Tag Archives: organic

Chickens

04 Thursday Oct 2012

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See how weird they are?!

When I was at the farm, I kept thinking about the chickens. See, I’ve never spent much time around chickens. I never had any friends growing up whose families did that urban farm thing that seems to be growing in popularity these days. The only chickens I ever saw in someone’s home, in fact, was in Portland (of course) when I babysat for some neighbor’s kids. Also, at a professor’s house on the outskirts of Tucson, too. When we saw that, Boris immediately took to the idea. I liked the idea, too. We eat a lot of eggs, after all.

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Walnuts

26 Wednesday Sep 2012

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Remember how I mentioned that certain things about where my food came from literally had never occurred to me? Well, this is one of those examples.Recently, I was asked to collect the walnuts.
“Sure,” I said. “Where are they?”
“There are two trees out by the tortoises. You’ll see them.”
So out I went on a dreary, gray day to raccogliere le noce. 

In the past I knew, intellectually, that nut woods, like walnut and chestnut, were real. Furniture was made out of them, after all, so vaguely in the back of my mind I acknowledged that these nuts belonged to the trees which bore their names. But when I went to gather them, I really was impressed by my own ignorance.This is what a walnut casing looks like.

See how it’s cracked like the fault lines on the earth after an earthquake? That mean’s it’s good to go!

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Look What I Did Today!

21 Friday Sep 2012

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Can I please have a gold star now?I spent literally all day today (from about 9 a.m. after feeding the animals to 6 p.m., with the exception of an hour for lunch) working on building a new hut for the rabbit. I wrangled chicken wire, hammered, sawed, and even used an industrial-strength drill for the door hinges (with a little help on that item).

See how happy Rabby is in her new little home? 🙂

I’m quite pleased and proud of the work I did today! More coming soon about walnuts, chickens, and death at Happy Valley Farm.

Capon Capers Update

20 Thursday Sep 2012

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This is not the capon, but I liked it so I’m posting it.

A few of you have asked me whether we’ve eaten any capon lately as a result of his misbehavior. I am glad (I guess) to say, “no.” After a few days of having severe anxiety whenever the capon would be within eyesight or not, I knew it had to end. Not only was it my JOB to keep these things fed, watered and poo-free, leaving me to hang out in their enclosure a couple times a day and seeing them around the farm all the time, the family was taking a weekend camping trip and I was going to be ALL ALONE on the farm. It was going to be up to me to run the place, and I wouldn’t have anyone else there to help me out.

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How to Make Homemade Pasta

17 Monday Sep 2012

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It’s been quite awhile since I’ve posted any recipes here, and I think it’s time to start up again. As an Italophile and food-lover, I’ve always wanted to learn how to make my own pasta. While studying in Italy, I learned how to make potato gnocchi, but the crux of the Italian diet is really in tagliatelle, spaghetti, farfalle and more.

The first thing to know about making pasta–and, really, any kind of cooking–is that fresh ingredients are the best. Organic, if possible. We’re lucky enough right now to be on a farm where the eggs are so fresh they’re literally still warm from the chicken sometimes when I collect them. So, that’s awesome.

Ingredients/supplies:
Eggs (1 egg per person)
Flour* (100 g of flour per person)
*The thing about flour–in Italy, there is actual legislation and such about the types of flour restaurants and commercial pasta-makers can use so that it’s legit. You can use regular flour for this, but the best flour to use is farina di grano duro, or durum wheat semolina flour. Sometimes it’s sold in stores with the label “pasta flour.” If you have an Italian food store or the like in your city, that’s your best bet for finding good flour. Otherwise, all-purpose flour should be fine with egg pasta. I’m afraid I don’t know yet how to make gluten-free pasta, but when I do, I”ll be sure to share it with everyone. 🙂
Salt (optional)

A CLEAN, flat surface
Rolling pin or pasta  machine (you know, the crank kind)
Fork

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Meet Coco

13 Thursday Sep 2012

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This is Coco. She’s a a Cinta Senese (pronounced CHEEN-tah sin-AY-seh), which is a Tuscan breed that goes back for quite some time, probably even before the Middle Ages. The name comes from the Italian word for “belt,” which is “cinta.” (Well, really it’s cintura, but you know how language goes…)

The videographer of this masterpiece is Lenny,  the eldest of the three kiddos on the farm where I’m wwoofing. Big thanks to Lenny for his wonderful narration and camera work, and to the other featured actors in this clip: Sonny, Freddie, and Rob.

Coming soon: Video of the killer rabbit! Ducks! And *dun dun DUN* THE CAPON.

Disclaimer: No pigs were hurt in the filming of this video. 

A Few Lessons from the Farm

12 Wednesday Sep 2012

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Running along the furrows
Pigs really will eat almost anything. Except crab apples. Don’t give them too many crab apples.
One of the best snacks is fresh fruit straight off the tree, especially figs. Can’t go wrong with fresh figs.
MMMM. Fichi. 

