(cows moo) (birds chirp)
(upbeat music)
- Welcome to the farm.
It's an exciting day here at St. Isidore's Mead.
I have holistic veterinarian, Dr. Sarah, coming out
to check on the herd and make sure everything's going okay.
Then, I've been invited to a church lady picnic.
Now, I've got to take a hot dish down,
so for the ingredients, I'm taking off to Eau Claire,
to the community garden, to pick up some vegetables,
and then it's off to my friend Eli's to get some lard
for the pie crust.
Gather with us, Around the Farm Table ,
I'm your host, Inga Witscher.
- Gather with us
Around the Farm Table !
- A few years ago, I moved up to Wisconsi
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.
(upbeat music)
- Good morning, ladies.
- [Ladies] Good morning.
- Hey, Kanah, how are you? Come on in.
So, I asked Dr. Sara to come out today.
I just wanted to do an overall check of the herd health,
make sure everything's going okay.
I think that's something important to do,
especially in sustainable agriculture.
I want to make sure that I'm preventing
any issues of happening.
But, Dr. Sarah, one issue I've been having with this cow
is a high cell count.
I can't figure it out.
I've been trying to boost that immune system,
do some other things,but she still has a high cell count.
- Now, when we look at mastitis,
we divide them into two categories.
We want to know the contagious
and the environmental.
They act very differently in the cows.
The contagious, usually the cow eats.
She doesn't have a temperature.
She's flaking once in a while,
but she doesn't have a swollen quarter,
and that can lead, sometimes that'll go away,
that many times has to be treated,
and that can lead to a prolonged somatic cell count
that you're talking about.
Then we can go into the environmental, the hot mastitis.
And it's important if this issue continues
to have a culture done
and to determine what bacteria
because we don't want to be spreading it to other cows.
- Okay, so one thing I do with these cows here,
is when I test for that high cell count,
or when I see anybody sloughing off anything,
I go right to the aloe vera,
and I try to get them that aloe vera
to boost their immune system.
I've been using the CEG,
the cayenne, echinacea, and garlic
to hit that infection with
'cause the echinacea or the garlic and cayenne,
they're both like the natural antibiotics.
- Yes, many people don't know that garlic
and a lot of those other herbs
they have a lot of antibacterial properties
and garlic has 35 sulfur compounds
that are very close to the antibiotic.
We can apply essential oil based products
that are known for killing certain bacteria,
and studies have proven that.
So, we can do that topically.
I like to make sure and feel
that there's not any sores,
any abscesses, that would be a reason
why it's reoccurring.
I would, maybe, apply some topical products
that are, maybe, good for bacterial issues.
- So, like a tea tree oil or like a peppermint, or?
- Peppermint, what's good about peppermint
and some of those, is it causes vasodilation,
and that will help flusout the bad cells
and get the immune cells in,
and I've done some studies on essential oils
and actually look at them in the lab and
see which bacteria, specifically to mastitis, they kill,
and essential oils
do a great job at killing a lot of mastitis.
- In that case, I know there's some essential oils
that work as well for fly control,
what have you found that's effective for you
in your own herd or on the herds that you treat?
- Yes, the studies that I have done,
there's different blends of essential oils
that I have a good one here that I like,
that has a lot of different blends in it.
It has lemongrass, eucalyptus,
tea tree, a little ginger...
- Going to try it out here. - Yes, and what's --
- [Inga] Smells delicious.
- Yes, and it's a great alternative to
the chemical-based insecticides.
A lot of conventional farms that use it as well.
You can do it twice a day.
You can do once a day,
depending on how much oil is in there.
It's important to use a blend, though,
and to have it properly diluted.
- I feel like rotational grazing can maybe help with fly control.
- Yes, it's a system approach. - Yeah, yeah.
Well, Dr. Sarah, and Kanah and I
are going to take a look at the rest of the herd
and find out what I'm doing good and what I need to improve on.
Then, I'll get changed, head up to the church,
talk to Pastor Terry about what I should be expecting
from a church lady picnic,
and then it's off to gather the ingredients.
(upbeat music)
(cow mooing)
(organ music)
- Well, since I was coming up to the church anyway,
I thought I'd look in on my friend Clarence.
You know, thinking about community today,
and all the different things,
Clarence was the first person in the community
to really embrace me and welcome me in.
We would have lunch together.
He would drive me up and down these roads and
tell me about all the farmers and the history of this place.
He taught me that it was okay to wear bib overalls
as much as I wanted to,
and he was one of my dearest friends.
So, Clarence, I hope you're resting in peace.
(organ music)
- Well, hello Pastor Terry. - Hello, Inga.
It's nice to see you. - [Inga] Nice to see you.
How are you doing today? - [Pastor Terry] Very good.
- The features in here are just beautiful.
- You know, the unique nature of this church
really begins with a setting.
Here's such a beautiful spot, on top of the hill,
and just a panoramic view in any direction
that you look.
But, inside there are some unique features, too,
and one of them, I guess,
that's probably near the top of the list,
or at the top of the list,
has to be the altar.
It's a very unique piece that was carved
in a particular style that's not widely known
in the United States.
There are some examples incorporated into other pieces,
such as cabinets or jewelry boxes,
those kind of things,
but to have an altar in a Christian church,
that incorporates Christian symbolism
and also draws from what's known as
the drakestil or "dragon style" carving,
which pulls in some pagan symbolism
is really kind of unique.
- [Inga] Interesting. - Yeah.
- [Inga] Who built this?
- The altar was carved by two brothers,
Espedol was their last name,
and I believe there was some connection
between their family and the pastor
who served here at the time, Pastor Folkestad.
He was able to convince them to come to the United States
and spend the better part of a year working on this piece.
We're very blessed to have
a bit of their handiwork here. - [Inga] Wow...
Well thank you so much, Pastor Terry,
and thank you for sharing the story of this beautiful church
and the community that surrounds it.
Why don't we take off to a different community,
the community garden in Eau Claire,
to learn about what community garden is
and what vegetables are growing.
(upbeat music)
- [Andrew] Hey, Inga. - [Inga] Good morning, Andrew.
- [Andrew] How are you? - [Inga] Good, how are you?
- Thanks for bringing this.
- Yeah, I have a lot of extra compost,
and I thought you guys could use some.
- Looks good, yeah we definitely could use whatever you have...
- Good, how are things going at the community garden this year?
- It's been a great season. We've had rain every few days,
and we've had great volunteer crew down here, too, so,
it's been a really great season.
- That's great. So, tell me
a little bit about the concept of a community garden.
- We started this garden six years ago,
and the whole idea is that we wanted people
that are in an urban environment, living in the city,
to be able to get their hands dirty,
and grow their own food,
and we started small, but we've grown
to over 100 members that are part of the garden.
As you can see, we're down here
on the river in downtown Eau Claire.
So, we're as downtown as it can get
and we're growing food locally.
- Well, Andrew, I'm headed off to a community celebration
that's a church lady picnic,
and we're all supposed to bring something for the supper,
but I haven't been as great in my garden as I should be,
so I don't have a lot of vegetables,
and I'm wondering if I can pick some up here.
- Absolutely, we have a lot on right now,
and especially with it being the middle of summer,
it's bountiful, so whatever you want to pick.
- Okay, well let's get unloaded and we'll head over.
(energetic music)
- It's fun to see how artistic everybody is and creative
in making their space really
reflect their personalities.
- I do think that,
people really take ownership
and they feel like--
You know, a lot of these plots that we're looking at right here
have been gardened for the last six years.
So, people are building their soil.
They're putting love into the ground.
They're really taking care of their spots.
- It looks like you're growing quite a bit of food here.
Do you have any extra vegetables at the end of the day?
- The idea is that you come down, you work a few hours
and then we harvest together and we share the produce.
Whatever is left over, we actually bring
to the community table, and last year, that was
between 3000 to 4000 pounds of food...
- Wow. - ...that we harvested.
But, yeah, it's been a partnership
that we've had for six years now.
- These community gardens are really inspiring
because not only are you getting people
from the community together to grow food,
or have these potlucks,
but you're also bringing all the community in
with having healthy food.
- And we also offer an opportunity
for groups that want to do volunteer service.
If there's a church group that wants to bring
their congregation down here.
We have kids' groups come through every year.
The YMCA will bring kids
and we've had thousands and thousands of people,
in Eau Claire, visit their garden.
