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Wednesday evening’s screening of Nourish the film at Wilton Library kicked off an evening of lively moderated discussion about local and sustainably grown food with guest panelists Annie Farrell, Tim LaBant and Jim Hunter.

Every seat in the house was taken, a testament to the popularity of the topic and guest panelists and coordinated team effort in planning and organizing the event by the co-sponsors: Wilton Library, Wilton Go Green, Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm and Fairfield Green Food Guide.

About the Film:

Nourish is an educational film about the story of our food – food from a global perspective to personal action steps. Nourish illustrates how food connects to such issues as biodiversity, climate change, public health, and social justice. Hosted and narrated by Cameron Diaz, Nourish features interviews with best-selling author Michael Pollan, sustainable food advocate Anna Lappe, eco-chef Bryant Terry, pediatrician Dr. Nadine Burke, and organic farmer Nigel Walker. With beautiful visuals and inspiring stories, Nourish traces our relationship to food from a global perspective to personal action steps. Nourish the film was created by WorldLink, an Emmy Award-winning media group with twenty years’ experience in designing education and outreach programs, in order to deepen our national dialog about our food.

“Food is not just fuel. Food is about family, food is about community, food is about identity. And we nourish all those things when we eat well.”
— Michael Pollan from Nourish the film

Visit the web site and view the trailer.

About the Panelists:

Annie Farrell, Master Farmer, Millstone Farm.

Millstone Farm is owned by Betsy and Jesse Fink and is a for-profit working farm whose mission is to operate in a sustainable manner, both in economics and best farm practices. Millstone Farm is an important provider of high quality fresh produce to local families, restaurants and retailers. Annie Farrell, Betsy Fink and Millstone Farm are celebrated in a newly released and very beautiful cookbook, Harvest to Heat: Cooking with America’s Best Chefs, Farmers, and Artisans, that was just named Best Cookbook Overall 2010 by Epicurious and will be featured on the Martha Stewart Show next Wednesday, November  24. Look for Betsy Fink and Annie Farrel in the audience.

In keeping with their goal to see local food production become the norm rather than the exception, Millstone Farm also serves as an educational outreach hub, supporting other farmers, community organizations, school groups and restaurateurs who are interested in learning more about the practice of sustainable agriculture, its implementation and its impact on local economies and food quality. The Millstone Farm Charitable Fund helps support philanthropic initiatives, such as school and community gardens and healthy food initiatives. Millstone Farm was recognized with a Green Coast Award at the Third Annual Green Faire at the Stamford Marriott Hotel and Spa on the morning of this event.

Tim LaBant, Chef/Owner of the Schoolhouse at Cannondale.

Tim’s uncompromising commitment to serving the highest quality fresh, local, and seasonal food has won Schoolhouse numerous awards including a Top 10 Ranking on Open Table’s Best of the tri state area, Best Special Occasion restaurant 2010 by Westport Magazine, and the top Fairfield County Pick for the Best of New England 2010 guide. Much of the food on the menu is sourced from Millstone Farm and some is even picked by the chef himself.

Starting Dec. 9 Tim and his team will be serving lunch, along with other farm-to-table chefs, on rotating Thursdays at the indoor winter farmers’ market at Gilbertie’s in Westport from 10-1 pm.

Jim Hunter, Biology and AP Environmental Science teacher and founder of the organic edible school garden at Wilton High School

Jim has taught at Wilton High School for the past nine years and recently founded Wilton High School’s edible school garden, made possible through funding from Newman’s Own Foundation and funding and other support from The Betsy and Jesse Fink Foundation and Millstone Farm. Jim spent years learning to garden organically from Annie Farrell and her time and expertise were key contributors to the project’s success.

The panel discussion lasted about an hour and we invited the audience to submit questions on question cards that were collected during the final 20 minutes of Q&A.