It really is better sometimes to suck it up and wake up nice and early with the dawn so you can avoid working in the heat.
Italy has scorpions.
Compost needs daily care—it must be churned and added to and mixed every morning. You can tell if it’s starting to work if the compost is warmer than regular dirt.
Tomatoes are one of the easiest plants to grow and maintain.
If you add cilantro to anything, you’re going to get approximately a zillion health benefits.
It’s wise to think about where your food is really coming from. For example, I never realized that almonds grew on trees, mostly because I never, ever thought about it.
Chickens have personalities. They also poo a whole lot.
Chickens snacking as I clean their enclosure.
When you have a pig and a dog, any leftovers you don’t want to save will never go to waste.
Owning animals is a big commitment; remember that it’s a lot harder to find a house sitter when someone has to tend to fowl. 

I Heart Tucson: Mercado San Agustin and a Chat with Evan Storey

08 Friday Jun 2012

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Mercado San Agustin

On a recent warm Thursday afternoon, my dear friend Regina and I headed west of I-10 to check out Mercado San Agustin. Thursdays are Santa Cruz River Farmer’s Market days from 4-7 p.m., and the parking slots were nearly full as we slowly inched into our spot along the sidewalk. Tables shaded by tents lined the path leading up to the mercado: the Food Bank, where you can swipe your credit card and receive tokens rather than use cash; a jam & jelly vendor; native flowers and other plants being sold; and farmers with their apricots, tomatoes, cilantro and potatoes.

The sidewalk outside the main entrance to the market. 

We wandered around chatting with farmers (all of whom Regina knew), and making small purchases. Regina got some scapes, I got some sprouts, an onion. We queried a farmer about how long fresh eggs stay good, we chatted with David the beekeeper, who makes delicious honey, which I had bought a few times before at the Tucson Village Farm. He also had some good tips for my travels I’m anticipating in Ireland!

Another tasty treat we sampled was with Gloria from Chilttepica Salsa. Gloria’s one of the folks who uses the community kitchen at Mercado San Agustin; event planners, caterers, food trucks, and individuals jump-starting their culinary careers can apply for access to use this fully-equipped commercial kitchen.

Remember La Estrella bakery? The one I drove so far to get to? Well, you can find it at Mercado, too! Buns, cookies, empanadas, the works. I bought a pack of fresh tortillas and couldn’t help but eat a couple for dinner. Man, I love tortillas. (Side note: as a kid, my absolute favorite snack was a tortilla smothered in butter and honey. If you’re feeling adventurous, add a little cinnamon. SO TASTAY!)

Reg and I got some wonderful handmade soap from Joyce at Dragnass Soap; all her soap is unique in its own little way, as it’s all hand-made. I bought some classic lavender for my mom, and we got a couple samples of watermelon soap. One bar that I didn’t purchase but was tempted to was the Dragnash, which is supposed to be wonderful to get grime out while keeping the moisture in! Joyce is an artist, and she discovered that that particular bar was super effective while cleaning art schmutz off her hands after a long day’s work. She also makes natural deodorant, lip balm and laundry bars!

After a while, as the sun began to set, the vendors also began to pack up. More and more glasses began to clink in the attached Agustin Brasserie, and a jazz quartet began playing inside the restaurant. For more insight into what the Mercado means for Tucson and its community, we sat down with Evan Storey, Director of Operations.

Storey, who’s a native Arizonan born and raised in nearby Casa Grande, had some farming background before coming to work for Mercado San Agustin. He traveled extensively in Spain and Colombia, and his Spanish language skills are impressive; as we wandered through the market and later picked up our drinks, he easily conversed with vendors in both English and Spanish, a skill useful and indeed necessary for this type of endeavor.

Storey’s interest in agriculture really began with the social aspect of the sustainable food movement, and has grown from there. He got involved with the Mercado because he was “passionate about their vision.” When I asked him about that vision and how the Mercado was changing the fabric of downtown, this was his reply:

“Basically we’re taking the fabric of two worlds: downtown–and the trend of urban development, it’s a cool place to be now with the restaurants and the nightlife–and the west side. Tucson’s west side has a long history; it’s one of the longest running sites of agricultural production in the US. We want it to be a district, the Mercado District, with a mix of that downtown urban feel and the historical.

We want to respect and embrace the historical traditions of the neighborhoods. Here, we are developing a future historic district of Tucson.” 

Storey went on to tell us that the new district will be “mixed use.” They want to implement good building practices and create a neighborhood committed to community: the neighborhood construction will be all masonry, preferably LEED certified.  Mercado San Agustin itself is striving to set the example for the burgeoning community there; the Mercado is trying to achieve LEED gold certification by engaging in green practices like using rainwater harvesting and solar energy.

Not only are they making good on their goals of green living, they also are endeavoring to incorporate those historical traditions that Storey mentioned into the market’s events. On June 24, there will be a giant fiesta celebrating El Dia de San Juan, and little more than a week later there will be a 4th of July firework-watching extravaganza. Before both of those events, though, is one perhaps more exciting: the Mercado San Agustin celebrates its very first birthday on June 22. There will be festivities from 6-10 p.m.! Check it out, and don’t forget to do some shopping while you’re there!

