Feeding hunger or greed?

Strawberry farmers in Plant City Florida are faced with a tough and unusual decision this year. The colder winter has resulted in a bumper berry crop that is ready to go to market all at once. Typically the berries are ready for harvest at varying times starting as early as January through April. An abundance of strawberries has driven the market price so low that it is not economically viable for the farmers to harvest and transport them to market.

The humanitarian openly calls out the farmer to donate the food to the hungry. Feed the people!

Who will pay for the loans on farming equipment, seed, fertilizer, harvesting costs or the law suit of a local resident allowed on the farm to "you pick"? The farmer is still required to meet the financial obligations of running a business weather it is profitable or suffers a loss. It is easy to see how it could be less frustrating and more economical to let the fruit rot on the vine.

There must be a better option than the farmer suffering a complete monetary loss and allowing the fruit to rot in the field. It is known that farm subsidies are inefficient and do not offer a reasonable solution. People who are destitute and hungry need quality nutritious food and strawberries easily meet that qualifier if only temporary. What are the people who are suffering from "food insecurity" willing to spend? Assuming these people are unable to pay the farmer money, would it be worth it to donate their time to pick the produce this season as payment to the farmer? Of course, this would only include people, churches, organizations and food banks who are within a reasonable distance with capabilities of traveling to the farms.

Is it feeding the farmer's greed to expect to profit enough in order to farm another season? Is feeding the hungry the farmer's responsibility? Are the hungry willing to help feed themselves?

Perhaps the true glitch in the system is farmers are paid at "market value" by supermarkets and distributors but the cost savings of a bumper crop are not passed down to the average consumer.

Food for thought...

Out with the Old!

Spring fever is building to an outright buzz! Trees are leafing out and buds are about to burst open with color and pollen. The Farmer's Almanac suggests planting before the end of March. As the planting season arrives it is necessary to clear the remaining winter harvest to make room for the spring garden.

It is truly amazing the amount of food that was harvested over the weekend from the family farm! We collected approximately the following:

4 heads of Cabbage
10 crowns of Broccoli
8 Kohlrabi
8 bunches of Kale
6 bunches of Collard Greens
8 lbs of Carrots
3 heads of lettuce
6 lbs of Turnips
2 heads of Swiss Chard
2 heads of Calabrese and Cauliflower
And at the "home research unit," we harvested
5 bunches of Kale
3 bunches of Collards
4 bunches of Mustard greens
young purple onions
leaf lettuce

It is truly rewarding to see five large bags overflowing with fresh vegetables at the end of the season's harvest. Many veggies had been picked and eaten over the past several months too.

We are now tired of all of these yummy types of winter vegetables. They have been roasted, sauteed, used in salads and soups, even tried baked kale! To overcome the doldrums of these now familiar flavors it is wise to put them away for future use! The Kale, Collards and Mustard greens were cleaned, blanched in boiling water for 2 minutes, placed in ice water for a minute, drained and divided into quart and gallon sized Ziploc bags and put into the freezer for later. The kohlrabi will be made into pickles, the cabbage chopped into one last slaw and the broccoli steamed for baked potato topping. It was quite a feat to clean and put up all of the harvest taking almost six hours.

The freezer is now stocked with all of the types of greens which will be easy to enjoy throughout the summer when we are hungry for their flavor again.

Spring Garden 2010

We will be displaying the spring collection Saturday only at Zen Orchids #168 @ Kanapaha Botanical Gardens. Please see Dan, Ed , or Heather for Non-GMO, open pollinated seeds and 4 inch vegetables/herbs.