Cheap food is anything but cheap

EVERYONE can eat well.  There is more than enough money in the food system for everyone to enjoy safe,
nutrient dense food generally from local sources. Let’s be clear about that.  At the Verba Farm at Williams Point a family can eat quality food for less than when the same family buys at the local grocery store. When you look at the price per pound of candy, potato chips, or cereal you will find that they are NOT cheap. And if you factor in nutrition, they are definitely not cheap. If you took the money currently spent on Coca-Cola, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and McDonald's and spent it instead on local
nutrient-dense direct-from-the-farm food, the
system contains plenty of money to eat well.

Your don’t need to be a gourmet chef to eat well. Most of the problem is a lack of domestic culinary skills. This can be from ignorance, negligence, or laziness, none of which has anything to do with money. Plenty of busy people cook unprocessed food. Locally, if you go into the Wegman’s Market you will find Premium Idaho baking potatoes occupy a tiny box in the produce section and sell for 10 cents a pound. Two aisles over, microwavable frozen
premade French fries occupy 150 feet of freezer space, and sell for $1.25 per pound. A couple more aisles over, potato chips in bags occupy another 150 feet of shelf space and sell for $4 a pound.

You can make do on a lot less if you look, just like scrounging for anything. If you ask for seconds on tomatoes, or can the mountain of tomatoes local farmers are throwing away just before frost when the
plants explode with end-of-season premonitional bounty, you can get premium local vegetables by the bushel for very little money. Eating well does not require you to eat organic tomatoes shipped air freight from Peru in January. You can eat better
by canning, drying, or freezing local seasonal bounty
and enjoying it in the off season. But that means getting busy, refusing to be a victim, and being responsible.

Chuck and I have put locally grown, pesticide free and in season produce at the hands of all people for the past 3 years.  The trend is doing nothing but grow.  It amazes me when people will walk up to me and tell me that our food is expensive.  It is anything but expensive.  I would venture to say that you could buy enough food for a full meal for 4 or so for the same price you might pay for just one meal at any fast food chain.  The calories are healthier, the food is better and the price is more economical.  It is a win-win-win situation. 

What we have the toughest time doing is educate folks to understand what we are selling and what we are doing.  The quality of the food is not even in the same sphere as buying processed food.  I guess there is an argument that beef and hot dogs both come from a cow, but the difference is night and day.  Buying a potato to bake and buying some processed ‘tater meal both may be near or have seen a potato at one time, but they are not the same thing.

We sell wholesome fresh (often picked and sold the same day) produce.  How does that get any fresher.  If we don’t grow it ourselves we buy it from farmers we know.  The ones we have relationships with have the same philosophy we do.  They use no chemicals or pesticides to grow their crops.  They are local.

2010 is the season to realize you can eat better and save money at the same time.

Fresh, The Movie

  Last night Chuck and I headed off the newly renovated Eastonian (old Hotel Easton) for a screening of the documentary FRESH, THE MOVIE (http://www.freshthemovie.com/). We both were impressed with the way the hotel has been renovated.  I had been in the old hotel several times and showed Chuck how it used to be compared to the new look.

  The screening was hosted by the Easton Farmers Market with funding from Lehigh Valley Chapter of Buy Fresh, Buy Local (http://www.buylocalpa.org/lehighvalley), which the Verba Farm at William Point is a member.  We were somewhat surprised at the number of people who showed up for the screening.  I would venture to say it was about 70 and were more than the number of chairs set up (excellent marketing technique even if it was accidental).

  The movie is about how our food is produced.  I am not sure there was a lot I hadn’t already read about or known about in theory, but to see it in documentary form was a real eye opener.  The more graphic parts showed how chickens are crammed into houses to the point there is absolutely no room between them.  The same holds true for cows and pigs. 

  On the veggie side it details how midwestern farms have gone from being full service farms to ones that only grow one crop.  In order to sustain either the animal method of high production or the veggie one, the farmer is forced to use large quantities of fertilizer, antibiotics, pesticides and chemicals to keep the system functioning.  This differs greatly from the sustainable method of a century ago that relied on crop rotation and intertwined animals groups to keep the farm healthy without any chemicals.

  The movie showcases about 6 farmers who have gone back to the older methods and show that not only is it profitable to do it that way, but it is far more profitable than the corporation method.

  Chuck and I both took the message of the movie as confirmation of what we knew was right for us.  Our vision and method is farming without any use of fertilizers or pesticides.  The animal waste from the chickens (and someday the sheep, goats, alpacas, etc) is used to naturally fertilize the gardens and fields.  They waste products from the gardens and fields are used to feed the animals.  It is a perfect and natural balance.

