Our Fall 2019 Issue

Last Updated September 12, 2019
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No matter how many years we’ve had a vegetable garden, I invariably start to panic in early July that our crops are never going to yield any produce. This year was no exception. I thought having installed a fence around the garden perimeter last year and investing in drip irrigation this year, we had all contingencies covered. Alas, our neighborhood groundhog family managed to find a compromise in the fencing and annihilated our early crops of sugar snap peas, lettuce, spinach, and swiss chard. Thus while reading Elise Hugus’ article about Ever-Green Farms, a hydroponic operation in East Falmouth that harvests hundreds of pounds of baby greens each week, I had more than a twinge of empathy. While they don’t have any groundhogs, they had aphids to contend with. And the ideal growing conditions that they have to maintain (day temperature, night temperature, humidity, water temperature and pH) gave me a new appreciation for the difficulties of growing food as a business, even in a controlled environment.

Some faces seem to crop up over and over again in our pages. Lately it seems we can’t publish an issue without mentioning long-time organic farmer and Orleans Farmers’ Market manager Gretel Norgeot. Last issue there she was clutching a chicken in a Notable about Project Gratitude, a nutrition incentive program for veterans started by Sustainable Cape. In this issue, she shares the spotlight with Nauset High School principal Dr. Christopher Elsasser and fellow volunteer Rand Burkert as the leading players in redeveloping an overgrown plot of land behind the school. As Michelle Koch writes, together they’ve rallied students, teachers, parents and local farmers, businesses and citizens to create a viable food and research garden. The vision they share is inspiring and with the right can-do spirit (and plenty of sweat equity), easily replicable.

Another story modeling behavior that can be reproduced elsewhere is the Waquoit Zero Waste Buying Club. A handful of like-minded individuals come together to bulk-order organic food at wholesale prices to reduce packaging and redirect food dollars to regional farmers. While the Waquoit group is accepting new members, it also is happy to share its knowledge with others seeking to create their own buying club. Sign me up!

Other inspiring stories in this issue include Louise Stringer’s article about the Wellness Eats program offered by Cape Wellness Collaborative, which cooks healthy, nutritious, delicious, free meals for cancer patients, and Susan Fernald’s story about how Maplewood Senior Living facilities are creating dining experiences to engage all the senses of their residents. And Jeff Avery seeks to inspire us as a community to come together to build a facility that enables consumers to purchase locally caught fish directly from the fisherman. As Jeff writes, this is not about creating something from whole cloth, it’s about cloning what has been successfully done in many countries for countless years.

As for our garden? Our heroic friends at Edible Landscapes came to the rescue with a creative solution to fortify the fencing, and replanted most of the decimated crops so we are now enjoying an abundance of output. As is the same every year, by the end of August our garden runneth over.

Enjoy the bounty of the season!

An Ever-Green Start-Up

It’s a bright summer day at Ever-Green Farms, which means it’s over 100 degrees in the greenhouse. Under a white semicircle of plastic, a...

Eating Wild

Abundant and Versatile Lamb’s Quarters There are really no two ways about it: if you like spinach, you’ll like lamb’s quarters. It would be...

Maplewood Senior Living

Engaging Senior Senses with Farm-to-Table Freshness Baby-boomers—nearly 80 million people—are a large part of our aging population....

Fish Wish

Our ship pulled into Alicante, Spain just after lunch, sometime in October. A port city on the Mediterranean, it was everything a Spanish...

Hidden Acres Farm

While Jan Rollins may live in the modern world, her heart is firmly entrenched in the past. The former fence company owner describes...

Wellness Eats

In 2006, Sarah Swain lost her mother to ovarian cancer. During the cancer diagnosis, treatment and the continuous battle that is cancer...

Brain Food

Rebooting Nauset High’s Garden “Rabbits are decimating the beans.” “Everyone’s perspective on weeds is different.” “I tried raising...

Vers

A sweet fragrance wafts close by as our server approaches the table holding aloft the first course. A beet-juice-infused tapioca crisp...

Waquoit Zero Waste Buying Club

It’s the third Tuesday of the month, and all is quiet in the parish hall at Waquoit Congregational Church. Jan Smith-Rushton dons her apron...

1830 Sea Salt Company

As the former owner of Cape Cod Step, Paul Shibles knows all about hard work. Installing precast concrete steps and bulkheads was strenuous...

Six Pack Bagels

There is now a much easier way to get a six-pack than putting in time at the health club. Have them delivered! Native Cape Codders Ashley...

Cape Cod Ginger

Dick Monroe founded Cape Cod Ginger, producer of a lightly carbonated, raw and organic ginger drink, six years ago, but spent the first...

What's in Season in Fall

Fruits apples, blackberries, currants, figs, grapes, ground cherries, melons, pears, quince, raspberries, rose hips Vegetables arugula,...

Winter Radish, Simple Pleasure

Before the advent of modern transportation, refrigeration and the global movement of food, winter market gardening and root cellars carried...

Edible Memory

The Cotuit Fresh Market Breakfast Sandwich Food is powerful. It sustains life, but moreover it can bring joy; it can salve wounds both...

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