Letter from a farmer Another week passed and I can honestly and repeatedly say there is never a dull moment at Roxbury Farm. Monday we started off by finding that the main computer refused to be switched on. Unfortunately for us, there are not many computer technicians awake at 6:00 am. We dropped it off at the computer repair shop at 9:00 am and were told that the computer was gone. The main hard drive was saved but we needed to replace the unit. Anyone who has gone through this experience will understand that this is much easier said than done. It took until Friday evening to have a working computer again, which in our definition implies that our CRM (database) program is properly installed and linked with our accounting and email software. As a result you did not re-ceive the newsletter until the week was almost over. When we send you the link to our newsletter, our database software sends individual emails to each member through our email program. Technology is wonderful but also makes you vulnerable. All that technology we embrace comes along with many unintended and unforeseen consequences. Technology is great as long as it works. I still don’t understand why we have to experience so many brown-outs of our electrical system in the US. I worry about the many electrical motors we depend on. Brown-outs and other unexpected power outages are hard on compressors, motors, and…. computers. We will never know what caused the meltdown of the computer but we have had to depend on our own generator more than usual this sea-son to power the farm with electricity. Transferring electricity requires transformers and that is where the week became really exciting. Thursday morning I received a call from Steffen Schneider of Hawthorne Valley Farm alerting me that a recycling plant 4 miles south of us had gone up in flames. Concerns were that the smoke contained dangerous chemical components and people within a half mile radius were evacuated. I told him I was completely unaware of the situation as we could not smell anything or see anything. No one had come by to alert us; neither had we received any warnings from county or state officials. As the wind is blowing predominately out of the west I was not surprised that we had not noticed anything. Any smoke plume would disperse itself towards the eastern part of the county. We had no internet access at the moment (our computer at the farm was still down) and over breakfast I checked the news at home. I found an article in the local Register Star describing the fire that had erupted the night before at 10:30 pm. The article stated that the plant had been disposing electrical equipment (read transformers), PCB’s, and bulk oil for the past 25 years. The state of emergency had been declared in West Ghent. I wondered why in heavens name this company was allowed to do this in the middle of a rural-residential area. At this point it was 8:00 am and as no one had alerted us I figured that we were not in danger. With the wind coming steadily from the west and with the plant straight south of us I did (con’t on p. 2)

ROXBURY FARMROXBURY FARMROXBURY FARM

info@roxburyfarm.com www.rox buryfarm.com August 6, 2012 - pickup week # 9

Steve and Madeleen loading onions into a bulk bin.

Filling buckets with onions.

(letter con’t) not expect that any fallout would affect us. I was very concerned for my friends and neighbors who did live right in the plume.

At 10:00 am, Dave called to let us know that the radio had announced that anyone within a 15 mile radius should not be outside. We called the NY State Department of Agriculture and Markets and the local Department of Health Office to get this verified. They confirmed the news and ad-vised us that we should get our crew out of the field and send them home. They also told us to bring our livestock inside a barn. The irony of how the two contradict each other was obvious as it takes people to bring animals in from pasture but bringing in animals from pasture is not really an option any-way. We sent our crew home and told them to shower even though there was absolutely no sign of soot or dust on the farm. At this point we had to follow official warnings. Now I really freaked out. What if our farm had been polluted? This fire had been going on for 12 hours. Only now did they tell us to have people and animals stay inside if you are within a 15 mile radius? We should just feed hay to our animals and keep them from eating grass for a while until the danger passed. If our pastures and vegetable fields were really pol-luted would there be any point to ever farm these fields again? Did they consider what they were telling us was like a death sentence for the farm and all the farms like ours?

At 2:00 pm, we were informed that no dangerous chemicals were found at the burn site which indicated that no noxious material was released in the fire. Everybody was allowed to work outside again. We called our crew and asked if they were willing to pick up our work where we left. We had started the day before bringing in the onions. On Wednesday, we had brought in the first 400 bushels of storage onions and given the heat we did not want to leave the other 400 out in the field. Onions can get scalded by the sun if you leave them in the field for too long. The farm staff members we could reach were gracious enough to come back to work and worked late into the evening to bring in the onion crop.

Sometimes you think you have seen it all. Eighty percent of all the orchards in NY State lost their apple crop due to a freeze in April; the apples that were left got damaged by hail. The drought is causing a short supply of feed for livestock. Last year we lost many crops due to flooding. We can handle all that and we will get over that. But human error is quite another one to get over. Thank goodness, pre-liminary test results from the fire are negative for PCB’s but more testing needs to be done. If anything is discovered we know for certain we were not in the area of fallout. But plac-es like Trowbridge Farm, Grazin’ Angus, and Kinderhook Farm, who are all in West Ghent, produce a lot of pastured raised beef, lamb, and chicken are keenly waiting for the re-sults.

