From the Market Manager Blueberry season is here! Yay! There are lots of places where you can pick your own. They are easy to freeze. Just lay them on a cookie sheet with sides in one layer, freeze, then place into freezer bags. That’s it. You know that the tomatoes we have at the market now are greenhouse tomatoes, right? The field tomatoes don’t ripen until later in July at the earliest. While some greenhouse tomatoes don’t have much flavor, Ryan Voiland from Red Fire Farm told me that some of their most flavorful tomatoes are from their greenhouse. That is because they can control the water there. If there is too much water outside, the flavor of the tomatoes can be somewhat diluted. Who knew? Meet the Vendors--Maple Corner Farm--West Granville Blueberries Owned by Leon and Joyce Ripley of Maple Corner Farm, West Granville Blueberries is a side business and labor of love in the hills of West Granville. In addition to haying hundreds of acres of fields, which double as pastoral cross country skiing trails during he winter months, the Ripleys tend to a 3 acre berry patch that draws folks from all around the region. Leon has been involved with the blueberry patch on North Lane since it was first planted. The business was started by Leon’s uncle John Sena. Sena moved to the Granville area in 1959 having decided the dairy business wasn’t for him. Granville was the capital of wild blueberries back in the early 1900s with close to one thousand acres of low bush berries, so John and 9 year old Leon set to work planting between 100-200 plants that first year. More plants followed expanding eventually to 600 bushes. They selected high bush berry varieties for the size, flavor, and ease of picking. Sena and Leon’s other uncle, Steve Ripley, managed the 3 acres of blueberries for the following 3 decades. In the 90s, Leon, his wife Joyce, and his mother Helen became more involved in the business and they decided to open a pick-your-own operation in the early 2000s. Helen oversaw the marketing and the management of the berry fields, and she staffed the stand from mid-July to early August for nearly 5 years passing out samples of blueberry sauce and recipes for baked blueberry delights. She died in December 2005 at age 92. Joyce Ripley took over her mother-in-law’s post, tending to the picking, marketing and management of the blueberries. Located in the foothills of the Berkshires, West Granville’s fruits ripen later than their Valley neighbors, but unfortunately, the distance does not protect them from the insect pressures that have spread in the Valley. They have struggled with spotted wing drosophila, an insect that targets soft fruits since it arrived in Massachusetts in 2012 and devastated fruit crops. They lost their whole crop that year. They are resourceful farmers and now know what they’re up against. This year’s crop is looking very good Leon reports. They should be open for pick-your-own around July 15th. They will have their annual blueberry tasting the first Saturday in August where you can taste different blueberry varieties, as well as baked goods from Ripley family recipes. Maple Corner Farm also has an extensive maple sugaring operation. You can sample the different grades of maple syrup at their stand here at the market. Leon and Joyce’s son David and wife Jessica are also very involved with the farm. Jess is at our market each Tuesday. PVTA Van If you take the van to our market, we will give you two market tokens to defray the cost of the trip. You do have to reserve your space several days ahead, so call them early. Raffle Alicia Miles is our raffle winner this week. We are selling raffle tickets for $1 to earn some money for the market. At the very least, we seem to be breaking even. You can also give us a contribution. We’ll even smile when you do so. Recipe--Curried Cream of Summer Squash Soup Summer squash (any kind), butter, onions, chicken or vegetable broth, potato if you’d like the soup to be a little thicker, half and half or cream, curry, salt and pepper. Sauté cut up onion in butter until it is soft. Add cut up squash and potato. Cover with broth and cook until soft. Cool then puree in a blender or use an immersion blender. Add curry powder to taste and half and half. This soup is good warm or cold. This ‘n’ That If you have leftover corn on the cob, take the kernels off and sauté them with butter until some of them are brownish (caramelized). Also, you can use the kernels in pancakes, or add them to a vegetable you might be sautéing. They are also great in vegetable soup. You can also freeze them. After you take the kernels off the cob, put the cobs in some water and boil them for about 10 minutes. Save the water and use it in vegetable soup. Corn chowder is very easy to make. Just make sure when you are cooking the potatoes and corn that you don’t cover them with too much water otherwise your chowder will be thin. You can always thicken it with some flour and water, but that might make it too thick. Stanley Park Concert Series This Sunday at 6PM in the Beveridge Pavilion the Rockin’ Robin Summertime Dance Party will perform a fun, family concert with a variety of enthusiastically sung classic top ten hits from the 50s, 60, and 70s. The concerts are all free. You can bring your supper, or purchase something there. 2012 Census of Agriculture Reveals new Trends in Farming There are now 3.2 million farmers operating 2.1 million farms on 914.5 million acres of farmland across the U.S., according to the 2012 Census of Agriculture released this past May. Both sales and production expenses reached record highs in 2012. U.S. producers sold $394.6 billion worth of agricultural products, but it cost them $328.9 billion to produce those products. 3/4ths of all farms had sales of less than $50,000, producing only 3% of the total value of farm products sold while those with sales of more than $1 million--4% of all farms produced 66%. Much of the increased farm income was concentrated geographically or by farm categories. California led the nation with 9 of the top 10 counties for value of sales. The other 4 top states were Iowa, Texas, Nebraska, and Minnesota. 87% of all U.S. farms are operated by families or individuals. Principal operators were on average 58.3 years old and were primarily male; second operators were slightly younger and most likely to be female, and third operators were younger still. Young beginning principal operators who reported their primary occupation as farming increased 11.3% from 36,396 to 40,499 between 2007 & 2012. All categories of minority-operated farms increased between 2007 & 2012; Hispanic operated farms had a significant 21% increase. Organic sales were growing, but accounted for just 0.8% of the total value of U.S. agricultural production. Organic farmers reported $3.12 billion in sales.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 08:08:33 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015