One Tart

This is THE ONE TART that is absolutely foolproof. My dear kitchenly challenged roommate even feels comfortable baking it. The trick is that each ingredient is one of some sort of measurement. The best aspect of this tart is that not only is it unforgettable in regard to both the recipe and flavor, but it is undeniably delicious. I have never had leftovers from this tart. It is so easy that upon any last minute request, you can easily put together this guaranteed hit. Also, any seasonal fruit compliments the tart. In this edition, I put slivered peaches on the bottom of the tart pan and blueberries on the top. It made a hit recipe receive even more positive reviews than ever! The images shown are with a double recipe.

Ingredients:

1 egg

1 stick of butter

1 cup of white granulated sugar

1 cup of flour

Zest of 1 lemon

1 Teaspoon of vanilla

1 Pinch of salt.

Feeling Fancy?

3 thinly slice ripe peaches, or any stone fruit

1 Cup of blueberries

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F
2. Scant (thinly slice) one stick of cold butter. Combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Beat the two together using an electric mixer until smooth.
3.  Add the egg.
4. Mix in the flour, salt, vanilla, and zest of one lemon. Beat until well mixed.
5. Optional: If you are choosing the peaches route, thinly slice peaches and make one layer of them in the bottom of a tart pan.
6. Evenly distribute the dough mix over the peaches. The dough may be rather viscous; it is totally acceptable to use your hands.
7. Optional: Dribble the blueberries on top of the dough.
8. Bake in the oven for approximately thirty minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Baffoni's Poultry Farm

Turkeys on raised platforms

Several weeks ago I visited Baffoni’s Poultry Farm. It took me awhile to write about the farm because I was overwhelmed by the shear mass of poultry. Interestingly enough, Baffoni’s Farm is not even that large,compared to most poultry farms. They raise a total of 25,000 chickens and 1,200 turkeys. They also collect hundreds of eggs a day. What was interesting about this farm was that, although there were many aspects of the farm that could be improved, it still was operating above conventional poultry farming standards. I also learned that poultry farming is complicated because there are many more factors that go into production cost than one would first think. In this post, I want to discuss several topics regarding poultry farming. The first goal is to present the history of Baffoni’s Poultry Farm. The second is to provide an overview of poultry farming and some subtopics, such as cage-free versus free range chickens, hatcheries, and debeaking.  The third topic I wish to address and advocate for is why you should support Baffoni’s Poultry Farm and go deeper into why it took me so long to write about. This is important because the concept of food in mass quantities is a bit repulsive, yet realistically, this is how the majority of our food is produced. I am very interested in your response to the images because I still feel uncomfortable looking at the pictures I took. I found them rather unsettling and creepy but I do not know how to articulate an explanation for these feelings.

Baffoni’s is an eighty-acre farm that was founded in 1935. It began as a very small poultry farm and slowly expanded over the years.In 1973 the farm was inherited by the Baffoni brothers, one being Don our tour guide (“our” being  Hannah, a Farm Fresh employee that went to the farm with me). Each family member tends to different tasks, ranging from upkeep, gardening, running the farm store, processing, etc. They work together and productively. In order to make ends meet, however, most of them also have to work elsewhere. Although working two jobs is common among farmers, it strikes me as incredibly difficult considering there is so much to do on this farm. Baffoni’s Poultry Farm maintains a small- sized vegetable garden, raises thousands of poultry, process all of the meat onsite, maintains a family store, collects, washes, and sorts hundreds of eggs daily, and raises their own chicks. Everything is done on site, which is a tremendous amount of labor for only eight employees total.

All of the eggs collected that morning

The amount of work is amplified by the farm’s goal for high quality products. They certainly value quality over quantity, which can also be seen in their processing plant. They only process 750 chickens a week in order to insure that their product is always top-notch. Don noted that every day they completely sell out. Doing everything onsite also allows their products to remain well priced. 

Baffoni’s Poultry are cage free but not free range. Cage free means that the poultry lives in pens or in barns, where as free range chickens have access to the outdoors. It is not that the people at Baffoni’s Farm do not want to give their poultry time outside, but predators become a large issue when poultry is free range. Predators such as eagles and foxes can enter a farm and attack poultry that has access to the outdoors. Free range poultry creates fiscal and safety risks for a farm that cage free does not. This practice is not very sensible for a small family farm such as Baffoni’s.

