michigan

Getting To The Core

scleaver — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:22:19 -0400

News flash: this year has been a bad one for Michigan’s apples. Spring frosts and summer hail storms wrecked havoc on apples, with a potential loss of 20 percent or more, and we haven’t even gotten through the fall harvest.

The Chicago Tribune reported that apple farmers have used tactics like sonic waves that break up hail in the atmosphere (but only larger hail, small hail doesn’t get destroyed) and are diversifying crops to decrease their personal risk. Even so, this year there will be no Northern Spry apples out of Michigan (fear not, Gala, Golden Delicious, Gingergold, Paula Red, MacIntosh, and more will still be on shelves), and apple pricse are going to go up.

The plus side: stormy weather means lots of moisture, which produces larger apples. And, a hail ding doesn’t affect the taste of the apple. So, as you head out to load up on apples this fall, remember that your apples don’t have to be perfect, especially if they end up covered in caramel and nuts anyway.

Photo from Fruit Acres Farm Market & U-Pick Sweet Cherries, Peaches & Apples in Michigan.

Greener Eating: Look for Grass-Fed Meat

scleaver — Mon, 26 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

The chickens at Kris Hirth’s Old Pine Farm in Manchester, MI spend their time strutting around the farm, happily ruffling their feathers and ignoring barn cats. Instead of being cooped up in a huge CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) where they never see the light of day, these chickens are free to roam outside as much as they want, and retire to a roomy coop when they get tired. Old Pine, as Heather Newman wrote in this week’s Detroit Free Press, specializes in grass-fed beef, pork, chicken, and emu, and raising animals the old-fashioned way.

As we learn more about just how our food is really raised, many people are turning to grass-fed meat. Grass-fed and pasture-raised meat may be harder to find, but it’s leaner, tastier, and chemical-free. Moreover, farmers that raise their animals on pastures make a greater profit per animal, and are happier, according to David Conner, research specialist at Michigan State University.

What’s the best way to incorporate grass-fed meat into your diet?

1. Pay attention. “We’ve all lost touch with the animals that become our meat,” Catherine Friend, a farmer in Zumbrota MN, and author of The Compassionate Carnivore, told the Free Press. “Paying attention is the first step, and it’s the hardest because we’re busy.”

2. Start slowly. Can’t incorporate grass-fed meat into every meal? Try one or two, or seek out restaurants that cook it when you’re going out.

3. Read labels closely. Don’t assume you’re getting pasture-raised meat at the grocery store. And, because of how meat is processed, meat coming from small farms may not be in your local grocery store, and if you do find it at a local market, it likely won’t be packaged in the way you’re used to.

4. Seek out local farmers. It takes more effort to pick up eggs, chicken, and slabs of beef from an out-of-the way farm, but it’s worth the drive. In metro Detroit, those pigs that Jim Koan used as pesticide on his apple farm are now being snapped up for pork, bacon, and ham. Find local meat producers and learn more about grass-fed farming through Eat Wild.

Photo of an emu at Old Pine Farm taken from the Free Press article.

Book Review: Trespassing

scleaver — Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Recently, Wayne State University Press published “Trespassing: Dirt Stories and Field Notes” by Janet Kaufman, a professor of English at Eastern Michigan University. It’s a combination of short stories and essays inspired by Kaufman’s experience living on an 80 acre farm in Hudson, MI (near Ann Arbor) that’s three miles away from a CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation).

I was intrigued to see how Kaufman incorporated the southeast Michigan food system into fiction, and to learn more about the region’s farm country, so I hurried out to buy the book. The stories—a woman who loses it when the 24/7 neon pink and orange glow from a nearby CAFO overtakes her home, a child’s relationship with a drain near her house during an EPA clean up, and more—give a glimpse into what it’s like to live near one of the CAFOs that have moved into much of the Midwest, taking over what used to be viable farmland.

But, I enjoyed the essay section much more than the fiction. In her essays, Kaufman discusses the myth of the farm and, though today’s farms look little like the “farm” that we learn about in kindergarten (red barn, silo, windmill), the myth still permeates public thinking and policy. Rather than those Old MacDonald farms, today’s farms, Kaufman writes, are “long, low steel [buildings], some of them a quarter-mile long” with manmade ponds filled with “gallons of untreated animal waste” in the back. Instead of idyllic country communities, what used to be farm towns are now polluted and desolate around the CAFOs (who would want to live next door to a huge cesspool filled with waste from thousands of cows, after all).

