Category: Writing

Writing about writing, autobiography, cross posting selected work from other places.

Toward a Local Food System

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date July 10, 2013

LAKE MACBRIDE— Writing about gardening, farm work, fermentation, soup-making, canning and cooking is personally satisfying, but what is the connection to our broader society? Why does one person’s journey in life with friends and family matter in the broader scope of things? With a global population of more than 7 billion, and expected to hit more than 9 billion by mid-century, life on earth is changing in ways that test the limits of our ability to comprehend. Will the lives of individuals matter as Earth reaches its tipping point, pushing the envelope of its geophysical limits?

American society, founded in part on the cultural resonance of eighteenth century agrarian individualism, promotes the moral worth of an individual. Independence, self-reliance, freedom and the ability to work toward self-realization are core values of our society. The idea that we can own a plot of land, grow some of our own food and prepare it in ways steeped in process, learning and tradition, yet how we want, is as American as the apple crisp I make from my apple trees. What is often forgotten is that individual lives occur in the context of a society that was founded during the Age of Enlightenment, and that society is coming apart at the seams.

If romantic concern for the good old days is what drives people to work toward a local food system, the idea is bound to be abandoned. In Iowa, we created the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. The center has conducted hundreds of grant studies and reported on them with an eye toward sustainable agricultural practices. The Leopold Center is key to understanding our food system and providing reasons and process to create and strengthen community-based food systems. It is uncertain their work will take, despite the fact that locally grown food produced with sustainable practices is highly cost competitive with the products of the industrial food supply chain.

What makes a local food system possible is not the development of practices and high level theory, but the support behavior change receives in society. Behavior that congealed during the post World War II economic boom that included development of our industrial food supply chain. With population growth, society requires an organized mechanism to produce, preserve and distribute food to a growing population. In that sense, the industrial food supply chain is as necessary to a local food system as are the practices developed by the Leopold Center. To choose between them is a false choice.

Based on my experience with local farmers who use sustainable practices, there is tremendous capacity for improvements in efficiency, fuel use, water management, labor practices and mechanization that are untapped because of capital constraints. What the local food system may need most is an infusion of capital to create business incubation centers, sustainable water management systems, efficient farm to market systems, and most importantly, a sustainable source of labor that pays a living wage. The industrial food supply chain, because of its strong capitalization, has essentially blocked out competition from sustainable local growers who struggle to pay bills each month.

The question comes down to what individuals do in society with others, and there is no template for it. Stories about dealing with excess zucchini, kohlrabi and leafy green vegetables serve as examples of how to live with the challenges of a local food system. My garden won’t grow everything we need to provide all of our own food, so we leverage outside entities. Whether it is electricity to run the stove, cheese and milk from dairies, veggie burgers from Morningstar Farms®, or cooking oil from California, Italy and Iowa, how and why we leverage these entities and others matters a lot to a local food system.

That’s why I write about local food systems, as an example in which I hope others find value. If we’re lucky, and with collective action, tenuous local food systems will be strengthened as we work toward sustainability in a turbulent world.

Tags local food, Sustainability

Writing

Guest Editor

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date July 6, 2013

LAKE MACBRIDE— Trish Nelson, editor of Blog for Iowa, will be taking a summer break and I’ll be pinch hitting as weekday editor from July 15 until Sept. 2. I’m looking forward to regular posting on the Online Information Resource for Iowa’s Progressive Community.

The blog originated in the wake of the Howard Dean for President campaign when John Kerry won the Iowa Caucuses in 2004 and Dean dropped out of the race. Dr. Alta Price, a pathologist from Davenport, helped lead Democracy for Iowa, and decided to publish Blog for Iowa, a role she continues to play today. The first post is here, although what may be most relevant from it today is this statement, “we also seek to make Democracy for Iowa a place where all progressives and moderates are welcome, whether they consider themselves Democrats or not.” More than 5,000 posts later, Blog for Iowa continues to present a progressive viewpoint and maintain a friendly relationship with Democracy for America, the organizational successor to Dean for America.

