Welcome to our JUNE 2021 Newsletter!
Farm News: Mama Farm x Parsons School of Design
When you sit down to a beautiful meal made with your CSA spoils, do you ever consider what you are wearing? Your meal and your clothes have something in common — they both come from farms! Just like the food industry, the fashion industry and its consumers can unknowingly promote monocultures and decimate biodiversity through seemingly innocuous decisions. Mama Farm founder, Isabella Rossellini, saw an opportunity. She explained, “It struck me that we eat only one type of spinach or fennel, but there actually are many varieties! Patty’s weekly CSA vegetable bag is a delicious education in heirloom and rare varieties of vegetable species. I wanted to do the same, but with clothes.”
Merino wool is an example of a material that is widely used in fashion for perfectly good economic and logistical reasons: It has a fluffy fleece, an easily dyeable color, it is durable and it is warm. The unintended consequence, however, is that Merino sheep are propagated more, which inadvertently phases out other breeds of sheep who can become endangered and even go extinct. “Many of America’s once-common farm animals face extinction,” said Isabella. “I felt that small artisanal farms, like Mama Farm, who can survive financially thanks to the support of the local community, can play an essential role in maintaining biodiversity.” With the spacing and infrastructure that Mama Farm has available, Isabella decided to focus on sheep and wool production.
But why is it important to save heirloom seeds or heritage breeds? The answer is biodiversity: Genetic wealth is essential for survival of all species in the long term, especially now that climate change demands rapid adaptations. Heritage breed animals have genes that retain essential attributes for survival and self-sufficiency that are lost in modern breeds favored by industrial farming. Heritage breeds can mate naturally, forage, raise their young, have longevity and stronger resistance to diseases and parasites.There is a similar argument made for vegetables and plants.
But why is it important to save heirloom seeds or heritage breeds? The answer is biodiversity: Genetic wealth is essential for survival of all species in the long term, especially now that climate change demands rapid adaptations.
In 2019, Isabella contacted the Parsons School of Design about creating a Farm-to-Fashion program modeled off the Farm-to-Table movement. She felt that the Farm-to-Table movement “helped me and many others —from chefs to diners —become more aware of how simple eating decisions have huge beneficial ripple effects on our planet.” The result is an ongoing hands-on educational program, between Mama Farm and Parsons for graduate level students, to meet and learn about heritage breeds of sheep, and watch wool production from shear to spool. The program also allows for students to apply for a scholarship and residency program at Mama Farm to deepen their knowledge and incorporate our sheeps' wool into their fashion creations. Our hope is that this program will help to promote the use — and therefore conservation — of heritage sheep breeds, while supporting small farms, farmers and artisans.
At Mama Farm, we now have five breeds of sheep —Lincoln Long Wool, Shetland, Jacobs, Santa Cruz and Hog Island — that are listed by Livestock Conservancy as “critically endangered.” Since 2019, we’ve had three Parsons students win the scholarship and residency. The photos accompanying this article are examples of the work produced while they spent time here at Mama Farm.
Lisa Deurer, most recent Mama Farm student in residency said, "My time at Mama Farm helped me understand the diversity that exists in heritage breed animals and Patty's veggies. This impacted my design thought process by sourcing heritage materials that tell the story of my garments, such as working together directly with the farmers and friends to design a lifestyle we want to live in. I am very interested in creating a line that is Farm to Wardrobe, so this hands-on experience has been invaluable to me."
This fall, The Bellport General in Bellport Village will present these students’ fashion creations with wool from our sheep and sheep from surrounding artisanal farms. Our hope is that this partnership bears fruit that the whole community can enjoy. The benefits extend to Isabella too, “This program has helped me consolidate my lifelong dream of becoming a fashion designer with my wish to be an environmentally responsible citizen.”
Spotlight On: GIGGLE
Mama Farm is very proud to partner with giggle this summer to bring you our Timbalooloo music classes for children, as well as beautiful hand drawn children’s clothing that you’ve likely seen at our CSA stand. These precious, cozy outfits were hand drawn by Mama Farm founder, Isabella Rossellini, in partnership with giggle to bring awareness to the richness and diversity of heritage breed animals and heirloom vegetables. Little ones will be delighted by the fun, colorful drawings of long tailed Onagadori chickens and crazy haired Polish chickens, inviting them and their parents to ask questions about the breeds and learn more about why they are endangered. As Mama Farm, giggle believes that true learning comes when people — young and old — come to a question themselves and learn in a way that feels engaging, personal and playful.
