Hops

Hops

I have a friend who once built himself a ‘lethe house.’  It wasn’t really a house, and it wasn’t really about forgetting, the way the mythical Lethe River in Hades was supposed to bring total forgetfulness to those who drank the waters.  My friend planted a circular garden filled with soporific plants like valerian, poppies, chamomile and lavender that would send one into the mythical arms of Morpheus, the god of dreams.

The garden was rimmed with large poles linked with ropes to provide supports for hop (Humulus lupulus) vines.  As I remember it, the garden was just big enough so that two of the poles could also support a hammock. This lethe house was about napping, not forgetting, except in the sense that all chores and to-do lists would be forgotten.  I don’t know that he actually got to spend too much time in his lethe house, but it is a charming conceit for a garden.

Hops are known for their soporific qualities. To this day people can buy pretty little hop pillows to lure a reluctant sandman. I have hops growing, not in my garden, but at the edges of the garden. At first I was delighted to find that a hop plant had hopped up from my neighbor’s yard, where it was growing up into a tree. It is an itchy and hairy vine which is more properly called a bine.  Vines have tendrils and suckers to help them climb, but bines just have strong  twining stems that enable them to climb. Hop bines can grow as high as a graceful 30 feet or more.

This past weekend my husband and I went out to clear a major part of a viburnam that had been bent and crushed during the historic December 2008 ice storm. The damage was not easily seen because the affected limbs were hidden by rampant grape and hop vines.  Every year we pull out and cut down these vines, but every spring they come back because we cannot find their beginnings.

Many gardeners are familiar with how persistent grape vines can be, but I think my hop vines are even more indestructible. As it happened we hit upon the perfect time to harvest the beautiful hop flowers that look like fancy little bright green lanterns. In the old days hops were not only used  for their sedative properties, but to increase breast milk, as a general tonic, and as a cure for diarrehea. Hops are not native to North America, but by the early 1600s some Native Americans had added hop tea to their healing cures. Young hop shoots can also be eaten in spring as a vegetable like asparagus.

I first learned about hop farming and harvesting in English novels and movies that described poor Londoners of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries taking off for the countryside when the hop vines were ripe, to camp out and do the harvest. I gathered it was as close as many of those people got to a country vacation where they enjoy the fresh air, green countryside and something of a social holiday with other hop pickers.

The hop bine/vine is vigorous and can grow as much as a foot a day. Hop farmers put up tall hop poles. Each pole had a hoop at the top and bottom connected by ropes. Hops were planted around the bottom hoop so they could twine around the ropes to the top hoop which was arranged so that at harvest the top hoop could be lowered for picking.  Hop pickers did not need to climb high into the air to do their job. They did notice that they got sleepy just picking the vines all day. Between the hop picking and the country air, I guess they slept well every night. Unless they developed dermatitis, which was an occupational hazard.

Since we have a micro-brewery, Berkshire Brewery,  right in our own South Deerfield backyard, I thought I could get some hop and beer information. Gary Bogoff and Chris Lalli now produce nearly 18,000 gallons of beer a week!

I spoke to Jason Hunter, the Assistant Director of Sales who was the brewery’s very first employee.  Hunter explained that there are more than 40 varieties of hops providing different characteristics to make distinctly different beers.  “Each variety has specific flavor and aromatic properties, as well as bittering. The bittering helps to balance the sweetness of the malt,” he said.

Hunter went on to explain that most hop farms are in the Pacific Northwest and that Berkshire Brewery uses tons of several types of hops to make their different beers.  “All our beers except one, use more than one variety, and some use four or five.”

I don’t know whether beer is soporific or not, or just something that will cure what ails you on a hot summer afternoon or evening.

While hops will make you drowsy, a sunflower contest is sure to keep awake with anticipation. Will your sunflower win? Bring your sunflowers, or come and admire the sunflowers, at the Energy Park this afternoon, August 21. Entries are being accepted in a variety of classes between noon and 2 p.m. Then the judging will begin. Clarkdale and Pine Hill Orchards are providing apples for the winners.

You could continue the celebration, whether a prize was won or not by attending the Free Harvest Supper on the Greenfield Common  tomorrow, August 22.. Fabulous local food prepared by our fabulous local chefs. Lively music by fabulous local musicians. Fabulous conversations and a Really, Really Free Market.  For a still more trash-free meal, bring your own eating utensils.

To make a tax-deductible donation to the Free Harvest Supper:
Send checks made out to FREE HARVEST SUPPER 2010 to Dino Schnelle, C/O Center for Self-Reliance Food Pantry, 393 Main Street, Greenfield, MA 01301. For more information about the Center for Self Reliance and the Greenfield Farmers’ Market Coupon project, please call (413) 773-5029. ###

Between the Rows   August 21, 2010

Sunflowers

Sunflowers at the Pleasant Street Community Garden

When we think of sunflowers most of us think of tall stems with large blossoms heavy with seeds – that will be half eaten by the birds unless we protect them for our own use or display.  The Recorder and the Greenfield Garden Club will be holding their Annual Sunflower Contest on Saturday, August 21 at the Energy Park and we expect to see many of these beauties vying for attention.

The contest has several categories for youth (under age 16) and adults (16 and over). There will be bragging rights and ribbons for the tallest, most blooms on a single plant, largest blossom head, heaviest blossom head and the best arrangement which must be mostly sunflowers. Judges reserve the right to create a special category if necessary. Photos of the winners will appear in the following week’s Life & Times section.

