Bryn bringing on the compost

Happy May Day, everyone!

 We are close to filling up for the season, with 5 shares left. So, if you have had our order form hanging on your fridge for the last month, intending on sending it in, act fast! You can also download a form here:  secondwindcsa.com/sign-up/ 

Planting onions

We are basically finished with the first round of transplanting those cooler-weather, hardier veggies, such as lettuce, kale, chard, collards, spinach, sugar snap peas, turnips, carrots, beets, celeriac, broccoli, cauliflower, leeks and onions. Onions were a great relief to get in the ground– about 5,500 of them! The next planting extravaganza will happen after the last expected frost, in mid-May. Those are the warmer season plants, including tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, cucumbers and squash. For now, they are cozy in the greenhouse.

This past week was particularly challenging, since there were two overnight frosts, after weeks of unseasonal warmth. We covered almost everything out in the field with protective row cover, and even double-covered some of the more sensitive crops. We’re lucky that air flow at Four Winds is quite good, so even when the temperature got down to 26 degrees, it moved through relatively quickly. We’re happy to report that almost everything made it through just fine, with only a few casualties. Needless to say, we and the plants are looking forward to the non-frosty upcoming weather.

Just about a month to go until distribution!

Wes and Bryn

Wes digging the trench for the potatoes

Taters! Kennebec, Sangre, LaRatte Fingerlings, Purple Viking

Sowing snap peas outside.

King of the North Sweet Peppers growing regally in the greenhouse.

Well, we are two weeks into Spring – that means only about two more months until CSA distribution 2012 kicks off!  We just wanted to check in and show you some of the latest pictures from the farm – the greenhouse is filling up with tray after tray of seedlings and the fields are starting to fill with green as intrepid sprouts climb upward.   Meanwhile, we are spending our days weeding, weeding, and weeding!  Getting a head-start now so that we can put down fresh compost and start the transplants off right.

An army of seedlings!

Ruby Red Chard, lazily stretching out in the sun.

Meanwhile, the CSA has less than ten spots left – if you haven’t signed up yet, please do so soon!  You can download and print the application form from

secondwindcsa.com/sign-up/ and mail it in, along with a deposit.

If you have friends or neighbors who’d be interested, please pass them our info (or just forward this email!)

Kale seedlings

Hi folks, Wes here!

Regardless of this week’s drop in temperature, our intrepid little seedlings are bursting forth into the world!  The kale sprouts are in the lead, but onions aren’t far behind, and soon we’ll be adding lettuce, kohlrabi, cabbage, and broccoli to the mix.  It’s an exciting time to be farming!

Horse and buggy at Nolts

Meanwhile, Bryn and I headed down to Amish country this weekend to pick up the last of our supplies at Nolt’s Farm Supplies – where farmers from around the northeast go to pick up irrigation equipment, row cover, and homey Amish wisdom.  Pulling up in our box truck, we realized we’d be sharing the parking lot with several farm vehicles of another era!

Now that we’re back in NY and stocked up for the season, we’re psyched to finish our spring-time preparations and get things ready for the CSA.  For those of you who haven’t yet signed up, please get those registrations in!  And those who have already joined for the 2012 season – thank you!  Your membership has allowed us to purchase the seeds and supplies we need to make this year a success.  If you have friends or co-workers who are looking for a source of delicious organic veggies this year, spread the word about Second Wind CSA!

Seeding trays as Mondrien would see them

Hi everyone, Bryn here!

Get excited, members and friends, because your CSA operation is officially pregnant!  That is, the first seeds of the season are sown as of this weekend.  Wes was away at an organic farming conference in Wisconsin, doing his work as a representative of the National Young Farmers Coalition. While there, he encouraged other young farmers around the country to set up coalitions in their own states, in order to create beneficial relationships amongst themselves and to help advocate for national agricultural policies that aid young and beginning farmers. So, while he was off doing that admirable work, I seeded our first crops.  I blasted Car Talk on the barn’s stereo and got to work. All of our onions, leeks, kale, chard and celeriac are seeded. They’re nice and toasty in the greenhouse, and now we provide them with favorable conditions and wait for them to sprout.

