yearofplenty

Field Trip Report - Thomas Hammer Coffee

I made a field trip yesterday to Thomas Hammer Coffee Roasters in downtown Spokane. Dave Rier is the roastmaster and was kind enough to invite me out for a tour. Dave and I connected around the idea of selling their jute coffee bags at the farmers' market to raise money for Coffee Kids charity to help families of coffee growers. We'll be selling them at the Millwood Farmers' Market starting this Wednesday for $2. Many of them are real works of art so I'm excited to see what creative uses people find for them.

First of all, let me say that they have one of the coolest office spaces I've ever seen. Their roasting equipment and office space are sort of mixed together in an open warehouse with a funky and stylish urban vibe. I highly recommend stopping by.

Our initial goal for the year was to drink coffee beans grown in Thailand, but Dave, who knows the coffee biz, explained that Thailand only produces about 1% of the world's supply of Arabica coffee beans. They produce alot of Robusta beans, which are more prolific producers than Arabica, but are generally lower in quality. Think Folgers. We found a supply of Thai beans from the hill tribes near Chiang Mai, but we've yet to figure out a way to import them without paying more for the money transfer and shipping than the cost of the coffee itself. The samples Dave gave us are from Doi Chaang coffee. We brewed it this morning and it's great.

With the complications around the supply of Thai Coffee, we've resorted to buying beans from local roasters which include Thomas Hammer, Craven's, Doma, H&H, & Anvil. Thomas Hammer beans are my favorite so far of the local roasts. Thanks Dave, for roasting some good coffee, and showing me around the place.

Are there any other notable local roasters? 

A New Find - Charley's Farm for Organic Garlic

I came across a new farm we'll have to put on our field trip list to get some funky varieties of locally grown garlic. Charley's Farm is located near Cheney where they grow 30 different heirloom varieties of organic Garlic. Here's the scoop from their web site on ordering the garlic;

Half of our yearly crop becomes next year's seed and the garlic we use in our kitchen.  The other half we make available to you in late Aug. or Sept.  We will take orders at any time for the upcoming harvest.  And we often sell out of the most popular varieties before it is possible to ship. This garlic can be used for growing or eating.  We sell to our customers on a first served basis.  Please call( or email us if you would like more information.

We're finding that Garlic is one of the easiest things to grow. You plant the cloves in the fall and they do the rest of the work. A trick that I'm trying for the first time this year is taking the largest cloves from the previous year's crop and planting those as the seed for the following year. Apparently, the larger the cloves you plant the larger heads of garlic you get. You do have to be careful of passing disease on from one season to the next. We have found the hard neck varieties to be more flavorful, and at least the one's we have are better keepers than the soft neck variety we had last year. You also might want to try the Inchelium Red softneck variety that originated in the Colville Indian Reservation in Inchelium, WA. It is available at Charley's and Northwest Seed and Pet.

I think everyone should have a little patch of garlic growing somewhere around their residence. Charley's would be a good place to get your seed cloves for planting in the Fall.

"Bottles" Specialty Beverage Store Opens Its Doors in Millwood

The same folks that brought Spokane the Rocket Bakery and the Rocket Market have just opened their doors to a new specialty beverage grocery store called Bottles. It's got a great selection of wines and beers, many of them from local sources. They've got a good selection of beer from the Iron Horse Brewery in Ellensburg that I'm looking forward to trying. The other local beers I've come across so far are Laughing Dog, available at Yokes, URM, & Bottles, and Coeur d'Alene Brewing Company, available at Costco. Northern Lights is also a local one I haven't tried yet.

UPDATE: Forgot to mention that Bottles is located right next to the original Rocket Bakery on Argonne Rd. in Millwood.

Local Food Movement in the News

The Spokeman Review continues to do a great job of covering the local food movement with a nice article today about Jennifer Hall and the scheduled opening in October of the Main Market food Co-op;

Slated to open this fall at 17 W. Main Ave., the 7,100-square-foot space with the orange and lime-green storefront will include: a grocery and deli; a dining area consisting of a long "community table"; a commercial kitchen to showcase the various ways to cook and prepare local products; an area where people can order custom meats from local ranches; and freezer lockers for rent so people who don't have storage space in their condos or apartments can still buy local meat in bulk or freeze fruit they pick while in season.

If you don't have a subscription to the Spokesman Review, get one today.

