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The Wood
Prairie Seed Piece
e-Newsletter
Organic
News
and
Commentary
Friday,
March 9th 2018
Volume
26 Issue 5
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In This
Issue of The Wood
Prairie Seed
Piece:
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Winter Work.
Caleb Gerritsen Loading a
Pallet of Potatoes. This
photograph was taken noontime early this month on another snowy
day. That day, we had already had another five inches of snow
which Caleb had plowed out of the way right before the tractor trailer
arrived. Note the tire chains on our White
forklift. The large building in the background is our
livestock barn. It is a tarp barn made of a double layer of
white poly which keeps things cooler inside in the Summer. In
the Wintertime, it’s an inviting dry shelter for our cows and hogs,
lined with warm sawdust and hay. Inside the barn, you’d find
it is bright enough during the day to read a book. Not that
we have time to read since we’re now thick into peak shipping of our
organic seed. Since that early march day we’ve had another
foot of snow, so we must be now up to something like 110” so far this
winter.
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Caleb,
Jim
&
Megan Gerritsen & Family
Wood
Prairie Family Farm
Bridgewater,
Maine
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The Amish in Aroostook. Hard workers and
good farmers |
Downeast's
Beautiful Story About the Amish Settlers in Aroostook County, Maine.
Maine’s iconic magazine, Downeast,
recently ran a sensational
article that does justice to telling
the story of the growing Amish settlements here in Northern
Maine. You won’t want to miss it!
Not only is the article itself valuable,
but the accompanying photographs taken by talented Aroostook
photographer Paul
Cyr are stunning. After
reviewing his work you will agree Mr. Cyr makes Aroostook County look
very good.
So, pour yourself a cup of hot tea, put
your feet up and enjoy the view from here!
Caleb & Jim
Click
Here for our Organic Wood Prairie Maine Certified Seed Potatoes.
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Special Offer:
FREE
Heirloom Wood Prairie Organic Dorinny Sweet Corn Seed.
One of the tastiest crops of Summer is Sweet Corn
fresh out of the garden. We grow this Organic
Dorinny Sweet Corn Seed right here on Wood Prairie
Family Farm. Seed Corn is one of those tricky
crops to grow because of the serious potential for cross-contamination
by pollen from genetically engineered (GE) corn grown by other
farmers. Fortunately, our farm has excellent
isolation. We’re happy to report we PCR-lab test the Seed
Corn we grow and that we’ve never ever had any detectible GE
content. Organic
Dorinny is an excellent, open-pollinated, early-season
Sweet Corn from the 1920s. Eating quality is high and the
picking window is very good
for an OP.
If you’ve never
grown Organic Dorinny, you’re in for a treat! Receive a FREE
packet of
Organic Dorinny Sweet Corn when your next
order totals $30 or more. Offer ends 11:59 PM on Monday March
12, 2018, so please act today! Please use Promo Code WPFF422. Your order
and FREE Organic Dorinny Sweet Corn
must ship by May 5, 2018. Offer may not be combined with other offers.
Please click today!
Click
Here for Our Wood Prairie Organic Vegetable Seed.
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Organic
Dorinny Sweet Corn. A premier cross between Golden Bantam
and Pickaninny.
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Winter Work on Wood Prairie
Family Farm.

Bird's Eye
View of Wood Prairie Potato Storage. Back in September
this was a crowded underground storage brimming with field-run
four-foot-cube wooden pallet boxes. Now there's room to work. We built
this 14' high storage in 1999. We built it around that cellar-dwelling
Yale forklift which only knows how to work potatoes.

Jim in Cellar
Building Up Pallets. As the crew upstairs converts graded
"loose" seed potatoes into 1s, 2 1/2s, 5s, 10s and 20s, Jim works on
next week's 50 lbs. cartons going out on pallets to market farmers
across the country..

The View
Outside Our Kitchen Window. With piles of snow
threatening to hide our view entirely, this shot was taken this morning
of two Blue Jays Feeding on sunflower seeds. The younger Jay at right -
low man on the totem pole - waited patiently for #1 to eat and leave.
Then he hopped over for a sunflower lunch.

Someone is
Always A Winner. Mr. Red Squirrel wishes we had this much
snow all the time. The dangling bird feeder dangles no more.
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Notable Quotes: Wendell Berry
on Farm Experts.
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Recipe: Crisp
Potato Wedges with Rosemary.
2 Pounds Yukon
Gold Potatoes, scrubbed but not peeled
4 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 Garlic
Cloves, coarsely chopped
1 Tablespoon Finely Chopped Fresh Rosemary
Sea
Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper, to taste
Cut the ptoatoes into quarters lengthwise, and
then into 1-inch chunks. Wrap in a kitchen towel to remove the excess
surface moisture.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over
medium-high heat. Add the potatoes and cook, stirring often, until the
potatoes are golden brown all over, about 25 minutes. Transfer to a
serving bowl.
Melt the butter in the skillet. Add the
garlic and cook until crisp and golden, about 2 minutes. Mix in the
rosemary and pour over the potatoes. Season with the salt and pepper.
Serve hot.
-Megan & Angie
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Crisp Potato
Wedges with Rosemary.
Photo by Angela Wotton.
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Mailbox:
More Organic Seed Coverage.

Hi Jim,
Re: What
Dan Barber Is Cooking Up Next: A Seed Company That Puts Flavor First
They say these seeds are organic and
not genetically modified, but isn't it kinda like choosing what
features you want your unborn kids to have? Don't we have great
varieties already that we could bring back into mainstream?
NC
WWW
Actually, I'm glad the media is beginning
to notice what we organic seed growers and breeders have been working
on for many decades: breeding plants which taste good, are
nutritionally superior and perform well under organic management.
Though we seem to have bottomed out and
may now be starting a new reverse trend, the decline in public plant
breeding funding has shifted that job by default over to the
Industrial-Ag-dominated private seed industry which tends to focus on
narrow production issues like yield and GE herbicide-tolerance.
Going back to the dawn of agriculture
10,000 years ago, farmers have always been breeding ("selecting") for
improvements in their plants and that's a good thing. They wanted
better yields, better taste and better production reliability and this
is how it should be. Over the last 125 years a seed industry
disconnected from the farm concerned more about self-protection and
profits than developing traidtional agricultural and societal needs and
values has become lost and wayward.
The pendulum is beginning to swing back
to where it should always have been: people-centric seed. This article
in Forbes
is welcome coverage of good organic seed work which for too long has
gone unnoticed.
Jim
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Wood Prairie Farm Quick
Links
Caleb & Jim
& Megan Gerritsen
Wood
Prairie Family Farm
49
Kinney Road
Bridgewater,
Maine 04735
(207)
429 - 9765
Certified Organic, From Farm to Mailbox
www.woodprairie.com
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