Breakdown of Organic, Permaculture, and Biodynamic

This is a post I have been wanting to write for quite a long time, but wasn't quite sure how to explain how I felt. After reflecting on it for awhile, I finally figured out how I wanted to explain my point of view on these farming concepts: organic farming, permaculture, and biodynamic farming.

Organic is a very wide-spread term used in the food industry now. The government has even taken control of the word and made some money off of it. And with this control, you can't be surprised that it is now something that can't necessarily be trusted. For city folk without great access to farms, you rely on it. (I know I did.) It was the only way I could somewhat control the food that was going into my body. The government has now created a certification process that farms have to follow (and pay for) in order to be coined as "organic". Many of the small scale farmers no longer see the use of the time and money that certification comes with. It was very well put in a USA Today article.

So what does organic mean now? It's literal meaning is "from the earth". But now you see frozen TV dinners with this adjective in front of it along with a list of ingredients you can't pronounce. Is that really made from the earth? Today's meaning of organic is actually this: not made with chemicals (usually in the form of pesticides or fertilizers). In other words, people can make anything from anything that doesn't use pesticides or fertilizers and still call it organic as long as they put in the time and the money needed to get certification. One of my first conversations with a friend in the restaurant industry was around infusing chicken skin onto fish. In order to complete this process, he needed a mask so he wouldn't breathe in anything harmful. Could this fish still have been called organic? Yes - if whatever was needed to infuse the skin to the fish came from organic sources (and I have no idea what he used, but the principle still stands.) Luckily, my friend has the rule, "if you can't smell it, don't eat it," so I can still talk to him. (I'm assuming that tasted amazing, even if it was toxic.)

Now it comes to the hard-to-define topic - permaculture. Permaculture is a combination of the words permanent and agriculture. I still have yet to crack that combination for what I feel permaculture actually means, but maybe it will eventually come to me. To me, saying that you practice permaculture means that you use your resources wisely. (Beware - this could be the Girl Scout in me talking.) Permaculturists use anything from nature that they have and reuse everything possible. They are master recyclers. Joel Salatin is a great example of a permaculurist. Everything is connected on his farm. His cows create food for the chickens who fertilize the pastures who then feed the cows. Each of his animals/plants helps out another piece of the puzzle. His farm is very low-input. (Low-input means he doesn't have to rely very much on other things produced outside of his farm in order for his farm to prosper). When deciding on his "outside" purchases, he not only takes into account the cost and quality of the product, but also the environmental and economic impact. He takes everything into account, as everything is connected. He doesn't care so much if his feed is organic. He wants to buy his feed from the guy down the road to keep the local economy flourishing and to reduce transportation costs and carbon emissions. Permaculture is thinking universally about everything and everyone.

Thinking universally is a pretty hard thing to do. Our world is a complicated place, with many complicated systems to decipher and analyze. Since I believe in permaculture as being a very general universal practice, many things would fall under it. Biodynamics is a subset of permaculture. It mainly deals with the unexplainable forces that affect plants and animals: cosmic forces, vortexes, sound, etc. Rudolph Steiner is the master of biodynamics, and I will talk more about him in a following post (as I've already read a book on the subject). Other subsets of permaculture are Keyline farming founded by Percival Alfred Yeomans. (I believe Joel Salatin follows him, but hasn't thrown out the buzz words. When I heard him speak he talked about his trip to Australia and how amazing their water conservation system was.) Cover crops and companion crops I would also throw into this category as a subset, along with many others.

There is very little documentation I have found on comparing these topics, so this is purely my opinion. I don't think there is really a right way, but I wanted to be confident on how I felt about the subject.

Dan Barber on Farms

I just recently found Dan Barber on bigthink.com.  I DID watch all of the videos, and can say that the amazing chef describes himself perfectly as the "neurotic, finicky, Upper East Side Jew".

Although these videos are all from 2008, I still enjoyed listening to them.  I want to share three of the videos that really stuck with me.

The first video gets really good at about 1:06 to the end.  He discusses the history of restaurants and food and where we are at now.

