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(click for larger image)
Photograph by Amanda Stevenson
"Sorry, I can't stop to talk to you
now, I am too busy, I have to sell my vegetables. We're throwing a party
at the farm on Sunday, why don't you join us? I'll show you around the
place, and we can talk", said Dwain Livengood when I approached him at
his market at South Street and Passyunk Avenue, in Philadelphia.
Christina had asked me to write an article on farmers markets and the
first place that I headed was to Livengood's Market. I remembered that
they had a sign which said "Certified Organic Produce".
Sure, I would come to the party. It was an offer that I could not
refuse. With everything that is happening to our food supply today, I,
like many other people, have a strong craving to know the truth about
how my food is grown. I put a lot of time into shopping for and cooking
food and welcomed the opportunity to visit the Livengood Farm.
My husband Jeffrey and my daughter Amanda accompanied me on the 70 mile
drive to the farm in Lancaster. This party was a family affair and as
soon as we arrived, we felt right at home. The Livengoods are
Mennonites, and I told them about my mother, who was born and raised in
their area. Her maiden name was Ruth Isabelle Schneck, which is a very
upstate Pennsylvania name. Earl's wife Joyce seemed to be impressed that
I knew the Pennsylvania Dutch recipe for fried green tomatoes (a very
unmacrobiotic dish!).
Dwain made good on his promise and gave us a complete tour of their
farm. It was wonderful to see rows and rows of clean, pure organic
vegetables in their varying stages of readiness. I breathed in the air
and felt so honored to have this opportunity. I had tried one of their
organic cantaloupes from the market and now I saw others nestled in the
ground ripening and soon headed for the farmers market too.
There were many vegetable and fruit crops extending over acres of land.
Corn, Swiss chard, lima beans, raspberries, broccoli and peppers to name
a few. There were chestnut, persimmon and paw paw trees. I learned that
the paw paw is the only indigenous American fruit tree.
The watermelons were looking large and delicious, but their base must
turn yellow before they would be ready for picking. "Watermelon season
is coming up soon," Dwain said. This surprised me since it was then the
end of July and I had been buying watermelon all summer long. I
mentioned this to Dwain. "What you've been buying has probably been from
California," he replied.
There is a new organic certification program, which will be subject to
USDA national guidelines and will be implemented on a state level. Under
this new agenda, every farm must be certified by the state to be able to
advertise that their produce is organic. When a farm is certified they
will be allowed to call their produce "certified organic". This will go
into effect in October of this year.
I thought about what I had read in a newsletter from the Organic
Consumers Association.
In it, they said that USDA organic is, in their opnion, considered Grade
B organic. This grade B organic is certainly better, safer and healthier
than the chemically and genetically contaminated industrial food which
fills the shelves of America's supermarkets, but it is not necessarily
the full embodiment of the organic ideal.
They claim that "real organic" food, Grade A organic, if you will,
embodies additional characteristics which the USDA does not consider
important. One of which is the support of local natural food stores,
farmers markets and cooperatives. These are key institutions if we are
to build and maintain a sustainable and socially responsible economy. I
made a mental note to myself to take the time to make sure that the food
I buy in the future is not only organic but also locally grown. I
regretted that the watermelons I had been buying this year were from
California and not from a local source.
Another problem facing small organic farmers is the question of
government subsidies. The recent agricultural debacle known as the farm
bill is an alarming wake up call to anyone concerned about organic
culture and agriculture. Despite ten years of organizing and lobbying,
the organic food movement walked away from a $170 billion farm bill with
a mere one dollar of spending for every $8,500 spent on corporate
agribusiness.
I take a bite of my corn which has been cooked in its husk on an outside
grill and feel a pang of anger at our government. What will it ever take
to convince them to protect these people and their farms? The organic
farmers are working hard to produce food which will enable us to
maintain our health. They should be supported, protected and honored.
Organic farming requires dedicated, hard work, and it should be rewarded
appropriately.