  We have used the mantra… “Locally grown, pesticide free and in season” so often it is like a greeting.  I think I say it in my sleep.  It is the educational component of the sales marketing used for selling our vegetables and produce.  It is the same marketing we are using for our baked products and canned products.  As we move into selling artisan cheeses, soaps and honey we will use the same vision. 

  We are a non-certified organic farm.  We know that is the way we can sustain our 45 acre farming operation well beyond our lifetimes.  The farm belonged to my grandparents and it is the way they farmed.  It passed to my parents and for the most part was the way they attempted to farm.  It seems almost natural on all levels that we should be doing the same thing.  Face it… It is what grammy would be wanting me to do.

Guess you can never plan and dream too much

  Walked the farm today (45 acres).  Chuck and I did it to re-evaluate, at least on a temporary basis, where to put the gardens.  The area we have used for the past 3 years has way too much standing water on it.  The conditions are markedly different from past springs.  We really doubt it is going to dry up enough in the next week or so to make is viable to start planting. 

  The really nice thing about having a larger farm that is basically unused is that we aren’t cornered or obligated to keep it where it is.  So we trekked up the hill a bit to check out what was an old corn field that has not been planted in some time.  We mow it during the season to keep it ‘meadow like’, but that is about all we do to it.  It looks like there is where it is going.

  While on the walk about we did plan out where the new briar patch is going.  We have 63 raspberry bushes that need almost immediate planting (at least have to be done this week).  We wanted an area that is easily accessible and wont interfere with any other future plans.  This was not a tough decision.  We pretty much knew where it was going, but needed to confirm we were both on the same page.

  Agreeing that we need to get fruit trees it only makes sense to put them where my grandparents had their orchard.  Worked a hundred years ago, looks like a good choice now too. 

  The toughest decision of the day and one we still aren’t quite set on is where the new chicken coop will go.  We have 61 chicks at the Easton house under heat lamps, but that is only for a few weeks.  The coops have to be in place and ready by Memorial Day.  We have it narrowed to about 2 locations. 

  Where we have the pair of Polish buffs is not long term.  It was created only to house them temporarily.  It is actually the old garden we used for the past two years that is now too wet to plant.  We put them there because it was fenced in and could be ready to go in hours rather than days.  They too need to be moved to a more permanent home.   Problem there is that the rooster has left the caged area and now resides in the old nursery stock just outside the caged area keeping an eye on his hen and protecting her, but staying far enough away from us that he lets us know who is in charge.

  We mapped out the new apiary (new?  we don’t have an old one, but it is new to us) and making sure there is still enough space to expand the retail produce area.  Produce that is locally grown, in season and pesticide free is still our ‘bread and butter’ income source on the farm and we don’t want to underplay that.

  We are today pricing fencing so the goats can be added.  We would like to have them in the next weeks to months, so we need to get the fencing we want.  We are looking for portable fencing about 200 feet.  I like the type you see around construction sites.  6’ high in 6-10’ sections.  That would allow us to put the goats in a movable 50 square foot area and move it as we need it.

  Tomorrow will clean out the cold cellar and white wash it for the upcoming season.

The first chicks and chickens have arrived

  Chuck and I headed off to the Kutztown Produce Auction for a consignment auction to benefit the Kutztown schools.  It was amazingly crowded.  Fields that are never used for anything except crops had cars parked in them today.  We got there about 45 minutes before the sale began and parked at least 1/3 mile away.  It was exciting to see all the people.

  We walked the rows of farm equipment.  Most of it was for large tractors and really serious crops and fields.  There were smaller things too, but that was not on the shopping list for the day.

  We moved through some prefabricated out building that were pretty nice.  One was a garage type and a couple were sizable 14X10’s and similar. 

  From there through the shrubbery that was going to be sold and then we found the rabbits and fowl.

  Chuck was the first to spot the small chicks and we decided that if they didn’t go ‘too high’ we might consider buying a few.  We also spotted some Buff colored Polish breed chickens.  I had admired them while at the PA Farm Show and again at the Bloomsburg and the Allentown Farm shows.  I think I like their exotic look.

  I stood back and before we knew it, Chuck had purchased 63 Americana chicks in dozen or near dozen lots and the two Polish chickens.  The prices were great.

  OK, now what to do with them.  We headed over to Weaver’s Hardware outside of Fleetwood and Kutztown and purchased the necessary waterers and feeders, though they didn’t have feed.

  From there it was over the mountain and back to Lehigh Valley to Richlandtown Feed for the chicken feed for the big chickens and the chicks.

  Home to Easton to get the chicks up to 98 degrees after a cool morning before they got a chill and to temporarily house the two adult chickens in our bathroom. (They are only mildly pleased to be in there at the moment, but they will be at the farm in a couple hours, after we get the chicks settled in)

  Our chicken adventure has begun. 