Whether or not we grow sunflowers for a competition it is important to remember that sunflowers are heavy feeders.  A sunflower bed should be prepared and well fertilized with plenty of compost and rotted manure in the spring. These days I am happy to say that it is easy to buy good compost from Martins Farm or Bear Path Farm.

In addition to my compost, which has a good helping of rotted chicken manure for nitrogen, I keep a bag of greensand on hand to add the necessary potassium. Nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus are the three major nutrients needed by plants .

In addition to planting sunflower seed of whatever variety in a well prepared bed, watering throughout the season is important, especially during a summer like this one which has been so dry.  Please note, this is good advice no matter what you are growing, edible or ornamental.

Tall sunflowers like Russian Mammoth are easy to find, but there are many other sunflowers that are stunning in the garden and beautiful on the dining table. Johnny’s Selected Seeds sells a whole series of sunflowers developed as cutting flowers.  Pollenless sunflowers like the tall pale Buttercream, softly colored Peach Passion, and deep burgundy Moulin Rouge make life neater for the housekeeper.

Brilliantly colored sunflowers like Chocolate, Strawberry Blonde and Velvet Queen bring a new palette to these flowers, and while they may have smaller or larger centers, they have the familiar form. Double Quick Orange on the other hand  looks like a shaggy lion’s mane.  Teddy Bear, resembling the plush of that childhood toy, is one of the dwarf varieties now available and suitable for containers; Giant Sungold looks like Teddy Bear’s big brother.

The sunflower family, Helianthus, is comprised of 52 species, some of which are perennials. Perhaps the most well known is the Jerusalem artichoke, H. tuberosus.  It is a plant native to North America and has nothing to do with Jerusalem or artichokes.  One story says that Samuel Champlain first described the flavor of the edible root as similar to that of the artichoke.  New Englanders call the root, which has the crunch of a raw potato, sun chokes.

Whether you call them sun chokes or Jerusalem artichokes, they are quite nutritious and good to eat raw, roasted or steamed. Boiling them makes them mushy. They grow to heights of seven feet or more and produce sunny yellow flowers in late summer. Steve Ziglar at the New England Wildflower Society said they do not recommend planting them in the regular vegetable garden because they can quickly spread throughout the garden, either because a bit of a tuber was not harvested or because a well fed mole moved a piece from the planting bed to his dining room and didn’t finish his meal. If they are not harvested and replanted, but left to bloom in the same place year after year, the quality of the tuber for eating declines.  I know I have seen Jerusalem artichokes growing along Route 2 but I have never tried to harvest any.

I remembered seeing ‘perennial sunflowers’ in Ted Watt’s Greenfield garden on last year’s Greenfield Garden Club tour. Knowing that most perennial sunflowers are aggressive growers, I called and asked him what variety he used. Alas, he said his ‘sunflowers’ are not Helianthus at all, but Silphium perfoliatum, a native plant sometimes called cup plant because of the way the leaves grow around the stem, forming what could be called a cup.

Watt uses them as a flowery hedge at one edge of his garden, next to the sidewalk and gets many admiring comments.  The warning he had about these ‘sunfllowers’ is that they must be deadheaded.  If they are allowed to go to seed, the vital seeds will blow away and come up everywhere in the garden.

Here in Heath we have great sunflower fields. These real sunflowers, with big seed heads are being grown as a biofuel plant. The several farmers who have formed the Hilltown Farmers Biodiesel Co-op were able to get a grant to help buy the necessary seed press and mobile biodiesel processor that can travel from farm to farm as they each take their turn using the equipment. Their goal is to save money, reduce their dependence on oil, and protect the environment.

I hope to see you at the Energy Park on Saturday, August 21. We’ll be accepting entries between noon and 2 pm. Then the judging will begin. Take care of your sunflowers til then.

Between the Rows  August 7, 2010

Sunflowers in the Children's Garden at the Berkshire Botanical Garden

Michael Shadrack and His Hostas



The ‘long bus’ turned so sharply off the paved road and onto a dirt track that all 40 of us garden bloggers collectively held our breath. Fortunately our driver was a real pro and soon we were driving through the woods where Kathy and Michael Shadrack, hosta experts, awaited us.

When the bus stopped Mike Shadrack leaped on to welcome us to his home and gardens.  With a nod to Frank Lloyd Wright Mike calls his house Fallingwater North because it is literally set over a stream. Its broad decks provide a deliciously dangerous view of the stream plunging into a deep wooded ravine.

In front of the house a marquee (that’s British for tent) had been set out with a proper cream tea. China cups, tea pots, milk, lemon and British scones (not the big dry kind you get in upscale bakeries) with clotted cream and strawberries were ready to help us restore our tissues before we set out to explore the shade beds planted with Mike’s hostas, and the sunny hill planted with scores of his wife’s daylilies.

Everywhere we looked were hostas of every size and hue, hostas in the woods, in beds and in pots. Shadrack explained that putting hostas in pots was one way to cut down on slug and snail damage. He also said that putting copper tape tied around the pots would act as a further deterrent. He also puts whole arrangements of min-hostas in a single pot.

I looked at the hostas growing in the dappled light of the woods and  wondered if there were no deer in New York state. In his ebullient and charming manner Shadrack told us all to be careful because we might bump into his “unique, patented deer fence.” He described this as a kind of web of monofilament fishing line that went from tree to tree.  I had heard that a single strand of  fishing line could be run around a garden at chest height to deter deer. The idea is that the deer cannot see the fishing line, but they will feel it. The touch of this invisible thing will confuse or frighten the deer and they will advance no farther and leave.  I haven’t tried this, but the idea fishing line going up and down and across from fence post to fence post, or from tree to tree sounds more dependable.

