by Neil Gluckin

Neil Gluckin is a writer, communications consultant and local food advocate who lives in Wilton, CT. He explores the links between food, self and community in his blog at forageprimeval.com.

photos courtesy of Stephanie Webster, Founder/Editor CTBites

Tapping maples goes high tech

After firing up the generator that runs the vacuum pump, Mark Harran watches intently as liquid begins to flow through plastic tubing connected to a sleek spout protruding from the trunk of a tree. We are a long way from wooden buckets, tanks of sap on horse-drawn sleds and rustic smoke-filled sugar houses, but Harran is aiming at the same result: maple syrup, the addictive nectar that Americans have been distilling from the sap of the sugar maple since the legendary Chief Wokis first struck a tree with his tomahawk and made it weep sweet tears.

Sap being collected from a maple tree tap and bucket system

A 30-year veteran of the food industry, Harran, now retired, has returned to his roots. He grew up on a farm in upstate New York that hung buckets from 5,700 taps, and he lives on one now, in Litchfeld, where he does the same thing albeit on a smaller scale. In addition to being a private farmer, he also serves as President of the Maple Syrup Producers Association of Connecticut. In both roles, Harran is a zealous advocate of sustainable forest management and a promoter of modern production techniques.

It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon syrup, so efficiency matters.

But the issue that really engages this modern local food artisan goes considerably beyond a love of trees and technology. You’ll see it for yourself next time you buy maple syrup. Where does the stuff sold in your store come from? Vermont is sure to be represented, Canada without doubt, and possibly New York, Massachusetts or Pennsylvania. And how much syrup from Connecticut? Unless you’re at a farmers market, you’re not likely to find any.

“We currently tap about one-tenth of one percent of all the sugar maples in the state,” Harran says, noting that the resulting annual yield of syrup and other maple sugar products is worth about $1 million. That places Connecticut in last place behind the 9 other states where maple syrup is made. “If Connecticut tapped the same percentage of its trees as Vermont does - 2.1% — the annual contribution to the state’s economy would exceed $20 million in ten years,” he calculates. For that matter, Harran adds, if all the U.S. States producing maple products raised their tapping percentage to Vermont’s level (the current nationwide average is .4%), the value produced would exceed $300 million and the U.S would eclipse Quebec, the current world leader.

The evaporator at work boiling down the sap into maple syrup

No matter what the amount, the process of creating maple syrup from tree sap is a miracle of arboreal and human ingenuity. For most of the year, the sap of the sugar maple is an inedible mixture of water and various starches. But in February and March, in preparation for the growing season that lies ahead, enzymes in the tree convert starch to sugar. Taps and buckets (or vacuum tubing) at the ready, maple syrup makers everywhere pray the process will start early and continue as long as possible. “Typically the season begins on February 1 and continues for 6 to 8 weeks,” Harran explains, “although cold weather this year has delayed the start considerably. “My rule of thumb is that when the baseball season begins, the maple sugar season is over.”

Vats of rare CT maple syrup await storage and bottling for retail sale.

Daylight is the main driver of the process. At this time of the year, as the days get longer and the temperature of the wood reaches 40 degrees, the starch-converting enzymes get busy. Cold nights and sunny days cause pressure inside the tree to rise, driving energy-rich sap - as much as 200 to 300 gallons per day — upwards to still-dormant buds. The same pressure that pushes the sap up also pushes it out of the tree through the maple syrup maker’s taps and spouts. In mid to late March, when the temperature of the wood reaches 45 degrees, the starch-converting enzymes stop functioning, and shouts of “play ball!” are soon heard across the land.

At 66 brix, it's syrup!

While the sap is running, it needs to be collected frequently; otherwise it will begin to ferment, just as milk might if left out too long. On the same day as he collects sap, Mark Harran boils it, evaporating the water away until the sugar content of the resulting liquid reaches 66% (or “66 brix” in the lingo of the trade). Sap collected in the cooler, early part of season tends to have sugar content as high as 4% and relatively little fermentation. This sap therefore requires less cooking, and consequently produces the paler and more delicately flavored “A” grades of syrup. Sap collected later in the season has lower sugar and will tend to ferment more because daytime temperatures are higher. More boiling is required to get this later-season sap to 66 brix, which in turn produces the darker, more strongly-flavored “B” grade. Early or late, as the sap cooks, its various constituent sugars interact and the resulting chemical reaction creates both the color and depth of flavor that are the characteristic hallmarks of maple syrup.

Visit a farm that does maple sugaring demonstrations to learn about our food heritage and who the family farmers are that keep the tradition alive.

