Farmers take field trips too!

Despite that spring has been elusive this year--teasing us all with a few warm days and then continuing to dump snow--the strengthening sun is undeniable.  Yesterday marked the first official day of spring and the mix of rain and sun will soon mean the snow-covered fields become ready to be worked. 

Fresh Start Farms’ growers have been keeping busy while they wait for snow to recede.  We took two recent field trips to observe fellow farmers’ operations and to learn about food establishments that buy local produce. 

Last week some toured Local Sprouts, a worker-owned cooperative café, bakery, and catering service located in Portland.  Local Sprouts buys Fresh Start Farms’ veggies in the summer and fall and is a big supporter of local and organic food producers in Maine. 

Karen and Kelly showed us around behind the scenes.   As a group, we learned how restaurants receive, store, and use the food local farmers supply them. 

This week we toured Six River Farm, a certified organic produce operation close by in Bowdoinham.  Farm owners Gabrielle Gosselin and Nate Drummond  gave us a taste of spring by guiding us through their greenhouse and one of their high tunnels. 

Upon entering the greenhouse we all--nearly simultaneously--gasped with joy at both the abundance of green life growing and the balmy air temperature.  Nate and Gabrielle explained their seedling-growing techniques, described the importance good record-keeping, and showed us some of their heating equipment. 

Inside the high tunnel we saw winter production in full swing and learned that lack of light means winter greens like Swiss chard and spinach cease to grow through December and January.  By March due to increased daylight, the plants take off again!

Today farmers will meet to discuss some of the (many) preseason considerations, including the pros and cons of soybean meal, manure, and granulated fertilizer.

More on that soon!  Think spring and melting snow for us and check back again soon!

Hello from Fresh Start Farms’ new CSA manager!

I recently began working with Cultivating Community and will be your primary point of contact for the Fresh Start Farms CSA.  With the strength of the sun feeling stronger every day (well, in between the days it snows, sleets or rains) my heart jumps with excitement and anticipation for the growing season and the veggies it will bring.  

My name is Ashley Bahlkow.  I recently moved back to Maine to be closer to my family.  While my experience has included farming and alternative food systems planning, I am certainly no expert in either as of yet.  My work in this field thus far has led to more questions than answers about how to pioneer a new food system. 

That being said, having the opportunity to work with Cultivating Community and connect with all of you - the consumers of this locally sourced food - is something I thoroughly look forward to and hope to learn from in the months ahead.  

My role is to coordinate your CSA, connect you with the farmer growing your food, answer your questions and help you access information about local food and sustainable agriculture.  I am thrilled to engage with you in the quest for a just food system. 

If you have not yet signed up for another year with us, please visit our CSA registration page. 

I plan to use this blog as a tool for exchanging information.  So far, my favorite resource on the site is the ‘Recipes’ tab.  This is an amazing guide for how to prepare in-season, Maine-grown produce.  I'm personally looking forward to trying out the Beet Chocolate Cake as soon as I get my hands on some of the Early Wonder beets grown by the CSA farmers. 

Please contact me at fsf@cultivatingcommunity.org, call me at (207) 761-4769 or come find me in person at our office, 52 Mayo St, Portland, ME 04101.  

Seeds are ordered!

At the end of January, the farmers of Fresh Start Farms did what farmers all over New England do with great anticipation and excitement each winter: they ordered seeds. A farmer with a seed catalog is like a kid in a candy shop. The farmers poured over the beautiful pictures, cross referencing the descriptions of vegetable varieties with their own historical memory of how each variety actually produces on his or her unique plot of land. Bit by bit, variety by variety, a seed order is built, hinting at the mosaic of edible vegetation that will emerge from the work done on this cold winter day.

Batula and Seynab debated the attributes of two types of parsley, finally deciding to grow both varieties as a means of comparing them in real time. Their conversation about parsley was followed up by a treasure hunt through the pages of a catalog to find a picture of a vegetable they saw at another vendor's stall at their Kennebunk Farmers Market last year. They found it at the same moment: "aha! this one!", they said, fingers pointing to a burgundy red bunch of culinary dandelion greens. Mohamed ordered 8 varieties of tomatoes he has never grown before, two because of their excellent disease resistance, 6 because of their sheer beauty. Omasombo's seed order contains Giant Kossak kohlrabi and Miyashige daikon radish, both of which will be fed to students enrolled in Portland Public Schools this fall. Jesus and Hilda discovered Central American herbs like papalo and epazote that they will grow and sell to their own community in Portland.  Asli's seed order includes 4 varieties of bok choi because she wants to know which sell best at different farmers markets, which are preferred by CSA members, and which will be the favorite of Camp Chewonki in their weekly stir fry. 

