>> Funding for
Around the Farm Table
is provided in part by
Wisconsin Farmers Union,
a member driven organization
for family farmers, rural
communities and all people.
Wisconsin Farmers Union, united
to grow family agriculture.
Information at
WisconsinFarmersUnion.com.
* *
[birds chirping]
[cow lowing]
* *
[cats meows]
>> Well, hi there!
Welcome to the calf barn.
My nephew, Ashton and I just got
done with cleaning out the calf
barn and putting a nice layer of
straw down here for the cows to
lay on.
We've got a fun day planned too.
After I drop him off at his mom
and dad's house I'm going to
head out to learn about
composting on a larger scale.
I'm going to be going to
45th Parallel to pick up
Wisconsin distilled vodka.
After I get the vodka I'm
heading down to Seed Savers
Exchange to make some heirloom
Bloody Marys that I'm going to
make for Diane, the founder
at Seed Savers Exchange
in Decorah, Iowa.
Gather with us,
Around the Farm Table.
I'm your host, Inga Witscher.
>> All: Gather with us,
Around the Farm Table.
>> A few years ago,
I moved up to Wisconsin.
I started an organic dairy farm
at St. Isidore's Mead.
That's when I discovered
the abundance of Midwestern
local food
and small-scale farmers
growing everything
from green zebra tomatoes
to pasture pork.
I'm taking a break
from the cows,
hittin' the road
and seein' if I can't satisfy
my epicurious appetite.
* *
>> Gardening has always been an
important part of what I do here
on my farm.
It reminds me of back in the old
days when I was this age and my
grandfather would cart me around
through the garden.
He was the king of compost.
He always knew how to turn the
right mixture of compost from
straw or sawdust and that
wonderful cow manure that we had
growing up into beautiful
vegetables.
I've ben adding compost to my
beds here in the fall and
churning them in, and then top
dressing a little bit throughout
the summertime.
That's what I attribute to my
beautiful kale here.
This is actually a variety from
Seed Savers.
I love getting their seeds
because they have such a nice
diversity of colors, of
textures, of shapes and sizes.
I just think it's fantastic.
What about you?
Are you going to garden when you
grow up?
I hope he does.
* *
[machine rumbling]
[laughter]
Nice to see you.
>> Nice to see you.
>> How's it going today?
>> It's going well.
Welcome to the compost site.
>> This is beautiful.
e>> Mandy, sorry to interrupt
your day at work here, but I was
hoping to come learn a little
bit more about compost.
You know, I've got a small dairy
herd and I'm trying to do
compost.
I thought I was doing it right
until I saw how beautiful this
compost looks.
What are the ingredients that
you guys put in the compost?
>> Well, it's two very simple
ingredients.
It's sawdust bedding that we've
used, it's waste bedding, it's
already been used, and manure.
>> Nice, very simple.
>> Yes.
>> Mandy, I know that you grew
up dairy farming.
How did you get to be the
compost person?
You do the compost and crops
here, right?
>> Right.
So I went to UW-River Falls for
agricultural business and I
emphasized in crop and
soil science.
>> Okay.
>> That didn't really prepare me
to be the compost lady, but it
helps me to understand how
compost can be beneficial to the
soil and to plants.
>> Well, Mandy, I'm hoping to
meet John, too, while I'm here
and just ask him a few more
questions and get a better
understanding of how I can do
compost better at my farm.
Can we just walk over and go
say hi?
>> Yeah, he should be walking
over soon.
* *
>> Hi there.
>> Hi.
>> How are you doing?
I'm Inga.
>> I'm John.
>> Nice to meet you, John.
This is just so fun to be able
to see composting at this scale.
I never imagined I'd be standing
in this much compost.
I don't know if that's a good
thing or a bad thing, but--
>> Manure is exciting.
>> What are you doing here?
>> Well, we need to take
temperatures, and that's how we
determine whether the compost is
getting done or not.
