Last Tuesday began in quite a planned, expected, and orderly fashion. We each woke up in our respective abodes, completed our morning chores, came together promptly at 8am for the weekly garden meeting, then headed to the potato pasture. Potato beetles – and their removal from our potato plants - were the only plans for the next couple of hours.
It was a hot sun shining down on us at D Acres Farm, and the sounds of pigs rooting, hawks calling, flies buzzing, & the local apiaries twittering their own news pulled our minds away from the sweat vigorously rolling off our foreheads. Slowly, though, as the minutes passed, there was one other sound that finally garnered the full attention of our frontal lobes.
“No way!”
“No, it couldn’t be!”
“Really?!”
“How is that possible?”
“She’s a miracle momma!”
To the best of my memory, each of these statements was uttered with various exclamations of incredulity over the course of the next thirty seconds. When that ceased, all we were left with was the looming question: “what do we do now?”
One of our sows had piglets. Ten of them. In the field, and sooner than we were expecting. She had herself intelligently positioned in the bottom corner, a little nest dug into the ground. Even while nursing she was on the lookout, surveying, alert, ready to be on defense. Unnecessarily, perhaps, as our boar seemed to know to leave well enough alone, and the other sow found the day’s assortment of mud and roots intriguing enough; danger wasn’t imminent. There was merely one dead one; the other ten piglets were very much alive. Nine were big and strong, with a tenth runt that immediately won us over with an underdog’s charm.
Our new momma’s hardest work was done. Ours was just beginning. Our prior litter – less than two months old at this point - currently occupied our pig-house suite. Where were we to put them? Like all firstborns they were thrust from the spotlight to the sidelines in a matter of moments. For ours, this meant the bottom half of our greenhouse/animal house/chicken coop cob structure. To get them there meant catching them. And winning.
Now, the last time I wrestled a pig I ended up riding it inadvertently as the pernicious oinker did 0-60 out of its cage with an alacrity unexpected of the average porker. Granted, our two-months-old piglets were smaller than the contestants of that virgin pig tussle, but smaller also means a lower center of gravity and a cuteness that inserts hesitation into a forceful grapple. No excuses, though: success was had and we returned to the field for Stage Two.
The big pigs were distracted with, what else, food, while the momma sow was led inside the pig house with, of course, food. The little piglets were then scooped up lickety-split and spirited away in cardboard boxes to re-join their mother inside. Done.
A week later, the older piglets are now settled into Pigland, out of our greenhouse-animal house and into a home of their own with field space to run and root. The new piglets have doubled, tripled, quadrupled in size.
There’s only one problem: the littlest of little guys is hitting the bottle…not too successfully. Which is to say that we’ve begun bottle-feeding the runt of the litter. He gets picked on something awful, and his joints & muscles don’t want to work quite right. At this point we’ve all held him too close, have all pushed his siblings off when they crowd him out or bite his tail…we have to try and help him along, just for a short while.
We’ll see. Life, death, the fermentation of compost, the creation of our next garden space, and the slow growth of winter’s bacon. It’s all right here, a step outside our back door. Remarkable, isn’t it?
~Beth
as published in North Country News
Friday, July 30, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Berries in the sun
“Wow, this thicket is just bursting with fruit,” she gushed, “do you do anything special?”
Pails hanging by baling twine off my back, I was intentionally tangling myself into our most prolific of raspberry patches along with one of our stalwart volunteers and friends of the farm. Unbeknownst to us, we had three hours of berry-picking ahead of us before we would make it out the other side.
I described our process of pruning and weeding to her. Work, certainly, but less than that required for an annual garden bed. Which is the very idea we’re going for here at D Acres Organic Farm & Educational Homestead: the development of perennial gardens, and an edible forest landscape. This means berries, yes, but also fruits, nuts, herbals, and medicinals. With time, we’ll glean an increasing number of calories from the land (not to mention medicine, wood, micro-climates, and niche ecosystems) with a decreasing quantity of manual input required each year.
Raspberries are just one example of this, but quite the plentiful model for the moment. Raspberries, and now blueberries, currants, and gooseberries as well, are rapidly coloring our various patches, bushes, thickets, corners, beds, and roadsides. Before too long it will be the cherries, chokecherries, and elderberries of the fall.
Deep reds, blushed pinks, dark blues, dusky blacks, and vibrant green leaves; the splendor of sustenance and the colors of abundance are a sort of art in themselves. A farmer’s beauty (perhaps that’s all it is) built right into the sweat and bugs of a day’s work. I take a moment to swat at some rouge flies and tuck a few stray hairs behind my ear. My hands, and now my shoulder and my ear, are stained – not with dirt (for once), but with the juice of overripe raspberries. A few handfuls land so sweet and tart on the tongue, an excellent treat…
…but a couple of hours and four gallons later, there is the decent conundrum of what to do with such surfeit. Even with the farm’s collection of apprentices, visitors, and overnight guests that’s a hefty bunch of raspberries to plow through.
