Defining Organic: Some Help With Wine

I learned a little more about reading organic wine labels with this piece from the Seattle Times.

I actually have enjoyed the organic wine I've tasted. Seems smoother to me and (without sulfites) doesn't turn my face red.

But like many things on the market, I'm increasingly suspicious of the word "organic." There's just too many so-called organic products on store shelves for the amount of actual large-scale organic farming that would have be be going on to support that level of retail.

Anyway, according to the story and accompanying chart, here are two key label differences:

-- To the USDA, "organic wine" means no added sulfites.

-- Then there's "made with organic grapes" but sulfites are OK.

Hoosier Made Toys

Here are some handmade Lincoln Logs that Hoosier Outsider crafted for he and the Future Farmkids to tinker with.



They were a big hit with FFB and FFG.

Arabesque Farmers Market...Only in Chicago

I haven't had much chance to get out of the office at lunchtime, but today I slipped out to walk through the Daley Center Farmers Market.

I was on the hunt especially for rhubarb so I can finally make some strawberry rhubarb pie this weekend.

But, of course, I ended up coming back to the office with an armload of goodies: fresh peas scooped out of a cooler; Michigan cherries; baby broccoli; and some locally roasted coffee beans to support the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

I also actually picked up a bite to eat too. The backdrop of this week's market was Chicago Arabesque, so I was lucky enough to get a chicken kabob lunch plate from Haifa Cafe. I think I would have enjoyed the dancing and music had it not felt like 105 degrees in the sun. But my hummus and grape leaves were worth the sweaty wait.

One More Wine Down

While we were down in Central Indiana last weekend we picked up another Easley Winery red to give the winery another chance: Sweet Barrel Red.

I should know better by now not to even try wine bottles that boast "fruity" flavor. Fruity indeed. Fruit packed in corn syrup sweet.

Add some bubbly and you have a perfect dessert cocktail. Otherwise, too sweet for this farmgirl.

I think I'll need to hit a tasting room before I buy another bottle from this winery. Too bad we won't be around Indianapolis this week for the Indy International Wine Competition.

The 3,200 (that's a lot of tasting) wines being judged are from around the world and according to the release, visitors will have a chance to taste some of the medal winners. I bet I could find a nice fruity Riesling that is more dry than sweet, but with a hint of peach barrel. My favorite.

Taking Advantage of Every Summer Solstice Minute

We were only at The Farm for two days and two nights, but it seems like we were there for at least a week.

Here are the highlights:

-- Picked seven quarts of strawberries...brought home two (since the rest were eaten or sold out from under me).

-- Swam with the kids.

-- Collected eggs.

-- Picked up the family's CSA share from Victory Acres...the home of our key mentors and one of the best sustainable models I've seen. [Victory Acres is affiliated with Victory Inner-City Ministry, which in part, strives to bring farm-fresh produce to urban areas.]

-- Scared deer out of hiding during walks to the river. Was very happy to be covered in bug spray when we inadvertently went on an old, no longer cleared trail through the wetland portion of the property. Almost lost a sandal in the mud.

-- Visited with the iFarmer's family and took a nostalgic supper/ice-cream trip to Ivanhoe's in Upland.

-- Watched "Hot Rod" and ate microwave smores when we were too tired and too bugged out to sit out by the bonfire.

-- Sent Future Farmboy, Hoosier Outsider and the iFarmer on a canoe trip down the Mississinewa.


-- Hand-cranked vanilla ice cream from an antique maker the iFarmer and I rescued from a neighbor's garage.

-- Took the girls to check out Carolee's Lavender Days in Hartford City.

So what's to do next trip? Maybe those broilers we saw plumping up will be ready for roasting.

Are Farmers To Blame For Midwest Flooding?

The Washington Post quotes environmental experts who argue that the record-breading Iowa flooding these last few days aren't simply acts of God.

As the theory goes, the levee breaches can be attributed to radically remade landscapes:

Plowed fields have replaced tallgrass prairies. Fields have been meticulously drained with underground pipes. Streams and creeks have been straightened. Most of the wetlands are gone. Flood plains have been filled and developed.

In Iowa, thanks in large part to the ethanol boom, corn will cover a third of the state's landscape this year. And with increased cultivation comes decreased river buffers.

Indeed, just in the last year, Iowa farmers, ready to capitalize on corn prices have taken 106,000 acres of largely river-front farmland out of conservation programs aimed at recreating those natural wetland buffers.

A sampling of reader comments to the controversial Post piece are here.

Busy Weekend Plans...Off the Grid

Don't these look fantastic? I've been worried I wouldn't get to see these for myself this season, but it looks like we're finally getting a chance to get to The Farm this weekend.

And the very good news is that there remains and abundance of green berries that should be turning red in the next few days.

That means plenty of plump, ripe strawberries for me, the iFarmer and the kids to pick.

