Peak Fall Foliage is Coming Up!

Within the next few weeks, peak foliage in Connecticut will roll through the state from north to south, (check out CT DEEP's interactive foliage map here) and that means cold weather is on its way.  In fact, that cold weather is closer than you might think.  According to the National Weather Service, the first freeze of the season is happening overnight tonight.  I know I'm going to go out and pick the last of my peppers before the sun sets, but what I haven't decided yet is what I'm going to do with them.  Sounds like I'm in need of either some food preservation techniques, or a good recipe, right?

For the last year or so we have been sharing guidelines for winter food storage, recipes for cooking fall and winter foods, and farming and gardening tips for the off-season in the Winter Food Project section of our Gleanings eNewsletter.  With winter literally on our doorstep, now's a perfect time to start reviewing our enewsletter archive and our Winter Food Project webpage to refresh your memory about all the information that's available.

Below are some of the recipes we've featured in Gleanings.  Try making one this weekend with some of your harvest, or from food you purchased at a local fall event.

Have a bountiful weekend!
-Melissa

Winter Food Project Gleanings Recipes

• From the 2012 Getting Started in Organic Farming Conference:
  • Holcomb Farm CSA Coleslaw
    If you are longing for some warm weather foods as winter drags on, this is a great way to use winter foods to make a traditional summer favorite. Holcomb Farm's winter CSA provides all the vegetables for the slaw.
    
    -cabbage
    -carrots
    -onion
    -organic oil
    -white wine vinegar
    -salt and pepper to taste
    -lemon
    
    Grate or chop all ingredients and combine in a large bowl.  Serve immediately or refrigerate.

• Hearty Veggie Soup - VEGAN

For a traditional winter dish, you can't go wrong with this one. The version we had at the conference had homegrown organic veggies.

-kale

-tomatoes

-carrots

-peas

-celery

-onions

-edamame

-parsnips

-garlic

-parsley

-kidney beans

Chop up ingredients as finely or coarsely as you want and combine in a large soup pot. Cook on medium heat until all the veggies are tender and have released juice - you can always add some vegetable stock if you want a thinner soup.

• Dutch Kale Dish - From Johan van Achterberg, a longtime farmer and board member from Easton. He wrote that this was the way his mother made kale.

-Peel and boil 4 good size potatoes for mashing with some butter and milk; add salt before cooking.

-Remove the leaf part from the kale stem (about 12 stems) and shred the greens. Cook the greens for about 15 to 20 minutes so it is tender.

-After draining the water add the kale to the mashed potatoes; mix well and season to taste.

-For real flavor fry bacon, cut into small pieces and add the bacon and some fat to the mix.

-Ring Belogna (PA Dutch) or sliced Kilbasa are a great supplement.

-For the best flavor kale should not be used until it has had some frost.

• Kale and Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes - From Wild Carrot Farm LLC, a CT NOFA member organic farm

For this recipe, be sure to wash the kale well - dirt and grit hides in the leaves. Chop the kale finely to avoid floppiness in the potatoes, and avoid over mixing the kale into the potatoes as that will add a green tinge to the dish. You can use either peeled or unpeeled potatoes for this recipe.

-3 lbs potatoes, cut into large chunks

-sea salt

-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

-4 cloves garlic, minced

-1 bunch kale, large stems stripped and discarded, leaves chopped

-1/2+ cup warm milk or cream

-freshly ground black pepper

-5 scallions, white and tender green parts, chopped

-1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan, for garnish (opt)

-fried shallots, for garnish (opt)

Put the potatoes in a large pot and cover with water. Add a pinch of salt. Bring the water to a boil and continue boiling for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, chopped kale, a big pinch of salt, and saute just until tender - about a minute. Set aside.

Mash the potatoes with a potato masher or fork. Slowly stir in the milk a few big splashes at a time. You are after a thick creamy texture, so if your potatoes are on the dry side keep adding milk until the texture is right. Season with salt and pepper.

Dump the kale on top of the potatoes and give a quick stir. Transfer to a serving bowl, make a well in the center of the potatoes, and pour the remaining olive oil. Sprinkle with the scallions, Parmesan cheese, and shallots.

Serves 6.

