Had the opportunity to visit a homestead and farm in Western Massachusetts this past weekend. Shortly after arriving, I helped pack the flowers for a wedding they were working on, picked some blueberries for lunch, and weeded the rest of the time away. Loved being outdoors and working again. Hopefully, will be back next year.

Went to pick up soil at McEnroe Farm yesterday and stopped at Wild Hive for lunch. I've probably talked about them before since they were really close to the farm I worked at last year. They grow their own grain for their baked goods and bread, and I know a lot of the students at the CIA visit the local farm/bakery for one of their classes. I bought a couple of loaves while we were there-- the sour corn rye bread is absolutely delicious.

So I think it's time to start planting seeds for my balcony garden. I'm pretty new to container gardening but I learned from last year about what did well (radish, mint, basil) and what didn't (cilantro, tomatoes) so I'm probably only going to stick to a few herbs and flowers this time around, especially since I don't have the time to be watering all day long anymore. Maybe some arugula and micro greens. We'll see how it goes.

Carbon Farming at Stone Barns

I attended a lecture at Stone Barns last night on a topic I have never heard before-- carbon farming. The speaker was Dave Jacke, author of Edible Forest Gardens and is a teacher of ecological design and permaculture. He talked about how to apply the principles of ecology to the design of a home garden of any scale that basically mimics a forest ecosystem, which can provide a multitude of benefits including "food, fuel, fiber, fodder, fertilizer, farmaceuticals, and fun" while minimizing or completely eliminating negative outputs into the environment. Because his idea is to mimic a natural forest-- whether it be in backyards, rooftop gardens, or acres of land-- it takes much less work than managing a vegetable garden or farm.

Rooftop forest garden in the UK

I'm not sure how I can apply these principles to my own home in Brooklyn, but I'm hoping to start with a better plan of my garden this spring. I learned a lot from my experiences last year, but I'm also realistic about my work schedule, so I'm just going to keep my balcony garden simple this time around. 

I hope to be able to go to more lectures at Stone Barns, since it's relatively close to the city and the center hosts a lot of interesting events about food and farming. Although I'm excited about my new job, I still want to continue learning and be a part of the farming community in some way. Coming up, there will be another lecture on carbon farming focusing on soil this Wednesday. Also, Joel Salatin, the farmer who Michael Pollan talks about extensively in his book The Omnivore's Dilemma and who is featured in the film Food Inc., will be giving a talk on February 4th. However, that one's already sold out! 

Chicken mobile and collecting eggs; a walk through the nature preserve in Hudson, NY.

A Week in Conway, MA

I just came back from spending a wonderful week in Western Massachusetts, where I attended a program at Goldthread Farm to learn about medicinal herbs. The main goal of the program was to provide us with a basic knowledge of herbal medicine so that we could start integrating their use into our lives. The instructors were wonderful, incorporating a mixture of lectures, herb walks, and farm work. I also met a lot of very nice people-- 4 of whom were also nurses!

The highlights for me were: learning about tulsi, the "holy basil", while drinking freshly harvested tulsi and ginger tea; picking off and eating goji berries during an herb walk around the farm; taking part in the distillation of lemon verbena into essential oil; tasting herbal honeys; daily delicious lunches prepared by an amazing cook; a group trip to Northampton for dinner; and getting to know the lovely lady whose house I stayed at during the week.

I've learned a lot of new things this year, mostly about farming and growing vegetables, but I also really wanted to know more about herbs in particular. Yes, vegetables are good for us. And eating more of them (and subsequently, less meat) has made me feel a lot better in general. But there are so many plants-- even culinary herbs and spices that are already in our kitchens-- that can help us keep healthy and prevent us from getting sick. Of course there's no substitute for Western medicine when you're very ill, but in general, herbs and plants can help us keep up our immunity and defend against common ailments.

This all brings me to the root of why I stopped working at the hospital this year and started working on a farm. Apart from wanting to know where my food comes from, what goes into the soil and how to keep it healthy in order to produce nutrient-rich food, I also want to do everything I can to keep myself from being on the patient side at the cancer center where I worked. Two people who were present at my wedding were patients on my floor. Both have passed away. I took care of one of them during her last 3 nights, and I have to say-- now that I am no longer working there-- that those were the hardest shifts I ever went through. I had never felt so drained. So much that after that, I realized I couldn't work at a cancer center anymore.

