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'Radical' way of farming - Rutland Herald 

2/1/2016

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PictureOverwintering spinach that will be harvested in early spring.
Dennis Duhaime and Carol Tashie began Radical Roots Farm on Creek Road in Rutland in 2010 after they began growing vegetables for just their family.
Now committed to the benefits and promotion of locally grown food, they are extremely involved in the community. Here, Carol discusses their farm and work in more detail.
What is nature of your business?
We grow a wide variety of vegetables. We use only organic practices and sell our vegetables at the Rutland farmers market (summer and winter) and to area schools and restaurants.
How/why did the company begin? What was the inspiration, the story behind its beginning?
While Dennis’ early years were spent on his family’s farm, neither of us had any significant farming experience before starting Radical Roots Farm. Dennis had worked in the lumber industry and was the produce manager for the Rutland Food Co-op. I was a teacher and worked at the University of New Hampshire for over a decade.
Shortly after moving to Rutland, thanks to the generosity of the late Harold Billings and Mary Ashcroft, we began to use a small plot of their land to grow vegetables for our family. It was such wonderful land – fertile and fruitful – and before long, we decided to start Radical Roots Farm and begin farming full time.
How did you get where you are today with the business (has it changed focus, grown, down-sized, etc.)?
While farming takes the bulk of our time, we try to stay very involved with our local community.
We have both served on various boards of directors, including the Creative Economy, the Rutland Food Co-op, and the Rutland Area Farm and Food Link and we are proud of the part we played in creating a community garden in our Northwest neighborhood of Rutland City.
I teach at CCV in Rutland and love my connection with the students and the staff. We feel extremely lucky to be a part of this wonderful community.
How long have you been a Rutland Farmers Market/VFFC vendor? What is your favorite aspect of being part of the VFFC community?
We have been a part of the Vermont Farmers Market for six years and love setting up our stand at both summer and winter markets. While it is extremely satisfying to present a full array of beautiful vegetables each week, by far our favorite part of market is the people.
It never ceases to amaze us how supportive our community is, and how committed people are to buying their food from local farms and farmers. We know there are people outside Vermont who think local food is just a fad, but we know better. Local food and farms are the future of food!
As we reconnect with all the land has to offer, we also reconnect with who we are as a community. And that is no fad!
As a business owner, what is the most important lesson you’ve learned?
When we started farming we knew we were going to have to work hard to be successful. The first few years were the hardest; we were literally learning on the job and making lots of mistakes along the way.
But the satisfaction we reap every day is remarkable. We get to see the miracle of a huge cabbage grow from a tiny seed. We get to see the smiling faces of the children who eat our food in their school cafeterias. We get to hear people tell us about the meals they created using only local ingredients. And we get to honor Mother Nature as she challenges us to be worthy of the generations of Vermont farmers who came before us.
And that makes all of the hard work worth it!

Contact information
http://www.radicalrootsvt.com
radicalrootsfarm@gmail.com
If you are a locally-owned Rutland area small business or sole-proprietorship and would like to be featured in A Business Story, please contact joanna@rutlandreader.com.
Joanna Tebbs Young is a freelance writer and writing workshop facilitator living in Rutland. Contact her at joanna@rutlandreader.com, wisdomwithinink.com, HYPERLINK “http://facebook.com/TheWritersRoomatAllenHouse”facebook.com/TheWritersRoomatAllenHous

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Harvest Watch: A farm share just right for you

2/10/2015

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Rutland Herald | February 10,2015
CAROL TASHIE and DENNIS DUHAIME 
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Fresh picked tomatoes. Sweet colorful peppers. Juicy watermelons. Snap-crisp green beans. Do we have your attention?

Despite the snow on the ground and the frigid chill in the air, now is the perfect time to start thinking about farm-fresh vegetables. And what better way to ensure that you are first in line for a healthy share of local veggies than to register for a CSA farm share today.

Community Supportive Agriculture, commonly known as a CSA or a farm share, is a classic win-win scenario. Become a farm share member and receive a weekly share of a farm’s delicious harvest. In return, farmers receive an upfront financial investment in their farm and the satisfaction of sharing their bounty with people truly connected and committed to their success.

