Ryder Farm: The American Dream is Still Alive

Ryder Farm Cottage Industries

Lower Hudson CRAFT

Tuesday, 7 Septiembre 2010

Picket white fence, brand new car, front lawn greened and mowed to perfection, the children, the husband or wife, the comfortable career, all the plastic gadgetry one could desire complimented by food stuffs made from the same - the suburban high life. Westchester and neighboring counties of the New York Megalopolis abound with this consumer-version of the American Dream. But this past Summer hidden away in the back streets on Starr Ridge Road, Hanover Street, Kitchawan Road I found the real deal. The American Dream where one could make the choice to succeed and create something of him or herself. These back roads are where one finds the embodiment of American idealism - our farmers.

I tell no tall tale. I met a living American hero: Elizabeth Ryder. Greeted by friends as “Betsey,” she hosted us newbie farmers at her family’s historic homestead Ryder Farm Cottage Industries to conclude the 2010 CRAFT series.

Betsey found herself upon an opportunity like none other in the late 70s. She was invited back to the land on which her very own roots grew, to continue the family farm and take it in a new direction. Organic agriculture replaced the overgrowth from 50 years of neglect; cultivation replaced ostentation where a once fashionable tennis court surrounded by rose bushes now housed a sprouted tree and would become another garden space. Over the decades, with help from the Soil and Water Conservation District and certainly many laboring hands, a management plan was developed to revive the arable and grazing lands within the 120 acres.

Three decades latter Ryder Farm is a community, boarding nearly 30 resident workers collaborating to grow everything from diversified vegetables, luscious flowers, storage crops, farm animals, and compost piles. To qualify for agricultural assessment benefits Ryder Farm needed to produce a greater agricultural bounty. Thus, operations have doubled to cultivate new ground with purchasing another walk-in cooler and green house to support the expansion. Goods are marketed through a 75 person CSA, Green Markets stand in Union Square on Saturdays, and Pepsico Farmers Market on Tuesday.

For as much as the law has confronted Ryder Farm in opposition giving Betsey quite some headaches over the years, she too has reaped benefits offered by the Natural Resource Conservation Service and Watershed Agricultural Council such as receiving funding to install a manure composting pad and open pasture to grazing cattle.

Expanding also included inviting Doug, a young and eager recent Warren Wilson graduate, to cultivate a full acre adjacent the property’s two bee hives. He grew diversified vegetables in 450-foot long rows he would like to re-map into 8 more manageable quadrants, and experimented with grains with little success but a worthy learning curve. He focuses on non-perishable crops, particularly dried beans. Doug’s produce is distributed through a buying club and sold to local restaurants, like the Flying Pig (Mount Kisco) and Sweet Grass Grill (Tarrytown).

We walked through the gardens to begin the workshop. Minus the perennial flowers section, which was overwhelmed with weeds, the rest of the garden space is covered with black fabric. Overcoming the challenge of keeping the wind from rustling fabric against the fragile annual plants takes priority over weeding. The fabric comes in 300-foot lengths cut to size for her 150-foot long beds. Rolling up and rolling out the re-usable fabric each season which lasts from 7-12 years requires careful inventory. Just as the wise tale goes, gardens do not grow so well by Black Walnut trees and the garden edge beneath this tree seemed prone to disease and poor growth, but all else was flourishing.

Since laying out the black fabric, rodent pests and ground hog pressure has dropped. In this beautifully kept, weed-free environment such animals become too vulnerable from predators above to roam about. A 5-foot high electric fence with 10-feet more of mesh strung above keep out the deer. Being that the fence is in desperate need of repair, it is more likely the deer have been trained to stay away as opposed to physically kept out. With a cheerful smile, she asked the group for advice defending against the Mexican bean beetle. Each year they return without fail. The first bean planting makes it through, the second struggles, and the third is feasted upon.

The focus of the workshop was her name brand “Flowers From My Garden” bouquets. Plant only what one can harvest and consider picking wild flowers, she began. Standardization in harvesting and bouquet prepping methodology (for efficiency) and sanitization of buckets and clippers (for quality control) give “Flowers From My Garden” added-value in the competitive NYC market. In a dance called “Swirling” the staff bunches 150 to 200 bouquets on Friday evenings. As each person swirls about the table lined with buckets of freshly picked cosmos, zinnias, goldenrods, tyconias, cats whiskers, Echinacea, yarrow… - a rainbow of blooming flowers - during past Swirls a band of friends would be invited over to play at the “Flower Party.” We each partook in our first Swirls and walked off past the tractor shed, the man-made stone and concrete stage being constructed, through the nuptial garden whilst goats purred in the background with our bouquets in hand.

In the final potluck we would be sharing together, Betsey offered her own pearls of wisdom, a glamorous-less take on things. Betsey is a full-time emergency room nurse at Danbury Hospital atop of fully orchestrating marketing and farm management here. Working is to pay for living and the goal is for the farm to pay for itself. This is how farm families have always survived.

In part it is Betsey’s spirit and humble attitude towards what she does that makes her an American idol. With gratitude that is unique to find and admirable at the least Betsey said, “I do not own the farm. The farm owns me. Find something you enjoy doing and build a community.”

