Yesterday on the Farm...

         Yesterday, as the clounds hung low in the sky, and staff worked on updating the vegetable wash station, the farmers swung tools over shoulders, left their own fields, and slowly made their way to one farmers' field. It was a rare afternoon of all hands on deck.

            When the weeds are running rampant, and there is the pressure of getting everything in the ground and mulched, farmers rarely have a second to spare. However, yesterday the farmers showed the incredible community they have created over the past years. A beloved farmer that has been in the program for over six years, has been in the hospital with a serious illness. Recognizing that her fields would have to be managed, the farmers came together and through the power of love, and many hands, turned rows of weeds into rows of carrots, and unplanted beds into planted beds. It was a manifestation of what community looks like.  

         

If you look ahead, you see a bed of weeds. If you look behind, the baby carrot leaves, frilly and delicate, have emerged.

   The rain is encouraging all the little plants to grow grow grow~

Already we have full size bok choi, beautiful looking lettuce heads, swiss chard and beets, robust onions and emerging garlic scapes...

Habiba Noor and Portland Urban Farmstands

                                                 

        Habiba Noor is getting ready to sell at her first full-season farm stand in Portland this summer, outside of Wholefoods on Monday afternoons 1-5, starting July 1st. Read about Habibas story here:

          When I asked Habiba what she would want to tell her customers, she said: “I want to be able to have a conversation with them, but I can't because of my English. But I want them to know that I need their support as customer, and they need my vegetables. They need my help and I need theirs”

           Habiba came to Maine from Dallas, Texas,

where she lived and worked as a seamstress for three years. The company would ship her boxes of materials; she would do the work, and then ship it back. In Dallas, Habiba was friends with Hawa Ibrahim, a farmer who has been in the New American Sustainable Farming Project (NASAP) for seven years now. Once Hawa left Texas and started farming in Maine, she called up her friend and told her about this opportunity. Habiba was excited, her parents and grandparents were farmers in Somalia and she could not wait to start farming again. She moved to Maine July 27th, 2007.

          “In Somalia, when the rain comes, you plant” says Habiba when remarking on the difference between farming in Somalia, and farming in Maine. While the rain determines the work schedule in Somalia, here you work all summer, but you have to keep an eye on the weather. Habiba misses the animals her family raised back home: chickens, goats, and camels. She loves some new vegetables that she started growing in Maine, namely swiss chard, broccoli, cucumbers and sweet potato.

          When I asked Habiba what she wanted for her future, she said: “My dream for my future will take time, because of my language challenge”. She wants her own farm, where she can keep her family safe and teach her children to be farmers. The lifestyle is her favorite part of farming: "It is always better to be outside farming for my health, then sitting inside. The hardest part of my farming business is the language, and finding good markets for selling my vegetables".

Learning New Skills

            We have been busy on the farm setting up important infrastructure for the season, namely irrigation and row cover and getting ready to use black plastic for weed control. The farmers who enter the program arrived with many skills from farming in their home country, and also had to learn some new skills related to climate and environmental changes. The farmers have learned:

TRANSPLANTING:


   



Esperanza in the Greenhouse



The farmers have learned the importance of starting new seeds inside the protective walls of the greenhouse. Once the seeds are planted, they label the trays, water them carefully, and then harden them off before moving into the cold and rich outside soil. 

Some of the farmers from Somalia have talked about all the different steps one has to take to plant here. They have learned to move with the changing weather patterns, the back and forth nature of approaching spring, the threats of frost in the fall. The Somali farmers have mentioned that in their home countries, the soil is fertile and warm enough that all they had to do to plant was put seeds directly into the soil, no transplanting involved. Here, the greenhouse is a hive of activity.

     

IRRIGATION:

Two years ago, we took a van full of farmers down to visit the The Food Project in Lowell MA, to get some expertise on irrigation methods, and specifically small scale drip tape implementation. It was a great day, and the farmers learned a lot about how to take these skills back home to use on their own land.

Here we are at one of the Food Projects urban growing plots, helping lay out drip tape.

 

It has taken a few years, but we have had irrigation on the farm for a while now. It is an incredibly important, fragile and expensive part of our farm infrastructure. It is also sustainable and efficient in the long run, and the farmers have been very excited to not have to fill huge blue barrels of water and lug them out to their fields every time they want to water.

 Many of the farmers from Somalia come from an agricultural system that is reliant upon the river for irrigation and nutrients. This is called a floodplains subsistence agricultural system, where the periodic flooding of the river is enough to nurture the seeds and growing plants.

