gone with the (4) wind(s)

hi all!
i just realized that i have not posted in almost a month!
unfortunately, my internet access is not what it used to be, and my days are completely different, as are my weekends, etc.

i am LOVING four winds farm. i have had a lot of hands-on work with pigs, cows, ducks, chickens, tomatoes, going to markets, and living in a barn!

i do promise to post pictures and stories soon... but when i sat down to do so just now, my camera died... booooo.

anyway, just wanted to let you all know that i am still alive and loving it. more soon.

a doo wop coop

talk about full circle... today, yes, TODAY, i attached the doo wop sign to the chicken coop. this past saturday found the farm bustling with volunteers who got their hands on some paint and went to town with the coop, the small greenhouse, and our 'stuff' lean-to.

the chickens don't seem to mind the new colors...
they are laying away, about 9 eggs a day!

the gas is always greener...

i baby sat the other week for a couple of members at the farm. one of the families lived in cold spring, a cute little town a few miles away. i wasn't quite sure just how many miles, so i left with plenty of time... and arrived early, so i explored and found this old gas station:

told you it was a cute little town!

NOFA

last weekend (not the one that just passed, we're going a little further back here), i attended the NOFA (northeast organic farming association) conference in Amherst, Ma.

from thursday to sunday over 1700 people gathered to discuss, teach, learn, and celebrate food and farming. people from all walks and professions. from all scales of growing: backyard suburban gardens, roof top urban gardens, 400 acre farms. it was a blast.

i made new friends, and met up with some old ones.
i lived in a tent for three days, and showered in a men's bathroom.
i watched a contra dance, and danced to zydeco.
i learned to felt, to raise bees, to grow wheat, and to eat like a rainbow.

here are some shots from felting and camping, seems as though i was just too too busy filling my head with exciting things to fill my camera...

meeting new farms

i started at Four Winds last week. which is my excuse for such great lapses in posts.
i don't have any photos yet. nor do i have an excuse for that. i will do my best to capture one of the four winds this week...

until september 1-ish, i will be spending my mondays at common ground, and my tuesday-fridays at four winds.

here's a quick breakdown of last week:
tuesday: arrive at farm, weed some carrots, get really sweaty in the newly arrived summer heat, jump in pond to cool off, end day with an inaugural indian buffet supper with fellow interns muriel + kevin.

wednesday: harvest tomatoes (yes! tomatoes), go to woodstock, ny for the afternoon farmer's market.

thursday: weed chard in the rain, harvest tomatoes in the sun

friday: harvest a variety of veggies for market, weed the afore mentioend pond, end day with fish tacos and yerba matte in new paltz with muriel, kevin, + patrick.

stop + eat

also coming full circle are the wheels on the green teens bus!
after a couple of months, come paint, and some RAD decals, the mobile market bus is rockin' and rollin'

full circle

my time at Common Ground came to an end much the way it started: ONIONS!
after roughly 18 weeks in the ground, these beautiful, tear-inducing, bulbish little guys were harvested this week!
they grew from the greenhouse, were planted, then harvested:

final harvest

as some of you know, my internship at Common Ground Farm ended last thursday. this was a planned event, the position was only for 18 weeks and i started early to see the beginning of the season... it's a bummer, but it's a reality. i will be volunteering a bit for the next month, but my official time has ended. yesterday (tuesday) was my final harvest, and we had a sing-along lunch since it would be the last time that we are a full crew.
i will be starting at a new farm for the fall next tuesday: Four Winds Farm in New Paltz. (step back in time to this post) i am very excited to be working with a diversity of animals, a new cultivaton practice, and on the other side of the river!

i have some blogging to catch up on, and i'm going to break them up into individual posts... enjoy!

ulster county fair!

last week, devin, creek, and i went to the ulster county fair in new paltz... it was awesome!

i have a lot to catch up on; the end of my internship, the start of a new one, canoeing down the SACO river in maine, one day:six states.
but that will all have to wait...

until then, enjoy the fair photos here!

where did july go?!?

the past week has been a bit of a blur.
since my last post, visitors have come and gone; i was sick, very sick; our tomato crop (and that of the entire east coast... maybe the nation's) is very VERY sick; there has been sunshine; and there has been rain.