Northeast Organic Farming Association: 36th Annual Summer Conference

As market failures persist and government is unable to provide the fix, communities1 are organizing.  The Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) is “an organization of consumers, gardeners, and farmers working together to create a sustainable regional food system which is ecologically sound and economically viable.”2 To understand how real this community is the Annual Summer Conference hosted at UMass (Amherst, MA) offers workshops, keynotes, a market and fair, night events, and local dining. The convergence is symbolic of the growing movement to make healthy foods available to all people and embrace environmentally-responsible stewardship of our Nation’s landscape.

The first workshop I sat in on at the 2010 conference was led by acupuncturist, herbalist, and Director of Goldenthread Herb Farm & Apothecary William Siff. Siff discussed their Farm-to-Pharmacy internship program and “sustainable, cost-effective, non-toxic, community-based healthcare model” adopted by Goldenthread. Unable to compete with market prices from imported manufactured ‘natural’ remedies from China, Goldenthread Herb Farm found its niche by placing education in the forefront. Each growing season, 20 to 25 interns pay full tuition for a 7 month intensive hands-on, academic, and clinical training on 4 acres of certified organic land growing medicinal herbs using biodynamic practices, and processing them using Chinese or ayurvedic tradition. The tuition in turn subsidizes production costs allowing CSA members to receive their local natural medicines at an affordable rate.

On the first evening Sally Fallon Morell, founder of the Weston A. Price Foundation and author of Nourishing Traditions, gave her keynote address concerning salt. She mentioned fats, sugars, and animal products, decrying America’s obsession with low-fat, low-sugar, low- nourishment diets. She prescribed a traditional diet full of raw milk, cod liver oil, and animal fats, which certainly raised many an eyebrow in a conference hall freckled with vegetarians and vegans.

A less controversial yet equally concerning topic mentioned was the allegiance between associations that represent processed foods and federal regulatory bodies: the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA food pyramid first accommodated the vegetable oil industry post WWII during the agricultural Green Revolution when industrialization moved beyond factories onto the Nation’s farms. Margarine and hydrogenated oils replaced butter and unprocessed fats and sixty years of advertisements attacking animal fats were drawn up by the new industry.

Heeding a word of caution against the latest low-sodium craze, Sally revealed that the American Medical Association (AMA) is preaching that consumers should cut their sodium intake to reduce the risk of heart disease based on poor scientific research. She criticized the research connecting high sodium diets to heart disease as being blatantly skewed in data representation and control set-up. She explained the familiar story again: A new imitation salt additive has recently been developed that is cheaper than salt and used in a fraction of the amount. It is also a neurotoxin. Food items containing the additive will greet ailed, high blood pressured, and over-weight consumers with an enticing low-sodium branding as doctor recommended, while the nutrition facts will simply include the additive under ‘artificial ingredients’. Offering little faith in our public servants on the Hill, Sally forewarned against trusting processed foods and fad diets even when sponsored by medical authorities. Hence, she subtitled her book The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats.

The following day I attended a workshop led by two policy experts, Traci Bruckner of the Center for Rural Affairs (Nebraska) and Martha Noble of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (DC), entitled “Growing Organic in USDA Conservation Programs”. The presentation was grounded on the premise that there is a pool of funding made available through the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) for farmers implementing best management practices. Organic and small scale farmers need to get more involved in the allocation process to receive funding. After reviewing the different programs, eligibility requirements, and criteria specific to organic agriculture our presenters ended with agreeably stating “We need you” to sit on State Technical Committees and within Local Working Groups to help our diversified farmers take advantage of the programs they help develop.

NOFA Policy Coordinator Steve Gillman and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) Senior Policy Associate Kate Fitzgerald, both real players in the game on the Hill, covered the workshop “Updates on Governmental Food Safety Initiatives and Effects on Farmers.” There has been a wrongly placed hysteria over the recent food safety bills moving through Congress. The fear of current food safety legislation stems from internet hear say that farmers will be so heavily regulated that small operations will be put out of business and organic farming will be completely outlawed. It seems as if “food safety” is the bi-word to get foods processed and, like all things, there is some truth in this.

H.R.2749 and S.510 propose amendments to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act under the framework of the 2002 Bioterrorism Law. The bill merely addresses biological pathogenic contamination overseen by the FDA, with no discussion on pesticide contamination, otherwise regulated by the EPA. The concern resides in the definition of “facility” which is so vague even small farmers get clumped with factory operations. The FDA recognizes the limitations of the law’s language; however, the FDA is so underfunded and –staffed the agency is unable to fully enforce regulations upon every qualified farm.

NSAC has had policy personal guide the drafting process of the S.510 version of the bill, focusing specifically on the aspects of food safety legislation that relate to small scale growers. Facets of concern have been the definition of “facility,” the regulatory standards imposed upon produce, mechanisms for traceability from farm to table, and availability of training and technical support to small farms to help with regulatory compliance. Overall, the intent was to develop legislation that is flexible to the scale of the producer and, therefore, based on risk as a more reliable indicator for the need to regulate. It has been difficult to ensure that any regulation does not conflict with the National Organic Program or conservation and wildlife laws. NSAC has worked very hard to make improvements to the S.510 version of which NSAC and NOFA now advocate for. The same is not true for the H.R.2749 version.

By the end of 2010 a final bill will be passed which will take three years to come into full effect. Before this happens, the House and Senate versions will go to committee to be amalgamated into one bill. The House version is convoluted and detrimental to small farmers. Those in attendance of the workshop were encouraged to tend to our patriotic duties and contact legislators  urging them to support the Senate version (U.S. Capitol Switch Board Contact: 202.224.3121).