Land Openings

         Here, Mohamed surveys his first bed of the season. It becomes very important to make the first row straight, to set the tone for the entire organization of the coming summer. Making your first row straight is a chance to truly get off on the right foot.

         Opening of the land...there is such a ceremonial feel to this phrase, and there is usually a ceremonial feel to the actual day as well. The farmers from Somalia like to mark this day with a goat feast, a tradition carried over from their home countries. For all of the farmers, bringing food marks an occasion to take a break from the often grueling labor of tilling and making beds. Farmers often share a spot of shade and some nourishment. How can you be involved?

         YOU ARE INVITED:

On Friday May 10th, we will be 'opening the land', at Turkey Hill Farm in Cape Elizabeth, where many of the Cultivating Community Youth Growers and two of the Fresh Start Farmers grow. We will be planting potatoes, opening beds, and preparing for summer.

Address: 120 Old Ocean House Rd. up the dirt road

Time: 2:30-6:30

Snacks provided. Wear old clothes and prepare to get your hands dirty!

We are happy to have you.

From the Classroom to the Field....

         Yesterday marked the last English class of the season for many of the farmers. They mentioned the word 'graduation' a few times over the course of the class, indicating that they would like to move to the advanced ESL level next year.

      Above, we managed a serious photo, and below is a more accurate picture of what our time in the classroom is like, full of laughs and amusing chaos. There is SO much humor in communicating across languages and cultures, and we manage to remember that laughing is almost always the best remedy in places of confusion and misunderstandings.

      Some of the farmers mentioned the things they still want to work on: "I want to be able to talk to my customers, tell them that i am a Somali woman, from Somalia..." and things they have improved on this semester, such as using the calculator, writing vegetable names, and learning the vocabulary of a typical market day. Our hats are off to you farmers! Learning English with passion and drive on top of starting a farming business is not an easy feat.

            Thanks to the Lewiston Adult Education center for hosting us, supporting us and inspiring the farmers to advance and continue their language and literacy education.

CSA Group Delivery

Are you part of an organization / office / church / yoga studio etc. that may be interested in signing up for a CSA as a group? 

Here are the perks: 

        As one person alone, we are very powerful. As a group of people, we are even more powerful. There are things we can do together, that we can never do alone. The office delivery aspect of our CSA program allows for an effective partnership between two groups of people who agree to mutually support each other. Although we love the office drop off possibility, everyone is encouraged to sign up either through a group delivery, or individually. 

Here is how it works:

1. You let us know that your office, organization, church or group of friends is interested in learning more about the CSA.
2. We offer information, either through materials, or informal Q and A sessions or lunchtime presentations. 
3. You come together as a group and decide what types of shares you individually want.
4. Eight or more people ready to sign up and you sign up!
5. You get matched to a Fresh Start Farmer, who will be growing the food for your office all season long. 
6. You then get a weekly delivery to your office or organization space, at the same time each week. All produce is grown on the acre or half acre farmed by the farmer you are matched with. 
7. Take home your bag of fresh, local, organically grown vegetables:
8. Prepare some wonderful dishes
9. Serve them up
10. Enjoy! knowing that you are making the absolute best choices for your body, your family and friends, your community and your planet. 

A Complete CSA Toolkit

 

There are always ways to get more out of your CSA share. We will be here all season helping this be the year you learn more about eating locally and in season, more about sustainable growing practices, and more about the Somali, Sudanese, Latino and Burundian farmers that are part of Fresh Start Farms. 

 

I have compiled a list of links from around the web that i deem extra wonderful in their helpfulness. They range from sites on Somali culture, to the strangest looking vegetables in Maine. Take a look, and let us know what you think:

• The strangest looking (and coolest) veggies you may find in your share: http://www.takepart.com/photos/9-weirdest-farmers-market-veggies

• An excellent website about the Somali Community in Maine: https://wiki.colby.edu/display/AY298B/Home

• A Super Awesome Guide to Storing Produce for Freshness: http://www.thekitchn.com/a-guide-to-storing-fruits-vegetables-tip-roundup-176308

• A Trick to Revive Your Wilted Greens or Lettuce:

• Recipe Ideas By Season, including four vegetable strategies: http://www.wholeliving.com/136512/csa-recipes/@center/136755/green-home-guide#end
• Can it, Freeze it, Pickle it: http://www.csacoalition.org/resources/consumers/food-preservation/

Amazing cookbooks that show the truely beauty of eating in season:

Deborah Madison's Vegetable Literacy: http://deborahmadison.com

The Davis Farmers Market Cookbook: http://davisfarmersmarketcookbook.com/