This Saturday, we’re teaming up with the amazing farmer Benjamin Shute over at Hearty Roots Farm in Tivoli, as well as a few other area farmers, to do a big farm supply pickup from a great supplier in PA.  Wes and I will be driving a big box truck down there, and we’re looking forward not only to scoping out the horses and buggies we’ll encounter, but also to acquiring a good deal of gear we need for the season.

Have a great week, and enjoy the photos.  Send happy thoughts to the seedlings!

Sowing onions

Wet and toasty, ready to grow

Cold Frame!

Happy February, everyone.  Thank you to all of you who have signed up so far.  For those of you who mean to but haven’t gotten a chance yet, the brochure is under the “2012 Sign Up” tab on this site, or email/call Wes, and we’d be glad to mail a brochure to you.

We’ve been busy, as always, with getting ready for the season.  What’s going on in that photo up there, you say?  Well, that’s Wes installing the last leg of the CSA’s new 12′x24′ cold frame structure.   The cold frame will be an unheated, plastic-covered space where our seedlings will “harden off” after a few weeks of cushy incubation in the warmer greenhouse.  You can see the greenhouse in the background–it’s the hard-plastic, sloped structure attached to the barn.  A more familiar-looking cold frame would be shaped like a tunnel, likely constructed of bent PVC pipes.  The reason we have this gothic-shaped structure is because Jay actually had it lying around!  When a neighbor sold some of his land, this former tractor shed was abandoned in the woods, and so Jay, being a frugal farmer, saved it for potential future projects.   It was a fair amount of work and creative reconstruction to get this thing together the way we wanted it, but it’s up and stable.  In the next few days, we will build the end faces where the doors will be.  Today, we are ordering the greenhouse film to cover it.  Exciting!

Screening potting soil

Soon we’ll be seeding some of our crops, and at Four Winds Farm, we produce our own potting mix.  We’ve been helping out Jay a bit with the soil screening process.  This means we get to hang out in the steamy greenhouse and rub lumpy compost against a screen, discard the woodchips and other large matter, and voila!  We end up with the softest, most luscious potting soil you’ve ever run your hands through.  This compost has been decomposing in the greenhouse for the last year or so, as part of a continual cycle that Jay has down pat.  As some of you might know, Jay’s greenhouse is particularly great because it has no energy inputs and is partially heated by the compost.  We can’t wait to get our onion seeds in that soil.

Our last entry included a little information about the OSGATA vs. Monsanto lawsuit, an attempt to protect farmers from being sued by Monsanto for unwitting seed patent infringement.   There was an initial hearing last Tuesday, in which Monsanto requested that the case be dismissed.  The judge listened to arguments from both sides, and will decide within the next two months.  It is heartening to read reports of the hundreds of concerned folks who were outside the courthouse to support the farmers in their fight against the agri-giant.  Here’s a press release from OSGATA: http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=jnnkfneab&v=001dsGnuBrFqEHGC0puzhaNXSkYvYhUrw-9Id3wrvbGO_uOc46DLMl8GfSI2M-gRGi_JVZpaytjWwRftXmovO0WAEhv1hqSSTDqsyndAdiEd7Hvg57oYFiGr1yz3ZxhM-2AxKWrKDZqeV_W4bNUGE9RE7LJrsidLZD1

Enjoy all this lovely sunshine!

Bryn and Wes

Seeds!

Hi everyone!

We hope everyone’s January has been a pleasant one, offering us a little bit of snow to enjoy. 

