Delicious spring flavors described here
Ruralintelligence.com Reporter Marilyn Bethany forages with Old Inn on the Green Chef Peter Platt
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Chefs created Farmed & Foraged Menus for May 15 -17th
Delicious spring flavors described here
Ruralintelligence.com Reporter Marilyn Bethany forages with Old Inn on the Green Chef Peter Platt
Michael Pollan on What to Eat
Pollan talks with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now about food, farming, Michelle Obama's organic garden at the White House, the new Secretary of Agriculture, and School Lunches
Read the interview here
Read the interview here
Saturday, May 2, 2009
An Interview with Jennifer Foley of Berkshire Co-op Market
Looking to find lots of local produce and products in a one-stop shop? Then check out the Berkshire Co-op Market on 42 Bridge Street in Great Barrington. This Member/Owner-owned operation offers organic produce and groceries, and is open to all Owners and shoppers. The Co-op also has a large hot bar and salad bar selection, a cafe, and Grab-and-Go choices. You can find the updated hot bar menu here. To learn more about cooperatives, check out the National Cooperative Grocer's Association.
Thanks to Jennifer Foley, Marketing & Owner Services Manager, for conducting this interview.
How does Berkshire Co-op Market link with local producers?
The Berkshire Co-op Market connects with our local producers in many ways. At the beginning of the growing season, the Co-op hosts a Local Grower/Producer meeting to let our local vendors know what the Co-op’s guidelines to selling product and what our needs will be in the upcoming season. At the same time, the Co-op explains what ways we will be promoting local products, and asks local producers what they need from the Co-op.
The Co-op also offers farmers and producers the opportunity to participate in our Farm Tour program, which the Co-op invites and promotes the showcased farms and production sites to our Owners and shoppers. This gives the community an opportunity to see and learn first-hand about the food they buy and the people that produce it.
In each issue of our quarterly newsletter, the Co-op features a local grower/producer, which again allows readers to learn more about the local people who are producing their food. We also invite and encourage our local vendors to come in to the store and demo their products and meet our Owners and shoppers face-to-face. The Co-op is also a member of Berkshire Grown and attends meetings and events with local farmers and producers which allow us the opportunity to mingle and brainstorm throughout the year.
Tell us about your education programs. How do you educate the community, and what subjects do you focus on?
We currently have a thriving “Healthy Snacks” program that we bring to local schools to teach children about healthier choices in snacking. We bring natural and organic versions of “conventional” snack items as well as different seasonal, local fruits and vegetables with which the children may not be familiar. In addition to the tasting, the children learn to read nutritional labels, and in some instances help to create simple recipes. We have been collaborating with the Community Health Program (CHP) Nutrition Center to present some of these classes, as well as partnering with schools as a part of their grant initiatives.
Again, our Farm Tours are very popular and educational. Just this year we have brought groups to Mead’s Maple Syrup Farm in Canaan, CT where participants learned the process of maple syrup production and enjoyed a pancake breakfast featuring Mead’s Maple Syrup, and to Berkshire Mountain Bakery where we learned what goes into creating the delicious breads we sell at the Co-op. More Farm Tours are being scheduled for the rest of the season.
Also, each year we send “Free Local Apple” Coupons to the 2 school districts with an educational piece about why local is better for the environment and for the local economy. As a regular practice, we also participate in tabling at various events in the community, always promoting healthier choices, local choices and sustainability.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Interested in our interview series?
Is your farm or shop interested in participating in our interview series, joining Hawthorne Valley Farm and Hancock Shaker Village? We're looking for people and places to showcase.
Email Lisa for details.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
An Interview with Ellen Spear of Hancock Shaker Village
The Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, Massachusetts is an outdoor living history museum with preserved buildings from the Shakers. Originally called The City of Peace, the village was created in 1783, and focused on communal living, hard work, and the values of honesty and simplicity. In March I had the opportunity to visit the Village to check out their newly opened Village Harvest Café, which offers delicious, Shaker-inspired lunches. I also sampled items from Savory Harvest Catering, another new venture at HSV, offering catered menus for a variety of events. Both the café and catering services use locally grown foods as much as possible.
I held an interview with Ellen Spear, President and CEO of Hancock Shaker Village.
LF: How does the Hancock Shaker Village change with the seasons?
ES: HSV’s program offerings mirror the Shaker calendar. In spring, “Baby Animals on the Shaker Farm”, one of our signature events, heralds the birth of new barnyard babies, and gets visitors engaged in learning about how to wake up the garden and prepare for the growing season. During the main season, from Memorial Day through Labor Day, visitors can explore the historic Village center and take hikes on our trails past Shaker archaeology sites and other natural features. Fall is time for our “Country Fair,” which celebrates the harvest, bringing together local food producers and farm products. Visitors can help harvest crops, pick out a pumpkin and learn how to store food for the winter. In the winter, we feature snow shoeing and cross country skiing, as well as guided tours and a special Winter Weekend with ice cutting, maple sugaring, seed saving, and other winter activities.
Throughout the year our café features seasonal menu items from our farm and from local food purveyors. Our Village Store stocks seasonal items, and our website lists seasonal offerings and goods for sale.
Herb Roasted Chicken with Field Greens, Roasted Beets, Berkshire Bleu Cheese & Balsamic Vinaigrette
LF: Tell us about the traditional Shaker diet. How does Hancock Shaker Village support it?