Master Food Preserver Class Week 2

We met last Friday for our second week of learning the art and science of food preservation. So far, the emphasis has been on the science and safety of preserving food, which by the definition of the class includes refrigerating, freezing, canning, drying, and anything else we do to extend the useful life of our foods. It's a lot of information to take in but here are some of the things that grabbed my attention:

1. All molds are not harmless. There is some evidence, that some molds may raise the risk of liver cancer because of toxins they produce. Hard cheeses are OK, just cut off the mold 1/2 - 1 inch below the mold. But in general, toss out moldy foods.

2. Blanching foods breaks destroys enzymes that effect the taste, texture, and color of foods. That's why you blanch before you freeze.

3. It's the oils in food that can cause them to go rancid. That's why they have to add preservatives to whole wheat flours, but not to white flours, that have all the oils from the wheat berry removed. They recommend storing whole wheat flower in the fridge or freezer to keep it from going bad.

4. We learned a little about insects in food. One keeper bit of information is to freeze your flour for one week before storing it on the shelf. This will kill off any little bug larva in the flour. They didn't say if it also makes them tasty when you eat them later.

5. The key temperature numbers for preservation are below 40 degrees on the cold side and above 140 on the hot side. You might want to check your fridge to make sure it's below 40 degrees.

Bike to Work Week

I'm trying to ride my bike to work every day this week in honor of Bike to Work Week. So far one leg of the Monday round trip under my belt. Go here for the Spokane scoop on Bike to Work Week.

Update: Here's the official site for spokane with the complete lowdown, http://www.biketoworkspokane.org/. Thanks for the tip John.

Our Little Truck Farm

Now that gardening season is in full swing it's hard to find the time to blog about what's been going on. Our only field trips have been out to the yard. So here is a progression of our garden from four years ago when we moved into our house. We had never grown a thing in our lives and the house we bought had a small veggie garden ready to harvest when we moved in. We decided to give it a try the next year and every year since it has gotten bigger. Nancy asked me what we do next year, now that the whole yard is a garden. Maybe next year we start leasing our neighbors' front yards to grow more veggies. We'll see. Here's our garden story in pictures.

Year 1 (August 2004) Thanks Anderson family for letting us harvest all your veggies.

Year 2 (Summer 2005)  Maybe we can expand it a little bit.

Year 3 (Summer 2006) You know what we really need is a rock wall and an herb garden.

Year 4 (Summer 2007) You know, we really need a greenhouse.

Year 5 (Spring 2008) You know, what we really need is a garden labyrinth.

   

Livin' La Vida Locavore

Willamette Week, in the Portland area, announces that SPIN classes are being held, and it has nothing to do with stationary bikes or obnoxious spandex pants. It stands for Small Plot Intensive Farming. Here's the description from the article:

SPIN, or Small Plot Intensive farming, aims to put underemployed yards and other plots of urban dirt to work growing astonishing quantities of fancy-pants greens, garlics and other gourmet grazing material. If you’re doing SPIN farming, you sell your products at farmers markets and restaurants; if you SPIN garden, you’re growing for family and friends...SPIN guide co-author Roxanne Christensen says SPIN’s greatest goal is to bust the mindset that says there are “places vegetables and fruit don’t belong.”

SPIN’s wee urban farms churn out grub at a breakneck pace. The veggies are selected, pushed, groomed, harvested—and almost instantly replanted—in relays. It’s the Olympic foot race of vegetable-development programs, with each raised bed passing the baton to the next crop like a championship 400-meter sprint team, year-round. The Philadelphia SPIN farm, using just a half-acre of land, grossed $68,000 last year and drew salad addicts to line up weekly for its unique mix of greens.

It actually sounds like a good workout. So strap on your Ipod, tune up the heart rate monitor, heck even wear those shiny black pants with the cushions on the bottom if you want, and get out there get spinning.

Spokane Area Jams and Jellies

I did a little field trip to Hidden Acres Farm in Greenbluff. They are one of two sources for local jam that we've identified, available at Roseauers. I spoke with Nick, the third generation of farmers in the family. I inquired about them selling at the Millwood Farmers' Market, but he explained that they can't keep up with current demand, even with three people working full time. Apparently they sell a lot of huckleberry products to Japan. Go figure. He did say that other than the huckleberries, they make the jams from the fruit they grow on their 67 acres. Walter's also makes jams available at Yoke's.

I was impressed that Hidden Acres only sells fruit from their farming operations because I've seen the big trucks from Yakima heading up the hill to Greenbluff to supply the tourtist season up there. Yakima fruit is great, but if you're going to go to Greenbluff, it makes sense to me to get fruit actually grown in Greenbluff. Hidden Acres is a good spot for doing that.