>> Okay.
>> Once it gets over 130 degrees
then we turn it, you know, with
the compost turner.
>> Okay.
>> So this row right now is
about 135, so we'll probably
turn it today.
>> With compost we can't really
control the temperature that it
gets to, but it is doing it's
own thing.
Mostly what it does is it
increases in temperature until
it gets to a high enough
temperature where we can
turn it.
>> Is there a difference between
putting compost on your fields
or your cropland as opposed to
liquid manure or a daily haul of
spreading manure?
>> Generally what they say to do
it correctly is you need three
acres for every cow.
>> Okay.
>> We have 500 cows, but we also
have 500 young stock.
So we'd need 2,000, 3,000 acres
to do it responsibly.
So knowing some of this is going
to happen and stuff, this was
perfect.
We're able to export those
nutrients off the farm.
We buy a lot of feed and we sell
a lot of milk, but we need to
get rid of some more nutrients
someplace in order to balance
everything.
And we can pretty much do it now
by composting all of our solids
from as soon as we can in
the spring.
We feel then, that the nutrients
that we're generating, we're
doing it responsibly on our
acres and then the stuff we're
exporting is being done
responsibly on that end as well.
>> That's great.
>> A compost turner really
helps, because it's very uniform
and it takes the inside and
throws it on the outside.
What we're trying to do here,
it's kind of like livestock
farming.
You've got all these little
animals working in here, the
little micro-organisms, and
they've got to be fed.
So you're feeding them with the
carbon in the manure.
As they eat that carbon then,
just like livestock, they have a
byproduct, and the byproduct is
carbon dioxides.
So the carbon and the oxygen are
going off into the air, and the
row continues to shrink and
shrink as those little livestock
are eating all that stuff.
Once it gets down where they've
eaten pretty much everything,
then it stops heating and then
the compost it done.
>> Who's your customer?
Is it mostly market gardeners or
just somebody growing a
vegetable garden?
>> 40% are organic vegetable
growers, 40% are landscape
people, garden centers.
And 20% are just people that
pull in and want to pick up a
load of compost.
We're in 12 states.
We sell compost and planting
soils in 12 different states.
We had trouble at first when we
were selling locally that they
would go home with a pickup load
and they would have wonderful
results, and then a neighbor
would want to know where they'd
get it.
They wouldn't tell them because
they were afraid we'd run out.
Like any business, including the
dairy, if it isn't fun,
why do it?
>> Exactly.
>> And it's great fun.
>> I get a chance this afternoon
to meet Seed Savers and see
your product in action.
>> They're world renounced.
>> I want to come back sometime
and just spend the day with
your guys.
You guys are great.
>> Thanks.
Well, you're welcome any time.
>> Thanks.
>> We'll help you get your
hands dirty.
>> Well, have a great afternoon.
>> Thank you.
* *
>> Okay, I'm going to go change
out of my barn clothes and then
I'll meet you up at
45th Parallel.
* *
Hi Paul.
>> Hi Inga
>> How are you doing?
>> Nice to see you.
>> What did I catch you in the
middle of?
>> We're going to be bottling
bourbon today, and so we have to
final proof it.
>> Well, I stopped in today, I'm
on my way down to Seed Savers
Exchange and I'm going to be
making some Bloody Marys.
I thought, I'm going to be doing
it with these beautiful heirloom
tomatoes and local foods.
I thought, what a great way to
tie in the whole local food
concept by bringing a bottle of
locally produced vodka.
>> For a Bloody Mary, yeah.
All our bourbon corn comes from
one family farm just south of
our building.
>> Oh, wow.
>> Every couple of weeks we call
them up and tell them, this is
what we need.
He mills it and brings it to us.
>> Wow.
So you don't even have to have
any storage here for corn.
>> We store enough for two
weeks, two weeks of production.
That's it.
>> Do you have to age vodka too?
>> No, no.
