Sunday Afternoon with Mozz, Feta, Chevre, Cajeta and more

Sheila of Dell Farmstead

Actually my neighbor Sheila of Dell Farmstead started her cheesemaking workshop at 9 am! Fortunately, she included a beautiful lunch in the day’s schedule. By the end of the day we had made: chevre, a goat cheese; 30 minute mozzarella; feta; cheddar; creme fraiche, soft goat cheese, and a Tomme unique to Dell Farmstead.

Curds and When

We learned that all cheese begins with separating the curds from the whey – with the help of additives like citric acid, and starter cultures including rennet that are different for each type of cheese. Animal rennet is extracted from the 4th stomach of a calf, but vegetarians can use a rennet made from plants like thistle flowers and stinging nettles. We also learned that whey, the liquid that is left after the milk solids are removed is considered a pollutant. That means it cannot go down the drain into a septic system or sewer system. Sheila feeds the whey to her hens or dumps it on her garden where it does no harm.

Heating the milk

The very first step is to warm the milk. How hot it needs to be and for how long depends on the type of cheese being made. A cheese thermometer is vital because it gives small increments. All utensils were stainless steel and very clean. No oil or soap residue can be left behind.

Ricotta?

When the whey has been totally drained, the curds can look like this. I’m not sure if this is the ricotta or the chevre. Both look very similar.

We didn’t make any cajeta which is a Mexican caramel made from goat milk, but Sheila had some ready for us to sample. She also made dark chocolate covered goat milk truffles which you can see us tasting, while one devoted member of the group was deputed to keep his eye on the thermometer.

Luncheon Table

The truffles did not ruin our appetites. We sat down to a wonderful lunch of paillards of chicken with a creme fraiche (that we made)  sauce over rice and a lovely green salad. Sustaining.

Feta Cheese - almost

Feta cheese is not really feta until it has been brined.  for three days.

30 minute mozzarella

I couldn’t believe it only takes 30 minutes to make mozzarella. It uses the magic of a microwave, and some taffy-pulling technique.  Most of the cheese we made used commercial milk, but only Guida and Our Family Farms milk because these two are only pasturized, not ULTRA pasturized which would have killed every single bacteria. You need bacteria, good bacteria, to make cheese.

Cheese Cave

We only made one cheese that will end up in Sheila’s ‘cave’ which made use of an old cistern in her basement. She lives in an old farmhouse.  Many of the cheese recipes we used are in Ricky Carroll’s book Home Cheese Making. Ricky is known as the Cheese Queen and everything you need to make cheese is available through her website. Sheila took Ricky’s workshop nearly 30 years ago – and has been making cheese ever since.

Hoegger’s Farmyard is another company that sells cheese making equipment online.

If you’d like information about a cheesemaking workshop contact Sheila at  sheila@thedell.com. Oh, by the way – we all got to take some cheese home with us.

PS – Don’t forget that tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 14 is the great Winterfare in Northampton. Fresh produce, workshops, soup cafe, and lots of fun all around.

Festival of the Hills – A Crop of Authors

The Authors Tent

The Conway Festival of the Hills is a grand autumnal event in our region. This year I got to share tent space with other authors like Marie Betts Bartlett (left in blue) who brought her book The (true) Story of The Little Yellow Trolley Car and Heidi Stemple (right oogling the baby. Heidi is the daughter of and co-author with Jane Yolen of many books, true, mysterious and delicious.  In the center is Jessica, owner of The World Eye Bookstore who was running the cash register.

David Costello, author and illustrator

David Costello was at the table too, with his new book Little Pig, and his ink and brush. Because of the constant rain we did have a few quieter moments which gave David time to make special drawings, in consultation with some younger readers. This area is so rich in fine authors and illustrators that a whole new roster took the afternoon signing session: Holly Hobbie, John Crowley, Peter Jeswald, and editor of Morning Song, Susan Todd.

Holly Hobbie is well known for her Toot and Puddle series of books, but I love her new books about Fanny. John and Peter write for adults. Crowley takes us to worlds fantastic and real in his novels, while Jeswald is a good man to have a round the house and garden with non-fiction books from Taunton Press and Storey Publishing.