I certainly do know that hostas are deer candy. I have a few common plants growing by the Cottage Ornee and they are nibbled at all season long.

Michael Shadrack

Since most of the Buffalo gardens we had been visiting were small urban gardens, they had a fair amount of shade. And where gardeners have shade they will have hostas. In the small Timber Press Pocket Guide to Hostas ($19.95) by Diana Grenfell and Michael Shadrack, there are descriptions of 800 hostas  from mini to giant, and in every shade of green, yellow green, gold, and blue greens. Some are variegated and some are crinkled and some have fragrant flowers. There are hostas to please every taste.

In this book Shadrack and Grenfell  point out that  hostas can be a “foil early in the season to strap-shaped hemerocallis . . . later on, sun-tolerant hostas . . .  can accentuate the spikiness of yuccas.”

Shadrack reminded us that hostas are shade tolerant, not shade loving, meaning that high or dappled shade is best. Hostas need protection from the strongest sun of the day.  They need fertile soil that is moist but well drained, and a site that is protected from strong wind.

With Diana Grenfell, Shadrack has put all his knowledge and advice about hostas in the big New Encyclopedia of Hostas (Timber Press 49.95) and in November Timber Press will release The Book of Little Hostas: 200 Mini and Very Small Varieties. Just in time for holiday giving. Shadrack said he once took a photo of 100 potted mini hostas on one of his deck benches to show that every one of us has room for a substantial collection of different hostas.

Mini-hosta collection

The Shadrack garden was the final stop of the third day of touring Buffalo’s gardens for 70 garden bloggers from across the country, and from Canada. The only thing you can say about all garden bloggers, who write about their gardens online, is that they are passionate gardeners. We are also journalists, garden designers, garden coaches, garden magazine editors, and garden lecturers. If you would like to ‘meet’ some of the gardeners I met in Buffalo and see their posts and photographs of Buffalo’s gardens, logon to www.Buffa10.blogspot.com. I love the idea that Buffalo’s gardens have become an important tourist attraction.

Of  course when I returned home from Buffalo I found my own garden had undergone a growth spurt. Why is it that weeds don’t mind drought, and grow twice as fast as anything else?

I also saw that the Community Harvest has begun at Ev Hatch’s Field for the Hungry on Plain Road. If you would like to help with this harvest call Mark Maloni at Community Action 413-376-1181.,    If you cannot help with the harvest there because your own harvest is keeping you so busy, remember you can bring any extra produce to the Salvation Army or Center For Self-Reliance, or the Survival Center or any other food pantry near you.  Log on to www.parwmass.blogspot.com for more information about the Plant a Row program. ###

Between the Rows   July 24, 2010

A Field for the Hungry

Ev Hatch's tomatoes for a Community Harvest

Ev Hatch will never forget the seed salesman who talked to him about his upcoming retirement.  Instead of selling seeds, he was  going to plant a lot of vegetable seeds, tend the plot and donate all the vegetables to food pantries.

Over his career Hatch has planted a lot of seeds, in the ground, and in the community as he worked for the Cooperative Extension Service and 4-H. After his  retirement in 1977 from these agricultural state enterprises  he began farming out on Plain Road in Greenfield.  At first he grew a little bit of everything including strawberries, but eventually he focused on strawberries. Hatch’s Patch supplied beautiful berries to the cooks and happy eaters of the area for many years.

Four years ago he gave up farming, but continues to grow his own garden. His land is rented to Kyle Bostrom who uses Hatch’s greenhouses to grow and sell vegetable starts and bedding plants. A new sign for The Patch still welcomes gardeners in the spring.

With his farming days finished the words of that seed salesman came back to Hatch.  He had land available, and he had labor available at his church, First Congregational Church in Greenfield, as they planned their Feet, Hands and Voices to Faith project.

He plowed up a quarter acre and he had a flashback.  When the tiller broke he remembered that what he hated most about farming was equipment that broke down just when you needed it. Everything had to stop while you figured out how to repair it. Nothing was broken in the hearts or hands of a crew from the church who helped with planting the field on May16th.

He speaks with such passion about the aggravation of farm equipment that I had to ask what he liked about farming. That was easy, he laughed. “I like the independence. You can do what you want.”

I allowed as how Mother Nature had something to say about what you needed to do at any given moment, and he agreed that was true. “But a farmer can figure out what the market wants, and how he can fit into the system. There is always a challenge, and you figure out how to meet the challenge yourself. No one is telling you what to do.”

If fixing equipment is his least favorite farm chore, he said his favorite is hoeing. “I love to hoe. I just stand there and zonk out.”

However, we have come to the season where there is no time for zonking out.  When I first  talked to Hatch about the field of tomatoes, summer squash, cucumbers, winter squash and broccoli I asked how could he ever manage the harvest and get the produce to the food pantries. He said he would need help.

Help is being organized now, as the harvest season officially begins on July 12.  Mark Maloni, Projects Coordinator at Community Action is scheduling volunteers on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 9 to 11.  You don’t have to be an experienced gardener who has been picking vegetables for years, but you do need to call Maloni and let him know when you can come, or when he needs volunteers. He hopes that most volunteers will be able to commit to two or three (or more) sessions,  but if you can only come once, any help is welcomed.

Packing crates will be located in the greenhouse. When filled they should be moved across the street to the Hatch home where they can rest in the shade.  The Franklin Area Survival Center will pick up the harvest one day a week, the Center for Self Reliance will pick it up another day, and the Orange Food Pantry will take the harvest on the third day. Volunteers should bring their own drinking water, hats, and sunscreen.

