Tomatoes in February

This photo captured my attention last week when looking for something else in my photo files.

late season tomato harvest 2017 on Crandall Hill

I'm not sure how many tomato varieties are represented but I can quickly identify Green Zebra, Yellow Pear, Sweetie Cherry, Cherokee Chocolate, Black Cherry, Roma Paste, Amish Paste, Black Sea Man and Stupice. I can almost smell the particular tomato scent, almost taste the sweet, complex, deep flavors, almost feel the splash of sun-warmed juice on my chin.

But, it's February, and it's cold, and it's snowy and these tomatoes are but a colorful memory.

Author Barry Estrabrook writes:

"I think wanting a tomato in the dead of winter - or wanting a little bit of orange on the plate ...is inherent in a lot of our shopping decisions. We expect an ingredient to be on the supermarket shelves 365 days a year, whether or whether not it's in season or tastes any good. It's the price we pay for insisting we have food out of season and not local." 

supermarket tomatoes
"We all know what industrial tomatoes taste like (or don't)
but they have only a fraction of the vitamins that the tomatoes
my mother fed to me in the 1960s did" - Barry Estabrook

"Tomatoes are bred to be perfectly formed so they can make their way across the United States and onto your dinner table without cracking or breaking," writes Estabrook in his best-selling book, "Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit."

"Corporate agriculture does one thing, and only one thing, extremely well. It puts incredibly cheap food on our tables. But that cheapness comes at an incredible cost to the environment, to workers, to rural communities, and to food quality - in terms of both nutrition and taste...
We foodies and people in the sustainable food movement chant these mantras, 'local, seasonal, organic, fair-trade, sustainable,' and they almost become meaningless because they're said so often and you see them in so many places. If you strip all those away, they do mean something, and what they mean is that you end up with something like a Florida tomato in the winter — which is tasteless."

In this interview, Estabrook, elaborates on changes since "Tomatoland" was published in 2011.

Candlemas Day

... half our wood?

Everybody's favorite psychic rodent, Punxsutawney* Phil, tells us we're in for six weeks of winter.
The day we in the USA have come to know as Groundhog Day is known as Candlemas Day across the pond in Europe. And here's where Phil gets his authority.

If Candlemas day be sunny and bright, winter will have another flight; If Candlemas day be cloudy with rain, winter is gone and won't come again.

Candlemas comes 40 days after Christmas. Origins of Candlemas date to a Celtic holiday, Imbolc, where participants carried torches through the fields in rites of purification, welcoming the fertility of the coming spring. The church adapted the tradition into the blessing of the candles, reminding all the Christ is the light of the world.  It is also observed as the day when Jesus was presented at the Temple. (Luke 2:22-40).

February 2 marks the midway point between winter solstice and spring equinox and through the ages, folks, weary of winter, have turned to traditions of weather observation to bring some hope for better days to come.

The English can be thanked for this old agricultural adage

"The farmer should have, on Candlemas Day, half his straw and half his hay"

However, when those farmers moved across the ocean to New England, the last line underwent a change to reflect the danger of the long, cold winters in New England where keeping warm had to be a priority.

"The farmer should have, on Candlemas Day, half his wood and half his hay."

A tip of the hat to my friend Louise Aucott who posted this on her Facebook page a couple of days ago. (Her post sent me googling for more information about Candlemas)

"Half of your wood and half your hay must remain on Candlemas day."

Then today, neighbor farmer (and cousin) Kent Kenyon posted this:

"Half your straw and half your hay shall remain on Groundhog Day"

Next year I think I'll celebrate Candlemas in the French tradition. La Chandeleur  (from chandelle meaning candle) grew from the notion that a long-ago pope distributed pancakes to pilgrims arriving in Rome to celebrate Candlemas. Thus the French serve crepes on February 2. The luscious round buttery pancakes are symbolic of the sun returning to warm the Earth and Jesus as the "light of the world."

*Thanks to Mr. James Berger, my high school Pennsylvania History teacher, I can spell Punxsutawney without the spell check!

Preservation

There's a sprinkle of snow coming from the cloudy sky. Everywhere I look, it's either white, gray or brown.  But, in some peculiar way, I look forward to days like this in the heart of summer.
I've written before about the particular joys of preserving food - especially the food you've planted, tended and harvested with your own hands.

