Scroll down for Member Features about:
The Web of Life Organic Farm
Carver, MA
A Member Feature of Donna Blischke proprietor of Web of Life Farm
By Market Member Jenny Healy of Jenny's Bread
Maggie knows the car. And she knows the boy who usually comes with
it. She'll circle excitedly until he jumps out of the back and two
are off and running to the cacophonous sounds of the other German
Shephard, Max. From the safety and security of his favorite spot
under the porch, Max barks with false bravado not daring to show his
face which is best described as goofy. It was hard to imagine that a
dog could look like Yoda, but Donna hit the nail on the head with
that comparison. Coming up from the green house or down the path
from the barn, Donna calls out a quick,"Zip it!" to Max and that is
just what he does. But to his credit, after almost two years, he has
shown us his face several times and even let me pat him.
On Wednesday afternoons, I drop off my daughter at dance around the
corner on Route 58 and swing by Web of Life Farm to get two dozen
glorious eggs. On a busy fall day, I may find Donna in the barn built
by Amish craftsman; she's canning tomoatoes (but, for the first time
in 20 years it didn't happen last fall because of the blight) or
she's making jam or she's unloading bags of organic grain for the
chickens. On a quiet winter afternoon, I may sit awhile with Donna
and mull over seed catalogs or agonize over the paperwork involved
with her organic certification or talk about the kids or the state of
the world. This spring she's tilling a new field she's renting from a
neighbor, and she gives my son a turn on the tractor before she puts
it away. This will add to her rows and rows of beautiful heirloom
tomatoes, rainbow chard, squashes I've never heard of, fingerling
potatoes-even purple ones and Russian garlic among other things.
Donna Blischke, farmer and friend, tends pastured raised chickens
(she has a rooster or two looking for a good home, any takers?) and
beautiful vegetable gardens. Her chickens have a huge range, access
to sun and shade, dirt for scratching and greens that make the yolks
of the eggs an extraordinary deep sun filled orange. The meat
chickens are raised the same way and the proof is in the pudding;
that is, they taste like, well, chicken! A few weeks ago when I went
out there with an entourage from the neighborhood, we jumped right in
helping set up fencing to give the chickens better access to their
new, greener grazing grounds. Inevitably one of the kids asked
about the fate of these birds and was horrified to find out they'd
end up as someone's dinner. Donna very truthfully and matter-of-
factly explained the difference between how her animals are raised
and how the commercial ones are raised. "My chickens have fresh air
and sunshine. They have a great life here," she went on," They have
one bad day."
Donna truly believes that. Donna truly believes that we all have a
part to play in the care and keeping of this web of life. But more
than believing this, Donna lives this with her bare hands and her
whole heart.
Oh, and she has peacock much to the delight of the kids.
Spotlight on SoBerry Clean
At The Plymouth Farmers’ Market
By Melissa Mediera
Commercial grade laundry detergents may be a thing of the past thanks to SoBerry Clean and their environmentally friendly soapberries. The company, which began back in the fall of 2009, is locally owned on Cape Cod by Janice Leary-Jones and Daniel Jones.
The couple has set a company mission of “offering their clients an eco-friendly way to get their laundry done,” and it seems that they have succeeded. The soapberries that are sold by SoBerry Clean come from trees in India and Nepal where they are collected on tarps and use little resources for manufacturing. Completely biodegradable, compostable, and fair trade certified; these soapberries certainly seem to live up to their eco-friendly status. Even the company’s marketing is good for the environment. They consciously use recycled paper and soy based ink for all of their printed materials. SoBerry Clean is definitely helping us go in the right direction for a more sustainable planet, which is an important part of the Jones’ philosophy for their company.
The way soapberries work is fairly simple. They contain saponin which is a natural surfactant. Surfactants are the active ingredient in soaps that remove dirt and oil. The difference between soapberries and other laundry detergent is that soapberries contain no harsh chemicals, parabans, or preservatives. This means that they won’t cause any irritation or skin reactions which can be common with conventional detergents. They can also be used on delicate fabrics such as wool and silk and they are even gentle enough to use on baby clothes. Still, they get the job done and leave your laundry with a fresh, clean scent. Not too bad for a berry that’s smaller than a golfball.
Along with being powerful, soapberries are also versatile. You can clean glass, floors, dishes, and jewelry, just to name a few uses. SoBerry encourages their customers to try other applications and to share the results with them in the hopes of expanding the uses of the product. With reports that soapberries are good for your septic tank and leaching field due to their anti-microbial effect, maybe using the berries to clean the household toilet will be the next great use the company can market.
Soapberries are also extremely economical. As a laundry detergent, the 16 ounce bag can last for up to eight months for a family of four, doing approximately 160 loads of laundry. You just add 4-5 berries to the small cotton bag provided and leave them in the washer until they breakdown and need replacing. The company website has a list of instructions on ratios to help you get started. It’s really very simple and it’s great that it’s easy on your wallet as well.
If you visit the Plymouth Farmers’ Market Janice and Daniel are frequently on hand to sell various sized bags of their soapberries and to answer any questions. Though not grown locally as most agricultural products found at the market, an exception was made for soap berries , a seemingly green way to clean, which the market community should know about.