So, we keep some for eating…and freeze the rest to enjoy in less bountiful months. By this point, though, we already have eleven gallons of raspberries stored up, not to mention a few gallons worth of blueberries. There’s only so much freezer-space we can allot for berries (bacon, of course, deserves it’s rightful portion). So the next step is upon us: making preserves. That’ll be another story for another week, surely.
In the meantime, we’re busy filling our pails. It’s an every-other-day-or-so endeavor, and we welcome help! If you want to proffer a hand for some manual labors, please give us a ring. Right now! 603-786-2366.
Yes, you can eat a few as you go along, but no-one will believe that you simply couldn’t find any berries if there’s an empty pail at the end of the day…
~Beth
as published in North Country News
Pails hanging by baling twine off my back, I was intentionally tangling myself into our most prolific of raspberry patches along with one of our stalwart volunteers and friends of the farm. Unbeknownst to us, we had three hours of berry-picking ahead of us before we would make it out the other side.
I described our process of pruning and weeding to her. Work, certainly, but less than that required for an annual garden bed. Which is the very idea we’re going for here at D Acres Organic Farm & Educational Homestead: the development of perennial gardens, and an edible forest landscape. This means berries, yes, but also fruits, nuts, herbals, and medicinals. With time, we’ll glean an increasing number of calories from the land (not to mention medicine, wood, micro-climates, and niche ecosystems) with a decreasing quantity of manual input required each year.
Raspberries are just one example of this, but quite the plentiful model for the moment. Raspberries, and now blueberries, currants, and gooseberries as well, are rapidly coloring our various patches, bushes, thickets, corners, beds, and roadsides. Before too long it will be the cherries, chokecherries, and elderberries of the fall.
Deep reds, blushed pinks, dark blues, dusky blacks, and vibrant green leaves; the splendor of sustenance and the colors of abundance are a sort of art in themselves. A farmer’s beauty (perhaps that’s all it is) built right into the sweat and bugs of a day’s work. I take a moment to swat at some rouge flies and tuck a few stray hairs behind my ear. My hands, and now my shoulder and my ear, are stained – not with dirt (for once), but with the juice of overripe raspberries. A few handfuls land so sweet and tart on the tongue, an excellent treat…
…but a couple of hours and four gallons later, there is the decent conundrum of what to do with such surfeit. Even with the farm’s collection of apprentices, visitors, and overnight guests that’s a hefty bunch of raspberries to plow through.
So, we keep some for eating…and freeze the rest to enjoy in less bountiful months. By this point, though, we already have eleven gallons of raspberries stored up, not to mention a few gallons worth of blueberries. There’s only so much freezer-space we can allot for berries (bacon, of course, deserves it’s rightful portion). So the next step is upon us: making preserves. That’ll be another story for another week, surely.
In the meantime, we’re busy filling our pails. It’s an every-other-day-or-so endeavor, and we welcome help! If you want to proffer a hand for some manual labors, please give us a ring. Right now! 603-786-2366.
Yes, you can eat a few as you go along, but no-one will believe that you simply couldn’t find any berries if there’s an empty pail at the end of the day…
~Beth
as published in North Country News
Friday, July 2, 2010
A Day for the River
It’s summertime, which means fresh air and summer sun beckoning us out of doors. Well, granted, here at D Acres Organic Farm & Educational Homestead we’re outside most of the time anyhow. There’s no growing peas in the office, and weeds haven’t sprouted (yet) inside the garage. But even us farmers want to get outside for something besides quack-grass and potato beetles from time to time. And we’d like you to join us!
Perhaps you haven’t already heard the news: July 10th (I hope you haven’t picked up your newspaper a day too late…) is Baker River Appreciation Day! D Acres, in collaboration with the Calm Post Café, PAREI, and the USFS will be hosting outdoor events 9am-3:30pm, and a community gathering at Rumney’s Calm Post Café 4-9pm.
Those of us from the farm will be coordinating a paddle and clean-up of the Baker River, beginning at 10am. We will depart from the Rumney Rest Area along Rt. 25 and head to the Rumney Main St. Bridge. Paddlers – in their own boats – will collect trash and debris, then enjoy a complimentary lunch prepared by the Calm Post Café and D Acres. Shuttles will be provided for volunteers. For more information, please contact D Acres at 603-786-2366 or info@dacres.org.
