Who Are Your Farmers? — Eli

Eli Dibner-Dunlap — Vegetable Grower/Tractor Operator

Eli spends most of his days behind the wheel of a tractor, preparing fields for planting, annihilating 96% of the weed population, and grinning gleefully while hoeing, tomato staking or transplanting.  In his 2nd year at RFF, Eli is 24 years old and from Cleveland, OH.  He is tall enough to easily pick out in a crowd, and he can’t make up his mind: mustache or beard?  Eli is a recovering political junkie, a former French horn player of 9 years, and has never been confused for legendary chess player, Bobby Fischer.

How did you get into farming? It all started back in college when I asked myself, “what is the most basic function of a human?”  I thought about it and I realized, it’s eating!  So, I started to consider eating, and what people eat.  Eating seems like such a simple thing we do daily, but the reality of how that food gets to us is a much more complex process.  It’s complex because of the consolidation of land, of merging companies that operate such lands, of an increase in food processing…this all becomes a list of 20 ingredients.  I was totally confused by what was going on in our food industry the more I learned about it that I felt I needed to find a much simpler way of doing such a simple task as eating.  I decided I wanted to eat less ingredients.  Our food industry has become disturbed on so many levels — socially, ecologically and economically, that I felt like I wanted to take control of my relationship to those disturbances.  Learning how to farm has been an essential way for me to feel like I am taking part in a real movement away from our complicated, damaging food system.

What’s your favorite vegetable? How do you cook with it?  Poblano peppers. They add such a rich flavor to any dish and also a touch of heat.  I like to throw them in all soups, but a big hit is mixing them in a roasted corn chowder.  It’s a crowd pleaser.  Try it.

What role does farming play in the rest of your life?  Farming for me has become not just a job, but a way of life.  I now follow the rhythm of the farm season, including long summer days and winter spent in hibernation.  I look forward to growing food for the rest of my life, keeping a small garden for my family’s needs and to maintain my own land connection.  I recommend it to any and all.

What do you like to do when you’re not farming?  I’m currently taking an EMT class, which requires a lot of time and energy.  Health and medicine is a potential next step for me, which feels like another layer on top of my initial attraction to agriculture.  But to get real, what I love most is a well-crafted potluck, baking a crusty loaf of bread, a raucous square dance, and a sweet smelling autumn bike ride.

How To Store Winter Vegetables

It is time to fill the cellar. Or the “cellar” as is the case for many folks. (The “cellar” is whatever somewhat appropriate environs you can carve out of your small apartment living space 🙂
We have many vegetables for bulk order that need nothing more than a cool dark place to keep well through the long cold nights of winter. If you are interested in stocking up, we recommend ordering unwashed vegetables since these will keep better (and it saves us time too!).

Here is just a little bit of basic information about how to store vegetables during the winter…

STORE THINGS DIRTY: the process of cleaning things causes tiny scratches and damage that may shorten the storage life of the produce, so store things dirty and wash right before use.

STORE ONLY THE HEALTHY: When you put away produce into storage, check for disease and damage, and set aside damaged produce for early use. It is indeed true that one bad apple can ruin the barrel.

CHECK PERIODICALLY: Go through your stored produce and remove for use or compost anything that’s starting to decay.

IDEAL CONDITIONS:
Keep in mind that you don’t have to have it exactly perfect to be successful in storing months worth of local produce.

True Root Vegetables – these include Carrots, Parsnips, Beets, Turnips, Rutabaga, Storage Radishes and Celeriac. Kohlrabi also stores well under the same conditions. Store all of these vegetables in the refrigerator. They need high humidity in order to stay crisp, so put into a plastic bag first with a few drops of water. I find that it is best to leave a tiny bit of air circulation though, so don’t use a twist tie on the plastic bag, just leave the top open, folded over. These crops easily can keep until May under these conditions.
Ideal conditions for storing them in a root cellar are 32-40 degrees with 90-95% humidity. You can create humid storage containers by packing the roots in damp sand, sawdust, leaves or other packing material.

