- Announcer: The following program is a PBS Wisconsin
original production.
[upbeat folksy music]
- Welcome to the Northwoods.
The cows are dried up for the winter
and won't calve until spring, so I've left Chance
back at the farm to take care of everything.
And I'm gonna take a little vacation with my nephews
and enjoy this beautiful winter.
We all know that winters here in the Midwest
are cold and snowy, but I love it how there are people here
that are always coming up with creative ways
to keep life going.
On that note, I've decided to take my two little nephews
to the International Birkebeiner Ski Race in Hayward,
so we can do some cross-country skiing.
But first, I'm gonna go gather some ingredients
for a healthy, hearty vegetarian frittata lunch.
For the ingredients, I'll head up to Duluth
and pick up some veggies from the Deep Winter Greenhouse.
- Gian: Yeah, we got something really tasty for you to try.
- Inga: And then, just down the road from there,
I'll visit the Food Farm to gather some eggs
and learn how they built a modern root cellar.
This must be a game changer.
- Janaki: It really has been.
- Inga: And then, come along with me and we'll celebrate
this beautiful Midwestern day with new friends
at the Birkebeiner.
[crowd cheering]
Gather with us, Around the Farm Table .
I'm your host, Inga Witscher.
Good morning, girls!
I'm Inga, and I love everything about farming.
[upbeat folksy music]
Midwestern farms are a bounty of good food
made by good people.
I love being able to travel
to search out good ingredients.
Cooking is all about what's seasonal, what's fresh.
Every day can be filled with good food, good friends,
and a beautiful herd of cows.
Welcome to the farm!
[Inga to cow]: Good girl.
- Announcer: Around the Farm Table is funded in part by
Wisconsin Farmers Union: United to Grow Family Agriculture,
Heartland Credit Union,
a gift in memory of Wendy Bladorn,
Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programming,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.
- Just because it's cold and snowy outside
doesn't mean we can't bring beautiful plants inside
to just feel alive and really to wake up our spaces.
It's our family tradition to do paperwhites.
Not only are they one of the easiest bulbs to forest,
but they smell beautiful and they just bring a little bit
of that spring right inside the doors.
You just wanna start with a beautiful bowl.
We like to use clear bowls because you can see the roots
and that's part of the beautiful art of these bulbs.
So I filled my bowl with a bunch of, just random river rock
that I found from just the back 40.
We just wash it up really nice and then put it in here
so it's not slimy.
And then I'm gonna take my bulbs,
and this is the part that I wanna plant down
because it's obviously the down part.
Maybe clean that bulb up a little bit.
Nestle it in my rocks, and this is something, you know,
you can do with your kids and your family
and hopefully make that a tradition in your own household.
Just to kind of make the winter go by a little bit better.
It's taken our family a little bit of getting used to,
living in the Midwest after coming out here
from Washington state.
The first winter I moved here, I thought
there was no way I was gonna make it.
I couldn't believe that my blood was still flowing
through temperatures of 40 below,
I really didn't even think that really existed.
But once I finally got some long johns
and some winter coats and some actual wool socks,
things got a little bit better.
I'm gonna add a little bit more rocks in here
to stabilize the bulbs, and these are just gonna also look
really kinda neat.
And then, you're just gonna cover those with water.
You don't wanna cover all the way to the top;
you wanna leave about an inch or so
above the tops of the bulbs so you're not drowning them.
And then you can just put those in a sunny window
and in about four weeks, they're gonna start blooming.
Here's my tip though, this is one thing
that my parents taught me,
is you wanna add a little bit of gin
right to the pot, and this is gonna make it so that
the paperwhites don't grow too tall and fall over.
They're gonna stop at just the right height
and look beautiful for a few weeks.
Also plant these every two to three weeks,
plant new ones so you'll always have fresh blooms.
Now, let's go gather some ingredients and make a frittata.
For my first ingredients, I traveled to Duluth, Minnesota
to pick up some fresh greens
from the Denfeld Deep Winter Greenhouse.
Deep winter greenhouses are passive, solar structures
that concentrate energy from the sun
to maintain a favorable temperature for growing plants,
even on the coldest days of the year.
They use a specially angled south-facing wall
to harness the solar energy that heats the air inside.
Vertical rows of hanging plant beds
ensure that the small space inside is used efficiently
for an abundant yield of delicious, leafy greens.
This greenhouse has become a local source of lettuces,
herbs, brassicas, greens, and sprouts
that are grown fresh year-round.
I couldn't wait to see how it's possible to grow these
fresh greens in the middle of a cold, Midwestern winter.
