Archive for July 2010
The Farmers Diner
The Farmers Diner in Quechee (Windsor County, Vt)-
Even in a state promoting a cheese trail of 41 artisinal cheesemakers (www.vtcheese.com/cheesetrail.htm), it still comes as a bit of a surprise and delight to find The Farmers Diner. Tucked into a corner of touristy Quechee Gorge Village, is a wonderfully preserved 1947 railroad dining car, moved from Worcester, Massachusetts to Quechee 25 years ago. (The Farmers Diner operates a second location in the Marble Works District of Middlebury [Addison County], Vermont). Fortunate to get a corner booth in this American treasure, I was even more fortunate to find a restaurant that serves its morning coffee (organic and free-traded from Vermont roaster, Harrington Bros. and ground at the diner) in a mug inscribed with a Wendell Berry quote, “Eating Is An Agricultural Act” from his Collected Poems 1957-1982 (North Point Press, 1986). The pleasure of starting a summer day in Vermont with The Farmers Diner’s extraordinary “Farmers’ Breakfast” is an experience for anyone who appreciates the words posted behind the diner’s front counter: “Think Locally, Eat Neighborly.” Near the entry to the diner are posted the equally potent words: “Welcome to The Farmers Diner, Food From Here.”
For a very reasonable $11.00, given the quality and generously sized portions, the Farmer’s Breakfast consists of two eggs “cooked to your liking”, two fluffy buttermilk pancakes with local Vermont blueberries, local Vermont Smoke and Cure bacon (www.vtsmokeandcure.com), and home fries. The pancakes were served with Vermont maple syrup and Cabot’s butter. It was irresistible to try the spicy peach jam and raspberry jam, both made from Vermont fruit, in jars on the booth’s table. They complemented the buttermilk pancakes as well as the traditional maple syrup, and the spicy peach jam was a surprisingly tangy, flavorful treat, which left a lingering pleasure on the palate almost like a fine red wine. I should have asked where I could purchase a jar! My scrambled eggs were creamy and perfectly cooked. For 95 cents extra, I opted for eggs “from hens running around the barnyard and out in the field” though all eggs served are Vermont fresh shell eggs. (In an age where most breakfast restaurants use pasteurized liquid eggs in a wax-covered aseptic box, a hallelujah is in order to The Farmers Diner.) The Vermonter breakfast at $9.00 consisted of two eggs “cooked to your liking” with Vermont Smoke and Cure bacon or maple sausage, and La Panciata (a local baker) wheat or white toast and home fries. But my advice simply stated: don’t miss the enjoyment of the two finest buttermilk pancakes this side of the Mississippi River with a dash of spicy Vermont peach jam.
Special mention must be made of The Farmers Diner menu, which is a remarkable document reflective of a growing movement in America. All items in red on the menu are from area farmers and producers. With the diner’s goal “to purchase 80% or our ingredients from area farms and producers”, the red vastly predominates over the black ink of the menu. The very first page of the menu consists of a detailed description of a local producer, which the friendly waitress explained rotates with other descriptions. She handed me 6 menus, each with a different local food producer on the first page. My menu told the story of Allison Hooper and her Vermont Butter and Cheese Co. (www.vermontcreamery.com), which is one of the 41 artisinal cheesemakers on the Vermont cheese trail.
The options on the menu for lunch were appealing and would justify a lunchtime stop at The Farmers Diner on a future date: Sappy Squealer, slow roasted Vermont raised pulled pork in Maple BBQ sauce; cheeseburgers made with Vermont PT Farms beef and Cabot jack or cheddar cheese and a slice of Long Wind Farm’s tomato, Bean Burger made with Vermont Butterworks Farm’s organic beans, tender roasted Vermont Misty Knoll farm chicken, grilled cheese sandwiches made with various types of Vermont cheeses. But with breakfast served all day, it would be tough to pass up another Farmer’s Breakfast at any time of day, with perhaps an order of Nitty Gritty corn meal hush puppies which the waitress mentioned was her favorite dish on the menu (FB 7/28/10). [The Farmers Diner, 5573 Woodstock Rd. (Rt 4), Quechee, VT, 802.295.4600, Breakfast, Lunch: (Nov-May) Mon-Sun 7:00AM-4:00PM; Breakfast, Lunch: (June-Oct) Sun-Weds 7:00AM-4:00PM, Thurs-Sat 7:00AM-8:00PM www.farmersdiner.com]
[Editor’s Note-Sadly, The Farmers Diner ceased operation in March 2011.]
