http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/ en joanna@eco-farm.org Copyright 2011 2011-07-27T21:07:57+00:00 http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/tales_of_two_towns_food_cultures/ http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/tales_of_two_towns_food_cultures/#When:21:07:57Z FARTHER AFIELD Tom Willey T & D Willey Farm Tales of two towns’ food cultures from opposite Atlantic shores have been juxtaposed on my mind since their recent spinning on National Public Radio. With barely 300 souls, Pioppi, a hamlet perched on southern Italy’s Amalfi Coast, is revered as the iconic ground zero of today’s famed Mediterranean Diet, thanks to one unlikely American scientist’s residence there for 28 of his 100-year lifespan. Maverick nutritional pioneer Ancel Keys (1904-2004) boasted biology and physiology PhD’s from Scripps and Cambridge by 1941 when our War Department tapped him to develop those famed (or infamous) nutritionally dense food packs for American troops, the K-ration. Keys’ post-war interest in the physiological effects of starvation drew his research attention to Europe’s Mediterranean Coast where centuries-old peasant diets, heavy on fruits, vegetables, wheat, fish and olive oil, contributed to remarkable longevity and freedom from heart disease in numerous communities. NPR’s update on today’s Pioppi reports, while health-conscious Americans seek to adopt the Mediterranean Diet, its southern European originators seem to be abandoning it for the “global industrial diet”. “Italy now tips the scales as the fat man of Europe”, bemoans University of Verona pediatrics professor Angelo Pietrobelli, who further explains, eating like a 20th century poor Mediterranean peasant is now comparatively expensive.  Across the pond, a different hardscrabble rural town, Hardwick, Vermont, ignited a locavore food revolution during the last two decades, transforming both what its people eat and a moribund economy. This country burg of 3,000 has sprouted a proliferation of organic “agripreneurs” operating seed, vegetable, meat, dairy and cheese concerns, whilst other new businesses like Connie’s Kitchen serve it all up for the locals. However, a more traditional contingent of the Hardwick community counters, though local food’s economic stimulus is welcome, many townsfolk cannot afford to eat products priced for incomes of wealthy NYC urbanites to whom much of it is shipped. Local farmer-author Ben Hewitt’s celebrated book, The Town That Food Saved, is criticized by some of Hardwick’s youth for ignoring this troublesome fact. NPR’s well-crafted tales of these two towns offer some perplexing insight into our modern diet conundrum, summed up by a farming colleague, “Good food isn’t cheap, and cheap food isn’t good.” -Tom Willey  For more info: www.npr.org/2011/07/14/137823222/mediterraneans-abandon-their-famous-diet  www.npr.org/2011/07/15/137499585/vermont-towns-food-focus-still-a-growing-concept  2011-07-27T21:07:57+00:00 http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/fava_beans_and_diversity/ http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/fava_beans_and_diversity/#When:22:29:00Z By Zea Sonnabend This time of year I spend a lot of time shelling and peeling fava beans and this gives me a lot of time to think. I planted extremely late this year (February 23) because it was so wet, and so I decided to experiment with 3 different varieties to see which did better with late planting. While I'm shelling I'm evaluating my experiment and thinking about what I've learned about organic farming and life. One of the first things I learned when I started to farm was how to do repetitive tasks like weeding, picking, or shelling beans without getting bored. My city friends would come visit and say that farming was just too boring and there was "nothing to do" in the country. The combination of careful observation, deep thinking, and watching the bucket fill up with fruit or the crop emerge cleanly from the weeds makes these tasks seems endlessly fascinating. The careful observation helps see pests and beneficials, anticipates future problems, prioritize work, and plan ahead. The deep thinking helps confirm the value of producing food in harmony with ecological systems, see how this farm fits I to it's own agro-ecosystem, and helps make decisions on future endeavors or approaches to challenges. And watching the pile of fava beans grow means a job well done and a good dinner! Favas are the quintessential slow food. Pick them, take them out of the pods, blanch them, peel them, and then cook them. Enjoy eating them slowly as a protein rich, versatile, and local whole food. Recently a recipe came out in the newspaper that eliminates a lot of the work by roasting them in their pods