So how do you decide if a farm share is right for you?

First consider your family’s eating habits and desires. Do you enjoy a variety of fresh vegetables and are you excited to occasionally try something new? Do you like to cook and discover new recipes? 

Would you like to develop a relationship with a local farmer and see firsthand the joys and challenges of growing food in Vermont? If you have children, would you like them to know where their food comes from? Satisfied farm share members generally answer yes to most or all of these questions.

Family size is also a consideration. Large farm shares are typically perfect for a family of four, or for two large vegetable eaters; small shares are usually just right for one or two people. But since each family’s appetite is different, talk to farmers to see which sizes are available and which one works best for you.

In addition to size, farm shares also vary in scope. Some farms offer free choice, giving share members the ability to chose what they want, when they want it; others generously divvy up the week’s harvest and offer an ever-changing diversity of ultra-fresh food. Depending on the CSA, shares can be picked up at the farm, the local farmers’ market, or, in some instances, delivered to in-town locations or area businesses. Some farms offer only vegetables, others offer meat, cheese, and/or bread as well. There are even ways to order your farm-fresh food online.

What about cost? While each farm determines the cost of their shares based on a wide variety of factors, buying a farm share typically makes excellent financial sense. Compared to shopping at a farmers market or even a grocery store, most shares provide a greater value for your food dollar. However, keep in mind that most farms ask members to pay for their share prior to start of the harvest; this advance capital allows the farmer to purchase seeds, soil amendments and meet other infrastructure needs.

Lastly, it is important to recognize that farming is not a fail-proof endeavor. While every farmer strives for success, nothing is guaranteed and each year there may be a crop failure or two. Members share the bountiful joys, as well as the occasional disappointments, with their farmers.

Once you have decided that a farm share might be right for you, consider which farm you would like to join. Remember, becoming a farm share member is so much more than a business transaction; it is the development of a real, and potentially long-lasting, relationship. Base your decision on the things that matter most to you, including the farm’s growing practices, your current relationship with the farmers, the location of the farm, the variety of vegetables offered, and anything else you value. If you are still not sure, get recommendations from current share members or from your neighbors and friends. Visit the farm’s website. Chat directly with the farmer; most of us love to talk about our farms and are happy to help you decide if our CSA is right for you. 

For a complete listing of CSAs in the Rutland and Northshire region, check out Rutland Area Farm and Food Link’s locally grown guide (www.rutlandfarmandfood.org/guide/). For a statewide list, visit NOFA’s website (http://nofavt.org/).

We have no doubt you will find the farm share that is just right for you. And those luscious tomatoes will be here before you know it.


Carol Tashie and Dennis Duhaime own Radical Roots Farm, growing vegetables for their CSA farm share members, Rutland’s Farmers’Market, and local restaurants and schools. To learn more about their farmvisit www.RadicalRootsVT.com,or contact them at radicalrootsfarm@gmail.com.
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The Radical Roots of Renaissance

12/23/2014

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PictureAnthony Edwards / Photo Dennis Duhaime, left, and Carol Tashie, of Radical Roots Farm in Rutland, sell loads of fresh tomatoes at their stand during the Rutland City Farmers Market.
CIRCLES OF COMMUNITY | By JOANNA TEBBS YOUNG
Rutland Reader  - November 26, 2014 


Whether it is from behind their table of beautifully displayed vegetables at the farmers market or under a tent on Radical Roots Farm, Carol Tashie and Dennis Duhaime always have a smile to go with their offerings of green (or purple or yellow or orange) goodness — the gifts of the Earth they believe to be the literal roots of growth and revitalization in our community.

For the past three summers, while picking up my family’s CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share from the farm on Creek Road, I have spent a few minutes of each Monday evening in the bubble of effervescence that is Carol Tashie. Knowing every one of her 80 CSA members by name, along with our children and probably our pets, too, Tashie greets us, asks how we are doing and makes sure we all know each other, while informing us what the heck we are meant to do with that vegetable that resembles Medusa (it’s called celeriac and is quite yummy in a stir-fry). When he’s not off in the field harvesting, Duhaime quietly says “hello” as he restocks the bins of produce.