You can also purchase them on-line at the SoBerry website and locally at . Buy a bag and support a great local business that is looking to change our household cleaning methods and planet for the better!
Thank you to Melissa for her time to write this article and for photos of the So berry team, see above, at the March winter into spring market at Plimoth Plantation. Melissa is also working to coordinate a gleaning program for the summer/fall market.
Stay tuned for more news from her soon.
Plato’s Harvest Organic Farm
Dave Purpura of Plato’s Harvest Organic Farm in Middleboro is a farmer with an attitude. His attitude is, “do what you like, like what you do and always try something new.” His attitude is paying dividends for his 60+ CSA members as well as to the many folks who shop at the farmers’ market who want to feed their families nutritious, field fresh and organically grown vegetables and herbs.
In fact, Dave grows some of the most beautiful vegetables to be found at the Thursday market. His table offers a rainbow of choices each week: deep purple eggplant, bright green zucchini, sun gold tomatoes, rosy red radishes and a round variety of lemon yellow summer squash. His garlic is plump and firm, swiss chard bright and crisp and his tomatoes are rich and red. The fragrant Italian basil , lemon basil, purple opal basil and large lettuce leaf basil are all candidates to pair with the tomatoes as they begin to roll in from the vine. Dave is proud too of his zinnias and gladiolas which stand tall and bright in bouquets or by the stem.
The inspiration for Plato’s Harvest came from Dave’s two goats, Einstein and Plato, who can be heard relentlessly critiquing farm operations every time they are delivered new piles of weeds collected from between the crop rows. For a midday snack they would prefer the spent pea vines to the tough pigweed, if you please. The goats do inspire Dave to keep weeding which he considers one of the more challenging tasks at the farm and also one of the most rewarding because in just short order you can see the results of your efforts. When Farmer Dave was asked recently by a four year old CSA member what he does all day, he responded “I weed and feed, that’s about it.” Indeed, Dave has a lot of mouths to feed in addition to the 60 families who signed on in spring for a share of each week’s harvest, including: 60 some odd chickens, 20 turkeys, 7 pigs, 5 lambs, 3 cows and of course Plato and Einstein, the two goats. Whatever is left over he shares with his wife Sasha and takes the rest to the Plymouth Farmers’ Market on Thursday’s and to the Harvard Square Farmers’ Market on Tuesday’s.
You can find Dave underneath his signature hat each week arranging gladiolas, piling up tomatoes and weighing garlic, onions and potatoes for happy customers. He may even offer a recipe or two if asked such as this one he rattled off recently: Chop up three baby cabbages after cleaning, sauté in a hot pan of olive oil till beginning to brown, sprinkle with a generous helping of chopped garlic and a grind of salt and pepper, cover the pan, turn off heat and let sit as you prepare the rest of the meal. The cabbage will have caramelized for a sweet and savory side dish. Remember, Dave appreciates questions and conversation too. Ask him what it means to grow organically and what it involves, ask him what he thinks about rabbits (you may see a flash of Mr. McGregor when he answers!)
After a long week with Plato and Einstein as his primary companions, he looks forward to all the friendly and hungry people who want to see what’s fresh from the field on market day. So stop by and say hi, you’ll be gad you did. Thank you to Plato’s Harvest for all of your hard work and good food! To reach the farmer himself: David Purpura (508) 315-9429 platosharvest@yahoo.com
Jenny’s Bread
by Casey Mesereve
On market days, Jen Healy wakes up early. Her two children get up with her. Together they begin measuring, sifting and kneading the bread and rolls that has made Healy famous at the Plymouth Farmers’ Market. People ask after her, according to Market Manager Barbara Anglin, because Healy doesn’t always attend the market.
Her children have soccer practice after all. But Healy’s double chocolate buns are legendary. The day she talked to a reporter, several people came up to ask her about them – the last one was in the reporter’s pocket. “I use unsweetened cocoa in the buns,” Healy told her customers. “I don’t use butter or oil, and they’re surprisingly light and not too sweet.”Healy gets her recipes from everywhere and plays with them until they suit her. With the chocolate buns, Healy thought there was something wrong with them the first time she made them. Then she realized what was wrong. “There was no vanilla in them,” she said. “How can you have chocolate without vanilla?”
On market days, Healy and her two children wake up at 4 a.m. to begin the process. All of the breads they make are baked fresh that day, and if the loafs vary from day to day, the more homemade they look and smell. The varieties change over the weeks. Sometimes Healy will have cornbread made from organic cornmeal, milled at the Jenney Grist Mill on Town Brook; other times she’ll have anadama bread, a dark sweet bread made from the same cornmeal and molasses. Either way, Healy says, “It’s all about the butter.” “Most cornbread recipes call for shortening, but I’d rather use less of the real thing than that stuff,” she said. If she decides not to make anadama bread, Healy might make oatmeal bread, or an oatmeal Irish soda bread that tastes like it’s loaded with butter, but isn’t. “It the ugliest loaf you ever saw, but it tastes great.”
