Let’s start a food revolution! Yesterday, May 15th was Food Revolution Day (don’t worry you can still be part of the revolution). The purpose of this day is to “put compulsory practical food education on the school curriculum.” As we see a growing number of children and adults suffering from diet related illnesses we know something has to change in how we relate to food. By educating children (and adults) on where their food comes from, what food is nutritious, and how to cook it we can create a change to help people achieve better health. You can check out the Food Revolution Day website and see how you can get involved.

Locally you can be part of a food revolution too. Encourage your kids’ teachers to work on food education in their classrooms and visit farms on field trips. Come on a free farm tour with your kids to see where food comes from. Adults can educate themselves by coming to gardening/ food related workshops, volunteer to see the real-time process of everything that goes into growing food, eat seasonally with a CSA, and visit a farmers’ market to talk to food growers and producers. While we work towards having food education in every school, we can start the revolution at home and with ourselves by acting and thinking in our community.

It’s that time of year where we are getting’ to pickin’. Our Provider Green Beans and Sungold Cherry Tomatoes are beginning to weigh on the plants as they come in abundance. These delicious crops that can be enjoyed raw or cooked are in demand and are demanding when it comes to harvesting. Now is a time when we need volunteers to come out to the fields and help us get our daily field work done and help with harvest. Volunteers are welcome Wednesday through Sunday and can meet us at 7:30am on Thursdays and Sundays and 8:00am on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday in the barn. Or if you have a group that would like to help out please respond to this newsletter. As we get into the warm crops we know the end of the season is approaching. Our Season Finale Sunday Market is on Sunday, May 24th. Mark your calendar to say goodbye for summer vacation to your favorite vendors and stock up on your staples. Remember CSA members, the share pick ups continue into June this year after the market. For the pick up calendar please click here.

Boy oh Boy, today is our biggest celebratory fundraiser of the year, PestoFesto!  We’ve already had teams of fabulous volunteers come to clean basil, set up tables, cook pasta– and we’ve got more to come!  This year we are anticipating over 250 guests in tow to enjoy a delicious pesto pasta dinner, organic salad, live music by the Urban Gypsies, and raising money to support the farm’s mission.  We’ll still have tickets at the door until they sell out for dinner, and all are welcome at 8:30pm to enjoy the party for just $5 (think music, dancing, and drinks, or you may know it as– the perfect Saturday night).

If you can’t make it out today and want to support the farm in your own way please contact us. We are looking for great volunteer Field Trip Guides and farm volunteers.  You can also support the farm by becoming a CSA Member or making a monetary donation.

Well we’ve got to run back to getting everything ready for the festivities, we hope to see you all tonight!

Our cucumbers are starting to roll off the plants! We have quite the nice crew of cucumbers this year: Suyo Long (Asian Cucumber), Boothby Blonde (Yellow/ Lemon Cucumber), and General Lee (English Cucumber).  The Suyo Long cucumber has a spiny exterior and is often curled. The Boothby Blonde is my personal favorite and ranges from a yellow to golden brown color. The General Lee is the cucumber you are used to seeing in the grocery store and a solid staple.

Goodness gracious PestoFesto is only a week away and we are seeking wildflower seekers! For our centerpieces at the dinner each year we harvest flowers from the farm and wildflowers in the Tampa Bay area. You can help make them diverse and beautiful by bringing us wildflowers and landscaping flowers. Drop them off at the farm anytime between 9am-8pm on Friday, May 1^st or 9am-3pm on Saturday, May 2^nd to have them incorporated into the pesto party. Some that are in bloom now are Elderberry, Hibiscus, Gardenias, Magnolia, Bougainvillea, Pickerel Weed, Bottle Brush and Crepe Myrtle. If you’re interested in doing this please reply to this newsletter.

Happy National Volunteer Week!  This week is a commemoration of all the beautiful volunteers that accomplish great things in our communities and fuel the fire behind local nonprofits.  The altruistic  act of volunteering, of doing something for the benefit of others that is selfless, is a staple in the betterment of our community health, environment, and economy.  Each day volunteers come to our farm to help this process of betterment.  Volunteers have stuck it out with us in the fields this year as it rains for 4 hours in January to complete the harvest, come in on their only morning  off to guide a field trip, weeded for six hours, and  braved wasp stings, fire ant bites and sun rash all in the hope of betterment.  Thank you all who have come out to volunteer this year you are a huge part of what keeps this farm going.

If you’re interested in getting involved as a volunteer we have TLC for TNC volunteer day tomorrow, Sunday April 19th to help work on the new educational plant walk, PestoFesto volunteers are still needed (reply to the newsletter if you’re interested), and as our education program grows we need more dedicated Field Trip Guides to teach our community where their food comes from.

Thank you for being a part of our community!

It’s that time of year when we have to start to say farewell to our 2014-2015 Farm Apprentices.  Casey and Hallie will have their final Sunday harvest and market tomorrow at Sweetwater.  They both are headed to an organic farm in California for the summer season.  Hallie brought an incredibly strong work ethic and knowledge base to the farm.  Casey was the problem solver of the farm being able to think on her toes, see what needed to be done and doing it whether in the field, educational programs, or kitchen. Both these farmers earn the prize of fastest harvester in 2014-2015. Please help us thank them for all their work growing healthy food this season and wish them a great farming journey as they move forward!

For the farm, we have good things coming too.  Looking at crops, the zucchinis and cucumbers are making their way into the shares this week.  Also, we have  added more workshops, tours, and events to our events calendar so please check it out and come on out.  Finally, PestoFesto is just three weeks away!  Get your tickets early for this basil-iful event!

Our summer squashes are digging the rising temperatures this week.  Our first wave of zucchinis have already started to grow their fruit. We hope to play squash games very soon.

Squash Games (skwäSH ɡāms): An elaborate betting game played by resident Sweetwater farmers based on guessing the weigh of the entire harvest on a given day.  Sub categories include– most agile harvester (harvesting squash includes wielding a knife while avoiding squash rash from the sticky steams of the plant), can lift the most squash bins at one given time, and the squash seeking sovereign (can eagle eye spot  the most squash that are camouflaged with the plant or under leaves).

Origin: Tampa, Florida c. 2012

Simultaneously, the delinquent Fall Army Worm and Yellow Margin Beetle are soaking up the sun in our fields.  The Army Worm likes to chew on cabbages and the yellow margin beetle gets its kicks destroying greens.  As these crops move out of the season and we work towards mitigating the pest pressures we hope to have a good squash game season ahead.

Observe, plan, rework, observe, plan, rework as you work, work, work.  That’s the cycle we are continually working through as a farm.  This week’s photo is an image of our field lay-out. Our farm team uses this as they discuss and plan where everything will go and when it will be harvested.  This week the crew is putting the final seed trays into the greenhouse as we plan the end of the season.  At the same time they’ve been working to set up drip irrigation for the water-loving curcubit and nightshade crops, and steadfastly trimming the suckers off our tomato plants.

As we continue to plan ahead, our 2015-2016 CSA membership opens to new members on April 1st.  Renewing members can still get a discount on their memberships up through May 31st.  It is amazingly helpful to have early membership sign-ups as it allows us to better plan ahead, get our seeds early, and work on projects through the summer such as preparing and turning compost and cover cropping our fields.  The CSA program at our farm also supports our educational programming by allowing more students to come out to the farm to learn where their food comes from.

The lettuces are gorgeous!  We have had an awesome turn out of a variety of lettuces this month.  Not only does fresh lettuce make for the best salads you can create but it also gives us a wide range of vitamins (think about your ABCs) and minerals (Iron, Calcium, Magnesium).  Don’t forget you can get creative with your lettuce beyond salad with recipes like lettuce soup, grilled lettuce, and lettuce wraps.  If you have a great lettuce recipe please send it along to share to recipes@sweetwater-organic.org

Besides turning out great lettuce this week the farm crew has started to remove the winter crops from the fields.  Today they and a great volunteer group removed the cauliflower and cabbage stems and roots from the fields to throw in our compost.  In their place the team will continue to plant more of the warm weather crops.  The zucchinis and cucumbers are coming along nicely and the first batch ought to be coming in 6 weeks.

