Nov. 14. 8AM Flight to England
I’ve checked-in and will soon board my flight to the Midlands Airport. Once back on the ground I’ll make my way to Bakewell, home of Robert Thornhill’s Standhill Farm, a sustainable grass-based dairy farm.
Wish me luck!
Sylvia
Next stop – Bakewell and the Standhill Farm
Day 2 in Ireland – a second day of great travel, friendly people, very poor Internet, and non-existant international phone service (although it had been arranged much in advance)
I lost an hour’s worth of writing earlier today. Let’s try this again.
Dublin
My daughter Maggie and I were wheels down in Ireland 8:30AM Nov. 11 and were treated to a ride to our hotel by two bright musicians, entrepreneurs in the local scene. The ride was unusually long (lots of haulted and rerouted traffic) but conversation was lively, so, no complaints.
We made it to the Grafton Hotel, situated in the heart of a busy downtown shopping district. We spent about an hour checking out small shops and a vertical shopping maul a stone’s throw from the hotel. Any American would be comfortable here.
The narrow, winding streets were crowded. The pace was fast and the look very sharp indeed. Dublin is a big city, make no mistake about it. Black is the color, and tight is the mode. Skinny pants, black hose and leggings paired with leather boots – ankle or knee high – or 3″ heels. Long scarves around necks of both men and women, and light-weight jackets the standard issue.
The population, at least in the city center, is surprisingly young, mid-20s to early-40s.
Our initial needs met, we both crashed for a couple of hours.
After a refreshing shower, we dressed for the evening out. It was a 10-minute walk on rough brick and cobblestones, and across a quaint foot bridge to the Winding Stair restaurant. Mag (who performs as Dessa with the rap crew Doomtree) used smartphone navigation to get us there. Much needed given the twists and turns on streets and alleys that change name every other block.The street fairly throbbed with the energy on the street. Lots of people out on a weekday evening. Felt a bit like NYC, although I felt a bit of New Orleans in the mix – a definite upbeat vibe.
True to it’s name, the Winding Stair features a circuitous staircase from the first to second landing. The spot was suggested by Bill and Sharon Gunter, the conveners of Slow Food Dublin. It proved a good choice – local foods put to their best advantage in creative dishes. I washed mine down with a local hard cider. Yum.
I’ll review lots more of the Slow Food Dublin in an upcoming Deep Roots Radio show. Throughout this trip, I’m hoping to gain some understanding of how different countries feel and demonstrate the good-food-good-agriculture connections.
On to Wexford
This morning, I got to the Dublin Connolly rail station with 30 minutes to spare. Lots of time to grab a yogurt and watch the crowd surging through the turnstyles. Connolly Station is an intersection for commuter trains, rail travelers, bikes and buses.
I love UK rail service: comfortable sitting, picture window views, smooth and quiet travel, and Internet service. (I’m having an awful time with both Internet and International cellular service so far, so I think I’ll bite my tongue on this for the moment.)
The rails from Dublin to Wexford hug Ireland’s eastern shore and so I was treated to spectacular views of waves crashing just yards from the road bed. And when I looked to the west it was to farm fields gradually sloping up to hills dark against a grey sky.
It’s a wet landscape of puddles, creeks, shallow wetlands (I could almost see the trout), and ponds. Wooded hedgrows marked field boundaries, and houses nested into hillsides.
A good trip.
Now, I’m sitting in a small coffee house in windy, raining Wexford. The forecast is more wet with lots of wind. Raincoats are ubiquitous. I picked one a slicker in Dublin.
I expect a call any second. It’ll be from William Considine, organic farmer/owner of the Nicharee farm in Duncormick, about 20 miles from Wexford.
It’s at this farm that my farming research begins. How are organic/sustainable farms in Ireland the same or different from those I’ve come to know in the U.S.? How are they the same?The adventure continues.
Sylvia
Follow our farm visits and chats with SlowFood #GrazingItalyUK
Here it is, November 10, 2015 – travel day to Dublin, Ireland and the start of our UK-Italy grazefest. I’ll be visiting grass-based sustainable farmers in Ireland, England and Scotland, and chatting with SlowFood advocates in the UK and, hopefully, Italy as well. Yes, we’ll be eating our way – grazing – for a couple of weeks. Can’t wait.
