Boy, have I got exciting news for those of you that live in Philadelphia and are looking for a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share for the upcoming 2009 growing season!  Since CSA shares of all kinds sell out quickly in this city that is so passionate about buying local, having the brand new “Henry Got Crops” CSA is a welcome addition to the mix.  This CSA is being organized/overseen by Weavers Way Farm, but it is anticipated that the majority of the produce in the shares will be grown by the great students at W. B. Saul High School along Henry Avenue in Roxborough (for those of you familiar with the area, it’s the unexpected little farmstead with the horses and cows on Henry just past all those big apartment complexes).   

Weavers Way has been working with Saul students for awhile now in the greenhouse and this expansion to field production and a CSA seemed like a natural next step in helping educate and employ these ambitious kids.   In addition to the weekly share of vegetables (large enough for a family of four), there will be opportunities for CSA members to pick their own flowers and herbs at the farm as well as buy additional local products such as cheeses and meats.   Awesome, right?  I think so!  

You can join or get additional information by emailing henrygotcrops(at)weaversway(dot)coop [just convert the (at) to @ and the (dot) to . at the time you compose your email].  If you’re wanting more information about Weavers Way Farm and its staff, check out the Garden/Farm page here and the co-op’s webpage.

Weavers Way Farm Harvest Festival
October 11, 2008
12:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Directions here

Please join us for an afternoon of autumnal fun as we celebrate the first annual Harvest Festival at Weavers Way Farm, located in Awbury Arboretum, 1101 Washington Lane, Philadelphia, PA. Festivities will feature a variety of musical entertainment, hay rides, raffles with great prizes, plenty of farm fresh food, and much more!  And of course, enjoy visiting the fields of this funky urban farm surrounded by hundreds of trees in their full fall splendor!  For more information about the farm and what to expect, visit the farm’s webpage at http://weaversway.coop/index.php?page=the_farm.

This isn’t a food related post, but it is a “straight from the farm” topic and a fun one at that so I thought I’d share. I was asked recently to do the centerpiece arrangements for a fundraising dinner for the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA), which happens to be the organization behind the “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” campaign that’s done so much for small farms like Weavers Way Farm. I was obviously thrilled to do the floral designs for this lovely event being held in the conservatory of Longwood Gardens, and I worked exclusively with flowers grown at our farm and in my own garden to create these pieces. The pumpkins were also locally grown on a farm in Lancaster County.

Cut flower production and floral design with locally grown flowers is fast becoming an intense passion of mine since I began working and studying at Longwood Gardens. I was pleased to have this opportunity to demonstrate how locally grown seasonal flowers, even in late September, can be just as sophisticated and opulent as a bunch of hot house roses or otherwise. I hope you would agree.

So don’t just think about buying local vegetables, fruit, meat and cheeses. Also think about buying your flowers locally as they are also an important of most small farmers’ palette of products. Local flowers also avoid the environmental issues of the energy consumed in growing flowers out of season in greenhouses far away and often shipping them across international borders.

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The third annual Philadelphia Urban Farm Bike Tour was another huge success, despite the undesirable heat wave that’s hit the city.  Nearly 100 riders braved the scorching weather to take a look at six urban agriculture projects, which included Weavers Way Farm, Martin Luther King High School Farm, Mill Creek Farm, Spring Gardens Community Garden, Teens4Good/Philly Orchird Project, and GreensGrow.  The ride finished with a well deserved pizza and beer party at the Philadelphia Brewing Company.  Thank you to all the riders who came out to participate – it was a blast meeting everyone and sharing our passion for urban farming!   Your generous donations will go to support these important projects! 

Here’s a slide show of the pictures I took.  Feel free to visit the Flickr page too.

We’re planning another Philadelphia Urban Farm Bike Tour for this summer, starting again at Weavers Way Farm, which has grown by leaps and bounds since last year, and ending up again at Yards Brewery–same place, but new brews and a new name–Philadelphia Brewing Company.  The ride’s planned for Saturday, July 19th, 8:30 a.m. to roughly 3:00 p.m.

There will be a few changes and additions this year. Here’s a quick overview of those changes:

1. We’re looking to add another farm to the urban mix–Teens4Grow, at 8th and Poplar (not far off the path to GreensGrow Farm).

2. The women from DC who took the three-month urban farm bike tour of the Northeast will be joining us again. And, for those who are interested, they’ll be showing a work in progress version of the film they’re making about their trip at 5 pm on Saturday the 19th, probably at Video Library in Mt. Airy.

