WEEK 1: FARM NOTES: June 30 – July 2, 2014
Veggie Coop coordinator: Mike Rabinowitz. Pick-up is 6 p.m. at the MUN Science Building parking Lot. Drive through the underpass and look ahead. You will see people congregating around the back of a dark red Subaru Forester or a white Ford truck, which is where we set the bags out around the edge of curb. If it is raining, we will be under the shelter by the entrance. New member? Just follow the crowd. If Mike is not already there, he will zip around the corner in a matter of minutes.
The routine
Farm house phone: 895-2884/ leave a message. If you are not able to make it to pick up, contact us by e-mail or phone as early as possible and no later than 5 p.m. on the day of pick-up, which is when the bags come out of the chill room for their trip to town. We will keep your bag in the walk-in chill room at the farm in Portugal Cove until you can come to collect it.
What happens to uncollected bags?
Bags not picked up by 6:30 will also go back to the farm’s chill room and can be picked up at your convenience. Running late? Call Mike at pick-up at 749-0561. If you thought your partner was picking up or just leaving the soccer game, he may wait a few minutes. Sometimes people scheduled for Monday pick-up may request that their bag go back to the farm and come in with Wednesday bags. BAGS NOT PICKED UP within a day or two of pick-up days, may be given away, especially if they have things that appear to be spoiling.
Collecting your bag from the farm?
The chill room is in the processing shed, a two story building on your left as you come through the drive way to the farm. You may be met by two barking dogs, Bucket and Whumpy, who is extremely friendly and generally obnoxious. We try to keep them in the house from 5:30 – 7 on pick-up days; if this is a problem, phone the house phone (listed above); let us know you are there, or coming. Someone will meet you at the shed.
The processing shed has a garage door that will likely be open. Walk down middle, between the table and stairs on your left and all kinds of things on your right until you see a door with a green chalk board. This is the door to the chill room. Go into chill room. Bags will be marked Monday or Wednesday, but will not have a specific, individual name. Take a Monday or Wednesday bag and find your name on the chalkboard and check it off. There is a bulletin board on wall, left of chill room door. Look for messages/ or leave a message/ or envelopes. Mike usually checks the boards when he returns from pick-up.
What’s in the bag?
If we are lucky, meaning well-enough organized, hopefully you will be able to go to the farm website before pick-up and see a bag list for that day/week. We call these packing slips, and they have their own space on the website. The lucky part happens if Mike or Ryan, who helps post things on our website, are not otherwise tangled in actual picking and packing and are able to get into the house around lunch time, to post the list. Chances are, Mike will be snagged by 10 phone calls and Ryan will be in the back forty or greenhouse putting in plants or saving some crop.
In case, you don’t get your list before pick-up, this time of year you can expect early greens such lettuce or salad mix, chives, Chinese cabbage – maybe a few peas, just enough to tease your appetite for the 14 week season. Every week, the veggies will increase, hopefully, soon there will be spinach and kale, summer squash, beans and eventually cucumbers, tomatoes, turnips, garlic, carrots, maybe corn and finally winter squash. As you know, the winter and spring were extreme and May and June have been iffy, some warm, nice days and some extremely cold and wet. The season is late, but looks very promising as we learn more and more about growing in the geo-thermal greenhouses.
Tail gate sales!
This is the fun part for Mike and some of the members. We bring along extra vegetables to sell out of the back of the van. First, it serves as a swap box. If there is something in your bag you don’t want, bring it to Mike and he will find something comparable in price. We have found that someone will be waiting in line for the garlic or cucumbers one member is returning and there are some people standing by extra salad mix or tomatoes; others are just waiting for anything and everything extra.
Preferred customers and special orders
Often, we do not have enough of a particular product to make it an item for the Coop Bags. An example might be artichokes, snows peas or pea shoots or even rhubarb this time of year. However, if you let us know, we will hold the items requested for a tail gate sale exchange rather than send it into the Farmers’ Market on Saturdays. The same is true for Special Orders, especially to meet requirements for special diets for people involved in various treatments for illness. We are glad to help. However, in order to be more time efficient and ensure that we are not scrambling to set aside items for special diets, we have set up a routine around the time frame/ procedures for managing special orders. Write to Organicfarm@nl.rogers.com re: special orders to begin this process.
Visiting the home of your veggies!
We invite you to come to the farm to see where your vegetables are grown. Be sure to bring your children, friends or extended family too. You can peek in the greenhouses, see the rows of gorgeous lettuces being grown for salad mix, taste the herbs and edible flowers and if let us know you are coming, you might have a cuppa, with a tea bun.
Managing Your Compost: New Service for Veggie Coop Members
Beginning the week of July 7th, we are offering a new pilot program. As a service to Veggie Coop Members only, we will accept compost at the weekly pick-up, whether this is at MUN or the Farm. We will bring large tubs to pick-up for bagged compost and another bin for unbagged compost for people who use kitchen compost containers. There are two challenges: ensuring that we can prevent mess or spilling on the parking lost and labour/ resources needed to process back at the farm.
