Views from the Drumlin

Drumlin Dirt #5- Crop Update and CSA Weekly Newsletter

This week we planted our second round of brassicas—cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli. We grow purple and yellow cauliflower as well as a variety called Romanesco, which has fluorescent green fractal-like florets. Matt has been busy doing lots of tractor cultivation (i.e. weeding with the tractor and preparing beds) because we couldn’t do any of that during the last two weeks of rain. We wouldn’t want to drive over wet muddy fields, since that would be detrimental to the soil matter. And we want all of our weeds to dry out once they are turned over or pulled out so that they don’t re-root. Matt has been working seven days a week to keep the fields beautiful and healthy. The rest of the farm team has been busy with hand cultivation (i.e. hand weeding and hoeing). This week we also mulched our eggplant with straw to keep down weeds and to keep them insulated, just like their lovely tomato relatives (both are members of the nightshade family). This is a first year experiment, so we hope it goes well!  Summer squash and carrots are on the horizon.
 
I’ve been spending some time on my weekends out in central Mass and around the Lincoln area visiting farms as well as driving by many of them. I see so much black plastic, irrigation tubes, and other farming practices that we at Drumlin have chosen not to follow. I feel really grateful to work on a farm that tries to work with the land in the most aware way possible. In that vein, we have created a short description of our growing practices to hand out to people and to teach people about how we do things at Drumlin. Some of the points include: rotating crops, letting our fields rest (lay fallow), making and spreading our own compost, using natural mulch as opposed to black plastic, and not using any synthetic pesticides or herbicides. We are also considering converting our tractor from diesel to veggie oil!

Farming in the news:
WBUR program on sustainable Agriculture in MA
Here's a link to the hour-long documentary about sustainable agriculture in MA that WBUR ran a couple of weeks ago.  CSAs played a starring role.
 
See you on the farm,
Ellie
 

FOR CSA MEMBERS

This week’s share:

* Basil (if you don't use all of your basil right away, put the plants in a glass of water in the fridge)
* Bok choi
* Beets (remember, the greens are edible, too!)
* Lettuce
* Chard
* Scallions
 
PYO shares:
* Peas
* Perennial Garden
 

The Drumlin Dirt #4- Crop Update and CSA Newsletter

Happy summer solstice!  This rainy week on the farm has brought us our first harvests of spring leeks, dill, and garlic scapes, and our first planting of cauliflower. It hasn’t been such a happy week for the strawberries, but everything else out in the fields seems to be loving the rain. Our first round of tomato trellising is done and we will trellis them another three times until we have reached the tops of our four-foot poles. 
 
Our farmers markets in Somerville and at the Prudential Center in Boston have been great. It is wonderful to bring freshly harvested, gorgeous, pesticide-free veggies into urban areas. People truly appreciate us out there and are thankful to have markets in their neighborhoods where they can connect to farmers and farm goodness. After our Somerville markets we donate our unsold produce to a low-income nursing home in the area. We have also been donating to Boston Area Gleaners who have come out to glean some of our lettuce and bok choi for food pantries like Rosie’s Place.
 
Looking forward to seeing you out in the fields.

In-season cookbooks:

*The Seasonal Kitchen: A Return to Fresh Foods by Perla Meyers

* Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables by Farmer John Peterson and Angelic Organics

*The Farmer's Market Cookbook: Seasonal Dishes Made from Nature's Freshest Ingredients by Richard Ruben

Enjoy this week’s bounty!
Ellie
 
 
FOR CSA MEMBERS ONLY:
This Week’s Share:
Arugula
Beets
Bok Choi
Basil
Chard
Garlic Scapes
Leeks
Lettuce
Scallions
 
PYO Share:
Peas
Strawberries
Perennial Garden (bring your scissors or clippers to harvest!)
 
 

Drumlin Dirt #3 - CSA News

Rainy weather has changed everything out on the farm. Instead of flying dust and worrying about the dry ground and slow-growing crops, we can see the plants soaking up all of this awesome rainwater and get relief from the sun. Check out Matt’s crop update from June 12 to read more about what’s been happening out in the fields.

This week we harvested our first basil and cilantro and the garlic scapes are close to being ready. Harvesting basil always makes me feel that summer is here, although with all of these cool rainy days it seems a little contradictory.

