get your greens on

There is a lot of poetry to growing food.  Just the act of trust that is putting a seed in the ground so that it can become a plant is crazy, of course.  I also love that, while the first leaves to appear are called cotyledon leaves, the second set are called true leaves.  This makes sense because those cotyledon, or seed, leaves don't resemble what the real leaves of the plant will look like.  Only the 'true leaves' reveal the character of the plant.

My cousin and his wife are starting a new farm here in the Hudson Valley and it's beginning now, in the fall.  I experienced this revelation for the first time a couple of years ago when they built their first high tunnel.  For me, there is nothing more beautiful in January in the East than rows of the most tender and delicious greens you've ever seen (or tasted).  There is more and more information out there about how large scale growing of food is not good for us and even more evidence that it is not necessary.  Not to mention that these greens will blow the pants off of anything you would get at your supermarket or, god forbid, walmart.

So get your greens on, people.  I hear they are pretty good for you.  http://www.obercreekfarm.com/

delights from lucy

I love to get packages from my sister-in-law, Lucy.  She is the only person I know who always uses real stamps, no matter how large the package, and the box is always filled with treats that are homegrown and beyond delicious:  golden walnuts and jams and jellies made from pomegranates and foraged berries.

and the pigs didn't even seem to care

My cousin takes care of the animals at our nearby farm and I jumped at the chance to watch over them while he was away last week.  There are cows, pigs, chickens, a turkey and some sheep.  I arrived on my second day to see that two beautiful, healthy lambs had been born to one of the sheep.  Lambs are amazing.  It is impossible to take a photo of them that doesn't seem totally saccharin because they embody cuteness so much.  I put the lambs with their mama in a separate pen and looked up only to find that 3 of the cows had escaped into the part of the barn reserved for humans.  Much pushing, shoving and bribing (with grain) later I returned them to their rightful spots and wondered what the next day would bring.  When I returned the following morning, I discovered that another ewe had "lambed" but this one was not so lucky.  Her lamb came out a stillborn and it was heartbreaking to watch her mute attempts to wake her baby.  A quick reminder of how fragile life is. As I knelt down to wrap the corpse in a towel, the mama ewe came over and rubbed her cheek against mine.  It seemed that she was both looking for comfort and, at the same time, trying to comfort me, who was very clearly distraught at the scene.  I went back later that day to find yet another two new, this time, healthy lambs born to another ewe.  A quick reminder that life goes on.

baby, it's cold outside!

Shrooms

We took a field trip up to Saugerties last week to see how mushrooms are grown.  Here we have shitakes, blue and yellow oysters.

sleepy greens!