Time to Transplant: A School Visit and Harvest Handouts.

Yesterday afternoon garden director Matt Covert and I headed across town to Sandburg Elementary School with a small flat of brasiccas (mostly cabbage), tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and onions.  Invited by REAP farm-to-school nutrition educators Lani Skipper and Aly Miller, Matt and I joined a fifth-grade classroom to teach them about farming and F.H. King.

These students had already been taught about food, agriculture and the environment through 4 lessons led by Lani and Aly, so they came bearing many questions.  They wanted to know if we kept livestock at our farm and about our favorite vegetable.  They wanted to find out how long it takes to grow a garden and the first thing Matt ever grew.  They even asked us about our favorite grain!

When I introduced our bike-powered compost program Full Cycle Freight, they not only understood what compost was , but also how important worms were in the process.  The  nutrient cycle was the first lesson they learned with Lani and Aly.  Other lessons included a six-plant-part recipe contest where students were taught the six plant parts (root, stem, leaf, fruit, flower, and seed) and instructed to try and invent the most creative salad.  The winning recipe would be used for class snack during the following week.  Students also learned about the routes of food by acting out local, regional and national food systems.  Some kids were farmers, some consumers, some truck drivers, grocers or warehouse employees.  Kids chatted about farmer profits in each system as well as the miles the food traveled and its quality.  Lastly, students learned about food processing and school lunches.  Everyone picked a food from their school lunch program and deconstructed it, tracing each component part back to the soil.  No one said whether or not processed foods were bad, but they discussed the steps that food goes through and showed them where their lunch food comes from.

Clearly, we were dealing with some pretty well-informed ten-and-eleven-year-olds.  After giving the kids a slide presentation featuring the lovely fruits and vegetables being grown out at the Eagle Heights garden and on the Pyle Center rooftop, we showed them our Harvest Handouts YouTube video.  It started a bit rough due to a very slow internet connection, but the fifth-graders simply shrugged it off.  “Don’t worry, it’s probably just buffering,” they kindly told us.  These kids certainly know a lot more than I did in fifth grade!

From there, we took the students outside to the school garden which comprised of eight raised beds!  Everyone got into pairs and took turns digging holes, removing seedlings from their cells, planting and watering.  Everyone took turns and everyone was excited.  My favorite part: repeatedly covering up the earthworm that kept crawling up the surface to say hello.  They may understand worms’ role in gardening, but they definitely don’t want to see them.

Now, let me digress a bit and remind you that tomorrow (Friday) from 1 to 2 pm, we will be handing out the same lovely seedlings (in addition to ready-to-eat rhubarb, spinach, lettuce and various herbs) at our first Harvest Handouts of the season.  People tend to be a little intimidated by seedlings, but I will give you the same advice we gave the fifth-graders and hopefully you too can overcome your fears of transplanting.

1. Look at your flat of plant seedlings.  Assess how many of each plant you have and how much room they each with need.  Onions do well close together (they can be spaced as close as 4 inches apart).  Peppers and eggplants will be satisfied with about a foot to 18 inches of distance between them while tomatoes require a little more space.  Tomatoes are happiest with 18 to 24 inches of space between them but complementary herbs like basil can be planted in between.  Cabbage and other brassicas also need a bit of space, about 18 inches, but again complementary herbs can be planted in between.
2. Once you work out how much you can fit and what should go where, dig your first hole.  The hole should be about as deep as the pot or cell that the seedling is growing in.
3. Lightly pull on your seedling while pinching the bottom so that the whole plant, roots and soil come out of the container together.  You may lose a little dirt but if you pull gently, you shouldn’t lose too much.
4. Very gently squeeze the root ball (the soil and root combination in your hand) to break it up a little bit.
5. Place your happy little seedling in its new home (the hole you just dug).
6. Fill in the hole around your seedling and gently press down.  You want the soil to be firm so the plant can stand upright but not too compact.
7. Water your seedling.
8. Repeat  steps 2-7 until all your seedlings are planted!

So stop out tomorrow!  We literally have hundreds to give away and its a great way to score some free plants and start your very first backyard or porch garden!

For more about the REAP farm-to-school program, read a previous blog post here.

My Saturday, in Food.

I’ve been away for far too long.  The excitement of my pending graduation and new job as F.H. King’s Urban Ag Director have distracted me from keeping up with my usual to-do list.  I kept attending Get the Dirt dinners, expecting to provide you all with an eloquent write-up of words spoken, and although Cal DeWitt and Donal MacCoon were brilliant in their musings about environmental stewardship and sustainable well-being, I just never found the words… or time.  Then, because I had been away so long, I really wanted to wow you all with something incredible and well worth the (two month) wait!  Well, that’s just not going to happen between final papers and exams so instead, I’m going to get back into the swing of things by telling you what I ate on Saturday.

I woke up at 4 am on Saturday, for no particular reason.  I had decided on Tuesday that I needed to get to the outdoor farmer’s market this week.  Perhaps it was my excitement for this exciting day which forced me to wake at such an early hour.  Watching the clock diligently, after hours of very necessary school work, I decided that 7 am was late enough to leave my house.  Bundled to the max in a winter polar fleece, hat, scarf and rain coat, I was more than ready.

The morning began at Bradbury’s, a crepe-making coffee shop I had heard wonderful things about since moving to Madison, but just like with this blog, time got away from me.  Up since four, the usual pastry I ate while perusing the market was just not going to cut it, it was time to finally try some crepes.  Of the three savory crepes they offered, I was 100% torn.  (Another reason I probably subconsciously chose never to visit Bradbury’s… because I knew that once I opened the door, I would never be able to close it.  If all the crepes looked this delicious and they changed often, I was going to end up coming here a lot).  Going with my gut, I ordered the scrambled egg, nettle pesto and cheddar crepe, although now all I can think of is the pastrami, kraut, mustard, mixed greens, fried egg and pickled ramps one.  The nettle pesto was just perfect for a rainy morning, as was my mug of Kickapoo Coffee.

Then it was on to the market, where I still couldn’t resist my morning pastry.  My apple fritter was cinnamon-y and fresh, exactly how I had hoped it would be.  Then finally, after a lot of delectable calories, it was on to my healthier choices.  My morning grocery shopping was not especially unique.  I bought eggs, asparagus, a French baguette from Stella’s bakery,  asparagus, radishes and English cucumbers.  However, because I want to start my own farm in the next few years, I desperately want to become well-versed and comfortable with every vegetable I can find at the Farmer’s Market, so I also bought two veggies that usually intimidate me: parsnips and sunchokes.  Sunchokes scare me far more than parsnips, but I’ve never really acquired a taste for parsnips, so now was my chance.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with these semi-uncommon vegetables, here is a bit of a background.  Parsnips are root vegetables that look a lot like overgrown white carrots.  They have a semi-sweet flavor (almost like a sweet potato) with the texture of other root veggies.  When they get too large, they develop bitter, woody centers.  They can be prepared in similar ways to a potato.  They are great roasted or in soups and stews.  Mashing parsnips is becoming increasingly popular.

Sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichokes, are definitely a bit more odd.   For one thing, they are not related to artichokes.  Sunchokes are actually the root of a species of sunflower.  They look a lot like a ginger root but have a sweet, nutty flavor when peeled.  Knobbiness is inevitable, but avoid sunchokes that have soft or mushy spots.  Sunchokes, much like parsnips, can be used just like potatoes.  Roast them, boil them or use them in soups.  Because of their slightly softer texture, you can also shave them into salads or lightly sautee them.

After spending the afternoon munching on delicious flatbread pizzas made by Underground Food Collective at the F.H. King Summer Garden Kick-Off, what did I choose to make for dinner with my new uber-adventurous vegetables?  Sunchoke, Cauliflower and Leek Soup topped with fried mushrooms and parsnips!  Frying and pureeing vegetables into soup is a little bit of a cop-out, but it was delicious, so that’s really all that matters.  I’ll just have to continue my mastering of these particular root vegetables.  I ad-libbed quite a bit, but here is an approximation of the recipe I used.

Sunchoke, Cauliflower and Leek Soup

• 1/2 pound sunchokes (3 “normal-sized” ones, like those pictured above)
• 2 shallots
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 2 Tablespoon butter, divided
• 1/2 head cauliflower, chopped roughly
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
• 1 small-to-medium-sized leek (white part only), chopped roughly
• 3 cups vegetable or chicken broth
• 1 cup milk (or cream)
• 1 parsnip, peeled and sliced thin
• 6 mushrooms, sliced thin
• Red pepper flakes

1. Peel sunchokes and cut into thin slices.
2. Saute shallots and garlic in olive oil until soft.
3. Add sunchokes and cauliflower and saute at high heat for a couple minutes.
4. Add white wine and reduce slightly, then add broth.
5. While wine is reducing, saute chopped leeks in tablespoon of butter.
6. Add leeks to broth mixture.
7. Allow to simmer on low heat until vegetables are soft.
8. Puree the soup in a blender or with an immersion blender until smooth.
9. Add the milk or cream and stir well.
10. Melt remaining tablespoon of butter and fry parsnip and mushrooms until crisp.
11. Pour soup into bowls, top with parsnips and mushrooms and sprinkle with red pepper flakes.

Here’s just my first attempt of 2012 at cooking these new-to-me vegetables, so please share your favorite parsnip or sunchoke recipe if you have one!!

It’s That Time of Year.

The growing season is right around the corner and everybody in the sustainable agriculture realm is finding time to get together.  Last weekend was the wonderful and inspirational MOSES conference, we’ve got our first Get the Dirt dinner of the semester on March 8th, MACSAC is holding their annual open house on March 18th, and at the end of the month both current and former Lawrence University students will be hosting their second annual Student Initiatives in Sustainable Agriculture (SISA) conference!

I met Oren Jakobson and Sophie Patterson at the student chat at MOSES on Saturday morning.  These two recent Lawrence University graduates had attended MOSES (and these brief hour-long student discussions) several times before and were frustrated that this was the only real forum they had encountered for young people interested in sustainability, farming and gardening.  Just like experienced organic and sustainable farmers could learn from one another at MOSES, Jakobson and Patterson wanted a place where students, recent graduates and potential young farmers could come together to discuss and learn from each other.

Last year, the first SISA conference was a major success.  Students attended from 30 different universities and 7 states.  Efforts have been taken this year to expand attendance to the national level.  Their intended audience is “current and recent college students dedicated to sustainable gardening and farming initiatives whether well established or not yet realized.”

The conference begins on Friday night, March 30th at 7:00 pm with tea & snacks along with an introduction by the Lawrence University garden hosts, a film screening and campfire.  If you can’t make it Friday night, that is totally fine, as Saturday and Sunday will be jam-packed with activities.  After keynote speaker John Ikerd welcomes everyone and shares his experiences about moving from promoting conventional agricultural practices to  more small-scale sustainable endeavors on Saturday morning, students break out into several student-led presentations. .  Last year, F.H. King member Kimberly Koch presented on F.H. King and its old CSA program.  She taught everyone about what a CSA was as well as how to advertise, pack shares, create newsletters and drop off shares.  But mostly, she explained how the F.H. King CSA program worked so that other students could replicate these efforts at their own school.  Other presenters included students from a school with an industrial composting system  and another that raised pigs.   Presenters explained how to raise funds for student organizations and also how to get more members involved.  This year, Darin Ripp will present on F.H. King’s Full Cycle Freight Program!  Saturday is largely the sit-back-and-learn-day, although there will also be local beer tastings, two more film screenings and a Meet & Greet at the Viking Room Campus bar.

Sunday is far more hands-on, beginning  with yoga and followed by a day of small discussions and three hands-on workshops, on topics such as grant writing, composting and beekeeping in addition to a Hoop House Raising seminar.

The whole weekend is meant to bring everyone interested in sustainable agriculture, gardening and farming together to share experiences, learn from each other and get to know others who share their passions.  Jakobson and Patterson want the event to be accessible to everyone, so the whole weekend costs only $30, with 3 total meals included!  They were providing campus housing for the overnight, but I believe those spots are now full.

Registration closes on March 16th so register now at the conference webpage to an event that last-year attendee says “was really inspiring. To hear a combination of all the cool things students are doing made you feel really great about how the sustainable agriculture movement is going. I left feeling excited and pumped to do more!”

MOSES: Our Weekend of Abundant Organic Information, Food and Coffee

Amazing small farmers and food policy advocates from around the Midwest, and many from much farther, alongside several Wisconsin students (and ten F.H. King members!) all traveled to La Crosse this weekend for the 23^rd Annual MOSES Organic Farming Conference.  MOSES, more formally known as the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, is a non-profit organization that believes in farmers who produce healthy, high-quality and abundant food to consumers using organic or sustainable methods.

More than just an advocate, MOSES also believes in the power of farmers sharing information and ideas with one another.  Aside from their annual conference, which is an educational hub for organic and sustainable agriculture in the Midwest region, MOSES hosts workshops and field days to allow farmer education year-round.  They lead a Farmer to Farmer mentoring program and Rural Women’s project while also providing abundant resources on their website.

It is clear, however, that this action-packed weekend is the biggest event of MOSES’s year.  I don’t know the final verdict, but preceding the keynote speaker on Saturday, executive director Faye Jones announced that the 2012 conference attendance had surpassed 3,300 people!  This was up significantly from a record-setting year of 2,600 in 2011.  They will begin planning for 2013 on Tuesday (and the date is already set!).

The conference always begins on a Thursday (although the workshops on this day are not included in regular admission) with a little something called Organic University.  Rather than attend three-1 ½ hour sessions, participants spend seven hours in a hands-on, more intimate-sized workshop.  Pre-conference workshops go into much more depth than regular session workshops.   Thursday evening is concluded with film screenings (ag-related documentaries), the option to purchase an organic supper, a general welcoming session and poetry slam.

My boyfriend and I didn’t arrive at MOSES until 9:30 on Friday morning, due to a minor incident related to locking the keys in our running car and AAA not being able to get ahold of anyone at 5:30 am.  Although seriously disappointed by missing the first session (now we’ll never learn how to keep bees!!!), MOSES is so action packed that it hardly matters when you arrive.

We didn’t know this at the time of course.  My boyfriend and I plan to start a small, diversified organic vegetable farm during the spring of 2013 so these workshops were essential to us.  They would provide us with an education it’d be hard to find elsewhere, especially in two-days’ time. We sulked around a bit, mad at ourselves for getting a late start.

Exhibit hall

Eventually though, we meandered through the exhibit hall, an arena filled with over 160 exhibit booths and information on literally everything you ever needed to know and/or purchase related to organic and sustainable farming.  From seed catalogs to worm castings to mushroom starter packs to information on USDA grants, this exhibit hall was a haven of resources and educational material.

We were told about grants.  We were bogged down with literature on too many environmentally-conscious products to count.  We were literally welcomed with open arms by so many wonderful people who were thrilled to see potential young farmers and eager to share the best methods they knew.  This is when we learned it didn’t matter what time you arrived at MOSES.  Regardless of whether you can make it for three days or one, you will leave with a renewed sense of pride in the work you do and feel like part of a family of people who are literally trying to change the world through agriculture.

Synister Dane and the Kickapoo Disco Cosmonuts: music by farmers for farmers

The funniest, greatest band ever!!! Please google them and listen to their hilarious political music.

Next on the agenda was the first keynote speaker of the conference: Margaret Krome.  Krome was introduced as a tireless advocate for organic and sustainable agriculture, and after listening to her speak for five minutes, this was quite clear.  She has been involved in ag policy at practically every level imaginable and in so many states I lost count.  Krome educated us on the most recent Farm Bill and explained what we needed to be concerned about, pay attention to and stand up for.  Her presentation was concluded with a visit from Senator Herb Kohl (!), who agreed to stand with farmers who were a part of this new food movement and push for change in the next Farm Bill.

Herb Kohl!

After the keynote address, we were instructed to “not all go to the dining hall at once”, so my boyfriend and I visited the Silent Auction and bid on way too many amazing organic products.  Luckily we only “won” a bag of worm castings, which cost us an overpriced $22, but ultimately went to funding MOSES, so I guess it’s okay.

Silent Auction!

We headed to lunch, a meal of sloppy joes, macaroni salad, harvest slaw (coleslaw with grapes in it!), fresh greens, tortilla chips with salsa and cranberry bog bars in the largest room I have ever dined in.  The tables were set up with eight seats each so farmers and other MOSES attendees were “forced together” to network and discuss their work and their differences.  We wound up at tables with farmers from as far as Ohio, South Dakota and Colorado.  As with the rest of the conference, people were warm, friendly and eager to share information and ideas.

Hugest Dining Hall EVER

First lunch!

After lunch, everyone headed to two successive hour and a half workshops featuring a plethora of topics.  My boyfriend and I together only attended three of the twenty-two workshops: Integrating CSA with Other Markets, Soil Health and Biodiversity in Practice- Harnessing Biology, Ecology, and Resiliency on the Farm, Cover Crop Innovation on Organic Farms.  But other F.H. King members attended many more, so if you want more information on workshops specifically, mention it in the comments’ section below and I can do a write up on some of the most popular F.H. King-attended workshops.

First workshop of the day! So pumped!

The workshops were the end of the Friday festivities for us, but many more enjoyed more film screenings (Dirty Work, Vanishing of the Bees, and Truck Farm), an organic supper or listened to the Bad Axe Blues Band until midnight.

Saturday proceeded much like Friday: breakfast, workshop, keynote speaker, lunch, workshop, workshop and time built in for exploring in between.  After rushing through a breakfast of fresh fruit, incredible oatmeal and an egg bake, my boyfriend sprinted off to workshop number one (Fungal Dynamics Underlying Plant Health) and I met up with F.H. King members and students from other schools to discuss sustainable agriculture on our campuses and future aspirations in this realm.  A couple of times the discussion broke out into heated debates about issues related to farming and although no one feels comfortable in these tense situations, I was glad to see so much passion surrounding these issues on all sides.

The meeting had to end well before we had exhausted the list of things we sought to discuss, which according to Lawrence University students, is a chronic problem of these student meetings at MOSES.  Growing out of these frustrations, Lawrence University founded the Student Initiatives for Sustainable Agriculture (SISA) conference last year.  They will be holding SISA again on the weekend of March 31^st and April 1^st.

After the meeting, we all found our way to the ballroom where our second keynote address would be held.  We listened to Curt Ellis, filmmaker of King Corn, critique Clint Eastwood’s already famous Superbowl commercial of America as a football team that can come out strong in the second half, despite faltering in the first.  Ellis made the astute observation that the commercial showed us “going back on the field to win, but with the exact same play that made us lose in the first half.”  Ellis doesn’t believe that industry or fossil fuel use is necessarily bad, but also recognizes that we should not be “running this play all the time.”  We ignore the fact that there might be other plays that could also work, perhaps work even better in certain circumstances (like in food production for example).  It is important to realize what works and what doesn’t.  What is helping us and what is actually making our situation worse.  He describes the need for a new vision.

The model Ellis puts forward is called the Schoolyard Model which is currently being played out by an organization he co-founded called Food Corps.  It relies on three pillars: knowledge in the classroom, engagement (through gardening, cooking and being a part of food production) and access (by getting the food kids learn about into cafeterias).  This process, besides improving the health of America from the youth of our nation upwards, keeps us thinking and learning.

He shared stories of the determined and influential youth involved in Food Corps, explaining to the crowd that there are new and powerful faces behind this new food movement which seeks to make food fundamental again.  Ellis helped me to remember that all of us at F.H. King are an important part of this movement by understanding the issues and distributing knowledge and fresh produce to both students and community members.

Then it was time for yet another meal, which again, we avoided right away by checking out the MOSES book sale.  A sale which possesses “the largest selection of organic farming books under one roof”.  I couldn’t resist buying Farmstead Chef but wrote down twelve more titles to check out from the library.

Getting around.

We dined on teriyaki beef, sesame chicken, snow pea and bok choy salad, white rice, greens and dinner rolls, again seated beside the friendliest of strangers.  Before long, the conference was nearing the end.  We attended another two workshops each (again, out of the twelve offered at each session): Crop Rotation for Vegetable Growers, Pastured Pork—The Other Red Meat, Running a Successful CSA Farm, and Renewable Energy Options for Farms and Value-Added Food Producers.  And then we were out the door, back in our car, and on the way home to Madison (without locking the keys in the car this time).

Pastured Pork workshop!

This annual conference, more than anything, is a place to expand knowledge, brainstorm like crazy and inspire one another.  I left on Saturday feeling not only enthusiastic about beginning my own farm (ask my poor boyfriend, I didn’t stop talking for the entire three hour drive…) but also honored to be doing so.  The MOSES conference taught me a lot about CSAs, marketing and the tools essential to beginner farmers, but none of those things are why I feel in love with MOSES and this rapidly growing conference.  I left with a genuine sense of pride in myself and the decisions I’d made related to sustainable agriculture.  I left with e-mail addresses of people I admire whole-heartedly.  More than anything, I left giddy with happiness and inspiration.  MOSES is a big time commitment in the midst of an always-busy school semester, but I would recommend it to anyone and everyone interested in these issues.  Let’s make the 24^th even better next year!  I know I’ll be there!

All Things Almond: F.H. Kingers attend a Slow Food workshop

I’m neither a vegan nor a vegetarian and I have never struggled with issues of gluten intolerance.  But I work at a restaurant that is proud to offer options for all dietary preferences and allergies, so it was only a matter of time before I made friends with people who follow these lifestyles, and as someone who loves to bake treats all the time for no good reason, I was completely thrown off by my vegan and gluten-intolerant friends.  Were cakes or cookies even possible without milk, butter and flour?

As Lauren Stinson of Slow Food taught F.H. Kingers on February 10^th, baking without these usually necessary items is totally possible, and you can actually make your sweet treats quite a bit more nutritious.  So if you or your loved ones are trying to eat vegan or suffer from a gluten intolerance, or even if you’re just trying to eat more whole foods and less processed junk, here is your guide to almond substitutions.

Almonds, one of the world’s oldest and healthiest foods, are low in carbohydrates and extremely high in protein.  They are a great source of omega 3 fatty acids and are essential in maintaining heart and brain health.

We’ll begin with almond milk, which can be bought in stores, but can also be made from scratch quite easily for about the same price.  If you’re more prepared than me, you can do it for even cheaper.  I had a lot of trouble finding whole blanched almonds (meaning almonds with the skins removed) so I settled for slivered almonds (which are almost always blanched).  Upon further investigation, however, I learned that whole blanched almonds are sold in 4 ounce packages from Metcalfes for only 99 cents!  So get them there and 40 ounces of almond milk will only cost you about $2.  Anyways, I digress.

The Wrong Kind of Almonds... but they totally worked!

You will start the night before you actually begin by covering 1½ cups of almonds with water and soaking them for at least four hours.  Soaking raw nuts is something I had never heard of until Mel forwarded me the handout from Friday’s workshop.  But after I researched the topic a little bit, I learned how beneficial soaking is for mineral absorption, digestibility and flavor.  I let mine soak for twelve hours, but I’m sure there is a lot of flexibility to this step.

Soak, soak, soak.

After straining out the murky almond water, you will add a fresh 1 ½ cups of water to the now soaked almonds.  Then you can use a blender or immersion blender to create a puree from the almonds and water.  I used a blender first but had little success.  Even after the immersion blender, my liquid almond mixture was still far from a puree. I would recommend using perhaps only a cup of water first.  But in any case, blend the mixture for 3 or 4 minutes and you will be fine because my end result was delicious despite my lack of a pureed state.

Blend, blend, blend, part 1

Once the “puree” is finished (or as close as you can get to a puree), add 1 teaspoon of almond extract, 1 to 2 tablespoons of real maple syrup or honey (depending on your sweetness preference) and a dash of cinnamon.

The other star ingredients.

Blend this mixture slightly, then add 2½ more cups of water (or 3 more cups if you used only 1 cup previously) and blend for another 3 or 4 minutes.  Here the appropriate texture is difficult to see, so just go by the time.  And now you’re ready for the cheese cloth step (my favorite)!

Prepping: putting the cheesecloth in the strainer.

You probably need a friend for this step.  Line a colander with two or three layers of cheese cloth and place it above a clean bowl.  Have your friend either hold the colander or dump the almond water mixture through the colander.

Ready to strain.

The holes will get clogged so be sure to pour slowly.  Stop every once and a while to squeeze the cheese cloth into a ball and force the excess liquid through.

Forcing the liquid through the cheese cloth.

If the holes get too clogged with almond mush (which they likely will), toss out the excess solids.  Once your almond water mixture is fully strained you’re done!  Pour the delicious milk over some cereal and enjoy!

Best cereal ever! I don't even want to use this delicious milk for baking, just straight out of the glass from now on!!!

For a more thorough blogger’s experiment with almond milk, click here.

Now onto something quite a bit simpler to make: almond flour.

Almond flour is an amazing substitute for regular flour.  Not only is the flavor enormously more complex, it is also nutrient dense and a beautiful alternative for those suffering from Celiac’s or some other form of gluten intolerance.  Almond flour lends itself especially well to desserts.  Most commonly found in cakes, almond flour is also the star ingredient of my favorite French cookie: macarons.  But in reality, almond flour can be used almost anywhere you would use regular flour.  It is commonly used for pancakes, muffins and as a thickener, but the opportunities are endless.

Now for the bad news.  Almond flour, when bought from conventional grocery stores rings in at about $40 per pound.  This is the one almond item I’ve found costs significantly less to make for myself.

Again you’ll begin with blanched almonds, although more traditional skin-on almonds will work just fine.  You’ll have a little more “texture” to your flour with these skin-on almonds (so don’t use them for my favorite finicky French macarons), but it won’t affect the quality in most recipes.  One important thing to note, however, is that almond flower makes baked goods more fragile than regular flour would.  Leave your baked goods to rest for a few minutes and you should have no trouble.

Understanding that 1 cup of almonds equates approximately 1 1/2 cups of almond flour, you should be able to convert just about any recipe.  Just pour the appropriate amount of almonds into a food processor, coffee grinder or rocket blender and grind until they begin to clump together.  This texture is perfect for most recipes, such as the Flourless Almond Honey Cake F.H. Kingers made during the Slow Food workshop.  Just measure out your freshly made “almond powder”, also known as almond flour, and go from there.

If you seek finer results, you’re going to need a sifter.  Simply sift the almond flour and re-grind larger chunks that stayed on top of the sifter screen.  Repeat this process until no large pieces remain.  Again, this final step is usually unnecessary as less fine almond flour will almost always suffice, but its good to know your options.

Also, keep in mind that almond flour will only keep 1 to 2 weeks on the shelf or 1 to 3 months in the refrigerator.

Making almond butter is a practically identical process, only you leave the almonds is the food processor for much longer.  Lauren recommended soaking the almonds first and scraping down the sides of your food processor every five minutes.  For a paste-like almond butter, you should process the almonds for 12 or 13 minutes and for a more oily version, process the almonds for a full 15 minutes.

I also found a recipe online that suggests using two teaspoons of olive oil for each cup of almonds, but I have yet to try either version, so I don’t have much advice to offer.  Almonds are so delicious though, I doubt either recipe will steer you in the wrong direction.  You can use your butter as a substitute  for butter in most places: sweet or savory.  I found recipes online for everything from snickerdoodles to granola to downright incredible-looking sauces.

If you want to replicate the other recipes F.H. Kingers tried at the workshop, they are listed below.  Now go, try some recipes!  Happy almond-ing!

Cream of Almond Soup

1 c almond flour

1/4 c cold water

2 c chicken stock

2 T chopped onion

1 stalk celery w/ leaves, chopped fine

1 c half and half

1 additional cup water

1/2 t salt

1/4 t pepper

1/4 t garlic powder

Makes 4, 1-c servings

1. place almond flour in saucepan and add chicken stock, onion and celery
2. bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes
3. strain through a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth; discard solids
4. return liquid to saucepan and add half and half cream and remaining water
5. heat until hot throughout, but do not boil
6. add salt, pepper, and garlic; taste and adjust
7. serve hot or cold

VEGAN ALMOND MEAL PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES

2 c almond meal

1 t baking soda

1 t cinnamon

desire amount of chocolate chips

1/3 c sugar

1/3 c olive oil

1 t vanilla

1/3 c pumpkin puree

1. preheat oven to 350
2. in two separate bowls, mix wet and dry ingredients
3. fold dry ingredients into wet
4. drop rounded T of batter onto cookie sheet
5. bake 9-10 minutes
6. let cool for a couple minutes on the sheet and then remove to a cooling rack
7. allow to cool completely before handling

(makes about 2 dozen cookies)

We All Want More Local Food Available For Everyone.

Set at 8 o’clock AM in Monona (a time a little too early in the morning for winter break), two other F.H. King members and myself made the trek across town to attend the first meeting of the Dane County Food Coalition.  Seated in a large circle in the center of the room were important members of the Madison food community: REAP, MACSAC, Community Action Coalition, Community Groundworks, Fitchburg Fields and Growing Power, to name a few.  Truly, the list goes on and on.

This preliminary coalition meeting, organized by Carrie Edgar, head of the Dane County Food Systems Department at the UW Extension, has been discussed for a year and a half, since Edgar was first hired for the position in the fall of 2010.  As she began her work in Dane County, meeting with organization directors and other integral members of the Madison and Dane County food community, Edgar consistently heard the call for a group that could bring everyone together to work collaboratively.   There are so many similarly-minded organizations in Dane County, that surely both strength in numbers and coordination of work would be beneficial.  Edgar brought everyone together with minimal influence over the direction the group should take or even what it will look like.  Edgar facilitated the conversation as she hoped the coalition would determine its own goals and course of action.

The round-table discussion style meeting began by briefly introducing ourselves, our organization affiliations and any upcoming initiatives or events we were holding.  It was a space to share and brag, not one of competition or discomfort.  After the introductions, everyone was given an opportunity to establish ground rules for meetings now or in the future.

Then the harder, but much more fun, discussion began on what we all wanted to get out of a Dane County Food Coalition, what we want it to look like and what questions we had regarding the process of getting started.

It was a brain-storming session filled with some of my favorite Madison voices.  There were several concrete goals discussed, such as wanting to improve access to healthy and organic fresh foods or launch a PR campaign that would promote a joint website where people not already connected could go to learn about local food issues.  We talked about using the coalition as a way to lend support in forming more kitchens and farm co-ops, a real tangible method of promoting the infrastructure that small growers need but is so difficult to achieve as a single organization.  Or the coalition could work to better coordinate fundraising opportunities so that we didn’t have six of the same events every season.  As everyone competes for the same pool of volunteers and funds, why not find a way to share them through collaboration?  There was also talk of finding a way to bring organization interns together socially, so collaboration can be improved at every level, not just among directors.

Yet despite the specifics, people seemed more focused on the coalition as a forum to discuss the future of local food systems.  As Kiera Mulvey, executive director of MACSAC, stated: we could use this coalition as a forum for elevating the scale of the projects so many are already doing and promoting our greater vision for Dane County which is afterall, not very specific and does not need to be.  We all want more local food available for everyone, and we all play a vital role in the larger picture of doing so.  Every organization has its own realm of possibilities but as a collective, we can discuss our grander ideas for larger systemic change.  The coalition could serve as a place to chew on these ideas rather than push them aside because they are beyond our own individual or organizational capacity.  While setting tangible goals and meeting them, we could also discuss the big conceptual ideas we all grapple with.

As a coalition of twenty or so groups from around Dane County, each of which represents a multitude of different voices in itself, the Dane County Food Coalition will take a while to establish who it is and what it needs to do first, but as Edgar told me, “we all really want the same thing – a sustainable local food system that is economically, environmentally and socially just.”  Now it is just a means of getting there, and I for one am enthusiastic that F.H. King and students have a say.

Cure For the Rainy Day Blues: sausage making workshop with UFC.

Thanks to Jonny Hunter of Underground Food Collective and Nancy Gaedke and Michael Sussman of Cross Plains, F.H. King members got to move beyond vegetables last night as we learned how to butcher a hog and prepare pepperoni in the UFC kitchen.

The night started off with an overview of the facility where UFC both prepares their products for Underground Meats and also operates their catering company.  Since the group began experimenting with and processing pork in 2007, they slowly began to acquire the necessary equipment to become a licensed vendor.  Their kitchen is now a state-licensed meat processing facility capable of smoking, curing and packaging a wide range of fresh, prepared, and specialty meats.  Underground Meats offers CSA-style meat offerings throughout the year while also selling wholesale products to restaurants and markets.  Check them out at the indoor market beginning this Saturday!

We got to sample a variety of meats while Jonny taught us about their meat business and history: Tuscan salami, pepperoni, and many others.

Sandwiched between the curing coolers and the sinks, we all gathered around a cutting board table as Jonny unloaded pig parts from two cardboard boxes.  Meanwhile, Nancy, the woman who donated her dear Ferkel to us for sausage making, told us her history of raising hogs, which is short, but quite impressive.  It all began several years ago, when the city of Madison passed an ordinance that allowed single-family residences to have up to four domestic fowl on their property.  Nancy immediately went out to get some chickens.  She calls them her “gateway drug” to bigger and badder farm animal rearing.

Four years ago, Nancy and her husband moved to Cross Plains where they could have a little more room to roam so to speak.  She became very interested in a breed that was growing extremely rare: American Guinea hogs.  In fact, she became interested in numerous heritage breeds.  On the farm now they have a llama, some sheep, geese, ducks and chickens alongside their hogs.

Their first four hogs came from a man in St. Paul who worked at a nature center that had a farm element.  The American Guinea hogs were small and had a friendly temperament: perfect for children (and for Nancy).  She was looking for a heritage breed that could also provide some meat for the household.  American Guinea hogs are perfect for this.  Because of their small size, the amount of pork they provide is manageable.  Currently Nancy has six sows and three boars (an unusual ratio of sows to boars, my farm growing up had 25 sows to 2 boars that we rotated).  But this ratio is not so odd when dealing with heritage breeds, the ratio of sows to boars is for genetic preservation purposes.

The donated hog was sent to Black Earth Meats, who cut it into “primals” (meaning the first large cuts of an animal, separating large cuts from one another).  Jonny first pieced the hog back together so we could see its original form.

As he elegantly cut the meat off the bones, Jonny explained the separate cuts of meat and how to prepare them as well as which pieces were best for sausage making.  When making sausage, you look for a 30% fat to 70% meat ratio.

He began with the head, and told us all if we were interested in butchering, this was where to begin because you can get heads for cheap.  First he cut off the jowls (those fatty neck parts of the hog), explaining how they were almost analogous to pork belly.  Then he removed the cheeks (something that looked a lot more tricky), from both inside and outside of the jaw bone.  These are one of Jonny’s favorite cuts of meat.  Supposedly they have great flavor development because of their extensive muscle use (pigs are always eating!).  He cut the jowls into smaller pieces and put them into a tub (which would eventually be what we ground up for sausage) and set the head (eyes forward) down on the table, placing the cheeks beside it.  These pieces were up for grabs.

Jonny then brought out an interesting meat for us to try.   It was a cured meat made of pig head, after removing all the bones (but none of the skin) and tying it tight before curing.  When he pulled it out of the cooler, you could see the snout!

He then went on to the belly, which is where bacon, pancetta and pork belly (obviously) come from.  This was cut into smaller pieces and also placed in the large meat tub.

Then onto the ham, otherwise known as the hog’s butt and hind leg, and removed the massive bone which involved cutting through a very disgusting and very strong tendon.

The front shoulder, also called the Boston Butt (on top) and Picnic Butt (on bottom) was then dismembered.  All the leg meat pieces were thrown into the meat tub while the bones were placed onto the “grab bag” pile of things not appropriate for sausage.

The baby back ribs were removed from the loin and together the baby back and spare ribs were placed into the “discard” pile.  The loin was cut into smaller pieces for our sausage.

It was pretty apparent that having a meat processing facility and a catering company was a brilliant paring.  The fattiest pieces could be used for sausage while the remainder (bones, checks and ribs) could be used for catering.  It was also clear why UFC loved pork: it was incredibly useful, nothing was wasted.

With our giant tub of meat, we went on to begin the sausage.  The meat was weighed and this weight was calculated so that the meat/fat mixture would constitute 95% of the weight while the dry milk and spices would account for the other 5%.

Together, we measured out the dry milk, anise, fennel, paprika, salt, pepper, brown sugar, mustard seeds and ground up pre-smoked jalepenos that Jonny had smoked in his homemade smoker.  This spice mixture was layered into the meat and Jonny mixed it all together with his hands.  The mixture was then put into a meat grinder with small holes followed by an addition of red wine vinegar and brown sugar and then the mixture was run through another grinder with a kidney grinder attachment.  These two grindings ensured the meat and spices all stuck together.

Then we moved onto the casings, otherwise known as cow or pork middles, also known as intestines.  Yup, casings and middles sounds much nicer, doesn’t it?  Jonny rinsed off the cow and pork middles, which looked like mini balloons and stretched them over the stuffing machine.  Here, a manual crank pushed the meat through a small tube (around which the casings were wrapped).

We used about half cow and half pork for the casings.  The pork middles were obviously much smaller; when they were filled they were about the diameter of a bratwurst.  For the larger, beef cased sausages we cut them to a desired length (around 12 inches) and then tied both ends off with square knots.  For the smaller sausages we pinched them into 12 inch segments and then twisted to get a long rope of separate sausage links!

We cleaned up thoroughly and then placed the sausages in the smoker where they would remain for the next two days.  The smoker was lined with cherry wood chips.

The evening was a pretty great escape to the rainy weather: preparing sausages in the Underground Food Collective Kitchen.  We were taught how to butcher an animal and make sausages from a former vegetarian while working beside a hog farmer who got into farming in order to preserve the breed.  All in all, it was not only a spectacularly educational night, but also an evening of sharing knowledge and passion.  It’s beautiful how food continues to bring us all together.

The Politics of School Lunch.

During my thirteen years of public school education, I can count the number of school lunches I consumed on both hands.  Although I often begged for those alluring meals of hotdogs, nachos and pizza, my mother stood firm.  Just like her stance on Lunchables, I think my mom always understood the consequences of overly convenient food.  She didn’t care if I fit in.  She preferred I eat healthy.  And as I begin to learn more about school lunch programs in public schools, I couldn’t be happier that I typically ate sandwiches and leftovers for lunch.

Not consuming public school lunches with any degree of regularity, I can honestly say I knew nothing about them before guest speaker Sarah Elliot’s discussion of the issue last Thursday evening.  F.H. King invited Sarah, the director of REAPs Farm to School Program, to speak at our second Get the Dirt dinner of the semester.  Get the Dirt dinners are held in Science Hall and provide students, alums and community members with an opportunity to eat delicious food and learn more about sustainable agriculture, food systems and related subjects.

Sarah began by providing us with a thorough overview of what public school lunches look like in Madison.  The Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) is made up of 49 schools.  And given that the majority of these schools don’t even possess kitchens, all of the food processing for both breakfast and lunch is done at an external processing facility.  Here, things are cooked and baked, but handling whole raw produce is completely avoided through the use of already diced. precooked canned or frozen fruits and vegetables.  If fruits and vegetables are used, they are taken out of a package rather than purchased whole.  Washing, cooking or dicing fresh produce is unseemly.

Meals are built for efficiency.  Food is divided into hot and cold boxes, of which children receive one of each.  For example, if lunch is a hot dog, applesauce and cookies.  The hot dog is placed in a hot box while the applesauce, cookies, bun and ketchup are placed in a cold box.  This way, food service workers can easily heat up hundreds of hot dogs quickly without having to actually put them together.  With only two or three food service workers per school and no kitchen, this certainly seems like the most effective way to get children fed quickly.

Why the need for such urgency?  Most public school cafeterias cannot even hold an entire grade, so lunch is often divided into three or four lunch periods.  The earliest lunch session may be at 10:40 with the final one being at 1:20.  Food service workers need to get 60 or 70 kids fed in 20 minutes so the next lunch period can begin.  But often these make-you-own-style meals are not well understood.  First graders may eat their hot dog, bun and ketchup separately.

When we learned that MMSD food services prepare approximately 18,000 meals per day and are not allowed to exceed $0.95 per meal, the processing facility and lack of kitchens began to make sense.  Within this $0.95 budget, $0.22 is allocated for milk and another $0.11 for packaging.  In the end, public schools only have $0.62 for lunch food!  They are dealing with massive quantities of food every day, and local agriculture (or fresh produce for that matter) just doesn’t have the low-cost or efficient preparation capabilities of processed foods.

This all being said, there are obviously a multitude of barriers for bringing local produce into the school breakfast and lunch programs.  But despite the challenges, REAP has been working for a solution since 2002.  The Farm to School program we learned about has existed since 2010, but grew out of a related project, the Wisconsin Homegrown Lunch Program, which came about in partnership with the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Integrated Agricultural Studies (CIAS).

Currently, and because of the numerous barriers for bringing local food into actual school meals, REAP’s Farm to School Program uses a Chef in the Classroom program (at Sherman Middle School and East High School), Snack Program (at ten Madison elementary schools) and Classroom Education (from AmeriCorps Educators) as their main outlets for change.

The main focus of Sarah’s discussion on Farm to School was the well-known, but rarely well-understood Snack Program. This program is possible through a USDA Fresh Fruit and Veggie Grant that serves ten Madison elementary schools.  This grant enables these ten public schools to purchase raw fruit and vegetable snacks three times per week.  Note: raw fruits and vegetables. This does not include dehydrated, preserved or pickled produce, nor does it include dairy, meat products or grain produced from local farmers, showing obvious challenges throughout the winter months, but this is a very specific stipulation of the grant.

Out of these three snacks per week paid for by the USDA grant, REAP provides only one.  Even though they only provide a third of the snacks, REAP still sources about 700 pounds of produce each week!  This shows not only the magnitude, but also the infrastructure necessary for such a program.  Also because of the fresh produce stipulation, there is a three to ten week gap during the winter months.  REAP provides a lot of carrots, sweet potatoes, kohlrabi, apples and spinach through the winter months, but some gap is inevitable.  They hope to encourage and facilitate a Harvest of the Month program in all of MMSD schools in order to utilize more products such as cheese, yogurt, and wild rice.

REAP AmeriCorps in-class education also occurs at the ten elementary schools participating in the USDA Fresh Fruit and Veggie grant.  Because these are schools that have the highest percentage of kids who receive free or reduced lunches, it is assumed that these children also have the lowest access to fresh produce.  The grant encourages not only access to fresh fruits and veggies, but also education on why kids should care about what they are eating.

So what is it like to be the director of the Farm to School Program?  Sarah works at achieving two simultaneous goals: working to increase the amount of local fresh fruit and veggies to kids while also helping to create viable pathways for local products to be used in institutional settings.  She splits her time between procuring and processing vegetables and implementing these three programs.  But her vision goes beyond these admirable daily tasks.  While doing her day-to-day job, Sarah also “tries to focus on big-picture ways to make systemic changes to our public school meal system. This certainly involves meeting lots of folks and trying to bring people together to make pathways for local food to get into our schools!”

It will no doubt be a slow and gradual process, but with a new food service director, MMSD is growing increasingly receptive to REAP and their methods.  As far as local food goes, Sarah and REAP are certainly moving forward in the Madison public school system!

Plants that Heal.

I met Danna Olsen in April, while working on creating a garden out of vacant land in the Bayview Neighborhood.  She was one of three volunteers to show up at the event, and I hadn’t even invited her!  That’s the thing about Danna.  If you’re constructing a garden or green rooftop in the city of Madison, Danna will find out about it and more than likely, she’ll show up to lend a hand.

It was a long and winding road that brought Danna into this world of green spaces and sustainability, but it’s safe to say she has found her place in Madison.  After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with degrees in Biological Aspects of Conservation and Zoology as well as an Environmental Studies certificate, Danna had trouble finding employment.  Like many of my recently graduated friends, Danna’s classes had thoroughly expanded her mind on ecological issues, but weren’t quite enough to help her obtain the jobs she desired.  Danna found undergraduate degrees in science were rarely enough.  Employers wanted Masters or Doctorate degrees, but she wasn’t ready for these higher educations.

She held temporary positions at the UW Primate Center and Monsanto before finding employment as a chemist for PPD, a pharmaceutical company in Middleton.  Although she wasn’t especially interested in this type of science, it seemed like a step in the right direction.  For 7 years, Danna was (usually) stuck in a room filled with gray crates for 40 hours a week.  The dull, monotone, windowless room was depressing (especially when summer rolled around) and Danna reached a point where she was  always complaining about her job.  She was good at it, but knew it wasn’t making her happy.  Much of the misery had to do with the environment she was working within.  Finally, she realized she had to leave before moving on to the next step: management.  On a dare, she quit her job.

Danna began work at Barrique’s where she found she had time to learn and pursue her interests again.  Always intrigued by public health and the environmental effects of health, she decided to continue her education and become a Nurse’s Assistant.  During her first summer away from PPD, Danna took a “mental vacation” and spent the majority of her summer outdoors.  Although she was shifting her life’s direction and perhaps even taking a step backward (what should have been a stressful time), she somehow felt at ease.  She attributes much of her happiness during the transition period to her time spent outdoors.

Once back involved in campus life, Danna began attending Environmental Studies Club meetings, attending Professor DeWitt’s coffee hours and volunteering for Madison Environmental Group.  She was part of a big pesticide-free campaign on campus and began to notice that environmental and sustainable changes are a very gradual process.  Because there is so much bureaucracy and divergent interests involved, innovative changes need to be handled patiently and persistently.  To many, the appearance of Bascom Hill defines UW-Madison.  If the Grounds Department began to use pesticide-free lawn care, would this iconic hill still look good?  This was one of the many voices surrounding the lawn-care debate.  This struggle is still going on.

The following September, Majora Carter came to campus.  Danna became even more inspired.  Her interest in sustainability efforts within cities broadened and she began to wonder what Madison was doing in this realm.  It turned out they were not doing as much as she’d hoped.

Danna organized the Green Roof Initiative in order to advocate for green rooftops in Madison.  The group brought together roofing companies, landscaping students and native plant exports. Group members and Madison residents can now look to Greening Madison to become educated on green rooftops in the city as well as follow their progress.

Meanwhile, still working at the UW-hospital, Danna began to notice the dreary views outside of her patients windows.  It reminded her of those 7 years spent working  indoors for PPD: little more to look at then drab gray and concrete.  While working with surgical patients, Danna began snapping pictures of the views outside their windows.  The gray and gravel rooftops couldn’t have positive implications for recovery.  With the pictures she’d taken, Danna created a slide show that connected both her interests: Green Roofs and Patient Care.  The slide show discussed the economic and human benefits of green roofing on hospitals.  She explained how vacant space could be used as a place of healing.

She took her slideshow to Health & Healing meetings as well as Facility Planning meetings at the hospital and her superiors listened. The UW-Hospital staff agreed that green roofs would improve patient care.

While still nursing, Danna began to act as a facilitator for these green roof projects, networking, utilizing resources and bringing divergent groups together in conversation.  She brought in UW engineering students to help with planning the infrastructure for her healing gardens (green rooftops require a lot of infrastructure in order to support the weight of the soil, transitioning from a normal rooftop to a green rooftop is no small endeavor).  Landscape architecture students have been recruited more recently to help design the corridor space.  Currently there is one healing garden in place at the UW-Hospital, but two more are in the works including one atop an old helicopter pad.

Danna is the quintessential example of someone taking a normal job, and making it exceptional.  Working as a nurse, she did more than just the required patient care.  She observed the environment that her patients had to live in while recovering and found a way to improve it.  It is clear to me that Danna has never been one to settle in life.  Wherever she looks, she sees ways in which things can be improved and believes in making everything around her a little bit better.

Danna tells me that for a long time now, she has been on a quest to use her abilities and interests.  She hasn’t gotten to where she wants to be yet, but feels like she is certainly headed in the right direction now.

Danna still works as a Nurse’s Assistant at the UW hospital in the Neurology Department while simultaneously taking nursing classes and volunteering her time as a environmental sustainability and greenroof advocate.  Eventually she would love a job “that looks at the  environmental factors that shape health problems.”  Soon she will be beginning graduate studies at UW-Madison.

It is safe to say that plants can heal, and more than just recovering patients, it appears plants can reshape the direction of one’s life.

Days 13, 14 & 15

Cloudy!!!  Ick, ick, ick, no wonder I’ve been crabby.  Hopefully more beautiful pictures to come!