Farm Trips: The last day of Winter, first day of Spring

Last weekend we stole ourselves away from monitoring the one tray of little seedlings nestled snugly in our spare bedroom window to take a trip up north to visit farms. We'd been meaning to get up to north Alabama again for some time, and this first weekend of Spring seemed like the perfect opportunity.

1. Birdsong Community Farm
We wrote about Joshua and Beth Haynes a few weeks ago after receiving a torrent of emails about all the local food connections they're making in Cullman. They're working to provide vegetables, eggs, poultry, dairy, and meat to their community through a network of farmers. Rashmi and I headed over there Friday afternoon and toured the farm at sunset. The moment we arrived they handed us a bag of popcorn grown on the farm and we set off. We knew this was our kind of place! The land they farm is the land where Joshua grew up and his parents still live in a house adjacent to their lot. They have crops in different plots all over their property. Joshua, Beth, their baby Andrew, and their intern Bret showed us all the work they're doing for the upcoming season with tours of their gardens, their greenhouse, their chickens, and their egg operation. They have quite a lot going on and this year promises to be bigger than last in terms of production. They grew some wheat last year and harvested the small plot by hand. But thankfully, they've got an old school combine on its way and they hope to grow more grains as well as dried beans this year.

After the tour, we sat down to a local meal - most of which was harvested on the land where we were eating. Green beans, asparagus, peppers, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, applesauce, creamed corn, pecan encrusted pork chops, and bread. The bread was Beth's proudest concoction - their very own wheat, honey, eggs, and applesauce mixed with local milk and butter. And it was a fine meal. They even wrote about it on their blog! The blogger becomes the blogged about...strange.

As I mentioned in our last post about Birdsong, Joshua and Beth are seriously considering CSA deliveries to Birmingham if enough people can form a buying group. I can't brag enough about what they're doing. If you're looking for local food options, Birdsong is the way to go.

BELOW: Joshua shows off some of the eggs in a fridge, a new field ready to be plowed, a lone asparagus about to be my dinner.

2. Sand Mountain CSA and the Sand Mountain Seed Bank
Russell and Dove Stackhouse have put together a unique network of farmers on Sand Mountain. The Clean Food Network, which uses an online farmers market to connect growers with consumers, has proven to be a real solution for local food in the area. They also run a CSA, sell at the Madison market, and generally connect people with food. They farm two main plots in different parts of the city - one of which has been in continuous operation for 62 years, despite the fact that a neighborhood has grown up around it. But one of the most interesting things they're involved in is the Sand Mountain Seed Bank.

Charlotte Hagood and Dove exchanged letters and seeds through the mail for a handful of years before finally meeting up, quite serendipitously, on Sand Mountain a few years ago. Charlotte, a gardener with a long standing interest in seed saving, and Dove found one another through a world-wide seed saving network called the Seed Savers Exchange. They formed the seed bank in 2006 to preserve local seeds and the stories that are passed down with old family and heirloom varieties. Charlotte and Dove both feel strongly about the need for a network of regional seed banks to save and grow out seeds for specific climates and regions. To this end, they've got dozens of varieties stored in mason jars in no less than four refrigerators in Albertville. But all that is soon changing - they recently purchased a Mayfield ice cream cooler truck (missing the actual truck) to be the permanent vault for their seeds. If you're interested in seed saving and in joining the seed bank to grow out some varieties, contact Dove and ask about membership. It's only $10 a year! In all this talk about food, it's easy to forget where it all comes from. And with huge multinationals increasingly controlling the supply of seed, the need for regional seed banks makes even more sense. Not to mention it's a really cool thing to grow out some ancient local heirloom variety!

Sara and I also picked some wild garlic while we visited a soon to be plowed field. If you're in the Albertville area, be sure to look up Dove and Russell. Don't forget to ask them where the authentic Mexican place is too. You won't be disappointed!

BELOW - Fat man pole beans, one of the fridges, and Sara and I picking garlic.

3. Jay's Garden Variety
I met Les Rivett of Jay's Garden Variety back in November - too late in the season to realize that she and her husband Jay were one of the few people we've been able to find who grew beans and sold them dried. We've been dying for some dried beans - so versatile, so perfect for winter soups, so nice in a tortilla. But beans or no beans we decided to drop by and see their operation. Jay and Les moved to north Alabama from California after finding a sweet piece of land for sale in between Ider and Henegar on Sand Mountain. Now they've got a sustainable farm specializing in vegetables and herbs - lots of them. Jay even built a nifty herb drier which they use to dry everything from peppers to lemongrass to basil (and everything in between). If you're looking for local herbs, they're your one stop shopping source. They also run a small CSA on Sand Mountain, sell through the Clean Food Network, and attend the Ft. Payne and Chattanooga markets. That, and their herd of cats, two dogs, and one guinea keep them fairly busy...

BELOW: Rashmi talks to Les, Joe strikes a pose next to Jay's Galaxie, and baby basil sprouts in the greenhouse.

4. Gardens of Huckleberry Hill

The next day we headed back south and drove through Talledega to visit Gardens of Huckleberry Hill in Alpine. Sandra who runs this small CSA and goat farm, is originally from the area, but moved to California where she began organic gardening. But she was drawn back to this land which has been in her family for many generations. Her narrative of returning home to the land that nourished her parents and her grandparents was really inspiring and reminded me a lot of farmers around the state who are farming land that has been passed down through the generations. Unfortunately, for many younger farmers who're trying to make a living growing food, sometimes using free family land is the only way to meet their narrow profit margins. But I digress.

When we visited Sandra, her daughter who lives in Atlanta was also there. She comes over every other weekend to help manage the farm. They showed us their vegetable plot and herb garden, and took us across the road to see the goats. Originally Sandra thought she might sell the goats for meat, but she has grown attached. As her daughter said, "They have names!" That's never a good sign. She still sells one every now and again, but she's more interested in having the goats around for when local children come to visit.

Like Birdsong, if enough folks in Birmingham banded together to form a buying group, Sandra would be open to trying to find a way to deliver CSA shares there. Contact her to ask about the details, and be sure to visit her and the goats next time you're in the area!