If you are on the outside looking in, homesteading can feel like an overwhelming transition from the common way of life these days.  Speed and convenience are the catalysts for society and admittedly, this makes life a bit more manageable with our hectic schedules.  Who doesn’t love to jump in your car, head to a store, swipe a card and come home with everything you think you need and want?

However, the normal way of life is having severe consequences on us as a nation.  Our physical health is suffering significantly from the “go-go-go” lifestyles and the pre-packaged, artificially flavored “food”  this nation is consuming at ridiculous rates.  Our relationships are suffering from the lack of face to face contact, ease of legally dissolving marriages and utter physical and emotional exhaustion of all of our responsibilities.  Our mental health is suffering.  The majority of the population, including children, are using antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications or utilizing alcohol or illegal drugs to self-medicate.

We are left feeling starved.  Starved for food that does not leave us feeling sick and empty, starved for emotional fulfillment and pride in our accomplishments.  Starved for a true connection to someone or something.  There is another way.  There is another life.  Homesteading is where I found my answer.

Homesteading is a general term for living off the land and being self-sufficient.  It is the basics of what our country was built on and it worked for decades.  It is filled with the clucks of contented chickens, the crisp taste of home-grown vegetables and the sound sleep of working hard and accomplishing a goal.  The beauty of homesteading is it can be individualized in every aspect.  You don’t have to sell your apartment or suburban home and move to the middle of nowhere.  You can start exactly where you are.

Basics 

“All good things are wild and free.”  Henry David Thoreau

Do some research and find out what you are interested and passionate about.  There are so many causes for concern in the way our society functions that the options are endless.  One of my passions is the ridiculously poor quality of our nation’s food.

In 1970, the US spent 6 billion dollars on fast food.  In 2006, this expense increased to 142 billion dollars.  McDonalds alone feeds 52 million people daily (Reference).  52 million people, including lots of innocent, growing children, are eating food that is chemically enhanced from animals who are not given proper nutrients in the first place.

And we wonder why heart attacks, cancer, diabetes and obesity are killing us by the thousands?

In my opinion, food should be grown under a warm sunshine and out in the open air.  Cattle and chickens should be given proper nutrients and respectfully culled to nourish our families.  If you want fresh food, you don’t have to go buy a farm.  Look into organic markets, local farms and food co-ops.  Support those that are giving their time and efforts into growing and raising food as nature intended, if you are not able to yourself.

Whatever you find that you believe has a better way of being done, do it.  Talk to local farmers, other people who are currently homesteading and do plenty of research online.  The great thing about homesteading is there are many different ways to accomplish the same goals.  You get to decide and that’s one of the most important freedoms we have.

Getting Started 

Start small.  As you do more research, you will become inspired to get involved in many homesteading projects.  Focus on a few main changes or projects you would like to make, and start there.  You don’t want to become overwhelmed with too many projects, this is the opposite goal of homesteading.  Homesteading focuses on hard work and caring for your body, soul, mind and the land in a peaceful, natural way.

Some simple projects to get your feet wet:

1. Grow a garden
2. Raise chickens
3. Start a compost pile
4. Make your own laundry detergent
5. Cook a meal with locally grown ingredients

Whatever you decide, remember it is about you working with your own two hands (and your family/friends) to accomplish a goal.  It is incredibly rewarding to use your own mind and body to do something productive for yourself and your family.  It is incredibly validating to know you didn’t have to pay someone to get a job done, but instead you did it with your own time and energy.

Lessons Learned 

Homesteading is forgiving.  There isn’t a hard line between the right way to do things and the wrong way to do things in homesteading.  Luckily, if your tomato plants develop blight, that doesn’t mean you have to go without tomatoes for a year, like it did in the time of our ancestors.  We are exponentially blessed with the option to live in the best of both worlds.  You can utilize your own efforts, but also if need be, use what is readily available to you.  One of the joys of homesteading is learning from the mistakes you make, as well as the mistakes others have made before you.

Rewards 

After a few homesteading projects, I can almost promise you will begin to view the world differently.  You will walk with a prouder stance, feel more respect for yourself and your ancestors and feel more physically and emotionally satisfied.

I work as an emergency room nurse in a busy, rural hospital.  I am a wife, a daughter, a sister, an aunt and a friend.  I got married, bought a house, began working as a nurse full time and graduated with my bachelors degree in a matter of a few years.  I was left feeling tired and frustrated at my endless to-do lists and responsibilities.  I was working so hard and yet felt like I had little to show.  Homesteading changed my life and my attitude.

Over the last year, as my homesteading practices have grown, I have developed an incredible sense of peace and pride.  I know that if something were to happen to society or government as we know it, I could provide for my family.  I know that if something breaks around my homestead, I can fix it or figure out how to fix it.  My homestead is my respite for the chaos of the emergency room and the duties of my personal responsibilities.  The work on the homestead is hard, but is more rewarding than I could have imagined.

While true 100% lifestyle change to homesteading may not be for everyone, there is a benefit in incorporating some homesteading principles.  You owe it to yourself and your family to change your perspective and spend a little more time together working toward a common goal.  Laugh, work hard, learn and grow.  Nourish your body, your mind and your family with a journey into homesteading.

Don’t miss any Homestead Redhead adventures, check out the full blog at www.homesteadredhead.com  and be sure to like our Facebook page HERE. 

As Joe Dirt would say, "Life's a garden, dig it." Watching my garden grow from the inside of my home to the outside gardens is very rewarding. From seedling, I have tried various ways now to get them to come up. For me, the best is leaving the dirt very loose and semi-moist, planting the seeds (the little ones just smooshing them into the surface a bit), and before putting them under the lights - spraying them with a a couple squirts of water. When I can see little green sprouts in a week or so, it is very exciting. Yay! I didn't kill you, yet. I have always bought my plants after they were started by someone else or a garden center after I wasn't successful at starting my own seeds, for numerous reasons. So now that I am watching my gardens grow from the inside of my home with success, I am more excited than ever to plant all my seeds according to the sow/germinate schedule. I have started several seeds but the real planting mahem is coming end of March and beginning of April.

There is certainly a sense of pride and gratification from nuturing these little seedlings into a large plant that can provide food or beauty. Not to get too philosophical but the pure amazement that a tiny little seed carries perfect genetic code to become a large plant that provides food is pretty cool. So nurturing the seedling along and making it stronger, not drowning it in too much water, and not letting it dry out while in growth is a task in itself. After successfully growing the seeds indoors and moving them to the outside gardens can be nerve racking so once my plants are strong enough and the weather will allow for them to survive, it will be easier breathing after the transition.

I have found with the chaos of my day-kids, meals, all my crazy projects etc.- dirt is my therapy. There is something about digging in it that makes me feel better and more alive than before. I look forward to the seed booklets and the juicy details about the plant descriptions (they ALWAYS get me to buy with the first two words being 'juicy and/or beautiful'). I have told myself for the rest of this spring, any more seeds books that come must immediately go into the garbage. Of about 10 that have recently been sent, I have thrown out one. It actually hurts a little to not allow myself to read about all the new and best seeds that seed company has to offer. Being from Minnesota, it's hope disquised in another 12" of snow fall.

My plans this year for self-food are now in the making. I have put the cart in motion and have empowered myself to take care of my family in a more healthy, knowledgeable and informed way. Sending my seeds along their way to the end result-production, is what each seasons goal is about. Producing different varieties and finding just the right specialty fruit or vegetable has calmed my anxiousness for conquering the world. At this point in my life, sprouting seeds and self-reliant preparation is enough.  

My anticipation for the Farmer's Markets this year has gotten me started on my soap curing and other projects. Taking my produce and other creations to them will be a journey I am looking forward to being on. I also look forward to meeting new people with like minds. I can always take some new advice on making my homestead more effecient.  

In watching my garden grow from the inside out and using dirt as my go to for theraputic relief, this season has officially started and my plans for self-reliance have begun. 

Follow more about my journey and chat about new ideas at modernroots.org and 'like' on facebook for recipes, thoughts, and chaos at www.facebook.com/modernroots.org    

Do you remember the first time you experienced real grief when a beloved relative died? Maybe relatives died in your young childhood, but you simply saw a lot of crying and didn’t really feel what happened. 

My first experience was when "Unk" passed away. I was a teenager. It wasn’t a tragic accident. Great-uncle Lloyd, simply "Unk" to us, was 94, lived at home, and hadn’t experienced ill health. His heart simply gave out. Later I decided his longevity was due to him having "just a snoot" of "medicine" before bed each night. Today we’d call this a shot of whiskey. My people come from Kentucky, remember, so a good bourbon runs in our veins. Sometimes literally.

Young "Unk" with his cousin Edgar Botkins at the "baptizin’ spot" on the Salt River in north Missouri. 

Unk would even tell us he was heading to the store for his "medicine"–really the liquor store, of course. That’s how Baptists lived back in the day. The churchgoers didn’t criticize him: after all, it was his "medicine"!

That morning of his demise, I headed for his home, which he shared with his daughter, Georgia Ruth. Unk and Georgia Ruth had outlived Unk’s wife, great-aunt Laura, and Georgia Ruth’s two siblings. With Unk gone, only Georgia Ruth was left. The living room was crowded with women comforting her, and arriving with food and hugs. Her kitchen table was laden with casseroles, pies, and, of course, desserts made with Jell-O. The talk was the many stories of Unk, some when he was young, both funny and sad. They also each told how they’d heard the news.

"When I told Marshall," one farm woman said, "he went over to the fence and stood with his back to me. I know he was crying a little." That one shocked me. I never thought of the big, strong farm men I knew as people who would cry. I would see it soon, though; the 1980s farm crisis was about to occur.

You don’t see many gelatin desserts these days, whether it’s for a gathering or not. (People are more likely to ask you to sign an e-Sympathy book, like Legacy.com, which I find strangely unsettling.) In the late 1940s through the 1960s, though, gelatin was not only dessert. Sometimes it was the main course, eaten as part of aspic–a dish that enveloped vegetables and meat within a congealed shape.

The best of both worlds in the 1970s: Jell-O made in a Tupperware mold! 

Tupperware even made a mold with a detachable top, and the set had different images–a heart, star, Christmas tree, etc., so you could customize the top of the mold. Jell-O’s discontinued 1950s flavors include Celery, Mixed Vegetable, Italian, and Seasoned Tomato. I’m sure one of these came in handy when you made a dish like Large Chunks of Vegetables Embodied in Gelatin.

Remember when TV commercials always said the phrase, "Jell-O brand gelatin"? I don’t know about you, but all those years I had never even heard of another brand of gelatin and couldn’t figure out why they said that. Maybe some consumers thought, "I think tonight we’ll have Knox brand gelatin" or "let’s try Royal brand gelatin today."

For those people who wonder what gelatin really is, it’s a protein created from collagen that is extracted from boiling bones, connective tissues and intestines of animals. Try convincing someone of that when they’re eating a mouthful of delicious Cherry Jell-O.

I was reminded of the old days of frequent Jell-O consumption when I found a wonderful book entitled Up a Country Lane Cookbook by Evelyn Birkby.

Up a Country Lane Cookbook by Evelyn Birkby, considered Iowa’s best-known homemaker. 

More than a cookbook, this highly readable work tells of the quiet and secure country life in Iowa during the 1940s and 1950s. As Birkby says, "The people who resided in southwest Iowa half a century ago built their lives around the land, their families, their neighborhoods, their schools, and their churches. They reflected the independent, hard-working pioneer spirit that motivated their ancestors to come to this country."

All the stories with that life–sad, funny, tragic–are colorfully recounted by Birkby. She has written a weekly newspaper column, "Up a Country Lane," for more than 50 years. Lonely farm housewives longed for tips and advice beyond their monthly meeting of the Neighbors Club or Homemakers Club, so in the early days of radio, Birkby she hosted a radio program by the same name.

Evelyn Birkby, 93, is still writing, and recently released her latest cookbook. Her story of neighbors bringing food and visiting grieving ones brought back the memory of Unk’s gathering. Since I’ve lived in the city, I’ve never heard of anyone practicing this tradition of bringing food to comfort others, but I’m sure it continues in small towns.

In Birkby’s Iowa farm neighborhood, it was Mabel Lewis who had a go-to recipe for condolences. Mabel Lewis was a "slight woman married to a robust man" and raised six children. She always took her "Comfort Jell-O" to the grieving, Birkby says. Trust me, this Jell-O salad would comfort me any day.

Mabel Lewis’ Comfort Jell-O

1 8-oz. can crushed pineapple

1 3-oz. package of cherry gelatin

2 cups white grapes, halved

Optional: whipped cream or whipped topping

In a medium saucepan heat one cup of water. When boiling, drain pineapple, pouring juice only from can into water. Retain fruit separately. Reduce heat to medium. Dissolve gelatin in water-juice mixture, stirring frequently until dissolved, approximately 2 minutes. Pour into large bowl and let cool for 5 minutes.

Fill a 2-cup liquid measuring cup with ½ cup cold water and enough ice cubes to make approximately 1 ½ cups total. Pour into gelatin and stir until slightly thickened. Remove any remaining ice cubes. (If mixture is still not thickened, place in refrigerator for 15-30 minutes).

Add grapes and pineapple and pour into mold or pan. Chill in refrigerator until firm, approximately 2 hours. Top with whipped cream if desired.

Notes: Do not use fresh pineapple; the gelatin will not set. This makes a fruit-dense dessert. If you prefer more gelatin, you can make the gelatin portion with a 6-oz. package of gelatin and double the water used (do not add extra pineapple or citrus juice).

Follow me on Twitter @chuckmall, Facebook at: www.facebook.com/CountryCookingintheBigCity and Pinterest (chuckmall)

Jell-O is a registered trademark of Kraft Foods.

Our survival actually started in the Summer (when the first fruits were ripe enough to pick) and ended in late Autumn. Now, for the life of me, I can't remember which vegetables were harvested in the spring, but it seems that Grandma picked something from her garden the year round, though she may not have. It's been so long ago, that I hardly remember, so for you farmers and harvesters who know the fruits, veggies, and nuts seasons, please forgive me if I put the sweet potatoes where the collard greens are suppose to go or the pecans where the peanuts are suppose to go.

When I first heard the lyrics, I thought it was an old folk song, maybe written by Woody Guthrie...

He put gold in the ground; 
He turned the water into wine... 

But no, it was the voice of Mary Kay Place, best known as appearing as Meg in the movie The Big Chill and for her lively role as Loretta Haggers on the old TV show Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman  

To our American ancestors, root vegetables surely did seem like "gold from the ground" in winter. When the weather was fiercely cold, animals too scarce to kill for food, and purchasable supplies running low, a family always could rely on their winter store of root vegetables.

Rutabagas: ugly now, pretty later

Rutabaga is one of them. I’m surprised at the number of people who have never tasted a rutabaga, think it’s a "large turnip" or think it’s bitter. The yellow flesh has a delicate lightness, reminiscent of artichoke, perhaps a faint hint of turnip. It is a firmer vegetable than many, and requires longer cooking if you want your vegetables spoon-soft. But it can still be fully cooked and have a bit of nice crunch. 

This dish contrasts the texture of rutabaga with the softness of sweet potato, and also has a crisp/sweet contrast. I don’t like to heavily flavor good organic vegetables, since they have a natural harmonious taste that need not compete with seasoning.

I recommend you buy peeled and roasted chestnuts. Save your fingertips and a half-day of valuable time.

Here I added chestnuts as an enhancer. I like chestnuts and enjoy serving them because many people have never even eaten them. They mistakenly think they’re hard like other tree nuts; they’re soft. People also think they will have the same nutty taste as peanuts or cashews. They don’t. It’s a subtle nut-like flavor. Everyone knows the lyric "chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." but don’t realize that the American chestnut tree was almost extinct by 1950, with only 50-100 trees left. If you can’t find chestnuts at your local store (check the kosher section if you have one), you can order them online at Allen Creek Farm, a family-owned farm in Washington started by city-escapers like so many of the readers here. I don’t recommend you peel chestnuts yourself, unless you have lots of time and patience. I did it once and that’s it.

Rutabaga-Sweet Potato Hash

2 rutabagas, peeled and chopped (about 3 cups)
3 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped (about 3 cups)
½ teaspoon salt (with boiling water)
½ cup peeled and roasted chestnuts
¼ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano (or 1 tablespoon dried)
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill a large saucepan with approximately 3 quarts of water, add ½ teaspoon salt, and bring to a boil. Add rutabagas and return to a boil. Cook 10 minutes. Add sweet potatoes and cook 5 minutes more. Drain rutabagas and sweet potatoes in a colander, rinse with cold water, and let rest for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine rutabagas, sweet potatoes, chestnuts, olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper. Stir until all is coated. Spread in one layer on a large baking sheet and place in center rack of oven for 20 minutes. Remove and serve.

When I first got out of the service, and was living on Oahu I became homeless.  The housing was expensive and even though I had a job, the money was not that great.  I could rent a room or a couch every once in a while so that I could stay clean, but to eat, that was another story.  There was fast food, but I could only eat so much of it, not a steady diet.

I would pick up coconuts on the beach, but too much coconut would cause me to have to go to the bathroom a lot.   After I had not eaten for a couple of days, I started looking in dumpsters at different grocery stores and restaurants.  The “throw away” food was tremendous!   Some of the food was fresh and of great quality.  Potatoes that were a little small, fresh heads of lettuce, tomatoes and even boxes of bananas that were just starting to turn too ripe for their sales bins.

What brought this back to the front of my mind, was a story on CBS Sunday Morning on 18 November 2012.  They shared how much food is thrown out annually by Grocery Stores, Restaurants, as well as by food left in the fields and plowed under because of the lack of transportation.  There are actually TONS of food left to rot in this nation.

Sustainability, to me, means to be able to maintain an operation or a way of life.  Sustainability is a way to keep life healthy and happy through proper nutrition.  This includes people, animals, water, food and the earth.  There has been much talk about energy, unemployment, food, water, air, land and life in general in the last year here in the United States because of the elections.

But now that the elections are over, do we not pay attention to the same things anymore?  Sure, there are many other things that are in the news, but nothing hits home more than being hungry, truly hungry to the point that there is no food in the house.  How do you feed your children?  Where do you go for help if you have a “Special needs” diet?

Chow.com has shared some more information on food waste in this story here.  With all of this waste, what is it that we can do to help feed all of the people that are going without.  Lots of things, but the most difficult of all will be this:

Involvement

Yes, I am talking about making the things that are increasing our costs for living and creating waste in our lives and those who are looking for help.  Here is a list of items that have been used to cut energy costs, and to stop food waste all while helping feed people who need a hand up.

• Rescue wasted food to fight Hunger 
• Learn about the “Hidden Harvest” 
• Start or join an organization like “Loaves and Fishes”
• Become involved in a local Food Bank like this one in Northern Illinois
• See how you can help your local grocery store.  Jewel-Osco shows how they share
• NRDC the National Resources Defense Council shares some ways that you can help
• Go to your local Farmer or commercial gardener and see about joining their “Food Club”

Sustainability and Food waste is greatly affected when you buy local food.  Another great way to lower waste and make a great contribution to the health of not only your family and the environment, as well as your money, is to grow your own food.

Food4Wealth is a way of growing your own food that is less time consuming and you do not have to dig up the earth.  It has been a great way for my wife and I to grow 2 gardens this year, both in extreme conditions.

Get involved and be part of the solution.  You never know who you may meet and become great friends with while you are volunteering or growing your own food.  Life is a Journey, embrace it!

Turning Your Dreams into the Life of Your Dreams 

Chris Downs, the Caretaker 

Founder hisfarm.org and Ambassador of Natural News and Sustainable Living on How to Live on Purpose.com

We love desserts, but lack the time to make them…thank goodness, because if we had the time to make desserts as often as we wanted, we’d probably be more than a little overweight.  As it is, we find the time about once a week to stir together something delicious to satisfy our sweet tooth.  Usually it’s fruit-based.  Given our busy schedules and our preference for healthy and easy cooking, most of our recipes are far different than what you’ll find in the average cookbook.  We put together our own recipes, usually using our extensive recipe collection for ideas.  This apple cake is inspired by an old family recipe.  We cut down the sugar, and substituted some wheat germ for a little of the flour.  We also changed the steps to make it easier to put together.   

Use any kind of apple you want in this cake.  Any kind will work.  We keep a big basket of apples on our counter, and so what I grabbed were a few small granny smith apples, a pink lady, and a couple of galas.  This is the perfect recipe for apples that are slightly soft, and losing their crispness.  There’s a sweet crunchy topping that covers the top.  Although this topping is our favorite, we can also tell you that it is NOT REQUIRED.  If you feel like living healthier, then leave off this buttery sugar concoction.  You’ll save yourself a few calories (but we can tell you that it does indeed taste pretty good if you leave it on). 

This is a delicious middle of the week dessert, and it goes together quickly.

Easy apple cake 

2/3 cup butter, at room temperature

3 eggs

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup white sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 ½ cups milk (we used cream this time, because that’s what we had on hand)

2 cups flour

½ cup wheat germ

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

4 ½ cups apples, peeled, cored, and chopped (this is about 6 small apples)

½ cup chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, or sunflower seeds)

2 teaspoons cinnamon

½ cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350-degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease an 11 X 7 inch pan (or something close enough). 

In a large bowl, stir together the 2/3 cup butter, eggs, ½ cup brown sugar, ½ cup white sugar, and the vanilla.  Stir in the milk.  On top of the mixture, dump the flour, wheat germ, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and the 1 teaspoon cinnamon.  Stir together all at once, until just well combined.  Fold in the chopped apples and nuts.

Pour into the prepared pan. 

Stir together the 2 teaspoons cinnamon, ½ cup brown sugar, and the 2 tablespoons butter.  Use your fingers to dot this mixture evenly over the top of the cake. 

Place in the oven, and bake for 1 hour, until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.  

As I mentioned last week, I was inspired to keep writing in this blog, but I never fleshed out what I might be writing about. A short list of items includes homesteading, harvesting, unschooling and urban foraging.  

One of the sessions I attended at the Mother Earth News Fair talked about all the food she had within reach of her backyard, or on the roads she travels to and from work. Living in Maine, she had an abundant supply of wild blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. But she also found that the plants in her own garden, so often ripped out as weeds, were very edible and sometimes more nutritious than the very veggies she was trying to protect. 

In our home, we have already known from our time at Foxwood Farm that pigweed, purslane and lamb's quarter were very delicious and hardy weeds. The kids make a regular snack out of the purslane we keep in our backyard garden this year, pulling it between bike rides and the tree swing. They love the idea of foraging for food, even in this small way. Sometimes they'll bring me a stalk or leaf and ask if its food? After careful identification, I give them the thumbs up or down. Since I am so inexperienced in what herbs and plants can be consumed, most of the time it's been a thumbs down. 

Well, no more. I endeavor to learn every plant we can eat on our 1/2 acre lot we rent here in Oshkosh. 

An easy one to start with is our city garden. 

I suppose this can't be considered foraging as we intentionally dug up the ground and planted it with peppers and tomatoes. However, seeing as the spirit of foraging (especially in the city) is to be more self sufficient, the garden is our number one supplier of free* food. 

* We paid $30 at the beginning of the season for all the started plants and $15 for some makeshift fencing.  

In June, when I was holed away in an office for 12 hours per day, Andy took on more than most Stay At Home Dads (SAHD) do. He kept the kids wrangled and dug up a garden from sod that hadn't moved in well over a century. At first he did it by hand, spending three hours moving sod from a 6 x 3 foot patch of lawn. 

Then my father graciously offered the industrial sized rototiller we had used when we gardened at the farm. There is a setting on the tiller specifically made to uproot grasses and this made the work much more expedient, though still exhausting. 

We decided to make four rows, three feet across and about forty feet long, with three foot stretches of grass in between the rows. 

This was a good start for the garden. Good for this year. Next year we will likely expand it just as many rows. As it is, the plants we bought completely filled in the rows and we had no room for anything but tomatoes and peppers. We have some large stuffing peppers, but mostly hot banana peppers, which we think was a labeling error on the part of the gardener we bought from, as we never had a need for that many hot peppers. The tomatoes are two varieties; the classic red heirloom Brandywine and a new (for us) long-storing red tomato called Mountain Mist. You can easily tell the two apart both in appearance and flavor. It's nice to have a small variety; we usually have about 15 different tomatoes, but in the end, they all get boiled and canned and look about the same, even the colorful ones. 

Very late in June, shortly after my temp job ended, we planted the tomatoes and peppers in the fresh farm compost my father had driven over in the pickup truck. Since it came from several composting sites on Foxwood Farm, there was a rich variety of nutrients and compost age. A lovely black earth, Andy took the same tiller and worked it in with the hard, poor soil the sod had been hiding. At last, he used a hiller function on the tiller and gave us "raised beds." Not the fancy ones held in by gleaming white pine boards but certainly enough to keep the plants from drowning in case of a flood. (Little did we know in June that this would be a record breaking year of drought for not only Wisconsin, but over half of the United States. Drowning...not really a concern this year.) 

  
In the process of planting, we discovered lots of bones in the compost. Some were small. Some were large. Now before you get the willys, remember that this came from when Andy and I were still on the farm. Do you remember us talking about those sheep we purchased from a Craigslist ad? We had been told they were wormed before we got them, but shortly after their transition to Foxwood Farm, we lost three ewes in as many days. On a farm, all flesh is grass and they went into the newly formed compost pile to aid in fertilizing our fields in the coming years.  

We really didn't think about that very much after we left the farm. We had a nice little reminder of our time as shepherds and thanked the sheep for their contribution (however untimely) to our new garden here in Oshkosh. At the time of their death, could we have ever known how that compost would be used? It served as a simple reminder of how God works things out in much more perfect and complicated ways than we ever could.   

After the tomatoes were planted, we headed out west and came home to find an amazing growth spurt in both the tomatoes, but also the weeds. In fact, before we even put our luggage back in the house, Andy and the kids and I spent two hours weeding compulsively, before dusk and hunger pains shooed us indoors.   

 
Above, before mowing the walkways. Below, after. Isn't it beautiful? This of course, before the great tomato take over in about a month! 

After that, we kept the garden watered during July and August to preserve the parched plants. Our lawn was brown, but our garden was gorgeous. As the farm market vendors began to showcase their Early Girls and Cherry Tomatoes, we were beginning to get restless for our own brood to hatch. Plenty of green globes danced about the ever-expanding vines but nothing even hinted at ripeness. We bought our tomatoes from a vendor friend instead and dreamed of the first sun-warmed red fruit that would sit triumphantly on our kitchen counter, proclaiming to anyone who cared, "I'm as local as they get!" 

We didn't have to wait long. Early September came and we were getting a steady sprinkle of red maters  hanging out on our counter, waiting for bruschetta or BLTs or a simple slice and rock salt. Then...we didn't look for a few days. We got a heat wave followed by a steady rain for three days.   When the thunder clouds cleared, our own homegrown downpour had only just begun. As Ethan excitedly proclaimed, "It's tomato season everybody!" 

And we set to work. Since we didn't get the tomato plants staked in time, they literally took over the garden and even finding our grassy walkways was a tall order. All the super ripe fruits begin at the bottom, so much of the work is gently and firmly lifting a plant to find it's hidden treasures below. It's exhausting work for a normal person, but with my belly expanding daily and heat tolerance near zero, harvesting became quite the chore.   

Thankfully, I had two excellent helpers in Elly and Ethan...and Liam was just amusing to have around as he eagerly picked all the tiny green "balls" he could find. I found out that while Elly has an eye for the very ripe ones, Ethan was fearless, burying his small 3 year old body deep in the monstrous tomato plants for the red globes underneath. 

Over the course of the month, Ethan has been my best and most eager helper in the garden. As a middle child, it's sometimes hard for him to have a niche in the family. I want him to know that his help has been irreplaceable and of great value to his Mommy and Daddy.   

 
Once the harvest is in, the time comes for processing. This is where Andy takes over and shines as his personality must find the most efficient and effective ways to can food. Putting eager kids to work never hurts and much of canning is very kid friendly.  

 
One Sunday about two weeks ago, I had some pressing freelance work that needed to be completed by Monday morning. The tomatoes were just as dire. So beginning right after church, Andy began the long day of processing what we guessed to be 120 lbs of tomatoes.  

It was a long day indeed. Hours after the kids were in bed, he was still boiling water and slicing stems and peeling skins. Hours after I was in bed, he was cleaning the kitchen and making sure the last jars sealed. In all, he worked for 14 hours. We are now blessed with 50 quarts of stewed tomatoes and sauce. When I asked Andy if that would supply us for the winter, he laughed and said, "Maybe til Christmas!"   

It's a good thing that when I began harvesting tomatoes again this morning, we got 90 lbs in boxes and I still have 2/3 of the garden to pick.     

Our neighbors in our small block think we're nuts. Some even have gardens, but only enough to supply them for the fresh season. An older lady saw us weeding in July and asked if were had planted a truck garden. For those of you who may not know, truck gardeners were the equivalent of the farm market vendors of today; people who planted huge gardens with the intent to truck the produce into the nearby towns and cities to sell. No, we assured her, this was not our intent. We explained that we just liked to make our own food and her eyes brightened immediately. She told us a story of her own mother, canning away in the kitchen and how she had to help put the food by. We promised to share our harvest with her when the time came and she seemed delighted. "Can't beat homegrown tomatoes and how I do love to slice them and eat them fresh!"     

We love how a garden brings people in a small community together. The rag tag family down the alley comes by often and offers to pull weeds from time to time. The divorced hairdresser across the street checks up on the progress regularly as she has a green thumb for landscaping. The blended family two houses down has a little girl about Elly's age and after a few get-togethers, we gave the mother several tomatoes and hot peppers. Just yesterday her daughter came over with a homemade cake for us.  Just three days ago, we got a note in our mailbox from a handicapped woman who walks through our alleyway regularly. She asked for some of the green tomatoes for fried green tomatoes. She offered to pay for them, but we'll just give her a bag to enjoy. We'll certainly have enough! 

As the canning season winds to a close in the next two weeks (our first hard frost often lands in the first week of October), we will turn to other means of foraging and winter prep. As I'm actively learning, there's a lot of food out there if only we are willing to work for it.   

This brings me to the country garden.     

A few days ago, we headed about fifteen miles due west to the farm (formerly known as Foxwood Farm). My brother and his family live there now, keeping up the house and front yard quite beautifully. My father continues to raise crops and beef cows on the rest of the acreage while the fate of the family farm seems more securely in generational hands than when we first exited two years ago.     

One of the projects they are diligently working on is repainting the house and garage, no small task as they are doing it without help of a contractor. My parents and brother and sister-in-law have been working for the last month, prepping and priming and painting the wooden siding and sills. When Andy and I pulled in the driveway late in the afternoon, the house fairly glowed with fresh white paint. Ever the classic midwest farmhouse, she is doing well under new management. Having spent about 75% of my life in that home, I am pleased with the care being given.     

Our purpose, however, was not to supervise any home improvements that might be brewing. Today we came for pumpkins and potatoes.   

A joint project between my parents and my brother's family, a large field garden was planted with rows of sweet corn, pumpkins and potatoes. What used to be sheep and cattle pasture is now commercial corn. The temporary fences long taken down, the lane between fields offered ample access for a small strip of garden. Here is where the sweet corn and pumpkins grew. Across the lane, a small triangle of land with very sandy black soil holds the two long rows of potatoes.   

Last week the farm experienced an early frost, killing the family garden and causing the field garden to die down as well. My family harvested the pumpkins and brought them to the front lawn in hopes of selling a few to passersby. Mom and Dad have been involved in a year long fundraiser to build a well in sun-parched Uganda and decided that half the proceeds from pumpkin sales will go towards that cause. We thought it would be nice to see the operation and get a few orange cucurbits ourselves. 

I had hoped to help with the harvest, but they had to grab them last week when I was in PA, so we got to benefit from the season's labor by just walking amongst the beauties and choosing what we'd take home. Since we had no hand in helping grow the pumpkins and yet were invited to take some home free of charge, we chose sparingly.   

I was a bit surprised when the kids gravitated towards the smallest pumpkins in the group, but pleased that they could carry their prizes to the car all by themselves. It also gave them a sense of accomplishment, I'm sure. Even wee Liam managed to grunt a pumpkin over to Daddy before thumping it at his feet! 

And of course, the obligatory kids in the pumpkin patch photos ensued. :-) 

Elly with her new hat from Grampa Steve. 

Ethan, with his exuberance flowing through even a static photo. 

Liam, more than displeased to have been deposited in between these cold, slippery lumps of orange, attempting a fast get-away.   

After we chose our pumpkins, we drove down the dusty lane and began our subterranean search for potatoes. Again, beneficiaries of my family's hard work, we were thankful for the homegrown goodies that lay in wait of our digging fork. 

At five and three, Ethan and Elly have been two full years removed from the last potato harvest we undertook. I knew they wouldn't remember that potatoes grow underground. I asked Elly as we stepped out of the car where she thought the taters were. She looked around and guessed at the remains of the pumpkin patch across the pathway.   

Nope, we told her. You've got to look under the ground. She thought we were crazy and when I explained that a potato was part of the root of the potato plant, it didn't really help her dismay. The best way was to just show her. Andy and I had good fun playing up the digging experience. What could have been a sweat-inducing, mundane task became a veritable hunt for treasure as our children squealed in delight at the sight of each colorful tater emerging from the black earth. 

Here, Elly grabs handfuls of a red variety in which the name presently escapes me.   

Ethan and Elly work together to find the "baby ones" and add them to our grocery bag.   

Finding a particularly large potato caused ripples of excitement. 

Below, Ethan shows off his "Swimming Cow" potato which he dug himself. As I found in the tomatoes, Ethan was again our best helper, sticking with Andy as he dug for the duration of the hunt. Elly lost interest and began exploring the fields with Liam, which was fine. However, our Little Man here never lost focus. 

Before we knew it, we were joined by three of our nieces, who walked the 1/8th mile from the white farmhouse to join in the potato dig. They had come from digging potatoes with their own parents not one hour earlier, but enthusiastically helped us up and down the rows by finding the biggest and most unusual looking taters to add to our bag. In no time at all, we filled the bag much past our initial intent and had to call the search party to a close. With 6 pairs of helping hands, the abundance of food will last us a solid few months. 