ES: The Shakers’ first purpose is for their own supply: “They raise the best they can, and they eat the best they raise.”*
The Shaker economy was based on agriculture, so cooks in Shaker villages usually had a wide variety of foodstuffs to work with. Typical Shaker diet at HSV closely resembled the diet of ordinary rural New England households of the time period - an unpretentious, simple and wholesome vernacular style of cooking largely determined by the seasonal availability of foodstuffs, the technologies available for preserving and cooking, and cultural norms of taste. In addition to seasonal ingredients (vegetable, fruits, berries, and field crops), when available, meals largely consisted of dried, smoked, canned, salted, and pickled foods; and dairy products of all kinds. Some foods were imported, such as selected grains, and fish included seafood, but the majority of the daily fare was produced within the community. Typically, meats were included in the diet. Special diets were followed by certain communities and families from time to time, such as Grahamism and vegetarianism.
Shaker diet enjoyed a number of advantages over the diet of their middle to lower class neighbors due to the uniqueness of the Shaker lifestyle, which emphasized communal food production methods, quality, and striving for perfection in all they did. On the whole, Shaker diet was well balanced by the standards of the day, as well as modern standards, and Shaker kitchens utilized tools, utensils, and technologies usually more advanced than those of their Worldly neighbors.
*Taken from a report on HSV agriculture by Henry Coleman, in The Farmers’ Cabinet; Devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture, and Rural Economy, Vol. III, 1839, published by Prouty, Libby & Prouty, Philadelphia.
LF: Where do you see HSV one year from now? In five years? Fifty years?
ES: HSV will celebrate its 50th Anniversary as an outdoor living history museum next year. We will be working with our cultural colleagues to celebrate this important milestone. HSV’s creation was at the forefront of the historic preservation and land conservation movement. We will highlight our leadership and our role now. In fifty years, we will continue to be a place where people can explore principled living and can take lessons from the Shaker way and apply them to contemporary life. The Shaker perspective – emphasizing community, simplicity, celebration of a thing well made, respect for the land, and sustainability are enduring values that will be as relevant fifty years from now as they are today. We hope everyone who visits will learn one thing they can do to change the way they live. This will change their families, their neighborhoods, their towns, their states, their regions, the country and eventually the world. We look forward to celebrating fifty years of service to the public by demonstrating the enduring culture of the Shakers and helping visitors understand and value the influence Shaker culture and design still has on the world today.
Thank you to Ellen and the rest of the HSV staff for participating in Berkshire Grown's interview series.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Meet Your Farmer
Stone-Buhr flour company's website introduces eaters to farmers... Josh Dorf (pictured here from the NY TIMES) created the Findthefarmer.com website after he bought the Stone-Buhr flour company. Eaters want to know their farmers.
read the whole article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/technology/internet/28farmer.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=find%20your%20farmer&st=cse
Friday, March 6, 2009
Interview with Seth Travins of Hawthorne Valley Farm
"The most exciting time of the workday is taste testing products which have been fermenting and aging for as little as two weeks to as much as a year. Fresh sauerkraut made in October and sampled in the dead of winter tastes like nothing else. It really hits the spot." Seth told Lisa in an interview.
Seth's Kraut Cellar currently produces the following lacto-fermented vegetables: plain sauerkraut, caraway sauerkraut, curry sauerkraut, jalapeno sauerkraut, ruby sauerkraut, ginger carrots, kim chee, dilly beans, and pickles. Check out the Hawthorne Valley Farm Store or sellers of local food products near you to try it out these treats yourself. Learn more about lacto-fermented vegetables here.
To read the complete interview
http://berkshiregrown.blogspot.com/2009/03/interview-with-seth-travins-of.html
Brooklyn's New Culinary Movement from the NYTIMES
"These days, with a kitchen and a bit of ambition, you can start to make a name for yourself in Brooklyn. The borough has become an incubator for a culinary-minded generation whose idea of fun is learning how to make something delicious and finding a way to sell it.
"These Brooklynites, most in their 20s and 30s, are hand-making pickles, cheeses and chocolates the way others form bands and artists’ collectives. They have a sense of community and an appreciation for traditional methods and flavors. They also share an aesthetic that’s equal parts 19th and 21st century, with a taste for bold graphics, salvaged wood and, for the men, scruffy beards.
For the whole article
http://berkshiregrown.blogspot.com/2009/03/brooklyns-culinary-movement-from.html
Brooklyn's Culinary Movement from the NYTIMES
Brooklyn’s New Culinary Movement
TO get the slightly battered convection oven for their new Brooklyn chocolate factory, Rick and Michael Mast traded 250 chocolate bars.
The chocolate is as good as legal tender for Andrew Tarlow and Mark Firth, owners of Marlow & Sons, the restaurant and specialty shop that bartered away the oven. “We can’t keep it in stock,” Mr. Tarlow said. “It sells better than anything else.”
About two years ago the Masts were trading truffles for beers at a local bar. Now Mast Brothers Chocolate has a national following as one of the few producers in the country, and the only one in the city, to make chocolate by hand from cacao beans they’ve roasted, in that oven. These days, with a kitchen and a bit of ambition, you can start to make a name for yourself in Brooklyn. The borough has become an incubator for a culinary-minded generation whose idea of fun is learning how to make something delicious and finding a way to sell it.
These Brooklynites, most in their 20s and 30s, are hand-making pickles, cheeses and chocolates the way others form bands and artists’ collectives. They have a sense of community and an appreciation for traditional methods and flavors. They also share an aesthetic that’s equal parts 19th and 21st century, with a taste for bold graphics, salvaged wood and, for the men, scruffy beards.
