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The Wood
Prairie Seed Piece
e-Newsletter
Organic
News
and
Commentary
Friday,
December 22nd 2017
Volume
25 Issue 19
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In This
Issue of The Wood
Prairie Seed
Piece:
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Bringing Nature Indoors.
Children Hauling Christmas
Tree, Monhegan Island, Maine. Circa 1945. There
is snow now blanketing the State of Maine, falling and yet and more is
predicted to fall on Christmas Day. Wherever you
live - snow or not - we hope you have the opportunity to take time to
spend this holiday season with family and friends. The
shortest day of the year is now behind us, brighter days lie ahead and
we all have much to be grateful for.
. 
Caleb,
Jim
&
Megan Gerritsen & Family
Wood
Prairie Family Farm
Bridgewater,
Maine
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Potato History. We
bet you'll learn a thing or two.
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So How Did Potatoes Turn From
Pariah to Popular?
By rights, much credit for potatoes meteoric rise
on the world scene should go to 18th-century French pharmacist
Antoine-Augustin Parmentier. Surprisingly, it was Mr. Paramentier’s prison
experience, courtesy of the Prussians, which convinced him
potatoes - as good food - were a cause worth working for.
This story of potatoes rising
from prejudice and morphing into popularity is included in the 2018
Farmers’ Almanac in an interesting potato piece
written by Amber Kanuckel.
Parmentier’s
prison experience was transformational. He had eaten potatoes and
survived — no leprosy or other diseases. When he was released at the
end of the war, Parmentier returned to his studies in Paris. By 1772,
his mission was to prove to the French that potatoes were delicious and
good for you, and in that same year, the French government repealed the
potato ban because of Parmentier’s pioneering work. In 1773, he even
won an award from the Academy of Besancon for research that proved
potatoes were a great source of nutrition for people suffering with
dysentery…
With the
publicity stunts failing to popularize potatoes, Parmentier tried a new
tactic. King Louis XVI granted him a large plot of land at Sablons in
1781. Parmentier turned this land into a potato patch, then hired
heavily armed guards to make a great show of guarding the potatoes. His
thinking was that people would notice the guards and assume that
potatoes must be valuable. Anything so fiercely guarded had to be worth
stealing, right? To that end, Parmentier’s guards were given orders to
allow thieves to get away with potatoes. If any enterprising potato
bandits offered a bribe in exchange for potatoes, the guards were
instructed to take the bribe, no matter how large or small. |
Ms. Kanuckel’s article also includes
recipes for two delicious namesake potato recipes: Potage Parmentier
and Pommes Parmentier.
I think you will enjoy preparing these traditional potato meals this
Holiday season!
Megan
Click Here
for Our Wood Prairie Organic Potatoes for the Kitchen. |
Special Holiday Offer:
FREE
Award Winning Wood Prairie 'Organic
Potato Plant Detective'.
In the last
issue of the Wood
Prairie Seed Piece we reported our
brand new kit, The
Organic Potato Plant Detective had won an
industry Green
Thumb Award, judged one of the two best edible plant
introductions in the United States for 2018.
Our new GTA winner, The Organic
Potato Plant Detective is a special twelve tuber seed
potato collection which serves double duty and features two of the best
organic Maine Certified Seed potato varieties – Island
Sunshine and King
Harry. In addition to
growing a bountiful crop of delicious potatoes for eating, the two
unique Organic Potato Plant Detective varieties in the kit perform a
detective-like bioassay function, helping growers of all sizes diagnose
potato growing problems.
The Organic
Potato Plant Detective is a tool which will help you grow a better crop of
potatoes anywhere – just like it does for us here in Maine
on Wood Prairie Family Farm
Now with our Special Holiday
Offer, Receive a FREE
Organic
Potato Plant Detective (Value $19.95) when your next order
totals $89 or more. Offer ends 11:59 PM on Tuesday December
26, 2017, so please act today! Please use Promo Code WPFF418. Your order
and FREE
Organic
Potato Plant Detective must ship by May 5, 2018. Offer may
not be combined with other offers. Please
click today!
Click
Here for Our Organic Wood Prairie Maine Certified Seed Potatoes.
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Wood Prairie
Potato Plant Detective. Award winning new product from
Wood Prairie Family Farm.
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A Treasure Trove of Rural Maine
Photos Uncovered After 50 Years.
Kosti
Ruohomaa's 1945 photo of his father, headed for the family barn in
Rockland, hangs on display at the Maine State Museum in Augusta. A
carefully-lighted, nighttime photo of the barn that appeared in Life
magazine (above right) was taken in 1949.
Maine photographer Kosti Ruohomaa's had an
uncommon talent for capturing the beauty and unpretentious essence of
hard working rural people in his native Maine.
For almost his entire career
Kosti worked for Black Star photo agency in New York City.