We weren’t born knowing how to do this !!!!

I grew up on the farm and Chuck has loads of summer time experience on gardens and farms, but neither of us has ever truly done this on a full time basis where we used a farm as an income source.  It is a new experience.

  Over the past two years we have learned so much about how to do this and what we need to change.  The biggest thing I think we both learned is to minimize loss.  The first season we had so much produce that we just threw away after the weekend sales were over.  Face it, we can only eat so many cantaloupes or eat so much corn.  We were faced with the weekly Sunday night ritual of throwing food away.  We did not have a viable plan for being better stewards of the resource.

  Last year we go much better at it.  We began to look at having a track record to knowing how much we might sell in one weekend.  We also realized that is was OK to buy less and sell out.  Granted, that means we do miss some revenue as we sell out before the end of the weekend, but that beats losing the product.

  Another addition last year was canning and drying.  The old proverb of ‘problems being the mother of invention’ is right.  We started to can some of the vegetables and dehydrate the fruits and vegetables for sale the following weekend.  I admit I had reservations that would ever work, but I was surprised how well the canned and dehydrated foods sold.  We still insured that what we were selling was locally grown, in season, and pesticide free.  The small difference was that is was in a preserved state.  Our friends and customers really like that.  We kept the costs down by offering a ‘deposit return’ on jars, which gave us the added help of not having to constantly looking for canning jars.  We do the same thing for egg boxes as well.

  This year we have built into the plan the canning and dehydrating, as it isn’t just a ‘Plan B’  income source.  Friends and customers have shown up for the canned and pickled beets and red beet eggs (by far the most popular item).  It didn’t take being smacked upside the head to know we needed to have that more and more often.

  More formally this year, in fact in two weeks, Chuck will be in the Harrisburg area for a two weekend course in bee keeping.  With the addition of our apiary we will have our own honey produced on site rather than buying it from local bee keepers.  This will allow us to be a little more in charge of quality control.  We use only apiary farmers that we know and trust, but even with that caveat we still rely on them for the quality and quantity of our honey.  We soon will not have to do that.

  Couple with that the addition of our chickens for our own free range eggs we have two areas that are new to 2010 and beyond.

   Looking ahead to 2012 and beyond is the planting of our orchards and educational center for school children.

   See you all in JUNE !!!

Pulled in Many Directions

As much as I like to see winter over so we can get busy selling again and meeting new people again and trying new projects again and being outside again and sustaining last years projects again and, and and….  That is the point, there is so much to do in April and May it is hard to decide minute by minute what needs to be done, let alone day by day or week by week. 

We have a weekly schedule of what we hope to accomplish on any given week throughout the spring.  While we are decently successful at accomplishing our goals there are a lot of things that just plain get in the way of it.  The weather is probably one of the worse.  The best laid plans are scrapped in an instant when it rains too hard or has rained for a couple days and made mud of everything.

It is always helpful to have a Plan B and Plan C.  We try to plan for bad weather so that we can get other projects that can be done in the rain or are done inside during those times, but there are only so many of them at one time.

Another factor is where to expand.  The market requests for what our customers want us to provide is limitless as times.  We evaluate every request, regardless of how small, to see if it meets our vision and business plan.  It either does or it does not.  In rare instances, we suggest it doesn’t but question whether it is important enough to revisit the vision and business plan.

  Our vision and plan is really pretty simple.  We try to make our friends better off by being healthier through a more simplistic lifestyle.  We used to just limit that to food items that are all grown locally, pesticide free and in season, but have expanded to see that there is a need beyond that.

  This season we are expanding with a hand made soap line that is really exciting.  I admit I had no idea how soap was made, what makes it good or bad.  The learning curve on this interesting.  I have quickly learned that the soap market, like the food market is filled with misrepresentations and half truths.  What the ‘big companies’ would have you believe is good for you, usually isn’t.

  We hope to have the earliest soaps and soap products that are all natural (really, not a marketing term) and safe.  Most soaps you find in the stores are not really even soaps, by classic definition.  The products being sold as ‘soap’ is actually detergents. That means that instead of being good for your skin they are really pretty damaging to you. 

  In keeping with the same way we have had to educate about eating locally grown produce, in season that is grown without pesticides, we have to educate about using natural product soaps.

  That is the project of the day, I guess.  Though I suspect that within an hour or so another pressing project will present itself.  Ahhhh, the fun of April and May.

