Misti Drinks: A Whole New Take on Local

       

              Norma, the founder of Misti, came to the United States from Peru eighteen years ago. One day, she decided to design a drink that was healthy, tasty, and had a connection to her home. So, she began experimenting with ingredients native to Peru such as corn nectar, agave, royal camu, and royal maca. With the help of the Yacht Club bottling company, Norma sells a variety of beverages at farmers’ markets in the Rhode Island area. What is interesting about Misti is that not all of the ingredients are from Rhode Island. Misti takes a new approach to the local food movement because even though some of the ingredients are imported, these plants are local to Peru, and are an integral part of Peru’s agriculture community and history. In addition, by supporting Misti, you support local farms not just in Rhode Island but on a global scale as well.

            Norma gets her ingredients through a connection to Whole World Botanicals. Dr. Vianna Muller, one of the founders, works to protect and support South American farmers. Many farms in South America face hardships due to international exploitation. Many farmers have struggled to stay in business because of biopiracy, that being where one country steals native seeds belonning to another country and grows them elsewhere. Biopiracy hurts the local agrarian economy of the seeds’ original country.  In addition, when seeds are stolen and grown in other countries, the traditions behind planting and harvesting are usually discarded. This jeopardizes the quality of the product. Whole World Botanicals is a foundation that works to support local farmers by practicing fair trade with them. In addition, the products that Norma gets from Whole World Botanicals products are all USDA organic.

         It is important to keep native plants in their native countries for many reasons. The first, from an environmental perspective, it that transplanting species into non-native countries is bad for the soil’s health and could result in other environmental issues such as non-native species dominating the native ones. Supporting these South American farms also helps prevents the farmers from being forced to start cultivating other crops or even illicit substances. Lastly, it’s also a good idea to support farmers who grow crops in their native locations because it also allots farming jobs to Peruvians, and it is important to maintain a vibrant farming community in all countries. Whole World Botanicals supports farmers that uphold to certain traditions such as harvesting certain plants during a full moon. Misti imports its ingredients from sources that support environmentally friendly and local farms in South America.

            However, Misti also has a Rhode Island local component. Misti is bottled by Yacht Club, a glass soda bottling company in Rhode Island. When Norma first started Misti, she met with Yacht Club, and the company helped get her business idea get off the ground. Now the Misti drinks are made and bottled on site in their North Providence factory. Misti drinks have no artificial color or preservatives. At the farmers’ markets, Norma also sells the original Yacht Club drinks because she likes the company and wants to support them as well.

          So, what is Misti? Misti is three different drinks. One is made out of purple corn extract, another is lime with royal camu, and there is also a strawberry drink with royal maca in it. Purple corn is grown along the coast and inland of Peru. Norma suggest drinking it for a variety of health benefits such as to reduce cholesterol, to support connective tissue, to help weight control, to balance blood sugar, and to act as an anti-inflammatory. The purple corn drink also comes in a carbonated form. Lime with royal camu is a drink that is suggested to support the immune system, mood balance, increase one’s energy, etc. Royal camu comes from a bush in the Amazonian rainforest of Peru. The bush has fruits that contain amino acids and vitamin C. Norma’s third creation, the strawberry with royal maca, is a drink that contains a lot of vitamin B1, B2, B12, calcium, and fatty acids. Royal Maca is from the Peruvian Maca root. It is known to improve stamina, the circulatory system, memory, and symptoms of depression. The flavors of the drinks are unfamiliar but delicious!

       I like the idea of supporting Norma’s drinks because there is a lot of creativity and care behind them. I was impressed to see how she was able to incorporate the local food movement into international relations and international farms. In addition, the drinks are good for you. They are a great alternative to sodas and sugary juices because they are all natural, organic, and do not have high fructose corn syrup in them.  If you feel parched at one of the farmers’ markets or while waiting in line at whole foods, pick up one of the Misti drinks and see for yourself what an ingenious creation this is!

Salad with Candied Beets and Feta

Tackling the all too frequently feared beet!

Photography by Benner!