It was my great pleasure to serve as moderator for the guest panel and this was my introduction:

“We are delighted so many of you were able to join us tonight. I know you will leave feeling uplifted and inspired by our guest panelists Annie Farrell, Tim LaBant and Jim Hunter. As you listen to their stories, it will become evident that Wilton is indeed a very special place where people who care deeply about nourishing the community are working in concert with one another for the greater good.”

The following questions were presented to the panelists by the moderator and some of their answers can be read in the article Residents Encouraged to’Eat Local, Think Global’ by Kara O’Connor, a staff writer at the Wilton Villager who attended the event. A second article, Panel Promotes Farm Fresh Food, by Anthony Buzzeo at The Daily Wilton conveys a few additional thoughts. And my favorite is Film and Discussion at the Wilton Library Nourishes the Community by Audra Carbone of the Wilton Patch.

Panelist Questions:

Q1: The final chapter of the film encourages us to Be the Difference. Each of you IS the difference, working to transform the way we eat and nourish the community. Would you please tell us more about your work?

Q2: The film encourages us to Vote With Our Forks. What does that mean and what are some ways to do that here in Fairfield County?

Q3: Is being a conscious eater enough? Should we all be growing some of our own food and finding ways to support programs and initiatives working to transform the food system into something more sustainable, just and healthy?

The following audience questions were taken on cards and answered by Jim Hunter, Tim LaBant, and Annie Farrell, respectively.

Q1: Will gardens be put in the elementary and middle schools in Wilton?

Q2: What’s local in season November through April?

Q3: What workshops and programs are offered at Millstone Farm, how do you find out about them, and how do we encourage more people to grow in their own backyards?

Many thanks to Tim LaBant and Schoolhouse Restaurant for the delicious cassoulet, Wave Hill Bread for the bread used in the dish, and Vintage Fine Wines of Wilton for their support with the wines. A red and a white wine were served, a 2008 Bonterrra Vineyards Chardonnay and 2006 Lolonis Cabernet, both California wines made from 100% organic grapes.

Guests enjoyed the food and wine during the networking event that followed with panelists and exhibitors Wilton Go Green, Millstone Farm, Fairfield Green Food Guide, Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm, and Ambler Farm.

Thank you to the many guests who supported the library through donations and purchased DVDs from the non-profit Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm to share with their family, friends, businesses, school and organizations. Many thanks to the Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm for their sponsorship of the Nourish screening.

(from the web site)

Nourish is a multi-year media and education initiative. The purpose of Nourish is to open a broad public conversation about our food system that encourages citizen engagement, particularly among young people and families. To inform and inspire, Nourish combines television programming, short films, web content, and learning tools. With a distinctly positive vision, Nourish celebrates both food and community.

Nourish is a project of WorldLink, an Emmy Award-winning media group with twenty years experience in designing education and outreach programs. To maximize the effectiveness of Nourish, WorldLink is collaborating with more than 40 organizations dedicated to creating a sustainable food future.

Whether you’re already a garlic fan or just learning to love this ancient yet beloved member of the allium family, this free workshop is for you. Drop in Fairfield Woods Branch Library anytime between 10 am and noon on Saturday, November 13,  and head downstairs to:

• Learn how to plant, maintain and harvest garlic from organic farmer Patti Popp of Sport Hill Farm and herb and vegetable expert Sal Gilbertie of Gilbertie’s Herb Gardens.
• Discover the many ways to cook garlic and how it benefits and protects our health from Health & Cooking Coach Amie Guyette Hall of From Your Inside Out.
• Purchase seed garlic to plant in your own backyard this fall. You’ll enjoy the scapes in June and mature garlic in the fall.

This event is organized and sponsored by the Fairfield Organic Teaching Farm and hosted by Fairfield Woods Branch Library. No registration is required and the event is free. All ages welcome.

Sal Gilbertie’s latest book, Small Plot High Yield Gardening, will be available for sale and signing.