Industrial Vegetable Production in California’s Salinas Valley
One small valley in California has become the center of vegetable production in the United States, with some remarkable production statistics. 99% of artichokes, 92% of broccoli, 94% of processing tomatoes, 94% of celery, 86% of garlic, 83% of cauliflower, 76% of head lettuce, 67% of carrots, and 58% of asparagus are grown in the Salinas Valley and distributed throughout North America. These statistics are cited in Christopher Henke’s historical and sociological analysis of the Salinas Valley’s production of “niche market crops on an industrial level” in Cultivating Science, Harvesting Power – Science and Industrial Agriculture in California (The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2008).
California is the center for farm production in the United States, with farm production in 2005 valued at $31.7 billion, nearly double that of the runner-up Texas with farm production valued at $16.4 billion. Mr. Henke, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Colgate University, focuses on the role of agricultural scientists, employed by Cooperative Extension of the University of California (UC), in assisting growers in the development of industrial scale agriculture in California’s Salinas Valley. Growers have invested a great deal of effort in “intervention” with Mother Nature in order to transform the valley into a “unique” place, and Mr. Henke provides a clear-eyed view of the role of agricultural scientists in this extraordinary transformation of an American landscape. Simply stated, industrial growers in the Salinas Valley harvested power and fortune by cultivating the assistance of Cooperative Extension agricultural scientists.
In his detailed academic notes at the end of his “ethnographic” analysis, which carefully dissects the connections between place, practice and power in the Salinas Valley, Mr. Henke cites a 1787 letter from Thomas Jefferson to George Washington in which Jefferson idealizes small family farms: “The wealth acquired by speculation and plunder . . . fills society with the spirit of gambling. The moderate and sure income of husbandry begets permanent improvement, quiet life and orderly conduct, both public and private.” One wonders how Thomas Jefferson would respond to a Salinas Valley industrial grower’s defense of his use of pesticides by raising the specter of mass starvation with inefficient organic methods of production causing food shortages: “You sure as hell don’t feed 250 million people or a billion people by picking tomato horn worms off by hand.” Mr. Henke has closely studied how Cooperative Extension’s agricultural scientists have attempted to shape, mediate and stabilize relationships between “land, water, money and labor” upon which farming in Salinas Valley is built. The emphasis for the industrial growers of Salinas Valley is on “creating the conditions for a reliably maximal crop rather than just stable yields.” This drive for the most production makes it an almost impossible task for agricultural scientists to keep the ecology of agriculture in the Salinas Valley in a state of “repair,” defined in academic terms by Mr. Henke as “maintaining the system in the face of constant change.” When an acre of lettuce in the United States is worth $6,360, compared to $334 for an acre of corn, this urge to produce as much as possible in the Salinas Valley becomes nearly uncontrollable.
It is tempting to throw up your hands and say the environmental degradation from industrial agriculture cannot be altered since even “maintaining the system” in a state of “repair” seems impossible, and the possibility of transformative repair of industrial agriculture into sustainable agriculture is not even on the table for discussion. Mr. Henke cites some sobering facts: one-half of the ground water in southern parts of the Salinas Valley is unsafe to drink due to nitrates from the overuse of chemical fertilizers, and seawater has intruded into ground water supplies along the Monterey Bay coast, with the increased pumping of ground water for crop irrigation. Still, it is an open question, not yet finally answered in the negative, whether agricultural scientists can play an effective role, for example, in persuading growers to use nitrogen fertilizers only when needed and not based on a schedule so that it doesn’t leach out of a crop’s root zone and contaminate ground water. When the common view is “Nobody’s gonna skip a $40 fertilizer application and possibly blow a $2,500 crop,” the task seems nearly impossible. Further, based upon Mr. Henke’s historical analysis of the role of agricultural scientists in the Salinas Valley, it seems doubtful that the overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides can be stopped.