When I write original content for Blog for Iowa, it will be cross posted on this site a day later. Among the topics will be the challenges of temporary workers in Iowa; implications for Iowa of the immigration legislation working through the U.S. Congress; Iowa’s role in mitigating and adapting to climate change (not the same thing); and occasional posts on energy policy, local food system issues, and peace and justice activities in the state.

I hope you’ll check in at Blog for Iowa from time to time, and continue to read my original content on On Our Own. It should make a great end to an already fine summer of 2013.

Tags Blog for Iowa, Writing

Writing

It’s Zucchini Time

LAKE MACBRIDE— It’s the time of year for zucchini, and they are coming in with bounty. What to do with them? Over the years, I have tried a lot of techniques, and here are some do’s and don’ts.

Don’t dehydrate them unless seeking to occupy space in the cupboard. I dehydrated zucchini as recently as last year, and either forgot they were there when making soup, or they weren’t the right ingredient. If one chooses to dehydrate zucchini, a little goes a long way. Try making a quart Mason jar of quarter inch dehydrated rounds or half moons first. That has been more than enough to last the year.

Do use zucchini fresh in recipes, of course. When you or neighboring gardeners or farmers have a load of extra zucchini for cheap, get what you may need for the year, and using a box grater, grate them into one cup servings and freeze them in a freezer-style, zip-top bag. I started with six cups, and will see how long it lasts.

Do try new recipes. Today, for lunch I made fried zucchini (see photo) coated with corn meal. There are dozens of combinations of shapes and coatings, and they can be baked or fried. Once you get past inertia to trying out an idea, working with zucchini can be fun.

Realizing there is a seasonality to vegetables, and using them when they are in season is an idea at the heart of the local food movement. Zucchini is just one tasty example.

Tags local food

Writing

Turnip Harvest

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date June 27, 2013

LAKE MACBRIDE— Today was the turnip harvest, and the crop was the best ever: plenty to use this season, and more to give away. There were so many greens that once I reserved a couple of gallons for soup stock, the rest went into the compost. It is turnip city over here.

We have a tradition to make soup stock in our household when the turnips are in. A large pot is coming to a boil on the stove. It includes, broccoli stalks, carrots, onions, celery, zucchini, yellow squash, bay leaves and importantly, the turnip greens which color the stock deep brown and add a delicious flavor. No salt is added until the stock is used in the final application. After cooking for a few hours, the stock will be turned off, to sit on the stove overnight, and canned in Mason jars tomorrow. In the past, I’ve used the cooked vegetables from stock making as a base for barbeque sauce, but I have several jars leftover from the last batch.

With all of the large roots, we’ll have roasted root vegetables with turnips, potatoes and onions. If we had similarly size beets, those would be added. The recipe is easy— cut everything in half, approximately the same size. Coat with olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, and place open side down on a cookie sheet. Roast at 350 degrees for one hour or until done. It is a highlight of the season.

According to a CSA farmer, July 25 is the date to plant the second crop of turnips, and I’m about ready. One more row this year should be sufficient, and if I can find beet seeds, I’ll plant those as well. The question is how to arrange the spring vegetable patch for optimal July planting. A topic for another day as I bask in a successful harvest of a traditional vegetable in our family.

Tags cooking, homelife, Kitchen Garden, local food

Writing

Consuming Local Food

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date June 18, 2013

LAKE MACBRIDE— White butterflies have arrived to lay eggs in the cruciferous vegetable patch as spring enters its final days. Part of gardening is the notion that there is a world of deer, rabbits and rodents; caterpillars, beetles and aphids; microbes and bacteria; all ready to compete with us for food during the cycle that defines each year’s garden production.

A home cook who gardens is more acutely aware of this as a deer munches the top leaves of a pepper or green bean plant; as caterpillars make a home among broccoli and cabbage; or as potatoes considered from planting in early spring through growth and flowering are touched by Colorado potato beetles and the tuberous roots are eaten by rodents before we can dig them for the table. Application of chemicals is not an option in our garden, so more vulnerable crops like sweet corn and potatoes are leveraged from other growers, the bugs get picked off by hand, and complex webs of chicken wire and netting work to deter wildlife from access to garden plants— at least until after harvest time.

