by Shawn Dell Joyce

The fact that Montgomery has a farmer’s market is a small miracle. The miracle worker in this case is Donna Dolan Jacke. Donna has a long history of community service, doing everything from assisting Marion Wild in the Montgomery Museum, to being a farmhand for hire to local farmers. About four years ago, Donna put the effort into making a farmer’s market happen every Friday in the Village of Montgomery.

The location has moved a few times to make farm market easily accessible. The Montgomery Seniors, a group that previously met at Wesley Hall, sponsors the market. That means that local seniors get coupons good for discounts on fresh produce, and the farm market proceeds are split with the seniors organization, a win/win situation.

The farm market has had a rough start. Donna thinks location has much to do with it. The Senior Center in Veteran’s Park was too far off the beaten path, and the old post office in the village downtown just doesn’t get much traffic. So, Donna is moving the market again, this time to a place near and dear to my heart.

Starting this Friday, the Montgomery Farmer’s Market will be at the Wallkill River School on Route 17K, all day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Visitors can stop for home-baked breads, artisan cheeses, fresh vegetables, fruits, and handmade goodies including art and crafts.  You may catch artists mingling with farmers, sometimes painting the abundant displays. There’s always something fresh and interesting at a farmer’s market.

The Wallkill River School is the perfect place for a farmer’s market since the mission of this nonprofit artists cooperative is to preserve our region’s agricultural heritage while creating economic opportunity for local artists. It’s unusual for an arts organization to have agricultural preservation as part of it’s mission, but when you paint on local farms, and you eat local foods, you have a stake in keeping farmers in business.

When you buy direct from the farmer, you are establishing a time-honored connection between the eater and the grower. Knowing the farmers, you are connected to the seasons, the weather, and the miracle of raising food.  You also help preserve open space because as the value of direct-marketed fruits and vegetables increases, selling farmland for development becomes less likely.

Everyone who lives in the Wallkill Valley can appreciate the picturesque views of farms in full bloom, rows of corn ripening in the fields, cows lowing in the pastures. Our regional landscape will survive only as long as farms are financially viable. When you buy locally grown food, you are doing something proactive about preserving the agricultural landscape.

Supporting local farms also helps lower your village’s taxes. Farms contribute more in taxes than they require in services, whereas other development costs more than it generates in taxes, according to several studies. On average, for every $1 in revenue raised by residential development, governments must spend $1.17 on services, thus requiring higher taxes of all taxpayers. For each dollar of revenue raised by farm, forest, or open space, governments spend 34 cents on services.

If you need any more reason to come to the farm market and support your local farmers, please meet me at the Farmer’s Market on Fridays from 9 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Wallkill River School on Route 17K near Route 208. I’ll be happy to show you several more reasons why eating local is best for you and the community.

Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning syndicated newspaper columnist and director of the Wallkill River School in Montgomery.shawn@zestoforange.com

By Shawn Dell Joyce

Overlook Farm Market

Overlook Farm Market is the ubiquitous building on Route 9W that seems to be a magnet for passers-by. It’s the brain child of Jim “the farmer” and Nina “the marketer” who combine their skills to create a place where people can get fresh, local produce direct from the farms.

“We are witnessing the disappearance of small family farms,” says Jim Lyons. “All people need to buy local.”

Lyons is right and recent research shows that growing the food that feeds our country is one of the most thankless and low paying jobs a person could have.  In 2002, the median net income for a U.S. farmer was $15,848, while hired hands and migrant workers averaged around $10,000 per year.  Farming has become so unpopular that the category was recently removed from the U.S. Census, and federal prison inmates now outnumber farmers.

The Lyons are more than just working the land; they are stewards of the land, and actively work to preserve the environment. Jim and Nina are very committed to the local community, and share part of their space with Newburgh artist Mary Evelyn Whitehill.

Nina and Jim have been in business for twenty-five years offering fresh vegetables, fruits, as well as a bakery, deli, garden center and even a petting zoo.

“Our market has been here for many years,” Nina says, and with the awareness currently about our value and service we’ll continue from March through January for many more years to come.”

