Minutes from Sustainability Meeting, Next Meeting August 2

“Minutes” from Summer Solstice Gathering 6/21/14

We opened with discussion about what individuals/CSA members could be doing in their own homes (or businesses) to reduce their 1. water use and 2. energy use.  See list of ideas below.  We concluded that we would like to have a water and energy reduction challenge within the CSA throughout the rest of the season so that members can monitor their water and energy use and try to reduce it.  We will create a Facebook group where people can share numbers and ideas, as well as a Google spreadsheet open to everyone who is participating where each person/household can report their energy and water use and watch the numbers go down.  We hope to have this all up and running in the next few weeks.  Prize for the participating household with highest % reduction.

Ideas for reducing water:

capturing water for reuse when waiting for water to heat up or cool down (often up to a gallon of water), can be used for cooking or watering house plants

only using dishwasher when full, otherwise washing dishes by hand in a way that conserves water

using water-efficient appliances

planting drought-resistant grass/clover and plants in your yard to reduce watering needs, watering only early in the morning and only when needed (not just on a timer), mulching to reduce water-loss

rain barrels

reducing shower time 

fixing faucets that drip

is there a gadget that measures water use at each sink?

Ideas for reducing energy:

putting all gadgets, devices, etc. on power strips and turning off whenever not in use

turning off lights when not in use, consider having at least one no-tech night a week (more in summer?) where you use no forms of technology or lights for entertainment

go to bed and wake with the sun

use only energy-efficient appliances

composting

recycling, reusing, only purchasing items when you really need them (consider 2nd hand)

purchasing locally, especially food; reducing internet purchasing (and thus shipping)

carpooling or doing all errands in one trip

purchasing energy efficient vehicle when you are faced with purchasing a new car

using CFL lights (replace 5 in your home), dispose properly

keep thermostat low in winter and high in summer to reduce use of HVAC unit (68/86), keep off when not at home for significant time

This is just a start.  We thought Facebook page could be used for sharing reduction ideas as well.

We then moved to discussing climate change adaptation and mitigation at the farm.  I opened up with general ideas offered by the FAO, then moved into specific projects that Lalo and I would like to address.  The specific projects include: making the greenhouse more sustainable, water capturing from wash water and rain, high nutrient pasture and cover cropping, pig for food waste, woodland/watershed rehab, perennials, introducing “New Climate Diet” to members, organic certification?.  

As a group, we prioritized the projects, so that the first project would be making the greenhouse more sustainable.  This would include water barrels for temperature control (and possible water capturing), shade cloth, and solar panels.  We would do this project in stages, focusing first on the water barrels.  There are also several other places on the farm where rain barrels could be installed.  This would be our first “weekend” project.  We will set a time and date once we have materials ready.  

Out of this discussion came two other discussions.  One, we concluded that we need a fundraising committee (please let me know if you are interested), as most of the sustainability projects that we would like to pursue cannot be funded from the CSA.  Two, we discussed CSA composting.  It is something that we have tossed around several times and even done on a small scale.  We could definitely make it work.  We would need 5 gallon buckets with lids for everyone who wanted to participate, a list of approved items, and volunteers to bring compost out to the farm (preferably people who already come out to the farm to eliminate extra travel).  From the farm perspective, we need a source of dry material (leaves or woodchips).  Libby Stancell is going to look into this.

Finally, we discussed the topic of the next meeting, which will be “The New Climate Diet.”  We would like to share with you our list of worst offenders when it comes to water and energy needs, and discuss how eating locally-sourced food and especially in a CSA greatly reduces your carbon and water-use footprint.  We would also like to discuss how we use factors related to sustainability to determine planting and harvesting dates, as well as vegetable selection and variety selection.  We would like to do the meeting the last week of July/first week of August.  Please let us know if there is a day and time that works better for you.  Otherwise we will do it Sat, Aug. 2 in the afternoon.

Lentils and Radishes

Last week at pick up, a new member suggested a warm lentil and radish salad.  She wasn't sure if she still had the recipe, but it led me on a new culinary adventure.  I have never paired the two!  Here are a couple of recipes to try.  There are many online.  You could add goat cheese to either.

