Jerry's Berries Strawberry U-Pick Baltimore Ohio {Farm Tour}

Finding strawberries seems to be an ever-elusive springtime goal of mine. No other fruit causes me to panic when I can't get them because of weather or farm issues or my own busy-ness. Strawberries are typically my first local preserves of the season, the turning point when empty jars become full again. This year was no exception. My favorite farm from last year, Bird's Haven, had no u-pick berries available due to deer pressure while work and family distractions delayed finding a new farm. Our own patch produced well but only enough for a daily handful. I found myself fixated on picking strawberries once again.

Alex, Lil, and I were finally able to find a morning to visit a highly-recommended farm new to us. Jerry's Berries is located south east of Columbus in Baltimore, Ohio, a forty minute drive from our homestead.

What makes Jerry's unique among local farms is the number of varieties. Each are labeled and pickers are encouraged to taste the rows to find their favorite. Our family preferred NorthEaster and Sparkle. Both of these kinds are small but highly flavorful, making them worth the extra time spent picking and processing.

Jerry's will provide a basket or you can bring your own to weigh before picking. Berries are $1.90 per pound. The entire berry patch is contained in a tall deer fence, which conveniently keeps kids close too. Some varieties were picked over but we (two adults and a child more interested in her stuffed cat than filling a basket) were able to gather 15.75 pounds in 90 minutes.

The farm claims to use no pesticides and follow natural practices; indeed their plants appear naturally healthy. Weeds and pollinator insects are abundant but not so much as to be a problem to u-pickers. Jerry shared that they do use chemical fertilizers to replace nutrient loss. He expects the farm to have berries for another couple weeks - the website is updated daily with picking conditions.

Our opinion is that Jerry's Berries is simple and lovely. Rows are mulched generously with straw, making the hunt for small, flavorful berries pleasant. There are no items for sale other than u-pick berries, something I very much appreciate. No mother who just sweated over 10 pounds of sweet, juicy berries should have to negotiate about junk food while settling up with the farmer.

Now that my first fruit of the year are in the pantry, I can release the panicky feeling. Fresh fruit and vegetables are more abundant every day and soon all the empty jars will be filled again.

Jerry's Berries - www.jerrysberries.com

2849 Basil Western Rd. Baltimore Ohio 43105 USA Hours of operation: Monday - Friday, 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm; Saturday, 10:00 am to 8:00 pm; Sundays, 11:00 am to 8:00 pm Phone: 740-862-8819 or 740-862-8481

The Drunken Botanist and Bakeless Sweets {Book Hounds}

Welcome to another episode of the long-lost series, Book Hounds. It's not that we aren't reading, I'm simply not finding time to write about books very often. But two came into my life recently that must be shared.

The Drunken Botanist The Plants That Create The World's Great Drinks

The Drunken Botanist hit me like a cold, strong drink on a long, hot afternoon. It is crisp, refreshing, and a beautiful pairing of two of my favorite things: gardening and cocktails. Part plant-text complete with latin names and growing instructions, part cocktail recipe book, Amy Stewart's latest is a refreshing homage to the many leafy, flowery things that comprise alcohol.

Organized by species, The Drunken Botanist describes basic fermentation ingredients like barley, apple, grapes, and agave and then delves into more obscure flavoring herbs and flowers. In her trademark witty writing style, Stewart tells how each plant grows, a short history of how the plant first became alcohol, and modern uses. Pages are illustrated with Victorian-esque single-color drawings.

Stewart includes cocktail recipes and growing instructions for the most commonly available imbibe-ables. These practical bits of information are written simply for beginning mixologists and gardeners, though if I have one criticism of the book it's that some of the growing instructions are not detailed enough for true success in my experience. More details, including a plant collection available on the West coast where Stewart lives, are on The Drunken Botanist website.

If you enjoy mixed drinks and growing plants, take a sip of The Drunken Botanist.

Bakeless Sweets Pudding, Panna Cotta, Fluffs, Icebox Cakes, and More No-Bake Desserts

Well over a year ago, TheKitchn.com editor Faith Durand and husband Michael joined us for dinner at mutual friends'. They were headed out of town, so Faith brought over a raft of desserts she was testing a cookbook project. The puddings and toppings I tasted then went on to become part of Bakeless Sweets, just released.