Again, I am thankful for the generosity of our family in sharing the feast without any help from us during the season. We were able to share a 30 pound box of tomatoes which mutually helped us out. 

We intended to eat potato soup that evening for supper but by the time we were back in Oshkosh it was already 6pm and the kids were clawing at the windows for food. Poor planning, Mom and Dad! We stopped for pizza at Papa Murphy's instead. I know I know! We're not perfect by any means and we do love a good pizza... 

We had warm potato cheese soup for lunch the next day instead. :-)   

 "Our farmers and ranchers have never faced as many problems as they do today with drought, range fires, high gas prices..." - Michael McCau   

The land is dry and cracking across the heart of America.  Drought  is the natural cracker, shriveling everything up till there are gaps that demand radical shifts for  underground pipes  and construction footings, doubtless as well for all forms of subterranean life.  Then there are mournful,  moanful  cracks in the land from the massively arrogant and suicidal impulse of industrial-scale  fracking  in a time of profound earth changes. Foundational cracks abound on planes both inner and outer.

Each day as I open my back door and step out into the world I see this inescapably. I'm confronted with a crazy quilt pattern of cracked land where once had been a lawn. It's a troubling sight. Here at home all 93 of Nebraska's vast, sprawling counties have been declared disaster areas because of the drought. Late August now, and the forecasters say we may not get substantial rain until Halloween.

Our U.S. Midwestern drought -- impacting  over 62%  of the entire nation -- is having and will have  global  consequences : "People in wealthy industrialized countries spend between 10 to 20 per cent of their income on food. Those in the developing world pay between 50 to 80 per cent of their income. According to  Oxfam , a one per cent jump in the price of food results in 16 million more people crashing into poverty -- accelerating what global agriculture ministers call  The Spiral of Hunger.  

Meanwhile, with at least one more long month of melting to go for the Arctic Sea Ice, the pace of heat-driven destruction to our North is staggering in proportion. Behold this  brief composite animation . It's a must see. Just about every record has been shattered, with a month more of melting to come.

Watching the world's larger patterns unfold like this is profoundly unsettling, and can be unbalancing as well without some active, creative initiative to respond to the urgent call of the land.

Proactive response is a key element of 21st Century Agrarianism, and thousands upon thousands of people and communities are responding dynamically, helping to establish healthy new footings and foundations on the land as ballast and complement to the surging waves of digital culture. What is needed now -- in this extreme state -- is positive creative response from millions upon millions of people.

If you are among those who will no longer ignore the call of the land, then here is  one place to initiate a response : to become informed, to find ways to cultivate the land to restore its health and beauty, as well to grow clean food for yourself, your family, and your community. Check out the possibilities.

Pickles. Dill, spicy, sweet, you name it. Just typing the word makes my mouth pucker a bit. I’m not afraid to say I have long loved pickles. When I was little, I would drink the brine. Straight. And as a grown-up, I love that same brine mixed with a bit of vodka and a pickle spear (simply called a pickle martini or Rabbi). At around age six or seven, some neighborhood friends and I decided it was high time we left home to eke out a living in the woods. Surviving without adults would be difficult and the others determined toilet paper, flashlights, water, and peanut butter sandwiches were a must. What did I bring to our packing meeting? Pickles. I was that kid that contributed absolutely nothing but pickles. Because what else was there?

Needless to say, I was beyond thrilled to be introduced to pickled onions on my first visit to England last summer. According to the National Onion Association, onions actually have a fascinating history. Not only are they one of the earliest cultivated crops, perhaps even a staple in prehistoric diets, the circle-in-circle design of an onion symbolized eternity to the ancient Egyptians and thus became an object of worship and esteemed funeral offering. The Romans, one of the first to travel with their food in containers, carried onions on their journeys to England and Germany. Today, pickled onions are a traditional addition to English fare, my personal favorite being an appearance on a ploughman’s (hunk of crusty bread, butter, pickled onions, Branston pickle, bit of salad, tomato, and super sharp cheddar or Stilton…a simple lunch that can’t be beat!)

Unfortunately, I’ve not been so brilliant with our own onion crop. We planted yellow and white onions as our first garden crops but tragically, failed to thin the rows. The result? Onions with beautiful tops but coming out of the ground very, very small. So right before leaving for last month’s visit to England, I pulled up our tiny onions after realizing they would be perfect for pickling. I let them set for two weeks while I was away and upon my return, already missing family and friends in my second home, I opened the jar and tried my first batch of pickled onions. I’m happy to report they taste just like in England. Crunchy, salty, refreshing.

Other than their irresistible taste, pickled onions are great because they can be done in the refrigerator (no need for a boiling water bath) and not give you botulism. My father-in-law pickles onions and his steps are simple: 1) peel the onions, 2) sprinkle with salt and let sit for 24 hours 3) rinse and place in jar with brine.

…But for my first attempt I didn’t yet have that not-so-secret English recipe, so I used the refrigerator pickle recipe from The Hip Girls’ Guide to Homemaking: 

Pickled Onions 

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup vinegar (I used white, but the Brits I polled recommended malt)
• 1 cup water
• 1 tbsp. salt
• Spices (I added 2 chopped garlic cloves and some peppercorns, but you can add whatever your pickle-loving heart desires!)

1. Wash and cut up your vegetables and pack them into a clean jar. *You don’t need to buy Ball jars, you can just save and reuse salsa jars, pasta sauce jars, etc. You can also opt to blanch your veggies, though I prefer the crunch of raw.

2. Add spices.

3. Combine in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil the vinegar, water, and salt. *Add sugar for sweet pickles.

4. Pour the boiled brine over the vegetables in the jar.

5. Seal your jar and let them sit in fridge for at least one week (the longer you wait, the better they’ll taste) and voila! Pickled onions!

Anyone else pickling vegetables this summer? What’s your favorite method? 

My home county recently held the Inaugural MoonPie in the Smokies Festival in honor of Earl Mitchell Sr., inventor of this perennial Southern favorite treat, so I thought I'd share a little about it.

As any well-bred, self-respecting Southerner knows, a MoonPie™  and an RC Cola is the (un)Official  Snack of the South.  It may not be written into legislature anywhere, but it’s one of those things everyone knows.  It’s been this way for a hundred years.  So on this Way Back Whensday I’d like to explore the history of this Quintessential Confederate Confectionery.

What is a MoonPie

For our Yankee friends who have not encountered this snack, a MoonPie™  is a pastry consisting of two round graham cracker cookies, with marshmallow filling in the center, dipped in chocolate, banana, or coconut coatings. The traditional pie is about four inches in diameter.  A smaller version, the mini MoonPie, is about half the size and a Double-Decker MoonPie of the traditional diameter features a third cookie and second layer of marshmallow.  Double Decker MoonPies come in the four main flavors and in lemon and orange.  

Who Makes MoonPies

 

Chattanooga Bakery, Inc. at 900 Manufacturer’s Road in Chattanooga, TN was founded in 1902 as a subsidiary of the Mountain City Flour Mill. The bakery was actually added onto the mill’s building so flour could be transferred directly from mill to bakery.  The bakery’s original purpose was to use the excess flour produced by the mill. By 1910, the bakery offered over 150 different confectionery items.  In 1917, the bakery developed a product which is still known as the MoonPie.  Today MoonPies are Chattanooga Bakery’s primary product and they are capable of producing over a million pies per day!

How Were MoonPies Invented

The exact history of how the MoonPie™  was invented was never documented by the Chattanooga Bakery.  But one historian, Ronald Dickson of Charlotte, North Carolina, found the “missing link.” after writing, “The Great MoonPie  Handbook” as a humorous accounting of lore and legend surrounding  the MoonPie™. In the book Dickson lamented that the MoonPie’s inventor was lost to history. Not long after his book was published, Earl Mitchell Jr. telephoned Mr. Dickson and identified his deceased father, Earl Mitchell, Sr., as the person responsible for the invention of the MoonPie. Some sly questioning on Dickson’s part verified this statement and the mystery was solved.

His story went like this;  Early in the 1900s, Earl Mitchell Sr. was a salesman for the Chattanooga Bakery, servicing a territory in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.  Mr. Mitchell was visiting a company store that catered to the coal miners. He asked them what they might enjoy as a snack. The miners said they wanted something for their lunch pails. It had to be solid and filling. “About how big?” Mr. Mitchell asked. The moon was rising, so a miner held out his big hands, framing the moon and said, “About that big!” Mr. Mitchell headed back to the bakery with an idea.  He had noticed some of the bakery worker’s dipping graham cookies into a jar of marshmallow and laying them on the window sill to harden for lunch. He took that idea, added another cookie and a generous coating of chocolate and took some back for the workers to try.  They were a hit! The Bakery sent samples around with their other salespeople, too. The response they got back was so enormous that the MoonPie™ became a regular item for the bakery.

By the late 1950′s, the MoonPie had grown so much in popularity that the bakery did not have the resources available to produce anything else. The phrase “RC Cola and a MoonPie” became well known around the South, as many people enjoyed this delicious, bargain-priced combination.

This treat was, however, relatively unknown above the Mason-Dixon line until Dickson suggested to Bakery publicists that they send a copy of his book and a box of MoonPies to 250 book reviewers and media outlets around the nation.  The resulting high profile reviews and articles spurred a national interest in this iconic Southern snack.

Ron Dickson is a founding member of the MoonPie Cultural Club, which aims to spread the enjoyment, culture, vast folklore, and honorable traditions of that noble snack throughout the world.  He is also the MoonPie Goodwill Ambassador.  Chattanooga Bakery keeps him supplied with MoonPies which he disperses in his travels promoting the legend of one of the South’s greatest inventions.

 On May 26^th, 2012 Newport Tennessee, where Earl Mitchell Sr. is buried celebrated the Inaugural  MoonPie in the Smokies Festival.  Just one feature of this festival was The World’s Largest MoonPie which weighed in at a whopping 30 pounds! This monster MoonPie was produced by the Chattanooga Bakery, a sponsor of the festival, and transported 160 miles across Tennessee for this event.  Response to the festival made it clear that the MoonPie is still a Southern favorite.

Springtime has come early to Sunny Hill Farm in the high tunnel.  When the weather is sunny, the tunnel is usually 10-15 degrees warmer than outside, especially when it's windy.  The green things have already begun growing for the season and the smell is wonderfully warm and verdant.  My daughter likes to go in there and take off her shoes, enjoying the feel of grass between her toes a few weeks early. 

Spinach, arugula, mustard and lettuces are waking up and growing again from last Fall's sowing.  Other green things are growing in there, too: clover, purslane and especially chickweed.  These weeds need to be removed before we plant the space anew for the Summer season.  I know that many of the plants we consider "weeds" are actually perfectly edible, nutritious, and quite yummy.  Back in the past, many of these cold-hardy greens were a welcome addition to the diet in the earliest days of Spring, when folks were living off their winter store of starchy roots and rich meats and were ready for a fresh change.  Chickweed, in particular, is especially sweet and nutritious, and it grows abundantly in a low spreading carpet. 

Even though discarded weeds are composted to return their nutrients to the soil, I still look for ways to capture even more of the nutrition and resources available on-farm, to minimize our off-farm inputs, reduce costs, and keep our ecosystem as healthy and diverse as possible.  One way we do this is to harvest plants such as grasses and weeds to feed to our animals, especially those who cannot always be out on pasture.  Feeding the animals grasses and weeds is closer to their natural diet than grain, and provides the myriad of vitamins and minerals often needed to be supplemented else-wise. 

So my daughter and I have been going out to the high tunnel daily and harvesting this abundant chickweed to feed to our pigs and poultry.  I was unable to find definitive evidence that it was suitable daily for our other animals, so I only feed it to them, not the sheep, cows or horse.  Many of these weeds are good for one species of animal but not others, so always do your homework and check first, being sure you have a positive identification.  In order to keep the horse from getting jealous, we also grab a few handfuls of clover to give to her, too.

This time together is very enjoyable for my Gwee and me, and we are doing two jobs at once, weeding in preparation for this coming season, and giving our animals a little nutrition boost.  Fun, easy, and cost-effective recycling!

 Can Food Be a Hobby? 

Hobby:   A pastime, diversion, leisure pursuit, or something you do for relaxation.  Now I don’t know about you but when my family was growing food was not a hobby, it was a necessity.  Breakfast might be cereal or toaster something before the kids ran for the bus.  Eggs, bacon and the rest were more likely to happen on a Saturday or Sunday.  By early evening dinner became a blur of casseroles, pasta dishes and boiled vegetables.  That was not relaxation therefore that was not a hobby.
 

Since the children are grown I can now take the time to enjoy food, not just eating food, but trying new recipes and learning the whys and wherefores of why we cook certain ways. I can collect flour sifters, cookie cutters or cookbooks I’ll never use. Now I do have a hobby –Food (and pretty much everything that goes with it.)

There’s so much to learn. 

My sinking Angel:
 

Growing up I never gave it a second thought, but recently I became interested in angel food cake.  Why did my mother always cool it upside down, hanging from a Coke bottle?  The internet is wonderful, it didn’t take long for me to discover that angel food cake is really closer to a meringue than a cake and cooling it upside down keeps it from collapsing back onto itself.  That’s the theory, but when I tried to make this light as air cake part of it still collapsed.

Why?  I’m guessing I left an air pocket when I filled the pan or my oven does not heat evenly.  Since I’m fairly certain Betty Crocker puts out a good mix it’s most likely something I have done.  I know, a good hobbyist (cook) would start from scratch but any recipe that begins “separate 12 eggs” is NOT my type of recipe.  It’s way to rainy to bake an angel food cake today.  I’ll post an update in a later blog about the success of my next attempt at the perfect angel food cake.

Beware Teenager in the Kitchen: 

Even an experienced teenage cook needs to be monitored in the kitchen.  It seemed so simple.  All the granddaughter wanted was to make a key lime pie.  I have made those since I was probably 8 years old, back in the days when you had to crush the graham crackers and mix the butter and sugar for the pie crust.  Now with the readymade crusts there are only two ingredients for a great key lime pie.  Two, that’s all.  How could she go wrong?  She’s a flighty teenager, that’s how.

The Recipe and the Mistake: 

Here’s the recipe:  take 1 can sweetened condensed milk, mix with 1/3 cup key lime juice (or lime or lemon juice), pour into crust and chill.  Apparently what she heard was blah blah blah 3 blah blah.  She’s a girl so she creatively added red food coloring to make a pink pie but that wasn’t the problem, it was the ¾ cup of lime juice that was the problem.   “What’s the diff?”  I suggested she not consider chemistry as a major. Even the dog that will eat anything wouldn’t touch that pie.

What a Great Hobby: 

As hobbies go I think I have found a winner.  I can explore history, spend weekends at yard sales looking for hidden treasures, taste new ingredients, and oh yes perhaps cook a few things too.

One of the more amusing aspects of raising kids on the farm is the age-old question (mostly from “city people”): “How can your kids raise these animals as pets and then eat them?” A reasonable question, certainly, and one I did have to ponder for myself a number of years ago, when the children were first coming along. The simplest answer is that the kids do not regard all the animals on the farm as pets. We have 2 dogs, a number of cats, and a peacock as pets. Yes, the kids do own some of the animals as 4H projects, but even these they regard as “livestock,” not “pets.”
 

Livestock are not pets. Many people, myself included, remember watching “Charlotte’s Web” as a child, how sad they felt when there seemed no hope for Wilbur, and how relieved we all were when he was saved with his trust fund set-up. Few recall early on in the film, when Fern’s parents declared that it was time for Wilbur to move outside because he was trashing the house. Young animals raised in the house often develop more aggressive personalities along with expectations, and more than not become unmanageable when older (and much bigger and smellier). They also may not learn to compete with the herd for their food ration, and therefore remain dependant upon the handler to feed them.

The question has been asked of me how anybody in the family can eat animals after raising them from babies? Again, cows, pigs and chickens do not behave like dogs and cats. Often, by the time the animal has reached its time of butcher, it has broken through fences, rummaged through the garden or greenhouse, chewed up tools and clothing, possibly even eaten my favorite flowers. It can sometimes be challenging to tolerate the animal until its date of departure. Not in every case, but often enough to keep the situation in perspective.

The children do help with the chores as well. A stall that yesterday held a large pooping animal and today is now empty means chores will be done all the sooner.

When it all comes down to it, probably the most compelling reason why the children are at peace with raising their own food is the very obvious difference in the taste and physical effect of the meats. Long ago, the children noticed the superior quality of our products like bacon, ham and sausage. They have felt, also, the very different feeling in their stomachs after a meal at a restaurant. There are a number of items they will not even consider eating unless it is comes from our farm. Even with food from other farms, they report a difference in the taste and quality from ours.

This, I believe, is because we do respect and appreciate our animals. The children have learned to strike a balance with how they relate to the animals in the barn. The animals are all given names, all spoken to and even played with, but always with the understanding that this animal is going for food. But this interaction while with us is what gives the animal the positive energy that we are hoping to get back from the food we eat. The saying, “You are what you eat,” is true in so many ways. In my opinion, the delight we take in savoring the steak is the ultimate respect for the animal.

