The CSA Begins!

 

Announcing CSA pick-ups beginning this week!  Come pick-up your vegetables Saturday June 2nd 1:30-4:30 or Tuesday June 5th 3:30-6:30 in the CSA pick-up stable on the farm!  Can't wait to see you!

Don't forget to bring your bags!

We'll have egg shares available from Sparrowbush Farm with Farmer Ashley!

 

We are still seeking members for this season! If you haven't signed up yet, but want to join in summer's bounty, or if you know a friend or neighbor who wants to bring fresh produce into their life--please spread the word and get in touch with us to join in for 2012!

May 24, 2012
Volume II, Issue 4
 

Dear Friends,
 

With CSA pick-ups beginning on Saturday, life here at Great Song is blessedly busy.  The rain, that great gift and curse, has been regular enough to keep us from having to set-up irrigation, while also preventing us from getting as much field work done as we would comfortably like to.  It is all a give and take in this sacred and stimulating life—obstacles and gifts combining to make the impossible possible, and the possible difficult.

On a Sunday evening, or maybe it becomes night once darkness envelops us, some weeks back, I found myself in the back field weeding Hakuri salad turnips by headlamp.  I don’t write this as a means of seeking honor, or sympathy, or pity, but simply because it is what was happening, and there is something mirthfully honest about taking up the task of weeding in this way…

…

I wouldn’t exactly be choosing to spend my Sunday night weeding by headlamp under circumstances other than the one I am in, but there happens to be a specific progression of reasons why this particular weeding need happen tonight.  It goes something like this: Hakuri turnips are susceptible to flea beetles—those tiny flying insects barely perceptible to the untrained eye which like to eat the leaves of many plants, particularly those in the brassica family, thus weakening the plant, and also consuming a portion of the plant that we humans enjoy eating, (not to mention aesthetic concerns of hole-y leaves).  To prevent this gluttonous consumption and pestilence, we cover the plants with row cover from the day they are seeded until harvest.  Row cover is a thin, fragile material which lets through sunlight and air, and adds warmth and protection to more pest-prone or otherwise sensitive plants.  This morning, I uncovered the 474 foot row so that Anthony, Kate, and Sunny could cultivate the plants, using tines to pull-up any germinating weeds.  I then followed behind, hand-weeding any large roots and clumps of grass which the cultivator did not effectively uproot.  But then we were away all day, and I felt wary of letting the plants be exposed to the potential threat of flea beetles any longer than a day, so I am back at night completing the task: weeding, covering with row cover, putting the countless rocks which adorn our fields on the edges of the row cover to hold it in place against wind.

The main struggle with weeding by headlamp is the thousands of bugs attracted to the bulb enveloping your face and eyes, flying up your nose.  And every once in a while in the darkness I will loose my orientation, and have to stoop down low to find the seedlings which I am trying to not step on during this undertaking.  The whole affair seems rather silly, to say the least.

I hear the “whoa” and jangle of Anthony a few rows away from me, discing with the horses through the dark, avidly trying to take advantage of the soil dry enough to be worked before the 1-2 inches of anticipated rains come through.  We finish, or at least stop, our night work at about the same time, and I am a few moments behind him walking down the hill of the back pasture.

For these small offerings we make, we are rewarded in equally small and equally manifold ways.  And so, turning off my headlamp, walking down the long lovely hill, sucking in the air, loping limbs pulled by the momentum of a downward gait, the unmistakable, unparalleled smell of working horses fragrantly living in my nostrils, I realize I am surrounded by lightening bugs, the first of the season.  One of the offerings of the universe most resembling magic—small, living vessels of light that seem to be like stars floating to earth, willing, with a little effort on the part of any careful eight or nine year old, to be caught, held, or even kept in a glass jar for an hour or two of observation.  But I am not trying to catch them, only watch the little lit creatures in all of their glory, as they offer their small, steady, and fleeting light to the world.

Nearing the bottom of the pasture, I catch up with Anthony and the horses; I walk behind them back to the barn, breathing in the sweet, humble smell of horse sweat.

