What’s Growing at the Farm for the 2012 Season?

Fresh from Our Farm

May 15, 2012 by Glynwood Guest Post

It is high planting season here at Glynwood, and the Veggie Crew is working hard to put together a bountiful season for our CSA members. The greenhouse is teeming with tomatoes of all varieties, the fields already have our early plantings of lettuces, spinach, turnips, beets, radishes, broccoli and much more.

The forecast for 2012’s yield?

Delicious.

 

Heirloom Varieties

Chioggia Beets

One of the many ways CSA members at Glynwood get to enjoy tastier vegetables than are available in the grocery store is through the many varieties of heirloom vegetables offered in each week’s share. Heirlooms are vegetables grown from seed strains that have been open pollinated and saved for their specific, desirous traits by farmers and gardeners for many generations. They are the polar opposite of conventionally grown vegetables, which are raised to be durable but not necessarily flavorful, and heirlooms are never genetically modified. There are many organizations devoted to saving these varieties from extinction, and one of the best ways to do that is for farmers like us to grow them so that members like you can experience their exceptional flavors and colors.

Check out Seed Savers Exchange  or the Hudson Valley Seed Library  to learn more about heirloom varietals.

Highlights
We have over one hundred different varieties of vegetables growing in the greenhouse and the fields! Some of the celebs? The Green Zebra Tomato is a personal favorite of Dave’s, our fearless CSA Manager. We are also looking forward to some Watermelon Radishes, Red Thumb Fingerlings, and the candy-cane-striped Chioggia Beets. We will keep you posted with pictures and recipes as these delicious veggies come into season.

Buy a Share
Mouth watering yet? Shares are still available for this season’s CSA! In addition to delicious veggies you will get to pick your own flowers, visit Glynwood’s beautiful farm property each week, and know that you are changing the local food system with each delicious pick-up. Our 22 month season costs $675, averaging just $31/week [each week’s bounty is enough to feed a family of four or two vegetarians! Sign up here .

Look for more updates from the Veggie Crew soon….

Valerie, Veggie Apprentice at Glynwood Farm


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Why CSA’s are Good for You and the Farmer [and it's not just because the just-picked veggies taste so good]

Fresh from Our Farm

May 2, 2012 by Glynwood Guest Post

By Carolyn Llewellyn

Glynwood Farm is gearing up for the 2012 planting season. This year the farm has expanded its Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program in response to community demand for more locally grown produce. Like other CSAs in the area and throughout the country, the CSA at Glynwood offers shareholders a weekly variety of vegetables in season. Glynwood’s program spans 22 weeks from mid-June through late October, with weekly pick-ups to retrieve that day’s bounty from the farm’s offerings of over 100 varieties of more than 30 crop types.

The share pickings increase as the season progresses. A spring share may include fresh herbs, lettuces, scallions, radishes, turnips, and garlic scapes. By mid-summer it’s a haul — more herbs, plus tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, kale, swiss chard – and the average late summer or fall share includes 12 to 15 perfectly ripe veggies and herbs.

A perfect option for families who enjoy eating a wide variety of just-picked vegetables, a Glynwood CSA costs $675 for the 22-week season, which averages less than $31 per week. For most of the 22 weeks, purchasing the same produce at a farmer’s market or supermarket would cost significantly more than that. Glynwood’s veggies are Certified Naturally Grown, a local organic certification that was created by farmers in the Hudson Valley in 2002.  A new addition this year is Glynwood’s “farm store”, offering meat and eggs from Glynwood’s pasture-raised livestock as well as regional products like Sprout Creek Farm cheeses, available for sale during the CSA pick-up hours.

