After five times field trip to various farms in the New York state, we knew much about agriculture  and rural life in American society. As an international exchange student from China, I never know much about the life in the farm and never thought I have the chance to get into  the other way of living in America. But the field trip give me the chance to experience it and it is so interesting and attractive! Yes, I was so looking forward to this visit!

This Friday, we went to the Farm to Table Co-Packers, which located 1 hour from Vassar  College. Kingston-based Farm to Table Co-Packers is a full-service contract packaging company. The building of this company is the former office of IBM. It was founded by Jim Hyland, who has an ambitious idea to provide the healthy , local food in winter.Because some food cannot be sold in harvest season, it will be wasted. However, the company absorb it and package this food into add- value food in food market  so that the food can be sold all round the year, not the short harvest season. Because of it, we can eat healthy food in winter and the surplus food will not be wasted.

This the product of this company.

Now the company has so many kitchens that includes a processing line, a full bakery, an incubator/test kitchen, a cutting-edge “Individually Quick Frozen” system, storage for refrigerated, frozen and dry goods, and multiple loading docks.

This is the machine of product line.  It seems so complicated that I  do not know how to use it.

The history of farm to Table Co-Packers shakes me. Not like the traditional farms, This company only  make the fresh food into value-added product. Now it has become the food- hub in this region. From this trip, I learned that a good idea can create a good company, and the combination of modern and tradition can make our daily life better.

After finished our visit  to Table Co-Packers, we came to a beautiful small town- Kingston, which has so many beautiful buildings . there are many interesting stores in the town. The weather is nice,  I am so happy when I was looking around to take some beautiful pictures.

I have six field trips in this class from traditional farms  to modern company. I have went to  many beautiful places . It is so different from the city.

I have seen kinds of animals. they are so cute! See this pictures. You can imagine how interesting of the life in farm!

I have eat many kinds of delicious food, something  I never  eat before.

Take this class with a great professor  and explore more about  America.

Evolutionary Organics is small farm, located at 283 Springtown Road, in New Paltz, New York. Working on a CSA model, the farm allows contributors to partake in each season’s harvest. The farm operates year-round on 20 acres of land and produces herbs, vegetables, and raised eggs that are USDA certified organic. Much of the produce is given to CSA investors, while many other “value-added” products are sold at the GrowNYC farmer’s market in Brooklyn. These products range from jams and salsa, to frozen pureè that is used in many organic-based restaurants throughout New York City.

Founder, Kira Kinney, a native to the Hudson Valley, started the farm in 2003. Kinney began work on just a few acres of land with a vision of creating a community-based farm that leaves as little impact on the environment as possible. Kinney is a strong advocate for organic farming, claiming that the unseen dangers of pesticides and hormones can have lasting impacts on the delicate, natural landscape of the Hudson Valley. Kinney says that such chemicals contaminate local water resources and produce an array of health problems for the people that consume non-organic products. In order to remain certified as an organic farm, Kinney utilizes genetically manipulated farming methods. Most of these methods were self-taught, she says, on a trial-and-error basis: “What most people do not realize is that genetic manipulation of agriculture is not a new thing – humans have been selectively breeding both plants and animals for centuries – while nothing here is engineered in a lab, we take special notice of certain plants that are naturally resistant to insects and fluctuating pH levels within the soil. We then use the seeds from those plants for the next harvest. After several generations, we can create a family of plants that are the ‘best of the best’ with natural proficiencies for the soil and surrounding environment. It’s like giving evolution by means of natural selection just a little nudge forward.”

As a result, Kinney has grown many varieties of plants that are able to mature without the use of fertilizers and pesticides. Much of organic farming requires special attention to the individual plants, choosing which ones are strongest when re-seeding, and a long-term plan for soil use. After recently introducing free-range chickens to the farm, many parasitic insects have been removed from the soil as part of the chickens’ diet. The manure of the chickens is then used to naturally fertilize the soil. The chickens that are used are raised from eggs in an incubator. While many other farms buy chicks that have that have already hatched from major livestock producers, Kinney prefers to raise her own from eggs in order to ensure that they have not been exposed to any hormones, industrial genetic engineering, and were laid by chickens that have also been freed of such practices. Again, the process of organic farming, for both plants and livestock, is a long-term process that considers future generations of the plants and animals. An organic, free-range chicken will beget chicks that embody the same benefits as the original generation. Evolutionary Organics is a model farm to learn more about the benefits of going organic!

Last Saturday I went to Fishkill Farms out in Hopewell Junction, NY. I recieved a warm welcome from the staff, first receiving a bit of history about the farm from their business manager Mark Doyle. The farm was started by Henry Morgenthau in 1914, a man who also participated in public service and government under the FDR administration. For a long time the farm mostly grew apples on their 150 acres of usable farmland, peaking in size in the 40s with the development of refrigerated transport. However, in 1965 Fishkill Farms turned towards a pick-your-own CSA model to adapt to the changing demand. Today they grow a variety of fruits and vegetables and sell produce at farmers markets in Brooklyn and local grocery stores in addition to CSA members. While only one third of their orchard is certified organic, the farm’s vegetables are grown completely organically and the farm prides itself on being an ecologically sustainable farm, taking the NOFA’s “Farmer’s Pledge” (National Organic Farmers Association) and continuously working to minimize the need for chemical sprays. Like many organic farmers they also emphasize the importance of maintaining healthy soil and a connection to the local community.

