Hidden Brook Gardens is offering a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share this spring, with CTFFE delivering shares to participating families!

What’s a CSA?

CSAs are partnerships between an individual farm and a community of supporters, providing a direct link between the production and consumption of food. CSA members make a commitment to support the farm throughout the season, and assume the costs, risks and bounty of growing food along with the farmer or grower.

How Does It Work?

For this CSA with Hidden Brook Gardens, the 2010 season will run for 15 weeks beginning on Friday, June 18th and ending Friday, September 24th. CTFFE will deliver your share directly to your door each week! The weekly pick-up fee will be $5.00 and the delivery fee will be based on the proximity of your home to our distribution center in East Haddam. To determine your specific delivery fee, please contact CTFFE at 860-873-8760. The pick up and delivery fees will be paid directly to CTFFE each week when we deliver your share.

Why the CSA Model?

CSA members help to cover a farm’s yearly operating budget by purchasing a share of the season’s harvest. Members help pay for seeds, water, equipment maintenance, labor, etc. In return, the farm provides a healthy supply of seasonal fresh produce throughout the growing season.

What Will I Get?

So far Hidden Brook Gardens is planning crops ranging from beans, beets, and broccoli to carrots, collards,  and cucumbers and on to squash, scallions and strawberries! For a full list of planned produce, click here and follow to request the farm’s CSA brochure. Full Shares (15 weeks) are priced at $450, and Half Shares (15 weeks) are $225. A great deal, a great way to support a local farm, and great farm-fresh produce for your table. How cool is that?!

The pick-up and delivery fees will be paid directly to CTFFE each week when they deliver your share.  You can order any other products from their website to compliment that week’s CSA offering, which helps to offset the price of delivery.

Please visit the farm’s site to request a CSA brochure.

Stoneledge Farm Certified Organic CSA has drop/pick up locations in Stamford, Wilton/Norwalk and Southport. As of today there are a few CSA shares available in each location.

The shares from this 90 acre, NOFA-NY certified organic farm located in South Cairo, New York are varied and generous. I particularly liked all the herbs last summer because I learned to use more of them in my cooking. I didn’t expect to love summer savory, but I do. If you don’t pick your own fruit during the summer, I suggest signing up for a fruit share too. The plums, cherries and other tree fruit were gorgeous and I saw varieties that were new to me.

Stamford pick up is at Zion Lutheran Church, 132 Glenbrook Road on Wednesdays, from 4:30 to 6:30 pm. Visit the site for a brochure describing the program or just keep reading below. 

Wilton/Norwalk pick up is at 345 Belden Hill Road on Wednesdays, from 4:15 - 6:30 pm.

Thanks to the dedication and passion for local, organic food of Sarah Bollman and Leann Weaver of Fairfield, a CSA location was added last year at Trinity Southport Church, 651 Pequot Avenue on Wednesdays, from 4:30-6:30 pm.

The cost is $490 for 24 weeks, June through November. That’s $20.42 a week for an abundance of fresh, local, organic produce! Fruit shares are available to vegetable share members for $225 and run for 20 weeks. Berries are grown at Stoneledge Farm and orchard fruit is grown by Stoneledge Farm’s neighbors, who take a light approach in protecting their crops.

Visit their web site to register online by credit card or check. Click here to sign up online. The farmer keeps members very involved, emailing about crop yields and what’s included in the current week’s share. Every week at least one or two herbs are included in the share. Any unclaimed shares will be donated to programs including Operation Hope and the Connecticut Food Bank. Members share recipes and the Fairfield Green Food Guide will post them too because I renewed my share!

Visit the web site to learn more, register for a share or join the waiting list.

Web Site: http://www.stoneledgefarmny.org/locations/

CT NOFA’s 28th Annual Winter Conference

Celebrate Local Organic Farming, Gardening, Landscaping and Sustainable Lifestyles

Co-sponsored with Manchester Community College’s Team Green

Saturday, March 6, 2010
Manchester Community College
Manchester, CT
8:30 am to 4:45 pm

Join us in celebration of local organic farming, gardening, landscaping and sustainable lifestyles. This event will feature 30 plus workshops, a vendor and exhibit area, keynote speech, delicious potluck lunch, children’s program, and a series of hands-on cooking demonstrations.