Yet there is a hopeful undercurrent in Mr. Henke’s final chapter. There is no denying that in the professor’s words, there has been a “great hollowing” of American agriculture: “The slogan ‘get big or get out’ defines farming in many sectors, and the result has been not the preservation of farming communities but instead a great hollowing.” At the beginning of the 20th century, 50% of the U.S. workforce was in farming, today it’s less than 2%. The glimmer of hope comes from the “surge of interest in issues related to the politics of food and agriculture” which might just constitute a “contingency” or a “parallel universe” capable of “transformative repair” of an environmentally unsustainable industrial agriculture. Mr. Henke in his extensive interviews with University of California agricultural scientists discovered their hesitancy to call themselves “environmentalists.” But as the oil continues to spew in the Gulf from careless deep-sea drilling focused on maximizing production and corporate wealth regardless of the danger to the environment, it seems likely that those who consider themselves environmentalists will grow substantially in number. It’s the future of our planet and the healthy lives of our descendants at stake, and it seems likely that there will be agricultural scientists employed by Cooperative Extension among that growing number. Perhaps there’s some small chance that the focus of attention by agricultural scientists will shift to assisting small farmers, home gardeners, and community development. We must hope so. (FW Barrie 7/19/10)
Red Quinoa Pilaf With Sweet Cherries, Dried Apricots and Walnuts
Red Quinoa Pilaf With Sweet Cherries, Dried Apricots and Walnuts-
Quinoa (keen-wa) has the highest protein content of all the grains (although technically it is not a true cereal or grain since it is not a member of the grass family). An important food for 6,000 years in South America’s Andes Mountains (called the “mother grain” by the ancient Incas), of late it has been touted for its extraordinary nutritional value. Its very high protein content and balanced set of essential amino acids make it a complete protein source and a valuable part of a vegetarian’s diet. Considered easy to digest, quinoa is gluten-fee and a great source of dietary fiber and phosphorous, magnesium and iron. With its nutty flavor and light texture, it cooks up into a tasty pilaf. With delectable sweet cherries now appearing in farmers markets in the Northeast in late spring, I like to cook up quinoa and blend in cherries, dried apricots, and chopped walnuts to create a delicious savory dish that goes well with sautéed spinach, which is also appearing in late spring in farmers markets near my home in Albany, NY.
The Honest Weight Food Coop in Albany, www.hwfc.com, sells both organic red quinoa ($3.29 per pound) and organic white quinoa ($3.75 per pound). I regularly stock up on organic dried Turkish apricots at $4.99 per pound at the coop, which are a relative bargain compared to the organic California dried apricots at $10.29 per pound. With recent reports confirming that eating nuts every day helps lower total cholesterol and bad LDL cholesterol, every cupboard should be stocked with a variety [ www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/health/research/18nutr.html?scp=1&sq=Study Finds Eating Nuts Helps Cholesterol&st=cse]. The current pricing of organic nuts at the coop might seem pricey (organic pecans, $15.79 per pound; organic almonds, $7.99 per pound; organic walnuts, $8.89 per pound), but a handful of nuts adds excellent nutritional value and flavor. For this red quinoa pilaf, the walnuts add nice texture and additional flavor.
