Delicious, Nutritious, Homemade (and Homegrown) PIerogies

After harvesting a mountain of potatoes last week, we set about making a Last Supper for the final summer crop of artists-in-residence and intern that included homemade pierogies stuffed with homegrown food like potatoes, leeks, and fresh herbs.

Pierogies are a traditional central and eastern European dish of dumplings stuffed with any combination of foods (often potato-based, but variations on the recipe can include just about anything you can dream up). Here's the basic recipe we followed, but you should feel adventurous enough to add your own twist anywhere you see fit.

Homemade Pierogie Recipe
 
Ingredients
Makes 12-15 pierogies

• 2 cups flour, plus extra for kneading and rolling dough
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 c. sour cream, plus extra to serve with the pierogie (we used vegan sour cream)
• 1/4 c. butter or butter replacer, softened and cut into small pieces
• butter and onions for sauteing (we used leeks instead of onions)
• ingredients for filling of your choice (we used potato, leeks, fresh herbs, and finely diced crimini mushrooms)

Preparation:

Pierogie Dough
To prepare the pierogie dough, mix together the flour and salt. Beat the egg, then add all at once to the flour mixture. Add the 1/2 cup sour cream and the softened butter pieces and work until the dough loses most of its stickiness (about 5-7 minutes). Cover the dough and allow it to sit at least 20 minutes (overnight is fine too—the dough can be kept in your fridge for up to two days).
Filling
Peel and boil 5 large potatoes until soft. While the potatoes boil, prepare the other ingredients. We finely chopped our leeks, mushrooms, fresh herbs, and garlic, and sauteed in olive oil until the garlic and leeks were translucent. Smash the potatoes and mix them with your otehr filling ingredients (you can also add cheese here if you so desire). Add salt and pepper to taste. Let the potato mixture cool and then form into 1" balls.

Prepping Your Pierogies
Roll out the dough with a rolling pin on a floured surface until the dough is only 1/8" thick. Use a drinking glass to cut circles of dough (2" for small pierogies and 3 1/2" for large pierogies). Place a small ball of filling (about a tablespoon) on each dough round and fold the dough over, forming a semi-circle. Press the edges together with the tines of a fork or your fingers.

 
Boil the perogies a few at a time in a large pot of water. They are done when they float to the top (about 8-10 minutes). Rinse in cool water and let dry.

Saute chopped onions (or leeks) in butter or butter replacer in a large pan until soft. Add pierogies and pan fry until lightly crispy. Serve with a side of sour cream, jam, or any other toppings you like.

Stunning Sculptural Work of betterArts Resident Natalie Collette Wood

Natalie Collette Wood is an artist living in New York City who  joined us at Better Farm for two weeks as a betterArts artist-in-residence. During her time at Better Farm, Natalie experimented with sculpture and collage, using found objects, spray paint, foam, and metal to create abstract pieces that hang from the ceiling or wall and beg the viewer to engage with the work.
While at Better Farm, Natalie also participated in community outreach activities like the recent EFMP Wellness Expo, where she held mini-workshops with children and taught them how to make huge, 3-dimensional butterflies out of cardboard, masking tape, and paint. She also constructed large, pink flowers for our amazing parade float at Redwood Field Days.

Natalie grew up in Las Vegas, earned her BFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and went on to earn her MFA from Herbert H. Leman College in the City University of New York. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions across the world, including the Takt Gallery in Berlin, Germany, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture Gallery in Umbria, Italy. 


-->Here's her artist's statement: 
My current body of work, titled Something Told Me It Was Over, investigates the relationship between abstraction, identity, and the virtual age. In an age of rapidly growing technology, war, and natural disasters our environment and identity have begun to change before our eyes. I am interested in the sublime moment when things start to fall apart and structure and chaos dance. My collages use abstraction, the landscape, and personal experience to create a visual diary.

I work with synthetic materials as a symbol of American culture and my childhood growing up in Las Vegas. As a child I became fascinated with the fabrication and facades casinos create. I use a combination of materials such as fashion magazines, acrylic paint, spray-paint, enamel, glass beads, shredded tires, sand, mica, pumice, and glitter to create vividly colored worlds that are falling apart through their own facade. The collages have become a visual record that combines my personal experiences, abstraction, and the landscape together. The materials I choose have their own weight and collage becomes a way for me to manipulate them and deconstruct their properties.

The sculptures are made from found plastic objects, wire, sequins, and wood. They hang from the ceiling and reference floating biomorphic creatures created from their surroundings.

Inspired by systems, networks, and hybrid forms the paintings and sculptures have been a continuation of my exploration into the relationship between abstraction and the virtual age.

Here are some photos of Natalie and her finished pieces:

 

 

To learn more about Natalie and see additional pieces, click here. To find out more about betterArts' residency program, click here.

Four-Year Reflection: What a Difference Mulching Makes

Better Farm's vegetable garden, August 2009.

Better Farm's vegetable garden, August 2013.

Mulch gardening is a great way to turn hard-to-love soil into rich black gold—and to prove the worthiness of this organic method, I'm going to walk you through my experiences with the clay-rich soil of the North Country—and how mulch gardening turned a hayed, nutritionally depleted field into a lush vegetable and fruit garden.


I moved to Better Farm in June of 2009; a period of time during which there were a few raised flower beds on the property, two acres of mowed lawn, dense forest all around, and roughly 8 acres of fields that were hayed twice yearly for consumption by a neighboring farm's cows.

In August of that year, I wandered out into the side yard of the farm and began staking out a 20' x 24' rectangle that would, I hoped, turn into a garden. Of course, I instantly broke a trowel and then a shovel trying to get into that clay-rich soil:

I'd spent that summer up here researching various organic gardening methods that utilized principles of permaculture and composting, and found that the style I was most intrigued by was Ruth Stout's mulch gardening technique. In her book, How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back, Stout exhalts a direct-compost and haying method that minimizes weeding, removes the need for artificial fertilizers and pesticides, promotes abundant growth, makes use of items many others would consider trash, and takes away the sometimes laborious task of keeping a compost pile or bin that needs to be turned, shoveled, and cared for.

I know, sounds too good to be true. But the thing is, that lady was right-on.

Once you've staked out your plot, it's time to start treating the soil. This can start instantly, and will continue even long after crops are planted. The idea here is to avoid the cost of buying fresh mulch, and the maintenance of a compost bin that needs regular attention, turning, and so on. What Stout recommends is essentially turning your plot of land into an ongoing compost/mulch pit. That means raked leaves, grass clippings, a little wood ash from a fire, and food scraps can all get dumped directly on the soil and left alone. So long as you don't throw stuff like meat scraps into this ongoing mulch situation, you can rest fairly assured that you won't have too many critters contending for these scraps. Starting with a barrier of cardboard will ensure you kill the weeds below.

As the summer of 2009 turned to autumn, I composted all I could and began saving cardboard for my new mulch garden. And when spring came in 2010, I worked with some friends to get wooden posts (donated by a neighbor in Plessis) into the ground for fencing.

 

With the garden (a much larger than originally planned, 85' x 100') staked out, I worked with the people at Better Farm to make some rows in accordance with Ruth Stout's directives. And lo and behold, it worked!

Now, in the first year of mulch gardening, chances are you're not going to have all that much compost, cardboard, and decomposing hay to work with. The truth is, it isn't until your third or fourth year that you'll really see how you're transforming the dirt you're working on top of. So let's fast-forward to see the transformation:

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

All of these images were taken at roughly the same time of the season, and you can really see the improvement as far as weed control, lushness, size of the produce, and the organization of our crops. Of course, a huge amount of this is due to the diligence of our Sustainability Education Students, our volunteers, and staff; in addition, having a solid, healthy template of fertile soil makes everybody's life a whole lot easier.

But really, about that dirt. Look at what hard, clay soil turns into with a little mulching:

To learn more about mulch gardening, click here. To schedule a one-on-one or group workshop on the subject, call (315) 482-2536 or email info@betterfarm.org.

The Voice of betterArts Resident Kareema Bee

Kareema Bee is a New York City-based poet and filmmaker who stayed at Better Farm for the last two weeks through the betterArts Residency Program to work on her poetry and learn about farming and gardening.

The culmination of Kareema's work was a series of poems, several of which she read last Friday at a combined art show, poetry reading, and graduation ceremony in Better Farm's Art Barn. She put one piece to music (performed by our own Mike Brown) and created a video montage of images and film from her stay here, which is posted at the top of this blog.

Here are some photos Kareema took during her stay:

Here's a bit more about Kareema, gleaned from her website:

A native of the Bronx and Mt. Vernon, Kareema Bee has been writing since the age of 6 when she wrote her first short story. She wrote her first song at 7, her first play at 9, and her first poem at 10 years old. She has reached her peers and community by performing in many shows, choreographing step routines, and emceeing others.

