Check Out the First Downtown Farmers' Market of the Season!!

May has finally arrived which means it's time for the first Downtown Farmers' Market in Des Moines. I have really been missing San Francisco this past winter. I miss many things about California, but one of the biggest is the year round farmers' markets in the Bay Area. It made it so easy to get local produce all year long. Now that we are back in Iowa, I have been patiently (and sometimes not so patiently) waiting for spring to come so that I can shop at the farmers' market again. Before I moved back, I had heard good things about the Downtown market and I was pleasantly surprised last summer when I finally had the chance to visit it myself. It was much bigger than I expected! We shopped at the market almost every weekend last year and bought the majority of our produce there. This year we are members of the Blue Gate Farm CSA and will be getting a weekly box of produce from them in addition to the produce that we are growing in our own garden. I suspect that we won't be buying as much from the market this year because we will be getting so much from the CSA & our garden, but I still plan to visit on a regular basis to buy what I am not getting from our other sources.

Farmers markets are one of the easiest ways to buy local produce. It requires minimal commitment- you are only investing the time to visit the market & you only buy what looks good to you that day. For those who are just getting started in buying local- the farmers' market is a good first step. You don't have to invest a lot of money up front like with a CSA program or a garden. The great thing about the farmers' market is that you get to meet the wonderful people who grew the produce. You get a chance to get to know them and ask questions about how they farm. The best part is the incredibly fresh produce- some fruits and vegetables are picked just hours before you buy it- which means it tastes great and has more vitamins compared to produce that you find in the store that is weeks old.

If you would like more information about the Downtown Farmers' Market, check out their website. It has great info about what's happening at the market and what is in season. The market is every Saturday (rain or shine or snow!) May 1st through October 30th, 2010 from 7 am to noon at Historic Court District in downtown Des Moines. Hope to see you there!

I discovered a wonderful organic farm while I was at the anniversary celebration at Gateway a few weeks ago. Maharishi Vedic City Organic Farm (MVCOF) had a table displaying their produce and advertising their CSA program. I had been buying their produce at Gateway without knowing where it came from (I buy any produce that is labeled "local" or "Iowa grown" and many times it is not labeled with where it is actually coming from). I bought some beautiful broccoli, cauliflower, parsley, cilantro, and carrots from their display. I also picked up some information about their CSA program. We are already members of the Blue Gate Farm CSA program during the summer and fall, but I was thrilled to find out that MVCOF has a CSA program available year round!! They have a huge greenhouse which allows them to grow produce in the winter when the ground outside is frozen. Last year I had a hard time finding local produce from December to April, so I am really excited to participate in their CSA for the winter months. We visited the farm earlier this month and had a chance to interview Dean Goodale, who is the farm manager of MVCOF. Their greenhouse is an impressive 80,000 square feet growing tons of certified organic produce. We bought a CSA box full of vegetables while we were visiting and enjoyed the winter greens, lettuce, cauliflower and fresh herbs.

Our First Garden

We are planting our first garden this year. I have been moving every year since I graduated from high school 10 years ago. I moved from home (in Jefferson, Iowa) to college (at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa) where I moved every year from several dorms and several apartments. After graduation, I moved to Boston, MA for a year, then to Chicago for a year, then San Francisco for 2 years, then back to Iowa. After 10 years of annual moving, we have bought a house and are very excited to stay in one place for more than a year. So, to celebrate, we are planting our first garden.

As a child, we had a garden every year. I helped my mom with the gardening, but I really don't remember very much about it. So, this is definitely a learning experience for us. We have a 26 x 53 foot area reserved in our backyard for the garden. My husband built 3 raised beds that are 12x4 feet, and one 4x4 bed and the rest of the area available for planting is 17 by 53 feet.

We are planting 40 varieties of vegetables plus 8 different herbs. Although, every time I go to the store I end up buying more seeds, so we may end up with more than that. So far, our list of veggies include 4 different varieties of carrots (orange, red, purple, white), 3 different varieties of beets (purple, golden, chioggia), 2 varieties of onions (yellow & red), green beans, broccoli, zucchini, 4 different varieties of summer squash, 5 different varieties of sweet peppers (red, orange, purple, yellow, ivory), 8 varieties of tomatoes (6 heirloom varieties- Nyagous, Moonglow, Hillbilly Potato Leaf, Green Zebra, Brandywine, yellow pear + roma & celebrity tomatoes), sugar pie pumpkins, butternut squash, watermelon, cantaloupe, carnival squash, spaghetti squash, acorn squash, peas, and rhubarb. For my herbs we are planning for cilantro, basil, chives, parsley, sage, oregano, thyme & rosemary.

We started some of the seeds inside (tomatoes, peppers, onions, broccoli, sage, thyme, & oregeno) and we are planning to plant the rest outside soon.

Radiance Dairy

This weekend we started conducting interviews for our documentary (for more info on our documentary visit our website Sustaining Iowa). Our first stop was Radiance Dairy in Fairfield, Iowa. Francis Thicke and his wife, Susan, own this impressive dairy. Francis was a wealth of knowledge about organic and sustainable farming. I learned a lot from the interview and I'd love to share some of the information.

The farm was started in 1980 with 2 cows and has grown significantly since then. In 1992, Francis and his wife took over the farm. Right now, they have about 80 cows that they milk twice a day. The farm has about 450 acres, which is mostly grass, and it is split up into small pastures that are about 2 acres each. Twice a day, after milking, the cows move to a new pasture area to graze. If the cows were allowed to continue grazing in the same area for a longer period of time, they would graze it down very close to the ground which kills most of the different types of grass. By rotating the areas that the cows graze in, it allows the grass to grow and increases the diversity of grasses. The cows are able to graze from April to December- they only need to use stored feed for a few months out of the year.

