Ohio Issue 2: Let's NOT Establish a Livestock Care Board

The voters of the state of Ohio will consider Ohio Issue Two, an agricultural constitutional amendment, this November 3, 2009.  The full text of the amendment is available from the Ohio Secretary of State's office.  I encourage you to read it if you are an Ohio voter.  The ballot language is shortened and less detailed. Several readers and friends have asked my opinion on the issue.  I addressed it with some of the small farmers I know, but none wanted to share their opinion on the record.

I never intended Hounds in the Kitchen to address political issues but I think Issue 2 relates to the purpose of the blog and people have asked, so here is my opinion:

I do not support Issue Two and I will vote against it.

Livestock standards already exist and there are government agencies having jurisdiction over livestock production and food safety.  Many groups already promote local food.  Creating another government body causes redundancy in an area that doesn't warrant redundancy.

The proposed Board is comprised almost entirely of political appointees.  This concerns me because whereas current farming standards are subject to public opinion gathering from the state Department of Agriculture, the questionably motivated appointees would have full jurisdiction without public comment.  Furthermore, regulation changes from Board turnover after every four year election could be difficult for farmers to follow.

Issue Two was drafted and quickly pushed through the Ohio house and senate by agricultural interest groups in reaction to animal rights issues passed recently in several other US states.  The animal rights issues passed in other states required minimal animal rights including space for chickens to turn around and cows to lay down.  I support these minimal animal rights, and if the Issue was drawn in opposition to animal rights issues like these,  I must assume the proposed Board may discourage proactive animal rights.

This issue was presented by corporate agricultural interests and the vote yes campaign is supported by Big Ag money.  The Board would be tasked with 'protect(ing) Ohio farms and families'.  If the issue was raised by Big Ag companies, I am thinking the new structure would protect Big Ohio farms, possibly at the expense of the smaller family farms I support.

Finally, Issue 2 is a constitutional amendment establishing a new constitutional article.  I do not believe state constitutions should include such mundane considerations.  Issue 2, at minimum, is a misuse of the constitution.

I encourage you to make your own informed decision.  Below is a list of resources for voting in Ohio and opinions on both sides of the issue.

Voter Information from the Secretary of State

Columbus Dispatch Overview of the Issue

Ohio ACT Vote No website

Vote Yes website

Humane Society of the US Vote NO page

Ohio League of Women Voters Opposes Issue Two

Eating Locally is Eating Seasonally

When one begins to make the commitment to buy food locally, many elements of  eating begin to shift.  Meals tend to  be planned after a trip to the market instead of before.  Creativity increases when one is given seven zucchini in a weekly CSA and must figure a way to use them before they spoil.  The first peas of spring, the last ripe tomato of summer, and the first beets of fall are all savored.

These changes happen because eating locally is eating seasonally.  Local small farms can only grow what uses the light and temperature conditions of the season.  CSAs, farmers markets, and gardens feature the ripe produce of that very day, not the same selection of produce picked weeks earlier you will find in the grocery.

There are ingredients not available locally during certain seasons, so one comes to appreciate what is available.  Corn and peaches, for instance, are only fresh and local here in Ohio during a few short weeks of the summer.  Lettuce is hard to find or bitter during the same time.  Carrots, raspberries, potatoes, beans; everything has its peak time for optimum flavor.

Even eggs, milk, and meat are seasonal when raised with traditional methods.  Summer eggs are large and deep yellow yolked versus paler winter eggs.  Milk tastes like fresh grass in the spring and turns more earthy in the fall.  Geese and turkeys naturally mature from spring eggs just in time for winter holidays.

There is a very real connection between traditional foods prepared during each season and local food production.  New lettuce arrives in the markets and in our backyard garden after the long winter just in time for spring holidays celebrating rebirth.  Sweet corn and tomato salad belong to the summer, just as roasted root vegetables, cooked greens, and squash give us their best taste in the autumn.  Even the way we cook changes: summer vegetables call out to be grilled while fall fruits begged to be baked.

