Art, Food at Better Farm for Harvest Weekend

Better Farm is slated to participate in Jefferson County's first Harvest Tour Weekend from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29, and 12-4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30, with fresh produce at our farmstand, handmade items, T-shirts, and a gallery exhibit featuring sculptural work by visiting betterArts resident Kevin Carr.

Those interested in learning more about agriculture in the North Country—and sampling some great, local food—will have the opportunity to visit dozens of farms and agribusinesses to tour facilities, meet the animals, sample the wine, buy fresh produce and homemade goods, and see exactly where their food comes from.
At Better Farm, our farm stand will be open, featuring fresh produce, handmade items, and T-shirts. Our gallery and studio space will also be open with art for sale. Kevin Carr, this month's artist-in-residence, will have his completed work on display throughout the weekend. We will additionally be offering tours to the general public of our gardens, outbuildings, and studio spaces. Here are a few photos of Kevin's work:

Kevin is a 22-year-old artist from Canandaigua, N.Y., who has been living in Redwood for the month of September as part of the betterArts residencyprogram. Carr earned a bachelor of fine arts from Alfred University's School of Art and Design. He has served as director of Alfred University's Robert C. Turner Student Gallery, and as a teaching assistant at his school's painting department. His work has appeared in several galleries and in print. 

The work he has produced during his residency is centralized around concepts of sustainability and recycling; utilizing otherwise discarded objects such as bottle caps, plastic bags, and bread ties. "A lot of my work is about collections of objects that are often overlooked because they appear insignificant," Kevin said, "but when displayed in large masses they become significant and make people think about what the object really is, what it does, and why it is so small. For a while, I have wanted to create works involving recycled items, things that would normally be thrown away or tossed somewhere to sit forever. Imagine thousands of beer bottle caps, bread clips, plastic grocery bags, or discarded receipts shown or displayed together in a systematic way. This would draw the viewer's attention to how throwing away something small like a rubber band or a toilet paper tube can actually cause a large amount of waste when 15 million other people also just threw away one of these objects. I aim to bring my creative and systematic way of lying out and creating work to prove a point about waste with a project about recycling.The sculptures I create promote recycling and sustainability." 

 The fall season is a beautiful time to travel our country roads, look at the great colors of the season and purchase a vast variety of fresh produce.  Gather the kids, grab a cooler and hit the road! Your neighborhood farms will be ready to show you around, answer some questions and help you learn more about agriculture in the North Country.

For more information about the harvest tour and other agritourism opportunities in the North Country, visit www.agvisit.com. Better Farm is located at 31060 Cottage Hill Road in Redwood. Call (315) 482-2536 for more information. To learn more about betterArts, visit www.betterarts.net.

Harvest Tour Weekend Sept. 29 and 30

 


































Jefferson County's first Harvest Tour Weekend is slated from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29, and 12-4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30. Those interested in learning more about agriculture in the North Country—and sampling some great, local food—will have the opportunity to visit dozens of farms and agribusinesses to tour facilities, meet the animals, sample the wine, buy fresh produce and homemade goods, and see exactly where their food comes from.

At Better Farm, our farm stand will be open, featuring fresh produce, handmade items, and T-shirts. Our gallery and studio space will also be open with art for sale. Kevin Carr, this month's artist-in-residence, will have his completed work on display throughout the weekend. We will additionally be offering tours to the general public of our gardens, outbuildings, and studio spaces.

The fall season is a beautiful time to travel our country roads, look at the great colors of the season and purchase a vast variety of fresh produce.  Gather the kids, grab a cooler and hit the road! Your neighborhood farms will be ready to show you around, answer some questions and help you learn more about agriculture in the North Country. 

For more information about the harvest tour and other agritourism opportunities in the North Country, visit www.agvisit.com.

Heirloom Tomatoes at Better Farm

Say goodbye to your store-bought tomatoes. You haven't tasted anything like Better Farm's heirloom tomato plants.

In the last several decades, we've lost about 75 percent of the genetic diversity in our seeds. Through GMO programs by bigwhigs like Monsanto, smaller family farms that supported heirloom varieties have disappeared; and the multitude of heirlooms that had adapted to survive well for hundreds of years were lost or replaced by fewer hybrid tomatoes, bred for their commercially attractive characteristics. (Click here to learn all about how we sacrificed flavor for irrelevant, tasteless color.)