which makes the skin more digestible. At first I thought this was awesome and it worked really well with my first variety to ripen. However, now that it is a few weeks into the fava season, I have reverted to my former method. I just value the time spent shelling and peeling; it certainly takes a lot less time than soaking beans and the results are delicious while the meditative break of doing this work is refreshing to me. My little variety trial makes me observe some of the fine points of biodiversity and do some thinking about diversity in general. The gene pool of favas is probably as broad (sic - favas are also known as broad beans!) as most of our vegetable crops, but since they aren't that common here we don't get to see many kinds. However these beans are common in Italy and Greece, England, Peru, Turkey, Egypt, and many other countries, so there is diversity to be found. My three kinds in this trial were all from the British company Thompson and Morgan: Excelsior, Crimson Flowered, and Jubilee Hysor.  While I pick and shell them I notice the compact plant and early bearing traits of the Excelsior, with beans nesting gently in pods that are very full of cottony fuzz, therefore not so good for eating in the pod, but the compactness is great because they don't fall over. The crimson flowered are gorgeous in bloom and fill out quickly and evenly, but truthfully, they are sort of chalky tasting and so are best for making spread. The last variety to ripen, the Jubilee Hysor, is extremely tall and heavy yielding and easy to shell since the thin pods almost pop right open. Also a high quality fresh eating bean. There are so many more varieties to try and my next experiment will be early fall planting to try and get them for as much of the year as possible. While I eat them I reflect on the diversity of cultures of the people who brought us this plant diversity. Cultural diversity is what makes our lives richer; biodiversity is what makes our farms and Eco-systems richer. I enjoy these favas with thoughts of my fellow farmers in Egypt and Peru and Greece and all those other countries that value this wonderful food. Recipe for Turkish-inspired Fava spread This can be made with dry favas, and usually is in Turkey, but it is delicious with fresh (used like hummus as appetizer with bread or pita). 1 cup shelled and peeled fava beans (from about 2 cups beans before peeling) 1 medium onion (about 1/2 cup) 2 cloves garlic, or more to taste 2 tablespoons olive oil (Turks use a lot more, but this works too) 2 sprigs dill, 1 minced and one for garnish Juice of 1 lemon Salt to taste Sauté onions and garlic in one tablespoon of the olive oil until soft and translucent. Add the favas and about 1/2 cup of water to cover them. Cook until beans are very tender and most water is absorbed. Let cool slightly. Put mixture in blender or food processor with minced dill, remaining olive oil lemon juice and salt. Puree until it has hummus-like consistency. Serve at room temperature as spread or dip, garnished with dill and olives. 2011-07-19T22:29:00+00:00 http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/the_art_of_nurturing_a_soil_microbial_community/ http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/the_art_of_nurturing_a_soil_microbial_community/#When:22:14:36Z FARTHER AFIELD Tom Willey T & D Willey Farms Last week’s blessed heat allowed us to commence a tentative harvest of our summer basil crop. Warm season fruiting vegetables, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, will demand a prolonged period of warm temperatures before production can get underway. Considerable effort and expense went into several bioremediation schemes designed to nurture a microbial community that might confer greater disease-suppressive qualities on our basil patch soil. Such healthful soils are commonly recognized by science but little understood. In general, absence of soil-borne disease is one of the outstanding benefits of non-toxic, biological fertility systems that emphasize generous additions of well-digested organic matter. A cutting edge group of soil biologists, mostly from Netherlands universities, are beginning to unravel the secrets of an immensely complex microbial community’s capacity to suppress plant pathogens. Publication in the prestigious journal Science signals breakthrough discoveries worthy of notice by the entire scientific community. Eleven otherwise foreign researchers, authoring Science’s May 27, 2011 “Deciphering the Rhizosphere Microbiome for Disease-Suppressive Bacteria”, included three young scientists from our own, nearby Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This trio is expert at applying their lab’s novel, award-winning PhyloChip technology which distinguishes untold numbers of