Sent: October 31, 2011
Now I must say, “Thank you and Goodbye”
After today, I will no longer have any involvement with Cookstown Greens. I have sold my interest in Cookstown Greens to my financial partner, Simon Ffrench, who will be assuming control of Cookstown Greens on November 1st. However, the absolutely terrific staff will remain with the business to serve you. So I hope you continue to support Cookstown Greens.
The root cellar is filled with the best quality storage vegetables the farm has ever produced. The Flavour profiles, Density (weight per sack), and °Brix (sugars, minerals, and flavours) have never been so high. The fields are still producing fine leafy and salad greens; and the greenhouses are nearly ready to continue a steady supply throughout the winter.
As for myself, I plan to work as a consultant. In that capacity I will continue my mission of introducing chefs, farmers, researchers, media and the public to the many benefits of better tasting local produce. I hope to have the opportunity to work with many of you in the future; and to continue the friendships that I have developed over the past many years. I invite anyone who believes that I can be of assistance to them to please contact me.
Recalling my 2010 Governor General’s Award,
the pinnacle of many memorable recognitions.
David Cohlmeyer
home 705-458-1710
cell 705-309-0773
davidcohlmeyer@gmail.com
Sent: October 24, 2011
Our first frost – better late than never
Saturday night we just had our first frost. Once again, this was the latest first frost ever. Not that I am particularly enamoured with cold weather, this is good news for hardening off our vegetables. After experiencing a few frosts, winter root vegetables (and fall leafy greens as well) taste much richer and sweeter. Another plus for the frosts is the frosted vegetables keep longer, providing you with longer seasonal availability.
All the cool and cloudy weather of late has weakened the lettuces and mustards to the point we can no longer provide the less expensive Mixed Lettuces and Simply Cookstown. But of course we can still provide you with our best selling Baby Salad Greens. The cooler weather once again brings kale to its peak. This year we have the frilly Scottish Kale and the bumpy black Italian Kale. Of course Rainbow of Chards (which does well in all seasons) is especially sweet and intensely coloured at this time of year. Since new chards are already starting to grow in our greenhouses, you can expect to have good supplies throughout the winter.
The root cellar is the star at this glorious time of year. You already know about the flavourful Potatoes, colourful Carrots and Beets, firm Onions, gorgeous Winter Radishes, true Turnips, useful Artichokes and exquisite Squash. Please welcome in this week’s Availability List:
· Clean and tender with lots of blanched white Titan Leeks
· Nutty and richly flavoured carrot-like Parsley Roots
· Conveniently large musky (oyster-like) White Salsify
· Classically European Black Salsify
· Aromatic knobs of rich and tender Celeriac
In the midst of our largest and tastiest root vegetable harvest.
Beware of CETA
This is not a Halloween prank. Our Federal government has nearly finished the approval of a new Comprehensive Economic and Trade
Agreement (CETA). Unlike the less sinister NAFTA agreement, they have managed to keep this agreement very hush-hush. Nevertheless, this is sure to have huge effects on our food and water industries. Canada’s food businesses have been coveting Europe’s heavily subsidized (45%) food industries as a cheap source of ingredients. Likewise, Europe’s food brokers are eyeing Canada as a wide-open market for their subsidized food. Our system of Supply Management prevents wide swings in food prices and availability. We pay somewhat higher prices for this; but our governments no longer need to regularly bailout farmers with our tax money. The very efficient Canadian system will likely be shut down because the CETA agreement will permit foreign investors to sue our governments. Not only will they be able to sue the federal government, they will also be able to sue provincial and even local governments. This will surely bring an end to “buy local” programs.
Undoubtedly we will also become subject to the European “geographical indications”. This will prohibit the use of labels such as “parmesan” and “feta” and many wine names. Of course this could be turned to our advantage if we were to develop some of our own even better “geographical indications”!
With the majority government in Ottawa this agreement will probably be signed into law before any of us get to see it. Since the provinces and municipalities will have some input in the next few months, we need to actively encourage them to slow down and publicize the process. To learn more, please read this article from the Council of Canadians. Or read this poster from the National Farmers Union.
Michael Schmidt acquittal reversed
On TVO’s Saturday Night at the Movies I watched Paul Scofield in A man for All Seasons. His perseverance to do the “right thing” is akin to Michael Schmidt. In a bizarre turnaround, Michael is once again deemed guilty of permitting people to make up their own minds. His agenda is much larger than merely raw milk. To raise awareness, he is now on a hunger strike at Queens Park. Please learn more at The Bovine.
Sent: October 17, 2011
After the last burst of Summer
The recent couple weeks of hot weather were delightful. But it was all too silent. Nearly all the song birds have left for their winter homes and the buzzing insects have already gone into hibernation. On the other hand, our harvest team had no time to savour the warm sunny days. Our planned steady harvest suddenly became a mad dash as everything started sizing up exceedingly fast.
Cooler weather is now intensifying the colours and flavours in our roots; a few frosty nights would make them even better. (Red Carrots are now back on the list!) The steady drizzly rains have finally initiated sufficient potato blight to kill off the potato leaves to signal the tubers to toughen up their skins for long storage through the winter and into next summer. (Our very popular redskin/yellow flesh Roseval and All Blue Potatoes are back on the list.)