The enthusiasm that we as the adults feel toward our food is very contagious to the children. After all, the reason I came to the farm was to raise the best and freshest ingredients to cook with. The fabulous meals, and the obvious pride and delight I take in preparing them, all lead to understanding for the children as to what we are doing and why, with very tangible results they can see and taste time and again.

Others may find it unusual, but to our kids, it seems perfectly natural to ask at the dinner table, “Who is this?”

Here at Chiot's Run fall means an abundance of local unpasteurized cider. We have a local mill that makes fantastic cider and sells it out of a little cooler out back. We've thought about trying to make our own, but with someone doing it so well, it's not worth trying to top it.

Having cider in the house means we'll be enjoying mulled cider every evening. There's something so comforting about a nice cup of hot cider warmed with delicious spices like: ginger, cinnamon, allspice and cardamom. I usually just add a few bits of each spice to a pot each evening then fill it with cider and allow it to steep for a half hour to an hour. Sometimes however I like to mix up a big batch of mulling spices to keep on hand and to fill small decorative jars to have on hand for the perfect fall hostess gift. This mix can be used for cider or wine. This year I decided it would be my gift of choice for friends & holiday parties. This is super quick and simple to make, as long as you have all the spices on hand, which I always do. You can even customize it to the person you're giving it to or to your own tastes. I use the same recipe for these jars as I use for my own cider. I keep all of the organic spices on hand since I buy in bulk from Mountain Rose Herbs. The vanilla beans I get very inexpensively from Saffron.com.

These are also fairly inexpensive. I spent more on the jar itself than the spices inside. I could have used regular canning jars, but I really wanted to make look a little different. I also thought these beautiful little jars would be ones that people would save and reuse as well.

CHIOT'S RUN MULLING SPICE MIX  

I don't like the flavor of citrus in my cider, if you do feel free to add orange peel. You can also add dried ginger chunks or nutmeg if you like, use what you've got on hand and what you like in your cider.

4 Tablespoon cinnamon chips (I prefer sweet cinnamon over the regular cinnamon)
4 Tablespoon allspice berries
1 Tablespoon cloves
1 Tablespoon black peppercorns
8 cardamom pods slightly crushed
1 vanilla bean cut into small pieces

Mix spices in small half pint jar, label and give away with directions: Mix 1 Tablespoon of mulling spice for every 2 cups of cider or wine, heat till almost boiling, reduce heat and steep for 30 minutes, enjoy.

When it comes to cider are you a mulled cider kind of person or do you like it cold?  

I can also be found at Chiot's Run where I blog daily about gardening, cooking, local eating, beekeeping, and all kinds of stuff. You can also find me at Not Dabbling in Normal, Simple, Green, Frugal, Co-op, and you can follow me on Twitter. 

Originally I was going to use one post to cover all the ways we can preserve tomatoes, but it was getting awfully long. So instead I'll beak it up into smaller chunks that are easier to chew. You're welcome!

Unlike cucumbers, there are many ways to preserve tomatoes so you can enjoy the bounty of your harvest all through the winter and spring until your next crop is ready for harvesting. We planted lots of tomatoes because we use lots of them in cooking, salads and as side dishes. Preserved tomatoes will not have the same look and texture of a fresh from the garden tomato, but if done properly, much of the flavor will be retained. 

Speaking of Flavor…Have you ever wondered why store bought tomatoes lack the exuberant flavor of a fresh-grown one? That’s easy.

Commercial Tomato Field, By Marie Bittinger

Most commercially grown tomatoes are picked while they are green and rock hard so they will travel better and not become over-ripe before they get to their destination. At the foot of our mountain – and scattered all through our county – are commercial tomato fields. As we go from here to there we watch them working in the fields, planting the sets, stringing the maturing plants dousing the crop in pesticides, picking them green, then spraying the field with something that causes the plants to wither to mush overnight. They have to post POISONOUS signs to keep poor people from trying to glean the fields. 

The trucks used to transport the tomatoes from distributors to their final destination are pumped full of ethylene gas to make the fruit turn red and (sort of) ripen. Ethylene is produced by most fruits as part of the ripening process; in miniscule amounts. Exposing them to concentrated amounts of the gas forces them to undergo the ripening process very quickly. When they get where they are going they look nice, but never had the chance to develop the flavor of a properly ripened, sun drenched fruit. 

Actually, a tomato is classified – botanically - as a berry, not a fruit, but I figured that would confuse most people, since most folks consider it to be a vegetable if anything. 

Whether you think of them as vegetables, fruits, or berries, they taste great, are good for you, and are fun to cook with. So, lay up plenty for use throughout the year. 

Freezing Tomatoes

Tomatoes are easy to freeze. They can be frozen in many forms, depending on your intended usage. One thing to remember: their skins will become tough after freezing, so in most cases you will want to remove the skins before using the ‘maters in your cooking. You can do this easily before freezing by popping the tomato into boiling water for just 45 seconds to a minute, depending on size, fish it out and ease it into a bowl of ice water for 5-10 minutes. This will cause the skin to split and it will peel off easily; just peel it with your fingers like peeling a grape. You can then chop it into cubes, dice it, or puree it before freezing. You can freeze them whole if you like, but they take up a lot of room in the freezer this way. If you will be cutting the tomatoes into wedges, you may want to wait to remove the skins; when they thaw out the skins will slip right off. No need to fuss with blanching and icing now. 

I’m going to demonstrate freezing them in wedges because we feel this will give us the most versatility when we thaw them out again, and because it’s warm this evening and I don’t want to heat up the house more with a big pot of boiling water on the stove. 

First, gather yourself a mess of tomatoes, a very sharp knife, cutting board and a cookie sheet. The nice thing about freezing is that they can be done in small batches with a minimum of fuss and equipment. 

Wash the tomatoes and remove the stem. I always leave the stem-stump on the tomato until we use it to prevent the stem scar from absorbing impurities from the air and while washing. When washing them, do not dump a load onto a sink full of water, again, the stem scar works like a sponge and will pull some of the dirty water into the tomato while it’s soaking. Don’t use soap. What is recommended to use is a solution of four parts water to one part vinegar. This “vegetable wash” can be used on most of your produce to kill the majority of the bacteria on the skin and greatly extend storage time of the fresh tomato on your counter or in the fridge. We do not refrigerate fresh tomatoes because it changes their flavor. Most store bought tomatoes have no flavor, so it doesn’t matter. 

I quarter each tomato by cutting it once along the core line, cutting out the stem scar area, then cutting across the diameter of the tomato instead of lengthwise. This exposes all of the chambers where the seedy-goop is hiding, making it easy to remove.  

This stuff does not freeze well and adds little to the nutritional value. The “meat” of the tomato is what you’re after. If you want to be especially frugal, clean the tomatoes over a colander sitting in a bowl. This will strain out the seeds and let the juice through to the bowl. You can put the juice in a jar and refrigerate it for use in cooking or making energy drinks. Dispose of the seeds carefully… if you compost them you’ll have bazillions of baby tomato plants popping up in your compost in no time.  

HINT:If you’re a seed-saver, spread the seeds on paper towels to dry, roll up the paper towels and store them in an air tight canister in a cool place for next year. To plant, just tear the paper towels into chunks with two or three seeds stuck to each and plant them in starter pots – paper and all. When they come up, thin them by removing the weaker seedlings. 

Do not *wash* the seeds out of the chambers, you want the tomato to be as dry as you can get it before freezing so excess ice does not form on its surface. 

Lay the wedges skin down on a cookie sheet and slide it in the freezer for a couple of hours. Once they are frozen firmly, transfer them quickly to a zip-lock freezer bag, remove as much air as possible (one of those vacuum food preservation systems would be nice) and set the bag in your deep freeze for long term storage. 

Done this way, the tomatoes don't freeze into one solid clump; you can open the bag and take out what you need as you need it. You may have to smack it around a little after extended time in the freezer, but the tomato wedges will break apart. If you tossed them into a bag as you cut them, then into the freezer they will freeze together requiring you to thaw the whole bag to use any of it. 

When freezing tomatoes in a “wet” form (chopped or pureed) bag them in sizes appropriate to your typical use. If you will be using a gallon of tomatoes each time you make soup, stew or casseroles, then by all means use the gallon bags. If smaller portions are more appropriate, use quart or pint bags to reduce storage hassles and waste after thawing. 

Alternatives

In addition to freezing tomatoes by themselves, you can prepare them in your favorite sauces, or casserole starter, and freeze that. Then all you have to do is pull out a bag, defrost, add macaroni and hamburger and you have a delicious, homemade casserole. Spaghetti and a bag of your own made from scratch sauce, a quick side salad and viola, a dinner fit for a king (or queen) in no time. 

Coming Up Next

Next time I’ll continue the exploration of preserving your tomato harvest by looking at drying them. I have a batch in the dehydrator right now, and it smells like an Italian bakery in here.   Wonderful!  We’ll also look at what you can do with dried tomatoes and explore several ways to dry them. Please come back again. 

As I write this, Andy and I are getting all of our half gallon jars together and seeing what quantity we have. So far, we're good for 4.5 gallons and could possibly acquire three more bottles for a total of 6 whole gallons. We're putting together our bottle stock in preparation for a milk run tomorrow.

Since we began milking cows in May of 2009, and then worked for the farm in La Crosse, we have always had access to free, wholesome, fresh-from-the-cow milk. Since we moved away from the farm three weeks ago, we have officially stepped out of the role of producer and been ushered into the realm of consumer once again.

It's a bittersweet time in our lives. Being a consumer is by far the easier path to follow, at least physically. As I watch the thermometer outside push beyond 100˚ today, I'm secretly thankful to not have any animals to check or fences to repair. Likewise, I think of the bitter winter winds dropping the degrees below zero and count my blessings to be able to stay in warm socks and a sweater indoors. Farming, or gardening, isn't an easy route to travel and the reason you see the majority of folks in this country opting out. But not producing is bitter for us as well. Being able to make a meal from meats and veggies and fruits that you worked hard for, managed and harvested is an incredible reward that no sauna-like day can take away.

Part of Andy and Ben's business involves taking part in several local farmers' markets, trying to spread the word about Gourmet Grass-fed and just get the local public educated about grass-fed meats. I have taken the kids to visit them at three of the five markets they do in a given week and we have fun seeing all the different farm vendors and crafters in each city. It sure is a lot easier to walk the aisles of breads and vegetables and meats, picking what you'd like for the following week's meals, than to have planted and weeded and sweated and harvested all those good things. The folks behind the tables busily tend to the customers or replenish their stock, making it look beautiful for me, the consumer. I appreciate the effort and smile as I see some have gone to more effort than others.

Last week, I bought a pasture-raised chicken from one of our old farmer friends, Ralph Polasky. $8.25 was a steal in my opinion, considering I know the amount of work it takes to raise a pastured bird to market weight and get it ready for sale. I wanted to give his newest product, Cornish Game Hens a try, but I had run out of cash for the day (I budget $20 per week at the markets). Maybe this week will be Game Hen week.

At the Neenah Farm Market, I saw our old friends from Hample Haven Farm. This family was just getting into grass-fed lamb as Andy and I were setting up the Omro Friday Night Market last summer. They wanted to be a vendor in the fledgling market and we welcomed the diversity. Ultimately, the drive was too long for their return on sales, so they stopped vending in Omro. We didn't hear from them again. Therefore, seeing the family last week, selling out of their healthy and sustainable lamb cuts in Neenah was very encouraging for me. Knowing what I do about the unique challenges raising grass-fed lamb, I spent $11.64 of our $20 on some meaty lamb shanks from Hample Haven Farm and wished that I could have spent more. I know that this Saturday, we'll probably get some more "poor man cuts" from them as braising hocks and necks and tails are our favorite dish! (And even something I feel comfortable doing in the kitchen).

It feels good to patronize farmers we know. Our eggs are coming directly from a farmer just outside the county line. He raises free-range hens, pastured poultry and bison. We are happy to drive out once every few weeks to stock up on $2.50 orange yolked eggs from this man. Lennie and his wife Julie were one of the few established farmers that took us under their wing when we first began our adventure at Foxwood Farm. They even gave us twin Jersey calves in exchange for fencing labor back in 2008. Even though our situation is completely different now, I feel no shame stepping into their thriving on-farm store for 6 dozen eggs at a time. Soon, we'll be purchasing some bison cuts on one of our trips. We're happy to have the good food so close to home and want Lennie and Julie to stay in business.

Or course, buying local and not producing much of your own food does cost money. We are on a tight - super tight - budget now that we are helping grow a company from the ground up. We've been on super tight budgets before (remember, we were the farmer once)! But the difference now is our priorities.

Let me elaborate. $20 at a farm market once a week isn't going to feed a family of five, no matter how well you plan. We decided that in order to keep eating like a sustainable farmer without actually being a sustainable farmer, we were going to have to give up some of our "consumerist pleasures."

• No paid TV. What the antenna gets is what we get. Some days we get nothing. We're better off for it. Saved: $45/month 

• Goodbye Smartphone. While a necessity when working at St. Brigid's Meadows, this is now a luxury we can do without. Including the internet plan. Saved: $100/month 

• Combining errand running/other trips. Gas isn't cheap and until we are blessed with an alt. energy vehicle, it's going to continue to tax us. Saved: $75/month (one tank of gas)

• No more going out to eat. Going out to eat became quite the bad habit of ours at St. Brigid's. When Andy would deliver products or we would be in town on errands, inevitably, some mealtime would show up and we'd be unprepared with food for the kids and just have to stop somewhere for grub. Better planning and fewer trips into town = no excess restaurants. Saved: $60/month 

This is just the beginning. If you add up everything that we are cutting out and the accompanying cash, we have a total of at least $280 that is not being tied up in luxury items. $280! Now, some of that money will just never get spent as we are reducing what we spend each month overall. But you can bet that at least $100 will go right back into our monthly grocery bill. And we'll eat like kings for it!

So we don't have GPS on Andy's "dumb" phone and can't look up a business's address on the fly. Really don't care because I've got a couple green bags full of lamb, chicken and eggs, direct from the farmers who produced them. $100 out of the pockets of Olive Garden and Kwik Trip. $100 into our local farmers' hands. $100 making our family healthier, happier and better overall consumers.

Pretty simple math if you think about it. As a full time consumer, I am happy to be so intentional about how I am voting with my very limited Dollar. Never again will I compromise food because of income. That's just our family credo and I don't want to push it on anyone else. Everyone has different needs and wants. I don't presume to place everyone into our box of existence.

Food makes us happy, though. So I want the best possible food on our table. Top of the line, straight from the farmer whenever possible. Which brings me back to the start of my post: gathering bottles for fresh milk.

Tomorrow, I'll be driving with a former Foxwood Farm customer and good friend of mine in order to gather up milk for our families. She will also pick up milk for two other families in the area who also used to buy fresh milk from us. In total, we'll present this new farmer with enough bottles to fill 24 gallons! At $4/gallon, he will bring in just shy of $100. Imagine, a farmer being paid a fair price for his grass-fed, Jersey milk. I was told that he is selling nearly enough milk direct to sustain his dairy on direct sales alone. What a wonderful thing! I am happy to be getting fresh milk again and more than happy to help him reach his goal of complete independence from the creamery he ships to. After all, I can relate.

But here's something I won't be doing for this farmer. You see above whenever I mentioned a farm producer, I included their website (if they had one) in order to possibly give them more business. For our dairy farmer here, I won't even tell you his first name. As you well know, in the state of Wisconsin looks fondly on people making a living off of vegetables and fruit grown in their yard. They encourage families to raise chickens and sell the eggs or meat. They have programs to help farmers convert ailing cropland into managed pastureland so that more grass-fed beef and bison is produced sustainably. It's the smiling face of the Department of Ag, saying "Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin." Keep our farms in business!

But as soon as a grass-fed dairy operator says, "Hey, my product can sustain this family farm as well! People are demanding fresh milk at an exponential rate. I'd be a silly businessman if I didn't provide product for this burgeoning market," the same Department says "You need to sell your milk to a distributor at historically low prices and figure out for yourself how to stay afloat. Get big or get out. Your product is not safe for human consumption no matter how you produce it and we will spend our last tax dollar making sure you go under if you sell one drop to the hapless public."

Ok, ok. The last paragraph is admittedly dripping with a bit of experiential anger. That department began the downward spiral which caused us to lose our farm. I will not allow that to happen to another farmer on my watch. This man is helping over 40 families get the product they desire or need at the risk to his entire operation. How sad a state that I have to keep it quiet. He will be getting a sizable percentage of our monthly food dollar and I can't whisper a word about him.

But I'm so glad he's here for a consumer like me. Andy and I ran out of milk from St. Brigid's over a week ago and we've simply done without. Andy is close to flipping a table for lack of milk, so I arranged to join a rotation of families to keep us all in supply of milk. Each week, one mother will gather jars from the others and go to the farm for fill up. Tomorrow, I'll learn the ropes and start pulling my weight. Waiting two weeks for milk is nothing. The families I'm buying with waited well over 6 months to find this producer in the void left by Foxwood Farm.

For those of you not really into the fresh milk scene, this probably seems like a lot of hassle. I'm not denying it's a bit extraneous. But having had the BEST for our family, we won't compromise and go back. Having fresh milk as close to home as we do, we consider it pure joy to drive "out of our way" to get what we need and support this farmer as well.

