The obligatory informational post

Eagle-eyed observers (and maybe those who are not so-eagle-eyed) have probably noticed that until now I've carefully avoided explaining where exactly I am. That was because I hadn't actually asked anyone yet if it was OK to talk about the farm on a personal blog-- and I know from long experience that organizations can be prickly about unauthorized use of their names. But I got official permission last night from the owner of this whole operation, so now I can stop tying myself in knots to avoid identification of my whereabouts.

Katchkie Farm is located in Kinderhook, NY. Rather than being an independent farm, it is owned by Great Performances, a catering company based in New York. (Kinderhook's claim to fame is that it's the home of Martin Van Buren, the eighth President of the United States and apparently one of the originators of the idea that politicians should put party loyalty ahead of personal ideology. So in a way, we've got him to thank for Karl Rove. But I digress.)

Great Performances is a sprawling operation. Aside from the company, which supplies several museum restaurants, the owner has also founded The Sylvia Center, an educational non-profit that brings "the farm experience to children" and teaches them about real food. The Center keeps a children's garden on site at Katchkie and brings groups of kids to the farm for a day of planting or harvesting food and learning how to prepare it.

Katchkie was founded two years ago to supply food for the catering company and for two farmers' markets in New York City, at PS 180 in Harlem and at Rockefeller Center. As a Great Performances operation, the farm is somewhat shielded from the economic ups and downs affecting small family farms. More about that in a later post.

Katchkie encompasses about 60 acres, including some woods and a pond as well as the area under cultivation. Mostly, we're growing mixed vegetables. (I will pause a moment for you to process your image of a 20-acre salad bowl.) There are also laying hens, which are under two months old so they're not laying anything yet. (We did put wood shavings in their little cubby holes in the chicken house yesterday, so maybe they're thinking about it, but I'm not too optimistic. A couple chickens watched me pour in the wood shavings and then set to work pecking at them, apparently unaware that they were actually supposed to be sitting in them.)

Hopefully there will be pictures in the next post-- I'm still trying to figure out the best way to haul my beloved (but rather heavy) Nikon D-80 on my bike for the seven-mile ride from home to Katchkie.

So keep those comments coming-- I still haven't figured out how to count the number of viewings, so comments are the only way I know anyone is reading this!