Allowing the cows to graze means that the cows are able to harvest their own feed. This saves time and energy because the farmer doesn't have to use machinery to harvest the grass and bring it to the cow, and doesn't have to collect the manure from the cow being in confinement. By allowing the cows to graze- they harvest their own feed & spread the manure right back into the field to fertilize (meaning they are using natural fertilizers instead of synthetic).

Radiance Dairy is very different than most commercial dairies where the cows are in confinement facilities and are fed a diet of mostly corn. According to Francis, corn is high in energy so it produces a lot of milk, but it is not what a cow is designed by nature to eat. Their stomach is designed to eat forage. Corn can cause a variety of metabolic problems for a cow, which usually shortens their lifespan significantly.

Radiance Dairy is a certified organic farm which means that they do not use synthetic herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers on the fields. They do not give growth hormones to their cows. Their cows are very healthy because they are raised in the natural environment. They do not use antibiotics on a regular basis. In the rare occasion that a cow is sick & needs antibiotics the cow is removed from the herd and the milk is kept separate.

One unexpected part of our trip was meeting a calf that was born the day before. That had not decided on a name for the calf yet and I am pleased to share that her name is now Marieta (named after me!)

While visiting the farm, we had the opportunity to watch to cows being milked and saw the area where they pasteurize the milk and make the cheese and yogurt. The best part of the day was sampling the delicious products. Francis gave us a gallon of the creamline yogurt. The cream had separated to the top of the gallon and had become very thick. It was similar to the consistency of brie cheese. It was tangy, rich, and wonderful. After the top cream portion, the yogurt was thinner and lower in fat. It may be the best yogurt I have ever eaten. We also bought a gallon of skim milk- which despite being skim- was incredibly rich & creamy. We sampled the jack cheese- which had the same rich, tangy flavor as the yogurt. We also bought a container of cream that I plan to make homemade butter with.

Unfortunately for me, Radiance dairy products are only sold in Fairfield, Iowa. I am glad that they have enough support in Fairfield, but it makes me sad that I cannot eat their products on a regular basis. If you are ever in the Fairfield area, treat yourself to some of the wonderful products from Radiance Dairy.

My Mission

I have always been interested in food, at least for as long as I can remember. It wasn't until I moved to San Francisco a few years ago that I became interested in local, organic food. My husband and I moved to the Bay Area in 2007 and we fell in love with it right away. There was always something to do in the city and we loved taking day trips to Marin, Half Moon Bay, wine country, and the many other lovely communities in the surrounding area. One of my favorite things about living there was the food scene. San Francisco has many amazing restaurants and there is big interest in local, sustainable food within the community. Two of my favorite leaders of this movement lived in the area- Alice Waters and Michael Pollan. We enjoyed eating at Alice Water's restaurant and I still enjoy using her cookbooks now. I loved the work that Alice did starting the farm to school program in Berkeley. I have enjoyed all of Michael Pollan's books and would recommend reading them if you haven't. I never got the chance to listen to him speak while we were living there, but I am pretty sure that I saw him in the parking lot at Berkeley Bowl one time. Unfortunately I didn't get to ask him for his autograph. Anyway, there was a lot of inspiration to become involved in local food there. I started checking out the farmers' markets- there were quite a few. So many, in fact, that I could visit a farmers' market almost any day of the week all year round. I tried to buy as much as I could from the farmers' market. I found a few great grocery stores that sold local produce & food- my favorites were Monterey Market, Berkeley Bowl, and the El Cerrito Natural Grocery because they were close to our home. We also joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) which was available year round. It was very easy to eat local in San Francisco. The diversity of produce was also great- the mild weather in California made it possible to grow a huge variety of fruits and vegetables all year long.

When we decided to move back to Iowa to be closer to family and friends, part of me was excited for the move, but the other part of me knew that I would really miss the Bay Area. My husband and I made the move in May of 2009. I wanted to continue my local diet, but knew that it might be a little more challenging- especially in the winter. We moved at a great time of the year because the growing season in Iowa was just starting. I went to the downtown farmers' market every weekend in the summer and the fall, and also went to several of the other farmers' markets in the Des Moines area. I was too late to sign up for a CSA for the summer season when we moved, but I did sign up for a fall season CSA through Blue Gate Farm (much more information on them in later posts). I did pretty good for my first summer & fall in Iowa- I was able to buy the majority of my produce, meat, milk, and eggs locally. The winter was a different story. I was able to continue buying meat, milk & eggs locally, but not produce. My goal is to improve for next winter. I hope to preserve and freeze more produce this year to be able to last through the winter. For the first 6 months in Iowa we lived in an apartment in Pleasant Hill, but in November, we bought a house in Des Moines. We are very excited to start a garden in our yard this summer. You can't get any more local than your own back yard.

So, my mission is to continue to find local food sources here in Iowa & to figure out how to continue to eat local all year long regardless of the snow & blizzards that we are blessed with here. My goal is to buy as much of our food as possible from local sources. I know we won't buy 100% of our food locally because there are some things that I'm not willing to live without that cannot grow here in Iowa (avocados, lemons, limes, oranges- just to name a few), but I would like to buy the majority of our food locally. My other mission is to make a connection with where my food is grown- visit the farms, meet the farmers and learn more about how they grow my food. This blog will share the local sources that I discover and my journey along the way. Enjoy!