Andy and I are not producers anymore; of milk, of beef, of lamb, of eggs, of pork. It's bittersweet to be a consumer again. But I now know how we can embrace our new life: We will do whatever we can to support our local farmers. We've got a revised food budget that we can pour into their income streams and possibly help them do what we could not: stay producing and survive.

Honestly, it's the very least I can do for them. I mean, on days like today with a heat index of 110˚, I know my friend and fellow mother Dani is out harvesting and watering her produce with her 8 month old babe strapped to her back. I know that Ralph is keeping his poultry and turkeys fully watered and under shade at the expense of his own comfort. And I know that the dairy farmer I'll meet tomorrow won't miss a milking in this heat. Can you imagine sidling up to a sweltering cow in a stifling barn just to collect milk for the likes of me?

Dedication and tenacity like that deserves to be rewarded and if I can humbly present them with a few more food dollars each week, I will be the one amply blessed to be the consumer of their fine products.

I truly hope that you, too, can experience that sort of blessing in your weekly consuming as well. Revisit your priorities and choose with your heart, friends. It will make all the difference in your daily consuming.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan announced approximately $10 million in funding for the Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) to help increase availability of local agricultural products in communities throughout the country.

"These grants will put resources into rural and urban economies to create and support direct marketing opportunities for farmers" said Merrigan. "Consumer and farmer enthusiasm for direct marketing has never been greater. This year we will place emphasis on food deserts because America's low income and underserved communities need greater access to healthy, fresh food."

In fiscal year 2011, USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will competitively award grants to projects that develop producer-to-consumer market outlets, including but not limited to farmers markets, community supported agriculture, and road-side stands. Priority status will be granted to those projects that expand healthy food choices in food deserts. AMS will continue to target 10 percent of grant funding toward new electronic benefits transfer projects at farmers markets.

USDA, in coordination with the Departments of the Treasury and Health and Human Services, seeks to eliminate food deserts in the U.S. by increasing access to fresh, healthy and affordable food choices for all Americans, while expanding market opportunities for farmers and ranchers. Through a suite of funding options, the federal partners are targeting food deserts, or areas with limited access to affordable and nutritious foods in urban, rural and tribal neighborhoods. Earlier this year, USDA's Economic Research Service released a Food Desert Locator tool online. The Food Desert Locator is an Internet-based mapping tool that pinpoints the location of food deserts around the country and provides data on population characteristics of census tracts where residents have limited access to affordable and nutritious foods. To use the Locator, visit www.ers.usda.gov/data/fooddesert.

Because of changes to the program in fiscal 2011, applicants should visit the FMPP website for full details about food deserts and assistance in applying. The "FMPP Pre-Application Guide" also helps applicants assess their readiness for implementing a federally-funded grant project, and the "How to Apply for an FMPP Grant" tutorial will guide them through completion of the application. These and other tools can be found at http://www.ams.usda.gov/FMPP.

Authorized by the Farmer-to-Consumer Direct Marketing Act of 1976 and amended by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (the Farm Bill), FMPP is in its sixth year of funding direct markets that benefit local and regional economies.

Since 1994, USDA has counted the number of operational U.S. farmers markets. During that time, the number of farmers markets listed in the USDA National Farmers Market Directory has skyrocketed from 1,755 to 6,132. The directory captures information about where and when farmers markets operate, if they participate in federal nutrition benefit programs, and detailed information about their seasonality and location.

Information on how to apply for a FMPP grant was published in the June 1, 2011, Federal Register, and posted to http://www.ams.usda.gov/FMPP.

FMPP deadline requirements have changed. This year complete applications must be received – not postmarked – by AMS no later than close of business on July 1, 2011. Applications received after the deadline – and incomplete applications – will not be considered.

This press release is presented without editing for your information. GRIT does not recommend, approve or endorse the products and/or services offered. You should use your own judgment and evaluate products and services carefully before deciding to purchase.
 

I recently finished reading Michele Simon's beautifully crafted and systematic exposé, Appetite For Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How To Fight Back-- wow, talk about an eye opener. Published in 2006, but even more relevant today, Appetite For Profit puts corporate nutrition spin, lobby groups, front organizations and political jockeying squarely in the spotlight. I never put much credence in advertising of any kind when making my own decisions, and I am sure that I chuckled when the Smurfs got busted for landing a cereal in their own name, but I was quite unaware of the effort and expense that some food companies will go to to make it OK to serve nutritionally unhealthy foods in virtually any venue -- including public grade schools. Simon's strongest, and most compelling agenda is to protect children from predatory marketing schemes, but her message rings so clearly on all fronts that I am now even more suspect of any and all so-called advocacy groups that claim a warm-fuzzy mission, while pushing some profit-serving legislation in the background. Thankfully, Simon includes an entire set of appendices that help decipher the coded language that spinsters use to fool consumers, discredit critics and coddle government regulators; help you to elicit positive change; and offer talking points when you find yourself under code-word attack.

As a polished public health lawyer, Michele Simon puts her substantial analytical skills to work in Appetite For Profit analyzing case studies in an entirely accessible way. Her approach is objective and pragmatic, which is why her work is so appealing to a skeptic like me. When you get to see the point-counterpoint analysis associated with marketing healthy-labeled sugar and trans-fat laden foods to children, there really isn't any but a dark conclusion to make. Some food companies have gotten quite comfortable with positioning nutritionally bankrupt fare as virtually amazing. A well-known national "Better Than Water" campaign for marketing sugar and sodium rich sports drinks makes an excellent example. How on earth could any drink be better than pure clean water for the average person? Sure, if you are in the middle of the most grueling physical expenditure of your life, rehydrating with a drink that might add back some electrolytes and glucose might have limited value. But for the average sedentary kid's lunch box? Doubtful. And did you know that the "balanced lifestyle" concept is really the product of spinsters attempting to divert attention from industrial food's desire to sell more from the problems associated with consumers eating more calories than they require. It is, after all, up to the consumer to balance her lifestyle to ensure that she gets sufficient exercise to make empty-calorie-laden foods a convenient and OK choice. Right?

Appetite For Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How To Fight Back is a must read for parents, everyone who eats out or through the grocery store, spinsters, policy makers, and anyone else who cares about the truth, truth in advertising, nourishing food, safe food, and the future of mankind. If knowledge is indeed power, then it's time to acquire the tools required to separate food fact from fiction. Reading Appetite For Profit will jump start your efforts to discover food truth and will empower you to cut through the junk the next time you are at the grocery store.

In late 1992, untold tons of E.coli strain O 157:H7 tainted hamburger patties made their way onto unsuspecting consumers' plates through an efficient fast-food distribution system created by Jack In The Box. More than 750 children became ill (some so sick that they lost kidney function and portions of their large intestine), and four died. The fallout included record personal injury settlements, a revamping of how food poisoning cases are reported and tracked, widespread recognition that the normally friendly gut bacterium E. coli can kill, a redesign of hamburger-handling and cooking strategies and more. In short, the tragedy changed the way Americans eat. But there's so much more to the story. 

In his most recent and arguably most riveting book, Poisoned: The True Story of the Deadly E.coli Outbreak That Changed the Way Americans Eat bestselling author Jeff Benedict weaves an intricate tale of human proportion that includes all the elements of a classic thriller. In this case, the villain is really the infectious agent itself, and extraordinary, yet everyday, people emerge as heroic characters who bravely soldier on as an infection ravages their bodies, or juggle self interest with a selfless desire to save the day, or at the very least to make it right. What's the harm in trying to save a huge corporation in the process?

When I first cracked the book, I was prepared to come away with a bad taste in my mouth for fast-food corporate leaders, personal injury lawyers and a food system that would seemingly rather throw spin and confusion at a problem than actually admit to it, embrace it and fix it. As I turned the pages, however, I found compelling characters on all sides of the issue who worked long and hard to help the victims and their families, save a business from going bankrupt and create a failsafe fast-food supply chain. Oh, there's plenty of drama along the way complete with heart-wrenching, gut-wrenching and anger-invoking scenes, but Benedict is a master at teasing the humanity out of even the most crusty of characters. Imagine a corporate bigwig weeping because, in his raw humanity, he is devastated to think that any child could die from eating tainted food. Imagine too, a hungry personal injury lawyer with a young daughter of his own who crosses the attorney-client line by getting personally wrapped up in the client's family. This is compelling stuff, folks.

Storyline and character analyses aside, Poisoned: The True Story of the Deadly E.coli Outbreak That Changed the Way Americans Eat is a sad and sobering lesson that we have learned from, and that we still push to the limits in our continuing zealous quest for cheap food and excessive profit.  Benedict's latest and greatest is a must read for anyone who eats, especially folks who regularly partake at the industrial food trough. The book also is an important hubris vaccination that should be required for food-industry and meat-packing lobbyists.

Look for Poisoned: The True Story of the Deadly E.coli Outbreak That Changed the Way Americans Eat at your favorite bookstore today. Read it and you will never look at another plate of food in quite the same way.

As with the teachings of classical Greece and Rome, so in North America and in most traditions around the world, the elementals of water have predominantly been personified in feminine-yin form: Sirens, Jengus, Melusine, Yami, Morgens, Nereids and Naiads, the Lady of the Lake, Swan Maidens, and White Shell Woman, to name a few.

Whether dwelling in still pools, rushy streams, ornate fountains or plastic bottles for drinking, fresh water spirits around the world have most frequently been appreciated as feminine. Everywhere the Undines, water elementals possessing voices of lilting beauty, may be heard over the sound of water, sages have long maintained, if one takes care to listen.

Thus, early in May upon entering the global Water for Food conference hosted by the University of Nebraska at Lincoln (UNL) -- a conference "generously supported" by Monsanto and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation -- I was immediately struck by the overwhelming male-yang dominance of the proceedings. By approximate measure, 75-80% of the conferees were men; likewise by my reckoning, the program listed 48 men presenters, just six women.

Conference talk flowed around themes of what people -- and the nations and corporations they organize themselves into -- either want or need to do with water, as if our relationship with this essential resource were one way. In traditional teachings of North America it's understood fundamentally that the elements and forces of the earth should be considered: listening to the call of the water, so to speak, as basic tenet of living in right relation.

Moments later, in response to a question from the audience, Dr. Simi Kamal, CEO of the Hisaar Foundation in Pakistan, one of the six women presenters, made am emphatic point. She said agricultural policies must not overlook the human dimension. She said policies -- and I took it she meant corporate policy as well as political policy -- "must empower and engage the dispossessed, the marginalized, the landless, including unpaid and underpaid women laborers in the developing world."

"The challenges for women in developing countries represents a huge issue," Kamal said. "We need to hear from them. Lets bring women out of the niche they have been placed in, and also begin to see agriculture as part of the larger ecosystem...Next year this Water for Food conference needs to dedicate a day to the issues of gender, water and food."

Slamming into the Ceiling 

The same week, some 1,200 miles away from the Water for Food conference in Nebraska, another conference was unfolding a different vision. The Future of Food gathering sponsored by The Washington Post featured spokespeople not from corporations or universities, but rather advocates for organic, sustainable agriculture. The program included Marion Nestle, Will Allen, Deborah Koons-Garcia, Eric Schlosser, Vandana Shiva, Senator Jon Tester, England's Prince Charles, and agrarian patriarch Wendell Berry.

Thanks to a bicycle I could attend the Nebraska conference, and thanks to the Internet I could also see and hear parts of the Washington conference. Both gatherings of high power food and farm leaders held potential for impacting policy, and shaping real activity around critical matters of water, land, and food. They embodied the yin and yang character in the parallel universes of agrarianism and industrial agriculture: the Tao of the Land 2011. These matters are in vivid relief this spring with over a billion hungry people on the planet. As the United Nations Environment Program once again made screamingly blunt this season with yet another report: humanity is slamming into the environmental ceiling. "Global resource consumption is exploding," their report said. "It's not a trend that is in any way sustainable."

This year in Nebraska, for the third consecutive year, the global Water for Food conference grappled in its way with the immediate challenges of growing more food with less water. Many a speaker uttered the by-now familiar refrain: Earth's population will rise to nine billion people by 2050; how will we double food production by then with increasingly diminished natural resources?

Feeding a growing world population with less water is “one of the greatest challenges of this century,” said Jeff Raikes as the conference opened. Raikes is a Nebraska native and now the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation is a major supporter of and investor in Monsanto and their promotion of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as the response of industrial agriculture to global crop challenges.

Raikes said that the Gates Foundation aims to reduce poverty by helping farmers produce more efficiently and to move beyond producing only enough food for their own families. He noted that of the 1.3 billion or so of the world’s population who live in extreme poverty, about 75 percent depend on subsistence agriculture.

Agrarians actively question the corporate model of extensive high-tech farming and GMO crops as inappropriate for most of the developing world. They argue that it should not be pushed on the poorest farmers in the name of feeding the world, and that these schemes enrich only the corporations, not the people on the land.

The general thrust of discussion at the Nebraska conference, however, was that large-scale approaches and techniques such as hybrid GMO crops with fertilizers and pesticides could produce more food more quickly and with less water, including small-scale farms in developing countries. The Monsanto representative, VP for Global Strategy Kerry Preete, mentioned efforts to increase plant density, such that they could put 40,000 corn plants on one acre of land. In 2012-13 Monsanto will introduce a new GM corn variety that, despite reports showing this is dubious, he claimed would use less water. How could small-scale farmers in developing nations pay for such technology? Poor farmers can't, Preete said, but rich farmers can and as they adopt technology, the cost comes down.

In Washington meanwhile critics vigorously questioned the claimed yields and pointed to recent studies stating that sustainable, organic farming methods use less water and could provide more food and better livelihoods for farmers in the developing world.  They cited research done by the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, and Technology for Development (IAASTD) which established that small-scale systems of agro-ecology are capable of producing enough food for the developing world while helping to preserve and replenish natural resources. A report published earlier this year by United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food came to similar conclusions, arguing that more sustainable systems could double food production in certain regions.

UNL President James B. Milliken said at the conference that the university's new Water for Food Institute aims are "fully compatible" with the aims of the Gates Foundation. “The challenges are so numerous that we can’t expect to solve them all," he said, advocating that a “network of knowledge around the world,” as represented at the conference, is essential. He expressed UNL's intention that the Water for Food Institute evolve to become an international pivot point for disseminating such knowledge.

UNL is just now making a momentous switch in the Land Grant universe by joining the Big Ten Conference. The key importance of the new institute and the issue of water for food -- globally as well in America's agricultural heartland -- was apparent in the ongoing conference involvement of top university officials: President  Milliken, Chancellor Harvey Perlman, and Vice Chancellor Prem Paul. All participated actively in the conference, and welcomed the formal agreement UNL signed with the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education. The agreement sets out the arrangements for cooperative research and education on matters of water and food. They said they intend a multidisciplinary institute mobilized to meet urgently impending matters.

In committing itself robustly to the means and ends of industrial agriculture, UNL has drawn criticism from both inside and outside the university. They charge UNL with catering primarily to corporate agriculture, thereby giving only token support to  family-sized farms, mid-sized farms and the far-flung rural communities of the Cornhusker state. With this emphasis, critics say, UNL is stinting in its obligation to carry out the University's fundamental land-grant mission -- the creation and application of “knowledge with a public purpose.”

New Realities: Signs All Over 

András Szöllösi-Nagy, rector of the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in The Netherlands, told the Nebraska conference that food is closely linked with social and political issues. As food prices go up, he said those issues come to the forefront. There is growing vulnerability in this, he said, because humans are driving dramatic change in global water systems and food production with population growth, trade, subsidies, political upheaval, technological implementation, and the reality of climate changes.

"Is climate change accelerating?" Szöllösi-Nagy asked rhetorically. "The hypothesis is yes it is accelerating, but we have no hard proof yet. What we do know is that global mean temperatures are clearly increasing...There is lots of uncertainty, and the Precautionary Principle should hold.

"Still," he added, "something is changing. The signs are all over: more floods, more droughts, more extreme weather events. We have new realities we need to reckon with, he said, explaining that the whole concept of a 100-year flood is outdated. We must throw out the tools we use to characterize such extreme events, he said, because so-called 100-year floods and storms are happening all the time and becoming routine."

The very week of the two conferences in early May, those new realities again smashed into the news: Texas and much of America's Southwest because of an exceptional drought, the Mississippi River for impending flooding of farmland and suburbs on a scale "never seen before," and the Arctic Circle because of newly accelerated melting due to global warming.

Meanwhile in Washington at the Future of Food, England's Prince Charles (text - video) was setting out a case that our current use of the land, and our systems of food production do not address these problems but rather aggravate them. He said if we are going to address the challenges of climate change, water shortages, general resource depletion, and all the other things, then the current industrial model of agriculture and food systems is unsustainable. It requires radical transformation.

The Irrigation News 

The Water for Food conference in Nebraska was brimming with intellectual acuity, technological sophistication, organizational aptitude, and sincere determination to overcome the global challenges.The event, fueled by a recent $50 million gift to UNL from the late Robert B. Daugherty, attracted more than 400 participants from 24 nations.

