MARBLESEED & MINDFUL MAKING WITH CHEF LUKE ZAHM AT SEVEN ACRE DAIRY
Leading up to spring farmers markets and outdoor growing season, eager stewards of land and livestock in all corners of Wisconsin busily work to make another harvest season possible.
Focus on soil health, plant variety, market readiness and variety of on-farm improvements and financial developments is their routine. Changing conversations at the government level doesn’t stop perpetual motion and cycles to deliver farm freshness. From sun up to sun down, there are social reminders of daily hard work. Calves being birthed in the wee hours of the morning and days of “lambing season”, or farmers preparing and pampering small sprouts for indoor hoop houses quickly turn to pasture living and grazing as proof. It’s the story across rural farmland in Northeast Wisconsin.
Fortunately winter activities like farmers conferences and webinars keep friendships and partnerships and engage farm-curious growers. Conversations hosted by organizations like Marbleseed bridge gaps and divides in common organic and regenerative pursuits in person and online. And its display of farm freshness with veteran forager and farm-aficionado Chef Luke Zahm is more than a meal. Marbleseed’s farm-to-table dinner on April 17 at Seven Acre Dairy in Paoli, Wis., introduced a new beginning to sharing the local organic bounty bringing to life the farm story arc in menu form.
LEARNING GOES ON
According to Marbleseed, the farm-education organization, their mission is to serve human-scale farmers, including experienced, beginning and intermediate producers. Farmers benefit from training on new technology and services, and emerging farmers learn how to change careers, start raising small specialty crops and livestock, and transition to organic.
These are all efforts to encourage a thriving regenerative, and organic food and farming system. Specifically providing more programming and technical assistance to navigate new markets and seasonal planning is top of mind no matter experience, however. The organization serves and facilitates a farming lifeline. This is especially important—networking and fostering shared experiences that promote farmer-to-farmer learning and growing—in the wake of conclusion of Wisconsin Local Food Purchase Assistance Program (WI LFPA) and loss of the buying channel. Organic Cost Share Program cuts for organic certification also impacts mid-scale farmers with an organic focus.
WI LFPA program participants included Armando Perez farms in Cottage Grove. Both Spanish speakers, Armando and his wife grow vegetables.
Lupe Ortega is also a Spanish speaking farmer growing for groceries, farmers markets and LFPA. Angel Flores creates traditional tortillas with corn that he grows on his farm. Rachel Hartline is a family doctor who also farms cattle in Dodgeville with her husband Beau. Kristen Conley is a former collaborative farm producer who has her own farm in Cuba City now.
WI LFPA was a very meaningful program for her and she’s been reaching out to bring attention to the impact of losing WI LFPA. Marbleseed Fundraising for Organic Farming maintains an ongoing connection to all its farmers.
“Our umbrella is networking, educational development and conferences serving both small to mid-scale and larger farmers as well,” says Alexandria Baker, Marbleseed’s Development and Communications Director.
Field Days and mental health trainings and educational webinars and resource development for farmer, includes the university-like experience. Accessible resources such as the certification guide book provide opportunities for farmers to learn about farm financial wellness through programs such as Marbleseed’s New Farmer U.
The New Farmer U event features the book Fearless Farm Finances, which involves worksheets and custom support from expert and author Paul Dietmann of Compeer Financial, who is one of the book’s authors.
Similar to other conference experiences by Marbleseed, participants spend a weekend eating, socializing and learning in workshop sessions covering topics like Developing Wholesale Markets and Institutional Sales, Income Diversification, Land Access and Financing, Online Marketing, Farm Employment Law, and Whole Farm Record keeping.
Between conferences and events, peer-to-peer mentorship and support movement building continues on Marbleseed’s Ag Solidarity Network, a social farmer connection tool. The Network is data protected and can support private groups that promote conversations in Wisconsin and beyond by special interest groups.
“[Marbleseed is not only for] vegetable farmers; we can help connect people and livestock to both diversify and learn and across all production types,” Alexandria clarifies. Identifying shared member needs and issues across production types creates a powerful member community with influence, she adds.
TOGETHERNESS IN GATHERINGS
Farmers like to gather even though they are mostly solopreneurs in daily life; the Marbleseed annual Organic Farming Conference is a place—traditionally hosted in the “off” middle-of-winter preparatory season—for bonding. Camaraderie is strong; workshops are educational and cover diverse topics. This networking and togetherness focused on important topics helps farmers feel connected as they prepare for the year, Alexandria explains. It’s a respite and a once-a-year getaway for participating farmers, who return year after year. And the influx of farming-curious participants opens up conversations like land access and mindfulness.
”A shift is happening and family farming is becoming less of an inherited tradition; people are passing along the business of farming [to buyers] and availability of land or starting out from scratch,” Alexandria states when asked about trends. Small gardeners are also falling into farming as they source local in more rural areas and finding wellness through raising their own food, or with a combination of farm CSAs and home container gardening.
“Mindfulness, wellness and mental health are representative of the Slow Food movement, or an active consciousness of what you’re eating, and enjoying a seasonal bounty while supporting a local economy,” Alexandria reflects. Her own family’s mindfulness journey with food includes family meals with an emerging toddler. Importance of togetherness and dining starts from very simple, early beginnings.
“Community and awareness, and caring for—and slowing down—to appreciate what’s on the plate [is important],” she adds.
Not rushing through meals is entirely the goal of menu planning and preparation for Chef Luke Zahm. His respect for farm and food culture is present in his daily pursuits.
“Organic and regenerative agriculture are new ways of speaking to traditional and holistic methods of farming,” Chef Luke states. “The values associated with choosing to raise food organically and regeneratively make sense to me—minimal inputs into the soil, the water and choosing methods that may by some to be considered less efficient—but I see a lot of wisdom in choosing “intentional inefficiency” in some facets of our lives.”
Growing up on the land in rural Wisconsin with parents and their parents who practiced sustainable living now enables his immense appreciation for seasonal food, traditional and time-honored techniques and practices. Working with and sourcing only from the local land activates deep-seeded traditions like venison sausage making for his staff around the holidays for Chef Luke. Generations of ancestors and origin traditions are passed down in available ingredients that grow naturally each season, he shares, and his menus represent natural, whole basic ingredients like what our ancestors considered sacred (like the Three Sisters of beans, corn and squash).
”Vernon County, where I reside and own the Driftless Cafe and Owl Farm, has the second highest concentration of organic farms in the United States,” Chef Luke shares. “I plant massive gardens for the Owl Farm. I plant the foods that I grew up eating on my mother’s and grandfather’s farm: rhubarb, ground cherries, varieties of tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash.”
His cooking often takes him to the forest for inspiration and ingredients.
“I don’t consider myself a world class forager, but I create a lot of seasoning blends that I use throughout the entire year from ingredients I glean [from the forests],” Chef Luke continues. “I’m always trying to pull my dining guests deeper into the experience of living in this place (my home in the Driftless) and cooking from the bounty it provides.”
Creatively exploring flavor combinations from foraged herbs and ingredients from deep in his routine forest walks, Chef Luke finds calm and peace from preparing spice-inspired menus.
“The act of cooking feels like a working meditation- so in many ways I find myself balancing being a parent, a spouse, a business owner, a television host, and an advocate,” he says. “Cooking feels like a prize that I have the opportunity to engage in after all the other work is done.”
What happens if you focus on love of food and neuro-circuitry systems of joy and connectiveness? Chef Luke spent a year traveling around Wisconsin learning different philosophies of growing forward. He found emotions are often difficult to change but perspective is not—and food can be a mechanism for change.
The cheddar course at the farm-to-table fundraiser is an understanding of perspective through tasting cheese. It was inspired by working with Deer Creek Cheddar in Sheboygan, Wis., on their cheddar wheel, according to Chef Luke.
“You first taste and sugar receptors and the undulation of cheddar, and then on the back side [of your mouth] the flavor tapers with nutty or flat and salty creamy notes,” he expertly describes. ”[The way the “Perspectives on Cheddar” mindfulness dinner course works] is I line up cheddar and the first version we sample is Westby Creamery Cheese cheddar made in the style of commodity.”
Cheddar link cheese involves cutting by hand for participants to cut, squish in their hand and identify curding before tasting, he explains.
In a question-and-answer poll with live flavor sharing guests call out “salty” and “sweet” and through mindfulness delineate what is happening on their palate as they are tasting.
The second cheese in the tour is MontAmore with sweet, carmel notes and acid receptors to realize different kinds of cheddar. Theresa, Wis.-based Widmer’s Cheese Cellar’s four-year cheddar features tang from its aging process and not dehydration. During tasting, guests are entertained by the generations of family stories from this cheese master. Finally Hook’s Cheese 10-year cheddar from Mineral Point,Wis., is served in curds cut manually to release intense flavor.
In the end, it’s all an exercise in perspective, he shares.
“If cheddars are the promotion and all four cheeses are cheddars, we can set up a playful comparative conversation… that carries through each consecutive course… and people are unconsciously talking about what happens on the palate [from start to finish],” he continues. “It’s your own awareness and how fun food can be; it creates community to be emboldened to talk about food.”
