30 Day Writing Challenge: Day Six

Accidental Farmers

I find all people fascinating really.  If I channeled the time I spend each day examining people and trying to understand how and why they do the things they do, I could probably hold down a part time job.  However, this is only a 30 Day Writing Challenge so I have to limit myself.  For a number of years now, I have been fascinated by Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Dr. Brent Ridge, the Fabulous Beekman Boys.  I first learned about the Beekman Boys in 2009 when I watched their show on Planet Green.  The premise of the reality show was that Dr. Brent Ridge and his writer husband Josh Kilmer-Purcell, both New York City residents, bought a farm in Sharon Springs, New York.  While Brent stayed on the farm trying to make it financially successful, Josh commuted from the city for weekends.  They are a charming couple of gentleman farmers whose early struggles with farm life and trying to hold together a long distance relationship provided good entertainment.  Eventually, their efforts made the farm self-sustaining, probably through Josh's experience with public relations and Brent's brilliant ideas for producing and marketing goods manufactured with goods from their farm at Beekman 1802.  It didn't hurt that they won The Amazing Race...and that they have a good relationship with Martha Stewart.

I WAS easily drawn in by their reality TV show, The Fabulous Beekman Boys, but what really caught my interest was the idea of contemporary, small town farming.  Having read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, I was already interested in the idea of living more closely to the land.  I read Josh and Brent's books and watched all the episodes of The Fabulous Beekman Boys and then set out to read everything I could find about small time farmers.  I devoured books about urban farming:  Farm City, by Novella Carpenter, who went so far as to raise pigs in downtown Oakland; My Empire of Dirt, by Manny Howard, who attempted to raise chickens and meat rabbits in his backyard in Flatbush; and The Accidental Farmers, by Tim Young. 

Although I am far from owning a farm or living off the land, I am proud that these investigations have led me to be more thoughtful about the food I feed my family.  I've certainly written a lot in this blog about our CSA adventures, my attempts to reduce the processed food my family eats, my dedication to reducing the amount of meat we consume, and my passion for investing my money whenever possible in local farms.  Recently, I enjoyed a heartfelt conversation with "my" farmer, a mile down the road from my house, about her mixed feelings about her new baby piglets.  Although they were cute as a button, she was torn because she knew that they would soon be orphans.  We talked about the ethical burden of choosing to eat meat, but how important it is to know that it has been raised kindly and gently and lived a nice life.  We were both close to tears about the piglets, but we're not ready to stop eating bacon.  I stop in at Sport Hill Farm at least once a week to buy as much of my produce as I can before I hit Stop and Shop; almost everything Patti sells is grown on her farm.  She sells some products that are grown elsewhere, but she only sells products from farmers whose practices she knows she can stand behind.  This food consciousness makes me feel secure about what I am feeding my family and myself.  I love investing my money in a small, local farm rather than factory agriculture.

It seems silly to attribute this journey to a reality TV show, but Josh and Brent's engaging and humorous portrayal of farm life helped me recognize that there are other ways to live, that a simpler life, closer to the land, is a possibility for any of us.  I haven't followed their post-Amazing Race adventures as closely, but from time to time I enjoy seeing what's new in the lives of the gentlemen farmers of Sharon Springs. 

Love Is Cage Free Eggs

Usually, my husband and I do our grocery shopping together.  It may sound like a waste of time, but it works for us.  He keeps me honest and somewhat frugal, and I remember to buy things I've forgotten to add to the grocery list, like sweet potatoes and juice boxes.  On Sunday, Jamie went shopping alone; we had returned from a weekend away, and Duncan was exhausted, strung out, and asked to stay home.  Sometimes, it's eye opening to see what he brings home when I am not around to influence his purchases. This week's revealing item was cage free eggs; those cage free eggs spelled love.

If you're landing here for the first time, you need to know that I have spent the last several years slowly, steadily, determinedly encouraging my family to reduce their impact on the environment.  We joined a CSA, stopped using paper towels and napkins, and committed to packing waste-free lunches.  I stealthily joined the Meatless Monday movement and stretched my flexitarian lifestyle to include meatless Tuesday. I made it a practice to bake my own bread for our weekly grilled cheese night and started making soup instead of buying it in cans.  We took a hard look at our recycling practices and endeavored to be the best recyclers we could be; we started composting.  We've made a lot of changes, and we know now that we have a lot to go, but we work at it every day.

