Due to some technical errors, the farm's website (www.greenpeakfarm.com) as well as my email account (mego@greenpeakfarm.com) are out of service for a short spell.
Please don't hesitate to contact me at mosterho@gmail.com in the meantime, as we're working as hard as possible to shake the right answer out of the Google Machine.
Thanks!
Mego
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
2010 CSA Shares
....And, we're off! Supplies, seeds, and hopeful glances toward summer are in the works.
I'm happy to announce that Green Peak Farm is now accepting registration for its second year of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Similar to last year, your CSA share will include 4 broiler hens averaging 4.5-6 pounds each (market value = $100.) This year I'm going to expand the vegetable season by two weeks at the end of the season-- your final two shares will be fall-harvested storage crops (think winter squash, pie pumpkins, onion braids, hot peppers for drying, potatoes.)
Click the thumbnail image below for a printable version.
Shares are limited to 10 for this season, and there will be two pickup days; choose Tuesday or Thursday.
*Early registration discount this year-- Return your registration and payment before April 1st and save $20!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Thoughts on Getting Started
Recently, a friend of a friend contacted me with some questions about getting involved with organic farming. Here are some thoughts...
There are so, so many great farms out there to help you build experience-- I'd highly recommend checking out ATTRA/NCAT: http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/internships/. These guys are the National Sustainable Ag Information Service folks, and have a good reputation for valuable farming apprenticeships/internships. Farms that have their acts together enough to post on NCAT are usually pretty well-poised to give you a good experience.
Personally, I have not WWOOFed, though I've heard several mixed reviews. I think WWOOF is a great program to dip your toes into the sustainable agriculture world, and also really useful if you're looking for a short-term, low-commitment experience or a place to stay while you're travelling. From a farmer's perspective, having untrained, uneducated workers (granted, farming is not rocket science...) can almost be more of a liability/time-sink, as most farmers can do the work that needs to get done in half the time it takes to explain someone new where to go, how to do it, what you expect, and all that jazz. So, in my opinion, if you're looking for a valuable apprenticeship, the farmer ought to be willing to invest a fair amount of his or her time in educating you-- and, though this is not always the case-- money, too. As with any job, there must be fairness in the exchange of labor/knowledge/time/money, etc. Also, the infrastructure for farm apprenticeships is forming; passing along education is easy enough, but the next generation of farmers must also be endowed with enough opportunities to capital to be able to start their own operations up.
(This is all not to say that I haven't worked 65-hour weeks for almost no pay. But, you know when it's worth it, and when it's not.)
Other good links to valuable internships: look into the regional Organic Associations-- most of them have newsletters, and they're often available online. For example, in Oregon, there's Oregon Tilth, which is the certifying agency/association; the Northeast Organic Farming Assoc. (NOFA) has several different state-associations (www.nofavt.org) or www.mofga.org for Maine. OSALT is anther good one for Oregon.
Good questions to ask yourself and potential farms that you might like to work for:
- what kind of turnover does the farm labor have? Do former interns stay in the area? How long are you willing to be in one spot?
- what specific tasks will I be doing? (a lot of big CSAs will simply have you harvesting, all. day. long. Is this interesting to you?) Will you actually be included in the planning phases, seed ordering, etc? (Most of this planning is happening mid-late winter) What are you interested in learning?
- where do most of the farm laborers/other apprentices come from? Are they local folks, college kids, migrant workers?
- how much time will you spend working side-by-side with the lead farmer?
- what is your farm's primary geographic market area? What's your farm's idea of local produce (for example, the scale of what-is-local shifts massively when you get out West)
- this one's surprisingly revealing: what does the crew do for lunch? Do people eat/cook together? Does everyone part ways? Is there a break-room/table/fridge for you guys to use?
- why does he/she farm? Go to a place where they love what they do. It's way too hard a job/lifestyle to not love what you do.
A lot of saavy farmers will invite you to come and work for a day or two, or sometimes even a week, as a trial run. In really small operations, as most sustainable, organic farms are, it is so, important to find the right fit of people that you can work side-by-side with, as well as live with, eat with, and sweat with during quite long days. I'd almost be wary of a farm that's willing to take you on without trying you out/letting you try them out.
Other great opportunities lie in educational farms/foundations. You may find that, as the pressure to maximize yields and capital decreases (albeit slightly), your farmer's willingness/time to educate you increases. This is certainly not always the case; some farmers are truly superhuman, and these are the best ones to work for!