Vodka distillation and whiskey
distillation are very different
in the second distillation.
The first distillation is the
same with both of them, but the
second distillation, how we use
our equipment determines what
we get.
We create a beer and then we
distill it.
We heat it up to the point where
the ethanol inside--
>> Wait, so you create a beer
and than that's what's distilled
into vodka or brandys or
anything like that?
>> Not necessarily.
If we're going to make a whiskey
or a vodka from grain, then we
create a beer and we distill it.
If we were going to make a
brandy or a cognac we would make
a wine and distill that.
A wine comes from fruit, whereas
beer comes from grains.
* *
>> Paul, I've been hearing a lot
about the rye that you guys have
been doing lately.
People say it's just fantastic.
Is it just rye or is it like a
whiskey?
What do you call it?
>> Rye is a whiskey made with
more than 50% rye.
>> Oh!
>> And aged in new barrels.
It has to be distilled under a
160 proof, it has to be
barreled under 125 proof, and
it has to be a new barrel also.
It's white oak and they're
charred in the middle.
Rye is a whiskey that was
popular before WWII.
It was probably the most
popular whiskey.
In '64 congress designated
bourbon as the American spirit,
but I like to think of rye as
being the American spirit.
Rye really was the first
whiskey.
It was made in colonial times.
>> You were saying about the
barrels, that you can't reuse
them.
They just--
>> We age aquavit in used
bourbon barrels.
>> I love aquavit.
I think it's fantastic.
>> Well, good.
>> I'm Scandinavian so we almost
have to.
>> I call it gin for
Scandinavians.
>> I like gin too though.
Maybe I'm part British,
I don't know.
* *
What do you guys think?
Do you like that one?
>> Yeah, very good.
>> Okay, that's the one I'll
take then.
>> You liked it too?
>> All right guys, well, cheers.
Drink up.
>> Bye, Inga.
>> See you!
* *
>> Good morning.
>> I'm Inga.
>> I'm Diane.
>> Nice to meet you.
>> Nice to meet you as well.
>> It is so exciting for me to
be here at Seed Savers.
When I was 18 I got really
involved with gardening after I
was given Eliot Coleman's Four
Season gardening book and the
Seed Savers catalogue.
>> Great combination.
>> Exactly.
One of my favorite things to be
growing is Grandpa Ott's
morning glories.
And that's kind of how it
started, isn't it?
>> It is.
That's certainly my favorite.
Seed Savers started nearly 40
years ago with a handful of
seeds and an idea, and here we
are today.
But Grandpa Ott's was certainly
the most important seed in my
life because that's what made me
realize what a true heirloom is.
It's a seed that has come into
this country and passed down
from generation to generation.
I'm the fourth generation of the
Grandpa Ott's morning glory.
But basically, we work with
open-pollinated heirloom
varieties of seed
to preserve them.
We collect, we grow and we
maintain heirloom varieties.
And distribute heirloom
varieties of vegetables
and fruits.
We started, like I said, with a
handful of seeds, two varieties,
Grandpa Ott's and German Pink.
Today we have over 25,000
different sessions that we're
permanently maintaining here at
Heritage Farm.
>> Wow.
So what is seed saving?
>> Seed saving is the practice
of saving seed from your garden
so you have it for the
next year.
Seed saving when I grew up--
I grew up on a dairy farm about
20 miles from here.
Saving seed was part of
the garden.
You planted the garden, you
harvested what you needed for
fresh, for canning, but then you
also saved that seed for the
next year.
At that time there were no seed
catalogues, basically, or
very limited.
So you were really dependant on
saving your seed for the next
year's garden.
In my case, with my
grandparents, they had a grocery
list of flour, sugar, coffee,
salt, spices and vinegar.
Everything else was raised
from their land and by
their hands.
Their garden was crucial to
their survival over the winter.
So seed saving has always been
really important to me because I
thought that was part of
gardening.