If the water’s not your forte, however, you have other options. 9am-12pm will be a volunteer trail work session at Rumney Rocks with Ryan Harvey of the United States Forest Service (USFS). Volunteers will engage in a variety of trail maintenance tasks, then join the paddlers for lunch by the Main St. Bridge. Space is limited, so please register now! Contact Ryan Harvey at 603-536-6129, rjharvey@fs.fed.us, or D Acres as listed above. Meet at the Rumney Rocks parking lot.
For folks interested in other beautification efforts, there will also be a road clean-up within the Rumney Village 10:30am-12:30pm. All participants should meet at the Rumney Library.
And that’s not all. Beginning at 1:30pm, Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative (PAREI) will be leading a bike tour of farms and solar homes 1:30-3:30pm. There will be three different routes that bikers can choose from based on experience and difficulty. The bike ride, which will begin at the Rumney Library, is a fundraiser for Local Foods Plymouth; pre-registration is $20 per person. For more information, please contact Melissa Greenawalt-Yelle at localfoodsplymouth@gmail.com.
Now I have to say this, so read carefully. Please be aware that all physical activities contain inherent risk. Participants’ personal safety is their personal responsibility. Please bring proper safety gear such as life preserving vests for aquatic activity and helmets for bike riding. Let care and prudence reign, please.
Ok, now for the real punch line. This series of July 10th events will culminate with a community gathering at the Calm Post Café in Rumney. The event begins at 4pm and will feature local, farm-fresh dinner, local bands, local artisans & organizations, and aquatic education. Volunteers with the morning river clean-up and trail maintenance will receive complimentary dinner. All other attendees can purchase dinner – provided by the Calm Post Café – for $10/plate. Beginning at 4:30pm, local bands will provide entertainment: Blue Ribbon All-Stars, The Cable Guys, Black Bear Moon, and The Crunchy Western Boys. PSU professor Kerry Yurewicz will lead aquatic educational activities, local blacksmiths Joe Vachon and Steve Ash will demonstrate their art with fire and steel, and Mo the Clown will provide clever entertainment for all ages. All attendees will receive a complimentary ticket to our door prize raffle. Drawing will be at 8pm for a large handmade bowl turned by Rumney’s Ripple Pottery. Got it? You don’t want to miss this.
With much gratitude, I want to thank our sponsors: Baker River Watershed Association, Biederman’s Deli, Calm Post Café, Davis Conservation Foundation, Off the Hanger, PAREI, Peppercorn Natural Food Store, Plain Jane’s Diner, Rand’s Hardware, Rhino Bikes, Ripple Pottery, Samahas, and Shaneware Pottery. Please show your appreciation by supporting these local establishments!
So be sure to join us for a day of summer fun on Saturday, July 10th! Trail work at 9am, river clean-up at 10am, road clean-up at 10:30am, bike tour at 1:30pm, community gathering with dinner and music at 4pm at the Calm Post Café. Don’t miss out! Contact D Acres at 603-786-2366 or info@dacres.org with further questions. We look forward to seeing you along the Baker!
~Beth
as published in North Country News
Perhaps you haven’t already heard the news: July 10th (I hope you haven’t picked up your newspaper a day too late…) is Baker River Appreciation Day! D Acres, in collaboration with the Calm Post Café, PAREI, and the USFS will be hosting outdoor events 9am-3:30pm, and a community gathering at Rumney’s Calm Post Café 4-9pm.
Those of us from the farm will be coordinating a paddle and clean-up of the Baker River, beginning at 10am. We will depart from the Rumney Rest Area along Rt. 25 and head to the Rumney Main St. Bridge. Paddlers – in their own boats – will collect trash and debris, then enjoy a complimentary lunch prepared by the Calm Post Café and D Acres. Shuttles will be provided for volunteers. For more information, please contact D Acres at 603-786-2366 or info@dacres.org.
If the water’s not your forte, however, you have other options. 9am-12pm will be a volunteer trail work session at Rumney Rocks with Ryan Harvey of the United States Forest Service (USFS). Volunteers will engage in a variety of trail maintenance tasks, then join the paddlers for lunch by the Main St. Bridge. Space is limited, so please register now! Contact Ryan Harvey at 603-536-6129, rjharvey@fs.fed.us, or D Acres as listed above. Meet at the Rumney Rocks parking lot.
For folks interested in other beautification efforts, there will also be a road clean-up within the Rumney Village 10:30am-12:30pm. All participants should meet at the Rumney Library.
And that’s not all. Beginning at 1:30pm, Plymouth Area Renewable Energy Initiative (PAREI) will be leading a bike tour of farms and solar homes 1:30-3:30pm. There will be three different routes that bikers can choose from based on experience and difficulty. The bike ride, which will begin at the Rumney Library, is a fundraiser for Local Foods Plymouth; pre-registration is $20 per person. For more information, please contact Melissa Greenawalt-Yelle at localfoodsplymouth@gmail.com.