If you cannot help harvest Hatch’s field, but have a productive garden, you can donate any extra produce to any one of the area food pantries or meal sites. Open hours and coordinators’ names for at least 11 food sites are listed on the Plant a Row website: www.parwwmass.blogspot.com.

The number of families in our area who are enduring food insecurity continues to grow. An indication of the severity of this problem is the growth in the Eat 4 Free program. This federal program for communities with more than 50% of children eligible for free and reduced meals in the schools has been operating for 20 years. “The number of children being served has tripled in the last eight years,” said Bernie Novack, Director of Food and Nutrition Services for the Greenfield Schools.

Novack said that after the long Fourth of July weekend 750 breakfasts were served, and 1250 lunches. “Many of these children hadn’t had a good meal since Friday,”

I have seen Eat 4 Free signs posted at some of the meal sites as I’ve driven around town, at Federal Street School, Greenfield Gardens, Greenfield Swimming Pool and 10 other sites. Depending on the site, the program will run for between six to nine weeks. All a child has to do is walk in. No questions asked.

*********************

The only question asked at local daylily sales this weekend and next is “How many do you want?” Lorraine Brennan on Rt 10 in Northfield is selling daylilies July 10, 11, 17 and 18 from 9-1 pm.  Richard Willard at Silver Garden Daylilies on Glenbrook Road is digging daylilies on July 10 from 9 am – 4 pm, and on July 17 he is holding the Annual Daylily Festival with edible daylily treats. Logon to www.silvergardendaylilies.com for full information.

Between the Rows   July 10, 2010

A Search for Shade

Still some shade in the McGuane garden

Gardens can change overnight, as many people learned after the great May storm that took down so many large trees.  Those who had treasured their trees for the serene shade they provided, and the cooling they often brought to the house, found themselves in a new situation that could not soon be remedied.

Marty and Jan McGuane’s cool shady garden became a hot sunny garden  less dramatically, but with the same result. “We had a beautiful and very large Star magnolia that we planted on our seventh wedding anniversary. It developed canker a couple of years ago. We pruned off affected parts, but last fall the whole tree had to come down. Then we were on a quest for a new tree,” Jan McGuane said.

“The magnolia provided screening and shade. It is so hot in our yard now,” McGuane said, explaining what they looked for in a new tree. They wanted shade, but they also wanted flowers in the spring and good color in the fall. After discussing many flowering trees they settled on a Japanese Kousa dogwood. Kousas are not susceptible to the diseases that afflict Cornus florida, the familiar dogwood  that blooms early in the spring before the foliage appears.

The Kousa dogwood blooms later than Cornus florida when the tree has already leafed out. The flowers, which are actually long lasting bracts, are pointed instead of being rounded. It has deep reddish fall color and its fruits that resemble raspberries are quickly eaten by birds.

It was a job to take down the large magnolia. McGuane explained that roots are much harder than the rest of the tree and it was another big job to grind them out.. I did not know this about roots, but could see that it made sense. Roots of a large tree need strength to hold that tree in the ground.  This spring the McGuanes planted the six foot Kousa that is doing very well in the same spot.

McGuane's stone wall and path

During the time the tree was failing the McGuanes undertook another project that took two years to complete – the building of a curved stone wall for a ‘raised bed’ and a graceful stone walkway.

Working with six tons of Goshen stone for the walkway was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. At the time Marty was not able to heft the stone because of broken shoulders, but Jan said he had a much better idea of how the stone should be arranged.. “He would chose the stone and indicate how it should be sited in the path. I was the labor, but between the two of us we had a better result than either could have alone. I really like the curves in the garden, the path and the stone wall.”

The curving stone wall is located where there was a small deck.  Last fall planting the garden inside the wall was completed. Bulbs, a variety of sedums and heucheras have settled in nicely. A small shallow metal birdbath ornamented with a dragonfly sits on the wall. “I like ornaments in the garden,” McGuane said. “They are fun, and the dragonfly is a symbol of the Franklin County Hospice; Marty is on the Board.”

There are many curves in the McGuane garden. The back border which started out as a Moon Garden with white plants, curves and draws the eye when they sit out on the deck in evenings. There is a white Cornus florida, honeysuckle and a white Queen of the Prairie (filipendula), scented nicotiana, and pale variegated foliage plants.

There is a round fire pit and round table. “Marty likes to grill and we enjoy sitting out here eating and talking with friends,” McGuane said.

Jan's favorite garden spot

As much as she enjoys the spaces for friends and socializing, she said her favorite spot is in a corner of the garden where she has placed a chair made for her by a friend on a patch of  bluestone she laid herself. She planted a ninebark behind the chair to create a bit of seclusion and included a water bowl as a very small water feature. “I am happy just sitting there,” she said.  We gardeners don’t do enough sitting in our gardens, and we should always provide an enticement that will encourage us to sit and admire the day and our own work.

The McGuane garden is an urban garden, and is relatively small and yet it provides room for solitude and sociability. Sociability will be the order of the day on Saturday,  July 10 from 9 am to 4 pm when the McGuane garden will be one of several private gardens on the Greenfield Garden Club Tour. Tickets and maps for this self guided tour will be available at the Club’s Trap Plain Garden at the intersection of Silver and Federal Streets.

This year the Greenfield Historical Society is participating in the Tour, offering refreshments and opening their exhibits about Mary P. Wells. Wells, the author of the Boy Captive of Deerfield and other historical novels for children, was also the founder of the Greenfield Garden Club!

