Make the most of all this green!

When working with greens it is easy to get caught up in the world of salads—and while that can be a tasty and simple use for them, it can also be fun to think outside the salad bowl, especially when working with kale, arugula, garlic scapes, chard and spring onions.

Kale~

Hopefully everyone has tried kale chips, but if you haven’t they can be a great way to ease into loving kale—just spritz each leaf with olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, and add hot pepper if you’re daring, and bake lying flat at 350 for 5-10 minutes until crispy and browning, cool and enjoy! Kale can also be a great addition to spinach in a stir-fry, complementing peppers, mushrooms, and tofu, beef or chicken. Massaged Kale Salad is a wonderful summery dish. You can go in any direction here, garlic sesame oil and lemon, or a tahini dressing with shredded carrots and raisins.

Garlic Scapes~

Garlic Scapes are the top of the garlic plant. It has exactly the same flavor as garlic and is a great substitute in any dish that calls for garlic. Instead of crushing garlic to flavor the stir-fry, chop the garlic scapes and mix them in for that garlic flavor! Or roast the whole scape and use as a side dish! Fresh Garlic Scape Pesto  is incredibly delicious on pasta.

Arugula~

Also makes great pesto. Arugula is a slightly spicy fresh green. It's sharp and spicy taste accompanies cheesy pizza, or a beet and goat cheese salad. Arugula can also be thrown into a stir-fry, towards the end so it is just lightly cooked, but it can also be a great additional flavor to Italian style meals—add it to your favorite pesto recipe, or chop and add to diced tomatoes for a farmer’s marinara sauce.







 

 











Swiss Chard~

Can also be a colorful addition to any stir-fry to broth-based soup. You can use swiss chard as a substitute for anything that calls for spinach. Bake it into a cheesy gratin, or stir fry it with some garlic scapes or spring onions, add some tomato sauce, and then crack four eggs into the mixture (no mixing). Throw some parmesan or feta on top, bake in the oven till eggs are cooked through. Serve with rice or cornbread or alone.

Spring Onions~

The stem of these early spring onions are still very flavorful and can be used the same way as scallions, chopped in the stir-fry, on top of a salad, pasta, or pizza, or leave the stems on and grill them and use as a side of burgers, steak, chicken, or kabobs!

Collard greens~

These hearty and nutrient packed greens are traditionally slow roasted—with butter or tomatoes—to calm the bitter flavor, but they can also be sautéed in olive oil with lemon zest and pepper flakes for a side dish with a kick!

The New and Improved Farmstands! Opening next week. Get a sneak peak.

                   This past thursday, there was a hum of activity in the office. As some prepared for the first day of youth programs, others of us were busily launching a brand new Farmstand season. Our inaugural festivity was a workshop where we previewed the new display and outlined our commitment to maintaining high standards for ourselves, our marketing and english education, and the quality of our produce. As we put the finishing touches on our workshop, the farmers arrived from Lewiston, eager to see, eager to learn, eager to begin.

                 This season marks the beginning of something special in farmstand season. After careful planning, and plenty of careful thinking, we are incredibly excited to present a farmstand that is worthy of the farmers and the amazing vegetables they grow.

        Check out our new and improved display below, but know that it is just the tip of the iceburg!

• We looked at price signs, and prices in general, looking to simplify the process for everyone involved.
• We looked at vegetable names, vegetable varieties and ways we could incorporate these into oral english practice. 
• We looked at a supply checklist, and display materials that will allow the high quality of our produce to really shine through.
• We looked at making change, and recording sales. 
• We looked at processing alternative payments such as SNAP and WIC. 
• After the workshop, we set up one stand all together. There was a palpable wave of excitement in the air when each farmer realized they would all sell with these beautiful new displays!
• Each farmer left with a bag of burlap and blue berry cartons, a token of our commitment to help each farmer meet their learning goals this season. 

          VISIT A FARMSTAND:

         Starting July 1st, we will kick off farmstand season. Stop by to meet the farmers, check out the new display, and buy some produce to bring home to your kitchen!

• Sundays 11am-1pm - West End - St. Luke's Cathedral on State Street
• Mondays (Opening July 1st) 1-5pm - Bayside - Whole Foods Market, at store front
• Tuesdays (Opening July 2nd) 1-4pm - Parkside - Opportunity Alliance, 510 Cumberland Ave, parking lot
• Tuesdays (Opening July 2nd) 3-6pm - West End - Reiche School Playground, Brackett Street
• Wednesdays (Opening July 3rd)  2-5pm - East Bayside - Boyd Street Urban Farm
• Thursdays (Opening July 11th because of the 4th of July) 3-6pm - Riverton - Riverton School, at side entrance next to parking lot
• Thursdays (Opening July 11th because of the 4th of July) 3-6pm - South Portland - The Hub on Westbrook Street in Redbank/Brickhill Village

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.