Rick Mast, 32, said he and his brother were initially attracted to the borough because it was cheaper than Manhattan. “But now I think the real draw is the creativity,” he said. “In Brooklyn, to be into food is do it yourself, to get your hands dirty, to roll up your sleeves. You want to peek in the kitchen in the back, as opposed to being served in the front.”
Gabrielle Langholtz, the editor of Edible Brooklyn, which chronicles the borough’s food scene, said it has grown along with the arrival of what she calls the “new demographic.”
“It’s that guy in the band with the big plastic glasses who’s already asking for grass-fed steak and knows about nibs,” Ms. Langholtz said.
“Ten years ago all of these people hadn’t moved to Brooklyn yet,” she added, comparing Brooklyn today to Berkeley in the 1970s. “There’s a relationship to food that comes with that approach to the universe,” Ms. Langholtz said. “Every person you pass has read Michael Pollan, every person has thought about joining a raw milk club, and if they haven’t made ricotta, they want to.”
The prevailing attitude is anticorporate, she said.
“Pre-industrial revolution tactics with food,” is how Frank Castronovo describes what he and Frank Falcinelli are up to at Prime Meats, a restaurant, specialty shop and butcher they are starting in Carroll Gardens, as well as Delightful Coffee, a cafe that will share a warehouse with the new Stumptown Coffee Roasters in Red Hook.
Along with butchering whole animals, Mr. Castronovo and Mr. Falcinelli, the owners of Frankies Spuntino restaurants in Brooklyn and the Lower East Side of Manhattan, will be making their own charcuterie at Prime Meats.
“The whole process, truthfully, will take a long time.” Mr. Falcinelli said. “The aged stuff will take a year to understand. Pâté will take a few months.”
Most of the artisans started simply and have stayed simple, like Salvatore Bklyn, makers of a superbly light ricotta. “We were selling it out of the back of a truck,” Betsy Devine, who makes the ricotta along with her partner, Rachel Mark, said of their first retail efforts. Now their product is in eight stores.
They learned their craft on a visit to Tuscany. The Masts essentially taught themselves. Others, like Tom Mylan at Marlow & Daughters, a butcher shop opened in December by the owners of Marlow & Sons, found mentors.
Mr. Mylan apprenticed himself last year at Fleisher’s, a highly regarded butcher shop in Kingston, N.Y., where he slept in the owners’ TV room for a month and a half.
At Marlow & Daughters, all of the butchering is done in plain sight. “We do this out on the floor because we want you to see the difference,” Mr. Mylan said. “We can tell you it’s all local, and it’s all pastured, and buzzword, buzzword, buzzword, but until you take out a whole animal and put it on the table people have no idea what it means to bring really good meat into the city and break it down.”
Mr. Mylan also teaches butchering at the Brooklyn Kitchen, a kitchen supply store in Williamsburg. He demonstrates with a whole pig. Every student goes home with six pounds of fresh pork.
“The classes have turned out to be much more of a success than I imagined,” said Harry Rosenblum, who opened the Brooklyn Kitchen with his wife, Taylor Erkkinen, in 2006.
Next month, Bob McClure, of McClure’s Pickles, will teach pickling there, and later this spring the Masts will teach chocolate-making.
“We’ve become something like a community,” Mr. Rosenblum added, explaining that the store holds the occasional potluck and has a food literature book club. When baking no-knead bread in Dutch ovens was popular a couple of years ago, customers who bought the pots often returned with gifts of freshly baked bread.
The Brooklyn Kitchen carries major brands, but it is the sole retailer for knives from Cut Brooklyn, a local specialty knife maker.
“It’s difficult to keep those guys stocked,” said Joel Bukiewicz, Cut Brooklyn’s owner and solitary employee. “It’s like sweeping a dirt floor.”
Maybe that’s because Mr. Bukiewicz takes 10 to 12 hours to fashion one eight-inch chef’s knife. In an average week he will make between four and six knives. He first learned how to make hunting knives in Georgia, and started creating kitchen knives in his small Gowanus workshop in 2007.
“There’s an appreciation here for craftsmanship and people who work with their hands,” Mr. Bukiewicz said. “I had no idea there was going to be this convergence of artists, artisans and food culture in Brooklyn.”
To design a boning knife, Mr. Bukiewicz has been sitting in on Mr. Mylan’s butchering classes and taking note of how his hands move.
That sort of collaboration is common.
Two weeks ago Sixpoint Craft Ales, in Red Hook, introduced Dubbel Trubbel, an ale made with cacao nibs from Mast Brothers Chocolate. Sixpoint Craft Ales already brews Gorilla Warfare, an American porter made with Ethiopian Yirgacheffe from Gorilla Coffee, the Park Slope cafe and roaster. At Wheelhouse Pickles, based in Park Slope, Jon Orren uses wort, a byproduct of brewing from Sixpoint Craft Ales, to flavor his Ploughman’s pickle, a mild, earthy relish made with Greenmarket root vegetables.
And McClure’s Pickles, of Williamsburg, is making a strong, grainy mustard with Brooklyn Brewery’s Brown Ale. (Mr. McClure, by the way, sometimes pays his picklers in pickles.)
Local store owners play an important role, more collaborators than simply merchants. Urban Rustic, Spuyten Duyvil Grocery, Blue Apron Foods, Bedford Cheese Shop and Marlow & Daughters all make a point of carrying Brooklyn-made foods.
