Clagett Farm Notes

Planting garlic for 2006

We are planting garlic this week. We'll probably be done today. Then we will mulch the field with a fairly thick layer of straw and wait until spring. We are using cloves of several hardneck varieties: Bogatyr, German Porcelain, Music, Marino, Nova Scotia, Red Rocambole, Killarney, and Temptress.

For the curious, a bogatyr in Russian is an heroic knight-errant. Unconfirmed rumors have it that if you eat plenty of Bogatyr garlic you will become infused with the virtues of a legendary hero. We are not sure whether Music is so named because of the special melodic qualities of this tasty variety, but we do know that it originated in Ontario, Canada.

In our minds we associate garlic planting with cool weather and sweaters. Who would have guessed that on the first day of November we would be working with short-sleeved t-shirts?

Morning action: above we see Dave Vernon dropping cloves into dibbled holes set about five inches apart, while Carrie is walking to refill her empty container with garlic cloves to plant. In addition to the volunteer work of Dave, a new DC resident who hails from the UK, we also benefitted from the great help of volunteers Andrea Humm and Pat Burke.

Late afternoon: Joe getting ready to dibble more holes (two sets of rows per hill). Megan is dropping cloves and Carrie is covering holes.

Later still: Carrie and Megan planting with brio as the sun is setting lower and lower. The long days of summer are long gone.

 

One of the benefits of working outside. This is how it looked when we were ready to go home.

Farm Fall Festival

Thank you for a wonderful fall festival. The day was cool, overcast and at times drizzly, but that did not dampen anyone's spirit. Many of the activities took place inside our main barn, which felt cozy, cheerful and warm from the buzz of all the people, the food, the warm cider and the live music from the steel drum band.

And yet the weather did not deter people from going outside and take hay rides led in turns by Michael Heller and Craig Highfield. From all appearances, people had a great time.

Some of the many hay riders (picture snapped by Kenji.)

Shareholders may seldom hear about Julie Adkisson and Susan Topping, both of the Capital Area Food Bank, but much of the work done for the CSA, the Anacostia Farmers Market, and the farm volunteer groups is done by them. And in keeping with this, the fact that the fall festival was such an enjoyable experience to so many people owes a lot to the dedication of Julie and Susan.

Incidentally, shareholder and friend of the farm Fred Delventhal kindly sent us a link for a series of photos he took during the festival. To see his pictures, click here.

And let me finish this post with one of Fred's fall festival photos.

Lola: farm volunteer and world class bike courier

Lola Rodden is one of our volunteers. We love the way she jumps into a task even if she has never done it before: transplanting brassicas, harvesting summer squash, or double digging a clayey bed with hand tools (spade and fork). We knew that Lola is a DC bike messenger who also spends part of her summers as a service group guide in Costa Rica. Lola never told us, however, that she's also a great competitor. We found out that in July she was a participant in the 2005 Cycle Messenger World Championship (CMWC) held in New York. Top bike couriers from all over the world took part in the championship. Along with hundreds of others, Lola raced in the main event and after a grueling 2 hours and 17 minutes she won second place in the women's final. Jojo Reeder from Sweden came in first and Christine Pacheco from Seattle was third. Thus Lola is the top American among female bike couriers.

The 2006 CMWC will be held in Sidney, Australia. Lola intends to be there.

A little help wanted

   Lately we've noticed that our leftovers from the Saturday pick-up aren't getting donated as quickly as we would like because the agencies we serve don't have access to transportation and volunteers on Saturday evenings or Sunday mornings.  If anyone is willing to ferry some boxes of vegetables to a soup kitchen or homeless shelter on weekends, we might be able to get more of it into needy hands before it goes bad in our washing station (particularly tomatoes).  You can choose an agency near you or we'll link you with one we already work with.  We would be happy to count any hours of your help toward a work share. 
   Also, a Food Bank staff member and friend, Andrea Merritt, just moved to Austin Texas.  That's left us short-staffed at the Anacostia Farmers Market (3-7pm, Southeast DC).  If anyone would like to spend a few hours each Wednesday helping out at one of the farm stands re-selling some jams and sauces, or perhaps helping us with various errands during the market or closing down at the end, we would love the help.  And of course, that time could count toward a work share, as well.  The market is a 10-15 minute walk from the Anacostia metro.

