Winding down

Well, the soybeans are out of the ground.  Merle and I took a walk around the bare ground (trespassing, yes) and found our way behind a small plot of corn.  The soybean field makes an L, with the short end between corn and sunflowers.  Sunflowers!  What an eery thing to stumble upon:  a ten-acre army of sunflowers, heads down, drying.  I wonder what will happen to them…

Our own ground is a confusing mix of dried up fox millet (awaiting the flame weeder), still-green pasture, frostburnt vegetation, and stubborn lettuce seedlings.  Garlic went in yesterday.  Too wet to do anything else.
Went to a workshop on Food Safety and Defense last week to learn how to arm against fecal matter and disgruntled employees, not necessarily mutually exclusive.  Learned, again, how to wash hands properly: 20 seconds and don’t forget between the index finger and thumb.  Lock your empty barns so that a crystal meth lab doesn’t inadvertently sprout up in the night.
Todd and I are both missing the markets and the smiling faces of all our sharecroppers.  Thanks to all,
Julia

Exploited Farmers

Rereading my entry about the Farm Bureau rebuttal to Time’s article, I am struck by one huge irony:  the commodity farmers “at the heart of the quantity-over-quality” food system are among the ones being exploited.  Why would the Farm Bureau defend the current system?
And: What the heck is the Farm Bureau again????
I have tried to get this answer from my Country Insurance guy (not CountryWide) since they are backed by the Farm Bureau.  His answer involved a historical set up:  “back in the day,” “farmers helping farmers...”
By joining, I do know I get a 30% discount on eyeglasses.
I think that commodity farmers, many of them having been in the biz for all of their adult lives (40-60 years), are committed to the system largely due to the size of their investment.  The investment in machinery and land as a commodity farmer is gargantuan.  Legacy is really the only way to get in the game today.   For the committed commodity farmer, asking him to change his style of farming might be like asking Todd to stop skateboarding.  Or something like that.  There ARE organizations out there trying to persuade farmers to grow organic commodities, one being a certifying agency in Wisconsin called MOSA.   They help the farmer see marketing opportunities outside of the status quo.  Way outside.  Like Europe.
AS FOR NEWS ON THE FARM
Chickens are doing fine, by the way, as long as the dog is accompanied by a watchful human.  They are giving us about 9 eggs a day.
Frost last week took out our bed of chard.  If we don’t see some sun, we may not have more lettuce for market.  Come out sun!

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.

Illegal Parking

The farmer renting the land next to us has parked his 18-wheel truck on a strip of our property.  It has sat there for a week.  This compacts our soil and throws Todd into a rage.    Hoisted on the truck is a tank of Roundup, the most popular herbicide out here.  Most of the corn and soybeans are “Roundup ready” which means they, thanks to scientists, have the genes to resist effects of this chemical.  The effects, of course, meaning plant destruction.  I forget how roundup actually works and will ask Todd to tell me the story later, after he has cooled off from this latest infringement (the parking of the truck).

Last year this same farmer who is probably a really nice guy was spraying chemicals very close to us on a windy day, so we confronted him and snapped photos of the label on the tank, the photos I included here above and below.  Todd has had more pleasant encounters with him since, but we don’t think it has erased his image of us as crazy angry people.  Oh well!
The truth is that our crops are not Roundup ready.   And other chemicals he might be spraying are toxic to breathe. 

Farmers who spray are legally counseled to play nice by not spraying when there is a certain amount of wind.  We have the supposed advantage in court if anything were to happen to our crops but this not something we’d like to test.

Two more complaints:

• Certified organic farmers, by law, have to sacrifice tillable ground to form a 25-ft buffer between them and the land of toxic chemicals.
• While conventional farmers receive money every year in subsidies, organic farmers have to pay a third-party certifier every year to continue claiming organic,

Three heartening thoughts:

• More people are lobbying government on behalf of small organic farmers.
• More consumers are buying organic produce from their small, local farms.
• Merle did not kill the chicken she had in her mouth today.

Happily clad in a new apron today,
Julia

Drizzly Rain

We spent a quiet day in the drizzly rain on the Fourth, harvesting for Sunday.  Luckily it was cool and drizzly all day—could harvest all our lettuce and greens before dinner and sparklers.  Usually harvest day ends in exhaustion and a rush to harvest all before the sun goes down.  I think I’ve mentioned before that greens cannot be picked in the heat of the midday sun.  An inconvenient truth. 