I've made it to Duluth, Minnesota; we're right downtown
and in the midst of the snowstorm
while everyone's digging out, I'm happy to go in
and see greens growing in the greenhouse.
Hi, Brandon! - Welcome, Inga!
- Thanks for waiting outside for me.
- Of course, well welcome to the Deep Winter Greenhouse
here in Duluth.
- Oh, I'm excited to be here and see inside.
I am cold today.
- Well, it's a little warmer in there.
- So tell me a little bit about what you guys do
for the community here.
- The greenhouse here is operated by
Community Action Duluth, and we grow mainly greens
throughout the winter and then we sell them
at two of our farmers' markets that we have.
- And what's the goal?
- The main goal is that these areas
are both USDA food deserts in urban settings,
and so we bring food directly into those neighborhoods
and sell them at our farmers' markets.
- For folks who don't know what a food desert is,
can you explain that?
- In rural areas, it's usually if you don't have
something within five miles of you
and in urban areas, I believe it's within one mile.
- Okay, so it's just providing fresh foods?
- Providing fresh food directly to people
that may not have transportation ability
to get to grocery stores.
- Right.
How are you still growing greens in this climate,
in this temperature?
- As you can see here, we have a building
and it's facing directly south, and you can see,
as a greenhouse, that angle looks a little steep,
and that's because our sun is so low in the winter
that allows the maximum use of sun.
- So it's a lot warmer in there? - It's a lot warmer in there.
- Well I'm gonna head in there, 'cause my little tushy
is gonna freeze right off, so thanks, nice to see you.
- Nice to see you.
[gentle folksy music]
- Hi Gian!
- Hey Inga, welcome to the greenhouse.
- Nice to see you. - Yeah, you too.
- Well I'd love to see all the different things
you have going on here.
Can you show me around? - Sure, let's do a tour.
- These look familiar.
- Yes, this is a brassica mixture.
You can see there's a mizuna in there,
you know, you've got your little kales,
some kohlrabi here,
probably some non-heading broccoli in there.
- Nice, this is the way I like to eat my brassica,
especially if I have my nephews around,
because if you put a big hunk of kale in front of them,
they're never gonna sit at the table.
But this way it still has that great flavor
and nutrition, and they wanna eat it.
- Yep, it's fresh and very nutrient-dense.
- Well, what's one of your favorite things
you've got growing?
- So I do really like the collards here.
Collard greens is one that a lot of people
in the community have,
- Inga: Really?
- Gion: Through surveys and stuff, communicated
that they want people to grow it for them.
- Inga: Yeah, I always think of collards
as like a Southern food but, yeah, nice.
- Gion: So this right here is a wasabi arugula.
- Inga: So wasabi, that's something that we would use
when we're dipping our sushi into the little soy sauce?
- Yep, and yeah, a lot of the times at restaurants
they'll use just horseradish that's been dyed green to--
'cause wasabi is very expensive.
- Wow, woo!
- So yeah anything that...
- It's got that kick.
- Packs that punch is an excellent crop to grow.
- It's good though.
Can we gather some?
I'd love to take some of this home,
but I'm cooking for my nephews
and I think that they would be uh...
- Absolutely.
- They wouldn't love it with their little palates,
but maybe we can get some lettuces or something?
- Yeah, totally.
- Wow, there's a lot of greens here.
- This is mizuna here.
- And will all these go into a mix then,
to be sold to the farmers' market?
- So I have done mixes in the past, you know,
mixing a salad mix of just spinach and lettuce
and you throw in a brassica.
Definitely some people like to have just the one thing.
There's kale people out there that want nothing but kale.
- Those kale people. - Yeah.
- Do you have to keep thinking about when you're gonna
reseed or how, when you harvest it, what do you do?
Do you throw everything else in the compost
and replant it?
- A lot of the hearty stuff will just come right back.
So this mizuna, I can just cut the whole top off of it
and then it'll sprout right back.
- Right, okay. - For a second cutting.
- It must make you feel good
that you're growing nutritious food
for those people in your community,
and especially for those people
who don't have the opportunity
to go to the Whole Foods and things like that.
- As a program, we've made it our mission
to battle the effects of poverty.
All of our prices at the farmers' market
are set to reflect that.
We don't ever sell things for more than they're worth.
We always sell things a little bit below
so that we can get the food to the people
that need it the most.
- I love what you've done here.
It seems like...
It's warm in here, there's not a lot of technology here,
is that right?
- No, this is all sun power.
So the panes behind me, each one acts as a prism
and maximizes the sunlight that comes in.
- Inga: Wow.
So that's the only heat source?
- Yep, when the sun comes in, it heats it up
and then that warms the greenhouse
to get through the night.
- Inga: Well, this has been so fun.
I'd love to be able to harvest some things with you
for my frittatas.
I'm gonna get to harvesting,
and then why don't you meet me down at the Food Farm
where we're gonna get some more ingredients.
After cutting my greens, I traveled down the road
to the Food Farm to pick up some eggs,
and learn about a unique root cellar
that's allowing local farmers to store organic vegetables
throughout the long winter.
This modern root cellar was built into the earth
to maintain a consistent temperature for storing produce.
And it uses solar power to achieve net zero energy usage.
This modern design allows local farmers like Janaki
to store their produce in ideal conditions
throughout all seasons.
Which means they can provide healthy, locally-grown food
to their community throughout the winter.
Well, we drove through a snowstorm,
but we made it to the Food Farm.
I'm gonna go check out the modern root cellar
that's as covered in snow as I am.
[gentle folksy music]
- Hello, Janaki! - Hi, Inga, how are you?
- Good, nice to see you.
- Thanks, welcome to the root cellar.
- Thank you for having me.
I'm really excited to see it.
Can you take me for a little tour?
- You bet, come on back.
- This must be a game changer.
- It really has been.
- Wow.
- Yeah, it's been great for us, it's really...
And it's made a big difference for our members
and customers too. - For sure.
- Not just the farm, it's the way we can interact
with the whole community really.
- I bet a lot of other farmers are interested
in coming to see what you guys are doing.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause this is, I know a lot of farms have refrigeration,
but it seems like this is a lot less energy.
- It is, yep, it is, it's made a big difference
because we could add so much more storage space
without adding a lot of ongoing maintenance
and operational costs.
- Do you have to cool this?
This is just, we're in the earth right now?
- Right, yep, so when you walked in and you saw
the top of the wall there, the earth comes all the way up
to the top of the concrete there.
- Inga: Wow. - Janaki: Yeah.
- Inga: So what all do you have stored in here?
- Janaki: We've got bins of carrots, potatoes,
racks of winter squash, more potatoes,
onions behind you, cabbage, and rutabagas.
- And this is all offered to your winter CSA?
- It is, yep.
- For folks who don't know, can you explain a little bit
about what a winter CSA is?
- Janaki: It stands for Community Supported Agriculture.
So people buy a share in the production of the farm,
this time of year, actually we just started sign-ups
for the upcoming growing season.
And then during the summer, we offer a weekly share.
So whatever's in season, whatever's ready, we deliver
on a weekly basis, and then we just extended that idea
to the winter.
- Inga: That's pretty unique.
- Janaki: Yeah, yep.
Yep, and I don't know who else was doing it at all.
I mean, there may have been a few places doing it
when we first started in 2000 and,
still there aren't a lot of us doing it,
and it works really well for us because we have
such a short growing season.
- That's the thing about the Midwest.
You know, it's just, I've lived here for a while
and it just seems like summer goes right now
and you just really have to embrace winter.
- Yes.
- That's like one thing that I've learned over time.
And now I'm embracing it.
- Yeah.
- And it's nice to see that this must be a great thing
for other farmers to see.
Having an ability to make an income in the wintertime.
- It doesn't extend the growing season,
but it extends the season that we can have a relationship
and so, both with our members
and then also our wholesale customers,
that's, it's really important.
It's hard to, you know, put all that work
into developing networks and markets and relationships
and then that lasts for a couple of months
and then you've gotta rebuild it all,
you know, for the next summer.
And so this really enables us to kind of,
keep contact with people, and once you get 'em hooked
on good, quality vegetables, you wanna keep 'em hooked.
And that actually was a big source of the inspiration
for building the original root cellar,
was our farm members complaining to us
that their kids wouldn't eat vegetables
once October rolled around;
they couldn't get our summer share anymore.
So it's worked out really well.
- How has it been for you?
I think being a CSA farm, you're unique
because you're face to face with your customer all the time.
What is that like for you?
- Janaki: I really like it.
It's a whole different level of accountability.
You really don't wanna let people down,
and it really is a motivator to make sure we do our best,
and especially in times when climate's changing
and weather is an increasing risk and everything,
we are just really conscious of trying to do as much
as we can to mitigate that risk,
because our members are sharing it with us.
It really pushes us to keep doing better
and to keep caring for the land long-term,
because it's more than just our family counting on it.
We have a, you know, a real sense
that other people need what we're doing,
and have invested in it, and expect that long-term outlook.
- Is that also why you're a certified organic?
- Janaki: My parents, when they started farming,
they just, they both had farming backgrounds.
They heard about the organic thing and they were like,
"Well, if it's possible to grow without chemicals,
why would we do it any other way?"