As we look forward to the warm weather crops, we are also looking forward to Pesto Festo!  As we plan for this event (with added basil themed activities this year) we are looking for donations of working string lights and toy Tonka trucks.  If you have any of these items please drop them off at the farm or email Kaitlin at programs@sweetwater-organic.org

Did you know that March is National Nutrition Month?  As part of our farm’s educational programming, we know you can’t just teach kids “where their food comes from” without talking in tandem about “where good health comes from.”  The topic of knowing how, who, and where your food is produced is very important to achieving a healthy diet.  By eating locally and seasonally you can get a vast array of nutrients instead of getting stuck in the 2 tomatoes, 1 cucumber, and an onion routine.  Additionally, the food you get from your nearby farmer is freshly harvested when you buy it and has not been losing its nutrient value as it ages in transit to the grocer.

Here are a couple good resources for you to check out this National Nutrition Month–first, an article about how to use every morsel of the vegetables you buy and how to add extra nutritional value by adding unexpected ingredients to old recipe favorites (like avocados in chocolate mousse!).  Second, the folks at Slow Food have released the film “Locavore: Local Diet, Healthy Planet” for free on their website touching on the impact of food on health, environment, and economy.

As you consider what you can do to optimize your nutrition please consider supporting your local farm and a seasonal diet by renewing your CSA membership or being a member for the first time.  This not only brings you the freshest seasonal vegetables around, but also supports our urban farm and agriculture & nutrition education.

We’re feeling fancy.  There are two rather elegant crops making their way into the CSA share this week— Romaneso and Radicchio.  Romanesco is a variety of cauliflower in the Brassica family that looks like a vegetable Salvador Dali dreamt up.  Not only is it visually interesting for its loud green color, it is also an excellent example of organic fratals and the Fibonacci Sequence in the world around us.  Like Romanesco, Radicchio is an Italian staple crop.  Often consumed raw in salads, this leafy chicory can be added to pasta primavera, pizza toppings, and risotto.

In other news this week we are looking for two excellent people to join our Sweetwater team.  First we are looking for someone who loves local music and vegetables.  Right now, we need a volunteer Music Host for the second Sunday of each month. This person coordinates two bands to come play at the Sunday Market, sets them up, enjoys the good market vibes and gets a vegetable share for that Sunday.  If you are interested in this once a month volunteer position please contact Rick at founder@sweetwater-organic.org

Secondly, we are looking for a temporary farm hand to help us through the height of the season and then to wrap it all up.  This person would help the farm team accomplish daily farming tasks such as seeding, planting, weeding, and harvesting as well as working with volunteers and setting up the CSA.  We are looking for someone to start this month, March, and stay through June for this full time position.  If you are interested in the temporary farm hand position please email Yvette at office@sweetwater-organic.org

In terms of farming in the USA– Florida is weird.  Or maybe it is just generally weird.  Either way– we are basically on the complete opposite of the country in terms of our seasons.  Just as we are putting the cover crop down to let fields lay fallow for the summer, the other states are enjoying their beautiful summer harvests. With this in mind, today is the national CSA sign-up day!

While this day does have the idea that CSAs begin in May and end in October, we in Florida can celebrate it too.  We want to send our gratitude to all of our CSA members this year for trusting us to grow your family’s food and supporting local agriculture.  With our community we are able to keep organic agriculture local and keep our community literate in agriculture by continuing to have an active dialogue about “where your food comes from.”

As we move forward in the season and the year to come we hope that you will continue to support the Tampa Bay agricultural community and Sweetwater CSA program.  On March 1st we will start to accept renewal memberships for the 2015-2016 season and on April 1st we’ll accept new memberships.

Thank you for supporting local agriculture.

The farmer crew did the cold weather run around this week.   With all of their hustle the crops survived the frost.  All the tomatoes, lettuces, and tatsoi had to be covered on the fly with a fabric roll cover of remay agribon #19.  Additionally, they winterized the greenhouse by adding a thick plastic covering to the screened in areas of the structure.  For some of the super sensitive seedlings, like basil and tomatoes, still in the greenhouse they had to be moved into Chris’ office and the little cabin at the farm.  It was quite the sight to see Chris working around 20 tomato trays stacked around his office.  It gave it a nice earthy smell however.