Despite drizzly rain this weekend, we could still use a few more inches.  We harvested broccoli yesterday for CSA members and next week look forward to our first potatoes!  We are finding them all over the garden, a result of our dog’s help during planting.

Japanese beetles, the grossest bug of all, are showing their ugly heads.  So are hornworms and parsley worms.  Todd is picking most of them off and, after a silent and respectful nod towards their place in the universe, squashing them with his fingers.

We are officially disconnected from the television and are fine.
Julia

Krispy Kale

Figured out an alternative krispy kale recipe, good for both types of kale, thanks to one of our worker shareholders.  Here’s what she wrote to me:

We de-veined the leaves and cut them into 1' sq.s as usual. Then, I
tossed them in a bowl with a crush garlic clove and about a tablespoon
of olive oil (per pound of veg) to coat lightly. I then preheated the
oven to 375 and spread them on a flat baking sheet, and put it in for
six to eight mins. Sprinkle with sea salt to taste at the end.

My husband Aaron and I enjoyed our first day working on the farm and,
of course, eating the veg we helped harvest. Please be well and see
you Sunday.

Best,
Susan

I have been making yummy omelets with kale almost every other day.  Today I used mushrooms from River Valley and some hot peppery spices in the sauté with the kale, adding it into the omelet cooked. 

What is a garlic scape?  A green curled flowering stem of the garlic plant, yummy to eat.

Beautiful Photos

Spring planting photos

Buffy One

Lots of rain today and Todd is not glad for it.  He is still weeding like crazy and developing an unhealthy attachment to two of the chickens he calls Buffy One and Buffy Two.   

I tried the Revolutionary Krispy Kale recipe with the new Red Russian variety and bombed.  We need to adapt the recipe to this flatter leaf.  I’ll keep working on it

First Market of the Year

Whew!  First markets are under our belt and we feel…. fatigued.  Yet spirited!

There was only a little bit of the drama we anticipated.  Mostly it was just great to see friends and market folks from last year.  I will be doing most of my food shopping at the markets this year, too, and am excited to have a few meat sources.
A customer asked me about the taste difference between the red Russian kale and the green curly.  After trying to complete three sentences without success, I had to admit to myself and the customer that I HAVE NOT COOKED WITH THE RED RUSSIAN KALE YET.  I am the barefoot child of the shoemaker.
We added another Russian relic to our table this year.  Todd made a few wooden totes with our new logo (yet to be integrated) that includes a sickle.  We do realize the inflammatory nature of this symbol since it is often paired with a hammer to represent the Communist party.  On its own, the sickle represents the agricultural class or the peasantry.  By calling ourselves “peasants” we are not self-deprecating nor declaring ourselves communist.  We are trying to reclaim a word for its original meaning and association.  Similarly, alongside many others like us and like you, we are trying to reclaim the dignity of agriculture.
We aren’t communists.

Our "Spot"

Everything is looking good in the field.  We should have lots of lettuce and spinach and arugula for market.  Radishes, too. 

It will be interesting to see who the other vendors are this year.  The Lincoln Square market is so crowded that I can’t imagine many changes or additions.  We will be on the anxious side until we know where our “spot” is, of course.  There seems always some sort of drama that goes along with claiming and retaining our spot at the market.

But it is not that interesting for anyone but us, so I will spare details!

In other news, Todd has been eating alfalfa.

What is Organic?

I am reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  Anyone else read it?  It is a nicely succinct overview of our national food system, how farmers Got Big, how that is not good, and the implied meanings of the word organic.
Although the word organic has two very specific definitions (one by the dictionary, one by the USDA—read below), it implies much more.  Organic agriculture at its best implies “small farming” and “local” and “energy-efficient” and “nutritious” and “sustainable.”   In other words, Quality over Quantity.  Below is something I wrote up last year:


What is this mysterious word “organic?”
Organic in the dictionary means a lot of different things:

• Chemically, it is of or designating carbon compounds.
•  It is of or relating to or derived from living organisms.  
• Relating to, yielding, dealing in, or involving the use of food produced with the use of fertilizer of plant or animal origin without employment of chemically formulated fertilizers or pesticides. Whew!