Harran’s approach to making maple syrup is a model of environmentally compatible technology. That means he employs techniques that produce more syrup without increasing energy use, carbon emissions or stress to either tree, forest or syrup maker. The newly developed vacuum-pumping system that he uses on 300 of his 500 trees, for instance, allows him to increase annual yields from 10 gallons of sap per tap to 40 or more.  In his sugarhouse, he saves energy by using the steam from his evaporator to pre-heat sap to 200 degrees as it flows into the boiling pan. The bottom line for these improvements is that Harran gets six times more syrup from the same amount of energy. He notes that there other techniques now being refined, such as using reverse osmosis to increase the brix of the sap before it gets to the evaporator, that further reduces the amount of cooking required. Considering that it takes about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup - in other words, a whole lot of boiling — these gains in efficiency are significant.

Mark Harran's efficient system for tapping trees

To turn Connecticut maple syrup into a $20+ million a year revenue generator, in Harran’s view, calls for more than sophisticated production techniques. Protecting not only the state’s sugar maples for the long haul (a single tree will be productive for 300 years or more) but also its forests is an obvious and essential requirement. And so is a modern marketing system, one in which farmers collaborate in order to guarantee uninterrupted supply and efficient order fulfillment to large grocery chains and other sizeable buyers here and abroad.

Harran is optimistic about the prospects for a robust local food infrastructure in our state. “There’s a new generation of farmers coming of age in Connecticut,” he says, “who combine technological smarts with business acumen. They’re the reason that smaller specialty farms are showing signs of growth.” For all his enthusiasm for 21st century farming, Mark Harran, who describes himself as a  “maple worshipper,” is clearly in love with making syrup, as he has been all his life. Says he: “there’s nothing like a night in the sugar house, producing a few gallons an hour, making the real stuff. There’s just no greater satisfaction.” Well, there might be just one satisfaction sweeter than making maple syrup, and that would be eating it.

Got a craving for syrup?

Maple syrup producers are normally happy to welcome visitors, explain the process and of course sell their products. This 2010 guide to Connecticut Sugarhouses [PDF] will help you locate one near you. There may also be other local maple sugar producers where you live running special programs. Ambler Farm in Wilton, CT, for instance, has a maple syrup open house from 12:30 to 1:30 this coming Saturday, March 6 (there’s more information on their website at www.amblerfarm.org), and a maple syrup sale on April 3. Winter Farmers’ Markets including Norwalk, Fairfield, Coventry, Litchfield and Wooster Square in New Haven sell local syrup. For a complete list of winter markets, visit this CT Department of Agriculture website at http://www.ct.gov/doag/cwp/view.asp?a=3260&q=449350.=

Editor’s Note: My family and I visited Warrup’s Farm in Redding last year to learn about maple sugaring and it was both fun and educational. Here’s a link to the story.

by Eileen Weber

Wyatt preserves surplus food he's grown to enjoy during the winter months

Wyatt Whiteman is a farmer. He grows an organic garden. He has his own beehive. He raises chickens. And rabbits. And ducks. And horses. And even a tiny Dexter cow named Bridey. And he does all of this on one acre of land in the middle of Fairfield.

To say that Wyatt Whiteman is a little unorthodox is like saying Mt. Everest is a foothill. But Whiteman doesn’t seem to care that he might be a little off the beaten track. What he does care about is the land, particularly the land he grew up on.

The enormous pumpkins that grace the front porch of the Whiteman Family homestead amuse and delight children of all ages

His house dates back to 1760. In fact, he inherited it from his family and has lived there all his life. Previous generations lived off of what was once three acres of farmland. “Imagine what this was like even one generation ago, living off the land with an outhouse in back,” said Whiteman.

Now at only a third of that size, Whiteman sells his produce on a little stand at the edge of his property. He’s known around town for the gigantic carved pumpkins he displays on his front stoop for Halloween. Last summer, he sold enough tomatoes to buy wood pellets to heat his home. This past summer, he even started a CSA with his neighborhood.

Wyatt and the newest addition to the farm, Bridey the short legged Dexter

“The beauty of it was it encouraged my kids to try new things like white eggplant,” said Valerie Wilke, a neighbor and member of Whiteman’s CSA called Mama’s Manna. “We’re just really happy there’s a local grower you can talk to. He’s really responsive.”

That’s because, to Whiteman, fresh food is better than store bought any day. “Did you hear that crunch?” he said as he bit into a green pepper off the vine. He said the same thing digging half-long carrots out of the ground. “There’s something different about it. Take a whiff. You’re not going to smell anything like that in the supermarket.”

The eggplant, Swiss chard, broccoli and other vegetables still growing will be picked this week for the last farm share

Sure enough, the carrots had a deeper smell of carrot. The celery was a darker green and gave off the same scent it would sweating in an iron skillet as the base for a stew. The peppers had a crispness you don’t see in the flabby piles at the supermarket.