Minneapolis to Dublin – the first leg
I love baking bread – French sourdoughs, millet, polenta and sunflower, oatmeal with sesame seeds, pumpkin and poppy seed, you name it. I usually make two to four loaves a week, if not more. I know, it’s a bit of an obsession, but I just can’t keep my nose away from the yeasty dough rising on the kitchen counter. And the aroma of hot, crusty loaves will draw my husband from the furthest corner of the garage.
It’s no surprise then, that partial loaves grow a bit stale, even as new loaves bake. What to do?
Well, I try to stay ahead of cycle by gifting fresh loaves to friends. As some loaves begin to dry, I’ll cut thick slices and soak them in a thin mix of eggs, milk and vanilla. Then into a buttered pan they go for French toast. Yum.
And if I find myself with an extra half loaf, well, that’s when I heat up the oven for bread pudding. Here’s how:
Ingredients:
– 3.5 c bread in 3/4″ cubes. Nearly all breads, except for strong rye, will work.
– 3 eggs
– 2 c whole milk
– 2/3 c sugar
– 2 tsp vanilla vanilla extract
– 1/2 tsp almond extract
– Some gratings of nutmeg
– 2 T cold unsalted butter, diced
– Optional: 1/4 c raw sunflower seeds, or raw pumpkn seeds, or sliced almonds, or a mixture
– Optional: 1/4 c golden raisins, or dried sour cherries, or snipped dried apricots, or a mix
Prep
– Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.
– Butter an 8″x8″ glass or nonstick baking pan
– Have medium-sized saucepan at the ready
– If using dried fruit, microwave with 2T brandy or water 15-20 seconds, then cool 15 minutes.
Directions
1. Spread the bread cubes on a cookie sheet and toast until a lightly browned. This will take 10-15 minutes. Check periodically to make sure they’re not burning.
2. Let the cubes cool, then transfer them to a deep mixing bowl.
3. Scald the milk over medium heat and pour over the cubes. Let this sit for 15 minutes.
4. In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer to combine the eggs and sugar until light. Add the vanilla and almond extracts.
5. Pour the egg-sugar mixture, the fruit and seeds (if using), into the milk-bread mixture. Stir gently and briefly, then pour into your buttered baking dish. Be sure to scrape all that lovely goodness into the bake.
6. Dot the top with the butter.
7. Butter one side of a sheet of aluminum foil to fit over the baking pan.
8. Bake about 40 minutes. The pudding will look a bit undone. Don’t worry – it’s done.
Serve warm or at room temperature. Top it, if you’d like, with whatever you want: ice cream, half-and-half, yogurt, fresh berries.
PS – You know, it’s funny. It was about two years ago that I began searching for a good bread pudding recipe. I went through all my cookbooks, searched magazines online, and googled for more. Turns out I adapted this recipe from Beth Hensperger’s Bread Machine Cookbook. I highly recommend the book to anyone with a bread machine.
What: Deep Roots Radio interview with Master Preserver Perry Rice about the why’s and history of American home canning.
When: Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015, 9:00-9:30AM CT
Where: Broadcast and streamed live at WPCA Radio, 93.1FM and www.wpcaradio.org
Canning in the oven? Burying the jars underground? Perry Rice will share interesting history of canning in America, and provide important guidelines for the home canner today.
I hope you’ll tune in.
Sylvia
Apple sauce and apple butter – edible jewels for the winter.
Deep Roots Radio, 91.3FM and www.wpcaradio.org
What: Deep Roots Radio interview with Nate Watters, co-owner and orchardist at Keepsake Cidery, Dundas, Minnesota, just south of Minneapolis and St. Paul
When: Saturday, Aug. 29, 2015, 9:00-9:30AM Central Time
Where: Broadcast and streamed live from the studios of WPCA Radio, 93.1FM and www.wpcaradio.org
Why: Hard cider is gaining popularity all across the USA. Hear what it takes to build a brand new hard cider operation based on traditional methods.
Hope you’ll join Dave Corbett and me this morning.
Sylvia
Deep Roots Radio, 91.3FM and www.wpcaradio.org
My husband Dave likes to joke that when I was a kid growing up in New York City, I read Little House on the Prairie and decided to become a farmer.