bacterial species in environmental samples without need for culturing. A credit card-sized PhyloChip detected some 33,000 bacterial species in each of six soil samples from a sugar beet field plagued by the root disease Rhizoctonia solani. Though all soil samples shared the same species richness, several which had the capacity to protect beets from R. solani where characterized by a greater abundance of 17 unique types of bacteria that network in community to suppress the root pathogen. While admitting my ignorance far exceeds my knowledge in these matters, the plant-based microbial stimulants and innoculants we’ve added to T.D. Willey basil patch soil may, hopefully, encourage a similar microbial bloom to protect against our herb’s worldwide nemesis, Fusarium oxysporum. In light of these promising discoveries reported in Science, it was sad to recently witness a Fresno Co. farm town, Sanger, as site of the inaugural application of a controversial and highly toxic new fumigant, Methyl Iodide. Such backwards, biocidal approaches to plant health frustrate all the more when pioneering soil scientists are excitedly pointing agriculture towards cooperation with the elegance of soil life to better our own well-being. –Tom Willey  more info: http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2011/05/05/community-soil-microbes/  2011-06-20T22:14:36+00:00 http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/a_palatial_residence_has_some_surprises_for_an_old_farmer/ http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/a_palatial_residence_has_some_surprises_for_an_old_farmer/#When:19:22:30Z Farther Afield Tom Willey T & D Willey Farms I shunned the landmark Biltmore Estate over several visits to Ashville N.C. where son Mike attends rural Warren Wilson College, assuming it to be a mere monument to robber baron opulence. That it is, but such Gilded Age extravagance fascinates my 90-year-young mother who accompanied me to enjoy Mike’s theatrical performance in Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” this past Holy Week. Acquiescing to mom’s interest, we found ourselves roaming a 250-room 1890s Chateauesque styled mansion, reputedly the largest privately-owned home in these United States. But a palatial residence turned out to be not the half of it for this old farmer when docents spun tales of George Washington Vanderbilt II’s vision for his model agriculture and forestry working estate sprawled across 125,000 contiguous acres. These mostly logged-over and farmed-out lands, constituting large portions of at least four N.C. counties, were stealthily acquired at bargain prices by this junior grandson of shipping and railroad tycoon, Cornelius Vanderbilt. Though young, unmarried G.W.V.II likely blew too much of a $12 million inheritance on a wee bit more house than was needed, his nobler intention was to transform those vast, abused acres into a model of agricultural enterprise and forestry restoration, powering Asheville’s laggard economy and inspiring the nation. Over two decades preceding young George’s untimely 1914 demise, the industrious agricultural entrepreneur established Biltmore Dairy Farms and Creamery, which milked nearly 2,000 prize Jerseys, during an era when herds of 300 cows would have astonished. That “modern marvel” was accompanied by poultry and swine enterprises focused on both progressive breeding and production. All such husbandry operations were housed in facilities the architecture of which complemented George’s exquisite manor. G.W.V.II employed Gifford Pinchot, fresh out of Yale, to engineer restoration plans for his vast, denuded forestlands. Pinchot went on to found and serve as first chief of the U.S. Forest Service. After George’s death, his wife would sell 85,000 reforested acres to our US Government, creating Pisgah National Forest, the first such designation west of the Mississippi. The Vanderbilt scion’s early passing and the Great Depression pressed his widow into opening their grand estate as a public spectacle. Choosing to visit Asheville’s Biltmore Estate, your surprise may be as great as was mine at the lofty pastoral ambitions to which this grandee aspired beyond his high society addictions. –Tom Willey  2011-05-26T19:22:30+00:00 http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/under_commit_and_over_achieve/ http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/under_commit_and_over_achieve/#When:19:51:17Z FARTHER AFIELD Tom Willey T & D Willey Farms I used to entice my young children into accompanying me on each day’s harvest haul to Kimura Trucking’s Reedley dock with promised treats from the “Indian” or “Piggy” store. I became acquainted with George Kimura, consummate fresh produce transporter hereabouts, some 30 years back, when this greenhorn vegetable farmer struggled to establish relationships with top commission merchants in Los Angeles and Bay Area terminal markets.  