** Special note for our Garrison pickup members!  As you know, we have changed this season’s distribution day to Friday.  Recently, we have heard from a few of you that Friday is less convenient than Wednesday was.  Since some of you have already signed up, we can’t switch without a consensus.  Please let us know (secondwindcsa@gmail.com) if you would sign up for a Wednesday pick up and not a Friday.  We genuinely want to make this work for everyone.**

We are excited to report that our seed orders are in!  This season, you’ll be seeing many of the excellent vegetables, herbs and flowers you received in 2011, with a few changes in varieties.  We enjoyed spending many hours exploring our seed catalogs, and can’t wait for the awaited packages to arrive.

We’ve jumped into our crop planning, with great advice from Erin and Sam, who refined their techniques over their 3 years with the CSA.  It’s interesting to work within Jay and Polly Armour’s system of no-till raised permanent beds, because we can plant more per row than other farms who must consider the configurations of their tractor-run weeding and planting implements.  Our soil and compost’s high nutrient density also allows us to pack in a little more than many other farms.  We’re also able to plant in quick succession; when a bed of spinach is all harvested, for instance, we can go in right away and plant something else the same day!  So, we can really do a lot with the acres that we get to work with.

Zooming out from soil chemistry, the organic farming community is abuzz with the upcoming hearing in the big lawsuit over Monsanto’s transgenic/GMO seed: Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA) vs. Monsanto.  Some of you might know that Monsanto has developed patented transgenic seeds over the years, which are seeds that cannot be saved and replanted next season, an act that is fundamental to farming!  On top of that, Monsanto charges top dollar for these seeds, such as BT Corn or Round Up Ready.  Well, naturally, since the wind has a habit of blowing every now and then, of course farmers unwittingly end up with their neighbors’ transgenic stuff on their land.  That’s bad enough, especially for organic farmers who can lose their certification, but Monsanto has gone over the top and actually sued those farmers for patent infringement!  It started in 1998, when a canola farmer in Saskatchewan Province named Percy Schmeiser was sued by Monsanto after Round Up Ready canola seed blew into his fields.  Since then, 144 farmers have been dragged into court by Monsanto and 700 others have settled with the beastly company out-of-court.  This aggression on the part of such a powerful agri-giant cannot stand, which is why we thank OSGATA, et al, for their work in preserving farmers’ rights to grow and save their seeds without fear of being trampled by a greedy monstrosity like Monsanto.  Next Tuesday is an initial hearing in the case in NYC, with a support rally happening beforehand.  Read more about it here: http://www.osgata.org/osgata-press-releasesgo http://www.osgata.org/osgata-press-releasesgo

All the Best!

Wes and Bryn

This past fall, we were busy with preparations for next season.  Once we got our garlic in the ground, we assembled the hoop house for the CSA’s spring seedlings.  Read more about it here!  And now, we can start the traditional tasks of January: buying seeds, scheduling plantings and inventorying and purchasing supplies.

We hope you enjoyed the 2011 season, and we would be so glad to have you back in 2012.  We encourage you to sign up soon, both to ensure your membership and to provide the CSA the resources needed to buy seeds and supplies.  And thanks to those of you who have already signed up!

If you have any questions, please contact Wes at (518) 528-9382, or email us at secondwindcsa@gmail.com

To sign up, click on the 2012 Sign-Up Link!

After a three-week break, we are ready to close out the season with a generous, beautiful and delicious share. This week’s blog will feature 2 posts (really, I promise). First, use this post to plan your shopping for the week. The second post will be a fall/winter vegetable guide complete with recipes. I have been cooking up a storm in my “test kitchen” in preparation for this final food post!

There will be sign-up forms at the distributions for the 2012 season. Early sign-ups will help insure success for Wes and Bryn as new farmers. The winter season is the time when farmers need to spend the bulk of their expenses on seeds and supplies. Indeed, the early payment system is the heart and soul of community supported agriculture! Based on the interest so far, I expect Second Wind to fill up at a record pace this year as well. Please check out the new tab above the banner, 2012 Season Updates, as well as the Sign Up! tab that includes an order form and payment information.