~

A small note about Share the Harvest...

We are honored to be able to continue to offer free and reduced shares through our Share the Harvest program, which allows for members to extend the bounty beyond their own families, to others who may need a bit of support this season.  It is clear to us how great a need there is in this commuity for such programs, to make local and healthy food accessible to all, regardless of financial situations.  We are still seeking funding toward Share the Harvest which will allow for us to continue offering shares to more families and individuals for this upcoming 2012 season; if a donation us a possibility for you at this time--no matter how small--we welcome any further support to Share the Harvest, and thank you, again, for your generousity and support.

Things you may have missed in the midst of May…

i. Our two new Milking Devon Cows each gave birth to a healthy bull calf—two little boys who love sleeping on the compost pile and chasing each other through the pasture.  Unfortunately, the cows are proving a challenge to milk, to say the least, and we are looking for a new home for this lovely four-some cow family, where they can continue to eat grass and live healthy lives.  For now, we are glad to have them contributing to our compost piles and the fertility of our pasture.

ii. Pasture!  The cows, horses, and 27 growing chickens are all happy that it is spring and their diet has accordingly switched to fresh grass rather than hay.

iii. While this news is really a few months old, we belatedly congratulate Jen on being selected as the Journeyperson by NOFA-NY (Northeast Organic Farming Association of NY) in recognition of Jen's abilities and experience as a farmer, as well as her commitment to sustainable agriculture.  This award will support farm business planning, as well as allowing Jen to further her farming education through a mentorship program.

iv. The semi-permanent deer fence is up in both the upper and lower fields—quite a major undertaking.  The fence is 3-D, supported with cedar corner posts, and tensioned to withstand snowcover.  We hope the deer will learn that our vegetables fields are not a place for them to be, and seek nutrition elsewhere.

v. We continue to seed, transplant, pick-rocks, and weed.  If you’d like to join us for any of these life-affirming activities, please come by, any day but Sunday.

 

A Little Something Else

Prayer After Eating

I have taken in the light
that quickened eye and leaf.
May my brain be bright with praise
of what I eat, in the brief blaze
of mortion and of thought.
May I be worthy of my meat.

Wendell Berry 

You're Cordially Invited: Community Events

Please Consider Yourself

Cordially Invited to...

Second Annual Spring Rock-Picking Work Party

   
475 Milan Hill Road

Saturday, May 19th 9am-12noon with potluck lunch to follow

Join the fun and get your hands in the dirt!  Break out the work gloves for some callous-forming, bicep-pumping, field preparation at Great Song Farm.  Come spend time helping us prepare our fields for planting, hang out with your neighbors, and stay for lunch!  If your body doesn't like the sound of manual labor, spectators, cheerleaders, and moral supporters are most welcome.

Work party 9 am-12 noon with pot luck picnic lunch to follow.   Please bring water, gloves, a plate and utensils, and a dish to share.  Rain or shine.  
   

Great Song Farm's Big Spring Community Celebration    
475 Milan Hill Road

Sunday, May 27th 2:30-6 p.m.

 Farm Tours, Games, Music, Potluck!  Bring an instrument, a dish to share, flatware, and a friend and join us in celebration of spring and the inauguration of our CSA!  All are welcome!  Rain or Shine.
   

April Newletter and Upcoming Events!

Volume 2, Issue 3

April 18, 2012

From the Farmers

Trixie, chewing her cud, 10 days after arriving at Great Song

A few words I wrote some weeks back...

Today offers a full spectrum of emotions—a vital mix of swoony bliss comingled with an unfocused and restless apprehension.  Both flow out of the circumstances alive daily in the world of farming—the beauty and the strife, the successes and the worries.  It would be a terribly stressful profession if elements of the divine were not so present in my everyday work.  Today is a sunny day at the end of March with a high in the lower fifties, soil (persistently) dry for cultivation, breeze blowing through the manes and tails of the horses as they work, lifting up the milk-chocolate-brown dust of top soil as the disc chops through the left-over chunks of sod and grass. 

