Grounded by the Farm

Links mentioned during this episode:

Previous episode talking steaks, burgers, types of cattle and animal use/waste https://groundedbythefarm.com/picking-out-steaks-under-appreciated-cuts-of-beef-part-1-feutz/

Video of Marybeth with the cows talking about feed https://groundedbythefarm.com/beef-cattle-farmer-veterinarian/

Marybeth’s website is myfearlesskitchen.com easy recipes you can make at home & great resources on meat especially

Experts on sustainability and the impact of animal agriculture include

• Dr. Jude Capper https://twitter.com/Bovidiva and https://bovidiva.com/
• Dr. Alison Van Eenennaam https://twitter.com/BioBeef and https://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/people/faculty/alison-van-eenennaam

Contact Lyles Station lylesstation.com and read more here https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2016/06/telling-the-story-of-lyles-station

That time I worked cows https://jploveslife.com/agriculture/animal-ag/city-slicker-working-cows-dakota-vacation-highlight/

Recipes from the Farm on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/recipesfromthefarm/

Additional Show Notes:

First time to do an interview via phone, so now I have a whole new set of lessons to learn about audio. Sorry occasionally the echo is rough here.

Stress in cattle can sometimes impact the meat. There are four things farmers do to minimize stress:

1. Provide enough of the right type of food — pasturing makes this pretty easy some times of year but you also have to consider the winter, etc and how much you need to supplement with hay, etc.
2. Insure a supply of clean water — Keeping it going year round can be a challenge with freezing, etc. but it is critical
3. Give them shelter — Windbreaks, maybe a three sided shed, all have the ability to help cattle with the cold and wind. In the summer, access to shade on hot days is critical. Amazing their herd instinct keeps most of them together even when it is so hot.
4. Pay attention to predators — The Feutz family has their cattle in small pastures closer to the house which helps as do dogs.

We discuss the health and care for beef cattle, how the decision differs from pets. How something simple for humans like a broken leg can create intense issues for a cow and how the herd mentality and need to keep moving really makes recuperation near impossible. As well as how flies which can seem pesky to us can present real health challenges if left uncontrolled in cattle.

Talk a bit about veal production and how that works, how Marybeth’s opinion has changed as she’s talk to veal producers and come to understand how they treat animals. The meat is different for a couple of reasons 1) veal calves are raised on milk so the meat stays a light pink color and 2) the calves have smaller areas to walk around in and consequently don’t get as intense muscular build so even short ribs are more tender.

Explains filet mignon placement and why it is tender vs short ribs.

Talk about cow farts, cow burps and the environment going into why cow farts aren’t a concern at all, but burps are methane releases from the fermentation process that naturally happens in the rumen. The information online Marybeth sees frequently is incredibly misleading because animal agriculture has such a small impact on climate and carbon, especially when compared to the various pieces of the energy and transportation.

Experts on sustainability and the impact of animal agriculture include

• Dr. Jude Capper https://twitter.com/Bovidiva and https://bovidiva.com/
• Dr. Alison Van Eenennaam https://twitter.com/BioBeef and https://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/people/faculty/alison-van-eenennaam

On manure management. They have started a program for containment & use of manure on their farm, the family’s garden and are donating some to an educational farm nearby called Lyles Station lylesst...

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Interview with Christian Spears (episode 107 issued at the same time as a bonus episode)

Video from inside the brewery & on the farm https://groundedbythefarm.com/craft-beer-tennessee-brew/

Popcorn episode (Grounded by the Farm #102) https://groundedbythefarm.com/growing-popcorn/

Finding Batey Farms online:

• Instagram BateyFarms1807 https://www.instagram.com/bateyfarms1807/
• Facebook BateyFarms https://www.facebook.com/Batey-Farms-121633014572778/
• Website BateyFarms.com https://bateyfarms.com/

Closeup photo of two-row barley

Interview notes: Brandon Whitt, barley farmer, Batey Farms

He never thought he’d be a beer farmer but Brandon Whitt says Batey Farms welcomed the new spin on the centuries old farm. He says the motto is “preserving the past and embracing the future” and the two really come together at the Nashville area farm.

