Catskills beginning farmer group off to an exciting start!

We're pleased to share a report on the launch of the new beginning farmer initiative in the region, Catskills CRAFT. The group offers the opportunity for young and new farmers to learn from our region's experienced growers and to get to know the Catskills farming community.

With funding from Farmhearts, an organization committed to supporting the future of Catskills farms, a fellowship position was created this spring to support the beginning farmer programming. Sonia Janiszewski Persichilli of Wildflower Farm in Delaware County has taken the reigns of the fellowship and provides us with a summary of the first farm visit.

Talkin' tractors - a highlight of the tour for many!

The 2011 Catskills Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training (CRAFT) kicked off on June 13th at Willow Wisp Organic Farm, growers of a diverse mix of organic vegetables, herbs and cut flowers for the Upper Delaware River Valley and The Catskills. Host farmers Greg Swartz and Tannis Kowalchuk lead 30 beginning farmers on a field tour of their 12-acre farm in Abrahamsville, Penn. Participants buzzed with interest and excitement throughout the evening that ended with a potluck social.

Sharing his experiences and passion for farming, Greg took the CRAFT guests on a walking tour of his greenhouse and produce fields, providing tips, tricks and advice to the many inquiring farmers in attendance. Having spent seven years as an apprentice before purchasing and beginning his own farm in 2007, he offered a unique understanding for his audience, highlighting the challenges that have lead Willow Wisp Organic to its successes. In addition to explaining how and what was growing beneath their feet, the tour provided vendor and supplier of preferences; how specialized equipment has increased efficiencies in sowing and weed control; and how to identify and increase production of trend crops.

The sun breaks through on the main Willow Wisp field.

A short hike to a side-hill field overlooking the valley opened discussion of Greg’s personal transition to full-time farming. His adventure began with what he thought would be a six-month farm program and turned into apprenticeships at three different farms. Internships taught Greg how to learn by doing and provided numerous opportunities to manage and experiment with cropping systems. With each new project and experiment, Greg’s passion for farming grew. Thoughtfully, Greg and Tannis developed their farm business plan, purchased their farm and are investing in its future.

Attendees left with full stomachs, a good deal of information to digest, and looking forward to the next Catskills CRAFT farm tour. Direct access to mentor farmers is a necessary resource for any developing farmer. Catskills CRAFT bringing that access right to the farm.

Willow Wisp Organic Farm products are sold in equal parts at farmers' market, through their on-farm CSA and to local retailers and restaurants, within 50 miles. Greg and Tannis are committed to supporting future farmers as their mentors have done for them. For more information about their farm or products, visit www.willowwisporganic.com.

Views from the Field: Richard Giles

In the most recent Views from the Field, we hear from Delaware County vegetable farmer Richard Giles. Richard received a Pure Catskills Agricultural Development last year to purchase a new tractor implement for Lucky Dog Organic Farm. Also check out the video below for the Lucky Dog crew in action.

Lucky Dog Farm, Hamden NY from VeccVideography on Vimeo.

One of the most important crops on our farm has been a washed mix of baby salad greens, which we grow on wide, flat-topped bedded rows. And because we are an organic farm, weeds have always been our greatest challenge in growing this high-valued crop. So we applied for the Pure Catskills grant to help us purchase a tractor-mounted vegetable bed flameweeder.

This piece of machinery burns propane fuel through torches aimed at the surface of our crop beds in order to destroy small emerging weeds either just before planting or just before the crop emerges. I had used similar machinery for weed control in cotton in the south, but flame weeding hasn’t been a common practice in this part of the country. One of the obstacles we encountered as we began researching the equipment was that our local propane dealers were not familiar with it, and were at first reluctant to commit to supplying fuel for the machine.