Bakeless Sweets is a cookbook of puddings, custards, jellies, and icebox cakes. All are prepared without an oven, from scratch, with simple ingredients and methods. Many are gluten-free; an index in the introduction lists desserts to meet all dietary preferences. Faith calls for serving most recipes at room temperature or chilled, making them great candidates for summer picnics and cookouts.

Bakeless Sweets contains classic recipes and updated versions like Lemon and Sour Cream Custard, Peach Jelly Terrine, and S'mores Pudding Cake. Like a tasty trifle, the book includes many useful side bars, trouble-shooting tips, and overviews among the smooth, well-tested recipes. I'm glad to see that Toasted Coconut Brittle made the cut into the cookbook because the sample I tried was fantastic. I bought rhubarb at the farmers' market yesterday to make Strawberry Rhubarb Fool when our next batch of strawberries are ripe.

Far from the stodgy, box-mix recipes of the 70s, Bakeless Sweets offers a fresh take on spoon-able desserts. Photographs by Stacy Newgent effortlessly illustrate this intersection of vintage inspiration and modern appeal. Two weeks ago, I bought some nesting gelatin molds at an antique store in anticipation of receiving Bakeless Sweets in the mail; when I opened the book it landed on the page pictured above with the same molds!

Faith is sharing photos that didn't make it into the book on the Bakeless Sweets website. She'll sign books and offer a demonstration at the Country Living Fair in early September in Columbus and I'm hopeful she'll have a pudding party in Central Ohio sooner than that as well. In the meantime, I highly recommend finding a copy of Bakeless Sweets to enliven your summer desserts.

Earth Day 2013 {Friday Five}

Hey, hey it's almost Earth Day!

Go green with one of these activities:

1) Stand Together with Earth Day Columbus by volunteering. With a hundred work sites across the city on Saturday and Sunday, there is something for everyone. Then celebrate on Saturday April 27 at Columbus Commons with bands, food trucks, and booths.

2) Learn about newly-formed Columbus Food Not Lawns, mosquito control options, and the new edible roof garden at The Crest, 2855 Indianola, on Sunday April 21 from 10 am - 1 pm. Pick up a packet of free garden seeds while you're there and be sure to put June 2 on your calendar for a seed swapping and saving event by Columbus Food Not Lawns.

3) Head over to the Edible Gardening Campus at Franklin Park Conservatory Monday for a free family Earth Day Celebration with demos, garden tours, and food trucks. The folks from Sprout it, an interesting new gardening app, will be there with giveaways too.

4) Participate in the Whetstone Rec Center educational garden. Volunteers are needed to install the garden at 10 am Tuesday April 23 with Growing Matters or register for one of two garden clubs who will maintain the garden.

5) Plant something, eat a locally-sourced meal, spend a day without fossil fuel transportation, or make an energy-saving home improvement. We strive to do these things every day but especially on Earth Day.

Weekend With Guests From Japan

Once again we opened our home to guests from Japan this week. Long-time readers may recall when we hosted Kayoko and Anna in summers past through the Ohio 4-H Program. Hosting international guests has so many benefits that of course we said yes when asked by daughters of our friend Naoko if they could stay with us for a few days.

I was pregnant with Lil when we hosted Naoko in 2005. She mothered me through a hot summer, creating a special bond between us. We met her daughters Maiko and Yuiko on our trip to Japan in 2007 and welcomed the chance to house them for a few nights this weekend during their short spring break vacation to Ohio.

Maiko and Yuiko arrived on Thursday evening after a lengthy wait on stand-by in the Chicago airport. On Friday, we drove North out of Columbus to see Amish and visit with the animals at Six Buckets Farm. We came home for dinner with friends which featured venison sausage and pie that Maiko helped cook.

On Saturday, the girls shopped the Worthington Farmers' Market and Mall. We visited my father-in-law's studio and City Folk's Farm Shop before Maiko and Yuiko made us ramen for dinner.

We saw Maiko and Yuiko off to another friends' home on Sunday. Their visit was short and we couldn't show them everything we wanted to, but that's OK. We're building a relationship sure to last a lifetime with more visits over the years.

It's that time of year when Ohio 4-H is looking for host families again for July 24-August 19, 2013. You don't need to be a 4-Her or have any special plans this summer - the children coming here want to see real life in a family with a 10-15 year old host sibling. If that's you, please read the Ohio 4-H International Program website to fill out an application or contact me for more information.

