Moving On

Shaun and I are spending the summer WWOOFing (Willing Workers on Organic Farms). We spent the first half of the summer in Oregon at Kings Valley Gardens. I would highly recommend the experience. John and Andrea, the owners, are deeply committed to their work as well as teaching others. Our primary reason for WWOOFing was to learn how to grow food. We learned a lot about gardening, and I think increased our confidence to put these ideas into practice. I thought the most powerful part of the experience was living in such a wonderful community. There were seven of us on the farm (2 farmers and 5 WWOOFers) and we were all working towards the same goal. We were living in balance with our environment and having a lot of fun! Kings Valley Gardens is near my parents house, and I am glad we will be able to visit in the future and continue to develop our friendship.

Despite how lovely Kings Valley was, we have moved on. We have crossed the cascades from the moist climes of Western Oregon to the drier plateau south of Spokane, WA. We'll spend the next 5 weeks on Pine Meadow Farm. Spokane is kind of where Shaun is from. Shaun is technically from a town of 250 people right before the Canadian border and there weren't many farms in that area, but his brothers and several other friends live in Spokane. Plus Shaun will be able to attend his ten year high school reunion in a couple of weeks.

Pine Meadow is a little less organized then Kings Valley (it's only 3 years old instead of 12) but it does have something Kings Valley does not - GOATS! My next post will be all about the goats and what I have learned so far. The farm has a beautiful setting with both pine forrest and meadow (as the name suggests), plus it's only about 10 miles from Spokane and 8 to Cheney with a regional bike path nearby. 

Our summer is about half over, but I know the next month will fly by. We already have several adventures planned, including a backpacking trip to the Selkirks! With little time remaining it is a good time to evaluate what my goals were for the summer and recommit myself to being open and learning. 

How to Make Bread for a Crowd

10 lovely, local, loaves of bread fresh out of the oven

NOTE: This article includes a recipe for making two loaves, for a more detailed description of making bread for a "crowd" look here.

So apparently the secret to making bread for a crowd is... knead it with your feet. Something I recently learned about bread making is that it is the gluten that allows it to rise. Wheat gluten looks kind of like long viscous strands (appetizing right?). Anyway, these strands form kind of a net and trap the air bubbles that the yeast give off as they eat sugar and poop gas (again, super appetizing).

The gluten also provides structure as the bread rises. Whole wheat flower has less gluten than white flower so that's why 100% whole wheat loves are often really dense. When I first learned this I started adding vital wheat gluten, which is what's used to make seitan. This works pretty well. I even more recently learned that kneading bread is what helps the gluten develop, so instead of adding extra gluten, you can also knead for longer. If you are making 10 loaves at a time, which is the way we roll at Kings Valley Gardens, kneading takes a toll on your wrists and hands. Kneading with your feet helps you avoid this trouble, and is novel enough that it remains fun for the full 15 minutes required to develop the gluten. Shaun was selected for the actual kneading as he had by far the biggest feet (size 13) and don't worry he washed them very well!

10 lovely, local, loaves, in the oven

Living in Minnesota we have no problem accessing wheat and whole wheat flour that was grown within a couple of hours of the Twin Cities. Usually our flour comes from Whole Grain Milling. It is not so easy on the Willamette Valley (where we are WWOOFing for the summer). In the past a great deal of grain was grown here, but more recently farmers have switched to grass seed. Thanks in part to work done by the Bean and Grain Project there has been some return to grain cops in the area. The flour we used for this bread was grown down the road near Corvallis.

The recipe that Andrea uses at Kings Valley is Adapted from May All be Fed, Diet for a New World by Tom Robbins. I am using his recipe (and slightly adapting it myself) since I figure not everyone wants to make 10 loaves at a time? And because Andrea is working on a cook book and I don't want to give away any of her secrets. You can just multiply the recipe by 4 if you are trying to bake for a crowd.

Ocean's Bobs of Love Bread

(Makes Two Loaves)

Shaun using his big feet to knead

1 cup like warm water

2 1/2 teaspoons or 1 package active dry yeast

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup canola or safflower oil

2 tsp salt

6 to 7 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup millet

Oil for brushing the loaves

Mix water, yeast and honey and let stand about 5 minutes (the yeast should be dissolved and kind of foamy). Add two cups of the flouer and all other ingredients. Continue adding the flour until you have a fairly stiff dough. Sprinkle some flour on your work surface and knead the bread for 15 minutes or until the texture is similar to an air lobe (as someone once told me). 

Shaping the dough into loaves

If you are going to knead with your feet it is helpful to have someone help you by folding the dough over before you stomp it down. If you are kneading with your hands start with a ball and press it down with the heel of your han, fold it over and press it down again. Repeat as necessary. 

After you are done kneading place the dough in a bowl and cover it lightly with a towel. Place the bowl in a somewhat warm area where it will not be disturbed. I usually put it a turned off oven. Wait for about an hour and a half until the dough has doubled in size. Knead it again for 10 to 15 minutes and then shape into loaves. Let the loaves rise for another hour or so and bake them at 350 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes. 

