From Dave Smith

Lunch with Alice Waters, Food Revolutionary
[Her new book The Art of Simple Food] is more to Ms. Waters than an instructional guide. It is her attempt, through recipes, to save the American food supply. She wrote it because she still believes a plate of delicious food can change everything. “We’re trying to educate young people and show them how to use that lens of ingredients as a way to change their lives,” she said. “Otherwise, it would be just another cookbook.” Because true, radical change — a country full of people who eat food that is good for them, good for the people who grow it and good for the earth — is simply not coming fast enough. A revolution in how we eat means respecting food and the people who produce it, she said. In her world, every aspect of this revolution, be it related to agricultural policy, the environment or obesity must begin with a plate of lovely, locally produced food and work backward from there. (Also: Waters visits local foodies in Charlotte)

Help Wanted: Young Farmers
For instance, Country Natural Beef, a cooperative made up of over 100 Food Alliance certified cattle ranches throughout the West, has effectively breathed new life into member ranchers’ bottom lines, and subsequently attracted 11 ranch kids back to carry on their family cattle tradition. The wisdom behind their founding motto, “Decommodify or Die!,” has gained traction among all kinds of farmers who, more and more, are finding their survival tightly bound to direct markets, value-added products, and the loyalty of conscientious eaters (like you).

Recipe for success
Despite growing pains, Slow Food is helping to change the way people consider their dinner plates—and the farmers who fill them… “We still need a connection between the farmers up to their knees in mud and the fine-dining customers at the other end.”

Organic is healthier and cheaper
The recent syndicated column attacking the value of organics has two big problems. First, it is suspiciously similar to a national effort by chemical companies to discredit organic. Second, and more important, organic food is better for your health, and organic agriculture is better for the environment. Which isn’t to say that local isn’t important, too.

The village that could save the planet
Built from scratch in a treeless corner of the country, this community of scientists, tinkerers, and refugees – now numbering more than 200 – has created a verdant rainforest where once there was nothing but scrub grass. It has also devised and deployed dozens of inventions…

Wash your veggies first
“Even if those bagged salads say pre-washed, just wash them anyway because those seem to be the ones that are recalled. It’s hard to say if it is the food itself or the people who are handling it that is the problem. (Washing) is also a good way to get rid of excess herbicides and pesticides.”

Frog deformities linked to non-organic farm pollution
…fertiliser pollution may be to blame for boosting the number of parasites in lakes and ponds. Run-off from non-organic farms contains large amounts of nutrients contained in fertilisers such as phosphorus and nitrogen, which eventually end up enriching the waters in nearby ponds, lakes and rivers – a phenomenon known as eutrophication… the amount of phosphorus that runs from rivers into the oceans has increased about three-fold since the industrialisation of agriculture.

Factory farming cruel for animals and hard on the the planet, too
Specifically, it’s the enormous amount of nitrate-rich livestock manure that’s the problem. Farmers spray masses of it on crops as fertilizer, causing excess nutrients such as nitrates, phosphates and potassium to seep into the soil and groundwater… A sobering study by the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization found that livestock production causes an estimated 18 per cent of human-induced greenhouse-gas emissions globally — more than all forms of transportation combined.

Humanely Raised Meat
Humanely or sustainably raised meat has entered the mainstream. Consumers — already buying local food, free-range eggs, and organic produce at sometimes higher cost — are willing to pay a premium for the knowledge that their steak didn’t suffer on the way to becoming dinner.

Local vs. Imported – How do we decide?
What does all of this mean for those of us who want our food to have a minimal impact on the climate? For one thing, it means that we can’t rely on simple conclusions from single studies. Yes, there’s more to the carbon impact of food than whether it’s local or not, but in many cases local and organic food may still be the best choice.

Biscuits Stuffed With Organic Spicy Greens And Ham (Organic Valley)

Organic Burgers on Dark Rye with Heirloom Tomatoes and Feta Spread (Organic Valley)
~~

Dave Smith is author of To Be Of Use – The Seven Seeds of Meaningful Work and lives in Mendocino County, North California.
Photo Credit: The New York Times
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From Gene Logsdon
Garden Farm Skills

The past summer tested my resolve as a small pasture farmer as never before. From May to the middle of August we received almost no rain, and then were hit by a windstorm that knocked down the sweet corn, a neighbor’s barn, and many trees. That was followed by a ten inch downpour in one day causing the worst flooding in our county ever. I was up in the middle of the night, frantically shoveling dirt from the lawn against the back door to keep the water from coming in. Many acres of corn and soybeans were ruined by flood water. Homes and downtown businesses were devastated.

Looking back now as autumn comes in, I realize that I was one of the luckier ones. My impromptu dam saved the house. In the fields, pasture farming with rotational grazing proved its resiliency. Instead of having annual cultivated crops to worry about, I had only pastures which are not much susceptible to flood, wind, or even hail damage. My creek bottom pastures were under three feet of water but the water receded fast and the grasses and clovers were unhurt. In fact, after all that dry weather, they grew better than ever. Corn or soybeans on that ground would have been destroyed.

The three months of drought meant of course that there was grave stress on the pastures. Only by moving the sheep regularly from one paddock to another, and using what would normally have been hay paddocks for emergency pasture, did I get through until it rained again. You can bet that the lambs did not gain weight like they normally would, but due to help from an unexpected quarter, I never even had to feed any hay to make up for lost pasture. And I learned something that might make the drought almost worth the worry it caused.

The weeds came to the rescue! One paddock, where I have not yet gotten a good thick sod established, became overgrown with Canadian thistles which were shading out the clovers in the dry weather. When their flower buds started to form, I turned the sheep in because I know from previous experience that sheep like to eat those buds off the tops of the thistles. Then after the sheep had grazed down the paddock, I mowed it to knock the thistles back even more. When they regrew to a lush stand of about six inches tall despite the drought, I turned the sheep in again and they ate the thistles right to the ground. They actually seemed to relish the cursed weed. By the time of the next grazing rotation the thistles had grown back only weakly and the sheep ate them off again. When the rains came, the clovers grew back in force.

In another paddock, the drought all but killed the young clover. Ragweed, which must love drought, took over, threatening to shade out the clover. So I mowed the ragweed. When it grew back rather lushly, the sheep ate it too! When it rained, the clover, without weed competition, grew back fairly well.

In normally dry August, barnyard or Japanese millet always comes on strong in my pastures. I consider it nearly worthless for grazing because the sheep won’t eat it much after it goes to seed, which it does rapidly. This year there was no other food on the table in early August, and the sheep ate the millet very well when it was only a few inches tall.

In yet another paddock, which I thought was completely lost to drought because the clover I had sown there did not germinate, a nice stand of narrow-leaf plantain took over. I knew, from reading, that traditional English pasture farmers deliberately planted this weed in their pastures because they believed it to be very palatable and healthful for sheep. It is always present in my pastures because it grows wild everywhere in America especially in lawns and along roadsides. Usually in pastures it goes unnoticed because the clover dominates it. Sure enough the sheep ate it with gusto and so a paddock I thought lost to drought gave me pasture in midsummer when I desperately needed some.

What is most amusing about this, pathetically so, is that when I was a boy, my grandfather and my father tried to keep this plantain (which we called buckhorn — its scientific name is Plantago lanceolata) out of the clover hay fields. Why? Seed cleaners could not separate out the plaintain seed from the clover seed, and so the latter, which we harvested in the fall as a cash crop, would be docked at the elevator if it had plantain seed in it. Plantain is hated by Americans as the worst lawn weed of all. I remember a year when we crawled through the hayfield, digging out buckhorn plants by hand. All this agony because we were ignorant of the benefits of this “weed.” Not only do grazing animals like it, but in herbal folklore, it has been valued medicinally at least as far back as the 6th century B. C. It was used in ancient China and then all through the Middle Ages in England, as a poultice for wounds of all kinds, and as a general blood cleanser, whatever that is.

There is a lesson here for all of us, I think. We have been brainwashed by the kind of modern science that looks down its nose at traditional knowledge. I had to pay for this ignorance — had to crawl across hayfields digging out a plant that I would learn sixty five years later was perhaps as beneficial as the clover we were bent on (and bent over) “protecting” from it. And of course, we are all paying still. Americans pour millions upon millions of dollars of herbicides on their lawns to get rid of a weed that might, in a more enlightened age, be used as a beneficial medicine.
~~

Gene and Carol Logsdon have a small-scale experimental farm in Wyandot County, Ohio.

Current Books:
All Flesh Is Grass: Pleasures & Promises of Pasture Farming
The Lords of Folly (novel)
The Mother of All Arts: Agrarianism and the Creative Impulse (Culture of the Land)
Image Credits: Sheep Grazing in a Meadow, Rosa Bonheur (French, 1822-1899)
Flooding, Wyandot County, Ohio, 2007
Buckhorn Plantain
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From Lisa Barnes

First Fish For Baby

This is an easy way to prepare fish for your baby or toddler. Because of the mild and “non-fishy” taste, tilapia is a good introduction to seafood for a little one. Fish can be thinned with reserved cooking broth, or mix with plain yogurt or cottage cheese for a more creamy texture.

