Okay, what is an heirloom anyway???

An heirloom is an open-pollinated plant variety from seeds that have been saved and then passed down generation by generation for at least 50 years.  "Open-pollinated" means that the pollination is done via insects, wind or birds.  There's a lot more on this topic and subcategories to go into, but thinking of open-pollination as a process by mother nature is good enough for now.  Hybrids are different.  They are offered by most seed companies, organic included. Hybrids rely on controlled pollination by humans in which two different plant varieties are selected for specific traits and then bred together, ma and pa, to make very desirable offspring.  A desirable trait might be some kind of disease resistance or "high yielding." I hope I'm doing an okay job of describing all this.

There's a whole world of gorgeous, fascinating heirloom tomatoes out there that you never see in the store.  That's why farmers markets and CSAs are really great!  The reason heirlooms are rarely in the big box stores is because they are usually too delicate to ship in mass quantity and have a shorter shelf life. Stores love hybrids that have been bred for long road trips (from east or west coast or Mexico for example) and long shelf life.

Anyway, hybrids are NOT GMOs.  GMOs take more time to write about, so I might as well just reference one of my previous posts to help clarify any questions there.  Click here for a very brief GMO 101 lesson.  And, after getting sort of freaked out about that, here are some pretty photos.  Don't miss the Tomato Tips at the very end!

Striped German, heirloom

Striped German (heirloom), yellow Sunkist (hybrid), 
German Johnson (heirloom), 
Japanese Black Trifele (heirloom),
clockwise from the upper  left.

The perfect tomato.  Arbison, hybrid.

Gnarly!  Striped German, heirloom!

Heirlooms get funky,  they split easily and their yields are horrible.
But they taste better than anything you've ever tried at Trader Joes.

Japanese Black Trifele, heirloom. This isn't the best photo because
you often see this variety with green shoulders and a little darker.
They are known for their pear shape. This one looks like two grew together....

Clockwise from upper left, Arbison, German Johnson (pink! heirloom!) and Black Trifele.

Tomato Tips:

Feel for softness to determine ripeness.  Don't expect heirlooms to ripen to a red.

Place tomatoes on the counter, out of direct sun, with space all around each of them. Do not store them in the refrigerator unless you want to RUIN EVERYTHING.

Yes You Can

Our "Royal Tomato CSA" shares have all started despite our tomato delay. So all "Royal Tomato Shares" are now including  beets and greens and other fall delights until tomatoes are ready. Our tomato plants are toasty in our high tunnel and conditions are right for the ripening. WHEN THEY DO COME IN (not "if"), shareholders watch out! Instead of the 2-3 lbs a week over the course of a couple of months, shareholders may have many more tomatoes to deal with all at once.  My suggestion? Get ready, set…

This summer I co-taught a canning class with my friend Julie Larsen of Nisse Farm.

All of our info came from a crash course with Drusilla Banks at the University of Illinois Extension office. In 2009, another Extension office in Georgia produced a comprehensive Complete Home Canning Guide, now a very very large pdf file for free download. The USDA uses this guide as the main reference for home canning standards today.
If you have never canned, read about your method of canning in the guide first.  You will be choosing either "Hot Water Bath" or "Pressure Canner" method depending on what equipment you are using and what you'd like to can.  Hot water bath canning can only be used for fruits, pickles and tomatoes (+lemon or citric acid), basically all high acid products.  If you want to can with other vegetables or meat you will definitely want to invest in a pressure canner and make sure the gauge is working properly (the guide talks more about this).  All this collected data is for the purpose of making sure you do not poison yourself and others with botulism. :)  The techniques involve eliminating bacteria that causes the poisoning, making sure the product is sufficiently acidic (if using the hot water method), and ensuring a proper seal.
In our class, Julie and I covered the most common canning activity:

Tomatoes by Hot Water Bath Canning

Some interesting highlights:

• You don't have to boil the lids! Imagine that! Mom and grandma always had a little saucepan bubbling for the lids.  These days, since the update in 2009, you just have to sanitize by washing lids in hot, soapy water.  Never reuse lids from year to year.
• If your canning process is at least 20 minutes, you don't have to worry about sterilizing the jars.  Just heat them enough to accommodate your hot pack and so that they don't crack, about 140 degrees.
• Open kettle method is considered not USDA safe.
• Tomatoes are actually just barely on the acid side of the pH scale.  You must add bottled lemon juice or citric acid per each unique recipe!
• Use a recipe always and choose one that is post 1985 for the safest instructions.

ANYONE CAN CAN.

You just need to pay attention, clear your schedule, clean your counters and off you go.  There is no greater satisfaction than a colorful pantry of locally grown produce.  In my opinion.

