Dr. Alan Greene at the Organic Farming Conference

"Good food, grown right is at the core of human health."

In my other life, I co-coordinate the MOSES Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse, Wisconsin, which happens in late February every year. I’ve done this for as long as Rock Spring Farm, having fallen into the position as an over-enthusiastic volunteer in the summer of 1999. The folks at MOSES (that’s the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service) were kind enough to allow me to reprint this summary of Dr. Alan Greene’s keynote at the 2009 conference, written by colleague and friend Bridget O’Meara; I’ll serialize it here over the next several weeks.

The South Hall Ballroom at the La Crosse Center is filled to capacity at the 20th annual Organic Farming Conference in February. Participants pack the seats, stand in doorways, and gather in a nearby lobby to hear Dr. Alan Greene deliver his Friday morning keynote address, entitled "Why Farmers Are My Heroes." After a rousing introduction by MOSES Board member Atina Diffley, Greene walks onto the stage, grateful to Diffley, impressed by the magnitude of the event, and genuinely honored to have been asked to speak. He opens with a story about sitting next to a pregnant woman on the plane and reflects on how the present is part of the future as well as the past.

"Sitting next to this woman, I began to think about how the egg that's becoming her daughter was in her before she got pregnant. . . . It was in her before she knew how to walk, when she was a little girl, before she was even born, that egg was there already. . . When she was there inside her mom and her mom felt her kick, that egg was in her fully formed and waiting. So that means that this woman had been carried in her mom and in her grandmother and that the little girl she was carrying had in her already not only her baby but her grandkids as well. I sat next to five generations of women on that plane!"

While audience members laugh and try to wrap their minds around this extraordinary idea, Greene continues, "Here, today, this event represents our past, our present, and our future. We celebrate not only 20 years of the Organic Farming Conference, as amazing as it is, but also the fact that organic farming has been central to human life since the dawn of civilization. And, in the present moment, there is nothing more important. And, in the future, organic farming is the best hope for our environment, the best hope for our culture, the best hope for our economy, and, certainly, the best hope for our health."

"As a physician," he adds, "everything I do depends on what you do. In fact, what I do is the topping--what you do as farmer is the main course of health."

Farm Happenings

Weather: It would have been hard to miss the weather this week. Oppressively hot and muggy on Monday and Tuesday, it didn’t make anything easier on the farm. We had rain each day from last Tuesday through Sunday, but it never amounted to much. We let most of the crew take off early on Tuesday because it was too hot really to even see straight, although…

What We Did: Big Ben, Sanna, and Emily muscled through the heat on Tuesday afternoon to transplant broccoli and storage cabbages up on the ridge, while Chris tilled for and seeded rutabagas and carrots for fall storage down at our rental ground. The buckwheat that Ben seeded down there is really growing fast, fat leaves shading out the weeds. Big Ben, Sanna and little Ben also transplanted the very last of the winter squash, a runty-but-delicious variety called Sugar Loaf that always germinated later than the other squash. Several people worked on repairing the bins we use to store our root crops and cabbages. Bekah, Cassie, and Sanna pruned back flowers on the sage and chives, and handweeded the celeriac (which really didn’t take much to do since it was mostly a few barley plants left over from the spring cover crop). Zane mowed the cover crops all over the farm, since the thistles are flowering and the barley, peas and hairy vetch are also flowering. Everybody picked peas on Monday, and nobody complained even though it would have been nicer to do it in the morning. Sarah kept the packing shed running. Bekah seeded the fall crop of radicchio in flats in the greenhouse. Ryan and Zack started staking tomatoes.

In the Kitchen

Back in our first year on the farm, my dad and stepmom, Mary, came to visit during Snap Pea season, and helped us pick the peas (we were quite a bit smaller back then, and didn't have any help). Mary couldn't believe that we would strip the strings out of the peas and sample as we went along. "You're eating the profits!" she exclaimed - but that was exactly the point. We could sell those peas for a decent price at market, and that would, as the economists say, increase our ability to purchase goods and services that gave us pleasure. Or we could pop some peas in our mouths and cut out the middleman, which we did.

String your snap peas by grasping the peduncle (that’s the part that holds the pod to the plant) and pulling it towards the other end of the peas. You eat the pod and everything with these, just like a green bean. We’re giving you a lot this week because we’ve got a lot, and it’s hard to have too many snap peas. I think the best way to prepare them is a light sauté but they’re also nice as follows:

Snap Peas and Scallions

1 lb snap peas, de-stringed
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
4 medium scallions, thinly sliced

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the peas and stir until crisp-tender. Stir in soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, and scallions, remove from heat, and serve.

The way we look at it, if you’re going to grow scallions, you may as well have a little fun, so we opt for a purple variety rather than the traditional white ones, although you can use them exactly the same way.

With its broad, thick leaves, Escarole looks a lot like lettuce, but it has a distinct texture and flavor. The green and white leaves taste quite different, the green ones chewy and bitter (in a delicious, European sort of way), while the pale heart is more succulent and sweeter. I eat a lot of escarole as a straight salad, with dressings from vinaigrette to ranch.

With a licorice sent and a fleshy white bulb, Fennel features prominently in Mediterranean cooking. My favorite treatments are the simplest: slice off the fronds, coat with olive oil, and grill; or shave thinly and serve with prosciutto ham. Sliced thinly, the stems also make a nice addition to salads and sandwiches. Or chop it up and add it to everything. Isabel claims it as her second favorite vegetable, after radicchio and before Sungold cherry tomatoes.

Warm Escarole and Fennel Salad

1 head escarole, separated into leaves
1 bulb fennel bulb, sliced thinly
1 Tbsp olive oil for sautéing
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 Tbsp good olive oil
salt
4 scallions, sliced thinly
pepper

Thoroughly wash and dry a head of escarole. Make a vinaigrette of 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar and 3 tbsp olive oil with salt to taste. In a large skillet, heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil over a medium flame, and sauté the fennel in a large skillet until tender. Add the escarole and vinaigrette and toss quickly over the heat until it just begins to wilt. Season with ground pepper.

We pulled this week’s Simple Salad Mix out of the field on Tuesday morning before the heat got too crazy. With just lettuce and dandelion greens, it’s a nice return to the simple basics. The red-ribbed dandelions have a mild flavor, and seem to be favorite among kids in many families we know.