They are Farmers, They Grow Food For The People

I said before that I receive regular e-mailed updates and a newsletter from my potato seed farmer,(Wood Prairie Farm) and this video arrived today. If it doesn't play here, follow the link to the youtube video uploaded by Food Democracy Now.

Just Potatoes

Are they just potatoes? Well, the seed potatoes came from a family farm from way up north in Maine, Wood Prairie Farm, and they were double certified, both organic and by the state of Maine. The first year that we grew potatoes at the community garden, it was just by some internet searching for certified seed potato that I found the Gerritsen's farm online and ordered some. They yielded well and we continued to order from the farm, both some other vegetable seed and each year since potatoes. But now, I don't just order my seed potatoes from Wood Prairie, I also follow the news about the farm, both in emailed newsletters they send out to customers and elsewhere. And some people are talking about Jim Gerritsen and The Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association's lawsuit against Monsanto these days.

So are they just potatoes? Well, yes they are. The ones pictured above are just some potatoes I grew. But there's more than one definition in the dictionary for the word just and it seems to me that the people I buy my seed potatoes from aren't just growing potatoes.

The More Things Change

Farmland in the Taconic range, near the Hudson River Valley in New York state (LOC) by The Library of Congress, on Flickr.
Collier, John,, 1913-1992,, photographer.

...the more the issues of the day remain the same and there is nothing new in the world under the sun. (I could throw in some more idioms if you like.) These pictures are from the Library of Congress, circa the 1940's, of New York state farmland and a homestead in Pietown, New Mexico. When I look at those old pictures of New York famland, I wonder how that land looks today and if it's still being farmed.


Farmland in the Catskill Mountains, Richmondsville, N.Y. (LOC) by The Library of Congress, on Flickr
Collier, John,, 1913-1992,, photographer.

Garden adjacent to the dugout home of Jack Whinery, homesteader, Pie Town, New Mexico (LOC) by The Library of Congress, on Flickr
Lee, Russell,, 1903-1986,, photographer.

Of Farms and Food, GrowNYC blog link

CSA farm sign passed along the road on bike trip to Saratoga from Brooklyn.

Searching for news on how area farmers are faring post-Irene, I came upon GrowNYC's blogpost about assisting Greenmarket Farmers effected by Hurricane Irene.

Over at Edible Manhattan, there's the same link and some information about one Greenmarket Farmer who's struggling with farm damage.