The growing season is coming up and it sounds fun to join the club of “Local Foodies”, but there’s work, kids activities, let’s face it, LIFE.  Who has time to spend all day going around to local farms to gather up food you don’t think your kids or your husband are going to eat anyway?  Here are my top 5 ways to make the transition from big box processed food diet to local veggie-based whole foods diet (really, it’s not that scary!)

1.     Ask for what you want, but buy what they have.  Farmers love feedback from their customers!  Want more tomatoes in your CSA share?  No nitrates in your sausage?  We want to hear what you like and don’t like about what we’re growing because pleasing you will keep you coming back.  But if we don’t have this or that just now, don’t walk away with nothing.  The recipe called for flank steak and the farmer’s all out?  Maybe skirt steak will work just as well; or maybe you just change to burgers for dinner.  You LOVE roasted carrots?  Try parsnips!

2.     Try one thing at a time:  Start slow and ease into the local eating diet.  Changing from eating big brands and packaged foods from the one-stop grocery market to seeking out farmers and eating whole foods is a big change – give yourself time.  Try doing one thing this season:  Join a CSA, commit to buying meat from a local farm once a week (or once a month), go out for a glass of wine at a local vineyard instead of your favorite restaurant, make the local Farmer’s Market a weekly habit.  Any ONE of these changes can improve the quality of your diet by leaps and bounds.

3.     Talk to insiders.  Farmers, friends, Facebook and your local health food store are all great places to look to get advice about local eating.  Don’t know where to go for milk?  As your CSA farmer.  Who still has shares available at a local CSA?  Ask in your local Facebook group.  Want bones to make bone broth?  Ask how-to at the health food store.

4.     Double up – Lots of small farms are now trying to offer more for their customer:  they raise meat and also stock local dairy products in their farm store.  They grow veggies, but offer meat in their CSA once in a while.  Use your resources to find these gems.  You might pay a bit more for having all those products in one place, but the reduction in travel time is worth it.

5.     Take advantage and try something new.  Instead of eschewing the bad, sugar-laden processed stuff (you can do that too!), try adding in more good stuff:  try some Bok Choy, or that lean grass feed ground beef.  And take advantage of the tools your farmer offers:  try the recipes they send out in their CSA newsletter or website.  Make sure up to show up with your farmer’s annual tour day – then corner the farmer to ask all your questions.  A well-educated eater is a farmer’s best customer.

Try these 5 tips this summer and see if you can make some changes stick.  Your farmer and your body will thank you!

Last night the Town of Granby’s Town-Owned Land Study Committee held a public meeting to solicit ideas about what to do with 107 East Street (formerly the Evonsian Farm), a property recently acquired by the town.  I felt so grateful to hear so many residents of our town speak in support of farming in Granby.  Here are the comments I made:

“I’d like to see the land stay as it is right now (in corn).  I know you’ve been charged with coming up with a purpose for this newly acquired town asset, but let’s not forget: this land is not new, just new to the town.  The farmers who owned it and their neighbors have been farming this land for years.

“Keeping land in farmland is important to keeping the rural nature of our town and staying true to its farming heritage.  Granby can’t FEEL like a farm town if we aren’t actually farming.  The reason our town feels like a farm town – different from others – is because we drive past acres of corn growing, farmers making hay in the summertime, cattle and horses grazing in fields, row after row of vegetables growing, and old apple trees heavy with fruit.

“The farmers who are currently using this land need it.  They grow food for their animals who in turn grow food for us.  I’d like to see the town let them continue.”

There is still time to give your opinion on how this property should be used.  A survey will be available April 1st on the town’s website, granby-ct.gov.  Fill it out and let the them know what you value in our town.

If you’ve seen the front page of this month’s Granby Drummer (let alone taken a peek inside), you know that someone is not so happy with our town vineyard.  Maybe the entire issue can be solved with a change of attitude, so I’d like to take a minute to look on the bright side of having a vineyard in our beautiful town. 

