Clagett Farm Notes

Feasting on the flowering dill

A note from Roshani Kothari, friend of the farm, worksharer and photographer.

It was great to see everyone on Saturday!  I also enjoyed trying your tasty creations at the potluck.
Here are some photos from the flowering dill. I will post some more photos soon.

Part-Time Job Announcement

Part-Time Youth Coordinator for Farmers Market Crew

JOB DESCRIPTION:
Seeking adult experienced in sustainable agriculture to mentor and facilitate a small group of urban youth in the harvest and packing of fruits and vegetables from our farm in Upper Marlboro, MD, and the set-up, sales and promotion of this produce at a small weekly farmers market in SE Washington, DC.

Duties will include training, educating and supervising high-school and college-age youth on farming, food and nutrition as well as vegetable marketing and community outreach. Qualified candidates will have a workable knowledge of gardening and/or farming, respect for people from all backgrounds, strong leadership skills, patience and a sense of humor. Valid driver's license required.

HOURS:
Approximately 12 hours/week, to be split between Tuesdays and Wednesdays as appropriate. On Wednesdays: Youth will be arriving at Clagett Farm by 10 am; set-up for the Anacostia Farmers Market begins at 2 pm; market runs from 3 - 7 pm; break-down and return of supplies to Clagett Farm takes place after close of market.

START DATE:
Tuesday, July 5.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
From the Ground Up at Clagett Farm (FGU) is a joint effort of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Capital Area Food Bank to bring nutritious, fresh produce to communities of all income levels throughout the DC area. In addition to raising vegetables in an environmentally sensitive manner on 15 acres in Upper Marlboro, MD, FGU works to educate the public about the relationship between agriculture, our environment, the food supply and social justice.

All fruit and vegetables from Clagett Farm are grown free from chemicals and genetic modification. Nearly half of our annual yield is designated for receipt by high-need communities, and the balance is sold through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and at the Anacostia Farmers Market. Clagett Farm also serves as a hands-on learning environment for children of low-income families from DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia through the FGU Sprouts education program, which allows urban youth the opportunity to participate in vegetable growing, meet farm animals, and share in some of the harvest while learning about their health and the environment.

Compensation is $10.00/hour.

If interested, please contact Andrea Merritt at merrita@cfoodbank.org.

Baling

Rob Vaughn and Michael Heller just finished a grueling two weeks of baling. Now the farm has plenty of straw (about 1800 bales) which we can use (among other things) for mulching some of our vegetables crops. The next rounds of baling will be for hay, which the cows eat during the colder months. By the end of the  growing season Clagett Farm may end up with about 3,000 bales of hay, primarily orchard grass and clover. That's a lot of work.

Baling is one the most physically demanding jobs on the farm. And to top it off, this round of baling was done at the moment summer decided to enter into full swing with all its heat and humidity. Rob and Michael worked exhaustively long hours. They got help from a few others, as they usually do every year, but the bulk of the work was done by them. 

On a moving wagon, Beth McGee grabs a bale of rye (used for straw) while Kolya waits for his turn. The tractor pulls both the baler and the wagon. The wagon is full once the bales are stacked seven high. Those last stacks are particularly challenging. Dr. Beth McGee, by the way, is the Maryland Senior Scientist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. (Photo by Michael Heller.)

Come to U-Pick Your Strawberries

The strawberries are not flowering anymore, which means that there will be no more berries after the ones that are ripening right now.  So if you have not done so already, this is a good time to come to the farm to U-Pick your strawberries before they are gone.  I wrote "your strawberries" because if you are a shareholder they are indeed your berries.  Although most shareholders come during the weekend to U-Pick, you are welcome any day of the week. And keep in mind that Saturday is when you will encounter the most pickers and that on Sunday more than likely you will not find any farm staff to assist you with directions. 

This is Carrie last Tuesday afternoon, picking strawberries for the Dupont shareholders:

The Real Dirt on Farmer John

There are probably many films worth seeing in the SilverDocs Documentary Festival taking place this week at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, MD. But let me strongly recommend the one film that I have seen: The Real Dirt on Farmer John. For what is worth, among other honors it won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film is on John Peterson the individual as well as on farming.

This is from a SilverDocs blurb:

THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN
Documentary by Taggart Siegel
USA, 2005, 83 minutes
Flamboyant, artsy and organic are not words usually used to describe a Midwestern farmer. Farmer John bravely transforms his farm, amidst a failing economy and nosy neighbors, into a bastion of free expression and a revolutionary form of agriculture.
Saturday 6/18 at 3:00 p.m.
http://www.silverdocs.com/2005/films/reald.aspx

I don't want to give the story away, but the CSA concept ends up playing a key role in the film. Clagett Farm's situation and constraints are different, so we cannot make direct comparisons with Farmer John's farm, but there are enough points in common that farm folks who have seen the film smiled in recognition.

Garlic Scape Recipes

To a couple of shareholders I promised to post a garlic scape pesto recipe, but Mark Lindley's helpful comment makes it unnecessary. Here is what Mark wrote yesterday:

Here are a few garlic scape recipe references.  Some are somewhat repetitive. Note that some of the site URL's may have line breaks and you'll need to copy and paste the parts together in your browser.

Scape pesto and pasta recipes

Twenty-seven scape recipes

Lemon Scented Pasta with Garlic Scapes and Veggies

Two recipes at item 4

Garlic Scape Soup (at end of long page on garlic)      
The Great Garlic Scape, Garlic Scape Pesto

Before and After

Once again, here is a photo taken on April 7 while we were transplanting kohlrabi and cabbages in the field in front of Joe's house:

And below is a photo taken on the same field fifty-five days later, on June 1.

The plants on the foreground are kohlrabi, the bright green plants next to them are Chinese cabbages. And if you are wondering how a kohlrabi looks like while still on the ground, look at the next picture: