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The
bug deflector on our neighbor's log truck hints at a popular Maine
winter pastime: "I MISS BACK WHEN"
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Friday,
January 15, 2010
Wood
Prairie Farm Newsletter
This
Issue:
Maine Tales
Recipe: Pan Fried Potatoes
Offer:
Free Cookbook
Q & A :
Monsanto - Free
Maine
Tales. Winter Hot Spot.
No
doubt about it,
a lot of time here in northern Maine is spent thinking and talking
about the
past. The past may not have been too
awful good but after all we did get through it and who knows about the
future? Truth be told we have very
little hard experience with the future and that
can be
powerful scary to just about anybody, most especially a Mainer.
Now
one thing you
can say about the past is that it has a tendency to get better as time
goes
by.
Hereabouts, the
pains of hardship
and humiliation
just
seem to lessen with
the passage of time as the mind dulls and glosses over events that some
would
just as soon have everybody forget, like remember the time that wet
Fall during
digging when Linnwood just barely missed that bridge and drove
that truck
full of potatoes clear into Whitney Brook?
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But
sometimes the
past is chockful of goodness through and through and here's one
example. One of the popular features in our local
(well, about twenty miles away) weekly paper, the Houlton Pioneer Times
(“The
Only Newspaper in the World Interested in Houlton, Maine”) is
From
Our
Files
– News From 100 Years Ago where
items
are lifted verbatim from an issue
exactly one century before and brought to the attention of us modern
readers,
raw and untainted by the rewriters of history. Now some
might quibble with the usage of that
term “news.” A neighbor once allowed
that he liked to read the Houlton Hen – the Houlton paper's
other less than
complimentary name - every night before bed so that he could fall
asleep with
nothing on his mind.
Well,
in last
week's paper this little nugget from January 7, 1910 caught the
attention of
most everybody here in our little farming town of Bridgewater
(Pop. 612):
“Miss Adelle Burpee, teacher at the grammar school
returned from a
week of vacation
in
Bridgewater.”
Nowadays, Bridgewater
no longer has a railroad station, no more jewelry store nor hotel
“The Central
House” (named because it
was halfway on the rough state road between Houlton to the south and
Presque
Isle to the north).
But
here was indisputable prima
facie evidence that in the eyes
of one young adoring
school marm that our town was a rare pearl that conjured up the fun and
excitement evoked by a vacation. And
in the depths of subzero snowy January in
Maine, no less!
Fact
is we have been left speechless for nigh
onto a week, full of civic pride and and the contentment that comes
with recognition.
To
think
that before folks discovered
the
beaches
of sunny Florida, our humble little frontier potato town was a winter
destination hot
spot for light-hearted frivolity. Bridgewater
may
well have a future, but for now we'll just keep enjoying our past. Jim
Wood
Prairie
Farm Home Page.
Click here for our Wood
Prairie
Home Page
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Pan-Fried
Potatoes
Thinly
slice 1 1/2 pounds of potatoes such as Prairie
Blush or Butte
Bring
a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the potatoes until just cooked
through and tender but not falling apart. Drain the potatoes and let
dry and cool for a few minutes.
Heat
1/2 cup olive oil in a cast iron pan and add the potatoes when when oil
is hot. Cook over medium heat, stirring and tossing regulary until
golden, about 15 minutes.
Season
with salt, fresh herbs such as rosemary, dried tomatoes or crispy bacon.
Adapted
from
The
Art of Simple Food
by Alice
Waters - pioneering
cook, restauranteur, and food activist.
More recipes on Wood Prairie's
Facebook, including Butternut Squash Chocolate Chip Cookies |

Photo
of Prairie Blush Pan-Fried Potatoes
by our friend Russell French. Come see more of his beautiful food
photos
here. |
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FREE
Classic Cookbook

Receive
a FREE softcover copy of revered Food writer Barbara Kafka's classic Food
for Friends
cookbook when you place an order of $65 or more! Please use
code
WPF908. Order must ship by 4/29/10. Hurry!
Offer
expires when cookbook supply is exhausted but no later than Tuesday
1/19/10. Cookbook Offer can not be combined with other
offers.
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Question
and Answer : Monsanto - Free
Received your catalog.
I'm interested in ordering. Before I order, I'd like to confirm you're
seeds are "non Monsanto /Seminis". I'm trying to find a seed source
that I can rely on to "stay clear" of Monsanto / Seminis or any of the
other GMO companies.
DE
Steuben
ME
Before I
place my order I have a question on your beet seed. I've
talked a
lot with my Oregon Tilth inspectors, and they seem to feel that organic
certification is not sufficient to guarantee a lack of GMO
contamination. Nor is signing on to the safe seed pledge by itself a
guarantee. What can you tell me about your beet and chard seed?
I've
showed your catalog around my area in Washington, and it is generating
a good deal of interest as we form our own "neighborhood" seed network.
Thank you for your good work.
JD
Kennewick
WA
Monsanto has been on a buying spree of seed companies and
Seminis
is one of their latest victims, which is sad because Seminis has some
really popular vegetable varieties in their line.
We have been signatories to the Safe Seed Pledge
for well
over ten years: “We pledge that we do not knowingly buy or
sell
genetically engineered seed or plants.” Our
Products
section in our Catalog (p.22) states our policy:
“We do not
support Monsanto and we do not offer any seed or crop varieties under
Monsanto’s control.”
We are very conscious of the potential GMO
(gene-splicing
or genetically modified organisms) contamination in organic seeds
issue. At our cost we are testing at risk varieties for GMO
content (10,000 seed PCR test - the industry's best). We do
not
sell seed that tests hot (threshold 0.01% or 1 seed out of 10,000
threshold) - Our policy is that test results must be zero or we will
not sell a seed lot as organic seed.
While there is a long freight train of pending GMO
crop
and vegetable applications at the door of commercialization the
vegetable families focused for concern now are beets and
corn.
Specifics:
1) Our Organic Rainbow Chard seed has
tested clean.
2) Our Organic Sweet Red Bliss
Beet seed was
grown before the introduction of GMO sugar beets, hence free from
contamination.
3) Our Organic Dorinny Sweet Corn seed is
grown here
on our isolated Wood Prairie Farm and our crops have always tested
clean.
I believe it is a basic
right for a farmer (gardener) to be secure on their own farm, to be
free from the threat of farm invasion by biotech's uncontrolled GMO
pollen. And I believe customers like you have a right of
access
to good clean organic seed free of GMO contamination.
This is a real David and Goliath battle.
I serve on
the Board of Directors of two grassroots organizations (OSA /
Organic Seed Alliance - seedalliance.org & OSGATA / Organic
Seed
Growers and Trade Assn - osgata.org) on the cutting edge of this work
and financial support is urgently needed.
Thanks for your interest. Your caution
is justified and commendable.
Jim
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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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