KEYNOTE~ REGISTRATION~ WORKSHOPS~ SPONSORS~VENDORS

Keynote

Featuring Michael Shuman, author of The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition. Author and entrepreneur, Mr. Schuman has written nearly one hundred articles for such periodicals as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, Weekly Standard, Foreign Policy, Parade, and The Chronicle of Philanthropy. His books and articles have explored people, practices, and policies in the fields of technology, national security, citizen diplomacy, municipal foreign policy, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and business development. To view Michael’s blog, click here.

Michael co-authored a recent report, “Community Food Enterprise: Local Success in a Global Marketplace,” spotlighting 24 ventures around the world that are pioneering models for local food.

Registration

	Before 2/19	After 2/19
NOFA Members:	$40	$45
Non-Members:	$50	$55
Students/Seniors:	$25	$30

Volunteer for 2 hours and receive $10 off the registration price!

Children 12 and under are free.
Free daycare will be available for children ages 3 to 12 with preregistration only.

Online registration is now available. Details>

For a printer-friendly form to mail in, click here.

Workshops

PERMACULTURE DESIGN FOR PRODUCTIVE CONSERVATION:  GROW FOOD, REBUILD THE ENVIRONMENT - Keith Zaltzberg, Regenerative Design Group www.regenerativedesigngroup.com

GROWING CUT FLOWERS - Alan Gorkin, Growing sustainable cut flower crops for to increase market diversity.

MAKING FOOLPROOF COUNTRY WINE - Jack Kittredge, Many Hands Organic Farm.  www.mhof.net

BUILDING A CSA - Dina Brewster, The Hickories Farm www.thehickories.org

HOW WE GROW GARLIC AT WAYNE’S ORGANIC GARDEN - Wayne Hansen, Wayne’s Organic Garden www.waynesorganicgarden.com

FIRST LESSONS IN BEEKEEPING - C. Marina Marchese, Red Bee Apiary   www.redbee.com

THE AMATEUR ARTISAN BAKER - Jiff Martin, Serious & not-so-serious home bakers learn new techniques and share old favorites.  Taste tests & take home live starter.

WORM COMPOSTING - Nick Mancini,   www.OrganicGardeningSimplified.com

SEEDY BUSINESS:  THE HISTORY, POLITICS, & FUTURE OF SEEDS - Ken Greene,  Hudson Valley Seed Library  www.seedlibrary.org

RAW MILK AND FOOD RIGHTS - David E. Gumpert, www.davidgumpert.com

“LIKE A GOOD NEIGHBOR, YOUR AGRICULTURE COMMISION IS THERE” - John Weedon,  How to start a commission w/no money down.  What a Town Agriculture Commission can do to help farmers.  How to work effectively with a commission.

THREATS TO THE HEALTH OF HONEY BEES AND WILD BEES - Dr Kimberly Stoner, Vegetable Entomologist at the CT Agriculture Experiment Station, New Haven.  www.ct.gov/caes

FARM TAXES SHOULDN’T BE TAXING - Ron Capozzi, “Class will be limited to those who think they can spend their money wiser than the government.”

GETTING INTO RAW FOODS - Rawdawg Rory  www.rawdawgrory.com

RAISING DAIRY GOATS & MAKING CHEESE - Paul Trubey, Beltane Farm.  www.beltanefarm.com

NATURAL NIBBLES, AN INTRODUCTION TO WILD PLANT FORAGING - Bryan Connolly, Massachusetts State Botanist, PhD student - Native Plant Horticulture.

WEED ECOLOGY & ORGANIC WEED CONTROL - Robert Durgy, Farm Manager CT Agricultural Experiment Station, Griswold Research Center.

THE 10 LEAST WANTED: VEGETABLE INSECTS PESTS & WHAT TO DO ABOUT THEM - Robert Durgy, Farm Manager CT Agricultural Experiment Station, Griswold Research Center.

EXTENDING THE GROWING SEASON AND COLDWEATHER CROPS - Bettylou Sandy, Bettylou’s Gardening.  Learn tricks to extend the growing season at both ends. Harvest April thru November.