As vital as umbrella organizations are to participating in the political game, individuals must also feel empowered to act. The solutions to food security issues are local solutions. This is in part due to the uniqueness of food. When the FDA approves food stuffs that are said to be “edible”, vitality and nutrient quality, environmental and social impacts are void characteristics still, which leads us down the path of a national obesity, diabetes, and heart disease epidemic, biodiversity loss, air and water pollution, and land degradation.

The July 2010 issue of Natural Awakenings ran an article entitled “Locavore Nation: Savor the Reign of Regional Foods”. The article poured over the health benefits of eating regionally grown produce and the historical context in which different peoples settled different regions of the country with blooming cultures of wine growing in California, tapping sugar maples in Vermont, raising dairy cattle in the Northeast and honey production across the Midwest set root. Regional American food cultures sprouted regionally infused with the diets of indigenous peoples. The overall argument in favor of locally grown or raised is the nutritional superiority of foods grown in their ideal microclimate and the lack of need to process, artificially preserve or irradiate to enhance shelf life since foods are traveling shorter distances from farm to market when locally or regionally sourced. Supporting local agriculture also propagates local economies and protects farmland from development.

Research is necessary to expedite the process of finding the most appropriate and effective strategies to address food security and support an alternative regional-foods infrastructure in this country. These strategies are supposed to come out of our public land grant institutions. However, the agenda of agricultural research is being privatized by the “Monsanto’s of the world”- as phrased by a NOFA conference coordinator. Forefront university research still falls within the dominant conventional agricultural paradigm of intensive inputs replacing human labor stemming from the Green Revolution - a flawed, unsustainable paradigm.  Even organic research can follow the dominant model. For example, Ruth Hazzard of Pennsylvania’s agricultural extension agency lectured a packed room about “Insect Pests on Vegetables.” Only the major OMRI approved organic sprays were discussed for pest control; however, organic and biodynamic farmers have a plethora of other options. Thus, ingenuitive small farmers are very much experimenting themselves.

Real Food Campaign (RFC) Director Dan Kittredege, quite well known in the northeast small farmers’ community for his valiant efforts, and ecological engineer and RFC Research Coordinator Tad Montgomery presented “The Science of Quality and a Strategy for Nutrient Dense Standards.” Nutrient dense cropping is not only a reappearance of age-old agricultural practice, but encapsulates a paradigm shift premised on soil vitality correlating with nutritionally dense and healthy produce; healthy food consumption correlating with a healthy society.

To give credence to the methods already supported by anecdotal evidence, the RFC is sponsoring scientific research using 15 volunteer growers implementing nutrient dense cropping practices. Each farm is to strictly follow proper agronomic protocol and scientific set-up as designed by the RFC. Kittredge’s goal is to provide empirical evidence in favor of nutrient dense cropping in the hopes to standardize the methods for eventual certification, similar to organic standards, to incentivize farmers to adopt such practices. By no means is Kittredge attempting to re-create the wheel though. He has spent the past year traveling the country connecting with researchers in the universities trying to coalesce the knowledge and expertise already out there.

If small scale farmers and their labor intensive practices are what will be the foundational solution to our food revolution, Cuba is a prime example. Saturday evening’s keynote speaker Catherine Murphy shared a tale I had never heard before: Once upon a time Cubans were a conquered peoples swayed into inviting in industrial agriculture. Land was privatized to be owned by American-based transnational companies utilizing input intensive practices heavily reliant upon foreign petrochemical imports. Then, the Soviet Union seceded and the Special Period began. Soviet satellite countries were forbidden from trading with Cuba and the United States tightened their embargo at a time when the Cuban people needed crisis relief. Even with industrial agriculture dominating during the Soviet reign, a subset of peasant farmers - “campesinos” - continued to thrive using their oxen and hands.

Cuba is home to 4% of the Meso- and Central American population, but contains 11% of the scientists - evidence to their investment in education. This intelligent population, a blend of Hispanic, Asian, and African decedents, already knew how to move beyond one another’s differences and cooperate. At a time where nutritional deficiencies were causing wide spread disease, including an epidemic of blindness, cooperation was their sole means for survival. All available lands, particularly in densely populated areas like the city of Havana, were seized to be used for food production. Community gardens formed across the country. People grew food where ever they could, some even raising livestock like pigs and chickens indoors where possible.

Moving out into the rural landscape the campesinos were sought after to teach their truly sustainable ways in a government orchestrated revival of traditional wisdom. Rural lands were divided and given to those knowledgeable enough to farm. Limited inputs were available with the blocks on trade, yet the fragile soil degraded by decades of industrial agriculture needed ito be nourished if the landscape was to in return nourish the people. Thus, cow manure and viticulture compost replaced foreign chemical fertilizers. Havana was able to grow 50% of its food within the city bounds and sourced the rest from the country side.

Murphy – a documentary film director and Cuban studies expert - spoke of a peoples that fought to live with less and found happiness. “We can learn from Cuba,” she invited. In her farewell, she paraphrased Dr. Fernando Funes - researcher and Secretary of the Organic Agriculture Group of the Cuban Association of Agronomists and Foresters - and his take on Cuba’s movement to become recognized as the most sustainable country in the world. He said: “Cuba was given two options: lie down and die or stand up and fight. Cuba chose to stand up and fight.” The rest of the world is or will be faced with the same options. Will we learn from Cuba’s achievements?