Why Choose a CSA for your food?
CSA is a form of selling local farm products that started in the US a few decades ago and has become hugely popular in the new millenium. Created to free farmers from the yearly cycle of debt by having customers “share” in the risks of the season, customers pay for their share before the season even starts, ensuring that farmers have cash on hand in the spring to purchase and prepare seeds, equipment, and supplies. Customers put their faith in the farm, pledging to pay the agreed price whether the season brings an abundant bounty or disappointments due to hardships of weather, pests, or disease. Seasoned CSA growers mitigate these risks by planting wide varieties of crops, feeding their soil, and planning plantings in secessions and in different physical areas. Hurricane Irene caused significant loss to Glynwood’s crops last fall, and the late blight wiped out tomatoes up and down the coast in 2010. But each year Glynwood’s CSA customers were rewarded with a large variety of veggies each week due to good planning.

In addition to benefiting farmers, CSA allows families to visit the farm each week and get to know their own food supply. Flowers and cherry tomatoes are planted near the pick-up area for customers to pick themselves. Shareholders can see what the farmers are doing week to week, share recipe ideas with fellow members, while their children enjoy visits to the animals. Shareholders who participate year after year truly get a feel for the season, sensing how the weather and farm conditions are directly related to the food on their plate, and the fates of people worldwide.

There are still a limited amount of CSA shares available at Glynwood Farm. Official CSA pick-up hours for 2012 will be Tuesdays and Fridays, 3-6pm. Shareholders unable to make those hours may pick up their veggie shares until 3pm on Wednesday or Saturday. Learn more about becoming a CSA member and  sign up for your seasonal share online or by calling Glynwood Farme, telephone 845. 265-3338 x117.

Carolyn Llewellyn teaches the Farm Fun Together workshops to toddlers at Glynwood Farm. She and her husband Dave Llewellyn, Glynwood’s CSA Manager, live on Glynwood Farm with their two children.


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Raising Awareness: Food Revolution Day & Dinner and Some Ed

Beyond the Valley, Diane’s Desk, Glynwood Institute

May 1, 2012 by Diane Hatz

Food Revolution Day is the Jamie Oliver Foundation and Jamie Oliver Food Foundation’s first-ever global day of action. It is a chance for people who love food to come together to share information, talents and resources; to pass on their knowledge and highlight the world’s food issues. It’s about connecting the community through events at schools, restaurants, local businesses, dinner parties and farmers’ markets. The Foundations want to inspire change in people’s food habits and to promote the mission for better food and education for everyone.

Dinner and Some Ed is an effort to raise awareness (and to enjoy!) local sustainable food by hosting a meal and showing a TED or TEDx video on food and farming. “Dinner” is a relative term- this can also be done as a brunch, lunch, picnic, or potluck. The key is just to have a computer or a mobile device where you can watch the talks while enjoying delicious, sustainable food.

Dinner and Some Ed came out of a project called Tedibles at TEDActive in Palm Springs, CA, in 2012. It is an effort to bring sustainable food to the extended TED community (meaning anyone who’s ever watched a TED talk).

Food Revolution Day on May 19th is the perfect time to host your first dinner and to join the global movement.

How can you get involved? Simple:

Step 1: Host a Dinner Party on Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Day site
Step 2: Name your dinner “Food Revolution Dinner and Some Ed”
Step 3: Plan a meal
Step 4: Invite friends
Step 5: Watch TED/TEDx videos 

Have fun!

Use your imagination when planning your meal – host a potluck, invite your local farmer, or have guests bring recipes along with their dish and include where they sourced their ingredients. Visit Dinner and Some Ed’s What To Do page for ideas and more information.

Our Pick of the Month videos are:
Jamie Oliver: TED prize wish: Teach every child about food
Laurie David: Dinner Makes a Difference
Dan Barber: How I Fell in Love with a Fish
Birke Baehr: What’s Wrong with Our Food System

Watch these or your own combination of videos while enjoying some great tasting food, and be sure to check out our site for more information or to submit a review of your dinner!

 


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LOCAL FOOD PIONEERS: How Glynwood’s Harvest Award Winners are Cultivating the Future of Farming in the Hudson Valley

Gleanings from the Valley, Notes from Glynwood’s President

April 26, 2012 by Judith LaBelle

On Earth Day, a conversation about the future of farming in the Hudson Valley was held at Vassar College. Open to students and the public,

Panel Moderator, Glynwood's Judy LaBelle; Don Lewis, Wild Hive Farm; Kathleen Harris, NELPSC; Jerry Simonetti, Hudson Valley Fresh; Stephani Van Wagenen, Farm to Table Co-Packers

the four speakers were the winners of Glynwood’s 10th Annual Harvest Awards, which honor farmers, individuals and organizations doing exemplary work to support their regional food system.

