It’s (Rain) no longer funny
Portland Press Herald - 6/29/2009. By Tom Atwell – So I am not going to complain. The strawberries might be rotting on the vine, but we have eaten a lot of them and have two batches of jam put up. And there might be hope for our other food crops. If you look closely on this picture of Knight peas that Nancy took in our garden, you can see some flat pea pods among all the pea flowers. Since it takes about a week for the pods to fill out, and if it is dry enough to pick on Saturday, we could have some peas for the Fourth of July. That is a major goal of our gardening season. |
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Embracing the unspoiled
Portland Press Herald - 6/29/2009. By Dieter Bradbury – WINDHAM — From his farmhouse on a hill off Swett Road, Larry Clark can study the imprint that time and progress have made on the town where he was born. What was once an unbroken canopy of trees stretching toward the Pleasant River is now punctuated by cleared lots and the shingled roofs of Cape Cods and split-levels. In this checkered sea, the Clark farm stands like an island – more than 550 acres of unspoiled fields and forests sprinkled with brooks, old stone walls and trails for hiking and skiing. Windham residents will soon decide whether they want to keep it that way. |
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Vermont farmers struggle as demand sours for organic milk
Boston Globe - 6/28/2009. By Jenn Abelson – Three years ago, organic milk was like white gold: Health-conscious customers wanted it, supermarkets couldn’t get enough of it, and anyone who could sell it was making a killing as a shortage swept across the country. At the time, Kimball Brook Farm was at the center of a bidding war as companies courted the farm’s owners, JD and Cheryl Devos. They decided to join Horizon Organic, which offered a $33,000 signing bonus, more than $100,000 to pay for three months of special feed for the cows, and other perks. Almost overnight, though, things have changed. Sales of organic milk have plunged and farmers who got lucrative deals from a dairy industry that was thirsty for the stuff now can’t get rid of it. |
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A bitter reality
Boston Globe - 6/28/2009.By Tom Keane – “Local food’’ is all the rage, touted by adherents as offering better food, an environmentally responsible lifestyle, and self-sufficient communities. The first of those claims is sometimes true. Local tomatoes and corn may well taste better than those from afar. Beyond that, though, the local food movement is an affectation based on bad logic and bad economics, one that, widely adopted, would actually harm the environment and potentially impoverish millions. |
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