THE FUTURE OF COMMUNITY FOOD SECURITY - Michel Nischan, Wholesome Wave Foundation www.wholesomewave.org

HOOP TUNNELS,  LOW & HIGH - Bryan O’Hara, Tobacco Road Farm.  Use, construction, costs, and appropriate crops for the extended season production of vegetable crops.

BACKYARD BARNYARD - Peter & Judith Rothenberg, Northfordy Farm.  Sustainable farm animal husbandry.

GREENHOUSE/NURSERY ENERGY CONSERVATION - IDEAS THAT SAVE MONEY - John W. Bartok Jr. Extension Agricultural Engineer - Emeritus Univ of CT  Materials, tools, and techniques for reducing fuel  & electricity  use in small to medium size propagation & production structures.  Basics of wood, corn, waste oil, geothermal & solar systems.

REFORM OF THE “SUPPLY CHAIN”: INSTITUTIONAL FOOD SERVICE - Marydale DeBor, Plow to Plate/New Milford Hospital  www.plowtoplate.org

HILLS AND VALLEYS - RAISED BED GARDENING - James Roby, Roby’s Organic Farm.  Raised bed, ridge till and trench planting methods.  Managing walkways, mulching, and cultivation.

SO  YOU WANT TO START A  FARMERS MARKET? - Winter Caplanson    www.CoventryFarmersMarket.com Basics of starting a market; defining a niche for your farmers market, state requirements, location, management, vendor recruitment, rules/regulation & marketing.

EXPERT PANEL DISCUSSIONS:

BACK (AND FORTH) TO OUR ” ROOTS” - Dr. Lisa Gengo, PA, ND, CNS, Chef  John Turenne, President & Founder of Sustainable Food Systems  &  Farmer Wayne Hansen  discuss & demonstrate uses and nutritional benefits of familiar and the less-well known winter vegetables.

Additional details and workshops still to come.

Sponsors

Gold Level Sponsors - Stonyfield Fam and Whole Foods Market

Silver Level Sponsors - Farmer’s Cow and Global Environmental Services

Supporting Sponsors - Sunlight Solar Energy, Farm Credit East, New England Seed and Steven A. Rose Agency

Vendor - Exhibitors

If you’d like to reserve a space, please call the office at 203-888-5146.

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POTLUCK DETAILS

Please bring a dish to share with everyone-it need not be local food or even organic-do what you can. A family-sized serving is fine, along with the recipe or ingredient listing. Drinks are always welcome if you are unable to cook.

Our impressive staff of kitchen volunteers will be on hand to pull it all together for us and make sure hot dishes are hot and salads are dressed.

To help us conserve, please bring your own place setting, napkin, and utensils. Questions? Call 203-888-5146.

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The Farmer’s Cow is holding an Ice Cream Naming Contest for their 10 new flavors starting February 1 so start thinking of names! The Farmer’s Cow is a cooperative of six family-owned farms that supplies milk to retailers throughout Connecticut and parts of New York and Massachusetts. Combined, they milk 2,300 cows on nearly 7,000 acres of land. Their collaboration has been so successful that they’ve branched out into other products like eggs, half and half, heavy cream, and cider. Read more about the company in a previous article on this site.

Contest Rules:

You may enter up to 10 names, one per flavor, making sure that the names reflect something about farming and the benefits of local agriculture. Entries will be accepted online from 12:01 a.m. February 1, 2010. through midnight on February 14, 2010. Click here to enter the contest!

Their farmers and marketing team will review all the names submitted.
A winner will be drawn at random from all of the entries received.

One lucky entrant will receive a summer’s supply of ice cream from Memorial Day 2010 until Labor Day 2010. The winner will be announced at the end of February 2010. All names become property of The Farmer’s Cow. Click here to enter the contest!
Please direct any questions to farmers@thefarmerscow.com

I recently became a Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Advocate and this story spotlights the program’s growing influence. Citing its desire to be a “responsible steward of the environment, Target Stores has eliminated all farmed salmon from their stores and has replaced it with sustainable wild- caught salmon, a Seafood Watch “best choice” rated source. The impact of this decision is enormous. Not only is this a thunderous no vote for farmed salmon, but it’s also a huge step in the right direction for shifting the burden of making sustainable seafood choices off the consumer and onto the retailer. Kudos to Target.

