Spring salad

At the start of pantry season I use stored foods, preserves, frozen pork, pasta. Root cellar foods, apples and potatoes and carrots, go into soups and stews. Kale comes out of the garden to be braised or chopped into a salad.

Throughout pantry season my commitment to food wanes. I work full time, and I do more than just work and cook; I write, I sing in a choir, I have family and friends. At times my job crushes me and I stagger out of the business day with no energy or enthusiasm for cooking. There were a lot of pizzas in the darker months this year.

Winter means socializing, going to parties, visiting friends. Lovely well-meaning people say “I’ll bring the salad” and proudly plop down bags of chopped greens trucked in from California. They expect salad to include tomatoes, avocados, pecans, no matter where they are grown, even when there is snow on the ground. Actually, those people are the health-food nuts. Others bring tubs of potato salad laced with high fructose corn syrup, or boxes of fried chicken, or donuts slathered in syrup.

Grace Pundyk traveled the world to study the global honey trade and write The Honey Spinners. She ate salami in Italy and ham in a tiny village in China. She toured Turkey, New Zealand, Yemen, sampling honey everywhere. Then she came to America.

“I’d been looking forward to tasting some of America’s super-sized fresh produce so prevalent in supermarkets the world over. I generally avoid anything that syas ‘Produce of the USA”, preferring to eat locally grown and in-season produce. But here I was on US soil. Now was my chance. Yet when I walked into the hotel’s breakfast bar I was shocked to find an array of plastic-wrapped, pre-packaged, processed, artificial, reconstituted food.”

Pundyk drove across the southern states, eating at roadside restaurants in highway towns. “At first, I despair at not finding honey at any of the diners I call into. Then, as each of my stops exposes a dearth of fresh food, I decide honey is the least of my worries. What about fresh milk for my coffee? Or how about butter? Maybe a salad with something more than lettuce?”

She expected poor food in poor countries – not in the country that dominates agricultural policy around the world. “I’ve never come across so many over-crowded fast food restaurants, or seen people eating so much fried and artificial food, and I’ve yet to eat anything that tastes, well, the way food should. Fresh. Alive.”

The first few meals of market season this year reminded me what food tastes like. I baked one of Karen Olsen’s chickens sprinkled with Andrea Wigglesworth’s herbs, paired with some of Cliff Wind’s potatoes and Glenn Huff’s lettuce. It was simple and it was amazing. The tastes were rich and fresh, and felt healthy, life-giving.

There are very few people in my life who recognize that what we call food in America isn’t. Food, I mean. Our pride in cooking centers on choice of brands, or exotic tastes, or how we combine what we buy. Almost everyone I know shops in supermarkets nearly daily. I once insulted a chef by telling him that I have to spend fifty dollars in a restaurant to buy a meal of the quality I turn out from my kitchen because of the fresh quality of the food. He countered that the techniques chefs use elevate their ingredients.

In a country which could boast thousands of richly diverse local cuisines, vast tracts of fertile American soil are turned over to the production of monoculture genetically engineered crops. In 2003 the California Department of Food and Agriculture issued A Food Foresight Analysis of Agricultural Biotechnology: A Report to the Legislature. This quote has been widely referenced: “In the United States, approximately 70 percent of processed foods in grocery stores contain bioengineered ingredients, making them ubiquitous in the food supply here.” Seventy percent.

Championing local food is a David and Goliath venture to be sure – a handful of local farmers, chefs, and home cooks versus the massed power of the corporate-governmental behemoth. Sometimes it’s just too hard. I cave and get the pizza. My friends and family will not bat an eye. Is it really that important?

Meals like that fresh local chicken remind me that dinner is worth fighting for. Real food fuels real health. If you give up on food, what else are you giving up on? How much of your life is left?

I was on my way to a beekeeper’s house off Kitsap Way on Saturday when I saw a truck that said “Artisan bread”. I veered over to the shoulder quickly thinking I need a bumper sticker that says I break for local food. The truck turned out to be Loaf and Round, peddling home-made bread by the roadside. One of the customers already at the window urged me to try the pink grapefruit bread, one of Martin Becar’s many experiments. It was light and delicious. Martin was happy to talk to me about the ingredients in the bread, which are pretty much the ingredients I put in my bread, except his is much better. I took home two rounds of bread and a printed sheet listing their sale locations and dates. You can find them Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays on Mickelberry Road (just past Kitsap Way) and at Austin Drive, and on Saturdays in Port Orchard, too. Best bet is to check out their web site for the most up to date info.