Growing Matters and Blueberry Basics from OEFFA 2013

Yesterday I wrote about my introduction to Restoration Agriculture at the 2013 Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association conference. Below are summaries of two other valuable sessions at the same conference. What the OEFFA conference offers beyond these planned sessions are real conversations with wise, experienced farmers and enthusiastic innovative personalities. I am still basking in the joy of talking with:

• Dale, the pasture-raised organic meat grower at Morning Sun Farm,
• Bear and Drew from Slow Food Columbus,
• Tricia, publisher of Edible Columbus,
• Dawn of Mockingbird Meadows,
• Warren and Joy of Snowville Creamery,
• and an overflowing crowd of attendees to my own talk about cultured foods.

The confidence of a community that believes in and works for a local sustainable food system is one that buoys me throughout the year.

Growing Matters

by Local Matters employees Trish Clark and Jesse Hickman

In creating the Growing Matters program, director Trish Clark searched for what is missing in Columbus and how can Local Matters could help. She created programs to support yard garden programs encouraging people to grow their own food as close to kitchen as possible.

In this session, Trish and Jesse showed a beautiful short video about Local Matters and then offered participants a chance to learn from each other. The large group brainstormed garden challenges and then broke into smaller 5-8 person groups to come up with solutions.

Successes: Use sheet mulching for weed suppression and water retention (use what you have for mulch) Plant buckwheat as a cover crop Crop rotation helps with almost every challenge Solicit volunteers or students to help as labor in exchange for educational experience Plant squash after June 15 to avoid beetles Plant enough for wildlife Plan ahead for food prep Collection Edible magazines for seasonal recipes Grow the basics Learn how to can/freeze/preserve through word of mouth, family history Consider raised beds for drainage, weed suppression, seating Plant varieties that are reliable regardless of conditions Consider keeping dogs to protect crops from rabbits, other small predators

Blueberry Basics

by farmers at Greenfield Berry Farm

Greenfield is a berry farm within Cuyahoga National Park. The farmers shared these tips for growing blueberries in a community setting. The farm is open for pick-your-own adventures and educational tours seasonally.

Get Soil Right First - test for pH - add sulpher to adjust pH around April 1st - plant holes with 50% peat moss - avoid standing water by making raised beds or installing drainage tile - choose full sun locations

Plant Well - 3-4 foot spacing with 10-12 feet between rows - plant in mounds level or slightly above ground - ensure no roots are exposed - water thoroughly

Choose Cultivars Wisely - bigger, sweeter berries tend to come from early season varieties - smaller, tart varieties later in season - Stokes in Michigan and Blueberry Patch in Mansfield are good sources

Address Pests - insects like datana caterpillars, tent worms, Japanese beetles, blueberry maggot, and ants all may attack parts of plants; treat with soapy water spray and/on manual removal - birds love berries; exclude with dense netting like Army surplus mosquito netting, sound devices, and attract predatory birds like kestrals

Watch for Disease - fungal root rot can occur if plants are not properly drained; can try moving to higher location - plants suffering from too-high pH will show yellowed leaves with dark veins; add sulpher

Fertilize - replenish 3-4-3 organic option, cottonseed meal, bloodmeal (apply lightly to avoid burning) - apply at bud break (approximately April 1) and again 4 weeks later after first year of planting - spread along drip line of the plant

Weeds - use weed wacker in between plants but avoid hitting trunk or you may girdle plant - vinegar (12% acidity) may be successful organic herbicide applied around drip line

Drought - berries will shrivel without enough water - irrigate with drip tape or water frequently - mulch with 4-6 inches of pine needles, sawdust, or wood chips; one year aged compost is best because it doesn't pull nitrogen from soil

Pruning - conduct pruning in late winter after weather has warmed above freezing (March) - aim to promote straight growth with room for air and light - lop off thick dead wood at base - cut off dead or diseased branches to nearest bilateral - remove overlapping branches - burn removed branches to prevent re-contamination

Thus ends my OEFFA 2013 brain dump. I hope my attempt to share what I learned was successful.

Five Reasons to Join a CSA & Four Recommendations {Friday Five}

I appear to be cursed by evil computer spirits - my brand new laptop, to replace a laptop that died in November, stopped functioning this week. I was prepared to write about our first venison, food not lawns, and winter chickens this week. Instead, because I am sharing time on the family computer, you get a (relatively) quick and dirty post. Be back soon...I hope?

The CSA (Community Support Agriculture) model is one that most people shopping the farmers' are familiar with: for an annual price paid to the farmer, you pick up a weekly share of the harvest. Though it may seem early to think about summer tomatoes, farmers are pouring over seed catalogs and CSAs are already filling.