The other obstacle was money. This is a familiar problem. I think that lack of access to money for production-improving practices is certainly one of the top problems for the small diverse farms in the Catskills. In the course of our search, we found machines built by two companies that seemed to fit our needs, one of them priced at about $8,500 and the other at about $12,500. As luck would have it, the machine best suited tour crops was also build by Flame Engineering, the company with the most experience in building flame weeding equipment. And it was the lower priced machine. Even so, we would not have been able to buy the machine without the Pure Catskills grant.

We received the machine in mid-June, a little late for a full-season test, but early enough to get a lot of use out of the new weeder. I had imagined the machine mostly as a salad production enhancing tool, but as soon as we had it set up and filled with fuel, we flamed over the tops of some just –emerging potatoes in rows that were becoming fuzzy with weed seedlings. Over the course of the summer, we used it on carrots, a crop that is very slow to germinate and very poor at competing with weeds, on unplanted beds ahead of our lettuce transplanted, on potatoes again at the end of the season, after the vines had been clipped in the weedy zone before harvest and of course on our salad beds.

Because we farm in a flood plain, we will never be free of weed seed, but we are already beginning to reduce our weed load with this piece of equipment. In the spring and early summer we usually prepare quite a bit of our vegetable cropland for planting. As we work through the season planting and transplanting, some of these fields have to be reworked, by means of mechanical tillage, several times to keep weeks down. With this flamer weeder, we are able to sweep quickly across these areas without disturbing the soil, to kill new flushes of weeds. The efficiency of this method makes me happy. One of my concerns when we were contemplating this machine was that even though we would not be using synthetic herbicides, we would be burning fossil fuel to kill our weeds. We are in fact doing just this. But we have made a positive compromise, trading a swift, low horsepower trip over the field to burn weeds with propane for several high horse power tillage trips.

Catskill region farm stays

Harvesting vegetables at Stony Creek Farm.

Has the recent New York Times feature on agritourism got you wondering about farms in the Catskills that offer similar experiences?

Below are our farm and food business members that offer overnight accommodations of all types, from deluxe platform tents to guest houses.

Apple Pond Farm - A guest house and farming activities available in Sullivan County.

Café Tamayo - Three guest rooms at this locally-focused restaurant in the village of Saugerties.

Catskill Rose - Four guest rooms at this locally-focused restaurant in the heart of the Catskill high peaks.

The Golden Guernsey - A renovated barn with two guest rooms located at the home of Early Bird Cookery in the Upper Delaware Valley.

The Hamden Inn - Guest rooms in this historic Inn upstairs from a locally-focused restaurant and adjacent to Lucky Dog Farm, Store & Cafe in Delaware County.

Handsome Brook Farm - Three guest rooms with farm activities available in Delaware County.

La Basse Cour - Two accommodation 'suite' options with farm-fresh foods in the Delaware County.

Neversink Farm - A renovated farmhouse located on an organic vegetable and poultry farm along the Neversink River.

Rich Farm - A country farmhouse located in the West Branch valley of the upper Delaware River.

Rolling River Café & Inn - A cafe, bar, gallery and inn with a convenient location in Sullivan County.

Stone & Thistle Farm - A guest suite co-located with Fable restaurant and working livestock farm in Delaware County.

Stony Creek Farm - Deluxe platform tents with farm and cooking activities offered at this diversified farm in Delaware County.

Turquoise Barn - Bed & breakfast and camping accommodations offered in conjunction to cooking classes at this teaching center in Delaware County.

Weekend getaway resources

Catskill Mountains and Freshwater Marsh -Huffington Post

Headed out for some Memorial Day adventures this weekend? We've rounded up some links that feature Catskill region getaways to help inspire you! Whether you're a local, second-home owner or first-time visitor, we hope these guides will help you explore the great food and features our region has to offer.

A Weekend in the Catskills - The Amateur Gourmet

'Skills Set - Tasting Table

The Weekend Escape Plan - New York Magazine (okay, so this is a winter getaway but still some good tips!)