Target Eliminates Farmed Salmon From All Target Stores — MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ –

Good thing Westport GVI never settled on a commercial space suitable for distributing the CSA from Shelton-based Stone Gardens Farm they started last year for Westport residents. As fortune would have it, the Wakeman Farm and house on Cross Highway became available for lease from the town for $1 per year last spring and Westport GVI’s team jumped at the chance to lease the property. The town embraced their proposal for a  Town Farm on the site and GVI recently announced the signing of a five-year lease and plans to once again farm the 2.2 acre property.

Westport GVI is a group with clarity of vision and the people and resources to see it realized. The house is being spruced up so the future residents can move in by June. May this be a happy home to Mike Aitkenhead, Staples HS Environmental Teacher and 2009 Westport Teacher of the Year, who will take up residence at and oversee the Town Farm along with his wife, Carrie, and their one year old son, Ethan.

Don’t mind the dumpster; there’s no gutting going on in this historic house. You can see from the above photo that there’s no insulation in the walls and the plaster was cracking so badly in some places that it had to be removed. Think of how beautiful this spacious house is going to look with some new wall board, paint, appliances and fixtures.

The aged red barn is being renovated from the inside out in preparation for CSA season. This is where you will come to pick up your Stone Gardens Farm CSA share each week from Carrie. Don’t have a share yet? Sign up now! Future plans include the addition of CSA shares from other area farms and add ons  like local eggs, cheese, poultry, meat, flowers and honey to make the CSA more full service. These will come after appropriate food service licenses have been obtained and the Town Health Department has given its blessing.

Planting of organic vegetables will begin in the spring at Wakeman Farm, but don’t expect enough production for their own CSA. A farm stand is more likely. The intention was never to grow enough food for the whole town, but rather serve as a model of environmentally sustainable agriculture and an educational facility.

Town Farm Director Becky Howe cited a book, The Backyard Homestead, as the foundation of their message to the public, “You can grow all the food you need on a quarter acre. Anybody can do this. We’re going to be a model of how to do it and provide continuing education to the community in everything from composting to organic gardening to beekeeping so they can get comfortable doing these things on their own.” Andrew (from Andrew’s Local Honey) is going to drop off one of his hives here and Westport GVI board member Sherri Brooks Vinton will give canning and preserving workshops. Get excited but be patient, be supportive, and visit often. It’s going to take the whole community to make this work, and there’s not doubt that it will.

Last year Westport Green Village Initiative (GVI) began offering summer CSA shares supplied by Stone Gardens Farm in Shelton as part of their mission to “create a new food model - a relationship between local farmers and consumers- that offers local/healthy food to people at reasonable prices.” The program has been so successful that the farm is greatly expanding their CSA program this year.

The Westport pickup location is NO LONGER the Unitarian Church, it will be at the Wakeman Farm on 134 Cross Highway, Westport. Westport GVI Town Farm, Inc. has leased the historic Wakeman Farm from the Town of Westport to create a sustainable community farm. More on that in my next post!

If you are interested in learning more about or signing up for the summer CSA share offered by Stone Gardens for pickup at the farm in Shelton or at Wakeman Farm in Westport, please visit the farm’s  site.

Bread is back. There’s no doubt about it. With the rising popularity of local, artisan foods comes the opportunity for a renewed love affair with our bakers. I never could understand, not did I ever embrace, eliminating “carbs” from my diet in an effort to lose weight. May the days of designating any one food group the culprit for our caloric excess be gone forever. Now, let’s eat some bread.

The Flaxette, a tasty baguette with a lovely exterior crunch and dense, chewy interior has arrived in Fairfield. I picked up a fresh loaf  at The Pantry on the Post Road and left two lonely loaves behind. When I contacted the baker, Michael Mordecai of Fairfield Bread Company, to let him know I scored some of his bread and that the stock was bare, he said “yes, it’s pretty much selling out at the other outlets too.”

When I asked what made this bread so fabulous, Michael’s replied “my heart belongs to bread.” The detailed description of ingredients and baking processes that followed could only come out of the mouth of a fellow corporate dropout. Michael was formerly an economic consultant whose briefs landed on desks at The White House, Congressional Committees and the International Trade Commission. I’m drawing a strong connection between the commitment to task and detailed thinking necessary to do that job and what it takes to be a top baker. Don’t laugh, I knew a hedge fund manager who secretly wanted to be a pastry chef!

