Brazos Grows

Brazos Locavores – Septemeber Field Trip Announcement

by heather on August 26, 2009

Field Trip to Yonder Way Farm

One of the most frequent questions I receive as a locavore is where to find local, sustainably-produced meats. Join the Brazos Locavores for their September field trip and discover for yourself how and where sustainable beef, chicken, and pork are raised as we visit Yonder Way Farm in Brenham TX.

Situated 45 minutes south of town in Washington County, Yonder Way Farm began in 2006 when owners Jason and Lynsey Kramer were looking for the simple life; to farm the way nature intended. Today, they are expanding to include an on-site commercial kitchen and monthly market days starting in October. Join us for a tour of the farm to include a hayride through the pasture to see the many farm animals, a talk on how to raise your own backyard chickens, and a special treat: a dozen farm eggs for every family who attends.

Here’s the Scoop:

What: Brazos Locavore Field Trip to Yonder Way Farms

Who: Everyone is invited and be sure to bring the kids!

When: Sunday, September 27th (1:00 – 5:00 PM)

Where: Meet up at Brazos Natural Foods to carpool out to the farm

RSVP: To Heather at brazoslocavores@gmail.com by Wednesday, September 23 (I need to prepare the farm for the number of attendees)

For more information about Yonder Way Farm, visit their website.

See you there!

Want to learn more about the Brazos Locavores? Visit our main page at http://brazosgrows.org/brazos-locavores/

Or to receive field trip announcements directly to your inbox, join the Brazos Locavores Google Group at http://groups.google.com/group/brazos-locovore-adven tures.

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Visit to Dogrun Farms

by heather on August 16, 2009

Another hot Texas day meant an early morning visit to Dogrun Farms, the Brazos Locavores August field trip host. David Elsik and his daughter Jenna greeted us with big smiles and a wonderful tour of their farm just 20 minutes from the TAMU campus, complete with a drawing for fresh veggies to three winners!

Elsik, having worked on his family farm since he was a small child, is a natural at farming. He remembers his first experiences with planting and how amazing it was to plant cotton, corn, and watermelons on his family’s farm, observing them spout and grow.

Later in life, he concentrated his efforts hay baling until just a few years ago when he was diagnosed with leukemia. It was then Elsik returned to his love of gardening, and organic gardening at that, because of the danger of chemical pesticides and fertilizers to his health.

What began as a small garden, has grown year by year to become a much larger operation. In fact, Elsik is one of the two largest produce vendors at the Brazos Valley Farmers’ Market, selling an amazing variety of greens, herbs, and summer produce.

Currently, although he owns 130 acres, he is farming only 1.5 with plans to expand it to 10 next year. As the locavores toured the gardens, I was struck not only with the variety of plants (zucchini, eggplant, okra, hot peppers, sweet peppers, tomatoes, beans, yellow squash, and cucumbers), but also at the beauty of plants I’d never seen before (particularly the okra flower). As he regaled us with stories of battling both the heat and pests, we were invited to sample fresh okra right off the plant as well as yellow squash flower which turned out to be absolutely delicious and perfect for salad (who’d have thought?).

From a distance, Elsik pointed out 10 bee hives beyond the house, owned by ET Ash, one of the honey vendors at the farmers’ market. Elsik provides the fuel for the honey and the bees pollinate the produce for a beautiful and very natural partnership. Water is a trickier matter. Soaker hoses cut down on water evaporation, but they tend to distribute unevenly and the well water is simply not as healthy for the plants are good old fashioned rain water, nor does the current well pump enough water at a time, making watering a bit more labor intensive. Elsik hopes to eventually relocate the extensive gardens to an area with better water access.

At the end of the tour, three names were chosen to receive those fresh garden veggies. The grand prize winner picked a cantaloupe from the melon patch and the second and third prize winners selected cucumbers right off the vine. The rest of us had the opportunity to purchase any of the fresh produce – either picking it ourselves or from the harvest earlier that day. It just doesn’t get any fresher!

You know, the power of these locavore trips is truly is connecting the meals we eat with the farms where they are grown, witnessing for ourselves the hard work of the farmers combined with the magic that is nature. It may not earn a lot of money, says Elsik, but “I love it!”