The second video I like because he explains one of his theories, "When you have a story, you have delicious food (as long as you don't screw it up)."

And finally you have my third highlighted video.  Here he talks about breeding pigs.  Not only does the food the animal eats affect its flavor, but also the mother, the father and HOW it was bred.  I like this theory.  I'd like to find evidence on it.

Be How You Think Things Should Be

This past week I had the opportunity to hear Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms speak.  Joel is a pretty amazing rancher AND speaker for that matter.  I actually found out about him from Michael Pollan's book, Omnivore's Dilemma.  From there, I immediately became intrigued by him.  He rotates his animals (chickens, rabbits, pigs, and cows) in order to bring in the least amount of food from outside his farm and make the least amount of impact on the environment.  Being "local" is more important to him than being 100% organic and natural.  Although his animals are raised naturally once they are on his farm, he doesn't worry about buying USDA-claimed organic seed.  He'll buy seed from his local buddies instead.  The only animals I've seen (I purchased a DVD of his) that he actually births are chickens and rabbits.  I believe he purchases his cows and pigs as babies, then raises them from there.  In that case, he also buys a few supplements in the beginning to help them get into the groove for his "salad bar" of grasses.

I already knew of Joel Salatin's practices.  I was a little concerned he would just talk about stuff I already knew when I went to hear him speak.  I commend him for knowing his audiences.  For him being in Boulder, he was expecting that everyone there knew who he was and knew what he did.  (I guess that makes sense.  If you are going to buy a ticket to hear someone talk, you know you are most likely going to enjoy it.)  He did call people out about choosing biking over gardening and a dog over ten chickens (which was awesome.)  But he also REALLY motivated me personally.  One thing he said close to the beginning of his talk was, "You need to be how you think things should be."  So many people have asked me "what's the point?" after I talk about my passions with them.  I get the "especially in Nebraska, you know the farm right next to you is going to have a TON of chemicals on it.  Yours can never be natural."  I always tell them that you have to start somewhere!  If I would have to be the example for others to follow, then so be it!  I think whenever I'm faced with that question again, I'm going to use Joel Salatin's words.  "I will be how I think things should be."

There will be many more posts about Joel; I'm just not prepared to write them.  I wanted to write about his inspirational phrase before it lost its luster.

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

Jamie Oliver seems to be taking on a combination of the two biggest issues in the U.S. today:  the education system and food.  He actually has a show on ABC (or has for the last two years) where he actually goes into different cities in the U.S. and tries to make a difference with school lunches.  The first season was dealing with Huntington, Virginia, and the second season - LA.  He yells.  He cries.  He fist-pumps.  I attribute some of his emotional scenes to being English, but you do know that his passionate is true.  Him being so passionate about changing the bad habits of a country he doesn't even live in definitely says something about the guy!  Yeah - it's money.  But it seems like he could be doing fine if he just stayed in England.

I read somewhere that he was actually a "normal" cook in a restaurant's kitchen back in the day (which wasn't that long ago.)  Someone from a local news station showed up with a camera to feature the restaurant or something and liked Jamie's charisma.  And that's how he got his big break!  He got a cooking show on the local television station.  I love that story.  So random and awesome.  And for those of you that know me, I put him in the same category as Cesar Millan.

I actually didn't realize what he was really about until this summer.  I read an interview with him in the WholeLiving magazine.  And his best advice to the readers was, "How you spend your dollars at the supermarket is the most important way to create changes in the food industry."  This makes me think that we may be hearing more from this guy after he defeats school lunches.  I think this guy is working in phases.

Kombucha Instructions

Fran was wanting to get her own kombucha going.  I supplied her with a scoby earlier this summer, and finally got to writing down the instructions for her.  I thought I would document it in my blog!