In the process, we have also lost much of the ownership of foods typically grown by family gardeners and small farms, and we are loosing the genetic diversity at an accelerating and alarming rate.
Every heirloom variety is genetically unique and inherent in this uniqueness is an evolved resistance to pests and diseases and an adaptation to specific growing conditions and climates. With the reduction in genetic diversity, food production is drastically at risk from plant epidemics and infestation by pests. Call this genetic erosion.

As genetic diversityerodes, our capacity to maintainand enhance crop forest andlivestock productivity decreasesalong with the ability to respond tochanging conditions. Geneticresources hold the key to increasingfood security and improving thehuman condition.

The late Jack Harlan, world-renowned plant collector who wrote the classic Crops and Man while Professor of Plant Genetics at University of Illinois at Urbana, wrote, "These resources stand between us and catastrophic starvation on a scale we cannot imagine. In a very real sense, the future of the human race rides on these materials. The line between abundance and disaster is becoming thinner and thinner, and the public is unaware and unconcerned. Must we wait for disaster to be real before we are heard? Will people listen only after it is too late."

It is up to us as gardeners and responsible stewards of the earth to assure that we sustain the diversity afforded us through heirloom varieties.

Here's a quick cheat sheet about heirloom plants:

1. Commercial Heirlooms: Open-pollinated varieties introduced before 1940, or tomato varieties more than 50 years in circulation.
2. Family Heirlooms: Seeds that have been passed down for several generations through a family.
3. Created Heirlooms: Crossing two known parents (either two heirlooms or an heirloom and a hybrid) and dehybridizing the resulting seeds for how ever many years/generations it takes to eliminate the undesirable characteristics and stabilize the desired characteristics, perhaps as many as 8 years or more.
4. Mystery Heirlooms: Varieties that are a product of natural cross-pollination of other heirloom varieties.

(Note: All heirloom varieties are open-pollinated but not all open-pollinated varieties are heirloom varieties.)

At Better Farm, we got a bunch of different heirloom tomato seeds this year from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Here's some information about the varieties of striped, green, and red tomatoes we have for sale at our farm stand :

(Lycopersicon lycopersicum) This crop, native to the Americas, has become the most popular garden crop over the last 200 years. We offer an amazing selection of many of the finest old varieties in lots of delicious colors! A few heirloom varieties have plants that don't get quite so large. Called "determinate" varieties, these get to a certain size and then set all their fruit more or less at once. Determinates may be a better choice where tomatoes are grown in a very small garden, or in containers. All varieties are believed to be 'indeterminate' (long vines), unless specified 'determinate' (short vines). The best tasting varieties tend to be indeterminate, as most of ours are unless otherwise noted. 

Everyone at the farm attests to the fullness of flavor on these tomatoes; like your classic beefsteak or roma on steroids. The various sizes make them universally great for stews, sauces, or sandwiches.

Organic heirloom tomatoes available at farm stand, varying prices according to size. Special bulk orders can be called in: (315) 482-2536.

Lettuce Present: Aquaponic harvest

Lettuce and baby herbs in our aquaponic grow bed.

Back in July we finished our aquaponic setup in Better Farm's library, complete with grow light, grow bed, light stand, and 70-gallon fish tank which also served as a home to a dozen or more koi, goldfish, minnows, and one friendly sucker fish.

Just one month later, our crop of organic, loose-leaf lettuce is ready for harvest. That's a full month earlier than most lettuce grown in dirt! The leaves on our aquaponic lettuce are unbelievably delicate and nutritious—be sure to stop by our farm stand and see for yourself! You can read all about the benefits of aquaponic gardening here.

Here are some photos of our setup:

For more information on setting up an aquaponic system in your own home, school, or office, click here.

The Delicious Lemon Cucumber

The lemon cucumber is an heirloom plant introduced in 1894. The fruit has is the size and color of a lemon, with great disease resistance and the fresh, crispy flavor of a cucumber. These plants hare hardy, prolific, and great tasting.