Those agents would invariably admonish me: “Send it on Kimura”, which translated to their receiving my product near midnight in a properly refrigerated van for a super fresh same-day-sale. Few, if any, haulers could match Kimura’s on time service, skillfully managing his small signature fleet of classic, long-nosed green and white conventionals, the secret was George’s “tight ship” operation. Woe to any of his several dozen, mostly family-scale stonefruit growers or the odd vegetable farmer whose flatbed of produce pulled up late to Kimura’s east Reedley staging dock. George would cast a disapproving gaze that withered delinquents with shame. But he and wife Sets also kept a candy jar on the desk for farmers’ sweet-toothed offspring. George was a native local, born in 1926 to freshly immigrated parents from Fukuoka, Japan. The family had settled in Reedley where his folks labored on others’ farms before purchasing their own. The Kimuras were, of course, spirited away to a wartime relocation camp in Poston, Arizona. A similar fate befell all west coast Japanese-Americans. Young George was drafted when coming of age and served with the famously valiant 442nd Infantry Regiment in WWII’s European Theatre. Though a neighbor’s kind attention preserved and protected the Kimura ranch throughout war years, George invested in a truck soon after his 1946 return and thereafter focused sole attention on hauling produce for numerous moderate scale orchardists in his district yet packing under family labels.  We often forget, lounging at bountiful tables, farmers and laborers whose sweat produced our food, but rarely if ever might we honor the service of those transporting it. George’s son, Kevin, operates Kimura’s green-and-white fleet yet today, inheriting the ethic, “Under commit and over achieve” from his exacting father. As we laid George to rest from Reedley’s Buddhist Church, a few weeks ago, I couldn’t help but gratefully reflect on an immense part this good man’s service has played in the success of my farm. –Tom Willey 2011-03-08T19:51:17+00:00 http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/whoosh_of_life/ http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/whoosh_of_life/#When:21:00:40Z This blog entry is cross posted with Capay Valley Farm Shop Capay Valley Farm Shop is a collaborative of family farms and ranches working together to bring fresh local goodness from our valley to your table. Whoosh of Life by Paul Muller Full Belly Farm There is so much information to share about ongoing Full Belly farm goings-on that this article may not be enough space. It would be enough to write of the 750 trees planted in the last week: Oaks for shade; Black Walnuts for lumber in 50 or so years; Quince; Olives, and Persimmons for fall harvested fruit; Mulberries and Peaches for sweet summer seduction. Our interns, Partner Andrew, and offspring (Amon and Rye), invested sweat and stained knees in the straight lines that will grace driveways and shade houses and become the orchards where the wandering visitor might pick some sort of fruit nearly year round. Soils were warmer and drier than any January in our 30 years of winters at this farm, making the work fast and easy. The goal is for 1000 trees this year, with alders planned for erosion control along the creek and more oaks along borders. The best investment for our landscape, long term, might well be shade that will provide respite during long hot summers. We have been planting spring crops as fast as Rich can change seed plates on the planter. Peas, lettuce, broccoli, beets, a little more kale and assorted greens are going in the ground and will be coaxed along. We are planting seven new acres of Asparagus that we will be getting a first harvest about two springs from now… patience. Another couple of acres of broccoli were transplanted, the first sunflowers were seeded, and greenhouses are filling up with tomato, pepper and eggplant starts. The warm weather has goosed the almonds and peaches into swelling and blooming. The hillsides above the farm are bathed in billowing white and light pink, and are scented honey sweet. Evening walkers, in the moist night time air, are treated to an incredible delicious fragrance. The blooms are a couple of weeks early. The almond blossoms and pink peach buds that are swelling and ‘popping’ open are teasing fate… a deep freeze will cook any little nutlet or peach. Two weeks early means more vulnerable cold nights this spring. Unfortunately, blooms don’t know a calendar, or stories of a freeze four years ago… they’re affected with ‘be here now’ mentality. We wish they would consider the