A child farmer's life: garlic and Nancy Drew

The first week of July "has been scorchingly hot," organic farmer Clare Barbato wrote authoritatively in a newsletter to customers of Biophilia Organic Farm in Jamesport, "so most of our vegetables have started to speed up."

Clare's comments were the same as what other farmers were saying all over Long Island.

There is this difference: Clare is a 9-year-old who has been farming since she could walk. She farms with her dad Philip Barbato, 63, and drives the golf cart they use for puttering about the 14 acres. She knows how to tell when a Poona Kheera cucumber is ripe (it turns brown) and can list all 9 varieties of garlic grown on the farm: Music (her favorite), Sicilian Purple, Ozark, German Red, German White, Berkshire Rocambol, Romanian Red, Italian Purple and Slovak, the mildest one. Clare enthusiastically gives farm tours.

This season, 33 shareholders in what is known as a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture program) pick up produce and flowers at the farm once a week; some also work on the farm to earn part of their shares.

"You're working directly for food," said Susan Kennedy of Moriches after a morning of transplanting and weeding. "It means a lot more than working for money."

At 12, Philip Barbato started farming with his late father, Nicholas, who ran Yellowtop Farmstand in Smithtown by day, then put on a suit at night and held much sway as a leader for the Republican Party in Suffolk County. He told his son not to farm: "There's no money in it. Be an engineer."

As an engineer at the Environmental Conservation Department and in other jobs, Barbato said, he learned of the "human health impacts and environmental degradation" caused by the toxic pesticides his father had used. There was "no question in my mind" about making Biophilia, which he bought in 2000, organic, he said.

Pudgy, the trim mixed-breed farm dog, faithfully earns her keep, too; this summer, she has brought down 15 woodchucks, which are destructive to crops. "I named her before I knew what the word meant," Clare explained. She liked the way it sounded.

Clare's dad says there's no pressure on her to farm. Clare, whose mother, Mary McGlone, has her on non-farming days, already can see into her future: "I want to be a field biologist or an oceanographer or a vet, and I want to own a shelter, and no matter how long the animals are there, they wouldn't be killed," she said. Then, she tucked a Nancy Drew book into her beach bag and was off to Coopers Beach in Southampton with a friend.

A tomato and garlic tasting, with both for sale, will be held at Biophilia, 211 Manor Lane, Jamesport, on Aug. 29 beginning at 1 p.m.; localharvest.org/biophilia-organic-farm-M10707.

RECIPE

CLARE BARBATO'S ROASTED GARLIC

1 head garlic for each person, preferably Music

Olive oil

Bread

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Slice the top off the heads of garlic, place each on a square of aluminum foil and drizzle with olive oil.

2. Wrap foil around the garlic and bake until very soft, about 30 minutes. Squeeze bulbs of garlic out onto slices of bread (toasted, if you prefer) and spread the soft, mild garlic as you would butter.