Tag: FoodWISE

Sustainable Food–Living off the land, the garden, the ferment

Now almost a month after our Western Washington University “cook-in” and “dig-in,” our class is finally over and I’m posting a few pictures of sustainable food. Below, “natural” yoghurt drains, releasing its nutritious whey (for other lacto-fermentation projects), with soft cheese remaining (for spreads). Many recipes for this can be found in both FoodWISE and…

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Sorrel soup!

Make delicious sorrel soup, sautéing spring onions, then adding freshly-cut sorrel and broth. Just salt, pepper, and a little thyme creates a delicious meal, especially with some of that bread in the previous post! Now, for a heavier version, one with vegetables and potatoes, more in the Ukraine style, see here.

The easiest cheese…Feta

On many small farms, practical wisdom encourages an entrepreneurial spirit, wanting to do more than the minimum required. Farmers understand the need to balance the restrictions of food safety rules (like the sixty-day minimum aging requirement for raw milk cheeses) with their other aims, like producing the highest flavor. Rules talk needs to be tempered…

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Spring lambs

It’s another lambing season and we’re fortunate that our first ewe, Lily, lambed just in time for Easter. Here I am, holding her 10-pounder, Josefina. They’re both a handful. Josefina is an E Friesen-Tunis-Finn cross. Beautiful wool, creamy milk.

Glorious vegetables

Here’s a few favorites of mine—carrots and broccoli. FoodWISE, it helps to harvest at the peak of maturity—roots having been fed with nourishing manures and/or composts, maybe even with a celestial connection as in biodynamic practice. Understanding when and why and how our food arrives on our table really matters in the case of vegetables—…

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Cheese, glorious cheese

I still consider fermented foods such as yogurt, cheese, and sauerkraut to be wholefoods. Natural processes of fermentation are everywhere. Milk wants to be cheeseand sour cream: it starts to sour soon after it exits the animal unless properlyrefrigerated and handled. Cultures aid the transformation. That is the origin story of cheese: probably discovered millennia…

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A Fall harvest of art and science

Here, in the Northwest, we enjoy a weather pattern that is conducive to grazing and growing. Hard work in spring and summer pays off in fall. And, at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA young legumes peek through the soil. They’ve made great progress since their October seeding.

Returning home from Europe—to a world of cheesemaking

Each year, I take students to Europe….where we cook, as below…. And tour the countryside, as here, in San Gimignano: But, exciting, too, is returning home to milk sheep and make cheese…and chickens that love cheese rinds and cats that love baths.