Then it has been separated from
gardening in recent years
because people have been more
dependant on ordering seeds from
the catalogue.
So we're trying to put the seed
saving back into the garden.
It's really simple.
When you think about all the
seed and diversity that we have
today, it's because our
ancestors saved seed.
And they didn't have degrees or
fancy equipment.
They just had they knowledge and
the instinct to save their seeds
for the next year's garden.
>> Wow.
Why is it important that we have
a diverse amount of types of
vegetables?
>> Diversity probably is our
seed security.
When you think about Iowa, for
instance, we're in this lovely
little corner, but most of Iowa
is a big corn field.
And that corn is made up of the
same genetic material, because
it's all been bred for the same
reason, for machine harvesting
and being productive.
But two summers ago we had a
drought and all that corn,
because it was made of the same
material, all was effected by
the drought.
Our corn here, because we
have--
It's not been bred, it's
open-pollinated, so it was able
to adapt to the drought.
It was producing corn.
It's really a frightening
thought to think about that our
food supply is, you know,
dependant upon one strain of
corn when we have thousands.
So we believe in saving all the
pieces.
>> What are some of those
techniques for seed saving?
>> There are various techniques
for seed saving.
I think the best is just for me
to show you.
>> Okay.
* *
>> Okay, so as I mentioned, I
really like to suggest that
gardeners start with
self-pollinating varieties, the
beans, the tomatoes, the lettuce
and peas.
They're easy to save the
seed from.
You don't have to do any
hand-pollination or isolation.
This is lettuce going to seed.
You would just let it dry and
harvest it.
You know, just take the seed
off.
It's very light.
But what I do is I really don't
collect a lot of seed, I just
let the seed come back the next
year, and it will.
It will fall.
So next year, if I come back out
here in the spring I'll have
little lettuce plants coming up
way before I could even be in
the garden.
>> Yeah.
>> So a lot of things self-seed.
Open-pollinated varieties will
self-seed as well.
Those are the varieties that I
would suggest gardeners to
begin with.
We have several different
techniques here.
I say so often, sometimes we
keep things cage to keep the
insects out and sometimes we put
the insects in the cages.
* *
Sometimes we do hand pollination
if we're growing varieties close
together that would cross.
Then we do hand-pollination.
>> Some of the things that I
like about the Seed Savers
catalogue especially is that
they're such pretty varieties,
especially like of lettuces.
>> Yes.
>> I always get the Trout's Back
lettuce.
I love that.
>> Right, yeah.
And you know, when you think
about the names--
You know, that's named because
it's spotted like a trout.
And so many of the names in the
collection have interesting
stories behind them.
Every seed has a story.
It's up to us to tell
that story.
I think you'll see lack of
diversity in livestock as well
as vegetables.
Because today most breeds, for
beef for instance, would be the
Black Angus.
They want them to be short
and lean.
Our idea was to bring attention
to the fact that the breeds need
to be preserved as well.
You know, they're majestic.
They came from Great Britain.
They were shipped over to the
Bronx Zoo during
the Second World War because
they were afraid they were going
to be hunted.
>> Oh!
>> So they shipped them
over here.
>> Are the numbers growing
at all?
>> The numbers are growing.
We have 100 cattle here at
Heritage Farm, and we started
with two.
>> Wow.
>> And there's also a sister
herd in Montana.
We do a lot of trading of bulls
for genetic purposes with that
herd in Montana.
>> Okay.
Now it's encouraging me to save
seeds to pass down to my nephews
as a way of kind of passing on
those family stories.
>> You create your own story,
because it's you, and you know
where it was grown and how you
used it.
Like this is my grandma Ott's
recipe for ground cherry pie.
It's like, now she's part of the
story.
>> Yeah, yeah.
You know, cooking and gardening
are such a great way to pass
down those family histories.
>> Well, it's a necessity.
People so often say, why do we
save seeds?