today, it RAINED. cold, wet, rain. at this point in july, the "summer", highs should be in the 80's, easy. today's high was 67. not quite sure what's going on with the weather, but as a day-to-day outside worker, i'm confused!

we did get some good sunshine last week, though, giving the crops a break from the rain... but also causing some heat overload and dehydration - at least i think that was what wreaked havoc on my system last week, sending me from bed to toilet for a few days which meant no farming (or blogging). i'm much better now.

speaking of wreaking havoc... two words: late blight. if you haven't heard of it, listen up! we were hoping to avoid this awful plague of plagues, but unfortunately, we've been hit.
we have pulled about 1/3 of our first-round tomato crop out of the ground and stuck the stricken plants in black plastic bags to sit in the sun and kill the viral spores. we are spraying copper to try to stop the spread and protect the plants that have yet to be infected. what a mess!

my mamma came to visit this past weekend. it was great to have a visitor to show around the farm (she also helped weed the beets on saturday!) and to hang out around town. i was still feeling a bit ill when she came on friday, but she brought soup and TLC. by the end of her visit, i felt great!

garlic in da (green) house!

saturday was a HUGE member work day, and a blast at that!
we pulled alllllllll of the garlic out of the fields and brought it into the greenhouse to start the curing process.
garlic is so fascinating (and yummy). it clones itself... so, plant a clove (just like the ones that you saute and add to your fave dish) then it sprouts and develops a bulb which becomes a head of garlic, which you then split up into cloves (just like the ones that you saute and add to your fave dish) then it sprouts and develops a bulb which becomes a head..... it is awesome!

fist full of berries

last night, creek, daniel, mr. moon, and i went berry picking... or at least tried. we hiked up part of the appalachian trail, where it runs through our area, to a spot known for berries. unfortunately (or rather, fortunately) we were too early. they weren't completely ripe, yet. so we are going to return next week with hopes of bigger bounties.

creek was eager, though, and still got a good bunch of blue ones!

green teens are multicolored

the greenteens were on-farm today, doing awesome things. they harvested garlic, weeded, and painted fantastic plywood sheets that will be later used for a farmer-habitat-shed-thing. there is an artist in nearby Coldspring that creates and fabricates these fabulous structures as artist's spaces... and now he is building two for Common Ground Farm as farmer's spaces.

examples of his previous work:

a preview of what the teens painted:

these painted 4'x4' pieces of plywood will be cut up into smaller sections and attached to the outside of the 'shed'... i can't wait to see the final result!

this morning was epic

tim has mentioned many a time that in aspen, when conditions are just perfect for snow play, an 'epic' flag is hoisted to alert everyone to get out and play. if we had such a flag at the farm, i would have surely hoisted it this morning.

today, as is every tuesday, was a harvest day. we had our usual helpful members out to volunteer and we had the added help from the greenteens. at peak, we had 27 people on the farm. 54 productive, working, helping hands! it was amazing to look out over the fields and see so many backs bent over in work, so many bowed heads, so much cooperative, community work!

monday is CRAFT-y

this week, we are hosting the Greenteens.
i spent the morning with a few eager local teens scraping out a couple month's worth of chicken doo from the inside and around the coop. i must say: i was impressed, while my station wasn't the most exciting or enticing, no one complained!

the afternoon sent me north to this week's CRAFT farm, Sister's Hill Farm, where we learned about mechanical cultivation (the use of tractors and machinery to weed and harvest)

walking the line

monday night was the weekly CRAFT meeting for area interns. we met at Four Winds Farm, a no-till farm near new paltz. there were many notables at this farm... ducks, cows, compost, even a complete rainbow was in attendance.

one of the interesting crops was the dutch walking onion. these are really giant scallions, you eat the green part. but the roots/seeds are the walking part. once the greens grow large enough, little clusters grow at the tip. these little purple bulb clusters cause the plant to bend forward, closer to the ground, then the bulbs plant themselves and sprout up a new plant... so the crop walks along growing and planting itself. pretty neat.

being a farmer

hey all.
i'm still here, farming and loving it.
the end of last week was busy - the sun came out for a couple of days, so we had a chance to get into the fields. the late summer crops are loving the sunshine... there were little baby tomatoes today!!

