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.

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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

No Rain at the Annual Rose Viewing

The Rose Walk

The sky was gray and a few guests came early to the Rose Viewing, hoping to beat the rain, but blue skies arrived, as well as muggy temperatures, and more guests. It is always a pleasure to show people around the garden myself, but visitors can also go around with a rose list and map that my husband makes. Since I look on the Rose Viewing as a quasi-educational event I am always pleased to see people making notes on their rose list. I am also happy to be able to recommend nurseries like the Antique Rose Emporium in Texas which sends container grown roses through the mail in the spring. The advantage to container grown roses is that if the weather is bad, sleety, frosty or even too darn hot, the container plants can be kept watered and happy until they can be put safely in the ground.

Red Meidiland rose

There was a lot of discussion about whether the roses were all early, but after the spell of high temperatures that send the roses rushing into bloom, it got turned cold again. Another fire in the woodstove. It stayed cool and most of the roses relaxed, content with their more normal bloom times.  Remember our house and garden are more than 1600 feet above sea level and that means that nights are cool through most of the summer. One rose that is blooming early is this red Meidiland landscape rose that came as a sample from the hybridizer more than 15 years ago.  Usually it has only a few blossoms to show at the Rose Viewing which is always the last Sunday in June.  It has survived nicely, as has the White Meidiland next to it, but our weather is severe enough that it hasn’t attained the spread it is known for. You can image that this brilliant scarlet rose is quite a delightful shock when the other roses are in shades of pink and white.

In the Cottage Ornee

As delightful as it is to wander among the roses, enjoying all the fragrance, the day was hot, and it was equally delightful to sit down in the Cottage Ornee and visit. The Cottage quite magically seems to capture every wayward breeze, the lemonade was cold, the strawberries sweet, and the cookies delicious. If I do say so myself.  Then Sheila brought her handmade goat cheeses and Cheryl, pictured above with our neighbors the McCutchens, brought Strawberry Shortcake!

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

Growth – High and Low

One week old

The chicks are one week old! They all survived the USPS trip here and a week of hot weather which has actually been a great benefit. Chicks need 95 degree heat the first week.  I don’t know that I have ever gotten through the first week with no fatalities before so we are celebrating. The photo is a little fuzzy. It was hard to take the picture and hold the chick at the same time, but you can see that the baby fuzz is beginning to turn into feathers. This chick might be a New Hampshire Red – or it might be a Buff Orpington. Hard to tell the difference at this stage.

Winecap mushrooms

On my Saturday rounds I stopped at my neighbor’s house to trade fresh laid eggs for a box of winecap mushrooms. Al Canali and his wife are wonderful cooks, and gardeners. Mushrooms are Al’s latest enthusiasm. He took this photo of the winecaps before harvest.

Winecap mushroom farm

I took this photo of the Winecap farm after harvest. It is located in the damp shade under arching shrubs. All it took was good compost, wood chips and Winecap spawn. Al’s descriptions of how easy it is to grow Winecaps have inspired me. I think I have a perfect spot.

Al in his mushroom nook

After inspecting and tasting the Winecaps (delicious and nutty!) then visiting the Winecap farm, Al took me to his mushroom nook. He said he originally envisioned a Mushroom Nation, then thought a Mushroom State would suffice. He later thought a Mushroom Town would be adequate but now says he is satisfied with his Mushroom Nook where he has over 100 logs inoculated with shiitake and oyster mushrooms.

This area gets only two hours of sun a day, but it could be even shadier, Al said. You can see he has his bathtub for soaking the logs before (or maybe just after) inoculating them with the mushroom spawn. You can just see the handle of the copper drill behind Al.  Each log is drilled with multiple holes which are then filled with the spawn.

Inoculated log

Al explained that the white streaks indicate that the log is well inoculated, and that mushroom should result.

Mushroom ping

The light colored spot on this log is a ‘ping’, a sign that a mushroom will appear here soon.