I'd say, because we all eat
to survive.
Seeds are the first link, the
first step in that survival.
It's so important to have the
seeds, and good, pure seeds.
>> Well, beautiful.
I'm not going to take up too
much of your time today because
I know your busy, but I wouldn't
mind making you a cocktail and
sharing a little drink with you,
if you don't mind?
>> Perfect.
>> Okay.
I'm going to go get some
tomatoes and then I will meet
you back out at the children's
garden.
Does that sound good?
>> A plan.
>> Thanks.
There's a bit of a drizzle.
[sigh]
Okay, well, I don't know about
you, but I'm ready to make some
Bloody Marys.
Bloody Marys are a great way to
celebrate the end of tomato
season.
What else are you going to do
with the abundance of tomatoes?
Let's get started right away.
I'm going to use a
Cherokee Purple tomato for
this Bloody Mary.
This is a great--
I just love these deep,
rich colors.
Another great thing about
heirloom tomatoes is that
they're all kind of misshapen.
I love that imperfection about
heirloom, homegrown foods, those
slight imperfections that make
them so unique.
What I have here is a
potato ricer.
Let me get this going.
Instead of pureeing, these
tomatoes are so ripe and
luscious that I'm just going to
put them right through my
potato ricer.
That way I don't have to worry
about straining them.
We'll get all four mashed
in here.
This is great because you don't
have to worry about the skins.
You just get all that pure,
wonderful juice.
I guess the only thing that's
dangerous about using the
potato ricer is that it can get
a bit messy, but that's what the
washing machine is for.
It doesn't matter too much.
I things are meant to be used
and dirtied.
Stains tell the stories,
don't they?
>> All righty.
We got some juice outta there.
If your doing this for a crowd
you want to do more tomatoes,
but since it's just Diane and I,
I'm just going to do the
one tomato.
Okay, now let's dress it up.
Well, I'm going to add it to my
glass here.
Look at the tomato juice!
Isn't that pretty?
That's just something you don't
see every once in a while with
these beautiful, colorful
tomatoes.
Okay, the fun part now is to be
able to add what you like.
I like spicy, spicy, spicy
Bloody Marys.
So let's get going here
with garlic.
This is garlic I brought from
my home.
It's wonderful and it's, of
course, Seed Savers garlic that
I bought from Seed Savers the
year before.
A little Worcestershire sauce,
just a dab there and some
horseradish.
You know where the most
horseradish in our country is
grown in Wisconsin.
I was going to say, right here
in Wisconsin, but I forget I'm
in Iowa right now.
So I can't say that anymore.
A little bit of horseradish.
That's a prepared horseradish.
Sriracha, and I'm sure I'm not
pronouncing that correctly, but
that's the way I've been saying
it for years so I'm going to
keep on saying it that way.
A little bit of Sriracha, that's
going add some more of that
heat, but a more of that umami
flavor that you want.
A little bit of celery salt and
some olive juice.
One thing that brings out the
tomato flavor in the
Bloody Marys is citrus.
So for this Bloody Mary I'm
going to add some lemon juice.
I'll just squeeze that right
in there.
Okay, a squeeze of tomato juice,
stir that all up.
And if I was in my kitchen I
would probably take some basil
leaves and just julienne them
just so the flavor could come
out more.
But since I'm outside I'm just
going to tear as much as I can
and get some flavors together.
I was trying the think, what
goes good with tomatoes?
Basil.
It's the match made in heaven.
So I'm adding a little bit of
basil for that herbal flavor.
I hear when you make cocktails
you want to have different
flavors going on, such as that
herbal flavor or that heat, or
sweet or strong flavor.
That's why I'm going to add a
little bit of herbs.
Stir that all together.
Now the most important
ingredient is vodka.
As a general rule, don't ever
measure out your alcohol,
just eyeball it.
I think that's the best way
to go.
