Sky Meadow Food

Miles, Cella, and the girls have worked hard to consume less and grow more. They have created an ever-evolving system of food management, in which they rely on the earth to provide them with the majority of their food, and buy organic grains, seeds, and beans in bulk to reduce packaging and feed themselves with healthy, wholesome, less-processed food. A typical meal at Sky Meadow is meat-free, dairy-free, and often Indian themed - my favorite being Indian Dhal (made with lentils), brown rice, salad & herbs from the garden, homemade salad dressing, pumpkin soup, and a side of leek pesto (which I eat by the spoonful).

Or perhaps Mexican inspired vegan burritos with fresh guacamole and salsa and heaps of cilantro, chives, and dill from the garden:

Or nori rolls, quinoa, mung beans in coconut milk, and sugarsnap peas right off the vine:

oooooor, spaghetti w/ tofu marinara, butternut squash soup, and steamed beet greens:

And as always, a giant heaping mammoth of a salad with an array of garden greens, herbs, & edible flowers:

These are no special occasions. Miles and Cella believe that every meal deserves ample thought, preparation, and love. Cooking and eating was a sort of spiritual process at Sky Meadow....as it should be!

So what about in the winter, you ask. There is upwards of 5 feet of Vermont snow on the ground, how do they generate colorful, nutritious meals without relying on imported produce? Note the many giant freezers sprinkled about Sky Meadow. It's all about the prep work. Thoughtful organization months in advance. Planting excess crops, harvesting them little by little in the summer and fall, and freezing. Or canning. Or drying. I was amazed at all of the innovative ways that they were able to save food for the winter. Nothing went to waste! Here are a few examples of Sky Meadow food saving:

Lydia and I harvested wild mint from the back field, avoiding (and sometimes not avoiding) thistle in the process.

We then bunched and tied it onto hemp, took it up to the attic, and told Lydia to stand really still for a few weeks until it dries:

Black currants to be frozen - or what was left of them after Emma, Lydia, and my daily "snack break" visits.

Carolyn and I harvested about half of the huge dill patch, finely chopped it, spread it out on a cookie sheet, let it freeze for about 24 hours, then transported it into ziploc bags to sit in the freezer for use in the winter.

Proudly toting our baskets o' dill:

PEAS! three varieties - sugarsnap peas (the kind you eat whole, on salads or for a snack), shell peas (must be shelled), and snow peas (the flatter ones...good for stirfries). But they all start with an 'S' and look similar on the vine, how will I tell them apart?? I had a bit of trouble with it, especially since the seeds weren't labeled, so the varieties ended up mingling. But I eventually learned to distinguish the snap peas' semi-translucent shell apart from the shell peas' very very very slight difference in shade. And if I couldn't decide on one.... eliminate the problem altogether-eat it!

Here's a not-so-ripe shell pea:

The snow peas and sugarsnaps don't last through the summer....the girls have no problem delighting in numerous snap pea breaks throughout the day, and the snow peas are a favorite in stirfries. But a few of the shell peas survive the season and so, my job for the afternoon: harvest, shell, & freeze. Lots of work, and especially when Lydia and I think we deserve to eat one pea out of every shell, the bowl doesn't fill too quickly.

pea vine:

And finally, raspberries. SO MANY RASPBERRIES. About 8 bushes...maybe 10...12? An entire maze. The week I arrived, none of them were ripe. Then one day, a few red specs popped up and the girls and I quickly ravaged them. The next day, a few more bright red juicy specs. AAANNND THEN, all of a sudden, there were too many to eat, and some were overripe, falling on the ground, and new ones were reddening by the hour. Dessert for every meal was in the raspberry patch, but we didn't even leave a dent! I was amazed at how fast it happened. So Amy and I quickly went on a 'save the raspberries' assignment, harvesting them into clean yogurt containers, labeling 'RAZZZZZ '10" and popping them into the freezer.

I don't think I can bring myself to pay $5 for a little container of raspberries ever again. And "grow raspberries" is the newest addition to my master life TO DO list.

The birth of a garden

This is Sky Meadow's "lower field," a soon-to-be addition to their ongoing collection of gardens. It's in the process of being cover cropped, which is a way to enhance soil quality before starting a garden, maintain the soil during off-seasons, and build productive soil to control pests and disease. Here's a reader's digest version of cover crops: legumes such as rye, buckwheat, clover, crimson clover, and alfalfa are planted in a field for a period of time, and then tilled into the soil, where the stems and leaves are actually broken down, releasing nitrogen. (Although nitrogen is abundant in the air, plants can't convert nitrogen gas into a usable form). So cover cropping is not only a way to prevent erosion, but also establishes a durable, nutrient-filled soil.

Last fall, Miles planted winter rye as a cover crop to begin enhancing the soil quality. When the snow melted in the spring, he broke up the rye into the soil, and planted buckwheat and clover. The clover had just flowered (hence all of the yellow) upon my arrival.

Soon after it flowered, Miles quickly began to till the winter rye back into the soil. I helped get the big rocks out of the field, and he tilled again. Went scouring for rocks once more, and the result:

Then I went around the outskirts of the field and uprooted all of the leftover rye and buckwheat. Almost got stung by a swarm of bees (apparently they don't sting while they're pollinating...eeeeenteresting), hauled my collection into the wheelbarrow, and delivered it to the sheep pen.

Miles then planted more winter rye seeds for...well, the winter.

Hoorah, cover crops!

MULCHY MULCH

Mulching...what a wonderful discovery. Having crisply mulched walkways and beds saves time, excuses me from handweeding/hoeing in the hot sun, and gives the land an aesthetic uniformity that proves it is well loved. There are many mulch mediums, the most common being hay, straw, plastic, and compost. But, of course, the farms I visited are not ones for convention. Alison didn't use mulch, and although I never asked her why, I assume her reasoning would be something along the lines of "ehhh, don't really need it." Pitchfork Farm had a live mulch, placing sod in the walkways for grass to grow. (Yes, they would cut the grass between beds when needed and no, I failed to take a picture). And a plastic covering for the beds, with little holes for the plants to grow.

As for Sky Meadow, Miles and Cella had a little mulch experiment going from earlier in the season. They placed cardboard around the squash mounds and down a few rows to see what happened to the weeds beneath. Fast forward a few months, and a relatively weed-free path remained. So now they not only have beautiful garden, but a way to recycle those cardboard boxes they receive from buying food in bulk.

OK, it looks a little ugly. And they're running a retreat center with paying guests wanting to get back to nature n' all. So efficiency is a priority, but aesthetics isn't too far down the list. In comes my job for the afternoon: raking up the cut grass after Miles mowed a field, hauling it into a wheelbarrow, and scattering it onto the cardboard to conceal it. The results: efficient AND pleasing to the eyes. Who knew.