Be sure to give your farm crew high fives when you pick up your share and visit the market this week for bringing the heat!

Our vegetables show us their love in many ways. As we are surrounded on this day of flowers, lacy/ sparkly/ blinking/velvety things and sugar headaches (or lacy/sparkly/blinking/velvety headaches maybe) we ask ourselves what we can give to or how we can share the love with those that are special to us. We hope that our farm has given you some warm and fuzzy feelings over the year as well as good eats because right now our farm needs some volunteer love.

As the sun is up and out longer each day not only are our veggies growing faster but so are the weeds.  We need some serious volunteer power to keep up with the daily tasks and keep the weeds at bay.  If you can, please join us at the farm to volunteer as you are able Wednesday-Sunday.  For morning meeting times please click here. 

If farm work isn’t your thing, our Farm to Table dinner fundraiser is just around the corner on Saturday, March 7th and we need a load of volunteers to help with everything from set-up, food prep, food service, parking, to tear down.  Please respond to this newsletter email if you are interested in pitching in.

Thank you all for your lovin’ support of this community farm and we wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day.

Edible flowers are one of those things that people just go crazy about.  Small kids on field trips, adults on farm tours, the fancy pants couple at the bourgie restaurant, and myself think they are just… neat.

The farm is abloom with edible flowers right now (borage, nasturtiums, Turkish mallow caps). One of which will be in the share this week are broccoli flowers.  Broccoli flowers are delicate, yellow clusters that can be eaten raw or cooked.  If you’re one of the outliers in society that aren’t impressed by edible flowers then consider this– a head of broccoli is entirely made up of premature flower buds. Just neat.

This week they let me escape the office and head to the Sprout Success in Your Classroom workshop by the folks over at Florida Agriculture in the Classroom.  At this workshop, new concepts to integrate nutrition and gardening were explored to help meet curriculum standards for the various grade levels as well as more hands-on learning activities and science experiments.  While I’m eager to share all the information with our Education Program Director, Chris, I am floored by the experiment to extract DNA from strawberries.   Look for new developments to our Field Trip and Farm Camp programs.

This week I had a happy surprise in my inbox– super sweet photos from the photographer Jeremiah Wilson.  One of the first is the newsletter photo this week of our farm apprentices harvesting radishes– you can look out for more in coming newsletters and on our Facebook page.  The thing that I really appreciate in Wilson’s photographs of Sweetwater and it’s dedicated farmers is that it shows the labor and life that goes behind everything that gets done each day.  The authenticity in each photograph is felt through the richness in color and the genuine actions captured.

From the fields this week, we’ll be seeing Tatsoi for the first time this season.  Tatsoi is in the Brassica family so it’s one of your nutritional dynamos.  The spoon shaped leaves are great in salad or many cook it up as they would use spinach.  I personally love dipping the long stems in hummus or you can make ants on the log with them for the kids.  On the horizon, we should have red mustard greens just in time for Valentines Day– adding a little spice to your love life.

If you’d like to get your hands dirty and help out in the fields we’re calling all volunteers for the morning of Saturday, February 7th.  If you have any questions regarding this volunteer day please reply to this email.

Even though we are still in January we’re thinking of warm thoughts at the farm.  We’ve got the little greenhouse filled with our nightshade crops– Tomatoes, Eggplants, and Peppers.   Our small greenhouse is prefect for these warm weather loving crops as with its pitched roof and small size it holds the heat better than our larger hoop greenhouse.  We are already looking forward to Hungarian Hot Wax Peppers, Lunchbox Peppers, and Orient Express Eggplant.

And talking about plants loving warmer temperatures and of course warmer soil, how often do you think about the soil around you?  With 2015 being the International Year of Soil, the powers that be are imploring you to consider the soil and work towards improving it.  Soil is a non renewable resource that our lives collectively are dependent on.  Not only is it wholly necessary for healthy crop production, but all vegetation (think fiber, medicine, woodlands, fuel) as well as being a key component in helping to filter our water and fight climate change.  So let’s start this year off right by considering the soil.