Baby Turkeys

 Cage free, however, is still a humane way of raising poultry. They are all fed 100% natural vegetarian feed. They are raised onsite, starting as baby chicks in large warm barns; the chicks are bought from a hatchery, which I will go into more later. As they grow older, they are moved to larger spaces. The turkeys live on a large, fenced-in platforms outside. There are 275 turkeys in each 1500 square foot platform; this is plenty of room for them to move around. The platforms are elevated so that their waste falls in between the slotted floor. The chickens and laying hens have similar arrangements. They too can run around freely in large indoor pens.  In the adjacent images, it will look much more cramped than it is. This is because, depending on the age, the chickens would either run towards or away from Hannah and me. The baby chicks were more afraid and huddled together at the back of the pens as far away from us as possible. The turkeys that were a few months old were very curious about us. They ran towards the front of the door, which makes them look very crowded in the photos. Keep in mind, there was tons of empty space behind them. The broad breasted Cornish broiler poultry are the chickens that are seated; they were fully-grown and very hot from the heat wave. The laying-hens were not afraid of us and a little too close for comfort. They pecked at our legs and surrounded us. Each of the poultry’s quarters had ample space.  In addition, these cage free animals all had access to plenty of sunlight and fresh air.  In each barn there were multiple large screen windows where sunlight poured in.

Broad Breasted Cornish Broiler Chickens

Cage free animals’ health is also much better than caged livestock’s. Hannah and I were allowed to walked around in some of the pens; unlike many poultry operations, thee chickens and hens were so healthy that they could be exposed to humans without the worry of their getting sick, or about us getting sick for that matter. The poultry’s living conditions are of remarkable standards, especially considering how many livestock they maintain.*

Baffoni’s Farm purchases chicks from a hatchery. This is so that they only get female chicks. Male chicks are considered relatively useless on farms. It makes more sense for one hatchery to distribute baby male chicks to multiple farms looking for one or two future roosters than it does to raise your own chicks. Male chicks born on farms are generally killed immediately in ways that you can look up yourself (warning).  It is more humane and efficient for a small farm like Baffoni’s to purchase chicks from hatcheries than it does to incubate and cultivate fertilized eggs themselves.

Laying Hens (top and bottom left),
Baby Turkeys that have already been debeaked

As the chicks grow into turkeys and chickens, the turkeys and laying-hens are debeaked while the chickens are not. Debeaking is the process by which part of a fowl’s beak is sliced off or burned off so that it is less sharp and dangerous to its fellow mates. Animal right’s activists are opposed to debeaking because, well, if you were a turkey, would you enjoy having your beak burned off? In conventional farming practices, this is done because caged poultry become aggressive in close quarters, attack each other, and act cannibalistically. They will do severe, irreparable damage to one another when put too close together. However, this farm debeaks the turkeys for another reason. When a turkey gets sick or injured, the other turkeys will attack it and sometimes kill it or, again, eat it. This is not good because many minor sickness and injuries are temporary. Don says that the turkeys are debeaked because the damage their beaks can do to one another outweighs the positive arguments for not debeaking them. On the other hand (or should we say hen), the laying- hens are also very aggressive and debeaked for similar reasons. The broad breasted broiler chickens are not debeaked. They are docile compared to the other two. Don uses the same logic. The damage that the other poultry can do to one another does not outweigh the affects of debeaking. The chickens do less damage to one another, and therefore, it is unnecessary to debeak them.