Shawn Dell Joyce is an author of “Orange County Bounty” local foods cookbook, and director of the Wallkill River School and Art Gallery in Montgomery. www.WallkillRIverSchool.com

Corn Souffle
(Courtesy of Overlook Farm Market)
Reprinted from Orange County Bounty local foods cookbook available at the Wallkill River School.
16 oz. fresh corn cut from the ears (about 8 ears)
1 C. Milk
3 Eggs
2 T. sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
1T. Butter cut into six pieces
Pour all ingredients into a blender and blend on medium until mixed thoroughly. Pour into a medium sized baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Dot the top with butter pieces and bake at 325 degrees for an hour or so until firm. Yields 6-8 servings.

John King is one of those hale and hearty men that was born to be a farmer. He grew up on a farm outside of Oneonta, and his extended family owned a farm in Virginia. Today, John and his family own Royal Acres Farm in Middletown, as well as a stretch of the black dirt out in Pine Island.

Royal Acres is more than a farm, it’s also a Community Supported Agricultural Project (C.S.A.) where you can become a shareholder and receive a portion of the produce grown on a weekly basis. You can also find Royal Acres at many of the local farmers markets including the Village of Montgomery on Friday afternoons, the Newburgh Market on Friday, and Pine Bush Farmer’s Market on Saturday.

The joy of farming for King is that “it’s the type of business you can see,” he quips. “You plant, you water, you tend, it grows. Yes there’s weather and there are animals, but that’s part of it.” Clearly King enjoys working outside, and getting his three kids involved in the farm as well. You may catch his mother minding the store at his farm market booth as well.

“If you support local farmers,” King says, “local farmers stay in business. Quality and freshness don’t come cheap. Locally-grown food may cost less, but then again, it might not!” King confides. Many local farmers have expressed concern that people will often balk at the cost of produce in farm markets. Buyers are surprised that buying directly from a farm doesn’t always result in instant savings.

Actually, most of the produce in supermarkets is cheap because it’s imported from other countries like China. Farm workers are paid pennies to the dollars that our local farmers have to pay for labor. Plus, many countries have very lax environmental laws that allow crops to be saturated in pesticides that are illegal in the U.S.

“Farms stimulate the (local) economy in all sorts of ways. Farmers buy seed, supplies, machinery, tools, and equipment from local dealers.” They also employ local people, advertise locally, and support local nonprofits.  This keeps money flowing through the local economy longer, generating a “multiplier effect.” For every dollar you spend at a farm stand, it has the same economic impact as two dollars in the local community.

Visit Royal Acres Farm on Scotchtown-Collabar Road in Middletown, or call (845) 692-6719 to become a member of the C.S.A.

Thanks to Carrie Jacobson for her help on this column. Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning newspaper columnist and director of the Wallkill River School in Montgomery, NY. www.WallkillRiverSchool.com

Zucchini Bread (recipe courtesy of the King Family, reprinted from “Orange County Bounty” local foods cookbook written by and available at the Wallkill River School)

Ingredients:

2C shredded raw zucchini

2C sugar

1C cooking oil

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3C flour

1/4tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 tsp ginger

½ tsp clove

1 C chopped nuts

Optional:  ½ C raisins or chocolate chips

Combine sugar with oil, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in zucchini. Mix dry ingredients and blend into mixture. Add nuts and optional ingredients. Pour into greased loaf pans and bake at 325 degrees for an hour or more.

Shawn Dell Joyce is an author of Orange County Bounty local foods cookbook and director of the Wallkill River School in Montgomery.

by Shawn Dell Joyce

     Gardiner has a sweet jewel of a farm nestled right at the base of the Shawangunk Ridge; Kiernan Farm. This 140 acre farm has some of the most spectacular and unique views of the ridge, yet is flanked on either side by encroaching housing developments. Right now, the farm is in danger of being lost to development, if the Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) are not secured.

     What this means is that the town purchases the PDR rights, to keep the farm as a working farm. You would be hard pressed to find two harder working farmers than Thelma and Marty Kiernan. Marty purchased the farm in 1982 to raise horses. His three sons and daughter have been raised on the farm, and one will inherit Marty’s position as farmer if he ever gives it up.