Locavore Nation

There is a nationwide locavore project going on over at Splendid Table. Here's their description:

"Locavore Nation is a year-long effort to see what it takes to live by a regionally based diet.Join us as 15 individuals from around the country share their experiences as they try to get 80 percent of their food from local, organic, seasonal sources and then incorporate it into tasty, healthy meals."

It's interesting to see what's going on in other parts of the country. One of their bloggers posted this picture of their corn growing in Las Vegas. We're a good two months behind their growing season here in Spokane.

NYT In Defense of Chain Restaurants

The New York Times offers a long and generous restaurant review of Manhattan suburban chain restaurants, undoubtedly a friendly shout out to the restaurants' large advertising departments, that has left some East Coast intellectuals aghast. The choice quote for me was from this Ezra Klein piece.

I'm pretty much your consummate coastal elite (I biked back from the farmer's market today with a baguette and artisan cheese fastened to my rack), but even I wouldn't go so far as to mount an expedition to chain restaurants as if I were visiting rural Mangolia and chewing on caterpillars. So congrats New York Times -- you've outdone yourselves on this one.

Matthew Yglesias offers a bit of a push back, in defense of elitists as not so obnoxious as to never darken the doors of Chili's or the like.

This whole interchange has got me thinking about the elitist tag that often gets thrown in with locavore/sustainability conversation. Technically, I don't know if you can be an elitist and live in Spokane, which gives me some comfort. But it's a good reminder to me about how, from the very beginning, we said we would not presume that what we are doing is somehow better than the way others do consumption, nor do we expect that others should try to do it the way we do it. We went into this year not to save the world, but more to save ourselves. I guess that opens us up to the "selfish" tag, but somehow I'd rather be selfish than elitist.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this whole elitist question? 

Master Food Preserver Class Week 1

Yesterday I gathered with 27 other folks for the Master Food Presever class, through the WSU Extension office. The first class was a bit of a wake up call. I went in with nostaligic longings to connect with a heritage of community resourcefulness; Canning the Kaiser from WWI, Victory Gardens from WWII, and all that. The first class was more about food safety so I came away realizing that, if you don't do it right, canning is a good way to "can" your close friends and relatives with some nasty bacteria. We learned some common myths that are good to know about.

1. Just because the jars are sealed does not mean the food is OK. The heat penetration makes the food safe by killing all the bacteria, the seal keeps it safe. If the food isn't safe in the first place, the seal doesn't matter. Some methods that may get a seal but don't kill bacteria are using an iron on top of the can, using the oven to heat them up, and running them through the dishwasher (yes someone actually did that.) Basically, any method other than the one specified in the recipe from a science based source, is unsafe. They actually put probes into the cans with the particular recipe to take the temp throughout the can, and determine how long it takes for the heat to penetrate. Different foods conduct heat at different rates so no guessing allowed.

2. Just because you've used the same recipe and method for many years without problems does not mean it's safe. We heard the story of a couple who used the same unsafe recipe for 50 years without a problem, but year 51 was a killer.

3. Just because one can is OK, doesn't mean the whole batch is OK. We learned about someone who ran out of brine on the last can of pickled asparagus and added water to top it off. That was just enough to dilute it and make that one can out of the batch toxic. 

4. Just because the food looks fine doesn't mean it's OK to eat.

5. Just because your friend that gives you homemade pickles is too nice to try to kill you, doesn't mean that they won't inadvertently put you in danger with their family recipe from the 1800's.

I guess the big lesson is that you have to follow the proven canning recipes. Save the culinary flourishes for when you serve the food. The good news is that if you follow proven recipes faithfully, you are guaranteed safe. Two reliable sources of safe recipes are www.homefoodpreservation.com and the Ball Cook Book. Both sources are backed up by good science. There is a book and DVD version of the home food preservation web site called So Easy to Preserve. Old canning cook books are not a good source of recipes because of changes that have been made in the guidelines due to new research. If you have any food preservation questions you can call 866-986-4865 and talk to Master Food Preservers of Eastern Washington.

Eastern Washington asparagus is in stores now, so it's time to break out the cans and get pickling. Go here for the basic recipe for pickled asparagus. Or if you're into freezing check out these instructions on how to freeze asparagus.

"The Cries of the Harvesters"

Recently I was in a group studying chapter five of the book of James. The heading of the chapter is, "Warning to Rich Oppressors". Among other things James says;

You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.

I explained that James was speaking to a culture and community where the lines of accountability were fairly direct. The readers in that day probably had a pretty good idea of who James was referring to. My question for the group, and a question that haunts me is, "How do we know who the rich oppressors are today?" The lines of accountability between us and the harvesters and workers and innocent ones are elusive and remote. How do I know that my purchases are not contributing to injustice in the lives of people half way around the world or even in my own community? How do I know that my retirement plan isn't contributing to famine in a distant corner of the globe? How do I know that I am not a rich oppressor?

