Chronogram Magazine is a fascinating magazine. Its mission is to report on the arts, culture and spirit of the many upstate New York counties abutting the mighty Hudson River, namely Ulster, Dutchess, Greene, Columbia, Orange and Putnam counties.

It also champions the farmers of the Hudson Valley, who cultivate the the rich and fertile soil formed by glaciers aeons ago.

While some Valley residents grumbled about sitting in the dark without electricity or water for a couple of days in late August, it was the farmers who truly suffered the wrath of Hurricane Irene (and later, Lee’s') wrath.

The waters here have now receded to their former levels but the farmers are still suffering. The fruits and vegetables they grew and whispered to and nurtured from tiny seeds have drowned. Their once fertile fields have fallen silent and there are few outward signs of life.

To put this in stark terms, and to quote Brian K. Mahoney, editor of  Chronogram:

“Ulster County’s devastation was on par with a one-hundred-year meteorological event…Three thousand acres of vegetables were ruined in Ulster County alone. Taliaferro Farms in New Paltz lost 80 percent of its crop. At RSK Farm in Prattsville–the true ground zero of the flooding damage–not only was there total crop loss, but “Potato Bob” Kiley lost all his topsoil as well. The Schoharie Creek rose and swept it all away, leaving only the bedrock underneath.

For those of us who care about farms, the agricultural apocalypse visited upon the Hudson Valley and Catskills is a call to arms. Farms are not just a scenic addition to the landscape but an integral part of our communities–primarily as sources of locally grown food whose provenance we can be sure of, but also as a robust sector of economic activity…”

I have met some of these farmers in the many local farmers markets I visit from spring to late fall. I’ve munched their juicy apples and savored their baby greens, just-dug potatoes and newly harvested tomatoes and berries.

Simply because Irene has left, we still need to chip in,  clean up after and help the farmers who have fed us with their bounty. I urge you to visit Chronogram‘s Farm Aid page, to see how you can help the farmers buy the seed and soil and move on from this meteorological event.

This is the time to value the hard work and dedication of  farmers everywhere and contribute to co-ops wherever we live.

View of Hudson Valley

I am the most fortunate of women.

I live in the Hudson Valley.

Yesterday I went food shopping in Adams Fairacre Farms, a locally-owned super supermarket. It carries glorious fruits and vegetables, many organically grown by local farmers; fabulous fish — and smoked salmon supplied from a local smokehouse. There is free-range poultry, (including duck, goose, young turkeys and baby poussins), and pastured, grass-fed beef and lamb. There’s a huge variety of cheeses, creme fraiche and locally-churned butter.

There’s honey personally delivered by a neighborhood bee-keeper, farmhouse pickles and preserves, prize-winning cheeses from Valley cheese makers as well as ice creams and sorbets from a nearby creamery. There are handmade chocolates and cookies and a vast selection of breads, biscotti and cookies from nearby brick-oven bakeries.

The store doesn’t carry wines, but there are 167 wineries in this region and they are readily available. (Clinton Vineyards provided wines for Chelsea Clinton’s recent upstate New York wedding.)

“Aha,” thought I. Here’s a business — a food job!

There are more than a million visitors to the Hudson Valley every year. Many travelers are looking for a gift to take home to the kind person, who looked after the children or the dogs and cats.

How about a gift basket overflowing with artisanal foods and Hudson Valley wines? If you’d love to give such a present, imagine how much your friend would like to receive it!

No matter where you live, there are regional specialties to arrange in an attractive container to be hand delivered or mailed.

Offer your creative services to food shops, florists, hotels, bed and breakfasts, historical homes, wineries and wherever tourists gather together.

Suggest different price points and several options and be willing to do the mailing.

Give a commission to the sites that display your “for real” or photographed gift basket ideas or make a contribution to a local worthy cause with every purchase.

In this way you have your own business and you have benefited many others!

Fish Farming Courtesy of JLM Visuals

I was recently surprised to learn that fish farming is one of the world’s fastest growing businesses. According to TIME Magazine: “Close to 40% of the seafood we eat nowadays comes from aquaculture; the $78 billion industry has grown 9% a year since 1975, making it the fastest-growing food group, and global demand has doubled since that time.” This is an astonishing number in view of the rapid decline in stocks of wild fish.

Salmon is now farmed in nearly every country with a cold deep- water coastline. Already more than half of the salmon eaten in the United States comes from fish farms.

Yet, aquaculture, which began in China circa 2500 B.C., really is the aquatic counterpart of agriculture. We evolved from hunters to farmers, and just as we decided to cultivate food rather than venturing out to capture savage animals, a parallel can be drawn to those who farm fish rather than brave stormy seas in search of wild ones. An added bonus of fish farming is that each species is raised separately without needlessly catching and destroying other unwanted species.

A well-managed farm is a place where the advantages of aquaculture are most clearly seen. Experts decide when the fish have reached the desirable size and weight. At that moment, thousands of identical fish are channeled into a filleting factory where they are cleaned and sent off on their way to market. The fish farmers can go home for lunch and never need invest in a sou’wester (traditional fisherman’s waterproof rain hat) or even own a pair of waterproof boots.

The sparkling fresh fish are delivered clean and safe to eat on a predictable schedule and at a predictable weight and price. In contrast, commercial deep-water fishing is the most dangerous trade in the world. More men die at sea than in coal mines.

The rapid growth in fish farming was made possible with the development of super-technology — growth lights, nutritional food pellets, vaccines to protect the fish against bacteria and viruses, and underwater video monitors to watch over them. Like farm animals, “factory” fish depend on the farmer to ensure that they don’t become sick, overcrowded, or hungry. Robots feed them on a strict time schedule with precisely measured quantities of formula. Special mechanized equipment creates movement of the water in the pens so the salmon, for example, develop firmer flesh by swimming against man-made waves.

U.S. fish farmers also have an economic edge over their competitors in other countries because the feed for fish farms comes not from the ocean’s food chain but from grains raised inexpensively on the land. As feed constitutes such a major cost in raising fish, farmers are constantly seeking more efficient ways of increasing what they call the “conversion.” Though some may argue the numbers, a pound of soybeans and fishmeal, generally speaking, converts into a pound of fish: a ratio of 1 to 1. (Beef cattle, in contrast, require 15 pounds of feed to produce just 1 pound of meat.)

However, because of their diet, many farmed fish are not considered nearly as beneficial as fish caught in the wild. Fish farming is not yet a panacea for solving our problem of over-fishing, but it is a growing and useful segment of agriculture, or more correctly, aquaculture. It’s the way of the future and when responsibly operated, lets the natural life of the oceans regenerate. Surely, there are great opportunities here.

Getting Started

Fish farm entry-level positions involve assisting with the growing and cultivation of fish and the maintenance of fish farm premises and equipment. Fish farm hands may be employed in either fin fish farming or shellfish farming. They usually work outside, either on or in the water or at shore-based facilities located in sheltered waters. Most fish farm hands are expected to work overtime, particularly in the summer months. Some employers also require a diving qualification and/or a license to operate a barge. This means that to work on a fish farm, employees must enjoy outdoor work, have a reasonable level of physical fitness and be able to swim.