We got our non-GMO cucumber lemon seeds at a seed party in Alexandria Bay a few months ago. The seeds themselves came from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, a great non-GMO seed purveyor. We found them extremely easy to grow, and less vulnerable to pests than regular varieties of cucumbers.

Unlike the pluot or aprium, which are true cross-bred composites of separate fruits, this apple-cheeked salad stuffer is indeed a cucumber that merely resembles a brightly sour lemon and is actually slightly sweeter than other cucumbers. Like its relatives, the gourd and the squash, the cucumber is classified as a fruit for having enclosed seeds and developing from a flower but is associated with vegetables for its more neutral flavor and use in savory dishes.

Want to taste? Lemon cucumbers are available at our farm stand! Here are some great, simple recipes for these delicious fruits:

Lemon cucumbers with pesto - from White on Rice Couple
Lemon cucumber tofu salad - by Heidi of 101 Cookbooks
Lemon cucumber soup bowls - from Straight from the Farm
Albacore Tuna Salad with Lemon Cucumbers - from Seattle Bon Vivant
Lemon Cucumbers with Toasted Sesame Seeds - from All the Marmalade

Farm Stand Opens Tomorrow!

Better Farm soaps!

Our farm stand will open at 9 a.m. tomorrow, featuring an assortment of Better Farm goods.

Available for sale tomorrow will be turnips, radishes, handmade soaps (pressed with herbs from our gardens), T-shirts, coffee, and fresh herbs including sage, chives, and oregano.

We'll also have sign-ups available for our full summer workshop series. Please stop in and say hello!

Our farm stand is located on-site at 31060 Cottage Hill Road, Redwood NY, 13679.

Herbiculture

Oregano, sage, garlic chives, and asparagus.

The herb beds at Better Farm provide us with everything we need for spicing our food, flavoring our refreshments, and scenting our homemade products such as soap and candles.


The herb beds are a combination of reclaimed wood, Hugelkultur, and mulch gardening methods. In the last few years we've grown everything from amaranth to asparagus out of these beds. Here's the short list of what you can find out there this year (dried and fresh herbs will be available at the Better Farm Stand throughout the spring, summer, and fall):

Basil
Celery Flakes
Chia Sprouts
Chickory
Cilantro
Dill
Garlic
Garlic Chives
Marjoram
Mint
Oregano
Parsley
Sage
Salad Greens
Scallions
Lavender
Tarragon

Grow, Baby, Grow

The weather in the last week has caused a bit of a growth spurt among our baby plants. Peas poking their heads up outside in the garden, young spinach plants climbing several inches in the last week—spring has finally sprung at Better Farm.

Here's a short list of what we've got growing so far, followed by a photo tour of what's happening in our greenhouse and garden beds:

Note: All produce comes from non-GMO, 100% organic seeds. We use no chemical-based pesticides or fertilizers, and utilize our own organic compost as planting and top soil.

Short list: Vegetables (More being planted next week!)

• Asparagus
• Beets 
• Broccoli
• Brussels Sprouts
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Eggplant
• Garlic
• Kale  
• Leeks
• Lettuce (five varieties)
• Lima Beans
• Okra
• Onion
• Peas (three varieties)
• Peppers (three varieties)
• Radishes
• Spinach
• Tomatoes

 Outdoor veggies:
Peas

 Asparagus

 Garlic

 Celery re-growing out of an already-used heel:

Better Farm Scores a Spot on the 1000 Islands Agricultural Tour

Better Farm has been invited to take part in this year's 1000 Islands Agricultural Tour, a project undertaken by the 1000 Islands International Tourism Council that maps and compiles information about local farms in a free brochure. Visitors can follow the map, listen on cell phones to an audio tour, and stop in at the local operations. Similar to historic buildings tours or wine trails, the 1000 Islands Agricultural Tour allows you to sample local wines, veggies, fruits, honey, cheeses, ciders, and more—and visit with unbelievably adorable barnyard animals, alpacas, horses—and now, all the diverse, creative creatures calling Better Farm home.


When you visit the ag tour's website, be sure to check out our page! And don't forget to order a brochure—the weekend-long ag open house is slated for 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, July 21, and 12-4 p.m. Sunday, July 22. That event, open to the public, is designed to promote the agricultural industry throughout Jefferson County. It's a great chance to visit a number of local family farms, including but not limited to dairy, livestock, fruit and vegetable farms, wineries, butcher shops, and farm supply businesses. Each location will have a special, weekend-long feature going on especially for that event. Not to be missed!