Quality Control Testing

  Under the guise of quality control Chuck and I had a fantastic dinner. Many of you know we started making small batch artisan cheese just after Christmas. Well yesterday was our very first tasting of our very first batch made. It is a gouda. It was stronger than we anticipated. It has a taste not unlike a good Parmigiano-Reggiano or something like that. A few of our neighbors were given a sample as well, since we were eating outside on our porch, as we do a lot in the summer. We added to the dinner with a fresh salad made with the olive oil we bought at Season Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar Taproom in Bethlehem and an artisan bread from Wegman's. A co-worker and friend who has 2 glasses of wine a day, gave us wine for dinner that she knew we needed to try. She was right. So, wine, cheese, bread, and salad were the dinner we enjoyed outdoors tonight. All in all, a terrific day.

   Then today, not to leave anyone out, we took samples of the same cheese to church with us for our friends there.  We gave out 7 samples there and are looking for feedback. 

  When we got home, many of our longer time neighbors seemed to be enjoying the spring weather on a great Sunday afternoon sitting out.  During the several hours conversations, Chuck presented some more of the cheese samples to some of the same neighbors from last night and many new ones. 

  It is our hope to get as many feedbacks as possible for future batches.  As of this time, no one has had any negative comments about it.  They all seem to be amazed that we can actually make cheese that tastes so good.

  We have Cheddar, Farm Cheddar, and Monterey Jack to plug and sample soon.  We may have cheese to sell in very, very limited quantities by the middle of the summer and into the fall.

Our 2010 Year Begins

  If I hadn’t really thought about it until today, I realize that we are now in the full push for our THIRD season.  It is hard to believe we have been doing this for three years.  We have learned a lot in that short time and have much more to figure out. 

  This year we are expanded.  We are going to be at the farm (600 Buttermilk Road, Williams Township, Hellertown, PA) from Thursday-Saturday.  In addition we are going to be at the Blue Ridge Flea Market on weekends.  We had been at Blue Ridge ‘on and off’ the last two years, and did well.  This year we are going to be there a lot more and with a more permanent presence, near where we were the last two years.

  We took a visit to Blue Ridge (Saylorsburg, PA) today and saw a lot of our old friends from the past years.  The older couple who sell plants are in their place on the end of the row.  We enjoy being near their site, as we sell with a similar philosophy of plants and ecology.  It should be local, in season, and pesticide free.  They see the same logic to the plants they sell.  Last year there was another couple who were next to them and then we were often in the third spot on the row.  I did not see the other couple today, but the market has only been open one week.  It is early.

   We got to see Luba selling her jewelry and sports cards.  It is hard to believe that she is teaching her ‘little’ daughter to drive and she is picking out colleges already.  We saw Saul and his wife selling their jewelry and antiques on the far end of ‘our’ row (yes, since we set up there, it is OUR row).

   We bought a book on soap making.  The only soap we had real directions to make was not the type we wanted.  It was the glycerine style.  We were looking for a more natural style and got a really good book on it today. 

  So, come first week of June (there abouts) we will be open in both locations. 

  From Saylorsburg we headed to Bethlehem to check out a new store.  It is called Seasons.  It bills itself as an olive oil and vinegar taproom.  The owners, Soraya and Tim were there and they were beyond helpful.  Neither Chuck nor I know a lot about vinegars and olive oils, other than we know what we like.  We read an article in the Morning Call about this place and a quote struck me, that I believe was attributed to Tim (Balshi).  He said that good “olive oil is not like the grease you buy in the store”.  He is so right.  Chuck and I bought a bottle of his lighter olive oil (for $14.95 we got a nice 375 ml bottle).  The taste is extraordinary.  We also tasted chocolate and raspberry balsamic vinegars (we actually tried about 6 total).  I could not believe I was tasting vinegars.  This, too, was nothing like what you buy in the store. (Note: Tim suggested when Chuck’s bees are producing enough honey to sell commercially, he would be interested in having it their store.  That is exciting.)

  Before leaving north side of Bethlehem we stopped at the Magic Shop which is relocated from ‘the tunnel’ to Main Street as well.  I admit that I am lost in those places, but Chuck understand and enjoys the herbs, potions, and genre.

  After Seasons, we headed to South Side Bethlehem and checked in at several of our favorite places.  Loose Threads is owned by our friend Mike Jasorka’s sister.  She was there today and always her friendly self.  She noted that we need to come back on the first Friday of May when they are celebrating their 1st Anniversary with live music.  We plan to be there.

  Home and Planet is always worth the stop on South Side as well.  A wide, wide variety of unique items that are things you almost have to say “why didn’t I think of that”.  Great re-used and re-directed use of items like the chairs made from 25 gallon steel oil drums to the purses and wallets made from juice packs.

  The whole day had a theme of planning for the opening of the farm market this season.  We brought home a lot of new ideas, coupled with confirmations of ideas we already have going.

  Getting anxious to be selling again.  We miss our friends from the growing season that we haven’t seen since last October.  We hear, via emails and Facebook, that they are waiting for quality in season, locally grown and pesticide free vegetables and fruits too.