Thanks to all the locavores who visited the farm and a very special thanks to our gracious host.

Stay tuned for next month’s field trip announcement. In the meantime, check out some of our other field trip reports at the Brazos Locavores website.

To receive an email for each field trip announcement, subscribe to the Brazos Locavores Google Group.

See you next time!

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Be Green in Bryan – Free Workshops

by heather on August 16, 2009

The Be Green In Bryan team is offering free Green Living workshops from now through December. The workshops are as follows:

August 24 – Rainwater Harvesting 101

September 15 – Worm Composting 101

October 5 – Greening Your Home 101

November 5 – Home Energy Efficiency 101

December 1 – Green Living 101

All workshops will be held at the Bryan Library (201 East 26th Street) from 7-8PM.

For more information, email Mary Strauss or download a PDF of the signup sheet.

See you there!

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Biased Transmission – Local producer on the radio

by heather on August 11, 2009

Local community radio station KEOS 89.1 has announced this week’s Biased Transmissions guest: CSA farmer, Brad Stufflebeam (we visited his farm in December 2008)…

This week on Biased Transmission our guest will be Brad Stufflebeam. He will be discussing the “Food Safety Enhancement Act” (HR 2749) and how it concerns small farmers. This bill proposes greater FDA regulatory powers over the national food supply and food providers, namely granting it the authority to regulate how crops are grown. This bill passed the House a few weeks ago, and will come before the Senate when they return from the August recess.

Brad is the owner of HomeSweetFarm outside of Brenham, an organic community supported farm. He has been working to educate the public about this bill and how it may affect small farmers ability to provide fresh local produce and foods to their communities.

Be sure to tune in to KEOS 89.1 this Wednesday, August 12, 6-7 PM for “Biased Transmission”.

This should be an interesting and informative show about an under-reported bill that slipping through the channels, and could have a profound effect on us all.

Check it out!

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Brazos Locavores in the News – Farmers’ Markets Today

by heather on August 6, 2009

I recently wrote an article for Farmers’ Markets Today on how we started the Brazos Locavores and how to start a locavore group in any town. It has just been published in the July/August 2009 edition!

The catch is that the magazine is by subscription only, but they do have a page to request a free copy of the magazine. I’m not sure if you’d get the newest edition or an older one, but it’s worth a try.

Check it out!

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Be Green In Bryan – Local food feature

by heather on August 5, 2009

A couple weeks ago, I did an interview with the city of Bryan’s “Be Green in Bryan” team. The resulting video just came out today and is being featured on the TV show “Bryan Living and Learning” on both local channels 8 and 16 (see schedule here). As well as on the web (watch the video in the player here).

The “Be Green in Bryan” segment highlights our local farmers’ market, the Brazos Locavores, and the Village Cafe.

Go check it out!

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Brazos Locavores – August Field Trip Announcement

by heather on July 15, 2009

Another treat for all you Brazos Valley Farmers’ Market customers. In August, we’ll be visiting Dog Run Farms, one of our two biggest veggie vendors at the farmers’ market.

David Elsik, owner of Dog Run Farms has been farming for as long as he can remember, but he’s been farming this current location for 5 years using organic practices on almost all of his produce. Along with his 2 girls, 7 cats, 3 dogs, and a horse, the family offers a beautiful array of fresh seasonal vegetables year-round, some of which will be available for purchase after the tour.

Here’s the scoop:

What: Brazos Locavore Field Trip to Dog Run Farm

When: Sunday, August 16 (9:15 AM -12:00 PM)

Where: Meet up at Brazos Natural Foods and carpool out to the farm

RSVP: to Heather at brazoslocavores@gmail.com by Saturday, August 15 (this is so that I can prepare the farm for the number of visitors and provide enough maps for drivers).

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Want to learn more about the Brazos Locavores? Visit our main page at http://brazosgrows.org/brazos-locavores/

Or to receive field trip announcements directly to your inbox, join the Brazos Locavores Google Group at http://groups.google.com/group/brazos-locovore-adventures.