There are so many things out of our control-- our environment, upbringing, genetics, etc. But what we eat, even if we can't know where it all really comes from, is our choice and is one of the ways we can actively take part in maintaining health. Sounds simple, but it's really something I never thought too much about before. But I am paying more attention to how different foods make me feel after a meal. Coming from a family where we primarily cook and eat Chinese food, which is also food that I enjoy indulging in, I just try to find a balance. And now I know I can also do small things each day, even if it's just brewing a cup of mint tea after dinner!

Drying apple mint; pullet eggs from the livestock people at the farm; malabar spinach and sungold tomatoes from my garden.

The Rural Route Film Festival has been going on this weekend at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. The farmer in charge of livestock at the farm made a documentary about young farmers that's being featured in this festival. The Greenhorns is playing tonight at 6pm. Here's the trailer. 

One of my baskets of leftovers from our harvest this week. Lots of kaleidescope carrots, giant zucchinis, some okra, fennel, and very fragrant lemon verbena which I am using for tea everyday.

Over the weekend, I went back home to Toronto. It was a really short trip, mainly took care of some errands with my grandfather, went to church and a BBQ with family friends. I also managed to squeeze in some time to go raspberry picking in Markham. 

I had no idea we were so close to all these farms. One side of Major Mackenzie are housing developments and small shopping centers 

And on the other side of the street are farms

Anyways, we went to Organics Farm just in time for the last of their raspberries. They were really good but I still made some of it into jam. My sister also brought home the most amazing wild blueberries. If it sounds like I'm obsessed with berries, it's because I totally am! All summer fruits really. They're only available during such a short window. 

Speaking of the farm, we've been having some issues with the tomato hornworm the last couple of weeks. Since we're not spraying, we spent a good amount of time last week searching for them, then collecting them in a jar (so gross), which we fed to the chickens. But we missed one of them and it turned into a huge moth. We spent more time trying to eliminate it than we should have. Water does not work, and neither does bleach. I don't even want to say what we ended up doing with it. Also, we caught a woodchuck. (I have pictures of all of these but I don't know if I can put them up or if anyone would want to see them anyways!) 

All this made me think of the book I'm reading, Eating Animals. One of the main reasons he cites for being a vegetarian is that he doesn't want to hurt any creature, that we should treat fish the same way we treat dogs and cats. Well, now I see that we have to kill quite a few creatures in order to produce vegetables, herbs, and fruit. Aren't they alive too, have nociceptors like us and are frightened when locked up in a small cage?

So what people normally do when they encounter a woodchuck in their garden is shoot it. It finds ways inside the garden gates, eats and destroys a lot of the vegetables, and probably tells all its friends and family about it. I don't know if it's because it was only the three of us girls trying to figure out what to do with this woodchuck and we didn't really have the heart to shoot it or allow anyone else to, but we ended up driving it a couple miles away and releasing it. May not have been entirely legal, and it will probably end up getting killed by some predator in its disorientation, but it was the best we could come up with. I wonder what we'll have to deal with in the weeks to come! 

Tenth Acre Farms [www.tenthacrefarms.com] from christine zenyi lu on Vimeo.

Check out this video of Tenth Acre Farms, a local urban farm. Been getting some of their produce from the Brooklyn Kitchen. I like their raised beds, no bending over or squatting for hours!

Visited the Queen's County Farm Museum today. Beautiful space, lovely day.

Except until an hour ago, as I was about to post, when a fire broke out on the first floor of our building. Smoke was rising out the back of the building and people started coming out to the streets, yelling at us to exit the building. We grabbed our cats and dashed down the stairs. The fire is out and everyone is okay now, but it was scary for a moment. Kind of puts things in perspective. Anyways, I'm very grateful to the firemen here in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. They acted super fast to keep us safe. Gonna calm down now and try to enjoy the rest of the evening.