- - -

All that I have gathered has led me to believe that Westchester County has the opportunity to be a leader in sustainability as well: Land has a greater monetary value for its development use than its agricultural use in the United States. However, society recognizes the benefit of protecting open spaces and preserving arable lands. All fifty states have enacted Right-to-Farm statutes. Westchester County has also enacted a Right-to-Farm statute, redundant yet symbolic. The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets developed a Farmland Protection Program pursuant Article 25-AAA of the NYS Agriculture and Markets Law encouraging municipalities to draft an Agriculture & Farmland Protection Plan (AFPP) in exchange for financial and technical assistance to implement the plan.

 In 1999 under County Executive Andy J. Spano, the Westchester County Agriculture and Farmland Protection Board was established with the mission to “maintain the economic viability of the agricultural industry and to protect the environmental and landscape preservation values associated with agriculture.”3 The Westchester County AFPP was completed in April 2004. Incorporated into the Plan is the first of its kind in the Nation: a county-owned, fully operating vegetable farm and education center, Hilltop Hanover Farm and Environmental Center.

A regional-foods infrastructure is growing in Westchester. There has been a resurgence of farmers’ markets over the past decade within the county. The Westchester Land Trust is coordinating a Match Program connecting experienced farmers to estate owners welcoming farm operations onto their land, already a quite successful program. Higher education housed within the County, such as SUNY Westchester Community College, SUNY Purchase and Pace University are acting as major players as well by offering environmentally-related programs, campus gardens, and installing sustainability offices amongst the administration. The Environmental Consortium of Hudson Valley Colleges and Universities is hosting this year’s annual conference on the topic of Advancing our Regional Foodshed: The Role of Higher Education.

Higher up the ladder for the first time in U.S., history the Supreme Court heard a case on genetically engineered foods. The final decision in Monsanto Co. v. Geerston Seeds Farm, represented by the Center for Food Safety (CFS), was a temporary injunction on Monsanto’s genetically engineered alfalfa that will be imposed until an Environmental Impact Statement is conducted. Furthermore, in another case, the USDA was found in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act by approving the sale of genetically engineered sugar beets, and so approval has been rescinded with expectations of a completed Environmental Impact Statement by 2012.

Still, there is much more work to be done to advance the next generation of farmers. Many of the converted are already doing their part: buying locally, growing their own, working on farms, and advocating for a regional food economy. True too is that in many cases the law is on our side. We need to stand our ground in the political game as strongly as agribusiness does and support organizations like the Northeast Organic Farming Association, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, Center for Food Safety, and many more. In support of our Nation’s young and eager beginning farmers the National Young Farmers Coalition has just been born.

Edited by Cassie Landrum and Kelly Morrison 

1. “Communities” here defined as peoples of similar characteristic ideals, not solely geographic proximity.

2. http://www.nofany.org/ 

3. http://www.westchestergov.com/planning/environmental/FARMBD.htm

Composting Done Right

Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture 

Lower Hudson C.R.A.F.T.

Monday, 26 Julio 2010

Stone Barns, the Rockefeller Farm. The place is a bit high profile; therefore, demanding of top-shape performance. My bottom jaw was dragging across the pathway during most of the tour of Gregg Twehues’ composting operation in awe of his spectacular thoroughness and execution. Here’s just a taste of what Gregg offered us:

The fundamental material components of compost include carbon (the browns), nitrogen (the greens), oxygen and water. To ensure active aerobic decomposition a C:N ratio of 30:1 is necessary. In a handout, Greg provided a diagram comparing effect on temperature versus decomposition rate for compost containing C:N ratios of 60:1, 40:1, and 30:1.

The higher two ratios barely reached a maximum temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit after two weeks requiring longer than 50 days for full decomposition, while the prescribed 30:1 ratio reaches a maximum temperature of over 160 degrees Fahrenheit within a week and fully composts within less than 50 days. Reaching temperatures peaking 160 degrees Fahrenheit is important for burning up viable pathogens and insect larvae that may have come in with the raw compost materials, such as Late Blight infected tomato trimmings, Colorado Potato beetle infested eggplants, or blood from composted chicken renderings.

Many browns have already extremely high C:N ratios. For example, wood chips are 300:1, straw is 80:1, and leaves are 60:1. The greens have a less extreme C:N ratio. Rotted manure and coffee grounds are 20:1, grass clippings are 19:1, and alfalfa is 12:1. Therefore, to achieve the ideal 30:1 C:N ratio the compost recipe calls for two parts brown and one part green.

Greg offered a bit of trouble shooting advice for anyone having difficulty getting their compost pile to readily heat up. He suggested one of two things: First, to mix in grass clippings ("gasoline to start the fire”) or second, to soak alfalfa in water over night and a blooming protozoan population will jumpstart any pile. Other compost activators recommended are wood shavings, mature compost or sweet peat, ground oatmeal, or old wood chips.

(Video Clip of Gregg' at work atop the turner)

As much as he emphasized the importance of the abiotic characteristics of compost, his secret to his wizardly ways of turning “waste” into living soil is the focus he places on fostering the biological microbial community within the composting pile. Fungal-dominant versus bacterial-dominant compost largely determines the desirability and applicability of the final product. Fungal-dominat compost is ideal for woody plants and landscaping; bacterial-dominat compost is best for vegetables.