Mushroom Nook

Al has labeled piles of logs for warm weather and cold weather mushrooms. Last year he said they had so many mushrooms that they ate them fresh, dried them and made duxelles, a mixture of minced mushrooms sauteed in butter with a little onion or shallots and a bit of wine, which they froze and were able to use over a long period of time.  I’m not ready to drill logs or find a shady nook on my sunny hill, but the idea of winecaps growing in wood chips is enticing.

The report from my garden is that bloom is bustin’ out all over.  The peonies are opening.  Most of my peonies are shades of pink.

Kansas peony

This may be my only deeply colored peony, although I did plant a Coral Charm a week or so ago.

Rosa alba semi-plena

The rugosa roses are always the first to bloom and have been out for about a week, but all of a sudden this rose burst into bloom. There is a lot of ‘all of a sudden’ this spring in the garden. As I look around at the beginning of rose bloom I am wondering whether we will have to change the date of the Annual Rose Viewing.  But I am not ready to make a decision yet. Stay tuned.

Dream Housing

Our dream house in a dreamy landscape

When I first met my husband in 1971 we used to dream about our ideal home. Inspired by a Beetle Bailey comic strip, we called this mythical place Pork Corners. There was nothing porky about my house on Grinnell Street in Greenfield, but there in the tiny side yard I planted my first vegetable garden. I kissed the friend who came to dinner and brought a load of old horse manure as a thank you.  He sent a basket of apples for the children, but I really liked that manure.

Our neighbors, John and Mary Zon, raised raspberries. And taught us about raspberries.

Next we moved to North Berwick, Maine while I taught for a year. I bought a house and barn, but it was on an almost suburban street. I wasn’t sure this was Pork Corners, so we called it Ant and Bee Farm. We had ants, and bees, and chickens and pigs, and a huge garden, but it only took a year to make us decide to move to The Big Apple.

We lived in Henry’s ancestral apartment where the only animal life was five teenagers. When it was time to leave the little apartment in the big city, we thought about returning to Maine and the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners, but Heath called. End of the Road Farm currently has chickens and cats, but we have had pigs. Once they were slaughtered and butchered right in the  farmyard, while a wet snow fell. I might have been looking at a medieval scene.

We all have dreams about where and how we want to live. I grew up thinking you owned a house or rented an apartment. Nowadays there are many ways to arrange ownership of a home. 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? .  Click here for full tour information. Maybe you will find a new way to get your dream home.

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Today, June 5 is also the first day of the new Farmer’s Market in Charlemont. It will be held at Hawlemont School from 10 to 2 pm.  Students from the school will be selling their produce, along with other vendors. If anyone knows of others interested in being vendors they should contact the manager at  jason@penandplow.net who is working at the new Pen and Plow Farm in Hawley.

Trees – Glorious Trees – Arbor Day

Rowe landscape

My friend (and noted author), Kathryn Galbraith, explained the importance of trees to community in her beautiful new picture book for children, Arbor Day Square.  I am fortunate to be surrounded by woodland here in Heath, but as a new member of the Bridge of Flowers committee I have been more and more aware of how healthy street trees, some of them quite new, add to the quality of life in a small town like Shelburne Falls, but they also support the economic life of the town. When visitors come to tour the Bridge of Flowers they see that the Bridge is not an isolated element in the town, it is just a symbol of the care the community takes of its resources, of its residents, and of the natural world. Visitors find pleasure in walking through the town, and stopping to shop and snack, and even dine. Not to be crass, but greening a town can lead to putting a little green in townspeople’s pockets.

Does your town have street trees? What do they mean to you?

Celebrate trees and Arbor Day. There is lots of information about Arbor Day in Massachusetts here.

The Witches of Oz

The Wizard of Oz

The Heath Elementary School joined other august institutions of learning like Yale University, Brandeis and Tufts (to name only a few) in working with the innovative Double Edge Theater in Ashfield, an international center for performance. collaboration and training. This year the production was an original adaptation of The Wizard of Oz.

