|
|
|
|
Wood
Prairie Farm
The
Seed
Piece Newsletter
Organic
News
and
Commentary
Wednesday October 09, 2013

|
In This
Issue of The Seed Piece:
|
Good Weather. Good Harvest.
Blue Skies on Wood Prairie Farm.
Harvesting red-fleshed Adirondack Red
potatoes last week with our Finnish Juko potato harvester. The very wet
weather of Spring and Summer - some local spots in Northern Maine have
received 40" of rain since May - finally shifted to excellent dry and
sunny 'digging' weather after the Autumnal Equinox. During one stretch
we harvested nonstop for twelve days in a row until driven out of the
field by rain early this week. We're now down to a couple of days worth
of digging our organic seed
potatoes. After potato harvest is complete, we'll be down to
carrots,
beets
and parsnips
as the crops in the ground left to harvest. After seven or eight wet
Falls in a row it has been a nice change to experience once again just
how wonderful a New England Fall can be.
Jim
&
Megan Gerritsen & Family
Wood
Prairie Farm
Bridgewater,
Maine
(800) 829-9765
Click here for the
Wood Prairie Farm Home Page. |
5 GMO Myths Busted.
Valuable video (5:48) to watch and share.
|
New Video is Good Educational
Primer On GE Food.
A new and informative video (5:48)
entitled "5 GMO Myths
Busted" is
worth your time to view. The film is concise, scientifically-based and
well done. It is very approachable and is particularly well suited for
viewing by those as yet unfamiliar to the topic of
genetically-engineered food. Watch it yourself and then please share
with friends who would benefit from the clear explanations which bust
open wide the GMO myths concocted by Biotech in their long waged
propaganda war.
Jim & Megan
Click
Here for Wood Prairie Farm's Organic Cover Crop Seed.
|
FREE Resource Guide For Organic Insect &
Disease Management.
You will want to have a copy of this important reference
guide in your home farm library. This collaborative work of scientists
in the Northeast, including MOFGA's Dr. Eric Sideman, was coordinated
by Cornell University. The 170 page manual includes color photographs
and pertinent charts. A hard copy of Resource Guide For Organic Insect &
Disease Management may be purchased from Cornell. Or it may be
downloaded for FREE by
going to this link.
Jim
Click Here for
Our Wood Prairie Farm Organic Certified Seed Potatoes.
|
Good FREE Manual. Deserves a
spot in your library.
|

R. Buckminster Fuller. Futurist
and clear thinker. |
Notable Quotes: Bucky Fuller
on Doing More with Less.
"All
of humanity now has the option to 'make it' successfully and
sustainably, by virtue of our having minds, discovering principles, and
being able to employ these principles to do more with less."
- R. Buckminster Fuller
1895 - 1983
|
Recipe:
Autumn Potato Salad
1/2
pound carrots,
scrubbed and halved or quartered
1/2
pound parsnips,
scrubbed and halved or quartered
1/4
c extra virgin olive oil
Vinaigrette:
2
T red wine vinegar
2
tsp whole grain mustard
1/4
to 1/3 c olive oil
Preheat
oven to 375 degrees.
In
a large bowl toss the potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and shallots with
1/4 c of olive oil and 2 big pinches of salt. When the ingredients are
well coated, turn them out onto a large baking sheet in a single layer.
Place in oven.
Let
the vegetables roast for 40 to 60 minutes, until they are deeply golden
and tender throughout. Check them regularly and flip with a metal
spatula once or twice.
While
the vegetables are roasting, start the dressing by pouring the red wine
vinegar into a small bowl along with the chopped shallot. If you have
the time, let it sit there for twenty minutes or so. Then whisk in the
mustard and salt, before slowly drizzling in the olive oil, whisking
all the while.
When
they are done roasting, remove the vegetables from the oven. Place the
vegetables in a large bowl and toss with the vinaigrette. Turn out onto
a platter and serve.
Serves
6
-Megan
|

