No Phosphates = Healthy Eco-Systems, August IV

Dear Mad Hatters,

As mountain dwellers (we are located in the Litchfield Hills on Music Mountain), we crave seaside settings.  So to feed our need we have a subscription to Coastal Living Magazine and when it arrives everyone in the house finds a quiet moment to sit and look at beautiful pictures of seaside drives and ocean views.  And this made me do a little personal inventory of what we were doing to protect the water, since farming and water are so intertwined, as life and water are so intertwined.  Being an "organic" (not certified) farm, we do not put any harmful chemicals into the water system, and heck, with all the rain, its not like we had to water the crops!

If you haven't made the switch already, now is the time to start using eco-friendly cleaning products.  Laundry detergent, dishwashing detergent and household cleaning products that contain phosphates get into the groundwater, particularly if you have a septic system.  Once in the water system of nature, the phosphates enable algae to grow exponentially, the algae uses up all the oxygen in the water and all the fish die.  And once the fish die the whole system is out of whack.  And since we all need water to survive, the least we can do is stop using phosphates.  There are many good cleaning products that are phosphate-free and environmentally friendly, and available for purchase everywhere (Target, Wal-Mart, Stop and Shop etc.).

I also wanted to recommend that people check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium website, www.montereybayaquarium.org, where they have a list called The Seafood Watch Pocket Guide.  If you like to eat fish, this guide will help you with the ins and outs of eating fish responsibly - wild vs. farm-raised, Sea Bass vs. Barramundi, Thailand vs. USA, is it overfished etc.  It is really great if you find buying or ordering fish confusing. 

This week at the Woodbury Farmers Market (Wednesdays 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.) and the Ridgefield Farmers Market (Fridays 3:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.), we will have some assortment of:

• Gourmet Lettuce Mix
• Head Lettuces
• Arugula
• Spicy Greens Mix
• Marketmore Cucumbers
• National Pickling Cucumbers
• Eggplant
• Sweet Red Peppers
• Carrots
• Beets
• Leeks
• Onions
• Garlic
• Cabbages
• And Others??

Hope to see you there!

Alix and Jeff

Mad Hatter Farm

135 Music Mountain Road

Falls Village, CT 06031

T: 860-824-7635

www.madhatterfarm.com