AND…OR... ANYONE CAN FREEZE.

If you don't have the mental space and time to can but DO have space in the freezer, just blanch, peel and freeze those extra tomatoes! OR don't peel. Just throw them in a freezer bag--you can use for delicious sauce in the middle of winter!

Spending time in my kitchen and wishing you good times in your own,

Julia

Looking around.

Every Field Needs Its Fallow Year

After six exhausting "start-up" years, this year we decided to slow things down and take the time to look around.  On both a human and ground level, we are using this year to reboot and restore. We are restructuring, rethinking, rebuilding the farm. 

Inspired by the contributions from our spring fundraiser and by all our farmer friends, we have achieved a good part of our project goals already. In addition to growing veggies for our Tuesday market, here's some of what Todd's been up to:

High Tunnels Oh High Tunnels - Passive-heat greenhouses extend the growing season by at least two months. We have much of this project already completed, including concrete anchors, but still need to finish out ends of two tunnels with polycarbonate panelling (one is done!!). These semi-permanent ends help during high winds because they enable us to seal the structure up fast. The high tunnel project is labor-intensive and has been very difficult to complete when we are at full production.  We now have one fully installed, anchored, sealed and housing tomatoes!

Root Crop Washer - This will speed up washing of bulk carrots, beets and potatoes. When I say "speed up," I mean it!  Right now, depending on the size and dexterity of the worker's hands, it can take a full day to complete the washing process for just half of our CSA group. 

Cold Storage - In past years our cold storage has always been short-term, using ice packs and 100-qt coolers. Actual refrigeration will help our efficiency by enabling us to spread out the harvest during the week instead of harvesting just the day before delivery. We are deciding between a few options of walk-in coolers to install at the back end of our packing shed. 

Me between two of my favorite people:
Kerry from Bloom Yoga and Lisa of Blue Sky Bakery.

Pre-plastic.

Working hard this spring to finish the one tunnel for tomatoes.

"Planet Claire" just left for Navy camp--we will miss her.
She was one of our toughest and FASTEST workers out here!

This photo was taken August 15th, 2014.  We have lots of plants, flowers and small fruits.
Let's hope for some hot weather to get these things going fast!

Kale, too, and always.

Yes, we are growing peppers this year.  Look for them at market soon!

Does anyone know what this tree is?

Winter squash.

Very happy bees--a good honey year!

Monarchs and bees love my cup plant.

Pickled beets and carrots so far!

While Todd is toiling outside, I've been busy with my off-farm career (massage therapy and yoga instruction) while staying active in the kitchen, including preparation for my...

Canning 101 Clinic! 

In the meantime collecting energy and butterflies,
Julia

Vegetables Are People, Too

"Vegetables Are People, Too"
The nuance of this long snappy title for my 2014 Growing Season Calendar is being revealed as we speak. I see it in CSA efforts all over the world."Vegetables Are People, Too" is in fact a love story to CSA farming. Robyn Van En, the originator of this model of agriculture in America, translated a term from the Japanese model "teikei" as food with a face. Vegetables are people.

What started all the efforts to put a face to farming? It came partially from a rise in industrial farming and the opening of global trade that pressures companies to source from all over the world. Florida grocery stores now sell oranges from Canada. Illinois stores sell tomatoes from Mexico even in the summer.  Documentaries like Food Inc. and others have spiked a concern over GMOs and the conditions under which food is produced: pesticides, labor conditions, animal conditions, etc. They are legitimate concerns, so that's why people have started to care. Where is my food coming from?

The CSA experience/relationship puts people back into the picture of food production by building community. This is done through events on and off the farm, emails, notes, photos, updates. Some CSA members will even come out to put an hour or two into harvesting or weeding. Not required!

CSA puts people back into the much larger picture, too. It is a voice saying "I want to have a meaningful attachment to food again. Before I buy a vegetable, I want to know if it was grown with synthetic, persistent pesticides. I want to know if my food has been bioengineered in a lab. I want to know the farm laborers are not slaves. If there's a huge pile of manure from a factory farm next to my cabbage, I want to know that, too, because I'd probably not want to buy it then."

You can certainly go to the store and find cheaper produce. Plenty of multinational corporations will be happy to accommodate you. I go there in the winter on my way home from my off-farm job and I'm super hungry for a piece of cheese or something. Ideally, I'd have sourced that cheese from an ethically sound place, but sometimes you need a piece of cheese when you need a piece of cheese.

No one has to become a monk when they join a CSA farm, but you will naturally--by default--become more respectful and more connected to the whole picture which everyone--by default--is a part of anyway.  Farmers grow, you eat.

