TOMATOES IN THE SNOW

GROWER’S LOG, 11.12.13 The addition of a high tunnel to an organic farming operation has innumerable financial benefits ranging from season extension of marketable crops to ease of production and labor costs. Here at The Dahlia Farm however, what we find most exciting is the complete juxtaposition of the normal farming curve. This year’s addition of our passive solar temporary building has enabled us to have summer bouquets of May peonies (hydra-cooled) and August dahlias side by side – a first in 50 years for us! It has also given us spring gladiolas, near-winter lettuce and Halloween dahlias. The coup-de-grâce however is this morning’s harvest: tomatoes in the snow! It is indeed financially beneficial to add at least one of these greenhouse structures to nearly any farming operation, but it is a spiritual trompe to any seasoned grower to finally have a laugh at nature… even if for just an hour.

CSA Week #7

CSA Week #7 Share includes: Fennel, Curly Kale, Zephry Summer Squash, White-Gold Mini Cucumber, Belgian Endive, D’Avignon Radish, Herb: Basil, & Cut-flower Bouquet (glad, echinops, sunflower)

Nomato

Here's a chuckle from our friend and neighbor Michael over at Red Tomato

CSA pick-ups begin this Wednesday, June 12

CSA pick-ups will begin this Wednesday, June 12. Pick-up at the flower shop 1pm-6pm. Ocean Spray deliveries will be mid-afternoon to the front desk. If you have not signed-up yet for your CSA, now is the last week to subscribe. Be sure to drop us a line with any questions you might have. Thanks for being with us.We look forward to seeing you soon!

Quick Peek, May 21

Just a quick peek at what's coming up tonight, May 21. From upper left, clockwise is red leaf lettuce, green lettuce, mustard, snap pea tendrils, baby spinach and baby kale. It won't be long now!

2013 Season

Greetings everyone! We are fast approaching another new season here at The Dahlia Farm, and again this year we’re excited to offer CSA membership. We will have both the Half-Share and the Full-Share sizes, so that you can choose the quantity of vegetables, fruits, herbs, eggs and flowers that best fit your family’s lifestyle. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support over the last 5 years and let you know we look forward to seeing you again this season! If you have not yet signed-up for this season, now’s the time! Simply visit our website TheDahliaFarm.com and print out the ‘CSA sign-up sheet.’ We can usually accept memberships throughout May, but don’t delay as openings are filling up quickly. Here’s to a wonderful season for all. We look forward to seeing you soon!

MASSACHUSETTS MUSHROOMS

To be candid, I was initially leary about growing and eating mushrooms. Let's face it, in today's fear-based society we have so many precautions and supersticions we're scarcely able to make a decision at times. And complicating our daily habits with "risky" ventures like eating mushrooms from the backyard is just not a high on most folks to-do lists. I mean what could be more scarey and dangerous than being completely responsible for one's own food...? And therein the teetering scales in my mind weighed in. Time to try something new - and growing shittake from mycelium spours was just the ticket. I have to thank my friend Tim over at the USDA in Wareham for turning me on to this "underground" delicacy. The entire process is actually quite precise and I can whole-heartedly recommend it to any avid gardener who feels they've exhausted the lot of the seasonal challenges, or who yawns at the thought of growing some new variety of zucchini. Shittake culture, and any myceliuum for that, requires a bit more attention, skill, patience and determination than most Massachusetts crops. You will need fresh oak logs - white or red - that are 4" to 10" in diameter, and have been cut live 6 weeks to 4 months prior. You will need to drill 3/8" holes 1" to 1-1/2" deep in a crisscross patern, plug them with mycelium-impregnated plugs and cover each plug with melted parafin, as well as the log ends. This will keep parasites out of the logs. The logs will then need to be stacked garrison-like in a shady, dark, relatively windless, damp area of your yard (think wooded wetland - not TOO wet). If you can place them on clean oak pallets on top of an old tarp or sheet of plastic - even better. Shittakes in particular can be purchased from many online sources. The one I used is www.fungiperfecti.com up in Nirvanarama Puget Sound. They've been at it for a while, offer a free catalog if you're interested and have a great info resource on their website, as well as kid-friendly projects. The Puget Sound Mycological Society up in Seattle is also a good source of info: http://www.psms.org/index.php There is also a central-Mass area website at http://mushroomhunter.net/ if you're more daring and care to venture out into the woods to hunt the wild varieties. Caveat: I'm not there yet and don't endorse it. To get back to the locally-sourced (150 feet from where I type this) shittakes, they are deliciously earthy and richly flavored. They are magnificent reduced in butter at a low temperature with a pinch of kosher salt. Any French chef would be proud to serve them as an appetizer. Enough of them would make a meal, if paired with a petite syrah or bolder red. If you have the space, time, and appreciate a gardening challenge, I would highly recommend attempting to grow mushrooms. April, with its rains, is a perfect time to begin. The autumn is good also. If you are a greenhouse, farm or other agricultural professional, Tim will be speaking in Dartmouth on May 11 through the USDA. Drop me a line and I will forward the details.