Hoosier Outsider tells me that he sold 26 quarts of strawberries by the roadside today. That's a heck of a lot of smoothies.

Now if we can get in some camping time, that would be a bonus. So far though all planned camping trips have ended up in downpours. Hopefully we'll at least get a summer campfire complete with s'mores.

We're also looking forward to visiting family, seeing how big those broilers are getting and checking on the progress of the corn. And I plan to find some rhubarb and bake it up with some strawberries.

I was asked today if I get cell service at The Farm. Yes. But our Internet connection is limited to dial-up, so happily, I plan to park my laptop for the weekend.

Powerless on Father's Day

We lost power this morning at about 7:45 a.m. when a storm whipped through our area. I've never seen our elm tree move so much and I'm relieved its healthy branches stayed attached.

I stood watching the storm for a while until the hail started to pelt our house. At that point, we scooped up the kids and headed to the basement. Then the power went out.

The storm passed with only a little water in our laundry room, but the power was out all day.

We still managed to get a lot done even while powerless. We caught up on letter writing, helped the kids perfect their UNO game, did lots of filing, introduced Future Farmgirl to bath by candlelight and, thanks to gas appliances, still had our planned Father's Day breakfast.

But instead of a relaxing day at home, we headed to the zoo, hoping that when we came back we'd have a humming refrigerator and AC. No dice.

The iFarmer bought several bags of ice to save our food...and, then, of course, about 45 minutes later, we had lights.

Flooding Close to Home

This last couple weeks of heavy rains in the Midwest is doing a job on small and large farming operations. Looks like hundreds of thousands of acres are under water.

And the livestock? I haven't heard much about the toll on that front yet.

But in Iowa alone, an estimated 20 percent of the grain crop has been lost to flooding, according to the Wallaces Farmer.

This video, made dramatic if you turn on the music, shows flooding in the iFarmer's hometown caused in large part by an overflowing dam.

This flood wiped out all of our friend's specialty chicken houses. He was able to actually recover most of the houses, but not the birds.

So he has to start from scratch with the painstaking process of re-creating the blood lines.

The Vertical Farm Report

Still recovering from my trip to NYC, I was headed to bed when I heard that Dickson Despommier is the guest tonight on the Colbert Report.

Despommier is my vertical farming/urban farming hero so it was very cool to see him sitting with my late-night comedy hero.

Not to mention that Colbert showed us a rendering of one of Despommier's visions for a vertical farming spire along the Chicago lake front.

So far, no vertical farms in Despommier's model have been built. But he's experimenting with hydroponics.

While I was surfing I found this great urban agriculture blog: Sprouts in the Sidewalk. Looks like a promising resource.

Garden Squabbles End Home-Grown Tradition

Here's an incredibly balanced piece about the destruction of a community garden in an East Hampton affordable housing complex.

According to the East Hampton Star, the garden was demolished not because of development. That's what I expected when I read the headline: "Residents' Garden Was Removed With One-Day Warning."

But apparently the residents are elderly and had trouble maintaining the garden. This after the local organic garden EEOC Farm, which started the whole project six years ago, pulled out because of lack of resources.

Add to that the residents fighting over veggies and do you really blame the association for shutting it down?

That said, I feel for the residents who were looking forward to growing their own veggies as food prices ratchet up and up. And it's too bad the association couldn't mediate this without simply dismantling the garden.

Natural Born Farmgirl

I met this little princess on my trip out East. While farming is probably not in her near future, she's certainly got what it takes to be a farmgirl.

Besides being smart as a whip, she seems as comfortable outdoors as she does in. And one of her favorite things to do at home (besides puzzles) is forage for chives and chew on the stalks.

This photo was taken at the Westport Sunday Farmers Market. The bigger market is on Thursdays at the famed Westport Country Playhouse. It's an absolutely brilliant pairing: farm-fresh food and high-brow culture.

That's also where you're more likely to see the Newmans since Paul's farmgirl daughter Nell is a founding board member of the market. Joanne Woodward (who my hostess has often seen about town) is credited with helping to restore the playhouse and put it back on the map.

But I digress...back to the Sunday market. It's still early in the season, so there were just a few vendors at the market we visited. But it was good to see what the locals are growing and selling. Not too much different from the markets I see in downtown Chicago or Oak Park, except there are more salad greens.

Lots of different varieties of lettuce and herbs, plus cucumbers, asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries and some great looking tomatoes. No heirlooms though. Maybe later in the season.

I failed to bring enough cash or I would have purchased the pesto I had a chance to taste at one of the bakery tents. That combined with fresh mozzarella on fresh whole-grain bread was like a little bite of heaven.

I did buy some Fire Roasted Mirasol Chiles from Rose's Berry Farm. There were loads of great canned items (including candied jalapenos) on that table, but I couldn't justify carting them all back to Chicago. I did have some on a salad and am going to fry some up with an egg this morning before I head into the city.