Part of this journey for me is finding a good answer to that question, drawing up lines of accountability where there have been none, and finding new practices that not only do no evil, but bring blessings and peace to people's lives.

Out of Shape

The day has come to return the car we've been borrowing from our friends. Our one car went into the shop two weeks ago, and when we got it back over a week ago, we just didn't have the heart to go back to one car. Nancy said this morning, "We've got to give the car back, I'm getting too used to having two cars." She sounded like an addict coming to grips with the reality that if she doesn't turn back now, she'll lose the will to say no. See Dispatches and We're Going to Thailand for more background on our decision to live with one car instead of our usual two.

This little respite from a one car life for our family of four has shown me that this change has been our biggest adjustment. It has added a level of complication in our lives that, at times, has left me at my wits end. When our car broke down for the second time in two weeks, I found myself re-discovering the usefullness of some long dormant choice words. I was fed up with the inconvenience.

Let me just add here that I don't have any illusions that what we are doing is much of an accomplishment. We have friends with kids who have lived with one car for years and it's no big deal. They are our heroes because we're learning that we have been deeply shaped by the rhythms of a mobile, come and go when you want, two car life, and it's hard to change.

I'm reminded of what Marshal Mcluhan said; "We shape our tools, and they in turn shape us." He was talking about the innovation of the TV, but the same truth can be extended to the sanctuaries in our churches, the laptops in our backpacks, the internet we click around on, and maybe more than anything, the cars we drive. The car is an innovation whose impact is so large it's almost hard to grasp all the ways it has shaped us; the design of our homes from front porches to prominent two and three car garages, the decisions we make about the proximity of our residences, schools, workplaces, churches and friendships, the quality of the air we breathe, the margins we have in our budget, and on and on.

This recognition of the ways we've been shaped is providing us with a prime opportunity to sort out questions about how we really want to shape our lives. What does it look like to intentionally shape a family life, and bring the tools of our lives in service to that, instead of unintentionally being shaped by them?

Big Box Garden Center Replacement Guide

Before I say anything about where to get plants for the garden, I've got two things to say.

First, if you can, plant seeds and grow your own plants. It's cheaper, more fun, and you have a lot more varieties to choose from. I should clarify that it's cheaper if you don't buy a greenhouse, and compulsively buy seeds and garden supplies, and kill half your plant starts, and dig up your whole lawn and have to buy 10 yards of manure, etc, like some people I know. It's not too late to start seeds.

Second, whatever you do, no matter how warm it is during the day, no matter what the weather report says, DO NOT plant that luscious green, miracle gro pumped up tomato plant until June 1. Our traditional last freeze date in Spokane is May 15, but for warm weather plants like tomatoes it's all about evening temps. It can be 90 degrees during the day but if it's in the 40's at night, your plants will stall out and take a long time to break out of their stupor. Once they start growing they like to keep growing. Same goes for melons and squash. The joke is that garden centers sell the big tomato plants in April because they know you'll be back to get some more when you kill off the first round. Local tribal knowledge says don't plant anything until Mica Peak is cleared of snow, but that may not be until July this year, so I'd go with the June 1 date.

So onto local garden centers. Let me say I've got nothing against the big box stores. The folks at Home Depot have been very generous to my church, as has the Costco funded College Success Foundation. So nothing against the big stores, but there are plenty of great local greenhouses and garden centers that I'd rather support.

Northwest Seed & Pet (NWSP) is at the top of my list. They get most of their plants from Creach & Upriver, two local greenhouses. They also have a great supply of seed potatoes. Get them and plant them ASAP. They also have a fine selection of grapes, raspberries, strawberries, even gooseberries and. These are all bare root stock so if you're going to plant them do it soon before it get's hot. NWSP also carries a lot of garden supplies that are local. I must be one of the few people that has shopped around for manure. Big R carries manure from Boise, ID, whereas NWSP has some from Longview, WA. And who said the local movement is like the "finer things" club from The Office.

I spoke with the owner who has worked there for over 27 years, and he said that business has been tough the last couple of years. This is where I'm supposed to bad mouth the big box stores and talk about how they're running everyone out of business with their plants from Texas, but I just said I've got nothing against them. I might have to rethink that one. Support NWSP. It's a Spokane institution. Where else can you shop with purple chickens roaming the floor and a 6 foot aligator to amuse the kids while you decide which seeds to buy? I recommend the original Sprague location.