|
The Wood
Prairie Seed Piece
e-Newsletter
Organic
News
and
Commentary
Friday,
March 23rd 2018
Volume
26 Issue 6
|
In This
Issue of The Wood
Prairie Seed
Piece:
|
An Early Spring?
Earl Fruit Company 'Yosemite
Brand,' Circa 1920. Beautiful
fruit crate label art used one-hundred-years ago by M.A. Murphy of
Highgrove in California’s Riverside County. Here in Maine,
our beautiful landscape resembles a deep white canvas as our steady
series of snowfalls builds up our snow pack pushing back
Spring. Inside and underground we are hard at work sorting
organic seed potatoes, bagging them up and shipping them out.
We are at peak shipping and with our crack crew we have been keeping up
with orders. Last Sunday morning the outside thermometer read
+4oF, reminding us that while we’re emerging from the depths of Winter,
it isn’t so very far behind us.
.
Caleb,
Jim
&
Megan Gerritsen & Family
Wood
Prairie Family Farm
Bridgewater,
Maine
|
Stripes of Wildflowers to Cut
Down Pests.

This beautiful photo accompanies a
recent article in The
Guardian. Scientists in
Central and Eastern England are experimenting with using wildflowers to
attract beneficial insects which work as natural predators, eating
damaging insect pests which threaten crops. Planting
twenty-foot-wide flower stripes every 300 feet in large
fields seems to effectively mesh well with the predator insects natural
ranging ability.
|
Special Offer:
FREE
Organic Maine Easter Egg Baby Potatoes.
While not by any means the record-setting ‘Early
Easter’ of 1818, when Easter was celebrated on March 22, this year
Easter is fairly early. In these parts, the old timers had a
saying “Early Easter, Early Spring. Time will tell how early
– or late- our Spring will be. But one thing’s for certain
and that is Easter 2018 is little more than one week away.
Still plenty of time
- if you act fast - to get some of our colorful Easter
Egg Baby Potatoes to enjoy with your Easter
Dinner.
Now enjoy some Easter Eggs
Potatoes and it will be on us. Receive a FREE
2 Lb. Sack of Organic Easter Egg Baby Potatoes (Value
$16.95) when your next order totals $69 or more. FREE
2 Lb. Sack of Organic Easter Egg Baby Potatoes Offer ends
11:59 PM on Sunday, March 25, 2018, so please hurry!
Please use Promo Code WPFF423. Your order
and FREE 2 Lb. Sack of Organic
Easter Egg Baby Potatoes must ship by April 6, 2018. Offer
may not be combined with other offers. Please click today!
Click
Here for for Selection of Wood Prairie Organic Potatoes for Your
Kitchen.
|

Wood Prairie
Easter Eggs. Baby potatoes for Easter or anytime.
|
Wood Prairie Family Farm Photos.

Amy Sorting
Next Week's Wood Prairie Orders. Youngest Gerritsen Amy
(who just turned 15 last week) had a day off today from High School due
to teachers' meetings and volunteered to help Megan sort through the
many hundreds of orders going out next week. Amy is working
beside Megan in her office adorned with our kids' grammar school
artwork from years gone by. Can you tell we're descendants of Dutch
painter Rembrandt?

Worm's Eye
View: Caleb Stacking Cartons on Pallets of Organic Seed Potatoes
Heading South. Caleb topping off pallets which would have
been too tall to fit through the potato storage door. Each
carton of potatoes weights 50 pounds and there are seven cartons per
layer. We can fit six layers on a pallet and get it out
through the door. Any needed layer over six high gets added
on top outside before loading on the truck.

Reverence and
Good-Natured Maine Humor. Look closely for the words on
the back of the cab of this truck which he had just loaded with those
pallets Caleb had built up. The truck is from the LeJoie's Grand Prix
Farms in Van Buren, up in Northern Maine's Acadian French
country. After five generations, this potato farm is still
going strong. Farm patriarch Normand LeJoie passed on five
years ago after enjoying over 50 years of potato farming and driving
trucks up and down the East Coast. Mr. LaJoie was
affectionately known as "Superfrog, the harmonica playing truck
driver." The potato truck's lettering pays tribute to Normand
with the words "In Memory of Superfrog."

The Snows
Keep Coming to Maine. In the last issue of the Wood
Prairie Seed Piece we showed a photo of snow
building up outside our kitchen window. Here's that same
window - with the bird feeder encased in snow - after additional storms
have dropped snow and now covered up our window completely. By the end
of April most of this snow will be gone.
|
Notable Quotes: Jim Hightower
on Philosophy.
|
Recipe: Veggie Soup.
1 T olive oil
1 c finely chopped onion
½ c chopped celery
½ c diced green pepper
1 c diced carrot
(about 2 carrots)
2 garlic cloves, minced
15.5 oz beans,
rinsed and drained (optional)
2 c cubed Carola
potato (about 2 medium)
1 small winter squash ( Butternut,
Delicata),
cubed
1 – 2 c water
2 (14.5-oz) cans vegetable broth
1 tsp dried thyme
or oregano
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook
until translucent. Add celery, green peppers, carrots and garlic; cook,
stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes. Stir in potatoes, squash and
spices. Add broth and just enough water to cover vegetables. Bring to a
boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 40 minutes or until vegetables are
tender. If using beans, add for last 20 minutes of cooking.
- Megan & Angie
|
Veggie Soup.
Photo by Angela Wotton.
|
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
|