New Friends

COOPERATING WITH DEER CREEK FARM
We were contacted earlier this season by a woman named Lorene.   She said she had met our neighbor, the one with the horses and more importantly the horse manure, at jury duty.  She said she and her brother-in-law had their own organic farm and we should stop by the Manteno market someday to say hello. 

When Todd and I got the chance we did stop by.  Deer Creek looked beautiful at market, everything carefully and prettily presented.  We liked them immediately. 

Todd decided to visit the farm and meet Jeff, the Head Grower, the “Todd” of the farm. He learned that Deer Creek was also in its third year, like us, and organic, like us, struggling with the same issue shared by all small business owners:  how to make it work.  Turns out, Deer Creek has distribution issues this year, NOT production issues.  Jeff set up his operation with a full infrastructure from the get-go, including many paid laborers, an irrigation system with organic fertilizer and weeding implements for the tractor.  But, as Lorene lamented, many of the plants were waiting in the ground with nowhere to go.
In the final days of market, as Peasants’ Plot faces its own issues (production-related instead of distribution-related), please welcome Jeff’s carrots, beets, and kohlrabi to market.  Be assured of the same quality as always:  harvested within 48 hours, held in coolers, no synthetic chemicals anywhere.  

Cheap Food

The Farm Bureau’s rebuttal to Time Magazines “The Real Cost of Cheap Food” can be found at FarmWeekNow.com.  It was distsributed Monday, August 31st issue, volume 37.  Search “”frontal ag attack.”
This Farm Bureau is comprised of mostly commodity farmers who are at the heart of our quantity-over-quality food system.  “The Real Cost of Cheap Food” examines consequences ranging from an obesity epidemic to environmental effects of chemical fertilizer.  The Farm Bureau scoffs at the use of the word “epidemic” and argues that larger farms are not necessarily worse for the environment.  Also, that family farms are actually still prevalent.
Todd and I believe and agree with the Farm Bureau on one thing:   U.S. corn is grown by mostly family farms, not necessarily “faceless, uncaring entities” as the Time article claims. They choose to own or rent their land and make decisions independently of any employer.
These corn-growing families, however, have no control when it comes to pricing their product.  Their corn (or soy) go into the same big bins as all the farmers in the area and is valued according to that weird and mysterious market called Futures.   The buyers ARE faceless.  And those are the corporations.
The average family farm today is not the picturesque Fischer Price image of cows and pigs and chickens.  Very few family farms still integrate livestock on their land.   Their land could mean one thousand acres all corn and soy.  With a square of it for the farmhouse and machine shed.  Corn and soy and corn and soy for the faceless buyers and the cows and pigs and chickens.  Where are the cows and the pigs and the chickens?  That’s also part of the Time article.

You can read the whole Time Magazine artical:  http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1917458,00.html

Farm Week Now rebuttal http://www.farmweeknow.com/story.aspx?s=31108

-Julia

LDHD Recap

Last weekend was the epic Low Down Hoe Down, a fun party far away from the vegetable beds with bands, skateboarding and antics.
Todd’s favorite moment: “Mike Owen pulls a 5-foot back side air; preceded by 8 moves you’ll never pull.  Witnesses come close to spontaneously combusting.” 
Julia’s favorite moment: “Fire dancers show up and ask to borrow a small glass jar.”   

One of my predictably enjoyable parts of the Low Down is usually the next morning as we all drag ourselves out of tents, trailers, motor home.  This year, a few of us watched with bleary eyes as an energetic Harley Davidson sped up the drive.  Two people we’ve never encountered before call out “We’re here for the Low Down!!!”  Sorry, Chopper and Patty.  Next year.  The Saturday (not Sunday) of Labor Day weekend.  Thin Man plays at 9:00.
-Julia

Certification Time

This past Tuesday, a customer read our sign “we use no synthetic chemicals in our soil or on our plants” and asked me to explain.  I stuttered for a minute because I thought Todd and I had finally figured out a succinct way of saying we are organic without saying we are organic.  I thought we finally figured out the most perfect simple credo by defining the most basic aspect of organic:  No synthetic chemicals. 
Yet this customer reads our credo and is still confused.  “This stuff isn’t grown organically, right?”
I say “Yes, in fact it is.  That is what the sign means.” 
Under the hot sun on the hard black pavement I think enough is enough.

It’s time.  It’s almost been three years.  I’ve decided to prioritize the organic certification paperwork.  Over and above grant writing, over and above any other paperwork.  So that we can roll that word around in our mouths slowly, loudly, with a gentle pause between each of the three mighty syllables.