Whiteman will tell you that anyone can survive on what they raise in their own backyard. Dressed in colonial garb, Whiteman also has a 40-minute video illustrating how to cook chicken on a string, among other dishes, over an open fireplace. He has taught classes through Fairfield’s Continuing Education Program as well as how to cook a whole chicken dinner at Debra Tyler’s Local Farm in Cornwall.

Tyler shares Whiteman’s view on a simpler life. She considers it a “sound health care plan” knowing that her work feeds her friends and family.

“There is something deeply satisfying about growing, harvesting, and/or preparing our own food,” said Tyler in a recent e-mail. “It creates a sense of connectedness to the land and to our innate creative abilities. It also requires one to slow down and pay attention to the task at hand. Our technology has upped our expectations as to what we can do in a day so much that our lives are incredibly fast paced.”

The fortunate CSA members will find local honey in their last share

Whiteman prides himself for living off the land and not using electricity whenever possible. To some, that might sound idyllic; to others, not so much. Whiteman often doesn’t have enough money to fund his great ideas about simpler life. His house is crowded and cluttered. “Sorry for the mess,” he explains, “but this isn’t Martha Stewart’s place.”

But he doesn’t care how pretty things look. “Farming is hard work,” he says. “But to a lot of people it’s just the flavor of the month. They don’t want a zucchini because maybe it’s a little dirty or has a worm on it.”

Whiteman talked about a woman who stopped by his farm stand. She was having company and wanted perfectly shaped red tomatoes. What Whiteman had was a bunch of heirloom tomatoes, not the “vine-ripened” kind that are picked green and made red by ethylene gas.

While his fruits and vegetables may not be perfect, they’re organic, local, and fresh tasting. They don’t carry harmful pesticides and they weren’t artificially grown in a distant hemisphere. His produce, much like himself, is a throwback to a simpler time: An era in which nothing was wasted and everything was recycled because it had to be.

Whiteman may not necessarily be an everyman or have a common philosophy. He does, however, make a really good point. You can survive on what you grow in your own back yard. And frankly, you should.

Mercy Learning Center student tasting the salad made by UCONN nutritionists Heather Harrington and Tina Dugdale

If you take a student to the farm stand, she will learn that fresh, local food is not only affordable and convenient, but nutritious and delicious. That’s the lesson learned today by a group of seventeen Mercy Learning Center students thanks to a Health Eating program cooked up by the Junior League of Eastern Fairfield County.

Sharon Sanford, Student Enrichment Coordinator, prepares Mercy Learning Center students for a field trip to Park City Harvest's Marina Village Farmers' Market with Jennie Julio and Susan Zaveruha of the Junior League of Eastern Fairfield County

The Junior League volunteers and I met with Sharon Sanford and her students at Mercy Learning Center and took a quick walk to the Marina Village farm stand where we were met with open arms by chef and food policy advocate Michel Nischan, who is Wholesome Wave’s president and CEO. As one of Wholesome Wave Foundation’s

A Mercy Learning Center student shops for green beans

core “Nourishing Neighborhoods” programs, the Neighborhood Farm Stand Program brings Park City Harvest farm stands deep within neighborhoods of under-served Bridgeport, Connecticut where shoppers can purchase CT grown fruit and produce using SNAP-EBT cards and Senior/WIC FMNP checks. Until last month shoppers were able to redeem their cards and checks for double their value in farm stand tokens. Wholesome Wave is working to secure funding to reinstate this Double Value Coupon program.

Jennie Julio and Susan Zaveruha from the Junior League, Michel Nischan of Wholesome Wave and Susan Sanford of Mercy Learning Center

Heather Harrington, MS RD and Tina Dugdale, MS RN RD, both Extension Instructors from UCONN’s Department of AlliedHealth Sciences at the University of Connecticut, discussed the produce and fruit available at the farm stand and how to prepare it. My favorite part of this was hearing from the students themselves and how they used the vegetables in their native dishes. My mouth began to water thinking about the chile rellenos that

Michel Nischan teaching the students how to prepare zucchini for use in fresh salsas

one student was going to make with the Poblano peppers. Another was planning to make fresh salsa using tomatoes, and jalapenos from the farm stand. Michel Nischan lent some great culinary advice: “Zucchini is great in salsa. Just sprinkle squash and zucchini with salt. Let it sit for 15 minutes to soften it up a bit. You can add it to salsa and it’s delicious! Pour it over pasta for a quick dinner.” The zucchini sold out today!