Farm-to-Door, Your Door That Is!

This year we're going to offer something new in our CSA program -- FREE BULK DELIVERY! If you work for a company or with a community group in the area (that's Southcoast to South Shore) and can organize at least 10 subscriptions in our CSA, we will deliver to you weekly at no charge. That's right, if you've been bragging to your friends about what you've been eating these last 4 summers and they're chomping at the bit to join you, NOW'S THE TIME TO ORGANIZE! And what could be easier than having your weekly share of pure, farm-fresh garden vegetables delivered right to your door? (Or to the door of your church, office, community group or neighbor.)

For more information and sign-up sheets please visit our website: TheDahliaFarm.com, or drop us an email at: TheDahliaFarm@yahoo.com

Like fresh vegetables, but not gardening? Try buying a farm share

Today's Enterprise News reports:

MIDDLEBORO — People who don’t want to toil in the garden but have a hankering for fresh vegetables, buying a share in local crops might be just the ticket. Participants buy a prepaid share to a local farm’s crops, knowing they will be eating fresh food and also giving farmers some financial security. In Middleboro, James D. Reynolds, owner of Daliah Farm, sells shares to the produce from his organic garden for less than $30 a week. A full share, enough for a family of four, costs $500 for 18 weeks of fresh vegetables, half shares are $290. A typical spring share might include: baby Romaine lettuce, heirloom turnips and turnip greens, Bridgewater strawberries, French breakfast radish and potted Greek oregano with some wild cutflower. Later in the season, the shares may provide Zephyr summer squash, cucumbers, Patty pan squash, Swiss chard, turnips, onions, new potatoes, basil and pineapple sage. Tomatoes are harvested in mid-season and the final shares include butternut squash, garlic, peppers and eggplant. Reynolds prefers to pack up the produce in customer’s reusable totes – “It’s more earth friendly” – but will supply brown bags if requested. Call 774-213-5075 with questions. Kim Almeida, of organically certified Eat Local Fresh Food, is farming several plots of land at the Soule Homestead, 46 Soule St., Middleboro. and selling shares for $600 each. Connie and Ron Maribett’s organic Colchester Neighborhood Farm on Brook Street in Plympton sells shares full-season shares for $600 and small shares for $350. The shares include arugula, celery, edible flowers, herbs and garden staples such as tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and onions. Those who don’t want to commit to weekly shares can still buy local. For a list of local farms, farm stands and farmers markets, visit the website for the Southeastern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership: semaponline.org. Be sure to see the lates YOUTUBE video here. Public News Service also has a PODCAST here. Read more: http://www.enterprisenews.com/business/x1040012944/Like-fresh-vegetables-but-not-gardening-Try-buying-a-farm-share#ixzz1vim4Ge77

