I have long felt that small farmers are one of the hardest working and least appreciated demographics of society, especially when you consider that their work is such an important part of our physical and cultural livelihoods. Outside of spending money with local farms, concrete ways to help are not always immediately obvious. Community Farm Alliance is the answer for those of us who aren’t farmers but want to support them. Historically, CFA has made real and quantifiable progress for Kentucky farmers.

To give you an idea, House Bill 391 would never have been passed without the support of CFA. This important bill is what enables small farms to sell home-processed goods from their farm and local farmers markets, giving them a vital source of additional income. So every time you go to market and pick up a loaf of bread or jar of jelly, you are enjoying the efforts of CFA and the farmers and community members who make up this important organization.

Another reason I’m a member—all the cool kids are! I’ve made some genuine and lasting friendships with likeminded folks as a result of my participation with CFA.

Many of our young farmers interviewees are members of CFA, including Jacob and Carolyn at Sweetgrass Granola and Hannah and Jesse at Rough Draft Farmstead. Folks like Mike Lewis of Growing Warriors (you might recognize him because of his epic beard and all the press he has received as a driving force on the KY Proud Homegrown by Heroes program!) and Todd Howard of Floyd County Farmers Market are proud members of CFA who are working hard to radically change the state of food production in the Bluegrass.

I am more than proud to be a part of this amazing group. Right now, CFA is holding their annual spring membership drive. For $30/year, you can make your voice heard and be counted among these amazing Kentuckians who are revolutionizing local food. 

Sign up online or, even better, join Community Farm Alliance on Saturday afternoon for a field day at Jennings Hollow Farm in Monticello and become a member then! I have featured Jennings Hollow in a past interview and am a huge fan of their diverse farm and proud customer, too. (Roasted pasture-raised chicken on the dinner table tonight, ya’ll!) They will be hosting a farm tour, draft horse demo, and a talk by the local NRCS agent about beginning farmer grant opportunities. Then, at 7 pm, we will be sharing a potluck and the ever-brilliant Meadowlarks will be playing us some tunes. Bring your gear and campout on the farm, too!

I will be hanging out at the farm and would love to chat with you about farms, local food, and why you should be a member of Community Farm Alliance! Please come up and introduce yourself—I’m super shy but love to chat once I get going. See you on Saturday—RSVP on Facebook or email the lovely Carolyn to let us know you are coming!

Other than a rare meal of fish, all of the animal-derived protein that we consume comes from our farm.  I have butchered hogs, lambs, rabbits, turkeys, and chickens on my farm. These animals were destined for our consumption and for our friends and families, and on butchering days we usually have a crew who voluntarily help in exchange for some of the meat at the end of the day.

Jonas and Julie Hurley—rebel farmers!

I have a habit of taking a moment and thanking the animal for the meat which it is about to provide before I dispatch the animal.  I pride myself in dispatching my animals as quickly and humanely as possible—one quick slice to bleed the chickens and turkeys, and waiting for the exactly right shot with the large animals.  I wish I had written these lines, but they belong to Wendell Berry:

For the Hog Killing

Let them stand still for the bullet, and stare the
shooter in the eye,
let them die while the sound of the shot is in the
air, let them die as they fall,
let the jugular blood spring hot to the knife, let
its freshet be full,
let this day begin again the change of hogs into
people, not the other way around,
for today we celebrate again our lives’ wedding
with the world,
for by our hunger, by this provisioning, we renew
the bond.

We feed the animals who in turn feed the land and us, and the cycle repeats itself through the seasons and years.  As one gains proficiency in butchering animals, one starts to take pride in how well one uses every part of the animal, including the off-cuts, sometimes called variety meats, that don’t appear in the meat aisles of the supermarket.  I have an idea or two why they don’t appear—seeing a heart, or gizzard, or hog’s head makes one remember that this was a living animal at one point, not a commodity, which one can be lulled into thinking upon seeing rows upon rows of boneless, skinless chicken breasts or pork loins on the supermarket shelves.