Human technology is a boon and a bust at the same time. We enjoy it when the light switch comes on; sometimes less reliable than we hope for but we can no longer imagine living without it. We forget that this energy source comes along with many polluting industries. The coal that generates the power often contains mercury; the transformers contain PCB’s, batteries to store energy contain cadmium and other pollutants. I understand that all of this material needs to be

2 COMING NEXT WEEK (OUR BEST GUESS) Mi-

rai sweet corn; Caprice green beans; Polbig tomatoes, Black cherry, Golden rave, or Juliet tomatoes; Cylindra Beets or Chioga Beets, Athena cantaloupe, Alliance bell peppers, Carmen pep-pers, Mariachi and Jalapeno peppers, slicing cucumbers, broccoli, head let-tuce or salad mix, and purple basil. FRUIT: peaches

recycled. If Columbia County is one of the hosts for such recycling plants it will be important that at the least we have a clear idea what is stored in such a warehouse on a daily log, that we require the compa-ny to follow the highest safety regulations, and that the buildings are made out of fire retardant steel. Last but not least if still anything goes wrong would-n’t it be a good idea to have an emergency alert sys-tem in place? Coming from Europe I often make the “mistake” to trust government to keep us safe, expect infrastructure to be maintained, and that regulations are enforced. After living here for more than 25 years I should know better. I stubbornly hold on to the notion that things like Bhopal won’t happen here. And if they do, I would like a more timely warning to get the hell out of here.

The fire leaves us with many questions. Why do we allow such companies to do business here? Apparently they had little idea what the plants had stockpiled (the inventory the fire department dealt with was two years old). Why doesn’t our county have emergency alert system in place in case something does go wrong? Columbia County is blessed with many farming (continued on page 3)

CHICKEN SHARES: This week we are delivering the weekly and bi weekly shares. Aug 7 to Aug 10: weekly and bi-weekly shares Aug 14 to Aug 17: weekly and monthly shares Aug 21 to Aug 24: weekly and bi- weekly shares Aug 28 to Aug 31: weekly shares Sept 4 to Sept 7: weekly & bi-weekly

COOLERS AND BAGS: Please return the coolers and insulated bags that the meat orders and shares come in to your CSA site. Thank you!

3 (continued from page 2) operations that are dependent on cus-tomers who conscientiously choose what they eat. Some farms are certified organic or biodynamic but many choose not to be certified. Many of the practices between the certi-fied and non-certified farms are identical and all take great care of the land, crops, and livestock. If the chemical plume from the fire had been full of PCB’s, how many of us would quit farming? What would happen to the land and the dis-placed farmers? What would Columbia County look like without agriculture? Why don’t we as a society ask our-selves these questions before it is too late?

~Jean-Paul

DON’T FRACK NEW YORK EVENT: The event will be held simultaneously in Al-bany and New York City on August 25 to August 27 to let Governor Cuomo know that New Yorkers are against hy-drofracking for natural gas in New York. For more information visit www.dontfrackny.org.

PORK SHARES: The livery will be the week of August 28 August 31. Please let us know if you will be gone and we will send your pork share another week.

Carrot and Yogurt Sauce ‰ garlic clove Kosher salt 1 cup plain low-fat yogurt 2 tablespoons (packed) finely grated carrot (use a Microplane grater) 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill 2 teaspoons (or more) fresh lemon juice 1teaspoonfinely grated lemon zest Freshly ground black pepper Place garlic on a work surface. Sprinkle with salt and finely chop, occasionally smearing with side of knife to make a paste. Transfer to a medium bowl. Add yogurt, carrot, dill, 2 tsp. lemon juice, and zest; whisk to combine. Season with salt, pepper, and more lemon juice, if desired. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2012/06/carrot-and-yogurt-sauce

Carrot Salad 2-4 carrots, depending on size, grated (no need to peel them!) 20g raisins 20g dried cranberries 10g pumpkin seeds 10g chopped pecans 10g chopped walnuts 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped 1 tbsp unsweetened grated coconut 1 tbsp white wine vinegar 1 tsp honey

1/4 tsp salt 1/8 tsp black pepper 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard Add all ingredients through white wine vinegar to a large a mixing bowl. Set aside In a separate bowl, add vinegar, honey, salt, pepper and Dijon mustard. Blend until well combined. Pour over reserved salad and stir well. from www.thehealthyfoodie.com

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The newest addition to the farm is a livestock guardi-an dog named Diego. We lost an ewe and two lambs were injured by a coyote attack two weeks ago. Since then we have been looking for the right dog. We found one on Friday at Springside Farm just out-side of Syracuse. Diego is an Akbash. Akbash dogs are a breed from Turkey bred to protect sheep and goats from mountain predators like wolves and bears. Turkish farmers and farmers from many oth-ers countries have used different breeds of dogs to protect their livestock for more than 3000 years. Livestock guardian dogs live with the flock year round. They are not pets but working dogs. They are gentle with them from any predators. We are slowly introducing Diego to his new flock and then he will be with them full time. He is friendly to the farm staff and after Jody introduces Diego to new people he enjoys a good scratch behind the ears.

Spicy Caramelized Sweet Corn

3 Tbsp. unsalted butter Kernels from 3-4 ears fresh corn 2 scallions or onions, thinly sliced 1 jalapeno pepper, seeds removed if desired, minced 2 Tbsp. water Salt 1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice, plus lime wedges for serving Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium-high until bubbling. Add the corn, scallions, and jalapeno, stirring to coat with butter. Cook, stir-ring occasionally, until the corn begins to brown and stick to the bottom of the pan, about 10 minutes. (You might hear some kernels popping toward the end.) Add the water and stir, scraping the bottom of the pan to dislodge any extremely delicious brown bits. When the water has boiled off, add salt to taste. Remove from the heat, and stir in the lime juice. Serve immediately, with additional lime wedges. from www. millsapfarms.wordpress.com

The piglets greeting us through their fence.