     Thelma runs Blueberry Inn Bed and Breakfast on the farm, in their lovely 1800’s farmhouse. “It’s a great site for a B&B,” says the vivacious Thelma. The Kiernan’s guest enjoy a spectacular view of the  ridge, and the gentle lowing of beef cattle in the fields. “Our guests enjoy watching the cows graze, agri-tourism,” she says.

     Visitors also get an education in the difference between pastured beef, and commercially-raised beef. When you see the cows grazing at the base of the ‘Gunks, you get the feeling that is the way God and nature intended cows to live. Baby calves get the opportunity to nurse from their mothers. The cows are happy, they look peaceful and content, and make happy cow noises.

     Commercially-raised beef cattle are packed together and fed an unnatural diet of corn, soy and wheat primarily with many nasty chemicals and additives packed in. They are poorly treated, live lives of misery, and treated in a way that would offend even the hardiest carnivore. The result of factory farming is meat that is marbled with fat, and loaded with cholesterol. Pastured beef is much lower in fat and cholesterol, and has more of the healthy Omegas that we need in our diet.

     The Kiernans want to see their farm preserved, and are willing to put in the work to make that happen. If we community members purchased grass-fed, organic beef from these folks, we will help keep one family farm solvent, and preserve priceless views. Marty says; “you either have to use tax money to buy development rights, or the consumers have to make the decision to buy the products that grow on that open space. Otherwise, that space will be gone. Simple as that.”

     You can purchase pastured, organic beef directly from Kiernan Farm by calling (845) 255-5995 or visit their website www.Kiernanfarm.com

Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning syndicated columnist and director of the Wallkill River School in Montgomery. shawn@zestoforange.com

Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning columnist and director of the Wallkill River School in Orange County, NY. Shawn@zestoforange.com

The study, led by physician Stewart Wolf, studied the entire population of two thousand people and discovered that the death rate from disease was 35 percent lower than the rest of the country. There was no suicide, alcoholism, drug addiction, and very little crime. No one was on welfare, and no one had peptic ulcers.
They found that Rosetons ate pretty much what the rest of the country was eating, deriving 41 percent of their calories from fat, with many struggling with obesity, and lots of heavy smokers. The difference between Roseto and the rest of the country was not diet, exercise, or a genetic predisposition to good health. It had nothing to do with the land or the water, and everything to do with the town itself.

What these immigrants brought with them to rural Pennsylvania was an “old world” sense of community. Rosetans made the time to stop and chat with each other on the street, they cooked for each other in backyard parties, and held friendships in high priority. Extended families lived under the same roof, with elderly parents commanding respect. There were twenty-two civic groups serving the small population.

Roseto had a healthy and prosperous localized community where everyone knew each other, and were all there to lend a helping hand when things got rough. Wealth was never flaunted, and those falling on hard times were never shunned. The villagers had woven a social fabric of interconnected relationships where each thread was valued and needed for the good of the whole.

As a result, individuals had a sense of belonging and well-being. Their labor was valued, and all were considered equally important to the community whether they were the mayor or the garbage men.  This fabric was economic as well as social with much of the community’s needs met by member’s labors. No chain stores, big box stores, or Chinese imports were valued over locally-produced goods and services.

Sound familiar? Yes, many of the Wallkill Valley hamlets, towns and villages could pass for Roseto.

Researchers who worked with Wolf found new ways to look at heart disease, and treat the patient holistically, as a member of a community. The ongoing recession and state of the world weigh heavy on our communities.  Money is tight for most of us, family relations as strained, and stress is wearing out our last nerves. Now is the time when we need to pull together and look above our individual problems to building a stronger community.

When we look at individuals in our community, they are each unique and beautiful, but what really makes a work of art is seeing each individual brushstroke as part of a whole painting. As an artist, I often have to take a few steps back from my work to see the painting as a whole. As a community member, lets collectively take a few steps back , regard the lovely tapestry of friends, neighbors, small businesses, and ask, “What can I do to make it better?” Then realize that what effort you do to build a stronger community is also good for your health, your family’s health, and the well-being of us all.
Shawn Dell Joyce is an award-winning columnist and director of the Wallkill River School in Montgomery.

shawn@zestoforange.com

by Shawn Dell Joyce

The economic downturn has left many communities looking decimated with empty lots, vacant stores, and unemployed people with too much time and too little money. Some of these people have started a positive trend across the country by taking over vacant lots, empty rooftops, and unused parks to create community gardens.  These community gardens are a great way to get both children and adults involved in beautifying the neighborhood and benefitting the community with better nutrition and green spaces.