This little piggy goes to market… but not before being taken from its home, killed by a stranger in a strange environment, and inspected by the USDA.

I recently dropped off a batch of hogs to be processed at a USDA-inspected facility so that we can legally sell this meat at our local farmer’s market.  Seeing my hogs standing on concrete, huddled, unsure of what exactly to do since this was the first time they had not been on soft ground with the sun overhead, I wondered if whomever was going to slaughter my animal would be as careful, as patient, as I try to be.

I have been puzzled and maddened on a number of occasions when abattoirs [ed. note—abattoir is another term for a meat processing facility] have told me that I can’t have (even for an additional charge) a part of the carcass back, because a protocol was not in place to harvest it, or the USDA guidelines specified that the process be done in a particularly time-consuming way, or some other kind of bureaucratic nonsense prevented the edible part from being used.  Thus, instead of gizzard sausages (equal parts gizzard, chicken white meat, and pork fat) being made, which has become part of chicken butchering day at my farm and which are remarkably good, these edible parts get dumped in a USDA inspected hole in the ground.  Instead of grilled sweetbreads, or terrine of hog’s head (souse meat around here), the abattoirs load these perfectly edible parts onto the gut truck and pay to dispose of them.  The last time we butchered a hog on the farm, we had 30 pounds of waste in the gut bucket from a 400 pound animal.  In France, artisan butchers claim that with the pig, everything but the oink is used and used well.

The fact that many children only see meat via chicken nuggets, hot dogs, and pepperoni saddens me; I hope and believe that a more adult understanding of the ethics and process of eating animals is arising here in America.  However, when our local butchers won’t give back the whole carcass or won’t butcher any animals except hogs or cattle, and when Kentucky’s Department of Health guidelines outlaw ANY on-farm processing of animals for sale, a Joel-Salatinesque anger starts boiling up in me.

Rabbits are a particularly contentious issue. Kentucky demands rabbit meat must be USDA-inspected (even though the USDA allows a certain number to be processed on-farm), but finding a USDA-inspected rabbit processor that will return the meat to the farmer to sell is impossible in Kentucky.

Many states allow a thousand animal exemption for on-farm processing (this applies to poultry but there are exemptions for larger animals as well) for sale at farmer’s markets, but Kentucky does not.  Not one drumstick, lamb chop, or sausage link can be sold without it being processed at a USDA inspected facility.  These guidelines are certainly well-intentioned and have certainly saved people from contracting food-borne illnesses in our centralized system of meat production.  But, Salatin has had an outside lab compare salmonella counts on his on-farm prepared chicken to chlorinated factory chickens, and Salatin’s salmonella counts were markedly lower, and I bet most would say his birds are tastier.  The proof really is in the pudding.

Slaughter houses, even the good ones, are miserable places to work and more often than not pay poorly.   When we butcher a few times a year to feed us for the year, it becomes one of the cycles of the farm, like spring lambing or fall wood-chopping, and reminds us that something, either plant or animal, is giving up its life for us to have ours.  However, when our culture demands that a few unfortunate workers in huge slaughterhouses hidden in rural America have to slaughter animals every day, all day, all year, I am ashamed.

Here and there one sees glimmers of hope.  In Portland, Oregon, a young woman, who had long been a vegetarian, opened the Portland Meat Collective where people, even kids in high school, can take an animal from the barnyard to the dining room table.  Her name is Camas Davis, and amusingly in the recent New York Times article about her venture, when asked why she started eating meat again after years of vegetarianism, she replied “I was hungry.”  I have called my state senator regarding Kentucky’s lack of an on-farm processing exemption and was politely told that this issue was probably not on the minds of many constituents and would likely not make the congressional agenda any time soon.  It is not likely that Kentucky will see a Meat Collective any time soon either, but consumers can buy straight from farmers at farmer’s markets, or better yet, contact your farmer to find out the next time they are butchering on farm.  Ask if you can help in exchange for meat.  You can legally buy an animal on the farm and the farmer can provide the service of butchering the animal for you on premises.  You can learn the craft of curing, salting, sausage making—putting up as my grandparents would say.

We’ll be butchering hogs again late this fall. It’s a grand time, the smoke of the fires (3 of  them in fact—one for the scalding vat, one to render lard, and one to make headcheese), the smell of the bacon, ham, and sausage spices (that’s another thing the abattoirs can’t provide to farmers—air-cured ham—it’s called prosciutto in Italy and country ham in Kentucky but it’s the same thing and I have 80 pounds of it hanging in my smokehouse right now), seeing the abundance pile up in the coolers and freezers and smokehouse.  Drop me a line sometime this summer and I’ll give you the date.

I have a thing for condiments—it’s kind of embarrassing. I love ketchup and I love mustard and I love relish. Condiments are my favorite punctuations to meals. They provide contrast, and when fermented, they also help to spark the digestive process. So not only do they taste delicious, and help balance out the flavors and textures of a meal, they have a specific purpose. Plus, if you want to eat something fresh in January, it’s hard to beat a nice, spicy chutney.

Provided below is a recipe for a simple pear and red onion chutney I like, but don’t feel limited. Chutney’s are typically just a lacto-fermented mix of herbs, fruit and vegetables. If you want to substitute apples for the pears, for example, or garlic for the onions, or simply remove the ginger—go for it. Experiment. Follow the guidelines and you can pretty much make whatever kind of chutney you desire. They go great with spicy food, and especially curried dishes. And if you have any favorite chutney recipes, please feel free to share!

What you’ll need

(makes about 1 quart)

4-6 asian pears (I used Crimson)

1 small red onion

1 head of fennel

1 lemon, juiced and zested

1 tablespoon fresh minced ginger

2-3 tablespoons real or sea salt

1-3 teaspoons of dried red pepper

Dechlorinated water

Dice your red onion small.

Mince your ginger and lemon zest and place in a mixing bowl with red pepper flakes (your call on how spicy to make it).

Then medium dice your pears and fennel and combine with ginger and zest and a tablespoon or so of fresh lemon juice (to keep the pear from turning brown—oxidizing).

Combine those ingredients in a bowl with two tablespoons of salt and toss with hands until a liquid begins to form. Salt is the key to making a successful ferment here so don’t be afraid to add a little more if the liquid doesn’t seem to be coming.

After about three minutes of tossing, pack the ingredients into a mason jar using the back end of a wooden spoon or some other non-reactive tool (plastic or rubber are fine, no metal). The liquid should cover the chutney, but if it can’t completely cover, mix a little salt and water in a separate bowl and pour it over top. Or, if you have whey or leftover brine from kimchi or kraut—even better. Add a little of that instead of salt water as it already contains the lactic acid bacteria you’re trying to encourage, and will keep the saltiness down. You’ll want to leave at least an inch between the top of your chutney and the top of the jar. And at least 3/4 of an inch between the top of the liquid and the top of the jar.

Next you’ll want to weigh the chutney down so no solids float to the surface. I use a plastic lid from a baking powder can which fits perfectly into the quart-sized mason jars. I also really like using a small sandwich bag with a little water placed right inside the jar. The idea is to keep oxygen off the chutney itself—be creative!

Next, tie a cloth over the top (to keep bugs out), place the jar into a bowl and set it on your counter. Over the next day or so you will start to notice it bubbling and it will probably start to smell a little sweet. If it bubbles over (thus why I recommend putting it in a bowl) don’t worry, that just means it’s working. Replace your cloth and let it keep going. Let it ferment for a three or four days or until it looks less active. Loosely screw a lid on—though if you use a metal lid you’ll need to separate the lid from the ferment with a piece of plastic to keep it from tainting your chutney—and let it sit on the counter for at least a few more days, occasionally unscrewing the lid to let out any excess gasses.

Chutneys are traditionally used in a lot of indian dishes and go really well with spice and curry. I also find they are particularly good with fatty foods and fish. Or, just eat it by the spoonful like I’m frequently guilty of doing.

If you have any questions, recipes or comments please feel free to leave them here or you can write me at roughdraftfarmstead@gmail.com.

Saturday was spent celebrating Earth Day with my new friends at Cedar Creek Vineyards in Somerset! This farm is a lot more than just grapes—they are working towards establishing a diverse, permaculture-based farming system. Not to mention, it is stunningly beautiful! Check out their calendar or like them on Facebook to see when you can attend one of their events. Pictures below!

Singing Hills Goat Soap

Yep, that’s a Scottish Highland cow (a pregnant one, no less!) in the background.

Sunday was spent at Somerset Community College’s Earth Day event helping the kiddos learn some guerrilla gardening by making seed bombs with native grasses and wild flowers. Lots of fun and I enjoyed getting to meet some of you. No pictures due to a tragic water-related camera accident, but I promise that a fun time was had by everyone.

April 18th: Release Party for Local Food Publication ‘Eat’ hosted by Local Food for Everyone in Bowling Green 5 pm – 7 pm CST… This is a kid-friendly event that will have some delish food catered by HOME Cafe & Marketplace. If you haven’t seen this lovely new publication, you really should! (And I’m not just saying that because of the ad for this website you can find inside!) Read our piece about EAT, then RSVP on Facebook.

April 19th – 21st: Appalachian Bright Future Conference at the Harlan Convention Center in Harlan. Register now.

April 20th: Earth Day Celebration at Good Foods Market & Cafe and Habitat Restore in Lexington 4 pm – 10 pm EST… Hosted by Bluegrass PRIDE and includes workshops, activities, a litter cleanup, storm drain stenciling, and a cookout. At 8, a bike-in showing of Disney’s Wall-E. Bring lawn chairs/blankets for outdoor seating. Rain or shine. FREE except for the cookout—pay per item! Some folks that I love will be setup at this event—Seedleaf and Cluck—be sure to tell them that I sent you!

April 20th: Earth Day Celebration at Cedar Creek Vineyards in Somerset 1 pm – 6 pm EST… demos, cool vendors, a farm tour, and live music. (Plus, of course, WINE!) Also, my friends from Heavenly Homestead (read our interview with them) will be there selling their awesome raw milk cheese. I must admit I am personally attending to get a peek at the farm’s Scottish Highland cow…. I’m such a rare breed cow enthusiast! RSVP on Facebook.

April 20th: Garrard County Earth Day Festival in Bryantsville.

April 21st: Earth Day Celebration at Somerset Community College in Somerset from 1 pm to 5 pm EST… This free event has lots of cool educational and hands-on activities for the kiddos. Sustainable Kentucky will be set up there helping your little ones make seed bombs that they can take home to sow some native plants. Please stop by and say hello! RSVP on Facebook.

April 23rd: ARISE showing with Good Foods Market & Cafe at the Central Library Theatre in Lexington 6 pm – 9 pm EST

April 27th-28th: Mountain Mushroom Festival, Irvine

April 27th: Farm Tour at Jennings Hollow Farm in Monticello at 2 pm EST… Come see a working, diverse, sustainable farm—gardens, chickens, pigs, and work horses, oh my! Bring a picnic lunch or a dish to share after the tour. I will be hanging out, too, and would love to meet you and talk farming! (Read our interview with Jennings Hollow Farm here, then RSVP on Facebook.)

April 28th: Spring Medicinals Workshop at Foxhollow Farm in Crestwood

April 30th: Food For All Community Garden Ribbon Cutting at Holy Apostles Orthodox Church in Bowling Green 10 am CST. RSVP on Facebook.

