Farmer Jane: Women Changing The Way We Eat, by Temra Costa is a must read for anyone that doubts one person can make a difference.  This book profiles 30 women participating in sustainable farming in some capacity.  Some are farmers, others are advocates, and they all have a common goal of improving the accessibility of healthier food for our families.
The book is divided into six categories, including my favorites “Promoting Local and Seasonal Food” and “The Next Generation of Sustainable Farmers.”  The profiles of each woman are just a couple of pages long and it was easy for me to get absorbed in the stories and keep reading till it was much too late!  I also found myself making notes about additional books to read and organizations to investigate.
Elizabeth Henderson is considered the leader of the CSA movement.  As a farmer herself on Peacework Farm in Newark, NY, her book is a must read for anyone considering starting a CSA. Sharing the Harvest: A Citizen’s Guide to Community Supported Agriculture, Revised and Expanded  The book is in it’s second edition and covers everything from the farm to the office.
There are also a number of restaurateurs profiled, serving local, in season fare.  How many of us really know what’s in season around us?  These women, including Jesse Ziff Cool of Fleat Street Cafe and Jessica Prentice, who coined the term “locavore,” pull together menus using the freshest ingredients from farmers they know personally.  Instead of ordering the majority of items from one large company, they have long lists of vendors that allows them to get the best ingredient from the best (local) producer.

  The need for new farmers is a real challenge that affects all of us wanting to purchase local, organic food.  The current average age of farmers in the U.S. is 57.  There are a number of barriers that exist for the younger generation, including economic and physical challenges.  Severine Von Tscharner documented the lives of young farmers, in the film “The Greenhorns.”  Greenhorns is the term for agricultural rookies, and the book profiles a number of them and shares their successes and challenges. There needs to be a push for more support for Beginning Farms when the next Farm Bill is on the table to encourage younger farmers to take the challenge.
  Von Tscharner is quoted, “start really small with all of your ideas…figure it out small and go bigger next year.”  This was a great reminder to me that I can achieve something, as long as I start somewhere.  It may be just window boxes full of lettuce this year, but a large raised bed next year.  I can visit my local farmer’s market more frequently this year, and sign up for a CSA next year.  Each of us has the power to decide what food we will eat.  Convenient, local, organic, packaged, we have daily choices to make.  Reading this book has inspired me to be more critical of my food choices, and be more supportive of my local farms that are practicing biodiversity on their farms.  There are so many additional organizations I am learning more about and I will share them in a future post.
In the meantime, I recommend this book to any parent that wants to learn more about how our food can get to our plate in a safe, environmentally friendly manner.  This is not a book that tries to scare you into eating organic food.  It simply shares the story of 30 women and how they are making a difference.
Farmer Jane: Women Changing The Way We Eat
Make it your next book club book!  I would appreciate any other book suggestions and comments if you get the chance to read this book.

What could be better than watching the excitement in a child’s eyes while she watches baby chicks watch her.  It was an amazing sight that I won’t soon forget.  We had the pleasure of visiting Codman Community Farm in Lincoln, MA today.  It felt like stepping back in time, and a perfect time to leave the Iphone in the car.  Despite a little rain, we wondered all around the farm.  It was “self-serve” and we took advantage of being able to stop and take in the chicken coop for as long as we wanted.

I understand now the difference between cage free birds versus what we viewed today.  These birds had access to the outdoors, and also had a cozy place to lay their eggs inside.  There were lots of different breeds of chickens, and also a few ducks and turkeys too.  Yes, it is a farm that raises animals for feeding purposes.  They do it humanely and in the spirit of preserving tradition in an environmentally sound manner.  The Codman Farm has been run continuously for over 150 years and is now owned by the Town of Lincoln and is run by the local citizens.

We picked out a number of meats (frozen) and also farm fresh eggs.  The prices were reasonable, and after seeing the amount of work that goes into producing it, you don’t really think about the cost. My husband is really looking forward to the bacon, but wished we could have bought some meat fresh instead of frozen.  We plan to return to the farm when our daughter is older so we can explain where our dinner meat comes from.  I want her to know it can from an animal and doesn’t just appear in a package. Maybe she will choose to become a vegetarian, but it’s up to her to make that decision.  In the meantime, we are happy to share with her some of the local agricultural traditions of our area.

If you are interested in finding a farm to visit in your area, the best place to search is via Local Harvest.  Even farms without websites are typically listed and include information about visiting, products available, and contact information.  If you are in the Massachusettes area and would like to visit Codman Community Farm, they are located at 58 Codman Rd, Lincoln, MA and are open 7 days a week.

  Maybe it will spark an interest in raising chickens in your backyard, I know it has for me.  On my new reading list: Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens, 3rd Edition   Happy farming.

The basil is massive, the strawberries are in, and we got our first batch of salad greens.  I am so excited to see all the new growth on our vegetables, it amazes me how much they grow each day.

I did an experiment with the salad greens. One container was mixed with composted material, and the other a basic potting soil mix.  The blend with the compost gave me the plate full, pictured above.  In the container with no compost, not one leaf was ready to be harvested.  My husband was kind enough to go digging in our compost heap to get some additional dirt to add to the second place lettuce.  I’m hoping by next week I get better results.

Composting is one of the best ways to reduce waste in your house.  Many local DPW’s are offering discounts on compost containers for outside the home. You also need a strategy for how to collect the scraps inside the home.  Growing up we used a gross plastic bin under the sink for scraps, which we took turns bringing out to the large outside compost bin.  In my own home, I use this ceramic container  Norpro Ceramic Compost Keeper, White   We have had it for about 3 years and it has taken a beating, but it still looks brand new.  For more details on this, please see my prior post about composting.

If you are new to composting, there are a great number of resources for information.  One of my favorite is Compost Mania, which offers both information and great products.  They offer products for both entry level to the larger scale composting family.  I have both a plastic container and also a home made container.  Please let me know if you have any questions about either.  We are looking to add a third container so we have more soil available for organic gardening next year.

It’s funny, I still remember how annoyed I was when I had to go empty the compost bin growing up. Little did I know that I would pass along this tradition in my family, and hopefully start it in another family or two.

I would love to hear if you have any suggestions for how you manage composting in your family.  I think it can be intimidating and it would be great to share some advice with other readers.