Fairfield Woods Branch Library, 1147 Fairfield Woods Road, Fairfield, CT. 203-255-7307

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by Analiese Paik

In 2002 the Ubaldo brothers, John and Robert, started farming at their family home in Pound Ridge, NY where Robert continues to grow abundant vegetables today in 25 high-yielding raised beds. Each morning Chef Robert starts his work day by picking fresh vegetables for Farmer’s Table, his newly-opened eatery in New Canaan that’s one part cozy restaurant serving casual farm-to-table fare and one part farmers’ market.

Robert’s biggest supplier, outside of his own garden, is his brother John Ubaldo, aka John Boy, who left a successful career in the financial services industry in 2007 to become a full-time farmer of the old fashioned variety. John Boy and his 185-acre farm in Cambridge, NY have captured the hearts, and palates, of chefs and eaters dedicated to sourcing the highest quality local, sustainably grown, and humanely raised food and has been featured in GQ Magazine, The New York Times, and Westchester Magazine.

“Whatever gets eaten gets eaten. We don’t spray anything so we’re more organic than organic” was the no nonsense response John Boy gave to my question about his land care practices. I immediately sensed there would be no shades of gray in my conversation with this man who is easily considered one of the most sought after sustainable farmers in the area. Black and white feels good and safe sometimes, especially when it pertains to knowing your food and farmer.

When I asked how sustainable his business model is, a deadpan “From the Wall St. perspective my model is really flawed” fell from John Boy’s mouth. “It’s a ton of labor and expensive. I’ve never worked this hard in my life. There’s zero downtime.” Vacation? A recent weekend trip was the first time he’d had a vacation in years. Despite the endless work, it’s clear he loves what he does. “There’s an energy on the farm that I don’t think is fathomable. Plus I don’t like sitting down; it makes it hard to get up.”

Crop loss only partially explains why running a “beyond organic” or “naturalist” farm like John Boy’s is so expensive and labor intensive.  John Boy elaborated: “We grow all of our own food for the animals from non-GMO corn and soy seed. We don’t use feeder farms to supply us. All our animals are born and raised on the farm. It’s rare to breed pigs on the farm. Pigs give birth at 2 am for 4-5 hours and I’m there for every birth. Keeping animals healthy is a 24/7 job.”

Call him a lunatic fringe farmer and you’ll be paying him a compliment. He knows he’s extreme and that’s the point. John Boy blames factory farms, where the animals are not cared for responsibly, for turning him into a “cranky, self-righteous farmer.”

According to Robert the two brothers had an epiphany one inclement morning last November as they waited at their Sunday farmers’ market stand in Pound Ridge for the regulars to show up to purchase Robert’s baked goods and soups and John Boy’s produce, poultry and meat products. “Why don’t we find a way to have a roof over our heads and let people buy from us every day?” thought Robert. When he heard the space on Forest Street had become available, Robert jumped at the lease and a plan to launch Farmer’s Table was hatched. Farmer’s Table brings together chef and farmer in a unique collaboration which offers diners straightforward yet distinct American fare sourced locally and sustainably. It wouldn’t be hard to image such a place existing 100 years ago.

A veteran of Tequila Mockingbird in New Canaan and Southwest Café in Ridgefield, Chef Robert’s love of Southwestern food shone through in our lunch of black bean soup rich with earthy and smoky chorizo, tender and flavorful chile-spiced Berkshire pork tacos, and plump chicken pesto with roasted garden vegetable quesadillas. Toasted 100% organic house-baked whole wheat bread with a surprisingly light texture accompanied the soup and glistening seafood chowder where lobster, shrimp and scallops were the main ingredient. Muffins and two to three types of breads are baked fresh twice daily because “some people like to come in just to buy a hot loaf of bread” explained Robert.

The farmers’ market in a restaurant concept brought to life at Farmer’s Table means area consumers can enjoy John Boy’s “beyond organic” vegetables, humanely raised certified Berkshire pork, Aberdeen Angus beef, chicken, duck, goose, turkey, quail, squab and artisan smoked meats including bacon, sausage, pepperoni and chorizo in meals deftly prepared by Chef Robert six days a week. And they can also buy local produce and meats  from John Boy’s Farm and select Connecticut farms for meals to be prepared at home. But don’t expect that Brother Robert will be getting preferential treatment from Brother John when it comes to allocating scarce, high-demand products. “Are you kidding, he always shorts me on the pork chops” quipped Robert. No matter, the prized house-made Berkshire pork pate will hold you until next time.