I think my dear friend Rona Roberts of Savoring Kentucky summed it up best…

Kentucky can feed all Kentuckians well and permanently. Today’s #greenky event in Pulaski County moved us closer to that vision.

— Rona Roberts (@savoringky) March 31, 2013

I think our event was successful because we simply had THE BEST exhibitors in Kentucky. I can’t say enough about the amazing people that helped make this event possible. Visit the fair website for a complete list.

Thanks also to the Barn at Redgate for hosting the party—check ‘em out for all your event needs! Also, if you are looking for an event planner, I know a guy—drop me a line and I’ll connect you with my brother who is THE MASTER at making the tiny, behind-the-scenes details happen. I’ve heard lots of, “But you would never know this was a first time event!” and that is because he took years of planning experience and graciously shared it (and a lot of hard work) with me!

Here’s a few snapshots from the day:

{Thanks to my dear friend Megan Spiro for snapping these shots for me while I was busy working!}

To read more about the day, you can check out these cool blogs…

Curio Quilt

Today’s Letters

Radical Farmwives

Rough Draft Farmstead

Picture Perfect Cooking

Thanks to our fair partners!

And our sponsors!

 Wilson’s Cedar Point Farm

Grain, water, yeast.  Reading those ingredients, for many people, the first thing that pops into their heads is bread…  And, indeed these are the foundation for baking bread.  But, they are also the foundation ingredients for liquid bread, or, as we usually know it, beer.

Making beer is an ancient skill.  Wikipedia says that there is evidence of beer brewing 7000 years ago in what is today Iran, and documents a recipe for beer on a 3900 year old Sumerian tablet.  Immigrants brought their brewing skills with them when they came to this country, and often the community brewhouse was one of the first buildings finished—along with the community oven for bread.  So, beer has a long history of being important to humans.

Beer brewing on the homestead was also an important skill.  It added value to grain being grown and added variety to the family’s beverages.  After all, on the frontier, no one was going to run to the local convenience store for a six pack.

But, that was then.  Why, with the wide variety of quality crafted brews available now, would anyone decide to go down the path of homebrewing?  Well, for me, there is more than one reason.

Why Homebrew?

First, when I moved to South Central Kentucky in 1989, the selection of beers was relatively narrow.  My taste was for dark amber ales and stouts, and there were few to choose from and they were expensive at most stores. While I could afford to indulge my tastes occasionally, it just wasn’t in my normal budget.

At some point in that first 18 months, I came across a mention of a store called Nuts n Stuff in Louisville that carried brewing supplies.  It intrigued me enough to make the drive.  And, I came home with a homebrew kit, bottles, a book, and the supplies for my first foray into the world of homebrew.  I devoured the book, made the homebrew according to directions, tasted it and was hooked!  Two cases of quality beer for about the same price as two cases of ubiquitous American lager (plus my labor of course).  Even better, it was an enjoyable experience, which brings us to our next point…

The second reason is it is fun!  It is almost like magic to take those simple ingredients of malt (grain), water, hops, and yeast, put them together, and watch the product happen.  Once it starts fermenting, we can see the action of the yeast, and hear the sound of the fermentation lock “popping” from anywhere in the house.  And, once fermentation is complete, we bottle it.  It is wonderful to work together on filling and capping the bottles, knowing that in about 2 weeks, we will have another fabulous beer to drink and share with friends.

The third reason, and maybe the most important one to us today, is control.  We can control the ingredients that go into the bottle. We now purchase supplies from a co-op in California called Seven Bridges.   They sell organic homebrew ingredients.  We have been brewing beer from all organic ingredients for over 10 years.  Since we are passionate about organic agriculture, being able to brew and drink organic beer is very satisfying.

So, enough, or maybe too much of the history of homebrew.  How does it work?