We are farming in a brave and thoughtfully spontaneous way, which leaves me to conclude that we may be dangerously close to folly—the bliss and the apprehension comingled in such a way that I cannot extricate one from another.  They are one in the same story, one tremendous and relentless set of overlapping images fueling my spring days; it may sound a little hyperbolic when I go ahead and put exact words to the circumstances—perhaps the danger assigning words to these emotions at all—but the words themselves feel like a true reflection of the experience in the daily hustle-less bustle of being a farmer.    

Nearing the end of their second hour-long work in harness of the day, pulling the disc through the choppy, chunky, lumpy hilltop field—2 acres of ground plowed out of 30+ years of sod last fall—feet, human and horse, navigating the ups and downs of baby-dogwood tree roots, clumps of grass, and ruts, the horses are noticeably tired.  Today marks only their fifth day working since their long, muddy, logging-less winter “off”—bored, out of shape, and waiting expectantly in the sacrifice pasture.  They are reestablishing their muscular tone and self-confidence, and we are taking it slow, to make sure they establish a positive relationship with the work they will be committed to throughout the summer.  A little bit at a time, and lots of rest in between.  But it is nearing the end of the hour and Kate (the 13 year-old mare) is tired.  She is covered in the sweet-smelling sweat of a working horse, and I see the force of her body sort of lunging ahead, pushing into her hind-quarters in the slight up-hills.  I send her encouraging words, to coax and comfort and uplift.  This is the last round we will make.  Sunny, (the 4 year old gelding), fatter, taller, more ornery and curious, with an off-center stripe of white drawn down the front of his face and nose, is a little bit lazy in the pulling of his load, but then bolts ahead with the mere mention of his name.  But their tiredness means they listen well—stopping, starting, and turning with a slight signal of the lines or verbal command.  I unhitch from the disc and drive them down the steep grassy hillside that will be their pasture in a month’s time; together, we walk through the meandering trail which takes us back to the barn.  Over dried-up stream bed and through the woods.  This is the moment when the word ‘bliss’ comes to my mind and lips—tired, engaged horses, a solid, small, piece of work accomplished as we prepare the fields for the pre-full moon planting of root crops in 6 days’ time.

And inbetween acknowledging the bliss, my mind floats back to the onion seedlings which I have somewhat irrationally decide to worry about because they do not stand quite as erectly as I was somehow hoping.  Am I overwatering them?  Am I underwatering them?  Are they too cold at night?  Are they too hot during the day?   And then I begin to think about the 30 degree night ahead of us, and wonder (again) if our newly constructed home-made woodstove mass heater will functionally provide an appropriate amount of heat to support our plant babies through one more cold night. 

There are an abundance of things to loose myself in apprehension over, should I so chose to do so.  Sometimes I let myself go, caught in a spiral of what-ifs, but then usually something or someone catches me—a farming partner, a horse, a member of this community, a moment of bliss—and I remember that our plants and animals are strong and healthy, that we are bestowed with the great gift of work and of purpose.  I step out of the spiral, and I get to work.

Lisa, Kate, and Sunny prepare the ground to seed cover crops.

Upcoming Events at Great Song Farm!

Great Song Farm will be hosting a family-day open house on Saturday, April 28th at 10 am. We will be gathering in the CSA pick-up stable on the farm.  Bring the whole family to come meet our new baby chicks and dairy cows and tour the farm with your toddlers and kids.  We will have some farm songs and stories to entertain the little ones, along with information about joining our CSA for 2012.  What is a CSA?  How do I join?  Where do I pick-up vegetables?  Are you growing vegetables that my children will actually eat?  Come ask questions and check out the farm.  Be a part of our farm community!  Send questions to greatsongfarm@riseup.net or call us at 845-758-1572.

Mark Your Calendars!  Other up-coming dates in May:

Informational Open House on Saturday, May 12th at 2pm on the farm.