Hope to see you out on the farm,

-- Ellie 

Cooking Tip:  Spinach is a good source of iron, but the body has a hard time absorbing it without the help of vitamin C.  The solution?  Spinach-strawberry salad, since strawberries are high in vitamin C.  Chop up spinach, scallions, and strawberries and top with crumbled feta cheese and mint or basil leaves.  Mix up a lemon-balsamic vinaigrette.  Totally delicious.
 
Check out CSA member Kate S.’s food blog, which has some great recipes for spinach and other in-season veggies!
 

FOR CSA MEMBERS

This Week’s Share:
 
Basil
Cilantro
Lettuce
Spinach
Turnips
Scallions
 
PYO Share:
 
Peas
Strawberries
Herb Garden
 

Crop Update- Strawberry Picking Tomorrow!

Hi all,

So that was the first real rain of the summer. Luckily, we had a wet first week of May, and that’s been carrying the plants until this past Tuesday. In the interim, we watched a lot of crops just sitting there not growing. We even brought barrels of water out to the fields and hand watered a lot of our high value crops—tomatoes, peppers, melons, and watermelons. And for the past two weeks, we’ve been hand-watering in all of our transplants—sweet potatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, scallions and  basil. What a relief not to have to worry about water for a while. Ahead of this storm we planted our second succession of tomatoes and string beans , our third succession of carrots, beets, and sunflowers, our okra, zinnias and cosmos. We also seeded our fifth and final succession of radish, turnips and arugula under row cover. We’ve had good success growing these cool weather crops under the fabric that protects them from flea beetles. There are several tricky aspects to farming with row cover. You have to cover the crop immediately after seeding. Radish can germinate in a day or two, and that’s when the flea beetles find them. You have to secure the covers against wind, and it has been an extremely windy spring. And the covers trap heat against the crop—too much heat and the crop bolts. Uncover the crop too early and it’s still tender enough for the beetle to chew down.  But the beetles are less aggressive eaters in July, and so now we’ll start to experiment with growing their favorite foods out in the open.

The strawberries have been spectacular because of the extended dry weather following a wet early May. The berries have been big and the slugs have been few.  We also experimented with mowing the beds last July and then not mulching over any of the beds with straw. As our winters warm, it seems that this may become a widespread practice. You get earlier berries and you don’t need to spend time uncovering  the plants in the spring. They’ll have to rename them  redberries, or something equally creative. Our pick-your-own day is tomorrow. I think there will still be lots of good berries out there despite last night’s soaking. There are many beautiful berries at the stand today which we harvested yesterday afternoon before the rain.

We are beginning to harvest some of your summertime favorites—basil, beets, and cilantro. We’ll have those at the stand on Saturday. Summer squash is probably two weeks away from harvest. The Lincoln CSA will have its third pickup next week, and our joint CSA program with ReVision House begins then as well. We’ll be shipping 75 shares into Dorchester that day. The Prudential Market is heating up despite repeated cloudy and cool Thursdays, and the Union Square market opened up red hot with our earning more last Saturday than we did until mid July last year. This was thanks to the early strawberries and our success with the row covers.
See you in the field,

Matt 

Rocking and Rolling on Our New Wall

Thanks to a very nice donation of stone and craftsmanship from O’Hara and Company, we were excited to start work on a new rock wall this morning. The wall is at the top of the new entrance hill path and will provide a beautiful overlook of the new sheep and cattle pasture.  Nick O’Hara and his crew do traditional dry stone (no mortar) farmer’s walls of the type that crisscross New England (including many on the Drumlin Farm property), harking back to the days when farmers removed the rocks from their pasture and crops land and used them to build fencing walls to contain livestock and mark their property lines. We’re excited to have this wall up close to the main entrance where visitors can examine the lichens and moss that cover the old rocks, look for the critters that are sure to use it as habitat, and enjoy the view.

- Renata
Visitor Education Coordinator

Drumlin Dirt #2

News from the fields, and information on this week's CSA pickup...

The first CSA pick-up last week was so exciting. It was great to meet new members and reconnect with old ones. Thanks again to all our veteran members who helped out and offered their words of wisdom. I hope everyone enjoyed their first veggies of the season. I know I have been ecstatically eating fresh greens as much as possible- steamed, stir-fried, on top of homemade pizza, over pasta. 