She explains how Michigan’s first farmers turned the swampland into viable ground by running underground drains that collected groundwater and moved it into streams and how these drains are now helping agricultural pollutants and wastes run into streams that are now too polluted for kids to wade in.

Kaufman ends the book by writing about the “skinhead agriculture” that has changed the landscape. For nine months out of the year, fields lie unnaturally bare across the Corn Belt. Instead of rotating crops to maintain soil quality, “even in midsummer, with row crops growing, between the rows and rows of corn lie rows and rows of bare earth.” And those barren fields are not without consequence: “From these bare fields each year flow and blow more than a billion tons of sediment and the pollutants bound to it, a degradation of America’s soils, air, and water.”

For southeast Michigan, a region hard hit by the current economic downturn and rising food prices, this book couldn’t have come at a better time. For southeast Michigan readers, it begs questions about where we put our resources and what effect it has on our economy and quality of life. For non-Michigan readers, unfortunately, Kaufman’s experiences living near a CAFO and on land that’s changed for the worse in the decades since she moved there, as well as the way farms have changed will ring true and raise questions that we should all be asking ourselves: what should a farm look like? And, when will we stop buying into the myth, challenge industrial agriculture and stop leaving land fallow when people are hungry and kids are splashing through polluted streams? After all, one of the takeaways from Kaufman’s book: it doesn’t have to be this way, and until recently, it wasn’t.

Image credit: Wayne State University Press.

Maple Season Continues

scleaver — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:00:00 -0400

It is still maple season here in Michigan. (To be sure that it’s maple season at all: http://www.riverwired.com/blog/march-maple-season.) I recently visited with my grandmother, a Vermonter who knows maple syrup, and she had an interesting question for me: How do they get the maple sap from the trees to the sap house to be processed in Michigan? Well, I’ve never thought about that. But the Michigan Maple Syrup Association has the answer: once the trees are ready to be “tapped” maple producers work quickly to collect all the sap they can each day. They use plastic tubing to collect the sap, and vacuum pumps to keep it moving and to pull as much sap out of each tree as possible. The sap is then transferred into large storage tanks at the sap house. So, there’s your answer: a combination of plastic tubing and vacuum pumps keep maple syrup flowing in Michigan. (For a video about Michigan maple syrup collection, visit http://www.mi-maplesyrup.com/Information/info_prod.htm.) Finally, in the spirit of the season, here’s a recipe from the Detroit News article, Maple Butter wakes up ordinary breakfast bagel. I remember spreading (store-bought) maple butter on toast as a kid, and it is delicious. Maple ButterAdapted from allrecipes.com.
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
In a medium bowl, mix together the butter, brown sugar, maple syrup and pumpkin pie spice until well blended. Chill in the refrigerator, for about 30 minutes. Form into a roll using waxed paper and store wrapped. It can be frozen for later at this point, if desired. Serves 1
Per serving: 268 calories; 24 g fat (15 g saturated fat; 81 percent calories from fat); 14 g carbohydrates; 66 mg cholesterol; 253 mg sodium; 0.3 g protein; 0 g fiber.Photo taken from The Field Farm in Vermont where you can buy maple butter if you don't want to make your own.

Spring Break! WHOOO!

akronheim — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 12:47:15 -0400

This Spring Break, I went home to Philadelphia to hang out with my boyfriend (who normally resides in Los Angeles, CA), my family, and friends in D.C. In the past, I have participated in Habitat for Humanity trips to Georgia where ten or so colleges compete to see who can build a house first in one cul-de-sac, and went to Miami to visit my aunt and friends. I've never done the college Spring Break to Aruba, Cancun, or Daytona and freaked out with every other college student. I went to a ten-day Europe trip with my college friends, and a recent cruise to Mexico with my boyfriend and his grandparents, but those are the craziest trips I've ever taken during college. How lame am I?