Good luck, and please keep me posted about your progress. I love hearing stories!
There are so, so many great farms out there to help you build experience-- I'd highly recommend checking out ATTRA/NCAT: http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/internships/. These guys are the National Sustainable Ag Information Service folks, and have a good reputation for valuable farming apprenticeships/internships. Farms that have their acts together enough to post on NCAT are usually pretty well-poised to give you a good experience.
Personally, I have not WWOOFed, though I've heard several mixed reviews. I think WWOOF is a great program to dip your toes into the sustainable agriculture world, and also really useful if you're looking for a short-term, low-commitment experience or a place to stay while you're travelling. From a farmer's perspective, having untrained, uneducated workers (granted, farming is not rocket science...) can almost be more of a liability/time-sink, as most farmers can do the work that needs to get done in half the time it takes to explain someone new where to go, how to do it, what you expect, and all that jazz. So, in my opinion, if you're looking for a valuable apprenticeship, the farmer ought to be willing to invest a fair amount of his or her time in educating you-- and, though this is not always the case-- money, too. As with any job, there must be fairness in the exchange of labor/knowledge/time/money, etc. Also, the infrastructure for farm apprenticeships is forming; passing along education is easy enough, but the next generation of farmers must also be endowed with enough opportunities to capital to be able to start their own operations up.
(This is all not to say that I haven't worked 65-hour weeks for almost no pay. But, you know when it's worth it, and when it's not.)
Other good links to valuable internships: look into the regional Organic Associations-- most of them have newsletters, and they're often available online. For example, in Oregon, there's Oregon Tilth, which is the certifying agency/association; the Northeast Organic Farming Assoc. (NOFA) has several different state-associations (www.nofavt.org) or www.mofga.org for Maine. OSALT is anther good one for Oregon.
Good questions to ask yourself and potential farms that you might like to work for:
- what kind of turnover does the farm labor have? Do former interns stay in the area? How long are you willing to be in one spot?
- what specific tasks will I be doing? (a lot of big CSAs will simply have you harvesting, all. day. long. Is this interesting to you?) Will you actually be included in the planning phases, seed ordering, etc? (Most of this planning is happening mid-late winter) What are you interested in learning?
- where do most of the farm laborers/other apprentices come from? Are they local folks, college kids, migrant workers?
- how much time will you spend working side-by-side with the lead farmer?
- what is your farm's primary geographic market area? What's your farm's idea of local produce (for example, the scale of what-is-local shifts massively when you get out West)
- this one's surprisingly revealing: what does the crew do for lunch? Do people eat/cook together? Does everyone part ways? Is there a break-room/table/fridge for you guys to use?
- why does he/she farm? Go to a place where they love what they do. It's way too hard a job/lifestyle to not love what you do.
A lot of saavy farmers will invite you to come and work for a day or two, or sometimes even a week, as a trial run. In really small operations, as most sustainable, organic farms are, it is so, important to find the right fit of people that you can work side-by-side with, as well as live with, eat with, and sweat with during quite long days. I'd almost be wary of a farm that's willing to take you on without trying you out/letting you try them out.
Other great opportunities lie in educational farms/foundations. You may find that, as the pressure to maximize yields and capital decreases (albeit slightly), your farmer's willingness/time to educate you increases. This is certainly not always the case; some farmers are truly superhuman, and these are the best ones to work for!
Good luck, and please keep me posted about your progress. I love hearing stories!
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Live Green 2009 Presentation
Again, link to http://www.greenpeakfarm.com/ for a downloadable version of the Powerpoint presentation, "AP Home Economics: Eating from Your Garden Year Round" given at Live Green in Manchester, VT on September 5, 2009.
Also available are scanned images for data on food storage relative humidity, temp range, and conditions.
Also available are scanned images for data on food storage relative humidity, temp range, and conditions. 
References:
Joy of Cooking - I prefer my 1973 version edited by Rombauer and Becker (Hooray for Irma!)
Storey's Guide to Cold Storage for Fruits and Vegetables
Growing for Market Vol. 18, No. 7 (August 2009)
The New Organic Gardener - Eliot Coleman
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Keeping the Harvest (Storey)
Joy of Cooking - I prefer my 1973 version edited by Rombauer and Becker (Hooray for Irma!)