Daugherty, a Nebraskan who died last November, made his fortune developing and marketing center pivot irrigation systems through the Omaha-based company now known as Valmont Industries, Inc. UNL used his bequest to establish the new Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute as an information distribution center in partnership with national and international agencies, including UNESCO.

The current CEO of Valmont, Mogens Bay, told the Nebraska conference that despite problems irrigation is not going away. Without it, many farms around the world would dry up and blow into the far distance. Bay said center-pivot technology -- which has made vast stretches of formerly unfarmable land productive -- is adapting to become more efficient. His company's newest center-pivot rigs use a variety of sensors linked to a central computer. The computer divides a quarter section farm field (160 acres) into 5,000 zones, with specific zone control for the rate of applying water, fertilizer or insecticide.

Likewise, Anil Jain, managing director of Jain Irrigation Systems, Ltd. in India, told the conference about the "transformational impact" of drip irrigation. He said more than a billion people on the planet are small holders, tending 1-5 acres. Many of them must irrigate the land to produce a crop, he said, and drip irrigation can do the job efficiently and conserve water.

Jain spoke enthusiastically about "fertigation" -- applying water and fertilizer in liquid form through the systems. Fertigation, he said, is a catalyst for high-tech agriculture hand-in-hand with biotechnology because the systems deliver fertilizers and pesticides directly to plants. He said solar-powered water pumps, rain-harvesting systems, and small-scale drip irrigation could be installed for $1,000 an acre. He said that smallholder farmers could pay that investment back fast with increased crop productivity -- not the first time an enthusiastic farm-profit forecast was declared in the agricultural pivot of Lincoln, Nebraska.

Industry Leader Guys: Get Bigger 

Kerry Preete, Monsanto's VP for Global Strategy, appeared on the Industry Leader panel in Nebraska. He began by posing his variation on the standard rhetorical question: "How do we double the world's food supply on the same footprint?" The world needs to produce 1.5 billion more tons of grain by 2050. The obvious industrial implication of his question was through transgenic crops, Monsanto's profit pony.

As with many of the other speakers in Nebraska, Preete articulated the case for agriculture to become bigger and more efficient to meet global needs. A student participating in the conference asked the panel whether transgenic (GMO) crops are a safe way to meet this projected need? As if served a slow softball over the center of home plate, Monsanto's Preete cheerily answered "Yes. After 20 years of wide use we are confident, as are all of the regulating agencies, that our seeds and crops are safe."

Not everyone shares that confidence. Certainly not soil scientist Don Huber, who has warned of potential catastrophe, and certainly not the authors of a new literature review into the safety studies on GM food. The review documents the reality that most studies claiming that GM foods are as nutritional and as safe as those obtained by conventional breeding, have been performed by biotechnology companies or associates. The authors concluded “the controversial debate on GMOs...remains completely open at all levels.”

Meanwhile, in Washington, Jon Tester (D-Montana), the only farmer in the US Senate, was telling the Future of Food conference, “The rise of GMOs and who controls the seed, is one that’s particularly disturbing to me as a farmer. With GMOs, farmers don’t control the seed, multinational agribusiness does...You and I have heard over and over that our only hope to feed the planet as our population grows is GMOs," Tester said. "Well, I’m here to tell you that I don’t buy it. What it has done and what it continues to do is take away options for family farmers. And it takes away options for consumers. If we keep moving down this path, farmers won’t be able to control their seed, something they have done since the beginning of time. And no longer will you truly know what you’re eating."

Back in Nebraska, listening to Monsanto's Preete, I could not help but think of Earl Butz, the Republican Secretary of Agriculture (1971-76), whose infamous mantra to farmers was to "get big or get out." Butz's challenging remarks immediately preceded the epic farm crisis of the 1980s that drove thousands of American families off of their farms, consolidating and concentrating good farm lands in far fewer hands, a process that continues pell mell not just in the US but globally.

This harsh reality of farm consolidation was cited in Washington where Will Allen, founder and chief executive of Growing Power, told the Future of Food conference: “We need more people growing food in their back yard, side yard, community farm. We need to support those existing farmers that are struggling. Our rural farmers are struggling, and they have been the backbone of our food system for so many years. In 1960, they told us farmers to grow soybeans and corn, fencerow to fencerow; we were going to feed the world. And we have what? A million less farmers. That system hasn’t worked.”

What does it profit a land? 

In Nebraska, CEO Jeff Raikes said the Gates Foundation believes that an increase in technology leads to an increase in wealth, "We need to see farmers as customers," he observed. "We need more affordable solutions, and we need to shift the mindset of farmers toward prosperity, somehow enabling them to see farming as a business...One of the greatest challenges of the century is getting more crop per drop."

Raikes said that countries that have been able to move out beyond extreme poverty have done so, historically, by improving their agricultural productivity. “What ultimately happens is that improvement in agricultural productivity creates greater wealth in the economy, and that opens up new opportunities."

This point of view was widely supported by presenters at the Nebraska gathering. Kebede Ayele, country director of International Development Enterprises in Ethiopia, said that while better technology is important, it has to be accompanied by education. “We have to convince them (farmers) and make them believe they can be profitable in agriculture." Mick Mwala, Dean, School of Natural Resources, University of Zambia, also argued that farming is a business, urging that more and more farmers need to embrace this conception.

These messages struck my ears bluntly. They are distinct from the agrarian motivations and pathways I see as leading forward for generations to come. Farming as a business to make profit and feed people, or farming as a way of life in harmony with nature and health, and serving as a clean healthy foundation to support the high-tech digital culture evolving so swiftly in this new millennium?

In Washington, agrarian elder Wendell Berry delivered the agrarian gospel with no holds barred at the Future of Food conference: "We must abandon the homeopathic delusion that the damages done by industrialization can be corrected by more industrialization," he said. "Our fundamental problem is world destruction caused by an irreconcilable contradiction between the natural world and the engineered world of industrialism."

"...There is no use in saying that if we can invent the nuclear bomb and fly to the moon, we can solve hunger and related problems of land use," Berry said. "Epic feats of engineering require only a few brilliant technicians and a lot of money. But feeding a world of people year to year for a long time requires cultures of husbandry fitted to the nature of millions of unique small places — precisely the kind of cultures that industrialism has purposely disvalued, uprooted and destroyed."

© 2011 by Steven McFadden 

Last night for supper we celebrated the season by firing up the Weber Kettle and grilling some beautiful grassfed beef New York strip steaks. These grassfed beef New York strip steaks are really special because they came from Against The Wind Ranch, which specializes in grassfed Black Angus beef that is raised with such care and dedication that it is Certified Humane. Earning the Certified Humane label is not easy as producers must submit to a level of scrutiny in their animal husbandry that makes many folks uncomfortable. We are glad to support Against The Wind Ranch and their efforts with achieving Certified Humane status for their operation.

Many folks think that grassfed beef is difficult to cook - especially folks with a vested interest in feedlot beef. Hogwash! Cooking naturally lean and naturally tender grassfed beef is a cinch so long as you don't try to incinerate it as you might a much fattier cut. My approach for grilling over charcoal or on a cast-iron griddle is to give the steak a quick sear at high heat on both sides (edges too if it is 2-inches thick) and then about 5 minutes at medium heat on one side and 4 minutes on the other. I test for doneness by holding the steak with tongs and gauging its flexibility. A perfectly medium rare is achieved when the steak droops about half as much as it did when it was raw. Experiment a little, I know you will get the hang of it. We also like to lightly rub our steaks with what amounts to a slightly modified version of this Memphis dry rub. I love the taste of plain pure beef, but I really love the mild zing the rub adds.

No grilled grassfed steak supper would be complete without some potatoes. We like ours roasted in Lucini's chile-infused olive oil. Essentially we parboil the spuds for 5 minutes, drain and pat dry. Then we toss them in the chile-flavored olive oil, season with gray sea salt and black pepper and bake at 450 degrees for around 25 minutes. Yum.

While the potatoes were baking, I lit the charcoal with my trusty chimney starter. These devices come in real handy for getting rid of excess newsprint and leave you with a bed of coals that doesn't taste like a chemical plant. And it only takes about 10 minutes to get the coals going.

Have you ever seen meat this beautiful? This is how the Against The Wind Ranch's New York strip steaks look before getting the rub. This is one of life's most wonderful treats -- perfect for that anniversary, birthday or just to celebrate the season.

All photos and potato recipe are courtesy Karen Keb.

You walk into the grocery store mid winter, spy those perfectly smooth and red tasteless tomatoes and instantly engage in a visceral emotional battle to buy a package. You pick up the loveliest of those tasteless tomatoes and place it below your nose, inhaling deeply – is that the scent of tomato or is that the memory of last summer’s fruit you detect? No matter, you so crave the tomato’s potential for culinary complexities that in your mind you’ve already sliced that tasteless tomato and applied it to a sandwich or chunked it atop an out-of-season salad. And then you bite into it – Blech! 

In investigative food journalist Barry Estabrook’s upcoming and quite possibly greatest work, Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit you will discover just how and why commodity tomatoes came to be nothing more than hard, fibrous, potentially poisonous and completely unappealing stand-ins for the real deal. You also will discover that the human and environmental costs associated with the $10 billion fresh tomato industry simply cannot justify consuming the so-called fruit, not to mention that when you do, you get a good dose of at least 35 pesticides, some of which are among the most dangerous. And besides, who wants to support any industry that uses modern-day indentured labor, preferring to employ non-English-speaking illegal aliens because they’re easier to enslave?

Estabrook’s narrative begins with an animated analysis of uniformly hard, and perfectly shaped, green orbs flying off trucks at 60 mph (all safely hitting the pavement and rolling to a stop none the worse for wear) and reveals the inner (and often very dark) workings of Florida’s winter tomato farming industry. Along the way you will meet true villains who would keep workers in the field, picking while spray rigs douse them with a cocktail so toxic their babies are born without limbs – and worse. You will meet modern-day slavers, growers in denial, mothers beaten for taking time off for pre-natal care, lawyers and public officials doing their best to elicit change, scientists and breeders just doing what they do. Tomatoland illuminates the seedy labor contractor lurking in the shadows and calls the uber-powerful Florida Tomato Committee on everything from keeping good-tasting tomatoes off grocery store shelves to threatening growers with six-figure fines for paying pickers a fair wage. 

Barry Estabrook is a masterful story teller with an uncanny ability to render intricate intellectual pathways entirely accessible. Tomatoland deftly leads us through a complex maze of interrelated occurrences, legal decisions and cultural practices (human and tomato) in a narrative that reads a little like a thriller. I finished the book in two sittings and found myself identifying with farmers, migrant workers, lawyers and even some large growers.

Perhaps the most important lesson from Barry Estabrook’s Tomatoland is that no matter how hard the PR voices and online advocates try to make industrial agriculture all about “feeding a hungry world,” the fact of the matter is that corporate wealth is No. 1. When large corporate (so-called family) farms are willing and able to exploit, poison and otherwise despoil people and environment alike, all while delivering a product that appeals only to their large corporate customers, not the end consumer, the motive is all about money.

Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit is a must read for everyone who eats. I don’t care if you are in the commodity cattle business or feed your own family with a small garden. I don’t care if you are a policy maker, extension professional, molecular biologist, industrial mogul, minister, teacher, or what have you. Tomatoland illustrates how fundamentally bankrupt our current commodity-based, industrial food systems have become and offers a glimmer of hope for a food future that’s healthful for all involved. Read it and try not to weep.

Estabrook’s Tomatoland will be available June 7. Pre-order your copy today.  

My Partner In Culinary Crime suprised me last night with the most amazing fish and chips for supper -- a real St. Patrick's Day delight. Supper was actually deep fried fish and boiled new potatoes with a delicious tartar sauce she whipped up too. Wow! When I asked her whether she felt like going out for some St. Patrick's Day corned beef and cabbage, she turned and told me this story: "I wanted to make something festive for St. Patty's day without having to run to town for groceries, so I looked around at what we had (that 10 lbs. of cod in the freezer from my recent fish splurge helped), and came up with fish and 'chips' - I substituted boiled new potatoes for fries since we didn't have russets. I was inspired by this girl's blog (Budget Cooking For Two), which included a fried fish recipe that came from the Barefoot Contessa." She said that she tweaked the fish recipe a tiny bit -- I said: "Wow, is that delicious!"

It took a little arm twisting to get my PICC to agree to let me post these recipes since she didn't invent everything from scratch, but here you go. And she doesn't know that my not-at-all styled food shot is going in here too -- there will be reprimands, but what can you do with a phone camera, poor light and an aching hunger in your belly? Oh, and in the spirit of using what we had on hand, I rummaged around deep in the fridge and found a can of stout. I poured it into two jars -- one for her and one for me.

Fried Cod 

1 lb cod, fillets or chunks, cut into 3" pieces
1/2 c plus 1 T. all-purpose flour
1/2 T. baking powder
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. freshly grated lemon zest
1/2 cup water
1 large egg
frying oil 

1. Rinse and dry the fish, then sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides.  

2. Mix the flour, baking powder, cayenne, salt, pepper, and lemon zest in a medium bowl. Whisk in the water, then the egg.  

3. Pour 1/2" of frying oil (I used a combination of safflower and peanut) into a large cast iron pot. Heat the oil to 360 degrees, monitoring with a cooking thermometer. You'll need to keep the stove at medium-high heat to maintain the temperature at 360.  

4. Working in batches, dredge the fish in the batter, then carefully place in hot oil. Cook 3 minutes on each side. Place on a paper-towel-lined plate to cool.

 
Tartar Sauce 

I didn't have relish or pickles in the fridge, so I just put together some similar ingredients and came up with a nice homemade tartar sauce.

3/4 cup Hellmann's mayonnaise 

2 T. minced onion 

1 T. white wine vinegar 

1/2 tsp. dried dill  

dash of salt and pepper 

Mix all ingredients together. 

A couple of weeks ago, friend and Mother Earth News assistant editor Heidi Hunt made me aware of a new book: Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land by Kurt Timmermeister. Heidi's enthusiastic description of Growing a Farmer motivated me to request a review copy – I read the book in the course of three sessions and it almost made me late to work twice.

In Growing a Farmer, successful twenty-something Seattle restaurateur Kurt Timmermeister chronicles his heartwarming and palpable transition from city apartment dweller to first-time home buyer to passionate food farmer on Vashon Island, just a 15 minute ferry ride from the big city. Timmermeister is about as naive as it gets when he decides he wants his first piece of real estate to be a farm, but he doesn’t let that stand in his way. In the end, it is that very naiveté that makes it possible for him to sell his café and figure out how to make 12 acres of fairly worn out and overgrown land produce sufficient food to keep the farm afloat, without a steady infusion of cash from any “real job” in town.

Timmermeister has a compelling way of leading us through his discoveries, his failures and successes, and he gives us a rare glimpse of what real food is all about and what it means to take full responsibility for the animals whose lives sustain us.  Growing a Farmer’s message that “you can do it” comes through loud and clear and serves as powerful inspiration for anyone interested in moving to the country to grow good food or in getting the most out of the place they already call home. The book is an important read for dreamers, doers and even conventional truck, grain and livestock farmers. Timmermeister's voice is engaging and encompassing – you won’t find any preaching on these pages.

Growing a Farmer is most definitely not a how-to manual in the nitty gritty sense of the word, nor is it a cookbook or philosophical examination of the state of agriculture in our country. Rather it is a book that contains wisdom and example and that celebrates the fundamental goodness associated with providing the best possible nourishment through the fruits of your labor.  

Timmermeister’s Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land is available through your favorite bookstores – get yourself a copy and settle in for an inspirational adventure.

Get them while they're hot, hot off the press that is – more than 100 easy bread recipes that'll have you baking everything from artisan no-knead breads to bagels and sweet rolls to sourdough buns in no time. GRIT's Guide To Homemade Bread, the second title to be released in the recently launched Country Skills book series, is loaded with  easy and healthy homemade bread recipes and it looks positively delicious. Whether baking bread is your passion or you are just thinking about embarking on a bread-baking adventure, the Guide To Homemade Bread has you covered. We've included information on how to convert easy traditional bread recipes for use in bread machines and a few plans for creating easy-to-build, wood-fired, backyard bread ovens too.

Here at GRIT we love good breads of all kinds and so this project was a labor of love for the entire team. It didn't hurt that we got plenty of samples as we tested the recipes. We also had fun working with some excellent and affordable food stylists, photographers and bakers in the process. With a little coaxing, My Partner In Culinary Crime convinced me to carefully measure out the ingredients for my whole-wheat and cornmeal pizza crust, which I documented just for the book – this easy crust recipe will have you rejecting cardboard-crusted parlor pizza in no time. We really enjoy bringing you print products that makes sense and that make your lives more interesting and self sufficient. When it comes to the Guide To Homemade Bread, I speak for the whole team when I say that the project makes us proud.

The Guide To Homemade Bread also includes recipes for cornbread, soft pretzels, no-fail hamburger buns, breakfast breads, quick breads and all kinds of toppings for all kinds of breads. Plus you will find all kinds of expert advice and encouraging tips to make your bread-baking experiences successful and thoroughly enjoyable. Look for GRIT's Guide To Homemade Bread at a newsstand near you, or better yet, order yours right here and bring even more great aromas and wonderful food to your table this season.