Our world here in Maine still feels drenched in endless winter, but the farmers and support network of Fresh Start Farms promise that summer has already begun on the pages of a seed catalog.

Learning

I have so much to learn from the brave farmers of Fresh Start Farms. Nine farmers graduated from the training program on Friday and as each of them walked across our make-shift stage to receive their diploma, I was struck by how much each of them has learned in the three years I have known them. 

Approximately half of them have made it through the rigorous process of becoming US citizens by way of passing a test about American history and laws that the average educated American adult would be hard pressed to pass without some serious studying. All of them have learned to grow many new vegetables, are figuring out how to navigate the world of wholesale produce sales, and are improving their ability to tell their customers about their farms and how to cook their vegetables.  

They are learning the best place to take their vehicles for an oil change and that they prefer the quality of red rover radish seeds from one seed company over another. They are learning how to tweak their farmer's market stands to capture the American aesthetic and that celery spaced at 12 inches produces a much better head than celery spaced at 10 inches. 

They have learned so much. But what amazes me the most is the increase in literacy among this graduating group of farmers. As an educated, white American who was raised by very educated parents who enrolled me in Montessori School at the 18 months of age, I can not even begin to wrap my head around the mountainous task of learning a written language as an adult with a family in a new country and a foreign language. The vast majority of the farmers we work with are not literate in their own language. They are learning literacy in English. If you are reading this blog post, chances are, you, like me, cannot even begin to understand how challenging that is. And yet, they are doing it. Because they are determined to. Because they are 42 years old and dream of going to college someday. Because they are 47 years old and want to fill out their own tax returns someday. Because they are 60 years old and want to be able to read a check that a customer pays with. Because they are 38 years old and want to be an independent business owner someday, with no help from anyone. 

Yesterday I met with Seynab Ali, pictured above in white, for an annual fall meeting to talk about how the season went and to begin some one-on-one planning for the 2014 growing season. I started the meeting with Seynab with a 15 page skills assessment: 144 skills that a farmer would need to farm independently in Maine. I ask each farmer, through an interpreter, to rank their ability to perform or understand each skill ona scale of 1 to 4.  I put the thick packet of paper in front of Seynab and the interpreter started to translate the first question. Seynab stopped him. She was going to read it herself. 

An hour and a half later, she had read and answered every single one of those 144 questions. There were certainly words that she needed help with, but she was reading. And more than just reading, she was understanding what she was reading. Her reading comprehension skills absolutely blew me out of the water. I had no idea that her reading had gotten so good last winter when she was taking ESOL classes nearly every day of the week. I told Seynab how amazed and impressed I was. With a big smile, she pulled a brightly colored book out of the crack in the couch cushions and said "I am practicing every night. Library book." The book in her hands was an ESOL practice book full of short stories and questions to test comprehension. She has been using that book all summer, late at night after the harvest is done, the meal is cooked, the kids are in bed, and the morning's market prepared for, to practice her reading. 

To all of the farmers of Fresh Start Farms: you inspire me.

Omasombo's Eggplant

Omasombo Katuka was an elementary school teacher in Congo before being displaced by war. He also had a great love of growing good food for his family in their large garden. Omasombo and his wife and children made their circuitous journey to Maine nearly two years ago and immediately began the work of becoming part of their new home. The entire family has the biggest, brightest, readiest smiles I have ever seen and those big open smiles have helped Omasombo and his family create their own marketing opportunities this year.

2013 was Omasombo's first year in our farm training program and he threw himself into the learning with gusto. His quarter acre plot was so abundant and beautifully maintained this year, that visitors to the farm lit up with delight upon seeing it. Omasombo decided to focus on growing and marketing for the Congolese community in Portland and Lewiston. He acquired some very hard to come by seeds of a few Congolese crops and combined his new-found knowledge of how to grow heat-loving crops in Maine with his crop-specific knowledge attached to those precious handfuls of seeds. 

