Inga: Hi, there!
Welcome to the farm.
I've got a fun day planned for us today.
I wanted to take y'all out
and introduce you to some of the folks
who make my farm here so successful.
The first stop is at Pascal D'Huyvetter's house
to learn how he makes great baled hay,
and then it's off to
S&S Grain in Arcadia to pick up some chicken feed.
Then, we'll be stopping by my neighbors, Tom and Steve.
And I want to invite them all back to my farm
for a farm fresh meal.
Gather with us Around the Farm Table .
I'm your host Inga Witscher.
Group: Gather with us
Around the Farm Table !
Inga: 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
hitting the road,
and seeing if I can't satisfy
my epicurious appetite.
*
- That's great.
[frying pan sizzles]
- This is amazing.
*
- 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.
With additional support from these community members
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
- Bruck-burrrk-boc-burrrk.
- I really love having chickens.
I've had chickens ever since I was a little girl.
When you have chickens--
and I think you should 'cause they're just fantastic to have--
you want to make sure that they have really good feed,
and that's why I go to S&S Grains
to get my nice diverse mix of feed.
One thing that I always make sure that they have, too,
is grit.
Now, grit is like a little gravel,
and since the chickens can't--
They can't digest that food on their own,
they need something in their gizzards
to break that food down.
So, it grinds the grains, and then they can digest it.
I also have oyster shells that I put into the feed mix
because that's a lot of calcium it takes to lay an egg.
One thing that you want to make sure that you do,
especially during the summertime
is make sure you have available cold water for the chickens.
That's one way that they can cool themselves down
on hot summer days.
I also love this chicken coop that I have
because it's a moveable chicken coop.
So, I can move the chickens every day
to a fresh piece of grass.
Chickens eat a lot of grass.
I was really surprised to see
just how much grass they really eat.
And they love to dig up and eat the worms and things like that.
That's where I get those
really yellow, yellow, orangey yolks in my eggs
that I love to bake with
and that I'm going to be using later on today.
So... one thing I love about this chicken coop, too,
is it's pretty resistant to any pests.
When you have chickens, you'll learn that
everything loves to eat chicken,
whether it's an owl or a fox or...
I've had everything come at my chickens,
and so I made sure to get a nice, sturdy coop this time
so I don't have to lose any chickens to predators.
All right, well, let's head off to Pascal's.
*
[engine rumbles]
Well, I'm at the D'Huyvetter farm.
Pascal and his wife, Donna, and their kids
run an organic dairy farm here.
Pascal has been a great help with answering
any questions I have about organic dairy farming.
And I'm going to find out a little bit
about what he's doing right now.
Hey, Pascal.
- Pascal: Hello, Inga.
- Nice to see you.
- Nice to see you too.
- Hey, I went to France this year.
This last winter.
- I heard that.
- I didn't get to Normandy,
but I did go to just around the south of France.
And that's where you're from, France.
- Normandy, yes. -Normandy, okay.
When did you guys immigrate to the United States?
- '69.
- And why did your family come here?
- Well, to my dad, this was the land of opportunity.
And he did have an uncle that had a farm in Illinois.
- So we lived with him for a couple years.
- Mm-hmm. Oh, nice.
And how often do you get back to France, just to visit?
- Every three, four years.
- I would go back every year, if I had the...
if I milked more cows and I could afford it.
- Pascal, what are you looking for in your hay?
- Well, first, I want it to be young.
- Mm-hmm.
- I like a lot of leaves.
I like full stems, which shows more nutrition,
rather than a hallow stem.
The grasses, I want fine leaves, no heads.
- Mm-hmm.
- Less fiber.
- Yeah.
Don't you have to, like, till under your hay fields
like every so often?
- I rotate frequently, so my hay is only--
stays about two years of production.
- Oh, wow.
- 'Cause that's my best avenue
into a good corn crop
is the hay that I can plow down.
So, I have all the nitrogen credits from the legumes.
- Okay... nice.
- And also, the weed suppression.
- So, what's the difference
between making hay and making silage?
- First of all,
for hay we spread it out more so it dries easier.
- Okay.
- The forage just goes up at 60% moisture
whereas dry hay is harvested at 15% moisture.