I am always surprised when strangers ask me about beets.  I eat them weekly; I think they're delicious; they are easy to cook, but it seems as though few people are as aware of these facts as I am. They really are nature's candy. You just cook the heck out of them, and then they taste great.  This is a simple candied beet salad. You can use any variety of lettuce; I used a red head (Wishingstone Farm). There is also crumbled feta in it from Narragansett Creamery. I also recommend pine nuts in this salad, I chose to not include them this time. The beets are from Four Town Farm.




Ingredients:

• 8 small beets (Four Town Farm)
• 1/3 extra virgin olive oil (Whole Foods 365)
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1/4 tsp of dry thyme
• 1 pinch of brown sugar
• 1/2 Narragansett Creamery Sea Salt Feta Cheese
• a little less than 1 head of red lettuce (Wishingstone Farm)
• 1/4 cup of toasted pine nuts (optional)

Directions:

                         For the Beets:

1. Preheat the oven to 430 F.
2. In a bowl, combine olive oil, brown sugar, salt, and thyme
3. Thinly chop the beats into circles. Then chop each piece in half so that they look like half moons (see image above).
4. Put the beets in the bowl, and mix well. Make sure that all of the beets get a nice coating of olive oil on them.
5. Place the beets on a baking sheet. The beets should not touch.
6. Bake the beets for about 17 minutes. The beets are done when you can easily stick a fork in them. It is also ok to adjust the oven's temperature higher, up to 450F.
7. Remove from the oven, and let cool for about 4 minutes

For the Salad:

1. Wash the lettuce and tear leaves into mouth-size pieces.
2. Mix the candied beets and crumbled feta with the lettuce.
3. Mix in the toasted pine nuts (optional)
4. Mix well and serve with your favorite oil-based dressing.

Cooks Valley Farm: Interacting with Insects and IPM

Cooks Valley Farm opened in 1705 in Wrentham, MA and continues to be run by the Cook family. It is now owned and operated by Warren Cook, his wife Marilyn, and their son Nate. The farm first began as an apple orchard. Although the farm has always produced crops, the Cook family also intermittently worked in the postal service. Marilyn also grew up on a farm in the area, and the Cook family continues to cultivate crops on both properties. When I visited this farm, I was stunned by the differences between this large farm and the other two smaller farms that I have previously visited. This entry will consist of pointing out the changes in practices that I observed on Cooks Valley Farm; I attribute most of these changes to the size of the farm.


The first big, and frankly obvious, difference was the size of Cooks Valley Farm. There is an old barn, which now acts as a large farm stand. There is plenty of room and space for produce to be sold. When their crops produce fewer products than expected, they are even able to purchase produce from other farms in the area and sell them at their stand. Unlike the two smaller farms I saw, the farm stand was a very important source of income and main attraction of the farm. When I was taken on a tour of the farm, there is a vast amount of land- so much so that it is necessary to drive to some parts of it. It took about ten minutes to drive between the different plots of land. The farm is spread out for multiple reasons. The main reason being that Marilyn’s family’s farm is not right next to the Cook’s family’s farm, but as a married couple they have portions of both family’s land. In addition, the land is spread out because the Cook’s land has been divvied up over the years between family members. However, a positive consequence of this division is that most of the Cook family has remained in the area and continued to do some farming.


The size of the farm has also resulted in some changes of farming practices compared to the other farms that I’ve visited. There is a lot more work to be done on a farm of this size, and, in a way, a lot less control. Unlike smaller farms, it would be difficult for the family to walk around the entire farm every day and treat each plant individually. Therefore, the Cook family has hired some help; however, they have had trouble finding good, motivated labor. This has forced a lot more responsibility onto the three family members. Also, given the heat of the 2010 summer on the East Coast, Warren told me that they haven’t been able to plant the fall crops yet because they have been so preoccupied by trying to keep the current crops alive and hydrated.

The size of the farm also means that they have more conventional growing practices, which includes an integrated pest management system (IPM). This system mostly consists of nets and traps.However, they do also spray pesticides when necessary. Pesticides are sprayed when the insect population has reached a quota. Hopefully, this means that they only spray every so often, but when the populations get out of control, they do have to spray several times a week.