This week has been very dry- no rain at all- and the fields are looking a little sad. We have been watering in all of our freshly planted sweet potatoes, lettuce, scallions, tomatoes, melons, and peppers. We are anxiously awaiting tomorrow’s forecasted heavy rain. Farming has made me much more aware of the weather and makes me think about how it must have felt to farm back when there was no weather channel!

This week has also brought us strawberries. Our early season berries are now hitting their prime and the mid-season fruit is just starting to ripen.   Strawberries are perennials and take a lot of work. Every year we mulch with straw, weed the whole patch at least three times, spread organic fertilizer, plow in old plants and plant new ones, hoe the new plants and pick off their flowers so that they put energy into their roots and leaves- but the reward is so, so sweet. And nothing is sweeter than food you’ve grown yourself.

Cooking Tip:  Bok choi is type of Chinese cabbage and is supposedly the oldest Asian green, having been cultivated in China since the 5th century. It is rich in Vitamins A and C. Try stir-frying it in a sauce of peanut oil, sugar, garlic, and soy sauce. Cook the stems first, then throw in leaves.

Food Blogs:
Check out CSA member Alice DeLuca’s gluten-free food blog. She features a great recipe for turnip gratin!

FOR CSA MEMBERS

This week's share includes:

Arugula

Bok Choi

Lettuce

Radish

Scallions

Spinach

Turnips

PYO Shares: Strawberries, Snap Peas, Herb Garden

Bird-a-thon 2009 Results!

According to Wayne Peterson, “Following three years of rainy weather during Mass Audubon’s annual Bird-a-thon, this year’s event on May 15-16 was precipitation free and generally blessed with sunny and pleasant weather. Despite a cool start on Saturday morning, 688 enthusiastic birders ventured forth to comb the Commonwealth in search of as many bird species as possible during the 24-hour Bird-a-thon period.”

Among them were 50 elite birders that make up the Drumlin Farm team led by Strickland Wheelock and Kathy Seymour.  This impressive group of birders have also become impressive fundraisers.  
 
How did we do in the field?
Top 3 Brewster Cup Contenders (for the most species):
1. Drumlin Farm - 228
2. Blue Hills/Trailside Museum - 224
3. Ipswich River - 222

And how did we do with fundraising?
Hatheway Cup (for most $$ raised)
• Official results are not yet posted, but fundraising totals on First Giving show us with a considerable lead
• We have raised over $45,000!!!  Which beats last year’s $42,000, in the worst economy on record since the Great Depression. 
• Our closest competitors on First Giving are the IBA team and Boston Nature Center at about $13,000.  

Drumlin Farm Youth Birders made an impressive showing.
• Becky and Molly Edmonds took 6 middle school boys to PI for an exciting day of birding, finding 97 species in 12 hours, including Least Bittern and Wilson’s Snipe
• Two 5-member families of Chickadee Birders joined me and my grandson for a walk at DF with Sandy
• $4,800 raised (included in sanctuary total)

According to Kathy Seymour:  “By all indications, we have won both the species and fundraising cups for the 5th year in a row!  Let me repeat that – for the 5th year in a row!  That is pretty amazing, and who could have predicted it 5 years ago."

“What is our secret?”

"On the birding side, we have Strickland’s vast knowledge of MA birds, and his ability to deploy teams to critical areas to get the harder to find and more localized birds.  Many of our team members have covered their areas for 5 years.  And Strickland is able to recruit some top-notch birders.  We have some very worthy competitors, so our continued dominance here is by no means guaranteed. 

There’s no magic to our methods, nor any advanced theoretical fundraising models.  Like most successful endeavors, the secret is 99 parts perspiration and 1 part magic. Strickland and I both spend about 250 hours each on Bird-a-thon between March and May.  Our team members accumulate over 1,900 volunteer hours during the event.  Why?  Because we have seen what a difference this makes to Drumlin Farm’s birding programs and other sanctuary improvements.  Oh, and there are these little intangibles called pride and bragging rights."

We are so grateful to Strickland, Kathy and the entire Drumlin Farm Bird-a-thon team.  They have every right to be proud and they have more than earned their bragging rights.  In the past several years their fundraising has helped us buy three new program vans, establish and grow our young birder programs, expand trips and programs for adults, create a new bird feeding area, maintain a kiosk of birding information, create our e-bird trail, and, most important, build a community of birders who see Drumlin Farm as an important resource and their home base.