An Over-the-Top Getaway in the Catskills - Huffington Post

Fell in Love with the Catskills - Makie Doll

Catskills Weekend Getaway: The Food - The Urban in Suburban

A weekend in the Catskills - Daily Candy

Weekend at the Catskills - Mangia Vita

Also check out the region's tourism agencies for more ideas:
Great Western Catskills
Sullivan County Visitor's Association
Ulster Tourism
Schoharie Valley Association
This is Cooperstown
Greene Tourism

And, of course!
Our own local food map will help you find your way. Or search for businesses to visit.

Views from the field: Ilyssa Berg

In this 'Views from the field,' we hear from Ilyssa Berg of Painted Goat Farm in Otsego County. Ilyssa's been making some fantastic fresh and aged goat cheeses in recent years. A grant awarded by Pure Catskills supported the development of a new variety of aged cheese and improving the farm's processing equipment.

Let's hear more from the farmer herself...

Cheese ready to be sent up the 'elevator' to the aging room.

Painted Goat Farm is a small, farmstead cheese producer begun from the ground up about four years ago. With funding assistance from the Pure Catskills’ Sustainable Agriculture Development Program, we purchased and installed needed small equipment in order to create a new semi-hard aged goat cheese. This product helped us to diversify our cheese selection and to utilize our milk early in the season before the Catskill region farmers’ markets and business activity picked up.

Another view of the elevator.

Different styles of cheese have different temperature and humidity requirements during manufacturing and aging. The improvements to our aging facilities included changes to our ventilation system, the ability to monitor the temperature and humidity in the cheese make-room and caves, and installation of a freight elevator to transport the cheese to the caves below ground. We are very happy with the results from the project. Our cheese making process is improved and so has the stability of our products.

Turning wheels of cheese in the aging room.

In 2010, we sold 285 pounds of “Fighting Goat”. It is a mild, nutty, semi-hard cheese which is washed in a wonderful New York State hard cider, giving it a natural, peach-colored rind and a robust flavor. Our customers were often surprised to see and taste a hard goat’s milk cheese and promptly added it to their cheese plates. Some of our customers prefer goat’s milk cheese over others because of adverse health effects from other dairy products and so, they appreciated having more styles of cheese to eat. For others who think they don’t like goat’s milk cheeses, they were more inclined to try a hard cheese and discovered they actually like goat cheese. A hard cheese also has a longer shelf life than our fresh (think cream cheese) and soft-ripened cheeses (think camembert), which retail outlets really appreciated. But, most of all, our new product enabled us to extend our market season through the winter months when our herd was “dry”. We took the opportunity to jump into making another cheese - a waxed-rind Gouda-style cheese, which we aged over the winter. We were able to start marketing earlier this year than ever before. We have already sold out and have started filling the caves with more. We hope we will age as well as our cheeses now do.

Catskill region food blogs

Follow the seasons with recipes tailored to our region’s harvest. Catskill food blogs will inspire you with recipes developed by local farmers and chefs.

Our region's bloggers aren't just blessed with great cooking and writing skills - they're also great photographers. So we'll let their images speak for themselves!

Peach Johnnycake from Cheryl Paff.

atthefarmersmarket.com

Farmers' Market Manager, Cheryl Paff features creative, seasonal recipes inspired from her finds at the farmers' market each week.

Kid goats in orbit at Stone & Thistle Farm.

farmandfablemusings.blogspot.com

Denise Warren of Stone & Thistle Farm writes about sharing great organic food through farming, cooking, selling and serving.

Cumin-crusted grassfed steak from Ulla Kjarval.

goldilocksfindsmanhattan.blogspot.com

Ulla Kjarval of Spring Lake Farm specializes in recipes for grass-fed meats grown by her family and neighbors.

Ramp compound butter from Catie Baumer Schwalb.

pitchforkdiaries.com

Chef Catie Baumer Schwalb offers up a diverse mix of recipes along with professional tips for the home cook.