And that's just kind of been a basic assumption
for them, and it's also kind of a source of creativity,
'cause when you restrict yourself to operating
in a certain way, it opens up all sorts of avenues
for thinking outside the box and really being creative
with how you grow produce.
The organic farming community is an amazing network.
We learn from each other and share information.
It just, really to me it's a testament to what we've done
in the organic movement,
that we really have built a community,
both with our markets and our members,
but also with each other
to help share knowledge and make sure that everybody
has the best chance of doing well.
- I've had a lot of farmers give me advice
and tell me what to do, but mostly it's,
"Sell your cows, right now!
Go do something else!"
[both laughing]
Well, this has been really amazing, really fun,
and I don't necessarily wanna go back out
into the snowstorm. - Right, yeah.
- I'm hoping I can get a few things for my frittata,
maybe pick up some eggs?
- Oh sure, yeah, you bet.
Come meet the chickens.
- Inga: I will.
[gentle folksy music]
[chickens clucking]
This is such a nice space to keep chickens.
- Yeah, they really like it; they're pretty spoiled.
- And it even feels a little bit warmer than outside too.
- Yep, yep and when the sun comes out
and there's not snow all over, it's really,
it's really a perfect spot for 'em all winter.
- Do you take 'em outside during the summertime or just...
- Yeah, in the summer they're out in the pasture
all the time. - Yeah, yeah.
- But then once winter rolls around,
I wanna make sure that they can run around
and do their chicken thing
but without being freezing cold,
and this greenhouse space works perfect for it.
- I'm sure they appreciate it. - Yeah.
- Well hopefully I can come back and see
in the summertime. - That'd be great.
Why don't you take some eggs with you?
- Thank you, these are gonna be perfect for my frittata.
Well, let's head back and get my nephews,
and we'll head into the kitchen and make our frittatas.
[gentle folksy music]
[skis scraping on snow]
[boots stomping]
Well, aren't I lucky, I found two handsome guys
skiing up to my cabin this afternoon
when I was coming home from getting ingredients.
These are my nephews.
This is Ashton and Kaden.
And they're gonna be in the ski race today,
so I thought they would like to maybe come in the kitchen
and help me make lunch for later on.
What do you guys say?
- Both: Yep.
- Inga: Yeah, okay, let's get cooking.
Today we're gonna make an Italian frittata.
A frittata is similar to an omelet,
it's just less stuffy, you know?
You can be a little bit freer with it and have fun with it.
So it's basically an egg dish, and what's great about it
is you can use anything that you have in the fridge.
It's great for leftovers.
You can throw potatoes in there,
you can throw onions in there,
you can throw spinach in.
Should we put spinach in?
I didn't get spinach, I got microgreens
'cause I know you guys like microgreens.
But anything you have left over.
And in Italy, a lot of times when you're preparing dinner,
you save a little bit of that dinner to have the next day
with a frittata, so you can think ahead
and it's always something so easy to make.
So I'm gonna teach these boys how to make it.
First of all, Ashton, I need you to crack me some eggs
right into here.
There you go.
That's one, let's try to do maybe eight.
And Kaden, while he's doing that,
why don't you start grating some cheese.
And we just have a nice cheddar cheese here.
It's so good to get kids in the kitchen,
in the garden, on the farm.
These guys grew up with me milking cows,
planting seeds in the garden, and cooking with me,
and it's just, it's something I'd love to pass on to them
and I think it's a good life skill to be able to pass down.
So what I have here too is some sautéed-up red onion,
and then some of these beautiful potatoes.
And I'm just gonna slice these up nice and small
because we're gonna put them in these adorable
little cast iron skillets.
Do you guys think this is gonna be a good lunch?
- Mm-hmm. - Good.
We'll start giving these a spin.
Can you just whisk those up?
Look at those beautiful yolks.
That's how you know you have happy chickens,
is the beautiful yolks.
You can keep spinning those.
I keep thinking I wanna teach them knife skills,
but we're so far away from an emergency room
that I think I'm gonna wait till we're back in town.
I'm not the best with my knife skills myself.
All righty, Ashton, you're looking good.
I'm gonna pour in a half a cup of cream,
because what's me cooking without a lot of cream?
Now go ahead and stir that up.
So I'm putting all of this in this beautiful measuring cup,
'cause I'm gonna pour these
into my little adorable containers.
Ashton, I'm gonna put some red onion in.
You know, I think this is the last year
I'm gonna be able to cook with you.
I think you're gonna be too tall.
Now, why don't you put that in the center for me
'cause we're done there.
Kaden, you throw in all that cheese.