Sweet peat is common in garden use. Sweet peat is an immature version of compost. Sweet peat has not undergone the full time extent of composting as mature compost would and Gregg has no interest in selling such a product.

Gregg’s end goal is to always create the highest quality, fully mature compost rich in biological activity. Making compost is like making sour bread dough! A viable yeast mother full of microbial life is needed to give sour bread that unique taste and bubbly rise. Biologically active compost also starts with a viable microbial mother which Gregg sources from the neighboring woods which he finds provides the best biological activity not found in commercial brew starts.

To ensure a quality out-product, Gregg maintains meticulous quality control when screening the in-products: quality in, quality out. There is also a succession of composting treatments before the materials reach the final stage of being laid out in 150’ long, five-feet high by four-feet wide windrows for a 12 week cycle with precise temperature monitoring and corresponding turning. Materials that take extensive periods of prolonged heat and time to compost, like pine shavings with high lignin content and high-risk pathogen materials, like blood, bones, and feather, are first composted in the O2 Composting bays before entering the windrow process.

Gregg certainly put a squat to the common misconception that composting is a smelly process that attracts pest animals. “Rodents mean there’s a problem in a sustainable system. Just have to figure it out,” and figure it out is what he has been doing for nearly two decades. Gregg has got composting down to a science. He carefully monitors the status of his piles, collecting temperature readings multiple times daily, and scanning the microscope view to assess biological activity just as often.

Overall, to create useful compost, which anyone could do, the important steps are to (1) screen inputs, (2) maintain a 30:1 C:N ratio (3) monitor temperature and moisture levels, and regularly turn piles accordingly. Alternating layers of browns and greens, starting with the browns, is also good practice.

Gregg's recommended the following reading materials and resources: 

BOOK:  Teaming with Microbes

HANDBOOK: On-Farm Compost Handbook, CCE 

MANUAL: Compost Tea Manual

 Soil Food Web International and US Compost Council

Weeds! Weeds! and More Weeds!!!

Hilltop Hanover Farm  and Environmental Center 

Lower Hudson C.R.A.F.T.

Tuesday, 27 Julio, 2010

Even with the privilege of having access to any piece of literature and just needing my finger tips to peruse the internet, there is still nothing more enlightening than picking the brain of the well-versed living. Head Farmer at Hilltop Hanover Farm, Maryellen Sheehan, is just a wealth of knowledge about farming. It is unfortunate that sometimes farming gets in the way of being able to tap into it, but none-the-less I am still learning.

Our workshop offered an abundance of information on the operations that make up HHF and our field management strategies. Like most CRAFT workshops the evening opened with a round-circle name share followed by an overview of the facility. Of course, it was quickly mentioned that we are Westchester County owned and at risk of losing our budget. Dressed in a “Corn Star” t-shirt, Maryellen encouraged the group to reach out to Westchester County legislators.

HHF property houses a school for home-schooled children Something Good in the World or “Earth School” for short, a Cornell Cooperative Extension Butterfly Garden, the regional Watershed Agricultural Council headquarters, and our working farm and environmental center.

The tour was quite similar to what we offer the general public. It started in front of the office building and barns, historic structures that need protection as such. We continued on to the Farm-at-Home Garden, a space that I have responsibility over this season. Then, walked about to the school’s backyard to find a 60 year-old Bald Cypress tree that had been planted by previous owners when ornamental conifers were trendy. Bordering the schoolchildren’s play area is the chicken coop, a living building with a green-roof covered with hardy desert plants and a soil-like medium. Even though it does not take much structural adjustment to create a living building, it does take proper ecological forethought. The building was originally facing a south slope for maximum solar input and as a defense against wind erosion, but the building has since been rotated and is now dying.

(Taking a pass beneath the brambling branches of the Bald Cypress)

We carried on to the greenhouses, two hoop structures. Being a public facility we are mandated to accept the lowest bid for every project, which plainly put is not analogous to the best work (hinting at our drainage problems). Still we are fortunate to have them to extend our growing season. We have also been housing some of our tomatoes in the greenhouses as one means of defense against Late Blight.

At this point in the tour Annie Farrell - remember the Guru Organic Farmer and as it turns out the mastermind behind the concept of Hilltop Hanover Farm - asked about Maryellen’s spraying regimen. Conventional tomato growers have a wide variety of fungicides to choose from; organic growers have only Copper-based fungicides. Copper residue can build up in soils and have a potentially toxic influence.

Maryellen has chosen to not yet spray any fungicides, but we have been applying a regular treatment of a foliar spray that coats the leaves with beneficial microbes. This specially designed blend comes from Lancaster Ag. If Late Blight does arrive in the area, we will then take up a regular spraying of Serenade every few days. Annie, on the other hand, is strictly a market garden and relies heavily on revenue from tomatoes to keep her operation viable. She has been spraying her tomatoes regularly from germination with an alternating treatment of OxiDate and Serenade.

(At our feet we discuss a clover ground cover)

Sharing the history (i.e. land-use and ownership) of Hilltop helped explain where we are today. First settled by Europeans in the 1750s Hilltop has since been under agricultural use with not much being given back to the land. The Underhills owned the property for a century and a half, and the myth is that the steel plow was first trialed on this property. In the recent century it was a prize winning dairy farm, and according to aerial photo imaging the fields were corn row after corn row year after year. Thus, today we deal with issues of compacted, easily erodible, and nutrient poor soils, which bring us to the role of weeds.