The Homebrew Process

We usually start with a kit.  The kit will contain a variety of grains that have been malted.  (If you are interested in the malting process, you read  a good description online.)  Basically, the process of malting grain allows it to start to germinate, dries it, and may also roast it for darker colors and different flavors. The germinating develops enzymes that help change the grain’s starches to sugars that will ferment. The kit may also have malt extract, a thick syrup made from malted grains—think molasses for texture.  Additionally, it will contain hops and yeast.

We use a kit that has both grains and malt extract because it is a little easier than an all-grain kit. First, we crack the grains (you can buy them already crushed, but we like doing it just before we brew).  Then, we bring the water to about 160 degrees and put the grains into it (contained in a grain bag so we don’t have to strain them out later).  That sits off the heat for about an hour. Next step is to put the bag of grains in a big colander in the top of the brew pot and pour boiling water through them to get the rest of the grainy goodness out of them—sparging.  (The spent grains can go into bread, cereal, or be fed to livestock.)

The fragrant liquid in the pot is now called wort.  The wort is simmered for an hour, more or less, adding hops at intervals for bittering, flavor and aroma.  What hops are used depends upon what type of beer being brewed. The latest beer we made, a Weissbier, had German Saphir and Tettnanger hops. After boiling, we cool the wort using a wort chiller, but for years, we just waited for it to cool naturally.  If it is too hot, it will kill the yeast, so be patient.  We aim for somewhere between 75 and 80 degrees.  We put the wort and enough water to make 5 gallons into a 6 gallon glass carboy, “pitch” the yeast, and put a fermentation lock in the top of the carboy.

This is a project for a leisurely afternoon.  A lot of the time is wait time, again like making bread, but it will take at least a couple or three hours—more if a wort chiller isn’t used.  We view it as a recreational activity and read, talk, and often have a chilled homebrew in between tasks.

Fermentation will be vigorous within 4-6 hours and last about two weeks.  Toward the end of the time, the beer will start to clear and have a definite layer of sediment in the bottom.  Time to bottle!

At this point, the beer is drinkable, but flat.  To get the carbonation we all expect in beer, we prime it, although there are other ways. To do that, we add more malt extract to our bottling bucket (a 6 gallon food-grade plastic bucket).  This will provide the sugar to “prime” the yeast to start fermenting again.  But because it is now doing that in an enclosed space—the capped bottle—the carbon dioxide can’t escape and is absorbed into the beer.  Voila!  Carbonation!

Then, using plastic tubing, we siphon the fermented beer into the bottling bucket from the carboy, being careful to avoid siphoning the sediment at the bottom.  Following that, we set up counter space for bottling.  Using plastic tubing for siphoning and a bottle filler attachment, I fill the bottles and hand them to Paul, who caps them, marks the cap with a batch number and puts into a case.  It takes maybe 1.5 hours including cleanup.

Now, just wait a couple of weeks for the carbonation. Chill a bottle; pour into a glass and taste. Notice there is some sediment in the bottom of the bottle.  If you pour carefully, the neck of the bottle will catch that so you don’t pour it into the glass.  If the homebrew is still a little flat, wait one more week.  It should be fine by then.  And, especially with darker, bolder beers, the flavor will continue to improve for several months.

I have just touched on the process of making homebrew.  I would suggest reading The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing by Charlie Papazian. It is very entertaining and contains lots of great information and recipes. If you decide brewing might be for you, check if there is a homebrew group or an experienced homebrewer in your community. I learned from a book, but learning from people is more fun and you’ll make fewer newbie mistakes. When you decide to try brewing, buy quality supplies from a homebrew store.  Most larger cities have them. The carboys and such last a lifetime and you’ll be happier in the long run with your investment.  Purchase the essentials and add the nice-to-haves, like a wort chiller, a little at a time.

Most important, have fun!  It is a really enjoyable skill to acquire, and the beer is fabulous! Soon you will be inviting all your friends to come over and have a homebrew.