Makes 2 servings

1 cup organic vegetable broth
2 (4-ounce) white fish fillets

Heat broth in a medium skillet over medium-high heat until simmering. Add fish fillets. Broth should not cover fish, but come up about halfway. Simmer fish until opaque, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Fish should flake easily with a fork. Remove fish from pan and mash with a fork to desired consistency, or puree with some of the cooking liquid in a food processor.

Tip: No bones about it. Be sure to check fish carefully for small bones before feeding to baby. Fillets have fewer bones than steaks.
~

Organic Fish Sticks For Kids

Forget about frozen sticks with imposter fish and fake breading. Your child deserves the real thing. Use a mild white fish for this recipe. Serve a variety of dipping options such as ketchup, malt vinegar, and tartar sauce.

Makes 4 servings

1 cup organic milk
1 cage-free, organic egg, slightly beaten
1 cup toasted oat cereal
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 pound skinless, boneless fish fillets (halibut, cod, or tilapia)
1/4 cup expeller pressed canola oil

In a shallow dish beat together milk and egg. Put cereal in a food processor and pulse into crumbs. Or place in a self-sealing plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. On a flat plate, combine cereal, flour, and salt. Cut fish into 8 equal pieces. Dip fish pieces into milk-egg mixture, and then dredge in cereal mixture to coat.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add fish sticks to pan and cook until brown and crispy outside and cooked and flaky inside, 3 to 4 minutes on each side, turning with a spatula. Reduce heat if there is too much splattering. Pat fish sticks with paper towels to soak up any excess oil.

Tip: Everyone has Os. I’ve discovered that every household with a child under five years old has some brand of toasted Os cereal. You’ll be surprised how well your child’s favorite cereal performs in recipes that call for bread crumbs, stuffing, or even nuts.
~~
Also see: Baby Food Has Come A Long Way

Lisa Barnes is author of The Petit Appetit Cookbook and lives in Sausalito, California.
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From Greg Atkinson

Makes 2 dozen small appetizers to serve 12

Sashimi-grade albacore loins are flash frozen before they reach the market. These small loins, generally 16 to 18 inches long, are easy to handle on the grill, and when they are left very rare in the center, they slice beautifully into neat portions. I like to serve the tuna on a mound of “ocean salad.” Made from several kinds of seaweed in sesame dressing, ocean salad is sold in the seafood sections of Asian markets and in some regular supermarkets. If ocean salad is unavailable, use shredded spinach tossed with a drizzle of sesame oil and a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds. The “crisps” are made from fried wonton wrappers, which are sold in the produce section of most large supermarkets.

For the Tuna
1 (11⁄2 pound) loin of albacore tuna
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Madeira or sherry
1 tablespoon olive or canola oil
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
11⁄2 cups ocean salad (see head note)
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds, optional

For the Crisps
Rice bran oil or canola oil for frying 24 wonton wrappers

1. If the tuna is frozen, thaw it overnight in the refrigerator or thaw it still sealed in its packaging in a sink full of cold water for about three hours.

2. In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, Madeira, olive oil and sesame oil. Add the thawed albacore filet and roll the filet in the marinade to coat it evenly. Allow the fish to marinate for 30 minutes at room temperature or for several hours in the refrigerator.

3. Preheat a gas or charcoal grill until the heat from the grill forces you to move your hand away when you hold it 5 inches above the grate. Charcoal should be burned down to white-hot coals. Grill the marinated albacore on one side without moving it until the edges close to the grilling surface become opaque and cooked-looking, and dark brown marks are established underneath, about 3 minutes. (If you try to turn the fish too soon, it will stick to the grill and tear when you try to move it.)

4. Turn the albacore twice, grilling three sides of the loin and leaving the inside very rare, about 8 minutes in all. Take the loin off the heat and let it stand at room temperature while you make the crisps. Or, if you prefer to grill the loin a day in advance, refrigerate until a half hour before serving time.

5. Line a baking sheet with a brown paper bag or with paper towels. Put enough oil in a small sauté pan to reach 1⁄2 inch up the sides of the pan. Warm the oil over medium-high heat until it is hot but not smoking, then fry the wonton wrappers one or two at a time in the hot oil, pressing them into the oil with a spatula or swishing the oil over the surface so each one fries evenly. As the crisps are fried, drain them on the lined baking sheet.

6. To assemble the appetizers, put a small mound, about a tablespoon, of ocean salad on top of each crisp, then top with a slice of the grilled albacore.
~~
Greg Atkinson is author of West Coast Cooking and lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington
Photo Credit: Barry Wong Photo
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From Dave Smith

I’ve written previously about the skills needed to run a small farm – Organic Farmers As Heroes, And The People Who Love Them.