Where does most of our food come from, and how has it been processed? I find this question occupying a significant portion of my mind these days.  I’m sure I owe some of my meditations to the ever-more-common media broadcasts of food-borne illnesses and large-scale contaminations.

In the past few years, there has been more concern about GMOs (genetically modified organisms) in our seed crops, along with a loud outcry against the abuse of hormone and antibiotic-injected animals in crowded, dirty feedlots. I know it’s getting more difficult for me to go to the supermarket and purchase vegetables, fruits, and meats when I know the processing methods are controversial or downright inhumane, and most likely harmful to our health.

Advocates for good stewardship of our planet, which includes a healthier food environment, have raised the public awareness about our industrialized food supply and all its connected society ills.  These advocates are tirelessly touting small-scale and sustainable farming as a way for us to get back to the local, seasonal and regional food supply with unending benefits for our health and our planet.

The book Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat heralds the growing movement of women who are at the forefront of changing how we eat and farm in the United States.  Certainly men are involved in this movement too – it’s just that women (as usual!) are not being given credit where credit is due.  For example, women are the fastest growing number of diversified farmers in our country, with a 30% increase in women farm operators from 2002 to 2007.

Think about it – women have always been the primary nurturer in the family unit.  Women have the largest impact and concern when it comes to what they feed themselves and their families.  So it only makes sense that they are the fastest growing demographic to own and operate farms in the U.S., and they are tending towards diversified, direct-marketed foods that create relationships with eaters.

Each chapter in Farmer Jane focuses on a different area of change – from “Building New Farm-to-Eater Relationships” to “Advocates for Social Change” to “Networks for Sustainable Food” -- you’ll read the tales of women working to bring sustainability back to our dinner plates.  Trust me, this book will inspire and motivate you to have more control over your own food supply.  To help you, there is a Recipe for Action at the end of each chapter – ideas for how you as an eater, a farmer, or an owner/employee of a food business can join in. Even if you have no desire to farm or garden, there are many tips in Farmer Jane on how to eat well and help your community thrive at the same time.

I haven’t even finished the whole book, and yet it has already affected my food meditations. We have a distinct advantage since we already live on 27 acres in the country, and our first garden this year produced a fairly bountiful harvest with enough to preserve for winter, plus we learned a boatful about growing our own produce and preserving it.  Now it’s just a matter of expanding upon what we are fortunate enough to have (27 acres) – the possibilities are certainly endless and limited only by our capabilities and time (ah yes, the TIME bandit!).

I always say “start small”.  I can’t change all our ways and [bad] habits overnight; if I try, I’m going to overwhelm myself.  But I can pick a few items to change each month so that I will rely on commercial, grocery-store products less and less as time goes by. My goals are to buy less at the supermarket and make or grow more things ourselves, or source them organically through fair trade organizations.  As an example, I can’t grow my own tea or coffee, so I will source them through a company that has an organic and fair trade philosophy.  I bought my first loose-leaf black tea from Arbor Teas today, so I can still have my delicious iced tea everyday.  No more supermarket tea for this gal!

Next, I want to experiment with making my own shampoos and conditioners, and eventually my own lotions and perfumes. Yes, I want to make and source more than just my own food! If I can grow my own lavender, that might dovetail nicely with making perfume in the future.  I’ve done a small amount of research into the how-to’s, and it all seems very doable.

Read this book, research other books on the food industry, and start your own mini-food revolt.  You vote with your dollars every time you buy either chemical or non-chemical agriculture.  Think about it – if everyone can afford new cars, the latest cell phone or other techno-gadget, expensive jeans and shoes, etc. – well, then, you CAN spend more on your food.  Eating organic, seasonal, fresh food does cost a little bit more.  It’s up to you what commands more of your earned dollar – fun new gadgets, or fresh healthy food?

Make a conscious choice and “vote with your fork” to eat for a healthy body and for a more sustainable planet.  And visit the Farmer Jane website to find out more about this timely and information-packed book, along with links to some fantastic sustainable food and farming websites.

Like most folks in this country, I grew up giving so little thought to the elaborate process of how food appeared in the grocery store chain that I may as well have believed it were miraculously grown, raised, killed or harvested right there in Kroger by the checkout girl herself. Like so many of us, I grew up on frozen pot pies, canned green beans, macaroni and cheese, and bologna sandwiches on Wonder bread.

Recently I have begun to understand the challenges and rewards of producing some of our own food. This Thanksgiving, after only eight months here, we would be able to serve our entire dinner from food raised right here on our property. It would not be a traditional meal, but it would be delicious: wild acorn-fed pork, sweet potato pie, garden fresh salad of arugula, tomatoes, broccoli, and 3 kinds of peppers, and a fresh green bean and spaghetti squash casserole (this last dish would be thanks to our closest neighbor’s more successful fall garden). For dessert, well, perhaps a melon medley could suffice, since our fig and pecan trees have died. Other fall garden failures were the Brussels sprouts, cabbage, beans, and romaine. All this was grown (and not so well-grown) without the use of pesticides or herbicides or chemical fertilizers. We could feed our family this Thanksgiving, but what about the rest of the county, let alone the country?

We hear how tough farmers have it and that is no doubt the truth. Still, as a society, we separate them physically, economically, and sometimes intellectually from our mainstream world. Our pop culture relegates the farmer to silly, stupid roles in shows like Green Acres, or that ridiculous reality show with Paris Hilton. We villainize him for needing to make a decent living at his work, without stopping to think why those providing our very means of survival deserve to make a fraction of what your average NYC stock broker might earn. Do you have any clue who works harder? We criticize the farmers for everything from pesticide use to land erosion issues without any effort to first try to see realistically into his reality. So few of us have any clue at all of what the farmer’s world is like that we don’t realize most young farmers today have college degrees, and advanced degrees are not uncommon.

In truth, life’s not any easier or simpler out here than it is anywhere else, but it suits some of us. Does the farmer tell the stock broker how to do his job if he knows nothing about the market? So why do we all criticize the farmer when we are clueless about growing food? We need the farmer more than we need any other single professional, even the blessed President of the U.S.A. That’s the plain and simple truth.

Thank you, all you farmer families, for providing for us, even while we continue to relegate most of you to the lowest rungs of economic and social status. We need you, we are slowly learning, please be patient with us.

Just when I thought that the only decent sources for a good caffeine jolt came from coffee, tea or pop, I discover that many of those so-called dietary supplements are loaded with the stimulant, even though it isn’t listed on the label. But, wait, I thought compounds like caffeine were required to be listed on the label. Then again, I don’t recall ever seeing caffeine listed on a bag of coffee beans or box of green tea.

It turns out that caffeine must be listed as an ingredient only if it is added to a product in its pure form. So that Diet Code Red Mountain Dew that helped me make 1000-mile 1-stop road trips lists caffeine, and a bunch of other really gnarly stuff among its ingredients. But, if that caffeine is delivered to a product as part of another ingredient, such as coffee, tea or any of about 60 other plants that make caffeine naturally, it never makes it on the label.

According to scientists at the USDA’s ARS division, about 50% of American adults consume dietary supplements on a regular basis. Some of these products are aimed at making you feel perkier and even can help some folks lose weight. And many of those dietary supplements are loaded with caffeine-rich plant products known as botanicals. So if you find yourself getting the jitters just before bed, you might be consuming something that is literally winding you up. Stimulating botanicals found in many supplements include guarana, yerba mate, kola nut, and green tea extract – all contain significant quantities of caffeine.

According to the ARS’s Nutrient Data Laboratory’s National Nutrient Database, one 8-ounce cup of coffee contains about 95 milligrams of caffeine. Of the 53 dietary supplements analyzed, 27 provided as much caffeine as 1 to 2 cups of coffee in the recommended daily dose. Eleven supplements had caffeine levels that ranged from 2 to 4 cups of coffee and 11 others offered the same jolt you’d get from consuming 4 to 6 cups of coffee. Four of the tested products provided as much caffeine as you might find in 7 to 8 cups of coffee – yikes. Can you imagine getting 7 to 8 cups of coffee worth of caffeine in just a few capsules, or a single serving of an energy drink? 

If you are like me and try to limit your caffeine intake, at least at certain times of the day, you should be sure to look for guarana, yerba mate, kola nut, and green tea extract on the ingredients list of your favorite supplements. The unwanted buzz you kill just might be your own.

Read more about caffeine in dietary supplements here.

In my last post, I talked about getting started with raising backyard chickens. I left off with the little ladies in the brooder box that I had made out of an old Dell computer box, so I'll pick up from that point. 

One of the wonderful things about old boxes is that with the help of a little duct tape and some “outside the box” thinking, you can make just about anything you could need! In this case, as the girls got a little bigger and started needing a little more room, I basically just added an addition to their little home, and what I like to call the "chicken condo" was born. There was enough space with this little setup for the chicks to get old enough that they were nearly all feathered out, and I had enough time to build a better coop. Now I could hang their food and water on one half of the box and their light, which they still needed, on the other. The tower attachment allowed me to control the height and thus the intensity of the lighting that they got. 

You may have noticed that our chicks are still in the house at this point. That's because we ordered them online from IDEAL poultry in early February last year and received them on February 19th. We did this so that while the chicks were young and required additional heat and light anyway, we could keep them in the house and get some growing time on them while the winter was idling by outside. Typical hens won't start laying until sometime around 20 weeks and then will often taper off in egg production through the cold, low, light winter months. We wanted our hens to start "earning their keep" as soon as possible and doing this really helped. By the time the weather was nice, they were ready to go outside and be on their own.

But I digress. My point in explaining their living indoors was to make the greater point that smell and sanitation was very important to us since they were in close proximity. To control odor what I did was make a habit of lightly turning the coarse sawdust bedding every time I fed or watered them. This helped to keep any fresh manure under the bedding and the odors were able to absorb. Every couple of days, I also added a light covering of the sawdust with a layer of new bedding.  I could generally go 1.5 to 2 weeks this way before I had to pull out the bedding and replace it. I have no complaints about this method at all.

As I said in my previous post, raising chickens is not, in my opinion, the hardest thing in the world. There are, however, a few things that need to be watched for and treated immediately if found. One very common problem that young chickens have is called “pasting up”, and can kill them if you’re not careful in watching for it. What it is, is when the vent of the chicken (the vent is the technical term for the part of the chicken where the manure and the eggs come out.) gets essentially clogged up with dried and hardened manure. Here’s a photo of what it looks like.

What happens with the chicks is that when the vent becomes clogged or blocked, the chicken cannot evacuate as it needs to. Because of this the chicken remains “full” and will stop eating or drinking.

The treatment for pasting up isn’t the most fun thing in the world to do, but I found that a clean paper towel soaked in warm water does the trick wonderfully. All you need to do is clean off the blockage, and make sure the chick has access to fresh water all the time. (Basically she needs her bum wiped.)

The chick will protest loudly against this, but it’s for its own good.

Now then, once the chicks are fully feathered out, and no longer need to be kept under lights and given supplemental heat, they’re ready to be moved outside. The chicken condo won’t do for this however. In fact it’s more than likely that it’s going to be barely holding its self up at this point, which means it’s time to build a chicken coop.

Building a coop is a project with so many varied outcomes that it’s hard to pin down just one or two ways to do it. There are certain things though that every coop should have and as long as they’re covered you should be good. For instance, chickens can’t stand having wet feet, at least not for long. Scratching around in the snow or rain puddles for worms is one thing but not having a dry place that’s up off the ground when they need it could mean sickness or death. Also, even if you decide to free range your hens, they’ll need a safe place where they can roost up at night and rest peacefully when most of the predators in nature are out looking for dinner, even in the suburbs. I have a neighbor who was a bit lackadaisical about this and lost all his birds to a neighbor’s dog. 

It’s generally recommended that you allow for at least 4 square feet of space for each bird. This will allow them enough space to spread their wings and will help to keep them from picking at each other. You’ll also need to add a nesting box or two. Generally about one per five hens or so is enough. If you don’t give them proper nesting area, it’s possible that the eggs will get broken or eaten or both. The coop I came up with for my 9 hens allowed for all of this as well as being (relatively) pleasant to look at. That, more than almost any feature of your coop may end up being the biggest part of how well your chickens are received by neighbors if you keep them in a residential area like mine.

Remember, chickens are a great addition to any home. They’re great fun to watch, they’re superb composters and they provide a healthy consistent protein source for your family; all this while providing excellent fertilizing for your garden, too. If you’ve been debating making them an addition to your home, I encourage you to make the leap. Give it careful thought of course, but don’t feel intimidated at all.

All the best to you …

You can reach Paul Gardener by email, or check his personal blog at A posse ad esse 

It is that same old question we ask ourselves everyday! The real question is probably better put, “What can I make for supper tonight that I haven’t made before?” Sometimes I find myself stuck in a rut of making the same meals over and over again. This has a lot to do with what we have in our freezer. Our main food supplies consist of frozen chicken, hamburger, and venison steaks. The challenge comes with trying to find different ways to prepare these three main foods. I put together a combination the other night that turned out particularly yummy. I thought I would share it.

Steak is always a great choice for supper and very popular at our house, so I pulled some venison steaks from the freezer in the morning to thaw. After they were thawed, I seasoned them with coarse black pepper and steak seasoning. I chopped up some onions and garlic cloves, and opened a can of mushrooms.

The prep time for this only takes about 30 to 45 minutes. At suppertime, I browned my steak on both sides. My steak doesn’t take long to fry up because we usually slice it on the thinner side. Your cook time will depend on how thick your steak is, and how well you like it done. I then added my chopped onion, garlic, mushrooms, and some parsley and stir-fried them in with the steak for a few minutes. While the steak was frying, I took one of our packages of frozen sugar peas from our garden that I had thawed earlier, and stir-fried them with some seasoning. At the same time, I cooked 2 cups of minute rice. When the rice and peas were both done, I combined them.

To serve, I put a bed of the rice and peas on the plate first. Then, I added some steak pieces. On top of the steak I melted some shredded cheese (use whatever kind you like best), and topped with the mushroom, onion, and garlic. Absolutely yummy, and your family will love you for it!

If any of you have any new supper ideas, I would love to hear them!

I am a huge fan of beanless chili and until now, my favorite has been a variation on Texas Red chili that I found in the Society for Range Management’s Trail Boss's Cowboy Cookbook. I am also particular about the quantity and quality of tomatoes in my chili. In my own recipes, I just leave them out. My mother made a bean-infested, stewed tomato glopped chili that pretty much turned me off the entire genre until I discovered Texas Red. My dad and sisters loved it though, so it couldn’t have been as bad as I thought it was.

Kate has many different chili recipes in her repertoire … most have a few beans and some finely diced tomatoes … I like them all. On New Year’s Eve, 2008, Kate surprised me with the best chili I have ever had … ever, anywhere. It is so good that I ate three bowls of it on New Year’s Eve, and I ate three more bowls of it last Saturday when she whipped it up again.

Kate calls her chili Kansas Red in honor of our present and likely permanent location. This chili is full of different, delicious flavors; it is on the hot side of mild, but not so hot as to make you sweat or cry. And since she tops her Kansas Red chili off with a dollop of sour cream, you can increase or decrease that to modulate the perceived heat. All I can say is that Kate’s Kansas Red chili is my all time favorite … I suspect it would also work well with venison, elk and quite possibly goat meat.

It took a little wrangling on my part to get Kate to share her Kansas Red chili recipe, but she relented. Here it is … I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Kate’s Kansas Red Chili

4-5 pounds beef top round or sirloin (easier if you can buy it thinly cut; if not you can put it in the freezer briefly in order to make it easier to dice)
1 large can diced tomatoes
2-3 serrano peppers, chopped, seeds removed
2-3 large jalapeno peppers, chopped, seeds removed
2 red chili peppers crumbled (or 2-3 T.  chili pepper flakes)
4 large cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, chopped roughly
1/2 C. brewed coffee
2 T. green Tabasco
5-6 T. chili powder
1 large bunch fresh cilantro
1 cup of grated cheddar cheese
salt and pepper
olive oil
sour cream

Dice the beef into very small pieces ( ½ “ square at most)

Brown the beef well (do not crowd pan) in a cast iron frying pan in several batches and move to the chili pot.  In other words, be sure to get lots of “brown bits” in the pan. Deglaze the pan with 1 C. water and pour in the chili pot.  To the chili pot, add the can of tomatoes and brewed coffee to the beef.

In the frying pan, wilt and lightly brown the onions in 2 T. olive oil.  Add all the chopped peppers and garlic and cook lightly. Add it all to the chili. Deglaze the frying pan once more with ½ C. water and add to the pot. Be sure there is enough liquid in the pot to cover the beef, if not add a bit of water. Add remaining spices, Tobasco and salt and pepper to taste.

Cover tightly, place in the oven at 250 degrees for 2-3 hours.  Bring to stovetop and skim off any oil or fat. 

Serve with a dollop of sour cream, some shavings of cheddar cheese and fresh chopped cilantro.

Invented December 31, 2008

Photo: iStock, Shawn Gearhart

Here at GRIT, we have a department called Comfort Foods. I’ve always kind of distrusted the label of a comfort food, since to me food is more about sustenance than comfort. But after heading home for the weekend, a fried chicken dinner prepared by my mom reminded me of how comfort foods feel and what they’re all about. And with any luck, someone out there will have a venison chili recipe that will add one more recipe to my arsenal of comfort foods.