In the Wallkill Valley, we have a few community gardens that you can be part of. The Town of Montgomery Community Garden was started by Walden Resident Richard Phelps in an effort to help preserve Montgomery’s Benedict Park. The park is located on Rte 17K one mile west of the village. The garden is in the front field on the left in two acres of high ground. The community garden is divided into 56 single plots most 20 ft x 20ft and available to be gardened singly, double, triple or in quadruple combination for $25 per plot, plus two hours of community service.

The community garden has been a community effort with donated fence posts, donated well from Tompkins Well Drilling, and a communal compost pile. The garden is open to the public, so visitors to the park can drop in and see flowers in bloom and tomatoes swelling on the vines.

In the hamlet of Wallkill, Local businessman and lifelong resident, Stewart Crowell won a grant to develop his own land into a community garden. He enlisted support from the Wallkill Public Library, the Town of Shawangunk Council, the Wallkill High School Honor Society, the Wallkill Reformed Church Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry, the Wallkill Farm Market, as well as the local community enhancement committee, Woman’s Club and Girl and Boy Scouts. Plans are underway for this effort which will compliment Crowell’s Wallkill Community Farm Market which he began last summer. 

The Wallkill Library will lend a hand by creating an “ABC’s and Edibles” children’s reading garden, teaching children about plants and veggies and incorporating the planting of seeds and plants into story time programs.  Local high school students are joining the project to lend a hand in building beds and laying mulch and harvesting and distributing the produce. By encouraging young people to participate in the process, Wallkill is fostering an appreciation of farming, and working in harmony with nature. By making it a hamlet-wide effort, residents feel a sense of pride in making our community look its best.

Why not take part in one of these community gardens now, while it is still early enough in the growing season.  For more information on the Wallkill Community Garden, please call Mr. Crowell at 341-7381, for a plot in the Town of Montgomery Community Garden,contact Richard Phelps  (845)778-2736  www.tomcomgarden.org

Shawn Dell Joyce is the director of the Wallkill River School in Montgomery. www.WallkillRiverSchool.com

By Shawn Dell Joyce

Lawns are big business in our country with homeowners spending millions of dollars and many hours manicuring the lawn. But are these showcase thatched patches an environmental hazard?

      Water is in short supply, yet 30 percent of East Coast water usage and 60 percent of West Coast water usage goes to watering our lawns. We pour 10 times more chemicals on our lawns than farmers use in their fields, making lawns toxic for wildlife, soil microorganisms and earthworms, and polluting local water supplies. Up to a third of bagged household waste going to our landfills is lawn trimmings and leaves raked from our yards.

      Traditional gas-powered lawn mowers are responsible for 5 percent of the nation’s air pollution according to the Environmental Protection Agency. One gas mower running for an hour emits the same amount of pollutants as eight new cars driving 55 mph for the same amount of time, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Even the innocuous Weedeater emits 21 times more emissions than the typical family car, while the leaf blower can emit up to 34 times more according to Eartheasy.com.

       All this adds up to about 800 million gallons of gas burned each year in the quest for the perfect patch. But, about 17 million gallons of that fuel doesn’t quite make it to the mower tank and winds up spilled on the ground. That’s more than the Exxon Valdez spilled in 1989, and chances are that most homeowners do not clean it up. If that spilled fuel is left to evaporate into the air, it forms smog-forming ozone when cooked by heat and sunlight, and seeps into our water supply.

 
     If your mower happens to be a two-cycle engine, it releases 25 to 30 percent of its oil and gas unburned into the air, along with particulate matter, carbon dioxide, and other ingredients of smog. This unhealthy soup we breathe contributes to cancer, and damages our hearts, lungs, and immune systems.

      Want to lessen the environmental impact of your lawn?

      The “greenest” thing you can do is convert your lawn to a vegetable garden and replace the turf with lovely raised beds of edible greens.

      If that is too crunchy for your taste, how about trading in those gas guzzlers for the old-fashioned human-powered kind? Reel mowers are easier to use, quiet, non-polluting and you don’t have to worry about spilling the gas. With the money you save on gas alone, you could buy a good pair of clippers for the bushes and a scythe for   weed whacking.

