As if…

My Taza locavore chocolate arrived. I call it locavore chocolate because I can know exactly where it came from. So, first, I went to tazachocolate.com to look up my batch number, #230. Here’s what I learned about my chocolate:

Batch #230 – 70% Dark Bar – Taza Chocolate
Batch Information
Variety: 70% Stone Ground Dark Bar
Made On: September 29 2009
Ingredients: Organic roasted cacao, cane sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla bean.
Last Made: September 14 2009

Cacao Origin:
Country of Origin: Dominican Republic
Provincia: María Trinidad Sánchez
Municipality: El Factor (El Pozo)
Area: Reserva Científica Loma Guacanejo
Fermentery Location: Lat. 19.293363, Long. -69.904128
Varietal: Mostly Trinitario; Some Criollo.

Growers & Farm:
Cooperative: Red de Comercializacion Loma Guacanejo
Grower: Justo de Jesus
Farm: La Alemania

Additional Ingredients:
Pure Cane Sugar – The Green Cane Project
Origin: Sertãozinho (São Paulo), Brazil
Whole Biodynamic Vanilla Bean – Villa Vanilla
Origin: Villanueva (Puntarenas), Costa Rica
Organic Cocoa Butter, Natural
Origin: La Red Guacanejo, Dominican Republic

Roast Profile:
Lot Received On: July 7 2009
Lot #: LR17
Bean Bill: Single Origin Hispaniola Cacao
Roast Date: September 28 2009
Roaster Model: Barth Scirocco 200
Max Temp: 234° F
Roasted For: 46 minutes

Production Info:
Grind Date: September 29 2009
Made By: Mike Schechter & Kellie Silsby
Total # of Bars Made: 1,576 Bars
Wrapped On: October 1 2009

Wow! That’s more than I know about my cats!

Next, I made my DDELC 09/10 week 16 treat: Hot Chocolate.

It just so happened to be Cecelia’s birthday party!

• chocolate from Tazo
• raw milk from Stone Wall Dairy
• maple syrup from McLaughlin Vineyards

Yum!

Sometime after finishing the morning milking, Mr. Pierson, 59, a dairy farmer who grew up on High Low Farm on Weed Mine Road in Columbia County [NY], which his father bought when he was an infant, did something no one will ever entirely explain. He took a small-caliber rifle and went through the barn he built about a decade ago methodically shooting all 51 of his milking cows in the head.

He left a note on the front door that warned the reader not to go inside but to call the police. Then he sat down in a chair and killed himself with a single rifle shot to the chest. He left behind a short suicide note scrawled on scratch paper that made reference to his depression over personal and financial issues. He expressed his love for his family but said he was “overwhelmed.”

The story is about a month old and was picked up by Huffington Post as well.

Something’s wrong when a guy who’s been working hard 15-hour days, everyday for nearly 60 years, loses his spirit. Something is terribly wrong. Why did he just give up? Why couldn’t he make a go of it? Is it the way the dairy “industry” works?

Wholesale milk is bought and sold in hundred pounds units. The industry standard weight for one gallon of milk is 8.6 pounds. There are 11.62 gallons of milk in 100 pounds. So, if wholesale milk is priced at say, $20 cwt, that works out to $1.72 per gallon. Here are some figures from the Farm Prices Received report for February issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Friday, February 26, 2010:

• February 2010: $15.90 cwt. (1.37/gal)
• January 2010: $16.10 cwt. ($1.39/gal)
• February 2009: $11.60 cwt. ($1.00/gal)

At these prices, the cost of production (about $1.55/gallon in the northeast) exceeds the sale price. Dairy farmers are literally paying for the privilege of being dairy farmers. Commodity milk isn’t about fair trade. It’s about making more money for people who already have lots of money.