And so, you'll just take this and put it right in the silo,
or what do you do to it?
- Yes, we chop it up and put it in the bunker silo.
And do you make some dry hay, too, right?
- Usually, we do that second crop.
We have more sun.
- What's the difference between,
like, first, second, third crop cuttings.
- Quality wise, it's very similar,
if it's always cut at the same stage.
Typically, some first crop gets cut late,
which people assume is lower quality hay,
but it can be cut early and be high quality also.
- All right, well, I'm going to let you get back to it,
but I was hoping that you would come over for lunch today.
I'm going to have some guys over.
All the people that have been helping me out with farming,
and answering my questions,
and finding feed for me when I run out,
and all these kind of wonderful things,
I'd like to treat you guys to a lovely lunch.
Are you free this afternoon?
- Yeah, I'd like that. - Okay.
And if you have any more small bales of straw,
I'd like to buy some more.
So, if you can bring over,
I don't know, 10 or 12, something like that.
- Yeah, I can bring some. - Okay.
- I got lots left. - Alrighty. Well, good.
Well, have a good rest of the day at work,
and I'll see you later.
*
[engine rumbles]
*
- This is why I love Wisconsin.
- Well, this is S&S Grain.
This is where I've been getting my cow feed and my chicken feed,
for quite a few years.
Dan and Bob are excellent guys.
Bob was one of the pioneers of organic farming
here in the Midwest, and Dan is a wealth of knowledge.
And he's also--
I call him, like, my part-time therapist
because he's a great listener, too.
But let's go meet these guys.
- Hi, Inga.
- Hey, Bob, how's it going?
- Good.
Hey, Dan.
- Hello, how are you today? - Good.
How are you guys doing?
- You like that motorcycle? - I do.
Hey, it's a great way to travel, I think.
- You can't carry a lot on there, though.
- Well, if you ever want a ride, you let me know.
- Oh, I'd be scared to do that.
- Is it because of me driving, or just because?
- Yes. [laughter]
- Well, you guys got the chicken feed for me today, right?
- Yes, I do.
- So, what's all in the chicken feed?
- You have wheat thinner, roasted beans and corn,
and then you got all your minerals and your oyster shells.
- And the soybeans are really--
Is that highest protein in the feed?
- Yes, it is.
- And how did you guys get started, Bob.
- Well, there was the need
to find non-GMO grains,
and we just went with
this certified organic version,
and then that seemed to become the normal eventually.
- And you grow a lot of the corn and the crops here?
- We buy it from neighbors that are certified organic
within maybe 25, 50 miles.
- That's great.
That's wonderful that I know
that my cows are really eating local.
I think a lot of people would love to be able to eat
within 50 miles of their house,
but I'm glad that my cows and my chickens are able to do it.
- Right. - Well, good.
Well, I'm going to grab my feed.
Hey, you know, I was going to ask you guys--
I'm having a little lunch today
for a lot of the farmers in my community that have
just done such an amazing job helping me and teaching me,
and I think that you two are definitely on that list.
I know that I come here once a week
or once every two weeks,
and I always get-- you know this, Dan--
I always come with a ton of questions
because I feel like it's so important to talk to people
who have more knowledge than me
about what kind of things are happening on my farm
and what are the problems I run into.
And you guys are so great
about offering advice
or different things I could be doing,
and I think that's wonderful.
So, I'd like to have you guys over for lunch.
- Thank you. - Sure, we'll come.
- All right, guys, I'll see you later.
- See 'ya, Inga.
[birds chirping]
[feed bag rustling]
*
[engine rumbles]
[engine goes silent]
- Just fill 'er up.
All right, thank you.
[engine rumbles]
*
[engine rumbles]
[engine goes silent]
- This is my neighbor Tom's place.
I think he's up here somewhere.
I can't wait for you guys to meet him and his brother, Steve.
They're absolutely adorable.
[bird chirping]
- Hi, Tom. - Hey, Inga.
How are you today?
- Good. How's it going?
- It's cold.
- I know. - Dang!
- We got some more rain, though. That's good.
- But you know what they say is,
"You wait 15 minutes and the weather changes."