Distributions this week:

Tuesday, on farm: 2:30 – 7:00 pm

Wednesday, Hudson Highlands Landtrust: 4:00 – 6:00 pm***please note the time change

Expect the following produce this week:

1 long island cheese pumpkin

1 butternut squash

2 pounds beets

5-6 pounds carrots

1.25 pounds parsnips

1 celeriac

1 Chinese cabbage

1 bunch kale

1 bag braising greens mix

1 bunch arugula

onions

garlic

daikon radish

potatoes

optional: turnips, 1 bunch or 1.5 pounds

Putting the Farm to Bed

This year’s fall farm clean up has particular significance for me. Not only is it a “tucking in” of beds, tools and equipment, but also an act of closure to the past four years of my life. The land here holds a story of remembrance, of work, vegetables, meals and CSA members. This time is bittersweet. I am happy for the success of the past three years that Second Wind CSA has had, I cherish the connection with our community, I relish in the pounds of vegetables produced by soil, water and hands; I know I will miss it…but I am excited for the journey ahead. Sam and I have started the journey to find a home and a place of our own, and we hold our experience at Four Winds Farm dear as we look at potential place to spend our lives and grow a farm.

So, look forward to next year with Wes and Bryn, and please keep in touch if you are so moved!

Well, here we are! Week 22. The last distribution before our final distribution the week of Thanksgiving! It’s going to be a hefty share this week, so the blog post will take place in (at least!) two parts. First I will give you the usual list of items, part I. Then, in part II, I will post recipes and photos, as well as what to expect the week of Thanksgiving.

But first, some news…

FOR GARRISON DISTRIBUTION MEMBERS

Wes and Bryn will be joining Sam at the distribution this week. Please take a moment to say “hi,” they are the new farmers in 2012!

SIGN UPS HAVE ALREADY BEGUN!

Wes and Bryn have informed me that 2012 sign ups have already been coming in! On the main page of this here website, there is a tab that says SIGN UP! This page has all the updated 2012 information.

WHAT TO EXPECT THIS WEEK:

head lettuce

1 bunch kale

1 bunch chard

1 bunch baby misato rose radishes*

1 bunch beets

1 bunch leeks

1 bunch turnips

carrots by the pound

parsnips by the pound

1 butternut squash

onions

garlic

*These lovely radishes usually get very large, and are a glorious root vegetable. However, due to our waterlogged field. they have not grown a bit in over a month, so they look like salad radishes. The tops are insanely good, so eat them or freeze them for a sweet and tender green.

Expect the following produce this week:

1 bunch broccoli raab

1 bunch arugula

bok choy

1 bunch scarlet ohno turnips

carrots

1 celeriac

1 butternut squash

onions

garlic

There are a lot of greens this week! It’s about time, right? There is nothing better in the fall than a big pot of cooked greens. They balance out the weight of all the starchy root vegetables, plus, add a great amount of nutrition just when the days are getting short and outdoor fun begins to wain.

(The greens on the turnips this week are quite delicious, so be sure to use them too.)

This week’s recipe is a chili, what better side dish than cooked green to go along with cornbread or rice? Mix them all together, cook them separate, whatever you do they will be great.

Black Bean and Butternut Squash Chili

2 onions, diced

4 cloves garlic, minced

5 cups butternut squash, in small dice

4 cups black beans, cooked

1 quart tomato sauce

1 quart diced or whole tomatoes

fresh chile peppers, seeds removed and chopped

2 TBS cumin powder

1 TBS chile powder

salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat a large pot, coat the bottom with oil. Add the onions, garlic and butternut squash. Cook until the onions are translucent over medium heat, about 7 minutes.

2. Add the chiles and cook for 1-2 minutes.

3. Add the beans, tomato sauce, and tomatoes. Bring to a boil and turn heat down to a low simmer.

4. Cook over low heat for at least one hour, until the squash is well-cooked. Add spices and salt and pepper to taste.

As will all chilies, the flavor improves after 1-2 days in the refrigerator.

Serve with diced avocado and lime.