People ask me if I always cook healthy.
I like to think I cook healthy-ish.
Stir that in there.
And then add these potatoes.
And guess what I have for you guys?
- What?
- On the side here, after we get done baking these,
we're gonna top them with microgreens.
Give that a stir for me, Ashton.
Now, look at how adorable
these little cast iron skillets are.
Oh my gosh.
So I like to cook with fun little containers
because who doesn't?
They're just so adorable, just like you kids.
And I thought that the kids would enjoy it more
if it was personalized for them.
So let's fill up these cute little containers.
I know I'm kind of in love with these
a little bit too much, but they're so cute.
All right, a little bit at a time.
Oops.
Aren't these gonna be good guys?
I was thinking, we're gonna meet some other friends there,
so we can share our frittatas.
Now, you guys have this famous recipe.
You can go home and make dinner for your mom and dad
sometime and make them a frittata.
How does that sound? - Good.
- Or you can come to my house and make one for me.
Does that sound good?
They're so excited about it.
So now I'm just gonna throw these in the oven
at 375 for 20, 25 minutes until they become fluffy
and have a beautiful brown topping to them.
And then I'm going to garnish them
with some fabulous microgreens
and a little bit of smoked paprika.
So boys, let's get our snow clothes on
and then off to the races.
[upbeat country music]
Every year, the city of Hayward
hosts the American Birkebeiner:
the largest cross-country ski race in North America.
Adults,
children,
and even some four-legged friends,
come from all over the world to get out on their skis
and celebrate winter.
I took Kaden and Ashton to see
what all the excitement was about.
We finally made it to Hayward
and the boys are so excited to get on their skis.
[upbeat country music]
Ben, this is so exciting to be here,
standing on Main Street in Hayward at the Birkie.
What's your history with the Birkebeiner?
- You know, the Birkebeiner
is an amazing event, right?
International, 23 countries, 49 states,
only Oklahoma not represented,
but we're working on that.
And to have this idea of bringing everybody
to Northern Wisconsin, it's truly a festival
of being active, outdoors, and celebrating winter.
When it snows, we don't go inside,
we love being outside, and Barkie Birkie, Junior Birkie,
enjoying being active on the snow.
- Inga: That's one thing I'm learning about
living in the Midwest, is there's gonna be
this amount of snow whether I like it or not,
so I might as well get out and enjoy it.
- Absolutely!
You know, the Birkie started way back in 1206,
when the prince was rescued.
Move forward to 1973, Tony Wise said,
"We should have a ski race in Northern Wisconsin."
35 brave souls started on Lake Hayward,
made their way to Cable, and it was born.
So here we are now, 2019, the 45th edition,
and you can feel the excitement building.
People wanna come to Northern Wisconsin,
and we have a little gem here.
They get here, they fall in love,
and come back as often.
- So tell me more about this Princess Inga.
I hear she's pretty incredible.
- Amazing woman, right?
She saved the prince who actually later became
the greatest king in Norway's history, they say.
Skied 55 kilometers with her baby on the back to safety.
Imagine that.
On hand-carved, wooden skis, over mountains,
through Norwegian deep snow.
So there's ski racers here, nearly 13,000.
They've got it easy.
Brand new equipment, super simple,
but yeah, an amazing feat.
Our quiet little town of 2,500 people here
in Hayward, in Northern Wisconsin,
comes alive when all these people show up
and it's exciting, it's fun, and we're ready.
- Well, thank you Ben,
so much for being here with me today.
I've gotta go get my kids ready to go
get their skis on and get skiing,
and then we're gonna have some delicious frittatas
at the finish line.
- Announcer: Get set,
smile, have fun and go, go, go, go, go!
[cow bells ringing]
[gentle folksy music]
- Inga: What better way to celebrate the wonder of winter
here in the Midwest than sharing a warm snack with friends
after completing a cross-country ski race?
Winter veggie frittatas are perfect for fueling up
after a day of cross-country skiing.
Classic hot chocolate warms the tiny tummies.
And grandma's homemade animal cookies
are a sweet ending to a fun-filled day.
What do you guys think?
- It's good.
- Oh, you guys are the best. [laughing]
I hope this has inspired you to get outside
and enjoy the winter.
And I hope you'll gather with us next time,
- In unison: Around the Farm Table !
- I'm your host, Inga Witscher.
Yay!
Good job, guys.
Good job.
[gentle folksy music]
- Announcer: Around the Farm Table is funded in part by
Wisconsin Farmers Union: United to Grow Family Agriculture,
Heartland Credit Union,
a gift in memory of Wendy Bladorn,
Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programming,
and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.