College Days

When I was a student in college, I belonged to the Pi Beta Phi.
I (Julia) also became a vegetarian.
After reading Food First and Diet for a Small Planet I considered myself an expert on the subject of international food aid and the truth behind the factory farm. I remember debating Republican fraternity brothers with abortion metaphors and long speeches usually ending in the image of a calf too weak to stand drinking its own urine.
And in the dormitory, exasperatedly turning off faucets for girls while they brushed their teeth so that they didn’t waste water.  I mean did they really know what was in the cafeteria’s meatloaf tonight?  Really?  Because if they think it didn’t come with the desperate cry of a pained and exploited mammal, they should think again.
I regret my piety in those days.  I regret not eating my mom’s green jello salad (horse’s hooves) that she made for me special on Thanksgiving.
Those days were the first in which I began to question our world’s agriculture and food systems.  There were and are no shortage of concerns, but not necessarily one side against the other.
I am still technically a Pi Beta Phi.  I am no longer a vegetarian.
-Julia


“The Dignity of Agriculture”
I used the above phrase in a previous posting, something about how Todd and I are single-handedly reclaiming the dignity of agriculture.  So I thought I’d take a sentence or two today to clarify that ambitious declaration and backpedal once: I will just say that there is little dignity in our country’s quantity over quality food system.  Reinforcing that thin thread of connection between farmer and consumer would definitely help foster more respect for food.
Let’s examine some other concerns on a couple trips to the market.  I’ll just change my cardigan and my sneakers and let’s go!
The Dignity of Agriculture:  Wicker Park
Here is an indisputable opposite of dignity:
Without much detail, just imagine what happens to the person inside when a portapotty gets tipped over. For the sake of secrecy and gossip, I will tell you that this ridiculously undignified incident did indeed occur about a year ago to an innocent bare-sleeved and masculine market vendor at the Wicker Park Fest (not Todd).      Holy Moly!
The unique and challenging issue at the Wicker Park market is that all the customers mistakenly assume that all the vendors are organic.
Why does organic agriculture have more dignity or does it?
The righteousness of growing without synthetic chemicals (aka organic farming) comes from the fact that many synthetic chemicals for agricultural use represent questionable ethics.  Pesticides are toxic.   Companies who make and sell pesticides and other agriculture chemicals do not prioritize their customers’ best interest, especially when it comes to anyone’s health, bodily or financially.  Learning to work instead with compost and green manure honors the soil and the small farmer (who can create both on the farm) and inevitably the consumer.
There is another type of farming with a certain amount of dignity, at the very least in the opinions of those that do it.  This is IPM farming, or “Integrative Pest Management” farming. Synthetic chemicals are used in IPM but with regulation and conservatively.  It is widely practiced by fruit vendors at the Green City Market, for example.  They could speak more on the subject.  Or you might ask Nichols Farm or Seedling, whose smoothies I cannot resist.
The Dignity of Agriculture:  Lincoln Square
The unique and challenging issue at Lincoln Square is that all the customers mistakenly think that all vegetable vendors can speak with direct experience about their crops.  
As a longtime customer, I feel that the core of the farmers market experience is the chance to interact with food that was grown only a few miles away, knowing you are supporting your local economy and gaining a better appreciation of the produce itself. 
“Why are the tomatoes slow this year?”
“When will you have spinach again?”
“How do you store salad mixes?”
“How did you wash the leaves?”
“How should I wash them?”
“When did you dig these potatoes?”
“Do you use pesticides on your farm?”
“How do you feed your soil?”
“Yup, looks like rain.  We sure do need it.
This type of conversation returns customers to the stands every week.


We think if a vendor is bringing other farms’ vegetables to market, then that vendor should be honest about their role in production and should know the answers to questions regarding chemical use.
For example, if a vendor buys tomatoes wholesale from Florida, then their customers have a right to know that.   Peeling those labels off is… not very dignified… and not very honest.
In our case, we are now working with another farm and will be bringing Deer Creek organic beets and other root veggies to the market from time to time.  Todd has been to the farm, met and talked with the farmer, and we will label their stuff accordingly. 

Cigarette

Cigarette Smoking Farmer came with his 18-wheeler truck today and parked it on our property. And lit a cigarette.
Todd became emotional and rushed out to remedy the situation.
A hostile exchange was made.
Todd went out to buy him a replacement part.

Roundup

The saga of the Roundup tank continues.  To recap:  The farmer next to us (let’s call him Cigarette Smoking Farmer) has parked his 18-wheel truck and tank of Roundup on our property for weeks.  He finally moved the truck but left the tank.  It has now been nearly an entire month of looking at this thing, watching weeds grow around it and under it-- a feat of extraordinary tolerance for an organic farmer. 
Today:  The story goes that Todd was coming back from a manure run on his tractor and “became emotional.” He decided to “remedy the situation” by hitching the tank to the tractor and dragging it across our property line onto Cigarette Smoking Farmer’s soybeans.  Todd’s emotional remedy “accidentally” broke a piece of the sprayer. 
The war is on.