• Jerusalem Artichoke & Roasted Garlic Vichyssoise - From CT NOFA board VP John Turenne's Sustainable Food Systems

4 pounds            Jerusalem Artichokes, washes & scrubbed, diced 2 inches

1 pound              Leeks, white and light green part only

8 cloves              Garlic, Roasted

1/4 cup               Olive oil

1 quart               Vegetable stock

2 Tbl.                 Thyme, fresh

2 cups                2% low-fat milk

As needed          Salt, kosher and fresh cracked peppercorns

1. Split the leeks lengthwise and wash well to remove all sand and grit. Slice them thinly.

2. Sweat the leeks in the olive oil without browning them.

3. Add the Jerusalem Artichokes, roasted garlic, thyme and vegetable stock and bring to a simmer.

4. Simmer until the Jerusalem Artichokes are tender, approximately 45 minutes.

5. Purée the soup in a food processor, blender or with an immersion blender; season with salt and pepper.  Add milk and return to low simmer to heat through for 5 minutes.

6. Serve hot or chilled.

Yield: 4 quarts

• Deb's Dried Apples - From the CT NOFA Office Manager Deb Legge
  
  
  Slice your favorite unpeeled apples into 16 slices. (One of those corer/slicer gadgets makes the job go a lot more quickly.) Sprinkle with a small amount of lemon juice, if available. For seasoning, use a mix of mostly cinnamon, with a bit of nutmeg, cardamom, and cloves to your preference. Arrange in a single layer in each dehydrator rack and dry for 20-24 hours. Store in glass jars.

Responses to the Stanford Study

Indiana Public Media/Flickr

I debated whether or not to write again about this topic since there has been so much press about it already, but as I continued to receive well written responses and the Executive Director started to get quoted on the subject, I decided that it was worth a followup, if for no other reason than because it will allow you to access important articles all in one place.  The first article in the following list - in which Bill Duesing is quoted extensively - sums up the organic community's reaction pretty well in its title.  It's annoying, and frustrating, when a narrow filter is applied to a holistic model of agriculture and then it's sensationalized in the press.  It's also annoying when the majority of the argument refutes a claim that most organic proponents never made in the first place.  But because those claims of organics' nutritional advantage were never the keystone of the organic model, the study and related negative press really isn't that intimidating.  Fortunately, media exposure is often a two way street, so there are a lot of well-rounded interpretations of the study out there.

Organic Reaction: Farmers Annoyed, Not Threatened By Stanford Study - Hartford Courant
The reaction among consumers seems muted or nonexistent, several organic farmers and advocates told me this week. They are perturbed but not alarmed. Perturbed because the Stanford report looked at health effects far too narrowly, and, anyway, missed the whole point of the organic movement — it’s not about better nutrition, it’s about a healthier planet and a sustainable food system.  More>

A Few Things to Remind People Quoting That Organic Food Study - GOOD.is
Whoa, slow down, internet and television news! Man, one document says organic food might not be worth the dollar and you'd think an organic vegetable had held up a bank.  More>

Organic Food vs. Conventional: What the Stanford Study Missed - Huffington Post
While the scientists analyzed vitamins and minerals, food isn't simply a delivery device for these things alone. We are quickly learning in this industrialized food era that our food can be full of a lot of other things. It has become a delivery device for artificial colors, additives, preservatives, added growth hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, insecticides and so much more.  More>

5 Ways the Stanford Study Sells Organics Short - Mother Jones
the study in some places makes a strong case for organic—though you'd barely know it from the language the authors use. And in places where it finds organic wanting, key information gets left out. More>

The Case for Organic Food - LA Times
So a new study from Stanford University shows that organic produce probably isn't any more nutritious than the conventional variety. We doubt the folks at Whole Foods are trembling in their Birkenstocks. We're not aware of too many people who thought otherwise — it doesn't make a lot of sense to assume the application of pesticides would have much impact on a fruit's vitamin content. But that doesn't mean it isn't safer to eat.  More>

The main point here is that there's a lot more to the organic model than whether or not it's more nutritious than the conventional model, and to really determine the specific health effects of eating organic versus conventional, we need more scientific study.  Study takes time, however, and in light of the other detrimental effects of large scale conventional farming, like pesticide and fertilizer overloads and mistreatment of workers, animals, and the environment, I personally choose to buy organic in the meantime.

Have a great weekend!
-Melissa

Eat Healthy on a Tight Budget

Sometimes it might seem difficult to eat healthy foods on a budget.  It's hard to get past the notion that fruits and veggies aren't as filling for the cost, or that it is more time consuming or less tasty to eat healthy.  Why spend more to feel less satisfied, right?  Not so!  The truth is that filling up on healthy foods can be done cheaply, deliciously, and with a minimum of time and effort.  It just takes a little planning on the front end.  To help with that, the Environmental Working Group has compiled a comprehensive guide that helps shoppers make healthier food choices with less time and money.  Here is an excerpt from their methods page:

A single person relying entirely on the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. must subsist on $6.67 per day. Members of a large family on SNAP receive about $5 a day per person (USDA 2012). The limited food that can be bought with these funds must be as nutritious as possible. Environmental Working Group’s “Good Food on a Tight Budget” project aims to help people with modest food budgets find the healthiest foods. This analysis is the first comprehensive food-ranking system that considers nutrition, affordability and common contaminants that arise from environmental pollution, processing and packaging.