I am a big proponent of farms including educational opportunities as part of their business plan. There are so many people right now who want to learn the lost art of self-reliance. If you have those skills, why not teach others? This helps build stronger communities and a more stable food supply.

I attended Tim and Jane’s mushroom cultivation workshop. This included two meals, instruction on several methods of mushroom inoculation, inoculated logs and spawn to go home, and even fresh mushrooms that we harvested that day! In other words, an unbelievable value. I’ve done several mushroom workshops in my time—one of my minor obsessions—and this was by far the most practical and the most in-depth. So in-depth that I felt inspired to go home and help friends inoculate well over a hundred logs and loved it.

Having done many rounds of the old-fashioned drill/plug/wax method, it was a complete relief to learn Tim’s method of inoculating logs for shiitake and oyster. It is much simpler, just as effective, and a huge time saver. It involves a chainsaw and duct tape. I’d do the step-by-step here, but you really need to see Tim do it in person to get the full effect.

If I had gone alone, I would have found the workshop informative and fun. But the best part of the day, by far, was the fact that the small group (around 15 of us) was full of people as crazy about sustainability and self-reliance as I am! I made lots of new friends and even had a chance to meet some cool people who actually take the time to read this blog. (You can read another post about the day from my friends at Earthineer, too.)

You can read Tim and Jane’s full workshop schedule on their website—they offer several throughout the year. But here’s a look at what’s coming up next:

I so wish that my schedule allowed for me to attend every one of these. (Especially the wild mushroom ones!) I talked to Tim on the phone this week and he told me that the April 13th morel hunt was full… but if the season goes well and the morels are still popping the next weekend, he may do an additional retreat on April 20th. So definitely call him if that interests you—and who isn’t interested in morels?

I don’t want much in life, but if I could fall in love and grow old with someone in a cabin that looks like this… I can’t imagine anything more blissful!

The mushroom master, Tim Hensley, teaching us the totem method for inoculating logs

Tim and Jane’s earthen oven was built using the principles in this book during a weekend work party and has been put to use for many years since. Perfect for baking pizzas and granola!

Tim and Jane’s property includes overnight accommodations for guests

Pallet composting

The “trouthouse,” a tree outhouse, with a composting toilet

Tim and Jane have a brilliant terraced garden area. I’m dying to see it in the spring!

Winter gardening under cover.

Many of the structures on the farm were built using trees from the property that were brought out of the forest with horse power and milled on site!

The mushroom garden… it’s a beautiful thing!

More mushroom garden…

Tim doesn’t have a count of exactly how many logs he has… but my guess is that it is a lot.

Shiitake!

The underside of a shiitake mushroom… You need to look here to see if the mushroom is ready to harvest!

The root cellar, or maybe a secret door to Middle Earth

The mushroom library

Workshop in progress

I am so thankful that my work with Sustainable Kentucky has opened up opportunities to do things like this. In accordance with the FTC guidelines, I need to tell you that Tim and Jane allowed me to attend this class for free in hopes that I would write about it on the blog. However, I would have gone anyway and loved it just the same!

{Picture courtesy Rough Draft Farmstead}

Jesse has been an ongoing contributor on this blog, educating us on the fascinating world of fermentation. Now, he’s taken his talent for writing to a new level, and I couldn’t be more excited! His new book, Bringing Wine Home: Book One is available NOW and will be on Amazon soon. I have been crazy waiting for this project to be complete since Hannah and Jesse first told me it was in the works. The anticipation, and also the desire to blab about it to everyone, has been nearly overwhelming!

The book is a memoir about Jesse’s life (the early stages). How did a child of two alcoholics become a Kentucky farmer and wine maker? There’s also some instruction on natural wine making, too, I believe. (Jesse’s a good teacher, too—I’ve been making wine successfully under his instructions and doing great.)

I am going to pick up my copy at the Kentucky Green Living Fair so I can get it signed by Jesse and Hannah. Because one day (when they are even more famous then they are now), I can say that I knew them before they were famous.