1 cup of red quinoa
12 sweet cherries (pitted and cut up into pieces)
Handful of organic dried Turkish apricots (cut up into pieces)
Handful of organic walnuts (cut up into pieces)
Two tablespoons of olive oil
Place one cup of red quinoa in a bowl and cover with cold water and soak for 3-4 hours. (Quinoa in its natural state has a coating of bitter tasting saponins, which made it a successful crop for the ancient Incas since there was no risk of birds consuming the quinoa due to its bitterness! However, for human consumption, it is necessary to remove this natural coating of saponins.) After soaking for a few hours, rinse the quinoa in a fine mesh sieve with cold running water. Bring to a boil two cups of fresh cold water and two tablespoons of organic olive oil in a medium sized pot, with a tight fitting lid. Add the rinsed quinoa to the pot, and lower the heat to a simmer. Cook until the water is absorbed, approximately 12 minutes. Add the cherries, dried apricots and walnut to the pot and stir lightly to distribute. Turn off the heat, and cover and let stand for a few minutes while sautéing up the spinach in some olive oil. Serve the spinach with a generous helping of the red quinoa pilaf with sweet cherries and dried apricots. [FB 6/14/10]
Black Bean Soup with Red Spring Onions and Garlic Scapes
Black Bean Soup with Red Spring Onions and Garlic Scapes-
With a beautiful crop of garlic scapes from my home garden and red spring onions available at the Troy Farmers Market, www.troymarket.org, which is near my home in Albany, N.Y., as well as a big jar full of organic black beans, grown near Ithaca in upstate New York, in the cupboard, www.cporganics.com, I had most of the makings for a rich black bean soup. Though ripe garden tomatoes were still weeks away, I compromised and used a 20 ounce can of Muir Glen organic whole peeled tomatoes, www.muirglen.com. [Although Muir Glen, as Michael Pollan in his Omnivore’s Dilemma (New York, The Penguin Press, 2006, at p. 154) pointed out, has become a part of a mini-industrial conglomerate known as Cascadian Farms, their canned tomatoes nonetheless bear the USDA Organic seal and are packed in a lead-free enamel can, and when they go on sale at the Honest Weight Food Coop, the food coop in my hometown of Albany, NY, www.hwfc.com, I stock up with a few cans for the cupboard. The tomato crop in upstate New York was very poor last summer and the ones that ripened up were used fresh, with no extras for canning.]
The 4 red spring onions, purchased at the Troy Farmers Market from a Hudson Valley farm, Maynard Farms, www.maynardfarms.com (a weekly vendor at the Troy farmers market), were juicy and tender and resembled leeks in their appearance. The edible portion is limited to the bulby bottom and a couple inches up the stalk. The rest is too tough for use in this soup. [According to the grower, spring crops are about three weeks early this year in the Hudson Valley, which explained the availability of the red onions in early June.] I like to saute vegetables in Napa Valley Naturals organic olive oil, www.napavalleytrading.com. According to the bottle, this extra virgin and organic, first cold pressing, olive oil was “from California’s Sacramento Valley and Argentina’s Cordoba Valley.” [I had purchased the olive oil on sale at the local food coop for $9.99. The 25.4 ounce bottle, which is regularly priced at $15.99 at the coop, was a nice bargain at the sale price.] To compliment the sweet tasting young red onions and garlicky scapes, a tablespoon of Simply Organic crushed red pepper, www.simplyorganicfoods.com adds some spicy heat. [I like to keep a bottle of crushed red pepper in the cupboard and wait until it goes on sale at the food coop- regularly priced at $4.09, it was a bargain on sale at $2.49. As a long term member of the Honest Weight Food Coop, I know that in the course of the year, sales occur and that’s when spices and certain basics are best to purchase. In addition, my coop has a strong contingent of working members who are entitled to a 10% discount on their purchases if they work 3 hours each month, or 25% if they work 3 hours each week.]