this past weekend, patrick + i went up to the catskills to spend some time in the mountains. the old barn on his grandma's property still had this sign:

let the markets begin!

the sunday market in Beacon started a few weeks ago, some days have been busy, some slow, but tim seems pleased with the outcome thus far. i will be working at that market form time to time (i will try to give you all a heads-up so that you can flock right up to Beacon and visit the veggies!)

thursday finds us at another market, in Fishkill. the first of these mid-week markets was last week. despite the driving rain, 3 out of 12 expected vendors set up - us (Common Ground Farm), Fishkill Farms, and the Famous Cohen Sisters. here's a quick collage of our first fishkill set-up:

one last pint of peas (the big seller of the day!), some yummy greens, and BEAutiful kohlrabi (the alien-ish purple veggie on the left)

Skip(ping) with Creek

way back at the start of this month (man, how time does fly) i posted about visiting a great man doing great things with permaculture, water, earth, etc.
i have finally managed to tinker with and post the images from this visit... feel free to view them here.

included in this album is:
the discovered creek and various details of what lies within and below the surface, a house constructed of industrial - a unique and beautiful use of steel, skip's 'hovel' constructed of familiar objects in unfamiliar ways, and our dinner party inside: chips, hummus, tabbouleh, wine, beers, great people... great ingredients.

lambises

the land on which our farm is located (Stonykill Environmental Center) is an educational farm owned by the sate of NY. they have various programs and tools, including animals. the past two weeks have been very exciting in the barn... the sheep are lambing!

technical difficulties

in an attempt at being organized, i cleaned up a folder on my computer last week.... that folder contained all of my blog images! (confirming that sometimes 'organizing' your folders is a bad idea...)

i still have the images, however, the website that brings what i write to your lovely eyes has lost track of the images... and now i have to re-upload all of the pretty pictures!

so, please be patient as i spend the next few nights fixing and re-uploading...

72 labors

in zen buddhism, meals are commenced with a liturgy that starts "72 labors brought us this food, we should know how it comes to us"

last night, devin, daniel, tim, heidi and i had a meal, the contents of which we labored over: from the veggies in the salad to the fried chicken, we knew every step that was taken to make the meal. it was in incredible event.

the evening began with a slaughter of the 5 roosters we have been raising, but cannot keep.

each of us slaughtered a chicken, silently, calmly, and with respect. i believe that if i want to continue to farm, and to eventually keep and raise livestock, i need to know how it is done... it was an experience i will never forget and i am very grateful to have learned with and from such mindful people.

there are some photos, not of the actual slaughter, but of the evisceration.
warning: these are NOT for the faint of heart, there is blood, and internal organs, pictured.

once the tasks of slaughter, de-feathering, and drawing were complete, we sat down to a fantastic meal of salad, southern style fried chicken (tim was able to prepare his bird while the rest of us cleaned ours), and oatmeal trailmix cookies for dessert.

to know what labors have brought your food to you, or to at least know your farmers, is a privilege we all should be able to enjoy...

mamma, is this spee-natch?

we had some helpers on the farm today, some that helped, others not so much....

but this one little girl, who was a GREAT spinach bed weeder, would check in everyone once and a while to make sure she was pulling the bad guys (weeds) and leaving the good guys (spee-natch)

remember those first pea seeds put into the ground back on april 9th? check 'em out now:

peas, peas, peas!

bicycle reminder

heidi put on a skill share/lunch + learn about bikes yesterday and it reminded me... we're still trying to win that farm bike!

click on this, even if you have clicked before, keep clicking! thanks.

holy harvest tuesday!

part two-
today was our first big harvest for member distribution. it goes something like this:
half of the crew brings the veggies out of the field, to a washing area. the other half gives them a good rinse, packs them up in bins, takes them to the walk-in cooler for safe keeping. at the end of the day, the members come and pick up their shares.
this will be the routine every tuesday and friday for the next 20 weeks! plus, weekly markets on thursday and sunday - food, baby, food!

vashing zee kale and zee lett-oose


being cool in the walk-in


ring-a-ling-a-ling... come and get it!


lisa made us cake to celebrate. we ate it alllllll in about 15 minutes!