Susan Todd, along with Carol Purington, edited the poetry anthology Morning Song: Poems for New Parents that I wrote about here.

The Little Yellow Trolley Car

I’ve even given a copy of this to my great-granddaughter Bella so she’ll know a little piece of our local history. The book is a delight.

I Can Help

I bought this for my younger great granddaughter, Lola, because even at two she must be learning that there are ways she can help.

Barefoot Book of Dance Stories

I got this signed for Bella but I might wait a year or two before giving it to her. She is always twirling and dancing, but the stories of other cultures and their dances might be even more entrancing for a slightly older girl.

Sleep, Black Bear, Sleep

This is a charming bedtime book with whimsical illustrations of all kinds of animals that hibernate in winter.

I was thrilled that so many people came to have books signed for their children, making sure we knew that they were already reading to them, every day, even if they were only three months old. That is the perfect time to begin, and contemplate years of happy Reading Aloud.

Crops of writers help us grow crops of readers. Very important.

The American Grove

My woodland in the dawn sun

Our house is surrounded by fields, and the fields are surrounded by woodlands.  Trees are an important part of the New England Landscape and I just learned that Massachusetts is about to join Connecticut, Vermont, Maine and 34 other states in an online organization called The American Grove. Their website is full of useful information about planting trees, even coming at how to choose a tree in an unusual way.

We have planted trees for our each of our grandchildren. The Grove makes suggestions for climate appropriate trees on various occasions. I wanted to see how this worked and asked what they would suggest, in my climate, to celebrate a friendship. White fir!  Abies concolor is a beautiful tree and according to The Grove a group of evergreens symbolize friendship that endures over the ages.

I just finished reading Vanessa Dieffenbaugh’s beautiful book The Language of Flowers, so I have been thinking a lot about this Victorian technique of communicating through flowers.  The symbolism of the white fir is friendship, resilience and longevity. I think we all know that a key element of a long-lived friendship is resilience, so I liked this idea very much.

People often think about planting trees in their gardens in the spring, and Arbor Day is always there to give gardeners a little nudge and encouragement. However, This is a perfect time of year to plant trees. You might get a bargain at a nursery, and the sun is not so strong, temperatures are cooler and there are usually soft autumnal rains to help a young tree settle in.  If the rains do not arrive, of course, it is vital to keep a new planted tree (or any other plant) well watered until the ground freezes. Then a layer of mulch will help protect the frozen soil and tree roots.

The Grove gives clear and full instructions for planting a tree.

The Grove is created and funded by the Georgia Urban Forest Council (GUFC), the Georgia Forestry Commission (GFC) and the USDA Forest Service and was beta tested in the Southeast in 2009 and 2010 before its national launch in March 2011. The community is now expanding to all 50 states along with three U.S. territories. I am glad that Massachusetts is joining. I’ll be able to see what people are doing and thinking about because the site already had a good blog and fascinating videos.  What would you like to say or demonstrate?  It’s up to you.

Is Junk Food Really Cheaper?

In yesterday’s NY Times Mark Bittman asked the question, Is Junk Food Really Cheaper? Can you really feed a family for less at McDonalds than at your own table filled with home cooked food.  In spite of the protestations that a bag of chips is cheaper than a head of broccoli and other such, the answer is NO!  A meal for a family of four at McDonald’s will come to between $23 and $28.  How many groceries can you buy for that amount? Bittman lays out his plan, and his answer to all the objections about the difficulty of cooking a healthy meal at home. One important point he makes is that the alternative to a McDonald’s meal is not an organic farmer’s market meal. It is simply a trip to the supermarket. I”d like to add that supermarkets often have good sales.

I was happy to be a part of the Food Fest at the Charlemont Federated Church this summer. Various cooks chose a topic, beans, eggs, chicken, and set up a table with assorted dishes.  I chose the chicken table and talked about taking a chicken from the roasting pan, and then then through other iterations in my famous chicken salad with Moroccan spices to chicken with pasta and peanut sauce and even chicken soup.  Recipes complete with nutritional information were available, as well as conversations with excellent cooks. Although we couldn’t eat the samples on the tables (health rules) samples from the church kitchen were passed around all day.

There were cooking demonstrations. I filled in at the last minute to make corn chowder – and ruined it when the top fell off the salt shaker and over over salted the chowder. People got the idea though. Jason Velasquez of Pen and Plow Farm demonstrated making potato pancakes, a great dish in many cuisines.

His potato pancakes were perfect and delicious. We all got a taste.

The goal of the program was to remind us all that a good, economical, nutritious home cooked meal does not need to take hours and certainly doesn’t take more money that a trip to McDonald’s. We are all of a mind with Mark Bittman, and our program proved unequivocally that Junk Food is Not Really Cheaper.

Growing a Garden City

Growing a Garden City

Sometimes a garden is more than a garden. Sometimes a garden is comfort, safety, job training, real good food for  the hungry and a supportive community.

Growing a Garden City by Jeremy Smith (Skyhorse Publishing $24.95) has an all inclusive subtitle – How Farmers,  First Graders, Counselors, Troubled Teens, Foodies, A Homeless Shelter Chef, Single Mothers and More are Transforming Themselves and their Neighborhoods Through the Intersection of Local Agriculture and Community and How You Can, Too. Whew! I’m out of breath.

This book also made me breathless with its description of a city learning to feed itself while it involved various groups of people in a new community.  Missoula, Montana has a short growing season, 100 frost free days, and the same kinds of needs any city  does, hunger, homelessness, students who don’t know where their food comes from, and troubled students who don’t know where they are  going. The city also has people with vision, energy and perseverance.

Missoula now has seven neighborhood farms and community gardens that give a whole new meaning to the term Community Supported Agriculture. It didn’t happen overnight. The tale of the growth of this program over 15 years is told through the  voices of those who participated from Josh Slotnick, Director of the PEAS (Program in Ecological Agriculture and Society)  Farm, students at the PEAS Farm, to single mother Kim Markuson, Greg Price, chef  at a homeless shelter, and many others.

This is such an inspiring story that shows what a  community with land and energy can build.  We are fortunate in our region to have new young farmers on small farms, part of a national movement, that is giving all of us healthy food – and healthy community.

Winterfare and Ice

4th Annual Greenfield Winterfare

Saturday dawn cold with another storm promised. I dashed right out to the Greenfield Winterfare to stock up, and I wasn’t the only one. Every booth was busy. These young women from Wheatberry Farm and Bakery were selling the wheatberries AND delicious muffins. Ben and Adrie Lester, the founders of Wheatberry are also founders of The Pioneer Valley Heritage Grain CSA.

Simple Gifts Farm

At the Simple Gifts booth I bought lots of roots – and make a shredded vegetable slaw when I got home. Perfect accompaniment to casserole roasted pork. Brooke Werley and Emily Adams say they do everything!  at the farm. They have a brand new tractor at Simple Gifts and they are very excited.

Sunrise Farm

I not only found the Grade A Medium Amber Maple Syrup I had been looking for I found out that the sugar house I pass when I drive from Heath to Colrain is called Sunrise Farm and is operated by a branch of the locally famous Lively family. It is wonderful to have so much Lively-ness in our area. Rocky’s family has been on this farm for over 100 years.

Most of these farms are already signing people up for CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares. For a full list of CSA farms visit CISA, Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture.

One thing I have noticed is that there are more farms selling meat locally. I am buying lamb from a neighbor, and I found out that the new Pen and Plow Farm in Hawley is selling beef – and it doesn’t have to be a whole quarter of an animal.  Hmmmm. Oxtail soup and osso bucco may be in my husband’s future.

I stopped at the library on my way home from Winterfare, but a ‘wintry mix’ was already falling out of the sky.  By suppertime everything was encased in ice. This is the view when we woke on Sunday morning. Beautiful but dangerous.

No lounging in the Cottage Ornee today.

Maybe I’ll be able to finish up my seed orders.

Plumpy’nut and Profits

Every food pantry welcomes donations of peanut butter because it is so nutritious, and every mother has it in her kitchen because no matter what else the kids refuse to eat, they will almost always accept a pb&j sandwich.