Each season's produce can be preserved.  This is the best way to enjoy flavors year round, in my opinion.  Fruits can be frozen, jammed, or sauced, herbs dried or made into pesto, tomatoes dried or sauced.  Home canned treats taste like slices of spring and summer in the dead of winter.

Learning and enjoying what's in season  is a meaningful connection with nature and your food.  Try eating locally and you will find new appreciation for the cycles of winter, spring, summer, and fall.

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Don't forget that it  is Local Matters Local Foods week.  There are lots of events coming up to educate and inspire you to eat locally in Columbus!

Also, Thursday marks the start of my Kids Cook series of classes.  Bring your favorite 3 - 5 year old to Sprout Soup from 11:15 - 12 this Thursday for a fun class about herbs!

Seasons Turning Weekend

This weekend was a blur of summer fading to fall.  I put three garden beds to rest, including harvesting peppers and green tomatoes, pulling out honeysuckle and ivy creeping around the fence, and adding to our massive compost heap.

In discussion last night we decided to take advantage of low mortgage interest rates at our favorite credit union.  We hope to sell our Honda Fit and buy a mid 90s Civic or similar, using the car payment difference to refinance the house into a 15 year mortgage. That's not really pertinent, is it?

This morning Alex was planning to start on making molds for the kitchen concrete counter tops.  In reading about how to do so and the necessary steps after, he came across an article about using furniture grade plywood for counter tops.  We have had wood counter tops before and loved them.  In a fit of inspiration ten months in the making, we changed direction and are now going to install cherry veneer counters, and soon!

In the middle of thinking about the counter tops, I received a text from Trish at Local Matters.  She invited us to the lovely community garden at the ECLC school.  Really an integrated playground and garden, we loved walking the spiral paths and raised mound, playing with the climbing toys and monkey sculptures (above), and drinking the apple cider.  This event was a truly good time and a harbinger of offerings to come for Local Matters Local Foods Week.

While at the garden tour, we met a Farmer Paul and his chicken.  We have considered raising backyard chickens for eggs for quite some time.  When he mentioned he was selling several four month old hens, our ears perked.  Maybe now is finally the time for us to get into raising urban livestock.  We're researching coops and will certainly update progress here.

When we returned home, we planted three varieties of garlic.  Getting my hands in the soil after a weekend of big decisions always makes me feel grounded again.

We ended the weekend with a hearty dinner with family: roast pork and potatoes, risotto cakes with tomato sauce, portabella with goat cheese, green salad, bread, butter, and gourmet salts.  Autumn is beginning to settle in around here.

Make it Yourself: Applesauce

Apples are my favorite fruit.  They keep well, are crunchy and sweet, travel easily, and are completely delicious. Being that we live in the land of Johnny Appleseed, Ohio apples are in abundance from June - October.  We pick bushels (literally) and eat apples fresh, dried, and sauced.

Applesauce is easy and tasty to make yourself.  There are several methods, all involving these four simple steps:

1) Core and peel (optional) apples.  Add spices or lemon juice (to preserve color) if you wish.

2) Stew on stove top with a bit of water for 30 minutes or oven at 200 degrees for 2 hours

3) Puree with blender, potato masher, or food mill

4) Store in freezer containers or can in glass jars (20 minutes canning time for quarts, 15 for pints, fill to 1/4 inch)

Personally, we make two varieties each year.  Method A (my sisters' favorite) is to peel and core the apples, chop finely, and stew on the stove.  This makes an evenly textured sauce called 'chunky applesauce' in my family.  The other, easier variety is 'smooth applesauce' made by coring and slicing in one step with an apple slicer, stewing on the stove, then processing with a food mill.  I prefer stove top stewing vs. oven baking because it is faster and the less cooking for the apples, the less nutritional value lost.

We just made smooth applesauce with the Liberty apples from Charlie's farm.  The peels, even though we discarded them after milling, made the applesauce bright pink!  It was so tasty we needed no sweetener.  If I can bring myself to share my stash, I might give some of the Liberty pink sauce as Xmas gifts.  Can't you just see a jar topped with a pretty pink and green holiday fabric? :)

What is Local?