Storey's Guide to Cold Storage for Fruits and Vegetables
Growing for Market Vol. 18, No. 7 (August 2009)
The New Organic Gardener - Eliot Coleman
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
Keeping the Harvest (Storey)
2009 Survey
link to www.greenpeakfarm.com for the 2009 end of season survey.
Thanks for taking the time to help make next year's season even more successful!
Thanks for taking the time to help make next year's season even more successful!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Week 10 - Final CSA Day
Final CSA day, a marriage of friends at the farm, flower arrangements and bouquets for the wedding, and the start of a new career... All in less than a week!
It has been my pleasure growing produce for you this season. In that way that everything always seems to work itself out, some of the vigorously producing plants are starting to slack and die back, the cold seems to have slinked back in, the migrant Canada geese populations turn over every morning although the lower field seems to be ever willing to host new nightly visitors, and school is almost back in session. It's been a whirlwind of a week, but the garden is still furiously pumping out food before it allows itself to be considered "done", and I've done as much as I can to get as much of it as possible to you this week.
Here's what's in your share this week:
Bell peppers
Serrano hot peppers
Red Norland and Yukon Gold potatoes - 5 lbs
mixed paste, red slicing, and heirloom tomatoes - 6 lbs
mixed cherry tomatoes - heaping quart
bunch of baby carrots
head of romanesca cauliflower
head of red cabbage
red and yellow onions - 8
slicing and pickling cukes - 6 lbs
bunch of kale
big bag o' basil
pint of fresh beans--Vermont Cranberry (pink and maroon mottled) and Hutterite (white)
tomatillos
I hope you have enjoyed your produce, and please help make next year's season even better by filling out this year's survey. Cheers!
It has been my pleasure growing produce for you this season. In that way that everything always seems to work itself out, some of the vigorously producing plants are starting to slack and die back, the cold seems to have slinked back in, the migrant Canada geese populations turn over every morning although the lower field seems to be ever willing to host new nightly visitors, and school is almost back in session. It's been a whirlwind of a week, but the garden is still furiously pumping out food before it allows itself to be considered "done", and I've done as much as I can to get as much of it as possible to you this week.
Here's what's in your share this week:
Bell peppers
Serrano hot peppers
Red Norland and Yukon Gold potatoes - 5 lbs
mixed paste, red slicing, and heirloom tomatoes - 6 lbs
mixed cherry tomatoes - heaping quart
bunch of baby carrots
head of romanesca cauliflower
head of red cabbage
red and yellow onions - 8
slicing and pickling cukes - 6 lbs
bunch of kale
big bag o' basil
pint of fresh beans--Vermont Cranberry (pink and maroon mottled) and Hutterite (white)
tomatillos
I hope you have enjoyed your produce, and please help make next year's season even better by filling out this year's survey. Cheers!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Week 9
Retro post...
This week's share:
Red Norland and Yukon Gold Potatoes - 5 lb
Mixed red and heirloom slicer tomatoes - 5 lb
Multi-colored cherry tomatoes - 1 qt
Edamame - 2.5 lb
Big bag o' basil
tomatillos
serrano hot peppers
head of red cabbage
head of romanesca cauliflower
fresh red and yellow onions - 6
bunch of kale
slicing and pickling cukes - 5 lb
Summer squash - all you can eat!
Monday, August 17, 2009
Best O' Pesto Zesto!
Three pesto tips for thought:
1. Replace pricey pinenuts for unsalted sunflower seeds for less than half the price. Or go half and half to still get that piny flavor
2. Substitute asiago for parmesan-- a different flavor to mix it up
3. Go way out there and try this crazy mix: replace...
basil for thai basil and cilantro
parmesan cheese for tahini and soy sauce
pinenuts for sunflower seeds and almonds
olive oil for sesame oil and veggie oil
Spread on fresh slices of pattypan, and voila!
1. Replace pricey pinenuts for unsalted sunflower seeds for less than half the price. Or go half and half to still get that piny flavor
2. Substitute asiago for parmesan-- a different flavor to mix it up
3. Go way out there and try this crazy mix: replace...
basil for thai basil and cilantro
parmesan cheese for tahini and soy sauce
pinenuts for sunflower seeds and almonds
olive oil for sesame oil and veggie oil
Spread on fresh slices of pattypan, and voila!
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