After 9 years of honoring innovators and leaders of the sustainable ag movement from across the country, Glynwood decided to celebrate its 10th Anniversary by focusing on work being done in our own backyard. It says a great deal about the maturation of the movement in the Hudson Valley that after considering a rich array of nominees including farmers, advocacy groups, and businesses, the winners named by the Awards Selection Committee were each at least one step up the value chain that connects farmers and consumers.

What do I mean by that? I mean that each of them is providing invaluable services and improving the food-related infrastructure that connects farmers with new market opportunities, thereby making farming more economically viable. It also says a great deal that only one of this year’s winners even existed when the Harvest Awards began in 2003 – indicating how the growth of the local food movement is stronger than ever in our region.

Their impressive work exemplifies the rich agricultural diversity of our region:

• Farm to Table Co-Packers enables small farmers to manufacture value-added products from their fruit and vegetable harvests at a state-of-the-art kitchen and manufacturing facility.
• Hudson Valley Fresh has developed a model for a dairy co-op that provides a sustainable livelihood to their member farmers and high quality milk to regional consumers.
• Northeast Livestock Processing Service Co. has created a networking system that connects livestock farmers to processing facilities and then helps them to sell their meat to retail and institutional markets.
• Wild Hive Farm has reshaped the future of grain farming in the Hudson Valley by reviving heirloom grain varietals and opening a milling facility in the region.

Consider these numbers, which will help suggest the importance and impact of their work.

Collectively, they directly support at least 206 farms:
- 5 of these farms are growing 200 acres of grain for human consumption;
- 9 of these farms produce high quality milk from 1200 pastured cows;
- 60 of them produce more than 200,000 pounds of vegetables for processing alone; and
- 130 of these farms are raising high quality pastured livestock.

These are all farmers who would find it extremely difficult – if not impossible -to reach the growing regional market without the service provided by these Local Food Pioneers. And what makes it even more exciting is the knowledge that behind each of these successful businesses are dozens of other individuals and groups who may not be as far advanced, or who are taking a different approach, but who are every bit as energetic and dedicated to the creation of a strong regional food system in the Hudson Valley.

I invite you to learn more about Glynwood’s Harvest Award Winners.


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Watch TEDxManhattan “Changing the Way We Eat” LIVE online on January 21, 2012

Beyond the Valley, Glynwood Institute

January 17, 2012 by Geralyn Delaney Graham

Did you know that last year, over 14,000 computers tuned in from locations all over the globe to watch the live simulcast of the first TEDxManhattan “Changing the Way We Eat.” This Saturday, January 21, 2012, the second TEDxManhattan “Changing the Way We Eat” will be held at the Times Center in New York City.  There, 20 leaders in the field will explore the issues, impacts and the innovations happening as we shift to a more sustainable way of eating and farming. And anyone around the world can share in this exciting day by watching the live webcast at www.livestream.com/tedx from 10:30am – 5:15pm eastern standard time or by attending one of the local viewing parties happening across the country.  It’s easy, it’s free, and it will be both informative and inspiring.

If you’d like to be among like-minded individuals to tune into the talks, you may want to stop in at one of the local Viewing Parties being held from Portland, Oregon to Houston, Texas and even Marseille, France.  To find a list of Viewing Parties and to connect with them, visit the Viewing Party map on the TEDxManhattan website.  Click on one of the map pins in your area to get detailed information on the where and when.  All of the viewing parties are free, and many will feature local speakers who will talk about what’s happening in your community.