The guide's food list categorizes the top inexpensive and healthy foods according to food group, then provides tips on how to get the most out of each dollar you spend, noting that some foods that aren't listed because of high pesticide use may also be available from organic sources at a low cost.  Make sure to scroll down for valuable resources related to each food group.  To save on time in the kitchen, the guide also provides a list of easy recipes that prove that "cooking at home is the best way to save money and enjoy good food."

Have a healthy and thrifty day!
-Melissa

Looking Back to Look Forward - Independence in America

Back in 1976, Robert Rodale wrote an editorial for the September issue of Organic Farming and Gardening about personal independence.  Almost 36 years later, the relationship between personal independence and sustainability is a major issue in current social and political movements, regardless of whether those movements are conservative or liberal, and related concerns about food, energy, and healthcare are some of the most hotly debated topics in the United States today. Case in point: the images in this post are not from the 70's; they're part of the current shift in mindset from reliance on outside groups to a more local and holistic approach to living, an approach Rodale discusses in his editorial:

The garden is the best place to start looking for ways to help people become more independent. A garden is both the symbol and reality of self-sufficiency—especially an organic garden, which recycles organic wastes of the yard and household, permits the production of significant amounts of food with only minimal reliance on outside resources. Any campaign to boost personal independence should start by helping people become gardeners—teaching, motivating, and making land available.

Liberty doesn't end at the border of the garden, though. Home production of a variety of goods and services extends the idea of gardening. Both gardeners and non-gardeners can also grow their own bean sprouts, make some of their own clothes, become proficient at crafts, improve insulation of their home, and do similar home production tasks. Each such activity you learn makes you less dependent on others.

Even treatment of disease could be improved by fostering a greater spirit of personal independence. We need to learn more about how to take care of ourselves during illness. Any doctor will tell you that an intelligent patient, who knows how to observe and evaluate symptoms, can be treated with fewer drugs, and is therefore less likely to have side effects and will probably recover faster. Being totally dependent on the doctor is the worst way to act when sick.

As of yesterday our nation is one year older.  As you take time to be with friends and family and celebrate our country's independence, take a moment to think about your own independence and what that means to you. Think about all the ways you can take charge of your life and live more independently, and save money be healthier and happier as a result. Whether your goal is to start your own garden, replace some of your driving with bicycling, or buy goods and services from people in your town, every step you take toward sustaining yourself is also a step toward making us more sustainable as a nation.  What better way to show your patriotism than by advocating for one of the most fundamental ideals of our country?

Happy Belated Independence Day!
-Melissa

What grocery brands contain genetically modified ingredients?

If you shop regularly in the grocery store, you might wonder how you can avoid genetically modified organisms if they don't have required labeling. Unfortunately, without buying exclusively organic it's impossible to know 100% of the time, but there are easy steps you can take to be more certain.

True Food Now has released this shopping guide that gives tips and information on foods found in grocery stores based on category (meat, fish, fruits, grains, etc) and includes listings of commonly found brands of foods that are organic or may contain genetically modified ingredients.  You my not have the freedom of a labeling system at your disposal, but you can greatly reduce your risk of eating genetically modified foods if you know what foods have the greatest risk of containing gm ingredients.

As always, buying local and organic skips the whole necessity for labels, because you can just ask your farmer if what they are growing suits your needs. Check out our website for listings of farmers markets where you can buy CT NOFA farmer organic produce.

Have an informed week,
Melissa

Our New Guide to Organic Land Care is in!

This is a view of the lower level of our office building with our new shipment of 2012-2013 Guides to Organic Land Care.  Hopefully it won't get too cold for a while because it looks like we won't be using that stove for a few months.

As you know, last month we received a shipment for the first of our two printed Guides, the 2012-2013 Farm and Food Guide, which provides information by county of our member farms, farmers markets, csa programs, supporting businesses, community farms, and community gardens.  Yesterday, our second Guide developed by the NOFA Organic Land Care Program was completed and brought back to the office!  The 2012-2013 Guide to Organic Land Care provides course information, local pesticide info, and AOLCP listings by state and county, as well as a large number of feature articles and book excerpts about pest control, compost, rain gardens, and much more. The Guide is a great resource to help you find Accredited Organic Land Care Professionals in your area who can help you maintain your property without the use of harmful chemicals.  If you are an Accredited Professional, this is a great way to advertise yourself as part of a large and influential community of sustainable landscapers while also providing helpful tips to homeowners and groundskeepers on how to organically maintain their land.