This tour is one of the major fundraisers for the Garden Club, along with the May plant and garden sale. The Club funds horticultural school projects, town beautification projects, and educational talks, tours, and craft nights as well as a newsletter for its members every month. If you are interested in joining the Club contact President Debran Brocklesby at 413-648-5227.

Between the Rows  July 3, 2010

Don’t forget the Daylily Sales today or the Hawley Garden tour!

Hurry to Hawley

Field of greens at Pen and Plow Farm

Who would not like to live on Pudding Hollow Road? It is clearly a road steeped in the history of Hawley, a town settled in 1760, and a unique pudding contest which took place in the late 1770s.  Farms and food have always been important parts of Hawley’s history and culture so I could not resist the opportunity to visit the newest farm and an old established garden, both on Pudding Hollow Road, and both a part of Hawley’s annual Artisan’s and Garden Tour which will be held on Saturday, July 10 from 10 am until 4 pm.

When you turn off Route 8A and cross over the new bridge you are on Pudding Hollow Road, Right across from the tiny town hall is the two year old Pen and Plow Farm, so called because the Velazquez family, Sheila, her son Jason and his wife have all been in the publishing/editorial business , but since early last spring have been turning their creative energies to sustainable farming.

Merlot lettuce at Pen and Plow farm

Sheila, who said she had farmed many years ago and has had varied careers since then, was delighted that her son gave her the nudge (push?) to go back into farming. The family found 21 acres, wooded and clear, with a year round stream. They have planted a large market garden, currently boasting ‘greens’ including reds like Merlot, Red Fire and Red Sails lettuces. These can be purchased among other places, at the new Charlemont Farmer’s Market held on Saturdays at the Hawlemont School.

In addition to the mangelwurzel (for animal feed) corn, squash, and other vegetable fields, they have two Scottish Highland Cows. “They are a good breed for the country,” Sheila said. “ They are hardy and eat brush, poison ivy and wild raspberries.”  I can see that would save on feed bills. They also have chickens and recently added a Jersey milk cow to their holdings.

Jason Velazquez

Jason took time out from his chores to show me how to sharpen and use a scythe, and to talk about his pleasure in being able to return to farming. “Values you learn in a rural childhood are applicable to many walks of life,” and this is one of the reasons he wanted to leave Boston and bring his wife and children to Hawley and to make a farm.

As he showed me all the projects, he explained that they want to learn to do more with less. “Everything we do is rooted in sustainability – what the land can sustain, and the amount of labor we can sustain as a family. We wan to provide our own food, but we plan to farm to a living. We have a commitment to being part of a community that sustains itself.”

As they move towards making a living on the farm they are paying attention to the vegetables that customers prefer. They also sell fresh eggs that have the brilliant yellow yolks that are typical of free range chickens.

Paul Cooper

Paul Cooper, retired neurosurgeon and serious cook, and his wife Leslie have been summering in Hawley since 1981, enjoying the magnificent views of the hills, and tending their gardens.

Cooper toured me around his hillside, showing me new fruit trees, apples, pears, a greengage plum, peaches, and quince. Several years ago they planted two copper beech trees which are still young, but already show signs that they will grow into majestic old trees. There is a special thanks due to people like the Coopers who plant trees that will not come into their noble maturity until they themselves are no longer walking the earth.

There are colorful flower gardens that Leslie tends, daylily borders, and pink honeysuckle vines, not an invasive variety. But Cooper’s favorite garden is the fenced vegetable garden which hints at his passion for cooking.  He grows several kinds of tomatoes, Big Boy, Sun Gold, Early Girl, Celebrity and Donna. Yukon Gold, Corolla and Kennebec potatoes, Fava beans, shallots, leeks, garlic, asparagus and eggplant, “but no peppers, because I hate them,” he said.

Mint is grown in its own circular garden where the lawn mower can keep it under control.  A small herb garden supplies much of the common herbs Cooper needs.

The lettuce was lush and Cooper sighed when he said, “It’s been a lettuce summer,” which is to say cool and damp.

Paul Cooper's lambs

Cooper hasn’t forgotten the main course, He also raises lambs – and he has a large collection of lamb recipes.

The blueberry, raspberry and red currant patches suggest that diners at his table do not leave until there has been a luscious dessert.  Maybe he will find one in The Pudding Hollow Cookbook, written by Tinky Weisblat, another Hawley resident.

Akebia covered pergola at the Cooper's

The Hawley tour includes visits to other farms, gardens and a lunch at one of Hawley’s Great Houses, also on Pudding Hollow Road.

This tour, A Collage of Arts and Gardens Throughout the Town of Hawley is sponsored by the Sons and Daughters of Hawley. Proceeds will help fund restoration of East Hawley Meeting House and the Grove Building. It is hoped that the new bathrooms in the Grove Building will be completed by tour day. For more information about tickets for the  tour call Cyndie Stetson 413- 339-4231.

Betweenthe Rows  June 26, 2010

Gardens Are More Than Plants

Kousa Dogwood - Bonifaz garden

It takes more than plants to make a garden. First, it takes time.

Deirdre Bonifaz  and her husband Cristobal moved to Conway in 1985. For Deirdre it was a return to a part of the world she knew as a youngster. In the 1950s her father had moved the family from New York to a West Whately farm, to be closer to the soil and the essentials of life. ‘He was a man ahead of his time,” Deirdre said thinking of all the back to the landers who would  come to this area a decade and more later.

After graduating from high school she went off to college – and continued traveling  after her marriage to Cristobal.  Her husband’s work as a lawyer took him to many exotic places; her first child was born in Ethiopia.

