Growing Patience at Restoration Farm

The rhythms of farming can be a bit temperamental.  Weather, water, soil and weeds – it all influences the eventual harvest. 

We’ve had a little “farming frustration” here on Long Island.   The 2013 growing season at Restoration Farm got off to a slow start.   Mentally, I’d been preparing myself for the first distribution of vegetables in early June, but cooler temperatures, rain, and a perennially wet spring field slowed everything down.  Our head growers, Caroline and Dan made the decision to postpone the first distribution, giving everything just a little more time to grow.  

Don’t we all wish we had just a little more time to grow?  

Normally, at this point, we’d all be up to our ears in lettuce, but instead it has been a season of waiting.    Patience is the farmer’s virtue.

Finally, I can take it no more, so I head out into the fields for hints of encouragement.   

A precious bit of asparagus has been harvested.   The asparagus field and yield are small and not enough for the full membership, so the luscious stalks are extra special.

The farm team is busy, working diligently to whack those weeds into submission.

The lettuce is now looking bright and perky.

The spring peas are covered with blossoms, and there is just a hint of tender pea pods peeking out.  

Blackberry blossoms are beckoning.

And in the greenhouse, those hot weather peppers are getting ready for their moment in the sun.  

Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “He that can have patience can have what he will.”

I'm passing through the trailer at the distribution area, and I notice this slightly banged up sign hooked onto the wall.   I don't know who hung it, or when, but its message seems to get to the heart of what's actually growing at Restoration Farm.

The harvest will come and there will be salad days ahead.   

©2013 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved   

Strawberries First Blush at Restoration Farm

A carpet of green, accented by brilliant jewels of red, signals the start of a festive season. It’s not the yuletide, but the start of summer.

The strawberries fields of Restoration Farm offer the bright young things of summer.  Red to the core, they are like sweet pockets of juice that glitter under the late spring sky.  

I can’t fully embrace the summer until I’ve waded into the field and picked my first basket of fresh strawberries. These blushing berries belong to us, the first fruits of the season.  As always I celebrate their arrival by sneaking a taste of few berries right in the field.   It’s a little miracle to savor the dripping, delicious sweetness of a fresh strawberry, drenched by the sun and plucked right from the field.

The first strawberries of summer make for a particularly whimsical dinner salad of berries and slivered almonds tossed with local Long Island lettuce and asparagus.  

A taste of a single berry in the field at Restoration Farm is a miracle. A bowlful is a guilty pleasure! They are like no other berries on Earth!  

©2013 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved 

Planting to Fight Hunger

Canned food drives are so yesterday. While still an important tool for feeding the hungry, many churches are also looking at their land and their members to get more people involved and find more ways to put food on the tables of those less fortunate.   The organic church garden may well be the new food bank of the twenty-first century. 

In 2011, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in North Bellmore, New York transformed an unused 50X100 piece of property into an organic farm.  The Garden at St. Mark’s has since harvested and donated thousands of pounds of fresh organic produce to the Long Island Council of Churches food pantry in Freeport, New York. 

Recently, St. Mark’s kicked off its third growing season, and many members, friends and volunteers rolled up their sleeves to tend to the garden. You can read more about the effort at my post for Edible Long Island.  

Through the connection of soil and spirit, the Garden at St. Mark’s aims to harvest heavenly vegetables and nurture a community of healthy bodies, big hearts, open arms and achy muscles.

©2013 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

Hello Summer, Hello Rain, Hello Cherries!

I know the Memorial Day weekend is supposed to be the unofficial start of summer, but it’s feeling much more like late March.  Still, I had cherries on my mind, hoping to make a Fresh Cherry Tart to bring to the East End summer retreat of my college roommate Ford McKenzie. 

But, with the chilling wind and drizzle, I’d convinced myself that perhaps it was just a bit too early to be in the warm weather mindset and too soon to enjoy the juicy cherries that grace the start of every summer season.

I walked the aisles of the grocer in search of ingredients for a substitute dessert, and nearly stumbled on the produce manager stocking a shelf with – you guessed it – fresh cherries.   The weather be damned.  My dessert was meant to be. 

This Fresh Cherry Tart from Everyday Food is a great option for someone who didn’t want to work too hard this weekend (me).   The baked graham cracker crust is ready in minutes, and filled with a sweetened base of cream cheese and heavy cream whipped into soft peaks.   The cherries are not cooked, so it’s really just a matter of artfully arranging the fresh fruit atop the tart filling. 

Perhaps the most time-consuming job is pitting the cherries.   I tried a cherry pitter, but the slice on the fruit was not as clean, so I used a paring knife and pitted each cherry by hand.   You might recall that Ford McKenzie is a fashion maven, so presentation actually does count.  

While we’re likely to be wearing sweaters this weekend as we hover over the barbecue grill to stay warm, this Fresh Cherry Tart offers a sweet taste of the summer season ahead, and hopefully the balmier weather to come.  

©2013 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

Spring Dances at Restoration Farm

And, so it begins again.   It is the start of my fifth season at Restoration Farm.  What once seemed like a tentative experiment is now a way of life.  

As a novice member, I simply picked up my vegetables.  Eventually, I would help with harvesting and seeding.   These days I even grow some things on my own. Welcome to the evolution of my solidarity with the soil.  

Opening Day at the Farm is a Mother’s Day weekend tradition.  New and longtime members alike are invited to tour the farm. A plant sale encourages us to try our hand at a little backyard farming.   This year, I purchase Swiss chard, kale, basil, parsley and two kinds of lettuce, which I will plant in a little patch in my yard.   I’ve learned just enough about farming to be dangerous. 

Head Grower Dan Holmes leads us into the fields.  A patch of stubborn rain has just passed hours earlier and it is a glorious day.  Dan takes us past the rows of spring vegetables and into the upper fields.    Everywhere, there are luscious green shoots opening up and reaching for the sun.  

Dan seems to revel in sharing stories of the farm – and his philosophy on sustainability – with members.  

His wife, Head Grower Caroline Fanning has a touch of laryngitis.  They’ve been working extra hours to assure that the farm looks superb for its spring debut.  

“This is the best the farm will look all season,” says Caroline, only half-jokingly.

Indeed, Restoration Farm is a stunning patchwork quilt of green and freshly tilled earth.  It’s like coming home again.   I can’t quite recall when it’s looked so lovely. The freshness of spring at the farm is a tonic for the soul.

We travel across the farm passing laying hens and meat birds.

At Apple Trace, the eight heirloom apple trees pruned in March are now covered with new leaves.   I think it will be a year of  solid growth for those trees.

The sight of the old red Garlic Barn always makes me feel like I’ve journeyed back in time. 

Shortly on the way are the strawberries, the bright green plants covered with white blossoms.  This year – with the help of my new preserving skills – there will be strawberry jam to enjoy. 

If winter was a season of anticipation, spring is that giddy, playful moment where life begins to dance at Restoration Farm.  The dance is a gig – arms open wide, energetic and vivacious – and you simply can’t help but join in.         

©2013 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved