Tracking our resource consumption

As part of our commitment to sustainability, we track our resource consumption carefully. We heat with wood, using a gas furnace once or twice a year on extremely cold nights or when we have to be away. Thus, our main household resource consumption consists of electricity and water (ok, and a little diesel and gasl for the tractor and chainsaw). We've kept monthly records of these since moving on-farm in mid-2006, and want to share these graphs to make a few points about energy efficiency and the ability of individuals to affect consumption through conservation.

First up, our elecricity usage:

I know these are slightly hard to read, but it should be clear that our highest ever electric bill was in March of 2007 (around $80) while the lowest was in November of 2007 (around $30). Overall our monthly bill averages around $50. Obviously the relevance of this number will change based on the reader's region, so I'll note that this is the equivalent of a peak around 900 KwH and a base around 200 KwH.

In general our highest electricy use is in the spring, when we are running lots of growing lights for indoor plant starting. That's the single largest variable in our consumption, and is directly related to our business and self-reliant lifestyle, so I don't feel too bad about that. Note that the 2008 grow-light peak lasted a bit longer than 2007; that's due to the extra cold, rainy, cloudy spring that delayed lots of transplanting.

Note the huge difference in consumption between winter '07 (green) and winter '08 (blue). I attribute this to the installation of our solar hot water system, which now provides most of our hot water year round with little electricity use. Also note that by summer '08, the trend has reversed itself and we are generally running about $10 more per month than '07, which I attribute to our increased use of electric fences, brooding lights for poultry, and coolers for storing produce pre-market.

For context, I attempted to find some statistics on Missouri household energy consumption but had difficulty finding useful numbers. The best I could do in a quick search was to locate stats from our local utility, Boone Electric, and do some quick calucations. According to BE, a total of 516,148,000 KwH were purchased in 2007 from a total of 28,777 meters. That averages out to about 18,000 KwH consumed per meter in 2007. By contrast, in 2007, we used a total of about 6,000 KwH. Obviously I can't judge the effects of industrial meters on these numbers, but it gives a sense of context to our consumption.

Now to water use:
This is not as large an issue in central Missouri as it is farther west, as we have plenty of groundwater and are not really in danger of that changing any time soon. However, it's still a good benchmark for overall resource efficiency.

Our baseline water bill runs between $20-$30/month. That has slowly increased in 2008 (light blue), I assume due to the increased water needs of our animals. The obvious difference between 2007 and 2008 is our irrigation; 2007 was incredibly dry with no meaningful rain from June through October, so it cost us an extra $20/month to irrigate our produce. The big spike in October is not irrigation, but the water use of our on-farm wedding and the effects of lots of people flushing toilets and so on. You can see that it plummets as soon as the guests leave and the irrigation is turned off.

I don't have a good way to put these numbers in context; I have no idea what the average Missouri household's water consumption or water bill is. Anyone out there want to chip in an anonymous comparison?

Anyway, there are the data. That's our energy consumption, plus some gas and diesel. Throw in our low trash yield (about one medium bag a month or less) and I feel pretty good about the sustainability of our homestead farm and our ability to afford any rising electricity or water costs; if you don't use much in the first place, it's not going to hurt as bad when it costs more (just like gas).

USDA: organic methods benefit pecans

The USDA's Agricultural Research Service recently released results from a fascinating study on the use of organic methods on pecan orchards. Starting with an 800-tree conventionally managed orchard in Texas, the researchers began managing half the trees using organic methods while the remaining half continued in conventional management under the orchard's private owner. The results seem fairly clear:

Contrary to conventional growers’ expectations, the ARS organically treated test site outyielded the Geberts’ conventionally managed, chemically fertilized orchard in each of 5 years. ... “This is the most successful organic project I have been involved with,” says Bradford. “The results are especially satisfying, because we have shown that it’s possible to grow nuts under the organic system that are far superior in looks and in taste.”

The basic premise of the study, that "by improving tree health through improved soil health, the trees would naturally become more resistant to disease and insect attack", is the basic premise for organic management of any crop or animal. It's comparable to a human relying more on a healthy diet and exercise to ward off disease rather than attempting to sterilize their household through overuse of cleaning products.

The study also makes clear that there are barriers to such organic management; if it were easy we would never have adopted chemical farming in the first place. That being said, it is encouraging to see the USDA seriously and rationally testing and evaluating organic methods for their practical benefits:

...adopting an organic system and obtaining certification could provide a valuable additional source of income to pecan growers, thanks to increased yields and improved kernel quality. “I believe our greatest accomplishment is that we, as scientists, have shown it’s possible to design a management system that growers will adopt,” says Bradford. “That’s really the biggest thing—to prove that this is a change for the better.”

This coldly practical view is very important. Ethical and philosophical arguments are only so valuable when reasonable people can differ, but proven scientific results such as this study provide a much more solid ground on which to have the discussion. For farmers who may be interested in transitioning away from chemical farming, but who still to make a living and stay on the farm, research and results like this are likely to be more compelling.

Finally linking nutrition and food assistance

The U.S. faces a very odd pair of problems when it comes to food and health. Over 30 million Americans use food stamps or comparable food assistance (implying hunger or food shortages) wihle roughly the same amount of children are medically obese. In most countries, one might safely assume that the hungry people are a different population than the obese people, but that's often not true in the U.S., where the most affordable food is almost always the least healthy and most obesity-inducing. Real fruit juice costs a lot more than soda, fresh fruit and vegetables cost more than canned, whole meat and produce costs more than TV dinners, and so on. Of course, this is a natural result of our political emphasis on targeted agricultural subsidies that keep the cost of additives like corn syrup and sugar artificially low, allowing processed food to remain artificially cheap compared to real whole food.

This will be nothing new to most readers of this blog. I'm writing about this now to flag a sign of hope in this mess: last week, the Washington Post ran an excellent story on the Obama administration's potential new approach:

For decades, the government has treated hunger and obesity as unrelated phenomena. But at a news conference last week in Chicago, Tom Vilsack, Barack Obama's choice for agriculture secretary, said he would put "nutrition at the center of all food assistance programs," a signal that he will get involved next year when Congress moves to reauthorize nutrition programs that support school breakfasts and lunches as well as summer food for children.

Vilsack hopes to work with non-governmental organizations to make this transition. An excellent example of the possibilities is a pilot program launched by Wholesome Wave Foundation,

an organization that works to make locally grown food more widely available. In the spring, it launched a program that doubles the value of food stamps and fruit and vegetable vouchers of low-income mothers and seniors who use them at farmers markets in Connecticut, Massachusetts and California.

The Wholesome Wave matching grants were an instant hit at the City Heights market in San Diego. On the first day that matching funds became available, sales using government-issued electronic benefit cards soared by more than 200 percent. In subsequent weeks, the line to receive matching vouchers formed at 7:30 a.m., and the available funds were exhausted by 9:30 a.m., just 30 minutes after the market opened.

This sort of thing demonstrates that the need is there, but the economic realities just don't make it possible for folks on tight budgets to eat healthily. While I'm thrilled that Vilsack and Obama are coming around to understanding the possibilities inherent here, I hope they also consider that their own strong support for ethanol and corn subsidies are a fundamental part of the problem. It's expensive and counterproductive to create a new wave of government spending to counteract a pre-existing wave of government spending. Obama shows strong potential to be a synthesizer, someone who considers all the deep implications of interdependant policy decisions. Let's hope he does so here.

What We Eat: December IV

12/20 - 12/26: Eric returned home from North Carolina on Monday night, to great relief all around. This is why the food records become more detailed again on Tuesday. We made several special meals for Christmas and beyond, including a full German dinner for Joanna's parents on Friday. German food just isn't as photogenic (see below) as Italian or Asian, but it tastes just as good and is well suited to winter cooking with its base in winter produce (potatoes, apples, cabbage) and easily preserved items (applesauce, sauerkraut, meat). Below, you see goat sauerbraten, sauerkraut, potato pancakes with applesauce, rye bread, and beer. Now THAT'S winter comfort food.

Saturday: Black beans with sweet potatoes, corn, and rice.

Sunday: Leftovers from Saturday, with homemade bread and curried lentil dip

Monday: Grilled cheese (Uprise bread, Cabot cheddar) and thawed chili from the freezer.

Tuesday: Potato omelet (our eggs, purple potatoes, onions, garlic, herbs) with salsa (Mercuri tomatoes, our cilantro, garlic, onions, etc.)

Wednesday: Leek & goat cheese gallette (pastry) with vegetable soup (our frozen spinach, tat soi, beet greens, green beans, corn, zucchini, okra, tomatoes, goat broth, plus onions, garlic, herbs, and spices).

Thursday: Marinated goat roast with homemade pitas and fruit salad (our thawed blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, peaches). Roast made by rolling long, thin cut of meat with garlic and JJR Farm bacon, marinating in red wine/juniper berry sauce, and roasting for four hours. Tender and delicious.

Friday: All-out German night. Sauerbraten (vinegar marinated goat roast), potato pancakes (our spuds and onions) and our canned applesauce, homemade sauerkraut, rye bread from Joanna's parents. Sauerbraten recieved the seal of authenticity from Joanna's full-blooded German father.

What We Eat: December III

12/13 - 12-19: This was the week Eric was gone in North Carolina, so Joanna was left to handle both the farm and her job. With one person, simple meals from basic ingredients can stretch a long way, and still be quite enjoyable. We consider leftovers to be a sign of quality; they are usually our lunch the next day, but with one person they become the next night's dinner as well.

Saturday: Red lentil dal with our Mercuri tomatoes and kale.

Sunday: Leftover potato soup, homemade pitas

Monday: Homemade pitas, falafel, and tahini sauce

Tuesday: Homemade pitas stuffed with spiced black beans and ground goat, tomatoes & kale, and Goatsbeard feta.

Wednesday: Leftovers from Tuesday.

Thursday: Souffle with Goatsbeard cheese, our kale, oregano, and eggs.

Friday: Leftovers from Thursday

What We Eat: December II

Posted late due to outside events.

12/6/08 - 12/13/08:

Saturday: Chert Hollow beans and greens.

Sunday: Indian curried potato wrap with peas and Mercuri tomatoes (recipe from Moosewood New Classics). Goat tenderloin in red wine marinade. Potatoes from Joanna's parents.

Monday: Lentil soup. Cabbage salad with apple. Potatoes and cabbage from Joanna's parents.

Tuesday: Potato leek soup and Chilean potato omelette with fresh salsa.

Wednesday: Spiced beans and goat in wheat tortillas with salsa and cheese.

Thursday: Potato leek soup; squash with raisins and Missouri pecans.

Friday: Goat burger on Uprise Bakery roll with Mercuri tomatoes and Goatsbeard Farm feta. Squash with raisins and Missouri pecans.

December update & preview

If you've noticed the blog take a sudden swerve into lighter topics, there's a reason. I've been out of town for most of the past several weeks. Many members of my family have been taking turns travelling to North Carolina to take care of our ailing parents/grandparents, and my turn came in late December. I had to leave Joanna to manage everything here as well as her full-time job, so I wrote up a bunch of simple time-insensitive blog posts for her to toss out every few days (I wasn't sure of my internet access or time availability during the trip).

I am back now, with a lot of built-up ideas and commentary. Over the next few weeks, I plan to discuss the Vilsack Ag nomination, more on organic certification, several small-farm relevant news stories, and more. In particular, I plan to discuss several lessons and experiences learned from having to shop at and cook from regular grocery stores rather than our own food; it's been years since I had to go to a conventional grocery store for anything beyond orange juice or the occasional toiletries, and the experience was, well, enlightening.

I also plan to catch up on the What We Eat series, for which Joanna has faithfully kept records but did not have time to post. At some point there will be three or more of those in a row just to catch up. I have no idea if readers really care about that series, but I'm really enjoying it as a way to prove that locally grown food products can be the foundation of a healthy, diverse, tasty diet year-round. If nothing else, I want it as an archive of menu ideas for future years when we're selling at market year round and customers want to know what they can do over the winter.

May you all have had a Merry Christmas or whatever you feel the need to celebrate. I'll leave you with a photo of my best Christmas present; a third year in a row of appropriate conditions for pond hockey on-farm; something I thought I'd have to give up upon moving from Vermont long ago. If anyone out there is a hockey player, get in touch, as I'd love to build up a collection of folks to come play when conditions are right. Skills are optional; love of the world's greatest sport is not.

A few thoughts on Christmas

As a non-Christian, I am alternatively bemused and annoyed by the intensity of the holiday and the passions it generates. I fail to see what self-imposed stress, mass consumerism, and culture wars have to do with celebrating the birth of one of history's pre-eminent philosophers of tolerance and peace.

Too often, what I see around Christmas are the actions that define our culture's problems regardless of what is being said. Conservatives complaining about the secularization of Christmas conveniently fail to notice that it's not urban latte liberals buying mounds of plastic Santa crap at Walmart and driving the Nielson success of tepid secular Holiday Specials on TV (or if it is, they're a far larger majority than conservatives would care to admit). Liberals offended by the Christ in Christmas might want to consider that the core teachings of Jesus underpin the best of Christmas values, and that it's the secular aspect of the holiday that drives the most offensive behavior to liberal sensibilities. Peace and love are, after all, values associated with crunchy left wingers today, oddly enough. Why fight that when you can embrace it? Both sides of the political spectrum would do well to consider that their priorities and arguments in the Christmas wars are trending very close to self-parody.

Even as a non-Christian, I would happily re-emphasize the (accurate) religious side of the holiday with a few weeks of quiet national reflection on the values of peace, love, and moderation in exchance for stripping away the 6-8 week secular orgy of consumption, reindeer, and obnoxious pop carols. So there's my Christmas wish.

Using electric net gates

Every farm needs gates, but especially those combining vegetables and goats. Gates are the natural weak point of any fence, and have to keep all possible predators out and all occupants in while being reasonably convenient to use. It's pretty hard to get a heavy, solid gate that will stop deer, goats, and dogs set up to keep raccoons and rabbits from going right underneath, or vice versa. This is especially true when the gate in question needs to be big enough to allow equipment through, as opposed to a narrow garden gate.

So far we've had reasonably good success with electronet gates from Premier 1 fencing, in Iowa. These gates are about 3'x20', composed of a wire net that can be hooked to your electric fence. This keeps low-down creatures away (coons, dogs, rabbits) through its charge, and offers a reasonable visual barrier to goats. The latter are capable of jumping over, but so far our dairy goats are pretty well trained and don't test it. It would be easy to string several wires with hooked handles above the gate if we felt the need (this will likely be our approach in the vegetable field, to keep deer out). You can see one of these gates in action above, used together with a five-strand electrified wire fence around our home goat paddock.

The gates are easy to use; they are self-supporting through metal rods in the insulated poles, and you just clip/unclip the power from the fence as needed. They do tend to sag over time, though, and when the ground is hard (frozen or compacted) it can be hard to insert the poles enough to stay up. You also have to be careful not to short them out on the adjoining fence post. Here are a few tricks I've figured out to make using these gates even easier.

1) Set up wooden gate posts. It's easier to insulate against a wood post than a metal T-post (see below), and they are more stable. This also gives you the option to replace with a "real" gate someday if desired. Below, you see a recently installed farm-cut cedar post.



2) Cut short pieces of 1/2" PVC pipe (maybe 6" long) and pound into the ground wherever you want a net gate post to go. The pipe makes a perfect reciever for the post's metal rod, and holds it reasonably vertical. It's far easier to pull the gate in and out of this when you go through than it is to keep trying to shove it into mud or compacted soil. When combined with Tip # 3, this works really well.



3) Buy a couple large insulated coat hooks from a hardware store, and screw into the wooden post at an appropriate height to catch the net gate post. When done right, you can pull the net gate tight and slip it into this hook, which maintains tension on the gate and keeps it from sagging. The insulated cover keeps it from shorting out on the powered wires. It's very easy to simply slip the post out from this hook to open the gate. It might not hold against much pressure, but the whole point of an electric net gate is that nothing puts pressure on 7,500 volts for very long.

4) Use basic power clamps/alligator clips to run power to the gate. I use a large plastic-handled clamp on the gate end, with the wire spliced into a small metal alligator clip at the other end which attaches to one line of the electric fence. You just have to grab the plastic clamp, unclip it, hang it somewhere insulated (like the insulated wire wrapping around the post), and use the gate as you see fit. You can see this clamp above. Premier sells them as a double-ended arrangement; I cut the wire in half, splice on two metal alligator clips, and have two gate power setups for the price of one.

5) I don't have a good photo of this, but each gate is divided into two 10' sections by a central post. If you arrange your fences right, you can use both of these halves as two gates in one. This is especially effective at a right-angle corner, in which the central post is in effect a pivot around which either half can open. We have one set up this way at a junction between our home goat paddock, a road to our field, and another goat paddock. Depending on which way we open which half of the gate, we can allow the goats through to any of the three places while naturally blocking off the place we don't want them to go to.

Pretty basic stuff, but if you haven't tried these gates before, they're quite convenient. Not the cheapest option in the world, but neither is the engineering required to hang a solid gate that will control every possible animal in both directions and still be easy to use.

And the goose and the goat shall lie down together...

On a recent wintry day, I went down to see how the animals were doing. The geese are pretty territorial, and have no problem standing up to goats. A few times I've found them defending the goat hoophouse from its rightful occupants, and on this day wanted to make sure the goats weren't out in the sleet because of some stubborn birds.

Not to fear; all were happily bedded down together. This photo doesn't quite do it justice becasue they all jumped up as soon as they heard me and I only had time for a quick photo from the doorway. Still, a very cute scene and a good sign for future interspecies relations.

Recipe: Cheese-potato soup

This hearty soup is a winter tradition in Eric's family, served for weekend lunches after mornings spent in the snow. The thick, hot, cheesy dish instantly warms you up. Easy to make, it's a wonderful quick meal with basic ingredients.

4 large potatoes
4 Tbl flour
4 Tbl butter
sharp white cheddar, cubed
red wine vinegar
chopped scallions

Chop potatoes into cubes, leaving skins on if they are reasonably organic (potato skins contain much of the flavor and nutrient of the potato and add a nice texture to the soup). Boil in lightly salted water until soft.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a small pan over low heat and add flour to make a basic roux, stirring often until the mixture browns.

When potatoes are soft, drain (reserve the liquid) and mash. Add the roux and cook over low heat, stirring reserved liquid back in as the soup thickens. When everything is nice and mixed, and you've attained and held a consistency of thick chowder, it's ready to serve.

Line deep bowls with cubes of cheddar to taste; covering the base of the bowl is a good rule. Ladle in the soup, and top with a swirl of red wine vinegar and a scattering of scallions. Let cheese melt a minute, then stir well and enjoy.

Using leeks

About leeks
Leeks are a wonderful fall/winter vegetable, similar to onions but milder and sweeter. A good leek may be over an inch across and over a foot long in the flesh. Started in spring, they aren't harvested until fall, and are often considered best after a few frosts have concentrated their sugars. In the north, leeks can be kept in the ground throughout the winter, protected by thick mulch and snow and harvested as needed. Here in Missouri, I've found that the constant temperature swings above and below freezing seem to wear them down faster. We harvested the last of ours in early December, as they were starting to get a bit soft.


Preparing leeks
To use a leek, chop off the very tip above the roots, and the tops just below where the deep green leaves start. The solid stalk is used all through the color transition from white to light green. Depending on where and how the leek was grown, you may need to rinse the interior. Commercial leeks tend to be grown in sandy conditions, and the plant ends up incorporating some of this grit within its internal layers. Slice the leek lengthwise, and splay open the layers under a stream of water to rinse out any grit (see below). If it was grown in central Missouri, you're not as likely to find much since our soil is so clay-rich and short on sand. It doesn't hurt to check, though.




Cooking with leeks
Leeks are easy to use in a wide variety of dishes. Chopped and lightly sauteed, they are a great addition to scrambled eggs, omelettes, and frittattas, contributing a mild allium flavor that's not as strong as onion. The absolute classic winter dish is leek & potato soup, for which an abundance of recipes can be found online. I find that leeks are also good chopped fine into salads or any other application in which you might use scallions (they're a nice addition to an autumn cabbage slaw). You can use them in any application where onions are used, for a subtly different and milder flavor (they're great for onion haters).


Our absolute favorite way to use leeks is in this fantastic Squash & Leek Lasagna, from Eating Well Magazine. A classic example of the inherent possibilities in vegetarian cooking, this dish is unique, healthy, and absurdly tasty. If you're trying to cook locally, the grated Parmigiano-Reggiano is easily replaced with Goatsbeard Farm's Walloon.

Chicken Tractor, Chert Hollow style

The concept of a "chicken tractor" is simple: it's just a portable chicken pen (Google will teach you all you want to know). The idea is to combine the benefits of confinement raising (safety, shelter, heat, etc.) and pastured raising (natural food, exercise, cleanliness). During the summer, our chickens range freely throughout the goat paddock, but for this winter we wanted a warmer and more secure location for them. We also wanted them near the house, with access to power. These are laying hens, after all, and they lay better with more light than winter gives naturally, and in extra cold nights some heat is a good thing.

So here's our take on the concept. It houses four hens and two roosters, with roughly equal indoor and outdoor spaces. Inside are a laying box, roosts, food, and water. Outside is enough room to exercise, peck, and fulfill other chickenly needs. It's close to the house, and power is run to a heat lamp through a heavy-duty extension cord run through a simple household security timer to turn the lights on and off as needed to extend their apparent daylight (their laying went up significantly after they moved in here).





Fundamental to the concept is portability. This shelter is heavy enough to keep coons or dogs from tipping it over (we hope), but light enough to drag around with two people or a tractor. About once a week we move it to new ground. This keeps things cleaner, as the waste isn't building up in one place all winter, and as a side effect ends up spreading excellent fertilizer all over the chosen area (in this case, future berry plantations). By the end of the winter we expect to have covered much of the available area, resulting in easy fertilization without lots of work. And the birds are far happier not living in their own waste all winter. It's easier to move this once a week than shovel lots of chicken crap.

During the day, if I'm around, I'll often open the outside door and let them range in a larger area, defined by an electric net fence that can be dimly seen in the photograph. This really gives them a healthy life, and they know where home is (food, water, and heat) and don't get too far away.

It's a very basic and effective concept; a nice blend of modern innovation with traditional methods. This type of thing has been used at many scales; once you're moving a portable coop regularly anyway, why not make it large enough for lots of birds? The effect is the same. Many folks use large (90-100 bird) sheds to improve their pastures, moving the shed every few days and effectively spreading excellent manure with none of the waste or pollution of doing it artifically. And the birds are happier too.

Someday down the road we'll likely expand our poultry operation to larger numbers and tractors; geese and ducks are possibilities too. In the meantime, this little homestead-sized weekend project gives us fresh eggs, healthy chickens, and better growing areas with very little downside.

Recipe: Chert Hollow beans & greens

About the dish
Good beans & greens are so tasty and fulfilling, with a rich combination of flavors and a heartiness that fills you up on a cold day. As a main dish, this goes very well with some fried green tomatoes, fried okra, and/or a side of real southern cornbread. The recipe below is our adaption of a recipe for Hoppin' John from the excellent Sundays at Moosewood cookbook.This can easily be made vegetarian or omnivorous; just leave out the meat and substitute vegetable broth if you so desire; there's enough flavor to go around either way.

About the ingredients
Black-eyed peas would be the standard, traditional base of this meal, and we often use them. In the photo above, however, we used our own farm-grown mixed heirloom dried beans, a delicious blend of many varieties, colors, and flavors (see below). If you have access to high-quality mixed beans like these (often sold as soup bean mixes), by all means use them to get the best flavor. Otherwise, stick with black-eyed peas and you won't go wrong. In either case, dried will be far superior to canned.


The mixed greens are also important; ideally you'll want collards, kale, and mustard, in a 2:1:1 ratio. Don't overdo the mustard greens unless you really like them, but in smaller quantities they'll add an important flavor.

Depending on the season, good tomatoes may or may not be available. We use our winter heirloom tomatoes, but canned or home-preserved are an effective substitute.

With regards to meat, chopped bacon gives a nice flavor, though we usually use diced cubes of our own goat meat. Any red meat will do, even ground, but keep the chunks small. As Thomas Jefferson wrote, the meat should serve as a "condiment to the vegetables", not the main attraction. Smaller chunks will also cook and soften faster; they should be melt-in-your-mouth tender by the end.

The recipe:
This is my best approximation of ingredient quantity; I usually judge such things by instinct and taste. Adjust to your needs.

4 cups cooked mixed beans or black-eyed peas
2 onions, chopped
4-5 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 hot peppers, minced
Chopped bacon or other meat, to taste
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp paprika
1 cup tomatoes, chopped
up to 1 quart broth (meat or vegetable)
1 big bowl chopped fresh fall greens (mustard, collards, and kale)
cubed or grated hard cheese (sharp/smoked cheddar is good)
1 cup cooked rice per serving

If using dried beans or peas, cook ahead of time according to your preferred method (there are several). Aim for about 4 cups cooked.

Saute the onions, garlic, meat, hot peppers, and spices until softening and aromatic. Use some olive oil if you're not using bacon. Mix in the tomatoes and cook a few minutes longer. Add some broth and beans and simmer for at least half an hour. You want all the flavors mixed nicely, and the meat very tender. This can stay on the stove for far longer if you desire. Add more broth as needed to keep the consistency near a thick soup.

When you're twenty minutes from eating, start the rice cooking. When you're ten minutes from eating, stir in the chopped greens and restir occasionally to ensure that they wilt and mix in thoroughly. You may or may not need to add salt, depending on your sources of meat and beans (bacon and canned beans will both add significant amounts of salt, as will the cheese). A bit of black pepper can't hurt.

Serve over rice with a healthy topping of grated/cubed hard cheese, and ideally sides of fried green tomatoes & okra, and cornbread.

Mercuri tomatoes: our key to fresh winter tomatoes

One of the joys of growing heirloom produce is the feeling of preserving history and links to other cultures and farms. Some heirlooms can be traced back to Roman times; many have been preserved on small American farms for generations, their seed saved year after year as the variety became ever-more adapted to its specific farm and conditions. The genetic diversity and local adaptation of heirloom varieties are some of the strongest practical reasons to grow them, but sometimes the history is a prime candidate as well.

Such is the case with our Mercuri tomatoes, a variety that I can virtually guarantee is not grown anywhere else in the US (with one exception explained later). These are a winter tomato; they ripen late in the year and are intended for storage. Hung from their cut vines or arranged on a shelf, they will stay fresh throughout a winter and into the next season (last year, our final holdout stayed fresh until this June). Their taste in December does not quite rival a fresh summer tomato, but it is noticeably superior to a grocery store tomato. And they're ours, they're local, they're fresh tomatoes in winter that didn't take ridiculous amounts of fuel, energy, middlement, and other resources to ship here.

The story behind these is typical of heirlooms. A close college friend and his wife are both serious cooks and food lovers. She is Italian; her family moved to Canada from southern Italy generations ago. Being Italian, they brought many of their family's seeds with them, varieties that had been grown for generations in the old country and were specifically adapted to their tastes and culture. For decades, now, they've kept their family tomato variety going in the Great White North, getting big harvests of tomatoes every year that they preserve and store for the winter. When we started our farm in 2006, they generously passed along some of their precious seed for us to start growing, in hopes that we would cultivate the variety and spread it to more folks (we also have an excellent strain of basil from them). They read this blog, and I hope they'll correct any mistakes I might have made in this post!

Saving tomato seed on a small farm is difficult, at least if you grow as many varieties as we do. Tomatoes can cross-pollinate, destroying the consistency of the seed you want to save. Thus we've always grown the Mercuri tomatoes in isolation, and so it has taken us several years to slowly increase our plantings to achieve a meaningful level of production. We've also had some mixed results in growing a variety now adapted to Canada in a much more southerly location.

This year was especially annoying. The Mercuris, in general, are exceptionally reliable, yielding large amounts of consistent fruit (about the size of a large golf ball) and less susceptible to diseases or pests than anything else we've grown. We planned to plant them late this year, as they are a winter tomato, figuring that a later harvest would lengthen their shelf life. Of course, we had a terribly wet, cloudy, and cool spring and summer which really set all of our tomatoes back. The Mercuris, again, showed far less susceptibility to the rot and disease which whacked most of our tomatoes (and many other growers), but the fruit matured very, very slowly under those conditions. As fall neared, and frost loomed its ugly head, we had rows of plants absolutely loaded with hard, green fruit.

So just ahead of a killing frost, we simply harvested everything green, figuring we'd find out if they stored well this way and how well they'd ripen up over the winter. For the first month or so we ate green tomato everything, including lots fried, as well as experimenting with all sorts of ways of using them.

Now, finally, they're starting to ripen, and we have fresh tomatoes again. The taste is a bit tart, which I ascribe to their delayed ripening process, but we have tomatoes to use for anything we want (sauces, stews, salads, etc.) with none of the work of canning or freezing. Our supplies of these really help stretch the other tomatoes we preserved, and we're grateful to have them. A few, of course, go bad; you have to check the shelves every few days to find the nasty ones and feed them to the chickens. Overall, though, the harvest-green-and-store method has been a great success and adds another level of possibility to these unique and valuable heirlooms.

We've shared the seed with Joanna's parents down in Arkansas, but otherwise are the only folks growing these in the US, because we're the only ones the family has given seed to. We hope, in the next year or two, to have enough seed saved to list these with the Seed Savers Exchange, a fantastic organization dedicated to preserving genetic diversity and heirloom seeds. In the meantime, we're enjoying our stocks immensely. Thanks!

Screed Alert: On Food, Farming, and Everything Inbetween

Recently, a very interesting and wide-ranging discussion has developed on the Columbia Tribune's online Food Forum. You can read the whole thread here, but I want to repost one long screed of mine since it was already picked up by one local food blogger and encapsulates a lot of my thoughts regarding our current food system and farming. This is pretty long, but I'll be interested in any reactions it might generate. I'm editing it slightly here to achieve a more stand-alone effect independent of the original discussion thread.

Prices:
Economies of scale exist. It is generally cheaper to grow 1,000s of pounds of tomatoes in a single-purpose field using lots of mechanization, than it is to grow smaller quantities interplanted with other items, using less mechanization. Basic economics; mass-produced Chinese shoes cost less than hand-made ones from the local cobbler, mass-produced tomatoes cost less than those grown by a small farmer. What's missing is any consideration of quality or side effects (see below). In a way, that's partly how it used to be. For example, many states around the country used to have a significant tomato industry that sourced local/regional canneries that sold to local/regional stores. Before WWII, California produced less than 20% of the nation's tomatoes; now it's 95%. (I'm sourcing from a recent article in The Ethicurean here.) These weren't "small farmers" in the sense of several-acre market growers, these may have been 10,20,30+ acre fields of tomatoes, but they were still generally independant and a far cry from the current mega-corporate farms we have today.

Ethics and Quality:
What often isn't considered, when evaluating the price and efficiency difference between a large-scale, single-crop produce grower and a diversified small farmer, are all the other ancilliary factors. For example, perhaps one of the reasons (forum reader) can't find produce like (s)he remembers is because large-scale agriculture can't grow fresher garden varieties. They have to grow varieties specially bred to take the abuse of mechanical harvest, shipping, packaging, storage, handling, and so on. The inevitable loss there is flavor and quality. You will never, ever get a tomato from a store, or even a market grower growing commercial varieties, that tastes like a vine-fresh heirloom picked the day before. The tomatoes I grow would never survive the odyssey a commercial tomato has to; they're picked within a day or two of market and goes straight to the consumer with no middlemen and minimal handling.

Now consider the physical side effects. Many processes can be done more cleanly at a smaller scale; me butchering a few chickens on-farm is nothing like a CAFO, because the results of my actions occur at a scale that can be handled on-farm, whereas a CAFO has to have a complicated waste management system. A farm growing hundreds of acres of tomatoes is not going to be able to treat the land as well as a small diversified farm; it's just not possible. Size may equal efficiency in some ways, but it also produces waste and inefficiencies in ways that are much harder to evaluate, at least for outsiders. When's the last time you looked at a field and were able to tell how much topsoil had been lost that year? But it's pretty easy to compare prices between Walmart and the Farmers Market. There's little economic incentive to make long-term sustainable decisions when you're caught in a vicious price war among consumers whose only standard is cheap.

Also, consider that even the big mechanized operations need labor; in the US that's almost always low-wage immigrant labor. One of the big reasons your general produce is so cheap is that it's mostly picked, prepared, packed, and so on by the sort of labor that conservatives love to rail against. Whenever I see someone fulminating against the Latino Scourge, I want to ask them where their food comes from, because most everything they buy in the store is directly encouraging the dynamic they're so afraid of. Don't want Mexicans in the US? Don't buy produce, meat, or fruit from the grocery store, or at least stop insisting on the price being so low that companies feel forced to hire low-wage labor. America-first types often seem to be the same ones dismissing enterpreneurial free-market small farmers as liberal elitists while happily supporting immigrant-based corporations.

Consumer choices:
Which leads me to a core point I want to make. All of the intertangled issues here lead back to a single source: Consumer behavior. Whatever is wrong or right with our food system is not a function of evil corporations or price-gouging hippie farmers. It's consumer choice. Every purchase you make sends a direct message through the economy of what you really want, and businesses respond to that far more effectively than any law, policy, or advocacy. For example: Consider the Detroit autoworkers bemoaning the fact that more Americans don't buy Detroit, to show American pride and so on. Now consider, as a narrow analogy, that Missouri used to be a pretty major shoe manufacturing center. There were shoe producers of all sizes in rural and urban Missouri alike, all churning out shoes for sale and providing jobs to folks. Now, when the first cheap Chinese shoes starting showing up in Michigan, you know those autoworkers jumped at the chance to buy shoes they percieved to be equivalent at 1/3 the price. Who can blame them; it's the rational economic choice for an individual. And thus, the Missouri shoe industry slowly dried up, and all those folks around the state earning decent wages at the shoe manufacturers suddenly didn't have jobs, and guess what? Probably weren't buying as many Detroit autos.

Expand that dynamic across the country and you see why we have lost so many good jobs. The economic incentives that operate on individuals to maximize their savings have a deeply perverse impact on the economy as a whole, because it drives manufacturers and merchants to continually seek cost savings to the point of wiping out the jobs and incomes that allowed Americans to afford each others' products in the first place. So while any given consumers' economic situation may drive them to seek out the most affordable food, collectively that impulse undercuts any other value than cheap, diluting the system of choices until there really are none.

Local foods and market prices:
So how does that tie into the actual question here? From my perspective, I'm a businessman. I am attempting to make a living as a self-employed enterpreneur. I am not a non-profit, a charity, or some other organization whose prime goal is service. My prime goal is to sell quality produce to those who value it enough to pay a price that keeps me in business. I wish everyone could afford my products, but I'm not about to sacrifice my living for a socialist ideal. Americans, generally a pretty free-market lot, are weirdly socialist about things like food and gas. They understand that a $1,000 flat-screen is a better product than a $100 Radio shack 9incher, and that the price reflects that. But they somehow have reached the conclusion that food is different, that all food is equivalent, that it is somehow a latent commoditity like air and not a specific product that has to be produced by work and cost, and that it should all be as cheap as possible regardless of other factors. People who don't blink at the cost difference between a BMW and a Kia flip out when some elitist organic farmer dares to charge a living wage for their fresher, higher-quality produce. Maybe someday everyone will be able to afford a BMW, but in the meantime I don't hear too many calls for BMW to lower its prices so everyone can have one.

Perhaps I'm being harsh here, but really, I'm continually amazed at how many people don't consider farming an actual business. They seem to think that farms just sort of exist, like forests or rivers, and that people don't actually have to make a living keeping them in existence so that people can eat food and drive through pretty countrysides with pretty barns and pretty animals. Sorry, but I'd rather go out of business than to give my product and my labor away for less than it's worth. I really do agree that it's a shame our system is such that people cannot afford to pay a living, fair wage to farmers for their goods. I really wish everyone in Columbia had good enough jobs to allow them to buy my produce, and lots of other farmers' produce. But I'm not going to sacrifice myself and my farm on the altar of good intentions. If selling to "wealthy" people is what it takes to keep my business going and my family supported, I'm going to do so.

Think of it like hybrid cars, or new iPods. It would be great if every American family, right now, could afford to trade in their old inefficient car for a hybrid. We would all benefit immensely. But Toyota is not about to go bankrupt offering hybrids at $7,000 each, and no one should expect them to. Toyota sells to those who CAN afford them, or who make concious life choices that allow them to, and hopefully that dynamic will slowly bring more hybrids on line and make them more accessible. But they're always going to cost a certain amount and no sane businessperson would go below that for any length of time.

The final factor here is that I believe most folks, no matter their economic situation, have SOME form of discretionary income. Very few of us really have no choices whatsoever. Two of my best customers this year were a college student and an EBT-using person. They were clearly making choices that allowed them to have the extra money to afford really good produce. When I was in grad school, living on very little, I still made a point of buying local and high-quality food. There were other grad students who thought I was nuts, or couldn't understand how I did it on the wages we earned, but they tended to be folks who insisted on having a cell phone, shopping for new clothes, driving nicer cars, drinking heavily, going to concerts, etc. I had no car, no cell phone, used clothes, etc. and used my spare money primarily on food and the few others things that were important to me. The point is not whether or not I was "better" than them, the point is just that we each made economic choices that related to what was really important to us.

So I don't market myself to wealthy people, I market myself to people who value food enough to make it one of their top priorities and will pay a fair price to support me providing them with what is very important to them. Now, obviously, as economic times worsen, that dynamic may have to shift some. If no one can afford my produce because our economy is based on smoke, mirrors, and coupons, I may have to swallow some principles. But I want to make it clear where I'm coming from first.

What We Eat: December I

11/29/08 - 12/5/08: We're finally feeling the need to dip into our winter food supplies in freezer and jars, with things like green beans and peas reappearing. This week is also a good example of using and reusing all parts of a meal. Saturday is a classic post-Thanksgiving meal using many leftovers in new ways. Sunday's squash was left over from making pumpkin pie, and the addition of a few spices and so on makes it a new dish. Monday re-uses the Adobo sauce left over from marinating and cooking last Wednesday's chicken, now infusing the rice with flavor and resulting in a tasty fried rice dish with little work. And, though it doesn't show up in this series, lunches all week were easy leftovers from these and the past week's meals. No need to buy extra food for making lunches; if it was worth eating once, it's worth eating again.




Saturday: Shepherd's pie, see above (leftover goose meat, gravy, potatoes, green beans, peas, and more baked with cheese and butter). Everything ours except butter, and potatoes from Joanna's parents. Also, goose-vegetable soup (goose broth, onion, garlic, paprika, mustard/kale/collard greens, peas, ourple potatoes, noodles). Everything ours except spices and noodles.

Sunday: Hummus sandwiches on rolls (homemade hummus, homemade rolls, homemade mustard, our greens), salad, spiced winter squash with raisins and nuts. Squash from Joanna's parents.

Monday: Adobo fried rice. Rice cooked in Filipino adobo sauce (vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, black pepper, bay leaf), then stir-fried with shredded goose meat, leeks, and greens.

Tuesday: Eric in town for SF&C meeting, met Joanna and others at Main Squeeze for dinner.

Wednesday: Joanna's self-prepared birthday dinner. Calzone from homemade crust, our own ricotta (frozen from summer), garlic. Pizza from homemade crust, one with potatoes and leeks, the other with fresh-made tomato sauce (from our heirloom Italian winter tomatoes) and cheese (ours and Goatsbeard's).

Thursday: Grilled hummus & cheese sandwiches, leftover goose-vegetable soup. Bread from Uprise Bakery, cheese ours & Goatsbeard's, hummus homemade.

Friday: Went into Columbia for an evening contra dance, ate out at Main Squeeze.

Recipe: Finnish Pancake

On cold, cold winter mornings, we all have a secret favorite breakfast that is rich, warm, and practically demands that we go out and sled, ski, or cut wood to work it off. This is mine, a family recipe from my Scandinavian roots that is not for the faint of heart, but oh goodness is it tasty and fulfilling. This is one of those recipes where you just have to accept that it's rich; don't try to cut corners or make it "healthy". Like most foods, it's plenty healthy if you are, and if you don't eat it every morning for a month. Unlike many rich breakfast treats, it's very simple and can be made with mostly local ingredients. Enjoy.

Finnish Pancake:
This is a half-recipe that comfortably serves 2 people. It is definitely best fresh and warm, so only make enough to eat right away. Doubling it will serve 4-5.

2 cups whole milk (don't cheat)
2 eggs
2 Tbl sugar
1/2 cup sifted flour
2 Tbl butter
Confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 450. Slice butter, place in a cast-iron skillet, and put in preheating oven. This will melt the butter and heat the pan. In the meantime, beat the eggs and sugar together, then add the milk. Slowly sift and whisk in the flour, trying to avoid lumps. Get it nice and smooth. When oven is ready and butter is sizzling melting, pour batter into the skillet and bake for at least 20 minutes, until starting to brown around the edges and the batter is set to a jiggly texture. If you're doubling, it will take a few minutes longer.

When served, it should be set to the consistency of loose pudding, but won't hold any meaningful shape. Plop a big helping down on a plate, and cover with a decent coating of confectioners sugar, which will melt into the rest and finish the flavor. The sugar is essential; don't wimp out now!

Do something active outdoors for an hour afterwards.

Happy Birthday, Joanna

One day late, but she worked from home yesterday so I couldn't get to the computer. We've been together over five years, through five birthdays, and at each one I'm more grateful to her parents than ever for bringing up this wonderful person for me to share my life with. Here's a quick trip back through five years of special days.



December 2004: Almost-surprise trip to Quebec City via bus and train. The destination would have been a complete surprise but for a friend's inadvertent slip of tongue; it actually made her even more excited. A wonderful, snowy weekend in the most European city in North America, complete with extraordinary meal at an inn serving hearty Quebec-style peasant food. Still haven't matched this birthday.



December 2005: Living in a charismatic historic farmhouse in Shenandoah National Park, having recently moved down to the valley from our summer quarters in a high mountain cabin. I don't remember doing anything really special, but I'm sure the food was good. Snow never hurts the mood.


December 2006: Our first winter on Chert Hollow Farm. We had planned to go ice skating in Jefferson City for the birthday, but changed plans when an early winter storm dumped 18" of snow. I spent the morning plowing out our road (note the height of drift in the cut I'm clearing), and we went cross-country skiing around the farm instead. Not a bad tradeoff.

December 2007: We were treated to this extraordinary sunset a few days before the birthday, and a nice new snowfall a few days afterward. Joanna remembers that I was very sick on the actual day, and we didn't end up doing much. Our records show that she made enchiladas that night, and I suspect I recovered enough to enjoy them thoroughly.


December 2008: Joanna worked from home, as a cold front swept through with blustery winds and snow flurries. A good fire in the stove and a 500-degree oven kept the house warm. Dinner was one of her favorite meals to make, fresh scratch Italian-style pizzas and calzones, with fresh-made tomato sauce from our Italian heirloom winter tomatoes, a mix of our own cheese and some from Goatsbeard Farm, and so on. Lovely.

Happy birthday, dear, and may we see decades more with equally memorable weather and food.

Vegetables are specialty crops?

Via the Missouri Department of Agriculture, I see that the USDA is making grants available for growth and development of specialty crops. What, you ask, are specialty crops? When I hear that, I think obscure, difficult items in niche markets. Not the USDA. According to their definition (PDF), specialty crops include such oddities as "commonly recognized fruits, vegetables, tree nuts..." About the only things NOT considered specialty crops are basic grains and cotton. In other words, anything not already heavily subsidized by the Federal Government is a niche market in need of special support, not real agricultural activity.

Now let's look at the USDA's Food Pyramid, and compare the agency's suggestions for healthy eating to the agency's own actions. At the base, we find the grains. Plenty of subsidies there to make sure these items are cheap and plentiful. At the top we find fats, sweets, and oils, of which we are to partake very lightly. Except that these are just as heavily subsidized for some reason (sugar and corn (syrup) are particularly heavily supported by taxpayer money). All of these items are considered non-specialty (i.e. "normal") agricultural crops. Now let's look at the middle, where the bulk of a healthy diet is supposed to life. Dairy, meat and eggs are already indirectly subsidized through Federal support for the massive corn harvests needed to sustain industrial dairy, meat, and egg production, so we're all set there. About the only food products not yet subsidized by the Feds are, you guessed it, those oddball niche products like fruits, vegetables, and nuts. But we're going to fix that by throwing token subsidies and grants that way too, just to cover all our bases.

And anyone wonders why health and food safety in this country is such a problem? Not only are we heavily subsidizing fundamentally unhealthy products like sugars and fats, not only are we decreasing the nutritional value of the moderately healthy products like dairy and meat by shovelling cheap corn into the market rather than encouraging pasture-based management, but now we need to throw away even more taxpayer money to prop up the fundamentally healthy vegetables and fruits which have been forced into their "niche" status by all the above-mentioned subsidies undercutting their market value?

It was not that long ago that virtually every state had a healthy population of diversified farms growing and selling produce locally and regionally without the benign hand of the USDA guiding their every move. So now that our heavy-handed subsidy regime has shovelled billions of our dollars into thoroughly destroying a diverse food system, the same regime now wants to use even more money to offset the effects of the previous and ongoing money?

We're worried that Americans aren't eating healthily and are driving up our health care costs, so what does the USDA do? Rather than stop artificially propping up everything BUT healthy foods, which are currently disproportionally expensive because of the competing subsidies, they're going to throw token money toward artificially propping up the last free-market, unsubsidized part of the food system.

Enough already. Enough subsidies, enough meddling, enough wasting billions of OUR money on this crap. Get rid of all subsidies, replace them with a basic system of crop insurance for ALL types of agricultural products regardless of "niche" (to provide basic security for farmers), and let consumers choose their food based on a fairer market in which price is based on labor, inputs, and costs, not government whims and lobbying power.

Funny, that's already what we have in the small, direct-market farm world. I recieve no subsidies. I recieve no support from the government. I sell my products on a (literally) open market, directly competing with many other growers for consumers with many options. Whether I succeed depends almost completely on whether my products are good and reliable, and consumers can easily go elsewhere if I fail in that. Except that I'm not just competing against my peers, I'm competing against the entire inertia of the Federal government that views fruits and vegetables as speciality products, not real farm products. I don't want support. I want freedom. And neither party seems to grasp that possibility.

Thanksgiving menu recap

For those interested in what a locally sourced, on-farm Missouri Thanksgiving might look like, here's a photo tour. Not individually pictured below, but visible above: applesauce, made and canned from local apples in-season; roasted root vegetables (sweet potatoes, purple potatoes, red onions) grown on-farm and roasted with goose fat and salt. Dinner served with Missouri wine.
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Freshly butchered roast goose, basted with Missouri red wine. Served with a fresh giblet pan gravy.

Caramelized leek & pear salad. Leeks and some greens ours, other greens from Joanna's parents, Missouri pecans & pears.

Fresh rolls, made from Missouri wheat flour. Served with homemade raspberry jam.

Southern-style cornbread, nothing but freshly ground farm-raised corn, our egg & yogurt, leavenings, and butter. Served with local honey and sorghum.

Fruit salad, all Missouri fruit harvested and/or preserved by us. Wild on-farm blackberries, red raspberries, peaches, blueberries, strawberries, fresh apples.

Pumpkin pie, filling from our squash, crust from Missouri wheat flour.

Bourbon-apple-pecan pie: local apples, local pecans, raisins marinated in bourbon, brown sugar, lemon. Crust from Missouri wheat flour.

A very worthwhile meal, celebrating the best of on-farm food and with virtually no reliance on the industrial food system. Other than the goose and the corn, just about everything in this menu could easily have been found at the Columbia Farmers Market or other local source. We may have grown most of this ourselves, but a local Thanksgiving is possible for anyone who can plan ahead.