Picnic

Yesterday we had a wonderful picnic at the beach in appreciation of our volunteers and worksharers. It was a beautiful day, there was plenty of food (the grill stayed busy), swimming, bacce ball playing, badminton, and good conversation. It was fun to get together with volunteers and worksharers in a relaxing setting, since usually we get to see them under very different circumstances.

Kudos to Lance Baldwin and Kathleen Davis for instigating and organizing this event.

Harvesting potatoes

We harvested a sizeable portion of our potatoes last week, and we want to thank the American University students who came to our farm and played a major role in the harvest. The AU students were enthusiastic and inquisitive, a fun group of volunteers. 

Some of the potatoes were dug out the old-fashioned way, with digging forks and muscle power (the way we harvested our new potatoes earlier in the season), but the bulk of them was dug out using our small (and old) tractor-powered potato digger. Muscle power was still essential, though. As you can see below, we had a group of students clearing most of the mulch in front of the tractor as it made its way up the row, and other students were behind the tractor filling up the bins with the just dug out potatoes.

   

While working on the potato field, the AU students rescued a young corn snake that was uncovered while clearing the mulch. After admiring it for a couple of minutes, the snake was released to where it belongs.

Heat

It's turning out to be a hot summer and the heat makes a hard job even harder. In the previous two summers we were fortunate not to have any days with temperatures over 100 degrees. Not so this summer. Our Wash Station thermometer already registered at least three (probably four, I didn't check today) days with maximums over 100 degrees in the shade.

Yesterday I came back to the farm from the Anacostia Farmers Market sometime after eight o'clock in the evening. I checked the thermometer and saw that the high just reached over 100 degrees. As I was unloading the van I felt tired. Then I saw Michael Heller and Rob Vaughn pulling out in tractors with wagons full of bailed hay. They looked dirty, sweaty and tired. There was no comparison. I had it really easy.

And despite all this, we still get volunteers and worksharers who brave the heat and come to the farm to help us with the harvest. Understandably, not as many as when the weather was cooler, but they still come. Thanks!

Wanted: bicycle repair, office paper, and food

First, let me shout-out to the anonymous member who gave us big boxes of band-aids and Tylenol.  My most recent blister especially thanks you for the band-aids.
    Speaking of kind gestures, one of our young members, Brigham Geurts, brought his family, his boy scout troop, and many of his church members to build a terrific bike rack for the farm.  As sturdy and elegant as it is, it currently rests empty, because all of our bikes are in terrible disrepair and hidden in a barn.  If anyone would like to offer their services in bike repair (replacing tubes, aligning wheels, tightening brakes, repairing gear shifts...) we will happily offer a share of vegetables for 4 hours work, and we'll cover the cost of parts.
   Another way to earn a work share is by cooking!  We love the great recipes you give us, but nothing beats a prepared meal.  Fix enough for the members at your pick-up site to sample, and we'll replace the vegetables you used, and give you an extra share as thanks. Call in advance to make sure we're giving out the vegetables you're cooking that week.
   And finally, we hate wasting trees, yet we keep using up our office paper.  I know lots of you folks work in offices that use one side of your paper--bring it to us and we'll use the other side.  No trees wasted and everyone's happy.  And thanks to Deborah Sterobin-Armstrong and Sumana Chatterjee for donating so many office supplies!

On Volunteering at Clagett Farm

 This post was written by Pat Burke, a shareholder, worksharer, volunteer and dear friend of the farm.

A friend wanted to know why I volunteer at an organic farm. After all, I’m a nurse, and nursing jobs are plentiful. Why would I leave paying health care work for “stoop labor” in the fields?