This is also wonderful opportunity for people around the world to connect online with each other and the sustainable food movement via these social media tools:

We hope you watch with us and join in the conversation. To learn more about the day and the speakers, visit www.tedxmanhattan.org


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Important News from Glynwood’s President

Notes from Glynwood’s President

January 5, 2012 by Judith LaBelle

Dear Friends of Glynwood:

I have had the privilege and pleasure to serve as President of Glynwood since its founding in the fall of 1995. Today our work is squarely in the middle of one of the most important and crosscutting issues of the day: revitalizing America’s food system. These are exciting and challenging times and we are privileged to be recognized as leaders in this movement that Time Magazine has said may supersede the environmental movement.

Glynwood recently completed the first phase of a strategic planning process that engaged a broad range of stakeholders, along with our board and staff, to consider how the organization can build on and leverage its decade-plus of experience with food and farming issues.

We were gratified that these stakeholders emphatically confirmed the value of our programs. They also called on us to enhance their impact in some specific ways, including by sharing what we learn more intentionally and by increasing our effort to create the networks of relationships that must undergird the strengthening of a stronger regional food system and the development of rural communities.

As we enter the new year, we will begin the next phase of this strategic planning effort – reconsidering the most effective use of all of the organization’s resources. This seemed to me to be the optimal time to transition to a new leader who could assume overall administrative responsibility. I am delighted that the board concurred with the value of making this change now. It is an invigorating prospect for the organization and for me personally.

Our plan is for me to take on a new role we are terming “Senior Fellow” as soon as my successor is in place. This new role will afford me the time to reflect on what we learn and to develop more effective ways of sharing these insights with others; to continue to work closely with the development of a new program called the Glynwood Farm Business Incubator, and with the Glynwood Institute for Sustainable Food and Farming, which I co-founded in 2010; and to serve as a resource to my successor in designing strategic initiatives that “knit the network”.

We begin our search for the new president of Glynwood today and we invite resumes and candidate suggestions for a position that I know is both challenging and rewarding. Details of the job description can be found on the Glynwood website.

On behalf of Glynwood, as well as myself, I want to thank you for your continuing interest and support of our mission. It is an exciting time and we look forward to sharing our ongoing work with you.

Judith M. LaBelle
President


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Bring TEDxManhattan “Changing the Way We Eat” 2012 to your Hometown via a Viewing Party

Beyond the Valley, Glynwood Institute

December 21, 2011 by Geralyn Delaney Graham

In February of this year, over 14,000 computers tuned in from locations all over the globe to watch the live simulcast of the first TEDxManhattan “Changing the Way We Eat.” On Saturday, January 21, 2012, the second TEDxManhattan “Changing the Way We Eat” – an independently organized event, licensed by TED – will be held at the Times Center in New York City. This one-day event whose lead sponsor is the Glynwood Institute for Sustainable Food and Farming, will explore the issues, the impacts and innovations happening as we shift to a more sustainable way of eating and farming and help to create connections and unite different areas of the food movement.

And while not everyone may be able to attend the local event, communities around the world can share in this inspiring day by hosting a viewing party of the live webcast in their hometowns.

WHERE can you host a viewing party?

In your home, a school, a library or other non-profit location, as well as restaurants (certain restrictions apply). And so that as many people as possible participate in TEDxManhattan, the TEDx team has made it simple to host your own viewing party, complete with a video and links to a Viewing Party Tool Kit, which outlines rules and ideas.

There’s a world-class line-up of speakers that are sure to inspire you and guests, including:
• Fred Kirschenmann, farmer, Distinguished Fellow at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, and President of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in NY
• Mitchell Davis, vice president, the James Beard Foundation, cookbook author and food journalist
• Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch
• Gary Oppenheimer, founder/executive director of AmpleHarvest.org, CNN Hero, Master Gardener, Huffington Post 2011 Game Changer, winner of the 2011 Glynwood Wave of the Future Harvest Award
• Michelle Hughes, Director of GrowNYC’s New Farmer Development Project

WHY host a Viewing Party?

Local viewing parties are opportunities for people around the world to connect with each other and the sustainable food movement. While events revolve around the speakers in NYC, organizers are encouraged to invite local speakers and plan activities to engage their participants during breaks. TEDxManhattan Viewing Party Coordinator Jane Orgel reports that there are already over three dozen viewing parties set up from California to Vermont, and in global communities in France and Canada.