On a personal note, I felt a little uncomfortable with this frequency of pesticide use. As much as I want to support family farms, I felt that there were other local farms out there that use pesticides more stringently. However, after talking to Four Town Farm about their pesticide practices, an entry to come, I began to learn about responsible spraying. Hopefully Cooks Valley Farm uses pesticides as informed and hesitantly as Four Town Farm does, and I am going to try and follow up on this matter.

In addition, I would encourage everyone to try and visit a farm that uses pesticides in order to understand how repulsive pests can be.  When the Cook family took me on a tour of their cornfields, they cracked open the stalk of the corn and showed me a cluster of eggs inside of the corn stalk. Suffice to say this was gross. Then, Warren cracked open the stalk a bit further and out popped a pale, slimy, slightly translucent, worm-like insect! A week later I am still shivering and physically retracting at this experience. I do not want that bug in my corn. If pesticides and nets are what keep this critter out of my food, I am much less opposed to it than before this experience. Although I would prefer to have no pesticides and no unfavorable insects in my food, I am much more understanding of the needs of these practices after this memorable day.

Another difference between Cooks Valley Farm and the other farms I visited is crop diversity. Since the farm is so large, they grow a variety of different fruits, vegetables, flowers, and herbs. Previously, the family raised a range of goods such as apples, dairy cows, and vegetables. Today, Cooks Valley Farm grows about five acres of fruit trees and thirty acres of vegetables. They also have a green house for certain plants and herbs. Some of the products that they offer are apricots, apples, onions, potatoes, lettuce, eggplant, peppers, and of course many more.

The final distinct difference I noticed between this farm and the smaller farms is their opinion of the government. For smaller farms, it seems that there is a greater government dependency. Christina, from Blue Skys Flower Farm, explained that unless a farmer inherits land, it is very difficult to build a farm from the ground up, and therefore would not be able to have a farm without government subsidies. On the other hand, Warren wants the government involved as little as possible in Cooks Valley Farm. He feels that government programs are intended to keep a farm dependent, not viable. At the same time though, not everyone is as lucky as the he is since Warren not only inherited the land, but also farming knowledge and experience that has been passed down in the family for generations.

When talking to the Cook family, it is clear how much they care about their farm. All three of them enjoy working on the farm, and Nate looks forward to continuing the family tradition. Marilyn said that she loves that everything is always changing and new. There is also something very special about their land and how it has changed both in size and in purpose over the generations. And as many stories go, the history of Cooks Valley Farm is not flawless, and has had to make adjustments to their practices that have not necessarily occurred in smaller or newer farms. It will be interesting to continue visiting farms of varying sizes because I am interested in seeing if the changes that have occurred on the large Cooks Valley Farm are consistent with practices performed on other large farms in the area.

Blue Skys Flower Farm

A 1 1/3 acre flower, herb, and vegetable farm in Cranston, RI.



When I visited Blue Skys Flower Farm, I got lost, quelle surprise, because the sign said Urban Edge Farm. Hesitantly, I pulled into the driveway and parked. I saw a few unfamiliar faces and asked if they knew where I could find Christina. I had met Christina the previous Thursday at the ungodly hour of 7:30am in Pawtucket, RI because we were both helping put together CSA boxes for local restaurants (more about this in another post). Anyway, none of these women were Christina, so I was confused why they were on her farm. Turns out, it’s not just Blue Skys Flower Farm but seven farms sharing fifty acres owned by the Southside Community Land Trust. During my visit to Blue Skys Flower Farm, I began to learn about the positive benefits of working on a government subsidized farm, how a farm like this works, and how difficult it is to start a farm without the aid of an organization like Southside Community Land Trust.

How Christina started farming as an adult occurred through a series connections surrounding Southside Community Land Trust. The land originally belonged to a farmer named Arthur Ringrose. In his will, he donated it to the Department of the Environment. Eventually, the land then ended up in the hands of Southside Community Land Trust. Southside Community Land Trust allows farmers to rent a few acres of land for a low price through government subsidies. Blue Skys Flower Farm is part of Urban Edge Farm. Seven farmers and two farm stewards share all of the facilities for cost effectiveness. This program allows new farmers to enter the field without facing the financial challenges of building a farm from scratch. Although all of the farmers operate separate farms, they happily work together and support each other. Before farming, Christina was already the Director of Operations for SSCLT, so knew about the Urban Edge Farm, and eventually decided to participate in it. However, this is not the first time Christina has dabbled in farming. At one point, she studied in France. During her time there, she spent a summer on a farm. She fell in love with the taste of freshly picked produce. So, it made sense for her to pursue fresh food with her own farm when the opportunity arose.



