By: Tom Kearney | May 20, 2010 | #
Farm Visit
As crappy as the weather was here yesterday Steven and I went out to Pennsylvania to visit Amantai Farm owned and run by Jorge Carmona, a farmer we’ve been working with for about three years and about the nicest person you’ve ever met. This is the first year where we bought specific seeds for Jorge to grow for us. Doing this really adds traceability to our purchasing. Our seeds were all sourced from seed companies that specialize in organic, non-gmo seeds. It also gives us a bit of control over what to expect in planning our menus.
What really drives Jorge’s farm is diversity. As anyone who has been paying attention to industrial farming practices knows, monoculture or widely planting one crop has enormous economies of scale but also tremendous disadvantages to the consumer at large. We now see basically one or two varietals of corn, potato, tomato, beets, carrots or lettuce available in supermarkets. Homogenizing the availability of crops is also a great danger to protecting against blight and infestation. Crop diversity sets into motion the natural ability of an ecosystem to take care of itself without the introduction of pesticides or chemical fertilizers. Jorge has been cultivating on his 20 acres everything from lettuce, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, herbs, kale and peppers to chickens and honey. When a pest or form of blight threatens a part of his farm he reacts with a natural solution. He uses hot pepper spray on plant leaves to ward off insects, or he’ll strategically locate some plants next to others because they’ll deter a certain kind of predator. Compost is used on new plantings to slow the growth of weeds. Nearly everything is done by hand. Machines tend to be costly to buy and maintain and specialize in leveraging the task of one crop usually not multiple crops.
After our time in the fields we had a really satisfying Colombian feast of Arepas with homemade cheese, Tostones, beans, rice, and Flank steak. Thanks Jorge! Catch up with Amantai Farm at the Cortelyou Road Farmer’s Market on Sundays.
Photos Above: (top) Jorge pointing out some custom lettuce (below) Greenhouse tomatoes
Photos Above: (top) A “Rhode Island Red” laying hen (below) Deer’s Tongue Lettuce
Photos Above: (left) Steven & Jorge in front of a huge compost pile with wild Dandelion (right) Spring Onions
Photos Above: (left) Beehive (right) Wild Chamomile