Sweet Potatoes – Keep at room temperature (above 55 F is important – cooler temperatures will result in chilling injury to this tropical root.) Keep dry in paper bags or baskets out of direct sunlight.

Butternut Squash, Pumpkins, and other Winter Squash – Keep cool and dry. Traditionally squashes were kept under beds in the upstairs of farm houses where there was always above freezing temp, but not super hot either. Optimal conditions are from 50-55 degrees with relative humidity of 50-70 percent. Most homes are a little drier than that, which may cause a little drying of the squash, but that is not a huge concern. Temperatures below 50 degrees will cause chilling injury to squash. Butternuts are one of the longest storing winter squash varieties and might keep until around February at the best.

Onions and Garlic – Keep at room temperature in the kitchen for medium storage. They like it dry, and on the cooler side (32-50 F ideally, though kitchens work well for medium length keeping). Don’t put in plastic bags as humidity encourages sprouting. You can also keep small quantities in the kitchen and bulk amounts of garlic or onions in a cooler spot in mesh bags or containers that allow lots of airflow.

Onions eventually start to sprout, but you can then give them some light from a window and use the leaves that grow from the center as scallions in late winter sprout salads! Garlic will also keep well at room temp. in a dry area.

Potatoes – For shorter term storage, just keep roots in the 40- 60 F range and they can keep for weeks until they begin to sprout. Keep potatoes in the dark in opaque containers like paper bags, as light will turn them green and cause them to sprout sooner. More humid conditions will keep them from shriveling.

For longest term storage, keep under refrigeration, or similar conditions. However, if you refrigerate, take out and leave at room temperature for a week before eating. This allows the starches to convert back to normal inside the potato. Potato starches turn to sugars in the cold. You can also eat them directly out of the fridge, though they may be sweeter and have a slightly different texture.

Cabbage – 32-40 degrees, 80-90% humidity. They do well in humid refrigeration. Even if outer leaves get gross and moldy you can peel them away to find a good head underneath.

SPACES TO CONSIDER when you don’t have refrigerator space:
Spaces that are cold but don’t freeze or may only freeze if very cold outside (on these nights take your containers inside) are good options for root vegetables and other produce where refrigeration is recommended. You would need to set things up to have higher humidity in some way. Here are a few types of locations that people have used for storage.

• Entryways
• Stairwells & Bulkheads
• Attached Garages
• Four season porches
• Drafty closet that you don’t open often

Visit these Cornell Storage Guidelines for more details on length of storage time by crop and more ideas for how to pack produce or set up a root cellar.

Happy storing and winter cooking! Please post comments about ways you’ve found that work well to store produce, especially if it might help out other folks with limited space or resources.

Who Are Your Farmers? — Max

Max Jiusto — Trainer

Max is responsible for teaching new employees harvest techniques and standards.  He shows newcomers what’s expected on the farm, and aims to have that the daily harvest happen efficiently and on time.  Max is 23 years old, from Worcester, MA and is in his second year at RFF.

How did you get into farming? I needed one more credit at UMASS, so I signed up for a gardening course called Garden Share.  Gardening was totally new to me, but I really liked it.  I was graduating that Spring of 2011, so I decided to give farming a shot.  I applied to Red Fire and got hired for the summer.  Since working here, my entire perception of eating food and where our food comes from has changed.  I think from now on, I will always be involved in growing my food in some way, whether volunteering or working on a farm.

What’s your favorite vegetable? How do you cook with it?  Onions.  I put them on everything.  I make what I call the “RFF Burrito” with black beans, onions, garlic, tomatoes, peppers and a green of some sort, usually spinach.  I prefer red onions best.