Get-lots-of-rocks-picked-in-one-day work party on Saturday, May 19th.  Join us for rock picking 9 a.m.-12 noon, and stay for a picnic potluck lunch.  Please bring a plate and silverware, and a dish to share.  Don't forget your gloves and waterbottles!  Children are definitely always welcome.  Please leave pets at home.  Hope to see you there!

Great Song Farm's Big Spring Community Celebration for CSA members, friends, and the whole community.  Sunday, May 27th 2:30-6 p.m.  Farm Tours, Games, Music, Potluck!  Bring an instrument, a dish to share, and a friend and join us in celebration of spring!  On the Farm!

Friend us on Facebook for event invites and announcements!

Our new baby chicks--10 days old

Spring Cleansing Recipe?

Looking for a little culinary adventure combined with a hike through the woods?  Lots of delicious wild eatables are popping up outside--dandilion greens, (stinging) nettles, garlic mustard greens, ramps (wild leeks).  If you're starved for something local, fresh, and green, I recommend experimenting with a garlic and onion-plus-wild greens saute, foraging out in your yard or woodlot for these tasty and nutritous plants.

Harvest nettles with gloves and long sleeves to prevent getting stung, and make sure you cook them thoroughly before consuming them.  But they can be added to just about anything--stir fry, soup, pesto, quiche, or pasta. 

Nettle Soup
1 lb. fresh nettles (handle with tongs or gloves!), rinsed
1/2 lb rutabagas (or potatoes), diced
1 leek or onion, chopped
garlic, minced, as much as you'd like
a thick slice of butter and a dash of olive oil
1 3/4 cup water
1/3 cup cream
salt and pepper and a dash of ume plum vinegar

To make the rutabaga (or potato) soup:
In small pan, add the butter and oil, and saute leek or onion and garlic until soft. Add potato or rutabaga and water, and cook until soft (falling apart).  Add cream, slowly, and while whisking. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Blanch the raw nettles (leaf and thin stems only) until tender. Blend until smooth in food processor or blender, with a little water if needed.

Combine root soup and nettle puree over low heat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Heat and thin with water or cream if desired.  Serve with a dolup of yogurt or sour cream on top if desired, and a dash of ume plum vinegar.

Jen Seeds Peas!

A Little Something Else

Seek Me An Artist

who will grind stones, soils, clays
into sediments that bring their essences
with them, iron oxide reds, lapis lazuli
blues, other mixtures.  An artist who will stir

and blend these elements into warm beeswax
softened with oils.  Seek me an artist who will
paint these wax pigments on wood, encode
their meanings in tints for my encaustic mask

that rests flat upon my face.  A mask upon
a mask upon a mask.  Seek me an artist
who will extend my life past flesh
through those veils of color.  Through

visage that smiles to those not yet seen.
Seek me an artist who will capture
my spirit, in layers of understanding,
intrigue, mystery.  In portrait that lives

beyond grave, beyond centruries, beyond
time.  Seek me an artist who will be
in portrait, in self of another self, in person
layered within another within another

as in life within death within life, one
cycle of unending cycles.  That lives longer
than artist, than deceased, longer than
earth time, of no time at all.  Seek me

an artist who can capture what is
was then always one.  Yes, seek me
that artist who now I see is me.

by John Fitzpatrick

Betti stirring biodynamic preparations to spray our fields.

March Newsletter

Know somebody who eats vegetables (or should start eating vegetables)?

Help us outreach to the community!

Please pass this on to your friends and neighbors!

Join Great Song Farmers for an Open House Information Session on Saturday, March 17th at 2p.m. on the farm at 475 Milan Hill Road in Red Hook. This gathering will be a chance for folks to meet the farmers, tour the farm, learn about our farming practices, and ask questions about what it means to be a member of our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). All are welcome.  Contact us with questions at greatsongfarm@riseup.net or 845-758-1572. Thanks!