Loaf and Round

Mayor Patty Lent and Bremerton Farmers Market board open the market!

I’m co-lead of the Master Gardener clinic at the market. Kirsten and I opened the season and shivered together under our new canopy. It’s wonderful to have our own space. And the market manager sets it up for us, a real luxury!

Here we are with our new canopy! Come ask the gardeners questions all summer long!

This is one of two farmers markets in the county that meets on green grass instead of concrete. It makes a wonderful afternoon outing for kids, dogs, and shoppers. I’m back to doing my grocery shopping at the farmers market! You can buy lettuce and other greens, new onions and garlic scapes, eggs, beef and lamb from two vendors, bread, crumpets, jam, cupcakes and ice cream. Whew!

The several Kitsap farmers markets are moving in the direction of a year-round presence. We have our first year-round market in the Silverdale Mall. When the Bremerton Sunday Market kicks off in June we will have a farmers market somewhere in the county almost every day of the week. (Note: Monday is still open!) We’re very lucky to live in such a diverse community which supports small farm agriculture. Let’s support our local farmers and cooks and keep them operating!

It’s package day! Last year we hived our first two packages of bees. After catching and buying several swarms, we went into winter with five hives. Three hives made it back out into spring. Of those, two have had dysentery. One case was mild and seems to be over, but our littlest hive, a feral swarm thrown last August, has had a pretty bad case. The book remedy is Fumidil, but our natural beekeeper mentors recommended just nursing the hive to health with Honey B Healthy, a mixture of lecithin and essential oils, and pollen patties – the bee equivalent of tea and toast. The worst seems to be over. I am so fond of that hive, I sure hope it pulls through!

We’ve acquired another piece of equipment, this one a form of Langstroth called a western, smaller than the regular sized hives. The frames are foundationless so it’s also a natural beekeeping box. Actually it completes the set, we have Kenyan top bar, Warre, and now foundationless Langstroth in our apiary.

This morning I’m off to help the club demonstrate how to get package bees into the hive. It takes all day to hand out hundreds of packages as you might imagine. Demonstrations will happen on the hour 10 to 2. Come on down to Stedmans if you want to see one of the amazing sites in beekeeping!

Ariadne Apiary, April 2012

Well, we finally lost two hives. We had five. We started last April with two packages of Italians. They swarmed three times, two of the swarms lived, so we ended up with four Italian colonies in Kenyan top bar hives. In August we picked up a swarm of feral bees and housed them in a Warre hive.

We had all five hives up to that last cold snap, which took out the two smallest in the top bar hives. They had stores, so it looks like simple decline in numbers did them in. Sad, sad beekeepers. On the other hand…Ted is able to alter the top bar hives and add screened bottom boards. Also, they don’t need the honey any more, so…we have honey! It is pretty amazing how much honey comes out of a couple of bars. We were impressed. Ted is getting good at crush and strain. Our long suffering neighbors got the second jar, Ted’s mom got the third. We don’t have enough to sell, we’re distributing to the people we promised would get some if we ever got some.

The hives have been flying on every warm day for at least a month. At bee club one night we sat around and meditatively listed the pollen sources we saw coming in our hives. Indian plum (oenotheria)…crocus…dandelion…

I’m just getting one package of bees this spring, Carniolans this time. I plan to house them in foundationless Langstroth. So I’ll have three of the four kinds of bees possible in these parts – I’m not ready for fierce Russians yet – and I will have all three of the foundationless/natural types of hives.

I’m coordinating a class at Poulsbo Farmers Market later this spring. The club will also be at a bunch of fairs, notably the county fair. I’ll keep the calendar updated.

Beek! Ted in the apiary, March 2012.

Building Bridges panel

Retailer: Tony D’Onofrio is the sustainbility manager for Town and Country Markets, which runs the Central Market branches in Poulsbo and Bainbridge. Town and Country finds that local and organic produce comprises half of their produce sales. They generally source from larger farms which can provide large amounts of products for a couple of weeks.

Farmer: Paul Gregory of Gregory Farm has a two-acre farm, a typical size for a Kitap County farm. Gregory sells produce through farmers markets, CSA customers, and local restaurants.