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Earth Kind Fall Vegetable Gardening Lecture

by Andrea Fox on July 14, 2009

While the weather may not seem autumn like, it is time to start thinking about your fall vegetable gardens! Join the Brazos County Master Gardener Association during its Fall vegetable gardening lecture, presented by vegetable gurus Elmer Krehbiel and Joyce Brooks.

A $20 fee will be charged for this session, unless you already heard and pre-registered by July 10th.

Thursday, July 16th
6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Bryan Public Library
201 E 21st Street

See the Brazos County Master Gardener website for more information.

While you’re at it, be sure to mark you calendars for the other two sessions (different dates, same place and time):

August 20th
Composting & Rainwater Harvesting

October 15th
An Earth Kind Approach to Home Fruit Production

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Bluebird Orchard and Sun Fortune Soapworks – July 2009

by Andrea Fox on July 14, 2009

The warm July weather didn’t keep the Brazos Locavores away from their monthly field trip. This past Sunday’s visit was with Alicia Redden of Bluebird Orchard, located in Franklin, Texas.

Welcome to Bluebird Orchard and Sun Fortune Soapworks

Together with her dad, Alicia tends and harvests peaches from their 100-tree orchard. She is also the proprietor of Sun Fortune Soapworks, artisan of bar and liquid soaps hand made on the orchard. She started the tour by demonstrating cold-process soap making, the method used to make her natural soaps:

Alicia demonstrates soap making on the farm

Alicia demonstrates cold process soap making

She described the soap-making process as a simple chemical reaction between lard, lye, sodium hydroxide (for solid bar soaps) or potassium hydroxide (for liquid soaps), and water. While a 100 degree ambient temperature is ideal for this method, it is considered a “cold” process because additional heat is not required to facilitate the reaction. Once the basic mixture reaches the desired consistency, color and fragrance are added, and poured into a prepared mold.

The soap mixture is poured into a mold

Inside the soapmaking studio - soap bar cutter, bulk-batch mixer and crock pot

Inside the soapmaking studio - the soap bars at rest

Soap bar (samples) ready for market

Once the soap reaches a solid state (within 48 hours), it is cut into bars and left to age for about month, depending on humidity levels. The aging process makes the soap dense and brings out the mild and gentle cleansing qualities natural soaps are known for. Alicia has developed an extensive product line, and has been able to put her graphic design training to good use:

Sun fortune Soapworks liquid soap line

From here Alicia led us on a tour of the peach orchard, started 20 years ago when her parents moved to the property. At the time, there wasn’t a tree in sight, but Alicia’s dad heard that the sandy soils in the area were suitable for growing peaches. The two oldest surviving trees are approximately 15 years old, but are still producing abundant fruit:

The oldest trees in the orchard, still producing

We also got to see the newest part of the orchard, which wasn’t producing marketable fruit due to a late frost this past April:

Peach trees are the smaller trees in the background

Looking down the peach tree rows

Alicia briefed us on how to prune peach trees into a bowl-like shape. This develops a branching architecture that evenly distributes the weight of the peaches towards the outside of the canopy, while allowing for air and sunlight to reach the crown of the tree:

A (dead) peach tree reveals a bowl-shaped branching structure

She then taught us how to pick a good peach. First, look out for any insects that may be hiding in the leaves (those wasps can be sneaky…!), and turn the peach gently to look for any unripened green areas. If there’s good color all around and the skin indents a little when lightly pressed, gently twist and pull on the peach until it easily gives from its branch. Peaches taste best soon after they’re picked, and are especially good when warmed by dappled sun…

A peach soon to be plucked...

If you weren’t able to join us for the tour, Alicia sells her peaches and soaps at the Brazos Valley Farmers’ Market on Saturdays in Bryan, TX (and sometimes at the Monday and Wednesday markets too). Stop on by to visit with her and sample her local products. You’ll be glad you did.

Thanks for a wonderfully relaxing tour Alicia, and thanks to Heather for organizing it. Be sure to keep an eye on the Locavores website for the upcoming farm tours, perhaps you’ll be able to join us next time…

(Originally posted on Andrea’s blog, Grow Where You’re Planted)

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