Spring Valley Student Farm welcomes summer farmers!

This summer most of the farmers stayed, however we did say goodbye to some for the summer (they will be back in the fall, so no need to worry.) To Lina, Chris, Shane and Paul we wish all of you good luck on your adventures this summer!

While goodbyes are sad it is always nice when they are accompanied by some hellos and we give a big welcome to our new summer farmers, Jen Silverstein, Jen Kruzansky and Brett Lehner!

Both are members of the ecohouse learning community and took a wonderful opportunity to help out and live on the farm for this summer. We are very excited to welcome them and have them join our community. You can check out the "About the Farmers" page to learn more about them!

NOFA Conference: Bees, Remedies, and Greens

My favorite seminar at the NOFA conference by far, was Marina Marchese’s presentation on bees and beekeeping. As she is the president of Backyard Beekeepers and a long time beekeeper, she had a huge retinue of advice to share about her experiences. She covered basic bee behaviors, favorite flowers, arrangement of the hive, and diseases and treatments. The most interesting parts of her lecture was her knowledge of the behavior of bees just from experience: that they tire, get hungry, become frustrated when it rains too much; her talk really helped humanize bees for me. We learned about the different types of honey that can be made, the collection of beeswax to make candles, and that chewing propolis (fragrant resin that the bees produce) can alleviate a sore throat. Her presentation made beekeeping sound simple, rewarding, and enjoyable. The second seminar I attended was Food as Medicine with Leigh White. Her lecture was all about the hidden health benefits of food, as well as home remedies. We learned about Naturopathic Therapy and its emphasis on natural treatments, cleansing, and detoxification. She gave us insight into the use of ginger, garlic, onion, honey, and tea to simply treat a variety of ailments such as headache, stomach ache, burns, dry skin, sore throat, and toxins. The third seminar I attended with Collards and Other Cold Weather Greens with John Turenne, Wayne Hansen, and Leigh White. This seminar took place in one of the MCC kitchens, where our instructors made quite a few kale, collard, and swiss chard dishes for the class to try. Originally I thought this session would be more on health benefits, flavor, and growing methods of the greens, but I was rather disappointed that it was almost entirely about recipes and cooking techniques. I did fortunately learn how to make some pretty delicious leafy green dishes. Because this seminar ended 30 minutes early, I went and joined the New Farmer Show and Tell with Shannon Raider and Susan Mitchell, which dealt with new farmers and their advice on farming techniques that were most helpful to them. This seminar was small and very simple, with the presenters passing around multiple tools and explaining why they were so useful. I especially liked their talk on the hand cultivator (the name for that forked hoe thing) just because that is perhaps my favorite garden tool which I use as a multipurpose tool to do anything. Overall, I think the NOFA conference was a great success and I’m very much glad that we were able to attend. The Seminars were fascinating, the potluck was delicious, and the venders all had some incredibly interesting items. I was even able to win some organic plant food in a raffle! I was impressed in the number and diversity of the farmers and students who attended, from all different ages and backgrounds. NOFA is definitely something that I would like to attend in the future. -->Paul

"Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn." - Grizzard

Lots of happenings down at SVSF as we wrap up the Spring semester and prepare for summer.
But first, a shout-out to Shane McNamara on his very happy 21st birthday! ...and a brief recap of the weeks past.
Andrew Lyons and I enjoyed a scintillating workshop at the NOFA Conference on raising nanny goats:

Paul from Beltane Farm (Lebanon, CT), mixing up some delicious chevre cheese for us. Beltane Farms is well known for their delicious artisanal farmstead goat cheeses.

Paul very kindly invited us up to Beltane to drink punch, meet the animals and sample cheeses at his seasonal tastings taking place in May.

Last workshop of the day, Bob Burns (a lifelong farmer and Buddhist monk) taught us the basics of seed sprouting and even let us sample some of his delicious product; mung-beans, peas, lentils, buckwheat and more.

Laura and I taking full advantage of the local vendors! Fresh, brick oven baked loaves packed with herbs.

In other news...

We've been busy planting peas, asparagus, radishes, onions, garlic and a few raspberry bushes seeing as how the soil temperature is just right. How about a little rain?

After a long day in the garden, filling our gullets with good food and good drink!

Rainy wishes,

SVSF

Spring Commeth!

With the season progressing and the weather getting warmer, the Spring Valley Farmers have begun to do more outdoor tasks. This is the yard in front of Birch Cottage, once littered with leaves, invasives, and fallen branches; now it's all been beautifully cleared away, and with only the minor cost of us getting covered in poison ivy.

