Helping with Harvest Season
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As we approach the golden days of late summer, our ever-growing Biocultural Conservation Farm is overflowing with a wide range of fascinating crops. In order to get some extra hands on deck this harvest season, we’re very excited to open our first Volunteer Pilot Program!
Volunteers will help the BCCF grow and harvest fruits, vegetables, and herbs to be donated to local food banks (so far this year, the BCCF has donated over 9,000 pounds of produce), to supply a small Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program, and to support Oak Spring’s resident artists, researchers, and short course participants.
The BCCF focuses on minimal-tillage, organic and soil building practices, so in addition to giving back to the community, volunteers will learn skills in sustainable farming and gardening from our knowledgeable farm staff. Along with growing crops for culinary purposes, the BCCF also cultivates a walled garden with plots designated for seed saving, natural dyes, papermaking, fiber, drying flowers and herbal remedies, and cares for several honey bee hives and over 100 pastured laying hens and chicks.
Interested in helping out this harvest season? Click on the buttons below to learn more and apply:
The produce grown at the BCCF is chosen not only because it is delicious and nutritious, but for its rich history and the stories surrounding it, especially here in the Virginia piedmont and Appalachian region. If you’d like to learn more about the types of fascinating, nutritious fruits, vegetables and herbs volunteers will help grow and harvest, scroll down to read about several vegetables and herbs that were included in the BCCF’s CSA this year (thanks to the BCCF team for the descriptions!)
Ailsa Craig Onions
Photo by Christine Harris
Onions grow helter skelter all over our Biocultural Conservation Farm, wave wild down by Goose Creek, and blossom as elegant selected cultivars in the formal garden. While we don’t know where the very first one originated, we do know a bit of the history behind some of the varieties we grow at the BCCF, including one particular onion that was included in last week’s CSA shares, the Ailsa Craig.
According to legend, there was once a little girl who lived in a castle on an onion-shaped island far off the coast of Scotland. To keep from boredom in winter, the little girl became quite good at curling when the lake atop of the oniony island froze over thick enough to skate. One evening, shortly before sunset, her curling stone slid far far off into the high rocky corner of the lake. She ducked into the dry winter brush, saw the stone’s soft shoulders, and hefted it from the muck, dumbfounded at how light it had become. When she returned to her sisters they looked into her arms only to find that she’d unearthed not their stone, but an onion, straw-colored and shining. They named the onion “Ailsa Craig” after the strong Scottish girl who found the world’s most beautiful onion wedged beneath a rocky Craig on an onion island’s lake.
In all honesty, Ailsa Craig onions are a large, sweet heirloom onion introduced in 1887 by David Murray, a gardener for the Marquis of Ailsa at Culzean Castle in Scotland, which is located just northwest of Ailsa Craig island, an uninhabited island that has been historically quarried for its blue hone microgranite which is used to make curling stones. As shared with us by head gardener Todd Lloyd, the Mellon family regularly grew Ailsa Craig onions in their vegetable plot at Rokeby, long before the BCCF came to be.
(Written by BCCF Greenhouse Manager Caitlin Etherton)
Jimmy Red Corn
Photo by Christine Harris
The BCCF grew Jimmy Red corn in one of their seed saving plots last year, where they harvested roughly 160 lbs of seed at the end of the season. They took 60 lbs of this seed to the Burwell-Morgan Mill located down the road in Millwood, VA to be ground into grits and cornmeal as part of a community grinding demonstration in their beautiful historic mill. The Burwell-Morgan Mill was built in the 1780's making it one of the oldest operating grist mills in the country.
Like many heirloom varieties of crops, Jimmy Red's past was filled with uncertainty. This deep red dent corn was highly prized in moonshiner communities, as it made for a rich and smooth whiskey. Over time, fewer and fewer people grew the corn, which meant fewer and fewer people were saving the seed. In the early 2000's, after the man who was holding onto the last two cobs of Jimmy Red corn passed away, the seeds were luckily passed onto another farmer, Ted Chewning, who took on the dedicated task of reviving this old variety of corn. Since then, Jimmy Red has made a comeback and is celebrated by farmers, foodies and chefs far and wide.
