Many Farms

"Culture evolves when there's enough food available that people can chew their meals slowly and ruminate on what life means."  Amen, Andy Griffin. Until there's enough real food available to all, this quote seems as much a statement about basic human rights as a call for more local farmers. And so I find myself stepping off the city grid and into a life in agriculture. 

As I look around for existing models to learn from, I've discovered some very cool projects right here in New England:  The Food Project, Land's Sake, The Big Ox Farm, Gaining Ground, The Farm School, Shelburne Farms and Green Meadow Farms, among others.  A couple weeks ago I met Ryan Voiland from Red Fire Farm.  He spoke about Equal Exchange, his annual Tomato Trot/Heirloom Festival and how he cover crops by growing clover under napa cabbage, both at the same time. Then he handed out his late harvest carrots, which were surprisingly sweet thanks to early   snowfall that insulated, rather than froze them to death. Later, I attended an MIT lecture about a meat CSA at Chestnut Farms. The husband/wife team brought a three-day old piglet and explained the school bus they've converted into a mobile chicken coop. Sitting in that classroom, listening to ideas about biodiesel from animal waste, an araucana chicken laid a skyblue egg into a boy's hand!  That brave hen hadn't produced any eggs in over a year. So many farms, so many miracles.

Links to all of these inspiring farmers are on the sideboard, left, along with pop-up descriptions if you let the cursor hover over the name.  Andy Griffin grows organically at Mariquita Farm in California, and his Ladybug Letter is awesome. If you like soil, culture, insight and "perspective [that] has grown 'organically' out of lived experience on the farm" without the "nostalgia, regrets or corporate BS," sign up to start receiving!  His latest brought together an unlikely cast of Jeffery Steingarten, Charles Darwin, Farmer McGregor and the Flopsy Bunnies. - sy

Comments

[Aaron Kagan]

Couldn't agree with you more. I, too, have come to realize that the farms outside of Boston are some of the finest in the country, if not the world. We're very lucky to have local, organic, sustainable agriculture in our own backyard. I'd like to add to the list: Blue Heron and River Rock.

I'm currently in the process of establishing a local foods tour for Boston area middle and high school students, so feel free to get in touch if you'd like to contribute any of your own findings. (E-mail or leave a comment on my blog.)

-www.teaandfood.blogspot.com