Behind giggle’s effervescent name and beautiful website, there lies a deep commitment to preserving the planet for future generations. In addition to committing to donating a portion of their annual sales to environmental not-for-profits, giggle’s highly curated website of children’s clothes (ages 0-8) focuses on brands that have sustainability as a core of their mission and brand identity. To bring things full circle, giggle has created a clothing recycling program, called "goods for green," that helps parents donate and recycle clothing easily, ensuring perfectly good clothing is reused and reimagined. As many of us who have children know, making the low waste decision can feel extremely difficult — if not impossible! giggle wants to change that by making the purchasing process rewarding and the recycling choice easy and efficient for busy parents.
giggle has kindly made Mama Farm’s teepee a fun playhouse for children this summer, complete with blankets, pillows, toys and a fun scavenger hunt that will take children on a tour around the farm, as they learn about farm equipment, different species, plants and more. They will also have a stand at each Timbalooloo brunch with opportunities to purchase clothing, toys and more. Please come visit! We hope your summer so far has been full of great meals, good times and lots of giggles.
In The Weeds with Early Girl
Patty Gentry shares some thoughts behind the TLC that goes into our food.
definition: nurse /nərs/
verb
: to cure by treating carefully and protectively
Dear CSA Members,
As we work in the fields, thoughts pop into my head. Farming can be rough. We work with decomposing trees, crushed rocks and moving metal parts. We part a sea of soil to tuck in the most tender, vulnerable green growing things. As we dig into the sleeping winter fields to prepare them for spring we are summoned by nature to be patient, to be careful and to gently nurse the new growth we commit to the soil.
I think of the word “nurse” everyday. To me that word represents spoon feeding…a little at a time, coddling, protecting and investing the most vulnerable part of oneself, the loving heart, in another living thing. All of us who work at the farm are deeply invested in the health and well being of the plants.
Most spring plantings need to be protected from weather and keeps out cold and hungry insects with a white fabric that lets in light, water and air but pests that awake from their winter dormancy starving and ready to reproduce! We routinely check under the fabric to see how the plants are doing and are relieved when they start to grow and thrive. We always produce more seedlings than we need in case we have germination problems or lose a few seedlings after transplanting. One of the most difficult tasks for our sensitive staff of farmers is putting the unused plants in the compost pile.
We all agree that you can feel life energy in the smallest thing. In a plant the size of a hair or an insect the size of a mustard seed. The awareness of this brings out the nurse in all of us.
That’s the beauty of human beings. When push comes to shove or, when life comes to death, we recognize and honor the will to live in all other living things and that reveals the beauty of our hearts.
Liz Sorts Your Biz:
Among our many talented and wonderful CSA members, we have a certain admiration for the all-knowing “Liz” (pseudonym). Liz is revered by their friends for doling the absolute best advice on literally anything from personal issues to finance to ethics and beyond. Members can submit their most pressing questions via our small intake box at the CSA pick up.
Dear Liz,
I’ve begun to really worry about the privilege we have here in our little hamlet in comparison to the less fortunate I see in neighboring towns. How can I make a difference or do anything or help those who are struggling a bit more than I in our community? It’s laying really heavily on my heart.
Thank you!
— Concerned Citiot
Dear concerned Citiot,
Hats off to you for opening your eyes, standing up and wanting to do something. Solving world problems is always challenging, so let's take baby steps: I would recommend adopting a local family in need, such as providing a bag of groceries once a week. Our churches or community centers, such as the Boys and Girls Club, could put you in contact with a family. If the fit is right you are on your way and can grow from there. I would also suggest reading our local papers to find out what’s happening across the community and finding ways to engage our local Bellport and Brookhaven government to express your concern and ask them what their solutions are – and even offer your own! I think you’ll find our local representatives can be much more accessible out here than in the city. Once your neighbors find out all that you're doing you will become a rock star! Hopefully the word will spread and your friends will follow. Remember one good deed is worth ten good intentions. Good luck! You are on your way.
Mama Farm Artists
Lia Chavez, "Light Body." Performance. 2016. Presented at Mama Farm, Brookhaven Hamlet, New York. Conceived, choreographed, and performed by Lia Chavez. Additional performers include Djassi deCosta Johnson and Troy Ogilvie. Costuming by Mary Katrantzou, styled by Richard Ives. Photo credit: Ira Lippke