CSA REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

Sign up for your Glynwood share today! Our CSA registration for the 2016 growing season is now open! We are offering two options: a Full Share with pickup every week for $700, or a Half Share with pickup every other week for $365. Our 24-week season means that each share costs approximately $30/week, which, on average, represents a 15% discount over retail prices. That means during an average growing season, a Full Share is valued at over $800, and a Half Share is over $400 (but the true value could depend more or less on seasonal variations).

Payment in full is required when purchasing your CSA share through our online store. We also offer an installment plan dividing the full cost of a share into payments over the course of the season. Please contact our Vegetable Production Manager, Jarret Nelson, to discuss alternative payment plans. You can read more about Jarret in the staff profile below.

National CSA Day is coming up on Friday, February 26. Launched last year by Small Farm Central, this promotion celebrates CSA farms globally by bringing awareness to the work of CSA farmers and the important role they play in our communities.

UPCOMING EVENTS

February Farm Dinner, February 25

Learn from star chefs as you participate in the preparation of your meal on Thursday, February 25, beginning at 6:00pm at the Zwilling J.A. Henckels Cooking Studio, a fantastic new teaching kitchen and event space in Pleasantville, NY. Chefs Jay Lippin (Crabtree's Kittle House), Agnes Devereux (The Village TeaRoom) and Bernard Janssen (Zwilling J.A. Henckels) will arrange diners into teams and work alongside them in the preparation of this multi-course, farm-to-table feast.

We're taking our February Farm Dinner "on the road" for a truly unique culinary experience that also supports Glynwood's network of Hudson Valley chefs.

Tickets are $150 per guest, of which $100 is tax deductible. Beverage pairings are included. The menu will highlight sustainably raised meat, though vegetarian options are always available (please indicate any dietary restrictions on the registration form).

Staub-Henckels Contest Extended

Our fundraising promotion with Zwilling J.A. Henckels is extended through the end of February. Every online donation we receive of $10 or more is eligible to win one of three prizes from Staub and Zwilling J.A. Henckels. Each prize is worth about $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 mentioned above. Enter now to win!

Attendees of our February Farm Dinner are entered automatically.

Farmer Training Workshop: "Swine School," March 10

Three-time James Beard Award-winning journalist Barry Estabrook and Niman Ranch Pork Company founder Paul Willis will lead a farmer training workshop at Glynwood on raising outdoor pigs humanely. The day begins in the morning with presentations by both guests and transitions outside to spend the afternoon with our porcine friends (weather permitting.) Lunch is included with registration, which is open to the public.

Estabrook is the author of Pig Tales: An Omnivore's Quest for Sustainable Meat and of the New York Times best-selling Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit. He was contributing editor to Gourmet and his writing has appeared in several newspapers and publications. He has been anthologized in The Best American Food Writing over several years.

Willis is a 5th generation family farmer and founder of the Niman Ranch Pork Company. He has owned and operated the Willis Free Range Pig Farm in Iowa since 1975, but now works hard to increase opportunities for traditional, sustainable and humane family farmers with nonprofits and NGOs across the country while representing the Niman Ranch network.

Save the Date: March 31

Save the date Thursday, March 31 for a distinctly Hudson Valley meal at Glynwood with guest chef Job Yacubian, co-owner and executive chef of The Farmer’s Wife, located in Ancramdale, New York. The menu is conceived in collaboration with Jack Peele of JACüTERIE, also located in Ancramdale.

Yacubian was the chef-owner of Bittersweet Restaurant, named “Best Restaurant Martha’s Vineyard” by Boston magazine. Before opening Bittersweet, he worked at its predecessors: Ice House Restaurant as executive chef and Red Cat as sous chef. Job apprenticed with New York City-based chefs David Bouley at Bouley Bakery and Danube, Daniel Boulud at Restaurant Daniel, and Rocco DiSpirito at Union Pacific.

Jack Peele's products are all inspired by the varying flavors of the world, yet are made locally in the Hudson Valley. He primarily uses pork from nearby Herondale Farm's pasture raised pigs, as well as sourcing from some of the best farms in the area to create products that are unique to this region.

Tickets for our March Farm Dinner will soon be available for purchase on our website.

MEET OUR STAFF

Jarret Nelson, Manager, Vegetable Production

Jarret joined our staff as vegetable production assistant in 2013, following an apprenticeship, and was promoted to manager in 2014. Before that, he took a prolonged hiatus from college to travel and see the world, mostly by “woofing,” an international practice of volunteer farming in exchange for room and board. When he nearly ran out of money, he found work at a vineyard in New Zealand, and discovered his appreciation for manual labor while working as an electrician’s assistant at a kibbutz in Israel. He returned to Williams College to complete his degree in political science.