Peanuts were the answer to Andre Briend, a French pediatrician, who was trying to find a way to treat malnutrition. He knew about F100, a fortified dry milk that could counter the biochemical effects of nutrition in children. But it had to be mixed with water – which was often  contaminated in countries where malnutrition was rife. And it tasted bad.

Andrew Rice in the Sunday, Sept. 5 issue of the NYTimes Magazine describes Briend’s Aha Moment, coming up with the “idea to mix F100 with peanuts (a legume that is grown widely throughout the developing world), milk, sugar and oil. The concoction was full of protein and fat, which insulated its nutrients from oxygen and humidity and masked their unappetizing flavor.”

The other advantage to this treatment for malnutrition is that it doesn’t need to be administered in hospitals. Children can eat it at home, and gain weight and vigor more effectively than hospital treatments.

Isn’t this great news?  Yes. Except.  Except that a private French company Nutriset, holds the patent – and they have a bottom line that is their concern as much as children’s health.  Unicef buys 90% of its supplies from the French factory.

Paul Farmer of Partners in Health in Haiti, makes his own version using local peanuts calling it Nourimanba.  Navyn Salem of Rhode Island, inspired by Farmer has, built a joint venture factory with Nutriset called Edesia, and raises money to buy Plumpy’ nut. Salem said “. . . malnutrition was killing more than all of them (AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria) combined.” Her focus has expanded to not only cure malnutrition, but to prevent it with therapeutic foods.

Read the article and tell me if you have an idea of how to handle a patent of this type that puts a high price on children’s lives. Costs have to be met, and people even need to make a profit – but how great a profit?  What do you think?

A Field for the Hungry

Ev Hatch's tomatoes for a Community Harvest

Ev Hatch will never forget the seed salesman who talked to him about his upcoming retirement.  Instead of selling seeds, he was  going to plant a lot of vegetable seeds, tend the plot and donate all the vegetables to food pantries.

Over his career Hatch has planted a lot of seeds, in the ground, and in the community as he worked for the Cooperative Extension Service and 4-H. After his  retirement in 1977 from these agricultural state enterprises  he began farming out on Plain Road in Greenfield.  At first he grew a little bit of everything including strawberries, but eventually he focused on strawberries. Hatch’s Patch supplied beautiful berries to the cooks and happy eaters of the area for many years.

Four years ago he gave up farming, but continues to grow his own garden. His land is rented to Kyle Bostrom who uses Hatch’s greenhouses to grow and sell vegetable starts and bedding plants. A new sign for The Patch still welcomes gardeners in the spring.

With his farming days finished the words of that seed salesman came back to Hatch.  He had land available, and he had labor available at his church, First Congregational Church in Greenfield, as they planned their Feet, Hands and Voices to Faith project.

He plowed up a quarter acre and he had a flashback.  When the tiller broke he remembered that what he hated most about farming was equipment that broke down just when you needed it. Everything had to stop while you figured out how to repair it. Nothing was broken in the hearts or hands of a crew from the church who helped with planting the field on May16th.

He speaks with such passion about the aggravation of farm equipment that I had to ask what he liked about farming. That was easy, he laughed. “I like the independence. You can do what you want.”

I allowed as how Mother Nature had something to say about what you needed to do at any given moment, and he agreed that was true. “But a farmer can figure out what the market wants, and how he can fit into the system. There is always a challenge, and you figure out how to meet the challenge yourself. No one is telling you what to do.”

If fixing equipment is his least favorite farm chore, he said his favorite is hoeing. “I love to hoe. I just stand there and zonk out.”

However, we have come to the season where there is no time for zonking out.  When I first  talked to Hatch about the field of tomatoes, summer squash, cucumbers, winter squash and broccoli I asked how could he ever manage the harvest and get the produce to the food pantries. He said he would need help.

Help is being organized now, as the harvest season officially begins on July 12.  Mark Maloni, Projects Coordinator at Community Action is scheduling volunteers on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from 9 to 11.  You don’t have to be an experienced gardener who has been picking vegetables for years, but you do need to call Maloni and let him know when you can come, or when he needs volunteers. He hopes that most volunteers will be able to commit to two or three (or more) sessions,  but if you can only come once, any help is welcomed.

