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Wood
Prairie Farm
The
Seed
Piece Newsletter
Organic
News
and
Commentary
Friday,
August 21 2015
Volume 22 Issue 17
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In This
Issue of The Seed Piece:
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Beating the
Heat.
The National
Heirloom Expo - A Community Celebration of Diversity & the
People's Rightful Ownership of Good Food and Seed. We
hope you'll join us for this year's Expo - which begins in California
the day after Labor Day - as many, many thousands of us come together
and commemorate the phenomenal seed work performed by our common
ancestors going back hundreds of generations. Learn more about this
not-be-missed annual event in the next article
of the Seed Piece.
Through last week we imagined we were
trending into the cooler weather of Fall. Then, this week - BAM! In
recent days we've seen the hottest days yet this Summer - a heat wave
in which we approached 90ºF for several days. This week as we moved
irrigation lines sweat poured off our brows.
The best antidote we know of for this
week's hot weather in Maine is to think about January - just as come
January we'll warm up thinking back to these dog days of August.
.
Jim
&
Megan Gerritsen & Family
Wood
Prairie Farm
Bridgewater,
Maine
Click here for the
Wood Prairie Farm Home Page.
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Fiddle
Contest at NHE. No need to resist the temptation. We'll
see you there!
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This
Year's National
Heirloom Expo: Don't Miss It!
In just a couple of short weeks the 5th
Annual National Heirloom Exposition will be held
at the Sonoma Fairgrounds, in Santa Rosa, north of San
Francisco. The event runs for three days and begin the day
after Labor Day on Tuesday, September 8.
Every year, the Expo draws over 18,000
visitors. The three day event is jam-packed with unbelievably
diverse displays: over
4000 varieties of heirloom fruits and vegetables and more;
interesting talks by over
100 speakers – including this year, the incredible Vandana
Shiva ; over 300 vendors; loads of old-time family music;
Art of the Heirloom Exhibit; Farmers Market; Giant Pumpkin Contest;
great seed, delicious food, practical tools for down-to-earth living
and much, much more!
The crew from Wood Prairie Farm will be headed
west for this National Heirloom Expo. We will be selling our
organic seed and organic Maine Certified Seed Potatoes - all three days
- from our booth located in the Vendor’s Arena. We hope you will make every
effort to attend. You won’t be
disappointed! Please
bring along your kids, bring your friends, and stop by and say ‘Hi!’
Jim will be presenting twice at the
Expo. First, he will offer a family farmer’s perspective on a
panel
discussion moderated by Lisa Stokke of Food
Democracy Now! The panel will examine the
negative impact GE crops have on food and farming. Then, Jim
will deliver a talk entitled, How Real
Organic Is At Risk, Strong Standards Under Threat.
The wildly successful National Heirloom Expo is
the brainchild of our friends, Jere and Emilee Gettle of Baker
Creek Heirloom Seeds in Mansfield,
Missouri. Jere started Baker Creek Seed eighteen years ago
when he was just 17 years old – after having saved seed since he was
three.
Jere has been trying to get us to
present at the Expo since its inception. Last winter, when Jim
spoke at the Missouri Organic Association conference
in Springfield, he took some time to visit nearby Baker Creek Seed,
part of Jere and Emilee’s famous
destination historic village – Bakersville - located in the beautiful
Missouri Ozarks. That visit of Jim’s led to our
decision to accept Jere’s long-standing invitation.
This year we hope you will be able to
follow our lead. Come and join your many friends who
will be at this remarkable National
Heirloom Expo.
See you there,
Jim & Megan
Click
Here for Our Organic Wood Prairie Farm Maine Certified Seed Potatoes.
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Special
Offer: FREE Smart Bag Growing
Container.
In recent years, gardening in containers
has really taken off. Why? Because containers allow
anyone
anywhere to get their hands dirty and grow some good
food. Our friend, Janet, has outfitted every window in her
New York City apartment with window boxes – easy to tend and easy to
plant with herbs and greens.
We’ve found these ingenious Wood
Prairie Smart Bags to be a sensible and
practical solution to container gardening needs. The fiber bags are
rugged and re-usable. They allow one to successfully grow
even the bigger plants like tomatoes and potatoes.
Here’s your chance to get a FREE Wood Prairie 15-Gallon Smart Bag
(Value $12.95) on your next order where the goods total $55 or
more. Please use
Promo Code WPF469. Your order and FREE
Wood Prairie 15-Gallon Smart
Bag must ship by 11/15/15. Offer Expires
11:59p.m., Monday, August 24, so please do hurry!
Click
Here for our Wood Prairie Farm Organic Vegetable Seed Section.
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Smart Bags.
The perfect container which gives you the freedom to garden almost
anywhere. |
Alabama Family Farmer Michael
White. In ten minutes this powerful video shows why
Monsanto can't be trusted.
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Neil Young's Powerful Video of Farmer
Michael White.