But what is a comfort food to me? It has little to do with the actual filling of my stomach. Rather, I think of comfort foods as those dishes we eat that take us back to a time and place, much like my favorite songs that always remind me of the same things.

From a young age, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, homegrown corn, dinner rolls and milk – out of a Mason jar most times – have been a staple to our family’s diet. It brings a vivid picture to mind of sitting at our old dinner table in the old farmhouse, no television or radio on, just a family of five gathered around the largest meal of the day; us boys eager to empty our plates and start wrestling or whatever was the plan for entertainment that particular night, antagonizing something for sure. The smell reminds me of sitting hungrily with the gravy steaming and smell of the chicken drifting, us unable to fill our plates until the prayer was said.

That is comfort; more from the memories and ease that those memories put us at rather than how stuffed we get – although we had that meal on Saturday, and I was still feeling full Monday. To this day, fried chicken, steak (grilled or chicken fried), meatloaf, my mom’s taco recipe and even tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches (we still call them toasted cheese, for some reason) all conjure up images of that little room with five place settings. Those things take me back to my childhood in the same way that spaghetti and Yellow Tail Shiraz take me back to the living room of a house I shared with my brother Josh while in college. It was a coffee table with two settings, rather than a dinner table with five.

What about you? What foods take your memories back to certain places and times?

Also, I’m in search of new deer chili recipes. I have a rather large supply of ground venison that needs cooked up, and I’m bound and determined to find a recipe I can stick with. First of all, I’m going to try Southern Venison Chili, a recipe I got from BuckCommander.com that seems more spicy than other deer chili recipes I've tried. I’ll let you know how it works out, and if anyone has a favorite, I’d love to give it a try.

With the echo of the New Year still ringing in our ears we firmly vow to keep our resolutions. We raise our glasses, now filled with water and green tea, to a healthy New Year! Champagne sounds so much more elegant, but we have a new vision and what perfect timing … as we plan our garden for the new season, we envision ripe red tomatoes, green leafy spinach and our fit and trim waistline all the by-product from the homegrown goodness in our own backyard.

Along with many carefully chosen vegetables to grow, I am planning a special healthy herb garden.  I have a location in mind and the idea is to construct raised beds and hope the sun is not too hot in this location.  In the past I have grown herbs and used them in recipes fresh and have also dried them for future use.  Most air dry very well and add a nice taste of flavor to any dish.  I will be sharing recipes as the season moves along.  What inspired this herb garden-healthy eating notion was the fabulous Rosemary Cookies I made during the holidays.  Along with the usual Christmas cookie baking I wanted to incorporate herbs for healthy snacking.  I have to admit these cookies used the herb Rosemary but they really aren’t that healthy, they are extremely delicious though!  What makes them so good is the combination of light airy dough with the strong taste of rosemary … Superb!

Rosemary Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
4 cups flour
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

Combine all ingredients, except rosemary and mix thoroughly.  Now gently mix rosemary into the batter.  Form dough into small balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Flatten each one.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them as they bake since you don’t want to overcook them – a pale golden brown is the desired color.

The intent to bake healthy cookies was there and I am getting closer to fulfilling that intent.  Today I baked up these Flaxseed Cookies as my first hope to conquer the “Healthy Eating” resolution.  The recipe makes a nice huge batch that the family can munch on all week long as we withdraw from the continual stream of eating … and more eating, that possessed us during the holiday season.

Flaxseed Cookies 

1 1/3 cups butter
1 ¼ cups sugar
1 ¼ cups lightly packed brown sugar
2 1/3 cups flax seeds
3 large eggs
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
3 cups oatmeal

Cream butter, sugars and flaxseed. Add beaten eggs and vanilla to mixture. Blend flour, baking soda and oatmeal and combine with other ingredients. Form dough into 1 ½” round logs and chill in the freezer. Cut into slices and place on cookie sheet in 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes.

I have also decided to try growing some grains this year and I found it very interesting and frustrating searching for the seeds to purchase.  I have received many of the 2009 seed catalogs and have enjoyed reading through every page and description of listed offerings. A few do have some grain seed to purchase.  I am aware of my need to research grain growing for the small gardener.  Ideally, I would like several areas with wheat, oats, quinoa, millet and various other grains.  Farmers throughout the country grow acre upon acre of all the grains we consume in our daily diets.  Is it feasible for a small gardener to grow enough grain to be worth the effort?

My “Healthy Eating” resolution is taking shape and the research continues as I raise my glass wishing a healthy New Year to all!

The place of the American garden, at least inasmuch as it has become a societal movement from time to time in our history, was outlined beautifully by GRIT editor Hank Will in his blog post on how gardening is good for the soul. The point as I saw it, of the article, was that there is just something about being able to get our hands into the soil and to coax from it a thing as tangible and basic to life as healthy, nutritious food for very little cost, that is good for our soul. I couldn’t agree more! As he outlined our recent history of war gardens, victory gardens and urban collective gardens I found myself thinking that this has been a phenomenon that has largely come about since the time of the industrial revolution when we, as a nation, began to separate ourselves from our agrarian roots. It was natural then, when wars or depression or economic necessity dictated it, that we would gravitate toward something that could bring us together and provide us comfort. Being able to feed ourselves and being able to bless others with food can do this like few other things.

Hank made the statement, in his previous post, that he didn’t “know what to call the new wave of gardening frenzy, but [does] know that it is exciting, and will, no doubt, play a role in healing our culture.” To this I replied “Freedom Gardens” and it has sparked a great conversation I think. He’s asked that I give a little background on how this name for a movement came about so I’ll do my best.

Let me give you a little background. In my first post here at GRIT, I talked about how I had had an awakening within myself. When I realized that, while I was depressed about not being able to drop everything and move to  the country and have myself a farm, I was squandering the land that I already had right in my backyard. That epiphany changed the whole way I looked at gardening. My mind had been limited to growing a garden as merely a hobby, while the “real” farming required having acres of land and tractors and so on. The ability to look at my own small .25 acre suburban lot as an urban farm of sorts came about quite by accident when I stumbled onto the website of the Dervaes family in Pasadena CA called Path to Freedom. There I found the story of a family that not only gardened on their tenth of an acre lot in the heart of Pasadena (hardly the country) but was actively supporting themselves through their efforts both physically, in that they largely ate from their garden, and financially in that they had a thriving niche market selling their excess to local markets and chefs. That’s right, excess food from a 10^th of an acre lot. It’s not unimaginable when you consider that they regularly average over 6000 lbs of food from that same 10^th of an acre.

As we faced issues at the beginning of 2008 of global climate change, increasing costs of oil (which by the way is the basis of all of our commercial “inputs” like fertilizers, pesticides, etc.), regular warnings about tainted foods in our stores and economic pressures that were starting to limit our food buying power the Dervaes family launched a site called “Freedom Gardens” and with it put a name to a movement that was already beginning to form not only here at home, but world wide. Whether you’re a young family trying to make ends meet or a rural farmer that want’s to not just grow commercial crops but actual food as well or a suburban parent worried about the future of the earth for your kids this is a movement for you. If you’re a city dweller who wants to eat organic foods but can’t afford the exorbitant costs at the whole foods stores or someone worried about providing consistent, healthy food to your family in the event of a crisis then this is a movement for you.

The point, I think, is this; gardens ARE good for our souls. Not merely because they’re therapeutic or because they provide healthy foods or even because they give us a hedge against lean times but rather because, if you look at the big picture, they offer us that thing that we all crave so dearly. They offer that thing that drove our founding fathers to strike out on their own. They offer Freedom.

If I sound a bit zealous, well, that’s because I am. I was able to have my eyes opened for me to a world of possibilities a few years back, and returning the favor has been a large part of the reason I write. I hope you find success in your own freedom gardens no matter the size or scope and would love to hear about your efforts. In the event you decide to check further into the Freedom Gardens online community (which is totally free btw.) please drop by and say hi to me. You can find me there as “CornerGardener” and I’d love to help you find your way around.

P~

You can reach Paul Gardener by email, or check his personal blog at A posse ad esse

The inbox on my desk often holds a surprise or two. Recently, it contained a box of goodies from Muir Glen Organic and Cascadian Farm Organic. And were those goodies delicious!

From Muir Glen, there was a can of Chicken Tortilla soup and a jar of Italian Sausage with Peppers pasta sauce. The soup quickly disappeared during lunch that day, and I’m not sure, but I think I was humming “yum” under my breath the entire time. It contains small chunks of green pepper and onion, along with black beans, floating in a creamy and spicy soup. The spices were subtle at the first bite, growing to a delightful bite after a few spoonfuls. I enjoy spicy food, and this was a wonderful experience. A delicious soup, to say the least, and one I’ll be looking for on the shelves of my local market. Visit the website for other products.

The pasta sauce contains tomatoes and organic pork seasoned with sea salt, brown sugar, rosemary and spices. The flavor is further enhanced with onion, garlic, fennel, sweet basil and oregano. I used it over spinach and tomato rotini pasta, enjoying the zesty flavor. There’s just a bit left in the jar. Hmmmm, I think I know what I’m having for dinner tonight!

From Cascadian Farm came a box of Sweet & Salty Peanut Pretzel Chewy Granola Bars and a box of Dark Chocolate Almond Granola.

The granola bars were shared with the others on the Grit staff, and we all enjoyed them. The box calls them “chewy organic granola bars with peanuts and pretzels dipped in rich chocolate flavored coating.” The box emptied quickly. The bars were yummy, nice and chewy, with that great salt and chocolate combination.

I took the cereal home – didn’t want to share any dark chocolate goodness! It was another box that emptied quickly. While I didn’t taste too much chocolate (I’m not sure I really want my granola cereal to be that sweet, although I am more than a little enamored with the thought of chocolate for breakfast!), I did taste the almonds and the granola. It was an excellent combination, and with a spot of soy milk, made for an excellent breakfast.

We’ve received other items from Cascadian Farm, and I’ve enjoyed every item from their shelves. Great additions to the family pantry. Check out other products on the company’s website.

Another recent surprise in my inbox was from LightWedge Products. A catalog was accompanied by an original LightWedge in Ocean, the perfect color for me! The original LightWedge fits hardcover books and trade paperbacks.

Now, I’ve been thinking about purchasing a LightWedge for quite some time, and I couldn’t have asked for a better surprise. I’ve always wondered if the product would actually work for me, because I’m extremely nearsighted, and I prefer a high light level in which to read.

The original LightWedge fits well over a page, and even over two pages of a paperback, and it’s lightweight with an easy to reach and use light switch. While it works well in dark situations, it’s not quite enough light for my nearsighted self. The company, however, makes a few products for those of us with low vision, including a couple of lighted magnifiers I will have to check out.

A number of attachable lights are included in the catalog, from Great Point Light, all of interesting design and in nifty colors. A few are designed for youngsters with baseball or soccer ball bases and great colors. There’s even a Harry Potter LUMOS Book Light, an original LightWedge with Harry Potter graphics and replaceable switch covers.

I would recommend a visit to the LightWedge website or call toll-free 877-777-9334 for a catalog.

Another great book gadget I recently discovered didn’t come in the mail. I found them at my local independent bookstore, The Raven. The round container of Book Darts has revolutionized my reading time.

The back label says, “Book Darts (book dartz), n. 1. a bookmark for exactly where you stopped. 2. a linemarker for discoveries you want to find easily. Achivally correct. A safe alternative to paperclips, underlining and highlighting. Will not stain.”

I love bookmarks and even collect them. I also carry a book in my purse or bag at all times, and those bookmarks often fall out and get lost. With a single Book Dart, I no longer worry about losing my place or my bookmark. The small bronze arrow fits over a single page, marking my place or even a quote I want to use for a future blog. The container holds 50 of the little darlings.

Check with your local bookstore, visit the website or call 800-366-2230. A delightful find for any bookworm!

I wonder what tomorrow’s mail will bring?

When I was in college and graduate school in Chicago, I managed to pull off some kind of a vegetable garden in vacant lots here and there. Gardening was good for my soul, and it seriously stretched our meager food budget.

One summer we were blessed with a bumper crop of Roma tomatoes and several dozen scrounged, bail-type glass-lid canning jars. After processing one batch of tomato sauce by hand with a cone-shaped colander, I figured there had to be a better way.

I was a subscriber to Mother Earth News at the time and was aware of many expensive, and therefore unobtainable, machines that would have made making tomato sauce and paste a piece of cake. One of the more affordable pieces of equipment advertised in Mother was the Squeezo Strainer. As luck would have it for us, we were regulars at the once famous Maxwell Street Market on Chicago’s near South Side, and before I spent the money on a new Squeezo, we found a used one at the market. It was all metal including the hopper, as I recall, and it looked like it hadn’t been worked hard at all. Using the Squeezo, we actually had fun processing that bushel of remaining Romas.

Our Squeezo Strainer processed hundreds of pounds … perhaps thousands of pounds … of tomatoes, grapes, apples and other fruit before it was retired many years later. We replaced it with a strainer attachment on our first KitchenAid Mixer … one of the last to wear the Hobart brand. I can tell you that we stripped the main drive gear in that mixer twice … we never stripped anything in the Squeezo. But for the life of me, I can’t remember what we did with it … perhaps it was a casualty of some yard sale or another.

Earlier this year, I learned that the Squeezo Strainer is still being produced … built in the U.S.A, in fact. The good folks at All Seasons Homestead Helpers, Inc. in Vermont have kept the Squeezo alive, and they were gracious enough to send me a new one. What I discovered about the Squeezo this year is that it is still every bit as hard core as that old model was. And even though our tomato harvest this year was pretty slim, running some of the fruit through the strainer was a delightful blast from the past.

If you are looking for a high-quality juicer/strainer that has relatively few moving parts, requires no electricity to operate, and will serve your children, and perhaps even your children’s children well, then I suggest you make the $250 investment in the deluxe model. It comes with three strainer screens (different perforation sizes), a 2-plus quart hopper, wooden plunger, brush and recipe/instructions booklet.

 If you are looking for other useful low-impact stuff to help around the homestead, be sure to spend some time exploring the All Seasons Homestead Helpers website.

Here at the GRIT offices, we have found that Potato Salad is a very individual thing. Everyone has “their way,” and a chorus of “That’s just not potato salad”s has been heard around here. When I’m grilling burgers on a July afternoon, I usually just go pick up some Amish Potato Salad down at the corner big-box. (What makes potato salad Amish, anyway?) However, when it’s mano a mano with the other staffers, I had to go all out.

In preparation for making The One True Potato Salad™, I first called the Potato Salad Oracle (aka my mom) to get the “recipe” for “Potato Salad a la Mom,” which is a combination of Grandma Holm’s version and Grandma Nemec’s version.

I had already hard boiled the eggs and had the potatoes cubed and cooling in the fridge by the time I talked to the PSO, so her advice to use red potatoes was too late. I used the ones that I had, Yukon Golds that you can buy at your local market.

I started with six potatoes and eight hardboiled eggs. Apparently, the reason that I always think that there aren’t enough eggs in potato salad comes from my early years on the farm. We had to buy the potatoes, but we had chickens and the eggs were free. So, my mom’s potato salad always included many eggs. She suggested about a 1 to 1 ratio. And sweet baby gherkins (not relish). The eggs must be sliced in one of those egg slicer things with the wires (I went to the store and got one just for this). The potatoes cubed, and the pickles halved and sliced.

I often joke with people about learning some things by “osmosis,” but sometimes that’s the only way you can explain it. I was too busy editing the school paper, playing the French horn, and training for sports teams to learn to cook as a youngster, so I have entered the culinary world relatively recently. But when I picked up a pickle to slice it, I was back in my grandmother’s kitchen, and I could see her hands making the motions. (Either that or she was cutting up potatoes to make fried potatoes, another of our favorites.)

This completes the salad components, and all you need is “dressing.” Take about a cup of Miracle Whip (don’t worry KC, I used the “light” variety, and it still tasted fine), add a few glugs of cider vinegar, 3 spoons of sugar, some salt, pepper (I was light on the pepper because I’m not a pepper fan), and celery salt (because celery seed might get caught under someone’s partial).

Then you have to make a choice. If you’re feeling like a Holm that day, no mustard; if you’re feeling like a Nemec, add some mustard – enough to make it the right color, it should be a nice light yellow (Mom’s number one reason for using mustard: because it’s prettier). It’s not quite yellow enough in these photos – something about the lighting (these photos were taken with care with my phone under the kitchen lights).

Now you taste it, and add more of whatever’s missing. :) I actually taste it at intervals, to get the Miracle Whip/vinegar ratio right, and then to get the spices “to taste.”

Add the dressing to the rest and “toss.” “This is very important, Jenny, you don’t want to stir it too much. It’s more like tossing it.”

It’s best if you can let it cool and mingle in the fridge for awhile before you eat it. Then bring the burgers in from the grill, sit back and enjoy.

At this point I should probably own up to this being my version of my mom’s potato salad because it’s missing an ingredient that I’m not fond of. When I was young and very very good, a bowl of potato salad like this was saved back with my name on it before the last ingredient was added. Though it seems that the battle still rages, because my mom closed our potato salad conversation with, “But it won’t taste right without the onion…”