date and hold off bloom, but our annual counsel doesn’t stop their reckless enthusiasm. We are pruning at a quickened pace. Peaches, grapes, apples, pears, prunes and walnuts are all getting bobbed back and trained to balance light and fruiting wood. Last week, I was on a 25′ pruning tower with saw and lopper cutting out wood from our Walnut trees. The altitude, (if you forgive my reach)gives one a chance to cogitate on pruning as a life practice. The active relationship we have with our tree’s health means that we need to keep stimulating it to be vigorous, and not slip into a kind of complacent old age. Perhaps the first pruning ideas came from observant farmers watching the tree after a limb breaks off, growing new healthy shoots from the trunk around the break. Pruning diseased wood keeps trees healthy, allowing them to grow new branches rather than fight the malady… Someone once told me that worry is like dead branches on a tree, useless and unproductive. Best to prune it out. Shaping the tree with pruning manages shade and light, air circulation, fruiting shoots and buds, or strength of limb to support the weight of a fruit load. We both creatthe balance and respond to the tendencies of the tree on our particular farm. It is a progressive knowledge, with each season tweaking the tree based on the things we learned in the previous year. We strive to keep even old trees vigorous and healthy. Lastly, the mark of early February has to be lambing. We introduced the Rams to the Ewes about 5 months ago. They seemed to like each other – we have 78 lambs as of this Sunday, February 13th. Eleven were born today. Dru and I watched two ewes in labor this morning, both had beautiful big twins. But the amazing part for me is the whoosh of water – amniotic sack and lamb surging, a wave from a mom who is straining to find the right position and all the while calling to the lamb with throaty short baa’s. After dropping the lamb, the ewe gets up, licks the baby off and nudges it into the world. Most of the time the mom will birth a second lamb within 20 minutes. We have had 11 moms give birth to triplets, a sure sign that organic farms are more fertile(!), and, with only two spigots for milk, nursing becomes a process of taking a number…. “baa, easy now, there is enough for everyone.” Witnessing the amazing similarities of birth from ewe to ewe is humbling. Their instinct is a profound well of shared genetics and character. We try our best to stay out of the way and let the ewes show us their stuff. Patient Dru only intervenes when there is no other option… She has pulled a couple of tangled up twins this year, but most of the birthing has gone smoothly, like a whoosh of a powerful wave on the shore. There is an important self reliance in all of these activities, a sweet and important lesson of life on the farm. We seldom have lambing emergencies. We operate without a veterinarian, and make judgements on the life and death of lambs as best we can in the space of time that an emergency allows. Our vet, for critical intervention, is miles away and is pretty expensive to get out to the farm. Experience and knowledge is the teacher for ‘non-professional’ animal doctors. Dru is dedication to the life of each lamb and fights for its survival with a mother ewes instinct. This is the essence of stewardship in a world where everything isn’t always predictable or standardized. Our ethical commitment places life and health above all else. I want to finish with a comment on an important U.S. Department of Agriculture ruling that will affect all of us. In late January, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack approved the release of Monsanto’s GMO Alfalfa for planting this season. Much has been written about the potential of genetic manipulation of plants to solve complex problems of world hunger. There are many hopes, half truths and downright falsehoods about the benefit of transgenic breeding. The ruling is a tragedy of foolishness, hope and greed. We learned the lessons of the indiscriminate use of pesticides and the ability of insects to become resistant; how pesticides like DDT, paraquat, chlordane, aldicarb and others became dangerous and powerful biocides in the environment; and the dangers of pesticides to non target organisms. There are scientists lined up on both sides of the GMO issue, prompting skepticism of science as an absolute. Transgenic manipulation is not traditional breeding. It is a crude insertion of a gene into a dynamic set of dynamic relationships. The technology allows plants to be sprayed with proprietary herbicides that will kill all but the modified plant. The release of novel genes cannot be recalled. The technology will result in contamination of the commons. I grew up a witness to the