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Kansas
Organic Turkey Red Winter Wheat Harvest Now Complete.
Our good friends Bryce and Linda
Stephens, and daughter Demetria, of Stephens
Land & Cattle Company, near Jennings in
western Kansas, have completed a successful winter wheat
harvest. These fifth generation Kansas wheat farmers
harvested an excellent crop of landrace
Organic Turkey Red Winter Wheat – their best
crop since 2010.
Here is a short
video (0:34) of this year’s Turkey Red harvest in Kansas.
The Stephens family, longtime organic
farmers, is widely credited with saving Turkey Red Wheat – once grown
on millions of acres around Kansas - from extinction. The
famous heirloom Turkey Red was brought to Kansas by Mennonite Colonies
in 1874 and is renowned for its exceptional baking qualities and
taste. The Organic
Turkey Red Winter Wheat seed we sell was grown
by the Stephens. Now is
the time to begin planting winter wheat at Maine’s latitude.
The Stephens are very active in the
organic community. As President of Organic Seed Growers and Trade
Association (OSGATA), Jim works closely with Bryce who
serves as OSGATA Vice-President. Demetria is longtime
Secretary on the International Board of Directors of pioneering
farmer-owned and farmer-run organic certifier Organic Crop Improvement
Association (OCIA) based in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Here’s a video
(1:01) of camera-shy Demetria driving
a loud John Deere 4430 tractor last October as she was re-planting some
ground to Turkey Red.
Jim & Megan
Click
Here for Our Organic Turkey Red Winter Wheat Seed.
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Demetria
Stephens with 2015 Turkey Red Wheat. The yardstick shows
that this Turkey Red is four feet tall. |
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Recipe:
Zucchini-Oatmeal Muffins.
1 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c whole wheat
flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 T baking
powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 c chopped pecans
4 eggs
1 medium zucchini,
grated
3/4 c salad oil
Preheat oven to 400 F. Grease (12) 3" x 1 1/2" muffin pan cups.
In large bowl, mix together first 7 ingredients. In a separate bowl,
beat eggs slightly; stir in grated zucchini and salad oil. Stir egg
mixture into flour just until flour is moistened.
Spoon batter into muffin cups. Bake 25 minutes or until golden and
toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean.
Megan
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Zucchini-Oatmeal
Muffins.
Moist and delicious.
Photo by Angela Wotton.
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Our Mailbox:
Chantenay Canape and Potatoes Pounded by Hail.
Chantenay Canape.
Dear WPF.
Hi Megan,
Wanted to thank you for selling me carrots this past winter. You did a
good thing. Ordway Grove Farm is doing very well this summer. Baby and
big Chantenay carrots are selling like penny candy. We plant fairly
thick and thin when baby carrots are ready so the remaining grow full
size. I remembered your request to share our canape idea to use
Chantenay carrots. It's simple and a real good idea.
Mix cream cheese, sour cream and several chives: onion, garlic, lemon,
Kosher coarse salt and fresh ground pepper. Make the spread creamy.
Keep it creamy and firm enough to spread.
Scrub Chantenays, slice coin thin and spread with cream cheese mix.
Keep cold till served.
Albert
Ordway Grove Farm
Norway, ME
WPF Replies.
Albert, thanks for the hors d'oeuvre
recipe. Glad it is going well this summer. Have fun!
Megan
Potatoes Pounded by
Hail.
Dear WPF.
Hi again folks,
I have a question about hail damage in our potato patch. We planted our
Dark Red Norland and fingerling potatoes 12 weeks ago. The Red Norland
was first to emerge and flower, with the fingerlings abotu 2-3 weeks
behind.
The Red Norland foliage was starting to die back at about 10 weeks,
then last Tuesday we were hit with a big thunderstorm with 1/2 inch
hail. All the vines are pockmarked where the hail hit, and all of the
foliage has been completely stripped off the Red Norland, although the
fingerlings seem to have held on to their leaves.
With no leaves left on our Red Norlands (just bare pockmarked vines
remain laying on the ground) should we be harvesting them now since
there is no more photosynthesis going on?
RS
Buxton, Maine
WPF Replies.
You
can harvest the DRN now or leave the tubers in the soil for a month if
you want to keep the harvest for winter storage. At this stage of
maturity I think the DRN are all done growing leaves for this year.
If the fingerlings are late varieties
like Russian Banana and Swedish Peanut there is a 50/50 chance they
will regrow leaves. If you are in no rush to harvest - and the tubers
are not grown to the size you desire - I would give the plants this
chance to re-leaf and size up the tubers for another 4-6 weeks. The
potatoes suffered trauma so prepare yourself for some yield loss.
Jim.
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Wood Prairie Farm Quick
Links
Jim
& Megan Gerritsen
Wood
Prairie Farm
49
Kinney Road
Bridgewater,
Maine 04735
(800)829-9765
Certified Organic, Direct from the Farm
www.woodprairie.com
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