(Intern Michelle displaying Vevet Leaf)

Weeds are scorned in conventional mono-crop fields for disrupting aesthetics. It too is true that weeds can be quite bothersome in organic systems; however, we recognize weeds as a functional part of a farm’s ecology and indicators of soil health. There is a change in weed populations each year. In the ’08 growing season yellow nutsedge was dominant; in ’09 lamb’s quarters; and in the present ’10 season purslane. Purslane is an indicator of low organic matter and deficient active carbon levels. There is also a scatter of pigweed, plantain, bindweed, Canadian thistle, velvet leaf, amaranth, ragweed, dandelion… The list goes on.

(Thistle in the twilight)

Weed management is about timing. It is important to properly identify weed species, understand how they grow, when they go to seed, and how they propagate. For example, velvet leaf is a major pest even in conventional systems, especially in Midwest cornfields. The seed is viable for 50 years. Weeds should be cultivated before they go to seed, and dismembering the roots from the shoot is important to cut off the energy reserve that may allow the pant to re-establish later in the season or in following years. Weeds tell a story, thus learning how to read the story is important for weed management.

Maryellen recommended the following reading material:

• "Weeds of the Northeast"

by Richard Uva, Joseph Neal, and Joseph DiTomaso

• "Weeds and What They Tell" by Ehrenfried Pfeiffer

• "Weeds, Control without Poisons" by Charles Walters

• "Weeds" by Walter Muenscher

Development Pending

Mahopac Farm

Lower Hudson C.R.A.F.T.
Thursday, 29 Julio, 2010

Mahopac Farm, a children’s petting zoo where anyone who grew up around these parts has spent time as a child or brought their own children to enjoy a birthday party with pony rides, to poke fun at the resident clown, or to walk the antique shop with an assortment of classic candies - even those bubble gum cigarettes my brothers and I would love to buy to pretend we were Gramma and Grampa. The barn was regularly converted into a playhouse seating 300 at its peak. The first act hosted in the 1970s being UK’s Bow Belles String Quartet. “We Grow Smiles” greets those entering the parking lot and on the occasion a popcorn stand is still placed out front.

How could a place that is so full of color and enticing of laughter, a Wonka Wonderland in the midst of the highly congested shopping complex the Somers Commons, be such a sad place too?

The truth is the museum is boarded up. The tools in the barns are crusty and rusted over. The clown no longer makes his appearance. The purple and green painted rabbit dens and pig pens are chipped and crumbling. But Mahopac Farm is no ghost town either.

Still bustling about are overly ostentatious pea cocks and a modest white pea hen, two of the last ponies, ragged and uncombed that only a few times a year offer rides to children, a mama pig and her baby, a duck named DogDuck and another that patiently sits on her egg that never seems to hatch, a wise old goat, and a rooster that keeps watch on them all.

Here one finds the most beautiful collection of feral cats in Westchester and just as many bunnies too, although, the oldest and worn of them all is Bernie. I inquired about there being any cows. He acknowledged that I asked a question, but was certainly lost in reminiscences replying, “Bashful. She was a doll. But she grew old too,” ostensibly referencing himself. Bernie is where Mahopac Farm begins back in 1967.

After a lifetime of traveling the country in his youth from the west coast to the east, to settling in NYC and starting a successful humorous greeting card business with an illustrator friend, and eventually putting aside his nomadic ways to raise a family, Bernie Zipkin opened Mahopac Farm, a petting zoo right from his start. Old and often bitter now as he pushes 90 years-old, he openly blames the ales of society on cell phones and computers.

My farmer friend, Dan Moon, a resident in Mahopac currently farming at Common Ground Farm located in Beacon, NY organized this CRAFT. Over this past winter Dan gave the Old Man a hand feeding his animals. Before there was Food Not Bombs there were just plain ole’ kind people like Bernie. For years beyond count Bernie has been taking in expired produce and bread from local grocers (today mostly a Trader Joe’s in CT) to use as feed for his petty zoo menagerie and to pass along to any human mouth to feed.

Shriveled down from 300 acres to 30 acres Mahopac Farm was once the Borden Willows Farm, which Bernie referenced as “The Farm” of the northeast during its time. Most of that land has since succumbed to suburban sprawl by developers and the remainder is destine for the same.

Connecticut developer, Paul Camarda, is already in contract with Bernie’s children, a future of town houses and apartments, shopping centers, corporate headquarters, another Whole Foods and Target. (For further details on the development plans read this NY Times article entitled "Sale of Farm to Developers is Underway")

(Halloween was always a fun time at the petting zoo)

It was tear wrenching for us future farmers to walk through the property. Once land is developed the potential quality of being arable if fully relinquished: top soil is removed and concrete impervious surfaces dominate. It is shameful that we have entered the 21st century and still Smart Growth is taking a back seat to short-term gains. The site is a historical relic being chomped at by progress. Bernie himself is an American relic. All-in-all Mahopac Farm is simultaneously eerie and magnificent, like fire fuel just waiting to burn.

In the mean time as the world waits for Bernie to die, the petty zoo continues and the back fields are rented by Meadows Farm with acres of sweet corn under cultivation. The front field is left fallow because mowing is a favorite past-time for Bernie. Dan was interested in getting a patch of diversified vegetables started, but was quickly turned down. The children and developer have no interested in a CSA forming that would potential host opposition to development plans. Bernie still welcomes the occasional visitor. I encourage anyone who upholds true American values to explore Mahopac Farm with the potential chance to speak with wise ole’ Bernie himself.