What role does farming play in the rest of your life?  For a while, I’ve had a growing interest in our country’s food system, as well as more generally, our world’s food system.  I thought that working on a farm seemed like a good place to start learning more about food production.  Red Fire represents the new wave of organic agriculture.  I hope we can get more and more people into this way of farming, and relying less on industrial farming.  This year I’m hoping to get into canning and preserving food.  It makes sense to put food away for the winter seeing that there is such bounty on the farm.  Tomato sauce is my goal this year.

What do you like to do when you’re not farming? I love to play music.  I play guitar in a band called Adult Fiction and I also play saxophone.  I’m also a wild man on the dance floor.  Going out to dance parties is probably my favorite thing these days.

Max is an eligible bachelor who will charm you on the dance floor, and serenade you with his saxophone melodies.

Oven Roasted Tomatoes

Written by Mary Nelen

This method of cooking tomatoes will result in something similar to sun dried tomatoes except the end product is more lush and fresh. The tomatoes can be served as an appetizer, as part of a salad, on house made pizza with fresh ricotta or as a side to grilled bluefish.

Equipment

parchment paper

baking sheets

Ingredients

4- quarts cherry tomatoes, any kind

olive oil

sea salt, pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 425

Halve cherry tomatoes and toss with salt, pepper and olive oil. Place cut side up on parchment lined baking sheet.

Place in oven and roast for 30 minutes before going to bed. Turn off heat and leave tomatoes in the oven so they continue to roast over night.

Serve warm or for later use, fill a small jar with oven-roasted tomatoes and add more olive oil.  Place in fridge or freeze in freezer bags.

Canned Plum Tomatoes

Written by Mary Nelen

Putting food by is the art of preserving the freshness of summer. Flavor as well as nutrition are benefits of taking the time to can summer food. According to the USDA, vegetables handled properly and canned promptly after harvest can be more nutritious than fresh produce sold in local stores.

In this recipe, plum tomatoes are cooked briefly to remove skins, cored, placed into jars and boiled in a canner creating a vacuum that removes air bubbles to prevent spoilage.

I use plum tomatoes, also known as “Roma” or “paste.”  They have less water than other tomatoes and make a great base for making everything from ketchup to tomato paste to various sauces all winter long.

RECIPE: Canned Plum Tomatoes: Yield: 1 dozen quarts. Time: 3 to 4 hours.

EQUIPMENT

12- 1-quart Ball Jars with lids and bands, cleaned and warm

1 canner (21-quart) with canning rack

1 set canning tongs

1 canning funnel

1 small saucepan for lid sterilization

1 stockpot for scalding tomatoes

1 large bowl or cooler for ice bath

1 small set of tongs for removing lids from saucepan

1 plastic spatula to remove air bubbles

1 cutting board

1 small paring knife

Clean Dish Rags

INGREDIENTS

36 lbs tomatoes, about 6 tomatoes per jar

24- tablespoons bottled lemon juice

12- teaspoons salt or 6 teaspoons of citric acid

DIRECTIONS

Create this assembly line in your kitchen:

1)    Fill your canner ¾ full of water. Bring to a simmer, put the lid on and keep on a back burner until ready for use.

2)    Fill a stockpot with water to scald tomatoes in batches. Bring to a strong simmer.

3)    Fill a small saucepan half way with water and keep water almost to a boil.

4)    Wash tomatoes in batches and set aside for scalding

5)    Prepare ice bath for scalded tomatoes by filling cooler or bowl with water and ice.

6)    Place cutting board next to ice bath for skinning and coring tomatoes.

7)    Next to that, have a bowl ready for the skins and cores and line up 6 jars and bands.

8)    Place lids with rubber lining in sauce pan to sterilize.

9)    At the end of the line, have lemon juice, salt, measuring spoons and dishrags ready.

Wash all of the plum tomatoes in cold water. In batches, place in boiling water to scald. When splits appear in skin, after around 3 minutes, remove several tomatoes at a time with a slotted spoon or small colander and place in the ice bath.