“Neither of us had any significant farming experience before starting Radical Roots Farm,” says Tashie, who was previously a teacher at various schools throughout New England and the Northwest, including the University of New Hampshire for 15 years. Duhaime was in the lumber industry before working as produce manager at Rutland Food Co-op for two years.

“We were searching for a community we could call home,” Tashie explains. “We arrived in Rutland in January 2005, after attending SolarFest in the summer of 2004. After exploring the city and meeting some of its residents, we decided Rutland was the community for us. It is surrounded by beautiful and bountiful agricultural and recreational lands, and moving forward with vibrancy and innovation.”

In 2007, increasingly involved in one such innovation, the rapidly developing “locavore” movement, Tashie and Duhaime began growing their own food on a small parcel of land. With Duhaime taking the lead on the construction and Carol contributing her skills to funding and community support, the couple helped develop Rutland’s first winter farmers market, then in the space behind the Food Co-op. And when offered the opportunity to lease additional acres on the Ashcroft-Billings land on Creek Road, Tashie and Duhaime decided to dedicate their careers to organic farming. And so Radical Roots Farm was born.

Tashie says she and Duhaime are “learning and growing every day. Making mistakes, trying new things and recognizing our limitations are the realities of every farmer,” she says. And while over the past five years of farming they have been educated by the “generous and forgiving but also demanding and unpredictable” Mother Nature, they are very grateful to the experienced farmers “who offer friendship and support,” and to the educational opportunities provided by the Rutland Area Farm and Food Link.

It is with this support and their own hard work that Tashie and Duhaime have been able to achieve what they have. “We are very proud of the high-quality, nutritious and delicious vegetables Radical Roots Farm is able to produce on a relatively small parcel of land,” which they proudly share with their CSA members and hundreds of customers of the winter and summer farmers markets each week. Their produce is also featured on the menus of several restaurants, and, “perhaps most importantly,” Tashie adds, “it is served in the cafeterias of seven area schools.”

“We love our relationship with the schools. Knowing that the young people in our region are being provided with locally grown, farm-fresh food fills us with joy and satisfaction. What could be more important than healthy food to grow healthy children?

“The Rutland area is a rich and fertile environment for local food,” Tashie says. “The popularity and vibrancy of the farmers market demonstrates the community’s support, each and every week.”

Believing that this support is evidence of “the power of a diverse group of people working together to create a better world for themselves and their neighbors,” Tashie and Duhaime are committed to this community, including the NW section of the city in which they live. “It can be as simple as saying ‘hello’ to the people you meet on the street and as complex as organizing to solve a problem or develop a new project,” Tashie says.

“Community means caring about the health and well-being of the people and environment around you and respecting the interconnectedness of us all. And thanks to the creativity and passion of many of its residents, Rutland is on the cusp of revitalization, and we are proud to be a part of it. We feel extremely lucky to be a part of this welcoming and progressive community. The people in this region appreciate and value locally grown food, both from ‘what’s for dinner’ and ‘agriculture as economic development’ perspectives,” Tashie says.

“And we are proud to be part of the agricultural renaissance here.”

Joanna Tebbs Young is a writer and writing and creativity facilitator living in Rutland.
E-mail: joanna@wisdomwithinink.com
Website: wisdomwithinink.com
Twitter: @jtebbsyoung


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Henry Homeyer on Preserving Tomatoes

8/7/2014

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Rutland Herald
August 2, 2104
With a little work, you can enjoy homegrown tomatoes all year round

This has been, knock on wood, a great year for tomatoes. I planted my seeds indoors earlier than I usually do, which meant that my plants went in to the ground earlier, and grew bigger. And there were no late frosts, so I’m eating tomatoes earlier than in most years. Cherry tomatoes started producing in early July, and I picked my first full-sized tomato July 16. Lots of sun and adequate rain have pushed them along. Barring an attack of late blight, I will have more than I need to feed myself all winter — if I process them now.

My mother and grandmother canned tomatoes. They worked in a hot kitchen in August and September, turning homegrown tomatoes into canned tomatoes and sauce. To avoid the deadly disease botulism, they boiled jars seemingly forever. But now, in the day of chest freezers, we can make sauce and not have to go through the canning process. You can make sauce and freeze it for use in the winter. And there are lots of other ways to save the harvest.