Simon Huntley over at Small Farm Central writes about “adjective-laden food” and the skills needed to bring it to market…

Where will your organic, micro, local, sustainable, raw, wild lettuce come from in 20 years? By definition of the small farm movement, we want farmers who cultivate small acreage, can talk engagingly about the food they produce and how to prepare it, and guarantee their economic success so they can afford to bring those vegetables to you throughout the years.

Let me brainstorm a few of the skills that it takes to bring the meat, vegetables, honey, etc to market:

• mechanical genius to keep stringing along that mid 20th century tractor and the innumerable pieces of equipment that makes a farm run
• micro-meterologist to consume multiple weather reports and parse them to form a prediction for each micro-climate on the farm
• production botanist (or animal husbandry expert) to be able to draw in the advice of experts on disease and production and apply them to specific problems on the farm
• breeder: continually hone seedstock or breeding pool for maximum effectiveness
• human resources development: get the right amount of able hands on the farm at the exact time to make harvest happen
• human resources management: ensure that those hands to keep hoeing in the same direction to make harvest happen
• marketing: hone your message to maximize sales to any or all of the following groups: the general public, restaurants, wholesalers, fellow farmers
• public relations: tell the farm story every day to all stakeholders and make sure employees can tell the story as well
• business manager: record sales, pay taxes, manage equipment purchases, pay wages, etc.

How many people or families have the ability to assimilate all these absolutely necessary skills and then bring a saleable product to market each year and then, the final key, make enough money to justify another year of farming. If you know Salatin’s admirable sustainable grazing program, you know that it can take a lifetime to learn the system on top of all of the skills listed above.

Many smart, able people exist that can to perform the mental acrobatics and are committed to a lifetime of learning, but small are the number that are insane enough to start farming. Besides plentiful sunshine, exercise, and a feeling of accomplishment not matched in any other field, what does a farmer earn at the end of the year. $30,000? $50,000?

Balanced with quality of life issues, that level of compensation might be commensurate to the skills required if not for the extremely high entry costs and risks. Reasonably fertile land within a half-day drive of a metropolitan area (to sell the produce) in addition to equipment must cost at least $500,000 if not double or triple that figure in some areas. So to summarize the journey to starting a farm: spend around a million dollars up front; master 10-15 high level skills; work long, physical hours for the rest of your life; try to avoid a “natural” crop failure: freeze, flood, or drought; and hope that you have enough left at the end of the day to pay back the loan and muster a middle-class income. Or… take those skills and join the traditional workforce and earn six-figures without any upfront costs.

I hope I don’t sound too pessimistic because I love agriculture: the growing, the marketing, and the work. It’s just that this disconnect worries me as a younger person who has enough experience in growing to want to do it on my own. But as I think I have ably demonstrated above: it is an completely insane thing to do. Sure there are alternatives: innovative land access with trust, SPIN farming, or Farming the Concrete Jungle. Also, the market is growing for authentic food and small farms that can find a niche in the marketplace can be successful. I know it is possible, but how does a new farmer justify the risk?

Maybe there are simple brute economic forces acting on the market: people want adjective-laden food (micro, local, sustainable, et al) instead of chemical-laden food, but it takes extra care and smaller scale to bring these products to the marketplace. Small farms are well suited to the task of producing high-quality food, but the costs are higher. Will Americans pay the extra price that sustainable, small-scale production requires? If not, can farmers find a way to bring down the price to point that the general public can pay? Or failing the first two options, will farmers be forced to scale up to survive? I have a strong feeling that we will either need to learn to work together as a movement and make small farming more economically feasible — a mix of government incentives, land-use agreements as linked above, equipment sharing, sensible market incentives for sustainable operations, and more — or go back to a system that resembles what we had before this movement started, albeit with less chemicals.

I know that plenty of young people are making the choice to farm on a small scale. But can they farm at the right scale with enough commitment and business skills to be on the land in 20 years? My contribution to this question and problem, at this point in my life, is to cross one skill set off that long list above: web designer/developer. Like this project, Small Farm Central, attempts, we need to find ways to work together as a community of small farmers and harness our collective power and knowledge to strengthen the group. This will not be an easy task for such a geographically disparate group that is inherently independent, but as I said in my last post, for survival we need to find a way to work together without compromising the individuality of each farm. I believe that I am doing my small part and I’m sure each of us are to extent, but will it be enough?
~~

Dave Smith is author of To Be Of Use – The Seven Seeds of Meaningful Work and lives in Mendocino County, California.
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