For those of you who haven't stopped by Better Farm yet, that will be a perfect weekend to see what our synthesis of sustainability and creative expression looks like. The open house is supported by Jefferson County Agricultural Development Corporation, the 1000 Islands International Tourism Council, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County, and the Jefferson County Chapter of Adirondack Harvest.

Farms and agricultural businesses interested in participating can go to www.agvisit.com or www.comefarmwithus.com to download a participation form.  The application deadline is March 30. To order a free brochure of the farms included in the tour, click here.

Spotlight On: Dinnerlist

We got an e-mail the other day from Faye Hess, a professional chef living down in New York City, inviting us to take part in her latest project called Dinnerlist:

Hi, I am a professional cook living in NYC (my main gig is teaching cooking in Tuscany) and I am working to get people to connect through their food. At the moment I'm trying to figure out how to get people in NYC to post what they had for dinner with those who farm upstate so that each of us has a better sense of how we live, how we eat, and how we can help each other. For us down here in the city, I think it could be a first step to feeling personally connected to farms upstate.

When I think of farming, or group living, I think of how we eat and what we eat as being an important part of it. If you created a "dinnerlist (group)" for Better Farm, you could post menus, which I imagine coincide with what's available locally, seasonally. If members of the surrounding community joined the Better Farm dinnerlist, my hope is that it might be one more way for them to feel connected to Better Farm—even be inspired to eat locally, seasonally, and communally, themselves. It could also be a way for members that come and go to stay in touch by posting what they are now eating wherever the world has taken them, and to be reminded of their meals at Redwood.

We dutifully took a look at the Dinnerlist site and joined right away. Care to join us? You can post anything you're eating, get and share great recipes, post video, create photo albums, and even live-blog right on the site. If you join, be sure to let us know so we can take this on together! We'll start posting early next week. Happy eating!

Three Honor-System Farm Stand Models

We're in Business

Better Farm's brand-new, custom-made farm stand and signs.

Last year was our first foray into organic gardening. Not knowing whether anything would grow in that hard, clay-rich North Country soil, Better Farm's interns and residents waded into the responsibility of no-till, no-pesticide, no-chemical fertilizer, 100-percent organic mulch gardening carefully. The ensuing crop—which supplied produce for the 12 people staying here—was all the indication we needed that whatever this mad experiment was, it was working.

So this year, we went bigger.

The amazing crop of interns (Jaci Collins, Natasha Pietila, Soon Kai Poh, and Elizabeth Musoke) set about doubling the size of this year's garden. Then, they (along with artist-in-residence Erica Hauser) built an additional bed for the herb gardens. Transplanting all the babies from the greenhouse took weeks. But when the proverbial smoke finally cleared, the veggies and fruits started coming. And coming. And coming.

With more food due than we can possibly eat, the latest mission has been to expand our outreach. First up was to begin the process of drying many of our herbs (parsley, cilantro, oregano, and dill so far). Next, and probably most important, was to upgrade from last year's farm stand:

Yes, it was totally adorable; but we needed more shade, more space, and more stability against the harsh winds and rains of the North Country. So we enlisted some nice Amish folks down by Pamelia, N.Y., to make us a farm stand just like theirs. We got to pick it up yesterday and stocked it this morning...

Organic, homemade soaps

Items available for sale (subject to season and ripeness):
Vegetables—cucumbers, onions, peas, lima beans, brussels sprouts, kale, broccoli, string beans (two varieties), squash (three varieties), pumpkins, cauliflower, cabbage, tomatoes (several varieties), peppers (two varieties), soybeans, beets, carrots, lentils, lettuce, spinach, asparagus
Herbs—chives, mint, cilantro, parsley, oregano, basil, summer savory, chicory, amaranth, chamomile, echinacea
Baked Goods—breads by special order, custom pies, cookies, brownies, and other baked goods. Vegan options available
Homemade Body and Home Care—100% organic soaps, shampoos, conditioners, laundry detergents, and dish soap