At 12, she won a radio show poetry contest beating out 12,000 other participants. At 15, her first poem was published and her first demo was recorded. She was also chosen to host her first poetry slam. At 16, Kareema became a member of American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) for writing and publishing her own music. She has written and acted in two New York City Housing Authority musicals and was also a semi-finalist in McDonald's Annual Gospelfest. 

At 17, she was the winner of the "Bronx Idol" talent competition.

At 18, Kareema won SUNY Albany's poetry slam contest with guest performer, Def Jam Poet Mayda DelValle. While attending, she was also very active by creating programs to raise awarness in the local community and on her campus such as her television show called 'What's the 411?' , which she executive produced, wrote, and directed.

As a member of local performance troupe Too Deep Entertainment, she has performed at Albany's Palace Theatre, along with a list of other venues, and has lent her writing talents to many of their productions.

Upon finishing her masters at Syracuse University, Kareema directed, acted in, and wrote her first film called, "In This Mind of Mine", which chronicles a day through her mind, only expressed in poetry.

She hopes to one day have her own private company that will allow her to create content to inspire people.

To learn more about Kareema, click here. For more information about the betterArts Residency Program, click here.

Spuds Speak

Fresh, organic potatoes from the garden!

If you're short on space but love spuds, growing potatoes vertically is a great option. We've blogged in the past about a simple vertical setup utilizing tires (click here for that information); so today we'll go over the harvesting process.

As the potatoes grew, we stacked tires and added dead leaves, sawdust, woodchips, and hay around the plants until just the tops of the plants poked out. Potatoes love loose, loamy soil; so a mix of leaves, sawdust, hay, and woodchips give the tubers plenty of space and nourishment. Now four and five tires high, we've been waiting until the leaves began to die off—a sign that the potatoes are ripe for picking.

Here's a potato plant just begging to be dug out:

To start, I removed the top tire and put the compost materials in a wagon to be carted over to our three-tiered compost bin. I was careful to shake out the compostables to ensure I wasn't overlooking any young potatoes (usually you don't start running into spuds until you've taken at least three tires off your stack). Here's a slideshow of me removing layer by layer, making sure not to waste any of the primo compost matter I'm taking out of the tires—by spring, this will be lush potting soil! Thanks Katie Mollica for being the photographer for this instructable:

Once at the bottom tire, I took the full stem of the potato plant and tossed that into the compost pile as well:

Now we get to the good stuff. The bottom layer is nothing but thick, rich earth that is like Miracle Gro on (all-organic) steroids:

 

It's in this black gold that you find your treasures: gorgeous potatoes that are perfect for home fries, smashed potatoes, potato-leek soup, or... homemade pierogies (stay tuned!):

We offer one-on-one and group workshops year-round in sustainability, alternative growing practices, and gardening tips. To set up an appointment, please call (315) 482-2536 or email info@betterfarm.org.

Gardens Go Gangbusters!

Better Farm's organic vegetable patch.

After a very cold May, unbelievably wet June, and up-and-down July, the plants at Better Farm enjoyed a lovely August that encouraged abundant growth in the gardens. All the fuss the sustainability students went through to keep the squash bugs at bay, replant pole and bush beans that drowned in record-setting rainfalls, and nurture, mulch, and steward the herb, aquaponic, vegetable, and fruit crops finally paid off with a garden more plentiful, productive, and healthy than ever before.

Now the bounty's in full swing—and if you'd like to get in on all the organic deliciousness of the season, all you have to do is stop in at our farm stand or call ahead to make a custom order for pick-up or delivery. Here's a photo tour of just some of what's growing:


Rainbow Swiss Chard:

Imperial Artichokes:

Beets, Zucchini, String Beans, Cherry Tomatoes, Broccoli:

From left Kale, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Buttercrunch Lettuce, Tomatoes, Zucchinis:

Leeks in foreground, Peppers in background, and at right Asparagus and Arugula:

From left are Pole Beans, Beets, Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage, Broccoli, Kale:

 

String Beans:

 

Onions, Heirloom Tomatoes, String Beans, Cherry Tomatoes, Jalapenos, and more:

Broccoli:

Rainbow Swiss Chard:

Cherry Tomatoes:

Pumpkins:

Sugar Baby Watermelons:

Okra:

Zucchini:

Carrots:

Kale:

Tomatoes, Zucchinis, Kale, String Beans, Sugar Baby Watermelon, and Buttercrunch Lettuce at the Farm Stand:

 

To schedule a farm tour or make a custom or bulk order, please call (315) 482-2536 or email info@betterfarm.org.