Although it is regaining popularity, this variety is still considered to be quite rare. Spooning a mouthful of creamy Jimmy Red grits into your mouth or biting into a steamy piece of J.R. cornbread is definitely a celebration of a story of appreciation, conservation, gratitude, hard work and most importantly, team work.
(Written by BCCF manager Christine Harris)
tulsi basil
Photo by Christine Harris
Tulsi basil, also known as Holy Basil, is a beautiful herb growing in the BCCF’s medicinal herb garden this year. It is is featured in the "Adrenal System" bed, alongside other powerhouse herbs
Tulsi has been used medicinally for thousands of years in India where it is held sacred and widely known as the "Queen of the Herbs." Interestingly, it wasn't until Tulsi traveled west along the early trade routes that it became known as "holy" basil to Christians who began to include it in legends, offerings and worship rituals.
Tulsi, a member of the mint family, is a richly aromatic herb. Its intoxicating scent is sweet yet earthy with a hint of spice. Tulsi is widely known as an "Adaptogenic Herb" as it helps the body better adapt to stress. Over time, tulsi can support natural detoxification in the body, increase stamina, endurance, and energy, and restore balance and harmony. I always feel calm and content whenever I drink a cup of Tulsi tea.
(Written by BCCF manager Christine Harris)
Amaranth
A plant family that is comprised of both some of our most cherished vegetables (think beets, swiss chard, spinach), ancient grains (think quinoa), and some of our most pesky weeds? That would be the Amaranthaceae (Amaranth) family. Within this species-rich plant family, are roughly 60 different grains that have been cultivated for more than 8,000 years. What are now considered "ancient superfoods", these grains were a common staple food in Incan, Mayan and Aztec civilizations. Many of the grains in the Amaranth family are classified as pseduocereals, a fancy word for describing a grain that is not quite a cereal grain like wheat or oats but shares a similar array of nutrients and uses.
Before Amaranth flowers and sets seed, the tender leaves can be lightly cooked - similar to how you would prepare spinach. The leaves are a powerhouse of nutrients such as Vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, potassium, iron, B vitamins, protein, calcium and more. The brightly colored amaranth microgreens pictured above were included in the BCCF’s CSA this year. They have a mild, earthy flavor and are good on just about anything and everything. The richly-colored grown-up amaranth is also used in flower arrangements, natural dye workshops hosted on site, and by our artists in residents.
(Written by BCCF Manager Christine Harris)
Collard Greens
Collards are another star of the Brassica family. They have been cultivated and consumed for thousands of years and are widely recognized as an important staple in southern cooking. Collards are rich in essential vitamins and minerals including Vitamins K, A, manganese and are moderate sources of calcium and B vitamins. Delicious cooked or raw, the possibilities of eating collards are endless!
Michael Twitty, a culinary historian who focuses on the foodways of Africa and the African Diaspora and author of "The Cooking Gene," describes collard's history on his blog "Afroculinaria":
"Collards (Brassica oleracea acephala) are not African, they are temperate and Eurasian in origin, but their consumption, and with them—turnip, kale, rape, mustard and other greens are a healthy blend of tastes—West and Central African, Scottish, Portuguese, German and the like. Many culinary historians agree that the green craze in the South is supported by tastes for spring greens among Celtic and Germanic Southerners but was really spearheaded by people of African descent. In tropical West Africa, greens were available year round in gardens and markets and figured prominently in regular meals.”
The variety of collards grown at the BCCF include Champion, Morris Heading Collards, and Alabama Blue Collards. You can read more about all of the amazing diversity in heirloom collard varieties via the Heirloom Collard Project. The Heirloom Collard Project is a collaboration between seed companies, seed stewards, gardeners, farmers and chefs working to preserve heirloom collard varieties and their culinary heritage.
(Written by BCCF Manager Christine Harris)
Want to learn more about the crops grown at the BCCF? Read our posts about saved sorghum, native North American crops, and immune-boosting plants.