- Good for you for taking on the project like this.
I'm going to be more like you when I grow up.
(both laughing) - It's a team effort for sure.
- Well, I need to get some zucchini for sure,
and then see what other kind of vegetables you have.
- Okay, wonderful.
(upbeat music)
(gentle chiming)
- I'm at my friend, Eli Gingrich's,
in Augusta, Wisconsin.
I need some lard for this recipe I'm making today.
I'm planning on doing a vegetable pie with a lard crust.
This is the place to go for good pork.
He does a fantastic job with grazing all of his animals,
and this is a great look at a diversified farm.
So, let's go find out where he's at.
(cow mooing)
- Hi there, Eli. How are you doing today?
- [Eli] Hi.
- Good to see you. - [Eli] Same to you.
- That's not one of my old shorthorn is it?
[Eli] Well, yes it is. That's Blossom.
- Oh, what a great name! I love that.
- [Eli] So, yes, that's the heifer we bought
at your auction, what, four or five years ago?
- [Inga] Yeah, yeah, that's great.
- [Eli] Of course, she's had her fourth calf now.
Doing well.
- [Inga] She looks good. (cows mooing)
- [Eli] Yeah. - [Inga] I almost...
I'm almost sad that I switched over to Jerseys, but,
Jerseys give so much milk, so... (laughs)
-[Eli] They give a lot of cream. No doubt about it.
- Eli, these pastures look amazing.
- [Eli] Yes, they turned out very well this year
with all the moisture we've had,
and it's a new pasture.
We like to renovate our pastures
every five years, once every five years,
if we could, reseed it back down.
- And this is a pretty diversified farm.
How many different things are you producing here?
- [Eli] Well, we have corn, hay.
We have small grains,
plus our pastures.
So, we have land, pork, and beef.
So, our goal is to try
to raise as many pounds of meat per acre as possible.
- Well, can we go see some of the pigs?
- [Eli] Sure.
(upbeat music)
(pigs grunting)
- [Inga] I've never seen pigs
on this great a pasture before.
It's amazing to see them like this.
- [Eli] Yeah, they're having fun, as you can see.
They enjoy it out there.
- What is all in this pasture?
- [Eli] Well, there's a mixture of some clover,
but mostly there's some grazing corn,
there's some oats, there's some kale, and radish.
That's all what they call summer annuals,
and it's high in energy, high in protein,
and the pigs do very well on it,
along with grain we feed up at the house
and, of course, as you saw, the dairy cows,
whatever waste milk we have
from our cheese process or butter,
anything that's left over goes to the pigs.
- This must be amazing.
The flavor of the meat must be incredible.
- [Eli] It is, it is incredible.
Once you eat this type of meat, you don't want to go back.
There definitely is a difference.
- There definitely is.
Well, I think that a lot of the flavor
of meat comes through when the animals
are raised happily, too, and correctly.
- [Eli] Well, you've got that,
and then you've got the diversity of different foods
and also the exercise the pigs get.
They don't grow as fast
than they would in confinement,
but in confinement their mostly raised
on corn and soybeans.
You've only got that one flavor mixed in,
where here, they're rooting in the soil.
They're getting all the diversified different plants,
and so it makes for a different texture of meat,
and also a healthier meat,
plus a more enjoyable meal.
- Yeah, absolutely.
(upbeat music)
- Well, Eli, you've really opened my eyes a lot
to how important diversity is on a farm.
I'm going to head down to Augusta Meats 'cause...
...I need lard. I'm gonna a recipe with lard.
So, can I just run down there?
- [Eli] Oh, sure. - Okay.
- [Eli] Ralph would be more than happy to help 'ya.
- All right. Well, thank you so much, sir.
- [Eli] Thank you, thanks for stopping.
- Have a great day. - [Eli] You too.
(upbeat music)
- So when I was thinking about things
I wanted to take to the church lady picnic,
I wanted to take something a little bit unique,
and I thought the zucchini pickles would be perfect.
They're delicious.
They're delicious right out of the jar
or you can also put them on hamburgers
or anything really.
They're just really great.
I'm just going to mandolin two zucchinis.
I like to use the two different colors,
just 'cause it looks prettier in the...