Now I have to say this, so read carefully. Please be aware that all physical activities contain inherent risk. Participants’ personal safety is their personal responsibility. Please bring proper safety gear such as life preserving vests for aquatic activity and helmets for bike riding. Let care and prudence reign, please.
Ok, now for the real punch line. This series of July 10th events will culminate with a community gathering at the Calm Post Café in Rumney. The event begins at 4pm and will feature local, farm-fresh dinner, local bands, local artisans & organizations, and aquatic education. Volunteers with the morning river clean-up and trail maintenance will receive complimentary dinner. All other attendees can purchase dinner – provided by the Calm Post Café – for $10/plate. Beginning at 4:30pm, local bands will provide entertainment: Blue Ribbon All-Stars, The Cable Guys, Black Bear Moon, and The Crunchy Western Boys. PSU professor Kerry Yurewicz will lead aquatic educational activities, local blacksmiths Joe Vachon and Steve Ash will demonstrate their art with fire and steel, and Mo the Clown will provide clever entertainment for all ages. All attendees will receive a complimentary ticket to our door prize raffle. Drawing will be at 8pm for a large handmade bowl turned by Rumney’s Ripple Pottery. Got it? You don’t want to miss this.
With much gratitude, I want to thank our sponsors: Baker River Watershed Association, Biederman’s Deli, Calm Post Café, Davis Conservation Foundation, Off the Hanger, PAREI, Peppercorn Natural Food Store, Plain Jane’s Diner, Rand’s Hardware, Rhino Bikes, Ripple Pottery, Samahas, and Shaneware Pottery. Please show your appreciation by supporting these local establishments!
So be sure to join us for a day of summer fun on Saturday, July 10th! Trail work at 9am, river clean-up at 10am, road clean-up at 10:30am, bike tour at 1:30pm, community gathering with dinner and music at 4pm at the Calm Post Café. Don’t miss out! Contact D Acres at 603-786-2366 or info@dacres.org with further questions. We look forward to seeing you along the Baker!
~Beth
as published in North Country News
Friday, June 18, 2010
Burning for Clay
“Look, we got you something - authentic riverbank clay!”
“Oh, authentic, huh?”
“Well, you know…” Because I sure didn’t. Here I was, talking with our new artist-in-residence at D Acres, potter Ethan Hamby, and clearly in way over my head. Terms like bisque and cones, fast-fire and Japanese-style were routinely peppering his sentences. I was doing my best to keep up, but nothing was particularly reminiscent of kale, compost, or oxen.
Though the process may be a tad baffling, it’s plain to see that he has skill. Not just talent, but expertise. A touch of the hand and a turn of the imagination – voilá, he can create some remarkable pieces out of clay. And with those sentences, I’ve nearly expended what I can say regarding ceramics. So let Ethan do himself justice…better yet come on out to the farm and meet him in person. Stop in for a workshop, or swing by his Red Barn Studio to check out his work. You won’t be disappointed.
---
It has been a dream of mine since my early teens to live with a community active in pursuing work that makes the world a better place. I have created my life as a potter to work directly with the earth and learn skills of self-sufficiency, trying to connect with nature and be conscious of my consumption of its resources. It was challenging, though, to maintain gardens while involved in intense pottery production and weekend craft shows. So I have come to D Acres, a small experiment in living sustainably, where the foundation is laid for eating well, inspiration and authentic expression.
I am here to make art from mud in every shape, size, and function. I will make mugs to use for tea brewed with the dried flowers and herbs that grow in D Acres gardens. I will make musical instruments for entertainment by the campfire. The largest work will be a Japanese-style kiln coated in cob (clay, sand, straw) and sculpted into a dragon. Sculptures will begin emerging as if planted in the farmscape. I hope to work with the land and strive to reflect the beauty of Nature’s majesty.
Clay as a vessel for fire is a driving force in my work. I grew up with a wood-stove in my home and every time my mom would light it she would say ”Burn, baby, burn.” At an early age I caught the bug for building fires. When I started making pottery I searched for a way to fire my work without using electricity or gas. One day I took old electric kilns to my backyard, stacked them up on bricks, and built a fire underneath. This first experiment fired to 2000 degrees in two hours. I was stoked to discover that I could get paid to play with fire. Here at D Acres I will be continuing my fiery endeavors, already having built a wood-fired kiln. I will be building a Japanese-style climbing kiln, and re-sculpting a pizza oven. Pizza ovens are really where D acres and I will collaborate to create the best edible art. Clay is shaped by hands; fire, fed with wood; and pizza topped with all the delectable vegetables my fellow farmers have worked so hard to grow.