Stinky Bklyn, a cheese shop in Carroll Gardens, carries wild boar pâté made by one of the salesmen at Smith & Vine, its sibling wine shop across the street. Robert Fischman, the fishmonger at Greene Grape Provisions in Fort Greene, sometimes sells fluke or striped bass he catches himself on one of the charter boats that departs from Sheepshead Bay. And later this spring the owners of Franny’s restaurant in Prospect Heights will open Bklyn Larder, which will sell salumi cured in-house.
Steven Manning, a manager at Urban Rustic, said he wants to make things easy for local food makers.
“There’s no red tape,” Mr. Manning said. “It’s, Give me the chocolate, here’s your money.”
Another culinary stage is the Brooklyn Flea, the Fort Greene flea market, now in winter quarters in Dumbo.
“I try everything that’s served there,” said Eric Demby, one of the market’s founders, recounting the time he slurped down six bowls of soup in one sitting.
“There’s an opportunity to be recognized, not just locally but nationally,” Mr. Demby said, explaining that Salvatore Bklyn created chocolate- and lemon-studded cannoli specifically for the market.
Not everyone who tries out is a star.
“The longer I do this the more I get a sense of who’s doing this for fun and who’s doing this for a life’s pursuit,” Mr. Demby said. “The ones who are doing it seriously are the ones who wait before they approach me because they want to make sure they have it right before they come to the Flea. The ones who are doing it for fun are the ones who think it’s a glorified bake sale.”
Some sellers at the Flea make sporadic appearances, like Plan B Foods, which sells caramelized onions in a jar. Now the onions are available at Greene Grape Provisions.
Others are regulars, like Mr. McClure and his brother, Joe, and Daniel Sklaar, a former financial analyst, who produces Fine & Raw, a velvety, complex chocolate made with unroasted cacao beans.
“I love being a part of this community,” said Mr. Sklaar, 28, noting that Fine & Raw’s packaging was created by a lingerie designer paid with chocolate. “Brooklyn is always in beta testing.”
But for all the momentum, most members of this food movement are taking time to refine their crafts.
Even though they could more than double their output to 2,000 bars a week, the Masts don’t have a timetable for increasing production in their new factory, a tastefully raw space with exposed brick walls and a counter salvaged from a 100-year-old Pennsylvania ice cream parlor.
“We’re not sure how a micro-batch chocolate factory is supposed to run,” Rick Mast said. “We’re going take our time and let it evolve.”
As Michael Mast, 29, said, “Slow growth, slow design, slow food. Slow, but without being flaky.”
The mantra is similar at Prime Meats, which has been opening in stages since January.
“It’s going to be incremental,” Mr. Castronovo said. “But when it’s ready you’re going to totally trip.”
The East Coast of Berkeley
Here are ways to find the Brooklyn artisans and merchants in this article.
BEDFORD CHEESE SHOP 229 Bedford Avenue (North Fourth Street), Williamsburg; (718) 599-7588 or bedfordcheeseshop.com.
BLUE APRON FOODS 814 Union Street (Seventh Avenue), Park Slope; (718) 230-3180.
BROOKLYN BREWERY 79 North 11th Street (Wythe Avenue), Williamsburg; (718) 486-7422 or brooklynbrewery.com.
BROOKLYN FLEA 76 and 81 Front Street (Main Street), Dumbo, through March; starting in April, Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School, Lafayette Avenue between Clermont and Vanderbilt Avenues, Fort Greene; brooklynflea.com.
BROOKLYN KITCHEN 616 Lorimer Street (Skillman Avenue), Williamsburg; (718) 389-2982 or thebrooklynkitchen.com.
CUT BROOKLYN cutbrooklyn.com.
FINE & RAW fineandraw.com.
GORILLA COFFEE 97 Fifth Avenue (Park Place), Park Slope; (718) 230-3244 or gorillacoffee.com.
GREENE GRAPE PROVISIONS 753 Fulton Street (South Portland Avenue), Fort Greene; (718) 797-9463 or brooklyn.greenegrape.com.
MARLOW & SONS 81 Broadway (Berry Street), Williamsburg; (718) 384-1441 or marlowandsons.com.
MARLOW & DAUGHTERS 95 Broadway (Berry Street), Williamsburg; (718) 388-5700 or marlowanddaughters.com.
MAST BROTHERS CHOCOLATE 105A North Third Street (Berry Street), Williamsburg; (718) 388-2625 or mastbrotherschocolate.com.
MCCLURE’S PICKLES mcclurespickles.com.
PRIME MEATS STORE 187 1/2 Luquer Street (Court Street), Carroll Gardens; (718) 254-0327.
SALVATORE BKLYN salvatorebklyn.com.
SIXPOINT CRAFT ALES 40 Van Dyke Street (Dwight Street), Red Hook; sixpointcraftales.com.
SPUYTEN DUYVIL GROCERY 218 Bedford Avenue (North Fifth Street), Williamsburg; (718) 384-1520.
STINKY BKLYN 261 Smith Street (Degraw Street), Carroll Gardens; (718) 522-7425 or stinkybklyn.com.
URBAN RUSTIC 236 North 12th Street (Driggs Avenue), Williamsburg; (718) 388-9444 or urbanrusticnyc.com.
WHEELHOUSE PICKLES wheelhousepickles.com.From the NYTIMES, It's Organic, but does that mean it's safer?
It’s Organic, but Does That Mean It’s Safer?
MOST of the chicken, fruit and vegetables in Ellen Devlin-Sample’s kitchen are organic. She thinks those foods taste better than their conventional counterparts. And she hopes they are healthier for her children.