Part of the purpose of Hounds in the Kitchen is to advocate for local foods and local eating.  'Local' is subjective and prone to green-washing as are so many other terms.  With the advent of Local Foods Week coming soon (see below), now is a good time to talk about what is local.

Some define local in terms of miles: In 2005, authors Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon spent a year eating only what was available growing in a hundred mile area surrounding their home.  They chronicled their journey in the bestselling book Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet, a highly recommended read.  They maintain an informative website, 100milediet.org.

The challenge of a 100 mile diet is that many foodstuffs a kitchen relies on are not available year round within 100 miles of every location.  Smith and MacKinnon made many a winter meal of the same few ingredients.  While they did have access to a wide variety of foods in the US northwest, there are many locations where a 100 mile diet might be so limited as to not give enough variety to maintain optimum health.

Some define local in terms of their city, state, or country.  Wanting to challenge ourselves to drink locally, we started the year 2008 with a resolution to only drink spirits, wine, and beer produced in the United States.  We chronicled our progress at All American Alcohol (an old blog, posts now transferred here) but abandoned the cause in the spring when we drilled down into the local foods issue.  We realized that California wine travels more miles to get to us in Ohio than French wine.  Same with the one brand of American made agave spirit produced in California vs. Mexican tequila.  We still often choose drinks that do not travel far, but we are no longer limited by geographical boundaries.

Here's our current version of local:  Eat foods that come from as close as possible.  Make purchases directly from the grower as often as you can to ensure the freshest quality and direct economic impact.

On many days this summer we were able to eat dishes where we grew nearly every ingredient organically in our own backyard.  That's local!

We visited pick your own farms to pick large quantities of local in season favorites and preserved them for the winter.  PickYourOwn.org is a fantastic resource of places to pick and methods of preservation.

But as autumn comes (first frost warning tonight!), our yard will provide less bounty.  We will use our summer preserves and continue to put up fall favorites for enjoyment far into the winter.  We will shop the farmers markets to buy direct from Ohio growers as much as is possible.  We will continue to purchase eggs and milk directly from a farmer friend.  We choose organic produce in the supermarket when Ohio produce is unavailable. LocalHarvest.org is a good source of farmers growing unique commodities across the US and I plan to buy some non-Ohio produce in bulk (like cranberries) from Local Harvest growers this year.

There are several ingredients that we knowingly consume from thousands of miles away.  Coffee and bananas, for instance, come from oceans away and are sometimes farmed with environmentally and ethically degrading means.  We choose fairly traded, organic versions of these long traveling ingredients and savor them.

When making the decision about what to buy from where, we choose local + organic first, local but not organic next, and organic fair trade but not local third, and if not other choice exists, not local or organic.  As much as possible, we apply the same standards to processed food.

During the summer, we eat about 70% local (by ingredients used).  That percent declines in the winter or when we are busy.

It took years of changing eating and shopping habits to acheive our current level of local food eating.  I plan to write several posts in the future about small steps you can take to change your habits if you are so inclined to eat more locally.  I hope you do because local food is often more delicious, healthy, and supportive of the local economy.

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A few Columbus local food advocates met last week to talk about Local Foods Week.   'What is local' was one of our points of discussion.  Lisa the Restaurant Widow has already written a post with the same title.  Others may also write their interpretations of local soon and I will link them up here.

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Local Matters, a central Ohio organization advocating for urban agriculture, local foods in schools, and access to local farm foods, is celebrating local foods with a week of activities for Local Matters Local Foods Week coming up October 3 - 9.

They have an impressive lineup of events, starting with the Market to Market bike ride Saturday the 3rd and concluding with a Finale at the Dublin Whole Foods Market on the 9th.  In between you will find benefit dinners, kitchen tours, a school garden tour, and a wine tasting.

