All posts by nasudo

Sisters Hill Organic Farm

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Sisters Hill Farm SignThis Sunday I visited Sisters Hill Farm, a CSA in Stanfordville, Dutchess County.  The farm was founded by the Sisters of Charity of New York in 1998 on land that had been left to the congregation, with Dave Hambleton being hired as the head farmer.   Under Farmer Dave and the farm director Sister Mary Ann Garisto the CSA was developed from scratch, growing from having one acre in production to five.  It now provides fresh, organic food to 200 members, with produce also being distributed to soup kitchens, pantries, and those in need by the Sisters in the Bronx, who started the farm with the goal of providing healthy food that nourishes the body and spirit while helping the local community and the earth.

While visiting I talked to Alison, one of the apprentices for the 2014 season.  She and the other two apprentices live at Sisters Hill and spend the season working and learning from Farmer Dave, with each getting a chance to run the farm for a week at the end.  The four of them do all the work themselves and Alison says Dave is amazingly efficient, organizing everything so well that they only have to work 45 hours a week, which is low for farmers.  When I visited things were just getting started, with a lot of plants still in the greenhouse, but the first pick up date for members is going to be in only three weeks.  Sisters Hill greenhouse

The season usually runs from Memorial Day to the first week in November, but if you renew your membership you get a special Thanksgiving share too.  Since that was the last offering everything the members got from it was still up on the chalkboard seen below.  To go with all those vegetables you could pick up a turkey at Thunderhill Farm down the road, which also provides the eggs sold at Sisters Hill.

Sisters Hill Thanksgiving

Pick up days are on Saturday and Tuesday, though Saturdays are busier, partly because a lot of the members are weekenders from the city.  There are weekly newsletters with recipes and notes from the farmers and people are also often talking and swapping recipes while picking up their food.  In addition to what was harvested for the shares, members are also allowed to pick a set amount of produce on their own, directed by signs on how to harvest the different kinds of vegetables.  This is especially fun for kids, allowing them to not only to see where their food is coming from but to chose it themselves.  There is also a flower garden from which you can pick a certain number of stems a week.

No flowers yet I'm afraid
No flowers yet I’m afraid

The farm has plenty more plans for the future, having recently gotten some cameras to make educational videos on farming and to film a time lapse of the growing fields.  Farmer Dave also plans to renew trails on the farm land where people can walk, run, or bike.  When the trails are done, regular exercise sessions will be organized so that the farm can meet its goal of improving health by encouraging healthy habits as well as healthy eating.

To learn more about Sisters Hill Farm visit their website here!

From Tomatoes to Tomato Sauce

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After weeks of exploring various farms in the Hudson Valley last Friday we got to see where some of that food goes at Farm to Table Co-Packers, where fresh produce is turned in to value-added products and packaged to be sold.Value-Added ProductsThe company was founded by Jim Hyland, who realized there were a lot of people like himself that wanted healthy, local food during the winter and a lot of farmers who aren’t able to sell their surplus during the harvest season and so had to let it go to waste. He created Farm to Table Co-Packers so that the two problems could solve each other; surplus food in the harvest could be absorbed and turned into products with a higher shelf-life, allowing farmers to sell and people to buy all year round instead of just during the short harvest season. He is his own best customer, with his other business, Winter Sun Farms, flash-freezing local produce during the harvest season at Farm to Table Co-Packers. Winter Sun then distributes the frozen food during the winter to those who’ve purchased a membership, like a CSA farm would distribute food in the summer.Liquid Nitrogen Flash FreezerWe saw the machine where produce is frozen with liquid nitrogen and the freezer where the food is stored afterwards. There were many other machines as well, such as a corn shucker and vegetable washer that had been modified from a dishwasher left over from when the building was an IBM cafeteria. Some clients provide recipes to make goods like tomato sauce or jam, which the company does as well. After fresh food like tomatoes or cucumbers are made into value-added products like tomato sauce or pickles, they then must be packaged, put in jars, labeled, boxed, and transported to the clients who will sell them, whether that be at a supermarket or a farmers markets.Pickles Ready to be LabledFarm to Table Co-Packers has many clients with food coming in from as far as Mexico to keep them working during the winter, but the company was founded for local farmers, so they are very flexible in dealing with small farms. The creation of value-added products not only allows farmers to sell their surplus harvest to places like Winter Sun, they can also get their own products back with a longer shelf-life. This means they can keep stands open at farmers markets for longer, bringing in more income and creating more customer loyalty. The relationship with local farmers is also good for the co-packers as the parts of the fruits and vegetables that can’t be used can be picked back up by the farmers to be used as compost, which means the co-packers don’t have to deal with the waste.When touring Farm to Table Co-Packers it was impressed on us how complicated an operation it is, organizing various suppliers and farmers and clients, meeting their different needs, transporting goods that need to be kept frozen or refrigerated, keeping up with changing food safety levels, and running basically 24/7 during the harvest season. The work is worth it though and they provide an important service to the Hudson Valley, making sure local, healthy food is available to people all year round.

To learn more about Farm to Table Co-Packers, you can visit their website here!