Genuine Faux News of the Farm
Vol 4 Issue 10 - October 2008
|
Genuine Faux News of the Farm Vol 4 Issue 10 - October 2008 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
As people who are concerned about sustainability issues, we are aware of numerous places in the world that are held forth as 'shining beacons' for 'green living.' These are communities, or regions, where like-minded persons gather to live and do business in ways that support local businesses, artisans, farmers, etc. All the while they try to do that which is currently accepted as most friendly to the environment and the community. In fact, some of these locations are not terribly far away (e.g. Fairfield, Iowa; Viroqua, Wisconsin). It's seems natural to us that we might visit these locations and feel somewhat wistful for the services and opportunities we perceive to be available there. Everything can seem so perfect when you tour through a community as a visitor. Oh look! A bustling farmers' market AND a local cooperative food store! How wonderful! There is not one, but TWO people who advertise contracting for sustainable energy systems with main street store fronts. It's so easy to idealize a location or life that is not our own. The natural corollary to this is that we become dissatisfied with where we live. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Bremer and Black Hawk counties had five or six CSA businesses - all of them filling up their shares - with room for ambitious young farmers to start new CSAs? How about county government support for organic farming methods? There are locations with similar populations that have both of these things. Since most of you are not vegetable farmers, perhaps you envy a wide diversity of local restaurants with a wide variety of foods? Or, maybe you wish there were more local stores and contractors that worked with 'green' building supplies? Wouldn't it be nice if there was a diverse and active series of cultural events? Reminder Number 1: Every community has its problems, but not every community has problems that are apparent to the visitor! Reminder Number 2: Model communities (whatever the type) only become models when there is a high level of participation by a large number of people within that community. Reminder Number 3: Communities that are struggling need idealistic and energetic people who have dreams of better things. Reminder Number 4: Things typically do not change overnight. If they do, it's likely due to a catastrophic event or will lead to one. Reminder Number 5: Communities and members of communities need to learn, relearn and adjust as circumstances change. We are seeing signs of change and hope in our communities. We hope that our farm is a part of this and we are pleased to see more people taking calculated risks in an effort to make our communities better ones. Go out to these "meccas" of sustainable living and visit! Come back with ideas. Then, work to make these ideas happen. That's our idea of a community to be envious of. |
Tomatoes Yikes! The tomatoes are late, but we're getting a whole bunch of beautiful, good tasting tomatoes all at once.
* through Sep 29 The even better news? The quality of the tomatoes has been generally VERY good in all respects this September. AND, there are many, many more on the plants. The bad news - we're not sure how we'll keep up in the next two weeks. We pulled in over 1000 tomatoes from the 20th - 26th! Winter Squash We've said this before and we'll say it again. Our CSA members will not receive winter squash or pumpkins this year. We had a total (and abject) crop failure. Even we will be buying squash this season if we want any. Carrots Our carrot harvest will be coming to a close during the last week of September and first week of October. A late planting may produce baby carrots by the end of October, but we will play that as it comes. Our carrot crop paid for the 6-row seeder - with approximately 2000 carrots being distributed to the CSA. We did not have to thin the carrots and we were able to provide CSA members with carrots through the months of August AND September. In addition, we made $163 market sales of this crop alone (which pays for the weeding help we employed for the carrot patches!).
|
||||||||||||||||
| Vol
4 Issue 10 - October 2008
Practical Farmers of Iowa hosted a field on Sunday, September 7 at Genuine Faux Farm. Approximately 25 people attended the field day with persons from as far away as a 2.5 hour drive from the farm. The event started with a short presentation by Rob & Tammy with a farm tour following. It closed with a potluck featuring fresh or local items and a tomato tasting. Our thanks to persons who helped us prepare the farm and fields for viewing. There were many positive comments regarding the state of our fields from persons who work the land. This means a great deal to us. We were also pleased to see some of our counterparts from the Waverly and Waterloo farmers' markets. It was good to have friendly faces there supporting us! Please note: a reporter from the Waverly paper attended this event. We do not receive that paper and were wondering if a story about this event had been run. If so, could someone please arrange to a have a copy sent to us? Thank you! That is the question. We are likely to add a hive or two of honey bees in 2009 in order to aid in crop pollination on the farm. We will keep everyone posted as we learn more. Obviously, we do not expect to have honey to sell for some time (if ever). The main goal for us is to pollinate our crops. However, there is an issue with bee colonies failing