The farm, tipi, and me.

I'm all moved in to an apartment and prepared to spill about my incredible summer, spent in a tipi, as a wannabe farmer.  The New York Times article, Will Work for Food, nailed it about the symbolic events that happen in a summer on a farm.  Never before had I been granted the ability to watch nearly every vegetable I have ever eaten grow and what an amazing opportunity it was.

Tony (the farmer) took a gamble on me after an inspired email I sent last fall around this time, begging for the chance to spend a summer as an intern on an organic farm.  My background consisted of an incredibly short list of growing things...meaning a summer with jalapeno's and herbs on my porch and this Spring's starts (vegetables began indoors prior to frost's end) pretty much summed up my gardening experience.  I knew I wanted to work in this field and felt exposure to the life of a farmer was the best way to begin.

After an unofficial Spring internship, prepping the strawberry beds and such, I officially started at Whitefeather Organics, in May, as an AmeriCorps member.  The 22 acre farm, owned by Tony and Laura Whitefeather, along with their kids, Siris and Ashae, is located on Sky View Rd, in Custer, WI.   When I met Tony, a traveling hippie turned farmer, he would have said Whitefeather Organics was a vegetable farm that also raised turkeys for Thanksgiving; that swiftly changed as the 2010 season unfolded.  Not long before I arrived, the farm got their first brood of meat chicks, along with 4 berkshire piglets.  We were now also in the animal husbandry business.  A dairy cow and bull calf also made their way to the farm mid-season.  

After moving into the tipi, next to the vegetable fields and amongst a beautiful line of trees, my farming life began.  My daily chores consisted of weeding, weeding, and more weeding...along with some planting, hoeing, and harvesting mixed in.  I also collected the season's mushroom flushes; blewits, shiitakes, oysters, and winecaps.  On occasion, I helped feed and water the animals and even participated in the first chicken slaughter; which proved hard but tremendously eye-opening. The days were long, but time passed by very quickly.  A farmer's day is never over and the reasons were apparent in no time.  We did what we should, in the time that we could, and produced the most beautiful and delicious food; everything from peas and carrots to arugula and fennel and so many others in between.  Our days usually ended with a communal supper and Central Waters brew.

Tipi living proved easier and more wonderful than I could have imagined.  Bestowing the most serene and calming effect on me.  Even the rain (it was the rainiest season the Whitefeathers had experienced), was tolerable.  I would pull a tarp over my bed and listen to the pitter patter as it hit the canvas and occasionally my head.  Most of the nights were cool enough to sleep, with only seldom sticky evenings sprinkled throughout.

The 2010 CSA season is sadly coming to a close, with only four harvests left and the preparation of our winter share.  This summer, I ate like a queen and attempted to savor it all.  When Thanksgiving comes, the actual end, I will sit with my family and give appreciation to our turkey and fall veggies for providing nourishment and reflect on my incredible adventure this past year.

This One's For You...Part Two

The second part of this series covers the NY Times article, Push to Eat Local Food Is Hampered by Shortage. The article's significance lies in the issue facing small farmers raising animals in the US today: the limited number of slaughterhouses able and willing to process their meat.  It's a problem because the number of small farms is rising and small slaughterhouses are not following with the same tenacity, although this recent Washington Post article gives me hope that this is beginning to change.  Let me give a short background on why the US lacks the proper facilities for small scale slaughter...

Within the past 40 years, America became a factory farm mecca and many slaughterhouses were forced to shut their doors.  Several things attributed to this including but not limited to the new rules and regulations implemented to control industrial farming methods.  They were conceived to protect us from the food safety risks industrial farming poses, i.e. salmonella and e coli outbreaks (They're doing a great job, right?).  Who the rules and regulations* forgot (or simply ignored) were the smaller slaughterhouses that remained safe as always, but were forced to update their facilities to the safety code of industrial giants.  Their decline happened relatively quickly because many could not adhere to the updates.

Fast forward to the present - Some people are up in arms about their food.  No longer will they eat the industrial system's slaughter.  They want to know their farmer and meet their meat.  Small farmers want to fulfill the need and slaughterhouses can't keep up.  Too me, this article is nothing more than the title suggests a hampering, small glitch in the system, delay of game, minor set-back.  There is adversity in this movement at every turn, but this too shall pass.  It won't take long for someone in the US to discover there's profit in opening small scale slaughterhouses (as the Post article infers)...it'd be un-American not to.



*(If you're interested in learning more about the fantastical rules and regulations the industrial system brought on the small farmer, Joel Salatin wrote an amazing book, Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal.  I highly recommend it.)

This One's For You...Part One

A friend posted this on my facebook today:

Hi Layne, how have you been?! Just wondering if you could blog your thoughts as related to WI on the following articles? I´d love to hear an expert´s view :)

These are the NYT's articles she posted: A Balance Between the Factory and the Local Farm and Push to Eat Local Food Is Hampered by Shortage. I explained I was no expert, but always studying the topic and forwarded her a Civil Eats rebuttal to the first article. The second article was posted this past week.

The first article covers locavorism and while Damon Darlin makes small jabs at those attempting to buy locally, he begs the question - Is eating locally an attainable goal? Let me start by saying: We are lucky to live in Wisconsin! Our state is on the forefront of the good food movement and because of this, purchasing local products that are in season and available should be a priority. We many not have zucchini in March but we can still purchase locally produced cheese, milk, eggs, meat, and root vegetables. Come summer and into fall, we not only have the largest farmer's market in the country (Dane County in Madison), but we have the second or third most farmer's markets as well; offering more affordable, fresher, and tastier options than the grocery store every week. Not all states are so lucky. My friend in the mountains of Colorado would have a hard time sourcing from nearby because the land can't produce the same types of food.

Mr. Darlin's quickness to dismiss people eating this way is quite offensive. It is true that most people in WI cannot eat locally all the time. Few doubt the continuing consumption of bananas, coffee, and tea or that people will still buy tomatoes in december. His story is missing the positive impact these locavores are making by supporting their local farmers, if we lose the farmers, we lose the food.

Many people fighting for good food understand that major improvements will have to be made to get it into the hands of all people. Smaller, regionalized food systems will need to be developed; a complete overhaul of the current infrastructure will have to be built (Mr. Darlin never mentions that some food can and is produced in greenhouses.) The fight is for awareness and continually working to get these types of infrastructures created. While we're making this happen, I'll being noshing on a tomato from Tony, rather than an ethanol ripened one from Cali. Maybe you should too.