Working on our food choices has been a long adventure.  Ultimately, I'm trying to feed my family more local food, less processed food, and less but more humane meat.  It is not a perfect world, but we try.  I have been buying most of our meat from the farmers' market or from a local, organic farm; when I can, I buy eggs from the farmers' market or I buy the most local options available in the grocery store.  This weekend, Jamie returned with two dozen cage free eggs.  I know they cost more; I'm sure he doesn't understand why I care about the chickens, and I'm not going to launch into a diatribe about the lives of the typical, "factory" laying chicen.  But the truth is, I DO care about the chickens.  Jamie could have bought any eggs.  We had a rough week; I wasn't going to complain about his egg choices.  He may have to live with my choices, particularly in what we bring home from the grocery store, but I don't believe it's my business to criticize his.  Nevertheless, there they are.  Cage free eggs.  He had heard my concern for the lives of the chickens, the healthfulness of the eggs, and the carbon footprint of our food.

To you, they may just be eggs.  Cage free eggs in biodegradable cartons.  To me, they're love.

Amenia Winter Farmers' Market

I love the Amenia Winter Farmers Market. The market is still only in its first year; the summer of 2010 marked the beginning of the Amenia Farmers' Market, and on the heels of its success, the participants decided to experiment with a winter market. The truth is, I only went once during the summer. I wasn't impressed that day. It was early in the summer, and there were only about six vendors; also, as a CSA member, I really didn't need much in the way of produce. When I heard the news about the winter market, though, I was really excited. The market was held each week between Thanksgiving and Christmas and then once a month during the endless, cold and snowy winter. The winter market really opened my eyes to local farmers, craftspeople, bakers, and cooks I might not have known existed. In addition to the farmers and food vendors, there's a local woman who makes knitting supplies (needle holders, knitting bags), local potters, a woman in Millbrook who spins yarn, and a nice gentleman who builds birdhouses. I've become addicted to fresh eggs and locally grown meat, and there is a hydroponic farm in Wassaic that kept us all in salad greens throughout the winter. Until November, I had no idea most of these things were available in my community. In this season alone, I purchased, all locally grown and/or made:  greens, apples, potatoes, onions, pumpkins, squash, bread, cheese, eggs, hamburger, jellies and jams, chocolate covered pretzels, cake, granola, yarn, and seeds. I'm sure there is more that I am not remembering.

I love the Amenia Winter Farmers' Market because I think it is important to buy local and reduce the carbon footprint of the food and gifts I buy for my family. I love the Amenia Winter Farmers' Market because I think it is important to support local farmers and business owners. I love the Amenia Winter Farmer's Market because I am endlessly amazed by what is available in my tiny community. Mostly, I love the Amenia Winter Farmers' Market because it gives me hope, hope that if we all start to see the value of what is available locally, we may begin to heal our earth, our economy, and our sense of community. If I have a farmers' market, chances are you have one too. Stop by and buy something. You'll be glad you did.

Bag Lady

Many CSA (i.e., Community Supported Agriculture) farms package their shareholders' weekly harvests nicely in bags and boxes. Our CSA is not among them. I love our farm, but it has a very limited staff, and members are expected to bag their own weekly shares according to posted signs that specify the quantity of each item. I don't really mind that they ask me to bring my own bags. Reusing bags is the environmentally friendly thing to do. Last year, I bought those plastic grocery bags available at the store that are supposed to increase the life of your produce, but this year, I couldn't bring myself to pay for plastic bags. I have yet to find a fabric grocery bag that I like. Furthermore, if you're already an environmentally friendly person who takes her own reusable bags to the grocery store, you don't even have a good stash of plastic grocery store bags to use. What's a green feelin', bag reusin', CSA belongin' member to do?

I had to have something. Some items, like a head of cabbage or a bunch of beets, can go without bags, but two pounds of carrots, one and a half pounds of salad greens, and two pounds of carrots need to be contained.  One week, out of sheer desperation, I saved our bread bag. The next thing I knew, I was saving the bread bags, used Ziploc bags, the zip top miniature carrot bags from the grocery store, the produce bags from the store, the miniature bagel bags, and those little net bags the cherry tomatoes come in. I felt a little batty, just a little bit like I should be a single mother to 57 cats. On the other hand, I also felt a little giddy.  FREE BAGS!  FREE BAGS THAT WERE GETTING A NEW LIFE BEFORE GOING TO THE LANDFILL!  FREE BAGS THAT WERE BEING FILLED WITH ORGANIC, LOCALLY GROWN PRODUCE AND REUSED A COUPLE OF TIMES BEFORE BEING RETIRED! Guess what? I don't care if I'm a little quirky; you all thought I was nuts when I gave up paper towels. You can admit it. But I cut out paper towels, napkins, and paper plates and improved my paper recycling habits, and I'm pretty sure I've saved a tree by now.  I rinse out those plastic bags, dry them on the paper towel rack, and the stuff them into a grocery bag to take to the farm next summer.