On those summer days, when I'm lining up the shiny glass jars full of tomatoes on the old rough shelves in the cellar, my mind jumps to a day much like today.  I see myself making a trip to the cellar to retrieve a couple of those jars. And later I will hear the ringing pop as I break the seal. I will catch the scent of tomatoes as the fruit splashes into the pan.
Today there's a pot of bolognese simmering on the stove, the complex aroma of tomatoes, onions, garlic and peppers rising with the steam.
I reach for the smaller jars of dried herbs from Thelma Metzger's old Napanee cupboard, their faded colors belying the crisp sharpness within the confines of glass. It's summer again as I carefully cut the stalks of basil, gently rinse and dry them, arranging the leaves just so on the drying racks. A bit later the delightful signature basil fragrance spills out the open windows as the leaves curled to store their goodness for a day like today.

2018 Farm Bill

I admit the Farm Bill is hardly at the top of the mind for most folks. I never gave much thought to the enormous impacts of this behemoth until I heard Wes Jackson speak at the PASA (Pennsylvania Association For Sustainable Agriculture) Conference in State College several years ago. Jackson, President Emeritus of The Land Institute in Kansas, was advocating for a longer view for the Farm Bill. His organization's point of view is detailed in this New York Times op-ed piece. The op-ed is co-written by Wendell Berry.

"Thoughtful farmers and consumers everywhere are already making many necessary changes in the production and marketing of food. But we also need a national agricultural policy that is based upon ecological principles. We need a 50-year farm bill that addresses forthrightly the problems of soil loss and degradation, toxic pollution, fossil-fuel dependency and the destruction of rural communities. This is a political issue, certainly, but it far transcends the farm politics we are used to. It is an issue as close to every one of us as our own stomachs."

Congress tackles Farm Bills on what should be a five year cycle. In recent history, it's common for delays to trigger extensions of the current bill for periods of a year or more. The Agricultural Act of 2014, or the 2014 Farm Bill, is set to expire, for the the most part, at the end of September 2018.
If you're interested in reading more about how the Farm Bill works, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition has this primer. 
The House Agriculture Committee has recently launched a website detailing components of the Farm Bill that will be debated in the coming year.
Our Congressman, Glenn Thompson, is vice chair of this committee and we all need to raise our voices to bring our concerns to his attention. The Local Food and Regional Market Supply Act being proposed by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a good starting point.

Listening At The Farm Show

On Saturday, January 6, our Congressman, Glenn Thompson hosted a listening session regarding the 2018 Farm Bill and agriculture policy on the opening day of the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg. Thompson serves as House Committee on Agriculture Vice Chairman.

According to a report in the Centre Daily Times, the price of dairy products was an overriding theme as farmers addressed the panel. But it was this comment by one of the panelists, U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, that captured my attention.

"They need to get Coca-Cola in there to show them how to mark this stuff. I'm serious because part of the problem is that they're not making consumer-friendly products that look attractive. I think if we changed some of that we'd make a big difference on consumption," 

The idea of considering that it's just a "marketing" problem misses the mark. There are many reasons why the dairy industry continues to struggle and marketing is the least of them.

Daughter Kate Metzger Day (on the left drinking from a jelly jar)
and her pal Melanie Butler Connell.
These photos are from a 1980s-era
June Is Dairy Month promotion in the local newspaper.

Read more about the Pennsylvania Farm Show Listening session in this article in the Centre Daily Times.

Thompson took time on Monday to trumpet the Pennsylvania Farm Show on the floor of the House of Representatives. He acknowledged the important role that agriculture, as the state's biggest employer, plays in the lives of Pennsylvanians. I'm wondering who penned the words he delivered.

You can listen to his address here. (This is a link to C-Span and you'll need to scroll down to find his address.)

Bleak Midwinter

Cold, cold and more cold!
That topic seems to be first in every conversation as folks find ways to cope with winter's deepest chill.

winter on Crandall Hill, circa 1950s
Wanda Gooch Metzger on her way to work in town

I remember many sub-zero winter days on the farm where I've made my home for more than 40 years. Most center around frozen water pipes. (How about Sharon Fitzgerald's recent blog post about water struggles?)

Arthur and sister Carol making the most of winter

During this second week of January in 2018, the weather predictors have promised some relief with temperatures warming above the freezing mark by mid-week.

And, it's only 72 days until spring!

For those who have an interest in such things, this website is one of many where you can find information about temperature and precipitation in Pennsylvania.  http://climate.met.psu.edu/data/state/staterecords.php

Organic

There was lots of chatter about the cost of providing a Thanksgiving feast on social media this season. From where I sit, I do understand that food costs are a big chunk of everyone's budget but here's different perspective (with a nod to fellow farmer Laura Mangan).

When we complain about the high cost of food, let's take a closer look at what we're getting for our food dollars. Are our food choices nourishing our bodies and brains or bathing our cells in a chemical and hormonal stew?