Many college students went to those typical places for Spring Break, but others did the Habitat trip to Georgia, some went on an Alternative Spring Break to New Orleans to help rebuild, some went to Seattle and even Hawaii to visit their significant others, and others rented houses in places like North Carolina (kind of cold, but cheap!). These kinds of trips obviously utilizes plenty of plane miles; but college students are really starting to catch on to sustainable Spring Breaks. Environmental Spring Break is offered from the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, and a student from Dartmouth has even decided to forgo a traditional spring break and went to the arctic for an environmental conference. Schools like Michigan State University offer Alternative Spring Breaks focused on environmental building and stewardship in places like Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, and the Everglades. The bonus is that these trips aren't just restricted to Michigan students, anyone can participate. These trips have the ability to unite students and create relationships that last throughout the rest of college. So maybe these trips don't really include drunken debauchery, but at least when someone asks you about your spring break, you'll remember what you did.

I know Spring Break plans are already made for this year, and mine is almost done, but college kids should think about these kinds of things for next year instead of an extravagant vacation to Cancun where the point is to get wasted and laid. It would be more valuable to sustainable thinking and action and ultimately themselves. Hey, if students from the University of Texas are doing it, anyone can!

Thin Mints Win Again

scleaver — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:58:30 -0400

This has nothing to do with being green (unless you count the Thin Mints box that you can spot from a mile away during Girl Scout cookie season), but it is delicious news none-the-less.

Today, the Neal Rubin of the Detroit News discussed Girl Scout Cookies in his article Student chefs get a crush on Thin Mints at gala. Last night, Girl Scouts across metro Detroit gathered at the metro Detroit Girl Scout Cookie Gala to sample culinary creations made with their $3 a box goodies. Eight area restaurants were given a cookie to work with, then competed for the best Girl Scout Cookie dessert.

A run down:

Small Plates of Royal Oak drew Sugar Free Chocolate Chips—bummer for them.

Mosaic in Detroit used Samoas (my favorite) to make miniature bundt cakes.

The winner…Fifty-One O One, Henry Ford Community College’s restaurant, and their Cream D’Mint Brownies. Whipped cream ganache and mint butter cream on top of brownies using crushed Thin Mints topped with melted chocolate chips.

Once again, Thin Mints takes the cake.

Here are make-it-yourself Girl Scout Cookie recipes from the competition:

Peanut Butter Blondie with Do-Si-Do Fondue

Cream D'Mint Brownies

White chocolate banana mousse

Banana brulee

Photo from Chew On That Blog’s Thin Mints Rock! Post.

New Local Radio Show in Michigan

scleaver — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:09:13 -0400

Local foodies in Michigan now have a reason to tune into WJR on Sunday nights. Michigan agriculture is the focus of a new local radio show, “Come to the Table,” with host Melinda Curtis airs Sunday nights at 7:00. Curtis is founder of Slow Food Detroit and a program representative for the Michigan Department of Agriculture’s Select Michigan campaign. She’s worked with local chefs in Michigan and experts around the country to figure out how to increase local food production and marketing in Michigan, and connect people with what they eat. In her show, Curtis discusses the region’s food heritage and interviews local chefs, authors, and experts. Not from Michigan? Not a problem, the topic of good, clean food is important to all of us, and Michigan’s regional food discussion reflects the national debate. Plus, sometimes she features yummy recipes like baked crabmeat and oyster stuffed flounder from the February 10 show. Listen to podcasts of Come to the Table here: http://www.wjr.net/sectional.asp?id=23057.

Visit Slow Food Detroit at www.slowfooddetroit.org or Slow Food International at www.slowfood.com.

Image credit: www.slowfooddetroit.org.

March is Maple Season!

scleaver — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:15:01 -0400

I’ve blogged about maple sugar before, so I’m happy to report that March is maple season in Michigan. The Detroit News recently reported on maple production in Michigan (see article Michigan syrup producers are ready). The good news: Steven Horn, supervising naturalist at Indian Springs Metropark, told the News that “conditions are right for the sugar maples to perform their yearly ritual.” The words “perform” and “yearly ritual” make it what’s happening sound a little more exciting than it is—sap is slowly dripping inside the trees. Still, the sweet stuff is the first harvest we have each year and we only have five to fourteen days to collect it, by the time the buds are forming on the tree's branches, the sap is already bitter and impossible to work with. Along with a love of syrup, Horn shares one of my favorite pastimes: making Sugar on Snow candy. “I like to boil the syrup down until it starts to crystallize,” he told the News, “and then pour it on a plate to cool and harden. That’s the best.” I couldn’t agree more!

