March 2010 Archives

It's hard to feel the seasons in the city. Sure, the temperature and the light changes. Summer means long evenings on bar back patios at night and brunch outside on the weekends; winter means grey slush and getting home from work hours after dark. But in terms of growing things and seasonal eating, without a yard to guide me I rely on the farmers' markets to teach me what foods are in season. Now that the thaw has come and there will soon be more than root-cellared onions and nitrogen-preserved apples at the markets, I'm going to start a semi-monthly feature highlighting a seasonal fruit or vegetable or product and the farm that grew/made it.

This week is a bit of a cheat--I did not actually take note of the name of the farm where I bought my veggies this week. In fact, my realization that I hadn't noticed was part of the reason that I decided to start this new feature. Also, the featured veggie this week is the parsnip, which is not actually in season right now. (Though in my defense, here in the Hudson Valley NOTHING is really in season right now so for the time being I'll celebrate the miracles of effective cold storage. The Union Square Saturday Market this week was still featuring apples, potatoes, onions, and not much else in the way of produce.)
So we'll call this a preview- The Parsnip!

A parsnip is a root vegetable and looks like an ivory-colored carrot. The ones you find at the grocery store can be quite large and woody and what drew me to these was their diminutive stature. I easily selected about a pound of small spears no more than 6 inches long. They can be eaten raw or cooked, and were once used as sweeteners in Europe before sugar was widely available. In the New York area they are in season in April and May and then again from October through December. With my haul I made a carrot-parsnip gratin with a cotija cheese-breadcrumb topping.

After months of chomping at the bit I finally got my hands in the dirt today. I volunteered for the afternoon at BK Farmyards' Youth Farm at the High School for Public Service here in Brooklyn. We literally broke ground today and it was both fun and inspiring. The idea is that over the next five years the growing space will expand from ¼ of an acre (this year) to a full acre that stretches in front of the school. The students are an integral part of the farm plan and the teachers are full of ideas for class integration. The two most interesting I heard today were that a history teacher wants to use part of the farm to grow plants from Mesopotamia so that students can have hands-on experience with ancient grains, and a health teacher who wants to grow medicinal herbs. For creative teachers, the tie-ins are really endless so there will be lots of opportunities for the school community to get involved. There is also a high public service hours requirement for the students at the school, which they can fulfill in part by working in the garden in their free time. The plan for this year is that school families (students and staff) will have an opportunity to buy CSA shares in the farm, so that they can enjoy the bounty of this new project as well.

Today we started building the farm's compost system and marked out the first appx. 1200 square foot planting area. We wrapped shipping pallets in chicken wire for the compost and dug out the walkways between the planting beds so that they can be filled in with wood chips. Within the first hour, with the beds marked out, it was already possible to envision what it will look like with plants growing in the black earth. There were about 20 people there altogether. Some were students and teachers at the high school, some work for BK Farmyards, and others, like me, just interested volunteers eager to lend a hand and learn more about growing things in the process. It was a nice community feeling and Bee Ayers, one of the founders of BK Farmyards, lead warm up/icebreaker that helped set the tone of community and collegiality. Happily no one was expected to know how to do anything and we all felt comfortable to ask questions- I think it's going to be a great learning experience and I'm planning to become a regular at their Saturday workdays. You can check out what else is happening with BK Farmyards here including a really yummy looking fundraiser dinner on April 11!

I'm really feeling the transition from winter into spring this year. I'm on the verge of a pile of new and interesting stuff but most of it hasn't quite started yet. Ever since the Young Farmers Conference in December I've been itching to get out and play in the dirt but it's been cold and snowy and just not a time when the urban farms of Brooklyn need my enthusiastic volunteerism. But now the sun is out and it's in the 70s(!) and I have both short term and long term irons in the fire; schemes that are designed to hone skills, educate myself about my interests, build community, and establish cottage industries here at the Dacha. Among the projects that may be starting up in the next couple of months (in order of the likelihood that they'll actually happen):

-Farming at a school farm with BK Farmyards (this one's definite- starts next Saturday!)

-Making and selling wooden art on Etsy and at craft fairs (already in the works- visit my fledgling Etsy store here)

-Dancing in a Brooklyn-based super-fabulous parade troupe

-Baking 6 different loaves at an artisan bread class at the Culinary Institute

-Visiting small farms and farmers markets in some of the cities on the Future Farm Short-list

-Attending an evening dinner church that a college friend started

-Coordinating a CSA with a farm in Pennsylvania

-Participating in the proposal process for a nationwide school gardens initiative

-Identifying agriculture and food related 9-5 jobs that I might want in the future

-Farming in Red Hook,Governor's Island or Greenpoint

As I have mentioned before, I like to make things. Some time last winter I got a hankering to relearn a skill my mother had taught me in high school- the gentle art of knitting. So I bought the Learn-to-Knit Afghan Book by Barbara G. Walker and dove in. With the help of the internet and some way-too-hip NYC knitting stores I got needles and yarn and figured out how to cast on, knit, purl, and bind off and I was on my way.

The book teaches you a series of knitting skills and patterns, and you make an appx. 1 foot square with each pattern. In the end you're supposed to have a huge afghan made of 63 squares showcasing your new skills. Today, a year after beginning, I am proud to report that I am on square 13, I have lost one square, and I made a slight error in yarn purchasing so I am actually making two smaller afghans rather than one big one. (apparently worsted weight alpaca yarn is just not the same as worsted weight acrylic yarn). I took a really loooong hiatus between last March and this January, and now I'm really on a roll--I have high hopes that a year from now I may be nearly finished with this massive undertaking.

Though frankly I may need to take another break from the afghan soon to knit something that I can actually wear. I have a pretty high tolerance for delayed gratification but I am longing to have someone compliment my scarf and ask where I got it and be able to say "Oh thanks, I made it!"