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Crimson & Clover Farm

November 10, 2010 By Andre

Jen Smith and Nate Frigard~Crimson & Clover Farm

After a three-month application process, and with the assistance of an outstanding expert evaluation panel, Grow Food Northampton has selected a western Massachusetts farming couple, Nate Frigard and Jen Smith, to be our anchor CSA farmers for the Northampton Community Farm.

Nate and Jen have a combined 15 years of farming experience, were trained at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at the University of California Santa Cruz, and have been growing, managing and teaching farming in Massachusetts including Waltham Fields Community Farm, Waltham, MA, and the Farm School in Orange, MA. Nate currently manages the CSA farm at the Farm School while Jen works as a Land Conservation Associate with Mt. Grace Land Conservation Trust.

If fundraising allows, GFN looks forward to offering Jen and Nate a 99-year ground lease to the 37-acre Bean Farm land as the site for their organic vegetable CSA. Jen and Nate will have at least two farmer apprentices, will host community celebrations on the land, will work with Grow Food Northampton to bring educational programs on site, and will regularly donate fresh food to our local food banks. If GFN is successful in purchasing more than the Bean Farm, we may circulate a call for complementary proposals (e.g. fruit, bean and grain CSAs; animals, farm business incubator sites, etc.) and incorporate land for community gardens, in the additional acreage. Jen and Nate will assist in the short-term management of that land until additional lessees are selected.

A Letter from Jen & Nate

We currently live in Wendell, Massachusetts and are very excited to move down to Northampton this fall to begin the work of starting a community-based farm on the Bean Farm farmland.

We are thrilled and humbled at the opportunity to join and to serve the Northampton community with fresh, healthy produce, farm based educational opportunities, and community celebrations over the coming years.

Our Experience

For the last 4 seasons Nate has worked for The Farm School as the Head Grower in its year round farmer training program. He manages 12 acres of vegetables and small fruits and trains student farmers in the skills of raising organic mixed vegetables.

Jen currently works for Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust where she heads up their Farm Conservation Program. She helps landowners explore their conservation options and works most specifically with farmers and farmland owners to preserve their farms for future generations.

Together, we have 15 years combined farming experience. We have farmed in Northern Virginia, in Coastal California, and for the last 5 seasons in Massachusetts. We have come to farming out of a love of hard work and out of an excitement that comes from community based farming.

Our Vision for the Land

We plan to start a community-centered organic farm growing mixed vegetables, fruits and cut flowers. We will market our produce primarily through an on-farm Community Supported Agriculture program. In the future, we also hope to bring laying hens, pigs and bees to the farm, plant a small fruit orchard, and plant raspberries and blueberries for our CSA members.

While the core business of our farm will be growing mixed vegetables, our goal is to create a beautiful, productive and diverse family farm, with both annual and perennial crops, field crops along smaller hand tilled perennial garden spaces, trees, shrubs, flowers, vegetables and animals.

We envision the farm being not only a successful and sustainable business but also a place of learning and community engagement. We are excited to partner with Grow Food Northampton over the long-term to bring youth education and increased access to the farm for folks of all income levels.

We plan to develop a apprentice-training program to continue teaching future farmers how to run a successful farm. We will host community workshops and skill shares, open to all, and will offer real volunteer opportunities for interested folks to join in the work of the farm. We are excited to help make this farm a welcoming space open to the public, and a community resource not just for our CSA members and customers but for the whole community.

~Jen & Nate

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FOOD COOPS IN PIONEER VALLEY

November 9, 2010 By Andre

Do you want fresh, locally grown food, but don’t want to give up the convenience of a regular grocery store? There’s no need to wait for your closest mega-chain supermarket to carry the good stuff.

Food cooperatives are worker or customer owned businesses that provide grocery items of the highest quality and best value to their members. Coops can take the shape of retail stores or buying clubs. All food coops are committed to consumer education, product quality, and member control, and usually support their local communities by selling produce grown locally by family farms

Seven Rochdale Principles:
1. Voluntary and open membership
2. Democratic member control
3. Member economic participation
4. Autonomy and independence
5. Education, training, and information
6. Cooperation among cooperatives
7. Concern for community

RIVER VALLEY MARKET FEATURED COOP

River Valley Market is the Pionner Valleys newest food coop. Located in Northampton MA. Opened in April, 2008, our co-op was built into a bowl-shaped site carved from the granite hillside between 1900-1934. Stone from this hill was used to build King St. and Routes 5 & 10. The quarry operations left the site with a flat plateau surrounded by granite cliffs rising on three sides. The cliff acts as a natural barrier between the cooperative store operations and surrounding residential areas. It also provides a beautiful setting for our community food store.

