Get To Know A Farmer

The resonating message I'm remembering from Joel Salatin's Dumbo Feather Q & A with Rohan Anderson a couple of weeks ago is "get to know a farmer, get back in the kitchen and cook from scratch'. I keep going back to those two seemingly simple things and realise as simple as they may be - chatting up farmers and finding time to whip up real food can pose a huge challenge for some people, especially those with supermarket addictions. But meeting farmers and cooking basic produce for your daily nutrition can be done - and two weekends ago, by a series of co-indincidences I ended up hanging out with local some farmers, consequently getting to know a bit more about some of my food choices.

With tickets my friend Kris had booked ages ago - we headed to near Woodend to the Taranaki Farm tour. You can check out my previous POST on that. Needless to say in the week that followed I savoured the lovely 'beyond organic pastured eggs from the "Egg Mobile". So nice to think of the happy chickens there soaking up the sunshine out in the field as opposed to the horrific alternatives behind a fair chunk of commercial egg production.

On the Sunday I headed to Lal Lal - a tiny little town a few minutes out of Ballarat, a railway town, once besieged by tens of thousands of people at a time when the trains used to run through it on the way to the local horse races. So for quiet little Lal Lal the staging of the first ever 'Growers and Makers Market' was big deal. Great to see so many locals making the effort to head to Lal Lal for the day and support the market - let's hope it happens again.

Ten or so years ago when I'd shop at Greek and Italian markets in Melbourne - I had no idea whatsoever what to do with globe artichokes - now they're one of my most anticipated seasonal vegetables (or flowers really).

And as I was the one that convinced Farmer John from Yendon Gourmet Tomatoes to put in a patch of artichokes - I'd been promising him for ages that I'd help him actually sell the harvest, by showing people who are a little intimidated by this unusual produce just exactly how to cook them.

Globe artichoke preparation demo.

My favourite way to prepare artichokes is to pare them back to almost the heart and braise them in butter, garlic and lemon juice. It's amazing how enthusiastic people are to try something new when given just some basic tips for preparation. For step by step tips - check out my youtube video below.

Halfway through the market John had to race back to the farm (just down the road) to pick more artichokes and grab more tomatoes because he was selling out. Gotta love getting your food so close to the source that it's literally getting picked on demand. I think by the end of the market I'd convinced him that growing the artichokes wasn't a complete waste of time - it might just take a while for your average Ballaratian to start seeking them out in future. 

It is interesting to see how people react to something outside of their usual food comfort zone. When local organic farmer David Tatman from Spring Creek Organics (and his three lovely kids) stopped past the market stall - they didn't bat an eyelid before confidently tasting the braised artichokes. Then again not many kids would name kale and kohlrabi as their favourite veg. So inspiring to see how accepted beautiful fresh produce is when kids have grown up with it. So I got the invite to stop at Spring Creek Organics in Navigators (between Lal Lal and Ballarat) on my way home. Considering the bulk of my bought veggies have been purchased from David and Lisa's farmers' market stalls for the past couple of years. . .it was pretty exciting to finally have the chance to see the farm. 

 Nestled in between Mt Buninyong and Mt Warrenheip - Spring Creek Organic Farm in Navigators. 

David Tatman - tour guide for the afternoon. 

 Cattle are rotated onto the end of season veggie beds to clean up before the next crop. Grass fed / organic veggie fed cattle - yes please. 

So after one weekend of getting out of the kitchen and into the paddocks it seemed as if Joel Salatin's advice to 'get to know a farmer' was really not that unattainable at all. In my experience the producers that I'm getting to know in the Ballarat region are all really proud of what they do and are more than happy to get to know their customers. After all - as Salatin says, it is the supportive customers that are the real asset to a farmer.