Murfreesboro, TN is among the top five, fastest growing counties in the country and this eight generation farm is trying to remain viable. They have seen change and honoring the past is a big part of it.

They do a lot of small grain work — focusing on malt quality barley as wheat production is well-established. Still working on rye to get quality where they want it but the barley has really been coming along. He says wheat has been grown in the area for decades and so has the knowledge farmers have.

In the past Batey Farms grew cotton, had a dairy, etc. and it remains diverse but has evolved. Whereas the small grains used to go to the dairy, small crowns were fed to the dairy cows (used as a forage crop). Now those small grains go to various customers.

Brandon discusses how farmers like him try to stay on top of what people in their area want while also bringing a knowledge of the local environment. Being able to keep your crops moving into the market is important.

What really drives Brandon is seeing customers with smiles on their faces. It is a true working farm but also has areas of agri-tourism like a retail shop for pork products, a u-pick berry patch and more. It is so picturesque it even has that grain silo made into a gazebo that rocks Pinterest feeds (here’s one of the early articles on this idea https://www.countryliving.com/diy-crafts/a43277/diy-grain-bin-gazebo/). His father-in-law John L Batey says farmers are always repurposing things.

Thinking about making the most of things and extending the lives of things, shifting the farm is different. Batey produces pork products which were being considered for the kitchen but as he toured the brewery, seeing all those bags of grain... Brandon also wanted to see if that could be supplied locally.

Brandon pointed out that moving to new crops is investing and taking risks, risks that need to be taken to build into the future. Getting wheat into the Southern Wit blonde beer was the first step.

Barley looks a bit like wheat or beautiful grass. The stem that produces the grain in barley can be a two-row barley or a six-row barley. We have a photo of two row barley on the website as well as this snippet in the video we shared. The difference in size of grain matters when you start talking about beer production and getting into the scientific of sugar production and details of chemistry of malting.

Malting involves letting the crop grow through it’s green stage to begin drying down for harvest. Looking at freshly harvested barley seed, you have complex sugars in it. And those sugars are bonded and tied up in the seed. It would take a lot of enzymes to break that down. Instead, we let the seed rest for two months and then run it through a malting facility.The seed is soaked in water, raising the moisture back up to 45-50% after making sure it had been dry for harvest. In this steeping tank with water for 48 hours or so, the water is drained and seed is laid out so it starts to grow. The root sprout emerges and you will then dry it back down, like roasting it in the oven. What that process does is convert complex sugars to simple sugars which is useful in making beer, spirits (Tennessee whiskey), etc.

Growing barley is a winter crop for Brandon — that means it is planted in late September - October. It is planted after you harvest soybeans or something. That seed germinates and gets started before winter makes it dormant (stop growing) for a few months. The crop stays 4-5 inches tall all winter. Then around Valentine’s Da...

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Find Jonathan Dinsmore on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thefarmerjon/

Discussed in this podcast:

Jonathan Dinsmore farms with his father in Yuma, Arizona.

Dinsmore Farms produces head lettuce (iceberg lettuce), fresh romaine and romaine hearts, red & green leaf mixed lettuce and alfalfa hay.

Romaine and romaine hearts are frequently grown from the same seed but farmers like Dinsmore plant the fields that will be harvested as romaine hearts more closely together so the plants will remain more columnar.

We talked a good bit about how his family looks at lettuce. Romaine hearts are a favorite of his but he loves a wedge salad with iceberg, his son agrees. But cultural issues early on for one of the kids means a funny story. He also throws romaine hearts on the grill.

Jon has enjoyed getting to know other farmers growing lettuce in Michigan, Florida and Colorado & they stand in touch via social media. He's especially a fan of Instagram where he is @TheFarmerJon. His love of photography has a family history too. Enjoys accounts like RAM628 (https://www.instagram.com/ram628/), Trevor Bales of @BalesHay https://www.instagram.com/baleshay/, and Jay Hill @HillJay45 https://www.instagram.com/hilljay45/.

On the farming side, Jon is looking forward to doing more drip irrigation is a method of putting water right in the root zone.

Food safety — there have been times when lettuce was having concerns. Jon stresses food safety and he sees the farmers in his area all looking at this. The Leafy Greens Marketing Association and the Yuma Safe Produce Council. These groups have been showing the kinds of water testing, employee training, field measures, etc. and now we are going further to sanitize irrigation water for 21 days prior to harvest.

Irrigation water in Yuma comes from the Colorado River. It is valued, conserved and efforts made to limit foreign objects, and now they are sanitizing the water.

Workers in the field have a number of precautions to take, including rubber boot, gloves, sometimes customers ask us to go above the standards too. Standards also require inspection for animal tracks, etc.

They want to be sure vegetables going onto the plates are as safe as possible. That said, we should all always wash your lettuce.

So often, a podcast interview opens up whole new areas of discovery and here, food and farm books can help provide additional depth. In fact, the last few episodes opened that curiosity for host Janice Person who jumped on a friend's book recommendation. Now Janice shares recommendations for 10 books in the food and farm space!

The books Janice talks through here are:

• To Boldly Grow: Finding Joy, Adventure and Dinner in Your Own Backyard by Tamar Haspel
• Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food by Pamela Ronald & Raul Adamchak
• The Wizard & the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow’s World by Charles C Mann
• The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson
• The Fate of Food: What We’ll Eat in a Bigger, Hotter, Smarter World by Amanda Little
• The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats by Dan Stone
• Cuisine & Empire: Cooking in World History by Rachel Laudan
• Two books by Edna Lewis -- The Taste of Country Cooking and In Pursuit of Flavor
• The Complete Food & Nutrition Guide by Roberta Larson Duyff
• We Are Each Other's Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy by Natalie Baszile

Access links to in-depth reviews, where to purchase, etc at https://groundedbythefarm.com/food-farm-books/

With Cahokia on our minds after our last episode, we turn to my backyard of St. Louis and are digging into more Native American food and farming history. Joined by guest expert Dr. Gayle Fritz, an anthropologist and professor emeritus from Washington University, we uncover the mysteries of this once-thriving metropolis and its food and farming footprint.

Get ready to have your mind blown as Gayle delves into the incredible discoveries and hidden histories of Cahokia. It was major city and the largest metropolitan area long before Europeans arrived here. It was the largest city north of Mesoamerica between 1000-1400 CE. Did you know that the original residents of Cahokia cultivated crops we still grow like corn, squash and nuts? They also grew so-called "lost crops" as they are no longer in production?They even had their own version of quinoa! Plus, we'll explore the various purposes of the mounds found in Cahokia, from ceremonial rituals to burial grounds.

Whether you're a foodie, history buff, or curious about native heritage, this episode will leave you hungry for more knowledge. So grab a snack and tune in to "Grounded by the Farm" as we dig deep into the culinary legacy of Cahokia!

Key topics and moments from the episode:

• The difficulty in fully understanding the Cahokia site due to limited archaeological search and human activities like farming, ranching, and construction.
• The ongoing discovery of history at Cahokia, including occasional finds due to erosion during bad storms.
• The cultural and historical significance of Cahokia as a major city and trading hub.
• The role of mounds in Cahokia and other Mississippian sites, serving various functions such as ceremonial sites and burials.
• The interconnectedness of St. Louis and Cahokia, with similar pottery and the presence of mounds in downtown St. Louis.

Links Mentioned:

• The book on Cahokia's food Dr. Gayle Fritz has written is Feeding Cahokia: Early Agriculture in the North American Heartland (Archaeology of Food). It's available through this affiliate link on Amazon
• Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site: https://cahokiamounds.org/
• Interview with Dr. Natalie Mueller on the lost crop of erect knotweed https://news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st-louis-on-the-air/2023-05-15/what-americas-lost-crops-tell-us-about-food-in-the-age-of-climate-change