The corned beef began as a brisket from Eagle Wood Farms. I followed Alton Brown’s recipe for corning, except instead of his spice list from faraway places, I got a pre-made mix of faraway spices from Penzey’s in Norwalk. I added salt and potassium nitrate (yes), not local. I brined it for 10 days, turning it every morning and evening. I cooked it with:

• carrot from Riverbank Farm
• onion from Holbrook Farm
• celeriac (about a quarter, to approximate 1 celery stalk) from Fort Hill Farm

The sauerkraut began as cabbage from Sport Hill Farm, fermented per Sandor Katz‘s instructions. This would have been a great entry in the Westport Market’s cabbage contest, but there wasn’t enough time for the fermentation. It’s been fermenting for several weeks now. This is not my first attempt, but it is my first attempt that worked!

I made the rye bread following Martha Stewart’s recipe (mostly).

• bread flour – red hard spring wheat from Wild Hive
• rye flour from Wild Hive
• honey from Swords and Plowshares
• butter from Smyth’s Trinity Farm
• yeast and salt: not local. I didn’t use caraway seeds.

Color me delightfully surprised when the loaf really did “tip out” of the loaf pan!

The Swiss cheese is Cry Baby from Arethusa Farm Dairy. (Thank you, Lisa from New Morning! I owe you big time.)

The dressing. Sigh. Should it be Thousand Island or Russian? What constitutes an authentic recipe of either? Here’s what I made:

• yogurt (strained) from Arethusa Farm Dairy
• plum tomatoes, roasted, frozen, thawed, puréed, and strained. Originally from March Farms
• zucchini pickles I made, chopped finely into a relish. Zucchini originally from Sport Hill Farm

Served with a dill pickle, fermented right here. Original cucumbers from Daffodil Hill Growers.

And that’s my sandwich. I hope you had a happy St. Paddy’s Day!

Women’s Wisdom: Sacred Agriculture

Mar 16,2013  -  Time:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm

Motherhouse and Bluestone Farm invite all women to join in a full day celebration of our connection to the earth through sacred agriculture. We’ll share our farming herstories, rituals, pea planting, pot-luck lunch, earth blessing way of the council, drumming circle and more.

In case you’ve never thought of sacred and agriculture together, here’s a good short read on the spirituality of farming. In case you don’t readily picture women when you think of farming, consider that the first farmers some 8-10,000 years ago were likely women and that the fastest growing group of those entering farming today are women.

My apologies for the pictures below. I used a phone (which is not a camera, despite what they say) and I was so caught up in the event, I forgot all about an illustrative progression. There are much better shots over at the Bluestone Farm Fans Facebook page and at Motherhouse’s blog.

We began with a fire and some food, mostly homemade from scratch. When I say from scratch, I mean the cheese spread was made from cream from their own cows. From scratch.

We blessed and sorted the dry peas, which are both food and seeds. These peas are not your garden variety peas, but a pea that’s more like a bean (whose name I should have written down but didn’t). Although much smaller, they have culinary attributes similar to a garbanzo, yet thrive in our climes. We were sorting through them to find the best specimens to plant—those that would produce the best plants. We prepared the beds, put up fences for the plants to climb, and planted the pea seeds in the still-frozen Earth.

We visited with the cows.

We ate a fabulous pot luck lunch.

We smudged with sage, we drummed, we spoke.

While I left exhausted, it was a most excellent day. This was the inaugural event of the space that had previously been a school, which is now something new. It was a pleasure to be part of the energy transfer.

Unhappy Cows

For over 50 years, Americans have been the lab rats in the great processed food and high-volume farming experiment. If you look at our health record in that same time, you’d have to conclude the experiment was a failure. We now have an unnatural relationship with food, know next to nothing about where it comes from, or even what qualifies as food. As it happens, animals raised in close confinement are bad for you and fat obtained from these animals is bad for you too. Animals slaughtered in facilities that process thousands of animals a day have a statistical probablility of introducing a food-borne pathogens into the line so they take remediation measures (such as washing the meat in ammonia) that may not be good for us either. When you factor in the health and environmental costs of cheap food, it’s significantly more expensive than the expensive food!