It’s been a great five years – and it looks like just the beginning! 

- Christy Foote-Smith, Sanctuary Director

The Inside Scoop on Dairy Day

We’ve been busy this week getting ready for our Dairy Day festival tomorrow- Saturday, June 6 from 9:00 am-5:00 pm. I got some strange looks at the market when I bought 8 gallons of whole milk and 3 quarts of cream for our cooking demonstrations!  Our education staff spent Wednesday afternoon making homemade mozzarella for people to sample, and visitors can also try their hand at making ricotta and yogurt cheese on Saturday morning.  In addition to the cheese, visitors can also learn how to make their own butter (with fresh herbs from the garden) and ice cream.

Our cows and goats will also be working that day doing milking demonstrations. The goats are also well represented in another less familiar way - Farmer Sarah has made a fresh batch of goat’s milk soap, and we’ll have a voting booth set up for people to choose their favorite scent in our “soap smell-off.”

Our staff is probably most excited about the ice cream stand we’ll be running that day, featuring fresh local ice cream made by Erikson’s in Maynard. I got a lot of input on what flavors to buy, and I’m sure there’s at least one favorite in there for everyone. The full program schedule can be found here on our website. Come on by!

 

The Drumlin Dirt #1

Veggies are growing! The farmers are harvesting! The first Summer CSA pick-up is this Wednesday!

So much excitement down on the farm. Radish were the first veggies to be harvested two weeks ago. We grow bright red ones as well as an Easter Egg mix of red, pink, purple, and white. Our green and red spring lettuces are the perfect size. The bok choi, which has been under row cover to protect it from the flea beetles, will be uncovered tomorrow in order for it to harden off before we harvest it on Wednesday morning. 

Spring is a busy time out in the fields and in the greenhouse because we are seeding, weeding, planting, and harvesting. Most of our big plantings, including tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, potatoes, and winter squash, have been planted in the past two weeks. Our team of seven farmers, along with numerous wonderful volunteers, have been working hard to keep our plants and fields happy. 

Ellie

Here's a link to a book review of a new book, The Food of A Younger Land, edited by Mark Kurlansky. It's a anthology of food writing from pre-1950's America.

And in case you're searching for ideas of how to prepare this season's veggies check out any number of great food blogs- Smitten Kitchen is one to start you off.

FOR CSA MEMBERS

This Week’s Share:

Bok Choi
Lettuce
Radish
Spinach
Spring Turnips

Cooking Tip:

The turnips in this week’s share are not the bitter winter turnips you are probably used to.  These are sweet, small, white Hakurei turnips that you can eat raw in a salad or saute with garlic and olive oil.  And the turnip greens are edible too!  Saute them along with the turnips- they have a slightly spicy flavor.

A typical morning at the Drumlin Farm Community Preschool…

 

This morning the Foxes class children arrived at Drumlin Farm Community Preschool wearing rain gear, including rain pants, eager to begin the morning with an outdoor exploration guided by their teachers. With a first aid bag and the farm radio we set off. At Ice pond we saw fog floating over the surface and talked about the cold air meeting the warmer water. We walked on to Boyce Field and found wonderful mud in the puddles made by tractor tires. With sticks found in the area the children poked and stirred the mud in the puddles. We unrolled the long sheet of butcher paper we brought with us to create a mud painting. The children enjoyed spreading and spattering mud over the paper creating a unique work of art!  They described the mud with words such as cold, slippery, and gritty. We watched as the falling rain made the mud art shiny.

 

When we returned to the classroom we read a book about what animals do on a rainy day and it helped explain why we did not see the butterflies and birds that we usually see on warm, sunny days.  On Friday our farm chore will be egg collecting in the poultry house.  We’ll also pick lettuce we planted a few weeks ago in our plot in the Learning Garden, then stop by the vernal pool to see what is happening there!  We are really enjoying the month of May at Drumlin Farm Community Preschool! If you’d like to learn more about our preschool call me (Paula) at 781-259-2224. We’ll also be holding an open house on June 6, from 10 am- Noon, during Dairy Day at Drumlin Farm!