If you go:


Mercado San Agustin
Hours for individual businesses vary, check their website.
Farmer’s market every Thursday, from 4-7p.m.

Awesomeness in Tucson: Tucson Village Farm! Interview Included!

20 Friday Apr 2012

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I’ve been meaning to write about this Awesomeness for a while now. Better late than never, right?

Last weekend, my mom and I swung by the Tucson Village Farm’s Greenfest!, sponsored by Bookman’s. We pulled into the parking lot off Campbell just south of River on a hot Saturday, and were regaled by booths featuring green businesses, ways to decrease our carbon footprint, support local agriculture, and more! We bought some delicious lavender lemonade, perused the gardens, admired the baby chicks and rabbits (those don’t usually live at the farm, but they were so darn cute I think they should!), and bought some local honey. We didn’t linger for too long in the heat, but it was long enough to inspire me to want to post about this wonderful urban farm we have within our own Sonoran city limits!

Although there have been U of A agriculture extensions in the same area for many years, the Tucson Village Farm itself is quite young. To find out more about TVF and its mission,  I sat down with Amy, who is a current AmeriCorps volunteer for TVF. Here’s what she had to say about TVF’s sweet activities, her favorite things about working on a farm and how you can support Tucson Village Farm! (I figure it’s more interesting and in-depth than just linking you to their website, right? (-: )






So when was TVF born and what are the goals it hopes to achieve? 


TVF, a program of the Pima County Cooperative Extension and the University of Arizona, broke ground on MLK Day in 2010, and has transformed since then from a patch of dirt to a working urban farm. With TVF, program directors Leza Carter and Elizabeth Sparks have created an educational space for kids to reconnect to a healthy food system and learn to make healthy food choices while getting their hands dirty and actually helping grow food for other kids who visit the farm in the future. 

What kind of programming do they offer? 


Our main program is our Growing Forward K-5th grade field trip curriculum. Twice a week, we take kids through a series of stations that follows the USDA MyPlate nutritional curriculum and adds to it food growing, worm composting, and now even an ethnobotanical lesson. At the stations, they learn everything from the difference between whole and refined grains to organic composting, and they get to dig for worms in our big worm bin (always a big hit!). We also take them into the garden where they go on a fruit and veggie scavenger hunt and where we put them to work either planting, digging a bed, or harvesting. We also have a games station, and our newest addition is an archaeological investigation where they learn about native foods by searching for seeds at our simulation excavation site. We also have a curriculum for middle-high school kids called Digging Deeper, which goes into these concepts in more depth. Outside of our field trips, we sometimes host workshops on the weekends (for, example, we had a backyard chickens workshop in January), and family events like Greenfest a couple of weeks ago and our Harvest Festival in the fall. 

What’s a typical day like on the farm? 


I don’t think there is such a thing! We are always doing new things, which give us all opportunities to learn new skills, like constructing a storage fence, for example. For our latest project, we have begun building a raised bed in our garden that is wheelchair accessible. Most of our daily chores are done by the Americorps members who serve at the farm and by our volunteer groups that come in once a week or so. We till and amend beds, plant starts and seeds, and fight an endless battle against the critters that feast on our bountiful produce, which means covering beds and uncovering them. It feels like we’re always weeding too. 

How can community members support Tucson Village Farm? 


Come to our U-Pick Market on Tuesdays from 3-5. We have produce for sale (the type depends on the season), as well as local organic honey, hydroponic tomatoes and lettuce. You have the option of harvesting the produce yourself, and it’s a great time to bring your kids to the farm. To a kid, pulling a carrot of the ground is magical, especially our carrots which have been documented to be over 15 inches long at times! The proceeds from U-Pick are currently going to our Summer Farm Camp scholarship fund. People can also tell their kids’ teachers about us and suggest a field trip to the farm! Check out our website or “Like” us on Facebook to keep up with everything that’s going on! Donations are always welcome and can be made through our website. 

What’s your favorite thing about working there?


I love being outside and always moving. But ask me again in a couple months when the sun has fried me to a crisp. Right up with that aspect is the people I work with. I’m surrounded by creative, positive, and downright amazing people. Seriously, who gets to have this much fun at work?

Do you have a favorite crop to work on? 


Not really. They’re all fairly similar as far as care goes: plant, water, weed, etc. More than a favorite crop, I’d say my favorite type of work involves construction projects. For me, developing skills with power tools has been empowering, and creating something out of a pile of materials and a sketch is incredibly satisfying!



You’ve probably learned a lot about organic veggies from working on the farm! What’s the most interesting–or surprising–thing you’ve learned?


Corn pollination is pretty mind-blowing. For a full cob of corn to develop, at least 500 silks from one ear must be individually pollinated, and this is not done by bees or any other pollinators, but by wind. Amazing!

Last but not least! I bet you do a lot of tasty organic cooking. Can you share with us any favorite recipes you’ve made using ingredients from the farm? 


One of our big hits is Glorious Greens, which involves sauteing chopped up kale, collards and swiss chard in veggie broth for a few minutes and adding fresh garlic and lemon juice. People who claim to be completely averse to eating green things have come back for second helpings when we have demoed this recipe at outreach events!