Movin' on Up!

Baby Barred Rock/Ameraucana hatchlings hang outside under a heatlamp Tuesday night.

It was almost two months ago when our first hatchling appeared out of an egg inside the incubator we set up at Better Farm. 

On Tuesday, that Barred Rock/Ameraucana bird—along with his or her seven brothers and sisters—moved on up from a metal trough indoors to outdoor surroundings in a chicken tractor that utilizes a heat lamp at night to help the babies acclimate to their cooler surroundings.

Here are the babies around a week old:

And here they are yesterday, running around in their new chicken tractor:

All eight baby birds appear perfectly healthy, and are enjoying their piece of the pie! The chicks are exploring the very new experience of grazing on their grassy underfootings, catching moths, flies, and other bugs out of the air, and seeing the whole world for the first time. By day, they're learning to use perches and scratch for grubs; by night, they lay under the heat lamp in a huddle and make low chirping sounds.

For those of you raising your own chicks, you don't want to put them outside until their "adult" feathers have come in—and you don't want to introduce them to the rest of the flock until their voices lose the chirpiness of chicks and adjust to the warble of adult hens and roosters (usually around three or four months). It's best to time your egg hatching accordingly so the birds can acclimate to outdoor temperatures in a healthy way.

Want to learn more about backyard birdkeeping, or visit with these wonderful creatures? Give us a call at (315) 482-2536.

Redwood Field Days Rundown

Better Farm's field days parade float. From left: Kareema Bee, Kristy Snelson, Katie Mollica, Aaron Youngs, Natalie Wood, Holly Boname, and Nicole Caldwell.

Carnival rides, a parade, fried dough, live music, a barbecue, auction, carny games, and a whole lot of hustle and bustle later, the 55th Annual Redwood Firemen's Field Days have drawn to a close yet again and calm has been restored in this tiny hamlet.

But oh, what a weekend.

The opening night of Redwood Field Days features an auction, where people can find treasures for next-to-nothing... like this armoire for $5:

 ... or blade and horseshoe for a buck:

The rest of the weekend showcased great North Country bands, a virtual who's who of local communities, great food and entertainment, rides and games for kids of all ages, and of course, the Field Days parade.

Better Farm took third place in the parade a few years ago, and secured second place last year. We were determined to take the gold home in 2013, so we employed some special helpers to get our float in tip-top condition.

At last Saturday's Health and Wellness Expo, which debuted the artwork and performances of children enrolled in Fort Drum's Exceptional Family Member Program, we asked the kids visiting Better Farm to help us make some props for the parade. And help us they did, creating huge 3-D butterflies that would fly high above the crowds:

...We affixed those butterflies to posts, created some huge flowers out of cardboard, utilized some sails from a boat to make walls, and put streamers all over the place:

 

Then it was time for glitter costumes...

We headed into downtown Redwood around 6:30 to take our places in line.

Once there, we put the finishing touches on our costumes and got ready to toss bags of freshly packed organic lettuce out to the crowd.

We thought we had it! We really did. But, we took second. Again:

Ah well, back to the drawing board. Maybe an American Flag-themed float? Cute babies dressed as carrots? 360 days left to plan...

Many thanks to the Redwood Volunteer Fire Department for putting on another great Field Days for the community.

Children Shine at Exceptional Family Arts, Wellness Expo

Atreus shows off his artwork in Better Farm's gallery.

betterArts last Saturday hosted the Exceptional Family Members Program's First Annual Family Arts and Wellness Expo at Better Farm in Redwood, N.Y.

Saturday's event, free and open to the public, featured a gallery filled with artwork, dance performances with Amy Earle School of Dance, arts 'n' crafts activities, storytelling, a homemade winemaking demonstration by local resident Paul R. Jennings, tours of the Better Farm campus, and locally produced food fired up on the grill along with homegrown side dishes.


The event showcased the artwork and performances of dozens of children enrolled in the Exceptional Family Member Program (EFMP) on Fort Drum. That program works with other military and civilian agencies to provide services for family members with special physical, emotional, developmental, and intellectual needs by providing community support services such as resources, information and referral, advocacy, support groups, respite care and relocation assistance.
 

Representatives from Northern Lights Chiropractic were also on-site offering massages and information about that company's services. 

 

Here are some photos from the event:

betterArts partnered with EFMP for this event in order to draw public attention to the creative genius of all children; and to increase public access to arts and culture in the North Country.

   
betterArts increases access to programs like this and other arts and cultural opportunities throughout the North Country. To learn more about betterArts' mission and work, click here.

Sauna Update

Better Farm's sauna gets a roof and floor.

We back in July broke ground on a sauna constructed entirely out of local and reused materials. In this instance, "green building" refers to the long list of items we're upcycling for the project, and our commitment to purchase everything else hyper-local (like locally sourced lumber from our next-door neighbor).

Here's our list of building materials so far:

• Rigid insulation gleaned from a construction project that had pulled it out of an old house
• A cast-iron wood stove pulled off a job site as garbage
• A stump fro a fallen tree that's being incorporated as seating inside the sauna
• Wood beams from a house demolition
• Pallet boards from packing crates and shipping materials
• Rough-cut lumber from Redwood Lumber Company

Of course, we had to buy our nails and screws new (except for a few we gleaned from Better Farm's tool shed). Since breaking ground last month, we've added most of the roof (will have to pick up more lumber and cover with metal) and floor (we need only two more pallets to get that job done). Next up are the walls, wood stove, and lining the interior walls, floor, and benches in cedar. Lastly, we'll pack the wood stove with rocks from the Adirondacks to allow for radiant heat (and steam potential)! Here are some more photos from the project's progress:

 

Many special thanks go out to Bob Laisdell for spearheading this project! Want to get involved on this project, or another one like it? Email us at info@betterfarm.org.

The Skinny on Last Saturday's Summerfest

Last week's Summerfest fundraiser for arts and cultural outreach in the North Country brought out more than 200 people to Redwood, N.Y., to enjoy eight musical acts, an overnight open-jam session, a gallery space filled with pieces by area and visiting artists, a cookout complete with organic produce grown on-site, handmade items for sale, and campsites for weekend guests.

betterArts board members Holly Boname and Amberlee Clement greet visitors at Summerfest.

The festival, put on annually by Redwood-based nonprofit betterArts, was held at Better Farm and is designed to increase local access to arts and music in the North Country. To that end, there was no admission fee; and performers volunteered their time, energy, and travel to make the event a success. Special thanks go out to an unbelievable cast of volunteers who spent months preparing for the festival, and of course the musicians and bands who made everything happen:

Fox Richardson

Robert Finch

The Aristocrats

Joe Marrero of The Great Fraud

O. Red

Mike Brown

Glenn Cheesman

Brian Purwin

Crow's Landing

Stone White

The generosity and support of visitors to Summerfest has helped betterArts complete its annual outreach initiatives; which include this Saturday's Exceptional Family Arts and Wellness Expo at Better Farm, a host of autumn and spring activities like free workshops, gallery openings, artist residencies, and arts 'n' crafts events with local programs including Watertown Hospice, area hospitals, Chamber of Commerce events, after-school programs, and more.

Thank you to everyone who came out in droves to support the arts! We hope to see many of you from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at this Saturday's Exceptional Family Arts and Wellness Expo at Better Farm! Click here for more details.

Better Storytelling

Better Farm's religious dining experience.

In honor of her impending visit tomorrow to enjoy a North Country weekend filled with pirate invasions and a music festival, I'm reposting a story my older sister, Kristen, wrote as an exercise in writing from someone else's point of view while merging fiction, memoir, non-fiction, and stories from other people. It's an Alice's Restaurant-esque piece taking place at Better Farm:

Better Grub Supper Club

By Kristen Caldwell

The view from Better Farm's kitchen window is of a wide-open field stretching out toward a hilltop. Trees create mountainous shadows, and the tops of bushes peek out over frost-filled grasses and a large manmade pond Nicole's father once gleefully referred to as the "mosquito breeding ground". The sun at this particular moment was beginning its dip over the backs of the silhouetted trees as a dozen people—roommates, artists-in-residence, and locals—made their own dips down Cottage Hill Road and into Better Farm's driveway.

Better Farm is an artists' retreat and sustainability education center started in 1970 as a hippie commune. My Uncle Steve bought the property—a small 19th-century farmhouse, milkhouse, and falling-down barn seated on 150 acres—with insurance money paid out to him from a car accident in 1963 that left him paralyzed from the chest-down. His parents had been taking care of him in their suburban New Jersey home, and buying the acreage upstate was his way to be out on his own. He got his friends, cousins, and brothers on board with heading north for a summer, doubling the size of the house, and moving in to care for Steve's daily needs. It would be 30 years before the last of them would leave.