      If you want to take the work out of lawn care, consider investing in electric mowers and weed whackers. Electric mowers range in price from $150 to $450, and the average cost in electricity to power the mower for one year is about five bucks, with no spilled gas and less emissions. Propane powered lawn equipment is a good choice when your lawn is the size of a golf course.

      Use less water by catching rainwater in a barrel and attaching a spigot to the bottom of it. You can set up a drip irrigation system that delivers this rainwater to your lawn. Water your lawn early in the morning when less water will evaporate in the hot sun. Run a fountain pump from your bathtub out the window, and reuse your bathwater to water your lawn.

      Leave grass clippings on the lawn instead of using chemical fertilizers. This keeps yard waste from landfills, and cycles the nutrients from your lawn back into the soil. It also provides a little mulch so that your lawn needs less watering.

    Use your brain instead of herbicides. If your lawn has dandelions, then your soil has a high pH level. Lower it with sulfur, or spot treat individual dandelions or poison ivy with a shot of vinegar.

      Set up a compost pile, or buy a composter for leaves and lawn clippings. Some mnicipalities won’t allow yard waste in municipal landfills. Why waste a good thing? Compost it instead.

      Use natural fertilizers instead of chemicals. Corn gluten will add nitrogen to your soil as well as kill weed seedlings. Use your composted yard waste and vegetable trimmings to build healthy soil on your lawn.

 Shawn@zestoforange.com

By Shawn Dell Joyce

We are all concerned about our schools and our rising school taxes. Most districts are facing a decline in state funding of 11% or. in Valley Central’s case; $3.6 million. That’s a lot of money, and we all wonder where it will come from.

Teachers are concerned about larger classes and less funding for teaching materials, salaries, and lower educational standards. Parents are concerned about less funding for the classes that keep kids interested in school, like music, art, sports, and extracurricular activities. Taxpayers are concerned about an ever-increasing burden that is already difficult to bear. Kids face crowded conditions, increased bullying, and less attention from teachers.

It’s a difficult situation for all, without an easy answer. Many school districts across the country are in the same pickle and some have come up with a few creative solutions that could be applied here.

Newburgh has hired an energy efficiency consultant to show faculty and students how to conserve resources and save money. Simple measures like turning off lights in empty classrooms, lowering the heat after hours, and reducing paper waste can more than pay the consultant’s salary, and save school resources over the long term. Engaging the student population in the school’s efforts to conserve, teaches children an important lesson to take back to the home and community.

Batavia schools have found methods for pooling resources and sharing specialized staff and equipment. This sharing cuts down on individual school district’s costs, and helps keep learning standards high.

In Fairfax County, Va., they are asking parents to pay fees for tests like the PSAT, and SAT tests. They are also planning to charge $50 per student to participate in high school sports. The most ingenious suggestion was to raise class size by a half of a student. You have to wonder where they put the other half!

Texas schools find themselves with a decreasing tax base (as property values plummet) and increasing student population. Instead of building more schools, the districts are encouraging home schooling by providing an online curriculum, free computer and internet, and a teacher with an online class size of 500.

Other states also encourage homeschooling by offering homeschooled children the use of the school for certain classes that parents may not be able to provide at home. For example, a high school science lab course would be easier to pay for than to recreate at home. This piecemeal approach to education also brings in additional revenues from homeschoolers already paying school taxes.

California high school students will soon be working from free digital textbooks online rather than the expensive hardcover textbooks at district’s expense.

Perhaps the best approach to solving the school budget crunch is the one right under our noses, and most likely to be missed. Why not have the children come up with the solution? One of the biggest complaints about schools is that they don’t prepare children for the “real world.” Here’s our chance, let’s give the kids a “real world” scenario, and see what they come up with?

Thomas Kerston of the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration has come up with a helpful module that could be applied to any classroom. It’s available free online at http://cnx.org/content/m14281/latest/.

We are quick to give our children the latest in interactive online video games, now how about we give them a quality education in life?

 Shawn Dell Joyce is the director of the Wallkill River School in Orange County. www.WallkillRiverSchool.com Shawn@zestoforange.com