Large Barn for laying-hens

After visiting Baffoni’s Poultry Farm, I was faced with a reality of farming that is less than pleasant because mass produced food is unappetizing, baby turkeys look like dinosaurs, and chances are that Baffoni’s farm provides an environment for their poultry that is exponentially better than most. Of course, we all want our chicken to run around in unrestrained spaces, consume a completely natural diet, and not be debeaked. Unfortunately, those circumstances are generally unrealistic. Don told me about a woman who had her chickens processed at Baffoni’s slaughterhouse. She raised them in the “ideal” conditions I just described. Apparently, the chickens were only skin and bone. She and Don agreed that the meat was practically inedible and barely worth cooking because there was so little of it. Ideal living conditions for poultry does not create ideal tasting conditions for consumers. Don also has experienced this with his broad breasted Cornish broiler chickens. Even though it is slightly harder for these chickens to move around because they are bred to have larger breasts, consumers do not want anything smaller. In regard to the mass production issue, it is something I just need to get passed or I really need to start my own farm. If these pictures are unappetizing to you, you can also look into raising your own chickens. If you live in Rhode Island, you are voting about urban chickens soon and should watch this movie: Mad City Chicken.

After several weeks of internal debate, I have concluded that Baffoni’s Poultry Farm is one I will support. It is has enlightened me to the fact that I do need to visit any poultry or meat farm that I consume products from. If you have the time, I highly recommend you do this yourselves. This farm really made me question if eating most chicken was worth it. Honestly, I say yes now, but I am not sure how long that will last. There are a lot of other issues to address in regard to a poultry farm such as ammonia levels, waste contamination, general environmental issues, slaughterhouses, etc. Below are some pictures of where all of the poultry is slaughtered onsite. When I have time, hopefully I will be able to present more information about these issues, but I think this post has been long enough. If you are interested in trying Baffoni’s products, you can purchase Baffoni’s Poultry at a variety of local restaurants in the Rhode Island area, their farm store, or at the following farmers’ markets in Rhode Island: Barrington, Pawtucket/ Slater Mill, and Pawtucket Wintertime.

* Don later told me that most farm tours at Baffoni's are not allowed in the barns. We were allowed in given Farm Fresh's relationship to the farm. But still, look at the egg crisis that is going on right now! We  still were able to go in. The amount of space and healthy environment these poultry are in is clearly above conventional standards!
 Other Fun Photos:

Hundreds of eggs are collected a day. Then they are washed in the machine shown in the middle. The eggs get sorted by size and are hand packed.

The Processing Center:

1. The chickens are first killed. 2. A picture of the entire processing plant. 3. At 160F, the chickens are sanitized. 4. The de-feathering machine. 5. The chickens are hand inspected to make no feathers are missed. 6. The poultry is cut, gutted, and iced. After the processing is completed, minutes later you can purchase your products at the farm store connected to the processing center.

Red Bell Peppers Stuffed with Brown Rice, Onion, and Oyster Mushrooms

Red Bell Peppers Stuffed with Brown Rice, Onion, and Oyster Mushrooms

These stuffed peppers turned out surprisingly well. There were six red bell peppers in the house that desperately needed to be consumed. What the purchaser was thinking buying six red bell peppers is beyond me, but the family had to make due. I concocted this recipe on a whim, and it turned out surprisingly well. The roasted red peppers ended up being moist and flavorful. They did not taste mushy and were very tender. They almost tasted grilled without the inevitable black char that always seems to happen when you grill peppers. The rice was also very tastey. My approach was a combination of risotto style cooking meets traditional rice cooking. This is a recipe that is perfect to serve to a vegetarian at a dinner party, or if you are looking to try something simple and new.  It is also a good recipe because you can make adjustments according to your personal preference. For example, feel free to alter the pepper levels or water-broth-wine rations. Read through the recipe before you begin.

Serves 6 as entrée, 12 as appetizer (cut in half)

Time: 1.5 hours… brown rice takes a lot longer than you (I) think

We actually ended up eating them for dessert because the rice took its sweet time. Then again, it says something that every member of my family thought they tasted unbelievably good even though they were full from dinner part one.

Ingredients:

6 Ripe Red Bell Peppers

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Red pepper chili flakes

Cayenne pepper

¼ tsp Honey

½-3/4 cup coarsely chopped oyster mushrooms (or any whatever fungi fits your fancy)

½ white onion coarsely chopped (3/4 cup)

3 cloves of garlic coarsely chopped

½ cup of white wine

32 ounces vegetable oil

1 ½ cup brown rice

Parmesean cheese (shredded)

Tools:

Medium sized Cast Iron Pot

Baking Dish

Small sautée pan

1.                    Preheat oven to 250F. Wash the bell peppers and cut of the tops. Core the peppers. Brush the baking dish with olive oil. Brush the outside of the bell peppers with olive oil. Put the bell peppers cut side down onto the baking sheet and put in the oven for one hour.