First, my favorite technique: Freezing tomatoes whole. I call it the “no-work” method. Just place clean, dry tomatoes in gallon freezer bags, suck out any excess air with an ordinary straw, and place the bags in the freezer on a cookie sheet. I generally get nine large tomatoes into a gallon bag. After the tomatoes are frozen, you can take them off the cookie sheets and stack the bags.

When you are ready to use the tomatoes for a soup or stew, you can remove the skins easily, if you wish, by running them under hot water and giving them a quick rub. Halve the tomatoes, cut out their attachment points, chop and cook. If you let the tomatoes thaw, they will be mushy and no good for sandwiches. But cooked? They’re great.

Last summer I tried roasting tomatoes in the oven, and was very pleased with the results. I cut tomatoes in half, placed them in a shallow roasting pan and placed them in the oven at 350 degrees. I cooked them until the tomatoes caramelized and lost most of their moisture. Then I placed them in zipper bags, one layer thick, and put them in the freezer. To avoid the need for scrubbing the roasting pan, I cooked them on a sheet of aluminum foil. These tomatoes worked fine in sandwiches in winter. I just put the frozen tomatoes in the toaster oven to thaw and heat, and put them on bread. Yum!

I grow a lot of cherry tomatoes each year — 10 plants or more. I eat them every meal in season, and snack on them between meals. My favorite variety is Sun Gold, a hybrid.

What do I do with the vast numbers of these sweet cuties?

For years I have been cutting them in half and dehydrating them. I’ve tried all sorts of dehydrators, and think I have found the best.

The machine I use is the Excalibur (excaliburdehydrator.com). This machine has nine square trays, a heating element, a thermostat, a timer and a fan that sits behind the trays. The fan and heater location are key. This machine blows hot air across the trays, as opposed to all the others I have used that send hot air up from the bottom or down from the top. Either way, the tomatoes closest to the fan and heating element dry first, so one must rotate the trays, or take out the dry ones and continue to dry the others.

At 660 watts an hour, the Excalibur also uses less electricity than the 1,000-watt NESCO unit I had used for years, but both take about the same time to dry a batch of tomatoes. The Excalibur also can hold more fruit per tray as its trays are square and the other’s are round.

I store the dried cherry tomatoes in zipper bags. They are fine on a shelf in the pantry, in the fridge or — for long term storage — in the freezer. When I want to use them, I just toss them into a stir fry or stew, and these little nuggets bring a “Wow!” to the lips of my guests. If you don’t dry them to the crispy stage, but leave them a little chewy, you can even use them in salads and sandwiches.

Lastly, I make a lot of tomato paste. It’s easy and allows me to use chunks of tomatoes that had bad spots that needed to be cut out. I core tomatoes over the sink and squeeze out juice and seeds. Then, I pop them into the food processor and puree them, skins and all. I pour the liquid into a heavy enameled cast iron pot and slowly boil the slurry until it is thick enough to have a spoon stand up in it. I let it cool all night, uncovered, and spoon the paste into ice cube trays. Once it’s frozen, I bag it in zipper bags. Then I can get just the right amount of tomato paste and never waste any — I just use one, two or three cubes, depending on my recipe.

It is work to put up the harvest, but the methods above are a lot less work than canning tomatoes in jars in a hot-water bath. And come winter? There is nothing better than eating your own tomatoes.

Henry Homeyer can be reached at P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746, orhenry.homeyer@comcast.net or visit Gardening-Guy.com.


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Henry Homeyer on planting tomatoes

5/18/2014

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Rutland Herald
May 18, 2014
All things tomato, right from the start
by Henry Homeyer 

This year I met a life-long goal of growing an edible tomato in the house, though I have to admit it was quite by accident. 

Last fall I dug up an avocado plant that had started itself in the compost pile. Mixed in with the soil were seeds that germinated, including a tomato, a pepper and, of course, weeds. I let the tomato grow and harvested a ripe tomato May 10. 

The plant has been in a west-facing window, and, although I did provide some supplemental lighting, that was only for a month or so. I don’t know what kind of tomato it is, but the flavor was excellent — a combination of sweet and tangy.

