Views from the Drumlin

Exploring the World with Your Little One

Young children are scientists by nature. They are always at work, learning all about the world around them through observation, asking questions, solving problems, collecting information (and things!) and exploring. Studies show that spending time playing outside not only benefits children physically and emotionally, but also can help to build scientific ways of thinking and learning—curiosity, creativity, and inventiveness.

The classes we offer at Drumlin Farm are designed to encourage a child's curiosity, to help them explore their world at their own pace. Our adult and child series programs allow participants to focus on a new theme each week, but to remain in a class unit over a span of several weeks. Parents and children get to interact with others in their group and build a relationship with their teacher. Depending on the program each week may be a new farm chore, or visiting a new area of the sanctuary.

The program offerings are developed so that children can grow and try new things as they mature. The teachers love to watch children grow from a young toddler who watches to cows from a distance to the 5 year old who can't wait to milk the cow and tell everyone what they know about the cows. 

While of course the class is geared towards our smaller visitors, the adults seem to enjoy them just as much. You'd be amazed how much you can learn thanks to our fabulous teachers who are old pros at answering adult questions too!

Click on the links below to learn more about our fall series programs. Don't worry if the program has already started, you can still join us and we'll prorate the cost. 

Fall Family Explorations

Autumn Adventurers

Fall Sense-Sations

Farm Family

And here's the link to all our other great programs>>

 
 
 

Crop Update

Hi all,

Last week we prepared for nighttime frost, covering our seedlings and protecting our basil out in the field. The predicted light frost never materialized, and the next day we started planting some heat-loving crops—tomatoes and melons. These last few days must be agreeing with them. Yesterday, we planted eggplant, and today we’ll begin seeding our first round of beans. The first direct-seeded sunflowers are up in the fields, and we’ve already thinned our first seven beds of carrots and two beds of beets. This year was our first experimenting with seeding parsley directly to our fields. It’s a slow germinator whether you grow it in your greenhouse or not. It was tough locating it out amongst all the spring weeds, but after wheel-hoeing the beds, we could see what we were doing enough to thin them and get them to a happier spacing.

The new apprentices are here. In the first week of May, Emily, Greg, Jason and Hannah joined me, Ellie and Pay. Christy and Karen gave them a great introduction to Mass Audubon and the farm, and they have been working hard ever since. Greg and I opened the farmers’ market season at the Prudential Center last week and nearly got blown away by the wind-tunnel enhanced gusts. We brought seedlings, lettuce, radish, and rhubarb into the city. By the first week of June we’ll be selling the veggies at the beautiful new Drumlin farmstand.

--Matt

First Spring Crop Update

Hi all,

Things have been moving quickly for us since the end of the sugaring season. Towards the end of March, we frost-seeded clover onto the field nearest the compost piles. That field just completed five seasons of crop production and is now entering its two-year fallow period. In order to minimize compaction of the soil, we spin the clover seed onto the soil surface, and then allow frost action to bury the seeds. Alternatively, we could plow the field in order to create a cleaner seedbed, but that would expend fuel and unnecessarily disturb the soil. We continue to get beautiful full stands of clover by working with the rhythm of the seasons. The clover will not only add nitrogen to the soil, but its long taproot will work down through and loosen any compaction that may have developed over the past five cropping years.

In the first week of April, we planted our first peas, fava beans, and spinach. Though the fields were very wet at that time, we were able to work the soil because each fall we strategically choose to leave small areas un-cover cropped. We select areas that are flat and not subject to erosion.
Come spring, all we do is drive the seedbed maker over these areas and then plant. The seedbed maker is a much lighter implement than our disc harrow, and we  pull it with the smaller of Drumlin’s two tractors, thus reducing our impact on the soil and lowering the chances that we’ll bog down in the mud. If all of our fields were perfectly cover cropped with thick stands of rye at the end of the season, we wouldn’t be able to plant anything until May. We would be waiting for fields to dry out enough to support the big harrow-pulling tractor, and then we’d have to wait as the covercrop broke down. This ends up being the case, but not on every square inch of Boyce field.

Ellie, Pay, Fred, Anne, John and Megan have been doing great work in the greenhouse and out in the fields. With lots of help from Geoff, Garth, Frank and Brad, we were able to clear the edges of the two skinny fields at the entrance to Boyce. The northern field terminates in a beautiful stone wall that wasn’t visible until we cleared and chipped the brush. It will be a pleasure to plant in that field and look up and admire that artifact of labor and nature. We spread the wood chips from the field edge clearing onto the remainder of that strip of field that once was the asparagus patch. Over the past two years we’ve been establishing perennial flowers and herbs there. Now we intend to plant high bush blueberries in the remaining area. We’ll see if the plants take without irrigation. The wood chips will help conserve moisture and control weeds in that area. They will also help lower the soil ph, and blueberries prefer acidic soil.

This week the last of the NOFA bulk items were delivered to Drumlin Farm. Area farmers stopped by over the weekend to pick up their seed potatoes. Pay and Ellie moved all 2,200 pounds of our potato seed onto trays and then placed them in front of the windows in the loft of the Service Barn. In a few weeks, the potatoes will sprout green leaves, then we’ll cut the potatoes to multiply the seed and plant them out a few days later.             