Interested in more sustainable agriculture issues and emerging information? Check out next week’s USF Research that Matters Sustainable Food Conference: People, Policy & Practice and come say hi to us at our table in the exhibitor hall.

From all the support of our community members, donors and volunteers let me tell you– there are good things happening in education at the farm. Chris, our Education Program Director, has been working with the Hillsborough Association of Elementary Science Teachers (HAEST) since the fall to improve the Field Trip curriculum and hit important life science benchmarks for grades 3-5.  One of the new aspects we’ll be adding to our trips is a Scientist Field Notebook to help guide students on their visit to the farm.  This notebook will have questions about our various activities and stations (think compost, greenhouse, herb garden, etc.) as well as have a long term investigation component on seed pots so the students can continue their plant life study after the trip ends.

Upcoming in February we’ll have members of HAEST out to our farm to discuss the curriculum and take a trip themselves.  Additionally, that month Chris will be wandering off the farm to participate as a judge in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fair for Hillsborough County.

This week we’ll be ordering new equipment to expand our in field research and studies for our educational programs.  One item we are eager to arrive is a digital microscope that can magnify 400x. This will allow our students to explore the plants in front of them at a cellular level as they move about the farm.  One program this will be used for is our summer day camp, Farm Camp.  Kids 8-11 years old can join Chris this summer for a week of learning about our Florida environment, farming, plant life, and more during our second summer of Farm Camp. For more information please click here.

Speaking of new equipment, our beloved Terex wheel loader has bit the dust.  If anyone has a good lead on a used wheel loader we’d love if you’d share it with us as we are on the hunt for a new one to call Sweetwater home.

You can put your cabbage cravings to rest. Savoy cabbage as arrived.

Savoy cabbage is described by many as the loveliest of the cabbages (strange but true– google it).  It has crinkled green leaves and a yellow center, its taste is also less distinctive than its green or red cabbage crib mates as savoy is known for being far sweeter and having a mild taste.  So for those of you who have family members that have put up a hand to our chummy cabbage comrades try to reintroduce the savoy to them in a recipe this week.

Like other Brassicas, cabbage is high in nutrients and low in calories.  Cabbage gives us Fiber, Vitamins K, B6, A and C, as well as staples such as Iron and Manganese. Unlike other cabbages, the savoy can’t be forgotten in your fridge for 4 weeks and still expected to perform for dinner. Savoy cabbage ought to be used within a week.

We got other exciting news this week– Sweetwater Farm is a finalist in the WEDU Be More Awards!  Thank you to everyone who voted for the farm in November and we are grateful to be considered in the final round.

Are you getting ready for the New Year with healthy resolutions?  Well, our great line up of veggies should really help with that goal.  Joining the share this week is Chard. Chard is a tall leafy green vegetable commonly referred to as Swiss chard and scientifically known as Beta vulgaris. Chard belongs to the same family as beets and spinach and shares a similar taste profile with a flavor that is bitter, pungent, and slightly salty. Swiss chard is truly one of the vegetable valedictorians with its exceptionally impressive list of health-promoting nutrients.  Chard provides us with vitamins K, A, and C, as well as magnesium, potassium, iron, and fiber.

When preparing chard in your meals, you can cook both the stem and the leaf.  If you’re not sure what to do with chard it is a great substitute for spinach in any recipe or just check out our vegetable directory.  If you have a chard recipe that your family loves, please send it along to us at recipe@sweetwater-organic.org

Additionally, there is a new resource to help you cook everything in your share and connect with CSA members around the globe. If you are wondering what cook, you can head on over to the CSA Member Discussion group on Facebook and ask the group of culinary-minded CSA members from across the country and the world! If you have great ideas, you can join in the discussion yourself! To join click here and request access to join.

A friendly remind that if you normally pick up on Thursdays or Fridays please check the CSA pick up schedule for holiday changes.

Have a safe, happy and healthy New Year!