A Tale of Two Farms: Essex’s Secret to Happiness

Our 2009 conference on January 9 will feature an up close look at the innovative systems of two successful farm operations. Essex Farm will be one of the featured enterprises. Learn more about the conference.

Mark and Kristin Kimball operate Essex Farm, featured in Bill McKibben’s Deep Economy as a unique example of a farm producing a complete food supply for local eaters. The 75 families who are members of the farm receive a wide spectrum of local food, enjoying both summer classics and nutritious winter staples. “Except for paper towels and dental floss, you’d never have to set foot in a store again,” writes McKibben.

The diverse range of products creates its own share of challenges for the farm. Kristin (a former travel writer) wrote in a 2005 article about the difficult task of managing multiple time sensitive projects at the same time. But the rewards are also great—for both customer and producer. “I felt like I had discovered something no less profound than the secret to happiness,” she said. Read more in her article for New Farm magazine.

Next time, we'll share some farm news directly from Mark and Kristin!

Open Hoophouse Celebration

On December 18, we put the finishing touches on the Local Food Project’s passive solar hoophouse. Airlie’s talented maintenance crew attached durable sheets polycarbonate to the end walls, sealing the structure against icy winter winds. Local craftsman Eric Westergart designed and built a set of wooden double doors for each end. Inside, the hoophouse felt like another world—quiet, sheltered, and alive with crisp lettuces and kales thriving in the cool temperatures. To celebrate the completion of the hoophouse, employees from the Airlie Center joined us for warm drinks and the chance to check out our new protected growing space. The hoophouse has already become a wonderful place to gather, as well as garden!

Local Food Field Trip: Fauquier’s Finest Country Butcher Shop

Here at the Local Food Project, we love our veggies…but we also appreciate and support our farming neighbors who are committed to producing high-quality meats. Airlie Center’s Executive Chef Jeff Witte is a big fan of local foods of all kinds and he sources many ingredients for the Airlie’s renowned buffet from local producers. We rode along with him to Fauquier’s Finest Country Butcher Shop in Bealton to pick up an order of grass-fed beef from Croftburn Farm (Culpeper, VA). This is a great time of year to head out into the community and see the local food web in action!

16 Ft. Resource: Serve Your Country Food

More and more people are getting excited about the benefits of eating local food for better taste and nutrition. To meet the increasing demand for healthy food, we also need more people who are passionately committed to growing it. Serve Your Country Food spotlights farming as a viable career option for our country’s youth. Developed by The Greenhorns, this project aims to bring more attention to the surge in young people entering agriculture by including all young farmers on an interactive map and database. Check it out—and don’t forget to add your own farm to the map or nominate another emerging farmer to be included.

First Hoophouse Harvest

What makes baby pac choi so exciting? These beautiful little bundles (about six inches in length) were the first produce we harvested out of our passive solar hoophouse! Planted on October 15, these “Mei Qing” pac choi (also spelled bok choy) went from the soil to the Airlie Center kitchen on December 10 where they starred in a delicious buffet for the Center’s guests. View more photos of our first hoophouse harvest.

Winter’s Many Shades of Green

Lettuces, bok choy, kale, and other cool-weather favorites
Originally uploaded by Local Food Project at Airlie

Our new batch of seeds for the hoophouse recently arrived and we can already envision the tasty salads we’ll be harvesting for Airlie Center’s guests come February.

Arugula—Astro
Asian Greens—Yukina Savoy and Tatsoi
Cress—Presto
Pac Choi—Mei Qing
Allstar Lettuce Mix
Encore Lettuce Mix
Minutina (Erba Stella)

A Tale of Two Farms: Making Connections with Half Pint

Our 2009 conference on January 9 will feature an up close look at the innovative systems of two successful farm operations. Half Pint Farm will be one of the featured enterprises. Learn more about the conference.

Half Pint developed relationships with local chefs early on through the Intervale’s participation in the Vermont Fresh Network, an organization that fosters ties between farms and restaurants and provides the tools for buyers and sellers to establish long-term relationships.

Half Pint has seen its share of challenges—from floods, to rampant weeds, to a political battle over a new HayGrove hoophouse—but the Weltons continue to succeed (grossing over $50,000 on their mini-farm) through an awareness of the crops, processes, and customers that are right for their farm. Mara and Spencer also give back to the farming community by speaking at events, volunteering with domestic and international projects, and hosting gatherings at the farm.

December’s Colorful Harvest

The first day of December dawned cold and gray, but these brilliantly-colored beets made the garden feel as festive as the tropics! Surviving the frosts under swaths of row cover, our “Chioggia” (red) and “Golden” (orange) beets are a favorite of Airlie Center chefs and are among the last of our 2008 field crops.

Another heartening find was this perfect head of “Red Cross” lettuce, still prettily ruffled, crisp, and unharmed by frost, deer, or groundhog.

A Tale of Two Farms: A Full Grocery Bag from Essex

Our 2009 conference on January 9 will feature an up close look at the innovative systems of two successful farm operations. Essex will be one of the featured enterprises. To learn more about the conference, send an email to localfoodproject@airlie.org.

Kristin and Mark Kimball came to Essex Farm (in Northeastern New York near Lake Champlain) in the fall of 2003 and quickly set to work creating a unique CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) enterprise that provides members with a full grocery bag of food each week—vegetables, orchard fruits, grains, baked goods, dairy, and grass-fed meats. Powered by a team of Belgian draft horses, Essex Farm feeds 75 families year-round. Members experience the full spectrum of local food, enjoying not only summer classics like tomatoes and peppers, but nutritious (and storable) winter squashes and root vegetables.

Next time, we'll look at how Half Pint established lasting relationships with area restaurants.

A Tale of Two Farms: How Half Pint Got Started

Our 2009 conference on January 9 will feature an up close look at the innovative systems of two successful farm operations. Half Pint Farm will be one of the featured enterprises. To learn more and register for the conference, send an email to localfoodproject@airlie.org.

Mara and Spencer Welton grow baby greens and gourmet specialty crops for direct sale to farmer’s markets and restaurants and wholesale to local grocery stores in Burlington, Vermont. Looking ahead to its seventh season, Half Pint Farm began as an incubator project at the Intervale, a reclaimed urban waste site that now hosts a network of thriving small farms.

The Weltons have purposefully kept Half Pint small, finding the one and a third acres a perfect size for two people to manage and capable of producing exquisite vegetables that stand out for their taste, nutrition, and uniqueness. Check out Half Pint Farm’s website to learn more.

Next time, we'll share a peak at how Essex Farm offers CSA members a full grocery bag of good food!

From Garden Bed to Dining Room Buffet

So how do Local Food Project veggies, herbs, and berries make their way from the garden to the buffet table at Airlie Center? Check out our online photo album for a visual tour of the trip.

You’ll see plants getting their start as tiny seedlings, growing, being harvested, washed, delivered, prepared, and presented for the enjoyment of Airlie guests. Start the tour now!