A few words about “volunteer” tomatoes: I get some in my garden each year but never let them develop because many are not particularly tasty. Most modern tomatoes are hybrids (Big Boy, Jet Star and Sun Gold are all hybrids). That means someone figured out that specific crosses of the parents would produce a tomato with desirable characteristics. But seeds from these hybrids will not breed true. Seeds saved from a Big Boy will most likely revert to one of the parents of the fruit, which may not be especially nice. 

As you clean up your garden this spring, I recommend that you yank the babies. 

What we call heirloom tomatoes do breed true. Tomatoes, unless manipulated for growing seed, are self-pollinating. Heirlooms such as Brandywine, Purple Cherokee and Ox Heart will produce seeds that you can save each year and get just what you had the generation before. Heirlooms are not often sold at the grocery store because they are often of irregular size and shape (hard to package) and don’t have the tough skins needed for shipping and handling. But they have amazing flavors. 

I grow both heirlooms and hybrids each year — usually a total of about 30 plants. So why do I grow hybrids if heirlooms are so wonderful to eat? The modern hybrids have been bred for disease resistance, which is important. There are a variety of fungal diseases that can kill the leaves or even the entire plant.

The worst disease for tomatoes is late blight. If it hits your garden, your tomato plants may well turn into a soggy, blackened mess of inedible fruit and dead stems in just a few days. Late blight also affects potatoes and was the cause of the Irish potato famine. 

One hybrid tomato, the Defiant F-1, which was developed by the plant breeders working for Johnny’s Selected Seeds, is listed as “highly resistant” to late blight with “intermediate resistance” to early blight, another pest. I’ve grown it and like it. It has nice medium-sized fruit and good flavor, and it matures early. 

There is much talk about GMO labeling in Vermont right now — the Legislature just passed a law that will require many processed foods to indicate if there are genetically modified ingredients. As far as I know, there are no GMO tomatoes or other garden vegetables on the market. One GMO tomato was developed in 1994, but the public objected and the market for it was nil. 

This year I started my tomato seeds indoors March 24, three weeks earlier than usual. I transplanted them into bigger pots in early May, and they are growing like crazy. But the plants are getting huge, which is a problem: They are too big to fit on my plant stand. I’ve had to remove a shelf so the plants can continue to grow. 

If you have long, leggy plants like mine, you’ll need to plant them sideways when the time comes. I will dig a hole for the root ball and then a trench for the long stem. I’ll pinch off all the lower leaves, then cover the root ball and the stem except for the very top cluster of leaves. I’ll bend the tip of the stem up so the leaf cluster is above ground level. 

The plant will straighten itself up in a few days. The long stem will turn into roots. Alternatively, you could plant the root ball deep, burying part of the stem. 

Whether you grew your tomatoes from seeds or bought plants at the garden center, it is important to harden them off before they go in the garden. That means introducing them to the sun’s powerful rays and the wind’s drying effects a little each day until the plants are ready to go out in full sun. 

Put them near the house on the north side so they get just a few hours of morning sun, then gradually give them more sun. Just like a fair-skinned toddler, plants can burn if they get too much sun. Greenhouses provide a lot of protection. And bring them in on cold nights.

A soil thermometer is a useful item at this time of year. Cold, wet soil is not good for most plants, and tomatoes in particular. Sixty degrees is a good minimum soil temperature to attain before planting. 

I don’t plant frost-sensitive plants until well after the last frost, though a few warm days always tempt me. But lettuce, peas and other frost-hardy things are going in now. I’m ready for summer.

Henry Homeyer can be reached through his website www.Gardening-Guy.com. He is the author of four gardening books and lives in Cornish Flat, N.H.

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EnVISIONing Rutland’s real story                                   Carol's Weekly Planet column

5/4/2014

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Opinion | Perspective
Rutland Herald - Times Argus
May 04, 2014
EnVISIONing Rutland’s real story


Carol Tashie

Have you ever watched a group of young children play soccer? Just imagine a swarm of bees, and you’ll have the picture: No matter which way the ball goes, every player will run, en masse, in the same direction. 