Christina believes that without SSCLT, she would not have been able to start the farm, and she is grateful for the government subsidies. When asked if she felt like she had the government’s support, she said that she and the other farmers are just starting to feel it. Recently, she and a few other farmers at Urban Edge each received a grant to build their own greenhouses so that they can expand their operation. She said that the government is beginning to realize how healthy and productive smaller farmers can be, so only recently are farmers participating in this type of farming being rewarded or encouraged by the government. There are some definite pros to working on a government-subsidized farm. Hopefully, these benefits will continue to increase, thus making small-sized farming more appealing and accessible.

As we continued to talk, it became clear how difficult and expensive it is to start a farm without government subsidies. Christina told me that for thirty-seven acres land in RI, it would cost about $600,000. For the specific property she was referring to, the estate came with a barn, but it was not ready for crops. In order to prepare the soil, which consists of removing all of the overgrown plants and weeds, aerating the soil, etc, it could cost over a million dollars. That does not include setting up an irrigation system, about $6,000, land taxes, and building everything else necessary to run a farm. Unless a new farmer inherited the land or had a substantial inheritance, it is nearly impossible to start a farm from the ground up. It seems like the equivalent of a young person fresh out of graduate school trying to buy a worn-down house in San Francisco, CA - in other words, very difficult, impractical, inefficient, and risky.




Even though a dependency on the government develops with this model of farming, its financial and stabilizing benefits seem to outweigh this risk. Programs like Urban Edge Farm allow for people to start farming, and isn’t that what we want-to support and encourage local and sustainable farming? John Kenny, another farmer at Urban Edge and owner of Big Train Farm, expressed positive feelings about this business model and described it as “the most practical way to get a farmer on land with equipment and a reputation.” This program encourages the growth of small farms.

Christina almost solely operates Blue Skys Flowers Farm. Even though Christina has a separate full-time job, she farms for six hours a day! She says that she is constantly planting, seeding, and weeding. She plants about three hundred sunflower seeds a week, and that’s just one species out of twenty that she grows. Generally speaking, she grows a variety of flowers, vegetables, and herbs. In addition to working both in an office and in the fields, she also participates in the Four Friends CSA, sells at farmers’ markets, and works with local restaurants. She can be found on Thursday mornings at the Farm Fresh warehouse dropping of produce for restaurants through the Market Mobile.You can support her farm at the following markets: Pawtuxet Village, Providence Downtown, and Providence RIC.

Chez Panisse's Chocolate Ice Cream

One of the major disagreements I ever had with my roommate/best-friend/soul mate was over the ice cream machine I bought our first year in college. After she told me it was a waste of money, I was determined to prove her wrong and quickly gained the freshman fifteen in the last couple months of that year. We used the ice cream maker for everything. If you have an ice cream maker, or want to be daring and follow the freezing instructions from the New York Times' Tiny Kitchen, this recipe is the most chocolatey, rich, smoothe, do-not-read-any-further-if-you're-on-a-diet delicious ice cream around. It is from the cook book Chez Panisse Desserts by Lindsey R. Shere. We served it with a really light dinner of Venetian Carrots and BLUE Salad (recipes to come!) so that we had enough room for dessert.