Jarret oversees 6 acres of vegetable production at Glynwood, one of which lies fallow each year to recuperate. With the assistance of three apprentices, he grows approximately 40 crops, of which there are often multiple varieties. Different plants respond better than others, even in different parts of our 225-acre property and from other farms in the Hudson Valley, so Jarret often learns by trial and error.

“We have crops fail all the time. If it’s not in the share it’s not always because we didn’t plant it. That’s why CSAs are so helpful, because members are buying into that risk with us and the loss is already paid for,” he explained, about our Community Supported Agriculture program. “The diversification and strategy of spreading risk is part of how we deal with challenges. On years where we have fewer losses, members benefit by getting more.”

Another advantage to buying locally grown produce is that it’s better tasting, but there’s a strong environmental aspect too. A plant’s relationship to soil is symbiotic. Much of its flavor comes from minerals and micronutrients, but these substances are not responsible for a plant’s size, so conventional farms opt for additional fertilizer. While it is definitely more labor intensive, reduced or no-till farming also contributes to healthier soil.

Last year, Glynwood became a USDA Certified Organic vegetable operation, a rigorous process commandeered by Jarret. Still, he feels it’s important to further distinguish practices even among organic farms.

“People should ask me a lot more questions about how we grow things here. For example, some organic operations use pesticide sprays. That’s a distinction that’s not really discussed so much. Organic produce that took a week to transport from California is not going be as fresh or taste as good as something in your CSA share that we picked that morning.”

Avoiding pesticides can be challenging, but if a plant is healthier and growing in healthy soil, it has stronger natural defenses and is less susceptible to disease, just like a human being. Jarret takes a more preventative approach to battling infestation by applying botanical extracts, what he describes as “echinacea for plants,” bacteria that colonizes on the surface of the plant’s leaves to deter fungal spores from multiplying. Cover crops are also important tools for controlling weeds, pathogens, and insects.

So, back to the task at hand: three new apprentices are starting with Jarret in March and it’s important that all of the preliminary work is done before then.

“Everything needs to be lined up before they start, so that as soon as the weather changes, we hit the ground running and get everything done as fast as we can,” he said. “You don’t have time to think about anything really, except to follow the plan.”

Registration is open now for our full and half vegetable shares. The first pick-up will be May 31. Be sure to say hello to Jarret and ask him a lot of questions.

OUT IN THE FIELD

Glynwood's President, Kathleen Frith, will be on the west coast next week to participate in Berkeley Food Institute's Edible Education 101. She will be moderating the Strengthening Regional Food Systems: Food Hubs & Alternative Markets panel on Tuesday, February 16, from 6:30 to 8:00pm. Tickets are free with registration.

On Thursday, March 17, our Director of Farmer Training Dave Llewellyn will participate on a panel for a screening of the documentary film, To Make a Farm. Named one of the most popular Canadian films at the Vancouver International Film Festival, To Make a Farm asks what the future of local food and farming might look like. The free screening takes place at 6:30pm at Down to Earth Markets in Ossining, New York, as part of its Grow Local film series.

Inspired and aspiring filmmakers have until March 1 to submit their short films on food, farming and sustainability to Real Food Films' juried competition with cash prizes and promotional opportunities. Their website provides all guidelines and information on how to enter.

IN THE NEWS

Not surprisingly, our little Hank's X-tra Special Baking Bean caught the media's eye during our dinner promotion last month with Hudson Valley Seed Library, Slow Food USA and our network of Hudson Valley Chefs:

The popular culinary blog Food Republic helped us launch the promotion with its line-up of where to find Hank's on the menu.

Chronogram magazine's editor, Brian Mahoney, wrote his column about his dinner with Hank's at The Village Tea Room in New Paltz.

Hudson Valley Almanac Weekly featured Hank’s, with a focus on Hudson Valley Seed Library’s Ken Greene and The Village Tea Room’s Agnes Devereux.

The Poughkeepsie Journal published an op-ed by by our own Program Coordinator, Emily Oberto, on the longer term impact of Hank’s on local farming.

FRESH FROM GLYNWOOD

Our regular winter sales hours continue this week on Thursday from 3-6pm at our Farm Office. The following Glynwood-grown produce will be available this week: Spinach, Onion, Shallot, Butternut Squash, Potato, Beets and Parsnips. We also have a large selection of meat available, with Hot Italian, Sweet Italian and Chorizo Mutton Sausage marked down to $9.50/lb (normally $12/lb) for the month of February.

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

As a reminder, we are a working farm with daily agricultural operations that continue regardless of events or guests on the property. We ask that visitors are mindful of farmers at work, tractors on the move and all animals on the property. For your and everyone’s safety, please adhere to our 20 MPH speed limit on Glynwood Road, parts of which are one-way only. Incoming cars and farming vehicles always have the right of way. For more information on visiting our farm, please visit our website.