To learn more about TEDxManhattan “Changing the Way We Eat,” to read about the complete line-up of speakers  and to learn more about host a viewing party, visit www.tedxmanhattan.org.  You can also follow on facebook and twitter:  www.facebook.com/tedxmanhattan and @tedxmanhattan.

What is  TEDx and TED?
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like* experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. *TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. For more information about TED and TEDx, please visit www.ted.com.

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.


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TEDxManhattan Challenge Finalists

Beyond the Valley, Glynwood Institute

November 29, 2011 by Geralyn Delaney Graham

TEDxManhattan “Changing the Way We Eat” planning is well underway, with 14 speakers confirmed, the venue in place and food details underway. We’ve also chosen our five finalists for the TEDxManhattan Challenge – we challenged people last year to work in their community anywhere in the United States on a project related to sustainable food and farming.

We received around 40 applications from all over the country and have narrowed it down to the final five. The winner will get to speak live from stage at the 2012 TEDxManhattan event. If you would like to vote for your favorite, please email your choice by December 5th to TEDxManhattanChallenge@gmail.com.

We’re also encouraging everyone to set up a local viewing party to watch the event live – if you’d like to watch, please tune in to our broadcast on January 21st at www.livestream.com/tedx. Better yet, set up a viewing party in your neighborhood and invite friends over to watch the talks with you. You can find out more information about viewing parties and setting one up at http://tedxmanhattan.org/viewing-parties/.

The five TEDxManhattan Challenge finalists are:

1. Natasha Bowens, The Color of Food – http://thecolorofood.org/home.html She’s spent the past year creating a space for farmers and food activists of color to connect, work together and share stories, history and traditional knowledge. The Color of Food is a space to raise the voices of communities of color in the movement for food justice.

2. Rick Nahmias, Food Forward – http://foodforward.org/ In 2.5 years they have become Southern California’s largest backyard harvesting for the hungry NPO. Food Forward organizes corps of between 3 and 300 volunteers to harvest excess food from private homes and public spaces, donating 100% to the hungry.

3. Amie Hamlin, New York Coalition for Healthy School Food – http://www.healthyschoolfood.org/ New York Coalition for Healthy School Food has been working with the New York City Office of SchoolFood (they spell it as one word) in a formal partnership for the last few years to develop and introduce plant-based entrees to serve as the protein component in school lunches. They are doing this in 18 schools and have a waiting list of 48 schools.

4. Howard Hinterthuer, Veteran’s Food Production Project
http://www.wuwm.com/programs/news/view_news.php?articleid=9474 Their organic therapy project for veterans, now in its fourth year, is transitioning into a food production program designed to supplement and eventually replace food that they currently purchase through vendors.

5. Billy Mawhiney, Fresh Mitchell – http://freshmitchell.info/ Fresh Mitchell is a group aimed at changing the way rural Mitchell, South Dakota, eats. They began marketing their Farmers Market, got accepted for SNAP and credit cards, and began a CSA through a 5th generation farm about 30 miles away (called the Goosemobile). They recently hosted their first Fall Harvest Celebration, a night of Old Fashioned fireside stories from the South Dakota food movement to raise funds for an edible classroom, demo area for the market and CSA support.

Please email your favorite finalist by December 5th to TEDxManhattanChallenge@gmail.com.


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Feeding the Soil

Fresh from Our Farm

August 11, 2011 by Meg Tobin

I recently caught up with Glynwood’s CSA program manager, farmer Dave Llewellyn, to get the scoop on veggie growing practices here at the farm. His scientific approach to farming focuses on feeding the soil, which feeds the plants, which feed us. The health of a farm rests on the health of its soil, and understanding and improving soil fertility and micronutrient content is another focus of practices here on the farm.

Dave believes that feeding the microorganisms in the soil helps transfer energy to the plants. In addition to practicing sustainable farming techniques like cover cropping, crop rotation, and composting, he carefully tests the soil for 16 basic nutrients that are essential to plant health. Dave told me that in the years since he has been farming with a focus on soil fertility management, he has produced noticeably healthier crops with improved pest resistance, higher yield, and better flavor.