Packing crates will be located in the greenhouse. When filled they should be moved across the street to the Hatch home where they can rest in the shade.  The Franklin Area Survival Center will pick up the harvest one day a week, the Center for Self Reliance will pick it up another day, and the Orange Food Pantry will take the harvest on the third day. Volunteers should bring their own drinking water, hats, and sunscreen.

If you cannot help harvest Hatch’s field, but have a productive garden, you can donate any extra produce to any one of the area food pantries or meal sites. Open hours and coordinators’ names for at least 11 food sites are listed on the Plant a Row website: www.parwwmass.blogspot.com.

The number of families in our area who are enduring food insecurity continues to grow. An indication of the severity of this problem is the growth in the Eat 4 Free program. This federal program for communities with more than 50% of children eligible for free and reduced meals in the schools has been operating for 20 years. “The number of children being served has tripled in the last eight years,” said Bernie Novack, Director of Food and Nutrition Services for the Greenfield Schools.

Novack said that after the long Fourth of July weekend 750 breakfasts were served, and 1250 lunches. “Many of these children hadn’t had a good meal since Friday,”

I have seen Eat 4 Free signs posted at some of the meal sites as I’ve driven around town, at Federal Street School, Greenfield Gardens, Greenfield Swimming Pool and 10 other sites. Depending on the site, the program will run for between six to nine weeks. All a child has to do is walk in. No questions asked.

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The only question asked at local daylily sales this weekend and next is “How many do you want?” Lorraine Brennan on Rt 10 in Northfield is selling daylilies July 10, 11, 17 and 18 from 9-1 pm.  Richard Willard at Silver Garden Daylilies on Glenbrook Road is digging daylilies on July 10 from 9 am – 4 pm, and on July 17 he is holding the Annual Daylily Festival with edible daylily treats. Logon to www.silvergardendaylilies.com for full information.

Between the Rows   July 10, 2010

No Rain at the Annual Rose Viewing

The Rose Walk

The sky was gray and a few guests came early to the Rose Viewing, hoping to beat the rain, but blue skies arrived, as well as muggy temperatures, and more guests. It is always a pleasure to show people around the garden myself, but visitors can also go around with a rose list and map that my husband makes. Since I look on the Rose Viewing as a quasi-educational event I am always pleased to see people making notes on their rose list. I am also happy to be able to recommend nurseries like the Antique Rose Emporium in Texas which sends container grown roses through the mail in the spring. The advantage to container grown roses is that if the weather is bad, sleety, frosty or even too darn hot, the container plants can be kept watered and happy until they can be put safely in the ground.

Red Meidiland rose

There was a lot of discussion about whether the roses were all early, but after the spell of high temperatures that send the roses rushing into bloom, it got turned cold again. Another fire in the woodstove. It stayed cool and most of the roses relaxed, content with their more normal bloom times.  Remember our house and garden are more than 1600 feet above sea level and that means that nights are cool through most of the summer. One rose that is blooming early is this red Meidiland landscape rose that came as a sample from the hybridizer more than 15 years ago.  Usually it has only a few blossoms to show at the Rose Viewing which is always the last Sunday in June.  It has survived nicely, as has the White Meidiland next to it, but our weather is severe enough that it hasn’t attained the spread it is known for. You can image that this brilliant scarlet rose is quite a delightful shock when the other roses are in shades of pink and white.

In the Cottage Ornee

As delightful as it is to wander among the roses, enjoying all the fragrance, the day was hot, and it was equally delightful to sit down in the Cottage Ornee and visit. The Cottage quite magically seems to capture every wayward breeze, the lemonade was cold, the strawberries sweet, and the cookies delicious. If I do say so myself.  Then Sheila brought her handmade goat cheeses and Cheryl, pictured above with our neighbors the McCutchens, brought Strawberry Shortcake!