Two Words: Organic and Sustainable

“I love organics.”

I hear this from people a lot, mostly after I tell them I have an organic vegetable farm.  But what does loving “organics” mean to people? 

In February, I tackled this subject in a presentation to a monthly Green Drinks group, a network of people in the area that care about the environment and all things “green.”

The way I broached the subject was to ask the audience to consider what part of “organics” resonates with them.  Then I broke it all down:

"Organic"

No synthetic chemicals and no GMOs.

Why should we care about the use of synthetic chemicals? Pesticides have been around since WWII and were invented alongside chemical warfare. Since their relatively new introduction into the world, pesticides have been scientifically linked to problems with many body systems: reproductive, endocrine and immune. And, frighteningly, pesticides have also been linked to cancer. The most heart-palpitating, gripping seminar I’ve ever attended was by a scientist in this field of study.  He said that small doses of pesticides from residue on food and in our water have a real impact across generations because pesticides cause gene mutations.  A user-friendly website that you can go to learn more is here: http://www.sustainabletable.org and then follow links to Food and Industrial Agriculture Impacts. Or peruse as you wish.

USDA Organic Certifiers mostly care 

about what farmers do NOT do,

  but most small organic farmers think of their farm as an ecologically integrated system in which

what we DO do is just as important. 

That brings us to another word, “sustainable.”

“Sustainability”

      Sustainability results in a positive environmental impact.  It is “organic” seen as a long-term agricultural system. Sustainable farmers consider the future of our food, soil, water, air, ecologies, communities and even our own human genetic makeup.  Sustainability includes how a farm’s scale impacts these things plus the local economy and farmer autonomy.

From a sustainability standpoint, pesticides and chemical fertilizers are bad for many reasons.  For one, chemical fertilizers are required in vast amounts; they are expensive and most of them come from non-renewable sources. Pesticides have harmful environmental impacts, too, including pest resistance, loss of biodiversity (like bees!), soil contamination and pollution.

Buying “organic” with the USDA label from the store is great.  Buying direct from a small farmer who is committed to the system and the long-term sustainability of organic agriculture is even better!

All the things "sustainable" farmers do:

We rotate crops to manage pests and fertility way into the future (indefinitely!).

We build our soils with green manure crops and compost alive with healthful microbes.

We integrate natural ecological happenings such as beneficial insects.

We use diversity to manage natural risks and weather.

We monitor plant health closely, keeping them less susceptible to pests and disease and more delicious to humans.

Just Be Better.

Usually Todd and I make the resolution every year to “Be Better.”  It usually works pretty well. This year is the same but with a few more concrete goals.  A short, manageable reading list:

• Foodopoly by Wenonah Hauter
• Bringing it to the Table by Wendell Berry with intro by Michael Pollan
• Closing the Food Gap:  Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty by Mark Winne
• Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies:  Migrant Farmworkers in the United States by Seth Holmes, Philippe Bourgois

Why?

I will just say this:  All it takes to make a lively and tense Christmas holiday is for one family member to say “organic food is elitist” and the other one to say “adjust your priorities.”  If the former is a mother and the latter is the co-proprietor of an organic vegetable farm, this makes for lively conversation indeed.

How do you talk about the importance of buying organic in a sensitive and intelligent way? I sure don’t know. My tactic last week was to sputter “cancer!” and “subsidies!” in a wholly unintelligible way. I was emotional, I was unprepared, and I was drinking high-octane IPA beer. 

I have similar conversational shortcomings with customers at market. The word organic gets all muddled up in people’s heads until it is unclear what it even means. “Isn’t everything at the farmers market organic,” people ask. “It’s all natural, right?” “It means it’s non GMO, right?” “If you don’t use ‘synthetic chemicals’ on your plants or soil like your sign says, what kind of chemicals do you use?” In general, people in Chicago at my particular market have at least developed the mantra that “Organic is good” and also that “Monsanto is bad.” But I don’t think there is a real understanding. I myself don’t fully understand the ins and outs of our food economy, but I have resources.

This brings me back to my reading list for 2014.  Given my position as an advocate of CSA and organic farming, I commit to fortifying myself with more facts and learning how to calm defenses and actually talk with people.  I want to be able to inspire curiosity about our food system, not antagonize.

The one thing that everyone can agree on is that something is broken in our world if the people who need nutrition the most cannot afford it.   How can organic food production be a part of the solution?   Many already get the message that we should all EAT MORE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES but where does that leave the organic vs. non-organic debate? 

Simply asking these questions has already made me feel less of a monster and more a diplomat.  I will go from here.  Onward 2014!