http://seedstock.com/2012/01/20/trailblazing-organic-farm-in-maryland-one-straw-farm-puts-soil-and-overall-health-of-farm-ahead-of-organic-certification/

Please read this article by Kelly Hatton, she really does a great job describing our current predicament regarding the Biotelo and the USDA. Thank you Kelly, your words really do help!

Recently we were looking through our recipe books, trying to find something new to broaden our meal horizon and we came across one of the more unique dishes I have seen called paulbimbop (a personalized version of the common Korean dish bibimbap), from the cookbook Mad Hungry by Lucinda Quinn. The dish is ground beef caramelized in a pot with rice, mushrooms, bok-choy and spinach. Near the end of the cooking process you crack a few raw eggs on top and let them steam in the closed pot for a few minutes, and when the dish is cooked you top it off with some fresh kimchi to add some additional spice and flavor. We were not actually able to find kimchi when we made the dish, so we used Sriracha hot sauce for our add on flavor, Magnifique! I recommend this dish to all lovers of meat and veggies, and would furthermore like to recommend the cookbook from which we found it, Mad Hungry.

Over my Christmas Break I have been working on a newer, more organized recipe page for our CSA customers. Most recently we made the kale enchiladas with a cheddar cheese

Enchiladas with Greens

sauce, needless to say it was one of my better meals of the year. Despite the initial recipe being the perfect outline for a delicious meal, we decided to make a few changes of our own to mix it up and make it unique. The recipe does not call for meat, but we decided to add chipotle rubbed chicken into the mix to add some vital protein. Also, we added sauteed garlic, onions, and peppers to mix in with the sauteed kale. Now these are not part of the actual recipe, but they made it even better; so while you are reading new recipes, don’t be afraid to mix it up and some some of your own unique flavor to the mix.

This past weekend I hopped on a plane bound for Baltimore, to return home and visit my family and farm. My return home was met with a family dinner of NY strip steak, and a fresh One Straw Farm salad, words cannot describe how much I missed a home cooked meals with food fresh from the fields. The next day while my brother and I were out running some errands, my parents went to go pick up our butchered pig from a local farm nearby, which will be the meat we consume over the next year (sadly I will miss most of the pig, and probably all of the bacon). On Sunday we had a family lunch and my grandfather, Daddy Da, Aunt Joan and Uncle Drew came over to enjoy another fantastic home meal for me and share conversation and company. Last night I had to hop back on the plane, and while I enjoy my new surroundings up north, there is always a pit down inside when I have to leave my family behind. I look forward to returning in November for Thanksgiving break, but in the meantime I now have a camera, so I can begin providing pictures of the great white north (well actually its quite colorful this time of year).

Since I am now hundreds of miles away from the bustle of the Waverly market on those early Saturday mornings, I must now shift my attention towards a new Saturday routine. Thanks to the local mentality of Vermont, I did not have to look very hard. Every Saturday since I have begun dorm life in Burlington my roommate and I have made a trip down to the central park in Burlington to peruse the saturday market. I am accustomed to a large busy market, but the city of Burlington, although small, puts on a larger market than I have ever seen before in my life. The entire central park is lined with a multitude of tents housing: local produce, cheeses, meats, breads, and of course, home cooked market food (how much I missed it). It ties me to a sense of home to be able to stop by one of the local farmer’s tents and discuss the growing season, and their organic practices. I look forward to developing relationships with some of the growers up here, and maybe even learn something new about farming that was previously unknown to me. I am sorry that I am unable to provide pictures at this time, as I am without a camera. However, I will be visiting home within the next few weeks, in which time I will return to Burlington, camera in hand, ready to provide pictures of my new winter home.

Hello everyone once again, it seems like it has been forever since I last communicated with the One Straw World; and now it is time to check in from the mountainous north in Burlington. I am now settled into the chaotic college routine, and have found time to accomplish the things that I want, like talk to you all. It is amazing up here, the local produce scene is amazing. Most every restaurant in Burlington boasts a menu filled with local meats and vegetables (if not filled, there is always some amount of local flavor). It pleases me beyond measure to know that I have decided to immerse myself into a college environment that cares so much about living a sustainable life. I look forward to integrating myself further into this new community of agriculture as I have back home in White Hall. While the local produce and the attitude is amazing up here, nothing will ever beat the taste of fresh One Straw produce and the company of family,

We are now beginning to see some reward for our experimentation with No-Till farming on the hard squash fields. For a while it looked as if the learning curve may have bettered us, but, as always, Uncle Drew prevailed through his knowledge of the soil and the nuances of crop necessity. Now the field is beginning to brim with the vibrant yellow flowers that represent a harbinger of incoming squash. In some of the plants young butternut squash is beginning to take form underneath the canopy of yellow overhead.

As many of you all already know, growing sweet corn is no easy task, even when using conventional pesticides and fertilizers; and the task becomes even more difficult when you mirgrate from conventional techniques and into the realm of organic farming. Corn has a ravenous appetite for nutrients, meaning that a crop of corn zaps the soil of nutrients, meaning that the farmer has to ensure the sufficient nuitrients are put back into the soil, at One Straw we use compost as our natural fertilizer. Even beyond the plants difficult needs, corn is the premier breeding ground for the infamous corn earworm, which lays its larvae within the ears of corn and will eat away at the corn as it matures. At One Straw we recently began implements a natural measure of biological control by releasing trichogramma wasps into the cornfield. Trichogramma wasps are tiny wasps (less than 1mm in length) the parasitize the corn earwom larvae by laying their eggs within the egg of the corn earworm. The wasp larvae then eat the larvae of the corn earworm instead of the corn itself, neutralizing the pending damage the corn earworm would have done to the plant. The use of trichogramma wasps is a good, natural way to control the outbreak of corn earworms in a field, without the use of pesticides that have proven to be degrading to our natural environment. Hopefully the wasps will be effective enough so that when you all go to shuck your ears of corn you are not presented with a little insect surprise that got to your veggies before you could.