Wood Prairie Farm
 The Seed Piece Newsletter
             Organic News and Commentary
                 Wednesday August 20, 2014
 In This Issue of The Seed Piece:

    Fall & Harvest Ahead.

     Maine Shifting From Summer to Fall. Look for our Harvest Catalog which will soon be in your mailbox. Most of the last ten days have seen consistently chilly mornings in the 40s and low 50s, and cool days in the 60s and 70s. Today we cracked 80ºF, which serves as a gentle reminder that while Summer in Northern Maine is going by, it is not yet gone.
     With the dry weather we are irrigating our crops. Work is now aimed at getting ready for harvest. Our organic Hard Red Spring Wheat and Hull-less Oats ought to be ready for our combine next week. Soon we'll begin killing potatoes to get them ready for harvest. In a month the local schools will close for the three week Harvest Break and we'll begin potato harvest in earnest. Up here it has been a pretty good growing year and the crops look good.
     We hope wherever you are, that your crops are also doing well and that your harvests ahead will be bountiful.

.
 Jim & Megan Gerritsen & Family
 Wood Prairie Farm
 Bridgewater, Maine

Click here for the Wood Prairie Farm Home Page.
GE Contamination and How It Affects Your Family's Food.

     Nick Meyer of AltHealthWorks spoke with Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA) President Jim Gerritsen and from that interview has produced this valuable article.   The piece, Organic Farmers Must Do These 11 Things Just to Prevent Being Contaminated (and Sued),  explains the impact of GE contamination and why the issue is important for both you and your family as well as organic farmers.  “'If I decided to spray my house purple and I sprayed on a day that was windy, and my purple paint drifted onto your house and contaminated your siding and shingles, there isn’t a court in the nation that wouldn’t in two minutes find me guilty of irresponsibly damaging your property,' he said. 'But when it comes to agriculture (since the advent of GMOs), all of a sudden the tables are turned.'"

    Ultimately, organic farmers must have their private property rights protected from the unwanted trespass and contamination created by irresponsible Biotech pollution if citizens are to retain their right of access to an alternative to force-fed genetically-engineered food.

   The avoidance of GE contamination looms as such a pressing issue for the organic community that OSGATA recently published an in-depth, peer-reviewed handbook to help organic farmers protect themselves from biotech’s genetic pollution.  The book is entitled Protecting Organic Seed Integrity: The Organic Farmer's Handbook to GE Avoidance and Testing.  You may download a copy of the handbook at no cost from the OSGATA website or order a hard copy version.

Click Here For Our Wood Prairie Farm Certified Organic Specialty Potatoes for Your Kitchen.

Straight Talk About GE Contamination. What every eater should know.



Baxter Park Tornado Track. Trail the trouble from July 2013 twister.

  Newly Released Video of Tornado Destruction Near Maine's Katahdin. 

     Tornadoes are rare in Maine, but they do happen and apparently with increasing frequency.  The National Weather Service has just released a birds-eye-view Aerial Flyover video (1:49) of striking damage caused by an EF1 tornado July 19, 2013 in Maine’s 200,000 acre wilderness-managed Baxter State Park which includes ‘Maine’s Greatest Mountain,’ Katahdin.

   Don’t miss portion of the video where the deep forest trees were laid down in a discernible pattern by the cyclonic winds.

   Here at Wood Prairie Farm in Bridgewater - 50 miles to Katahdin’s northeast – we were free of storms that day of Friday’s tornado.  However, just two days earlier we received nearly an inch of rain with strong thunderstorms.  That rain ended our month-long Maine ‘drought’ and with it a pattern shift which turned the rest of July 2013 into the second wettest July on record.

Jim & Megan

Click Here For Our Wood Prairie Farm Organic Pancake Mixes.
 Maine's North Pond Hermit Revisited.

     Maine’s North Pond Hermit is back in the news.  Montana journalist Michael Finkel corresponded with and spent a total of nine hours interviewing Christopher Knight while he was held in jail.  Knight, you will recall, was the man who as a twenty-year-old choose to remove himself from society and instead live as a hidden recluse alone in a tent in the woods of Maine for 27 years before being arrested during a subsistence burglary in April 2013.

   The revelations in the GQ article is the first time Chris Knight has confided in a reporter.  “He wrote little about his time in the woods, but what he did reveal was harrowing. Some years, he made it clear, he barely survived the winter. In one letter, he told me that to get through difficult times, he tried meditating. ‘I didn't meditate every day, month, season in the woods. Just when death was near. Death in the form of too little food or too much cold for too long.’ Meditation worked, he concluded. ‘I am alive and sane, at least I think I'm sane.’ As always there was no formal closing. His letters simply ended, sometimes mid-thought.”

    Extensive details of Chris’ remarkable solitary life have been revealed in Finkel’s MUST READ article in the new September issue of GQ magazine.

Jim

Click Here for our Wood Prairie Farm Organic Grain Pantry Section.