Tools:
Ice Cream Maker

Ingredients:
6 oz of semi-sweet chocolate broken up into small pieces.
1 cup of non-fat milk (Rhody Fresh)
2 cups of half and half (Rhody Fresh)
6 egg yolks (save the whites for meringues!)
1/2 cup of white sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 pinch of salt

Directions:
1. To melt the chocolate, make your own double boiler. Fill a semi- large saucepan with about 2 inches of water. Put a smaller saucepan on top of the larger saucepan. The water should not touch the small saucepan. Turn on the stove, and heat up both until the water starts to boil. When the water boils, put the chocolate in a smaller saucepan, turn off the heat, and cover with a lid. Stir after about 3 minutes. The chocolate should melt. If it seems to thick, feel free to add in about 1 tablespoon of butter. It melts a lot easier than expected; I promise.
2. In a medium sized sauté pan, add the three cups of milk and sugar. Cook over a small-medium flame until it starts to boil. Stir occassionally.
3. In a small heat-tolerant bowl, mix together the egg yolks.
4. When the milk mixture starts to bubble, in two-three rounds add a bit of the mixture into the eggs and stir well. Then pour everything back into the sauté pan and stir constantly until a custard forms. You know a custard forms because the back of your stirring utensil will get a coat on it, slid your finger down the back of the spoon and the line should stay. Add the one teaspoon of vanilla and the pinch of salt and remove from heat.
5. Slowly pour the custard into the chocolate. Pour in a little bit, mix super well, and then pour in a little bit more. Continue until the entire custard has been well mixed into the chocolate.
6. Let stand for 15 minutes.
7. Refridgerate for at least 30 minutes or until the mixture is fairly cool.
8. Follow your ice cream maker's directions and enjoy!

It is now acceptable to have Caprese Salad for Dinner: Chilled Pasta with Fresh Basil, Mozzarella Cheese, Roasted Eggplant, and Julienne Tomatoes.

Chilled Pasta with Fresh Basil, Mozzarella Cheese, Roasted Eggplant, and Julienne Tomatoes.
Photography by Benner!

I have yet to meet someone who does not like caprese salad. The problem is that on hot days, which by the way appear endless in RI, it is not exactly acceptable nor fiscally possible to afford the dish for every meal. This is a recipe that Benner and I made as a way to make caprese salad a full, refreshing meal by bulking up the traditional caprese salad with rigatoni pasta and roasted eggplant!!

Ingredients:

2 Small Japanese Eggplants (Wishing Stone Farm)
1 Medium sized Tomato (Hill Orchards) or (Wishing Stone Farm)
1 Handful of freshly picked Basil
1 Large Mozarella Ball (Narragansett Creamery)
1 Pound of (Rigatoni) pasta.
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper

1.Preheat the oven to 380. Wash and slice the eggplant into 1/4 thick circles. Then slice the circles in half. Put a pot of salted boiling water on the stove. When boiled, pour in the pasta, cook until al dente, drain, place in a boil with a little bit of olive oil, stir, and put aside.
2. Over medium heat, put enough oil in a pan so that there is more than just a thin film of oil on the pan, enough for stir frying the eggplant. Saute the eggplant until soft. Add salt, pepper, and red pepper to your liking.
3. Spread the eggplant out on a cookie sheet and put in the oven for about 7 minutes. Since the eggplant probably looks a little soggy, we put it in the oven so that it was a more sturdy looking.
4. Chop the tomato and mozarella into small pieces. Tear up the basil in to small pieces and mix this in too. Put these in the bowl that has pasta in it. When the eggplant is finished, put it into the pasta as well. Mix and enjoy immediately or after refridgeration.

Cu"ke"umber Salad

Cucumber Salad

This salad is similar to one that you find in many Asian restaurants. It's absolutely perfect for this hot, east coast weather!!! This recipe is from Amy ...thanks!

Ingredients:

2 seedless cucumbers (or 2 seedy ones with the tough seeds removed), peeled and sliced thin

½ cup rice vinegar or white vinegar

¼ cup canola oil

A little tamari or low salt soy sauce

2-4 Tbsp sugar (use more than you think you should)

¼ tsp salt, more to taste

Lightly toasted black or regular sesame seeds

Optional: a little sesame oil

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients except the cukes with a whisk or fork. The sugar won’t entirely dissolve, but that’s OK.