Regenerative Farming with Nutrient Dense Crops

Glynwood Center

Mid Hudson C.R.A.F.T.
Monday, 19 Julio, 2010

I was really excited to attend this CRAFT workshop. It rained for hours before hand, which always puts a drab on CRAFT because we usually are walking about the host farm most of the time; however, we were safely seated inside a warm conference room welcomed by Head Gardener David Llewellyn and his farm hands.

When all the guests had arrived President Judith LaBelle opened the floor acknowledging and encouraging the attendees’ interest in agriculture and shared some of Glynwood’s latest project ventures.


In recent years, attention has been given to regional livestock farmers to improve the infrastructure that fosters this agricultural sector. There are certainly plenty of raisers and plenty of mouths to feed with the demand of grass-fed meat soaring in NYC, but there is a limited number of slaughter houses, and so sprouted the idea of a mobile slaughter house that can roam the Hudson Valley to help get livestock farmers’ meat to market. In April 2010 the Modular Harvest System, a portable abattoir, was granted inspection approval by the USDA.

Next Head Gardener Dave took the floor to give a PowerPoint presentation entitled “Introduction to Soil Nutrition: For Nutrient Dense Crop Production.” Since the 1940s the nutritional value of food has been declining. Nutrient Dense Crop Production strives to re-mineralize arable soils and restore balanced soil nutrition.


For the true genetic potential of cultivars to be achieved the amalgamated parts that constitute soil must be in proper balance. The link between environmental health and human health are now better understood. There is a connection between the mineral content of local soils and the health of resident humans in a region.

The late agronomist Dr. Carey Reames was one of the first to propose that to enhance the ecology of agroecosystems farmers should feed the soil microbes that feed the plants. Microbes digest materials in the soil converting nutrients into plant-available form. Even earlier said was Julius Hensel who discovered the beneficial value of mineral dust in agriculture, in part, no different than the value found of using the excess nitrogen from the world wars to be used in agricultural. The difference between the inputs is the rock dust was meant to restore depleted mineral levels in the soil with longevity in mind, while nitrogen-based inputs produce a short-term benefit degrading microbial populations and soils’ ability to naturally sustain its ecology.

In more recent years, nutrient dense crop production has become a common practice for non-conventional farmers with the Real Food Campaign and Massachusetts farmers Dan Kittredge pushing the way forward. The RFC strives to expand the use of NDCP along with a means for standardization to eventually lead to certification, similar to organic standards. Standardization requires measurements, which means testing.

There are three types of test that NDCP farmers use to monitor their progress: (1) a refractometer reading, (2) a soil conductivity reading, and (3) a soil analysis. A refractomer provides a Brix reading that indirectly measure the sucrose content of a vegetable sample. The conductivity meter reveals the ability of the soil to transfer electrons, and thus determine the ability of nutrients in their smallest form as molecules to move freely from soil to plant. Lastly, a soil test will identify and quantity nutrients present in the soil. A weak acid test is recommended over the still more common strong acid test. A strong acid test will reveal what is present in the soil; however a weak acid test will reveal what nutrients are available to plants.

Soils naturally strive to re-establish their equilibrium and thus the function of weeds. Until soil nutrition is balanced weeds often times have a higher Brix readings, and therefore more nutritious, than their planted counter-parts. Dave recommended the book Weeds and Why They Grow by Jay L. McCaman to learn more about what the presence of specific weeds means. For example, purslane represents a biologically active carbon and organic matter deficiency. Hairy galinsoga means too much magnesium and not enough calcium. Weeds heal soil, but the process is slow, so as stewards of the land we add amendments. Even though farmers can quicken the healing process, NDCP is still a long-term project requiring constant monitoring and data collection.

For those interested in learning more about NDCP, Dave recommended Biological Farmer: A Complete Guide to the Sustainable & Profitable Biological System of Farming by Gary Zimmerman.

The rain turned into a dribble and when it finally dissipated Dave finished his lecture. The women gardeners led us in a tour about the garden, greenhouse, and tractor shed. Glynwood is a huge former estate property. In all directions we saw farmland, pastures, and barns. Looking one way there were hens, the other a herd of sheep, drive down a side road and you will find roaming cows or horse.

I particularly enjoyed being in the presence of a nearly century-old homestead-sized apple orchard, ancient looking trees with patchy canopies and lichen-covered bark. Climbing the gate surrounding the garden was a well-pruned and Kniffin-system trellised grape vine. The stem inches thick and sprawling arms spanning nearly 20 feet.

As we walked I caught up with old farming friends and certainly was building friendships with new ones. The tour closed with the tractor: the ElecTrak. Created in the 1970s by GE this electric-powered tractor is perfect for growing intensively on just a few acres. It is a small machine and not too loud making it safe to use while others are in the field. Of course, GE doesn’t make ‘em like they used to and so only old refurbished models and attachments are floating about. Dave even knows a friend who specializes in collecting, reviving, and re-selling ElecTracks.

Dave said his farewells, thanked those departing before quickly running home to his family and new born. On his return he rejoined us in the boat house overlooking one of Glynwood’s two lakes to enjoy the usual CRAFT potluck of farm fresh grub. Certainly we talked more farming, sharing our preferred agricultural practices, our world views, and our unique reasons for choosing farming above all else. It is exciting and inspiring hearing about other beginning farmers’ future farms.