 The name for the place came from the “Better Theory”, a concept Steve and his friends came up with that basically says every moment presents us with a chance to grow as human beings. Instead of seeing something as negative, then, it's “better”: an opportunity to become more.

After a great deal of shopping, bartering, and cultivating, Nicole was welcoming a cast of characters to the farm to commence Better Farm's First Better Grub Supper Club Thanksgiving Dinner, in much the spirit of Arlo Guthrie's beloved “Alice's Restaurant”. Nicole leaned into the oven to check on the main courses, taking care to baste the turkey and Tofurky in equal measure, a puff of steam rising out of the oven and enveloping her face in the scent of roasted bird, faux meat, stuffing, and onions.

As she stood up, she couldn't help but think "world harmony begins when Tofurkeys and turkeys can roast side by side." 

I started spending a lot more time at the farm after Dad died, doing the 700-mile-round-trip Dad and I used to take, taking it now by myself or with friends. It was sort of like a pilgrimage for me; a way to get out of my head, reconnect with memories of my dad, and occupy the same space as Steve, who was this human being who was so much larger than life. Steve and I would have hours-long conversations about books, politics, birding, the environment; or sit around at the kitchen table all afternoon and do crossword puzzles. The farm became a place where I could relax and kind of reconnect to what was important. 

The summer before Uncle Steve died, my sister Kristen and I were up visiting for a weekend, and we all got on the topic of what would become of the farm should anything happen to Steve. There was some discussion of it being left to the group of us: Kris, our cousins Dan and Mike, and me. Kris squashed this, reminding Steve of Mike's nomadic lifestyle and Dan's penchant for the same; and her own love of the farm, but lack of time.  "Leave it to Nicole,” she told him. “We'll help her with what we can, but she's the one who will love it for you, and make it into something special."

Nicole brushed a wavy lock of brown hair out of her eyes and thought back to her apartment in Brooklyn, the one she broke the lease on to move out to the country. It had a view of the gravel-covered flat roof below, and beyond that, a brick building with windows that gazed into neighboring apartments. The sounds of the traffic, the Kenyan restaurant below, police sirens, and barking dogs were loud there; while here in Redwood, population 584, there is the vague brush of the wind and the occasional ATV hum in the distance. Strains of The Grateful Dead's “Friend of the Devil” meandered out of the iPod on the counter and Jerry Garcia sang: "Didn't get to sleep last night 'til the morning came around/Set out runnin' but I take my time/A friend of the devil is a friend of mine"

Steve's funeral was attended by men who openly wept through their beards, running their hands over shiny heads that once housed long, thick locks; and tribes of women who'd loved and worshiped Steve. Kristen read a poem comparing Steve to Woton, the god in the Wagnerian "Ring of the Nibelung" cycle who gives up his eye for wisdom. Ex-girlfriends and cousins read poems and told stories. I muscled through a eulogy of my own, which felt totally empty without the man himself there to hear it.

Two months later I packed my bags, adopted a puppy, and headed north to begin cleaning out, renovating, and turning the dilapidated home into a green-living center, youth hostel, bed & breakfast, and artists' retreat. I rented one of the rooms out and took a couple odd jobs to make ends meet as I filed Better Farm's LLC status, while Kristen create a website. Planning commenced for summer programming, like workshops, internships, and artist residencies. I read books about gardening and staked out a plot of ground in the yard for our organic farm, learned to fire a gun, took up horseback riding, and became impervious to black flies and mosquitoes.

In two days, Nicole would be leaving for a brief respite to New Jersey. She'd visit with her family in her mother's Victorian house in the affluent Northern New Jersey suburbs; a family gathering around a formal dining table covered in an antique tablecloth, china her mom has had for 40 years, and sterling silverware polished for special occasions.

Behind her at the moment, though, sat a giant wooden table and two 12-foot church pews packed with the people living at Better Farm and a number of guests from town. There were mismatched glass plates, all in different shades of white, and silver eating utensils with different handles, collected over the years from the various miscreants who invaded the farm. The cups were a mixture of mason jars, and coffee mugs with dirty sayings and odd cartoons. A family friend, in talking about Steve at his funeral, said Steve became "an island around which humans float." Nicole was beginning to feel like the Better Farm house was fast-becoming that island in his absence.

