Category: CSA

The News from Windflower Farm

What’s in your share?

• Delicata squash
• French breakfast radishes
• Green leaf lettuce
• Arugula
• Sweet Peppers 
• Yellow potatoes
• Rosemary
• Assorted tomatoes
• German White or German Red garlic
• Sweet corn (more from Hand Melon Farm)

Your fruit share will be peaches – probably the last of the season – from Yonder Farm. Apples and pears will be coming soon.

What’s new on the farm?

Here’s a glimpse of packing day on the farm. Victoria is directing the activities of the crew today, just as she has done every Monday and Wednesday for seventeen years. She started working for us when she was 20 and newly married. She responded to an advertisement we placed in the local paper. She would have applied sooner, she told us, but in the first edition of our ad we failed to include our contact information. She’s been helping us to stay on the straight and narrow ever since.

Candelaria and Daniel, a mother and son team, are bagging tomatoes for the Tuesday delivery, which is likely to take the entire morning. Three large tomatoes and a pint of small ones in a paper bag. They cannot agree on how many weeks of tomatoes we might have left – two or three? Daniel is an optimist; Candelaria, who has more experience, says two. They can agree that it’s been one of our better tomato seasons in a long time and that several of our new varieties are worth keeping.  

Hiliberto and Martin are operating the produce washer – our car wash for vegetables. On their docket this morning are heads of lettuce, bunches of arugula and radishes and quarts of potatoes – some 425 units of each today. Martin’s grandfather was one of our very first employees. Although abuelo Ezequiel retired several years ago, he still actively farms his own place in Guanajuato, Mexico. He is a very sweet man, but he’s famous for becoming grouchy when there was too much talking in the field at the expense of getting the job done. “No mas platica!” he would bark.

Kristoffer and Kordehlia, both of whom are from just down the road (they are not related), are working in the cooler. They are doing the bulk of the packing today and wearing clothing suitable for late November temperatures. They’ll count the heads of lettuce or bunches of arugula or pieces of fruit into boxes or tubs and paste Victoria’s site labels on each. If counts are off… “demasiada platica!” But they are quite bright, and I’m sure that counts will be fine.

Jan and Nate, my wife and son, are working on the Delicata squash. They are doing their best to keep it in good condition. It’s axiomatic that if it’s a vegetable much in demand, it is difficult to grow or store. Think red peppers, cauliflower, Brussel’s sprouts and Delicata squash. If it’s easy – kohlrabi, braising greens, potatoes, turnips – demand is lukewarm. Jan and Nate have hand washed every Delicata, and they can confidently report that they must be sent now. Delicatas just don’t keep, which means we’ll send all of it in the next couple of weeks.

Little of my work takes place in the packing shed – I’m a field guy – but today I fetched the corn from John Hand (by popular demand!) and prepared a wholesale order for shallots. The ‘Ed’s Red’ shallots that I’ve come to like are the only crop we wholesale. If you’ve seen the retail price of shallots, you’ll understand why. Neighboring farmers Brian and Justine Denison, who will provide carrots for your shares next week, have agreed to market our shallots to their wholesale customers. We farmers are always looking for that crop – like ‘Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter’ tomato – that will pay off the farm. Salvador and his sisters-in-law, Angelica and Elisa, are processing the shallots for you. It’s tedious business, so don’t look for them in your CSA share until next week.

Andrea is working on the garlic share. There are the standard four categories – small, medium, large and compost – plus a fifth – seed. We’ll set aside a portion of the crop to plant in mid-October for harvest next year. The larger bulbs and most of the split cloves will be used for planting purposes. We grow two varieties: the ‘German White’ generally has six cloves around one or two small interior bulbs; the ‘German Red’ has perhaps eight or nine smaller cloves and is the spicier of the two.

And that is how we’ve spent our day.

Have a great week, Ted

The News from Windflower Farm

What’s in your share?

• Radishes
• Lettuce
• Kale mix
• Italian flat beans
• Sweet Peppers
• Potatoes
• Basil
• Tomatoes
• Garlic
• Sweet corn (from Hand Melon Farm)

Your fruit share will be fall prunes from Yonder Farm.