Lately, though, she is not so sure.
The national outbreak of salmonella in products with peanuts has been particularly unsettling for shoppers like her who think organic food is safer.
The plants in Texas and Georgia that were sending out contaminated peanut butter and ground peanut products had something else besides rodent infestation, mold and bird droppings. They also had federal organic certification.
“Why is organic peanut butter better than Jif?” said Ms. Devlin-Sample, a nurse practitioner from Pelham, N.Y. “I have no idea. If we’re getting salmonella from peanut butter, all bets are off.”
Although the rules governing organic food require health inspections and pest-management plans, organic certification technically has nothing to do with food safety.
“Because there are some increased health benefits with organics, people extrapolate that it’s safer in terms of pathogens,” said Urvashi Rangan, a senior scientist and policy analyst with Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. “I wouldn’t necessarily assume it is safer.”
But many people who pay as much as 50 percent more for organic food think it ought to be. The modern organic movement in the United States was started by a handful of counterculture farmers looking to grow food using methods that they believed were better for the land and produced healthier food. It was a culture built on purity and trust that emphasized the relationship between the farmer and the customer.
By 2002, those ideals had been arduously translated into a set of federal organic regulations limiting pesticide use, restricting kinds of animal feed and forbidding dozens of other common agricultural practices.
To determine who would be allowed to use the green and white “certified organic” seal, the Department of Agriculture deputized as official certifiers dozens of organizations, companies and, in some cases, state workers.
These certifiers, then, are paid by the farmers and manufacturers they are inspecting to certify that the standards have been met. Depending on several factors, the fee can be hundreds or thousands of dollars. Manufacturers who buy six or seven organic ingredients to make one product are especially dependent on the web of agents.
If agents do a thorough job, the system can be effective. But sometimes it falls apart.
Texas officials last month fired a state worker who served as a certifier because a plant owned by the Peanut Corporation of America — the company at the center of the salmonella outbreak — was allowed to keep its organic certification although it did not have a state health certificate.
A private certifier took nearly seven months to recommend that the U.S.D.A. revoke the organic certification of the peanut company’s Georgia plant, and then did so only after the company was in the thick of a massive food recall. So far, nearly 3,000 products have been recalled, including popular organic items from companies like Clif Bar and Cascadian Farm. Nine people have died and almost 700 have become ill.
The private certifier, the Organic Crop Improvement Association, sent a notice in July to the peanut company saying it was no longer complying with organic standards, said Jeff See, the association’s executive director. He would not say why his company wanted to pull the certification.
A second notice was sent in September, but it wasn’t until Feb. 4 that the certifier finally told the agriculture department that the company should lose its ability to use the organic label.
Mr. See said the peanut company initially appeared willing to clear up the problems. But he said the company was slow to produce information and then changed the person in charge of the organic certification, further delaying the process.
He said his organization finally decided to recommend suspending the organic certification after salmonella problems at the plant were exposed.
Although certifiers have some discretion in giving organic companies time to fix compliance problems, Barbara C. Robinson, acting director of the agriculture department’s National Organic Program, said her agency is investigating the gap between the first notice of noncompliance and the recommendation that the peanut plant surrender its organic certification.
To emphasize that reporting basic health violations is part of an organic inspector’s job, Ms. Robinson last week issued a directive to the 96 organizations that perform foreign and domestic organic inspections that they are obligated to look beyond pesticide levels and crop management techniques.
Potential health violations like rats — which were reported by federal inspectors and former workers at the Texas and Georgia plants — must be reported to the proper health and safety agency, the directive said.
“For example, while we do not expect organic inspectors to be able to detect salmonella or other pathogens,” Ms. Robinson wrote, “their potential sources should be obvious from such evidence as bird, rodent and other animal feces or other pest infestations.”
Even some certifiers say that while their job is not to assure that food is safe, taking account of health inspections will help consumers.
“It’s a reassurance that they have another set of eyes, and more eyes is always a good thing,” said Jane Baker, director for sales and marketing of California Certified Organic Farmers, a nonprofit certifying organization in Santa Cruz, Calif., and one of the largest and oldest in the country. “But let’s not confuse food safety controls with the organic side of things.”
Organics has grown from an $11 billion business in the United States in 2001 to one that now generates more than $20 billion in sales, so the stakes for farmers, processors and certifiers can be high. But the agency overseeing the certifying process has long been considered underfunded and understaffed. Critics have called the system dysfunctional.
Arthur Harvey, a Maine blueberry farmer who does organic inspections, said agents have an incentive to approve companies that are paying them.
“Certifiers have a considerable financial interest in keeping their clients going,” he said.
Meanwhile, consumers are becoming more skeptical about certification, said Laurie Demeritt, president of the Hartman Group, a market research firm.
Some shoppers want food that was grown locally, harvested from animals that were treated humanely or produced by workers who were paid a fair wage. The organic label doesn’t mean any of that.
“They’re questioning the social values around organics,” Ms. Demeritt said.
The Organic Trade Association, which represents 1,700 organic companies, wants to shore up organic food’s image. This week it’s beginning a $500,000 Web-based campaign on the benefits of organic food with the slogan: “Organic. It’s worth it.”
Supporters of the National Organic Program think additional money in the recent farm bill will help improve its reach.