Our first carrots, radish and turnips, and our second peas and spinach all go into the ground this week. We’ll also begin hardening-off our leeks, lettuce and chard in the cold frames outside the greenhouse.  Strawberries and blueberries arrive next week, and will go into the ground right away. Thanks to you all for supporting Drumlin Farm by enjoying our greenhouse greens this spring. Sadly, those are all gone now. But it won’t be long before we start harvesting from the fields.

Matt

Maple Sugaring Underway at Drumlin Farm

The temperature swings of spring in New England sure can be hard to dress for—fleece by day, and heavy winter coats by night—but these seesawing temperatures are are necessary for a favorite New England crop, maple syrup. When the days begin to warm, but the nights remain cold, the sap flows up through the maple trees. We collect the sap and boil it down to produce syrup.

With this weekend’s highs forecast to be in the 50s, the sap should be flowing. We’re open all weekend 9:00 am-5:00 pm, so come visit! If you’re interested in tapping your own trees make a stop at the Audubon Shop for supplies. (They also have tasty maple sugar candy!)

As of March 4 we've tapped 65 trees, and collected 340 gallons of sap!

Crop Update and CSA Pickup 1/8/09

January is the slowest month of the year on the farm.  We have finalized the crop plan, our seed ordering is almost finished, and all the tractor implements have been stored safely indoors. While we are cherishing the relaxing days it doesn't mean nothing is going on here at the farm.

This week, we donated our old seeds (and seeds of crops we aren’t planting this season) to Gaining Ground, a farm in Concord that donates all of its produce to food pantries and meal programs. We are also hoping to donate seed to the gardening program at the Northeast Correctional Institute in West Concord, where inmates in a pre-release program grow their own veggies and run their own restaurant.

Our fourth winter CSA pick-up will be this Thursday and we are starting to plan the 2009 Summer CSA.  

See you on the farm,
Ellie
 

WINTER RECIPES:
January (aka Pink) Latkes

• Grate 2 large beets, 5 medium potatoes, 4 carrots, and 1 large onion in a mixing bowl.
• Beat 4 eggs and pour into veggies. 
• Add about ¾ cup flour, or enough to give the mixture some thickness. 
• Stir and add salt/pepper/chili powder to taste.
• Heat skillet on high with olive or vegetable oil.  Scoop out mixture and fry on both sides.  If latkes are not holding their shape, add more flour.
• Serve with sour cream or apple sauce.  (And watch out, if your sour cream is not organic, it may have high fructose corn syrup/starch as an ingredient!)

This is a recipe I created when I thought: “Oh my god, so much butternut squash!”

Butternut Squash Curry with Rice

1 large butternut squash
1 large onion
2 Tbsp. Minced garlic
2 Tbsp. Minced ginger
1 tsp. Cardamom
1 tsp. Coriander
3 Tbsp butter
1 tsp. Red curry paste
1 can coconut milk
2 Tbsp. Fish sauce
Lime
2 cups White or Brown Rice

• Halve, seed and roast one large butternut at 400 degrees, for about 40 minutes (or until you can stick a fork easily into it). 
• While squash is roasting, steam the rice and let it sit. 
• To prepare curry chop onion, ginger, and garlic. 
• Heat frying pan with butter, on med-high heat. Add onion and garlic and saute for five minutes. 
• Add ginger, red curry paste, cardamom, coriander, and salt to the pan.  Mix until onions are coated. 
• When squash is done, cut off skin, cube squash and mash half of it with a fork. 
• Add all of the squash to the pan, cook for a few minutes. 
• Add coconut milk, stir until mixed evenly with mashed squash. 
• Add fish sauce and lime juice to taste. 
• Serve curry over the rice. 

And a few more great ideas from Epicurious.com
Turnip Gratin
(You can also use rutabaga!)
Hearty Rutabaga, Turnip, and Carrot Soup

FOR CSA MEMBERS ONLY:

THIS WEEK’S CSA PICK-UP

• Carrots
• Celeriac
• Parsnips
• Potatoes
• Rutabaga
• Black Radish
• Butternut Squash
• Queensland Blue

Posted by Ellie Lobovits, farm apprentice

CSA News and Crops Update

The height of the crops season has now passed and we are gearing up for our winter CSA.  The summer was an incredibly abundant time and our team of six apprentices, Matt the farm manager, and our two devoted volunteers Anne and Fred, worked incredibly hard to harvest all of those huge eggplant and heirloom tomatoes, prickly okra, majestic sunflowers, bright purple and yellow cauliflower, and the dozens of other fruits and veggies we grow here. 