pesticide treadmill that was created by the misuse of tools that were effective but violated fundamental rules of nature. The proprietary technology will work for a short time, but ultimately super weeds will grow and we will discover that the millions of pounds of ’roundup’ applied annually have unintended dangers. Dairy cows eat a lot of our alfalfa crop in this country. Cows make milk, and ultimately this technology puts milk at risk. So, investigate the issue. Write the President. Nature is far more intricate, beautiful and fruitful than this simplistic technology understands. This ruling is the wrong way to abundance, and is robbery by pollution of the commons. by Paul Muller of Full Belly Farm 2011-03-02T21:00:40+00:00 http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/plant_breeding_or_even_seed_saving/ http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/plant_breeding_or_even_seed_saving/#When:19:15:49Z FARTHER AFIELD Tom Willey T&D Willey Farms I spent serious time and money two week’s back to learn I don’t know much of anything about plant breeding, or even seed saving. I flew to Portland, a destination high on my interest list, as a participant in that city’s three day Organicology event, hosted biannually by Oregon and Washington’s organic farming communities. The main attraction that lured this California farmer north was my more radical farming brethren’s increasing devotion to seed production on their own farms as well as breeding new vegetable cultivars and small grains for local adaptation. Today’s globalized seed industry seems hell-bent on covering the earth with fewer crop varieties of vastly diminished genetic diversity. Now, even “workhorse” hybrids like Black Bell eggplant, adopted more than three decades ago by Fresno’s regional vegetable growing community, are in the hands of Monsanto and threatened with abandonment… something must be done. “Mad as hell – aren’t taking it anymore" Pacific Northwest agrarians lead that charge; in collaboration with equally frustrated, public-minded plant breeders they formed the Organic Seed Alliance early last decade. The Alliance facilitates cooperative projects linking groups of farmers with professional breeders to develop new varieties employing Evolutionary Participatory Breeding (EPB), adopted from a model created about 20 years ago to meet unaddressed needs of the developing world’s small-scale growers. EPB’s approach relies on evolutionary forces and natural selection, acting upon genetically diverse plant populations, to guide a farmer’s choice of site-specific varieties, informed by a geneticist’s guidance. The schooled breeder may gather as few as two, or as many as two-dozen, existing cultivars that exhibit useful traits in the desired end product. These, he purposely cross breeds in random fashion to achieve the most diverse germplasm pool possible from which cooperating farmers will continuously reselect over succeeding generations. Darwinian evolutionary pressure naturally selects for higher yield and increased tolerance/resistance to disease in this scheme but not for market dictated qualitative values that must be prominent in the original chosen parent lines.  Finding a nearby breeder-partner could sorely tempt me to embark on a venture aimed at recapturing immensely valuable eggplant and yellow crookneck summer squash varieties we are in danger of losing to oblivion. –Tom Willey For more info: http://plantbreeding.wsu.edu/EPB05.pdf 2011-02-22T19:15:49+00:00 http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/organic_food_cafes_an_emerging_trend/ http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/organic_food_cafes_an_emerging_trend/#When:19:26:17Z By Alison Cebulla http://hustlingroses.blogspot.com http://slogreendrinks.blogspot.com “ [We] make sure you get your vegetables when you’re at the Brown Sugar Kitchen” said Tanya Holland in a recent feature on VH1 Soul’s “Soul Cities”.  Healthy cuisine might not be what you’d expect from a restaurant specializing in soul food but there is a wave sweeping the nation of fresh organic fusion restaurants. Holland’s restaurant, Brown Sugar Kitchen, in Oakland, CA features traditional soul food favorites like grits and fried chicken, but ingredients are organic, fresh, and local if possible.  This is no greasy-spoon but one of many organic cafes that are popping up all over the US!  Also on the scene of organic cuisine is Todd Champagne of Happy Girl Kitchen. Happy Girl Kitchen’s retail store and food prep kitchen is located in Pacific Grove, CA. They sell pickled veggies like beets, carrots, cucumbers (pickles), and cabbage (sauer kraut & kimchi). They also host pickling workshops. They buy local organic ingredients for their pickling, sauces, and jams and sell their products not only in-shop but at organic farmer’s markets.  