What's In Your Wallet

In 2005, the antibiotic fluoroquinolone was banned by the FDA for use in poultry production. Yet today in 2012 you may still be eating chicken containing this very substance. Other substances you may be unwittingly ingesting include arsenic, acetaminophen, and even Prozac. What kind of world do we live in and how the heck can this happen while Federal watchdogs are supposedly protecting us? The UK's Guardian reports this weekend the latest in American agricultural foibles "Overuse of antibiotics in factory farming kills thousands every year, yet the industry is force-feeding chickens pharmaceuticals" here. One of the most important take-aways from this story is: "what can I do about it?" The answer is remarkably simple: Vote with your wallet. Once we become aware of the problems around us, we cannot become unaware again. To know a thing is wrong, means we seek out what is right, what is the solution. And since most of these violations are committed by uber-corporations in pursuit of more and more dollars, the best solution is also the easiest. Hit them where they hurt. Use your purchasing power to vote against the corporate food supply. Support humane farming, organics where they are true and sensible, small-scale farms and local food producers. Know the power of your vote. Know whats really in your wallet. "One cannot resist an idea whose time has come." -- Victor Hugo

Passover and Easter Eggs

Happy Spring!

Be sure to stock up on high-quality, farm fresh eggs for Easter and Seder dinners.

From Sweet Bread to quiche, our local, free-range birds offer a higher quality egg which is richer in beta caratene and lower in cholesterol - and tastes better to boot!

Eggs are available at the flowershop m-f 9-4, or visit our web: TheDahliaFarm.com

Money To Burn

Talk about creative recycling!

The country of Hungary has become the first nation to convert its worthless fiat currency into fuel briquettes to supply it's low-income citizens with heat.

If the US dollar ever becomes this devalued we'll be very glad indeed that we have a root cellar.

In a more progressive energy conservation initiative, Denmark has set the year 2020 as the target for its most dramtic plan yet: 50% wind energy.

The Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Building, Martin Lidegaard, says is “the broadest, the greenest, and the most long-term energy agreement that has ever been reached in Denmark.”

Garbage Warrior Reynolds Presents Carbon-Zero Living at TED

High-speed internet, LED TV, $100 per year utility bill....WHAT!?

My namesake's appearance at TED is nothing short of astounding

Some Chicks Can't Catch A Break

Backyard chicken-keeping is growing around the country, spurred by the interest in local food and sustainability.

Once upon a time everyone in Plymouth County had chickens, but recently even in Middleboro, we had a "Right to Farm" vote. That's right, we actually had to vote in a town election if a farm community that sustained a 90's real estate development boom and commuter rail installation still had the right to farm!

Apparently this is a problem around the country.

Town officials in Maplewood, N.J., decided this week that their community is ready for home chicken cooping—but only just. In a 3-2 vote, the Township Committee voted to allow a pilot program for a YEAR starting NEXT March where up to 15 households may be allowed a maximum of three chickens each; AND ROOSTERS ARE BANNED!

Read the ABC News article here.

Buying Straight From the Farm: A Growing Trend in MA

February 28, 2011
(Listen)MIDDLEBORO & BARRE, Mass. - The popularity of eating locally grown food continues to rise in New England agriculture. The number of Massachusetts and regional farmers turning toward community-supported agriculture, or CSA, has tripled in the last decade. Under the CSA model, people buy shares in a farming operation on an annual basis. In return, the farmer provides a regular supply of fresh, natural or organic produce throughout the growing season.

James Reynolds owns The Dahlia Farm, Middleboro. He says farming is hard work, but while the rewards may not necessarily be financial, the connection to community members is priceless.

"There's definitely more of a community aspect or community feel to it. We're meeting the people who are actually consuming our product, and we're getting involved with their families, their children."

Julie Rawson owns Many Hands Organic Farm and also is the executive director of The Northeast Organic Farmers Association in Massachusetts. She has run her CSA in Barre for the last 19 years. She says farmers have a huge number of expenses going into the growing season, and this business model relieves a lot of that burden.

"When people who are buying a share put up their money up front, that helps us not have to go into debt. It's a great way for the consumer and the farmer to work symbiotically: Farmers get their money up front and then consumers get their food throughout the season. You know it's of great value to both sides."

