Tag Archives: local food

Localising food in Marshalltown

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STA71629Today I visited the Community Gardens in Marshalltown for the second time. Last Sunday I went there with Jan Flora and Diego Thompson to meet with the group of migrant Hispanic growers to discuss their progress and needs.

The community garden project runs its first year and aims to diversify the availability of locally grown vegetables in this area, while giving new people a chance to start their (part time) business in agriculture through direct selling at farmers markets. The current group of growers, Hispanic and American, followed an eight week course at the Community College (in cooperation with Iowa State University, ISU) this winter called ‘The diversified farm’. After this course they had the opportunity to start growing vegetables on organic certified grounds for a symbolic 50 dollars a year. Each of the growers has a plot of land between 1 and 3 acre. Hispanic migrants, who came to work in the meat processing industry- also in Marshalltown, have agricultural knowledge as they often came from rural areas. One of them told me how he enjoyed being back on the land.

STA71585The neighboring Community College and colleagues from ISU support the project with facilities such as a greenhouse and the use of the tractor, with agricultural and technical knowledge as well as with (helping) to solve practical problems.

Currently, one of the practical issues is the supply of water for irrigation, which now has to come from further down with a small tank behind the tractor which is very labour intensive. However, in a month’s time, water might come from the fire brigade facilities directly neighboring the plots. By that time, pest control will be high on the agenda as crops start to grow now. The first year will be a steep learning curve for all involved, hopefully with promising results.

The Amish in Pennsylvania

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As part of the joint AFHVS and ASFS conference at State College Pennsylvania, we had diner at an Amish farm on the Friday evening. Those who were early enough to subscribe had one of the 45 seats in the living room of the farm house. STA71567

We were being served by the family, traditional Amish food. It reminded me of grandma’s diners; with what I would call in Dutch ‘draadjesvlees met jus’. It was delicious and very special to get a glimpse of how the Amish live.

The history of the Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Southern German Mennonites, in 1693. The leader of the schismatic faction was a Mennonite Elder named Jakob Ammann. Those who followed Amman became known as Amish. They mainly immigrated to Pennsylvania.  Nowadays they spread to other states as well, buying up farms for their sons. The family we stayed with had four children with 15 years in between the two oldest and the two youngest. The two youngest were still living at home, while the two oldest children had each seven children. The great number of children per family left grandma with 100 grand children, our host told us after we sang the song Amazing Grace together. Not surprisingly, they are one of the most fast growing minority in this country.

The Amish have their own way of dealing with ‘modernity’. New technology is assessed for its potential negative impact on the community by religious/community leaders. Not all technology is rejected, however most of it is. This family did not have electricity in their house, nor did they have a car. They were allowed to accept a lift or hire a taxi at the other hand.

STA71529For their dairy farm of 80 cattle they did use some electricity for milking for example with an electric generator. They also had tractors, however, here too the use of it was restricted. This could be noticed by looking at their hey wagons, which had no rubber but metal wheels, to prevent the seduction of using them on the road behind the tractor. Much of the thinking behind this is centred around labour force available and sustaining communities by not out-competing each other. At the other hand, they do use ‘modern’ instruments such as chemical pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and artificial insemination of cows.

Conference State College, Pennsylvania

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At the joint AFHVS and ASFS conference at State College Pennsylvania, we started with a day of excursions. I joined the ‘local food and flavors’ tour where we visited Tim Browser’s Elk Creek Café and Aleworks and tasted his home-brewed beer and locally sourced food. The local food tasted very good and was as Tim explained, centered around Nouveau Dutchie Cuisine. With humous and black beans as part of the menu, I could not really make a Dutch connection there, but it certainly was delicious.

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The next stop was the Tait Farm Foods in the Happy Valley where the owner Kim Tait explained the manifold activities of the farm. They work as a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm and have around 120 families as members. Members come to the farm on a weekly (summer) or bi-weekly (winter) schedule to pick up their seasonal share. STA71544

There are different types of shares, but a full year share for a family costs 1100 dollars. It is also possible to have a workshare, where members can work on the farm for a share of the produce to reduce costs. They have to commit 5 hours a week.

After this we visited a local vineyard the Mount Nittany Vindeyard and Winery in the Brush Valley and tasted some great wines as well as cheeses from a neighboring dairy farm.

What was striking to me especially in the visit of the CSA farm is the strong emphasis you can find here on ‘the community’. As the leaflet of the Tait Farm explains:

“In its most simplified form, the farm grows food for the community and the community supports the farm”.

Yesterday, at the first day of presentations, a session on ‘terroir’ explained differences between the US and Europe regarding their sense of territoriality. Whereas the notion of ‘terroir’ has a strong connection with proximity and social ties in the US, in Europe it has more relation with the specificity of food, the cultural heritage and the cultural history this food expresses. So whereas a ‘local’ sausage from a French region can be found in extralocal market places in Europe, the US understanding of local food as direct marketing, locally embedded in social ties, confines the produce much more to a specific place. Hence, you won’t find many geographical indications protecting specific products here (also because of other reasons).