For over 50 years, we let corporate shills dressed as scientists tell us:

• Fat is bad. Animal fats are especially bad and vegetable fats (like Canola oil) are better.
• Cholesterol is bad.
• Skim milk is good.
• Light anything is good; Full-fat anything is bad.
• Lard is bad. Crisco and margarine are good.

Happy Cows

People are starting to challenge these assumptions. Many are returning to the methods that sustained humankind for over 10,000 years. These methods contradict the current food and nutritional “wisdom.”

Little by little, we are finding our way back to the foods and food plans that nurtured us. People are putting by (canning, freezing, dehydrating) their own provisions from known sources. People are returning to bone broths and rendered animal fats. People are returning to foods they can make in their own homes. People are buying chickens from farmers whose practices they know so that they don’t have to do an anti-nuke anti-backterial lockdown afterwards. The home town butcher is returning! (Check out Saugatuck Craft Butchery in Westport, CT and Butchers Best Market in Newtown, CT.)

There’s so much to know and it can be daunting trying to figure out where to get started. Here are a few links to the front runners of traditional foods. These people and organizations advocate making bone broths, and rendering their own animal fats for use in cooking, and using the whole animal.

• The Weston A. Price Foundation is a nonprofit, tax-exempt nutrition education foundation. Of special note is this article, The Oiling of America.
• Sally Fallon is the President of Weston Price Foundation. Her cookbook on traditional, nutrient-dense foods is worth a read, even if you don’t cook! She also made a video discussing the oiling of America.
• Cheeseslave is an advocate of healthy traditional foods, full fat dairy, and against the anti-cholesterol hype. Her site has recipes, tips, and news for people who want to eat real food.

I believe it’s the modern pseudo-foods like margarine and soy milk and convenience foods full of additives, pesticides, and MSG that are making us sick. Full-fat dairy and other traditional foods have been sustaining humans for millennia. And that’s good enough for me.

• Food Renegade is an advocate of healthy traditional foods. Her site has recipes, tips, and news for people who want to eat real food as well.

I am a rebel. I like to eat red meat. I think butter is good for me. I drink my milk raw. I avoid pre-packaged foods like the plague. I don’t believe the health claims on food labels. And, I like my food to be fresh, wholesome, and traditional.

• Sherri Brooks Vinton is a local treasure on putting by the bounty. Her book is Put ‘Em Up.

This list is by no means exhaustive—it’s meant to be a starting point. Feel free to share other sources in the comment section.

Happy reading and happy eating!

• Session 1: Inform
• Session 2: Educate
• Session 3: Empower

As you might imagine, some speakers were better than others. Here are some of my notes and observations, by no means exhaustive.

• One of our issues is that governmental health departments do not have the kinds of resources that fast food companies do. Unfortunately, when we “shrink government,” our protection gets shrunk, not waste and fraud.
• With respect to advertising and metrics, Anna Lappe told junk food corporations: “My kids, all our kids, are none of your business.”
• Agreed with and loved Annemarie Colbin (of Natural Gourmet) until she said “Good food should be fresh and natural–not canned or frozen” (because they don’t have the right chi). No putting by?! Annemarie, this is how we have local fruits and veggies in the Northeast throughout the dark days of winter, chi notwithstanding.
• We should insist that industrial producers pay for their damage!
• People (eaters) need to be willing to pay what food is worth–really worth–without subsidies.
• Shout out to our own Michel Nischan of the Dressing Room and Wholesome Wave.
• Check out Founding Gardeners

a fascinating look at the revolutionary generation from the unique and intimate perspective of their lives as gardeners, plantsmen and farmers.