If you want to “follow” John Boy and perhaps procure one of his Thanksgiving turkeys from Farmer’s Table, it’s best to sign up for his e-newsletter which currently reaches over 2,000 and boasts an incredible 40% open rate. Email johnboysmarket@aol.com and ask to be added to the distribution list. According to John Boy “Last Thanksgiving we sold 120 turkeys and expect to do 200 this year.  Size will depend on mother nature.” John Boy’s newsletter is one of the few that I always open because I know something he’s written will make me laugh or smile, including a good rant or tale of farm animal antics. John Boy reported in a recent email blast that “My mother is a new sign up this week since she has found out this is the best way to find out what is going on in my life.”

On Sundays John Boy’s Farm participates in the farmers’ markets at Muscoot Farm in Somers, NY and also in Pound Ridge. Wednesdays he makes deliveries to restaurants and stores including Farmer’s Table, Gates, Tequila Mockingbird, Walter Stewart’s Market, North Star Restaurant in Scotts Corners and the Farmhouse at Bedford Post Inn, actor Richard Gere’s award-winning farm-to-table restaurant in Bedford, NY.

Farmer’s Table, Chef/Owner Robert Ubaldo, 21 Forest Street, New Canaan. 203-594-7890, Open Monday through Saturday from 11:30 am until 10pm. Closed Sundays.

Please call Pequot Library at 203-259-0346, ext. 18, for more information or to register.

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YWCA Greenwich, Greenwich Library Peterson Business Program Series, and J.P. Morgan Private Bank present Women and the Sustainable Food Revolution: Transforming the Way We Eat on Thursday, October 14, 2010 from 6-8 pm at YWCA Greenwich.

A very special guest panel of notable women leaders in the sustainable food revolution will educate, inform and inspire you as they discuss what’s wrong with the way we eat and how their initiatives are helping to pave the way for change, plus share practical advice for eating more sustainably each and every day.

Please join Jayni Chase, Founder, Green Community Schools and the Center for Environmental Education; Annie Farrell, Farm Activist and Advisor, Millstone Farm; Betsy Fink, Owner of Millstone Farm and President of the Betsy and Jesse Fink Foundation; and Amy Kalafa, Documentary Filmmaker, Certified Health Counselor and Partner, Trainer’s Table as they discuss why the choices we make every day about the foods we eat matter.

Among topics to be discussed are how the way we we eat impacts human and environmental health and threatens biodiversity, how climate change is impacting agriculture, why food security is a matter of national security, how energy figures into the  food production equation, how food policies and food marketing influence food choices everywhere from school lunch to grocery store shelves, and why establishing Community Supported Agriculture programs and backyard, school, community and urban gardens are practical solutions to the problems we face.

Location: YWCA Greenwich, 259 East Putnam Avenue, Greenwich

Program Schedule:

6-6:45 Open reception with Local Food and Sustainable Wine

6:45-7:30 Moderated Panel Discussion

7:30-8:00 Open Discussion & Networking

This event is free and open to the general public, but seating is limited and registration is a required. You may register by calling Tiffany Metti at the YWCA Greenwich at 203-869-6501, ext. 106 or online at www.ywcagreenwich.org/sustainablefood.

Do you have a question for the guest panelists?

Please submit your questions in the comments section below or email them to info@fairfieldgreenfoodguide.com for consideration during the panel discussion. Audience questions will also be taken during the moderated panel discussion.