Delicious Side Dish for Crisp Autumn Days.
Photo by Angela Wotton.
|

FREE
Copy of Barbara Kafka's Food for Friends.
|
Special Offer: FREE Copy of "Food For
Friends" by Barbara Kafka.
James Beard has recommended Barbara Kafka's
classic "Food
For Friends" cookbook as an excellent reference book
deserving space in every kitchen library. We couldn't agree more.
Now here's your chance to earn a FREE copy of "Food For Friends"
(exceptional value at $10.95) with your next purchase of $55 or more. FREE
"Food For Friends"
book offer ends at midnight on Monday, October 14.
Please use Promo Code WPF1159. Your order must
ship by 05/09/14 and "Food For Friends"
when sent with that order is FREE. If you
want your order later and your "Food For Friends"
now, we can immediately ship your copy of "Food For Friends"
separately for a charge of just $5.00. Offer may not be combined with
other offers. Please call or click today!
Click here for our Wood Prairie Farm Essential Books Section.
|
Our Mailbox: Work Not Work, Keeping
Heart, Concoction of Greed, Devastating Good Food.
When Work is Not Work.
Dear WPF.
Thanks for all
that you do, Jim. LOVE the Mathieu Asselin
video, your words are so poignant and those kids on the back of the
planter are having a great ol' time! I am coming out next season to
help out! Thank you for all you do!
RB
South Orange, NJ
WPF Replies.
Work is work if one hates one's job. On an organic farm,
work is fun because it's the
best job in the world. The work has real meaning and deep satisfaction
- growing good seed so that others may enjoy productive crops on their
farms and in their gardens. Thanks for your kind words.
Jim
Keeping Heart In the Face of
Opposition.
Dear WPF.
Have you seen this? 10/03/13 FARM BILL AMENDMENT GUTTING
STATES' RIGHTS "...if enacted, (Tea Party/Koch) Rep. King's bill would
consolidate agricultural regulatory power into federal hands, taking
the power from state legislatures where it constitutionally resides."
SM
Exeter, NH
WPF Replies.
There have been rumors for many months that Biotech will
attempt to use Congress to prevent States from passing Right-to-Know
GMO Label laws. A recent persistent rumor is that Rep. Upton (R-MI) -
or allied members of the House Energy Committee he serves on - are
planning on introducing such legislation. Additional related concern is
that FDA will issue some form of official guidance - perhaps
"voluntary" - on labeling that may effectively deny consumers of our
Right-to-Know. We must remain vigilant and we must remain pro-active in
pursuit of our Right-to-Know about GE food. We must not lose heart or
our drive and determination over what might or might not happen in a
sphere outside of our reach. Our job is to remain faithful and keep
applying pressure.
Jim
Concoction of Greed.
Dear WPF.
What I can't understand is...are these people at
Monsanto so insane with greed that they don't care what happens to
their own families when they ingest these unholy, unnatural foods? If
so then God help us all!
DC
World Wide Web
WPF Replies.
Sadly, a combination of greed, self-righteousness and
tunnel vision is capable of incredible denial. At the public hearing
for Maine's GMO Label law, Monsanto's paid Maine lobbyist, Mr. Robert
Tardy, publicly castigated supporters of GMO labeling as being
"Luddites." Let's see, that would include the hundreds of citizens who
attended the hearing and rally and the 91% of Mainers that a Spring
poll indicated support GMO label legislation. That would also include
the 141 members of the Maine House who voted 141-4 in favor of our GMO
label bill. And don't forget the 35 Maine Senators who voted
unanimously, 35-0 in favor of our bill. Then there's Maine Governor
Paul LePage who has delivered a written promise to the Legislature
stating he will sign our GMO label bill into law when the Legislature
reconvenes in January. Clearly, Monsanto is the outlier and their words
and self-serving deeds mean nothing. The last shall be first and the
first shall be last.
Jim.
Why Devastate Good Food Options?
Dear WPF.
What do you think about the FDA's
Food Safety initiative?
KS
Sioux Falls, SD
WPF Replies.
Misguided, unnecessary, draconian food safety regs and
paperwork requirements proposed by the FDA have the ability to put
family farmers like us out of business. A non-exempted family
farm with moderate sales may have to spend $30,000 PER YEAR
to comply with current proposed requirements without ANY LIKELIHOOD
FOOD SAFETY WILL BE ENHANCED. Our nation's food safety breakdowns
originate with large-scale Big Food operations supply millions of
people. Family farmers selling close to the end user and supplying
perhaps hundreds of people in a small geographical area have NOT been a
problem. Big Food is where the problem lies and that is also where
correction is needed. American consumer good food options will be
devastated if family farmers are regulated out of business in a
misguided attempt to have a big government one-size-fits-all solution
for a Washington-imagined Big-Food-promoted 'problem' down-on-the-farm
which in reality has never existed.
Jim.
|
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
|
|
|
|