Lina's gooseberries are looking good! A couple of weeks ago we planted several gooseberry and raspberry cuttings in the predominantly vacant plot of land behind Birch Cottage. Despite the lack of rain and the cold temperatures, they all seem to be thriving! With the additional sprouting of new strawberries and lingonberries, this summer is looking berry good :B

Birch now has rain barrels! Aren't they fancy?

Behold, The Rock Wall! Constructed by us from the rocks in our very own soil, it stands as a testament to our diligence, ingenuity, and the intrinsic beauty of rocks on rocks. If you're not as impressed as we are, it's because you haven't seen it in person.

Despite the fact that seed planting and contra dancing were cancelled due to the cold and wet weather, SVSF still managed to have an incredibly successful Potluck on Saturday March 31. Dishes included sweet potato and veggie fritters, eggplant casserole, baked chicken, pasta, salads, dips, banana bread, pumpkin muffins, and plenty of cookies all made by fellow farmers and guests!

Off we go for an after dinner walk around to the river.

And here is our special "Rorschach Rabbit" which we use to psychoanalyze and gauge the temperament of our farmers. Now tell me, what do you see?

-->Paul

ctNOFA

At the ctNOFA conference I enjoyed good food, company and lectures. The potluck style of the conference worked wonderfully. It was easy to connect with the other attendees and the vendors because everyone seemed to be there for the same common values -- health, honest living, community and stewardship of the earth. The first lecture I attended was done by Animal Welfare Approved. They are a nonprofit organization that certifiers farmers for ethical treatment of their livestock. They do not charge farmers, unlike USDA, and actually even help farmers to make any changes in order to be certified, and their standards are much stricter (kinder to the animals) than other certifiers. The second lecture was about small farmers battling Monsanto. Monsanto has been known to sue small farmers for having trace amounts of Monsanto-patented plants from cross pollination that no one can control. NOFA is an effective grouping of small farmers that allows them to fight collectively and more securely against Monsanto. The third lecture was about soil microbiology, and it emphasized the importance of beneficial microorganisms in the soil that increase the nutrients available for plants. Composting, not tilling, cover cropping, crop rotation and adding beneficial microbe inoculants all can help boost and maintain healthy and productive soil microbe ecosystems. Overall, the afternoon at the conference in Manchester was fun, informative and a bonding experience for our community at Spring Valley.
-Trevor

 Meet one of our rabbits!  We have two does (females), a mother and her daughter (this one here).

 This relic is our former shed, chicken coop AND rabbit hutch!  (I would go on and include a picture of our new ones (each is its own entity now) if my computer/camera connection would work more than one time ever.)

We took cuttings of raspberries and gooseberries and planted them in the ground.  Since they have no roots we have to make sure that they get plenty of water and not too much sun.  Once the roots develop in the individual cuttings we will relocate them to sunnier areas in order to increase productivity.  This method of planting is also known as propagation.

Some perennial flowers such as these daffodils are coming up and will serve as an early pollen source for bees that will later pollenate our flowers and allow them to turn into fruit, such as with the raspberries and gooseberries.

We did not have a market for all of our leeks last year, so some were composted.  This one never got deep into the compost pile, so it never got hot enough for the bacteria to digest and disintegrate it, so we replanted it, mostly just for kicks!

Taking advantage of the warm weather last week, we dried our laundry outside.

Andrew Lyons and Shane present to the EcoHouse sustainable agriculture class on the importance of bats in ecosystems and how to improve habitat for them.  Bats commonly predate upon pests of crops and in some cases even serve as pollinators.  They made and displayed a bat house which we will later post near our farm to attract bat colonies!  They also remarked that bats have an undeserved bad reputation for the few and far between cases where they bother people or spread rabies.

Andrew Brown gave his presentation on integrated pest management. He noted that having a diverse crop tends to mitigate pest outbreaks.  Biological pest control is the occurrence of "beneficial" organisms preying upon pests.  For example, some wasps consume caterpillars that eat our plants' leaves!  Just don't bother them and they won't sting you.

... And here we are having our weekly Sunday dinner meeting.  After enjoying our food and celebrating each other's company, we get into business and organize ourselves so we can sustain the farm's productivity and our livelihood.  Special credit to Julia for being our guiding farm manager.  Well, that's all for now.  Signing off -- Trevor

Fedco Bulk Order: March 13th

We spent the better part of the afternoon helping to unload and organize Fedco bulk orders in Belchertown, MA.  In exchange for the hours we worked helping to unload pallets of soil amendments, potting soil, garden supplies, and cover crop seeds we got to take home the Fedco bulk order we filled out in January!!  Under the guidance of Cathleen O'Keefe, bulk order coordinator for NOFA Massachusetts, a productive day was shared by all of us as we managed to unload all the Fedco supplies and even put together individual orders to make for a more organized pick up day.  All of the work was done in 68 degree weather. Mind you I am talking about March 13th in Massachusetts…….. Thanks global warming:/

Playing the waiting game....