- Yeah, but I wore a sweatshirt all day today.
[laughing]
We've been castrating,
and every time it rains, we got a big manure event.
We got to clean all our lots.
So we've been at it.
- It's a whole thing.
You know, sometimes I think about milking more cows,
but then, every time I talk to you,
I think, "Well, maybe there's too much work."
- Yeah, it's a lot.
But it's fun; I'm living my dream.
- Oh, that's good, that's good!
And you got your kids helping you out, so that's good.
- Yeah, I got two boys.
They both had to stay away from the farm for six years
after they got done with school
and now they're back.
And we're working with the University on this--
What's the word?
- The "transition" that you were telling me.
- Transition.
And I come up with one conclusion.
- What's that?
- If you want to do that,
you should have zero kids.
[Inga laughs]
Yeah, it's going good, though.
Working...
We got grandkids around.
- Yeah, that's a whole thing.
- Yeah, it's fun.
- Well, how many acres are you running right now?
- We own 550. - Wow.
- And we rent some. - Yeah.
- We feed it all up at home. - Wow.
- Raise steers and milk about a hundred cows.
- Wow!
How much time do you put into
thinking about the feed for the cows?
- All the time.
But our cows eat better than we do.
- Yeah.
- We have a scale on our mixer and everything's balanced,
and if we ate like that,
we'd really be healthy.
- You know, you should just start drinking martinis.
I think that's better for you.
- No, I don't think so.
[both laughing]
- But you guys really concentrate on
keeping the environment healthy.
- Well, we do... we do.
I remember the first year I farmed,
it was kind of organic up until that.
- Uh-huh.
- I put in crops for 43 years.
- Shoot.
I only thought you were 39, Tom.
- I was thinking when I was plowing...
I was thinking, "When I get done farming here
there's going to be nothing left
because of the erosion."
- Yeah.
- And we've gone no till and minimum till,
and it's really worked good for us.
We got good crops.
- Uh-huh.
Well, Tom, the reason I stopped you is
I'm having this little lunch today,
and I really want you to be a part of it
because I'm inviting all the guys in my community
that have just helped me so much on my farm.
And I know the first person I call
when I get into an emergency with a cow is you,
and I'm sorry because sometimes
it's five o'clock in the morning, but...
[both laughing]
But you always seem to show up and help me out
and just teach me all these different things,
and I couldn't farm without you.
- Uh-huh.
I'm going to go find your brother and invite him, too.
So, I'll let you get back to it.
- Haul some more manure.
[engine running]
- Hi, Steve. - Hi.
- How are you doing?
- Well, I'm having a rough day today.
My hired man didn't show up.
- Oh, I know how that goes.
Well, hey, I wanted to have you over for lunch.
I'll give you hand baling hay, if you want me to.
- That'd be great. - All right.
Let's go.
- Okay.
- So, hay comes in a variety of shapes and sizes.
Sometimes you can get your big round bales,
your big square bales,
or your small square bales, like this.
I buy my hay in big squares.
It works really well for me.
They weigh somewhere around 700, 750 pounds,
depending on what cutting it is.
These weigh a lot less.
I do try to keep a couple small bales handy
around my farm just in case
on those really cold days in the middle of February
if my skid-steer doesn't start,
I can still go up in the hay loft,
throw down a few bales of hay,
and walk them over to the bale feeder.
It just makes things a little bit easier
and a little less stressful on those cold days.
It's also nice to have small bales
for the calves and the heifers.
*
- Alrighty.
Well, that went pretty good.
- Yeah.
- Hey, do you mind if I take this?
I want to use it making lunch.
- Sure.
- So, all right.
- Make lunch?
- Yeah, yeah.
It's a surprise.
It's going to be okay.
It's going to taste delicious.
- Okay. - All right.
I'll see you down there. - Yep.
- So, I wanted to have
tastes of my pastures and my farm in this lunch
that I'm going to prepare for these guys.
So, one thing I thought about
was roasting the rose veal, which I raise on the farm,
with some of the beautiful meadow hay.
I think it's going to give it an amazing flavor,
it's going to be unique,
and it's going to get these guys talking for a long time
about having lunch at my house.