Next week, you’ll get acorn or delicata squash, plus lettuce, arugula, tomatoes, peppers, onions and garlic. The fall harvest is underway. Blocks of potatoes, winter squashes and leeks are still in the field along with small quantities of turnips, rutabagas and cabbage and the whole of the sweet potato crop. There are seven deliveries remaining in our season, but just three or four weeks that we can count on to be free from frost.

The greenhouse is full for the first time since June. We’ve just bumped the strawberries outside. The last of the greens will go next. Later this week, we’ll be seeding arugula, a variety of kales, spinach and choy for winter shares, and we’ll need the space. And then we’ll be done with greenhouse work for the year because it is the middle of September and the season is nearly over.

What’s new on the farm?

I’ve just climbed out of the cab of the old John Deere tractor. I’ve been doing some fall plowing. I must confess that I like how it looks – I’m tired of seeing weeds. Even in places where we’ve grown good crops, weeds are quick to follow. I also like that I can establish a good fall cover crop if I’ve plowed. Carbon in, carbon out.  

A 1985 video of Carl Sagan discussing “emerging issues” is now in the background as I write. I saw him speak when I was in school. It’s therapy to hear his calm, reasonable descriptions of the world we live in. The most important emerging issue then as now was global warming. Listening, I find it remarkable that we knew then – nearly forty years ago – as much as we know now about the dangers of a warming planet. It is perhaps less surprising that the barriers to change then were no different than they are now.

Gray clouds hang low in the sky, and it feels like it might rain. This puts some bounce in my step as I have a fair amount of ground to work up and cover crop or green manure seeds to sow and I’d be happy to have the work done before the rain begins. The cover crop I’ll sow today is a mixture of rye and hairy vetch, which I’ve noted in the past does wonders for the health of the soils we farm. The rye, if let to grow until spring, will fix carbon and the hairy vetch, a legume, will fix nitrogen. This use of the word “fix” is the odd convention by which soil scientists mean to say that these atmospheric elements are incorporated into or become a part of the soil by way of growing plants. It’s a truly wonderful thing. Unfortunately, we are on something of a teeter totter ride in that when we are growing cover crops we are in the business of removing carbon dioxide from the air, and when we are tilling the soil to prepare it for vegetable plants we are in the business of releasing carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.

This is why no-till farming and other forms of conservation tillage get so much attention. Unfortunately, producers of warm-loving vegetables, and vegetable farmers in northern climates, and growers who don’t use pesticides (and we happen to be all three of these) have so far had little success with no-till farming. But the work goes on – trial and error. For now, it seems, if we are to make any kind of contribution to the goal of atmospheric CO2 reduction, it will have to focus on reducing the carbon footprint of our modest home and farm facilities (heaters, coolers, lights) and our trucks and tractors. And on this front we all have a contribution to make.

Have a great week, Ted

The News from Windflower Farm

What’s in your share?

• Pie pumpkins 
• Swiss chard
• Arugula
• Sweet Peppers
• Shallots
• Potatoes
• Basil
• Tomatoes
• Garlic
• Onions
• Sweet corn (from our farm)

Your fruit share will be peaches from Yonder Farm.

Jan, Nate and I washed potatoes yesterday to the happy chatter of Ayesha Roscoe on the radio. She interviewed a Brooklyn food writer as they prepared food together, discussing the simple joy of sharing a meal with a friend. The arrival of cool mornings is a reminder that these lovely summer days will come to an end soon. We start the morning in sweaters now, but by 10:00 am we are back to short sleeves. Our list of chores reflects a change in seasons. We planted the last crops of the 2022 summer season a week ago. Next week we’ll sow the greens – kale, chard, spinach, perhaps Yukina Savoy – that will go in our winter shares. Then it’s on to the overwintering crops that will go into 2023 shares: strawberries, spring onions and garlic. We are also beginning to prepare fields for cover crops. Old friends at the Farm at Millers Crossing have been producing a mixture of cereal rye and hairy vetch that does wonders for our soil. Seeding cover crops feeds the soil that will provide next year’s fertility.