When the tomatoes are cool enough to touch, remove skins and cores with a paring knife. Try to keep them intact, if possible. Using the funnel, fill each jar with tomato flesh only, leaving about 1” of headroom in the top of the jar. Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and one teaspoon of salt or 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid (to lower the Ph value) to each jar.

Use rubber spatula to remove air bubbles in mixture by sliding it around the edges of the jar. Wipe the neck of the jar clean with a dishtowel. Use a small set of tongs to remove a lid from the saucepan. Place lid on top of jar with a tap of the tongs and screw the band around it, “finger tight,” but not too tight. That will make it possible to allow air to escape during processing. The goal in processing is to eliminate all air to prevent contamination.

Bring water in canner up to a strong simmer. When all of the jars in the canning rack are filled with tomatoes and the lids are screwed on, place entire rack in water, turn heat up to high and process for approximately 45 minutes. Jars should be fully submerged with 2 to 3 inches of water above the jars. Add boiling water to bath if necessary.

When the jars have been processed in boiling water for the recommended time, turn off the heat and remove the canner lid. Wait 5 minutes before removing jars.

Using jar tongs, remove the jars one at a time, being careful not to tilt the jars. Carefully place them directly onto a towel or cake cooling rack, leaving at least one inch of space between the jars during cooling. Avoid placing the jars on a cold surface or in a cold draft.

Repeat this process until all of the tomatoes have been processed. Leave jars undisturbed for 24 hours. You will hear a popping sound when the seal is made.

To check to see if a seal has been created in the jar, press on center of cooled lid. If jar is sealed, the lid will NOT flex up or down. If it does flex up or down, refrigerate and use within 2 weeks. Store sealed jars in cool, dark place for up to one year.

Congratulations! You have just put canned tomatoes. Enjoy this summer’s bounty all year long. See www.valleylocavore.com for additional tomato recipes.

*USDA GUIDELINES HOME CANNING: Tomatoes and more…

http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/usda/GUIDE%201%20Home%20Can.pdf.

Tomato Trot 2012 Results!

Tomato Tasting Results 2012

As always, our Cherry and Heirloom tomatoes had the most votes, as they are the most flavorful fruits!  Here are the top 20 tomatoes from this year’s festival:

1.  Matt’s Wild — Cherry

2. Bing — Cherry

3. Coyote — Cherry

4. Sweet Treat’s Pink — Cherry

5. Fred Limbaugh Potato Top — Heirloom

6. Red Pearl Grape — Cherry

7. Moon Glow — Heirloom

8. Apero — Cherry

9. Brandywine — Heirloom

10. White Cherry — Cherry

11. Match — Red Slicing

12. Honeydrop — Cherry

13. Be Orange — Red Slicing

14. Sungold — Cherry

15. Sweet Pea — Cherry

16. Ceylon — Heirloom

17. Chuck’s Yellow — Heirloom

18. Orange Strawberry — Heirloom

19. Spear’s Tennessee Green — Heirloom

20. Amish Gold — Heirloom

Who Are Your Farmers? — Habiba

Habiba Said — Crew Member

Habiba works as part of the crew, doing everything from seeding to harvesting to weeding.  She is 28 years old and in her 3rd year at RFF.  She grew up in Somalia and came to the US when she was 19 years old.  She lives in Springfield with her husband Haji and their 6 children.

What do you like about farming? I like that I can do so many different things while working here.  Some days I clean onions, other days I seed in the greenhouse, other days I weed, and other days I harvest.  The work here is very hard, but I like it and will stay here for a while.  I especially like that I can be outside a lot.

What’s your favorite vegetable? How do you cook with it?  I love to make soup with carrots, onions and all varieties of potato.  I love to cook with sweet potatoes too.  I cut and fry them on a pan with coconut milk and sugar.  The tomatoes here are very good, so I enjoy eating those all season too.