...in the jar.
(mandolin clanking)
Now, we've got all my zucchini here,
and I'm going to add a little bit of salt
onto the zucchini and let it set for a few minutes,
brings some of that moisture in the zucchini out.
This is going to help to make sure
that the pickles are nice and crisp.
To the zucchinis, we're going to add an onion,
and I'm not going to mandolin the onion.
I'm just going to slice it,
but you wanna slice it as thin as you can go.
Then, just toss your onions right on top of the zucchini.
Set that aside, and then we'll start with the brine.
So the brine for this refrigerator pickle
is going to be some apple cider vinegar,
sugar, some turmeric,
and dried mustard.
Cook that over medium heat until everything dissolves.
Give it a good stir.
It's going to take about a minute, maybe two.
Once your mixture has dissolved,
then you can start adding your zucchini
into your jar here, and the onions.
I'm packing them in nice and pretty.
Sometimes what I'll do, too, is
if I have a hot pepper in the garden, I'll slice that up
and add a little bit of extra heat to this.
I'm going to put a couple of these on the top.
And then, it's as simple as just pouring that brine
right into your mason jar.
And remember, these are refrigerator pickles,
so they're only going to last in your fridge
for a couple of days,
so don't try canning these.
Probably wouldn't work.
Delicious.
Oh, it smells really good, too.
That apple cider vinegar is such a nice flavor.
All righty, it's as simple as that.
So, I'm going to set these to the side.
Then, I'm going to turn the rest of these great vegetables
I got from the community garden and the lard from Eli's
into a vegetable savory pie.
So, I thought since we're going to a church lady picnic,
it's a special event,
I was going to make the pie crust
like my grandmother used to make with home-rendered lard.
Lard is really easy to render.
The first thing that you're going to want to do
is take all that pig fat,
place it in a heavy bottom pan
with about an inch of water in the bottom.
That's going to make sure that the fat
doesn't burn too quickly.
Set that over medium low heat,
so the fat cooks down slowly.
This is going to help the flavor be really clear,
delicious, and the color
is going to be extremely white this way.
Once the lard is completely rendered,
strain it again, and then pour that into some mason jars
and chill it in the fridge.
So, I've got some flour right here,
and I learned, I used to always be the kind of woman
that made pie crust in a Cuisinart.
I thought it was so easy,
and it really is and sometimes I still do that.
But after a trip to France,
I got experience how the French women make their dough,
and they do it all by hand.
It's very different than the way we do it here.
So I've got just all-purpose flour.
I'm going to put in about--
Oh, and the women I was with in France
didn't measure anything either,
which I thought was great.
Yeah, that's probably,
Half of one just for good health.
And then a sprinkling of salt, here.
And we're going to work the lard and the flour in together
So, you're just going to keep working the flour
into the lard with your fingers.
And if you need to, depending on the day
and the temper of the day,
add a few little drops of cold water
to help everything come together.
Okay, and then just work that dough...
...into a ball, like so.
I'll wrap this up,
and I'm going to just let it chill in the fridge
for a few minutes, get my hands clean,
and start on the pie filling.
The first thing we're going to do is make
a nice white sauce for this whole thing.
Start with some butter.
Right into a pan.
Now that the butter is melted down,
I'm going to add a little bit of flour.
And you want to cook the flour
just until that flour taste comes out of it.
The flour is really just a thickener for the sauce.
Stir that in.
Here we go.
Now, I'm just going to slowly add the milk to this.
And just stir that up so it doesn't get lumpy.
Okay, and back on the heat we go,
and then I'm going to add the rest of the milk slowly again,
just incorporating it all in so it doesn't get clumpy.
Nobody likes clumpy white sauce.
Okay, so it looks like this has come almost to a boil,
so I'll turn the heat off,
and then I'm going to incorporate some
of our St. Isidore's cheese in here
and just stir that in nicely to melt it down.
Ooh, it smells really good.
The cheese, it's fun.
I've been eating it when it's six months old,
and now it's over a year old,
and it changes with every month.
It's just delicious,
and the smell is quite wonderful.
I want to add my vegetables right to the white sauce here.
I've got some vegetables that I've already parboiled
because they take a little bit longer to cook.