Utensils you will need:

• Large one gallon or larger stainless steel pot (Second choice glass)
• 3 1/2 quarts of distilled or filtered water
• black or green tea (six tea bags or six tbsp)
• 1 cup raw organic cane sugar
• Large jar (at least a gallon-size)
• distilled vinegar
• 1/2 cup of starter kombucha tea (what your scoby is in)
• Light clean cloth that will fit over the opening
• rubber band

Preparing the Tea

1. Using the stainless steel pot, bring water to a rapid boil. Be sure this water is filtered or distilled.
2. Add sugar and boil 5 minutes longer.
3. Turn off heat and add tea and steep for 15 minutes to overnight. This is a preference, but I usually steep until cool.
4. Cover as needed to prevent anything from getting in the tea. 
5. Allow to cool to room temperature.  This would also be a good time to make sure your scoby is at room temperature as well. If you've had it in the fridge, take it out and let it "warm up". It's not proven, but I feel adding a cold scoby to the tea could add days to your brew time.
6. Place cooled tea in the large jar.  Two things that are important here: Make sure the jar is clean and make sure the tea is cool. The scoby is very sensitive to both! I always make sure the jar is good by rinsing it with distilled vinegar and letting it dry before adding everything to it. With the tea, I always let it completely cool (sometimes let it sit overnight) in order to ensure it won't harm the scoby.
7. Add your starter kombucha tea and the scoby.  The scoby may float or sink to the bottom anything is acceptable.  
8. Place the fine cloth on top of the jar and secure with a rubber band.  
9. Place the jar in a warm area away from direct sunlight and do not disturb for 7 days.  At the end of the week you should see a whitish formation about 1/8 of an inch thick attached to the original scoby.  This is the "mother-baby" combination.

Testing Your Brew

1. Stick a straw in. Place your finger over one end and pull out. Place the other end in your mouth and and then release your finger. The tea will then come out. Or Simply gently press against the scoby with a spoon and taste the brew.  This is usually day 6-8. This depends on your taste and how you like your kombucha
2. When your brew is ready, you should notice an apple-cider aroma. The pH when you began with all that sugar was about 4.0. The sugar is converted as it ferments, so day 6-8 the pH is around 2.7. Store bought Vinegar is about 2.0  Some folks like a sour tea others a sweet tea. The consensus is that a kombucha that's fermented for 6-8 days at a constant 78 degrees F. will produce the best balance of beneficial nutrients as well as a semi-sweet taste.

Bottling

1. Carefully remove the culture and place it in a clean glass bowl.  (Once again, I clean with vinegar and let dry.) Cover with some of the finished tea.  Now you are ready to make a new batch.  Follow same directions.
2. Pour the filtered kombucha tea into a clean bottle and fill to the brim and cap. 
3. Allow the bottles to sit at room temperature for 1-5 days for a secondary anaerobic (without oxygen) fermentation. The  activity of the bacterium is stopped because the bottling excludes the air,  while the yeast continues to work the  gas produced by the yeast's activities, is unable to escape. Thus an  effervescent drink is produced. 
4. HINT  Some folks add one or two raisins, or a sliver of ginger, Stevia, or 1/4 tsp fructose per quart, before bottling to sweeten and for a second fermentation. This fermentation will continue until the remaining sugars are used and then refrigerate to stop the process and the ferment go dormant. 
5. Refrigeration is not needed for long term storage but KT should be maintained in a cool dry place similar to storing fine wine.

Fighting for the cause

Since I have taken some time off recently, I've been spending the majority of it reading.  Two books in particular caught my fancy, both recommended by friends knowing my interests:  Alejandro Junger's Clean and Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food.

(Sources:  Clean and Michael Pollan)

These two books actually portray the exact same message:  you are what you eat, and we as Americans are not eating well.  

Alejandro Junger is an M.D. that developed a detoxification program for clients that were having health issues, no one issue in particular.  He has several testimonials claiming success and his detox essentially consists of no meat, no caffeine, and no alcohol!  He recommends juicing twice a day and then eating a healthy meal for dinner (from his suggested recipes).  There are also interesting tidbits about eating raw garlic daily to boost immunity, letting your body rest from eating for at least 12 hours a day, and getting enough sleep.  None of his concepts really seem like rocket science.  