Five Reasons to Join a CSA

1) CSA shares include the cream of the crop. Farmers truly want to satisfy their customers and usually choose the best produce for their loyal CSA customers. You'll get the freshest picked, highest quality selection every week.

2) No worries about selling out or cash. Thanks to growing demand for local foods, many farmers sell out of their most popular items. A CSA guarantees you the primo vegetables without concern about the timing of pickup or having enough cash to make your purchases. Sleep in - your CSA share will be available.

3) Healthier eating. It's harder to throw away a vegetable that's languished when you've seen the farmers' well-worn hands and noticed their sleepy eyes. You feel obliged to eat or preserve the food more than when you buy anonymously-raised produce at the grocery. Usually, this results in incorporating more vegetables into your diet, which is always beneficial.

4) The varied selection is a culinary challenge. Because CSA farmers know they must have something to share every week, they plant a wide variety of crops. If there wasn't enough rain in a given week for fat peas, the share will include daikon radishes. For a curious eater or experienced cook, this mystery bag of ingredients is a way to expand your cooking methods and palate, all while appreciating the challenges nature throws at farmers. There are no meal planning ruts for CSA shareholders because every week contains a new variety of vegetables.

5) A CSA purchase provides valuable stability to an otherwise manic business. The farmers I know are truly working for a love of earth and good food, not a love of money. The cost of land, equipment, labor, soil, and seeds is barely enough to allow for a modest income, and what does come in is usually highly seasonal. Operating a CSA allows farmers to earn income when they most need it in the beginning of the season for start-up costs and provides a guarantee that some or most of their produce will go to willing customers.

Central Ohio 2013 CSA Recommendations

Sippel Family Farm - I bought produce from Ben and Lisa all summer last year and their food is top notch. All grown on their farm, the vegetables and fruit (apples!) are produced without synthetic chemicals through smart seed selection, crop rotation, use of compost, and meticulous labor. They offer a full share for $680 (can be split into five payments) and pickup locations in Clintonville, Worthington, Westerville or the farm. You can see a bit of the farm in my Kokoborrego Cheese Tour.

 Bird's Haven Farms - Located in Granville, Ohio, Bird's Haven is run by a family of well-educated young farmers backed by the experience of their parents. Bryn and Lee, brother and sister, grow everything they sell (ask farmers about this - some supplement with auction produce) using sustainable practices like high tunnels, hand-weeding, compost, and physical weed suppression. Their CSA offers a stunning array of options from a small 11-week share of produce for $208.55 to a 'little bit more' full 21-week share for $550.96 with coffee, bread, eggs, cheese, meat, and grains optional add-on from other local businesses. Pickups are available in Granville, Bexley, Westerville, New Albany, or The Limited offices. Last year I picked the best strawberries of the season at Bird's Haven and am still hoarding their berries I froze.

Sunny Meadows Flower Farm - In a twist of the CSA concept, Sunny Meadows offers a frequent buyer card. For $120, you get 11 $12 bouquets good at any market. This flexible system offers the same stability to growers Gretel and Steve but with more wiggle room for those who don't want to commit to a weekly pickup. Their beautiful, heirloom-variety flowers are grown sustainably in south central Ohio. They're offering a gift bag of Gretel's soap and herbal tea to those who purchase before markets open in April!

Swainway Urban Farm - This list would be incomplete without the farm I work with. We offer organic mushrooms and microgreens year-round with select field vegetables grown in Clintonville. Our winter CSA is already in full swing and not accepting new subscribers. We are working on a summer offering that will appeal to those who like to sleep in on Saturday mornings, as our mushrooms usually sell out within the first two hours. Here's my Swainway tour from 2011.

Have I convinced you to shop around for CSAs? Or are you already a subscriber?

Swiss With No Holes - How Cheese is Made At Pearl Valley {Factory Tour}

Do you love knowing what goes on behind the scenes? I do. Factory tours and 'How It's Made' type shows bring out the geek in me, especially when they relate to food. Naturally, I was eager to take the tour of Pearl Valley Cheese Company during my recent Ohio Dairy Adventure. I wanted to see how a 'big' cheese maker compared to the much smaller Laurel Valley, Kokoborrego, and Great Hill creameries I visited in the past.