*
I'm so excited for this opportunity to cook
for these amazing farmers.
It's really the only way that I know how to give back
for all that they've given to me
by making them a farm fresh meal
from ingredients right here at my farm.
So, for their dinner today,
I'm going to make them a roast veal,
and I'm going to roast that veal in hay.
And I thought it would be a nice way
to add a little bit of herbal flavors.
It's also an ancient way of cooking meat
because it helps the moisture stay inside the meat.
So, I think they'll be a little bit surprised,
and maybe give them another idea
of what they could do with their baled hay.
The first thing I'm going to do
is season my veal with salt and pepper, and a little bit of oil.
Got to get the oil on there first.
Here we go.
And I get pretty generous with the seasoning.
Just rub that in a little bit so it stays.
And this roast, I think, is just an arm roast.
I just grabbed whatever I had
down the basement in the freezer.
So I've got my Dutch oven cooking on high heat.
I wanted the pan to be really, really hot
before I put my veal in
because I want to get that nice crust,
that nice brown crust all over on the veal.
So I'm going to brown it on all sides.
[sizzling]
Okay, that's looking really good.
Now I'm going to put a bed of hay down,
and the hay has been smoked for a couple hours
so it's not going to start on fire.
It's just a beautiful, grassy hay.
So, I'm going to take about half of it--
it smells really good, too--
Set it right in there.
[sizzle]
And then I'll put some rosemary on top of that
and a few garlic cloves.
Mix that around a bit.
And then the roast goes right back in there.
Oh, it looks so pretty.
More hay on top.
Now, I'll just add my lid right to this.
And that hay is going to
really help keep that moisture in there.
It's going to have this
wonderful herbal flavors of my pastures.
I'm kind of wondering
if the guys are going to be able to taste it a little bit.
I think they are.
I think they're going to be excited about it.
Well, I'll just pop this in the oven at 350
for about an hour until it's done,
and then, why don't you guys meet me out in the garden,
and we can grab some ingredients for the rest of lunch.
*
-Bruck-burrrk-boc-burrrk.
- As you can see,
I'm not diligent about weeding my asparagus.
Every spring, without fail,
the cows get out just as the asparagus emerges,
and they just walk on through.
So I always just take whatever they leave behind.
They're so sweet to me.
I wait all winter long
for the first green nettles of the season.
Okay, well,
now we're going to get started on the next dish,
which is going to be a farro nettle and asparagus risotto.
Doesn't that sound delicious?
So, the first thing I'm going to do
is chop up or slice up a shallot.
Now, these are a little bit tiny,
so I might do two shallots.
So just now put a little bit of oil in the pan.
I've got the pan over medium-high heat.
I'm going to add my shallots and my garlic.
Give those a stir around.
Now, I don't know if this is a real risotto
'cause I've never made a risotto.
So, I think I'm just going to call this
the St. Isidore's Farro made-up recipe.
I think we'll just go with that, and see how it works.
Saute up the shallots and the garlic.
You'll start smelling and they'll start sweating out,
and that's when you know,
they're ready for the other ingredients.
Okay, so the next ingredient is the nettles.
One of my favorite springtime and early summer ingredients
to use here on the farm.
Lucky for me, I've got it everywhere.
So, I like to use it as much as I can.
It tastes really good.
And if you're afraid of using it in a dish, don't be.
It's really, really good,
and I think it's a nice thing to surprise your guests with, too.
I've got about four cups of loosely packed nettles here.
I'll pop them in.
And we're going to cook those down.
Now, if you don't want to use nettles, you can use spinach.
That's fine, but I think you should try it.
[sizzling]
When the nettles are cooked down,
they're going to be a little bit brighter green,
but since they're so long,
I'm going to take them out of the pan
and just chop them up a little bit.
I'll take everything out of the pan here.
And just do a rough chop on these.
Now, I've got my asparagus, and I steamed it for just, like,
two minutes, just to get it a little bit soft.
And I'm just going to cut this on the diagonal
because I think it looks pretty.
Now, I'm going to add a little bit more oil back to the pan.
And we're going to be
on the way to a nice, wonderful treat here.
I've got that all over the place.