sunday thru monday

man oh man oh man! i can't even begin to express the excitement that has been brewing the past few days on the farm. but i will try... in a two-part harmony:

part one-
sunday mark-ed our first mark-et... we started early; harvesting radishes, scallions, lettuce, choi, and kale for market sale. despite some big winds that almost took the tent, tim returned with a report that market went well.

sunday evening devin, creek, daniel moon and i visited an amazing man doing amazing things with earth and water... vague, i know. pictures and more to follow. his name is skip and i will elaborate at another point and time.

sneak peak:

monday evening was the first craft meeting: a gathering of interns from the various farms in the region. there are soooo many farms here, there were easily 30 interns in attendance last night. it's a great chance for us to discuss our experiences, visit each others' farms, see what is going on in this productive and inspiring region, and have a general good time. we meet every monday, and i'll try to update you all on what monday evenings bring from here on out.

a rainy start

it's friday morning, i am about to head out to the farm.

rain has trickled down allllllll night, which was pleasant to sleep to: i dreamed about veggies growing big and hearty. i also dreamed about weeds (which also grow big and hearty with a night full of rainfall)

we've been weeding all week: arugula, turnips, radishes, onions, lettuce. sometimes with hula hoes, sometimes on hand-and-knees with our fingers.

tim and devin are heading to the first of our sunday markets this week. harvest is just around the corner... soooooooo exciting!

happy chickens, happy plants

since we are going into a holiday weekend, and since holidays usually mean gifts, i've decided to be gifty... pictures galore.

enjoy the farm images, enjoy the long weekend, enjoy yourselves and each other.

happy chickens, outside and in!



peppers: from a cart full o' trays to a field full of goodness



toe-may-tows: 750 and counting

so many plants!

what a day, what a day!

the chickens moved in to their new home. we hooked it up to the tractor and pulled them to a new patch of clover to pick at. like all of us, i think it will take them some time to adjust to the new environment, but they seem happy...

we finished planting the remainder of the tomatoes, and the tomatillos, about 750 plants.
then we moved on to peppers, sweet and others, another 1, 500 plants in the ground.
it was a long, hot, busy day. photos to follow, i promise!

farm bike?!

this bike company is giving two of these away... we could REALLY use one of these on the farm - getting produce from the fields to the wash basins, getting tools to and from the field, pulling the chicken coop (okay, we'll leave that one up to the tractor, but you get the idea!)

please help, click away! and tell everyone you know to click away, too... (trick is, you have to click from my blog, so tell everyone you about my blog, then tell them to click away!)

big day, sunshine

the morning was spent completing the coop!!!

as you can see, walls and doors came out of the scrap pile. but i really like how it turned out: scrap-wood-collage-chicken coop-on-wheels

there are still some finishing touches - exterior paint and signage - but there are walls, and a roof. the birds are going to move in wednesday morning... cock-a-doodle-doooo!

the afternoon felt like summer, indeed. the sun came out to warm us up, and we planted 4 beds of tomatoes. that is roughly 500 tomato plants! once we get them all into the ground - we have another 5 beds to plant - i'll post some tomato photos so that you can all feel summertime with us...

dances with weeds

at this point of the season - when most of the early spring crops are in the ground and virtually the entire season's seeds have been carefully tucked into soil - we, as non-pesticide/non-herbicide using farmers, spend our days:

1. hoping for rain when the sun shines
2. hoping for sun when the rain falls
3. keeping a watchful eye out for signs of pests (deer, groundhog, flea beetles, aphids, etc)
4. anticipating harvest
5. weeding. weeding. weeding.

a favorite tool for activity #5 is the hula hoe (also called the stirrup hoe, scuffle hoe, and the 'hoe should i know?!').

a hula hoe (hula girls not included)

rockin' robin

about two weeks ago, a little robin decided to make her nest atop our electric fence battery. it took a few days, but she eventually got used to us being around with tractors and lawn mowers and other human/farm things...

last night her little eggs hatched!
i want to give her the privacy she is due with her new little ones, so no pictures of the babies, but here is proud mamma atop her battery perch.

they grow up so fast...

two weeks ago... just two weeks ago, on april 28th, we seeded up trays and trays and trays of summer squash, winter squash, and pumpkin. our greenhouse looked less green and more black.

but NOW, just look how green it is!

super coop

there have recently been some pockets of time on the farm allowing for coop work.