Mercy Learning Center students clearly enjoyed visiting the market

The students were clearly enjoying themselves and made quick work of shopping. One declared “I’m going to eat so delicious tonight!” as she stuffed her bags with zucchini, tomatoes, apples, corn, green beans, and chile peppers. When it was time to check out, each student was given a reusable shopping bag, courtesy of Wholesome Wave, a paper bag donated by Trader Joe’s of Fairfield, and $20 in tokens provided through funding from the Junior League.

"Who likes spicy food?" garnered a few laughs and a show of hands

I’m looking forward to returning to Mercy in November to work directly with the students in their teaching kitchen. They’re gathering their favorite home recipes for me to tweak with some healthier ingredients or cooking methods. They don’t know it, but I’m looking forward to learning

It was all smiles as the students waited on line to pay with their tokens. Many will be returning to a Park City Harvest farm stand to use their leftover tokens before the end of the month.

how to make dishes from their native countries, which span the globe and include Haiti and Peru, as much as I am looking forward to sharing my knowledge with them.

When I asked the students to rate their experience at the market, the votes were unanimous. It’s a 10! I think we’ve got a winner.

JUNIOR LEAGUE OF EASTERN FAIRFIELD COUNTY

GETS TO THE CORE OF HEALTHY EATING

New Program, in Collaboration with Wholesome Wave Foundation, Helps Make Local, Affordable Produce Accessible to
Mercy Learning Center Students

Fairfield, CT, October 8, 2009 - The Junior League of Eastern Fairfield County (JLEFC) (www.jlefc.org) has teamed up with Mercy Learning Center to promote good nutrition with the new “Healthy Eating” program. The pilot program will provide fresh and affordable produce to twenty-five students from the not-for-profit, Bridgeport-based Mercy Learning Center and will teach them how to cook traditional meals in more healthful ways. Students will have the opportunity to purchase fruit and vegetables at a farm stand in Bridgeport with the help of Wholesome Wave Foundation, a not-for-profit founded to make locally-grown, sustainable foods available to all.

The JLEFC will kick-off the innovative “Healthy Eating” pilot program with a field trip to the Marina Village Farmers’ Market, located in the South End of Bridgeport and a project of Wholesome Wave Foundation and the Healthy Bridgeport Alliance, on October 8^th from 10:30am-12:00pm. University of Connecticut nutrition expert Heather Harrington will explain to the Mercy Learning Center students the benefits of fresh, unprepared, locally grown fruits and vegetables to increase awareness and use of these neighborhood farmers’ markets. Each student will receive $20, funded by the JLEFC, in Wholesome Wave tokens to purchase produce at the market. Any change will be returned as tokens to encourage the students to return to the market.

The second part of the “Healthy Eating” program will take place in November when Analiese Paik, founder of the Fairfield Green Food Guide, will do a hands-on cooking demonstration and tasting for the students. She will focus on ways to use nutritious alternatives for commonly-used but heavily processed ingredients.

“This year, the JLEFC’s community outreach programs focus on improving health, nutrition and literacy for women and children,” says Susan Zaveruha, President of the JLEFC. “We are so pleased to collaborate with such outstanding community organizations in this pilot program and look forward to giving other students at Mercy Learning Center a similar opportunity to access and learn the benefits of fresh, local produce.”

By providing basic literacy and life skills, the staff at Mercy Learning Center helps over five hundred functionally illiterate women in the greater Bridgeport area improve their skills and earning potential, creating a more hopeful future for themselves and their children. “Trying to eat healthy within a very strict budget is a daunting task for anyone. But for our students at Mercy Learning Center, this concept is an even bigger challenge,” said Sharon Sanford, Student Enrichment Coordinator, Mercy Learning Center. “The Junior League’s initiative empowers our women to take steps to provide more nutritious meals for themselves and their families.”

Analiese Paik is on a mission to bring fresh, local and sustainable food to consumers of Fairfield County. Her online Fairfield Green Food Guide includes a Buying Guide and searchable database for local green food resources, a blog and a calendar of green food events.

“The trend towards buying and eating processed food is shifting towards eating fresh and local but this is generally not an easy feat to accomplish for low-income families,” says Analiese Paik, founder, Fairfield Green Food Guide. “When the Junior League presented an opportunity to educate the Mercy Learning Center students about healthier meal options, I immediately thought of Wholesome Wave’s Park City Harvest farm stands as a way to bring local, affordable produce to these women. This program represents local to its core: local community organizations using local resources to help local residents, and I am excited to be a part of it.”

Founded by chef and food policy advocate Michel Nischan to make locally grown, healthy sustainable foods available to all communities, Wholesome Wave Foundation runs three “farm-to-community” programs, including the Park City Harvest farm stands in Bridgeport, as part of its nationwide “Nourishing Neighborhoods” campaign.