My love for my work is so strong that I need to share it with others – teaching techniques I have discovered and honed over the years is what I really enjoy. I want people to make things out of clay because it is so much fun to dig into the earth and sculpt it! Making pottery is a meditative process that releases stress and focuses the spirit. Building with cob is an accessible way to construct ovens, sculptures and structures that almost every age can participate in. I will be offering workshops at D Acres this summer to share my passion for these ways of living and creating art.
Making Art and living sustainably are ways for me to enrich my life and the lives of the community around me. My mission is to make as much organic art and share it with as many people as I can. There are many experiments and techniques to discover this summer. I hope you all can come for a workshop, firing or just to visit and talk art.
Remember that “Every child is an artist, the problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up”-Picasso
-as published in the North Country News
“Oh, authentic, huh?”
“Well, you know…” Because I sure didn’t. Here I was, talking with our new artist-in-residence at D Acres, potter Ethan Hamby, and clearly in way over my head. Terms like bisque and cones, fast-fire and Japanese-style were routinely peppering his sentences. I was doing my best to keep up, but nothing was particularly reminiscent of kale, compost, or oxen.
Though the process may be a tad baffling, it’s plain to see that he has skill. Not just talent, but expertise. A touch of the hand and a turn of the imagination – voilá, he can create some remarkable pieces out of clay. And with those sentences, I’ve nearly expended what I can say regarding ceramics. So let Ethan do himself justice…better yet come on out to the farm and meet him in person. Stop in for a workshop, or swing by his Red Barn Studio to check out his work. You won’t be disappointed.
---
It has been a dream of mine since my early teens to live with a community active in pursuing work that makes the world a better place. I have created my life as a potter to work directly with the earth and learn skills of self-sufficiency, trying to connect with nature and be conscious of my consumption of its resources. It was challenging, though, to maintain gardens while involved in intense pottery production and weekend craft shows. So I have come to D Acres, a small experiment in living sustainably, where the foundation is laid for eating well, inspiration and authentic expression.
I am here to make art from mud in every shape, size, and function. I will make mugs to use for tea brewed with the dried flowers and herbs that grow in D Acres gardens. I will make musical instruments for entertainment by the campfire. The largest work will be a Japanese-style kiln coated in cob (clay, sand, straw) and sculpted into a dragon. Sculptures will begin emerging as if planted in the farmscape. I hope to work with the land and strive to reflect the beauty of Nature’s majesty.
Clay as a vessel for fire is a driving force in my work. I grew up with a wood-stove in my home and every time my mom would light it she would say ”Burn, baby, burn.” At an early age I caught the bug for building fires. When I started making pottery I searched for a way to fire my work without using electricity or gas. One day I took old electric kilns to my backyard, stacked them up on bricks, and built a fire underneath. This first experiment fired to 2000 degrees in two hours. I was stoked to discover that I could get paid to play with fire. Here at D Acres I will be continuing my fiery endeavors, already having built a wood-fired kiln. I will be building a Japanese-style climbing kiln, and re-sculpting a pizza oven. Pizza ovens are really where D acres and I will collaborate to create the best edible art. Clay is shaped by hands; fire, fed with wood; and pizza topped with all the delectable vegetables my fellow farmers have worked so hard to grow.
My love for my work is so strong that I need to share it with others – teaching techniques I have discovered and honed over the years is what I really enjoy. I want people to make things out of clay because it is so much fun to dig into the earth and sculpt it! Making pottery is a meditative process that releases stress and focuses the spirit. Building with cob is an accessible way to construct ovens, sculptures and structures that almost every age can participate in. I will be offering workshops at D Acres this summer to share my passion for these ways of living and creating art.
Making Art and living sustainably are ways for me to enrich my life and the lives of the community around me. My mission is to make as much organic art and share it with as many people as I can. There are many experiments and techniques to discover this summer. I hope you all can come for a workshop, firing or just to visit and talk art.
Remember that “Every child is an artist, the problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up”-Picasso
-as published in the North Country News
Friday, June 4, 2010
Vegetables aren't just for summer
Our meals these days are reliably accompanied by a salad of sorts – the variety and quantity of its contents continue to increase as these warmer months descend upon us here at D Acres Organic Farm & Educational Homestead. If there is a season that connotes the flavor of fresh produce, it would be summer, no?