A pallet arrives!

And another.........

....Ooo look at that! Another pallet

.............And one more!

Looks of sheer determination

Look of sheer...... ummm hmmm

Time for a respite....

......and a photo shoot! Cheers to a job well done by everybody!

-Tanner

Recent News on the Farm~

1. Overwintering Crops- Towards the end of the growing season, we decided to plant some things to have an early crop come springtime.  Now that spring has (almost) sprung, our winter greens are looking pretty good!  We planted a mesclun mix, spinach and Asian Greens.  Unfortunately, the Asian greens did not fare too well...BUT, our spinach and mesclun look great!  Once the weather gets a bit warmer and the days a bit longer, we are going to have a nice early picking of greens!

 Mesclun Mix is coming up strong!

Spinach!

2. Invasive Control- In these winter days when there is not an excessive amount of work to do outside on the farm, we have decided to start taking control of the invasive problem nearby.  Invasive species can cause a whole mess of problems from taking over native vegetation, changing soil characteristics and local ecosystems to even aiding in harboring diseases!  That said, along our fences and throughout the surrounding are laden with invasive plants.  The prevalent species include Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata), Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora), and Japanese Barberry (Berberis thunbergii).  We have recently received two good pairs of loppers and several smaller hand clippers.  Thus, the invasives are slowly getting knocked down, one by one!

 Multiflora rose along our fence.....goodbye!

Japanese Barberry...may be a nice color in the fall, but it's also been linked with an increasing occurrence of Lyme disease.  Here's a link to a news article that talks about the research done by the CT Agricultural Experiment Station 

http://www.ct.com/news/advocates/latest-news/nm-ht09nclymedisease-20120221,0,7854108.story

Autumn Olive...another CT invasive.

3. NOFA Conference- As Laura mentioned in the previous post, we at the farm just participated in the 2012 Winter NOFA Conference held at Manchester Community College.  Although a long and exhausting day, we sure did learn a lot, eat great food, and met some really inspiring people!  First, there was an awesome keynote!  Jeffrey Smith, a bestselling author and leading spokesperson on the health dangers of GMOs touched on the politics of Genetically Modified Foods and where we are in the United States with addressing this hot topic.  Smith talked about many different stories from around the world relating to the risks of consuming GMOs, and why in other countries, these crops are strictly banned.  Between the organic community/environmental advocates, politicians and the Biotech industry, this is a highly debated topic these days.  Without a doubt, GM crops do have many benefits like being disease resistant, especially resilient, and being able to grow outside of desirable environments, for example.  There is great potential to help millions of people gain access to food because of a crop that has been modified to grow in a not so suitable climate.  On the other hand, there is no saying whether being able to tweak the genes of plants to solve problems is better than disrupting the natural processes which have evolved over millions of years.  Consequently, the debate continues.

Jeffrey Smiths first book, a best seller on GMOs

Right now however, Connecticut is on the lines of passing a bill that would label products containing GM crops.  Many feel that we as consumers have a right to know what is in our food (I can't argue with that!).  If this topic is something you feel strongly about, now is the time to contact your representative and tell them how you feel about Genetically Modified Crops.  If the proposed bill does end up being passed, CT will be the first state to have a labeling law of this nature!

Back to the conference:  Each of us attended really great workshops relating to a whole variety of topics.  Personally, I went to three excellent workshops and met some great farmers from around the state.  I sat in on a talk/demonstration by Paul Trubey, owner of Beltane Farm in Lebanon, CT.  I learned about raising dairy goats and making cheese (very cool!).  The second workshop was called 'Mushroom Growing on a Small Scale' with Jim Peppin and Carol Brzozowy, two mushroom farmers out of Lebanon, CT (they mainly do shiitake and oyster mushrooms!).  Lastly, Brianne Casadei of Terra Firma Farm talked about raising pasture laying hens (her farm raises thousands of chickens for both meat and eggs).  All three of these farms are open to the public for educational purposes and hopefully (well I am hoping) to do some farm visits in the near future!  More detailed descriptions and pictures to go along with the workshops are coming.  Stay tuned!

All in all, the conference was a huge success, and we will all be taking what we learned there into future endeavors on the farm!

  

That's all for now folks!

-Lyons