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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published as part of the Living on the Earth: Eclectic Essays for a Sustainable and Joyful Future series on July 25, 1997, but the story is timeless. It will certainly inspire some of us to pick up “seed garlic” from a local farmer or farmers’ market and start our own garlic crop in the backyard, community garden or farm. We’ll have wonderful garlic scapes in the spring, then spring garlic or cured garlic to look forward to.

by Bill Duesing

We harvested our garlic this week. Over a three day period, between rainstorms, Suzanne and I pulled up five long beds full of these sturdy plants with strappy blue green leaves, as mockingbirds sang in a nearby apple tree. It was enjoyable work. The fluffy soil allowed the bulbs to be lifted out easily, their purple and white beauty showing through the dirt. After shaking and brushing off the dark, well-composted soil that was clinging to the roots, we put the garlic in bushel baskets. A nearly intoxicating aroma surrounded us.

By the time we were done, we had hundreds of pounds of garlic. We are very
pleased with the quantity and quality of this year’s crop.

Harvest time for garlic is critical. Each of the long leaves, which wraps around the stem at its base, becomes a wrapper for the bulb of garlic under the soil. The number of green leaves remaining on the plant indicates how many layers remain on the bulb. If all the leaves dry up while the plant is in the soil, all the wrappers disappear. If they dry after harvest, however, each one leaves another tough layer of protection around the bulb. Three to five bulb wrappers are suggested for best storage, and, since a wrapper or two may be lost in harvesting and cleaning, we harvest when there are about six leaves remaining on most of the plants. The garlic should stay in the ground as long as possible, but if too many layers of wrapper dry up before harvest, the spaces between the cloves are open to invasion by soil bacteria and fungi, which can cause rot.

It is important to get the freshly-picked bulbs into the shade immediately and to hang them in an airy place so they dry quickly and evenly.

Our garlic now hangs from the rafters in the breezeway, tied in bundles of ten bulbs. It will be just fine there until fall, when we plant cloves from the medium-sized bulbs. What’s left we store in a dry place where it won’t freeze
during the winter. Sometimes we cut off the tops and sometimes we don’t.
Garlic keeps very well when it’s been harvested at the right time and cured properly. Given these conditions, it will store nearly a whole year.

Garlic is a very easy crop to grow. We stuck cloves from last year’s harvest
into fertile garden beds in late October and mulched them thickly with hay.
During the winter the cloves grew strong root systems. The hay kept most weeds from growing, but let the young, pointed garlic leaves poke through easily this spring. In April and May, while we were working so hard to get other crops established, the garlic, large and vigorous, was quite an inspiration. In late spring we did a bit of weeding. In June, we snapped off the flower buds in order to direct more energy to the bulbs below.

We eat lots of garlic because of its wonderful flavor. It’s delicious with
pasta and greens, in fresh tomato sauces, and with eggs, potatoes or beans.
We’ll reserve at least seven bulbs a week for us to eat, and about half of the
harvest for planting this fall. The rest, mostly the biggest bulbs, we’ll sell
at the farmers’ markets where the hardneck variety has become increasingly
popular over the years.

Garlic or allium sativum, is a local crop. It adapts to the local soil and does well when it is replanted in the same space in the garden for several
years. For best results, it’s good to plant garlic which originates in your
region. We started with bulbs from New York State, and have replanted this
strain here for six years.

For at least 10,000 years, humans have enjoyed garlic. From ancient China,
Egypt and India, through Biblical times and Greek and Roman cultures, down to the present, people have used garlic to treat a variety of illnesses including cancer, heart disease and leprosy, as well as infected wounds and dysentery.

Modern research shows that garlic is a powerful antibiotic, provides at least
three beneficial effects for the heart, helps eliminate lead and other toxic
heavy metals from the body, has anti-tumor properties, and is useful in treating leprosy and AIDS. It’s our garlic’s wonderful flavor, however, that keeps us growing and eating it, and keeps our customers coming back for more.

You can grow some garlic, too. Look for nice bulbs at a local farmers’ market, hang it up until fall and then plant it when you set out other bulbs like daffodils and tulips. Next July you’ll harvest your own and will have started an exciting, healthful and flavorful adventure.