“Through vegetable stands in various Bridgeport neighborhoods, Wholesome Wave strives to provide the city’s residents with affordable, healthy and convenient alternatives to conventional food shopping, while encouraging easy preparation of healthy, farm fresh foods at home,” says Michel Nischan, President and CEO, Wholesome Wave Foundation. “Mercy Learning Center’s students live and work in the heart of a historically excluded community but through the Junior League’s new program, we hope to positively impact their families’ health and wellness and help prevent a deepening health crisis.”

Made possible by a contribution from the Fairfield County Community Foundation (FCCF), Wholesome Wave Foundation recently purchased a refrigerated truck for food storage, augmenting its current farmers’ markets by making fresh, local and affordable produce even more accessible for Bridgeport residents. FCCF provides philanthropic advisory services to individual donors and helps to connect them with local causes in their own backyard.

“When we learned about the impressive work of Wholesome Wave Foundation in Bridgeport, we shared its story with a donor who has an interest in bringing fresh farm produce to cities,” said Karen R. Brown, vice president of programs, FCCF. “The donor ultimately recommended a generous $25,000 grant to be presented to Wholesome Wave Foundation for its needs for a refrigerated truck. FCCF was thrilled to connect this donor with Wholesome Wave Foundation and we are excited to see how the truck has already been put to great use, especially for the ability to bring local and affordable produce to the students of Mercy Learning Center.”

To learn more about the Junior League and its programs, please visit www.jlefc.org.

ABOUT THE JUNIOR LEAGUE OF EASTERN FAIRFIELD COUNTY

The Junior League of Eastern Fairfield County (JLEFC) is an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women, and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Its purpose is exclusively educational and charitable. Communities represented by the JLEFC include Bridgeport, Easton, Fairfield, Monroe, Newtown, Redding, Shelton, Southport, Stratford, Trumbull, Weston and Westport. The Junior League of Eastern Fairfield County is part of the Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI) which has developed the award-winning Kids in the Kitchen program to combat childhood obesity through education about healthy eating and exercise. For additional information, including membership and volunteer opportunities, please visit www.jlefc.org.

ABOUT MERCY LEARNING CENTER

Mercy Learning Center of Bridgeport, Inc. provides basic literacy and life skills training to low income women using a holistic approach within a compassionate, supportive environment. All women are welcome without regard for race, religion, color, creed, sexual orientation or national origin. Learn more about Mercy Learning Center at www.mercylearningcenter.org.

ABOUT ANALIESE PAIK

Analiese Paik, Founder of the Fairfield Green Food Guide, LLC, is a local/sustainable food advocate, avid organic gardener and home cook. Recognizing an opportunity to marry her love of food, wine and gardening with her business and marketing expertise, Analiese launched fairfieldgreenfoodguide.com in 2009. The website features a blog, searchable database of green food resources, event calendar and e-newsletter subscription to help consumers source fresh, local and sustainable food in Fairfield County. She partnered in August with Pequot Library to host Connecticut’s first large community screening of the documentary food film FRESH, after which guests enjoyed a panel discussion by leaders in the local/sustainable food movement and an exhibition of area resources including farms, farm stands, farmers’ markets, school gardens, organic restaurants and not-for profits organizations. Analiese is a member of Slow Food USA and the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut.

About Wholesome Wave Foundation

Michel Nischan, President/CEO of Wholesome Wave Foundation, is chef/author/policy advocate and a leader in the sustainable food movement. He founded Wholesome Wave Foundation - with seed funding from the Betsy and Jesse Fink Foundation - in an effort to make locally grown, sustainable foods available to all. Nischan is a 2008 James Beard Foundation Award winner for his work on the PBS series, Victory Garden and author of two best-selling cookbooks - Taste Pure and Simple; Chronicle Books 2003 (a Beard award winner in 2004) and Homegrown Pure and Simple; Chronicle Books 2005. He serves on the boards of the Amazon Conservation Team, the James Beard Foundation and Harvard’s Center for Health and the Global Environment. Learn more about Wholesome Wave Foundation at www.wholesomewave.org.

ABOUT HEATHER HARRINGTON, MS RD

Heather is an assistant extension instructor in the Department of Allied Health Sciences at the University of Connecticut. The primary role of this position is to function as a public health nutritionist, reaching individuals of economic disadvantage with effective nutrition education program to improve dietary quality commensurate with the State Nutrition Education Plan. The secondary and complimentary role is to function as a preceptor for dietetics students in their community nutrition supervised practice working on this nutrition education plan. A Connecticut native, Heather attended the University of Connecticut and graduated with a B.S. degree in Nutritional Science meeting the didactic requirements in May 2005. She completed a 50 week Dietetic Internship at Yale New Haven Hospital in August 2006. She recently graduated from the Masters in Allied Health Sciences program in August 2008.