Part of the motivation for Local Foods week is to build Local Matter's donation program.  They are selling $1 paper Local Matter's sprouts at a variety of locations.  If you join their 1000 Friends of Local Matters ($10/month or $120/year) during Local Foods Week, you can receive a special punch card for free Jeni's Ice Cream.

No matter where you are in your journey to eat more locally, education and support is key.  Participate in some of the events during Local Matters Local Foods week and you will enjoy the company of other local food lovers.  Subsrcibe to the Hounds in the Kitchen feed for year round encouragement to eat locally.

Picking Apples at Windy Hill Farm

I love apples and I love autumn, so it follows that I love spending a day apple picking.

For three years now we have been loyal patrons of Windy Hill Apple Farm, home to Charlie's Apples.  It is an organic farm with a selection of specially chosen disease resistant trees located north of Johnstown, Ohio.

The farm name was fitting as today's weather included high wind warnings.  We picked Liberty apples, some of the best apples for cooking.  They were a little picked over so filling our 1/2 bushel bag took about an hour.

I prefer Windy Hill Apple Farm for so many reasons:

*Charlie himself.  He is an intelligent former-engineer.  He is soft spoken but wise about apple growing and happy to share his knowledge.

*The organic farming methods means I do not worry about pesticide/herbicide exposure when Lil bites into an apple fresh off the tree.

*The lack of chemicals means the farm is teaming with wildlife.  We saw three birds' nests, a wide variety of insects, and evidence of deer.

*The apple products available on farm include hard cider, cider syrup, and cider vinegar.  All are hand made by Charlie and his family, delicious, and include no icky ingredients.  There are no candy sticks or fall decorations to inspire the 'I wants' from my daughter, only wholesome local apple goodies.

I tried some of this year's hard cider (made from last year's apples) and it is the best yet.  Blended from two apple varieties, the naturally fermented hard cider is richly flavored and a true heirloom product.  The Johnny Appleseed stories don't mention it often, but Johnny was really planting for hard cider, not fresh fruit.

*The farm is small and off the beaten path.  Today we were the only people picking.  Other times there have been one or two families, but never enough to feel crowded.  The bags are self serve and you pay on the honor system.

*Charlie's motivations are to understand and educate others about sustainable growing and carry on the long standing traditions of apple farming.  Production and profit seem to come second to these lofty goals.

If you go:

Pick what's in season.  Charlie's flagship variety, Gold Rush, will not mature until late October.  I plan to make a return trip then.

Call ahead. Some varieties sell out and it is best to call ahead so you know what is available.

Make a pit stop in Johnstown.  The farm doesn't have a public restroom, although Charlie has allowed us to use the bathroom in his home on site in emergencies.

Bring cash or check for payment.  Apples cost $8/peck, $14/half bushel (Amazingly, this is cheaper than the non organic pick your own at other local farms!!)

Stay tuned for some suggestions about what to make with all your apples!

2Silos Meat CSA Discount - act now!

Last year we were members of the 2Silos winter meat CSA. It was a great experience. Alex and Lil enjoyed local eggs, chicken, beef, lamb, and more all winter long. Alex wrote a review of his experience in mid winter. Owner Denise Beno is trying out a new method for CSA signup called the Point. Because this is her first experience with this online program, she is offering a $99 discount on the regularly priced $499 winter meat CSA price if 25 shares are purchased through the Point program. That's a 20% discount, folks!

All you need to do is visit her blog and click on the signup link. 2Silos is only offering this CSA discount until October 1, so act now!

---- Sorry the blog is still looking a bit wonky. I am working on updating the photos and colors. I just wanted you to have this 2Silos information now so you don't miss the discount deadline if you do want to sign up.

I am fascinated...

...with these over ripe exploding Italian plums.

Most fruits mold or shrink or bruise or brown.  The plums from our Wayward Seed Fruit CSA just burble juice from their tops like slow grenades.

...and this delicate squash tendril.

When I trained the squash away from the lettuce the other day, this coil of tendril clung to the bird netting.

How curiously beautiful life is when we take a moment to look closely.