(C) 1997, Bill Duesing, Solar Farm Education, Box 135, Stevenson, CT 06491. Reprinted with permission.

Bill Duesing is an organic farmer, author, environmental artist and Executive Director of the Connecticut Chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (CT NOFA). Bill and Suzanne Duesing operate the Old Solar Farm (raising NOFA/CT certified organic vegetables) and Solar Farm Education (working on urban agriculture projects in New Haven, Bridgeport, Hartford and Norwalk, CT). Their collection of essays Living on the Earth: Eclectic Essays for a Sustainable and Joyful Future is available from Bill Duesing, Box 135, Stevenson, CT 06491 for $14 postpaid. These essays first appeared on WSHU, public radio from Fairfield, CT.

I know I’m not the only backyard gardener who feels compelled to survey the garden each morning to make sure all is in order. Is anything being attacked? Any herbs bolting? Any signs of blight on tomatoes or basil? Should I be picking something before it gets overgrown? Does anything need water?

Sometimes we’re delighted by what we find.  This morning I found two bees sleeping in a blossom on my flying saucer squash plant. Despite the cat’s meows they remained fast asleep so I had time to go in and grab the camera. You can even see the pollen on their bodies!

What surprised you in your garden this season? Please come post a photo on Facebook or comment below.

Park City Harvest Farm Stand locations in Bridgeport have reopened for the season and Wholesome Wave’s Double Value Coupon Program for SNAP/EBT and WIC recipients is once again being offered. Under this program, $10 in benefits equals $20 in fresh, CT-grown,  fruits and vegetables! The markets also accept seniors farmers market checks and cash.

Summer 2010 locations open through September:

• Tuesdays, 12:00 – 5:00: St. Vincent’s Medical Center, 2800 Main Street
• Wednesdays, 9:30 – 2:00: Bridgeport Health Department, 752 East Main Street

Park City Harvest is a project of Wholesome Wave  and the Healthy Bridgeport Alliance.

Video: Watch Wholesome Wave’s founder and CEO, Michel Nischan, interviewed on  the “Making a Difference” segment of the NBC Nightly News with Brian William. In it, NBC’s John Yang visits with Michel at farmers’ markets and his family’s backyard garden to discuss the incredibly positive impact Wholesome Wave’s Double Value Coupon Program is having around the country as it provides inner city neighborhoods with access to fresh, healthy and affordable locally grown food.

For more information about Wholesome Wave’s Nourishing Neighborhoods programs, visit www.wholesomewave.org.

Read more about local food hero Michel Nischan in his profile in Who’s Who in Sustainable Food CT.

Woodchucks, rabbits, deer, insects – the list of varmints, critters and bugs that can attack or devour our gardens is pretty long. In order to keep out the rabbits, deer and woodchuck, my husband built wire cages that fit over our raised beds and easily come on and off. It wasn’t until the tops of the radishes and horseradish were eaten this year, that I realized it was time for the cages to go on.

We resorted to the wire cage defense after I lost an entire crop of Lacinato Kale to the rabbits one year. The cages are straight out of Mel Bartholomew’s  “Square Food Gardening” book, and are made from wood and chicken wire. They really work like a charm. I just harvested two kinds of sorrel and bok choy. Some tiny holes are in the bok choy leaves, but the sorrel is pristine.

What are you harvesting from your backyard, school or community garden? Who’s invading your garden and how do you keep them out?

If you’re growing strawberries at home, make sure you pick them soon so they don’t wind up as  squirrel food. We picked our first handfuls earlier in the week and have left a few for our Memorial Day guests to pick and savor.

The strawberries are ripe and ready! Pick them up at your favorite farm, farmers’ market or great grocer. If you’re free this Saturday morning, head over to Jones Family Farm in Shelton for a very special SNEAK PREVIEW picking THIS Saturday morning (5/29) from 8am – 11am! Don’t forget to bring your JFF berry box from last year.