All kitchen vegetable waste, including spoiled and non-organic materials will eventually turn into usable compost. The miracle of Nature is that over time, the natural process of composting breaks down those nasty pesticides and herbicides at the same time, rescuing the nutrients for future plants. Are you or your neighbor doing any carpentry projects? If so, consider bagging the sawdust for the Organic Farm. Make sure it is clean with no machine or chain oil residues from cutting equipment.
Please do not include cooked food, meat and grease, oils used for frying if possible. No pet manures, kitty litter, etc. We will try to give a definitive list of things we can compost before the scheme starts
From a practical agriculture standpoint, organic practices establishes a revolving nutrient bank account which improves soil structure, maintains tilth and helps minimize erosion. Organic matter is derived mainly from plant residues and contains all of the essential plant nutrients. Organic matter does not add any “new” plant nutrients but releases nutrients in a plant available form through the process of decomposition.
Introduction to Farm Notes
Over the years, we developed several ways of letting people know what they can expect in the “bag”
and What is Happening On and Off The Farm! Originally, Farm Notes offered recipes and ways of using the veggies. Over time, this became an extensive recipe file on the Organic Farm Website, which flew off into cyberspace in the fall of 2010 and has not been rescued. It contained hundreds of recipes, most having a story associated with how the recipe came to the attention of the Organic Farm. A young man, who was a friend spent some time searching the universe for the website material and explained because of how the website was originally constructed in bits and pieces, with one thing overlaying another instead of being erased and revised , that it would take him weeks to recover and put together the pieces, an ambition that we could not afford. Since then, we have worked with a couple of people to get a few things up; my energy is waning over the years and my contribution is mainly word processing. Even though I was the typing champion in the State of Tennessee, I am not technically skilled/ hate learning new things and in general sullen about having to do something I didn’t learn in High School, which, as you might imagine, also leaves out texting. So here I am, Melba, Co-owner/ Organic Farm and writer of your weekly farm notes, without a clue about how they might get passed along to our Veggie Coop Membership. Besides that, I am in Tennessee for a family reunion, returning July 7th.
What can you expect!
One way or another you will get a list of veggies each week, either before or after they are in your hands, along with ideas about how to use them. In addition to recipes and suggestions, from time to time you will also get Farm News, Stories, Gossips and Happenings on and off the Farm, Organics and Food Security News! Here’s a sample!
What’s happening off the farm?
The inaugural meeting of the St. John’s Food Policy Council was held on Thursday, June 26th at the Forum Room. This was an invitational meeting initiated by the Food Security Network in cooperation with the St. John’s City Council. John Foley represented the Organic Farm. For many of us, this represents years of front line advocacy with in several organizations. It is only a beginning for exploring the possibilities. Go to the Food Security Network Website for this and other exciting happenings in food and healthy living initiatives.
Daughter, Toby, shows at Leyton Gallery
Our daughter, Toby who is a visual artist, has several pieces selected for the summer show opening at the Leyton Gallery, Friday evening, June 27th and runs for three weeks. Toby’s work can be seen on the Leyton Gallery Website. She also had some pieces accepted for display at Fishers Lodge, Port Rexton, earlier in June. .
Recipes
Bangla Style Stir Fried Greens
One lb leafy greens (endive, dandelion, chard, spinach, bok choi, etc.), 3 tbsp Veg. Oil.
Scant l/4 tsp black mustard, cumin, fennel, fenugreek and nigella seed, ground.
l/4 tsp cayenne, 2 tsp. Minced garlic, l l/2 chopped onion, l/2 tsp sugar, and l tsp salt.
Heat oil, add spices, then garlic – 10 seconds. Add onions. cook 10 minutes on medium. Change heat to high. Add greens, 1 – 5 minutes, then cover and cook 1 minute more to steam. Serve with rice or other dishes. The recipe comes from Emily Sokowe, Co-Owner, Georgetown Bakery with Stephen Lewis. It was originally printed in the Farm Notes, September, 2005. Emily writes: I can also do this with pea shoots.
Nigella Seeds?
When I got this recipe in a written note from Emily, one of the words I couldn’t make out was nigella seeds, partly because of the scribbling and partly because it was an unfamiliar seed. Here is what I learned. Nigella seeds are also known as black onion seeds, a misnomer as the seeds have nothing to do with onions. Nigella seeds are the dried, seed-like fruit of a small herb. The seeds are long and jet black with a matte finish. They closely resemble tiny chips of coal. Nigella seeds are sold whole and can be dry roasted and powdered at home. They are sometimes erroneously referred to as black cumin, an entirely different species. They are used in India and the Middle East as a seasoning for vegetables, legumes, salads, and breads. Food for Thought has Nigella seeds in bulk.
Desperately seeking recipes!
Send in your recipes or other tid-bits to the farm e-mail address. We will pass them along or post them on the blog. Also, stories and current events! Perhaps your son or daughter won an award. Or you want to tell us about your favourite restaurants. Or sell your kayak! This is the place to start.
Melba/ Co-Owner
Writing from My Mother’s Kitchen