If you think I'm a little loony, walk into your kitchen and count all the things that are packaged in potentially reusable plastic bags. Then picture a big pile of those trash bags in your front lawn. It's ugly, isn't it. Don't you either want to get rid of them altogether or at least breathe a little extra life into them? If I use each of those bags twice, I reduce the pile of plastic in my virtual front yard. Think about it.

Mostly Palatable Mustard Greens and Pasta Pie

CSA Bibles

In addition to the infinite number of recipes available on the Internet, I have found Farmer John's Cookbook, by Farmer John Peterson and Angelic Organics, and From Asparagus to Zucchini, by the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition, to be my best tools in dealing with the new and unfamiliar vegetables pouring in from my CSA.  Below is the "magic" spinach recipe that made my family so happy (From A to Z).

Cheesy Spinach  

Mix:  

3 eggs 

1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice 

1 cup brown rice, cooked 

1 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley 

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (optional) 

salt and pepper to taste  

Mix separately:  

1 large bunch of spinach, chopped and steamed 

1 cup cottage cheese 

1 cup grated cheddar cheese 

4 eggs

salt and pepper to taste 

pinch of cayenne  

Spread the ingredients from the first mixture in the bottom of a greased casserole.  Spread the spinach mixture over them.  Bake at 350 degrees until firm, 45 - 60 minutes.  Makes 10 - 12 servings.

Farm Follow Up

So, how did our first CSA week turn out?  We had mixed feelings about sauteed radishes. Jamie sort of liked them. I think the words he used may have been "didn't mind." I didn't mind the warm radishes; what I minded was the bed of sauteed arugula they were sitting on. Many people have told me they like sauteed arugula; those must be the same people who like swiss chard. It was sort of stringy and slimy; since I like it raw, the sharp contrast with its cooked self was hugely disappointing to me. The stir fried chicken with bok choy was pretty good. I'm not sure we got Duncan to try the bok choy, but I liked it. It was somewhat tainted by its side dish, dandelion greens with double garlic, which not only pissed me off but took way too long to prepare for something that tasted that nasty. What was that quote of Scarlett O'Hara's about "we will never go hungry again?" On that day, when there is post-apocalyptic armageddon and literally nothing else on the earth to eat, I will eat dandelion greens. Cilantro pesto with chicken was pretty popular. One of the highlights of our week was Wednesday's meal of linguine with arugula pesto, farm fresh salad, and home baked English muffin bread. I spent a good deal of Wednesday night being pleased with myself, my farm, my husband, and pretty much any human being who has ever grown anything. (That happiness was later challenged when I was tricked into eating dandelion greens...but we take each day as it comes). Another pleasant surprise was our cheesy spinach (to Matt and Courtney - recipe coming soon). We are not spinach people. Jamie and I like it raw, in a salad. Duncan does not recognize it as a foodstuff. No one likes it cooked. But that was some darned good spinach pie. We ALL liked it, and I couldn't get over my shock. I was still talking about it the next day at school. Spinach a shocking success.  Details at 11:00.

This week's harvest was mostly salad things so I don't anticipate too much culinary excitement, but here's what we have coming next week:  scallions, turnips, radishes, kohlrabi, arugula, garlic scapes, bok choy, dandelions, spring cabbage, romaine, lemon balm or parsley, or cilantro. So if anyone has hidden recipes they want to share, pass them along. I may try Matt's scallion pancakes if I can hunt down the recipe. One thing is for sure: we're not even bringing home those dandelion greens.

CSA Week One - Think Aloud

This is sort of a think aloud.


Our CSA pickup starts this weekend, at long last. I'm looking forward to it because of the fresh organic vegetables, adventures in cooking, opportunities to pick some of our own food, and ready supply of local beef, goat cheese, maple syrup, and pork. I'm also a little nervous. I remember how it sometimes felt like the CSA ate up all our free time in the summer, between the pickups, the meal planning, and learning to cook new things. I remember how there were vegetables and dirt everywhere, and the tide of lettuce was unstoppable. This year, Karl shared a share with us again, but he'll be out for the count until August, recovering from back surgery and spending time with family so we'll not only bear the sole burden of food pickup but also have ALL the produce for the next month and a half. This year, I'm determined to try even more things (I conveniently neglected the dandelion greens and collards until they went bad last summer), to try preserve a bit more, and to do a better job of planning our grocery shopping around our farm haul.


With that in mind, I spent a good hour or two this week planning next week's menu.  This week's harvest:  radishes, komatsuna (a very leafy variety of bok choy), spinach, lettuce, arugula, dandelion greens. I combed my CSA cookbooks as well as a few online resources and planned menus that will (hopefully) use all the vegetables without me having to buy too many at the grocery store to complement them. 