For the founding fathers, gardening, agriculture and botany were elemental passions, as deeply ingrained in their characters as their belief in liberty for the nation they were creating.

• Steve Wing, in his talk about factory farming, said we “We have to change policies to help local residents near factory farms. Not just eat local.” He probably didn’t mean to say “just” in that tone. Eating locally DOES matter and an achievable first step for many. In fact, if everyone did it, factory farming would be out of business! I believe (and hope) that his point was that we can do more. P.S. Locavores DO eat global food–just not the items that grow well in our local or regional food shed.
• Farm to Freezer is an incredibly fabulous idea
• With respect to food banks, Jeff Bridges astutely noted that, “Charity’s a great thing, but it’s not the way to end hunger.” As he pointed out, we aren’t funding the military through charity.
• David McInerney of Fresh Direct brought out his farmers!

Overall, it was a positive event and we have much work to do.

Here’s the real fact: humans are the only animal that figured out how to obtain and store the milk of another species so that we could consume it on demand. Lots of other mammals would love to drink the milk of another species but have to rely either on extra-species largesse or on humans to get it. The proof is in the pictures.

Cats emulating bipeds:

Some serious interspecies sharing:

Even this (ewww):

Now here’s something you don’t see every day (unless you have a cat):

Scottie pinwheel dance for goats milk:

As it happens, humans are the only species that pay to live on the Earth.

Vocabulary

specious (Google)

1. Superficially plausible, but actually wrong: “a specious argument”.
2. Misleading in appearance, esp. misleadingly attractive: “a specious appearance of novelty”. In other words, sounds true but it isn’t

truthiness

Coined by Stephen Colbert: the quality of knowing something in your gut, or your heart, as opposed to in your head.

From Merriam-Webster:

1. “truth that comes from the gut, not books” (Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” October 2005)
2. “the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true” (American Dialect Society, January 2006)

factoid (Wikipedia)

A factoid is a questionable or spurious (unverified, false, or fabricated) statement presented as a fact, but with no veracity. The word can also be used to describe a particularly insignificant or novel fact, in the absence of much relevant context. The word is defined by the Compact Oxford English Dictionary as “an item of unreliable information that is repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact”.

I changed it up to keep it local and also used a Dutch oven instead of a crock pot.

Food Sources:

• 1 pound of pork ribs from Grayledge Farm (now back to Ox Hollow)
• 5 smallish carrots from Sport Hill Farm
• 1/2 celeriac, cubed, from Riverbank Farm
• 3 small purple potatoes from Fort Hill Farm
• 3 small Bermuda onions from Holbrook Farm
• 1 head of cabbage, chopped, from Sport Hill Farm
• 3 Tablespoons of honey from Woodbury Sugar Shed
• 1/3 dried cayenne pepper, from my garden
• 2 cups chicken bone broth, made from Stone Gardens Farm chicken
• 2 cups roasted San Marzano tomatoes, from Sport Hill Farm
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp salt
• fresh-ground pepper
• 1/2 tsp caraway seeds

I cooked it in the oven in a covered Dutch oven for one hour at 325ºF and six more hours at 200ºF.

The sweet and heat give it a unique flavor depth, but you can still taste the individual ingredients. Even if I don’t win the contest, I still win because this is a healthy soup made from excellent ingredients from exceptional farms.

This time, I swapped out the jalapenos for a poblano pepper and added a bell pepper and swapped out the maple syrup for honey. I left out the beans. Last week, I got chipotle bacon at the farmer’s market and that worked out excellently in this dish.

Sources:

• Chipotle bacon and bacon grease from Ox Hollow Farm
• Ground beef from Laurel Ridge Farm
• Onions from Holbrook Farm
• Poblano peppers from Maple Bank Farm
• Roasted plum tomatoes from March Farm
• Garlic, bell pepper, and corn from Sport Hill Farm
• Goshen Farmhouse Red wine from Miranda Vineyard
• Honey from Swords Into Ploughshares, New Haven, CT
• Chili powder, ground cumin, salt, and raw cacao powder from faraway land

I wasn’t in the mood to bake the corn bread, so I just had corn instead. I really do prefer having my corn in the winter! It seems like there’s so much of it and I take it for granted in the summer, but nothing brings back the bounty of summer like hot buttered corn in January!