You can order a copy of the Guide to Organic Land Care for just $2 to cover the cost of shipping, and if you visit us at one of our outreach events, you can pick up a copy for free!  To order larger quantities of the Guide for distribution, contact the CT NOFA office at 203-888-5146 or e-mail ctnofa@ctnofa.org.  A PDF of the Guide will also be available online shortly.  

Have a lovely Thursday,
Melissa

Look out for the NEW 2012-2013 Farm and Food Guide!

Guess what Melissa is so excited about!

Well, she's excited because she has spent countless hours creating the 2012-2013 Farm and Food Guide and it is finally finished, but she's also excited because we have 10,000 copies in the office!  Our guide has grown to 54 pages and lists Connecticut NOFA’s 125 member farms and supporting businesses alphabetically by county.  The Guide also includes listings of farmers markets, community farms and community supported agriculture offerings.

To be listed in the guide, farms must be certified organic or sign CT NOFA’s Farmer’s Pledge agreeing to specific sustainable and ethical farming practices with the general goal of improving the land’s environmental and agricultural quality.  We are happy to welcome twenty-one new farms to our membership for the 2012-2013 Guide! Our supporting businesses sell products of our member farms or offer services for them. 

The guide includes information about food storage, winter food crops, recipes, community farms and gardens, farming and cooking resources and county maps of farm locations!  CT NOFA will be distributing the guide at events where we are tabling, but the guide is available to our partner organizations and businesses around Connecticut for distribution. 

The Guide to Organic Land Care, a publication that lists the NOFA Organic Land Care Professionals and provides articles and tips about organic land care, will be available in a month.  This publication will also be free for distribution by our organizational partners. 

To order guides for distribution, contact the CT NOFA office at 203-888-5146 or e-mail ctnofa@ctnofa.org.  You can also preview a pdf of the guide on our website: http://ctnofa.org/documents/ff_guide2012_web.pdf

Here's to Connecticut's farms and food!

Best,

Kristiane

Great Podcasts for Farmers, Gardeners, and Landscapers

Michael Phillips

Biodynamics Now!, The International Biodynamic Food and Farming Discussion Group, is a great resource for anyone interested in farming, gardening, or land care.  In a series of podcasts, Biodynamics Now! interviews some of the movers and shakers in the sustainable and organic food movement, highlighting many of the key components to living a healthier, happier life.  Recent interviews include Michael Phillips, a holistic orchardist who taught Growing Fruit in a Healthy Orchard Ecosystem, a recent workshop for our Organic Land Care Program, and Dr. Rob Dunn, author of The Wild Life of Our Bodies, a wonderful book that explains how "our mind’s recent requirement for ‘cleanliness’ is denying our old fashion bodies of many of the synergies we co-evolved with" (and a book that is currently making its rounds around our office).

Dr. Rob Dun and his book, The Wild Life of Our Bodies

As the name of the website would suggest, Biodynamics Now! focuses its material around the concept of biodynamic agriculture, an approach that "emphasizes life processes which have potent organisational (syntropic) effects to engage minerals and chemical reactions...In large part, biodynamics involves getting a dynamic interplay going between what goes on above ground and what goes on below."   Understanding the relationships between different life processes and organisms is very important in developing a sustainable way of life.

Check out the Biodynamics Now! website to learn more about how biodynamics relates to food, farming, and your life.

Why Seed Catalogs are Great Tools

Our newest edition of Gleanings eNews features organic seed catalogs as this month's favorite tools. Since new organic seed catalogs have just come out for the 2012 season, now is a good time to note how informative and useful seed catalogs can be when starting out your garden or farm for the year.  Really knowing what kinds of seed grow best in a particular soil and climate and when it's best to plant them can mean the difference between a successful harvest and a loss.  Seed catalogs (and the people working behind the scenes to compile them) provide more than just an indexed list of products for sale.  They represent a wealth of knowledge from decades of experience working with seeds.  If you are a farmer or gardener, taking every opportunity to soak up this kind of accumulated know-how can really put you ahead in terms of your production, regardless of whether you are growing for personal or commercial use.