Our 15,000 sq. foot green-constructed building has ample parking; a deli seating area; fresh produce, meat, and seafood departments; a wellness department; beer and wine; bulk foods; cheese, dairy, grocery and more! Come and check them out in Northampton for organic and sustainable products. See link on left.

by Sarah Klein, Quarry Café kitchen manager

Here are some suggestions for preparing those first beautiful local greens. Simply Prepared Fiddleheads This first recipe is from Pete, our Fresh Meat and Seafood Department manager. He tells us this is the way they cook fiddleheads in Maine. Bring water to a boil and dump in the fiddleheads for 4-6 minutes. The ferns will become a darker green than they started. Drain and fill the same pot with more water and boil fiddleheads again with some beef boullion, 10-15 minutes until they are as soft as you like, generally al dente, like pasta. Add some butter and salt…delicious! Grilled Fiddleheads Blanch the fiddleheads as above. Toss them in boiling water (as salty as the sea) for 3-5 minutes to par cook and set their color. Drain and run under cold water to stop the cooking. Prepare a grill to medium heat. If you have a glazing or cooling rack, put it on your grill so the fiddleheads don’t fall through. Toss fiddleheads with some oil of your choice (olive oil is a nice counterpoint to their slight bitterness). Salt and pepper to taste. Grill fiddleheads about 7 minutes, turning as needed so they cook evenly and don’t burn. Fiddleheads in Shallot Dijon Vinaigrette Try your fiddleheads in this simple shallot dijon vinaigrette. If you let them sit in the dressing, they will become lightly pickled and can sit this way for up to one week (they will turn slightly grey because of the acid but are still fine to eat). Alternatively, you can heat the vinaigrette in a sauté pan and stir in the fiddleheads, cooking until warmed through.

1 lb blanched fiddleheads

1 small shallot, finely minced

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp sugar or honey or agave nectar

¼ cup white wine or cider vinegar

¾ cup extra virgin olive, grapeseed or hazelnut oil Salt and freshly crushed black pepper to taste

In a small bowl combine shallot, mustard, sugar and vinegar. Drizzle in oil while whisking. Add salt and pepper to taste. Whisk again. Taste and adjust seasonings. You can also throw everything in a jar with a close fitting lid and shake well to combine ingredients. ring to fiddlehead ferns, or young fern fronds that have yet to unfurl and which resemble the top of a fiddle. And if you’ve got a strong hankerin’ for asparagus and can’t wait until it pops out of our fertile valley soil, then your friend made a very good recommendation in fiddleheads because they actually resemble asparagus in flavor and can be used anywhere you would use asparagus, only they’re funnier- ooking. And if you ask me, I think Americans don’t get enough funny-looking food in their diets. Now don’t rush out to the woods to nosh on the first bunch of fiddleheads you find they’re not all edible. Be sure you know how to identify ostrich ferns. When you identify them, be careful not to harvest more than half from any one cluster, or you’ll sap the fern’s energy and the fiddleheads won’t grow back next year. Also, make sure they’re still tightly curled. They become inedible once they start to open. Fiddleheads are a good source of potassium and also contain vitamin C, niacin and iron. And while it’s ok to pop a few raw fiddleheads into your mouth, you shouldn’t eat too many that way because they contain an enzyme which depletes the thiamine from your body. The enzyme is destroyed by cooking, and you can cook them in a variety of ways. Steam them for about 8 minutes until they are tender. Or boil them in salted water for 4-6 minutes or until the stalks are bright green and still tender and crisp. You can also sauté them. You can incorporate fiddleheads into lots of different recipes and they are also delicious when served simply, with just butter and salt. So go ahead and add some funny-looking food into your meals and by the time the fiddleheads season is over (it only lasts a couple of weeks in late April), the much coveted asparagus will be here. Patiently awaiting that first shipment of fresh local fiddleheads,

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SUSTAINABILITY IN THE PIONEER VALLEY

November 9, 2010 By Andre

Sustain; v. (used with object); to support, hold,
or bear the weight of

Sustainability is an important concept which weaves its way throughout the Pioneer Valley. The idea behind sustainability involves reimbursing or using less of the resources from which we take from the environment. One of the ways the people in the Pioneer Valley encourage sustainability is by prompting their fellow citizens to shop locally and “Be a Local Hero”. This means supporting local grocers, local farmers, and local businesses. In addition, entitles one the right of purchasing one of the many “I am a Local Hero” bumper stickers sold in many establishments across The Valley.

The reason being a local hero is so important to the Pioneer Valley is because we not only sustain each other as a community, but also contribute to the local farmers who use more environmentally friendly methods than big corporations. Therefore sustaining the environment as well.