May days

The growing season is upon us and with the fresh food comes some fantastic seasonal celebrations and workshops. Who needs to wait until to Memorial Day?

The table is set at a Neversink Farm barn dinner.

May 14th

Ribbon Cutting & Pig Roast

11 am to 4 pm

Larry's Custom Meats

3487 State Route 205, Hartwick

Pig Roast (picnic style), refreshments, facility tour to celebrate their NEW USDA Slaughterhouse. Visit the CADE webpage for more details on the project. Call Larry's at (607) 293-7977 for more information.

May 19th

Farm to School Meeting

2 to 4 pm

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Sullivan County

64 Ferndale-Loomis Road, Liberty

A follow-up meeting to previous discussions about sourcing local food at area school districts. Farmers, school food service directors, school business managers and interested community members should attend. Content will cover a nuts and bolts implementation guide you need to start your farm to school programs, no matter how large or small. Technical Assistance will be provided will be conferencing in guest speakers who have been successful with farm to school programs as well as reps from the New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets for Q&A’s. For more information, contact Nancy McGraw, Deputy Public Health Director, at (845) 292-5910 x 2242 or by email at Nancy.mcgraw@co.sullivan.ny.us or call CCE at (845) 292-5250.

May 20th

You "Can" Sell What You Grow

10 am to 3 pm

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware County

34570 State Highway 10, Hamden, NY

$20 per person

Distribution and marketing of farm products have always been the most difficult part of small scale agriculture. Cooperative Extension of Delaware County is offering a program on how New York farmers are getting their products to New York tables. This program will provide the opportunity to hear directly from buyers, market managers, and other innovative individuals regarding their businesses and how local farms can either participate or set up similar models in this region. For more information, contact Janet Aldrich at jla14@cornell.edu or (607) 865-6531.

May 21st

Spring Day Lunch with Neversink Farm and Peekamoose Restaurant

12 to 2 pm

What do you get when you take a Chef who's trained at LeBernadin, Gramercy Tavern and the Hudson River Club and Neversink Farm a producer of fine hand crafted organic vegetables?Answer: A truly special multi-course gastronomic event prepared mainly with Neversink Farm's produce cultivated less than 50 feet away.Please join us for this highly anticipated collaboration of amazing talents: Conor and Kate from Neversink Farm, and Peekamoose Restaurant's very own, Devin Mills. This is local dining at its most local. Tours of the Farm will be available before the lunch.Guests will be seated communally at the farmhouse table, surrounded by the lush mountains, roaming chickens (who have escaped that day's menu) and rolling pastures. Tickets are extremely limited - additional information and tickets can be found by calling Marybeth at 845-254-6500.

May 21st

Salad Days of Spring

11 am to 2 pm

Slow Food Upper Delaware River Valley

$25 Slow Food Members / $35 non members

Take a walk with noted herbalist Nathaniel Whitmore to forage for your lunch and enjoy a bit of spring. You will bring your found wild edibles back to the Old North Branch Inn and prepare a lunch with these ingredients and others sourced by visiting chef and innkeeper Mona Jess Coade-Wingate. Enrollment is limited. Please email your reservation to upderiva@gmail.com or call (845) 866-1484.

May 23rd

Cool Aid: A Farm-to-Table Event for All

5:30 pm to 7:30 pm

Onteora MS/HS Cafeteria

Admission is free, hors d'oeuvres are $2 each

Join local chefs, parents and students at this fundraiser to support sourcing of local produce through the purchase of a walk-in freezer at the Onteora School District. Chefs from Bread Alone, Cucina, Emerson Resort, Mizuna Cafe, New World Home Cooking, The Peekamoose, Pika's Farm Table and The Red Onion will prepare hors d'oeuvres. For kids, there will be crafts, music and healthy snacks. Gardening and nutrition experts will be on hand with presentations. Plus a photo booth and a silent auction! For more information, contact Maxanne Resnick at MaxInMountains@aol.com.