Junger's belief that we need to follow our human nature has stuck with me.  Our ancestors didn't have food available every season of the year.  There were months during the year where fasting was necessary due to the lack of food available.  With commercial farming and transport, we have every type of food available 365 days out of the year.  If we eat these "unseasonal" foods, we are not eating them at the peak of their ripeness and are losing key nutrients that our bodies need.  Michael Pollan also mentions this when he speaks of Aboriginies in Australia going "back to the bush".  By eating the foods that their body has evolved to accommodate, they lost weight and were in remission from diabetes.  This story also coincides with a conversation we had at the Yoga Oasis with someone who personally experienced going "back to the bush".  All of the effects were positive!

Michael Pollan made several good points in his book.  The one that I thought to be the most interesting is the amount of money Americans spend on food as opposed to other countries (% of income in ~2008):

• Americans:  9.9 
• Italians:  14.9
• French:  14.9
• Spanish:  17.1

He makes the point that if Americans spend more money on food, maybe they would be less likely to eat as much.  The Italians, French, and Spanish eat less food than us, but spend more.  

More money, higher quality, better health.

Blue Hill Farm

After discussing my "dream" with people, a few pointed me to the Blue Hill Farm.  After reading on the restaurants and the farms and watching Dan Barber (the executive chef) discuss sustainability, I knew I was obsessed.  My next trip to NYC had Blue Hill Farm on the agenda.

Lucky for me, that trip was this last weekend.  I started working on the reservations for Stone Barn about a month in advance.  It wasn't looking promising due to the weekend and Mother's Day combination.  After having a few email correspondences with their concierge, I was put on a waiting list.  A few hours before I left for NYC, I had the reservation!

My two cousins and one of their friends came with me.  You can either drive or take the train to the farm.  Two took the train, and two took a car.  The car ride was beautiful.  We walked around the farm a bit before our reservation and saw little piglets running around and cows lounging in the shade.  There was also a large garden marked vegetables.  The farm we were at is mainly for educational purposes, but they might use some of the food for the restaurant.  From what I've read, it looks like the majority of their food comes from their Berkshire farm.

The restaurant's atmosphere really was nice.  The main dining area opened up to a courtyard that could be used for lounging with pre- or post-dinner drinks.  I was wanting to be a little more connected with outside, but I'm guessing the majority of guests appreciate it.  The demographic (due to the price) was quite snobby for my taste.  It seems like the Barbers tried to cancel that out by having the cafe and educational farm right outside the hoity-toity restaurant.  The question that is running in my mind:  Will you only come out making a profit if you make it hoity-toity?  I really hope the answer to that question is no.

And now for the food:
They served a 5- or 8-course meal for Mother's Day.  We decided on the 5-course for not only the cheaper price, but the lower quantity of food.  We were a little worried about finishing.  We also paired it with a bottle of somewhat reasonably-priced Grenache wine.  One thing that us four did decide we really liked was not choosing what to get.  The only job we had to do was look to see if we had an allergy with anything on the menu.  Everything inside each dish was listed on the menu, and nothing really had more than 5 things listed.  Everything seemed very simple and basic, yet completely delicious.

Although we ordered the 5-course meal, we seemingly got 8 things.  I'm not really sure what was going on, but we surely didn't complain.  We also got potato/onion bread with homemade butter.  That was a pretty big hit at the table.  I definitely don't remember what everything was called and didn't take any pictures.  I was "in the moment" and not thinking about anything else except for what was right in front of me.  Hence why my descriptions won't be precise.