Feed Thy Neighbor

Planting the Squash Patch at CFC

Ev Hatch, now retired from farming, is a member of the Hunger Task Force and a member of the First Congregational Church of Greenfield. When the First Church began planning a special day of service they called ‘Feet, Hands and Voices to Faith’ he knew just what to do.  He donated a half acre of his farmland, and his services to prepare the field. On May 16^th he and a crew, that included Luella McLaughlin (aged 93), set off to plant summer and winter squash, cucumbers, and 350 tomatoes that will be donated to the Survival Center in Turners Falls as the harvest comes in.

Reverend Judith Kinley said her husband Don who loves to garden was part of that crew and he was amazed at Luella’s energy.

Hatch, who is familiar to many because his years working for Cooperative Extension and the 4-H, as well as because of Hatch’s Patch Strawberries, said that when he went out to till the field he remembered the aggravation that farming sometimes brought. “I’d barely started when a bearing on the tiller broke and I suddenly remembered that’s the thing I hated most. There was always something broken and you had figure out a fix, or find a new part.” He laughed and shook his head, but he has also promised to keep his eye on the field.

“I’ll putter around every morning for a couple of hours – before it gets hot. I’ve started to put in stakes for the tomatoes. The crunch will come with the harvest,” Hatch said.

Hatch told me that the Reverend Sue Bowman, another member of the congregation, “who really gets things going,” helped to organize this day of service.

When I spoke to the Reverend Kinley she said that after a short worship service the congregation split up to “live out our worship.” Everyone got to choose how to put their own interests and talents to work whether singing for nursing home residents, or putting their hands to any number of projects including working at the Survival Center in Turners Falls.

I am also a member of the Hunger Task Force. When I brought news of the Task Force to the Federated Church of Charlemont (CFC) last year the Reverend Cara Hochhalter agreed that we could plant a Squash Patch on the south eastern side of the church.  We had an adult work crew consisting of the Reverend Hochhalter and her husband Jeff, Erwin Reynolds who brought composted manure from his farm, Sheila Litchfield and me. We used the ‘lasagna method’ of putting in a new bed with  a cardboard and  woodchip mulch between the planting hills.

You may recall that last summer was quite cool and rainy.  Our harvest was modest, but went to the church’s Good Neighbor’s program.

This year, on Sunday, May 23^rd, it was hot and the Sunday School gathered to plant squash seeds.  The bright sun gave us hope that there would be a greater harvest this year.

Reverend Hochhalter said “We believe there is abundance from God’s earth that has not been tapped to meet the needs of others.  This is just a small way that our church members can use a piece of our property to grow some food, our young people can plant seeds and join others to tend the patch, and then we share the produce through the Good Neighbors Food distribution program.  Some of the crop last year was shared through making squash soup and bread.  It is a wonderful whole-church effort that reminds us of the gifts of our earth and the joys of sharing with others.”

I want to remind every  one that any of us gardeners can plant our own extra row, or give any extra garden produce to the food pantry of our choice.

Local churches and other organizations recognize how these hard economic times make life difficult for many families and meet the need in numerous ways. But they also recognize that there is not only hunger of the body. People hunger for friendship and for feeling a part of the larger community. They hunger for hope and for celebration.

Free Harvest Meal 2009

That need is met in some measure by Community Dinners that are held throughout the area. The most celebratory of these dinners is the Annual Free Harvest Supper that will celebrate its 6^th Anniversary this year.

The meal is absolutely free, but donations collected go to buy Farmer’s Market Coupons for low-income people. Last year $3000 was raised.

I attended last year for the first time and was moved and amazed by the bounty of our fields, the good will of farmers who donated produce, and the benevolence of the restaurateurs who cooked and prepared beautiful healthful dishes that were set before 600 hungry people who listened to good music and visited with old friends – or the new friends who sat beside them at long tables on the Green.

It is no surprise that it takes a many volunteers to put on a celebratory free meal. Every year a hundred or more people work that weekend to make it go smoothly and deliciously. But those volunteers depend on good planning beforehand.

Linda Slattery, Volunteer Coordinator, said that new members for the Organizing Committee are needed.  This committee meets about twice a month at Greenfields Market until the dinner on August 22. The first meeting is on June 9^th from 6 to 7:30 pm. Email Linda at linslatt@comcast.net for more information.

Between the Rows   May 29, 2010