Chuck Ellis, a fourth generation cheese maker, shared about his creamery. In 1928, Swiss immigrant Ernest Stalder blew a whistle daily to let local cow farmers know that he was beginning to make cheese and needed their milk. He produced one 200 pound wheel of Swiss cheese each day and returned the whey to the farmers to feed animals.

Pearl Valley Cheese Company grew over the years and now makes 25,000 pounds of cheese in eleven varieties daily. The company buys milk from eighty farms. Ten pounds of milk is required to make one pound of cheese which means Pearl Valley processes about a million pounds of milk every four days!

Milk arrives by truck and is tested for pathogens and antibiotics before filling large silos. A glycol cooling solution circulates the tank so the milk stays cool. From the silos, milk travels to a pasteurizer which heats the products to 168 degrees F for 16 seconds before being rapidly cooled and separated. The seperator allows cheese makers to regulate the fat in the cheese.

Next, milk for each batch of cheese is pumped into a computer-controlled vat. Temperature, time, stirring speeds and amount of rennet and culture are all monitored and recorded by the computer. Colby-type cheese spend approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes in the cooking vat; Swiss-type cheeses take three hours.

Whey is seperated from the curds in cloth-lined tubs. They are pressed and allowed to sit overnight. Then, the blocks are placed in a salt brine and stay there to absorb the salt for a few hours to overnight, depending on the type of cheese.

The blocks are packaged and cooled for one week. Finally, they head to the room temperature aging room for approximately a month. There, the holes in the Swiss cheese develop as bacterial cultures transform the flavor of the cheese and off-gas bubbles of carbon dioxide which form the 'eyes' of the cheese. Swiss cheese is graded by the size of the eyes, with Grade A having eyes of one quarter to three quarters of an inch. When the cheese is deemed finished, it is packaged and stored at refrigerator temperatures.

Chuck remarked that "Swiss is tough to make." There are only 42 creameries making Swiss in the country; nine are in Ohio.

Sustainable Cheese-making

Pearl Valley Cheese Company operates with an eye (Swiss cheese joke!) towards reducing their environmental impact. In the process of treating their waste water, they generate biogas that is used to heat boilers in the factory. They reduce waste (and generate income) by selling all by-products including whey which is made into whey protein concentrate and lactose for energy production. Solid by-products are used as fertilizer on cow-feed fields.

At the same time, Pearl Valley uses electronic tracking to label and monitor all batches of all cheeses so they can be traced back to each milk load. If there were ever a quality or health issue, they could pinpoint the error.

Tasting Pearl Valley Cheese

Look for Pearl Valley's new red, white, and blue label featuring Swiss mountains to buy their cheese from a local grocer. It is not particularly easy to find in Central Ohio, as 50% of the Pearl Valley cheese is privately labeled. Fortunately, you can purchase online or visit their factory in Fresno, Ohio, an hour and a half from Columbus. I recommend the Aged Swiss for those who like bold flavors and the Colby for those who are more inclined toward mild cheeses.

Pearl Valley Cheese Company 54775 Township Road 90 Fresno, OH 43824 (740) 545-6002

Disclosure: The American Dairy Association Mideast provided lodging, meals, and tour arrangements for the Ohio Dairy Tour.

Ohio National Poultry Show 2012

You may not be able to see, but Lil is bouncing up and down in this picture. The reason? The Ohio National Poultry Show.

The show runs this Saturday and Sunday at the Ohio State Fairgrounds in Columbus. Judges will award ribbons and trophies for perfectly conforming birds in all categories for both adults and youth on Saturday.

The rows of cages contain feather-headed chickens, fancy ducks, Buckeye chickens*, poultry for sale (expensive, show-quality birds), and dinosaurs. 

Really, who can deny that this chicken looks like a dinosaur?!

Amid cockrel cries and duck calls, a limited number of vendors offer books, equipment and information. Owners are more than willing to share about their animals. Several breed groups also have tables with information about their varieties.

Backyard chicken keepers, those curious about poultry, and photographers will enjoy the Poultry Show.

The Ohio National Poultry Show - website and show schedule (beware the colorful text, unaligned pictures, and lack of organization) Saturday November 10, 2012 & Sunday November 11, 2012 George Voinovich Livestock Building on Ohio Fairgrounds (near 11th and I-71, enter from 17th) $5 admission

*Slow Food Columbus and the fine chef at Knead are offering a 'beak to tail' harvest dinner featuring the Buckeye chicken breed on Monday. Buy tickets ASAP as they are very limited.