By the time she and her husband bought their old house in Conway she had satisfied all her wanderlust. The house had been built by an apothecary in the 18^th century, but had other owners including a farmer who built a large dairy barn behind the house. The barn was in serious disrepair and in spite of their heroic efforts to restore it the barn came down in 1995.

The gardens became more expansive at that difficult time for Bonifaz. At the same time they were taking down the barn, her mother was dying.  When the last of the barn debris was taken away she was left with the stone barn foundation. Here she planned a Walled Garden and dedicated it to the memory of her mother.

The second thing a garden needs is love.  Over the years, as the gardens grew, other memorial plantings were added. Bonifaz’s garden is a living testament to the love for family. The most notable is the Walled Garden with its magnificent roses.

Nina Newington, a skilled and knowledgeable gardener with a specialty in roses, was still living in our area in the 90s. She worked with Bonifaz to plant hardy antique roses in the protection of the barn foundation walls. Newington liked the roses from Pickering Nursery in Canada because they were so sturdy.  There was never any trouble ordering and having the roses cross the border.

I know that William Baffin is a vigorous climber, but I have never seen anything like the exuberant growth of the one in this garden. “Nina had me put up a support to hold it because she knew it would be needed,” Bonifaz said.  The support is made of sturdy timbers about six feet tall in a kind of pergola that hold the rose bush that climbs over the foundation wall to a height of at least ten feet.

When I asked her how she cared for the roses to get such vigor and growth she said, “I don’t fertilize except to put three or four shovelfuls of good compost around the base of each rose in the fall. In the spring I spread it around the bush.”  She then allowed as how she did fertilize The Fairy during the summer, but not the other roses.

Other roses in the Walled Garden include Madame Alfred Carriere, a large white climber, Madame Hardy another white with a beautiful green button ‘eye’,  the pale pink New Dawn climber and Goldfinch, all white and gold.

A third element necessary for a beautiful garden is variety, which Bonifaz and her husband have provided in their plantings of fruit trees, blooming trees, shrubs, perennials, and built structures.

Bonifaz says she spends a lot of time on the beautifully laid brick patio at the end of the new barn/garage that houses her husband’s legal office. There, surrounded by lilacs, Salvia ‘May Night’, irises, lady’s mantle and other perennials she, her husband, and guests can enjoy meals and talk.

I was taken with the pergola supporting more roses, and the new rustic supports for tomato plants.

Herb Garden

Perhaps thinking of the apothecary who built the house, and all apothecaries who used medicinal plants, Bonifaz has planted a small fenced herb garden laid out with geometric beds that is as useful as it is beautiful. “I was inspired by a medieval garden I saw,” she said.

The Bonifaz garden is just one of the gardens that will inspire visitors on the 22^nd Annual Franklin Land Trust Farm and Garden tour on Saturday and Sunday, June 26 and 27. The event will include six private gardens, five unique farms, two studios, one of which is a fascinating woodworking studio, and the Boyden One Room Schoolhouse in Conway.   The event runs from 10:00 to 4:00 each day.  This year the tour centers on Conway and West Whately. For full information about tickets logon to www.franklinlandtrust.org or call Linda Alvord at (413) 625-9151 or email lalvord@franklinlandtrust.org.

Tomato supports

Between the Rows  June 19, 2010

Designing with Thought

CSLD students prepare

Last week I was privileged to be invited by Paul Hellmund, Director, to the Conway School of Landscape Design for the presentations of term projects by this year’s class.  I was particularly interested in two of those projects: a feasibility study for the Davis Street School site and plans for a Botanical and Geological Garden at Greenfield Community College.

I have long been an admirer of the Conway School of Landscape Design with its emphasis on environmentally sound and sustainable principles and design, and its belief in learning by doing. This means that each semester of this ten month accredited Master’s program is devoted to a project carried out by teams of two or three.

The projects given to the students are real projects. Municipalities, non-profit organizations and homeowners can contact the school with an idea for a project, whether it is landscaping for a house or a Master Plan for a campground or street.  If chosen, those projects, residential in the fall, and municipal or organizational in the spring, are given to the students to form the vehicle for the curriculum.

Those who propose a project to the school know that they will get more than suggestions by an untested and inexperienced novice. Many of the students bring various educational, professional and life experiences with them when they begin, Then, from the start with client interviews, site visits for assessment and analysis, understanding of client goals and desired outcomes, Conway students work with skilled faculty who teach and guide, helping them find solutions to each site and design problem.

While clients may have or state a single goal, the educational process requires that each team come up with three options, based on that goal, for each site. At the end of each term the students present their projects to judges who critique the project and the presentation. Walt Cudnohufsky who founded the school in 1972 believes strongly in the necessity for students to be able to clearly articulate their plans orally, and in writing, as well through drawings.

The buzz at the school was electric when I arrived last Friday as students were putting up their drawings, and greeting guests which included clients for their projects. If I was excited to see the presentations I can only imagine how the students felt.

The range of projects was fascinating, with very different challenges. One team had to come up with a Master Plan for the Tully Lake Campground in Royalston administered by the Trustees of Reservations, and another was a Master Plan for Marble Street in West Rutland, Vermont.

I was particularly interested in the Davis Street School Administration Property Feasibility Study because that two acre site, about a five minute walk from Main Street, includes the ten year old community garden with its 36 plots – and a waiting list.