And fortunately, our area is rich with local producers. From a plethora of fruits and vegetables, to eggs, dairy, meat, and baked goods, local farmers provide quite an array of goods to our region. But saying it is not enough. We want to celebrate the diversity of local foods and spread the word. Come find our what we’re talking about at the 2010 Pemi-Baker Local Food Guide Launch. It will be held on the Plymouth Common June 12, 11am-1pm. Pick up the 4th edition of the Local Food Guide, meet local farmers, sample their goods, and enjoy the tunes of local musicians.
D Acres began publishing the Local Food Guide in 2007, the beginning steps to cultivating a thriving local food network. Since then, we’ve expanded the guide each year, now totaling 39 farmers and 23 local advertisers. Thanks to the advertisements of local establishments, a listing in the guide is a free service to area producers. New to 2010, we’ve also included a map pinpointing local farms, as well as information on summer and winter farmer’s markets throughout the Pemi-Baker region.
Why such excitement over a local food guide? Well, for one, we at D Acres are remarkably interested in food. Everyone needs to eat, and the better the food, the better the health and the well-being of both people and land. Local food specifically increases individuals’ connection to a region and its landscape, while decreasing dependency on national and international systems of production and distribution. Furthermore, strengthening local food networks is a direct means of providing local income to local people, a means of keeping our money local and investing in our own community. To quote farmer and author Wendell Berry, “without prosperous local economies, the people have no power and the land no voice.”
So knowing your farmer is vitally important, and not just in the summer. Eating is a year-round endeavor, and so is buying food. The 2010 Guide can help you do it locally. In addition to listing regional farmers and the goods they produce, the Local Food Guide also lists the times and locations of a variety of seasonal markets.
Be a part of a greener picture in our region! Join us June 12, 11am-1pm, on the Plymouth Common to meet your local farmers. Pick up your copy of the Local Food Guide – a sustainable community starts with your next meal.
~Beth
as published in the North Country News
And fortunately, our area is rich with local producers. From a plethora of fruits and vegetables, to eggs, dairy, meat, and baked goods, local farmers provide quite an array of goods to our region. But saying it is not enough. We want to celebrate the diversity of local foods and spread the word. Come find our what we’re talking about at the 2010 Pemi-Baker Local Food Guide Launch. It will be held on the Plymouth Common June 12, 11am-1pm. Pick up the 4th edition of the Local Food Guide, meet local farmers, sample their goods, and enjoy the tunes of local musicians.
D Acres began publishing the Local Food Guide in 2007, the beginning steps to cultivating a thriving local food network. Since then, we’ve expanded the guide each year, now totaling 39 farmers and 23 local advertisers. Thanks to the advertisements of local establishments, a listing in the guide is a free service to area producers. New to 2010, we’ve also included a map pinpointing local farms, as well as information on summer and winter farmer’s markets throughout the Pemi-Baker region.
Why such excitement over a local food guide? Well, for one, we at D Acres are remarkably interested in food. Everyone needs to eat, and the better the food, the better the health and the well-being of both people and land. Local food specifically increases individuals’ connection to a region and its landscape, while decreasing dependency on national and international systems of production and distribution. Furthermore, strengthening local food networks is a direct means of providing local income to local people, a means of keeping our money local and investing in our own community. To quote farmer and author Wendell Berry, “without prosperous local economies, the people have no power and the land no voice.”
So knowing your farmer is vitally important, and not just in the summer. Eating is a year-round endeavor, and so is buying food. The 2010 Guide can help you do it locally. In addition to listing regional farmers and the goods they produce, the Local Food Guide also lists the times and locations of a variety of seasonal markets.
Be a part of a greener picture in our region! Join us June 12, 11am-1pm, on the Plymouth Common to meet your local farmers. Pick up your copy of the Local Food Guide – a sustainable community starts with your next meal.
~Beth
as published in the North Country News
Monday, May 24, 2010
Instigate a Local Food Movement
Our weekends here are getting busier and busier. With the warmer weather, food growing outdoors, the birds singing, and the flowers blooming, the farm is bursting with new life and abundance.
On May 15th, we hosted another Farmer's Gathering. Local farmers were invited to preview the 2010 Pemi-Baker Local Food Guide--check out their listing and all the new additions to this years' Guide. We have added a map for finding farm locations, as well as an information page on Farmer's Markets in the area. It has been exciting to participate in the expansion of this Guide, which in the first edition only four years ago, included only three farms and no advertisements. Today we are bursting at 16 pages and squeezing in 39 farms, and local businesses and services are off-setting the printing costs by purchasing an ad!
The local food movement has reached the Pemi-Baker area! It has been growing steadily, and we at D Acres feel the importance of continuing to instigate this kind of movement. In February, we participated in a screening of the film FRESH at the Flying Monkey Theater in Plymouth. We served fresh chicken soup and a delicious seasonal pumpkin soup, screened the film, and Josh spoke on a panel that included the coordinator for Local Foods Plymouth (an online market), and a county agricultural representative. It was a great turnout, and has inspired many to continue their involvement in making local food more accessible to this area.