Apple Pie News

scleaver — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500

There’s not often local food news in the dead of winter, so I’m happy to say Congratulations! to Fred Burns who recently won the 3rd Annual Michigan’s Best Apple Pie Contest on Wednesday January 25 (National Pie Day). Burns’ pie was his father’s deep-dish, double-crust version from the early 20th Century made with Michigan Northern Spry apples. Now Burns, one of only three men in the 60-person contest, is moving on to the National Pie Championship in April.

Apples are big in Michigan as they are across the U.S. According to the Michigan Apple Committee, apples are “Michigan’s most valuable fruit crop, with a value of about $100,000,000 annually.” Apples produce $400 to $500 million annually for the state, and small family farmers are the bulk of producers, “99 percent of Michigan orchards had fewer than 100 acres in apples.”

Next time you come across local apples, here’s Burns’ pie recipe (note that Pioneer Sugar and light brown sugar as well as the apples are local Michigan products):

My Father’s Apple Pie (taken from MichiganApples.com)

CRUST:
2 C flour
1/2 T PIONEER SUGAR
1 tsp. salt
1 C shortening
1/4 C cold water
1/2 tsp. vinegar
1 large egg

FILLING:
5 avg. size MICHIGAN NORTHERN SPY APPLES, peeled, sliced about 1/4” thick
1 C PIONEER SUGAR
1/3 C PIONEER GOLDEN LIGHT BROWN SUGAR
dash of salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
2 T tapioca
5 T butter

DIRECTIONS:
Crust – combine flour, PIONEER SUGAR and salt together in mixing bowl. Cut in shortening with pastry blender until coarse. In a separate bowl, combine cold water, vinegar, and egg and whip lightly, then add to flour mixture, stirring lightly with fork until it becomes a sticky dough. Refrigerate finished dough in a small covered container or plastic wrap for 2 hours or overnight.

Filling – combine all ingredients except butter and apples in a bowl. Peel and slice MICHIGAN NORTHERN SPY APPLES. Now stir the apples thoroughly into the dry ingredients to coat all the apple slices. Let mixture set for 15 to 30 minutes to develop a “juice” while you roll out the crust below.

Take about 2/3 of refrigerated dough and roll to about 13-inch in diameter. Adjust to fit the deep dish and trim edges. Combine remaining dough and roll to about 11-inch in diameter. Add filling to dish and place 8 slices of butter on top of the filling. Add upper crust, roll the edges and cut a few “steam” slits in a design of your choice. You can also add some colored sugar sprinkles to the top crust that adds some color to the pie. Create your own art piece. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes and then reduce to 350 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes. I use an aluminum ring over the crust edge to avoid burnt edges. Cool on a wire rack for around 2 hours.

From the Kitchen of Fred Burns of Sparta, MI

Photo Credit: The Detroit Free Press article about his apple pie.

Raspberries in Winter

scleaver — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:00:56 -0500

Right now, there are fresh raspberries growing in Michigan, even as the wind chill drops the temp to negative 14 and the ground is covered in snow. On February 10, The Detroit Free Press and Kalamazoo Gazette reported on local farmer, Andrew Kieboom, whose changed raspberry growing for the better. Instead of ending his season in August, he switches it up and harvests his raspberries through mid-January. Each year for the last three years, Kieboom harvested as much as 1,500 pounds of raspberries from his 10,000 square feet of plants, and is the only person in Michigan growing raspberries in winter, so far.To get his plants to bloom in winter, Kieboom “tricks the raspberries” he told the Free Press. He keeps them cold during the summer, simulating winter, so that when they’re put into a greenhouse in winter, they’re ready to bloom. More than extending the season, Kieboom is upending it. On grocery store shelves, a pint of fresh raspberries from Kieboom is $3.50 for a half-pint, $1 more than imported raspberries from Latin America. There’s a local market for people who want his raspberries, for their fresh taste or in the interest of keeping food local and if more farmers started growing raspberries in the off-season there’s no doubt that more people would pay extra to taste summer when it’s snowing. Raspberries are healthy business, in 2005, according to the U.S. Raspberry Industry California produced 72 million pounds of raspberries, Washington produced 68.9 million pounds, and everyone else produced 7.7 million pounds. If we could add some winter raspberry production to that, it would make the year that much sweeter. What to do with your winter raspberries? Razzle Dazzle Recipes has recipes for raspberry marshmallow cake, raspberry truffle cream pie, and more. Just Berry Recipes has 13 pages of raspberry recipes, from black raspberry flan to raspberry sweet tea.

Art by Stephanie Cleaver.