We started with the library, a 1600-square-foot room with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on each wall. Every book had been read by Steve before being placed, in alphabetized order, by the hands of one of his caretakers. We removed them, rebuilt some of the shelves, dusted behind all the old volumes, and revealed decades' worth of fuzz, dog fur, and long-abandoned mice nests. You should have seen the books—everything from the Bible to Harry Potter, the Quaran to Dr. Zhivago, Dostoevsky, Oates, Rand, and Hawkings. It was unbelievable.
Mike, Nicole's cousin, sported a beard reminiscent of Rip Van Winkle and sat at the table chatting with Chris, an Iowa transplant who'd fallen in love with farm living, and Bob, a truck driver from town. They were discussing the merits of eating a turkey while planning out a designer chicken coop for Henrietta, the chicken Nicole saved from becoming soup a few months earlier and the two chicks taken in to keep her company.

"She's family, so she should have a nicer area to live in," Mike said, his stringy blond hair nodding as he moved his head in an affirmative motion.

"Organically, she's the same as the bird in the oven. I don't see why we should be spending more than the turkey cost to house next year's dinner," Bob jumped in, his belly rumbling beneath his black Harley Davidson T-shirt at the thought.

"She should at least be comfortable while she's fattening up," Chris stated, his own form bumping the edge of the table as he moved to rise off the pew.

Nicole turned, her calloused hands covered by tropical fish-shaped potholders, and picked up the pot of potatoes rolling in the bubbling water. She began to pour the frothy white liquid through the strainer balanced in the sink. "We are not eating Henrietta," she said, blue eyes focused on the task at hand. "She's like a pet."

"But by next year, she would be a rather delicious pet." Bob nodded, his eyes narrowing at Nicole's dog, a large mongrel she'd rescued the year before. "Koby would eat her." Kobayashi Maru slapped her tail against the floor in agreement.

"No. Koby, you are not eating Henrietta," Nicole said, as the potatoes slid down the sides of the pot and into the colander, landing with squishy thwaps. Koby opened her long snout and yawned, rolling onto her side. "And neither are you," she said, pointing the wooden spoon at Bob.

"Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.' Samuel Butler," Mike said to Bob, crossing his arms over his white T-shirt, stained yellow from sweat at the armpits.

"If God didn't want us to eat meat, He wouldn't have made it so tasty,” Bob retorted. “A T-shirt in Alex Bay." Chris and Mike laughed. 

There were notes stuffed in some of the books, quotes from different philosophers, Emerson, Thoreau, even some Ginsberg and Bob Dylan. When I moved on to Steve's desk, it was like an explosion of paper. There were folders of notes he'd sent and received, an entire box of letters from my parents' travels in the 70's, and pieces of writing of Steve's, things he probably started and forgot about. In one drawer, I actually found a slip of paper on which Steve had scribbled his Philosophy.

"Crisis teaches you cool; pain teaches you pleasure; love teaches you loss. Every large and small and good and bad thing that comes at you has the potential to propel you forward into something better. All we have is now, and nothing else exists except that, so anything right now is always better than even one second before now. And now. And now. All you’ve got to do is climb aboard, hang on tight, and push yourself forward into the abyss. It’s a tricky theory to keep up with—try having “better” be the first thing out of your mouth next time you stub your toe or hear terrible news. But the truth is, Better works."

"The dinner smells delicious Nicole," Chris said, his feet shuffling towards the smells wafting from the stove. He turned on the oven light, and salivated as he eyed the turkey. "Can I help with anything?"

"How good of you to ask,” she answered sarcastically. “You can mash the potatoes. Use soy milk and margarine in half of it for the vegans.” She pulled out the masher and ingredients, her thin, toned arms miming as she spoke. Chris grabbed the overflowing colander and set to work.

I always personally took the Better Theory to mean out of the bad, comes the good. What you do with your biggest hardships makes the most difference—ask anyone who's ever overcome in some way. Instilling that idea into the people at the farm, who come from all over the world to study green living and organic farming, or to work on their art, or to live more simply and communally, is one of the most exciting things I've ever been a part of. It's amazing what people are capable of when they really see everything as an opportunity; they just start to thrive when they get that concept.