The effect of driving down the price of milk is that dairy farmers who supply the commercial operations have to constantly reduce costs. At some point, it comes down to the safety or nutritional value of the milk product. At other times it comes down to the health and well-being of the farmer. If we lose our ability to sustain farmers in this country, we forfeit our right to specify food safety. The USDA has no control over foreign countries except veto power. What if the importable sources become unacceptable or too expensive, once we have no sources of our own? The folks on the ends, the farmer and the consumer, lose.

What should milk cost?

Pasteurized milk in my local Stop & Shop today is

• $3.60/gallon
• $2.20/half gallon
• $2.80/half gallon for the Connecticut Farmer’s Cow brand

I pay about $9 a gallon for raw milk (it’s $5 for a half gallon). I figure that’s what it takes to maintain the cows in a healthy manner, properly staff the operation, and comply with regulations to ensure the milk is safe. At the same store I buy my raw milk, there are also these pasteurized brands:

• Arethusa for $4.58 a half gallon
• Organic Valley for $4.19 a half gallon

I understand about family budgets, these trying economic times, and that not everyone is willing to pay $9 a gallon for milk. I realize I don’t have several  growing children drinking gallons a day. On the other hand, $3.60 a gallon seems rather low, considering the nutritional value. Particularly when:

• one liter of Pepsi cola is $1.79
• a 12 oz bag of Doritos Nacho Cheese Tortilla Chips is $3.99
• a 10 oz package of Oreos is $2.99 (on sale)

Something’s wrong with the the food system

Still, a man took his own life and took his 51 cows with him because he was “overwhelmed.”

It is legal to sell raw milk on the farm in NY. Pierson’s farm in Columbia county is about 100 miles north of NYC. Perhaps way up there in a town of about 3ooo residents, on-farm sales don’t generate the kind of traffic that they do here in Fairfield County, CT. Perhaps being allowed to sell raw milk in retail markets would have helped. I don’t know. Granted, I didn’t research this as deeply as possible and I don’t understand milk futures…

This week’s Dark Days Eat Local Challenge meal was Peregion beans over wheat berries with spinach on the side.

I picked up these beans at the Coventry Farmers Market. I probably created a scene in my excitement over finding local (really local) dried beans.

Peregion beans are new to me, so I didn’t bury them inside a  recipe this time. I wanted to see what they tasted like on their own. I simmered them in lightly salted water with a bay leaf and some bacon grease. I’m thinking that perhaps even the bacon was too much extra flavor, but it was local and bottled oils are not.

The wheat berries are pretending to be rice.  I actually like wheat berries a lot—it’s like having bread or macaroni without having to go through the trouble of milling, mixing, relaxing or rising, and so on. Just add water (okay, and simmer for an hour.)

Sources:

• Peregion beans from Purity Farm in Moosup, CT
• bacon grease from Greyledge Farm bacon (I sure am getting a lot of mileage out of this!)
• bay leaf from NYS
• sea salt from Maine
• soft spring wheat berries from Wild Hive Farm
• spinach from Newgate Farms
• garlic from Holbrook

I liked the Peregion beans and would use them in recipes calling for Pintos or black beans, maybe even black-eyed peas recipes.

The dish went pretty well with Couer De Lion, a red wine from Cascade Mountain Winery & Restaurant, in Amenia, NY. (It was open, not specifically chosen for this dish.)

• Pleasant Son (cow) cheese from Sankow’s Beaver Brook
• yogurt from Deerfield Farm
• raw milk from Stone Wall Dairy
• spinach from Fort Hill Farm
• bread from Wave Hill Breads (not local grains, but local artisans)
• Tumbleweed cheese from 5 Spoke Creamery (not local milk, but local artisan)

Not a bad catch for the day. For the rest, there’s the freezer!

I’m loving cooking with the Dutch oven. I bought it to accompany my Julia Child cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but find myself using it for meals that are neither French nor Dutch. It’s perfect for meals that begin with a sear and sauté on the stove top, then go slow and low in the oven (like Osso Buco and short ribs). While the food’s in the oven, the smells that emanate throughout the house seem to say, “It’s cold and miserable out there, but comfy-cozy in here. Eat this and warm up.”