I tried to explain. My life had changed radically. I had just returned to graduate school, and was taking on considerable debt as well as a double course load. Instead of being outdoors, I was spending my hours sitting in lectures and libraries and hunched over the keyboard. My food was increasingly coming out of vending machines instead of from the organic market. I was stressed out, not exercising, not relaxing, and eating scary things out of cellophane.

When I found out that there was a CSA nearby, and that I could exchange 4 hours of farm work a week for a share of fresh organic produce, I thought it was too good to be true. I could be outside, get exercise, get a break from studying, and afford organic "veg" again! I expected that the work would be tedious, but thought I would give it a try.

To my surprise, the work gave me far more than delicious produce. I met wonderful people, heard great stories, and gained a new appreciation for the work of farmers. The staff and volunteers at Clagett are hardworking folks. They are cheerful when things are going well, and creatively resolute when challenges appear. Time together in the fields yields friends and fond memories.

The farm itself is an oasis of quiet in an increasingly unquiet world. At the farm, the sounds are of birdsong, the drowsy hum of honeybees, the welcoming bark of farm dogs, the murmur and laughter of volunteers sharing stories as they plant, transplant, mulch, weed, stake, hoe, clip and pick.  If you want to be with people, there is plenty of opportunity. If your day requires silence, then you can have that, too.

The work is varied. For those who want a physical challenge, there are plenty. There are many full wooden crates of produce to hoist upon a scale. Or fields of pumpkins or watermelons to pick and load into a van. But there are also flats to be seeded, carrots to be thinned, strawberries to mulch and potatoes to wash and sort. One day the “work” was to pick flowers and bunch them for the Dupont Circle shares.

Farm lessons are for free. Volunteers told me how to preserve abundant harvests for winter. Experience taught the sweet contentment that comes with working with a properly sharpened hoe. I’ve learned that the taste of heirloom tomatoes is indescribably good. That not all weeds are bad. I’ve learned that okra flowers look like hibiscus, and that kohlrabi looks like alien spaceships. And that raw sweet corn eaten in the field is a treat best enjoyed in moderation.

Most of all, I learned that a few hours of volunteering brings so much more than fresh organic produce. Three years have passed since my friend asked me that original question. I’m still volunteering at Clagett, and my life is richer for it. Come join us!

Busy Spring and Volunteers

Spring is here and we at Clagett Farm are in full swing with early spring activities: preparing beds, seeding trays, transplanting our first crop veggies, and on and on. By the end of March we were done with planting the potatoes but we have not yet finished mulching them. We were also busy building two greenhouses, one to be used for Clagett Farm's native trees nursery operation for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the other for some CSA crops. We are not  yet done with the CSA  greenhouse. There are so many things to do that we have to engage in a sort of triage. What we do in any given day depends on many variables, the weather always being one of the major ones.

With so much work, we are fortunate to have eager and hard working volunteers--we are immensely grateful for them. Their good humored help has been crucial. To illustrate this, here are a few photos taken on Saturday, March 25, a cold and gray day that did not deter them.

The photo above shows volunteers Don Edwards and Nina Yu carrying rafters that were assembled a few dozen yards away from the greenhouse site.

Clagett Farm's Rob Vaughn and volunteers Nina Yu, Dione Elmendorf and Josh Riesler Cohn pounding the ground posts into place and making sure that they are lined up just right. (Photo by Barbara L. Salisbury/The Gazette)

Curtis Elmendorf, Rob Vaughn and Dione Elmendorf placing the rafters onto the posts. (Photo by Barbara L. Salisbury/The Gazette). About two hours before this picture was taken Dione was still high up in the air, flying from warm and sunny Florida to cold and damp Washington, DC. She was flying for a weekend visit. Her brother Curtis picked her up at the airport and headed straight to the farm to help us out for a few hours. This was news to Dione, but she jumped into the work with gusto.

Nina and Curtis atop step ladders attaching purlins to the greenhouse rafters. (Photo by Barbara L. Salisbury/The Gazette)

For a couple additional pictures, check out the just started Clagett Farm Photos: 2005 album.  As in the previous two years, more photos will be added to the album as the season progresses.