* *
Let me get some of this stuff
cleared away and then we're
going to the green Bloody Marys.
For the next Bloody Mary, it's a
green Bloody Mary, and you might
want to think about this.
You know, people drink Bloody
Marys in the morning.
It's actually a faux pas to
drink a Bloody Mary after
6:00 PM, so remember that.
When you're having your morning
wonderful cocktail on a Sunday
morning or a Saturday morning,
hopefully it's not like a
Wednesday or a Thursday, this is
a great option.
It kind of feels like you're
having that green juice except
for there's no kale in it and
soon will begin to get a little
bit unhealthy as soon as we add
the vodka.
The first thing that we'll do
here is I'm going to dip the rim
of this glass in salt.
If it wasn't sopping out here
and pouring down rain I would
need to dampen the edges of this
glass, but thanks to
Mother Nature, she actually
did it for me.
I'll just take the rim of the
glass and I'll add a little bit
of ice.
I forgot to add ice to the last
one so I'll remember before I
serve them.
Bloody Marys are really good
when they're cold.
Okay, so my green Bloody Mary
mix has green tomatoes.
For this one I used Green Zebra
tomatoes, which is another
tomato that I always get every
year from Seed Savers.
It's beautiful.
It's got these great lines
coming through it.
It's a gorgeous tomato.
They're actually ripe when
they're green so it's kind of a
nice little fake out.
I put in some cucumbers
with that.
The cucumbers that I started
growing this year is a Japanese
kind of variety of cucumber, and
they get so long and beautiful.
Again, another great seed from
Seed Savers.
And I put in a half of a chili.
That's going to be my only heat
that I'm going to add here, but
it's still going to give it that
nice zing.
I'll put a little bit of this
mixture in here.
So if you wanted to have a
virgin Bloody Mary--
Let's call this the Garden Mary,
should we?
It's kind of more gardeny.
Remember I said that you want to
have some different things going
on in your cocktail.
I'm going to use cilantro for
my herb here.
I want to keep it green and I
really like the taste of
cilantro, especially in the
summertime.
It's got that nice, wonderful
flavor.
You'll probably want to chop
this up, but I'm just going to
do it by hand.
It's like camping a little bit.
The citrus component for these
is going to be a little bit
of lime.
These aren't going to be too
strong a cocktail because we're
getting a lot of--
They're going to be a little bit
watered down, if you know what I
mean, because of the rain that
we're having.
As a farmer I can never actually
complain about rain.
I think it's just kind of part
of the code, you just have to
always appreciate it.
And I always do appreciate it.
There's some lime.
We're going to stir that up,
add a little bit of vodka.
This is going to get garnished
with--
I found this--
I did a little bit of shopping
when I got to Iowa today, and I
always like to see what's
happening in that region and
what those local growers are.
I was able to find a local
grass-fed beef stick and some
beautiful raw milk cheese
from Iowa, too.
Pop that in there.
What else should we garnish
it with?
There we go, a nice little
refrigerator pickle, right
inside there.
And since I'm doing the green
theme I'm going to put an olive
in and a little peperoncini.
And that, ladies and gentlemen,
is how you make a Garden Mary.
Now, I'm hoping that this rain
is going to clear up in a little
bit and I'll meet Diane down in
the garden, so we can swill
around some Bloody Marys.
All righty, Diane.
I'm going to give you the green
Bloody Mary.
This is with the Green Zebra
tomatoes.
>> Beautiful!
>> Thank you so much.
This has just been such an
inspiration.
I can't wait to start gardening
again.
>> It was my pleasure to show
Heritage Farm.
>> Gather with us next time
>> Together: Around the Farm
Table.
* *
>> Funding for
Around the Farm Table
is provided in part by
Wisconsin Farmers Union,
a member driven organization
for family farmers, rural
communities and all people.
Wisconsin Farmers Union, united
to grow family agriculture.
Information at
WisconsinFarmersUnion.com.