What’s new on the farm?

How do you sustain yourself over the long haul?  How do you stay sharp and engaged? “Are you in the ballgame?” My son’s teacher would ask when she saw him drifting off. If I have more than just a few minutes, I might get out for a romp through the fields, or I’ll go for a bike ride if I don’t want to be on the farm. If I have a little more time, I’ll paddle on the nearby Battenkill or at one of the ponds on the Taconic plateau. And if I have two days, I’ll go sailing.

I ran into a group of Vermont farmers I know at a marina about 100 miles north of here on Lake Champlain where I keep an old sailboat. Out of context, it took us a minute to recognize one another. We were all a little self-conscious in our sailing gear – certainly too clean, and the floppy hats and life jackets were a little incongruous.  No dirty work boots here – sailors don’t tolerate muddy tracks on their decks. In the case of the Vermonters, three of them share an ancient Beneteau sailboat. The Quebecois who sail the lake are fond of French made boats, and old ones can be found cheap, they told me. In my case, to make it affordable, I share a sailboat with my brother-in-law. She makes up for being unsightly by not being the slowest boat on the lake.

Farmers, somewhat surprised to see other farmers in pursuit of a leisure activity in high season (“Weekend – what’s a weekend?”), did what farmers always do, we talked shop. The drought, new varieties, the no-till craze. We then talked about how we managed to escape from our respective 24/7 farm schedules. We agreed that it was by empowering our staff. They get to make decisions, they have more fun, our farms are better off with more engaged minds, and we get to go sailing! Clearly the stuff of an enlightened approach to personnel management, we agreed. Good, dumb luck, more likely.

We are truly grateful to have an experienced and dedicated staff who can help run our farm while we are occasionally off biking or canoeing or sailing. We are rested. We have de-stressed. We are excited to be back at work. And there is much to do.

Have a great week, Ted

The News from Windflower Farm

What’s in your share?

• Kale
• Green oakleaf lettuce
• Radishes
• Red potatoes
• Rosemary
• Tomatoes
• Basil
• Garlic
• Sweet peppers
• Sweet corn
• Squash 

Your fruit share will be peaches from Yonder Farm.

We began harvesting delicata and acorn squashes this week. We’ll set them in our shade house for a week or two to cure and then we’ll begin sending them to you. Next week, we’ll send the pie pumpkins we harvested two weeks ago. Next week’s shares will also include Ed’s Red shallots (see Nate’s latest Instagram posting for images).

What’s new on the farm?

It is just before 8:00 pm on Sunday, nearly too dark to discern colors. I’m coming in from the field after scouting for the harvest. A lone coyote is howling nearby. Nate has closed the chicken coop for the night and shut the farm gates against intrusion by deer. And now, as I sit at my laptop, the aroma of Rosemary fills my senses. I had harvested a few sample bunches. It will be part of this week’s share. It is the herb that for me transforms virtually any potato, but especially a good roasting variety, into something magical. Oil the pan, toss in long-sliced potato pieces, sprinkle with salt and pepper, add Rosemary and you’ve got the better part of a perfect meal.

Although many farmers in the Hudson Valley and New England are still in a severe drought, we have had enough rain in the last couple of weeks to take the edge off. Summer rains are often highly localized like this. Earlier in the season, we would watch as the rain fell to the north or south of us, and now, finally, it has been falling here. The lawn has become green again and lettuces and arugula and kale are coming back to life. Still, vestiges of the drought can be found here and there. The absence of sweet corn from shares is one example – it was one of the crops we chose not to irrigate. It was inevitable that something popular would be on that list. But not all the corn was lost. Last Thursday’s CSA shares included corn from our own farm. There would have been more if it wasn’t for the racoons. This week’s corn will come from Hand Farm, where I’m told they never have racoon problems. It is not organically grown – they use “integrated pest management” or IPM to guide their spray decisions. They spray, but only when the IPM protocol deems it necessary. Next week’s corn will again come from our farm and will have been grown organically. And that will be the last of our corn. After that, if we opt to send more Hand Farm corn to you, it will only be because I’ve received feedback from you telling me that you approve of the idea.