Mike got up and walked over to the pot of boiling string beans, legumes picked in September and frozen. He dipped in a ladle and liberated a couple, dropping them onto a plate, and checked them for doneness with his fingers. Finding them reasonably cooked, he popped one in his mouth and tossed the other to Kobi, who chomped down with a grateful crunch.

"I have to say, I'm impressed with the harvest,” Mike said, still chewing. “When dad talked about the farming in the 70's, all he would say was that they couldn't grow potatoes bigger than golf balls because of the clay soil, and that nothing would really grow." He turned his attention to the cans of cranberry (the only thing not grown in or around Better Farm), and set about creating cylindrical art sculptures on the serving platter before bringing it over to the table.

"Nicole started us on mulch gardening,” Chris declared proudly. “We make layers of compost, cardboard, dead leaves, and hay in the fall, and by spring there are inches and inches of healthy, black soil.” He got up and pulled a cast iron skilled down from an overhead hook. He turned on a burner, threw a pad of margarine into the pan, and melted it along with a few cloves of garlic. He threw the concoction into his lumpy mashed potatoes. 

Since we redid the kitchen, we try to do a big family dinner every night. We put in a wood-burning stove to generate heat, put tin ceiling tiles in the dining alcove, and replaced the rusted old stove with a stainless-steel restaurant quality one.. The biggest thing, though, was getting enough seating for any and all residents and guests. I remember driving 30 minutes to pick up the church pews after we found them on Craigslist for $40 a piece, and joking the whole drive back that if they didn't fit in the breakfast nook, we'd just have to set them up in the library and create our own religion.

An hour later, they sat down to the feast. Grace was a hearty "Thanks to Steve and the good Lord above for the grub on the table, and the friends around it," and the clinking of plastic on glass. The poster-sized photo of Steve at age 13, standing a foot taller than his mother (Nicole's Granny) next to him, beamed down from the far wall, as if granting approval over the festivities.

Most nights, the head of the table is empty, a result of a lack of chairs and everyone's preference to the pews. But there was a day not too long ago when the realization hit that its vacancy also serves as a tangible reminder of Steve's absence. That was his spot because of the wheelchair. I can still picture him, leaning on his bony elbow and sipping his water out of a straw stuck in a pitcher. He had these bright blue eyes, a wide smile, and this hoarse voice, gravely and lilting with joy.
 
I think it's Passover when the religious set a place for Elijah, and leave a seat vacant in anticipation of his arrival. Elijah's visit is said to precede the Messiah, who will transform our world from its broken state to one where injustice is unknown, compassion is everywhere, and happiness fills our hearts. I can't help but think of Steve as our own personal version of the prophet: the one who guided us to this table, guided us to pick up where he left off, and create a better celebration of life and friendship. He would have enjoyed this version of now.

And now. And now.

'Summerfest' This Saturday!

betterArts' Second Annual Summerfest

kicks off at 4 p.m. this Saturday, Aug. 17, at

Better Farm

in Redwood.

The free

event

, which features local vendors selling handmade goods, a gallery filled with art to enjoy and purchase, and half a dozen musical acts (plus a late-night jam session for anyone who would like to participate) is put on every year by betterArts in order to increase access to cultural opportunities in the North Country.

Because this is a free event, betterArts asks visitors to

not

bring their own refreshments onto festival grounds; but to instead show their support for free events like this by purchasing food and beverages at the on-site concession stand. That menu includes beer, wine, soda, juice, burgers (veggie and meat), hot dogs, and a variety of side dishes all homemade from the fresh produce growing at Better Farm. Attendees are also encouraged to bring along lawn chairs or blankets to sit on.

All proceeds from concessions (and a percentage of all art and products sold by vendors) go directly toward arts and sustainability outreach in the North Country. Campsites are also available for overnight lodging at a rate of $10/person/night; please email

info@betterfarm.org

for further information.

The set schedule is as follows:

• Stone White, 4:30 p.m.

• The Aristocrats, 5:30 p.m.

• Fox Richardson, 7:00 p.m.

• Crow's Landing, 8:00 p.m.

• Robert J. Finch, 9 p.m. 

• The Great Fraud 10 p.m.

• Open Jam 11 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public. For the most up-to-date information and directions, visit

www.betterarts.org/summerfest

. RSVP

here

.

betterArts is a 501(c)3 non-profit whose purpose is to increase access to the arts in the North Country and beyond through the provisions of free and low-cost workshops, gallery openings, performances, festivals, and artist residencies. To learn more or to make a donation, visit

www.betterarts.org

.