PR Contact, JLEFC

Charlotte Vinci

Cell: 843.271.7755

Email: charvinci@yahoo.com

PR Contact, Wholesome Wave Foundation

Diane Stefani

Direct: 212.255.8224

Email: diane@rosengrouppr.com

The Big Red Barn at Ambler Farm, Wilton

Ambler Farm’s red barn immediately reminded me of Margaret Wise Brown’s board book, Big Red Barn, which I must have read, complete with animal sounds, hundreds of times to my children. How fitting that the stories told and lessons taught at Ambler Farm are in great part designed for children.

Broccoli maturing in the educational garden

Ann Bell, President of Friends of Ambler Farm, took two hours out of her morning to walk a group of local/sustainable food advocates around the farm and educate us about their mission, history, programs and plans for the future. That Ambler has a close working relationship with the Wilton Public Schools is reason enough to celebrate. And celebrate they do. Sunday, October 4 is Ambler Farm Day and all are invited from noon-4 for good old fashioned on-farm fun and games. A $20 family entrance fee buys you apple sling shots, pumpkin catapults, live music, crafts including making your own scarecrow, hay rides, farm animals and much more.

Ann Bell, President of Friends of Ambler Farm, led our tour

The mission of the Friends of Ambler Farm “is to celebrate Wilton’s agrarian roots through active learning programs, sustainable agriculture, responsible land stewardship, and historic preservation.” 2009 marks the group’s third consecutive year hosting the New Canaan Nature Center’s intradistrict LINKS program, which links suburban schools like Wilton’s Cider Mill with urban schools like Norwalk’s Marvin School together for five hands-on environmental programs. Ambler’s day-long LINKS event is an opportunity for the children to experience what life on a New England farm was like. Their day is packed with sack, wheelbarrow, and egg and spoon races, along with hands-on activities including cornbread baking, landscape painting in watercolors, and potato planting in the fields with Farmer Ben. The children form lasting bonds with their partner schools while learning about where their food really comes from.

Farmer Ben's organic fields and tools

Kevin Meehan, the Science Instructional Leader at Wilton’s Cider Mill School, also happens to be Ambler’s manager-in-residence and therefore one very busy person. The fifth graders participate in a mid-May seed planting program and an Underground Railroad event, which is tailored to the school’s curriculum. In March the fourth graders came to the farm, instead of the Eli Whitney Museum, for hands-on learning about this famous American best known for inventing the cotton gin. Third graders studying about forests and Native Americans now come with their families to participate in the collection of maple tree sap and work involved in evaporating it down in to maple syrup in the early spring. The program has been so successful that it will likely be expanded to include more of the local community.

Student volunteers in the Apprentice Program built the chicken coop

The Apprentice Program runs on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays through the spring, summer and fall and allows 20 middle schoolers to earn volunteer hours by performing farm activities ranging from taking care of the animals to collecting eggs, working in the educational garden, moving the lawn, building chicken coops, fixing tractors, helping farmer Ben in the fields and evening cooking! The season finale is a camp out and pasta party. Participants who want to continue on may become apprentice mentors in high school.

Clover and Nutmeg, recent arrivals from Millstone Farm

Fear not! Even if your kids are not in Wilton Public Schools there are ample opportunities for them to visit and enjoy the farm. Ambler recently hosted kindergarteners from Fairfield’s McKinley School who  got to collect eggs in the hen house! Summer Farm Camp is overseen by Kevin and runs daily from 9-2  for 4 weeks beginning the end of June and ending the last week of July.  Student campers from pre-K through 7th grade are divided by grade level for age-appropriate activities and  “learn about the plants and animals on which farmers and communities depend. Each week  includes hayrides, planting, harvesting, hands-on projects, cooking, animals to visit, fun and games, and more” according to the web site.

Don't miss the bunnies!

Family and adults only programs include a green gardening program to help you prepare and compost for your own organic garden, the honey harvest in September, wreath making in the winter, farm BBQs in the summer, and cooking classes year round. Ambler Farm Day on October 4 offers you a rare chance to buy their maple syrup. The Friends of Ambler Farm are working to expand programming to include more adult cooking classes and plan to partner with the Wilton Historical Society to offer soap-making, quilt-making, scrapbooking (old fashioned), and felting classes.

Ambler’s farmer stand runs on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 10:30-5 through October and then reopens for the week of Thanksgiving. The farm also sells its organic, heirloom vegetables to Tuscan Oven, where they’re highlighted on the menu, and on Wednesdays’ at Wilton’s new farmers’ market at the Wilton Public Library.

