JANUARY 2016 HANK'S BACK Anyone living outside of Hank’s birthplace of Ghent, New York, may not recognize Hank’s X-tra Special Baking Bean, an heirl

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JANUARY 2016



HANK'S BACK

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Anyone living outside of Hank’s birthplace of Ghent, New York, may not recognize Hank’s X-tra Special Baking Bean, an heirloom cultivar propagated by one local home gardener 60 years ago but has since virtually disappeared. Until now…

A pioneering seed planting and harvest we facilitated last year now culminates with a pledge from regional chefs to make a place on their tables for a dish that stars Hank’s X-tra Special, a once-beloved, locally grown legume shepherded back from near extinction by dedicated local farmers. Glynwood’s “seed to plate” project, an initiative of our Hudson Valley Food program, also involves Hudson Valley Seed Library, Slow Food USA and Chefs Collaborative as partners.

Throughout the month of January, Hank's X-tra Special will be featured as the centerpiece of a special dinner or event. Participating chefs are members of Glynwood's Hudson Valley Chefs Network, who purchased their supply of beans at a premium price from local farmers. They will be re-introducing Hank’s epicurean appeal in their interpretations of cassoulet, the perfect cold-weather dish and showcase for the Hudson Valley’s most intriguing haricot blanc.

You can read more about Hank's here and find out where you can try it yourself!


BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

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Make your own cassoulet at home, or learn to cook from a professional!

For every donation Glynwood receives from now until the end of the month of $10 or more, the contributor (you) becomes eligible to win one of three prizes from Staub and Zwilling J.A. Henckels. Each prize is worth approximately $300 and includes: a Zwilling Pro 7 Piece Block Set, a Staub Cast Iron 7 Qt. Round Cocotte, or a Cooking Class for three people at Zwilling's new Cooking Studio in Pleasantville, New York.

All funds collected online between now and January 30 will go directly to Glynwood's Hudson Valley Chefs Network, to facilitate more seed grow-outs in the future and provide financial support for members of the network to attend professional educational events, including the Chefs Collaborative Summit to be held in New York City this spring. To enter, make your donation here.

For more information on how to cook beans, here are some tips from The New York Times.



UPCOMING EVENTS

January Farm Dinner

Tickets are still available for our farm dinner coming up on Friday, January 29. Our guest chef for the evening will be Jamie Paxton, a graduate of The French Culinary Institute with experience in the kitchens of Telepan, ABC Kitchen and The Meat Market, in Great Barrington. Paxton is driven by her interest in sustainable meat production, traditional food craft and local food systems.

The evening is not only a showcase for our own crop of Hank's X-tra Special but will honor our outgoing 2015 class of farming apprentices, who were instrumental in growing and harvesting Hank's last year.

Please keep in mind that these events are BYOB and vegetarian meals are always available. We sell out quickly, so be sure to get your tickets soon. Cheers!

Farmer Skills Workshop, February 4

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Co-sponsored by The Carrot Project and Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, Glynwood will be hosting a financial workshop for farmers on Thursday, February 4, at our Farm Business Incubator in New Paltz.

Making It Happen: Profitability and Success will help small farmers build sound financial systems. Farmers will learn effective financial management tools that can be used to make business decisions and improve their farm business. These tools can be easily used by farmers in business operations: to improve productivity, reduce costs, increase net farm income and improve overall quality of life.

The content for this workshop series is sourced from The Carrot Project's “Measuring Profitability and Success” project, which measured business changes and the impact of business assistance and financing on a diverse group of 30 farms. More information is available on their website.

Tickets are $20 and pre-registration is required here. As a prerequisite, participants should have an understanding of basic farm accounting and three financial statements: the cash flow statement, profit and loss statement and balance sheet. Prerequisites can be filled by viewing The Carrot Project’s webinars “Basic Accounting for Farmers I and II.