This is not the place to go through the three options that Josiah Simpson and Annie Cox presented, but from my own perspective I will say that if I were choosing I would work with the option that included retaining the community gardens, and landscaping the rest of the lot as a park. The truth is that the community, drawn by the gardens, already use the land as a park, walking dogs, and visiting.

Cox and Simpson were told that Greenfield already has sufficient housing so the old school building should not be renovated to that purpose. For myself, I think the cost of renovating that building for any use, as historic as it might be, is prohibitive. What the town does not have is a sufficiency of green space for public use.

Kate Snyder (R) and Gareth Crosby (center)

As a former member of the Greenfield Community College staff I was also very interested in the plans put forth by Gareth Crosby and Kate Snyder for a Botanical and Geological Garden behind the building.  Professor Emeritus  Richard Little has already arranged geological specimens from the Pioneer Valley in this space which include a greenhouse but the goal was to organize the space to provide adequate sun for a net-zero greenhouse, teaching space, and water/drainage management on the sloping site.

I liked all three of the options that Snyder and Crosby presented, but if I were the client I might very well want to combine elements from each. I was told this is what many clients do.  It then became clear that a presentation to a client is not the end of a project, but probably a mid-point, as the client reacts, not only approval, but with questions and concerns.

We all got to see all nine presentations, and hear the judges comments, but the clients will meet privately with their team for discussion.

The client will take possession of the project.  I know that Heath asked the Conway School for a plan for the town center including a park next to the Community Hall. I remember a large drawing hung in the Town Hall for a while, for comments.

I could not find that drawing or report, but I did track down a mention of it in the 1992 Annual Report. I will keep looking.

It’s hard to think that after so many long days, so many meetings, and so much hard work to provide multiple solutions, a project report may ultimately be lost in some dusty file and forgotten.

Maybe that’s just another lesson in reality for the students.

Conway School of Landscape Design

Goldthread Herb Farm

William Siff, co-founder of Goldthread Herbal Apothecary

“I have a good imagination,” William Siff told me as we sat in the shade overlooking the new Learning Garden in the midst of fields of medicinal herbs. He said he didn’t imagine the Goldthread Herbal Apothecary with its farm, workshops and national speaking engagements all at once, “But they are all a part of the same focus.

“As a move towards sustainable living herbal medicine is a powerful vehicle. As a society we know a lot about complex things, but we’ve lost knowledge of simple things, like providing health care without running to the doctor or to the drugstore. Herbs can provide one element of our self sufficiency and they can have an enormous ripple effect,” he said.

Certainly the ripple effect is evident in Siff’s life. Trained as an herbalist and acupuncturist, he and his wife Sarah founded Goldthread Herbal Apothecary in Florence seven years ago, then bought a house and land in Conway to grow organic medicinal herbs for the shop.

“When we started growing herbs we just jumped in. Friends and family helped us in the beginning. In exchange we taught them about herbs and health. As that teaching became more popular we developed the Farm to Pharmacy program. Last year we ran it for the first time as a formal entity with a detailed seven month curriculum.  We look at herbs from various perspectives. As grower we look at propagation, cultivation and harvest with some hands on processing experience, but also from the botanical perspective and from the clinical perspective.  We charge tuition for this program,” Siff explained.

Goldenseal in the shade

A tour of the farm includes fields of 150 to 160 herb species. Some, like goldenseal and American ginseng grow in shade, but most others grow in sun. On the day I visited the garlic was about to send out graceful scapes that can be used in cooking, hop vines were artfully arranged on supports and Siff was setting out rosemary plants. “One hundred and fifty in, and another hundred and fifty to go,” he said with a smile. “We treat rosemary as an annual and will harvest every plant in the fall.”

Goldthread Farm Learning Garden

Rosemary and every other herb that Siff grows will be represented by at least a single sample in the handsome large circular Learning Garden that is on the site of a huge dairy barn. The barn was taken down by hand in the fall of 2008 so that the wood could be reused.  Stones from the foundation now take their place as the bones of  the garden.

The rosemary field, like the others, makes use of raised beds. “We use raised beds because it is easier on the back. They are permanent, but we primp them each year – after harvest they are reshaped and reformed. It means lots of work up front, but less work over time.”

Sarah Siff who was active in the business when they began is now concentrating on their two young children, and on earning a Masters degree in education.

Goldthread classroom/herb drying loft/distillery

After taking an intensive herbal workshop Thomas Schieffer stayed on to be Siff’s ‘right hand man’ putting his engineering and construction skills to good use. The derelict garage is now attractive and energy efficient, housing a classroom, a drying loft for herbs and a distillery. Schieffer redesigned the base of the wood fired distillery and noted that “when you’re around fire, it’s fun. This is just another element that makes the whole process more intimate.”

The business in the shop and on the farm now uses five other employees.

Siff hopes Goldthread Herb Farm will be a model for others. To that end he speaks at national conferences, and has instituted three one week intensive workshops, in June, July and August, that focus on fundamentals. The goal is for attendees to take the ideas and information away with them to use in a variety of ways, for their own health care, in the operation of school gardens, or to grow marketable crops.

Siff is currently working on building a consortium of organic herb growers. He is contracting with Conway’s Natural Roots CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), Mountain View Farm CSA in Easthampton, and Nuestras Raices in Holyoke to grow organic herbs for them so they will have a larger local supply.

When I asked him if herbs helped give him energy for all these projects he hesitated. He said he used lots of herbs, but then mentioned ashwaganda withania somnifera which “gives a healthy dose of energy, but keeps you relaxed.”

If you visit the farm, maybe you will see it and learn more about becoming energetic but relaxed yourself.

