Month: March 2013

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Amy Pennington

Next up in our series of interviews with Quillisascut Alumni. Amy P. is a cook, author, and urban farmer who currently lives in Seattle.

What was your motivation for attending the Q workshop?

I wanted to go the very moment I first heard about Quillisascut Farm School. I had grown up on a small homestead and I had the compelling urge to reconnect with that memory. I was also beginning to really explore the concept and lifestyle of cooking and eating only locally grown, seasonal food, so Quilla seemed like the perfect adventure to learn more. I was in my mid-20s and an administrative assistant for a Seattle restaurant group at the time. I was Tom Douglas’ assistant.

Fill us in on what you are working on now:

Since leaving the farm, I left my corporate job in 2007 and stared my own business, GoGo Green Garden – wherein I build, plant & tend edible gardens for people and businesses in Seattle. I am also a food writer and have since published 3 books (Urban Pantry, Apartment Gardening & Fresh Pantry – a new eBook series for 2013).

How did the Quillisascut experience help shape your decisions?

I kept a journal when I was at Quillisascut and on the way home in the car, I wrote in my journal (which I happen to have with me in Scotland!) that “My life has not been altered. My life has been affirmed.” From that moment forward, I have always made business and personal decisions with the environment in mind. I was always good about being conscious – recycling, saving water, etc, but after the farm I went to an extreme. And while it seems extreme to be vigilant about not wasting food or not wasting water or saying you have ‘enough’, any decision I make harkens back to this simple agenda.

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What is happening in your life today that motivates you?

What ISN’T?? Everything I do is exciting, I have to say. I love that I get to write for a living and share my experiences while encouraging others to eat seasonally and more healthfully. I love being in the garden and growing food. A lot of times it feels like a drag to have to dress up properly and haul out to a garden to do work in the rain and get muddy, but after about 5 minutes I remember why I started this business in the first place. Connecting to the earth is an amazing experience, very meditative, very circle-of-life and I’m thrilled every time.

Share with us the changes in your life related to a more sustainable future.

My biggest life change was quitting my job and the stable income it provided and going out on my own. Today, it has been 5 1/2 years and while it is not always easy (in fact, it is more often difficult) I wouldn’t change it for the world. I preserve most of my food now, I grow for myself, I don’t buy many things at the store, I re-use water, etc.

I think everyone should lead by example and I’m doing that by teaching people to not only grow food, but by giving them the power to understand THEY can grow food. My hope is that I am slowly shifting other people to a more sustainable future.

How did your experience at a Quillisascut workshop influence your career ?

Quillisascut was the very clear point in my life where I pivoted. I was living pretty green and doing a decent job, but I literally feel like I shifted my pace 90 degrees and headed down a different road. Quilla was a game changer – it helped me focus, gain clarity and really define what is important to me.

I made a few amazing friends during my stay at Quillisascut. We had nine students the week I came and the farm had a kitchen helper and an intern and I’m in contact with the majority of them all to this day. (Only two, in fact, are MIA.) Three of them are my best friends and we just had a reunion. After our time on the farm, Lynda left Seattle to start her own farm in the Methow Valley & is a cheesemaker now. Aliye moved home to California and now owns her own biz delivering organic produce to peoples homes. And I started my business, so I really see Quilla as an incubator, as well. It’s a great resource for anyone wanting to head out on their own, as it offers a frame of reference and really sets the stage for change.

For more info about Amy go to her website. She is currently working on a series of e-cookbooks, or the books Urban Pantry or Apartment Gardening.

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Glass Gem Corn

Every garden year a new variety comes along and becomes my obsession. I saw a photo of Glass Gem Corn on Pinterest, my friend Sylvia See had pinned it from Native Seed Search. I fell for it, hard, I NEED to grow this corn, so right away I looked it up on their website. At that time they were taking reservations for this years seeds, and I signed-up via their online list.

Yesterday Native Seed Search sent out a special email to the 7000 people who were on the list, opening up the sale of this years Glass Gem corn seeds. They are listed in a secure section of their website that can only be accessed with a special code, with a limit to one packet of 50 seeds per person. I quickly selected a packet and loaded it in my shopping cart.

Then I went about selecting a few other seeds, a gardener can never have too many seeds. Native Seed Search has an incredible selection, here are the packets I purchased: Tabasco peppers, for lacto fermented Quilli-basco sauce come this fall, Wenk’s Yellow Hots, which are very productive and one of our favorite hot fresh or pickled peppers and Del Arbol de Baja California Sur, a chili I have read about but never grown. Also, a pack of King Richard leeks fit for a king.

The Glass Gem corn looks like it should be kept in a jewelry box. If we have a productive crop from these seeds, if the corn can mature in this northern climate, I promise to have seeds to share with you next year. I will keep you posted how it goes. Of course I don’t yet have the seeds in my hand and as every gardener knows there are many variables to a healthy harvest.

You will have to wait on any photos, but I promise to keep you updated on how the corn does in this region. If you want to see images and read more about the history of Glass Gem Corn follow the link to the Native Seed blog.

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Libby

Libby is a landmark for all of our visitors, truly a dog that you won’t forget.

She is a breed of Hungarian livestock guardian dog called a Kommondor. Her skill is to go out with the sheep or goats and if any predators show up or something she deems threatening (gun shots, strangers) she will spring into action to protect her flock.

It didn’t really work that way for our farm. When Libby was a young pup she got shocked by the electric fence and never wandered across that line again. She decided that Rick is her flock and she guards him like a mother hen. Anyone new comes around and you will find Libby standing between Rick and the stranger, until she decides that it’s okay and she wanders off.

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Sometimes she will jump on Jet over a chicken or duck that is running around the yard. Is it because she wants to protect the chicken or duck for herself? My reasoning for Libby’s instinctual behavior is that all she thinks about is food and if anything were to happen to Rick how would she eat?

Last year I decided to start a flickr journal 365 Days of Libby, truly the goal was two-sided, Libby is getting old, she was 12 last September 22. And I wanted to start using my camera to record life on the farm, to remember the people who attend workshops and the fun they are having while they are on the farm.

I was pretty good for a while, but every picture was the same, here is Libby laying in the snow in the driveway for a month, then images of Libby laying in the gravel of the driveway for months. The idea started to turn towards Libby being a weather station, if she is wet it is raining, is she blanketed in sunshine, the sun is out. Get the idea?

Truly Libby is a smile station. She brings me joy and lifts my spirits everyday. (No, I didn’t say smell I said smile)

See if it doesn’t work for you.

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Mozzarella

Making mozzarella while making friends.

My friend Evelyn and I had been talking about getting together and making mozzarella for months, and it finally happened!

She was struggling with getting her stretchy cheese technique together ever since reading Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal Vegetable Miracle.

Our goats are not giving any milk right now so Evelyn picked up some Spokane Family Farms whole non-homogenized cows milk, brought it out to Q farm and we got to work. Or maybe we should call it play, there is something joyful about stretching mozzarella and getting to eat it the same day.

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If you want to try out the recipe that Evelyn and I used you can find it here thanks to Jessica Dally. We used two gallons of milk and the cheese turned out fantastic.

One of the tricks in making any type of cheese is being gentle with the curds. It is tempting to over work them at the time of stretching, so be quick, stretch them into the size of ball you wish and drop them in ice cold water.

Evelyn is planning on using her cheese in a special recipe that calls for mozzarella and eggplant. I think we will probably eat ours sliced and topped with Kalamata olives, salt and a drizzle of olive oil.

Or do do you say Calamata? Either way let me know how this Mozzarella recipe works for you.