Warm Lentil and Radish Salad

Ingredients

• 1 cup lentils
• 2-3 cups water
• 2 red radishes, trimmed and thinly-sliced
• 10 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano, minced
• 1 tablespoon tamari
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• Dash of maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, or more to taste
• Pinch of black pepper

Preparation

1. Sort through the lentils for stones or debris; rinse thoroughly, and drain. Add lentils and water to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Partially cover and lower heat to a simmer. Cook for 30-35 minutes (or until lentils are soft when pinched between your fingers). Drain in a colander and rinse lentils briefly. Drain well.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the tamari, mustard, syrup, salt and pepper. Set aside.
3. Combine the lentils, radishes, tomatoes and oregano in a medium sized bowl and mix well. Pour in the dressing, mix well and season to taste.

Serving Suggestion

Perfect with stuffed grape leaves and baked pita chips, or scooped into a pocket bread with a little hummus or baba ganouj and/or a squeeze of lemon.

http://strongertogether.coop/recipes/lentil-salad-with-radish/

Lemony Lentil and Chickpea Salad with Radishes and Herbs

From cookieandkate.com

Ingredients

Lentils (cook your own, using the ingredients below, or use one 17-ounce package of steamed French lentils instead)

• 2 cups dried black beluga lentils or French green lentils
• 2 large garlic cloves, halved lengthwise
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Lemon dressing

• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 medium lemons’ worth)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon honey or agave nectar
• 1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
• ¼ teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Salad

• 1 (14 ounce) can cooked chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1 big bunch of radishes, sliced thin and roughly chopped
• ¼ cup packed fresh, leafy herbs, chopped (combination of mint and dill recommended)
• Optional garnishes: sliced avocado, crumbled feta or goat cheese, handful of fresh leafy greens

Instructions

1. To cook the lentils: Pick over the lentils to remove any bits of debris. Rinse the lentils under running water in a mesh colander. In a medium pot, combine the lentils, halved garlic cloves, olive oil and 4 cups water. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce heat to a gentle simmer and cook until the lentils are cooked through and tender, which will take somewhere between 20 to 35 minutes. Drain the lentils and discard the garlic cloves.
2. To make the dressing: Whisk together the ingredients in a small bowl. If you're using pre-steamed lentils instead of cooking your own, add an extra clove of minced garlic and an extra tablespoon of olive oil.
3. In a large serving bowl, combine the lentils, chickpeas, chopped radishes and herbs. Drizzle in the dressing and toss to combine. Serve with avocado, crumbled cheese or fresh greens if you'd like.

The Whoas of Bok Choy in East TN

I occasionally receive growing questions from some of our gardener-members, and there is one question that seems to repeat itself each spring, “Why did my bok choy bolt?”  Oh, bok choy...

Bok choy is a quick-growing member of the brassica family that can handle some frosts, grows best in moderate temperatures, and cannot be grown in the summer both because of the heat and because it is day-length sensitive.  So why is it so difficult to grow here in the spring?  Well, the answer is easy: temperature fluctuations.  Bok choy cannot handle our sometimes 60 degree swings in temperature during a seven-day period and is particularly prone to bolting when we have a couple of cold nights (like we did 2 weeks ago) followed by really warm weather. 

Bok choy bolting or going to seed.  At this point, it is bitter and not of good eating quality.  This can literally happen over night in our climate, commonly after a cold snap.

The”what to do about it” has plagued me for ten years and led me to give up growing bok choy twice.  I am conducting what I believe in my heart-of-hearts to be my last bok choy trial (because I don’t really have any other ideas).  This season I am growing every organic variety on the market (hybrid and heirloom) in three different successional plantings in an attempt to corner someone.  It is plain and simple: I want a bok choy that doesn’t bolt.  

That seems like such an easy request in a vegetable that takes about 65 days from start to finish.  However, all of the varieties in our first succession bolted.  Three of the four varieties in our second succession bolted after the freeze.  However, we are currently harvesting “Prize” bok choy - an heirloom, loose head bok choy that was the only bok choy that we were able to harvest last season as well.  I don’t love it.  Like many heirlooms, it is variable in size and even appearance, it maintains some of the heirloom qualities that more refined hybrids have eliminated like spiny leaves and looseness, and it bolts, too, if you let it get very big.  That said, if it is going to make it two seasons without too much bolting, I may at least have a candidate with which I can work.  In our third succession, one variety has already bolted (at about 4” high...definitely off the list), but the other two varieties are doing well (one is “Prize”).  

Prize Choy, the only bok choy variety that we have had any success with here

So enjoy your “Prize” bok choy this week, as it is just that: a special spring treasure that is hard to come by and years in the making.  I hope to keep working with this bok choy.  I want to feel so confident in it that I am willing to plant 1200 of them every spring, cover them, weed them, water them, and then just wait to harvest them.  Instead of worrying over them for 65 days, which is what I do right now.