1. ASPARAGUS:  They had a wooden dice with four sticks sticking out of the holes and asparagus spears on the ends of the sticks.  The asparagus spears were probably dipped in an oil and then into sesame seeds.  There were also four tiny asparagus burgers sitting on a bed of sesame seeds in a margarita-looking glass.  The buns were lightly buttered with sesame seeds on the top and just larger than your fingertips.  The asparagus inside the bun was softer than that on the spear, but still had a crunch to it.  I'm assuming there was a sauce to it based on the color, but it wasn't apparent.
2. HERB-INFUSED SPRITZER:  It was yellowish in color.  We weren't quite sure if it had alcohol in it or not.  I can't tell you what herb was in it or anything else about it besides the fact that it was amazing.
3. ASPARAGUS SALAD:  Just that.  There were a few other salad greens mixed in with the asparagus, but I would say 70% of the salad was asparagus.  It was sliced so we could easily eat it.  It was served on a slate tray as opposed to a plate.  There were cute little purple flowers in it that not only made it beautiful, but I remember them being delicious when I ate them, too.  (That could have been my brain playing tricks on me, though.)
4. EGG:  Slightly breaded with ramps and a ramp sauce?
5. HALIBUT:  Slightly breaded like the egg and with ramps and ramp sauce?  (I could be combining the halibut and the egg, but their presentation was quite similar.)
6. PASTURE-RAISED BEEF:  Had fiddlehead ferns and other vegetables chopped up and drizzled over it.
7. RHUBARB DESSERT:  Absolutely delicious.  It was pretty much a type of pound cake with rhubarb and a red sauce on it.  The cream on the top was definitely the most amazing cream I have ever tasted in my life.  And we couldn't decide if the red sauce was raspberry or rhubarb.  It was tart, but perfectly paired with the sweet cream.
8. CHOCOLATE SHAKE:  I'm pretty sure this was just chocolate milk.  They called it a shake, but it just seemed like milk straight from the cow with a little bit of cocoa in it.

After dinner we decided to walk around for a bit.  We walked down to the greenhouses and checked it out.  

I also thought it was really cool that I knew exactly what they put on their plants.  This was the only evidence I found of any external product.  It made me laugh.  They probably leave this out to ease parents' minds when their kids are rolling around in everything.

I did a little more looking around and found the chickens.  They appeared to be in 4 or 5 movable chicken coops.  It was nice to see!  The Barbers have a cool thing going.

Initial Inspiration

I gave myself an excellent quarter-century birthday gift - 3 plane tickets to the Big Island of Hawaii. One ticket was for me and the other two were for my sister and cousin. We spent two weeks in paradise!

For one night, my sister and cousin agreed to stay at a yoga retreat that I had found online. None of us really knew what to expect, but I've found that for at least one night on your "vacation" it's good to get out of the comfort zone. The yoga retreat I found seemed pretty secluded in the middle of the Hawaiian jungle. I was really excited! The retreat was called Yoga Oasis. Everything is eco-friendly: the mosquito nets that cover porches, the electricity, the water system, the food. We ended up staying in the Coconut Cabin. My cousin and sister didn't seem to be too thrilled about the accommodations at the time. I think it was mainly due to the bugs and bathroom situation. (The outdoor coconut showers seemed a little too out in the open. It's a little weird being able to hear people and cars on the road, but not able to see them. The tub room also did not have any curtains, but you were in a screened building so no bugs! The picture is the view through the "windows" in the tub room.) All of the noises in the night were a little frightening, as well. I think not having locks on the doors was also a source of anxiety for us city-folk. But in the end, we all loved the Oasis.

There was no TV in the Coconut room. Just sitting space, a porch, and a book on the Dalai Lama. We were enough company for each other, so none of that mattered. We talked, read, and slept until our yoga session in the morning. At about 7:30 we took a walk up to the main building (through the chickens scratching in the yard) and sat drinking some tea before our yoga session. There was only one other person besides us at the yoga session with Hayward. The other person was a techy from LA that had just gone through surgery and was recovering at the Oasis. It seemed like a pretty cool place to concentrate on health and recovery.

The studio was amazing. And I will never forget the chant (now featured on their site) that Hayward said before the session:

"Good Morning Sun!!!

It's Great to be Alive!!!

And thanks for those rays, I needed that"

It was the most intense yoga session I've ever had in my life. I still remember the feeling of great exhaustion afterwards while walking down the stairs to breakfast. We had fresh eggs from the chickens and about two hours of great conversation. We talked about everything - from Nebraska's corn population to the kids who were breaking the toilets the week before we got there. Ever since I've left Yoga Oasis, I can't stop thinking that we need more places like this! More places to concentrate on health, local sustainability, and eco-consciousness.