Last Taste of Winter

In dozens of ways, we are gearing up for spring on the farm.  We are signing people up for our CSA, caring for trays of seedlings, preparing the ground for planting, popping onion sets into the cold soil, building a new hoophouse and seeding trays in the chilly hoophouse.  At the same time, we are enjoying the last of the winter as spring weather is making a slow and faulty entrance.  Last week, we had a dusting of snow on our daffodils and our winter coats are still in easy reach. The farm pace is not yet frenetic and we are enjoying the last of the relative calm.

radish microgreens with sprouted lentils

One winter farm treat that we started this year is growing microgreens or very young baby greens that we grow in our seedling trays for something fresh and green in the winter.  Soon, we hope our harvest will be much more abundant, filling bushel baskets instead of tiny bowls, but these baby harvests are a nice taste of what is to come and add some extra nutrition and interest to our dinner.  These are pretty heart shaped radish greens with lentils which we sprouted in a jar on our kitchen counter.

These last calm days also allow for family hikes, and I want to share this image of

Can you identify this machine?

some old farm machinery we came across on a new trail in the Patuxant River Park near our farm. Can anyone tell me what this is?   We could not identify it, although we have our theories. I was able to find a tag and it was made by IH Case in Racine, Wisconsin.  Much of the farming around here was tobacco, but I am not sure how this machine fit in. It looks like it would have been used for grains, but maybe not.

baby dress

In case you are interested in sewing,  I will show you that I made one tiny dress so far from that giant piece of organic interlock I wrote about a few weeks ago.    I still need to find time to finish the sleeves and the neck, and I wound up hand ruffling the bottom instead of trying to tame my new ruffler foot, but my little girl loves it anyway!

Pretty soon we will be overtaken by spring planting here, but I hope to find time to write about the farm season on this blog.

Happy Spring Equinox!

100 Years Since the Triangle Factory Fire

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in New York City, the infamous workplace fire that killed 146 people and resulted in widespread organizing for safer working conditions.  The majority of the victims were young women and Jewish or Italian immigrants many still in their teens. Their names and some details can be read here.

There is great coverage of the event, the aftermath, what we learned and where the labor movement is today in the New York Times, the Jewish Daily Forward, the Nation and elsewhere.  President Obama passed a resolution that said, “The Triangle factory fire was a galvanizing moment, calling American leaders to re-examine their approach to workplace conditions and the purpose of unions.” You can President Obama’s read the entire statement here.   HBO is airing a documentary “Triangle, Remembering the Fire” and this coalition is organizing events around the country.

Like so many Jewish immigrants, parts of my own family arrived in this country and worked in textile factories in New York city,  so this event hits close to home.   And today, with the vast majority of clothing manufacturing  happening overseas, we cannot assume that conditions for workers have improved.   In other industries, workplace safety remains a major concern and sadly events like this continue. I encourage you to read some of the coverage and leave a comment here if you have thoughts on the event or if you see the documentary or attend any of the commemorative events.

Sterling Spring

I am happy to share this guest post by Emily Rosenfeld.  Emily is a self-taught jewelry and Judaica artist living in western Massachusettts with her 6 year old son Jasper and partner Keith.  You can see her beautiful work at www.emilyrosenfeld.com.

by Emily Rosenfeld

The snow is melting.  My little side garden had snow past the windows last month but the white has receded leaving  rosy tipped tulips poking out of the dark wet earth.  Spring is coming.  It snowed big wet March snowflakes yesterday, but the season is turning.

Pewter Tree Locket (www.emilyrosenfeld.com)

In the studio, I am feeling my mind start to wander toward new ideas.  Little sterling birds are starting to form themselves.  Meaningful words are coming to mind.  But when I try to draw what I am sensing nothing comes.  I am not quite seeing it.  It is definitely not time to take out the silver

I am finally realizing that this is making jewelry.  It always starts like this with daydreams while I’m sawing out jump rings or walking down my buildings’ long hall to the sink.  I feel jittery and a little bit at loose ends but I think this is actually creativity, stirring and unclear.  I am remembering not to panic before craft shows when I need to make new pieces.  There are tender shoots that have been growing towards the light, maybe still buried, but growing.  Making seems to be about having faith in the process; trusting that the drawing will translate into three dimensions; that the felted wool will become a little chicken for Lucy’s 2nd birthday.

So, for now, the snow is still melting.  I am not quite ready for the next step and the bulbs are staying blanketed a little bit longer. Maybe the silver bird will actually be a flower or a circle but I know I want it to be small and to hold a word.  That is enough for now.  This year I’m feeling more patient, more trusting, more likely to notice the tiny green leaf that is not yet ready to unfurl.

Spring Cleaning in the Herb Garden

post by Cheryl Corson

I plan my gardening around the sun, and at this time of year I want to be in the herb garden from around 10am and noon when it shines across the corn field and reflects off the yellow brick of our house warming the soil and my back as I work.

I start out with a winter jacket and quickly go back inside for a lighter sweater, heavier pruners, and a little low bench to sit on as I wrestle with last year’s woody lavender stalks. I am decisive, cutting only about 6” from the crown. There are ten lavender plants and after the last one there is a mountain of stalks with pale grey leaves behind me. What would I do in a city garden where I couldn’t throw cuttings behind my back without looking? I massage the soil, removing early henbit and wild onion, revealing clusters of deep green daffodil tips about an inch high. My hands, the plants, and the air are full of lavender scent.