2.              Meanwhile, in a medium size cast iron pot, pour in a thin layer of olive oil. Turn up the flame to medium heat and add the three cloves of chopped garlic and the ½ onion that has been coarsely chopped. Measure out 1 cup of vegetable broth and set aside. You may continue with the rest of the steps. If the bell peppers finish before the rice is ready, simply turn off the oven and let them rest in there.

3.              In a separate pan, turn the heat on medium-low and add another thin layer of olive to a small non-stick sauté pan. Add the mushrooms. First they will look too dry, but don’t worry, within five minutes the mushrooms will release their juices and all will be ok.  Add ¼ tsp of salt, ¼ tsp of honey, one shake of red pepper chili flakes, and literally a splash of white wine (about 1-2 tablespoons).  Stir occasionally.

4.              As you monitor both pans, stir both from time to time. When the onions turn translucent, add the rice and mix around so that it has a small coat of oil on it too. Add one to two cups of vegetable broth and ½ of water to the rice- onion mixture and stir. You want there to be plenty of liquid but the rice should not be submerged. Add a few shakes of salt, and 2-3 “shakes” of cayenne pepper to the rice.

5.              When the mushrooms have released their liquid and taste like cooked mushrooms (about five minutes) pour the mushrooms into the rice.

6.              Stir the rice. When the liquid begins to be absorbed add another cup of water and the remaining wine. Continue to stir. Add more water and broth in small batches for about twenty minutes.

7.              Then add the remaining vegetable broth, the 1 cup of broth that you set aside before and some more water in the rice. The liquid should not be fully covering the rice, but there should certainly be an excess amount of liquid. Put the cover on the rice, turn the burner to low heat for ten minutes.

8.              Stir the rice. If it looks dry add any remaining broth or wine you have open lying around. If you have run out, just add water, it will be fine. Again, add enough liquid so that the rice will not burn within the next fifteen minutes. About 1 cup. Place the lid back on the pot and wait another ten minutes. Stir again at ten and place lid back on for another five minutes.

9.              Remove the lid. Taste your rice. Hopefully it’s done. If not, keep treating the rice like risotto. Add liquid, stir, rice absorbs liquid, and repeat this cycle until the rice is moist, soft and delicious.

10.           Remove the rice from heat. Remove the peppers from the oven. Turn the peppers back over (top side up) and begin filling them with the rice. Sprinkle a thin layer of parmesean cheese on each pepper. Put them back in the oven so the cheese melts and enjoy!

Four Town Farm

Four Town Farm is a beautiful family farm in Seekonk, MA. The farm is comprised of 150 acres on which they grow a large variety of vegetables, gourds, fruits, and flowers. It has been family owned and operated by the Clegg family for the entire duration of the farm’s existence. Today, three generations of the family work on the farm. When the farm first started, their produce was mostly sold as wholesale to grocery stores. In 1972, the Clegg family began a farm stand. It has been so successful that the stand is now where they sell majority of their products. They also sell wholesale to local restaurants through Farm Fresh’s Mobile Market. Chris, the youngest family member working on farm, (compared to the oldest who is ninety-one) was gracious enough to show me around. I particularly enjoyed my visit to Four Town Farm because Chris answered me honestly and in great detail. As a result of this experience, I was better able to understand why certain changes occur when a farm increases in size as well as learn about educated pesticide use, and the benefits of a multi-generation family farm.

"Screw Lettuce"

The land of Four Town Farm is a combination of owned and leased acreage. Due to its size, it is much more efficient to drive around the fields than it is to walk.  Even with a car, it is difficult to operate that much land. Chris explained that his family works every day, and when you do take a day off, it’s not a day off; it’s falling a day behind. There is always work to do! When we drove around, there was lettuce that was overgrown; it looked like a grooved nail was emerging from the center of a beautiful head of lettuce. Although it looked interesting, apparently the lettuce grew too much before the family had time to pick it. Even though there are plenty of employees on the farm, the amount of work outweighs the number of workers. Even with multiple employees, no days off, cars, and conventional farming practices, the work on a farm never ends.