Sunflowers at Sport Hill Farm in Easton, planted by the children who attended the summer farm camp

It was the most beautiful late summer day one could hope for when attending an outdoor farm lunch. The backdrop of sunflowers  and zinnia in bloom and ripening swiss chard added the most brilliant yet tranquilizing effect to the well-planned and executed event. The setting was Patti Popp’s Sport Hill Farm in Easton and our hostess was Amie Hall, a holistic health counselor and cooking coach. Amie regularly holds lunches here and the next one is on October 13 (see Event Calendar for details).

Amie Hall discussing fall produce and its many uses

Patty Popp, owner Sport Hill Farm, Easton

Patti and her husband started farming the property in 2000 and have been growing their small organic farm, well, organically. They serve the community not only through their on- farm stand (open Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10-6) but also through programs at a local school and their CSA. The Unquowa School runs a summer farm camp that Patti hosts and their cafeteria serves local, organic food picked fresh daily from their fields.  Sport Hill Farm’s CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program has grown from 20 families to 75 and still cannot meet the demand (read long waiting list).

Roasted garlic served with warm Wave Hill bread

Let’s begin the feast. The amuse- bouche of raw patty pan squash was a revelation - soft and slightly sweet with the warmth of the sun still on it. Lunch began in earnest with warm and crusty Wave Hill bread and heads of roasted garlic served on a small cast iron skillet.  I combined the two for a savory combination of crunchy and silky smooth textures.

Lima bean, butternut and patty pan squash soup

Next came the  lima bean, butternut and patty pan squash soup which had been simmering since our arrival. Served in a green pepper bowl, it was light, tasty and satisfying and I’m pretty sure nobody at my table was able to resist a second serving.

Kale and Cabbage Salad with a umami-rich soy sauce dressing

The secret to a salad using raw kale is to let it sit. With lettuce you wind up with a soggy mess, but with kale the result is sublime. The dressing was made with orange juice, Nama Shoyu (organic raw unpastueurized soy sauce) and olive oil.  If you have never cooked with soy sauce or used it in a dressing, go out a buy a bottle and start experimenting. Soy sauce contains the fifth taste, L-glutamate, which the Japanese call umami. Do not underestimate the power of umami to deepen and enrich the flavor of a dish. Go put that soy sauce on your list.

Simply Delicious Lasagna

The Simply Delicious Lasagna was just that, simple and delicious. The flavors just melted together so beautifully it was hard to believe it was spiked with kale and pesto. The magic continued as we were served black bean brownies that had no hint of black bean and bordered on fudge according to one guest. After that indulgence, I was ready for the farm tour.

Banana peppers galore

Patti walked a few of us around her fields to get a closer look at her produce in its late summer glory. Enormous heads of cabbage, broccoli nearing ripeness, banana peppers galore, lettuce, and kale adorned the fields. I left with some melons from the farm stand and a fresh head of lettuce Patti cut for me and can’t wait to go home and make some soy sauce dressing to go with it.

CT grown cherries from Sherwood Farm

I stopped in Sherwood Farm’s air-conditioned farm stand today to say hi to Tom and see if I could get a few varieties of peppers, including some hot ones. He farms on five different parcels of land so he’s got a really wide variety of beautiful produce to choose from.

Well I got the peppers plus a great surprise, CT grown cherries. They’re from a “guy” in Glastonbury and Tom started bringing them in three years ago to meet the pleas from customers for local cherries.They’re the perfect summer dessert eaten right out of hand.

If your garden is looking a little sad right now, get your hands on some

Sherwood Farm's air conditioned farm stand

squash seeds and plant them. In this weather Tom says they’ll be sprouted in two days and you’ll have a nice fall crop to harvest.

Sherwood Farm is on 355 Sport Hill Road (Rt. 59) just across from the Helen Keller School. The farm stand is open 7 days a week in summer from 10-6 on weekdays and 9-6 on weekends.

If you haven’t yet had an opportunity to sample the fine, award-winning wines of Connecticut’s vineyards, the two-day Connecticut Wine Festival taking place this weekend in Goshen is a great way to taste wine from 19 vineyards with a minimal commitment of time, travel and money. Connecticut wines range in style from dry, barrel fermented Chardonnays, Cabernet Francs, Rieslings and Merlots to fruitier, sweeter whites, reds and late harvest Vidals, Vignoles and fruit wines. You might be surprised to learn that the #1 selling white wine in New England is the semi-dry Ballet of Angels from Sharpe Hill in Pomfret.