Some may say organic is natural.  But that is another label.
In the United States if a farm claims that they are organic, then they are either very small and are not making much money, OR they have undergone third-party organic certification and have filed this with the USDA.  To qualify for the organic label, the farm must prove with documentation that the land and inputs to the soil have been free of synthetic chemicals for at least three years.  The actual vegetables cannot be sprayed with pesticides created in a lab.  Everything has to be of or relating to something alive.
Peasants’ Plot is hoping to begin the certification process once we have accumulated the three years worth of paperwork necessary and once we have the capital to spare.  It can be a relatively expensive endeavor. 
Be assured for now that we are farming with methods in accordance with organic certifying agencies.  We care about the health of our soil and our customers in all ways “organic.”

Weeding

Today is Wednesday.  Todd is working with a couple of worker shareholders out in the field.  Looks like they are …weeding.
WEEDING
We are doing the best we can to resist weed takeover. Cover cropping is the first strategy.  These are crops that might suppress certain weeds and/or that build the soil in some way.  The latter fall into the category of green manure.
Researchers have all kinds of theories about weed control with cover crops.   This year, as part of a grant through the U of I, we will add sudan grass to our cover crop menu.  It is being studied as an antidote to Canadian thistle, which has a ridiculous root structure and is one of the scarier epidemics.  To rattle off some others: ground cherry, dandelion, lambsquarter, quack grass, Johnny grass, burdock, bindweed, creeping charley, pennycress, horseweed, prickley lettuce, purslane, wild carrot, milkweed.  Later in the summer I’m sure I’ll remember more.
BAGS
While everyone is outside toiling in the sun, I’m typing and awaiting arrival of our tote bags, which we will print and sell for cost at market.  I cannot guarantee the sustainability practices that went into the production of this bag, but I feel better about these bags than the plastic ones.  They ARE made in the United States.  They are cotton. 

Spring Frenzy

Todd is overwhelmed tonight.  Yesterday less so because he had our new (and only!) wonderful employee Johanna working with him.  Two worker shareholders arrived later in the day (hello Megan and Alex).  It was a beautiful day.
Today he is trying to muddle through crop rotation plans and other things on the list.  Did you know that green manure crops also need rotation?  And then there’s weed management and a chicken coop to build and carrots and seedlings to thin and fertilize and skateboarders coming over tonight.
As far as the chicks are concerned, they might as well be sorority sisters.  Passing out at the watering hole, running around squealing when we try to pick them up, etc, etc.  They can completely trash their box in minutes.  Thankfully no one has “poopy pasty butt” or any other signs of despair.  Todd plays heavy metal for them all day (Danzig?) and they appear to be thriving.
Don’t worry about us; we are thriving, too.

Chicks!

It is about noon. We are anxiously awaiting a call from Farm-n- Fleet telling us our baby chicks are ready.  Hopefully I will be able to be here when they come, but I’ll have to leave to go work in the city by 2:00.  Once we bring them home, we have to dip their little baby beaks in a nutritional gel, their first meal since the yolk sac.  Then we place them in their brooder box where the temperature is monitored to remain at 85 – 95 degrees.  We will have 5 buff orpingtons, 5 barred rock, 5 rhode island reds and 5 polish hens.  The polish chickens are not necessarily good layers, but they make up for it by having a funny-looking mohawk hairdo.  For the first couple of weeks they will be yellow puffballs with big feet.  Then, the ugly duckling phase. Then, after 5 months, they are laying eggs.  Photos will follow shortly!

Seed Potatoes

Well, the soybeans are out of the ground.  Merle and I took a walk around the bare ground (trespassing, yes) and found our way behind a small plot of corn.  The soybean field makes an L, with the short end between corn and sunflowers.  Sunflowers!  What an eery thing to stumble upon:  a ten-acre army of sunflowers, heads down, drying.  I wonder what will happen to them…
Our own ground is a confusing mix of dried up fox millet (awaiting the flame weeder), still-green pasture, frostburnt vegetation, and stubborn lettuce seedlings.  Garlic went in yesterday.  Too wet to do anything else.
Went to a workshop on Food Safety and Defense last week to learn how to arm against fecal matter and disgruntled employees, not necessarily mutually exclusive.  Learned, again, how to wash hands properly: 20 seconds and don’t forget between the index finger and thumb.  Lock your empty barns so that a crystal meth lab doesn’t inadvertently sprout up in the night.
Todd and I are both missing the markets and the smiling faces of all our sharecroppers.  
Thanks to all,
Julia