This is not a “challenge meal.” For the first time since I became a locavore, I’m not participating in a Dark Days Eat Local Challenge. The regular challenge isn’t running this year (though there is a small group from another region doing their own thing). I will still be eating locally throughout the dark days but actually, finding local food in the winter no longer the challenge it once was. I am lucky to have many nearby farms and farmers markets that go through the winter. Meat and dairy are easy to come by in these parts. And I collected and put by enough veggies and those “ancillary items” you need to make soups, stews, one pot slow-and-low meals (like tomatoes, onions, garlic, and herbs). The challenge remains cooking from scratch while living and working in the 21st century!

I did come across the Pantry Challenge, which is about using what you have before you go out and buy more stuff. I like the idea of using up the things I put by and clearing out the freezer to make space for the new season. Truth be told, I still have a lot of food from last year in there. (Cut me some slack—it’s a chest freezer and I have to empty it out to find anything! It’s not like I haven’t been pining for an upright freezer for like forever.) Since I found this challenge a bit late and it isn’t exactly what I’m looking to achieve, I’ll be doing my own little “use up my stuff” challenge.

In fact, the corn, tomatoes, and poblano pepper I used in tonight’s chili are from my 2011 collection!

Generally in these challenges, you prepare one local meal per week and post about it on your blog, citing your food sources. Usually, participants declare their “exceptions” at the outset, for example spices, sugar and other things that don’t grow in their region.

While it’s no longer a challenge for me to eat locally (daily, even), I think it’s fabulous that people are keeping the challenge going to show the folks just starting out that it can be done and how.

The secret to a successful Dark Days Challenge is putting by (preserving foods) in season. (Okay, that’s not really a secret—our forebears did it for generations!) Meat and dairy are generally available through the winter and ingredients like herbs, garlic, onions, and tomatoes go a long way for soups, stews, pot roasts, and many other winter dishes. When that summer CSA is inundating you with greens and other veggies, cook them up and freeze them. There’s nothing like buttered corn in the middle of January to make you feel summery all over again!

Still, if you didn’t plan in advance (like I didn’t my first year, since it just sort of came up), you may be surprised at all of the foods you can find in your local foodshed and just how resourceful you really are.

Good luck to all the challenge-takers!

Appetizers

A number of these items were put by in season to be enjoyed now.

• Assorted Cheeses: Pleasant Cow and Pleasant Sun from Sankow’s Beaver Brook, Cry Baby and Rotundo from Arethusa, Cheddar from the Adirondack Cheese Company.
• Crudites: carrots from Riverbank Farm, fennel, kolrabi, and cauliflower from Sport Hill Farm, “sexy” broccoli from Waldingfield Farm, celery from Stone Gardens Farm, arugula from Fort Hill Farm, cucumbers and bell peppers: not local.
• Tatziki Dip. Yogurt from Arethusa Farm Dairy with cucumbers, garlic, and mint from Sport Hill Farm (because it was a bumper year for cucumbers and they are shredded in my freezer, ready to go!)
• Chilled Roasted Beets from Riverbank Farm
• Salad turnips from Sport Hill Farm, pickled with vinegar and spices
• Hot Cherry Peppers from Sport Hill Farm, pickled with vinegar
• Jalapeno peppers from my own garden, pickled with vinegar and spices
• Cukes from Daffodil Hill Growers, pickled in a crock by fermentation
• Quiche: mushrooms from Quattro Game Farm, spinach from Fort Hill Farm, Cry Baby cheese and heavy cream from Arethusa, eggs from Sport Hill Farm, flour from Wild Hive, butter from Smith’s Trinity Farm. Seemingly French, but quite seasonal and local. C’est bon!
• Crackers & Bread. Not local

Soup

Chicken soup with bowtie pasta or brown rice. Chicken from Sankow’s Beaver Brook, onions and carrots from Newtown Cedar Hill Farm, celeriac from Riverbank Farm, and leeks and garlic from Sport Hill Farm. Parsnips, pasta and rice: not local.