Visit their website to learn more about the book and them. Just a fair warning: their blog is sort of addictive, so prepare for yourself for a long morning of off-grid-cabin-envy-web-surfing.

Still, I’ve talked to pretty much everyone in Kentucky doing anything for local food. I’ve set in on every lecture on this topic. I’ve conducted interviews, read books, and literally fallen asleep at night thinking about local food. My children just sent Valentine’s Day cards to the farmers that grow our food, okay? We are local food junkies, so I do feel like I can offer some small amount of advice.

(1) Start with yourself. Seek out local farms and buy from them—year round, every week, rain or shine, higher prices or not. When you attend events, ask for local foods. When you go to locally-owned restaurants, ask for local food. When your group hires a caterer, demand that they buy from local farms and be prepared to pay the extra cost. Go to the nearest farmers market no matter the weather.  Be a local food evangelist to your friends without being too preachy. (Win them with flavor!) Take local food to potlucks and family reunions. Give the gift of local food to your friends around the holidays. Join a CSA. Grow your own, buy from a local farm, or don’t eat it!

(2) Be a sales rep for local farms. One thing I’ve learned is that many farmers do not have the time or inclination to market their products that they work so hard to grow. Often, there are folks who want to buy, for example, grass-fed beef, but don’t know where to find it. If you know area farms, you can help people in your social network find the products that they need. Honey is a great example of this. People often say they want local honey, so I keep a list that I can send to them when they ask me. I don’t get paid for this, of course, but it is a little thing I do to keep my farmer friends happy and my non-farming friends with a local product. It might be as simple as posting on Facebook, “Hey, look at these beautiful free range eggs I just picked up from my favorite farm! I’ve got some extra if you want some!”

(2) Go to conferences. Kentucky has many, many local food conferences throughout the year from one end of the state to the other. Go to one, meet new people, hear what others are doing. In particular, Food Day in Bowling Green in October has an emphasis on building community around local food. Trust me, you will feel less like a lone wolf in the wilderness when you meet other people fighting the same battle.

(3) Start a group. Nearly every city that has made great movement on local food has a group (or multiple groups) of citizens, farmers, government officials, etc. working (often behind the scenes) to move forward local food in their area. This is not work that can be done alone! Get the friends and farmers in your area that are interested together and brainstorm. Maybe it means planning an event or setting up at the next fair or reaching out to schools. It could be a writing campaign to the mayor asking them to donate space for a farmers market or letters to the editor of the newspaper educating consumers about supporting local farms. In some cases, it may be even more practical—swapping seeds, sharing plant starts, trading baby chicks for raw milk.

(4) Prepare for a marathon. This will not happen overnight or over-year. Even for those that are pretty deep in the movement and making progress, it can feel like a losing battle all the time. I talk to people in Louisville and Lexington who are discouraged about where the local food movement is in their area, so what hope does that leave us in the rural communities? Making change is a marathon with no running involved. It is baby steps that usually mean spending more money and taking more time to source, prepare, and consume real food.

(5) Volunteer at your local farmers market. Let me just say—many markets do not have volunteers and may be confused by what you are offering. But offer to do anything—pick up trash after, hang up fliers around time, develop a Facebook presence, drum up donations for a website, teach a cooking class, etc. I think a viable farmers market is such an important cornerstone of local food in any community. Read our series of posts on farmers markets to see what other markets are doing.

(6) Throw a party! Have a dinner featuring local foods, invite your friends and the farmers who grew the food. Let them mingle and see where it goes. Local food is not always a chore. It is meant to be a source of friendship and community.

I think it’s important to note that you really need to be involved in your community to begin with to start making these sorts of changes. Join the chamber of commerce, your local church, civic groups, etc. You can’t help people find local food if you don’t know people!

I know there are many folks out there with better advice than my own, so feel free to leave a comment with your own ideas.