For those of you who have been members with our farm for
awhile and read the newsletter pretty regularly, you may already know that I
first came to the farm back in 2007 as the summer farm chef. I knew very little, much less than I realized
at the time. I came because my two
favorite things to cook were fish and vegetables, the latter being the focus of
my attention when I accepted the position.
I didn’t know much about what it meant to be certified organic or why I
would come to value eating certified organic food, but I was eager to learn and
accepted the challenge. I don’t recall
Richard every telling me that all the food I purchased and prepared for the
crew had to be 100% certified organic, but it seemed a bit contradictory for it
to be any other way. So I raised the bar
and strived to achieve it with each menu I planned and each purchase I
made.
Chef Andrea getting ready to process beets. |
Andrea Bemis, from her website dishingupthedirt.com |
Andrea Bemis is a vegetable farmer, along with her husband
Taylor, at their small farm in Oregon.
She also has a food blog and a cookbook, both titled Dishing Up the Dirt. I follow her blog regularly and have adapted,
referenced and shared quite a few of her vegetable-centric, simple recipes over
the past several years. Earlier this
year she announced a challenge that she called “The Local Thirty.” For the month of September Andrea and Taylor
challenged themselves to source all their food within 200 miles for 30
days. She did allow herself 10 “cheat
items,” partly because there are some very enjoyable foods that were part of
her diet that can’t be sourced locally (like coffee and chocolate) and because
the challenge wasn’t about deprivation as much as it was becoming more informed
about the foods she was consuming. She
identified “three pillars” that are the most important considerations when
choosing food. These include wellness
(Is it good for the body?), sustainability (Is it good for the planet?) and
community (Is it good for other people?)
The closer you are to the source of your food, the more opportunity you
have to know more about the people who are producing and/or distributing the
food as well as the intricacies related to how it’s being produced. At the end of her announcement about her personal
challenge, she stated “For the 30 days of September I’m going to source all of
my ingredients from a 200 mile radius of where I live. I’m hoping that in doing so I will find a
more grounded sense of place and a community of folks that I never knew
existed.”
Well, the month of September is officially over and so is
Andrea’s challenge. I applaud her for
keeping up with this project in the midst of the growing season, but she did it
and managed to document her experiences intermittently on her blog as well as
more frequently on Instagram. In one
post she commented "As we navigate through finding local resources for some of our favorite ingredients I'm learning that this month isn't going to be perfect. But that's okay. We are meeting so many amazing folks who are making our community a better place. And the community is reaching farther than our tiny corner of the world as I get to be a part of so many of your local journeys as well." She
recently posted on her blog about her experience of getting to go tuna
fishing. In this post she commented “When I began really exploring where my food
comes from, I started to realize that this is not so much about the ingredients
for me anymore. It’s about these people
(most often strangers) and how little pieces of their world make up mine.” Her comment struck me. She’s totally right.
Our Dane County Farmers' Market crew! |
When we sit down to eat, we really enjoy eating chicken from
our friend Gretchen, roasted vegetables from our farm tossed with sunflower oil
produced by our friends at Driftless Organics.
We enjoy Castle Rock cream from the Kostka family in our morning cup of
coffee, roasted locally by our friends at Kickapoo Coffee. I’m not trying to be high and mighty here,
just agreeing with Andrea B. that it’s really cool to be able to identify where
my food comes from and to think about and appreciate the people who work hard
to bring it to my table. It’s much more
satisfying than opening a package from afar and not knowing much if anything
about what I’m putting into my body. If we do choose to eat food grown outside our local area, there's opportunities to source these things carefully as well. For instance, Frog Hollow Farm in California, one of our fruit share producer partners, also makes olive oil with the olives they produce on their farm. Marian Farms, also in California, is my source for raisins and almonds. While these foods can't be sourced locally, I appreciate the opportunity to at least purchase them directly from the producers, especially because I have had the chance to talk to them personally and want to support what they're doing! Food is personal, at least I think it should be.
While Andrea didn’t intend to do this in the beginning, she
actually connected with some filmmaker friends who traveled with her and
documented some of her experiences associated with her challenge. She’s turning it into a documentary that will
hopefully be done before the end of the year!
I look forward to hearing more about her experiences, reflections,
etc. In the meantime, I encourage each
of you to take a look in your backyard and see what you can find. You might be surprised by what you find. If you already have some sources for awesome
local foods, share them with your friends and neighbors so they too can support
these local producers and together we can do our best to build a strong
community and a strong food system! Of course, along the way you'll glean nourishment for your soul and some really great meals!
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