| TURKANA FARMS, LLC |
| Green E-Market Bulletin September 12, 2024 |
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| HomeHi all, Mark here.Home is a powerful magnet. When Dorothy tapped her shoes and intoned “There’s no place like home” in her effort to get back there, she didn’t have to convince us. After her challenging adventures in the magical Land of Oz, who wouldn’t welcome the routine domesticity of home? And could you doubt that “I’ll be home for Christmas” was the dream of every World War II soldier, just as Bing Crosby crooned?Early September is when I am most attuned to home, and how it confers on us a sense of security that’s so essential to happiness. It’s the sort of understanding of which you become acutely conscious when you’ve been yanked out of your home by such unforgiving forces as natural disaster, war, or, in my case, terror.It is now twenty three years since the surprise attacks of September 11, 2001. I had left my home across the street from the World Trade Center shortly before 8 that morning, leaving my late partner, Peter, sitting at the kitchen table. Within barely more than an hour, the raining down of burning debris and shattering of the apartment windows as a result of the planes’ impacts on the twin towers had forced Peter to escape. Within a couple of hours, as I struggled unsuccessfully to return home, I had been enveloped in the great black dust cloud from the south tower’s collapse. Its debris rendered the apartment inaccessible and, for the next 16 months, uninhabitable.Twenty three years is a long time, and yet at this time of year, whenever a crisp fresh morning and clear deep blue sky evoke the morning of 9/11, I feel viscerally the sensations of that day all over again. It happened this last Sunday, when the air had that feel and I described it to Eric’s visiting sister, Nathalie, and her husband, Paul, as “a real 9/11 day.” I couldn’t help but recount to them the story of the day, as I have felt compelled to narrate it periodically to many of you.The effects of that event continue to reverberate in my life. It was in one sense liberating. Having been convinced of my imminent death in the moment, I lost my fear of death and felt freer to take risks in life thereafter.It was in other senses humanizing. I gained far greater empathy with the innocent victims dislocated by war in far off places, whose suffering was now less abstract to me. I knew what it was to lose a home. And I became more bonded with my neighbors. For over twenty years we had shared a tenant-run building in something of a state of warring factions arising out of our different financial arrangements with the building’s owner. In the common cause of saving the building from plans to wreck it and then forcing the government to clean it up so we could return home, we saw more what united us, cementing bonds that have endured.Then there is Turkana Farms. We had purchased the place in 2000, and finished the major renovations just prior to 9/11. We had vague expectations of doing something agricultural here. But that day more or less killed Peter’s rug and Turkish travel businesses (the former through encasing his rug inventory in World Trade Center dust for many months, and both businesses through the public aversion after 9/11 to things Middle Eastern). Being exiled from our New York home to here gave Peter the time, energy and focus to acquire animals and develop the farm.Twenty three years of observation later, I’m convinced that the human impulse to make a home is not just a human but a basic animal trait embedded in our DNA. Home is a necessary safe haven, a place we control that allows us to define how we live with those closest to us.Many of you have heard the story of the first time we had a barn fire, in the hay loft. The fire department was able to save the structure; we lost only the slate roof. But one of the firefighters had to be diverted from firefighting to repeatedly chase the sheep away from the barn. The sheep were unsettled by the fire, by the arrival of fire trucks, by all the strange people they didn’t know. They could have avoided all of that by going off and grazing at the far end of the field. But instead their instinct was to run to their safe place — the barn. It might be dangerous, but it was home.You might think the turkeys would be less tied. What I’ve read says those in the wild sleep in various places over a three mile range. And all day my turkeys wander. Monday, as Eric and I sat in the office, I heard what I thought were happy grazing turkey chirps. Eric, whose desk faces the window, confirmed there was a whole gaggle of them just below, exploring the back yard. The day before they had been at the opposite end of the sheep pasture, at the Old Saw Mill Road fence, where I found them in conversation with wild turkeys off in the woods across the street. Hearing of this, Steve replied “I love when they start wandering around, these spectral explorers.”Yet the turkeys, too, come home to roost. Every evening, I can depend on their assembling at the barn, waiting to be let in.For most of us, homes come in successions. My home was once the apartment, now it is the farm. It was once a joint creation with Peter, who died September 12, 2018, six years ago today. Now it is shared with Eric, who delights me with how he is transforming it into our home together, an expression of his own homing instinct. Centuries before Elvis Presley sang it, both Pliny the Elder and Lao Zi instructed us that “Home is where the heart is.” Indeed. |
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| WHAT’S AVAILABLE THIS WEEKIn the red meat department, frozen lamb:Butterflied legs of lamb $16/lb Rib or Loin chops (packs of 2) $14/lb Small racks of lamb $14/lb Riblets (breast of lamb) $8/lbOther cuts imminently arriving.In the not so red meat department, frozen heritage breed turkeys, raised on organic grain, see below, $12/lbIn the yellow and white palette: Eggs: $6/dozen, plentifulVeggies:Cucumbers, 50 cents each Sorrel $2/bag Horseradish: $4/lb Mint $1 a bunch Spearmint $1 a bunch Tomatoes $3/lb – all varieties Oasis Turnips, large, $2/lb, small salad size, $2/bunch of six Zucchini or Tromboncino squash: $1.00/lb Tender lettuce, mix of buttercrunch, forrelenschluss, romaine, $2/bag Okra: $5/lb Beets and peppers coming soon |
| RESERVE THIS YEAR’S TURKEYBecause you asked for it. A turkey regular reminded me that it’s past time to ask you to reserve your heritage breed turkey for this year’s Thanksgiving. Reservation form below.For those of you who can’t wait for Thanksgiving, we still have 6 birds from last year in the freezer, ranging from 12 to 15 lbs. Fed on organic feed, pastured all day once they got big enough to go out, sale price to clear space $8 lb. Great birds!TURKEY RESERVATION FORM 2024 TURKANA FARMS, LLC 110 Lasher Ave Germantown, NY 12526 farm@turkanafarms.com 917-544-6464 Name__________________________ e-mail__________________________________ Address________________________________________ Phone__________________ Please check here if you would like to receive email offerings in season:______________HERITAGE BREED TURKEYS: This year we are raising Bourbon Reds and Blue Slates, which will range from 7 to 18 lbs. Fed on organic feed, pastured all day once they get big enough to go out, protected on perching bars all night. We have arranged slaughter to be able to deliver fresh, not frozen, in Lower Manhattan, at points along the Taconic Parkway, or at the farm. $12 lb plus $5 off premises pick up fee. Note: These sell out early.Number desired: ___________ Approx. weight ________ Pick up place: ___at the farm; ___Lower Manhattan___a point along the Taconic Parkway Please send a deposit of $40 per bird to hold your reservation to Turkana Farms, 110 Lasher Ave., Germantown, NY, 12526. Make check out to Turkana Farms, LLC.(Yes this luddite farm still uses checks). The balance due will be paid at the time of the pick up. |
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| ©2024 Turkana Farms, LLC | 110 Lasher Avenue, Germantown, NY 12526 |