friday i had some help from jason, an awesome guy who lives in brooklyn and who will be coming up from time to time this season to volunteer, he snapped a few photos of me being a carpenter:

more framing went up for walls and the roof... firring strips will provide support at the roof for the tarp (to follow)

monday, tim and i got down and dirty with coop, adding ramps for the for the ladies to climb around, find a favorite sleeping spot, and explore the vastness of the luxury condo they will soon call home:

tim finished up the day installing nesting boxes and a trapped door for easy chicken-access:

hunger

when i began this blog, and told everyone about it, i said that i would try to keep the soap-boxing at a minimum.
if you are allergic to soap or boxing, fair warning: this entry may be perceived as a soapy-boxy kind of post.

for the past two weeks i have attended a group discussion between our farm: Common Ground Farm, and another, nearby, farm: the Poughkeepsie Farm Project.
the first discussion was about saving seeds and included topics such as genetically modified foods, patenting life, etc. i posted about it and included a link to a movie titled "The Future of Food".

the second gathering was last week and the topic was hunger.
this discussion was broad, and far-reaching, including nutrition, education, food stamps, farmer's markets, school lunches... the list goes on and on! i could fill this blog with all of the interesting, difficult, and inspiring things the group discussed.
instead, i will just include a few links and allow you all to jump in if you wish:

the NY times covered the increased demand at food banks in the region
the Nation discussed/explained how Mexico is now importing corn and the Philippines is now importing rice
we as a group briefly talked about City Fresh CSA in Ohio, a CSA with a sliding scale, allowing those in a low-income situation to still have access to fresh, nutritious food!

this week's topic is the farm bill. i will post some highlights and links after thursday's gathering.

catching raindrops

like much of the north-east region, we got some rain last week.

* though from what i have been hearing; here in the hudson valley, we got the smaller of the portions of water that the sky was giving out...

some early-morning raindrops upon our electric fence.
what a peaceful image to start a rainy day.

catching up

i have heard from quite a few loyal readers about my lacking lately... and since we are already heading into a weekend, i can't even promise a return to daily posting. sheesh!

what i can promise, however, is a catch-up session which will begin... now.

i'll break it up into a few posts and date them so that you can all pretend that i have been posting for the past week, even if that is not reality... it's the internet!

so, now lets go back in time a bit - to last week - and start from there: april 30th, 2009.

xoxok

chicken rodeo

it has been raining/misting for the past few days... the crops needed it badly, so we're all praising the skies around here.

today's rainy-day adventure recipe consisted of one major ingredient: chicken
it came time to shift the chickens to another area of the farm (free-range chickens, do, after all, need to range.) since our mobile coop is still in the works, we have a sled-like coop that proves to be a bit difficult to move with the chickens inside. so, we decided to try a new method of moving: move the coop, then move the chickens.
tim + devin moved the sled coop across the farm then the three of us tried to corral the 35 birds from old pecking spot to new...
DON'T try this at home, or anywhere else, for that matter. turns out, chickens don't herd well. chickens don't herd at all, really.
first we tried big sticks, like giant chop sticks, to keep them all in one bunch and moving along the tractor path. leason: chop sticks don't work, no matter how giant they are.
we managed to get three birds across the farm. three out of thirty-five.
then we tried using a net. this proved a teenie-tiny bit more successful: seven more. twenty-five to go.
time for catch-and-release training. tim managed to capture four and just carry them from one spot to the other. devin + i tried the same... we each got one.
as we dove through 18" high clover fields, grasping for chickens and grabbing wet, green leafies instead, tim got a big bin and we started collecting.
after about 4o minutes, all of the birds were safe and sound in the coop. leaving the three farmers soaked, tired, and learned.
there is no such thing as a chicken rodeo. and there is a reason for that!

weekend in boston!

patrick + i ventured up to boston last weekend for some city hang-out time, birthday celebrating, and all-around good fun.

we walked around MIT's campus looking for fun architecture - found some - paused for a quick photo shoot - mission accomplished.

princess mimi

meet mimi. she is our 'farm cat' but don't let the title fool you... she is a princess, for sure!

