The agriculture-industry complex has sprayed vegetables with pesticides, injected growth hormones…read moreinto meat, and burned the soil with untold chemicals. Chickens are grown in cages barely large enough to move around in and ducks are force fed grain to enlarge their tasty livers. High fructose corn syrup is the sweetener of choice and a list of ingredients reads like a chemistry experiment. This is the world we live in. Captain Planet! He's our hero. He's gonna bring pollution down to zero!
Unfortunately, there are no Captain Planets to save the day. Left to our own devices, we've filled our bodies with artificial hormones, flavors and fats. Is it no wonder we face epidemics of childhood diabetes, strange allergies, and gross obesity?
Organic farming is the growing movement to provide meats, fruits, and vegetables free from the effects of these pesticides, growth hormones, and additives in an agriculturally sustainable manner. Organic and naturally grown foodstuffs are readily available at your nearest Trader Joe's or Wholefoods, but by and large, organic farming is still in its infancy.
When I first heard of a community supported agriculture (csa), my thought was this must be a secret chef-only society. As it turns out, a csa is an open membership, where you buy-in a farm share for a particular season. Basically, you get organically grown produce sent to you directly from the farmer, supporting both your local farmer and organic farming. And, it's farm fresh produce, picked that week, maybe even that day!
Knowing practically none of this and on the promise of camping, I took the opportunity to visit the organic farmer for my friend's Stanton St CSA at Windflower Farms this past weekend (as of the date of this writing).
The drive from Jersey to Valley Forge, NY was a slow journey in excess of four hours, deep into the boonies.
Turning the corner on gravelly Meetinghouse Road, the sight of 12 acre Windflower Farm greeted us. A pale blue farmhouse sat guarding the entrance.
Ted Blomgren, the farmer, quickly introduced himself. He and his wife Jan, along with their boys, volunteers, and permenant farmhands, operate the farm together. After pitching our tent beneath the leafy green auspiciouses of a towering tree, we navigated down from the knoll to join Ted on a short tour of the farm.
We started off at the tomato patch. I could see rows and rows of tomato vines weighed down with red and ripening plump tomatoes. The smell of a real tomato leaf is my favorite vegetable smell. It reminds of the gardens I had back home. I used to love rubbing a few leaves in my hands and breathing in the scents. In any case, Ted spoke intelligently about the use of plastic coverings to control humidity and encourage growth. The trick he said was to know when to take the covering off. Too long and leaf rot will set in early. Or how he lost his bean crop to black rot, and the methodology and testing that went in identifying the suspect seeds rather than saving the crop through chemical sprays.
Walking along, we saw patches of red and white swiss chard, stalks of broccoli, flowing waves of bright green fennel fronds, leafy carrots with the orange roots just peeking from the dirt, green chili peppers, long yellow banana peppers, dusty brown potatoes, smiling sunflowers yellow and bright, squabbling roosters of all colors, rows of red, purple, white flowers, and a lost baby kitten wandering around the broccoli patch.
In the afternoon, Ted took us on a tractor ride up a grassy bluff over looking the valley to watch the sun setting in the distance. The sleepy sun cast brilliant shades of red, orange and purple across the sky. Rolling hills covered in thick green grass and tall trees plump with leafy foliage dominated the vista. Unsurprisingly, weddings are commonly celebrated here. The ride back down led us through an old apple orchard, the fruit still green and sour, and a herd of cows where the calfs were leaping up and down playfully at the sight of us.
In the evening, with a large campfire roaring, burning cords of garlic stems, and the scents of marshmallows roasting on long sticks lingering around, the stars, sparkling like diamonds, arrived en masse. The deeply blue sky so numerous with twinkling stars bright and clear made it feel as if I could reach up and scoop up a handful. The occasional shooting star brought an outworldly entertainment to our little group. How many tender wishes did that star carry back that night I wonder?
As we were packing up our gear the next morning and munching on a breakfast of sweet potatoes and eggs (and a fresh tomato secretly picked..), I came to the realization that if there are any heroes left saving our planet, then it's folks like Ted and Jan Blomgren.
Note: A big thanks to Nina for inviting all of us up to her CSA and also for letting me use her camera to take pictures: (http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/RbspegQaEqOPtIrKkSQKVQ?select=p3M9bYdGDjax6V4aaGGmpg)
Review 8/25/2008
I.M.Y.