In October, we harvested most of our winter veggies including: sweet potatoes, winter squash, beets, turnips, radish, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and celeriac, with the help of our CSA work share members.  They are now being stored in our root cellar, which we hope to have down to about 38 degrees soon!  All of this warm weather has slowed down the cooling process (i.e. the fan that blows cold air in), but it has also allowed us to continue harvesting late plantings of greens, bok choi, radish, cauliflower, and lettuce.  During the past couple of weeks we delivered these veggies to local stores and restaurants, in our awesome Drumlin Farm truck with a huge beet on its sides, so that people could continue eating local. It was so exciting to see people in Boston and Cambridge walking by the truck and reading the side- community-based farming in Lincoln?  To have a part in making local, sustainable, agriculture visible in the city is a great thing.     

At the farmers markets we have seen a big increase in WIC and Farmer's Markets Elder Coupons, both of which we accept just like cash.  This might just be one of the best government-supported programs ever- making organically grown vegetables accessible to everyone.   

This week we will be putting together next year's crop plan and harvesting storage cabbage, brussels sprouts, kale, collards and more (and more!) potatoes for our first CSA pick-up.

From the misty farm,

Ellie

Storing Winter Veggies:

For our Winter CSA members or for anyone interested in storing winter vegetables, click here- How to Store Winter Vegetables in a Typical Suburban Home.

Simple Cooking Methods for Storage Veggies:

Winter Squash

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Cut squash in half 
3.  Scoop out seeds and pulp (put in a bowl and save for roasting) 
4. Oil a baking tray and lightly oil inside and outside of squash halves (this seals in moisture and prevents cracking)
5.  Place squash upside down on the tray and bake until you can stick a fork easily into the flesh. 

Now for the seeds...
1. Wash pulp off of the seeds 
2.  Mix seeds with some olive oil and tamari 
3.  Spread out on a baking sheet so that the seeds are in a single layer
4.  Put in oven with the squash and roast until brown and crispy.

Brussels Sprouts- 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Wash sprouts 
3. Slice in half 
4. Oil a baking tray and the sprouts 
5. Salt lightly and roast until brown 
They will be sweet and delicious!  Pan frying sprouts is also an easy way to prepare them.

"Thanksgiving-esque" Recipe:

Butternut Squash Soup:  Roast 2 butternut squash (follow directions above), one cubed celeriac root, one sliced carrot, and one sliced apple at 375 degrees.  Have fun with the amounts.  Puree all veggies and spice with fresh or dry sage, thyme, salt, and freshly ground pepper.  Alternately, spice with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Important Information For Our CSA Members Only:
Want to learn more about our CSA? Check here.

This week's pick-up:  Thursday, November 20, noon-5:00 pm

• See above for information on storing all the great veggies we'll be distributing.  Onions, garlic, pumpkins,and winter squash do great on a kitchen shelf or kitchen table, just as long as they are not in direct sunlight and are not stacked on top of each other.  If you let them breathe and keep them dry, they should do fine at room temp. If you want to store them for a long period of time, think COOL and DRY. 
• Please send me any of your favorite recipes and I may feature them in the newsletter!
• Subscribe to our blog at the top right hand corner of this page and you will get emails whenever a new post goes up.

Late Fall Crop Update

Hi all,

Some late plantings of radish, bok choi, broccoli raab, tatsoi, cauliflower and lettuce have allowed us to continue harvesting this past week and sell to markets and restaurants in the city. Restaurants Rialto and the South End Buttery have been buying our produce, as well as Whole Foods and Lionette’s markets. Thanks to Ellie for contacting these various outlets, and thanks to Anne, Pay and Fred for helping with the harvests.

We are getting mentally prepared for next Thursday’s first winter CSA distribution. It may be the biggest distribution of the year (summer included) in terms of weight, because the root crops are heavy—and there are lots of them—and because we still have field greens to bring in. This Thanksgiving our CSA members will be enjoying Drumlin’s potatoes, carrots, beets, parsnips, squash, pumpkins, onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, turnips, kale, collards, cabbage and Brussels sprouts. We’ll hold off on the rutabaga and various storage radishes for now.

So far this season we’ve donated over 11,000 pounds of food to local charities. The Little Sisters of the Poor were at every one of our Saturday markets and took over 4,500 pounds of food to feed the elderly at their nursing home in Somerville. On Thursdays in Mission Hill, we ended each market with a stop at the ABCD Parker Hill/Fenway Neighborhood Service Center. That organization runs a food pantry three days per week. We donated over 3,500 pounds of produce to them. Concord Open Table came by the farm each Wednesday after the close of the CSA distribution, and took 2,800 pounds of food to serve at their Thursday night dinners. The Boston Area Gleaners have started combing over our fields, and so far have harvested over 200 pounds of greens for area food pantries.

We noticed a big jump in the number of WIC coupons spent at both of our city markets. For the past two years, people using WICs accounted for about 3% of our sales. This season the percentage is closer to five, representing about a one third increase in sales through this program. I’m not sure if the growth indicates an increase in the number of qualifying families or an improvement in the visibility of farmers’ markets to this population.

This year at Mission Hill, Main Streets—the organization that manages the market—had a grant to operate an EBT machine. The card reader converts food stamps into vouchers that patrons spend at the market stalls. By the end of the season, people were catching on to the availability of the card reader. Hopefully, the funding will exist next season so that Main Streets can continue to employ a person to run the program and we can continue to accept food stamps.

Matt