Here’s this week’s food sources:

• stew beef from New Boston Beef in N. Grosvenordale, CT
• dredging flour from Wild Hive Farm
• bacon grease, reserved from Greyledge Farm bacon
• onions from Shenandoah, Easton, CT
• garlic from Holbrook Farm
• tomato puree from Don Taylor Farms, Danbury, CT (from the Late Bloomers 2009 freezer collection)
• Vista Reposa red wine from McLaughlin Vineyards
• cranberry potatoes from Maple Bank Farm
• carrots and celeriac from Riverbank Farm
• dried thyme from here
• bay leaf — local from a NY farm
• beef broth, salt, and pepper from away

Since there are potatoes in there, you don’t need to serve it with a carb, but it really does go well over fettuccine noodles. I’ve also seen it served in a bread bowl. I suppose having it over fettuccine with dipping bread on the side would be pushing it.

Of course, a glass of McLaughlin Vineyards Vista Reposa wine compliments the dish rather nicely.

One day, my dream of an after-hours (week night) Farmers Market will come true and I’ll have the choice of doing my grocery shopping in the middle of the week like regular folks. It’s not like I can buy what I eat just anywhere. Not that I don’t love my Saturday tours of the countryside but it does put a damper on spontaneous recreational activities.

At the Fairfield Winter Market I scored:

• prepared potato and celeriac soup, celeriac, and Greyledge Farm eggs from Riverbank Farm. This is probably the last of the celeriac.
• Pleasant Son cheese from Sankow’s Beaver Brook
• Cortland and Macintosh apples (from Rogers Orchards in Southington, CT) provided by Daffodil Hill Growers and the miracle of cold storage. This is probably the last of the apples this year.
• yogurt from Ladies of Levita Road, Lebanon, CT
• sweet potatoes and spinach from Newgate Farms
• Goat’s milk fudge from Goatboy Soap

I spied Nancy Roper, Chef and Owner of the Boxcar Cantina in Greenwich practically wiping out Riverbank’s supply of parsnips, among other ingredients. Great news for me since “Locavore Rulz” say if a restaurant locally sources any of their ingredients, all items on the menu count as local!!

Then on to New Morning Natural Foods where I scored raw milk from Stone Wall Dairy and Foxfire. I also picked up the latest issue of Edible Nutmeg. (Their cover art is always stunning.)

In the Local Food category, this is the map for the Percent of Farms with Direct Sales (the darker colors represent a higher percentage).

The next map is the Number of Farmers Markets. Again the darker the colors represent more markets.

I find it interesting that there are fewer direct sales and fewer farmers markets in regions that I thought were more agricultural. Perhaps everyone there has their own farm?

Anyway, it’s a very neat tool and there are lots of other categories. It also lets you drill down to the state level. I would like to be able to overlay a few categories…

• pork chops from Greyledge Farm (Ox Hollow)
• peach salsa from Kaela’s Kitchen (one of my hostess gifts and absolutely delicious–really woke up the chops!)
• sweet potato from George Hall Farm *
• cranberry potato from Maple Bank Farm *

* oven-baked potato chips attempting to copy The Natural Princess.

Sad to say that was the last of the sweet potatoes I stockpiled when I was foraging for Thanksgiving.

It’s no secret that I love chocolate and often claim it as an exception in an otherwise local dish or meal. So imagine my delight when I heard about direct-trade chocolate from the Chocolate: the Raw Truth article in Delicious Living magazine!

Following in the coffee industry’s footsteps, some chocolate makers are adopting a direct-trade model, dealing one-on-one with small-scale cacao farmers and paying fair-trade prices to obtain superior beans while supporting cacao communities. “Direct trade is a lot of legwork, but you get much better quality ingredients, and you can also ensure the transparency of your supply chain,” says Alex Whitmore, cofounder of Taza, a direct-trade artisan chocolate maker in Somerville, Massachusetts.