Perhaps with this new certification program, organic farmers will start
to be able to carve out a bigger market for themselves in traditional
stores and supermarkets. Organic is no longer an esoteric concept and
more and more people are starting to accept the fact that food which is
adulterated with pesticides and chemicals is not the right choice for
sustaining health.
Sam Consylman, a neighbor farmer who helps the family at the markets in
the city talked about the rich limestone soil of Lancaster County. "It's
the best soil in the United States", he said proudly. "Too bad the
farmers are being squeezed off of their farms by residential
development. Look out there, you can see a housing community. That used
to be farm land for as far as the eye could see".
"What happens", he continued, "is that the developers offer the small
farmers, who are always struggling to make ends meet, anywhere from
$50,000 to $75,000 an acre to sell their property. Little by little the
farmers, who have a hard time competing with big agribusiness, throw in
the towel. There is a program called Farm Preserve, he says. It's an
attempt to protect the small farms from non-agricultural development."
After spending a few hours with Dwain and hearing how his grandfather
started their farm in 1925 and meeting and talking with his parents,
Earl and Joyce, you know that you want them to continue their good work.
More than that you realize that without this kind of commitment from
farmers we will be at a loss for quality food. Our lives, literally,
depend on our ability to purchase clean food.
We had a wonderful time on the farm. We were so happy that we took the
time to go there. We all agreed that they were very special people. As
we drove along the scenic road on our way back to the city, Jeffrey
pointed out the housing development which you could see from the farm.
It looked like any number of developments you might see. I thought of
that rich limestone soil going to waste under the concrete and roadways.
I made a little wish that the Livengood farm would never be anything
else but what is now.
If you would like to contact Farm Preserve, you can do so at
http://www.farmpreserve.com/
There are eighteen farmers markets in the Philadelphia area. There are
also many farmers markets throughout the whole country. To find the one
nearest to you log onto
http://www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets/map.htm
The 2d and South Farmers Market, which is held every Saturday from 10:00
to 2:00, until November 17th was one of Christina's pet projects. She
helped to get this market organized and running and is dedicated to the
idea of shopping at farmers markets.
In the following recipes, I used two new vegetables that I had never
even heard of before. When you shop at these markets, be adventurous and
try something new!
Originally published in
Christina Cooks Autumn 2002
ROASTED CORN ON THE COB
Earl Livengood cooked the corn for the party and was it ever delicious!
It is easy to do and you don't have to do the husking, which is what
takes all the time with corn on the cob.
Soak the corn, still in its husk, in cold water for about 15 minutes.
Lay the corn on an outside grill and cover it with burlap. Wet the
burlap a little bit and roast the corn from 45 minutes to one hour,
turning the corn every 15 minutes or so.
I ate the corn without butter, but at home I would have used umeboshi
paste in place of the butter.
NOODLES WITH ONIONS, LEEKS
AND GARLIC SCAPES
Mike from The Covered Bridge Produce Farm, who also has a stand at South
and Passyunk sold me garlic scapes. They are the flower of the garlic
and look like very long string beans. I loved the new taste that they
added to this traditional dish.
One package of brown rice udon noodles
1 medium leek, sliced thin
2 small sweet onions, cut in half moons
4 garlic scapes, sliced thin
Cook the noodles according to package directions. Sauté the garlic
scapes in toasted sesame oil with a little salt for about 10 minutes,
add the onions and leek and sauté for another five minutes. Place the
cooked noodles in the pan with the sauté mixture and season lightly with
shoyu. Serve with a generous sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds.
SAUTÉED PIGS WEED
No, this is not a joke there really is a vegetable called pigs weed. It
is also know as red root weed. Dwain told me that an Asian friend was
shocked to see that in America this green vegetable is treated as a weed
and is thrown away. In Asian cultures it is considered a delicacy. Dwain
was happy to give me a nice bunch to take home.
Chop the pigs weed coarsely and sauté very quickly in sesame oil with a
pinch of salt. Unlike kale or collards which take a bit of time to cook,
pigs weed cooks in about 1 ½ minutes and it is simply delicious. If you
come across any, be prepared to cook it the same day that you bought it
as it loses its freshness very quickly.
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