Christopher Knight. Maine Hermit featured in new GQ.  (Illustration by Tim O'Brien)
Notable Quotes: Thoreau on Sweet Corn.

Delicious Blueberry Zucchini Bread.
Photo by Angela Wotton		 Recipe: Blueberry Zucchini Bread

3 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 c vegetable oil
3 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c sugar
3 c shredded zucchini
3 c whole wheat flour
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 T ground cinnamon
1 pint fresh blueberries

Crumb Topping
2/3 c flour
1/2 c brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 c softened butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease Bundt pan and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar. Fold in zucchini.

Mix in flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon and stir until combined.

Gently fold in blueberries and move to Bundt pan.

For the crumb topping, mix the ingredients with your hands and sprinkle over the top of the batter. Bake 55 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Megan
Special Offer: FREE Shipping! On Your Next Order! Hurry! Limited Time Offer!

If you act right away you earn yourself a great deal with our FREE Shipping on your next order. It’s easy and here’s how!

1) First, place your order online, by phone or mail it in.

2) Then tell us when you want your order shipped

*** Ship Now - if the goods are in stock and ready-to-go.

 - or –

*** Ship As Soon as Your Items are Harvested  - as in the case of our Organic Seed or Kitchen Potatoes and Winter Vegetables, products which will be ready at Harvest in September and October.

 – or –

*** Ship Later in the Fall , Winter or even Next Spring - as in the case of our Winter or Spring planted Organic Seed Potatoes which are shipped directly out of our state-of-the-art underground potato storage facility.

   Please use Promo Code WPF1184.  Special FREE Shipping! Offer order (minimum order $35) will be processed now and order must ship by 5/1/15.  Order may not be combined with other offers or deals. FREE Shipping Offer is for retail orders only and is limited to a maximum $300 shipping credit so you can SAVE BIG on all orders including huge amounts of Organic Certified Seed Potatoes.   But this is a Limited Time Offer and you MUST ORDER NOW! Subzero temperatures may delay mid-winter shipping until the weather warms.

 Questions? Call (800)829-9765! Special FREE Shipping! Offer ends Monday August 25, 2014 at Midnight so please call or click today!

Click here for our Wood Prairie Farm Organic Maine Certified Seed Potato Section

FREE Shipping! on Your Next Order of Wood Prairie Farm Organic Potatoes or any other product. Harvest is just around the corner.
Our Mailbox: Ready For Organic & Impressed with Potatoes.



Ready For Organic.

Dear WPF.

     Placed an order with Jon today via telephone - so helpful, knowledgeable, efficient & pleasant too - thanks so much. Boy are we ever ready for Wood Prairie Farm's Organic Food! We pretty much eat it all due to limited growing space (and with help of some wildlife and neighbors) and it's organic (we share).
     We love your food and so do our family and friends and for this "chef" it's nice to know I'm ready if they drive up. I'm still very verbal about use of unnecessary, harmful chemicals, GMO etc. Thank you for your work. We're with you.

JD
Richmond, VA

WPF Replies.

     We're grateful for your good words and appreciate your many years of business.

Jim & Megan.

Impressed with Potatoes.

Dear WPF.

      Jim Gerritsen & Family,

     I recently received my order of parsnips, carrots and 5 grain cereal. We are enjoying all of these products. I had only tried parsnips once before and they were not organic and they were from a grocery store. I did not like them and had not eaten them since. So I took a chance on your parsnips, thinking if I still hate fresh, organic ones, I might be able to give them away. No one is getting your parsnips. I loved them!
     I also ordered 50 lbs of potatoes when you had a special on them offering free shipping. The potatoes arrived after the parsnip order, and I can't begin to tell you how impressed I was with them when I first opened the box. The care that was taken with handling and cleaning those potatoes was quiet evident. And the flavor is fantastic.
     Shortly after I placed the potato order, I was a bit angry with myself that I took advantage of your free shipping offer. I could see that it cost you $20 to deliver them to me. And I am well aware of all the time and effort you put into trying to fight Monsanto and trying to ensure that our food supply is safe. I am also a member of MOFGA and know of your support of them. Plus I have liked your Facebook page and have read all of your posts about the injustices that are being brought upon farmers by big business and Monsanto and their likes. If you suggest we sign a petition etc. I am on it. My husband and I grew up in Dayton, Ohio where Monsanto was first headquartered (the Mound) and have friends and family who have suffered illness and death from the unhealthy working conditions there.
     Thank you so much for the work you do. It means a lot to us.
     Enclosed please find a check to reimburse you for shipping the potatoes plus a bit more to show our appreciation. And also thank you for the wonderful produce!

With deep appreciation,

PF
Jonesboro, Maine

WPF Replies.

     You are very kind and offer proof that we have the best customers in the world. Thank you.

Jim & Megan
 Jim & Megan Gerritsen
 Wood Prairie Farm
 49 Kinney Road
 Bridgewater, Maine 04735
 (800)829-9765 Certified Organic, Direct from the Farm
 www.woodprairie.com