Main Course

• Roasted Turkey, fresh and free-range from Quattro Game Farm
• Pan Gravy from the natural juices of the bird, flour from Wild Hive
• Cornbread Stuffing.  Butter and heavy cream from Smyth’s Trinity Farm, onions from Newtown Cedar Hill Farm, my own sage, and chicken stock from the aforementioned soup. Cornbread made from wheat flour and corn meal from Wild Hive, maple syrup from Woodbury Sugar Shed, eggs from Sport Hill Farm, kefir and butter from Smyth’s Trinity Farm. Baking powder, salt: not local
• Whole-Berry Cranberry Sauce.  Maple syrup from Woodbury Sugar Shed, apple cider from Lyman Orchards. Cranberries and cinnamon stick: not local
• Applesauce made from Cortlands from Maple Bank Farm and Macouns from High Hill Orchards.
• Mashed Potatoes made from potatoes from Sport Hill Farm, butter from Smith’s Trinity Farm, and sour cream from Hudson Valley Fresh, Poughkeepsie, NY
• Baked Sweet Potatoes from Maple Bank Farm
• Roasted Butternut Squash. Acorn and butternut squash from Sport Hill Farm. Olive oil and cinnamon: not local
• Steamed Broccoli & Cauliflower.  Broccoli from Waldingfield Farm, cauliflower from Sport Hill Farm

Dessert

• Apple Pie: Northern Spy apples from Maple Bank Farm, pastry flour from Wild Hive, butter from Smyth’s Trinity Farm. Sugar and other spices: not local
• Pumpkin Pie: pumpkin from Colton Corner Farm, eggs from Greyledge Farm, pastry flour from Wild Hive, butter and heavy cream from Smyth’s Trinity Farm, maple syrup from Woodbury Sugar Shed, spices: not local.
• Fresh Whipped Cream: Heavy cream from Smyth’s Trinity Farm, vanilla and sugar: not local. (Very easy with this gizmo—no affiliation.)
• Assorted Ice Cream Ferris Acres Creamery: Campfire, Black Raspberry, and Vanilla
• Roasted pumpkin seeds: from the aforementioned pumpkin
• Fresh Fruit Basket: Not local
• Mixed Nuts, Pistachio nuts, and Roasted Chestnuts: not local. (It was not a good year forlocal chestnuts)

Beverages

• Apple Cider: Lyman Orchards
• Egg Nog: Smith’s Trinity Farm
• Soda: Assorted flavors from Foxon Park. Pellegrino: not local
• Wine: Gewurztraminer from Priam Vineyards. (According to Chef Zakarian, this is the wine to have with turkey. While it was nice, I’m going back to Cab Franc next year!)
• Beer: Local Harvest Ale and Lake Trout Stout from Sebago Brewing Company (brought live from Maine!), (203) India Pale Ale from Stony Creek Beer, a seasonal assortment from Sam Adams (regional, not local)

Thanks to all of my farmers—I hope your holiday was as fabulous as mine. Thank you to my family for your help and a great day.

Week 21 – 10/18

• 2 acorn squash
• 2 spaghetti squash
• 2 Delicata squash
• 2 butternut squash
• 2 fennel bulbs
• 1 bunch scallions
• 2 heads of broccoli
• 1 head of escarole
• 2 heads of lettuce: green and red

This has been another wonderful year of a CSA. I highly recommend this model to anyone who is interested. Choose your farmer well! Thank you Patti, Al, and the Popp family!