This all school performance that involved everyone from kindergarten munchkins and bees, to a very dramatic Wicked Witch of the West (is it possible she was only in 6th grade?) must have kept a large costume crew busy as bees, making clever costumes for 3 scarecrows, 3 tin men, 3 cowardly lions, crows, bees, monkeys?  and many witches covering all the cardinal points of the compass – south, southwest, northeast, west  . . .

Munchkins

By the time I took this photo the Munchkins and  . . .

Oz guards

the guards , they were enjoying being a part of the audience, waiting to take their bow.

A Horse of Another Color

I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the Horse of another color – even though it had shed its four legs.

Putting on a school play calls on collaboration between the arts, literature, theater, music, set and costume design and the creative skills to put flesh on a concept.  It is a joy to see the confidence of the students who step forward to belt out songs, dance down the yellow brick road and buzz around, taking the spotlight and relinquishing the spotlight to others in turn.

Many thanks to all the many many parents, staff, and other volunteers who bring this richness to the school and to the broader community.

The Meditative Gardener

The Meditative Gardener by Cheryl Wilfong

I met Cheryl Wilfong at a recent Garden Writers (GWA) meeting in Boston. The meeting was excellent with good advice about blogging and writing  given by Richard Banfield of freshtilledsoil.com.  The speaker gave me more than I ever expected, but one of the reasons I attended was to meet other writers, some of whom I already knew through their blogs.

Cheryl brought her book, which I bought, and information about her website, meditativegardener.com.  In spite of a weekend Vipassna session years ago, I do not claim to be a meditator, but I don’t think you need to claim this title to recognize many of the feelings, thoughts and reactions that Cheryl describes.  The book describes many Buddhist and meditative practices which appeal to me, in and out of the garden. Not to mention the gorgeous photographs.

I was particularly taken with the Flower in Your Heart Meditation.  I grow flowers, and yet rarely bring them into the house because the cats always knock the vases over, and I even more rarely give bouquets away, for no reason except affection.  I will be more mindful of this opportunity.

Every day our gardens teach us, about the ways of nature, about the ways to be  generous, and about the ways of the spirit.  So does this book.

The Art Garden

The Art Garden in Shelburne Falls

There are all kinds of gardens, perennial gardens, cutting gardens, and vegetable gardens, but right now the only garden that is giving me special pleasure is Jane Wegscheider’s Art Garden in Shelburne Falls.

The Art Garden is a welcoming and well stocked studio space that is available to the public, including children, to express and develop their creativity. And we don’t have to do it alone. Jane is on  hand to teach and demonstrate and inspire – as she has been doing in local schools for years. Now she is sharing her skill and her passion with the whole community.

Jane Wegscheider

Last week I attended Jane’s workshop on book making. I am not ready to make books like this leather bound treasure, but I came away with a simple book, an accordion book and materials for a Japanese stab binding book. I can tell you I will never look at National Geographic photographs in the same way ever again. Jane is always using recycled and repurposed materials in her art; that’s another lesson to find beauty and utility in ‘trash’.

Jane had lots of samples to show us some of  the possibilities. Some were made with children, so it wasn’t intimidating to people like me who aren’t good with measuring or straight lines.

I returned last night to make a Valentine.  Three hours later and I’m not quite finished. Simplicity doesn’t seem to be my forte. I couldn’t show it to you yet, anyway.

Check out The Art Garden’s Open Studio hours and workshop schedule.

Phil Korman and CISA

Philip Korman of CISA

CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture) is familiar to many of us because of the bright yellow Local Hero signs at farmstands, farmer’s markets,  supermarkets and car bumpers. We have recognized the benefits of buying food from our local farmers: keeping our money in the local economy; preserving local farms that produce the rural atmosphere we all treasure as well as a variety of crops; and cutting down on oil-dependent food transportation.