Gardening is a constant symbiosis that sustains a diverse and complex community of species in the context of an ever changing planet hurling itself into space. To say the future sustainability of local food systems rests in what home cooks do in their kitchens is putting a lot of pressure on a process that is far more complicated. Home kitchens are a part of the process, and human centered.

When considering a bigger picture, the assertion that home kitchens require a revolution to sustain local food is more a statement about marketing than anything else. What matters to sustainability of local food systems is how they fit into a broader context of a supply chain that includes grocery stores, pantries, gardens, farmers markets, CSAs, community food banks, government programs, neighbors and friends, and other sources of foodstuffs.

That said, farmers markets like the June 15 market in Cedar Rapids seem critical to sustaining a local food system. It is the behavior of a consumer society that attracts as many as 20,000 people to a Saturday market, and without consumers, there is no market for local produce.

One hopes that the cravings for sugar, salt and fat inculcated in us by industrial food processors get replaced with something better. However, changing how people behave regarding production and consumption of food is like piloting a large battleship in that changing course takes more than a few driving personalities asserting this or that needs to happen. Having a local food Saturday (or any day) in a home kitchen can work to correct a course currently fraught with obesity, chronic disease and ill health.

My recent local food Saturday is past and I look forward to the next. But before leaving it, there are some points to be made about what it was and could be for others. By bearing witness to the efficacy of local food Saturday, perhaps readers will consider likewise. Like Scheherazade, I hope to keep you interested.

Tags local food, Sustainability

Writing

Local Food Saturday

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date June 15, 2013

CEDAR RAPIDS— If local food will gain market share from the industrial food supply chain, there must first be a fulcrum. A home kitchen may be that fulcrum— a place where our consumer society can pivot toward growing, buying and preparing more locally grown food.

The trouble is people spend so little time in the kitchen, and when they do, the industrial food processors have done a lot of the cooking for us. Whether it be a frozen pizza, bagged lettuce, peeled fresh garlic imported from China, green peppers and watermelons from Florida, strawberries from California, yogurt, breakfast cereal, canned soup, salted snacks, and increasingly, prepackaged, calorie-counted microwavable meals. The folks at the industrial food supply chain want us to cook less as it’s more for them.

In a previous post, I argued that a revolution should take place in home kitchens and that the relationship between home cooks and local food is essential to sustaining a local food system. That revolution may be as simple as going to the local farmers market on Saturday to buy what we don’t have in our gardens or pantry, then spending a part of an afternoon preparing and cooking a few meals for the week. It sounds too easy.

I have been demonstrating food preparation and cooking for our daughter a long time, beginning at home. When she moved to Colorado after college, I would visit and cook a meal in her kitchen using what she had on hand. One time someone had given her a large box of Colorado peaches in season and I made a peach crisp for dessert. The only baking dish she had was a glass pie plate, and we had no recipe, but it was one of the memorable dishes there. On another trip she was preparing to move and I spent a day while she was at work cooking everything I could find and filling every container in the kitchen with leftovers. By the time I was done there were more than two dozen prepared meals ready for her to microwave or heat up.

Imagine my parental delight when she sent me this mobile phone photo of produce she bought at a farmers market. She is learning how to cook, and not every meal is drive through or a restaurant chain, something the parent of a millennial fears is only supplemented with sugary drinks and expensive coffees.

My point is few people are as busy as a millennial. If there is a process, like having a local food Saturday, an increased portion of local food can be added to our diet. After my work at the newspaper this morning, I took the idea for a test drive to Cedar Rapids and visited their periodic market which includes locally grown food and a host of arts, crafts, music and other products of home industry. During the next posts, I intend to write about my experience and how having a local food Saturday would work.

I believe local food Saturday can fit into the busiest of schedules and be cost effective. This addresses two of the most often heard objections people name when asked to consume more local food, “I don’t have time” and “local food is too expensive.” There may be a better way in local food Saturdays.

Tags cooking, lettuce, local food, spring, Sustainability

Writing

Firefighter Breakfast

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date May 26, 2013

SOLON— The umbrella snapped open as I exited the car on Main Street, heading toward the fire station and the 50th Annual Firefighter Breakfast. It was a steady rain and the breakfast traffic was light at 6:30 a.m. Despite the fact that eggs, sausage, ham, pancakes and beverages are not my usual breakfast fare, I like attending, being part of the community we have come to call home.

Firefighters tend to be on the bossy side. Given their work, they have to be. For example, I declined a raffle ticket and instead suggested a donation, laying some money on the table. The attendant responded, “here, take a ticket and fill it out inside.” How could I refuse? The hard sell is on the fried eggs, prepared in a pool of enigmatic oil. The cook asked three times if I didn’t want a fried egg with my scrambled. Resisting was hard, but I remained a firm no thank you. Coffee was served in a commemorative ceramic mug which diners could take home if they wished. Mine is in the dishwasher now.

During election years, the breakfast is awash with politicians. Since this is an off year, the only elected official (besides myself) was one of the town council members who was serving pancakes. There was a local businessman making the rounds, talking to people he knew. Otherwise folks were focused on the food and polite conversation. The tables began to fill up by the time I left.

As one of the Big Grove Township Trustees, I am responsible to help manage the fire station budget along with other townships served by the department. The fire station seems to get most of what the captain says they need. Our board only meets when we have to, which is mainly to approve the budget for the fire station and cemeteries, and to attend the quarterly fire station meetings with all of the townships.

Today’s fundraiser is like mad money for the department, which means buying equipment they could use, but for which they don’t have a budget. There are likely enough tax revenues to get the firefighters everything they need without the fundraiser, but the annual breakfast has become a popular community event.

Today’s rain is a hopeful sign that last year’s drought has finished. The annual firefighters breakfast is the unofficial kickoff of summer, and a fun event. It is worth stopping by on a rainy day.

Tags Local Events, local food, restaurants, Township Trustee

Writing

Transplant Promotion

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date May 15, 2013

RURAL CEDAR TOWNSHIP— A group of us transplanted eggplant seedlings from a sprouting tray into individual soil blocks. The work brought new learning about how to do this important work. Naturally, my native practices left something to be desired.

The key is to make sure the tap root of the plant, identifiable because it is very long, gets completely covered with soil. The other thing is to plant the seedlings with the first leaves as close to the top of the soil as possible. Previously, I left some of the stem exposed, thus making survival riskier. It goes without saying, and is likely part of genetic breeding, to pick the biggest seedlings for transplant. The new work was considered a promotion, although there was little rank among today’s group of workers.

After finishing transplanting some workers headed to the field to pick asparagus and I tagged along to see how they did it. Another learning process, and bonus dividend of this year’s work at the CSA.

The talk of the day included my onion patch, spring garlic, and questions about seedlings, basil, parsley, and the time to plant tomatoes. The farm began planting tomato seedlings yesterday, and based on our discussion, I am going to hold mine, at least until this weekend. They are about the point of being root bound in their cells, but I want to make sure we are past the frost.

Our household received a bulk mail post card from a competing business— someone who is taking market share from small CSAs like ours. We discussed it as a competitive reality to be dealt with.

There is not enough discussion of the impact of capitalization on local food, and I generated an idea for a future post. Between giant growers like Earthbound Farms Organic, and our CSA there is a middle range of farm operations that are well capitalized, and impact how local food is perceived. They trade on leveraging other growers, the previous marketing of local food, and consumers who have heard little about the local food movement. Watch for that one.

On the home front, the apple blossoms are falling like drops of silk, with or without a breeze, indicating the bees are doing their work. The lilac bushes are in full bloom, generating an aromatic that prompted memories of many happy spring days spent in Big Grove.

Tags farming, local food, worklife

Writing

Working People Dream of Local Food

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date May 9, 2013

Tulips on the Fenceline — Tulips on the Fence Line

LAKE MACBRIDE— Preoccupation with mixed greens can be a good thing when working in a warehouse. The repetitive tasks, and long periods without human engagement create an open mind that will fill with worry if one lets it. Yesterday I got two bags of mixed greens from the CSA, and spent the second shift thinking about making a frittata made from local ingredients.

