Wood Prairie Seed Piece
            e-Newsletter
             Organic News and Commentary
                  Friday, October 28th 2016
                       Volume 24 Issue 19


                                                  
 In This Issue of The Wood Prairie Seed Piece:

    Where Water Flows.

     River Basins of the United States.  When we recently came across this map of America’s eighteen major river basins we were stunned by its beauty and intricate detail and immediately wanted to share this treasure with you.
      The warm Fall shifted over this week to days in the thirties and low-forties and we saw Autumn’s first snowflakes fall.  One morning we even awoke to a thin covering of snow on the vehicles and the taller unmowed grass where the ground’s relative warmth couldn’t quite reach and melt the snowflakes.
       Last week’s beet harvest (don’t miss this Wood Prairie Seed Piece's offer for FREE Dakota Bliss Beets) meant the completion of this year’s harvest.  Crops yielded well and are very good quality.  Potatoes have completed their suberization period and we’re using the cold nights to cool down the cellar with fans.  We’re finishing up Fall field work but that won’t be done until November when we’ll plow down the rapeseed biofumigant crop growing on what will be next year’s potato ground.
      We hope your harvests have been going well.
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 Caleb, Jim & Megan Gerritsen & Family
 Wood Prairie Family Farm
 Bridgewater, Maine
Click here for the Wood Prairie Family Farm Home Page.
.Four Season Farm: The Best Video You Will Watch in a Long Time.

   
Must Watch Four Season Farm video. This one is spectacular.


      If you open just one link in this issue of the Wood Prairie Seed Piece let it be this remarkable, beautiful and inspiring video (2:19) ode to Four Season Farm.

       Located three-and-a-half hours south of us down on the coast of Maine, Eliot Coleman, along with his wife Barbara Damrosch, have been doing a masterful job of innovation and growing on their organic Four Season Farm for decades.

       Please, do yourself a favor and watch this video right now!

Jim & Megan

Click Here for Our Wood Prairie Organic Certified Rose Gold Seed Potatoes
Special Offer: FREE Sack of Organic Sweet Dakota Bliss Beets.

     One of the last crops we harvest on Wood Prairie Family Farm are our Sweet Dakota Bliss Beets.  One big reason for the delay is that beets are rugged and can handle cold weather better than potatoes.   So, we  like to first get the potatoes put away before the colder weather comes in during the second half of October.   Now, this year’s crop of Red Sweet Dakota Bliss Beets is beautiful, harvested and ready to be shipped to you. 

     When we first ran into this attitude it surprised us.  We have come across people who have expressed an aversion to eating beets.  When pressed, we’ve come to learn from them that a lot of store-bought beets seem to pick up an unpleasant metallic-like taste – and that’s enough to turn anyone off!  Then, once they try our organic beets, they can’t believe how wonderful and delicious beets really can be.  It becomes a diet changing event.

     Now here's your chance to see what we’re talking about. Earn yourself a FREE 2 lbs. Sack of Organic Sweet Dakota Bliss Beets (Value $12.95) when the amount of goods in your next order totals $49 or more. FREE 2 lbs. Sack of Organic Sweet Dakota Bliss Beets offer ends Midnight, Monday October 31.

     Please use Promo Code WPF497. Your order and FREE 2 lbs. Sack of Organic Sweet Dakota Bliss Beets must ship by 4/6/17. This offer may not be combined with other offers. Please call or click today!

Questions? Please call us at Wood Prairie Family Farm (207) 429-9765.

Click Here for Our Wood Prairie Organic Vegetables for Your Kitchen.

Wood Prairie Organic Sweet Dakota Bliss Beets. If beets don't excite you, you've never had our beets.


Gete-Okosomin Squash Discovery. What a story!

Remarkable Discovery of an Ancient Squash.

         Here is the fascinating – and still unfolding – story of an ancient squash called Gete-Okosomin, likely to have been grown by the Miami Nation of Indiana for as many as 5000 years.

    In addition to reading the main article from Indian Country Today, do read the two comments following the article for a fuller discussion over the squash and related issues.

    Gete-Okosomin is a large, long orange squash with fruits reputed to grow as large as thirty pounds.

“It’s a delicious variety,” said Wrone, who spent his academic career studying and teaching about indigenous people in the Great Lakes area. “And it doesn’t have the rind on it that many modern squash have. I would imagine the Miami people sliced it, dried it out and put it in the rafters of their homes. Then they could pull it down and use it in their cooking, throw it in with rabbit, corn or wild rice.”

     We don’t know where any seeds of Gete-Okosomin squash may be secured at this time.  We understand Baker Creek Heirloom Seed is trying to make this seed available for purchase.

Jim & Megan

Click Here for Our Wood Prairie Organic Vegetable Seed.
Bukowski on Bluster.


Recipe: Carrot Beet Salad.
     
Grate in a food processor:
3 medium Chantenay Carrots
3 medium Sweet Dakota Bliss Beets.

Whisk together in a separate bowl:
2 T balsamic vinegar
2 T Maine Maple Syrup.
1 clove Red Russian Garlic, minced
1/2 c olive oil

Add dressing to grated vegetables and gently toss to combine. Let stand 1 hour to marinate before serving. Garnish with sliced almonds or sunflower seeds.
Serves 8 as a side dish

-Megan


Carrot Beet Salad.
Photo by Angela Wotton.
Mailbox: Organic Forever Free of GE and Wireworms & Potatoes.

Organic Forever Free of GE.

Yes the organic community said no to GMO's but beyond that there is more confusion to that agreement. If I can use CRISPR to turn off the switch on mycotoxins would people object to saving millions of lives every year?

KG
WWW

Careful, you are taking arguments and hyperbole from the Monsanto playbook. CRISPR and gene editing are unproven and unregulated genetic engineering techniques, out-of-control in a failed and dysfunctional regulatory environment. As subcellular-genetic-manipulation those NBTs (New Breeding Techniques) have ABSOLUTELY NO PLACE IN ORGANIC. Your support of those NBTs is misplaced and betrays organic consumers. Furthermore it drags down the organic integrity many of us have spent many decades building. If you and leaders at the discredited Organic Trade Association want to force genetic engineering onto organic we will fight you tooth and nail and we will never give up.

Jim

Wireworms & Potatoes.

Hi Jim,

Based on your recommendation in the webinar, we tried Butte this year. We always postpone our potato harvest as late as possible since we are so busy with other harvesting in the fall. Now that we are putting our potatoes in storage, we're finding a lot of damage (a third of the crop) caused by a small pointy worm (possibly wireworm?). Our banana fingerlings were untouched for some reason although they were grown right alongside the Butte. In order to avoid this in the future, what are the conditions that favor this pest.

RS
Buxton, Maine

     Yes, that's probably wireworm damage on your tubers. When under wireworm pressure, once potatoes are ready to harvest it is best to remove tubers from the soil to minimize the window of opportunity for tunneling by wireworms.

     Wireworms do seem to prefer some varieties (Butte), and over others they pay little attention to (Russian Banana). We have used beneficial Steinernema nematodes in the past as a control. Bait stations can be used to determine wireworm populations and whether control is advisable.

Good luck.
 
Jim
 Jim & Megan Gerritsen
 Wood Prairie Family Farm
 49 Kinney Road
 Bridgewater, Maine 04735
 (207) 429 - 9765 Certified Organic, Direct from the Farm
 www.woodprairie.com