William McCaffery, Fishkill Farm’s Orchard Specialist, generously walked me about the farm property and explained some of the differences between fruit and vegetable farming. William grew up on a cranberry farm in Massachusetts and went to the Cornell school of Agriculture. He described fruit and vegetables as entirely different beasts. Veggies tend to go hand in hand with organic practices because they grow in the same way whether that’s on the farm or in nature. Fruit, on the other hand, is designed to be eaten by animals to spread seeds and pollen, and so naturally attracts insects and other non-human consumers. To grow fruit is inherently fighting against nature from the start, which makes organic fruit growing difficult. William pointed to the now flowering trees and said this stage of the season is critical, because it is when the orchard is most vulnerable. The current main threat is actually from fungi, and while research is going into a beneficial fungus that will block harmful fungi from growing on their trees it is still too experimental to risk a whole year’s yield. For now Fishkill Farms has to use fungus sprays, using nature as a template as much as possible by keeping to natural chemicals. The 80 acre orchard is made up of 56 acres of apples, 4 acres of pear, and 20 acres of stone fruits (fruits with a pit) and berries. William has been with Fishkill Farms since February after working at Red Jacket Orchard for two years, and plans on eventually starting his own orchard in the future.

I found the economic dynamics and politics of organic farming at Fishkill Farms particularly interesting because they started with conventional practices and began committing to organic farming later on. The way in which they grew seemed very important to them, but the farm still needs to profit and that informs their practice as well. William revealed how international the competition can be when he talked about a website called FAOSTAT. There you can find the statistics of everything from market price to production quantities of every type of agricultural commodity from every country in the world. He described how it’s advantageous to have “China-proof”crops, meaning crops that aren’t mass-produced and sold cheaply from overseas. This is especially important when a farm decides to try a new crop, because this will partly determine whether it will be profitable or not. I think it is very interesting that local farms aren’t only competing with industrial farms within the US, but on an international scale as well.

On a sunny Thursday afternoon (the first of its kind) I traveled to McEnroe Organic Farm in Millerton, New York. My tour was led by two workers named Lauren and Sean and, unlike most of the organic farmers we have met this semester, Sean actually has a bachelor’s in Environmental Science! Lauren studied art in school, but she still knew her stuff about the science behind the farm. The farm started as a conventional dairy farm but is now a 1500-acre production site. It has been run over four generations, with two of the McEnroe boys currently working on-site and the original owner, Ray, showing up now and then. Since it is certified organic, their pest control methods are limited to natural modes such as sulfur. They grow a plethora of vegetables, herbs and spices, raise cows, pigs and chickens for meat, and run a composting unit to create their own soil­– they even brew compost teas. However, not all of their land is used for profit. They keep a lot of woodlands, meadows and ponds intact in order to keep natural habitats in check.

The most “economical” part of their farm is the vast number of tomato plants. McEnroe Organic Farm uses both heated and unheated greenhouses to ensure that they can grow their “Hot House Tomatoes” year-round. We got to take a look inside at the massive, ceiling-height plants, and it really was remarkable! The farmers here use a very unique method when growing their tomatoes; it is something I had never heard of, yet understood easily because of my biology background. They call it “splicing”, and it helps the tomatoes grow big and red without any inorganic compounds being added. This splicing process simply involves them slicing the root-stalk of the tomato and adding fruiting and rooting fertilizers (completely organic, of course). The point of this is to completely line up the vascular tissue of the plant, making for some really huge, really tasty produce! “Tomatoes are a great plant to grow,” said Lauren, “because they’re so economical. You can grow them year round in a heated greenhouse”. So they do. Unlike Monkshood Nursery, where the tomato plants were barely past the seedling stage, McEnroe Farm’s plants were already climbing the twine to the ceiling and being picked and sold daily. It’s amazing what can be done with a bit more space and a few more hands on deck.

Another noteworthy part of the farm is the composting site where they mix local garbage, manure and leaves into completely organic soil that farmers from all over the area buy for their farms and gardens. McEnroe uses most of the compost we produce in their greenhouses, cold frames and fields in attempt promote healthy soil and strong plant growth. We didn’t spend much time at the compost site, but I did learn a fair amount about how smelly, and helpful, this composting facility is for farmers who raise so many plants and animals.

McEnroe Organic Farm is much larger than all of the other farms we have ventured to in #es291. Its impressive production gets it into wholesale mediums like Whole Foods and they also keep up a great farm store on-site which sells both on-farm and off-farm products. You can learn more about McEnroe Organic Farm by following this link!