What do you like to do when you’re not farming?  I spend a lot of time with my family.  My youngest daughter, Ella was born in January of this year.  She is 8 months old now, so when I’m not working, I spend a lot of my time with her.  My oldest daughter, Hawa is 16.  In between my oldest and youngest, I have a 13 year old son named Abdulkadir, a 12 year old daughter named Amina, an 8 year old daughter named Jasmine and a 4 year old daughter named Fahema.  When I’m not working, I spend a lot of time doing things around the house, shopping and caring for my kids.

Late Blight Found on the Farm

By RYAN VOILAND

We are very sad to report that late blight (Phytophthora infestans) has struck some of our outdoor tomato fields in Montague.  This disease is the most dreaded disease that exists for tomato and potato growers. We saw it first on our farm in 2009, weeks earlier in the season, where it caused massive crop loss and severely impacted us financially. It is the disease that caused the Irish Potato famine in the 1800’s.  It has been increasingly found in Massachusetts and the Northeast in general over the past few years.

The early spread of the disease in 2009 was due to infected plants sold by big box stores. This year the disease traveled north by natural dispersal, though faster than in other years. Usually we don’t see much of late blight here – if it arrives at all, it comes after our plants have mostly died back from the common and omnipresent septoria leaf spot and early blight (these are much slower moving diseases).

The rainy and humid weather that we have been having the last week or so creates perfect conditions for this disease to thrive (while it has been a relief of the drought).  The disease spores travel very easily on wind, clothes, hands and farm machinery, so plant pathology experts at Umass have been alerting growers to be on the look out for this disease as it came up the Atlantic states.  Many organic farms in the valley are finding it in their fields. All tomato fields in Massachusetts are at high risk for getting infected by this disease.  Potatoes are also in danger, though there are no confirmed infections of potatoes to date in the state. The disease spreads with devastating speed and can kill healthy tomato plants within one week of initial infection.

This is what our tomato fields should look like:

Meanwhile Umass extension recommends that we spray all of our still uninfected tomato and potato fields with a copper material at least once per week until the crops ripen.  This is fixed copper and is the only material that certified organic growers can use that has a chance of slowing the spread of the disease.  Even though it is a naturally occurring metal and is allowed for use in organic farming, it is a material that can irritate the eyes and skin of the person applying it.  For this reason you may see us driving around the farm on the spraying tractor wearing a mask and goggles as a safety precaution.  There is a possibility that you will see some of the green residue of this spray on the tomato fruits, and if you do you should wash the fruits before eating.  Copper in this form has a very low toxicity to humans and animals, but it is important to wash it off the fruit.
We don’t like having to rely on a spray to fight this disease, but we see no other alternative.  Our tomato crop is at very high risk and even with the spray we might lose most of the tomato crop.

Here is a close up of an infected plant, showing affected stems and browned leaves:

Here is a close up of tomatoes in which the fungus is living and sending out spores:

At its worst, late blight could cause us to lose a massive amount of tomatoes, meaning that shareholders would not get as many tomatoes for the season as we had hoped.  However, if the copper can prevent the fungus from inoculating and infecting the leaves and fruits on our later season plantings, we might still get a crop. We do expect it to impact the farm financially, as tomatoes are a big part of our business, as ingredients in our shares, through bulk orders to our members, in retail sales and in offerings to our wholesale restaurant and store customers.

Compared to the losses of 2009, we are doing much better, as we had dead fields by the end of July in 2009. We have some separated fields in Montague that are not showing signs of infection yet. We also have a section of heirloom tomatoes for the Tomato Festival in Granby that are not infected yet.

Our tomato plants this year in Montague were looking loaded with fruits, one of the best-looking crops we’ve seen – and we hope that we will still be able to harvest a portion of these before the disease progresses. Since we plant so many acres of tomatoes, we have high hopes that even in the event of a major loss, we will still be able to provide tomatoes to our members for weeks.  We will just have to wait and see.  We can also protect our later season tomato plants in hopes of those turning out healthy.  Dry weather with little rain is also helpful in preventing the spread of the disease. Though we don’t want too much of that either!