Next is the lemon and orange thyme I planted last year. Already new foliage has sprouted at the long ends of last year’s thin woody stalks, but I cut it back, knowing that it will be fuller and healthier later despite the short term loss. I can take some inside to cook with. Before my hand gets too sore I also do the sage and rosemary. By now the fragrance of all these is heavy in the air. It’s the big reward of working in the herb garden this early. And that’s good because it sure doesn’t look like much yet.  It’s also nice to easily brush away the autumn leaves that have formed dense mats around each plant. The earlier you get out there the less tender new foliage there is to be careful of as you work.

It’s windy and a hawk calls out as it rides the air waves high above the corn field. When I still had chickens this would be cause for alarm and a quick head count, but today I welcome the hawk’s greeting.

I’ve done as much as I can do in one sitting. As I eat some bean soup in the kitchen looking out at what seems like an enormous pile of cuttings for a relatively small garden bed, I ponder whether to use the wheel barrow or the larger wagon to haul it all to the edge of the woods by the vegetable garden.  The sun has gone behind the clouds. I need to get back outside quickly before my resolve fades and the piles are left to blow around like tumbleweed.

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Cheryl Corson is a gardener, writer, and landscape architect.  Her website is www.cherylcorson.com

Guest Post today on Challah Baking

I am happy to have a guest post today on the Jewish Daily Forward’s Food Blog “The Jew and the Carrot“.  The piece called the Ecology of Challah Baking grew from an earlier post on this blog and a comment from a reader.

It is exciting to appear in one of the newest online branches of one of the oldest Jewish newspapers in the US. The Forward was once read primarily in Yiddish by thousands of Jewish immigrants to America including my own great grandparents.   The paper remains a strong force today and in addition to the English and Yiddish print editions now has a website with a lucky seven blogs.

If you are finding On the Lettuce Edge for the first time, please leave a comment and consider signing up as a subscriber.  This blog will focus on topics ranging from parenting, farming and sewing to ecology and Jewish life.   You can use the categories on the right to navigate topics or to jump to another Jewish related post on this blog click here.  I am also looking for a couple of likeminded writers to join the effort because many voices are more interesting than one.   If you are interested, please send an email to thelettuceedge@gmail.com.

Finally, it is not too late to enter to win a natural and organic Purim Basket from Israeli Harvest, our small business that supports farms in Israel.  Please visit this post on Homeshuling and leave a comment to enter the giveaway.   Thanks for visiting and please come back soon!

Five Yards of Organic Lavender Interlock

organic lavender interlock and fleece

I am truly just beginning to sew, so anyone who reads my posts can be assured that the sewing posts will not intimidate.  I will try not to hide my mistakes and my penchant for attaching things backwards. There are a million wonderful sewing blogs and books where you can see simple or complicated projects completed to perfection. I cannot offer that, but I will try to share some of my beginner enthusiasm and maybe a reader will decide to dust off their machine and join the fun.

Five yards of organic cotton lavender interlock are washed and fresh from the dryer.  I think it is always the potential that I love the most about a project.  When the fabric is fresh from the wash and still uncut, it can be anything at all.   For farmers, this is the stage when the seed packages are bulging in containers, and seedlings filling trays, but the ground is still too cold to plant.  It is still too early in the season to have any regrets or to have discovered too many mistakes.

the mighty ruffler foot and humble zig zag foot

I don’t have specific plans for the fabric beyond a couple dresses for my one year old which will use small fraction of the material.  But I do hope to use my new ruffler sewing foot. Next to a regular sewing foot, it looks like a monster – complete with teeth, snapping metal parts and lots of complicated engineering. I hope I can make it behave.

My sewing habit started just a few months ago and the truth is, I actually have very little time to sew. Most of my sewing obsession has happened in my head, reading books while nursing or rocking my baby to sleep.  I have had precious little time to actually sew.   And since caring for my young children comes first, when I do sew I am always moments from an interruption.

There is so much to learn at the very beginning of a brand new basic skill, like sewing.  There are beautiful and strange new words – like weft, warp, selvedge, bias, jacquard,silk duiponi and new lingo and acronyms.   I jumped in, possibly a little too fast.  I joined online fabric coops, and saw what the professionals are doing and got dizzy staring at pretty prints.

I was mostly interested in increasing my supply of cloth diapers and I wanted to use lovely organic cotton fabrics and natural wool covers.  I would have thought that this entry into sewing would be pretty unique but it turns out there are tons of moms all over the world doing the same thing and already organized into buying cooperatives and discussion groups on the internet.  They share free patterns and advice.  Since I don’t know anyone in my actual life that would have any interest in joining me for an in depth conversation sewing diapers, these groups were amazing.

There, you are pretty much caught up on why I am folding lavender interlock while my family is asleep upstairs.  My diaper collection is pretty complete for the moment and I am ready to branch into new projects.  But tonight, I wrote this post instead of starting a project.  It is nearly  midnight so I will go sleep with that wonderful sense of potential —  5 yards of fabric could become almost anything at all.  Any suggestions? What would you make?

Guest Post on Homeshuling and a Giveaway

My new friend and fellow Jewish mom blogger invited me to post on  her awesome Jewish Parenting Blog Homeshuling today about Israeli Harvest, my family business that aims to support farms in Israel.  We are also offering a giveaway to win a free Purim Basket, which includes organic Israeli dates and olive oil.  Visit the Homeshuling blog this week to read a little more about Israeli Harvest and leave a comment there for a chance to win.  And coming soon on this blog, a sewing post to make my tagline true.