MEET OUR STAFF

Sara Grady & Emily Oberto, Programs

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Sara Grady, applying her documentary film sensibilities in the field.

 
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Emily Oberto, attending a pasta workshop in Bologna, Italy.

Sara Grady and Emily Oberto have followed different paths to Glynwood, yet their shared passion for food is the impetus for the networks they develop and manage as part of our Hudson Valley Food program.

“Food was always a big part of my life but I had very little knowledge of production in more rural areas,” Sara explained. "I was learning more about this at a time, almost ten years ago, when the impact of agriculture and our personal and social choices around food was becoming a larger cultural conversation."

There were no academic programs in sustainable food systems available at that time. The sort of career education Sara fashioned for herself led her to the Hudson Valley and its more rural communities just north of her native New York City.

When Sara joined Glynwood as a volunteer in 2009, a food program did not yet exist. In an effort to further define the role of Director of Special Projects she was given a year later, she drew from her creative and entrepreneurial past to help shape new initiatives. Sara is now Vice President of Programs at Glynwood.

“Understanding ways in which rural communities function and the role of food in that was a discovery for me,” she said. “That a place or a region could be shaped by food was a compelling idea. The way that people simply interact and enjoy being connected to one another through food also captured my imagination.”

At the end of February, craft cidermakers from all over the region will convene for the first time as the New York Cider Association. Recently established as the first-ever state-level trade association to support this fledgling industry, it is the next chapter in a story that began with an “apple exchange” that Sara organized in 2010 between producers of hard apple cider in France and the Hudson Valley. She credits this project as the initial spark for what has become the Hudson Valley Food program.

Emily Oberto, who is Glynwood’s new Program Coordinator, is doing much of the organizing of growers and chefs for our Hank’s X-tra Special Baking Bean grow-out -- not an easy task when you are working with people in some of the busiest professions imaginable. It is a testament to both women that Glynwood has such a high level of commitment from our professional networks and the growers with whom we collaborate.

Emily was a cheese monger for two years before joining our staff, during which time she completed an MA degree from NYU in Food Studies while raising two small children. She was previously an admissions counselor for Hotchkiss School, in Lakeville, CT, which likely prepared her for “herding cats” more than she realizes.

“At the school, I organized my own extra-curricular co-ed cooking club for about 20 kids. I bought all of the ingredients and materials and we’d meet in the empty kitchen of the old headmaster’s house, where we’d share the responsibilities of creating a meal,” said Emily.

Connecting the dots between her past and present, she added, “Where I grew up, Monsanto was on the way to school and we passed it every day until I graduated from high school. Only now do I have any perspective on its daily presence in my life as sort of an image of food and agriculture that has taken on more significance internationally.”

“A lot of effort and thought is going into local food in the Hudson Valley. It’s not just grown here but was specifically adapted here,” Emily concludes. “Foods like Hank’s have stories, they have histories and people attached to them. It’s an endearing tale but, more than that, it shows possibility.”



IN THE NEWS

Philipstown.info/The Paper picked up David Llewellyn's blog about his recent trip to Cuba and published this interview.

The paparazzi is onto Hank's! Here's a recent blog post in Food Republic about the Hudson Valley's most intriguing haricot blanc.



FARM PRODUCT SALES

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Our regular sales hours resume this week on Thursday from 3-6pm at our Farm Office. The following Glynwood-grown produce will be available this week: Salad Mix, Spinach, Potatoes, Onions, Shallots, Butternut Squash, Parsnips, Carrots and Beets. We also have a large selection of meat available.

Please note that Winter Meat and Produce CSA pickups will alternate weeks until the end of the winter season. The next meat pickup takes place today.

Winter Meat CSA shares are still available and will be prorated for the remainder of the season. We also sell whole, half and quarter meat shares. Contact Livestock Manager Donald Arrant for more information or to place an order.

Don't forget that our produce and meat can be pre-ordered through our online store for pickup during our winter sales hours.


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