Distributor: Dale King and his family run Wildly Organic, reaching a market beyond the farmers markets. Customers order online and receive deliveries at home. The distributor offers certified organic produce and has a local only pak (sourced from Nash’s in Sequim).

Co-Op: Brendon O’Shea buys produce for the Port Townsend Co-Op, which currently has a 5500 member population. Local growers are their priority – last year they spent over a quarter of a million dollars on local produce.

Restauranteur: Monica Dowden of Monica’s Waterfront Bakery and Cafe in Silverdale sources all ingredients as locally as possible.

The panel members traded notes to build up a picture of how food growers and artisans can find markets for their products.

Tips for connecting with food buyers:

• Get to the actual buyer – a store produce manager is not making the buying decisions, just designating quantities.
• Make an appointment to start the dialogue, use email but also follow up with a phone call, and persist in the effort to make a connection as buyers are often very busy.
• For the first meeting: bring business cards, an introductory letter spotlighting what is special about your product, and a list of prices and quantities. Also bring a sample!
• Realize that a buyer-producer connection is a relationship that will take time to develop.
• When the relationship is established, take it to the next level. For example, talk to your buyer when looking at seed catalogs and bring the buyer into the seasonal planning process.
• Consider shoulder products, produce not flooding the market in the height of the season.

Sarah Wilcox at WSU Small Farms Expo

Sarah Garitone Wilcox grew up on a Kitsap Farm and now helps to run the Wilcox farm operation in Pierce County. She’s also the program manager for Cascade Harvest Coalition.

The Coalition publishes the Puget Sound Fresh pamphlet. They also work with Sustainable Connections and Seattle Chefs Collaborative to run Farm to Table events connecting speciality farmers with local chefs buyers with farmers. In 2010-2011 time period, funded by a WSDA grant, the events brought together more than 1000 producers and buyers, including 150 specialty crop producers.

Wilcox shared several methods to connect producers with buyers. Food Hub offers an entry-level free ad for producers and provides a search engine for buyers, including home cooks, to locate products. The coalition polled producers and buyers and compiled a list of tips:

Connection Tips

• Offer a quality product
• Communicate! Email, flyer
• Don’t overcommit
• Have samples – producers, try samples – buyers
• Tell your story
• Use fresh sheets – lists of what’s available
• Stay flexible!

The big message today is that home buyers are asking for fresh, real food. Local producers are advised to avoid the unregulated term “natural” as it is now used to advertise conventional products to the home market. Instead, tell your story! Practice a 15 second pitch that gets across what you are doing. Emphasize history, what’s special? founder, varietal, process, place, original storefront?

This year Cascade Harvest is sponsoring a Farm to Table event in Kitsap County, Monday April 23 at the Norm Dicks Center. Information to come at the web site, Cascade Harvest.

What is a P-Patch?

Blueberry Park P-Patch

A p-patch (or pea patch) rents garden plots to members of the general public. You pay a fee for the year and then plant your veggies, flowers, herbs, whatever you like to grow. If you live in an apartment or other space with limited or no garden space, a community garden plot provides a generous space to have your very own garden.

Blueberry Park P-Patch Garden Plots, Bremerton

The City of Bremerton provides 32 publicly available spaces at Blueberry Park. This Pea Patch is administered by the Master Gardener program and a crew of dedicated and hard-working master gardeners. There are still a few plots available here for 2011. Water is provided by the city. This is an excellent flat and sunny space. Gardeners grow peas on trellises, potatoes in tires, and many kinds of vegetables. The Master Gardener demonstration garden includes accessible gardening beds, winter garden examples, and herbs. There are classes and activities throughout the summer.

City of Bremerton Pea Patch Site
Blueberry Park Pea Patch Facebook page

Raab Park P-Patch, Poulsbo

Raab Park P-Patch

The fifty-plot community pea patch here adjoins the Youth Garden managed by the Master Gardener program. The Youth Garden has a lot of wonderful demonstrations, including several hoop houses, compost bins, bird and bee houses.

From the Facebook page: “Returning gardeners have until February 29, 2012 to reclaim and pay for one (1) P-Patch plot. New gardeners will be put on a waiting list until March 1. For information, or to get on a list, please call Poulsbo Parks and Recreation at 360-779-9898.”

Raab Park P Patch Facebook page

All these farmers markets are members of the Washington State Farmers Market Association.