The Goldthread Farm (www.goldthreadapothecary.com)  is just one of the five unique farms and six private gardens that are on The Franklin Land Trust’s 22^nd Annual Farm and Garden Tour scheduled for June 26 and 27 between 10 am and 4 pm.

Tickets are limited, please e-mail or call to reserve: lalvord@franklinlandtrust.org or 413-625-9151. Tickets are also available from the World Eye Bookshop in Greenfield, and any remaining tickets may be purchased at the registration tent located at the Greenfield Savings Bank branch on Rte 116 in Conway the weekend of the event, which will be open 9:30-4:00 each day. Tickets are $20 for non-members, $15 for members. A pre-paid lunch at the Holly Barn in Conway is also available for $15.

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The Franklin Land Trust Farm and Garden tour will show you the beauties of our landscape.  Together on the Land: Options for Ecological Living in Community is a tour co-sponsored by the Cooperative Development Institute, Equity Trust, Franklin Land Trust, Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust & Valley Community Land Trust scheduled for Saturday, June 12 from 9 to 5. Do you know the difference between a coop, condo, and cohousing? Logon to www.vclt.org for full tour information. Maybe you will find a new way to get your dream home.  ####

Between the Rows    June 5, 2010

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Feed Thy Neighbor

Planting the Squash Patch at CFC

Ev Hatch, now retired from farming, is a member of the Hunger Task Force and a member of the First Congregational Church of Greenfield. When the First Church began planning a special day of service they called ‘Feet, Hands and Voices to Faith’ he knew just what to do.  He donated a half acre of his farmland, and his services to prepare the field. On May 16^th he and a crew, that included Luella McLaughlin (aged 93), set off to plant summer and winter squash, cucumbers, and 350 tomatoes that will be donated to the Survival Center in Turners Falls as the harvest comes in.

Reverend Judith Kinley said her husband Don who loves to garden was part of that crew and he was amazed at Luella’s energy.

Hatch, who is familiar to many because his years working for Cooperative Extension and the 4-H, as well as because of Hatch’s Patch Strawberries, said that when he went out to till the field he remembered the aggravation that farming sometimes brought. “I’d barely started when a bearing on the tiller broke and I suddenly remembered that’s the thing I hated most. There was always something broken and you had figure out a fix, or find a new part.” He laughed and shook his head, but he has also promised to keep his eye on the field.

“I’ll putter around every morning for a couple of hours – before it gets hot. I’ve started to put in stakes for the tomatoes. The crunch will come with the harvest,” Hatch said.

Hatch told me that the Reverend Sue Bowman, another member of the congregation, “who really gets things going,” helped to organize this day of service.

When I spoke to the Reverend Kinley she said that after a short worship service the congregation split up to “live out our worship.” Everyone got to choose how to put their own interests and talents to work whether singing for nursing home residents, or putting their hands to any number of projects including working at the Survival Center in Turners Falls.

I am also a member of the Hunger Task Force. When I brought news of the Task Force to the Federated Church of Charlemont (CFC) last year the Reverend Cara Hochhalter agreed that we could plant a Squash Patch on the south eastern side of the church.  We had an adult work crew consisting of the Reverend Hochhalter and her husband Jeff, Erwin Reynolds who brought composted manure from his farm, Sheila Litchfield and me. We used the ‘lasagna method’ of putting in a new bed with  a cardboard and  woodchip mulch between the planting hills.

You may recall that last summer was quite cool and rainy.  Our harvest was modest, but went to the church’s Good Neighbor’s program.

This year, on Sunday, May 23^rd, it was hot and the Sunday School gathered to plant squash seeds.  The bright sun gave us hope that there would be a greater harvest this year.

Reverend Hochhalter said “We believe there is abundance from God’s earth that has not been tapped to meet the needs of others.  This is just a small way that our church members can use a piece of our property to grow some food, our young people can plant seeds and join others to tend the patch, and then we share the produce through the Good Neighbors Food distribution program.  Some of the crop last year was shared through making squash soup and bread.  It is a wonderful whole-church effort that reminds us of the gifts of our earth and the joys of sharing with others.”

I want to remind every  one that any of us gardeners can plant our own extra row, or give any extra garden produce to the food pantry of our choice.

Local churches and other organizations recognize how these hard economic times make life difficult for many families and meet the need in numerous ways. But they also recognize that there is not only hunger of the body. People hunger for friendship and for feeling a part of the larger community. They hunger for hope and for celebration.

Free Harvest Meal 2009

That need is met in some measure by Community Dinners that are held throughout the area. The most celebratory of these dinners is the Annual Free Harvest Supper that will celebrate its 6^th Anniversary this year.

The meal is absolutely free, but donations collected go to buy Farmer’s Market Coupons for low-income people. Last year $3000 was raised.

I attended last year for the first time and was moved and amazed by the bounty of our fields, the good will of farmers who donated produce, and the benevolence of the restaurateurs who cooked and prepared beautiful healthful dishes that were set before 600 hungry people who listened to good music and visited with old friends – or the new friends who sat beside them at long tables on the Green.

It is no surprise that it takes a many volunteers to put on a celebratory free meal. Every year a hundred or more people work that weekend to make it go smoothly and deliciously. But those volunteers depend on good planning beforehand.

Linda Slattery, Volunteer Coordinator, said that new members for the Organizing Committee are needed.  This committee meets about twice a month at Greenfields Market until the dinner on August 22. The first meeting is on June 9^th from 6 to 7:30 pm. Email Linda at linslatt@comcast.net for more information.

Between the Rows   May 29, 2010