The Pioneer Valley community is always interested in new innovations supporting sustainability, and Co-op Power plays a big role in satisfying this interest. Co-op Power is a consumer-owned company that is dedicated to developing community-owned sustainable energy and resources in New England and New York. In fact, Co-op Power is a majority owner of the Northeast Biodiesel Company LLC. This $7 million biodiesel plant will take root in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and will use recycled vegetable oils, and animal fats to produce five million gallons of biodiesel per year. This is a project that has been in the works for years, and construction will finally start this year [2009].

Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the capacity of maintaining a certain process or state. It is now most frequently used in connection with biological and human systems. In an ecological context, sustainability can be defined as the ability of an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes, functions, biodiversity and productivity into the future

Sustainability has become a complex term that can be applied to almost every facet of life on Earth, particularly the many different levels of biological organization, such as; wetlands, prairies and forests and is expressed in human organization concepts, such as; ecovillages, eco-municipalities, sustainable cities, and human activities and disciplines, such as; sustainable agriculture, sustainable architecture and renewable energy.

For humans to live sustain-ably, the Earth’s resources must be used at a rate at which they can be replenished. However, there is now clear scientific evidence that humanity is living unsustainably, and that an unprecedented collective effort is needed to return human use of natural resources to within sustainable limits.

Since the 1980s, the idea of human sustainability has become increasingly associated with the integration of economic, social and environmental spheres. In 1989, the Brundtland Commission articulated what has now become a widely accepted definition of sustainability: “[to meet] the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Please follow the links on the left for products, businesses, and information regarding Sustainability in New England but Massachusetts in particularly.

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Have you seen the Zen Beetle?

March 9, 2010 By Andre

The Pioneer Valley has a slew of great writers. And one of them is my friend Susan Downing. This is an excerpt from her blog. I encourage everyone to read more:

It all started a week or so ago. Emily’s friend Renée went into our upstairs bathroom. Em and I were downstairs. Suddenly Renée comes walking very briskly down the stairs, and her words precede her: “There’s a very scary bug in your bathroom!!!” A moment later I see her outstretched hand holding out a loosely bunched tissue, a tight-lipped – and dare I say desperate? – look on her face. Em and I exchanged glances, and I took the tissue from

Zen Beetle

Zen Beetle

Renée. Not knowing what to expect – and hoping against hope it was not one of those big furry spiders – I held my breath and slowly pulled back one edge of the tissue to reveal… Zen Beetle!!!! (Those of you who don’t know about Zen Beetle can ready the back story in my earlier blog:  Spiderweb ”Oh,” I said to Renée with a smile, “It’s just Zen Beetle!” “Terrifying,” Renée replied. Emily nodded with a frown. I stepped outside and put Zen Beetle in the bushes in front of our porch.

Mountain Zen and Healing Center

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Who is SFS in the Arts & Crafts period?

January 26, 2010 By Andre

With more than three decades of experience, Stuart F. Solomon comes to the World Wide Web in a dual role, with an Online Catalog and a Consultation and Appraisal Service.

His Online Catalog displays a choice selection of antiques for sale, usually American in origin. Special emphasis is placed on the Arts & Crafts period, in particular Stickley furniture and Limberts and other quality makers of oak mission style furniture. He also has Victorian, Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods featuring FURNITURE, LIGHTING and ACCESSORIES. He carries a sizeable inventory of arts and crafts furniture by reknown makers Gustav Stickley, L&JG Stickley, Charles Limbert, Lifetime, Harden, J.M. Young, Old Hickory Adirondack and Roycroft amongst others. He also carries lamps by Tiffany Studios, Handel, Jefferson, Bigelow and Kennard, Bradley and Hubbard, Duffner and Kimberly, Pittsburgh, amongst other makers. He also offers early electric, gas, and kerosene lighting including chandeliers, wall sconces, floor lamps, and table lamps; and numerous decorative art metal and pottery pieces. In general, he features antiques that bespeak a strong design influence. Every item he offers he guarantees as to authenticity and you may have full confidence in his catalog descriptions.

He are always interested in purchasing like items, especially mission style furniture by Gustav Stickley, L&JG Stickley, Charles Limbert and lamps by Handel, Tiffany Studios, Bigelow and Kennard and like makers; and we guarantee a fair and just price for your antiques. If your interest is in selling your antiques, please click “Appraisals” on the left side bar at his site. He also has a page on Stickley marks, decals and identification that may help you in identifying and dating your Stickley piece.

For those of you who enjoy travel beyond cyberspace, Stuart F. Solomon Antiques Gallery features a complete inventory. He are located in downtown Northampton, Massachusetts, recently noted as a number one small town travel destination for outstanding arts and entertainment in America.

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