Two more spring images: Ben tending bees, F2 in early evening.
We often talk about the challenges of finding good local food during long, hard winters here in the northeast, but for all its beauty spring can be a tougher season: preserves run out, root cellars empty and fields come into slow maturity. For this reason, sourcing food for our late April Pig Roast is always a challenge, one we’re still figuring out how to manage.
This year, in addition to slow-smoked pork, homemade barbecue sauce, beans and cornbread, we’ve got carrots that over-wintered in the fields at Massaro Farm CSA, which we’ll pickle; when we came to the Farm to start that process this afternoon, we were thrilled to see the first spring radishes coming out of the ground. The radishes may not make it to the Pig Roast, but we’ll definitely have them at our first May market! The two kinds of roots were both getting washed in the prop house this afternoon, and it was sort of wonderful to see them side by side: the last harvest of the old season, and the first pink-and-white signs of the new.
& if you’re looking to get involved this week, we’ve got three workdays:
Bulldog Days Welcome Event: Farm Work & Pizza
Monday, 4/16, 2:00-5:00 pm
Come get your hands dirty from 2:00-3:00 pm, with pizza from our woo-fired oven served starting at 3:00 pm. Harvest leaders will be at Phelps Gate every half hour starting at 1:30 pm to walk groups up to the Farm.
Open Volunteer Work Hours
Wednesday, 4/18, 1:00-5:00 pm
Join our regular Wednesday workday and help get the Farm prepped and ready for spring planting. No experience in necessary and everyone is invited!
Pig Roast
Friday, 4/20, 1:00-5:00 pm
Welcome spring, roast a pig, dance to music and celebrate the end of another school year. It’s an experience you’ll always remember. Everyone is invited. We’ll have regular open volunteer work hours on the Farm from 1:00-3:00pm, with pig served and live music from 3:00-5:00 pm.
Every September, Yale opens its doors to a flood of incoming students, many of whom feel safe only when those doors swiftly close behind them. They hear through the grapevine—no relation to Enza’s grapevine—that New Haven is a dangerous place. When I came to New Haven a year ago, I found myself perplexed by this attitude. The ironclad gates and spike-topped fences created a physical barrier between classrooms and communities that had so much to offer one another. I craved a sense of belonging in this city, a city in which myself and 11,000 other students lived, but few called home. Then, a fortunate thing happened. I met Chris Randall.
For all of the prefrosh arriving on Yale’s campus for Bulldog Days today, a look at a different side of New Haven: its urban farmers and community gardeners, folks deeply invested in making the city a more liveable (and edible!) landscape.
We’ve been big fans of Lucky Peach since day one— so we couldn’t be more thrilled that co-founder Peter Meehan is giving a Master’s Tea at 4:00 pm tomorrow in Branford College.
And, as if that by itself weren’t enough, he’s bringing gifts and guests— David Chang, chef of Momofuku, will be there as well, plus we have a limited number of copies of Lucky Peach Issue 3 to give away. The magazines were generously provided by the publisher, so if you like what you see you should probably go ahead and subscribe in order to support their excellent work.
The Land That Keeps on Giving
They’re on a real food-related roll: this morning the New York Times profiles farmer Eliot Coleman, who helped with the initial designs for the Yale Farm and spoke at a YSFP sponsored master’s tea last fall.
Sitting Down With Mark Bomford
YSFP Director talks physics and farming and the difficulties of choosing a favorite vegetable.
Podcasts
Here are two podcasts, recorded last week, featuring YSFP Director Mark Bomford and the Rudd Center’s Kelly Brownell. There’s one on food and sustainability and another on local sustainability initiatives. Both are definitely worth a listen!
This winter has been weirdly mild so far, but that hasn’t stopped us at the YSFP from getting excited about the coming of summer. There are two awesome ways to get involved in the coming months:
Apply to be a Harvest leader. Facilitate incoming freshmen’s first experiences with Yale and each other by spending a week with them on a small-scale organic Connecticut farm. Work during the day, hang out at night, cook fresh food and sleep under the stars. This year’s trips run from August 19-24, with leaders arriving August 15 for training. No experience with food, farming or the program is required and all are encouraged to apply.
Or, if you’re looking for something a little more intensive, apply to be a Yale Farm summer intern! Spend 12 weeks on our one-acre market garden, learning the principles of small-scale sustainable growing and meeting some of the folks who do it full time in neighboring cities. Experience with farming, gardening and growing is encouraged but not required; a love of cooperative work and the great outdoors is a must.
Unfortunately, both of these opportunities are limited to current Yale undergraduates; non-Yalies seeking positions in sustainable agriculture should check out Good Food Jobs for alternatives.