And now with the Local Food Guide, anyone can pick up a copy in surrounding towns and find a local source of meat, wool, poultry, veggies, eggs, garlic, baked goods and the list continues. We will be printing over 7,000 copies this year, with 4,700 of those copies being inserted into The Record Enterprise local newspaper.
At D Acres, we are not only interested in eating and feeding good food, we are interested in getting others to see the importance of doing the same. Farmers are not often recognized or supported enough in their efforts to provide. Choosing to have a livlihood that requires one to get her hands in the dirt, or muck out stalls, slaughter animals, harvest, save seeds, run a business, market, and advertise is choosing a hard and rewarding life.
Help to close the economic gap that supports the shipment of nutritionaly deficient food thousands of miles before it reaches your plate. You can support your local farmers by purchasing food directly from the farm or buying at your farmer's market.
Come to the Common in Plymouth on Saturday June 12th and get a taste for local food and community as we launch the 2010 Local Food Guide. We will be celebrating with samples from area farms, music, and speakers (11am-1pm).
We look forward to seeing you there,
Regina
On May 15th, we hosted another Farmer's Gathering. Local farmers were invited to preview the 2010 Pemi-Baker Local Food Guide--check out their listing and all the new additions to this years' Guide. We have added a map for finding farm locations, as well as an information page on Farmer's Markets in the area. It has been exciting to participate in the expansion of this Guide, which in the first edition only four years ago, included only three farms and no advertisements. Today we are bursting at 16 pages and squeezing in 39 farms, and local businesses and services are off-setting the printing costs by purchasing an ad!
The local food movement has reached the Pemi-Baker area! It has been growing steadily, and we at D Acres feel the importance of continuing to instigate this kind of movement. In February, we participated in a screening of the film FRESH at the Flying Monkey Theater in Plymouth. We served fresh chicken soup and a delicious seasonal pumpkin soup, screened the film, and Josh spoke on a panel that included the coordinator for Local Foods Plymouth (an online market), and a county agricultural representative. It was a great turnout, and has inspired many to continue their involvement in making local food more accessible to this area.
And now with the Local Food Guide, anyone can pick up a copy in surrounding towns and find a local source of meat, wool, poultry, veggies, eggs, garlic, baked goods and the list continues. We will be printing over 7,000 copies this year, with 4,700 of those copies being inserted into The Record Enterprise local newspaper.
At D Acres, we are not only interested in eating and feeding good food, we are interested in getting others to see the importance of doing the same. Farmers are not often recognized or supported enough in their efforts to provide. Choosing to have a livlihood that requires one to get her hands in the dirt, or muck out stalls, slaughter animals, harvest, save seeds, run a business, market, and advertise is choosing a hard and rewarding life.
Help to close the economic gap that supports the shipment of nutritionaly deficient food thousands of miles before it reaches your plate. You can support your local farmers by purchasing food directly from the farm or buying at your farmer's market.
Come to the Common in Plymouth on Saturday June 12th and get a taste for local food and community as we launch the 2010 Local Food Guide. We will be celebrating with samples from area farms, music, and speakers (11am-1pm).
We look forward to seeing you there,
Regina
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Salad in our Bowls
There were remnants of slushy snow patches on the ground, but I was standing, sweating, with my sleeves rolled up. I was inside the cob-and-recycled-glass greenhouse at D Acres Organic Farm & Educational Homestead lifting sheets of remay from rows of radishes and hardy greens, propping open cold frames, turning flats of transplants to better catch the sun.
And there was water spraying…slightly out of control.
Today was my day to water the greenhouses. It’s a fairly pleasant job, and simple. More than anything it’s a welcome excuse to notice, carefully, how different plants are growing, how quickly various patches of soil are drying out, what needs to be thinned, what is ready for harvesting. Each of our three greenhouses here at D Acres has a slightly different set-up with regard to water. A collection tank off our barn roof gutter offers abundant water and short hauling for our lower hoop house. Buckets and watering cans are our precise distributors. The new kitchen greenhouse requires a hose run from an outdoor spigot though an extra tank, when filled via the hose, accommodates the watering can option as well. Our “g-animal” cob greenhouse is best watered with a hose and watering wand combination.
This is where things can get slightly out of control. It would seem to be a straight-forward process…ok, yes, I can generally keep myself dry. But I’m short, some shelves are tall, and the hose rarely wants to bend in my preferred direction.