The inspection related to our organic certification took place yesterday. Brenda, our inspector, brought Rick, a trainee, along. As a result, the process, although always professional, was more formal than usual. They arrived ahead of schedule, before I had a chance to have lunch, so by the time they left at 5:00 in the evening, my blood sugar was at a serious ebb, and my answers to their questions had become more and more dubious. “How do you manage soil health on your farm?” asked Rick. I had no idea. Nevertheless, I believe we passed. Together, we identified one infraction, however, and I should make you aware of it before you read about it in the papers. The cabbage you’ve received this year came from ground that won’t achieve formal organic status for another month. It had only undergone 34 of the required 36 months of transition. I mistakenly planted our summer cabbage where our fall cabbage was supposed to go. My apologies to you. You should know that the field they came from had not had synthetic fertilizers or a pesticide of any kind for more than twenty years. I know I’ll hear from our certifier about this.

Have a great week, Ted

The News from Windflower Farm

What’s in your share?Kale mix

• Kale mix
• Chard
• Onions
• Red Gold potatoes
• Basil
• Tomatoes
• Garlic
• Sweet peppers
• Green beans from Markristo Farm

Your fruit share will be peaches from Yonder Farm.

The authorities have told us it is no longer permissible to reuse pint and quart containers. We request that you recycle your berry boxes at home.

This week’s delivery marks the halfway point in the farm season. Let us know how we’ve done so far.

What’s new on the farm?

How my fellow vegetable farmers manage to make a living by working the land has always interested me. Early on, I wondered if one could still actually farm full-time for a living or whether an outside income was necessary. The first farmer I worked for, it turned out, earned most of his living selling pot. What other crops are profitable, I wondered? Here is the story of a man who has inspired me and one of the most entrepreneurial farmers I know.  

A friend of mine, Guy Jones, from Blooming Hill Farm, one of the founding farmers at the Union Square Greenmarket, had for a time made most of his income by growing and selling gourmet salad mixes, or mesclun, as it was called then, each leaf hand-picked and triple rinsed. He was among the first to add nasturtiums and chervil and a host of other herbs to his beautiful and aromatic mixes. But as everyone got into the business, prices came down and he had to find new opportunities.

He found them in cut flowers. First, it was avant-garde arrangements featuring juniper branches and other unlikely wild cuttings. But then he found something special. I was reminded of Guy on a recent bike ride along a stretch of nearby swamp. There they were: cattails, Boneset, Joe Pieweed, and the invasive Purple Loosestrife, all in their prime. Guy and his team handled them just right, they made cuts on the diagonal, transferred them to clean water and buckets back at the farm so that they’d last, placed them in floral sleeves and kept them cool until market day. And he sold them by the hundreds, and quite possibly the thousands, a bit of the countryside brought to the city. I think he built his farm on that wildflower bouquet. And the beauty of it was that he didn’t have to sow a seed or pull a weed – he’d just load his team and a heap of buckets into his van and head to the nearest swamp. And they could be harvested sustainably, so long as they were not overharvested, and for as long as swampland continued to be regarded by developers as wasteland.

I was with Guy and another friend in the audience when Wendell Berry, after giving a talk about the joys of farming in his beloved Kentucky, asked the farming audience for their greatest sources of joy or hardship. “Farming is hard!” said someone. Guy stood up with his large round face, long blond ponytail, the elder amongst us, and shouted out, “Making payroll!” which is something he’d been doing for 25 years by that time. I still don’t know which it was for him – joy or hardship.

I farmed near Guy for a few years when I worked with a dozen homeless men in a recovery program, and he gave me a great deal of advice in those early days. Most valuable might have been this: “Ted, farming, like most things, is mostly about showing up. Get up early, bring your best ideas, and get to work.” As Guy has stepped back from the farm, his three sons have stepped in to take the farm through its next iteration: a farm-to-table restaurant, CSA and wedding venue. The entrepreneurial spirit has clearly passed to the next generation.

Have a great week, Ted