Curious to hear their success stories? Want to find out more about the rapidly expanding organic restaurant and food retail trend? Come hear Tanya Holland and Todd Champagne along with Caroline Rudolf of Charlie Hong Kong’s of Santa Cruz, CA at the EcoFarm Conference Saturday, Jan 29, 2011: 8:30-10:00am, "Organic Food Cafes: An Emerging Trend".   Photos were taken at the Happy Girl Kitchen grand opening in November 2010.  The event featured local craft-brewed soda pop maker Taylor’s Tonics of San Francisco, CA and samples of Happy Girl’s Kitchen’s wares. http://www.taylorstonics.com/ 2011-01-25T19:26:17+00:00 http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/the_future/ http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/the_future/#When:18:53:14Z By Alison Cebulla http://hustlingroses.blogspot.com http://slogreendrinks.blogspot.com Meet Scott Washkowiak, a farmer from Illinois who moved to San Diego where he says, “I thought was going to grow vegetables but in turn I am growing teens.” Scott works with the San Pasquel Academy in San Diego, CA, a residential foster care home, school, and job training facility with 130 students. He also runs Dragon Organics, the 5-acre student run farm. Scott studied Landscape Horticulture at Colorado State University after tiring of working for conventional monocrop soybean farms in his home state. At Colorado he lived at a biodynamic farm, an experience that changed completely his way of life and thinking, and led him to working with teens in need, teaching them how to grow vegetables and love the land and their work, their impact on the environment, and the differences between organic and conventional farming. “I feel that my time at the San Pasqual Academy has been meaningful with the work ethic I share with these teens.” Scott’s favorite vegetable is the carrot “because they are underground and full of beta-carotene.” Come listen to Scott’s inspiring story at the EcoFarm Conference along with Joanna Johnson from Wild Farm Alliance in Watsonville, CA; Ken Dickerson from Renaissance High School ROP of Santa Cruz, CA during Session E: 2:00-3:30pm. The session is called “Teens: Youth Education for the Future EcoFarmers of America”. 2011-01-25T18:53:14+00:00 http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/farmers_and_reconnect_kids_with_food/ http://www.eco-farm.org/blogs/farmer/farmers_and_reconnect_kids_with_food/#When:20:55:42Z By Alison Cebulla http://hustlingroses.blogspot.com http://slogreendrinks.blogspot.com Cabbage and kale and children, oh my! Passionate about kids and veggies…together at last? Well so are Erica Curry from Shelburne Farms, VT; Jessica Ridgeway from Live Earth Farm in Watsonville, CA; and Kathryn Spencer from Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), Davis, CA. The best part of my work is watching kids eyes get wide when they experience something new, like the taste of a vie picked concord grape, or a vegetable they never liked on their plate, delicious fresh from the field,” shares Jessica.  Come learn about the partnership between farms and schools during Workshop Session A: 8:30-10:00am: “Added Values: Farm Education to Benefit Farmers and Reconnect Kids with Food,” Moderated by Ildi Carlisle-Cummins, a Farm-to-School consultant in Watsonville, CA.  You’ll be hearing from Erica Curry from  Shelburne Farm in Shelburne, VT.  She is the Regional Lead for the National Farm to School Network with the Vermont Farm to School Food Education Every Day (FEED) program and the Program Coordinator for the Farm Based Education Association (NFSN). She comes as a rep of both the NFSN and the Farm Based Education Association (FBEA). As the FBEA is mostly represented by members on the East-Coast, she is hoping to network it up with some Californians and discuss how the NFSN is a great resource and can support the connections between farms and schools. She’ll also provide some examples of the hands-on activities used at Shelburne farms so bring your inner kid and have some fun!  Erica’s favorite vegetable is red cabbage. “I love it so much I could eat it for three meals a day!” she raves. “All my food ends up with a purple coloring to it.”  Another New England native who can’t wait to wow you with action-packed adventures from the farm is Jessica Ridgeway. Jessica managed to escape to warmer climates and founded the Live Earth Farm Discovery Program (LEFDP) in Santa Cruz, CA in 2009. LEFDP provides hands-on sustainable agriculture and food systems education for over 1000 students per year, with a focus on local, underserved communities.  Jessica’s favorite vegetable is kale “because it is a delicious source of vital nutrients and beautiful to grow.”  2011-01-05T20:55:42+00:00