"Animal agriculture makes a 40% greater contribution to global warming than all transportation in the world combined; it is the number one cause of climate change."

From Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. 

Also interesting is this recent article on global warming by Al Gore in the Rolling Stone.

So many choices to make on a daily basis...

Also catching up on my weekly farm readings, excerpts from:

1) Fertility From the Ocean Deep -- explains how nutrients from the ocean benefit plants.

2) From the Soil Up -- basic science of soil and managing soil aeration, water, and residue decay.

3) The Unsettling of America -- Wendell Berry mourns the decline of small farmers and describes his views on 'modern' agriculture and how it has corrupted our culture and caused an ecological crisis. 

Optimum Trajectory

“Your life is like a river. If you’re aiming for a goal that isn't your destiny, you will always be swimming against the current... Find out what your destiny is and the river will carry you."

-The Men Who Stare at Goats

A bit cheesy, I know. And the movie itself, not that great.

But that quote struck me.

Anyone that has known me these last few years knows how challenging working as a nurse, particularly in oncology, has been for me. I get that a lot of people don't like their jobs or find their jobs boring or stressful... but when it makes you cry all the time-- before work because of anxiety, during work because of an overwhelming sense of doom, and after work because of exhaustion-- it feels like swimming against the current, a constant struggle.

Working on a farm or garden has been something I have wanted to do since college, but never found enough time or had the opportunity to go away and live somewhere else for an entire season. Now that I have decided to try something completely different (or what people who are in my world and a part of my life right now consider to be unconventional) and made this change in my life, I'm not sure if I can go back. It feels right, even though I don't know where it will take me. But I'm content to continue floating along with this current.

Driving on the Taconic, all I saw were cops and deer. Makes for a cautious drive, even if the scenery is gorgeous. This week at the farm/garden, I learned how to prune tomatoes. It's so satisfying, I could prune all day! I'll have to tend to my own tomato plants today. What else did we do... trellised the peas, harvested lettuces and kale, transplanted rows of pistou basil for the herb garden, weeded of course. The time just passes so fast while I'm there, always lots to do.

Neil cooked hamburgers with shoestring fries last night, very satisfying after a long day. He had gone to the Union Square Greenmarket yesterday and met Keith Stewart of Keith's Farm. He told him what I was doing and he gave me a free copy of his book! I've wanted to read It's a Long Road to a Tomato for a while now, especially after I saw his posting for internship positions. I didn't want to live somewhere else for an entire season though, but I'm sure it would be a wonderful experience. Anyways, I'm very happy to have his book now. And his tomatoes were really good with the hamburger! 

Also, first blueberries of the season were at the Greenmarket. So much good fruit during the summer!

 Basil I got from the farm this week, which I made into yummy pesto. I'm working at a different farm now, twice a week. It's upstate NY and a brand new farm. All produce is sold to a NYC restaurant. This week we accomplished a lot-- we seeded in the greenhouse, weeded, transplanted, raked, and applied compost to the beds. I really like the drive up on the Taconic, so beautiful. I would take pictures but it's not really safe to be driving while operating a camera.

This weekend we're at Artists and Fleas again. I sold this brass owl dish today... so sad to see it go haha. I have a hard time parting with some of the things :) Another day tomorrow!

Snapshots from my second week wwoofing on Orchard Farm Organics in Princeton, NJ.

Early to bed and early to rise

... at least while I'm wwoofing on this farm in New Jersey! It's been a great experience so far, filled with hard work and wholesome food. In the last week, I have gone to bed at around 9pm every night, produced almost no garbage, spent only $8 (for a local college play), watched no tv, and been constantly muddy! Main tasks have been to work with a heap of compost and raising beds, but have also helped with animal care and putting up a layer of the roof for the greenhouse. There was one other volunteer at the house last week and Neil came on Friday to cook. This work away from work has been very good for me-- it's been wonderful getting to know the family and other people that live here and I love being outside all day. Will take my time recharging and learning something new.

Went to Bobolink Dairy in Vernon, New Jersey today for a farm tour. We also picked up some of their delicious breads and cheeses from their store.

Below, the ciabatta bread made with duck fat

and our favorite cranberry walnut sticks