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Jim's Notes - (see Blog for previous weeks & months notes)
Thursday, December 6, 2018 Sorry folks. No time for a note this week. But just for looking, here’s a secret word for your 5% discount! Think of it as our Christmas present to you! It’s “Santa’s Farm”. Back next week! See you Saturday. Jim Jim's Notes - (see Blog for previous weeks & months notes) Thursday, November 29, 2018 Hi folks, Hope you had a good holiday and that you enjoyed tons of NM Farm foods. We had a huge market day on the 17th, so thank you for that! Our daughter Janie’s pies (350 Bakery) were a huge seller! Our apologies for those who did not snag a pecan pie! We had lots but not enough. And by the way, don’t forget you can always reserve a pie (or anything else) in advance, or even same day, just by calling or texting me on my cell. 814 599 2777. Moie and I had a very nice Thanksgiving ourselves. We spent time in Pittsburgh with Janie and Eric, which gave us a great opportunity to really see the latest developments at the bakery. It’s coming along slowly but beautifully—the retail shop we hope will be opening soon. The bakery’s reputation is building really well too, and they’re working like crazy to keep everyone supplied with goodies. Mainly it’s restaurants and mom&pop coffee shops all over town. And of course you nice folks in DC, who remain the bakery’s biggest customers. My personal take (and I confess I’ve always been a nut for pies) is that they should shout about their pies as their signature item. It took them a few months, but they now really have it down pat. Great crust, lots of good, natural fruit fillings, and never too sweet! But you probably already know all this! We’ll be back to see you this Saturday even if the weather isn’t the greatest. And we start officially at 9 now that it’s winter. For those who come early by knee jerk habit, we ease you into it by gradually moving the start from 8 to 9. See you then. Jim's Notes - (see Blog for previous weeks & months notes)
Thursday, November 15, 2018
Folks,
Sorry, no time for a long message this week. But I did want to remind you that we never come on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. So we won’t see you on the 24th but we will return on December 1. This Saturday coming up is our big Thanksgiving sale. We have a good supply of all the traditional favorites, like white potatoes, sweet potatoes, pie pumpkins, butternut squash, onions, carrots, etc. And as always we’ll have zillions of Thanksgiving pies, made by our daughter at 350 Bakery. She does a great job of all the standard kinds: pumpkin, apple, cran-apple, pecan and my very favorite, mince, with homemade vegetarian mincemeat. Yum! So I’ll see you Saturday to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! Jim Jim's Notes - (see Blog for previous weeks & months notes)
Thursday, November 8, 2018
Dear loyal customers and friends, Last week I talked about certified-organic milk, and described how and why so many traditional family dairy farmers, both organic and conventional, are going out of business across the country. It boils down to the fact that big corporations have established industrial milk production facilities (thousand of cows confined in barns or on mud lots with no access to pasture). This milk is cheap to produce, since pasture is expensive, but it can’t be as nutritious as old-fashioned milk. (When cows eat grass, as they evolved to do, their milk contains more nutrients good for people). But organic milk is supposed to be from cows on pasture. That’s the organic standard. However, the USDA, under pressure from lobbyists, does not enforce this standard. So industrially-produced milk can be labeled “organic”. And priced well below the cost of production of family farms that use pasture. But we consumers can still support family organic dairy farms that use pasture, by buying the right brands. NOT the most common one, “Horizon,” NOT store brands. The best real (pastured) organic milk I know of is “Natural by Nature.” Not my choice of words, but excellent milk, produced near DC in southern PA by mostly Amish and Mennonite farms. Another good choice is “Grassmilk” by Organic Valley. Some OV milk is industrially produced, but this sub-brand is true organic milk. Try them! See you Saturday. Jim's Notes - (see Blog for previous weeks & months notes)
Thursday, November 1, 2018 Folks, I know you’re thinking why is he talking about milk? New Morning Farm does not sell milk of course, and never will, because health dept rules would never allow it. But we buy milk to drink and so do you. And, as an organic farmer I probably know more about the organic milk situation than many of you. So I wanted to talk about it a little bit, (consumer education!) inspired by a telephone call I just got from an organic dairy farmer. Family organic dairy farmers are having a very tough time these days. Many are going out of business.The price paid to the farmer for milk is disastrously low. The reason for this is surprisingly simple. A few big corporations have developed systems for producing milk very cheaply, on a very large scale, in arid parts of the West (no pasture). These systems drive down the price of milk way below the family farmer’s cost, and this huge flow of cheap milk floods the market. This is a bad situation for any traditional dairy farmer, organic or not, but it’s always been assumed that organic dairy farms have their cows on pasture, which is a big cost factor (AND a quality factor). But guess what? The USDA, in its wisdom, and in light of the huge corporate campaign contributions to politicians who influence USDA policy, has decided NOT TO ENFORCE the organic pasture rules. So huge dairy corporations can call their cheap milk “organic” and get the price premium that only real traditional organic farmers should get, even though those corporate farms don’t use (expensive) pasture. What should you and I, consumers, do about it? Stay tuned next week. See you Saturday, Jim.
