Sowing Seeds, Catching Up

Fall is a busy time on any farm, and at farmer's markets as well.  There has been so much going on that I have a lot of blog entries to catch up on!

Our Sowing the Future event a couple Sundays ago was a great success, and as a result a field full of wheat is already sprouting behind the creamery near the night pasture, on the way to the main vegetable field.  Dozens of community folk, including a local girl scout troup, turned out to hear presentations on the history of grain growing in Columbia County, and on the future of heritage grain varieties.




Anna and Conrad from Hawthorne Valley's Farmscape Ecology program prepared beautiful and informative displays about grains for the group to take in, and spoke about the historical role of grains in the local economy.  (And thanks to Farmscape for sharing these photos with us.)

Eli Rogosa of the Heritage Wheat Conservancy spoke engagingly about her work travelling through the Middle East (where wheat was first domesticated from a wild ancestor) and collecting seeds gifted from traditional farmers.   Participants learned of some of the essential differences between these older varieties, which  are tall and robust with strong root systems, and the newer, agribusiness created varieties, which are short and scrawny plants with weak root systems, designed to support large seed heads suitable for efficient mechanical harvest.  The "overbred" commercial varieties are far more vulnerable to disease, and require increased inputs of chemical fertilizers, fungicides, and pesticides to grow.  












Then the whole group of us spread out across the field to sow wheat seeds the old fashioned way, flinging with abandon.

Sowing accross generations:

Ben gets into the act...













Eli left Hawthorne Valley with a gift of a dozen heritage wheat varieties to grow out and trial.  Our trial garden will be used to save seeds and increase seed stocks of these rare varieties in the hope that we can plant more of them in the future, as well as widen the circle of seed sharing with other biodynamic growers.

In the meantime, we have been battling through a dry season which has left pastures and vegetables very thirsty.  Fortunately for our vegetables, there is a remedy - all be it a time consuming one- and Katy and the farm team have been spending countless hours running, moving, and trouble shooting the irrigation (or as Katy sometimes affectionately terms it, "irritation", since it never seems to run smoothly).

For the pastures, though, there is not much to be done to remedy the dry conditions.  To avoid overgrazing, we have had to start the cows on their winter feed rations of hay and fermented hay much sooner than we would in a typical season.  The cows would prefer fresh grass all the time, but unfortunately there is not much growing right now.  We do have a good stock of winter feed laid by, luckily, as good grass growth in the spring followed by the dry weather this summer allowed Steffen and Michael to "make lots of hay while the sun shined".





Greenmarkets in NYC have been wonderfully energetic the last several weeks, as folks went to town on a great crop of tomatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower.  As those wind down, we are coming into a colorful abundance of kale, hakurei turnips, carrots, and huge heads of lettuce, all of which thrive in the cool fall conditions.

And there's nothing that says "fall" quite like the return of our delicious Pumpkin Spice Bread, which has been flying off the shelves as fast as we can bake it.  Karen and the rest of our bakery team are busily baking and scooping out fresh pumpkins to keep us in warm bread as we speak.

Thank you for all your support at markets!!  We love to see good food going to good homes.  Seeing you there makes it all worth the effort!!

In the meantime, back at the farm, a major milestone was reached as construction efforts leapt forward on our new maintenance space.  For the first time ever, we will have a heated space to work on equipment this winter!  No more huddling in the cold while performing the essential tasks that keep the farm moving forward for another season.  (Here's Wayne with a warm hat on working in our unheated shop last winter.)


And last, but certainly not least, preparations are in full swing for the sixteenth annual Fall Harvest Festival at Hawthorne Valley Farm!

There is so much to see and taste at the farm now, and we hope you will come up and see us this weekend.  See the Fall Festival website for details, including a link to local lodging info if you are coming from afar.  Its free and fun a great place for the whole family to see a farm, explore traditional crafts, take in a puppet show, learn to make sauerkraut, or tour our K-12 Waldorf school.  


Hope we'll see you at the farm this weekend!

-Sarah