But today, I wanted to quickly call attention to a bill that is going to the house here in Oregon in just a few days:   HB 2336– The Direct Farm Marketing Bill.  Here is a link to some information and a bit written by Anthony Boutard from Ayers Creek Farm about it and where it is at now and what needs to be done.

We would like to urge you all to call your representatives and help move this forward.  It is a good bill, and will directly benefit us and many other Oregon farmers!!

Now back to work….

It occurred to me while talking with everyone that the new American small farmer can hardly help but also be a food and land activist as well.  While we not only attempt a different model of production from larger-scale agriculture through polyculture planting and direct marketing, we also attempt to take a somewhat man-centered activity–agriculture–and make it once again accountable to the rest of the ecosystem. This means many things, and covers a wide array of different approaches to raising crops and animals; but the common theme is that once again, farming feels as much like an act of stewardship as business.

a happy little frog hiding on a happy little pepper

And this is really the more important missing ingredient in modern ag today.  Large fields of monocuture grains aren’t going to dissapear and probably shouldn’t.  We buy grains for our animals and ourselves, and with the right approach, these fields could be providing just as much food without the chemical load and soil depletion that we commonly see.  And with even a wink and a nod toward the well being of animals, operations like Wright County Eggs wouldn’t be around to cause such huge food safety issues.

And one thing that has become clear to me this year, as more and more of our counties small farms add some portion of organic production to their retinue–a lot of this is demand driven.  The folks here at our farm this weekend are driven by conviction and belief, and this is a large percentage of where sustain-ably produced local food is going to come from; but many growers who have hitherto been fine growing more conventionally can see that the demand for less chemicals and more conservation is pushing them to make the decision to give this new model of growing a go.

And that is where all of us eaters come into the picture.  Our buying habits have more power than we can imagine.  Right now, there are not enough eggs being produced and sold at our farmer’s markets and directly from other small farms in the area–the demand is so high!  And yet, most of the time, if we can’t get eggs from a source such as this, we will still go to the store and buy them.  The egg industry can partly be the disaster it is today because we, as consumers, eat so many eggs.  This is a hard one even for us.  It is hard to see your way around consuming eggs year-round and as often as you would like when there is a such glut of eggs in production.

*nothing* compares to safe, healthy, delicious farm eggs

After we lost most of our laying flock to predators a few years ago, we had to go about a year without having our own eggs and we couldn’t always get them locally.  We would buy organic eggs from the store, raised in the Willamette Valley, but by bigger egg producers than could likely be considered sustainable.  When we got a small flock going again last year, we were happy to have just enough eggs for our family for a while.  Then this year we added enough to the flock to sell eggs again, but while we wait for them to start really producing (they are just now starting) and while we have an otherwise egg-laying strike going on with the older hens whom we moved mid-summer and disrupted somehow, we have not had enough eggs for ourselves again.  This year though, instead of buying eggs when we can’t get them at market, we are eating all sorts of non-breakfast breakfasts.  It has been a challenge for us all, in our minds mostly, getting over the egg thing; but it has been enlightening, and in light of the recent egg recall, it has felt especially important.

And all of this is just a roundabout reminder, to myself and others, to keep up the good fight we are all involved in, all at our own levels and in our own ways, of reshaping farming and food culture in this country, all with an eye towards a system that is more than just concerned with human activity and human desire.  Farming is at the same time so integrally connected with natural cycles and the natural world as it is so supremely anti-natural in what it attempts to do.  To bring these into balance is the goal of the new American farmer and should be the driving demand of the new American eater.  Together, small get togethers at small farms all over the country will be a much larger part of the picture than we ever could have imagined.

gathering

We tend to look to food for our vitamins and minerals and medicines, and I feel blessed to be able to continue to eat fresh, nutritious vegetables through the fall and winter, times when our bodies are called on to fight off the colds and flus that come during this time of year. All growing vegetables and fruits begin to lose nutritive value once they have been picked, and they also will not reach their maximum nutritive value if they are picked under ripe to make it through shipping and handling to stores far and wide. And although each season offers its own set of repeating foods, we hope that with your CSA share you notice a rainbow of colors, from dark leafy greens to bright orange carrots and squash, with red, cream, purple, and white roots. All of these provide a well balanced supply of various vitamins and minerals and antioxidants. There are, no doubt, always many pieces to the pictures of our health, and colds and flus are hard to avoid, but I hope that you are staying well and enjoying the bit of natural medicine the healthy and tasty produce we share together provides!

A rain like that which fell on Sunday is such a blessing in the middle of summer. Combined with the afternoon’s sunshine-y heat, the moisture and warmth are so great for all this growing. Still, another week spent watching flowers bloom (in mass quantities, might I mention) but still not fruit reminds us that patience is a virtue, however anxious we get. Our take on an old adage is that a watched plant
won’t grow…or something like that. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, all of our summer crops have been blooming for some time; still this week, it is just the summer squash that is ready for harvest. We’ll take it. As leery as the farmer was to put in as many summer squash plants as I urged him too, they are delicious to me, regardless of the ensuing insanity that they will lead us too! This first flush, picked on time, the perfect size, tender, delicious, ready for the grill, or for pizza or to be roasted or to be tossed with pasta and olive oil…so good!

The other flowers, the ones that will not fruit, but are planted just for the fun of it, are finally making their way towards the sky. Their late start was a bummer, but it looks like members will be able to begin picking bouquets if they wish about the same time they begin to pick their cherry tomatoes…soon!

We are busy ourselves, visiting other farms to pick berries. First strawberries, not too mnay. Then some cherries, a bit more.  Now we are working on blueberries, the tastiest and easiest to pick for the main berry picker (me); so I will spend many days (hopefully) picking these summer treats for later winter eating. Raspberries have been picked as well, and some blackberries will be had soon too. The wonderful thing is that from our own farm we have had enough strawberries and raspberries this year for the kids to eat fresh throughout the day. That means now most of what we go out to pick gets put away for the winter—a huge step in the right direction for us. We got fairly tired of apples by the end of winter this year!

And speaking of picking and preserving the fruits of summertime, I should mention that this Saturday Slow Foods of Yamhill County will be hosting a class at the McMinnville library about Dehydrating Fruits and Vegetables, from 2:00-4:00 for anyone who would like to learn more about this preservation method. We use it occasionally, and although I didn’t get any cherries into the dehydrator like I wanted to, we are drying raspberry fruit leather right now, and will likely dry some grapes later this year. Using any method of food preservation you choose, it is a great (and essential) way to enjoy the products of summer when the gray, cool weather isn’t just a fleeting reminder, a mere dream of winter. It is a way to continue to eat locally through the season that many farms take a rest, and to supplement your CSA harvests of those seasons, which will be full with yummy produce, but not with the many vegetables that have come to be favorites to many. Preserving them now will give you their presence in winter, without necessitating a trip from a warmer part of the world.

The clouds from this morning will give way to sun soon enough, and we will get back our warm July weather. Berry picking, jam making, freezing, drying, canning—all sure signs of summer. Likewise, potlucks and parties come along with the season. So, before it gets away from us, we are trying to nail down a date for our first summer open farm and member potluck. Hopefully we will have a plan by next week. We only managed to get one date together last summer, but with everyone’s various summer plans, we missed a few of you last year, and are aiming for at least two nights of coming together at the farm this year to make it easier for everyone to attend one or the other. So, soon we can all come together around some good food and enjoy the farm together before the long nights of summer slip by. We already notice it as the morning knocks a little later and the night falls almost an hour earlier, such is that circling of the sun!