dear licks,

we have an electric fence that surrounds the entire farm and is intended to keep various pests, namely deer, OUT.
there have been a few setbacks to getting this system up and running: first, the fence needed to be tightened, deer were getting in with no problem at all! next, the battery didn't work/needed to be sun-charged.
after some work and some trials (tim + devin volunteered to 'test' the fence while i nervously watched), we got the thing juiced up and shocky
-queue disco music: "it's electric. do-do-do-dah-do-duh-do-doo-doo"

now comes the part where the deer need to understand that it's electric.

education method: peanut butter licks. peanut butter gets schmered onto tin foil, tin foil touches shocky wire, deer licks peanut butter, zap! but just a little zap... we'll call it a 'learning' zap

lie (or plant) in the beds you made

creek and i spent most of the day turning what you see on the left into what you see on the right! (you might also notice the sun difference, it too a few hours.)
this is the future growing space for many many flowers - how exciting!

old MacChristo's farm

if Christo had a farm, it would look like this!
(re-may... a light fabric used to protect crops from the cold and pests... blowing in today's farm-breeze)

... and we're back

hey all.
i took a little 'blog vacation' for the past few days. things have been busy on and off of the farm, picture taking is lacking, and so is the blogging...

i come back bearing no pictures. i promise that tomorrow will have such fruit.

here's the quick round-up of farm life over the past few days:

thursday night, creek, devin, and i went to a discussion about saving seeds. it was great to gather with other farmers in the area and talk about some of the politics within growing food and concerns of the future of farming, and, in turn, the future of food. in fact, we briefly discussed a film with such a title: the future of food. we also talked about where the seeds that we plant come from, what is practiced in other countries, how laws and patents and corporations play into the whole thing, etc. it was an interesting and thought-provoking discussion. i'm really glad that such gatherings take place.

friday was spent seeding, watering, and transplanting lettuce. heidi and i found some coop time, but now that the pants are awake and ready to grow, the chickens are going to have to wait!

i got a little farm-girl vacation and visited the Chelsea this weekend. (the hotel project i managed/lived in last summer) it was so great to be there as a guest! the food was delicious (and locally grown!), and so was the spa...

today, devin, time and i took to the fields to plant some of those potatoes we cut up last week. it did NOT feel like april, but it was nice to get away from the cold, wet winter weather that seemed to lurk a little too long! sun-shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine!

happy Earth Day!

to be honest, i didn't even realize that today was Earth Day until i heard it on NPR this morning while i was working in the greenhouse - judging from the dirt under my fingernails and in the cracks of my knuckles, everyday is Earth Day!

i was taking care of our newly sprouted tomato plants and when i heard the Earth Day talk. i had to get down and see the plant from the 'earth' view.
this tray of 50 baby tomato plants looks like a forest of tomato trees from here!

i hope that everyone found a moment today to take in a deep breath of fresh air and celebrate/think about the earth. and if not, it's okay, go out and do it right now!

more colors!

i simply cannot get over all of the colors that are showing up each day!

check out these specialty potatoes... adirondack red + blue.

(these are just the seed potatoes which we will plant so that they can grow whole plants to make more and more potatoes.)

what fun making mashed potatoes will to be!

colors!

today was quite colorful:

gray sky, green grass, brown soil... and chard!

we spent the day transplanting more veggies: broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and chard. there were many beautiful colors within this grouping of edibles.
i snagged a moment to capture the 'bright lights' variety of chard.
what great colors... even the roots are colorful!

poppy's

after a nice, long week of varied weather and on-farm tasks, i went out for a treat.
i met up with mary and lara, the apprentices at our 'neighboring' farm, Glynwod, and biked into Beacon for a burger and some fries at Poppy's.
it was DELICIOUS! i'm not a big beef eater, and i had never had grass-fed beef... man-oh-man. you can taste the difference (it has taste). AND they serve raw (unpasteurized) cheese on their burgers, so even a tummy like mine can partake!
*for those reading this who have not yet encountered the sensitivity that is my tummy... we'll get to that another time

i hope everyone has a great weekend. see you monday

let-us, on-i-on

crop transplanting continued today:

hedi and the guys worked on onions this morning, i joined heidi in the quest after lunch.

tim + devin finished the day with lettuce (remember these from the greenhouse?)

each and every one of these little guys are hand-planted and loved so that they will grow big and delicious. i can't wait!