Annie Farrell, Guru Organic Farmer

Millstone Farm

Lower C.R.A.F.T.

Tuesday, 29 June, 2010

Annie Farrell - guru organic farmer - carries a life time of experience in every facet of raising and marketing organic food. These days she runs Millstone Farm located on estate property in Wilton, CT.

There are rare breed laying hens, meat turkeys and pigs, llama and sheep - an evolved symbiotic duo, high-value greenhouse salad greens, permaculture display, a CSA diversified vegetable garden, U-Pick berries, on-site composting, fourteen Wilton Pony Club boarded horses, even a wetland boardwalk, all on just twenty-acres of land. How does she do it? Could it be her lifetime of experience, her meticulous and efficient use of space, obsession with data collection and extensive management plans, or her personal assistant - a charming young gentleman - whose sole responsibility is to keep Annie on schedule?

After momentarily seating us, welcoming our attendance with a bright smile and offered fennel-maple syrup tea she quickly sprang into the details of her story. Guru Annie grew up in up-state New York spending twenty years learning how to farm by the “old-timers” before post-War industrial farming consumed agricultural communities.

Her first entrepreneual venture was a small operation self titled Annie’s Farm. More recently she has been farming in our region for some time now having worked at Rainbeau Ridge (Bedford Hills, NY), Cabbage Hill Farm (Mount Kisco, NY), Ryder Farm (Brewster, NY), etc… many farms who interns now attend C.R.A.F.T. The property her current operation resides on is a historic dairy farm she has revived into Millstone Farm.

Farmers in the NYC watershed are encouraged, sometimes mandated, to follow Best Management Practices for their agricultural operation. The Watershed Agricultural Council in conjunction with the DEC and other governmental bodies helps NYC watershed farmers identify best management practices sometimes even providing opportunities to pay farmers to use such practices. Even though Millstone does not lie within the NYC watershed she has developed a Best Management Plan for her farm.

Annie may be part of my generation’s “old-timers” but she is right on point with the importance of record keeping and the ease of utilizing computer programs, like Microsoft Excel, as a management tool for both farming and marketing. Data! Data! Data! Each garden is mapped and pre-planned using excel, an intensive grazing rotation plan for the horses, chicken, pigs, and turkey are all on Excel; every hour labored in the fields, every input used is all kept track of using Excel.

Millstone Farm is a for-profit business, which barely makes much of a profit. Referencing the data compiled in Excel Annie prices her products at what they cost to produce. Meaning even with selling her eggs $5.99 per dozen (wholesale to resturants priced at $7.00 per dozen) Anne just breaks even. She emphasized that the market is tough these days. Despite serving high-end restaurants and dozens of CSA members she warns it is difficult to be a profitable small-scale farmer and make a living or support a family. Such a career choice means a personal life of thrifty spending.

I learned quite an amazing amount of interesting facts and techniques that evening:

The turkey and chicken are housed separately. Chicken are carries of blackhead disease and turkey are susceptible to it. Organic certified grain is twice the price of conventional feed grain; therefore, her chickens lay twice as expensive eggs. It is proper to keep one rooster for every twelve hens. Laying hens are usually kept at the job for one year before being sent off for slaughter, but Annie gets two years out of her lady hens.

According to Guru Annie heirloom pig breeds have greater birthing success when allowed to nest and rear their brood in the woods. It is very common for barned pig mothers to roll over their piglets killing them. Consumers preference can change the fate of entire breeds of livestock. Consumers no longer wanted to see hairs on their slabs of pork at market and in the stores so pink and white flesh pigs became more popular threatening colored breeds. To revive heirloom breeds consumers need to start eating them again so farmers will rear them.

The hoop houses are lined with 18” tall raised beds. With only 2” of soil on this bedrock landscape she had no choice but to build upward. More importantly, her design is meant to protect her back and ensure efficient use of space incorporating bio-intensive principles of French Farmer John Jeavon. She believes the raised beds produce a 3-4x higher yield than ground rows.

There is an obvious trend I see. To make a profit as a small-scale organic grower in the tri-state area, one means is to grow high-value salad greens and sell to high-end restaurants and chefs. Guru Annie has perfected the practice by growing her lettuce mixes in two four-season green houses. Shade cloth covers the hoop houses to prevent the lettuce from bolting during summer and one greenhouse is warmed during winter with a biodiesel-fueled heater. Soil is filled right to the brim of the beds for best air circulation, and perfect blades and heads of lettuce are harvested and replaced by transplants each week. A well-organized system that, decades into it, still amazes Annie, “We put in a few milligrams of seed and hundreds of pounds of food is produced. It’s a miracle!”

In fear of Late Blight and again losing 400 tomatoes - quite a dent in the purse - Annie has been spraying her tomatoes from their start. All tomatoes sit on red plastic mulch which is said to increase yields by 20%. It seems there is a whole array of plastic mulch colors to choose from that each uniquely influence the growth and yield of the plants.

Cucurbits are also highly susceptible to disease. She has prescribed a regular spraying of diatomaceous earth about the ground of all the cucumbers, squash, melons, etc. which is suppose to kill the larvae of pest species with it the materials microscopic spines (however, it also kills beneficial insects too), and the foliage is coated with a clay-based pesticide, like Surround, that protects the leaves and fruits from feeding pests.