The cooler weather also reduced any bitterness and brought out amazing nuttiness in leafy cooking greens. Rainbow of Chards are colourfully luscious, Mixed Kales have now returned to our Availability List, and Mixed Lettuces are at their sweetest and most vibrant.
Last year we started experimenting with some newly introduced Chicory varieties that have been bred for the extreme North American climate. This delightful family of leafy greens deserves a larger presence in our Canadian Fall Food Baskets. The heirloom Italian varieties just do not perform well with our alternating hot and cool; dry and wet conditions. Puntarella Chicory has hollow asparagus-like spears which can be thinly sliced and soaked in ice-water for a wonderful curly salad ingredient. Red Vein Dandelion is a most attractive version of this popular green. Our new green Italian Catalogna (a.k.a. dandelion), specifically bred for our hot summers, is certainly the best tasting version of this common green. Sugar Loaf Chicory is classically sliced like a bread loaf to be served under special cuts of meat. Treviso has long been the pride of its namesake Italian city. (You’ll have to wait for colder weather for its intense burgundy colour to develop.)
Our new Chicories (l to r): Puntarella Chicory, Treviso, Green Catalogna,
Red Vein Dandelion and Sugar Loaf Chicory (below).
Bringing Food Home
The second annual Sustain Ontario Bring Food Home Conference is being held at Trent University in Peterborough from October 27th to 29th. For anyone seriously interested in learning more about sustainable local foods this is a must attend event. [Full disclosure, I am on the Sustain Ontario Advisory Council.]
Foodstock was a total success
Thank you Miriam and Michael (and of course hundreds of other volunteers) for pulling together such an amazing event! Over 28,000 people from all walks of life attended this memorable event to Stop the Mega Quarry. The 100 chefs, many of whom are our best supporters, did an amazing job of feeding what was expected to be 20,000 supporters. The comment I heard most frequently was, “With this many people coming all this way to oppose the system, a significant change in the system must be afoot.” With all the rain and mud and great music from the likes of Ron Sexsmith, Jim Cuddy, and Sarah Harmer, the event kind of felt as monumentous as Woodstock.
Sent: October 11, 2011
A Day to Celebrate Our Staff
Last week’s Family Day at Cookstown Greens was a joy. With so many young cherubs it was even more of a delight. Our terrific staff are the ones who really make it all happen! They make your requests magically turn into packages delivered right into your kitchen. Our Mexican guest workers are the ones who make sure everything is available for packing. Sadly, they could not bring their own families, but they loved charming the children and grandchildren. Let’s hear an applause of appreciation. Thank You!
The past couple of years I have devoted all my available time to improving production in order that they can have plenty of work and you can have plenty of supply. We have all worked together to:
1. Have produce consistently available throughout the growing season. In previous years we have determined the most successful seeding dates. But with all the unusual weather fluctuations, we are learning to just seed whenever we can. If it turns out well we harvest; if it is less desirable we plough it in.
2. Have healthy produce naturally free of cosmetic challenges. Carefully preparing seedbeds, seeding the plants with the most suitable spacing, and keeping them steadily moist until germinated provides a good start. Monitoring foliar colour, Brix, and nutrient levels helps us know when the plants would like some cultivating, a drink of water, or a spray of micro-nutrients.
3. Have the most flavourful produce from selected seeds and healthy soil. Starting with the choicest seed varieties and slightly stressing the plants by withholding excess water and fertility assures added flavour. A 3-4 year rest between crops sure improves the flavour.
4. Avoid pest problems, tough textures, and acrid flavours by making sure we provide sufficient (but never excess) water, cultivation, and fertility.
5. Now that we are getting all this mastered, we are ready to attempt to relate flavour, Brix and nutrient density using some new analytical tests. With flavourful food, your customers just feel better.
With our best ever quality and supply I dream about having time to once again visit our wonderful customers. How about a Celebrating Our Customers Day?
Getting ready for a ride through our fields – with stops to pick edible treasures.
New this Week
Now that cooler weather is returning (albeit slowly) we can once again provide our Edible Flower Mix to more kitchens than those who have standing orders. We can also welcome the return of peppery Nasturtium Leaves. Slow to size up, we can once again offer Black Fingerling Potatoes, Green Flesh Radishes, and Black Skin Radishes. Also back on the Availability List are the hour-glass shaped Japanese Shishigatani Squash. Sorry, but we now have to cease offering mustards, spinach, and arugula to all but our standing order customers.
Foodstock to help stop the Mega-Quarry
Events with high profile chefs usually fetch over $100; this one is a pay-what-you-can event. As usual we want to contribute too. We have good supplies of larger-than-usual (for us) lettuces, mustards, arugula, chards, and chicories. We can also provide various coloured beets, carrots, (real) turnips and winter radishes. If we get too busy, we may have to ask for you wash and sort or even get some volunteers to harvest.
There has been a lot of publicity about this event. But I find that most articles and videos fail to adequately explain the danger of pumping water from the quarry floor back into the surface river systems. Normally water slowly percolates through the topsoil and the bedrock which naturally filters it (for no cost). In a quarry, this water simply runs straight into the pit. It never gets purified. As a result, the million people downstream become exposed to toxins. The solution becomes spending millions for water filtration plants. (You can bet that the quarry owners will not be paying for these.) With this background, you will better understand this mega-quarry video.