The mass amount of never ending work also explains Four Town Farm’s conventional farming practices. The farm does use pesticides, however, they use them admirably responsibly. In Chris’ truck, the back seat is filled with books that are used to identify pests. They never spray casually. If there are too many pests on a plant, they identify the pest, and use the most pest- specific, preferably organic pesticide that has the fewest side effects. This process is very time consuming because before they use any products, they spend ample amounts of time researching the issue and the solution so that they use pesticides as responsibly as possible.

Plastic Mulch

The farm also uses other farming practices that benefit the environment. Four Town Farm cultivates a broad spectrum of crops because it is better for the soil’s health. In addition, they rotate what crops are planted where. This also benefit’s the soil’s health because when these two practices are used together, they reduce the risk of depleting the soil’s nutrients.  Also, if anything is past its picking point, instead of discarding it, they remix the crop back into the soil to increase the soil’s nutrient levels.

The large amount of land also allows for their farm stand to be very busy and full of a variety of products. Also, by not having to deal with the pressures of providing to grocery stores, they can pick all of the crops at their prime, not when an order is due.  Having their main source of income derive from their farm stand also provides more flexibility in other ways. On their website, they encourage customers to suggest any new crops they wish for Four Town Farm to grow. They also make individually requested flower boxes, hanging baskets, and bouquets! The farm stand also dramatically reduces the costs of their products. Since they do not have to pay for gas, packaging, or shipping, everything is reasonably priced. I purchased about four days worth of food for less than twenty dollars!

Yummy Produce from Four Town Farm
(Excluding the Spinach)

            

Another benefit that comes with a farm of this age and size is knowledge.  All of the family members have worked on the farm since their youth. This means that each farmer began learning the tricks of the trade at a young age. Just like any skill, time, practice, and experience is what makes you better. The family farm model has provided each family member more years of farming experience than other farmers in the area. Since Four Town Farm is a multi-generational farm, older members of the family have also shared their knowledge with the younger generations. Each family member who farms has been able to acquire many generations of farming skills, which results in a more productive farm overall.

Some of the flowers that they grow
and with which they can make personal bouquets and flower hangers

            When talking to Chris, he said that one of his favorite parts about farming is using this familial knowledge to perfect growing certain crops. He said it is very humbling to work on a farm because nature is constantly testing your knowledge. It can take a whole life to figure out how to best grow a crop, so having many generations of farmers is quite beneficial for improving one’s cultivating practices. As a result of this multi-generational knowledge, Four Town Farm is now incredibly well known for its corn. Such knowledge has also allowed them to improve their quality of lettuce by using plastic mulch that reduces the amount of dirt in the leaves. With the combination of: generations of knowledge, decades of farming experience, and the patience to make meticulous adjustments in farming techniques, Four Town Farm is able to provide notably high quality produce. The time and effort that they put into their farm definitely pays off. The skills that come with a multi-generational farm is one of the main qualities that really make Farm Town Farm stand out as a local farm to support. You can visit their farm stand or spend a day picking your own at 90 George Street in Seekonk, MA. For more information, visit their website at: http://www.4townfarm.com.

Chris next to one of the tractors

Not Your Average Warm and Fuzzy Soup

Part I: The Fuzzy Melon Experience

After my visit to Baffoni Chicken farm, I did not leave with chicken; I left with a fuzzy melon. Fuzzy melon, aka fuzzy squash, is a vegetable of Chinese origin. It grows on vines that have very large leaves. As you can see, the fuzzy melon is ginormous. It was as thick and as long as my thigh! (It is also very heavy as you can see by my awkward weight distribution in the picture above.) Hannah, an employee at farm fresh, and I went to Baffoni Farm together.  When given the melon, neither one of us were not sure what to do with the gift, so we decided to split it in half and each take home a piece. Here is my account of the fuzzy melon experience (FME). The first shock was the fuzzy melon’s texture. I thought it would be hard to cut open, like a squash, but it was actually very easy. We cut it in half with a butter knife. Then, we were both surprised by the number of seeds the melon had.