in the United States over the last several years. Bee keepers are struggling, as are orchards and others who rely on honey bees to pollinate crops. One possible cause of bee hive loss has been determined to be a pesticide. The pesticides are imidacloprid and clothianidin. Both substances are systemic chemicals that work their way from the seed through the plant. The substances get into the pollen and the nectar and can damage beneficial insects such as bees. This information and more can be read in this article by the Environment News Service. Clearly, this source could be somewhat biased, just as the producer of the pesticide likely had biases in their own studies. In our opinion (and it is only opinion), the answer is probably more complex - with this pesticide being one of series of conditions that have led to these problems. The Rodale Institute also reports on studies attempting to isolate the causes of bee hive losses, linking to what looks like another article from the same service. |
page 2 PORK: Two hogs are at the locker and are processed. Pick up times to be announced. October 11 - 2pm to 6pm If you have interest in participating, please contact us and let us know you are going to attend. If we know you are coming, we can plan activities accordingly. Proposed activities can be altered to appeal to all sorts of abilities and interests. There is always weeding, of course, but there are also opportunities to paint, put up fences and numerous other things. Since there are still several days until this event, we only have a general idea as to what we will be doing. There is one more TSD planned for November this year. When? October 4 from 3pm to 10pm Our fall gathering is usually electric with anticipation for the annual tomato launch. If you don't know what the launch is, you're just going to have to attend and find out. This gathering starts earlier and ends earlier out of respect for the weather. It is a potluck style food event. Bring something to grill and/or something to pass (salads, snacks, etc). We usually have lemonade, iced tea and water available for beverages. We respectfully request that you limit alcoholic beverages. We will supplement the feast with some of our fall excess. NOTE: we may pull out the roast bison that made an appearance on our field day. There is still plenty left (yes, we froze it - otherwise it might be a tad bit "off") and we should have plenty of tomatoes for you to taste! Once again, games will make an appearance, as does good food and other spontaneous good things. Weather permitting, we will start a bonfire before dark and there will be s'mores. Can't have a bonfire without those! Directions: Coming north on 63 from Waterloo or Waverly. Turn right (east) on HWY 93 towards Tripoli. At Navaho (2nd gravel road) turn left (north). At 150th Street (2nd gravel road) turn right (east). Travel approximately 1/2 mile to the big gray house on the north side of the road. It is the FIRST house after your turn. |
||||||||||||||||
|
Vol 4 Issue 10 - October 2008 From Christine DeVries: I'm a fan of the splendid table, a public radio program at 11am on sundays. I tried this recipe around this time last year and adored it! Rubbing the bowl with garlic gives the dish all the flavor without any of the bite. A mix of tomatoes gives a good flavor and color blend. Any pasta will probably do the job; I think I used the linguine rigate from Barilla (a bit wider than spaghetti, with ridges to hold the sauce better). http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/recipes/sauce_uncookedtomato.shtml From Sue Taiber We enjoyed "popcorn kale" that our daughter-in-law served on Saturday for a tailgate. Chop kale into large pieces, removing the stem. Put in a large pan, drizzle lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake in 400 degree oven, shaking occasionally. Remove when it begins to look like the outer leaves of roasted Brussels sprouts. It has a similar flavor! You wouldn't believe how much kale you can consume when it is prepared this way! For our recipe pages, go here.
Tomatoes are on our mind. So, we'd like to give a few thoughts on tomatoes and tastes. Green tomatoes: Green Zebra and Tasty Evergreen. These tend to have a zesty or tangy flavor that appeals to many people - especially those who don't like the sweeter tomatoes as much. Both tend to be juicy. Tasty Evergreen is very refreshing on a sandwich. Red tomatoes: Trophy, Wisconsin 55 and Rutgers. You want a standard tomato taste and look? Here they are. All with the full, robust flavor associated with "old-tyme" tomatoes. Trophy tends to be the meatiest of the three - though we would classify all of these as being more 'juicy' than 'meaty.' Pink tomatoes: German Pink, Soldacki and Hungarian Heart. These are all very large tomatoes and they are all very meaty. Rob's favorite for sandwiches is German Pink with a sweet flavor. These have the quality that they will NOT juice all over the board when you cut them. One slice typically covers a slice of bread! |