For someone who spends a fair amount of time getting dirty, I don’t particularly like getting wet. But it’s a moot point in the end, because I sure do like eating…and this time of year I’m willing to employ the word ‘ecstatic’ with regards to salad greens. Testing my mettle against a hose a few times a week is an exaggerated comeuppance for sure.
The more worthwhile point to be made is: it’s April and we’re stuffing ourselves with salad! Yes, that definitely deserves an exclamation point. Our freezer continues to burst at the seams with bacon, sausage, and the likes, so no-one can justly accuse us of eating like rabbits. But after a season of potatoes, turnips, and squash every day, greens are a delicacy. Some spicy, some sweet, some bitter, some so potently green, others fresh and light to the palatte…forgive me - throw in the word robust and I’ll start to sound like a wine label.
But you get the point. It feels like a power meal of nutrients, all that photosynthesized energy fueling our own muscles, our own efforts. And we’ve been stuffing these delightful leaves down our hungry gullets for a couple of weeks now. So the real story is season extension.
The warmth of the sun, when captured by simple set-ups of glass or plastic, is remarkable – even before it feels like a trustworthy springtime outside. Sure, we arguably have a bigger set-up than the home gardener may want. But don’t use that as your excuse. We also make use of cold frames, simple boxes built with a glass pane top (i.e. old doors or windows), essentially creating a mini greenhouse. These, too, do the trick, reliably producing greens while Jack Frost is still threatening to come ‘round. So think about it. If we’re going to provide for our own food in this northeast climate, we need to do so beyond the months of June, July, and August. Cold frames, indoor starts, greenhouses: these are all ways to do so. Please, drop on by the farm, ask us some questions (try some salad), we’ll even offer you some salvaged doors to build your own cold frame. Just be sure to make use of it, and spread the good and tasty word. Growing your own food is quite doable…and the reward so delightful. That’s right, nod your head; how ‘bout giving it a try yourself?
~Beth
as published in the North Country News
And there was water spraying…slightly out of control.
Today was my day to water the greenhouses. It’s a fairly pleasant job, and simple. More than anything it’s a welcome excuse to notice, carefully, how different plants are growing, how quickly various patches of soil are drying out, what needs to be thinned, what is ready for harvesting. Each of our three greenhouses here at D Acres has a slightly different set-up with regard to water. A collection tank off our barn roof gutter offers abundant water and short hauling for our lower hoop house. Buckets and watering cans are our precise distributors. The new kitchen greenhouse requires a hose run from an outdoor spigot though an extra tank, when filled via the hose, accommodates the watering can option as well. Our “g-animal” cob greenhouse is best watered with a hose and watering wand combination.
This is where things can get slightly out of control. It would seem to be a straight-forward process…ok, yes, I can generally keep myself dry. But I’m short, some shelves are tall, and the hose rarely wants to bend in my preferred direction.
For someone who spends a fair amount of time getting dirty, I don’t particularly like getting wet. But it’s a moot point in the end, because I sure do like eating…and this time of year I’m willing to employ the word ‘ecstatic’ with regards to salad greens. Testing my mettle against a hose a few times a week is an exaggerated comeuppance for sure.
The more worthwhile point to be made is: it’s April and we’re stuffing ourselves with salad! Yes, that definitely deserves an exclamation point. Our freezer continues to burst at the seams with bacon, sausage, and the likes, so no-one can justly accuse us of eating like rabbits. But after a season of potatoes, turnips, and squash every day, greens are a delicacy. Some spicy, some sweet, some bitter, some so potently green, others fresh and light to the palatte…forgive me - throw in the word robust and I’ll start to sound like a wine label.
But you get the point. It feels like a power meal of nutrients, all that photosynthesized energy fueling our own muscles, our own efforts. And we’ve been stuffing these delightful leaves down our hungry gullets for a couple of weeks now. So the real story is season extension.
The warmth of the sun, when captured by simple set-ups of glass or plastic, is remarkable – even before it feels like a trustworthy springtime outside. Sure, we arguably have a bigger set-up than the home gardener may want. But don’t use that as your excuse. We also make use of cold frames, simple boxes built with a glass pane top (i.e. old doors or windows), essentially creating a mini greenhouse. These, too, do the trick, reliably producing greens while Jack Frost is still threatening to come ‘round. So think about it. If we’re going to provide for our own food in this northeast climate, we need to do so beyond the months of June, July, and August. Cold frames, indoor starts, greenhouses: these are all ways to do so. Please, drop on by the farm, ask us some questions (try some salad), we’ll even offer you some salvaged doors to build your own cold frame. Just be sure to make use of it, and spread the good and tasty word. Growing your own food is quite doable…and the reward so delightful. That’s right, nod your head; how ‘bout giving it a try yourself?
~Beth
as published in the North Country News
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