What is Healthy

The Farm House at Kings Valley

This post could also be called a slice of humble pie. I am really proud of how healthy I eat. Last year my roommate regularly commented that my partner and I were the healthiest people he knew, which I definitely enjoyed hearing. I also feel like I generally do a lot to live sustainably. To me how I eat and the impact on the environment are very much linked. 

I mentioned previously that Shaun and I have been WWOOFing at Kings Valley Gardens. The experience has lead me to question how healthy my diet is. Since being here I have realized that I cannot sit on my laurels and say that I am eating healthy enough and doing enough to reduce my environmental impact. John and Andrea, who own Kings Valley gardens, are inspirational in terms of eating healthy food, but also living simply and sustainably, being joyous, and just generally living a life in line with their values.

Homemade AND homegrown canned goods

They grow a huge percentage of the food they eat at Kings Valley which is amazingly awesome. The diet is predominantly vegan. We do eat eggs that come from a neighbor's chickens. I think the food choices come from a limit on space and time on the farm and a desire to be able to leave for a weekend occasionally (apparently animals make it much harder to take a vacation). Though I have eaten vegan meals on occasion for a long time, going an entire day without dairy products is new to me.

At home we eat a lot of cheese and I drink a lot of milk. We bought local milk for a little bit, but if got relatively expensive. Dairy is something that thus far we have not prioritized in terms of buying a more sustainable version of and yet consume a lot of. This is something that I have felt bad about in the past, but feel particularly guilty about now. We also got lazy last winter when it got difficult to purchase local produce and organic produce seemed to get more expensive, probably because it was being shipped further. We slipped into purchasing mostly conventional produce and more exotic items such as bananas.

In addition to being vegan there is very little refined sugar, no caffein and no alcohol. I don't eat a lot of sugar, but do consume more alcohol and caffein than I probably should. It's not that we can't have these things it's that they are not provided as part of the work trade for WWOOFinh and we are trying to save money so we can't purchase them regularly. From a public health standpoint it is a great illustration of how the environment shapes decision. From a different type public health standpoint I also feel more understanding of smokers who resent smoking bans in public places as I hide coffee in my room so that I can enjoy my vice in peace.

All of the WWOOFers learning how to transplant things

Both of these things, the change in diet and the restriction of vice, have been frustrating at times. But I am also grateful for the opportunity to remove myself from day to day pressures and focus on living simply, joyfully, sustainably, and I would say healthily. I don't thing I want to become a farmer but I do want to bring some aspects of this life back with me to the "real world". I am still trying to figure out which aspects those will be. How I can recommit myself to being healthy in all ways. Hopefully this will provide some fodder for this blog throughout the next couple of months.

How do you live sustainably in an urban or rural environment? What is your definition of healthy?

Not so quick

I am apparently giving up on the quick part of my blog (not that many of my recipes have been very quick). But am fully embracing the cheap and local parts of it. Shaun and I decided to spend the summer WWOFFing. We have had a small garden for several seasons and are hoping that spending almost an entire growing season working with someone more experienced will help us improve our own gardening skills fast. Well, faster than several years of trial and error. We currently live in an apartment in Minneapolis so I am not sure how much of what we learn will but into practice within the next couple of years, but eventually we hope to grow a significant portion, if not all, of our fruits and vegetables (and maybe our eggs and honey as well)

As a plus we are hoping that WWOOFing in the northwest will give us the opportunity to spend some quality time with friends and family. We have returned to my native Willamette Valley to spend the next six weeks on a small farm outside of Monmouth and then the six weeks after that near Shaun's hometown in NE Washington. The picture on the left is actually neither. On our way to the Willamette Valley we stopped off in the Grande Ronde Valley to spend a wonderful weekend with some great friends and that's the view from their deck (Why did we move to MN again?)

I don't know how many recipes I'll post but I thought this would be a good place to track the things I am learning about farming.  We are finishing up our second day on the farm. So far I have learned that fava beans are a good dry bean for small spaces they are really big and you can use them in tasty dishes like fava bean hummus which needs lots of sauteed onions to mellow out the strong flavor of the fava beans. You can make your own tahini by blending 2 cups of sesame seeds with 1/2 cup of oil. The farmer also recommended the book the New Organic Farmer by Eliot Coleman which apparently has a lot of good information including her favorite recipe for potting soil. Also, black forest squash over winters the best, but the seeds are very tough and you can't eat them.

I consider myself pretty healthy, but the diet here is predominantly vegan, includes VERY little sugar, and no coffee or alcohol (there are no rules about having these things they just aren't provided). It is amazing how much I find myself wanting sugar and cheese. I also think I am getting caffein headaches which I previously thought I was imune to. It is interesting feeling how my body adjusts. We are still very much adjusting to life on the farm. The schedule is very relaxed, 10 to 5 with a long lunch, and it is amazing to have time to read, knit, meditatie, run and do yoga all in the same day! Though I have to admit I haven't actually done all of those things in one day yet. It also turns out there are parts of farming that are a bit on the boring side, four hours weeding blueberries for example. It has been fairly rainy and cold which has made me a little cranky, though I have been trying to hide it. But like I said, it is only our second day. The people we are staying with are truly inspirational!  They are so committed to living sustainably and in harmony with the land and are wonderful teachers.