Lately the national press has been swarming like 6-year-old soccer players — all running in the same direction to chase down the story of heroin in Vermont, specifically in the city of Rutland. 

The queen bee of media, The New York Times, started it off, but in no time everyone from Al Jazeera to NBC News ran to chase the ball. This includes, of course, Rolling Stone magazine, whose ironic take on our iconic maple syrup industry seemed to hit a statewide nerve. Funny, since despite the outrage, Rolling Stone actually came closest to reporting on the actual story.

So what is the real story?

First, some full disclosure. I live in Rutland, in the very neighborhood the press has been painting as the apex of America’s heroin epidemic. 

The NYT reporter requested an interview — in her words, she wanted to “see my house,” as if she were looking for the quintessential den of iniquity with dirty needles strewn here and there.

What’s amazing is how quickly she withdrew her request the minute I spoke of the beauty of the neighborhood and our strong sense of community. Clearly that was not the story she was after. And before you could say “buzz” the rest of the media swarmed into the city to reiterate what the queen had already reported.

How could all of them have missed the real story? Considering the number of people who tried to show and tell the truth, it was not for lack of access. I guess a picture of a needle in an arm is more compelling than the complexity of a community coming together to identify and solve a problem and, in turn, improving the quality of life for everyone.

So without wasting precious column space restating the statistics of local heroin use, here is the story the media failed to report.

Rutland acknowledges that drug use is negatively impacting the entire community and recognizes that the solution does not rest solely — or even predominantly — in the hands of law enforcement. The people of Rutland proactively mobilize to develop a multi-tiered strategy involving everything from fixing up or tearing down blighted buildings, planting flowers and building community gardens, hosting block parties, developing community mediation outlets, adding solar panels to street lights, and increasing the number of recreation scholarships. Project VISION is born.

Mental health and domestic violence organizations develop strong partnerships with those who provide support and treatment for people struggling with substance abuse. The police department works closely with these partners to ensure that police calls can result in long-term help instead of only warnings or arrests.

A new chief of police is appointed, and the department dramatically changes the way it does business. Each sector of the city now has its own community police officer. Crime mapping pinpoints exact locations where drugs and crime are real problems. 

Using a drug market intervention model, the police focus on arresting the dealers who are causing real harm to the community — and with the help of family, community members and partner agencies, offer support and treatment to all others. 

There’s the real story. When faced with a problem that virtually every other community in the country shares, Rutland moves forward with honesty, intelligence, collaboration and pride.

Will it work? I think it already has. For more than a year, a standing-room-only crowd of 100-plus people has been meeting monthly to develop and refine strategies for strengthening our community. The room is filled with a diverse group of people who all share one common trait — pride in Rutland — and one common goal — to improve the quality of life for everyone in the community. 

That is the story that should make headlines.

The farming season is now off and running, and I will take a break from writing my Weekly Planet column until the fall. Thank you for being such a generous and kind readership.

Carol Tashie, co-owner of Radical Roots Farm, lives in Rutland City and tries hard to find a balance between what is possible and what is impossible to ignore. She can be reached at carolweeklyplanet@yahoo.com.

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Skinning the New High Tunnel

4/22/2014

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Thanks to an amazing crew - Kent, Carla, Taylor, Kim, Elizabeth, Dan, Jim, Hannah, Jonathan, Kevin, Jim, and Mike - we skinned our newest high tunnel yesterday!  And it went flawlessly! We started at 9am, when there was virtually no wind, and by 11am the plastic was on and battened down. By noon the April wind kicked back in so our timing could not have been better! There is nothing like COMMUNITY to make a big job easy! 

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Once everyone arrived, Dennis pulled us all together to explain the plan. I think we were all surprised when he said we needed two people to climb to the top of the peak of the tunnel and walk across the purlins - 15 feet in the air - while unrolling a 150 pound roll of plastic. Dennis - who says he is afraid of heights - volunteered himself. Immediately, Kevin said he would do it too. There was nervous - and relieved - laughter from the rest of us!

And off they went - up the ladders and over the peak!

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Dan and Jim then hoisted the 150 pound roll of plastic to the peak and battened down one end.