Reynolds says a lot of misconceptions still exist about buying directly from the farm - especially regarding price.

"You can actually get farm-fresh, no-pesticide, no-chemical food at a relatively fair economic price. In other words, the super-premium price you might expect to pay isn't necessarily there with your local farms."

Reynolds advises customers to shop around before buying in to a CSA. Some farms also offer half-shares, he notes.

CSAs are not limited to produce; farmers may offer shares for eggs, cheese and other products in their weekly distribution boxes or baskets. The popularity of year-round CSAs is gaining traction, too, with some farmers growing crops in greenhouses throughout the year.


Monique Coppola, Public News Service - MA


Listen to TheDahliaFarm's most recent media podcast from the Public News Service.

EnterpriseNews: Middleboro Farmer Offering Shares in Community Garden

The snow's still on the ground, but it's time to sign-up for shares of the harvest from a local garden...and a share from this CSA might be just the ticket to chase away cabin fever and a chance to dream of fat juicy tomatoes, fragrant basil and crisp cucumbers.

Pictured here, James and Cecilia Reynolds expect to see their first harvest of spring greens by the end of May, and people who want fresh vegetables for 18 weeks during the growing season can sign up for a share through Community Supported Agriculture...(see whole story)

Cow Power

Initiated in large part by our energy company in Vermont - CVPS - Cow Power is taking its place at the forefront on new alternative energies.

Featured in YouTube videos the manure/methane to electricity/propane conversion is now and early-stage reality, with an economic reality.

Although presently the economy of scale is for an 800-head dairy or larger, that efficiency should improve as the science continues to develop.

Subsidies aside, Cow Power is a new, rural emerging energy technology...

Yeehah!

Pear Gorgonzola Tart

Ok, admittedly this is not a particularly "gardeny" recipe - but then again it is fatty, fatty January.

Giada (Dino De Laurentiis granddaughter, proprietor of white teeth) has a real dead-of-winter winner with this one.

For something decidedly delicious and naughty be sure to whip up this Pear Gorgonzola Tart for the weekend or your next dinner party or pot-luck. You'll surely take the prize and be the belle of the ball.

Mmm... Yum!

Food Insecurity

Food insecurity has become so commonplace it is almost newsworthy. Almost.

With a daily bombarment of economic, political and natural disasters, the greater reality of food scarcity barely gets a mention. We hear of riots in Cairo and Tunis, but not of the rising food prices and shortages there. Not of the most basic human need to eat, being deprived.

In the United States we've had a "safe" and available food supply for years - but that is rapidly changing. Expect inflation to continue to eat away at your market basket over the next several months. The simple facts of world population growth, corporate consolidation, and engineered agriculture guarantee it. While we've recently seen riots in Mexico over the price of corn and in Bolivia over corporate control of drinking water, additional repercussions will include the accelerated spread of disease among people and animals, the poisoning of the environment, and a general sickening of everything out of the natural order.

Food recalls no longer surprise us - except by their shear magnitude. E coli contamination or industrial malfunctions are already built-in to our crisis awareness psyche. To think - the very things that support our lives.

Awareness, of course, and self-education are the first steps to conquer any challenge. Getting an understanding on American factory farming is not an exercise in depression, but rather a base to find a better alternative. Embracing the local food movement is a positive in a world of negatives. Films like Food, Inc., King Corn, The Future of Food, Blue Gold, need to be seen. There is a better way, we just have to want it.

2011 Season Begins

Happy new year and welcome back!

With this winter solstice we begin the new 2011 season on the farm. Our seeds have arrived and we have already begun to book shares for 2011.

This past year's "Compost Project" landed a generous supply of landscape waste and manure (about 120 cubic yards) which goes into our long-term soil-improvement program. We've also managed a seemingly endless supply of trucked-in oak leaves to use as a mulch for our fall-planted garlic.

Seed germination begins in about a month, so whether you are a returning share-holder or entirely new to our CSA program, be sure to sign-up soon for what promises to be our best season ever.