Given its size,

one would expect for there to be a lot of meat to the vegetable, but no, there is actually very little to eat of the melon once you remove the seeds. The next challenge she and I both experienced was how to cook it. If it’s a melon, do you cook it at all? If it’s a squash, do you cook it like a curry, similar to eggplant parmesan, sauté it? And the seeds! They tasted pretty good raw, but should I bake them like pumpkin seeds or simply discard them? So many questions and not that much information on the Internet. Well, Benner and I took the plunge and decided to abandon our initial cooking ideas and make soup.

1) We treated the fuzzy melon like a butternut squash soup. First, the fuzzy melon was cut into pieces and drizzled in olive oil and salt. Then, in about ½ inch of water, the melon was cooked skin side up at 350F. The melon was cooked until it was easy to poke, about forty minutes, removed from the oven and then the skin was removed.

 2) In a medium sized pot, toss in 1 finely chopped small onion, 1 finely chopped carrot, and 1 tsp of fresh dill were sautéed together in olive, salt, cayenne pepper, cumin, and the juice of ½ a lemon. When the carrots were soft and the onion was translucent and on the cusp of browning, about 2 cups of vegetable broth were added. Once simmering, the inside flesh/meat of the fuzzy melon was added. Using a potato masher, the melon was mashed up and sat for about fifteen minutes. Then, the rest of the lemon was added. About ½ tsp of fresh dill was also added at this point.

 3) We finished the soup in the food processor so that it would be more like a bisque. We put in batches of the soup and began to puree it. Several—explosions of burning hot liquid forcing the cap off of the food processor and onto me later-- we had soup.

The soup’s flavor was unexpected. To me, it tasted like a pea soup that had been watered down. The aftertaste was even stranger, it was like a small punch of bitterness, similar flavors to a zucchini or an undercooked eggplant. During all of this flavor exploration, I also picked up hints of the carrot, so I guess fuzzy melon sort of tastes like carrot, zucchini, pea soup. I have to say though, my taste buds were not familiar with the fuzzy melon, and although I thought this soup tasted shockingly delicious, I had some trouble getting past the unfamiliar tangy bitter taste. Benner, on the other hand, loved it. He said the soup tasted good, and he even got seconds! He also made the pea soup connection and thought it had flavors similar to Indian cuisine. I think the fuzzy melon soup/bisque was a success. I would recommend this soup to people that like earthy winter flavors, like mom or my sister Juliana.

 I am not sure that I will make this soup again. Not because I didn’t like it, but I do not know when I will get the chance to cook a fuzzy melon again. There are also some things I would change about this soup.  In the future, I may add sweet potato, leeks, white pepper, and more heat. I felt like the fuzzy melon experience could have been improved; however, given the initial circumstances, I am quite proud that we in what we accomplished.

PYO Blueberries!!!

A trip to Jaswell Farm in Smithfield, RI. Five of us spent the afternoon blueberry picking. We picked about 20 pounds!

Picture Perfect at Jaswell Farms
Photos by Benner!

A few weeks ago, in Farm Fresh’s weekly newsletter, I wrote about how awesome it is to pick your own blueberries. I actually had never been to a PYO location, but I had picked blueberries as a kid up in Maine. Well, I decided to take a piece of my own advice and go blueberry picking with some friends at Jaswell Farm in Smithfield, RI. Rosemary, Nora, Benner, Jesse, and I piled into my car and drove for about fifteen minutes before we arrived at the farm. It really is amazing how close a city can be to farmland.

Oh hey, that's what your blogger looks like when
                 crawling in between rows of blueberry bushes!!

If you ever get the chance to go blueberry picking, or any sort of pick it yourself operation, I highly recommend it. Not only was it fun, exciting, and even a little competitive at times, but it was also a different way to interact with one’s food. To be able to see huge blueberry bushes exploding with fruit on them was fascinating. Then, to be able to personally select every blueberry by hand felt very special. It became personal… maybe even a personal investment. Since we handpicked every blueberry, I immediately froze a bunch of them so that none of them would be wasted. I also was more willing to share blueberries and brought some into school because I was proud that we had picked them ourselves and wanted to share that with others. When you have the opportunity and experience to pick your own food, that food becomes a lot more valuable to you. The funniest part is that blueberries are a lot less expensive when you pick them yourself. These blueberries were about $2.98/pound. Two weeks before I bought a pint of blueberries for $5!!! Picking my own fruit changed my relationship to food and made me appreciate the path food takes from being grown to being served on my table exponentially more.  Hopefully you will have the time to do this activity with your loved ones soon!