The rest of us were in neck-craning mode as we watched the action overhead. Jokes were flying although I must admit to nervousness at the high wire act that was about to occur. 

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And then Dennis and Kevin had to find their way back to the ground!
In the meantime, Kim was at the ready on the other end and Dan climbed up the middle. The rest of us took our positions on either side and - without a hitch - the plastic gently unfurled down to the sides to the ground.
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By 11am the sides were battened down and all that was left was to assemble the roll-up sides. And finish the strong coffee and delicious bagels and pastries from The Bakery!

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THANK YOU EVERYONE for an amazing day!
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Letters from Barstow Elementary School

3/22/2014

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Is there anything better than getting a letter from first-grader? Yes - getting letters from 10 first-graders!! Once again, we participating in NOFA's Farmer-School Correspondence program and we are so lucky to be writing to and receiving letters from the Kindergarten and First Grade classes of Barstow Elementary School in Chittenden. If you want to read the first letter we wrote to the students, click here. But far more interesting is the collection of letters we have gotten in return. The ones below are from Mariah Freemole's first grade class. We love each and every one of them!!! We have deleted the names to protect the children's privacy.
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Winter, Revisited                                                        Carol's Weekly Planet Column

3/18/2014

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PictureSeedlings on the dining room floor at night
Article published Mar 16, 2014
Winter, revisited

By Carol Tashie
The Weekly Planet


In 2012 I wrote a column titled “Winter on and off the farm.” To be honest, I think that column was an excuse to wax sentimental about the winter camping vacations my partner Dennis and I take each year. 

I apologize if the column was more akin to viewing your coworker’s vacation photos than reading a newspaper-worthy story. Some of you, dear readers, were kind, thanking me for the over-share. Others of you remained curious, asking the question, “What are you doing now?”

This column is for you.

As I write, I am sitting in New York’s Penn Station, waiting for the train home to Rutland. While I promise no more tales of winter retreats, it is plain fact that, for this farmer, winter is a time to reconnect with out-of-state family and friends. Every winter I hop the train to see the people who raised and love me. And ditto on the loving-them-back part. 

But since it is now March, albeit a driving-us-crazy cold March, this weekend away was only possible thanks to Dennis’ willingness to handle the home front without me. 

Mid-winter is the time for planting and tending — seeds, that is. By early February, we have already started the 17,000 onion and leek seeds we hope, by mid-summer, will grow into aromatic delights. Onions and leeks take a long time to grow, which is why many growers start with sets. Sets are basically young plants that look a bit pathetic when they arrive but can eventually grow into delicious vegetables.

But we start with seeds, not sets. Onions and leeks are not the only seeds we start in February. Spinach, peas, lettuce, kale, scallions, beets and artichokes are all on the early start list: onions, leeks and artichokes because of the length of time they require; peas, greens, and the like because they can be transplanted as soon as the outside ground can be worked.

And even though the calendar says spring is right around the corner, the ground outside is far from workable. So for now, we transplant what we can inside our high tunnels and care for the rest as we dream of melting snow and warming soil. 

The seedlings that need more tending, as well as those we continue to start throughout the winter and spring, all require water, warmth and light to thrive. A greenhouse is the ideal milieu for managing all these conditions. As long as your water source is not frozen, water is the easy part. 

When the sun is shining, hallelujah for the light and warmth it bestows! But with this season’s cold days and colder nights, the greenhouse requires another source of heat. And therein lies the rub.

Propane is probably the most common source of greenhouse heat, although wood, kerosene, pellets, and electric are also used. Solar hot water is making a splash, and heat pumps and geothermal are exciting possibilities.

But for now we use propane, which takes a toll on both the pocketbook and the environment.

To manage that toll, we transfer our trays of seedlings between our home and our greenhouse twice every day. By carrying the trays out to the greenhouse in the morning, we ensure that our plants reap the benefit of the sun and natural light all day long. By carrying them back inside every evening, we reap the benefit of not running our propane heater during cold sub-zero nights.

Is it a pain? You bet. But by making this effort, we save a bit of money and reduce our overall carbon footprint.