Based on that research, here's what I'm doing with what we're getting as well as the week's menus. 

radishes - Sauteed Radishes with Radish Greens or Arugula - Farmer John’s Cookbook - p. 131

komatsuna (a very leafy variety of bok choy) - stir fried chicken with bok choy (Culinate How to Cook             Everything)

spinach - Cheesy Spinach (From Asparagus to Zucchini, p. 186) (easy but needs precooked brown rice/spinach steamed)

lettuce - salad

arugula - sauteed radishes and/or arugula pesto (Farmer John's cookbook)

dandelion greens - dandelion greens with double garlic (Culinate How to Cook Everythings)

Sunday - out

Monday - pork chops, sauteed radishes, cous cous

Tuesday - cheesy spinach, sausage, bread

Wednesday - pasta with arugula pesto, salad

Thursday - stir fried chicken with bok choy, rice, dandelion greens

Friday - pizza


And there you have it.  My plans for the first week's harvest are complete. I spared you the accompanying grocery list, but I'll try to remember to take pictures so I can show you how it comes out!

Chubby Bunny Update

We are slowly adjusting to being shareholders. We have figured out how to work our trips to the farm into our weekly grocery routine, and I'm becoming more accustomed to planning a week's worth of menus around the produce. 

It's not a perfect setup. We receive an e-mail early in the week that tells us what will be in this week's share, and then when we get there, there are inevitably four or five things I haven't planned for, and I need to scramble to find a way to use them. There is still more salad than we need, more swiss chard than we care for, and not enough broccoli. The first week or two, we found we were having refrigeration issues. Our vegetables were going bad before we got to them, which was curious since they were freshly picked. We are learning what needs to be used right away, what needs to be stored in the vegetable bin in the fridge, and at what temperature and humidity we need to maintain the conditions.  We learned that the lovely cotton, drawstring produce bags I purchased are not working for us (though they're working fine for Karl). What has been far more successful are those "as seen on T.V." Debbie Meyer produce bags that are said to absorb the gases that make fruits and vegetables go bad. I didn't believe in them but heard from several people how great they are, and so they have been for us. We are still wasting things; there is an entire cabbage hiding in there, half from two weeks ago and half from last week. I don't know what we'll do with it but hope we'll actually use it. All in all, we have adjusted to getting the food in the house, but what have we been eating?

Salad, and a lot of it.  I can't keep up with the salad. I was not saddened today to find out that this week's rains reduced the salad share. How much salad can you eat, really? One pound of greens is a LOT for two people (Duncan won't eat salad). The salad has been great, however, with the turnips, which I continue to enjoy, with the radishes, and with the broccoli. Scallions have come in handy. Some surprises included kale, which we enjoyed in a kale and corn salad (pictured with veggie burger), that caused Jamie to declare that of all the new things we had tried, it was his favorite. Much to my surprise, I also liked beets, broiled with a sauce of butter, maple syrup, and soy sauce. The little, purple, alien kohlrabi were my favorite. By the time we shared them with Karl, there weren't a lot, but they were sort of sweet with the texture of a potato. I look forward to having them again. We have not yet been won over by swiss chard, which we have tried in a number of different ways. In polenta, it was miserable. I liked it best with raisins and pine nuts; Jamie liked it best with a sweet and sour sauce with ginger and hot pepper. "Liked" is a relative term though. Of all the things we have tried, chard is the one I would not purchase in the grocery store. Last week and this week brought us some old favorites; green beans, carrots, raspberries, garlic. It's refreshing not to have to think of what to do with them, but that comfort comes at the expense of losing that little bit of excitement in trying something new.

I'm still happy about experimenting with Community Supported Agriculture. As with any other part of life, it has its ups and downs, but the positives far outweigh the negatives. Sure, I'm trying some strange things, and learning what to do with them is a lot of work. Sure, the swiss chard keeps coming, and I just don't like it. Sure, I don't know if locally grown, organic kohlrabi really tastes better than it does from the supermarket because I have no basis for comparison. But it's just plain better for us. I've read enough now about pesticides to be concerned. I've read enough about how far the average item in the grocery store travels, at the price of expensive, nonrenewable, polluting fossil fuels. I KNOW where my vegetables come from and how they are grown. If I have a question, I can e-mail the farmer. 

Here's what else I like though. I like standing next to my son in a field picking green beans. I LOVE that he got into the car and wanted to eat a raw green bean, warm from the sun. I LOVE that one of the things he wants to be when he grows up is a farmer (well, I hope he gets over that, but I like the idea that it's a sustainable industry). I LOVE that he has gotten closer to the source of his food and knows what it looks like when it's in the dirt. It makes me feel better about our future, as individuals and as a population that is sharing the planet with so many others. Today, what made my day was this quote from Jamie: "I have to admit that when I look at the produce in the grocery store now, I'm slightly repulsed by it - especially the fruit. All the wax and preservatives." There has to be a better way, and there is.