3. We’re asking for a donation of $10, payable at the start of the ride in cash, to help support the farms we visit (it will be split evenly between them) — and to pay for the pizza that will be delivered to the brewery at the end of the ride.

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Tell your friends about the ride. I’d love to hear if any of my readers are going to be joining us!  More details, including a full route, will be available closer to the time.  Rest assured you don’t have to be a rockstar cyclist to complete this tour.  We go slow and talk a lot along the way.  And most every hill is downhill, I swear! 

 

HAPPY SPRING EVERYONE! 

Yep, today’s the first day of spring for those of us here in the Northern Hemisphere.  It’s a blustery start here in Philadelphia in particular.  But I’m very excited nonetheless because it means the start of another growing season full of potential!  Gosh, it’ll be good to get some fresh produce to work with in the kitchen again.  There are only so many rutabagas and potatoes a girl can eat.

In celebration and anticipation of all the amazing fresh eating to come in 2008, Weavers Way Farm has scheduled its first two events for this season.  The first, the Propagation Party (that’s how nerdy we farmers are – we party by planting seeds), is good fun for the whole family.  The second, the Planting Party (and here you thought partying with seeds was nerdy enough), is where we need all the adult helping hands we can get.  Click over here to the Events Page to get more details. 

I know not all of you dear readers live in the Philadelphia metro area, but maybe there is a local farm near you that could use a morning’s worth of your volunteer efforts?  It can be a lot of fun to dig in the dirt!

I’m so invigorated today!  Next person that asks me how I’m doing today, I’m going to energetically reply, “Invigorated!”  I wonder if that’ll elicit anything other than the normal autopilot response, “Good.”  Doesn’t matter; I’m too invigorated to care.  

Why so charged up, you ask?  Well, there’s been lots of exciting stuff happening.  First, we got snow!  Might sound silly, but boy, was I ever missing having snow around!  I finally had two or three inches to call my very own, if only for a few days, and it made me very happy.  I got to spend Saturday crunching through the virgin whiteness of the snow covered fields at the farm, snapping pictures and sucking down the cold clear air.  Take a look at this funky “old movie” slideshow or just click “View all images” to get a more straightforward look at snowy Weavers Way Farm. 

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Then, right after indulging my sense in the snowy outdoors, I took a trip over to the greenhouse to see how the seeds we planted 10 days ago were doing and give them a little pep talk (and some water).  What a world of difference it was from the white emptiness of the February fields!  The greenhouse was a riot of growth wrapped in steamy warmth and heady scents of rich soil fueling the birth of so many gorgeous little plant babies.  I nearly cried!  These little guys are just so cute and full of promise for the coming season.  Here’s my favorite picture followed by a slide show of the others.   

Already on such a high, I’ve now nearly rocketed out of invigorated orbit with anticipation for my trip to Portugal this week!  I leave on Wednesday with Taylor, who’ll be my partner in crime for the first week of prowling around Lisbon, Sintra, Leiria, and Porto.  And then I’ll be retreating to (what I hope is) a lovely little old-world cottage in the remote northern part of the country to relax for another week, sipping lots of port wine and exploring rural farming practices while hiking along ancient footpaths.  Sounds heavenly, doesn’t it?

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I hope none of you will be too disappointed with me when I get back and turn this food blog into a travel blog for a few days as I’m no doubt going to have lots of photos and stories to share.  In the meantime, I’ve cobbled together several posts that will pop up automatically while I’m away so you won’t be left without fresh reading material for too long. 

So I wonder how big the little plant babies will be by the time I get back?  It’ll nearly be spring!!  Now that’s an invigorating thought!

This morning, as I pedaled into work, I smelled a hint of spring on the breeze.  You know, that musty dirt kind of smell?  Considering it’s still just the middle of February, this scent seems a little preemptive.  A couple of us at a recent meeting about farm affairs joked that Philadelphia might be re-designated as part of Plant Hardiness Zone 9, a zone typically associated with Florida and Texas.  While I don’t think we’ve gone that far south just yet, global warming is no joke as it seems to be settling in for the long haul.   We can’t kid ourselves any longer that these mild winters are just a fluke.