For fifty years Black Star kept its collection of Kosti’s photo under
wraps. Now, as reported in this recent
article in the Bangor
Daily News, many, many hundreds of
never before seen photos of Maine rural life will soon be catalogued
and become available for public viewing.
Kosti
Ruohomaa was a photojournalist during the golden age of picture
magazines in the 1940s and ’50s. Shying away from pretty postcard
images, Ruohomaa documented the true face of rural Maine and showed it
to the rest of the world. He worked for the famed Black Star photo
agency in New York City for almost his whole career.
Since his
death in 1961 at the age of 47, Black Star has kept a tight grip on
Ruohomaa’s entire archive of prints and negatives. Most of his work has
never been published or seen by anyone outside the Black Star office.
But that’s
about to change. Last month, Ruohomaa’s work came home home to Maine. |
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Twinkies Are
Good for Corporate Profits. Carrrots are good for people
and children. |
Confronting the Twinkie-Carrot
Conundrum.
A really good teacher is as welcome as they are
rare. We’re fortunate our friend Dr. John Ikerd has the keen
ability to deconstruct heady food and farm policy and – miraculously! –
make it interesting, understandable and memorable.
I serve with Dr.
Ikerd, a well-respected visionary and now retired Ag Economist from
University of Missouri, on the Cornucopia Institute's Board of
Advisors. We first met him maybe 12 years ago when we were among the
roomful of organic farmers he addressed at MOFGA's Farmer-to-Farmer
conference in Bar Harbor.
In this excellent
MUST READ essay in Civil
Eats, Dr Ikerd, in his
characteristically clear and patient manner, uses Twinkies and Carrots
to illustrate food system dysfunction. He goes onto explain
to us why multinational food corporations fight so hard to keep corn
and soybean subsidies in place.
"Prior to the
1970s, federal farm programs existed as a way to keep enough family
farmers on the land to provide food security for the nation. The basic
strategy was to stabilize farm incomes at levels that would keep
farming profitable and food prices affordable. The 1970s brought a
dramatic shift, as agricultural efficiency became the goal. The model
of choice for accomplishing this new policy objective was
industrialization: specialization, standardization, and consolidation
of control. Farm programs shifted from stabilizing the farm-food
economy to subsidizing the agri-food industry. And the farm bill
shifted from supporting food production and distribution to food
manufacturing and marketing.
"The primary
advantage for row crops like corn and soy over fruits and vegetables is
that field crops were easier to industrialize and it was easier to
develop farm policies to mitigate the risks inherent in their
industrialization...
"Perhaps more
important for food manufacturers, government farm programs ensure a
stable, as well as abundant, supply of raw materials. Farmers can focus
on maximum production with taxpayers absorbing most of the risks of
overproduction. This allows food manufacturers to finance continuing
expansion without the risk of scarcity or high cost of raw materials.
"By focusing
on food items that can minimize the cost of raw material relative to
retail value—like Twinkies—the corporation can grow faster than actual
food is consumed. It has been easier to add value to cheap corn and soy
by making Twinkies than to add value to carrots..."
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Jim & Megan
Click
Here for Our Organic Farm & Cover Crop Seed. |
Notable Quotes: The Dalai
Lama on Peace.
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Recipe: Winter
Salad with Spiced Maple Vinaigrette.
Vinaigrette:
3 T pure maple
syrup
1/2 cinnamon stick
2 whole allspice berries
1 small whole clove
1 whole star anise
1/2 tsp grated peeled fresh ginger
2 T apple-cider vinegar
1/3 c neutral oil, such as grapeseed or vegetable
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Salad:
5 oz mesclun salad mix
5 oz head frisee, trimmed and torn into bite-size pieces
1 small carrot
1 small parsnip
1 small turnip
1/4 c shelled sunflower seeds, toasted
4 oz aged sharp Cheddar, crumbled
To make the vinaigrette, combine the maple syrup, cinnamon, allspice,
clove, star anise, ginger, and 1 T water in a 1-quart saucepan. Simmer
on medium-low heat to infuse the flavors and thicken slightly, about 3
minutes. Stir in the vinegar, and strain through a fine-mesh sieve into
a small bowl. Whisk in the oil in a slow stream and season to taste
with salt and pepper. Set aside and allow to cool to room temperature.
Assemble the salad by combining the mesclun and frisee in a large bowl.
Peel the carrot, parsnip, and turnip. Using the peeler, shave each into
thin ribbons into the bowl. Add the sunflower seeds and half the
cheese. Whisk the vinaigrette to recombine, then toss the salad with
enough to coat. Serve sprinkled with the remaining cheese.
-Megan
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Winter Salad
with Spiced Maple Vinaigrette.
Photo by Angela Wotton.
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Wood Prairie Farm Quick
Links
Caleb & Jim
& Megan Gerritsen
Wood
Prairie Family Farm
49
Kinney Road
Bridgewater,
Maine 04735
(207)
429 - 9765
Certified Organic, From Farm to Mailbox
www.woodprairie.com
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