Omasombo's most successful Congolese crop this year was a variety of eggplant that is grown as a perennial in Congo. This year, Omasombo was able to harvest basket-fulls of these pale green, egg sized fruits for about 5 weeks before the plants succumbed to cool temperatures. Every Sunday for 5 weeks, Omasombo loaded up his mini-van and headed to one of Portland's African churches that has many Congolese members. He said that the first time he displayed his eggplant to the congregation, people literally danced and clapped with the joy of seeing a food that many had not seen for years. He sold out in 5 minutes. In fact, he sold out within 5 minutes 5 weeks in a row. 

As the season winds to an end, Omasombo is already thinking about next year's growing season and how he can better supply his community with the foods they miss the most. He is hoping to expand the amount of land he grows on, build a small hoop house to extend the production of his famous eggplant for a few extra weeks, and experiment with growing more vegetables that are loved by him, his family, and his community.

We are many and one!

Among all of the reasons to connect with Fresh Start Farms, many of you noted our social justice component as one of the most important. We are working toward a world where everyone belongs, where everyone has the opportunity to make a living wage and have meaningful work - no matter where they came from.

As you may know, most of the farmers in Fresh Start Farms live in Lewiston, ME, which has been a hotbed of activity surrounding cultural intolerance and exclusion, specifically aimed at Somali refugees. However, we are heartened by recent efforts: the Many and One and Welcoming Maine campaigns, which work to bring people together and build understanding across cultures.

Watch this video to learn more, and please share widely: 

Commemorating the Many and One Rally: What's Next?

Thank you for taking part in a local food system that builds bridges in our community.

Save the date: Harvest Festival!

Hello friends!

You are all warmly invited to our annual Harvest Festival on Thursday October 24th at 7pm. This year, we're hosting it in Portland (instead of at the farm in Lisbon) so it's easier to attend!

Come to Mayo Street Arts, right around the corner from our Boyd Street Urban Farm to:

• celebrate the Fresh Start Farms growers (Esperanza, Batula, Seynab, Mohamed, Jabril, Hawa, Khadija, Mekhan, and Hussein) who are graduating from our farmer training program this year;
• view a photo exhibit of Fresh Start Farms growers' portraits, taken by professional photographer Amy Temple during her years of volunteering at the farm;
• meet our Youth Growers and Culinary Crew members: high-schoolers who are learning how to be growers, leaders, chefs, and contributors to our community;
• get a sneak peak at the Grow Cart: a tricycle-powered mobile farm stand built by MECA graduate, Hannah Merchant, which will debut next spring;
• purchase Cultivating Community's brand new cookbook, "Beyond the Vegetable" hot off the press for our official book release;
• sample a delicious multicultural feast and enjoy music and dancing!

A more formal invitation will follow. Feel free to bring family and friends. We hope you can come!

Learn a little bit more about Jabril, one of the graduating farmers, and visit Jabril on Thursdays at the Redbank/Brickhill farm stand in South Portland (584 Westbrook Street).

JABRIL ABDI

“I was a farmer when I was young, and now I am a farmer again. I will always be a farmer. If anybody says that farms and farming is no good, they are wrong, and they will know that when their stomachs are empty.”

        Jabril has been farming his whole life. When he arrived in Lewiston, he was told about the project and joined some of his friends out in the field. He already had knowledge, and familiarity with farming, it seemed natural for him to start planting seeds. Although the soil that he digs in here is different, and more consistent than the soil in Africa, which, in places, is red, white & brown.”

Although he has sold his product before too, here it is different: “Here you put everything out on the table, you have to advertise yourself” instead of just letting your product speak for you. That makes it hard to market here, but his children are involved with his business, especially the marketing end of it. When I asked him what his favorite part of his business is, he saw it all as interchangeable. He plants the seeds, he invests so that he can give at the markets in exchange for financial support. “I am happy to be at the market selling, it means that my investment is working, and people are lining up to support me.”

Lettuce, spinach, broccoli, potatoes, tomatoes, are his favorite, and most are new to him, but he knows that if you don’t have those on your table, customers won’t come by. “If my customers come to my farm, I know they will be happy with what they see. I would love it if my customers would tell their friends about me, and about our program. Let people support us, because even if you have nothing, you can put seeds into the ground.”