I think it’s excellent that you can find out the exact origin of the ingredients of any coffee bar you get from Taza Chocolate!

To ensure integrity, Taza prints a batch number on the back of every chocolate bar; buyers can enter the number on Taza’s website to trace exactly where the beans and other ingredients in that bar came from.

I put in an order and we’ll see if the taste lives up to their ideals. I’m certainly looking forward to trying  out their stone-ground organic chocolate!

Note: Tazo Chocolate is 133 miles from me which puts them out of my 100-mile local zone and into what I call my regional zone, in case you’re counting.

• Alicia, the Natural Princess and Renato
• Maureen of Your Simple Feast
• Kaela of Local Kitchen and Tai
• Zoe of Nutmeg Kitchen
• And me, Sophie from Late Bloomers Farm and Cecelia

What a delightful group of people—I think it took us all of 10 seconds to bond! Perhaps our affinity is due to our sharing the same foodshed, eating food that grew in the same soil, and discovering that my farmers are really our farmers. There’s nothing quite like conversation among people who experience similar challenges and celebrate similar victories. Whatever our reason(s) for eating locally: taste, nutrition, food miles, food safety, food security, local pride, or some combination thereof, we found kindred food spirits.

We talked food—recipes, ingredients, vendors, and techniques. We ate. We shared stories of our adventures in finding and obtaining food ingredients. We ate. We discussed the disparities in food laws and lore between NY and CT.  Did I mention we ate?

Lisa Agee of Goatboy Soap found the idea so exciting, she donated party favors: cute little goat-faced soaps.

Our Fabulous Northeast Feast Local Menu

As you’ll see, the dishes ran the gamut. My ingredient sources are listed below. Visit the other sites to see their sources and take on the day.

Appetizers

• Baked potato chips and onion dip
  
• Whole Grain Scottish rolls
  
• Savory Quinoa Cakes
  
• Pickled icebox carrots
• Sankow’s Beaver Brook Pleasant Cow cheese
• Two butters: salted from Wildowsky Dairy (Thank you Kim of Ladies of Levita Road for hooking me up!) and unsalted made from Stone Wall Dairy raw milk

Soup and Salad

• Mixed green salad with squash and apples and an exceptional dressing
  
• Potato leek soup

Main Course

• Roasted root vegetables
  
• Thai winter squash curry
  
• Ricotta gnocchi with pesto
  
• Chicken Scarpariello
  
• Kugel Gratin of greens and potatoes
  

Dessert

• Glazed Berry Tart with sweet ricotta
  
• Chocolate Espresso ice cream from Ferris Acres Creamery

Beverages

• Local beers: Arch Amber from the Hartford Beer Company and Sea Hag IPA from the New England Brewing Company
• Local wines: Cabernet Franc and St. Croix from Sharpe Hill Vineyard, Vista Riposa from McLaughlin Vineyards, and Rochambeau from Heritage Trail Winery
• Yaucono coffee (from Puerto Rico—local when I got it!)

Foodie Bloggers taking pictures of food:

Sophie’s Ingredient Sources:

Chicken Scarpariella

• chicken from Stuarts Family Farm
• chicken stock made with Kandew chicken carcasses
• Seyval Blanc white wine from Miranda Vineyard
• garlic from Holbrook Farm
• hot cherry peppers from Maple Bank Farm
• whole wheat flour from Lightning Tree/Wild Hive Farm
• canola oil from away

Potato Leek Soup

• Cranberry potatoes from Riverbank Farm
• leeks from Newgate Farm
• butter made from Stone Wall Dairy raw milk

I used the cranberry potatoes, thinking the soup would have a sort of Valentine’s look to it. Well, it didn’t. It came out to be an olive drab kind of color. Still tasty, but not pretty.

Well, that was fun. Plans are in the making for a summer feast!