        Here's some pictures to excite and encourage you to go blueberry picking yourself!

My splendid team of workers Jesse (the boy), Rosemary(left), Nora (right)

Nearly twenty pounds of blueberries!!!

Picture by Rosemary

That sure makes Jesse happy!            

Are you now craving some food with blueberries in it?

Here's a link to a few recipes that I posted in Farm Fresh's newsletter last week!

My own blueberry crisp recipe will be up soon!

Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry Peach  Salsa

Bluberry Feta Almond Mixed Green Salad

Crescent Ridge Dairy

I am a milk machine. Put a glass in front of me, and I will chug it in seconds. When I was younger, I literally drank more milk than water. At the peak of my milk drinking days I was drinking about half a gallon daily. I am also a milk snob. I will not drink milk out of plastic containers because I think it tastes funky and much prefer cardboard or glass containers. Suffice to say, I am very into milk. In the beginning of the summer, I started doing a lot of research about the history of milk and its actual nutritional value; however, I didn’t feel comfortable writing about it until I visited a dairy farm. That opportunity did not arise until I found out that my cousin Adam’s girlfriend Laura had a connection to Crescent Ridge Dairy. Jubilant at the idea that this means someday I might have a connection to a dairy company, I contacted Laura and asked if someone would be able to show me around. As luck would have it, the CEO Mark Parrish contacted me and offered to talk to me about Crescent Ridge Dairy. I recognize that had it not been for my connection to Laura, Mark may not have been as kind as he was or willing to show me as much as he did, but independently, Crescent Ridge deserves a standing ovation. I was blown away by Mark’s honesty and transparency about the company. Not only did he speak to me honestly about the inner workings of the company, the future of Crescent Ridge, but he also showed me everything from the raw milk holding tanks, the bottling factory, the refrigeration systems, the inclement weather barn for the future free range –grass fed beef cows, the ice cream store, and more. It was clear that Crescent Ridge had nothing to hide and fully supported their own products. Crescent Ridge Dairy is a company that does dairy right, and I feel incredibly lucky to have been afforded such the opportunity to spend a morning there.

Crescent Ridge Dairy was founded in 1894 and was purchased in 1932 by the Parrish family. The company started as a dairy farm that supplied schools with milk, and then evolved into a milk delivery company. Today, Crescent Ridge continues to deliver milk weekly to its customers, as well as to sell their products in thirty-five grocery stores throughout the North East.  Over time, Crescent Ridge has expanded its line of delivery products to now over a hundred quality items such as eggs, breads, and Crescent Ridge ice cream, which was rated as one of the ten best ice creams in the world by National Geographic.

The company used to raise and milk its own cows, but now they get their milk raw from Howrigan Family Farm in Vermont. This transition occurred so that Crescent Ridge could continue to expand its customer base without compromising the cattle’s quality of life. Howrigan Family Farm is part of the St. Alban’s Dairy Co-op. The heifer cows from Howrigan come down to Crescent Ridge Dairy for five to six months of the year to graze on their fields. Mark referred to this as “cow summer camp” because they get to play all day on forty-four acres of pasture. The cows come to Crescent Ridge when they are not being milked. This is beneficial for the cows because it incorporates a grass fed component into their diet.

The pastures reach beyond the horizon

In addition to producing milk,  Crescent Ridge is expanding their company to include beef. They will begin raising Hereford or Angus beef calves, which will be entirely grass fed and free range. They are also currently updating their barn so that the cows will have shelter for particularly bad days during the East Coast’s winters. They will market their beef to their current dairy customers. This program was developed in response to consumer demand for more local, grass fed beef, and Mark figured that they already had many of the supplies, so they might as well make the customers happy. Similar to Lou at Hill Farm, Mark believes that raising grass fed free range animals is easy because so many problems are reduced by raising them in a natural environment. Mark invited me to visit again soon so that I can see the new calves; I will.