A couple of notes:

There is an abundance of Iowa artisan cheese. The trouble is the expense is more than a working person can afford on a daily basis. After trying many kinds of cheese, we settled on Cabot Extra Sharp Cheddar (yellow and white) which retails at less than $4.50 per pound. Not really local, but affordable, made with vegetable rennet and what one expects a sharp cheddar cheese to taste like.

Vidalia onions are in season, and were addressed here.

Mixed Greens Frittata

Making frittata is somewhat flexible. Part of my workingman’s dream of local food included the ingredients in our pantry: the mixed greens mentioned, half a Vidalia onion, sharp cheddar cheese, a Jalapeno pepper from last year’s garden and Farmer Kate’s bell pepper – both from the freezer, chopped stems of local Bok Choy, spring garlic and chives picked this morning in my garden, and four eggs – locally, but mass produced. Enough extra virgin olive oil to coat the frying pan.

One can see from the photo how the vegetables were prepared. The stems of the greens were cut into small bits and reserved. The remaining mixed greens were roughly chopped. Here is how:

Heat a non-stick frying pan on high heat. Coat the bottom with extra virgin olive oil and when the oil heats, add diced onions. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook the onions for a couple of minutes and add in the following order: bell and Jalapeno peppers, Bok Choy stems, chopped mixed greens stems, and spring garlic. Cook until the onions are translucent. Add the chopped greens and stir constantly until the leaves wilt. Don’t overly cook the greens.

Whisk four whole eggs in a bowl, and pour over the cooked vegetables to cover. Turn the heat to medium low and cover the frying pan with a lid. Cook about six minutes, or until the eggs are cooked through. Sprinkle a half cup of grated cheddar cheese on top, turn off the heat and cover with the lid. When the cheese is melted, transfer to a serving plate and garnish with fresh chives.

Serve with a slice of your favorite bread, a piece of fruit, and a cup of coffee for a working person’s breakfast.

Tags local food, recipes

Writing

Preparing Bok Choy in a Home Kitchen

Post author By Paul Deaton
Post date May 2, 2013

LAKE MACBRIDE— Yesterday, I brought home a bag of Bok Choy from the farm. It is fresh, in season, grown locally, and the makings of a dish to be served as part of a meal.

I asked a long time chef and caterer how he would prepare Bok Choy. He said he would steam it, and serve with seafood or pork. Seafood and pork don’t work well in the Midwestern semi-vegetarian kitchen, so I pursued another option, which was to use it in a stir fried vegetable dish. The meal idea was to use the stir fry mixture as the serving base for a home made veggie burger. A quick lunch for a working man.

A couple of notes.

If there is hope for a local food movement, it lies inside thousands of home kitchens, where cooks prepare meals for themselves and their families. A home cook’s kitchen has ingredients from all over, providing an individual and local context for ingredients. For example, there are Vidalia onions in my kitchen today. They were grown in Georgia, so not local, but in season.

In the freezer is a large zip top bag of sliced bell peppers. I bought a large quantity of seconds from a local grower last year, cut away the bad parts, and sliced them into long thin pieces. I froze them on a cookie sheet and bagged them to use later for stir fry.

Preparing Bok Choy Stir Fry

Depending upon how the Bok Choy comes (mine were still attached to the stalk of a plant), separate and pick through the leaves and wash them in a bowl of ice cold water. Drain, and if you have one, dry in a salad spinner. Otherwise, towel dry. Cut the thick part of the stem below the leaf and reserve. The stems are good to eat, and take a little longer to cook than the leaves.

Dice one half a large Vidalia onion, medium dice. Prepare the equivalent of one half of a bell pepper in long strips (or use bagged, frozen ones prepared as above). Here we go:

Heat a wok or large skillet over high heat. When the pan is hot, coat the bottom with extra virgin olive oil. Add the diced onion, stirring constantly. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Add the bell pepper and Bok Choy stems and stir constantly. When the vegetables are tender, add the leaves and stir constantly until they are wilted. Serve on a plate or bowl, with your favorite veggie burger and condiment on top.

Tags local food, recipes