1 cup of black beans, soaked overnight, before using
4 red young onions which resemble leeks (bulby bottom and couple of inches up the stalk)
6 garlic scapes
¼ cup olive olive
1 Tbsp crushed red pepper
20 ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes
1 cup of water
Chop into small pieces the 6 garlic scapes and 4 red spring onions. In a medium sized pot, saute the chopped vegetables in 1/4 cup olive oil on low heat until soft and yellowish (about 10-15 minutes). Rinse the black beans, which have soaked overnight, in cold water and drain well. Add to the pot with 20 ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes and cup of water. Bring nearly to a boil and lower temperature to a low simmer. Stir in tablespoon of crushed red pepper. Continue simmering, with occasional stirrings of the pot, until beans are tender (approximately 2 hours). From time to time, I would taste the beans to see if they were softening up. If necessary, continue to simmer the soup longer until the beans are tender. Serve with a helping of organic brown rice and a dollop of home-made or local yogurt or a grated local hard cheese, for a satisfying, nutritious and inexpensive meal. [FB 6/6/10]
Three Grain Cinnamon/Currant English Muffins Hot Off The Griddle
Three Grain Cinnamon/Currant English Muffins Hot Off The Griddle-
For years, I settled for store-bought English Muffins until I decided the ingredients were not to my liking. Time to learn how to make English Muffins at home, with honey instead of sugar, a quality oil or local butter, and organic whole grains. The secret is an electric griddle, in order to maintain even heat of 300 degrees, and to use English Muffin rings, which resemble tuna fish cans with both the tops and bottoms removed. There are reasonably priced electric griddles in the $30.00 range and after using mine about a dozen times, it has certainly paid off, and not only in economic terms, but also in the enormous pleasure which results from the enjoyment of producing a dozen high quality English Muffins. A dozen English Muffin rings will cost approximately $20.00 but are necessary to produce perfect, toaster ready muffins. Split and toasted, days later, the pleasure lasts well beyond the enjoyment of the warm English Muffin off the griddle. And if you have never enjoyed one like that, you will experience one of the simple and timeless eating pleasures.
In making my English Muffins at home, I like to use local foods produced near my home in Albany, NY : (1) Raw and unrefined honey, produced by Lloyd Spear, beekeeper, in Schenectady, N.Y., (2) Hudson Valley whole wheat flour and spelt flour, milled by Wild Hive Farm, Clinton Corners, NY, www.wildhivefarm.com/ and (3) milk from a local dairy, Meadowbrook Farms, Clarksville, NY blog.timesunion.com/eatlocal/meadow-brook-farms-milk/168/. These ingredients are high quality and local and support three small farm economies which adds to the satisfaction of making my own English Muffins. Beekeeper Spear’s minimally processed honey retains the natural qualities of this sweet food. His raw honey is not heated beyond hive temperature and is purified by settling for 5-10 days and contains all the natural live enzymes, pollens, and other ingredients that make honey one of nature’s finest foods. Sometimes, instead of using rice bran oil, I’ll use unsalted sweet cream butter produced by Ronnybrook Farm Dairy, Ancramdale, N.Y www.ronnybrook.com/.
I am a member of the wonderful Honest Weight Food Coop in Albany, NY www.hwfc.com, and the prices for these excellent local foods are affordable, especially when you realize you are supporting small, local farm economies. Beekeeper Spear’s 5 pound jar of raw, unfiltered honey is $21.50 and lasts for months. The half pound of local butter is $4.89 and is incomparable. The half gallon of local bottled milk is $2.49. ENJOY your own muffins using local foods produced near you!
1 package active dry yeast
2 tbsps. water (100 – 110 degrees)
1 cup water
½ cup scalded milk
4 tsps. Honey
1 tsp. sea salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups spelt flour
¼ cup rolled oats
4 tbsps. rice bran oil (or some other high quality oil or softened butter)
½ cup of currants or raisins
2 tbsps. cinnamon
Dissolve the yeast in the 2 tbsps. lukewarm water for 3 or 4 minutes. Add milk, water, honey, and salt to the yeast mix and stir. Beat in 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup spelt flour and ¼ cup rolled oats. Stir in cinnamon and ½ cup currants or raisins. Cover and let rise in warm area for 90 minutes to 2 hours.
Beat in rice bran oil. Knead in the remaining 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 1 cup of spelt flour on a floured bread board. Press the dough down to a thickness of ¼ to ½ inch. Cut out with muffin rings and place on greased baking sheets and let rise covered for approximately 1 hour.
Oil lightly and heat up electric griddle to 300 degrees. Place muffin rings on the griddle, and remove each ring. (Lightly run a knife around the inside of each ring to help free the muffin.) Cook for 8-10 minutes, and flip to other side, and cook for additional 8-10 minutes. (Turn only once.) Cool on racks.
(Butter up one hot off the griddle and enjoy.)
This recipe produces approximately 9-10 English Muffins. [FB 4/6/10]