Speaking of eggs...there were a couple vendors with fresh eggs for sale: $6 a dozen for XL; $5 for L and $4 for M, discounted to $3 while we were there.

My host bought a bunch of plants, including a couple blueberry bushes from Rose's (which does U-Pick strawberries, blueberries, apples and raspberries in Glastonbury). Now that's something I'd like to try. I'll be eager to hear how he does with those.

When I bring the family back, I'll definitely want to check out Rose's, which has Sunday brunch and in the winter has Christmas trees. I like how they post a Harvest Calendar and Current Conditions report for visitors.

The Best Carryout Ever

If you haven't yet experienced a traveling clambake, this Virtual Farmgirl highly recommends it.

My gracious hosts in Westport picked up a Capt'n John's Travelin' Clambake in downtown Newport, just off Wall Street. I think you would've had to live here forever or really listen carefully to directions to be able to find the place.

It's a pretty nondescript inlet warehouse looking area. So I was a little wary when my host walked out with what looked like a giant popcorn tin.

I later learned it was filled to the brim with potatoes, corn on the cob (not shucked but de-silked), kielbasa, mussels, clams and four (live at the time) lobsters.

We brought it home and about 45 minutes before supper my hostess heated up an outdoor flame, added a bit of broth (apparently beer is acceptable too) and plopped the can down.

Besides a bit of work getting the (now dead and delicious) lobster out of their shells, it was an instant family meal. My host is a master with the chicken shears.

Even the kids got involved pulling the mussels out of the shells. I probably ate way too much. So I hope I can still fit in the dress I brought for tomorrow night.

I'm headed into Manhattan in the morning. Am looking forward to being in the big city.

VFG Note

I'm headed to Connecticut and NYC. If I have a chance to check out the buy local/small farm scene, I'll post.

Latest Investor Gold Rush? Farming

So says the venerable New York Times biz section. Apparently investors are pouring billions of dollars into land, grain elevators and, no surprise, bio-fuel.

The good news is that food production will increase to meet world demand.

The bad news? Not sure yet.

We'll see if investors are looking to just make money by controlling the markets or if the money they're investing will result in innovative farming methods that improve the quality of food in the chain.

Finally, Photo Evidence of Strawberries

One happy customer sent this photo of freshly picked strawberries from The Farm.


I absolutely cannot wait to pick my own!

I don't recall ever having strawberries on The Farm when I was a kid. But I have fond memories of going raspberry picking with my grandpa. We'd tuck our long pants in our socks, tied down with rubber bands to ward off chiggers. Even that didn't always work. Those little critters are persistent. But it was worth every bug bite to fill our buckets with those perfectly sweet black and red raspberries.

Will MegaDairy Actually Support Small Farms?

Illinois ag officials are greenlighting a large-scale dairy operation in the northern part of the state near Nora.

From what I've read about the project, I'm not necessarily opposed. I was interested to see comments from other dairy farmers who believe a large-scale farm spearheaded by
California businessman A.J. Bos might actually help them too because the large farm would support other businesses that cater specifically to dairy operations.

Illinois dairy farmer Doug Block tells Illinois AgriNews that, "The livestock industry needs people like A.J. Bos to come to Illinois so that we can maintain our infrastructure like our feed people, veterinarians, and machinery people.”

Block, who's been in the dairy biz since 1972, also says that in the last decade, some 10,000 cows in this area have been lost as dairymen go out of business. "So we’ve lost more cows than this dairy is even proposing to bring in."

It's also the first I heard how much dairy was being transported into the state from across the country. It seems those Wisconsin and Indiana dairies aren't producing enough to meet demand.

Opponents of the 10,000 dairy cow farm already have filed in court, so the farm isn't a done deal.

I'm not optimistic they'll be too successful.

U-Pick Strawberries at The Farm

Sadly, no new pix from Hoosier Outsider. And from what I hear, there's plenty of delicious plump red strawberries to photograph.

The baskets are ready for the U-Pickers. There's even a new gravel parking space at the end of the drive.

So what's the going rate for a perfect basket of locally-grown strawberries? I'll let you know when I hear the final price tag. At a Chicago fresh market, a pint would cost no less than $4.50 or $5 a pint, in season.

The berries will be ripe and producing for the next 3.5 weeks. We hope to make it down next week, for Father's Day weekend if we can swing it.

Oh...and Photo Farmgirl, if you're reading this, please be sure to save some preserves. Diet or not, I'll be trying some of that...and jumping in to make some strawberry rhubarb pie.

Our Wayward Guest Appears

We finally coaxed our little surprise guest out from hiding under the porch to get a glimpse of her. Clearly petrified, she didn't stay out long. But we did manage to snap a few shots.


We believe her mommy came for her at some point last night. By morning, the crying had ended and the hole beneath the porch was noticeably larger. And since I see no evidence of remains, I'm holding firm in my belief that mommy opossum came for her.