And great hope is being placed in Kathleen A. Merrigan, director of the agriculture, food and environment program at Tufts University, who was appointed the deputy agriculture secretary last week. Dr. Merrigan helped design the national organic standards, and is seen as a champion of organic farmers and someone who can help clarify and strengthen federal food laws.
Meanwhile, consumers remain perplexed about which food to buy and which labels assure safer and better-tasting food.
Emily Wyckoff, who lives in Buffalo, buys local food and cooks from scratch as much as possible. Although she still buys organic milk and organic peanut butter for her three children, the organic label means less to her these days — especially when it comes to processed food in packages like crackers and cookies.
“I want to care, but you have to draw the line,” she said.
But the line stops when it comes to basic food safety.
Recently, a sign near the Peter Pan and Skippy at her local grocery store declared that those brands were safe from peanut contamination. There was no similar sign near her regular organic brand.
“I bought the national brand,” she said. “Isn’t that funny?”Tuesday, March 3, 2009
An Interview with Seth Travins of Hawthorne Valley Farm
In January 2004 I began interning with Hawthorne Valley Farm's Visiting Student Program. During my internship we took part in many sides of the farm: caring for the animals, planting in the greenhouse, baking in the bakery, and working in the dairy. We also had the opportunity to work in Seth Travins' Kraut Cellar, where we shredded and hand packed fresh vegetables into jars. Also called "Sauerkraut Seth," he began producing lacto-fermented vegetables at Hawthorne Valley in 1998.
Seth's Kraut Cellar currently produces the following lacto-fermented vegetables: plain sauerkraut, caraway sauerkraut, curry sauerkraut, jalapeno sauerkraut, ruby sauerkraut, ginger carrots, kim chee, dilly beans, and pickles. Check out the Hawthorne Valley Farm Store or sellers of local food products near you to try it out these treats yourself. Learn more about lacto-fermented vegetables here.
I had the opportunity to get in touch with Seth again, to learn more about the Berkshires krauter.
LF: How did you become interested in sauerkraut and lacto-fermentation?
ST: I became interested in sauerkraut and lacto-fermentation in the fall and winter of 1998 when I was an apprentice at Hawthorne Valley Farm. There were a few pounds of leftover storage cabbage. At the time I had read about different food preservation techniques and they all seemed very fuel intensive. At about the same time I tried raw sauerkraut for the first time and I had a "Eureka" moment. I had to try to make it myself. Fermented vegetables seemed so alive and tasted so good compared to canned or frozen (or even fresh Californian) vegetables. I had grown up in New York eating raw sour pickles without it even registering; all of a sudden it clicked, and I had a goal in mind.
LF: Who do you consider your mentors and biggest influences?
ST: The first time I tried raw sauerkraut was when I met Peter Young. He made sauerkraut at the Hill Farm in Marshfield, Vermont back in the 1990s. In the spring of 1999 I visited his farm, and I was on my way. Louise Frazier is a longtime vegetarian cook, sauerkraut maker, and supporter of Biodynamic Farming, and I was lucky to ask her many many questions when I got started.
LF: What does a typical Sauerkraut Seth day look like? How does it begin, how does it end, and what happens in between?
ST: A typical day for me starts with checking into the Kraut Cellar, and look at that orders that need to go out. Orders often drive how the workday goes, particularly in the late winter and early spring. We try to package a whole barrel of product at a time, and keep a little ahead of our orders. As a USDA certified organic producer, we have quite a bit of record keeping to do. This gives us a very good tracking system, which in the long run is a very good thing.
The most exciting time of the workday is taste testing products which have been fermenting and aging for as little as two weeks to as much as a year. Fresh sauerkraut made in October and sampled in the dead of winter tastes like nothing else. It really hits the spot.
A typical production day (3-4 days a week) in the fall involves prepping hundreds to thousands of pounds of vegetables (with 1 or 2 helpers), shredding these vegetables, and packing them into barrrels with salt and spices. Such production days can take 8 hours. We have made as many as seven 300 pound barrels in an 8 hour shift. That's a lotta cabbage! In the late winter and early spring months we pack sauerkraut 2-3 days a week, depending on orders, so things are not as hectic as in the fall.
The interest in lacto-fermented vegetables has increased over the last ten years. The Weston A Price Foundation seems to have had a lot to do with this resurgence of fermented food in general, as well as raw milk, and grass raised livestock. With this interest in lacto-fermented vegtables I seem to average quite a few phone calls a week. I have advised and consulted other kraut upstarts as well.
A big thanks to Seth for taking the time to conduct this interview.
Next month: An interview with Ellen Spear, President and CEO of Hancock Shaker Village.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Gourmet Magzine focuses on Politics: NY Senator Gillibrand joins Committee on Agriculture
The Senate Committee on Agriculture is responsible for U.S. farm policy as we know it—but Kirsten Gillibrand, the committee’s newest member, may help push it in a better direction.
by Sam Hurst
"Gillibrand comes from a family of hunters. Her mother is an avid gardener. One of the first bills she introduced in the New York House after being elected Representative from the Hudson Valley was a proposal to save small-scale dairies. The state’s dairy industry will remain one of her top priorities in the Senate. But these personal interests hardly command a seat on the Committee. What makes Gillibrand different is that she may see agriculture in a way traditional Farm Bloc politicians scoff at. She now represents not just upstate farmers, but one of the world’s largest, most food-savvy and economically influential urban markets.
http://berkshiregrown.blogspot.com/2009/02/politics-from-gourmet-magazine-nys.html
by Sam Hurst
"Gillibrand comes from a family of hunters. Her mother is an avid gardener. One of the first bills she introduced in the New York House after being elected Representative from the Hudson Valley was a proposal to save small-scale dairies. The state’s dairy industry will remain one of her top priorities in the Senate. But these personal interests hardly command a seat on the Committee. What makes Gillibrand different is that she may see agriculture in a way traditional Farm Bloc politicians scoff at. She now represents not just upstate farmers, but one of the world’s largest, most food-savvy and economically influential urban markets.
