Nostalgia, Food and Farming at The 2012 Long Island Fair

A prize winning pumpkin or a blue ribbon apple pie might seem better suited to the Amish county than a suburb of Manhattan, but indeed, the good fun and neighborly traditions of our agricultural heritage are thriving this weekend at the 170^th Long Island Fair. 

Held annually at Old Bethpage Village Restoration, The Long Island Fair is the official New York State sponsored County Fair for Queens, Nassau and Suffolk Counties.   The event was first held as the Queens County Fair back in 1842, when family farms dotted the landscape of Long Island. 

The event is co-sponsored by the Agricultural Society of Queens, Nassau & Suffolk Counties, one of the oldest agricultural societies in the United States.   Originally held on member’s farms and vacant lots in Hempstead and Mineola, the society acquired fairgrounds in 1866 on Old Country Road in Mineola, today the site of the County Court Complex.    A focal point of the fairground was the Grand Exhibition Hall.  For years, the event was known at the Mineola Fair, before it moved to its current home at Old Bethpage Village Restoration in 1970 where the Grand Exhibition Hall has been reconstructed for the annual autumn celebration. 

Strolling the fairgrounds is like a walk back in time to a simpler era.   One is surrounded by the smells of food and the sounds of farm animals and traditional fiddle music.   

Inside the Grand Exhibition Hall, the handicrafts of gardeners, bakers and quilters are displayed, many pinned with prize-winning ribbons for “First-in-Show” awarded by the society.  

Many are forging a new agricultural tradition on Long Island.   Restoration Farm is well represented at the fair with a bounty of autumn vegetables transported from the nearby fields by electric tractor.

The agricultural exhibit features the impressive yields of farmers and gardeners all over the region, including the largest pumpkin grown on Long Island this season.

There are more than a few bushels of locally-grown apples for snacking.

Who can resist an old-fashioned homemade treat, like these pumpkin glazed donuts?  Certainly not me!      

Everywhere the fruits of the soil dazzle the eye.

It all kind of makes you yearn for the simplicity of a kinder and gentler time, until you realize that moment is right now, and fortunately for Long Island residents, baking, quilting, planting, getting your hands dirty and harvesting your own food hasn’t gone out of style.  

©2012 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

Warm Thoughts on a Winter CSA

A winter CSA requires a bit of imagination on the part of the member. You can’t go to a place. You can’t see the vegetables sprouting, you can’t pick them, and you can’t feel the sun on your back. The experience of picking up the share is unremarkable. It is a cold winter night, and I park my car just outside a gourmet food store in a neighboring town. Inside, I put my signature on a list of roughly 30 names – people who have committed to support New York agriculture through the winter months. I am quickly handed a bundle of frozen vegetables that includes broccoli florets, pureed butternut squash, winter greens and raspberries.

There’s no actual farm experience and the food is frozen. It’s not sexy, or evocative, but it infuses my winter cooking with the best of New York produce. The simply labeled packaging gets you to think about greens and bright colors and the farmers who tilled the soil at a time when one might rather be hibernating. Each package includes the name - the personal brand - of a specific farm. The broccoli florets come from Hepworth Farm in Milton, New York. Hepworth Farms grows certified organic produce, is a seventh generation family farm, and is a business owned and operated by women.

Winter Sun Farms has organized nearly 30 winter CSA shares in the Hudson Valley and New York City regions now through April. There’s a little bonus with every share – tender, sweet, pea sprouts – an infusion of fresh greens that I gobble up on a dark, winter night. It’s a harbinger of spring in January.

All these ideas and images move through my mind as I work in the kitchen. I’m able to think about the origin of the food and the farmer. Chef Rozanne Gold, author of the new book “Radically Simple” has some thought-provoking ideas on her blog about cooking in silence, and considering the people who brought you the food and those who will eat it. She says it makes the whole cooking experience more fulfilling.

Indeed, if I am to be more thoughtful about my ingredients, a healthy, wholesome recipe for brown rice with chicken and broccoli makes a delicious showcase for the produce from Hepworth Farm. I tinker with the recipe and add a little seasoning, and some organic chick peas. The frozen florets steam in the rice liquid until they are bright green and crisp-tender. The vivid flavor of the broccoli is evident.

All the discussion of eating local makes me smile. Does it work? Is it worth it? Will it last? The membership in Winter Sun Farms makes me a more thoughtful, conscious chef and eater - and that works for me.

©2011 T.W. Barritt All Rights Reserved

Behold the Winter CSA and a Fiesta Soup

The parties are over, it’s back to work, and things might be looking a tad blue.

My case of blues results in part from the fact that my community farm is slumbering, and fresh, local, revitalizing greens are a long way off. By my calculation it is approximately a full five months, or 22 weeks, or 154 days until the 2011 season begins again at Restoration Farm. Sobering, to say the least. Granted, the basement chest freezer is filled with soups, stews and breads that were the result of last year’s harvest, but over time I’ve learned that it wasn’t just the food, but the sun, the soil and the community that mattered as well.

I’m not sure anything can quite fill the void in my kitchen or my psyche, but when I learned of the existence of Winter Sun Farms – a novel CSA model that runs from December through April – I decided to give it a try.