To learn much more about our farm's present difficult situation, please read our blog. (Just click on "blog" at the top of this website) for many previous weeks of Jim's Notes.
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Farm News8/24/18
Schools are starting, Labor Day is next week, I know that it feels like summer is over. The farm season has it's own rhythm, and in fact each farm will have it's own seasons. Here at New Morning Farm it is still summer. So how do we measure summer? We're still planting, watering, weeding, and harvesting all the summer crops: tomatoes, summer squash, cucumbers, beans, and sweet corn. We've still got peaches, plums, nectarines, and cantaloupe melons to enjoy from our neighbors. Our summer market, Tuesday, is just gearing up for it's biggest markets. At the same time, we see the shift towards fall, though it's not here yet. We're transplanting the last of the fall brassicas, lettuce, and other field greens. The potato and winter squash harvests are done and they are curing for storage. This week, we're harvesting the big carrot planting for the year. As we squeeze these milestones into our regular work schedule, we can start to say, "That's done for the year." It's a relief for sure. Other signs of the shifting season include the later sunrise, and the quiet dawn, no more dawn chorus from the birds. The geese are overhead every morning for their training flights, and the insects chirping whirring and buzzing has replaced the tree and marsh frogs. At market this week, look for fresh harvested orange carrots! We're really pleased so far with the harvest, and the flavor is all carrot with none of the bitterness you sometimes get from the supermarket. The cooler and cloudy days has meant trouble for many crops, but the lettuce is doing great. We'll have the full selection this week from butterheads to romaine. Hope to see you there, Jennifer 8/1/18
Well, we didn't quite get the weather we wanted for the garlic harvest. Instead of dry and sunny, we received cloudy with 8.6 inches of rain in 5 days! But the garlic was ready to go, and so the crew worked extra hard in the pouring rain and mud to pull in all into the barn. It's now hung to dry, with some extra fans for air movement. Incredibly it's looking okay, even good. Whew! We are so thankful the river was able to handle all this rain without flooding any of our fields. It was oh so close. 8.6" in a week is definitely on par with a hurricane or tropical storm for us. We do all we can to prepare and manage the risk from these in September and October, using the high ground for the late crops, protecting the soil with strong cover crops, limiting soil disturbance starting in August. A flood in July would be devastating for many of our summer plantings: beans, corn, summer squash, winter squash, tomatoes, celeriac, lettuce, and the list goes on. But there was no flood, this time. On the positive side, the broccoli, cabbage, and brussels sprouts transplants are loving this weather. They don't really appreciate our normal summer days with highs in the 90's. Last year we had some similar weather in regard to temperature, and had beautiful broccoli in September. At markets this week, look out for our own field grown tomatoes! They're quite late, but we are just getting in to our big harvests. We'll have both heirlooms and standard red field tomatoes. Do you have a favorite heirloom? Be Well, Jennifer 7/20/18
The summer is whirling along. Each week we're working through the cycles of our big summer crops, planning, harvesting, packing, selling, and planning to harvest again. Tomatoes are just beginning, along with raspberries. Beans and summer squash have been chugging along for more than 6 weeks already, and require several days of labor each. Corn rounds out the biggest crops we harvest fresh weekly. Along with the weekly cycles, we're gearing up for our annual garlic harvest this coming week. We're hoping for good weather to dig the approximately 27,500 garlic plants. We tackle this one as a team, with a big group out in the field pulling and bunching, and a second group in the barn hanging bunches for curing. We had a great cookout at the lake last week. Pretty nearly the whole crew gathered foods, and we had a wonderful evening grilling and sharing great food, perfect weather, swimming, kayaking and canoeing. It was good to have a moment to enjoy the summertime. We enjoy the summertime constantly, but usually we're trying to work really fast at the same time. At markets this week: Sweet Corn! If you've had our corn, you already know why we get so excited when it arrives. Sungolds have really come on, and we've plenty at all markets. The other tomatoes are not too far behind now. Our own raspberries will be available early on Sundays along with some okra. Hope to see you there, Jennifer Recipe of the Week
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Everything Starts as a Seed
Jim and Moie Crawford started organic farming in 1972, on rented land, with a little experience, and practically no money. Over the course of 40 years, New Morning Farm grew from a small operation, selling vegetables out of the back of a pick-up truck, to a farm of over 95 acres with several thriving markets in Washington, D.C.
