriculture is a way that farmers and consumers commit to each other for mutual benefit. The Village Farmers grow a full array of spring, summer and fall vegetables and herbs and distribute them to their 'members' each Tuesday evening, June 19 through October 9 at the farm in freedom or at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Belfast. Members support the farmers by paying all or some of their membership to the CSA early in the season, when most farm expenses are incurred. SNAP recipients will pay Village Farm for half of the CSA share value and Maine Farmland Trust will pay the other half.

Village Farm's website, www.villagefarmfreedom.com, describes CSA and its Summer Vegetable Shares, Egg Shares, Flower Shares and Fall Vegetable Shares. New in 2012 is a Cheese Share offering, weekly cow, goat and sheep cheeses from Appleton Creamery! All but the Flower Shares are eligible for the 50% discount to SNAP recipients.

If you or someone you know is interested in weekly organic vegetables and a connection to a local farm, please contact Village Farm about this amazing offer! Email: villagefarm@fairpoint.net or call 382-6300.

Wild Things

Will you look at these three little works of art. . .killdeer eggs, laid right in the cows' alleyway between the barn and the pasture. Hmmm. We may need some creative fencing solutions here.

They remind me how we, the domesticators and the domesticated, and all of our domesticated animals can and do coexist with the wild ones in many places on this land. The skunks like the dark cave beneath the walk-in cooler. The robins and barn swallows nest in the pole barn. The Sand Hill Crane (yes!) roosts in the woodlot and circles overhead squawking its eery rattlebox call. Neighbors saw a moose in the woodlot this spring. We saw lots of its scat (or can I call it manure?) and cow-like prints. For weeks, our woods walks involved a lot of hushed voices and wondering. . . where might the moose show up next and where did it sleep at night and how tall is it?

 Batter fried fiddleheads by Joseph

It is spring. We hand harvest nettles, dandelion greens and fiddlehead ferns as well as the spring planted 'Tyee' spinach that is rocking out in the hoophouses. Yes, we plow the ground open for our crops. We disrupt the wild by our agricultural acts. Yet, importantly, we strive to involve the wild in our days so that we might mirror nature's cycles and generosity more. So that we might be taught and/or remember how to be better domesticators. And how to be a bit more wild.

With so much hope for the seasons of abundance ahead,
Polly

New Things

As if spring needs another novelty! With all the tree swallows circling, the woodcocks mating with whistles and brrrreeeeeps in the evening dusk, and all the green shoots pushing out of the ground. . .who needs another thing?

Village Farm does, apparently.

Benjamin has been asking for "bunnies" for 2 years. That seems to be the magic number used as a waiting period. A cooling off period, shall we say. If the desire lasts for 2 whole years. . .well, we deliver. It worked for us with Joseph asking to take fiddle lessons and it seems to be working with the bunnies. We have had them for 4 weeks and they are still getting a LOT of attention. (Phew.)

Meet Flopear and Nibbles, named appropriately, to be sure.

Willie is back on the farm for 2012. We are all quite happy about this and are looking forward to another great growing season with Willie's capable and easy-going self around here. When interns choose to return for a second season, we have offered that they may want to take on an independent project. Willie gets points with the boys for choosing to rear 3 baby goats for the summer. They win in Benny's heart because he has a love of All Things Cute. I will get a good picture soon. Here is Willie building the goat shelter.
Soon they will join us in the barnyard. For now they are down in the barn, though Willie is often seen in the evenings with three baby goats--out for a stroll. (Cute.)

In the not-so-cute department but very utilitarian and also very fun, we have a shipping container parked in the barnyard. No, we are not filling it with topsoil to be shipped abroad. No, not micro greens. Today it arrived and held the boys' attention all day. Lots of running and yelling in the funky acoustics, and splinters in toes, of course.



It will be filled with old mill parts: hinges and hardware, shafts and belts. Residents of Freedom have been privy to this news for a few months but for all of you outside of 'city limits', Prentice's folks have purchased a town landmark and have begun to renovate it. Originally used as a grist mill, the old building also housed a lumber mill and a dowel mill in its heyday. We shall see what is in its future. There will be two spaces for rent once the renovation is complete at the end of 2012. We are soooo excited to watch this project as it progresses.

And for our far-away cousins, a video. Prentice has been at it again.




And how are the vegetables, you might wonder? The greenhouse is at 75% capacity, I would say, and the first seedlings for sale will be rolling into the Belfast Coop around May 1st. Willie and Prentice spent the day in the tree and shrub nursery and I spent the morning seeding flowers.
We still have CSA shares (of all types!) available, so do treat yourself to a season's worth of fine vegetable eating, if you haven't signed up already. (Sign up form click here.)