Michael explained that he used “King Arthur flour milled from hard red spring wheat that’s grown in the Northern Plains and Canada. King Arthur, a 100% employee owned company, is headquartered in Vermont. Whole wheat flour and organic ground flax seeds are the other main ingredients and the organic flax is grown in Manitoba Canada. I’m sure you know the health benefits of flax; it also adds a distinctive nutty, toasted flavor, and a slight crackle to the texture. Filtered water, sea salt and minimal yeast combine with the long period of enzymatic activity. The flavor develops through four proofing stages and then I bake the hand-shaped loaves to create a caramelized crust with a tender, chewy interior.”

If you don’t finish your baguette on day one, don’t fret; Michael assured me that the shelf life of The Flaxette is longer than most breads. Follow Michael’s instructions and you can’t go wrong: “Day two still finds it wonderful “as is”, but even better sprinkled with water and baked for 10 minutes at 350. Day three? The reviving process will yield an excellent bread. Or, toast and top with salmon, onions and capers; or cut into croutons for soup or salad, or to snack on; or made a killer chocolate bread pudding with caramel sauce.  French toast? Yes! The Flaxette freezes extremely well in its fresh state wrapped tightly in foil or plastic, then unwrapped and baked frozen at 425 for 10 minutes.”

I put Michael’s economic theory that day two Flaxette was as good as day one, and surprisingly he’s right. Magically, this bread stays fresh for two days and was a hit in sandwiches for school lunch. We need some of that magic baked into our economy!

The Flaxette is available at The Pantry in Fairfield, Spic ‘n Span Market in Southport and the former Stiles Market in Westport, now confusingly called the Westport Farmers’ Market. Contact: Michael Mordecai, Fairfield Bread Comany LLC, 203-434-4505.

Why are organic CSA shares so rare? Because we have lost so much farmland in Connecticut that less than one percent of our residents earn a living by farming. Eat well, support your local farmer and do your bit to preserve farmland by buying a CSA share in one of our precious organic farms.

January is CSA registration month. This is your chance to buy local, organic food directly from the farmer who grows it. So if you want to reserve your CSA share for this summer, I recommend you sign up immediately before the shares are gone.

Two organic farms are expanding and have opened their lists to new CSA families: Sport Hill Farm in Easton and The Hickories in Ridgefield.

Sport Hill Farm is leasing 15 more acres in Easton and is able to double their organic CSA shares offered to 150. Pick up is on farm only. That means you get to watch Patti pick your organic lettuces fresh so they don’t wilt and your kids get to see the chickens! Please visit the farm’s web site to email farmer Patti Popp and ask her to send you the CSA agreement. You may also be interested in her new Cash Crop program. This is essentially a farm credit that allows you to stop by the farm and buy produce, fruit, eggs, bread, honey and any additional products she may offer without having to carry around cash.

If you live in Ridgefield, you surely know that Dina Brewster’s USDA/Baystate certified organic farm, The Hickories, is the only farm left in Farmingville. When you hear Dina talk about her CSA families, it’s clear that building community gives her joy and satisfaction. Dina is increasing the number of CSA shares offered on farm this year to 200 so you have a rare chance to get a share for this summer! Please register directly on the site. Both fruit and vegetable shares are offered including 113 varieties of vegetables plus strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, apples and peaches. Share add ons include bread, eggs, meat and locally produced cheese.

Fort Hill Farm in New Milford, a Baystate certified organic farm,  has opened up their waiting list to new registrants. But don’t expect a share this summer. The waiting list is 3-4 years out for two reasons - farmer Paul Bucciaglia has no additional land to farm and his 400 CSA shareholders (500-600 families) are extremely loyal. This farm drops half its shares in lower Fairfield County (Darien, New Canaan, Fairfield, etc.) and the rest are picked up on farm. Each share box includes a newsletter containing instructions and recipes for preparing some of the 140 different kids of vegetables they grow. Please register on the farm’s web site and be sure to choose a “box” if it’s going to be dropped or the “mix and match” option for an on farm share.