Winter Sun Farms is the brainchild of Jim Hyland of New Paltz, New York who I profiled last autumn for Edible Hudson Valley. Jim purchases surplus produce from Hudson Valley farmers, freezes it, and distributes it monthly to CSA members throughout the Hudson Valley, metro New York and Long Island region. The first distribution for Long Island, which occurs in Rockville Centre, offered a bright selection of colors to chase away the winter blues:

The produce included Sweet Corn from Migliorelli Farm, Blueberries from Greig Farm, Butternut Squash Puree from the Poughkeepsie Farm Project, Green Beans from Markristo Farm and Stick & Stone Farm, Dice Mixed Peppers from Hepworth Farms, Phillies Bridge Farm and I & Me Farm and Plum Tomatoes from Hepworth Farms and Millers Crossing Farm. The membership supports sustainable agriculture and helps these Hudson Valley Farms and many others continue to thrive and develop new markets for their produce.

An influx of local food in the dark of winter is reason to celebrate, so I’ve whipped up a “Winter Fiesta Soup,” thick with sweet corn, black beans, colorful peppers and plum tomatoes. Inspired by the recipes for Penny’s Winter Sun Farms Veggie Soup, and Corn Chowder found on the Winter Sun Farms website, the soup is more than enough to fill the belly and warm the soul as I await the spring thaw on Long Island. And, local farm families throughout New York State benefit, too.

Winter Fiesta Soup

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion chopped
1 medium carrot diced
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 bay leaves
4 to 6 cups vegetable stock
24 ounces frozen diced plum tomatoes
12 ounces frozen diced mixed peppers
16 ounces frozen sweet corn
2 cups cooked black beans
Salt and fresh ground pepper

Directions:
In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium heat. Sautee onions and carrots until tender. Add garlic and continue to sautee until golden. Add the vegetable stock and spices and bring to a boil. Add the frozen tomatoes and frozen peppers and sweet corn. Simmer until the vegetables have defrosted. Add the beans and simmer another ten minutes. Remove the bay leaf before serving. Season to taste.

©2011 T.W. Barritt all Rights Reserved

New Roots at Restoration Farm

Bunches of Red Russian Kale sprout at Restoration Farm in Old Bethpage, NY.

The rain has been endless – seemingly 40 days and 40 nights. The ground squishes as I traipse along the path at Restoration Farm, a certified organic farm at Old Bethpage, NY.

Somebody told me a while back that Community Sponsored Agriculture is a bit like life. You’re constantly planting and harvesting. Indeed. The constant planting and harvesting in life has created more demands and far less time. This has also meant a necessary change in my CSA membership, but with that, brings the opportunity for new experiences and the chance to plant some new roots.

A fine mist blankets Restoration Farm.

Head growers Dan Holmes and Caroline Fanning lead a large group of visitors down a rutted and gently sloping wooded path toward Restoration Farm. Their work clothes are streaked with mud, and they wear water proof boots. They are a friendly, enthusiastic and convivial couple, beginning their second growing season at Old Bethpage. It has been a busy winter season for Dan and Caroline. They married and are expecting their first baby in June.

A fine mist blankets the farm as we emerge from the woods. There is a pond and pasture to the left, and vegetable fields outlined by rustic split rail fencing extend up the hill on the right. A red-winged blackbird alights on a fence post. I can see several people bent over, working in the field. It is like stepping into another era, and with good reason. Nearby, sits an historic farmhouse, and in the distance one can see a tall white church steeple. Restoration Farm sits on the property of Old Bethpage Village Restoration, a living museum of 19th century structures depicting life in a Civil War-era Long Island farming community. The CSA was established in 2007 as part of Nassau County’s “Healthy Nassau” campaign to encourage healthy eating and a healthy environment.

Green splotches of color are visible in the dark, loamy soil at Restoration Farm.

There is a very personal connection for me in this place. Old Bethpage was established in 1970, and our family would visit regularly from the time it opened. You could get a gingersnap cookie and a glass of birch beer at the Noon Inn Tavern, and learn about 19th century farming practices, forging iron and making straw broomsticks. As an adult, I have often returned for old time baseball, Civil War battle reenactments, Independence Day parades, Temperance Picnics and historic celebrations of Thanksgiving and Christmas, complete with candlelight and period music. Old Bethpage helped inspire my deep love of local history, and now the land will also be the source of my local produce.

Restoration Farm Head Growers Dan Holmes and Caroline Fanning explain strategies for growing organic produce.

Dan and Caroline walk us through each field and tell us what we might expect. Green splotches of color are visible in the dark, loamy soil. There are neat rows of carrots, spinach, onions, lettuce and kale. Tender pea shoots are staked and reaching toward the sky. At the edge of one field, steam rises off mountains of manure that will be used for fertilizer, much of which comes from the cattle that are kept at the historic Powell Farm. In the distance, I can see the familiar steeple of the Manetto Hill Church, built in 1857.

We walk past antique barns, pigs and sheep and stroll down a country lane to visit the flower garden and the new berry fields where strawberries, blackberries and raspberries will be available for picking later in the summer. There is a volunteer working in a field. He is quite wet and covered with grass clippings but tells a visitor how happy he is each time he steps onto the fields of Restoration Farm and begins to work.

A place that inspires a love of local history is now a source of local produce.

We return to the distribution tent where a book called “From Asparagus to Zucchini: A Guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce” is available, along with a spread of homemade blueberry muffins, jam and fruit salad. As the morning concludes, I’ve learned about planting cycles, fertilization, crop rotation, care of berries, flowers and herbs, and I feel a connection with the farmers who have graciously shared their knowledge and commitment for their work. I’m already counting the days until the first harvest.

©2009 T.W. Barritt all Rights Reserved