Best wishes from all of us,
Polly

In One Egg

Once upon a time in a time called now, there is an egg. This is a Maine laid egg. A Freedom laid egg. A Village Farm laid egg. This is a springtime egg. It has earth in it. It has water in it. It has plants in it.

This one egg was just laid by a little red hen. She comes from the Rhode Island Red clan. This little red hen (LRH) laid this egg in a cozy, dark and boxy kinda place. Each day she likes to visit this same place, her cubicle, when she feels the egg laying urge. The bottom of the box is covered with clean white pine shavings. The farmers give handfuls of new shavings whenever the shavings are sticky or sparse. (Sometimes a careless hen puffs them all out).

When the LRH is not inside the henhouse, aka The Eggmobile, laying an egg, she is outside. She scratches about on the earth. When there is scratching, there is finding. She eats bugs, worms, seeds and other bits of things. On rainy days, she hangs out inside with her sisters or mills about under The Eggmobile.

She breathes fresh air.

Each morning, when the sun is just above the treeline in the east, one of the farmers arrives with a large bucket of fresh water and another bucket of mashed grain. The water comes from the green hose, through the frost-free hydrant, underground from the pressure tank, through the pump, from the deep well. The farmer pours out yesterday's water and fills two black rubber pans with the cool, fresh water.

The other bucket holds mashed grain. The farmer pours or scoops it into one of three wooden feed troughs. the farmer always moves the feed troughs around the henyard. Before the bucket the mashed feed was in a huge metal grain bin. One of the farmer's fathers built the grain bin. It was manufactured by a company called Brock. It says BROCK on its side. The farmer's father put it together like an Erector set, one nut and bolt at a time. Hundreds and hundreds of nuts and bolts. Fit and tightened. Now the grain bin is able to hold thousands of pounds of feed. The feed comes by truck from Lewiston, Maine. A mill there makes grains and legumes into mash and pellets for animals. The grains and legumes grew in Canada, most likely, in large fileds, tended by farmers and their tractors. The grains are Certified Organic.
Soybeans. Corn. Field peas. Roasted soybeans. Oats. Alfalfa.
There are also vitamins and minerals in the mashed feed. Calcium carbonate. Mononcalcium phosphate,
DL Methoinine and many others.

For the whole winter until a few weeks ago, the LRH and her flock were living in a large plastic covered hoophouse. There were roosts and laying boxes in there and lots of sunlight.

A few weeks ago, the tall farmer moved The Eggmobile onto the pasture, poked a flexi-net fence into the defrosting earth in a large circle around the coop and moved the hens, two by two one night. He wore a headlamp and carried the LRH and all of her sisters to the Eggmobile. The farmers kept the whole flock inside for a few days so the hens would remember that it was home and so they would all find the egg laying boxes. At last the farmer opened the hatch to the ramp --and the spring earth.

The fence is important to the hens and thus the eggs. It keeps everything safe from predators like raccoon, skunk, fox  and neighborhood dogs. It also keeps the hens inside their yard. They do not touch it as it carries a blip-blip-blip of electricity made in a solar charger right there on the southern side of the yard. The farmers borrowed this charger from a friend. The farmers know where the on/off button is and how to push it to stop the blip-blip-blip so they rarely get shocked, but it does happen.

Each day, when the sun is high in the sky, one of the farmers arrives to the henyard. The farmer always carries a basket. The farmer usually remembers to turn off the fence. The farmer always hops over the fence. First the right leg swings over, then the left follows. The farmer walks to The Eggmobile and opens two doors pretty high up on the end of the building. The laying boxes! The cubicles! The eggs!

The farmer collects the eggs two at a time with her right hand and places them in the basket. With a 'thank you' and goodbyes, she closes the two doors, turns the latch and walks to the fence. Over again and on goes the charger. The farmer walks back to the farmhouse basement. The basket of eggs sits in the cool space until the following morning.

Each early morning, after the hens have been fed, one of the farmers (they take turns) packs eggs. Each egg is inspected for dirt or cracks and washed if necessary. The good eggs are placed in egg cartons. The farmer writes down the day's harvest on an Egg Production Log. The eggs are stored in the large, cold walk-in cooler in the barnyard.

Sometimes neighbors stop by to buy eggs. They pay $4.50/dozen. Sometimes the farmers and their family members eat the eggs. They pay nothing. Most of the eggs get packed into large boxes and put in the van for a ride to Belfast. The Belfast Coop resells them to their customers. Belfast Coop customers pay something like $5.89/dozen.
This isn't really the end of the egg story. (The egg is eaten and becomes part of a human!)
This isn't really even the beginning.