page 3 Purple tomatoes: Cherokee Purple, Black Krim and Nyagous. Some of the ugliest, yet best tasting tomatoes you will find. Typically, these will have a sweeter and complex tomato flavor. People taste these with an initially skeptical look that changes quickly to amazement about how good they are. Our personal preference of the three is slowly leaning towards Black Krim. Nyagous is a smaller tomato that is great for salads. Yellow tomatoes: Dr Wyche's Yellow, Moonglow, Golden Sunray and Gold Medal. All of these are lower acid and typically would be classified as having a sweeter taste than standard red tomatoes. Golden Sunray and Moonglow are average sized and are less sweet while maintaining low acid qualities. These are both excellent all-purpose tomatoes. Cut up some Trophies and Moonglows and put them over enchiladas! Pretty and tasty - all in one! Gold Medal is the sweetest tomato we have ever tasted and are quite large (and hard to grow). Dr Wyche is a large, beefsteak style of tomato that has rapidly become one of our favorites to grow, pick and eat (typically eaten fresh). Paste (or Roma) tomatoes: Amish Paste, Speckled Roman, Roman Candle, Opalka, Federle, Polish Linguisa, Purple Russian, Long Tom. Most of these are red (Amish, Opalka, Federle, Polish and Long) though they have some different characteristics. Largest and most meaty are the Amish Paste - a long time sauce favorite for us. Also great in salsas and fresh eating. The other favorite is Speckled Roman (yellow and red striped) for a slightly sweeter flavor. It's lower acid content helps with the overall acid content of our sauces. Roman Candle is a yellow paste tomato that will have even lower acid content. They have a nice texture, but go better if combined with other varieties in salsas and sauces. Iowa State Extension office has some fine material available for your use: Freezing Fruits and Vegetables The Genuine Faux Farm is celebrating the incoming tomato crop by encouraging tomato tasting in a series of events! Sept 27 - Waverly Farmers' Market from 8:30-11:30. GFF will have a dozen (or more) varieties for sale with the opportunity to test drive each variety prior to purchase. Check it out! Sept 30 - Waverly Farmers' Market from 3:00-6:00. A limited tasting given the varieties and space. However, we should have tastes available to market goers and CSA members so you can make selections that will please you most. Oct 2 - Waterloo Farmers' Market from 4:00-7:00. Similar to Tuesday. Oct 4 - Waverly Farmers' Market from 8:30-11:30 Oct 4 - Roots Tomato Tasting and Meet the CSA. TBA Oct 4 - GF7 Festival at the farm. |
||||||||||||||||
|
Vol 4 Issue 10 - October 2008 Don't DREAM it's over! We have alot of produce to get to you this month - so be prepared to enjoy. We will begin picking leeks and brussels sprouts. Kale and broccoli side shoots should keep going. We are just now pulling in our last batch of storing onions - so you should continue to get some onions for a few weeks. Fall lettuce and spinach looks good and the first fall kohlrabi crop is starting to form bulbs. Fall radish will appear on and off throughout the month. As long as we avoid heavy frosts, there will continue to be eggplant and peppers. Typically, we have peppers well into October. Tomatoes are currently peaking, but we suspect they will turn to a trickle around October 10. While the tomatoes are peaking we will extend the special $1.50/lb price for tomatoes to our CSA members. We will reduce the price further for large orders. We will also work to sell via other outlets - but we'd really like to give our CSA members the opportunity to acquire all the tomatoes they want! Please contact us if you want to place a tomato order. Turkeys and Chickens Available We are still taking orders for Thanksgiving turkeys and for meat chickens. Please contact us and let us know what interest you have. Sorry, we don't have time to do a review this month. If you would like to recommend a book, film, etc AND write a short blurb on it, please send it on to us and we might use it - giving credit where it is due, of course! For other recommendations from GFF, visit this page.
|
page 4 Welcome to New Members in 2009! Welcome to 2009 share holders who are new next year and to those that are returning from prior years! All members who have signed up for 2009 will be placed on our CSA distribution list so that you will get notifications regarding our newsletters AND weekly CSA announcements. Please note: those of you who have signed up for 2009 will be getting our weekly notes for the remainder of 2008. Obviously, they do not apply to you as your shares will not start until next May/June. However, we are hopeful that you will see inclusion in this list as a way to become familiar with us and how our farm works. We are committed to filling up our 120 slots by the end of this year for 2009. The move from 60 CSA slots to 120 is a huge change. It is important that we be at, or close to, full so that we can proceed with planning for our growing model during next year's season. All you have to do to secure a spot is make a $25 deposit this year. For more information, please go here on our web site. Rob is currently out standing in his field (still/again). Ima has agreed to contribute this month. Her friends, Muck and Myra can be seen on the fence in the picture at the top. She is camera shy and is somewhere in the background. Individuals looking for an entertaining afternoon should look no further than the Genuine Faux Farm. We have found the guy with the red hat to be extremely amusing as he runs around the farm. In fact, we are conducting a study to find out what sorts of actions/sounds he can be made to respond to (see Pavlov and others). Since he is not really an intelligent being (unlike us turkeys), we have no fear that he will figure out that we are conducting experiments regarding his behavior. Observations thus far:
We expect to make a final report to the community in December regarding this study. Respectfully, Ima Turkey |
||||||||||||||||
|
Vol 4 Issue 10 - October 2008 page 5
Little known fact: Tammy and Rob both play cello. |
|||||||||||||||||
