#seedfarm

[seedkeeping]

Paths mulched, potatoes planted, pea beds prepped, winter greens thinned, seeds started. This season is off to a great start, and this year, four wonderful apprentices are helping me out: Simone, Zoe, and Althea (plus Amirah who starts next week)! So excited for all the seedy, flowery, herby crops we will be growing together this year to share with you! #seedkeeping #farmertraining #seedfarm #millhollowfarm #trueloveseeds #farmapprenticeship (at Newtown Square, Pennsylvania)

[plantgoodseed]

Farmer Steve Florin at Dancing Bear Farm in Williams, Oregon produces certified organic seed for a number of seed companies across the United States. He walked me through an end to end taste test of every variety he was producing on his farm. A few that stood out were: Kansas Cantaloupe, North Georgia Winter Squash, Scarlet Runner Beans, and Purple Barley. We are proud to announce the immediate availability of two varieties from Steve’s farm: True Siberian Kale, which we had been out of stock for years, and Steve’s own Siskiyou Orange Tomato. Pleated, slightly flat fruits slightly larger than a baseball, sweet but not too sweet. A popular fresh market tomato at his own farmer’s market booth. Originally sourced from Territorial Seeds in the late 90s, he’s saved and cultivated this variety for at least eight generations. With the original strain no longer commercially available. 

[amyofarms]

Treasures. Rescued Mitla beans from an abandoned seed bank at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. We took these in several years ago now. Time to resurrect them. #amyofarms #teparybeans #mitla #seeds #heritageseeds #seedfarm #epicseeds

[thedoggedcog]

Stop And Smell The Manure - The 2013 Seed Farm Bike Ride

I mean this in a good way - after all, I’m writing about The Seed Farm. The Seed Farm is a local organization that promotes training of farmers and helps put them on the path of farming success. The Seed Farm also conducts an annual Farm Bike Ride and Run - an event in which we participated this year.  The rides are purely recreational endeavors and can accommodate riders of all abilities since they offer 10, 20, and 40 mile routes. As with many rides in this part of Pennsylvania, the courses are filled with many short but steep climbs followed by equally short but fast descents. The rides are fully sagged by Saucon Valley Bikes so cyclists should ride with confidence that they will be okay should their legs or bikes not be up to task on that particular day.

This is the first year we did this ride and we took off on our trusty REI mountain bike with trailer bike attached for the 10 miler. Despite the heat and steep hills, our legs were strong and before we knew it we reached the first (and only for the 10 mile route) rest stop at Pappy’s Orchard. Here we were able to trade in our white ticket for a delicious and refreshing apple juice slushy. There is also a bakery filled with all manner of freshly made treats, but due to the heat we decided to skip the sweets.  We’ll certainly make a special trip back sometime soon because the food looked irresistible. In any case, we rested there for about thirty minutes while chatting with the other riders before we set off for the ride back to the Seed Farm.

All in all, this was a great event we really enjoyed ourselves. Even though the distance was short, we will have great memories of pedaling through the Pennsylvania hills, slurping down apple juice slushy, listening to Collin singing on the bike behind me, and riding with two of my local heros - Dan and Sue Weirback.  Dan and Sue are the founders of Weyerbacher - a regional brewery with an impressive and delicious assortment of tasty beers.

And supporting a great organization - The Seed Farm - is nice also.  We like ourselves some farm grown food and its nice to see an organization who puts so much effort into ensuring that farmers can be successful.

This was the 5th annual Farm Ride, but I’m already looking forward to number six.