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 1/2 pounds small, waxy potatoes, scrubbed and halved or quartered (I used All Blue Cranberry Red, Red Cloud and Carola)
1/2 pound carrots, scrubbed and halved or quartered
1/2 pound parsnips, scrubbed and halved or quartered
1 yellow onion, peeled and quartered
6 medium shallots, peeled
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
2 big pinches sea salt

Vinaigrette:
2 T red wine vinegar
1 small shallot, minced
2 tsp whole grain mustard
1/4 tsp fine grain sea salt
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