As consumers we see some of the work done by CISA, but much of its work, and workers, are visible only to the over 200 local farmers who are CISA members.

Philip Korman joined CISA in 2008 as its Executive Director. A graduate of Cornell University he has spent his professional life working for the community and common good through organizations like the National Priorities Project in Northampton and the Franklin County Council of Governments.

Once, as a young man, he spent a couple of summer months on a farm in Norway, just three hours south of the artic circle. “They raised dairy cows, and pigs, but no vegetables. All produce was imported. A lot of rhubarb soup,” Korman said.

Nowadays he contents himself with a home garden and enjoys living in a rural area, where there are lots of vegetables and fruits, and  working for CISA, a community organization that has a wide reach, from farmers to consumers, to other organizations and businesses who have an interest in food. And that is almost all of us, when you think about it.

“We are here to help the bottom line of farmers,” Korman said. They do this through a variety of workshops in business, finance and marketing. “Farmers already know what they are doing in the fields, but we can help them with those other aspects of farming. We also have a new Women in Agriculture initiative, in acknowledgment of the growing number of women who are farming.”

As any person starting a business knows, there is more to success than making a product. For farmers this means they also need an agricultural infrastructure to allow farmers to process their crops, and gain that value for themselves.

There was great controversy recently about a slaughterhouse in the area, and it is clear that such an operation will need to be sited carefully. However, meat farmers would benefit immensely from having a local slaughterhouse, and even those of us who like, or would like to raise backyard chickens, or pigs, would benefit. I believe that a well planned and managed small local slaughterhouse would avoid all the environmental problems that we associate with industrial sized slaughterhouses where there is cruelty and dangerous waste.

Korman said there is interest in building a local dairy processing operations. Gary Schaefer of Bart’s Ice Cream already uses local blueberries and peaches in their ice cream and are interested in using local milk as well.

In addition, CISA is investigating the possibility of establishing a flash freezing operation, that could either be brought to farms, or where farmers could bring their produce for freezing. This would be another was to increase farm income, and add jobs.

Those who attended the Northampton Winterfare farmers market scooped up all the fresh greens that Red Fire Farm had, showing that there is a market for fresh vegetables early and late in the season. Currently there is the possibility of funding to help farmers build hoop houses, to make this market available to more farmers.

During my talk with Korman I realized that how many people and organizations are generating ideas, and then working in concrete ways to make it more and more possible for us all to eat more healthfully and locally, and for more small farms to be more successful. This is a very exciting time for farmers in our area when there is organizational support and resources, as well as the desire from consumers to buy their products.

Since our local farms are small, we don’t realize what an economic impact they have on the area. Yet, local farms had more than $9 million dollars in sales last year; 35 Local Hero restaurants spent more than $1 million on local produce; and schools, and hospitals are buying more local produce. Of all the produce used at  UMass dining halls and cafes, more than 20% now comes  from local farms.

According to the 2008 CISA Annual Report “. . .we want more local foods and agricultural good available, more of the time, to more of the people.” When that report came out, a state funded Senior Farm Share program provided 350 low income seniors with 10-12 weeks of fresh produce from their local CSA.   The state cut half the funding for the current fiscal year, and for the upcoming fiscal year there is no state funding at all.

Because of their commitment to providing healthy fresh food to low income seniors CISA has been fundraising, hoping to raise $25,000 to keep this program alive until the economy and our state recover from this serious downturn. There is still time for people to make a donation to that program. Call Pamela Barnes at (413) 665-7100., or logon to www.buylocalfood.org for full information.

Nowadays you don’t have to be a farmer to be a supportive CISA member. Community memberships are available at a variety of levels. I’ve joined. Will you?

Don’t forget Greenfield’s Winterfare farmers market on Saturday, February 6 from 10 am to 2 pm at Greenfield High School. Beautiful produce, a Barter Fair, and workshops. I’ll be talking about that most local crop, sprouts. For full info logon to www.winterfare.org.  ###

Between the Rows July 31, 2010