Saving Seed: M-GEN Field Observation Studies

Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) is a non-profit organization founded in 1975 that helps to preserve, maintain, and distribute many thousands of rare heirloom seeds. They sell many seeds from their collection through their catalog (available in both print and online), but they also have a member-based annual seed catalog called The Yearbook where members list thousands and thousands of seeds, most of which are not available commercially, obtainable for a small fee.  At the Seed Savers Exchange Farm in Iowa, they conduct field trials from both collections each season, looking for varieties that are promising either because of their marketability (taste and appearance) and/or their productivity for gardeners and market farmers.  
Recently, they began M-GEN or the Member-Grower Evaluation Network as an attempt to expand these trials.  Through M-GEN, SSE members around the country like us participate in SSE's plant evaluation process, collecting valuable data about a variety's characteristics and productivity from our own field observation studies.  The data is used to improve SSE's database of information on its varieties, to guide other SSE members, and to determine catalog offerings.  
We first participated in M-GEN in 2012.  That season we evaluated "Ole Timey Blue" Collard Greens, which we still grow from seed saved that season.  Prior to growing them, we had grown several market standards.  "Ole Timey Blue" outperformed them on appearance, taste, and productivity.  The only category where the market standard was better was uniformity.  
This season, we have been asked to grow out four okra varieties: one is the market standard for organic growers "Clemson Spineless" (which we already grow) and the other three are rare, family heirlooms that are part of SSE's large collection.  The three rare varieties are: "Giant Red," "Hodnett Special," and "Rains."  "Giant Red" is a long-podded, red okra grown in Florida since at least the 1930s.  "Hodnett Special" is from the Hodnett Family of Rising Star, Texas that they have grown since 1947.  They cook it in their black-eyed peas.  "Rains" is from Dorris Smith of Alabama.  It was grown by her great-great-grandfather in the late 18th and early 19th century in Virginia and has been in her family ever since.
We are particularly excited about "Rains" for its history and "Giant Red".  We would like to compare "Giant Red" to a red okra that we currently grow "Bowling Red."  "Bowling Red" is beautiful, productive early and in cooler years, and less slimy when cooked.  

"Bowling Red" Okra

We seeded these trial varieties today and will keep you updated periodically as their evaluation goes forward.

New Buckling at the Farm

Flor, our beautiful tri-color Dwarf Nigerian, has delivered a healthy buckling! He was born on March 6th.

What a beautiful little kid. He has his dad’s body markings, brown with white spots on his sides, and his mom’s tri-color markings on his head, along with a tiny little voice and long, knobbly legs. He's jumping around like a rabbit, these days, and even trying to jump up on his mom's shoulders. Megan tells me sometimes Dwarf Nigerian kids RIDE on their moms' backs! The first time Megan and Lalo saw Flor, she was riding on her mom's back! AMAZING!!

When I was out at the farm taking pictures of everybody last week, he hadn’t been weighed yet, but he’s fully TWICE the size everyone was expecting—almost certainly because he was a single, and had lots of room to grow. This made for a rough delivery, though, since he was born head-first with all four legs behind him, rocketeer-style. 

The most common kidding position is “diving” position, when the two forelegs come out just before the head—a handy arrangement because you can pull on the legs if you need to. But this buckling's size and position meant that Flor couldn’t push him out by herself. After she'd pushed for about 30 minutes and only gotten the his head out, it was time to intervene. A baby this size probably wasn't sharing a womb with any other little goats, but there was still the possibility, and after 30 minutes of labor, any other babies in there were probably dying, or dead. So Megan and Thea took turns pulling and trying to work him out, and after about 40 more minutes and one hard pull, he came out, alive and in one piece. He’d become unresponsive during the tugging, so they were afraid he wasn't going to make it at first, but nope. Flor licked him up  and he’s been active and healthy ever since. Thea named him Ferdinand, after everyone’s favorite Spanish bull (see The Story of Ferdinand, if you haven't read it---it's a classic).

Flor has been recovering wonderfully from this traumatic first-ever-birth! She’s moving around freely, eating a lot, and has been “talking” to Felix and Ferdinand a lot. I love hearing this family vocalizing—what a neat mix of bleats, yells, nickering, and little murmurs. Flor is healing physically from an external tear, and Megan is planning to make her a salve of healing and antiseptic herbs. She also gets a special tea made with raspberry leaf and other herbs.