In order to better understand how to address deficiencies in micronutrient levels in the soil, Dave sends soil samples to three different labs in the spring and the fall. For each field’s sample, he takes four bits from different spots in that field, to gain a comprehensive understanding of its soil composition. Two independent labs and Cornell’s agricultural lab, AgroOne, test the soil using both strong and weak acid tests. Dave explained that the weak acid test subjects the soil to an acid that is only slightly stronger than water, and determines what nutrients are actually being made available to the plants in the short term. The strong acid tests what nutrients the soil potentially holds that are not immediately plant-available, but that might become so in the long term. Conducting both types of tests gives a broader picture of the nutrient content of the soil, and helps Dave determine how to address whatever deficiencies might be found.

Dave is a master brewer of nutrient-dense liquid plant foods, and he can often be found in the greenhouse mixing up appetizing brews like the one pictured above, which he then pumps through the drip irrigation system in a particular field, somewhat like feeding the plants through an IV system. This one’s fulvic acid, liquid fish, and molasses; a regular in the drip line IV system. Dave has also been known to brew micronized Calcium in stockings, and to inoculate his potting soil with mycorrhizal fungi.

One of Dave’s pumps for adding micro-nutrients to the drip line system.

Now that it’s officially summer, the 2011 season is in full swing on the farm here at Glynwood! Stay tuned for updates about what’s been going on around the farm- information about the day-to-day operations of the farm as they change throughout the season, as well as insight into the unique mechanics that contribute to the success of our unique farm.


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Greetings from the 2011 Growing Season!

Fresh from Our Farm

August 7, 2011 by Meg Tobin

There’s been a lot of experimentation going on around the Glynwood farm. The diversity of its operations mean that there is never a dull moment for Ken Kleinpeter, the director of Glynwood’s farm and facilities, or Dave Llewellyn, the manager of Glynwood’s CSA program, which doubled in size this season. In addition to opening up 5 acres of land for vegetable growing, the farmers of Glynwood have incorporated a stunning new barn into their livestock raising practices, and have received funding from two different USDA grants to respectively construct an enormous high tunnel for vegetable production and conduct extensive research on rotational grazing. This is all in addition to growing high quality, nutritious food for 100 households in the local community, and managing the grazing practices of hundreds of pastured goats, sheep, cattle, pigs, chickens, and laying hens, all while keeping the improvement of the fertility of the soil and the health of the surrounding environment as the foremost goal of stewarding these acres. These guys give new definition to the idea of a busy workweek!

Last season Ken wrote a great post about rotational grazing, and I was lucky enough to get a detailed visual explanation of the results of his thorough research.

Foreground: Ken pointing out the Multiflora Rosebushes. Background: One of Glynwood’s mobile chicken houses

The invasive and tenacious Multiflora Rosebush has made itself quite at home on the farmland of Glynwood. Sheep and cattle can’t eat the Multiflora Rose, which prevents much of the land from being cleared and used as pasture. Ken has been engaged in studying the best ways to sustainably and efficiently eradicate its presence so the land may be used for pasture or put into agricultural production. His research has primarily focused on grazing goats intensively on the same land. Ken explained that using typical rotational grazing practices, the goats would consume the leaves of the plant, but the plant would continue to thrive once the goats moved on. Ken has been studying what happens if the goats don’t move on, measuring the effects of intensively grazing the goats on the same plot of land. He found that after two entire seasons, eight goats were able to completely eradicate even the stumps of the bushes. Ken’s theory is that if the goats are put through the same parcel of land a sufficient number of times, the seed bank in the soil will be emptied- since the goats will eat the plants before they have the chance to mature, new seeds will not be added, and the goats will consume the existing seeds as they sprout, eventually emptying the seed bank. Then the land will be able to return to pasture and take part in the complex choreography of the farm.

An experimental section of land- the dead bushes where goats grazed intensively for two seasons


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