A recent interview by A Way to Garden highlights one individual in the vast well of organic seed producers.  C.R. Lawn, the voice behind Fedco Seeds, is not only an expert on organic seed and production, but also was a keynote speaker at one of our past winter conferences, a co-author of the NOFA Handbook on saving seeds, and his business is a co-plaintiff in our suit against Monsanto.  In the interview, C.R. dicusses a host of topics ranging from his heroes, to the Monsanto lawsuit, to giving advice about the best lettuces, peas, and potatoes.  The following segment was particularly interesting:

Q. I have a famous garden friend who despite his expertise (and Italian heritage) lamented he could never ripen a proper crop of figs. Has any plant escaped your attempts at cultivation, or otherwise exasperated you?

A. I have never done well with peppers or eggplant. With peppers I think it is mostly that I have farmed in two windy locations and I have observed that peppers hate wind. They did much better when I built them little cages with row covers over.

I think plants know when you don’t like to eat them and they won’t grow for you. The eggplant falls in that category. Though a good chef can make an eggplant dish that I would eat, I lack that ability. The plants seem to know that and never grow for me. It doesn’t help that they prefer a great deal of heat (Maine sure was not warm enough for them most years), and they seem to be a favorite target for the Colorado Potato Beetle, which in my experience will decimate them must faster than it will potatoes.

C.R. makes a good point in this section that it's important to grow what you enjoy cooking and eating.  If you love what you grow you will have a vested interest in its success, and all that hard work will be all the more delicious come harvest time!

Have a great afternoon!

A Look at the Broader Spectrum of Sustainability

Russell Libby really nailed the organic and sustainable message in his keynote speech at the MOFGA Common Ground Country Fair this past September.  His speech was featured in this quarter's Organic Farmer and Gardener Magazine, which can be read here.  The speech, Putting the Pieces Together - Our Next Food System, gives a comprehensive outlook of the global sustainable movement, highlighting many factors that must be addressed in order to make real lasting change in our environment and in our society.  Libby not only speaks about large-scale global change, but also about what we can do as individuals and groups to address growing sustainability concerns in our communities.  Our Executive Director, Bill Duesing, describes Russell Libby as "one of my heroes", and for all of us here at CT NOFA that really speaks to the value and importance of Libby's message.  Please take a few minutes to read through his speech - I doubt you will be disappointed. 

Thanks!
-Melissa

New Free Guide Helps CT Farmers Lease Farmland

"Farmland ConneCTions: A Guide for Towns, Institutions, and Land Trusts Using or Leasing Farmland" is a new guide published by the American Farmland Trust (AFT) and the University of Connecticut that aims to help local towns, institutions and land trusts successfully complete the process of leasing land to farmers or managing it themselves for agricultural use. The guide can be downloaded here. With the third highest farm real estate values in the country, Connecticut's farmland is often too expensive for local farmers to purchase, so a better option rests in leasing. As a result, farmland owned by towns, institutions and land trusts represents an important source of land for farmers and for local food production. Cris Coffin, New England Director for AFT elaborates, “We hope this guide will serve to connect those looking for farmland with those with farmland to lease. Whether it’s five acres or 100, farmland leased by communities, land trusts and institutions to farmers, or used for community farms, can help grow Connecticut’s farms, food and economy.” The guide aims to help make these farmland “connections” by walking through the legal and practical considerations involved in leasing farmland and providing information and case studies of successful community farms that have been established around the state.

To read more about the American farmland Trust, go here.

Organic Land Care Guides for Homeowners are Available

 

We picked up all the new homeowners’ manuals yesterday! “Introduction to Organic Lawns and Yards” is a booklet that focuses on introducing homeowners to the concepts of ecological, sustainable and organic landscaping. The booklet will help you to understand and begin implementing organic methods right away. Basic methods are described that will help you maintain your property with less effort, less money and less of a negative impact on the environment around you.  The booklet also provides references to other resources that can help you care for your lawn and yard without pesticides and synthetic fertilizers.  The guide includes a checklist which lays out basic changes you can make in your yard. Some simple solutions recommended by the guide include:

-         Choose natives and species adapted to your property and climate  which will require less water
-          Mix compost into the soil to improve quality and water retention
-          Water rarely, and only in the morning to reduce evaporation
-          Mow high 3” – 4”
-          Leave your grass clippings on your lawn
-          Seed with a mixture of grasses including some natives

If you have more questions, the guide and our website can direct you to Accredited Organic Land Care professionals who can help with soil testing and any large scale alterations you might want to make in your yard.

The guides are $5 each with a bulk rate (if you order 10 or more) of $3 each plus shipping charges which vary based on the quantity of guides ordered.

This manual is a great first step in the direction of going organic in your yard!
For more information head on over to www.organiclandcare.net to see the pdf and description and to purchase the guide check out http://www.organiclandcare.net/store/publications