Baby Ferdinand gives us a lot, even though we’re not going to keep him, alas. While bucklings are lovely animals, the farm already has a great buck—Felix! So Ferdinand will probably be for sale to a good farm/home in 6-8 weeks. But his birth gives us some experience with one of the more difficult birthing positions, and it establishes Felix and Flor’s line: once a first kid is born, farmers or breeders can look at subsequent kids and get a sense for the quality and characteristics of a line. This is important for Care of the Earth, since Megan and Lalo’s tentative plan is to keep one doeling and to sell the kids that come after that. It’s good to know that Felix and Flor can make a healthy baby, deliver him alive, and that Flor is a good mother. She’s taking great care of Ferdinand, and—just like chickens—not all animals that make babies are good mothers! 

Also, while first kids of Dwarf Nigerian does are usually singles---and subsequent litters are much more likely to be twins, triplets, and even quadruplets---it could also be a genetic indicator for Flor & Felix's line, since Felix was a single baby, too.

Ferdinand is big and strong enough to live outside with Flor and won’t need any bottle feeding, which is great. He’s nursing, pooping, is active and vigorous, and all these things bode well for him in the long run. Healthy kids are less likely to get sick or fail to  thrive, and will do well without medicated feed—a common thing with large commercial enterprises whose kid-reading practices mean they have to use constant antibiotics to keep their goats healthy and alive.

Come to the open farm day in April to see this cute baby for yourself!!

--Anna Laura

1947 Allis Chalmers G Electric Conversion

We finally have all the parts we need to move forward with the electric conversion of our 1947 Allis Chalmers G.  The conversion essentially involves removing the motor and clutch from the tractor and replacing it with an electric motor designed by Electric Vehicles of America (New Hampshire) that is held in place by a couple of plates and operated by a couple of pulleys both designed by Niekamp Machinists (Kingston, NY) - all powered by several batteries.  The design is the brain child of a farmer/tinkerer/inventor friend who use to farm in New Paltz, NY (to see more, you can go to his website, www.flyingbeet.com/electricg).  We are really excited and will keep you updated with pictures.

2/7/14: Motor is off, and we hope to begin installation this weekend!

2/10/14: We have electric clutch system (new bearings, a new pulley, and the old clutch plate attached to a mounting base - the large piece of metal in the picture) and electric motor (the cylindrical object coming off metal mounting base) attached.  We just need to attach controller, contactor, switch, and batteries.  The impending weather may slow progress!

A close up of the bearings and pulley design with old clutch plate.  This is what is on the opposite side of the metal plate, inside the old cavity.

2/25/14: Well, after some weather delays, the batteries that will power our "new" electric tractor arrived last week.  We thought it would be quick from there.  On Wednesday, we had everything connected and ready to go.  We turned the switch, and, well, nothing!  So, we worked backwards, three times!  We couldn't figure out where we had gone wrong.  We thought we had blown our contactor, so yesterday I made a call to Bob Batson at Electric Vehicles of America.  I think your 12V auxiliary battery needs charging he said.  I went back to Lalo.  He said he thinks the auxiliary battery needs charging, I told him.  So we charged it.  Nothing happened, again.  After dinner we were going through the circuit out loud, I repeated Bob's message again.  This time I said, "he thinks our 12V auxiliary battery needs charging."  We both knew it.  I think I even slowed as I said it.  My brain lightbulb shouting a big, HELLO!  We had used the battery from the old gasoline version of the tractor as our auxiliary/crank battery.  We had never thought anything more about it.  Battery, battery.  NO, NO, NO.  Although most gasoline-powered Allis Chalmers G tractors out there have been converted to 12V over time, ours never was.  We had an original 6V G.  We were trying to start the tractor with a 6V battery instead of a 12V battery.  Well, easy fix.  And, now, your CSA cultivation tractor is run on ELECTRIC!  And as Lalo says, we are never going back!  No fumes to breath in while you are going through the fields, no loud noise damaging your ears so that in 20 years you have to ask everyone to repeat everything several times, no oil to recycle or concern about leaking oil or gas.  The "Chapulin" is reborn and at 60% efficiency and no emissions no less!

Recipes?

Hi everyone,

I'm finishing up the 2014 CSA Recipe Book.  If you have any recipes for ANY of the fruits, vegetables, or herbs that we grow, please email in document form (if you can put it in Helvetica even better) to careoftheearthcommunityfarm@gmail.com.

Thank you for your contributions!