This year, Sustainable Bizness Practices presented Crescent Ridge with the Green Packy Award. This award is given to a company if their packaging is sustainable. It is sponsored by Whole Foods Markets, Whole Food Markets Green Mission, United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) and the Food Trade Sustainability Leadership Association (FTSLA).  Crescent Ridge uses glass bottles that can be returned and refilled. This requires less waste and energy than plastic or cardboard milk containers. In addition, glass does not hold onto flavors from previous usages, whereas plastic does. Crescent Ridge was one of nineteen recipients of the Green Packy Award. The Green Packy Award confirms that Crescent Ridge uses responsible packaging for its products, and is an accurate reflection of the company’s commitment to sustainability.

Making Crescent Ridge products is a straightforward process. The raw milk is stored, blended, and bottled onsite. Crescent Ridge has a unique process for making different percentages of milk. Instead of constantly skimming off cream to make the different milks, Crescent Ridge blends their whole milk with the non-fat milk in order to make the 1% and 2%. This is important because this method increases the cream content for all of the milk, thus making a creamier, tastier product. In addition, Crescent Ridge milk has a higher cream content than the federal requirements. The minimum cream content in whole milk is 3.2%, but Crescent Ridge’s cream content is 4-4.1%. This also adds to the milks distinctly creamy flavor. After the milk is mixed, it is bottled on site. 

Just like the milk making process, the packaging process is also transparent. Before this fresh and creamy milk can be bottled, the containers all need to be sanitized. This is done on site in their massive dishwasher. The cycle takes about twenty minutes. This method of cleaning uses a lot less energy than sending the bottles to be recycled at a plant, broken down, and reformed into other glass products. It is more energy efficient to reuse the original bottles. Consumers are responsible for returning the bottles. They can either be returned to a grocery store or to the dairy delivery person. Once the bottles are washed, they go on a conveyor belt that brings them to the filling room. In these photos you can see the pasteurizing machine that records the time it takes to reach the highest temperature and what that temperature is as well, as the coolest temperature and how long it took to cool that batch of milk. In this room the milk is also homogenized so that the cream will not rise to the top. Here you can also see the capping machine and the conveyor belt that takes the completed product to the refrigeration room. All of Crescent Ridge’s milk is tested onsite in their own lab for bacteria levels as well as by the government.

Giant Dishwasher where the bottles get cleaned.

The milk capper (right), the recorder that measures how quickly the milk heated and cooled (center), a larger photo of the pasteurizing machinery (left)

Once in the refrigeration room, the crates of milk are sorted. Crescent Ridge only makes one batch of milk a day, so it is fairly easy to organize. The following day, that batch of milk is delivered to costumers by their own milk truck. Since they deliver the milk to majority of their customers, Crescent Ridge designed an insulated box for the products. The boxes stay on the customers’ doorsteps and are refilled weekly. When they finish a bottle of milk, the customer can rinse it out and leave it to be picked up and returned to the creamery. I was very impressed by the milk-processing center. When I visited, they were just cleaning up the machinery from that morning’s batch.  Once again, Mark invited me to come watch the milk being bottled early one morning on another day; hello transparency.

As if this was not enough generosity and friendliness for one day, Mark then took me to the ice cream store. Yes, I had ice cream for breakfast and it was phenomenal!!! All of the ice cream is made with Crescent Ridge milk. The Dairy Bar has forty-four different flavors of ice cream. I tried tons of flavors on my sampling spree, each one just as delicious as the next. Mark told me that he has to work out every day because he eats so much ice cream. He sent me home with a gallon of ice cream; it has been less than a week and we’ve made a significant dent in it because it tastes so good. 

By the end of my tour, I was confident that this was the best day of my summer. Being such a milk lover, I was overcome with relief to know that my milk was coming from an ethical, sustainable, and personal source. To know that I could get such quality milk in a grocery store is exciting because it shows that less conventionally produced products can be successful in the market. It should also be noted that Crescent Ridge’s prices are comparable to any other brand’s prices. I cannot thank Adam, Laura, and Mark enough for connecting me to Crescent Ridge. In a way, I may remember this visit the most because I already regularly purchased products from Crescent Ridge, so it was especially rewarding to really shake a hand that feeds me.