2. Pour dressing over the cukes and let them marinate in the refrigerator for an hour to a day.

Visit to Hill Farm in Foster, RI

A Visit to Hill Farm in Foster, RI


When I drove to Hill Farm, I turned into a driveway where a small path cuts through the forest. Surrounded by vegetation, a small clearing opens up where there are tall native trees are on the right, and there are blueberry bushes to the left. Over to the left, were two little boys and Louis, the owner of Hill Farm, picking blueberries. It was a bit difficult to park because two guinea hens who were very interested in my tires and not very intimidated by my car. The hens roam free at Hill Farm. Once out of the car, there is no evidence that this is actually a farm. The pigs and cows are not in clear view, and there is no scent that gives away their location either. After orienting myself, I started walking back to the blueberries. The two boys came running towards me. They were very excited to show be their newly acquired treasure, tons of blueberries. Welcome to Hill Farm, a beautiful, highly sustainable family farm in Foster, RI.

Louis and Maria Vinagro founded Hill Farm in 2003. Louis grew up on a pig farm and wanted the same experience for his children. So, they bought 14 acres of land and now raise pigs, cows, guinea hens, and chickens in a natural environment. The guinea hens walk around the farm un-caged, and the pigs and cows have rotating pens in the forest. The pigs are not fed anything outside of their natural diet, and since the land is so healthy, the pigs can obtain most of their food through the grass, roots, and vegetation on the forest floor! Louis moves the pens frequently, and he plants seeds in the old pens to make sure that the land remains healthy and fertile. In addition, as the purebred Bershire pigs grow, the size of their pen increases in order to make sure that they always have more then enough room to move around and play.

I was surprised by how happy these pigs were. They ran around playing in the dirt, drinking water, and they would come up to Lou to be pet. In one pen, Louis got inside the pen to wake-up the two- hundred seventy-five pound hogs! Next to the pen for the larger pigs was a fenced off grassy area. Louis explained that that area was where the pigs were during the winter. If he hadn’t told me, I would not have known that this grassy area was muddy a few months ago. He had living proof that when pens were moved frequently, the natural vegetation was able to grow back quickly and healthily.

The Vinagro’s have a similar set up for their fours cows. The cows graze leisurely on a vast fenced-in pasture. These animals are never fed grain, and they happily live off of the grass. Louis smiled saying, “I never mow the lawn!” When the grass gets high, he moves the cows there, and they do the job for him!




The Vinagro family has an admirable relationship with their farm. There is a mutual respect between the family, the animals, and the land. They respect the land, and as a result, the soil remains fertile, and the grass grows back quickly and nutrient rich. They treat their pigs and cows with care, and the animals are genuinely happy, healthy, excited, and curious to interact with people. In addition, Hill Farm is also a member of the Rhode Island Raised Livestock Association, which is a USDA meat- processing facility for local RI farmers; from beginning to end, Hill Farm’s products remains local, small-scale, and sustainable. Hill Farm’s treatment of their animals and the environment pays off too- the farm sustains 50% of the families agrarian needs, and Louis proudly, and accurately, states that the best meal he’s ever had was right here at Hill Farm.

When I was getting ready to leave Hill Farm, Louis and I started discussing the price of land, as well as everyone’s favorite subject, taxes. I had already been so impressed by Hill Farm’s dedication to sustainability; I thought there must be some sort of government reward. No, taxes on land are extremely expensive, and one of the main forces driving out small family farms. Louis explained to be that it would be impossible for his farm to be their sole source of income. Farms are expensive to start and maintain, and land is limited and expensive in Rhode Island. Even though Hill Farm is treating its land incredibly well, there is not reward for such admirable dedication to the environment. This is important because it has now been brought to my attention that farms like these should be rewarded for their local and sustainable agrarian products and should be treated differently/ taxed differently than their larger competitors.

Lou continues with his dedication towards the environment by also running Full Circle Recycling in Rhode Island. Lou also provides free recycling to the Farm Fresh farmers’ markets. You can find Hill Farm products at these summer farmers' markets in Rhode Island: Fisherman's Memorial State Park, Goddard State Park, Armory Park, and Scituate.

Even though I was a stranger visiting Hill Farm, Lou treated me with great hospitality. As I left, he gave me a huge bag of freshly picked blueberries; “Here, they’re about, an hour old.” Lou said with a slight hint of irony. As I drove home eating, mind you the best blueberries in my life, I began to think that eating locally is the good life- freshly picked food, the ability to shake the hand that feeds me, living fewer than thirty minutes away from my food, and knowing that this little slice of heaven wasn’t hurting the environment either.