Complaining about this year’s winter seems to be a favorite pastime. But let’s face it, cold and snowy winters used to be the norm. The warming climate, while horribly frightening, has actually spoiled us. We have almost come to expect workable ground in March. Let this winter remind us of the real challenges — and joys — of growing food in our northern climes.


Carol Tashie, co-owner of Radical Roots Farm, lives in Rutland City. She can be reached at carolweeklyplanet@yahoo.com.


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What do Farmers do in the Winter?                          Carol's Weekly Planet column

3/3/2014

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Picture
Rutland Herald/Times Argus

Article published Dec 30, 2012
Weekly Planet column

What do Farmers Do in the Winter?

The other day I was enjoying a cup of tea at Café Terra, my favorite Rutland coffee shop, when an acquaintance stopped by to say hello. Amidst the small talk about the weather and the holiday season came the question I have begun to expect this time of year: What do farmers do in the winter?

This question is akin to asking what teachers do in the summer. There is no one answer; some take the summer off, many have non-school jobs, all prepare for the upcoming school year, and a number continue teaching throughout the summer months.

Like teachers, there is no one answer for farmers. Some take the winter off, many have off-farm jobs, all prepare for the upcoming growing season, and a number continue farming all year long.

So I answered this question as I always do: not speaking for all farmers, but stating what we, Radical Roots farmers, do in the winter.

As the days shorten and chill, we begin to clean and repair, everything from hand tools to greenhouses. We assess what needs to be renovated or repaired and what needs to be bought or built anew. We harvest the last of the field crops and fill our hoop houses with cold-hardy plants like kale and spinach. Some of these greens will be harvested and sold by mid-December; others will sit tight until they begin to grow again in early February.

While the greens sit tight, we take a break.  One of the joys of vegetable farming in Vermont is that the climate dictates certain realities. The short days and cold temperatures mean that most crops do not grow very much - or at all - and the ones that do require very little human tending. This allows us to leave town for a few much-anticipated and much-appreciated weeks.   

Our break is simple; we head as far south as our old truck can take us, and camp in state and national parks.  Books are my guilty pleasure and I spend much of our vacation making up for lost reading time. Dennis is a bit more adventurous; he gets in as much fishing, hiking, canoeing, and biking as possible during those precious days off.

But while vacation is a time to relax and rejuvenate, it is also a time to review and renew. Equipped with last season’s crop and harvest notebooks and next season’s seed catalogs, we meticulously evaluate the past and eagerly plan for future. Plot diagrams are drawn, soil amendments needs are determined, harvest and marketing plans are developed, and seeds are ordered. All done while sitting beside a scenic (and often alligator-infested) river or roaring campfire.

But this out of town break is relatively short and our Vermont winters are infamously long. February brings an interesting juxtaposition of the foregoing and forthcoming seasons; last year’s greens are now ready for harvest and market, while seeding and preparing for the coming spring and summer begins in earnest. Suffice it to say, our vacation quickly becomes a thing of the past.

From this point forward, we are very much back on the farm.

The dilemma now lies in how we will respond to this question next year. Farmers are getting better and better at extending our growing season, and harvesting veggies in the winter, including fresh-picked greens, is no longer a pie in the sky dream. Stop by any winter farmers’ market and this reality will hit you between the eyes. 

But just because we can, doesn’t mean we will. The joke going around the farming community is the need for a support group to help farmers reclaim the idea of the good old fashion winter break. On the other hand, we love growing the veggies that the good people of Rutland seem to enjoy and selling at winter market is one of our greatest joys.

Ask us next year what farmers do in the winter. It is anyone’s guess as to what our answer will be.

Carol Tashie, co-owner of Radical Roots Farm, lives in Rutland City and tries hard to find a balance between what is possible and what is impossible to ignore. She can be reached at carolweeklyplanet@yahoo.com

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    Carol Tashie and Dennis Duhaime will occasionally share stories from the farm, the farmers' market, and their lives. They will also share Carol's Weekly Planet column which runs once a month in the Sunday Rutland Herald and Times Argus .

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Radical Roots Farm is located on Creek Road (also known as Dorr Drive) in Rutland.  We are directly across the street from #531 Creek Road, Rutland Town, VT. Look for our sign in front of our farm stand.


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