"Gillibrand’s staff suggests that she will assert herself in areas such as organic marketing, farmers markets, “buy local” networks, and even state and local efforts to keep small farms and rural landscapes from being subdivided and developed. If Gillibrand turns out to be a bridge between farmers and direct markets, her influence could be far greater than expected from a junior senator representing a state that in the past has barely paid attention to farm policy."
Read the full article in the prior post.http://berkshiregrown.blogspot.com/2009/02/politics-from-gourmet-magazine-nys.html
Politics from Gourmet Magazine: NY's Senator Gillibrand joins Committee on Agriculture
From Gourmet Magazine, by Sam Hurst:
The Senate Committee on Agriculture is responsible for U.S. farm policy as we know it—but Kirsten Gillibrand, the committee’s newest member, may help push it in a better direction.
"Over the years, Iowa has placed 13 different senators on the Committee, and lest anyone forget the importance of agriculture in the hawkeye state, both current senators, Tom Harkin (D) and Charles Grassley (R) sit on the Committee today. The same is true for Nebraska; both Ben Nelson (D) and Mike Johanns (R) have taken seats. Scan a Committee roster and the obvious states jump out—Kansas, Montana, Mississippi, Alabama, Minnesota, Vermont. It is hard for senators from large, urban states to make room for agriculture, though. California has the largest agriculture economy in the country, but neither Barbara Boxer nor Diane Feinstein sit on the “Ag” Committee.
"In the 184-year history of the Committee, New York has seated only three members, and none since Charles Goodell, 38 years ago. The Empire State made its identity clear from the beginning: trade, finance, foreign affairs. It is hard to imagine Charles Schumer (Finance, Banking, Judiciary) or Hillary Clinton (Budget, Armed Services, Environment and Public Works) in the world of agriculture, so it came as a surprise that only days after her selection to replace Hillary Clinton as Senator from New York, Kirsten Gillibrand chose to take a position on the Committee.
"Gillibrand comes from a family of hunters. Her mother is an avid gardener. One of the first bills she introduced in the New York House after being elected Representative from the Hudson Valley was a proposal to save small-scale dairies. The state’s dairy industry will remain one of her top priorities in the Senate. But these personal interests hardly command a seat on the Committee. What makes Gillibrand different is that she may see agriculture in a way traditional Farm Bloc politicians scoff at. She now represents not just upstate farmers, but one of the world’s largest, most food-savvy and economically influential urban markets.
"Gillibrand’s staff suggests that she will assert herself in areas such as organic marketing, farmers markets, “buy local” networks, and even state and local efforts to keep small farms and rural landscapes from being subdivided and developed. If Gillibrand turns out to be a bridge between farmers and direct markets, her influence could be far greater than expected from a junior senator representing a state that in the past has barely paid attention to farm policy."
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Secty of Agriculture Vilsack on local food
Will local foods play a part?
In a perfect world, everything that was sold, everything that was purchased and consumed would be local, so the economy would receive the benefit of that. But sometimes that stresses the capacity: the production capacity or the distribution capacity. Especially since we don't have yet a very sophisticated distribution system for locally grown food. One thing we can do is work on strategies to make that happen. It can be grant programs, loan programs, it can be technical assistance.
Read the complete interview by Jane Black with Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, from the Washington Post in the post below
Tom Vilsack, The New Face Of Agriculture
Wednesday, February 11, 2009; F01 Washington Post
Sustainable-food and farming activists in Washington have long felt they were on the outside looking in. New Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack says he wants to change that. In an interview with staff writer Jane Black, the former Iowa governor, 58, talked about his personal struggles with food and about his vision of how to transform the department -- maybe even rename it -- to serve a broader range of interests. Edited excerpts follow:
Some in the sustainable-food community have worried that you are too closely identified with ethanol and agribusiness. Is that fair?
First, I would ask for the opportunity for people to get to know me and judge me by the actions I take in this office. I'm not sure the full nature of the record was understood.
What don't people know about you that might change their minds?
Food during my early years was a very difficult issue for me. I grew up in an addictive family. My mother had serious problems with alcohol and prescription drugs. I was an overweight kid. I can remember back in those days there weren't the strategies that there are today to deal with those issues. So my parents put this very nasty cartoon of a very overweight young kid with a beanie cap and pasted it on the front of the refrigerator. So every time I opened the refrigerator I had to look at that picture.
Food is a fairly significant aspect of my life. I have struggled mightily with food. With my weight. And I'm conscious of it. So I have a sensitivity to people who struggle with their weight. That's one aspect people don't fully appreciate. I don't want youngsters to go through what I went through.
There are ways we can go do a better job of educating young moms and dads about the vital role they have as the child's first teacher. I think there are ways in which we can partner with local school districts and states to do a better job to provide nutrition options at school. It's our responsibility to get this health-care crisis under control. I think if people understand that history and how serious I am about this and look at the record in Iowa -- the real record in Iowa -- they would be less concerned than they were.
What specific ideas do you have about how to move forward to improve nutrition in school lunches?