I know we all enjoy the coming of spring and the sooner the better, generally speaking.  But without the cleansing freeze of a snowy blanket and many bitter cold nights, life cycles are bound to get wacky.  For one thing, disease and weeds in the soil will live to see another day, rather than succumbing to the big freeze.  This prospect is a daunting one indeed for the small organic farmer.  It’s nice to think of extended seasons that allow us to grow, and thus sell, more fresh produce, but I wonder if the price to be paid might be too high?  Although maybe it means more folks will get involved in the business of urban and sustainable farming if they don’t have to worry about long icy winters freezing them out of an income.  More urban farms would definitely be good, and with enough of them, we might even reverse the affects of global warming.  That would take more lifetimes than I have to live, of course, but it’s a real possibility.  

Oddly enough, all these thoughts flashed through my mind as I got that whiff of spring.  There were other thoughts that followed briefly before I had to stop myself from over-thinking the problem entirely too much.  I just barely started wondering if these would-be Zone 9 Pennsylvania farmers would then put themselves out of business by the year 2200 when global warming disappeared and winter once again claimed its turf.   That’s when I decided I’d better put the kibosh on my mental wanderings.  

But who am I kidding?  I love spring!!!  And it couldn’t have felt more like a springtime affair than the other day when I helped plant trays of seeds for Weavers Way Farm.  Now that the 30 some trays of lettuces, bok choy, kale, broccoli, kohlrabi, asian greens, collards, leeks, endive, radicchio, and swiss chard are all tucked snuggly under a blanket of rich soil in a steamy warm greenhouse, I can hardly wait to see their tiny green heads pop up and start the cycle of the growing season all over again!  

Farmer Dave is gearing up for the new season after a few short months of rest.  This time of year, a lot of organization goes into the production planning for even such a small farm as his.  Maps of the fields are drawn up to illustrate how the beds will be laid out and how the crops are going to be rotated from last year to make it harder for pests and disease to find them again.  Detailed seeding lists need to be made for the 75+ crops we’ll be growing this year.  Each vegetable (and even some varieties within a given vegetable type) has to be planted in a designated window of time for proper germination and hardening off before going into the ground.  Seeding is rewarding, but time consuming, and the young plants require a lot of attention. 

David S. is also busy with seeding but more so with plans for bolstering the farm’s education program now that a grant has been secured to fund his full-time education coordinator role.  There’s lots of outreach to be done for getting the word out to local schools and setting up class visits and curriculum.  He’s already started by involving a few students at Wyncote Academy (where the farm’s current greenhouse space is) in the seeding process.  I really enjoyed seeing these kids work at something quite foreign to them that will, over the weeks that they participate (as part of their science curriculum), become second nature.  I can’t say for sure if they’ll become farmers, but I’m pretty willing to bet on their increased awareness of how their food chain works. 

The air surrounding all this activity is downright palpitating with energy!  We’ve been so encouraged by the farm’s yield in 2007, its first official season, that we’re boldly proffering a goal for the farm to break even in 2008.  By general industry standards, it often takes traditional farms a decade, give or take, to do the same.  When those first lettuces take root and the kohlrabi start to bulge in April and May, we’ll be in the thick of another growing season.    But right now, I’d really like at least one thick blanket of pristine snow, please. Without it, the coming of spring won’t be as nearly as sweet.

Are you starting seeds and/or planning a garden?  Tell me what you’re most excited about with the coming of spring.  Or do you miss snow just a little bit, the same way I do? 

On another note, while I was surveying the fields on Saturday, I realized I have cooked and posted a recipe for every single crop raised by Weavers Way Farm in 2007.  What a delicious year it’s been!  Thanks for coming along for the ride! 

Baby leeks ready for planting

Lots of baby plants starting in the lower field in June

Irrigation tape between rows of baby lettuce

Young tomato plants staked up

The forrest of mature plants in August

Fall comes to the farm

Lower field is bare, save for a few tented rows of hardy greens

Two scarecrows guard the winter cover crops in the lower field

I’d just like to take a moment and thank Cafette, a great local BYOB here in the Mt. Airy/Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia.  Cafette will be Weavers Way Farm’s first restaurant buyer!   We’re super psyched to see our veggies served up on the special’s menu of such a fine establishment.  It’s also nice to know I have an “excuse” for dining out on their lovely patio more often.  Quality checks are very important, don’t you think?  Too bad we don’t supply anything (yet) for their desserts…I could “quality check” them by the dozens! 

Visit Cafette’s website to find more information, directions and the phone number to make a reservation.  Be sure to ask what’s on the menu from Weavers Way Farm!