While I love tales about clever people creating new communities (whether in the past or in some distant future), the truth is I knew next to nothing about Laura until I was in my 30’s. I became acquainted with her and Ma and Pa as I read to my children in our South Minneapolis home. I was captivated by the resourcefulness and skills demanded by the times. I was drawn to the self-reliance and community inter-dependence described in those children’s books. (And yes, we made the pilgrimage to her home and bought the stiff-brimmed bonnets.)
Fast forward a whole lotta years and here I am, a baby boomer from the Bronx raising beef cattle on Bull Brook Keep, our northwestern Wisconsin farm. (A far cry from a full career in business suits and awful commuter traffic.) This morning’s chores included moving our beef cattle to new pasture, feeding and watering the chickens, exercising the dogs, and meeting with a customer to deliver cuts of beef equaling 1/4 steer.* And of course, I went through the early emails and reviewed my digital photo files for possible uploads to my website.
Cabbage fermenting to sauerkraut
French sourdough boules
It’s late, and I just pulled a couple of French sourdough loaves from the oven – a weekly demand and a much-anticipated ritual.
It is very, very late and I’m tired. The tomatoes, peppers and onions on the kitchen counter will have to become salsa on another day. I’m ready for this day to be done.
Yes, I’m feeling Laura Ingalls Wilder…like a bad ass Laura with Internet coverage and in-floor heating.
Sylvia
*We offer our 100% grass-fed beef in variety packages (ground beef, roasts and steaks) in a range of sizes starting at just 25-30 lb. Reserving an order is easy online. We deliver to drop sites in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN.
It feels like 150 degrees out there; way too hot for picking beans, weeding beets and thinning carrots. And the thought of putting huge pots of water to boil to blanch greens and can veggies is crazy-making. But that’s what summer’s about, isn’t it – enjoying what you can now of the fruits and veggies from your garden, CSA box or farmers market, and preserving the rest for the much cooler days we know are ahead.
Fermentation is a great way to preserve veggies without heating up the kitchen. For example, yesterday – when it was 84 degrees – I put up kimchi (think of a very spicy Asian version of sauerkraut) and swiss chard stems. It was easy.
What is fermentation, you ask? It’s a method of preserving foods that’s been used for thousands of years by cultures the world over.
In a nutshell, and at its most basic, what you do is submerge your chopped, sliced or whole veggie in salted water (a brine) and then let the action of anaerobic bacteria do their work to “sour” the food. The beneficial micro-organism harnessed for this work is lactobacillus bacteria. That’s why this process is sometimes referred to as lacto-fermentation.
By the way, although the terms sound similar, lacto-fermentation has nothing to do with milk and lacto-intolerance. Instead, lacto refers to the lactic acid produced by the bacteria which acidifies the food, releases additional nutrients from the veggie, and keeps it safe to eat. Think of sauerkraut – fermented cabbage. Fermented foods can be ready to eat in a handful of days or after several weeks, and then stored for months more. Key to this process is constantly keeping the veggies submerged.
Napa cabbage kimchi and swiss chard stems ferment
What: Deep Roots Radio takes a quick look at recent legislative moves to keep us – the food consumers – in the dark. One of these has been popularly dubbed the DARK Act. In Congress it’s known as H.R. 1599. It passed in the US House of Representatives in July. The other is about the June move by the House to repeal COOL – Country-of-origin-labelling.
When: Aug. 8, 2105, 9:00-9:30AM Central
Where: Broadcast and streamed live from the studios of WPCA Radio, 93.1FM, and www.wpcaradio.org
Here are links about the Dark Act:
– About the act – http://www.justlabelit.org/dark-act/
– What corporations lobbied for it – http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/billsum.php?id=hr4432-113
– Who voted for it –https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/114-2015/h462
About COOL
– The basics: http://www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/consumer-questions-answers-country-origin-labeling
– Wall Street Journal article about House vote to repeal COOL, http://www.wsj.com/articles/house-votes-to-remove-country-of-origin-labels-on-meat-sold-in-u-s-1433990294
I hope you’ll listen in.
Sylvia
Deep Roots Radio, 91.3FM and www.wpcaradio.org
It’s that time again – harvest at Bull Brook Keep, home of 100% grass-fed beef.
Ahh, the sizzle of grass-fed beef!