So, that's like my potatoes and my carrots.
So, I'm just going to put these right in here.
That's probably enough for this pie.
And then those vegetables that don't take as long to cook,
like your zucchini, or your onions,
or your radishes, can go in raw right into the sauce here.
I'm going to cut up about half of this zucchini,
and I just want to cut these all into bite-sized pieces.
All your vegetables really want to be the same size.
It just makes for a better eating experience.
And your onions here.
I try like crazy to cut onions in the correct way,
and I still have not gotten the concept yet.
One day, I hope to.
In we go here.
Okay, and then a few radishes.
The radishes are going to offer a nice variety
of flavor and a different texture
and a little bit of a surprise in a vegetable pie.
Feel free to use whatever vegetables that you have.
You know, you can do it seasonally.
You can put parsnips and squash in here later on in the fall,
which I think would be lovely.
Okay, then, seems like that's enough radishes.
Let's just incorporate all that in together
in the white sauce.
Put a little salt and pepper in here.
I think I'm going to add some parsley to this, too.
Brighten up the flavor a little bit.
Just give your parsley a good chopping up.
It smells good.
It's going to taste good.
Add that right into here.
Give ia good stir.
And now I'm just going to grab one of my pie plates,
my pie bird, of course, and the crust.
Okay.
I really like using pie birds.
I think they just make everything look
that sweet little vintagey feel, and they work well.
I mean, they have a purpose, obviously.
So put your pie bird right in the middle,
and put your vegetables around evenly.
Ooh, this is, like, so creamy.
It looks pretty.
There you go little guy.
He's like swimming in a little vegetable goodness there.
We'll set him over here and roll out your pie crust.
(lively music)
And then you'll just put the pie crust all the way--
Ah-uhhh! It's flimsy.
Put the pie crust just all the way over your little crow...
...so he can sing out all the steam.
It's going to look better after it bakes, I promise.
And then just make your sides look nice and pretty.
Okay, now this pie is ready for the oven,
and I'm ready to get into my outfit
that I have picked out especially
for the church lady picnic.
I'll meet you guys down in Blue Mounds.
(organ music playing)
(crowd murmuring)
- [Voiceover] Hi, there. How are you?
- [Voiceover] Nice to see you.
- Hi Jane.
- Hi, hi, welcome! Oh, I didn't get one.
(laughing) -[Inga] How are you doing today?
- Good, good, welcome to the church lady picnic.
- [Inga] Thanks for having me.
- You have to wear this.
- [Inga] Do you mind? - No, not at all.
- How did this picnic get started?
- Oh, it was kind of a crazy notion.
We had a couple--
unfortunately, some funerals in the family.
We're eating all this really good food, and I said,
"Well, that's really too bad
"that somebody has to die for us--"
- [Inga] For really good food. - For really good food.
And so I thought, "Let's try to create a similar party,"
and I thought a fake church picnic
was a little classier than a fake funeral.
(Inga laughing)
And Susan and Matt suggested their farm and here we are.
- Nice. Here we are.
I love it, I feel like these are my kindred spirits.
I see a lot of vintage aprons and hats,
and it's like I'm home.
- Yeah, it's beautiful, and the aprons--
We told people it was a church-inspired picnic.
They just showed up in aprons and hats.
We never asked people to dress this way,
and as you'll see, there's quite a variety of them.
Well, I'm going to go set my food down.
Can I just find a table down here?
- Yeah, please do.
We've got them marked for appetizers, desserts,
whatever you need.
- [Inga] Okay. I've got some pie and pickles...
- All right, great. -[Inga] I'll see you down there.
What could be better than a church lady picnic
in the heart of the Midwest?
I love pie birds and vintage table clothes,
Mac and cheese, a Wisconsin classic.
Lime Jell-O,
topped with pineapple and maraschino cherries,
tomato mushroom relish, yum-yum,
green bean casserole, a Wisconsin classic.
Serve the veggie potpie hot or cold.
Zucchini quick pickles, crisp and tangy.
Food, friends, and fun, a winning combination.
(energetic music)
I hope this has inspired you to get your community together
and have a church lady picnic,
and I hope you'll gather with us next time.
- [All] Around the Farm Table .
(folksy music)
(bright guitar music)
- 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.