Volume 2, Issue 2
March 12, 2012

From the Farmers

Dear Friends,

The advent of the growing season is officiated by the beginning of seeding in the greenhouse, usually somewhere in early March. Even though the seasons feed into one another to form one whole cycle, this event is a beginning, as we notably turn the corner toward spring, in full anticipation of the tremendous produce which will emerge out of these tiny seeds. The earliest crops to seed are onions and leeks, celeriac, parsley, and tomatoes—crops which are slow to germinate, slow to grow, or demand a longer season to fully mature and produce abundant and ripe fruit. Although we began seeding onions last week, we are nonetheless in the midst of still constructing and completing the stove and heat mass which will serve as our source of heat for the greenhouse seedlings—baby plants embedded into flats of moist potting soil. All of this—the soil, the heat, the moisture, the air circulation, the timing, the guarding-off pesky rodents—is an attempt to create the ideal conditions to raise healthy plants, healthy vegetables, healthy people, and, we hope, a healthy community.

As I have sat seeding by sunset two nights this week, I have thought about the immensity of the task we are undertaking as farmers, as growers-of-food. It seems so simple: put seeds into soil, water them, warm them, and let them do what they are naturally inclined to do. And, really, it is that simple, just about anyone can tend a garden with a little effort. But as Anthony came over to assist me in creating soil blocks (literally, 1” square blocks of firm soil that the seeds are housed within) of the perfect moistness, and the perfect uniformity and density, so that each seed would be covered with the perfect amount of potting soil, I became conscious of the delicacy of seeds, and the gracefulness required in my task of serving these seeds, so that they can take advantage of all which is being offered to them, and respond by become hearty, strong, and verdant plants—plants which will reflect the community in which they grow and flourish.

I have spent several weeks now reflecting on this concept of Community Supported Agriculture, (which, when I say it in my head, has strong pauses in between each word, to leave room for emphasis, and reflection) as it pertains to our conception of food, and our conception of farming. As a farmer, I always thought of CSAs in terms of the service, the support, that a farmer was offering a community, believing the provisions of the farmer were paramount in a CSA farm. The farmer offers skills, knowledge, time, and labor to grow the best possible produce for a group of people to eat, while also providing the community with open and productive land—a place to connect with the earth, cultivated and natural ecosystems, plants and animals, and other human-members of the community. And while this vision of CSA is true, in recent weeks it has become evident how limited this idea of CSA is, as the depth of the relationship between myself and my community manifests again and again in my daily life. The support extended to us by the community feels palpable, the generosity absolute—I am being provided for in such a clear and complete way, and my work as a farmer (and a community member), directly comes out of the support which I am given. From my housing needs to my health care needs, the time and energy of so many gifted members of the community who freely give their work to the farm, the land on which the produce is grown—we are being supported.

Maybe each of you initially came to Great Song wanting vegetables, but the connections formed between the community and this farm have become much more complex than a simple consumer-producer relationship. Those surrounding us have invested their lives into our work, and we continue to commit to investing our work into your lives. For all of your support, thank you.

A few images of our work these pasts few weeks...

(above) Sheila, Marina (of Shoving Leopard CSA), Justin, and Anthony, dig and level the foundation for the rocketstove.

Jen, Justin, Anthony, and our friend Lisa from Philmont test a "mock" rocket stove outside before constructing the real deal in the greenhouse.

Jen prepares the clay for making into clay slip and cob

to construct our germination bench for the seedlings.

Anthony and Justin laying brick.

The beginning of the rocketstove: the firebox and chimney.

The chimney viewed from above, insulated with clay slip and perlite.

A Late-Winter Recipe (or early Spring)

...adapted from one of my favorite food blogs: Smitten Kitchen... perfect for mid-March, if you've been hitting-up the farmer's markets and eating storage vegetables all winter, you might be ready for a little carrot adventure (plus, carrots will be one of the first CSA crops coming in early summer, so get ready!)