I've got two cups of cooked farro here.
Just follow whatever instructions are on the package,
but cook it almost a little bit al dente
because we're going to continue cooking it here in our pan.
So, add that right in here.
And you can make the farro up even a day ahead of time,
if you want to, and have it cooled in the fridge
so when you get ready to make this,
you can just pop it right in.
And I'm just going to add right in here
my nettles and my asparagus.
Mix this all together,
and I'm going to start adding liquid now.
So, first, I'm going to add about a cup of wine.
And you're just going to have to keep--
just eyeball the liquid
depending on what the farro you get is going to absorb.
So I'm just going to cook this for,
oh, like, you know, five, seven minutes or something
until that liquid is absorbed,
and then I'll add the vegetable broth.
Now that the wine has absorbed into the farro,
I'm going to add a little bit of vegetable broth.
If I was going to eyeball, I'd say about a half a cup.
Maybe a little bit less today.
It seems like I don't need as much liquid.
And then, I'll just cook that down and let that absorb.
Okay, next I'm going to add a half stick of butter.
Just one cube at time.
Well, I'm just going to throw it all in.
It's going to melt fine.
A couple at a time.
How about that?
Stir that in.
That's going to give it a nice, creamy flavor,
and it's going to taste--
I mean butter makes everything taste great
so you're halfway there.
Now that the butter is incorporated,
I'm going to add a very special ingredient.
This is cheese that we make here on the farm.
And it's another way of
just letting these guys have a feel
for what we do here at St. Isidore's Mead.
So this is a nice aged cheddar.
I think it's been aged for, boy, almost a year.
But you could use Parmesan,
or any hard cheese would be really lovely in this dish.
I've got about a cup here
I'm just going to add right to the pan.
And just incorporate all this in,
salt and pepper it,
and it's ready to go right to the table.
*
For dessert, I'm going to let the eggs really shine
in the lemon curd, and
I'm going to put the lemon curd in little tarts for the guys.
When you're making a lemon curd, you really want to find
pastured eggs because that's what gives it
that wonderful, rich color is those great eggs.
So make sure that you look for some pastured eggs,
or hopefully you have some in your backyard.
So I've got the double boiler going on high,
and I'm just going to add six eggs to this right here.
About a quarter cup of sugar,
lemon juice,
lemon zest,
a pinch of salt,
and then we're going to whisk away
for about, oh, I don't know,
eight to ten minutes, or something
until it all comes together in a curd.
We're doing this over a double broiler
because I don't want the eggs to scramble.
Now, if for some reason they scramble a bit,
you can always just strain it out through a strainer.
No one's going to be the wiser.
But try to just not burn your eggs
because no one wants sugar scrambled eggs... right?
Keep whisking constantly while you're doing this, too.
That's going to help also
make it a nice silky texture
and not scrambled eggs.
[whisk taps against bowl]
*
When the lemon curd reaches that custard consistency,
take it off the heat,
and then add in a tablespoon of cold butter at a time
up to about a stick of butter.
Just keep incorporating the butter until
all the butter is dissolved and it's nice and shiny.
You could even chill it down for a little while
before you put it in your tart shells.
But I'll tell you what,
I'm going to get finished in the kitchen here,
and I'll meet you guys outside.
It looks like everyone is starting to show up.
These gentlemen are always willing
to roll up their sleeves and lend a helping hand.
Even when it comes to
setting the table for lunch.
*
Rose veal roast raised right here on the farm.
Roasted in meadow hay from the back 40.
That's what gives this roast a unique
herbal and nutty flavor.
The ancient grained farro,
combined with cheddar and nettles,
makes the perfect side dish for a hardy farm lunch.
Crisp, cold, and bubbly cider
from The Cider Farm in Mineral Point, Wisconsin.
[cork pops] Whoa!
[laughter]
*
Crusty bread with lots of butter and a nice aged cheddar.
That's what helps round out
this early summer get-together.
*
The lemon curd tarts are tasty,
and a tangy way
to end this very special thank you luncheon.
* [birds chirping]
Gather with us next time Around the Farm Table .
I'm your host, Inga Witscher.
*
- 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.
With additional support from these community members
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.