I don’t live next door to the vineyard, but I do live across the street from Salmon Brook Park.  I enjoy the happy sounds not just of summer concerts and weekly ball games as I work in our fields.  I love the fact that we can see and hear the fireworks for Celebrate Granby right from our front porch.  So I can’t imagine not loving being the neighbor of the vineyard.

We moved from New York City to raise our kids in the town where my husband grew up.  With all its benefits (there are so many), culture is not as quick and easy to be found.  I love having a place to see art, hear music, admire the beauty of nature.  So I can’t imagine not loving being the neighbor of the vineyard.

The best part of being a farmer in this town is our community.  We are all looking to help each other, each believing that together we are stronger than we are individually.  It’s why we started Open Farm Day, why we showcase each other at our own farms, and why we feel we can rely on each other for help and advice.  The vineyard is a big part of this community.  So I can’t imagine not loving being the neighbor of the vineyard.

Our farm had plans (literally) to become a housing development before my husband and I decided to move back to Granby.  Because of a family commitment to farming on the part of his grandparents, his parents and us, our 50 acres in the center of town is still a farm.  We are hoping that the work we are doing now will inspire our own kids to want to take care of the land as a farm in the future.  But they need to see it as a successful, viable business (as all farms MUST be) in order to want to take on the work that it is. Diversification is key to the health of any farm.  So I can’t imagine not loving being the neighbor of the vineyard.

I’ll admit it.  I’m jealous of the vineyard.  It’s a place people just love to go (who doesn’t love wine).  Ground beef and pork chops just aren’t as sexy as Firehouse Red and Clemons Springs white.  They pull people in from near and far and their draw helps not just all of the farms in town, but all of the businesses in town.   So I can’t imagine not loving being the neighbor of the vineyard.

We’re losing farmland at an alarming rate – less so in CT, thankfully.  How great is it that we have not only farmers who have been working their land for generations, but new farmers, reclaiming land that surely once was farmed.  What a great resource for our town.  So I can’t imagine not loving being the neighbor of the vineyard.

As farms in town, we realize that we sometimes try your patience.  But we thank you for being so helpful and understanding.  Our horse is in your back yard?  Thanks for helping us corral them back on to our property.  You can smell the cow manure we spread on our fields?  That’s the smell of spring in Granby!  You are behind us on the tractor?  You give us a wave as you pass with a wide berth.   You can hear the music from down the street?  Sit back, pour a lemonade and enjoy. We’ll repay you by keeping our town rural, pastoral, authentic.  Please do come visit us on Septebmer 6 – Granby’s Open Farm Day 2014!

--Farmer Kate

I can’t find a recipe I like on the internet (they’re all made for those grocery store water-logged hams), so I’m going to tell you how I’m going to cook our Easter ham.  It’s in the fridge now, thawing.  Our hams are smoked without nitrates or nitrites by a great family smokehouse called Noack’s in Meriden, CT.  In order to smoke it without nitrates/nitrites, they have to take the bones out, so what you get is a ham rolled up in a web of baker’s twine, about 3-5 lbs.  The ham needs to be cooked through (it’s not already cooked) to 145 degrees, so make sure you have your meat thermometer at hand (or buy one at our Farm Store).  That’s going to take about 35-40 minutes/lb in a 325 degree oven.  Because it is boneless, that little ham is going to feed a lot of people!  You’ll only need about ¼-1/3 lb of ham for each of your guests.  That means those 3-5 lb hams can serve 12-20 people.

Take your ham out of the plastic packaging and rinse it off and put it in your pan.  This is when I usually say a little thanks to the animal who made the meat.  Put a little bit of water in the pan (just cover the bottom).  You could get creative and use some pork stock, or a mixture of apple juice and water….  Whatever you think would add to the pork flavor and the rest of what you are serving for dinner.  Put foil over your pan and put it in the oven.  About 15-20 minutes before baking should be finished, take off the foil and add any glaze you like (if you like).  Leave uncovered for the rest of the baking time so the glaze can caramelize.  When your thermometer reads 145 (or a little under – it will keep rising as the meat rests), take the roast out of the oven and let it rest for at least 5 minutes.

Since it’s boneless, it’s super easy to carve.  Enjoy with friends and family!  Happy Easter!