Part of my responsibility is to find people who share my concern and have more expertise than I do. People we nominate will be people who understand this issue and have the desire to effect change. The specifics of how we can do this will come from the experts. My job is to listen to the president, who is the ultimate vision maker, articulate his vision to the people who work in this department and add my two cents' worth. The vision is, he wants more nutritious food in schools.
Will local foods play a part?
In a perfect world, everything that was sold, everything that was purchased and consumed would be local, so the economy would receive the benefit of that. But sometimes that stresses the capacity: the production capacity or the distribution capacity. Especially since we don't have yet a very sophisticated distribution system for locally grown food. One thing we can do is work on strategies to make that happen. It can be grant programs, loan programs, it can be technical assistance.
Whom do you see as your constituency?
This is a department that intersects the lives of Americans two to three times a day. Every single American. The department has a global influence in terms of food, in terms of consumers and in terms of some of the moral challenges that a wealthy nation faces in the face of hunger. So I absolutely see the constituency of this department as broader than those who produce our food. It extends to those who consume it.
I know you are aware of the lists of progressive candidates for undersecretary that are circulating. How will you bring new voices into the debate?
As we set up advisory boards and committees, we'll have a better representation of people involved in food and agriculture. I think it's not so much the names on the list as a recognition of the vision: a sufficient, safe, nutritious food supply produced in a sustainable and environmentally supportive way. There's a recognition of the importance of that.
Is it true that you are thinking of changing the name of the department to include a reference to food?
We haven't got to that point. Rather than renaming it, as important as some people may feel that would be, I think [we need] a recognition that this was America's first energy department. If you think of what food is, it's the energy we use to do our daily work. I want people to know about the USDA. This is a very important department. It's not fully appreciated as such.
It's hard to convince people of that sometimes.
You tell them there's a new day here. You tell them every time they pick up a fork, every time they pick up a spoon, every time they slice a piece of bread, remember America's first energy department.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Vilsack: USDA Must Serve Eaters as Well as Farmers
By Jane BlackThursday, February 5, 2009; Page A04
"In an interview this week, he called for a "new day" for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's sprawling bureaucracy, which he believes should champion not only farmers but also everyone who eats.
"This is a department that intersects the lives of Americans two to three times a day. Every single American," he said. "So I absolutely see the constituency of this department as broader than those who produce our food -- it extends to those who consume it."
It is a significant departure from the traditional view of the USDA, which historically has emphasized programs that support commercial farming, such as price guarantees for crops and marketing promotions for exports.
"He's definitely sounding a different note than his predecessors," said Michael Pollan, the reform-minded author of the bestseller "In Defense of Food." "Whether they'll be reflected in policies remains to be seen."
Read more in prior post:
Vilsack: USDA Must Serve Eaters as Well as Farmers
By Jane BlackThursday, February 5, 2009; Page A04
"In an interview this week, he called for a "new day" for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's sprawling bureaucracy, which he believes should champion not only farmers but also everyone who eats.
"This is a department that intersects the lives of Americans two to three times a day. Every single American," he said. "So I absolutely see the constituency of this department as broader than those who produce our food -- it extends to those who consume it."
It is a significant departure from the traditional view of the USDA, which historically has emphasized programs that support commercial farming, such as price guarantees for crops and marketing promotions for exports.
"He's definitely sounding a different note than his predecessors," said Michael Pollan, the reform-minded author of the bestseller "In Defense of Food." "Whether they'll be reflected in policies remains to be seen."
With President Obama at the government's helm, food activists have begun drafting policy wish lists calling for more nutritious food in schools, money for school gardens, and incentives and support for small producers who find it difficult to compete with industrial-size farms.
Vilsack was cautious about outlining detailed proposals; he has yet to appoint a deputy secretary or the heads of key agencies such as the Food and Nutrition Service, which oversees the food stamp program, or the Food Safety and Inspection Service, charged with protecting the meat, poultry and egg supply.
At Obama's bidding, one of Vilsack's first challenges will be to improve child nutrition and food assistance programs, such as the $6 billion Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, which is up for renewal by Congress. Food activists have called for these programs to emphasize fresh fruits and vegetables, locally grown when possible, to improve the diet of low-income families.
Vilsack said he supports such efforts: His first official act was the reinstatement of $3.2 million in grant funding for fruit and vegetable farmers that had been rescinded in the final days of the Bush administration. Though the dollar amount was small, Vilsack said it sent a message of his emphasis on nutritious food.
He added that educating school administrators, parents and children is essential in effecting change. To that end, he said, he supports establishing school and urban community gardens, long at the top of the wish list for activists.
"We want to make a better connection between what kids eat and knowing where it comes from," he said. "I've seen it in my own family. If you educate kids at an early age, you can have a tremendous impact."
Vilsack also said he favors establishing state food policy councils, nonpartisan advisory boards that would represent a diverse array of food interests. He created a state council in 2000 in Iowa, and he said it was instrumental in implementing improvements in nutritional benefits for seniors, expanding farmers' markets and increasing the number of people receiving food stamps.
Read more:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/04/AR2009020403467.html
Sunday, February 1, 2009
An Interview Series
Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, MA (lisa)
As a new installment to Berkshire Grown's blog, I am proud to introduce a monthly interview series with farms and food providers in the Berkshires. Each month will feature a new farm or business person, and I plan to cover a variety of areas in agriculture and farming throughout the year, giving you an insider's view of the people who provide us with local foods.
Next month: An interview with Seth Travins (Sauerkraut Seth) of Hawthorne Valley Farm.
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