Admission includes a commemorative festival wine glass and tote bag, 20 wine tasting tickets, specialty food samples, entertainment, the opportunity to purchase bottles/cases of wine and artisan crafts. Additional tasting tickets are available for purchase at the festival.

Entertainment includes the Shawn Taylor Duo, the Jerrod Cattey Double Trio and more.

Festival Hours: Saturday, August 1st from 12pm-7pm and Sunday, August 2nd from 12pm-6pm. The Goshen Fairgrounds are located approximately ½ mile south of Goshen center on Route 63. http://www.goshenfair.org/directions.htm Parking is free.

Ticket Cost: $25 daily, at the gate, for general admission, $10 daily for designated drivers and those under 21. A two-day ticket is available for $40. Tickets may be purchased in advance at a discounted daily rate of $20 from the following CT Vineyards:

Jones Winery, Shelton, CT
White Silo Winery, Sherman, CT
Hopkins Vineyard, Warren, CT
Sunset Meadow Vineyards, Goshen, CT
Miranda Vineyard, Goshen, CT
Land of Nod, Canaan, CT
Rosedale Farms & Vineyard, Simsbury, CT
Gouveia Vineyards, Wallingford, CT
Priam Vineyards, Colchester, CT
Sharpe Hill Vineyard, Pomfret, CT
Jonathan Edwards Winery, North Stonington, CT
Chamard Vineyards, Clinton, CT
Bishop’s Orchards Winery, Guilford, CT

Close your eyes and imagine the quintessential New England farm you’ve read about in books. Picture the rolling fields and stone walls adorned with a farm house, red barn, ice house, and white carriage house. Open your eyes and you’re at Ambler Farm, a gem of a 200-year-old working farm in Wilton where Farmer Ben grows organic produce that’s sold at the farm stand every Tuesday and Saturday from 10:30am to 5:00pm.

The Friends of Ambler Farm have made it the farm’s  mission to celebrate Wilton’s agrarian roots through active-learning programs, sustainable agriculture, responsible land stewardship, and historic preservation. Sign up for their e-newsletter so you can get crop and event announcements like this:  “Summer squash is here! We also have broccoli, scallions, arugula, herbs, lettuce, mesclun and mixed greens. Check out our produce schedule to find out when to expect your favorite veggies.”

What’s super fun and educational to do at the farm? Check out the bees. We visited on a weekend to watch the honey harvest and you could have heard a piece of hay drop. The kids and adults alike were enraptured as Kevin taught us about bee behavior, hive hierarchy, honey comb formation, honey production and harvesting and then finally let us taste the sweet, golden, honey straight from the comb. If you want a taste (sorry!) of the bee experience at Ambler Farm, take a few minutes to watch this video. (The noisy kids in the background are on the soccer field.) The farm is open 365 days a year and is not to be missed.

"It looks like water."

Last Sunday wound up being the perfect day to tromp through Warrup’s field to get to the maple sugar house. Steam rising from the roof was catnip for the kids who couldn’t get through the door fast enough to see what was going on inside. They did stop long enough to inspect the contents of the buckets hanging from the maple trees and declare “It looks like water.”

Warrup's Farm, Redding, entering the maple sugar house

Boiling the sap to make it into syrup

Bill Hill gave us a lesson in maple sugaring as he babysat the wood-fired cooker, taking care not to let the syrup overcook. Maple sugaring , which takes place mid-February to the end of March, starts with tapping maple trees, slinging collection buckets from them, collecting the sap and bringing it to the maple sugar house to be boiled until it reaches the syrup stage.  It’s then poured off, strained and cooled. The syrup is later reheated in the kitchen to a temperature of 180 degrees and poured into jugs for sale to the public.

Bill Hill demonstrating how a maple tree tap works

It take 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup! No wonder it looked like water. I’m sad to say they are done doing public demonstrations for the season. Call to see if you can stop by to purchase some syrup. Otherwise, you might have to wait until July when they show up at the Weston Farmers’ Market with any remaining syrup. Bill said there might not be any because demand at the farm has been so great.

Warrup’s Farm is located on John Read Road, Redding, CT, 1.2 miles north of Redding Center, off Route 107. The farm is open seasonally for pick your own organic produce and flowers, pumpkins and cut your own Christmas trees. The farm stand is open late July through the first frost from 10-6. Call ahead to plan your visit: 203-938-9403.

Pouring off the freshly made syrup

A visit with the barnyard animals is an entertaining choice. The “sentry” ducks make quite a racket any time a visitors enter the farm, the three black cats show themselves and then hide in crates, almost inviting a game of hide an go seek, and the goats are enormous and friendly and don’t mind the pony who rooms with them. The ladies (hens) are beautiful and interesting and we even got a good crow out of the rooster as we left!

Straining the syrup