Carrot Salad with Harissa, Feta and Mint

3/4 pound carrots, peeled, trimmed and coarsely grated
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 crushed clove of garlic
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds or about half as much, ground (I used seeds but ground them first)
3/4 teaspoon cumin seeds or about half as much, ground (I used the seed but ground them first, again)
1/2 teaspoon paprika
3/4 teaspoon harissa (if you're looking for a solid kick of heat, otherwise adjust yours to taste, or keep it on the side)
1/2 teaspoon sugar or honey
3 tablespoons lemon juice
a splash, or maybe 2-3, of ume plum vinegar
2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh mint, finely chopped
100 grams feta, crumbled or chopped into bits
salt and pepper to taste

In a small sauté pan, cook the garlic, caraway, cumin, paprika, harissa and sugar in the oil until fragrant, about one to two minutes. Remove from heat and add the lemon , ume plum, and a pinch of salt. Pour over the carrots and mix. Add the herbs and mix. Leave to infuse for an hour and add the feta before eating.

Harissa: Is a North African chile paste that has become so popular, we were tickled to find it all over tables in Paris two years ago, right next to the Dijon mustard. There is almost nothing it doesn’t make more delicious: eggs, potatoes, stews, couscous, sandwiches and more, and there are almost as many recipes as there are people who consume it. Most boil down to hot chiles ground with garlic, cumin, coriander, caraway and olive oil, often with a smidge of sundried tomatoes. You can make your own, which I would recommend putting on the to-do list for early September when the Great Song CSA hot peppers will be arriving. A pint should be enough to last you the year, unless you're a serious hot-freak.


And, lastly… A Little Something Else…

The Peace of Wild Things

By Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Interesting in learning more about Volunteering?

Are you interested in spending more time with your hands in the soil at Great Song Farm?

We're excited to have folks show interest in our farming venture and support us with their time and energy by volunteering on the farm throughout the season.  Part of our vision for Great Song Farm is to be a refuge where our community can connect with the natural world, and experience where their food comes from, while also interacting with the vibrant community of people around them.

Because most of the work taking place right now is planning and office-work, we will begin inviting volunteers to the farm starting in April (which really isn't so far away!).  For the month of April, volunteer days will be:

Tuesdays 10-12 a.m.
Fridays 3-5 p.m. 

Volunteer work in April and May will include preparing beds for planting--raking and picking rocks from the field, seeding trays in the greenhouse, transplanting, and other farm odd-jobs. Volunteer work in June, July, and August, will include the above, but also be focused on weed control, as well as harvesting and washing for CSA pick-ups.  You are more than welcome to bring your children (of any age) with you to work with us on the farm. 

We hope to cater the work a bit to the skills and interests of each of our volunteers, so as our relationship evolves, so will the work.  We also respect if people have physical limitations which restrict them from certain movements (working on your knees, bending over, or lifting heavy objects), and hope to be able to tailor the work to be comfortable and sustainable for you.  So long as you have an interest in working with us and the earth, we can find work to support your needs and abilities.    

If interested in volunteering this season, you can contact us at greatsongfarm@riseup.net, OR you can meet us and learn more at one of our CSA information sessions which are taking place...

Sunday, February 26th at 2 pm
Saturday, March 17th at 2 pm
Saturday, April 7th at 2 pm

All Information Sessions will be on the farm at 475-479 Milan Hill Road.

Upcoming Open House Information Session

Join Great Song Farmers for an Open House Information Session on Sunday, February 26th at 2p.m. on the farm at 475 Milan Hill Road in Red Hook.  This gathering will be a chance for folks to meet the farmers, learn about our farming practices, and ask questions about what it means to be a member of our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).  All are welcome.  Contact us with questions at greatsongfarm@riseup.net or 845-758-1572.

Community Gathering February 4th 4 pm

Great Song Farmers invite one and all to our Mid-Winter Community Gathering on Saturday, Feb 4th at 4pm on the farm at 475 Milan Hill Road.  Please join us for a farm tour, socializing, and a soup supper.  If the weather is pleasant enough, we'll start-off with a farm walk to see the new farm office and kitchen space which we have been building over the winter, and perhaps to wander through the woods or up to the back fields.  We'll then join indoors for some soup and to share stories of our winter adventures.  Bring a bowl, a friend, and an instrument if you play one.  If you can, please RSVP if you know you will be coming (so we know how much soup to make) here.