Let's Go Get Dirty Down on the Farm
Did you read the great story in The New York Times Food section about the growing trend of guests coming to stay and play on farms?
I did just that earlier this summer at the Quillisascut Farm School of the Domestic Arts, a working farm in Eastern Washington. I know I'll never eat goat cheese or fry a chicken or weed my small herb garden the same way after spending five days at this very hands-on program.
Along with 15 culinary professionals from across the country, I fed chickens and milked goats, tended the huge garden and helped pluck chickens. We watched veteran cheesemaker Lora Lea Misterly make several styles of cheese and then got to try forming our own mozzarella balls. It's more challenging than you think!
We also visited area orchards and made jam with apricots from their trees, baked all sorts of bread and dozens of pizza pies in the outdoor wood-burning oven. We fell into bed exhausted and woke up well before 6 to do morning chores.
It was a very rich experience, one I'd recommend to any food lover who wants to witness and be part of the nitty gritty workings of a place where real food is produced and celebrated around a big, long table. Still, it's not for everyone. There's no WIFI, barely any cell phone service. Bunkhouse bedrooms are shared like you're back in summer camp and the bathrooms are down the hall. Participants are responsible for cleaning before they leave.
And I'd do it again in a New York minute. I came home with edible treasures from the trip: goat cheese, a loaf of spelt bread, a jar of jam. But also a new awareness and appreciation for the people who work so hard to bring food to market.
-- Leslie Kelly
tom gunn on August 27, 2009 at 12:36 PM
Did you see any three legged chickens?
Eggs don't come from a chicken's *!? they come from the market ina foam carton. And I wouldn't eat cows tongue why that's been in a cows mouth.
Hamburger comes in a tube.
I've herd of goats milk it comes in a can.
Cereal comes in a cardboard box along with macaroni and cheese.
Still hungry?
lol
tom gunn
SenatorMark4 on August 27, 2009 at 12:58 PM
It is good to see that people are beginning to understand a little about the trip into the foam and shrink wrap. There was a friend of my wife's that moved down here and finally decided to do their own Thanksgiving since there wasn't any family around. They purchased a 22 pound turkey for the two of them but then were too squeamish to work with it once it was unwrapped. They hadn't really ever paid attention to the idea that they were real animals before they were dressed in plastic. Too much!
LarryD on August 27, 2009 at 01:30 PM
Way too many city folk are hot house plants, they need a dose of farm life to get connected to parts of reality they don't even suspect exist.
Everyone needs a little exposure to farms and business, so they don't think food appears by magic in the grocery stores, and so they have some appreciation of what it takes to create jobs and wealth.
DWPittelli on August 27, 2009 at 03:26 PM
I wonder how many people thought of farm camps after seeing that old Paris Hilton "reality" show? ("The Simple Life," 2005)
Rob on August 27, 2009 at 08:08 PM
This can also make the simple point that foods that look good at your Ralph's, after the long trip to get there, are not the same as some of the fruits and food that are available from the tree or garden on the farm.
Patrick Carroll on August 27, 2009 at 09:02 PM
I still remember my grandmother slaughtering pigs ( the one or two per year we had on the farm in Galway ). Making black and white pudding is something I was happy to pitch in with as a 10-year-old. Thirty years later, I'm happy to go to "Fado" in Buckhead and load up on the killed and well-cooked stuff.
Though. The soda bread. Yummy.